“Imagine two snarling dogs, fighting over a curved bone. Perhaps the rib of their master, long dead.”

Violence.

The Wasteland was full of violence. When I had first left Stable 25, it horrified me. I could still remember the first pony I had killed as clear as day. I could remember the serrated edge of the rusted knife as I drove it upwards into the raiders skull, blood and viscera spilling down atop me. I could remember the feelings that came after. The horror, the fear, the twisting of my gut, the slow, sinking realization that in killing another pony, I had somehow managed to kill a small part of myself as well. But after two months, that violence and constant need to kill to stay alive had quickly become little more than a numbness inside of me. I had stopped looking at the blood in horror, because I had seen it enough times that it had just become another part of the Wastelands' grizzly scenery.

After the death of the ponies in Stable 25, I had almost gone mad. Rage had coursed through me as if it were my blood and I had ceased caring about the death that I left in my wake. All that mattered was that I won, who cared about the growing pile of raider corpses that I left behind me. They all had to die anyway, right? The numbness inside me had only grown to the point where I could simply stand amongst mounds of bodies, my hooves sunk deep into a pool of blood, and all I could think about was what I was going to do next.

I didn’t like violence. I felt that deep down I could say that I still hated it, despite the numbness. But it had simply become a chore. Another task that needed to be carried out before I could finally lay down and rest. The Wasteland liked to make monsters out of heroes. It liked to twist them until nothing remained of what they had once fought for. It had done that to Crank, to Red Eye. Something told me I was next on the list.

I had fought in three large scale battles now. The Hollow Shades Massacre, the battle for Friendship City and now the siege on the S.P.P. Tower in Las Pegasus. They had been horrible. Death on a scale larger than anything I had ever seen before or even imagined could have been possible. I wished never to see violence like that again. But I’d have to. More fights were coming, I could feel it deep in my bones. And this time, I wasn’t just there to help keep more innocent ponies from dying. I was the one calling the shots. I was the one bringing violence down upon the Wasteland.

I hated violence, but I was going to bring it about anyway.

Boom!

The rocket streaked across the sky and slammed into the clump of Enclave soldiers as they scrambled to reach for their weapons. A few blasts of magical energy lanced out at us as we dove towards them, but the shots did little but bounce harmlessly off the sides of the armoured hull of our war wagons.

The Enclave had never expected us, and they definitely hadn't seen us coming.

We had made our way along the streets of Manehattan, flying low to the ground and below the Enclave’s line of sight before shooting over the tops of the buildings and raining fire down upon the unsuspecting Enclave convoy. The turrets mounted atop our numerous war wagons strafed across the rooftops, ripping through the pegasi’s wings as they tried desperately to take flight and return fire.

We hadn’t even bothered returning to our own sky wagon to return to Manehattan that morning. The pegasi of Dashite city had been in possession of plenty already, and the many wreckages left behind by the Enclave in their assault the previous day had been quickly repaired by the Las Pegasus Operators and Queens. By the time we had finally woken up, the Las Pegasus raiders had assembled a full fleet of war wagons, ready to storm across the wasteland and return us once more to Manehattan to finally lay siege to the Institute.

I would have been quite concerned by the amount of firepower that the Las pegasus Raiders now had, had they not currently been working with me.

But there was one thing that we had to deal with before we took the fight to the Institute. I had seen first hoof that Pureblood was able to flood the Institute with toxins if he wanted to kill us all, and I had no doubts he would be willing to sacrifice the lives of a few of his slavers if it meant that he could launch the Utopia program. And Star had given us the perfect solution.

Another rocket streaked out from one of our war wagons, blasting appart a group of pegasi that tried to charge at us. The pegasi were blown apart, limbs and scrapped power armour flying in all directions.

I saw three armoured Enclave soldiers take to the air and flash towards us. The two on the sides wore bulker suits of power armour, their sides adorned with a massive set of twin flamers. Tartarusfire Troopers, I remembered them being called. The one in the centre was a large pegasus with a massive looking tesla cannon mounted to their sides and a suit of dark armour with golden highlights.

I assumed they must have been some sort of high ranking general.

I say ‘must have’, because only a second later, Jinx flashed out from behind her cover, her huge claws ripping all three of the deadly pegasi apart with a single swipe. Blood splattered against the dirty glass of the window I was looking out as the las Pegasus raiders quickly decimated what little remained of the Enclave soldiers.

The fight was over before it had even begun.

“Get down there and salvage as much power armour, gas masks and radaway as you can!” I heard Pyre order, her voice raising to be heard over the sound of the excited raiders. The sound of hellhound howls answered her command, and a few seconds later I saw teams of hellhounds leaping from the war wagons to the rooftop below and foraging for anything of value, their impressive scent sniffing out any radiation medication easily and their huge claws ripping pegasi corpses from their power armour.

Star had been right, the Enclave had been stockpiling a lot of radiation supplies. For once, their paranoia was proving to be very useful to us.

I turned my head, making out the shape of Pyre Blaze as she ordered around her hellhounds. Mirra sat atop her back, grinning as she watched the raiders follow her new mothers every command. What Jinx had said the night before had held true, Pyre’s power armour had undergone a very impressive upgrade. Instead of her usual T-60 Power armour, she was now sporting a modified version of some Tartarusfire Power Armour. The bulky suit of armour had been modified around the sides where the pegasi’s wings would normally go to support a massive battle saddle with two twin flamers at least double the size of her original set. The insignia of the Las Pegasus Pack had been emblazoned on her right shoulder plate and, of course, she had gotten her new armour painted with her staple hotrod design, though this time the flickering red flame design had been highlighted with a golden outline.

With her army of hellhounds and suit of imposing armour, Pyre had really become quite a menacing terror to behold. I was beyond glad she was on my side.

“It looks like we have everything we need,” Magazine stated, trotting over to us and striking a line through something on a clipboard she held in front of her with one hoof. “There were more than enough supplies down there to get us through this fight, and then some.”

“I told you there’d be enough,” Star quipped smugly, sticking her tongue out at the raider boss.

Magazine narrowed her eyes at the pegasus. “Keep talking to me like that and I’ll have your tongue removed from your mouth,” a mechanical appendage bearing a razor sharp knife on the end popped out from her cybernetic foreleg and slashed the air in front of Star’s face, slicing off a strand of her mane before she could have proper time to react. Star gave a quick eep of surprise, sucking her tongue back into her mouth before ducking back and cowering away from the lethal raider.

“You will do no such thing,” Pyre grouses, giving Magazine a sharp look. Her hooves made loud stomping noises as she clomped over to us, bringing Mirra with her. “Any word from Razor Blade yet?”

Magazine gave Star one last scowl before putting on a false smile and turning to Pyre. “I just got word. His spies say the MWT Building is surrounded by a group of power armoured Steel Ranger renegades calling themselves the True Steels. They seem to be engaged in combat with a group of ponies in white armour. Institute synths I assume.”

I felt myself nod along to her words. All of that I had already known. It must be some battle though if the True Steels had been fighting for control of the building for going on three days now.

Magazine’s eyes scanned her clipboard for a second before looking back up at Pyre. “We have heard rumours as well of a group called the Friendship Express that is supposed to be trying to take control of the building as well, though we haven’t seen any signs of them yet.”

I pulled out the lamp shaped talisman that I had tucked away into my saddle bags. “We know the Friendship Express. We can probably work out a deal with them if they show up. They shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Even still, we will be keeping our eyes open and guns loaded,” Magazine hissed back. “I do not like unaccounted for variables. If they get in our way, we’re slitting their throats.”

The war wagon we were in dove down a little so that the hellhounds scouring the rooftop could climb back aboard. A few raiders quickly moved to grab the supplies from them and started distributing them amongst our ranks. I could see a few other war wagons do the same. A Disciple raider scurried up to me and tossed me a gas mask before rushing off to give one to another.

Magazine made a small grunt as she read over the notes she had scribbled onto her clipboards. “From the sounds of it, those True Steels have some pretty extensive firepower. It’s likely we can take them, but I would advise landing and approaching on hoof. I feel a surprise attack where they have the least amount of time to shoot at us is optimal.”

“I would have to agree with your sentiment,” Xayah stated, walking up behind me. “We have faced these True Steel’s before and their arsenal is not to be ignored.”

Pyre gave Xayah a nod of agreement before turning around to face the Dashite City Pegasi pulling the war wagons. “You heard the Zebra. Get us as close to the MTW Hub as you can without the True Steels seeing us, then land us down in a safe spot.”

“We need to make a quick stop at Friendship City,” I added quickly, drawing Pyre and Magazine’s attention. “Scarlet is going to want to be with us when we take on the Institute. And something tells me I’m going to need her to help Crank kick Inferno out of my mind once I get my body back.”

“I’ll send a few Dashite City guards to pick her up,” Magazine said flatly. “Las Pegasus raiders aren’t allowed into the city, but we have managed to make trade with Friendship City through the pegasi a few times.”

As the war wagons began to bank and once more fly along the streets of Manehattan, I looked over to see Star Breeze looking out the window of the wagon, her expression forlorn as she watched the smoking pyres that had once been the Enclave Convoy.

Slowly, I walked over to her. “Hey, you doing okay?”

Star hesitated a little, glancing behind her to look at me. “Yeah… I’m fine I guess… I suppose it’s just sinking in now that there really is no going back to the Enclave for me. I already kinda knew that I guess, but now that I’ve led an attack on them directly…. Fuck… Just kinda cements the fact my old life is gone, ya know.”

I nodded, watching with her as we left the smouldering top of the skyscraper behind. “I know what you mean. For the longest time I told myself that when everything was said and done I’d go back and live out the rest of my days with my father in Stable 25. But when Stable 25 was destroyed… It’s enough to drive a pony mad…”

Star sighed, her eyes distant. “It really is. I’m starting to understand what they say. That the wasteland likes to twist what you love most…” She glanced back at her rump, looking at her cutie mark of a wrench and syringe. “I guess I’m a Dashite now… I don’t have the brand, but that’s what I am… Funny, I don’t even look up to Rainbow Dash…”

“I don’t know if you need to,” I heard Brisk comment. We both looked over to see him a few steps away from us, looking out the window, his mane whipping around wildly as the strong breeze from outside flashed past him. “I don’t think being a Dashite is about looking up to Rainbow Dash. Dashites are Dashites because they stood up for other ponies like Rainbow Dash did, not because They want to be like her…”

Star raised an eyebrow at him. “And when did you become an expert on the subject?”

Brisk just shrugged, his eyes darting back and forth as he watched the ruined Manehattan skyscrapers whip by. “I’m not, just making an observation.”

With the conversation over, I stood beside Star and spent a long moment simply watching the city of Manhattan fly by. We flashed past a massive skyscraper, notably larger than all the others. I poked my head out the window, looking up at the towering structure and the huge figurehead of a pony on the top of it. My Pipbuck gave a small chip, notifying me that the location was called the Celestial States Building.

It was strange getting the chance to travel Manehattan this way. I got the chance to find so many new locations. A shame the world was ending in a few hours, I would have loved to get the chance to explore them. Another day perhaps, if another day ever came.

After a few minutes of flying, the war wagons touched down on the streets of Manehattan, the looming skyscrapers lining the roads beside us seeming to rise higher as we descended downwards. My eyes caught on a large billboard protruding from the top of a ruined building a few miles down the street, depicting the image of a near orgasmic looking Fluttershy sucking on a bottle of Sparkle~Cola.

My eyes narrowed in on the cracked and faded billboard. There it was, the marker for the building where Silver Ace had met with somepony in secret. My last stop before we stormed the Institute. One final secret to be uncovered before the end.

As we all began piling out of the war wagon, we were confronted by a small group of Las Pegasus Disciples that had formed a defensive perimeter around the area. Razor Blade trotted forward to greet us, his hide soaked in blood as he tossed the severed head of a True Steel across the street.

“What did he do to you?” Pyre nickered, glancing at the severed head before looking back to Razor Blade.

Razor Blade grinned, showing off his bloody fangs. “Spotted us. Something had to be done before he told his superiors,” He waved his barbed wire wrapped hoof at a Disciple mare behind him. “Honestly, I did the stallion a favour. I could’ve let Dixie have him.”

“Why y'all gotta ruin all my fun?” The raider mare snickered, sticking her tongue out at Razor Blade playfully. She had a strangely mesmerizing southern sounding accent, similar to Applejacks, though much, much smoother. I was surprised to see Razor Blade flinch at her playful jab.

“What is going on with the True Steels?” Magazine asked, pulling herself from the war wagon. Three Operators moved in behind her, making sure that no pony got within range. I found it quite interesting that even among their fellow raiders, the raider bosses needed to be on guard for would-be assassins.

“There is a large blockade of them down that street,” Razor Blade informed us, pointing in the direction of the MWT Hub. “It’s an easily winnable fight, but we would still suffer casualties and we need to keep as many raiders alive for the real fight in the Institute. I hate to say it, but I would recommend finding a peaceful solution past them. Perhaps a temporary alliance.”

I grimaced. The last thing I wanted to do ever was ally myself with the True Steel fanatics. After they had desecrated the ruins of Stable 25 and melted the ponies in there into fuel, I felt justified in believing the only good True Steel was a dead one.

Then again, I was already working with Raiders… How much farther could I really fall? Or had I already fallen as far as I could?

There was a soft thump as the huge form of Jinx landed down beside us, her sharpened claws digging deep grooves into the asphalt to give her purchase. “The True Steels firepower could be a large advantage over the Institute,” The sphinx cooed, her eyes watching the end of the road in interest. “See if you can contact their leader. I wish to speak with them.”

Magazine nodded. “It might take a bit, but I can probably get him to talk.”

“Do it,” Jinx purred, her slitted eyes dazzling with excitement. “I eagerly await his response.”

I looked up at the billboard of Fluttershy in the distance for a bit before moving forwards to walk alongside Magazine as she directed around a few of her Operators. “How long do you think it will take to get in contact with Iron Hock?”

Magazine raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe half an hour… one hour at most. Why? You need to do something?” I gave her a quick nod in response. Magazine just groaned. “Just don’t take long. We are on a tight time limit here, you know that better than anypony.”

Giving the raider a thankful smile, I trotted over to where Brisk, Xayah, Mirra and Star were standing apart from the rest of the raiders, watching as the large force of deadly psychos readied themselves.

“I’m going to be heading out. I’ll be back in a bit,” I told them, quickly loading a few shots into Braeburn’s Liberator. The Las Pegasus Raiders had supplied me with twelve more rounds of Buckshot, but I was still feeling a little shot on ammo, especially knowing how large of a fight we had ahead. “There is something I need to take care of quickly.”

Xayah gave me a slightly worried look. “Do you need backup? It is not wise to go alone in the wasteland.”

I gave a quick shake of my head. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just be down the road. You four just keep an eye on the raiders. Make sure they don’t do anything stupid. And try not to let Scarlet kill them all when she arrives.”

“Assuming we don’t kill them first, you mean,” Brisk grunted, scowling at the large group of raiders around him.

Mirra gave me a quick salute. “You can count on us Amber!”

I gave the small changeling a smile. “Thanks. I won’t be long, promise.”

We all exchanged some quick hugs before I turned and started heading down the street towards the long abandoned skyscraper. The closer I drew, the more looming the Fluttershy billboard became. What was once just a harmless and overly happy looking advertisement slowly seemed to morph into a sinister monolithic destination.

The sounds of raiders milling about slowly faded away as I trotted alone down the desolate streets of Manehattan, soon replaced by nothing more than the whistling of wind as it ripped through the narrow city streets. Far off in the distance I could hear the sound of gunfire, likely the True Steels engaged in their seemingly endless combat with the Institute for control of the MWT hub.

As I walked, I passed the charred remains of a trader caravan, the goods inside now little more than smouldering heaps. Glowing blue piles of ash cluttered the area around the destroyed wagon, all that remained of the ponies that had once made up the caravan. The Institutes work no doubt. They left no pony alive.

I stopped as I reached the doorway to the abandoned skyscraper. Even from up so close, I could see the huge billboard protruding from the top of the structure. I took a deep breath, raising my hoof and placing it against the cold surface of the door leading into the building. A small chill passed through me. Something about this place felt very very wrong.

Beep.

I lurched around, the small sound jolting me from my trance like state as my eyes swept across the empty streets for any signs of life. Nothing… The only thing I could see was a lone Sprite Bot, bobbing up and down in the air, watching me.

I hesitated for a second, looking at the Sprite Bot curiously. “W-watcher? Is that you?”

There was a second of silence before the Sprite Bot responded. “I see you have been making friends Amber,” The synthesized voice of Watcher monotone, slowly bobbing closer to me. “I can’t say I approve of the friends that you’ve made though.”

I felt myself sigh a little. “Hey Watcher. It’s been a long time. Sorry about the raiders. They were the only ponies that would have been able to help me...” I tried to think of the last time I had talked to the mysterious pony behind the Sprite Bot. The last time I could recall was shortly after the death of the ponies in Stable 25. “Where have you been all this time? It’s been over a month.”

“Busy,” Watcher responded quickly. “There has been a lot going on in the Wasteland these days.”

I chuckled a little at that. “You don’t need to tell me twice.”

“I’m sure I don't,” Watcher responded, his synthesized voice making his emotions impossible to tell. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve been through a lot.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I felt my laugh falter. “Even still, I would have liked to have heard at least a little bit from you. A simple ‘hi’ or something would have been nice. But you just kind of disappeared…”

Again, Watcher was silent for a second. “You weren’t the pony I was looking for,” He finally stated, his words coming out slower than usual. “The last time we spoke, you chose revenge over Friendship. You chose victory over morality. I didn’t think we had much else to discuss.”

I winced a little at his words, but he wasn’t wrong. The Wasteland had warped my soul long ago. “So then why talk to me now?”

Once more, Watcher seemed to hesitate to respond. “Littlepip is gathering ponies for a final assault against the Enclave in Navarro. We’re trying to clear the skies… for good. I’m trying to gather as many ponies as I can that are willing and able to join the fight. I figured I’d see if you were still around…”

I felt my eyes widen a little. “Littlepip is trying to clear the skies?” A memory tugged at the back of my mind. “The Single Pegasus Project… That’s what she’s going after, isn’t it?”

The Sprite Bot bobbed, signifying a nod. “It is. While the Enclave is distracted in their upcoming attack on Fillydelphia, Littlepip will be leading an assault against the Enclave.”

I grimaced. “And what about Red Eye? He’s not going to be a big fan of Littlepip going after the Single Pegasus Project before him.”

“Red Eye is dead,” Watcher responded coolly. “He died in his Cathedral a day ago. The Enclave burned the whole place to the ground.”

I felt my mouth drop open. Red Eye was dead? It seemed impossible. I felt my expression darken. “I guess that means Stern is in charge of Filly now…”

Another nod-like bob from the Sprite Bot. “She is, for as long as Fillydelphia has left to stand. So, are you in?”

I hesitated. I would have loved so badly to just jump on board and knock the damn Enclave from the sky. But I couldn’t. Not yet. There was still so much I had to do. “I’d love to help, really,” I finally said, looking back at the abandoned skyscraper behind me. “But I have big problems of my own. Pureblood, the Institute, Silver Ace. If I don’t stop them then there won’t be much point in clearing the sky. I’ll help you where I can, but you’re going to have to take on the Enclave without me.”

“Silver Ace?” Watcher rumbled, his synthesized voice coming out in a strange gurgling sound.

I nodded. “Yeah, he was a pony from before the war that-”

“I know who he is,” Watcher interrupted me sharply. “What does he have to do with all this?”

I paused, surprised by his comment. “I uh… he was the director of the Institute. He created something called the Utopia Program,” I narrowed my eyes at Watcher. “How do you know him?”

“I met him. A long time ago,” Watcher scowled back. “I never trusted him. Twilight did. I told her not to…”

I felt a small jolt of surprise. “You… You knew Twilight Sparkle? Are you like- a ghoul or something?”

"Something like that," Watcher turned to look at the building I had been about to enter, not bothering to give a solid answer to my question. “What exactly are you doing here Amber?”

I glanced back at the building myself. “I heard that Silver Ace met up with somepony in secret here before the war. I was going to look around and see if I could find anything.”

The Sprite Bot bobbed closer again. “Rarity told me that she followed him here with Rainbow Dash and Applejack a few months before the end of the war. She said she didn’t find anything. The building has no trace of him ever being here.”

I raised my hoof again and pushed the door open. It swung inwards with a loud clatter before completely falling from its hinges and crashing to the floor. “Well, I’m about to go investigate it anyway. You want to join me?”

Watcher didn’t respond, instead, his Sprite Bot slowly bobbed into the building, forcing me to quickly scramble after him to keep up. The interior was fairly empty and a thick layer of dust and cobwebs seemed to coat every surface. A few pieces of two century old furniture lay haphazardly around the room, most of it damaged or covered in ripped, age stained fabric. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust. Clearly no pony had set hoof in this building since the bombs.

I noted a mannequin standing in the far corner, its head twisted unnaturally to look directly at the wall it stood against. Curiously, I walked over to it.

“Odd,” I grunted, tipping the mannequin over with a hoof. The mannequin clattered to the floor, its head popping off and rolling across the room. “The Institute uses these as cameras to keep tabs on the world above. To see its head turned away gives me the impression that somepony didn’t want anypony else to see what was going on in here.”

“There seems to be a locked off area over here,” Watcher monotone, drawing my attention over to him. His Sprite Bot was hovering by a rotting looking door on the far side of the room that looked to have seen better years. I trotted over to him and looked the impressive lock over. It wasn’t anything I would be able to pick, granted, I was really bad at picking locks, but it seemed advanced even by normal lock standards. I wouldn’t have been surprised if even Brisk would struggle to get that lock open.

Thankfully for us, the door hadn’t fared quite as well as the lock over the years.

Blam!

A single shot from Braebrun’s Liberator sent the whole door shooting off its hinges and crashing down the steep flight of cement stairs that lay beyond. There was a loud crash as the wooden door shattered to splinters at the bottom step, sending bits of broken wood scattering across the floor.

A small flashlight flickered to life on Watcher's Eye Bot, illuminating the narrow stairway that led down into the abandoned building's basement. Cautiously, I slowly began making my way down the steps. The whole building seemed to creak and groan with each step, as if threatening to collapse down on me if I dared to try and uncover its secrets.

I stopped at the bottom step and looked around. The basement was in worse condition than the floor above, with many of the wooden planks suspending the ceiling cracked and sagging. A small drizzle of water dripped from the corner, a dark stain of water damage seeping from where the water landed. Old, wood tables lined the walls, many of them covered in a mix of old tomes or stange jars. I grimaced when I realized a few of the tomes were bound in what appeared to be pony leather.

I trotted over to the desks and looked them over, my hoof brushing the dust off of an old looking beaker. “What the fuck is all this?” I wondered allowed, my eyes shifting from the strange beaker to another collection of dried up herbs and plants that had been stuffed into rusting jars. “Some kind of chemistry set?”

“Zebra Alchemy,” Watcher rumbled, his Sprite Bot looking over a table of his own. “I saw Pinkie bust a few zebra spies back during the war that dabbled in alchemy,” His Sprite bot made a thoughtful sounding humming noise. “It looks like whoever was behind this was making different types of poisons. There is a large collection of Poison Joke and Manticore glands.”

I stiffened. “Poisons…” I suddenly had a bad feeling about this. My eyes wandered up, looking over an array of star maps and demonic looking drawings that had been pinned up to the wall with rusting nails. I felt my breath quicken a little as my eyes spotted something blue beneath one of the drawings. I raised my hoof, pulling one of the pages off the wall to look at the drawing that hid beneath. My breath caught in my throat.

There, on the wall, was a drawing of a glowing blue dragon skeleton, its bones engraved with hundreds of strange glyphs. The huge skeletal dragon was mid roar, its body bursting from the surface of the ground, ripping apart the terrain around it and rending a massive crater into the earth. It’s glowing, eyeless sockets seemed to stare right into me, even through the weathered and aged sheet of paper. I had seen this bone dragon before… in the deep depths of the Hollow Shades...

“Luna Prime…” I breathed, taking a slow step back as I stared wide eyed at the picture.

“What is that?” Watcher buzzed, bobbing over to look the picture over himself. “Does this mean anything to you…? Amber?” he turned around, looking at me. “Amber, what is this?”

I shook my head, still staring at the horrific drawing. “It’s a megaspell… Something Luna and Twilight created before the war. Silver Ace helped to develop it too… I think…” My rear hoof bumped against one of the old desks as I backed up, knocking a small chest off its dusty surface and clattering to the floor. The chest hit the floor with a loud thud, smashing and sending its contents rolling around me hooves.

I looked down, seeing the lone, glowing memory orb that had fallen from the broken chest and come to a stop against my hoof. I reached down, picking the small sphere up and looking it over.

“You think you’ll find answers in there?” Watcher asked, his metal chassis moving closer to get a good look at the orb.

I shrugged. “Something was going on down here. There is a good chance that this orb has at least some of the answers,” I looked up at Watcher wearily. “Can you keep a lookout while I go into this orb? I don’t want some raider shooting me while I’m inside.”

Watcher gave a bob-like nod. “I think most of the raiders around her are on your side right now, but I will do my best. Though I’m not sure how much this Sprite Bot can do if we get into a fight, but I’ll keep a lookout at least.”

I gave him a small smile. “Thanks Watcher… Sorry I wasn’t the pony you were looking for.”

Watcher just looked at me for a second, before turning to look back up at the stairs. “Don’t worry about it Amber. No pony ever is.”

I gave a grim nod, before looking back down at the orb. I took a deep breath and let my magical aura reach out and wrap around the sphere.

I was standing in… the exact same spot?

Well, not quite, I was standing in the corner, watching the whole room with wide, careful eyes. The room looked pretty much the same, though I noticed that it was in much nicer condition. This memory was definitely from before the war then.

My host glanced down at themself for a second, or at least I thought they did. Instead, I found myself looking straight through their body and into the ground beneath. They were invisible? It didn’t feel like an invisibility spell. Even though I could tell they were a unicorn from the slightly heavier forehead, I couldn’t feel any indication they were casting a spell. They must have been wearing a stealth cloak then.

There was a small beep in my ear and I heard the hushed voice of Rainbow Dash Speak up. “Applejack just spotted Silver Ace. He’s almost to the building.”

I felt my host give a nod, bunkering down a little more, their eyes darting about. “Thank you for the warning Darling,” I heard Rarity voice whispered back through my hosts mouth, her legs tensing up a little as she waited in anticipation. So this was Rarity's memory. Yet another minor question answered.

There was a few seconds of silence as Rarity waited in the dark of the room. After a long while, I heard Rainbow Dash speak up again. “So like… what’s in there? Anything incriminating?”

I could feel Rarity smirk a little as her eyes sweaped over the large array of strange potions and old tomes. “Well, you would not believe wh-” She cut herself off as a loud sounding creaking noise echoed from above her, followed by the sound of hoofsteps thumping across the floor. “Hold that thought Darling. It sounds like I have company…”

There was another creak as the door at the top of the stairs slowly cracked open, letting light slowly filter into the dingy basement. The sound of hoof steps slowly echoed down into the basement as the pony at the top of the steps slowly descended into the depths.

Rarity’s body stiffened as the silhouetted shape of an earth pony reached the bottom steps, entering into her line of sight. The shadow shrouded pony looked around for a second, their head slowly moving about and checking every inch of the room as if sensing something was off. After a long moment, they finally seemed to relax, walking the rest of the way into the room.

The pony raised a silvery hoof, tapping it against a talisman attached to the front of their vest. A second later, a light silvery glow illuminated the room around them, giving Rarity, and by extension myself, a good look at Silver Ace.

Silver Ace came to a stop in front of one of the desks, pulling out a small book and flipping through it. Rarity craned her neck, trying to get a good look at what he was reading. I could practically feel her disappointment when it turned out to just be a big book of science. As she shifted, the wooden floor creaked below her.

Suddenly, Silver Ace’s head bolted upright, staring straight at Rarity. I could feel Rarity’s blood run cold as Silver Ace’s eyes bore right into her. She shifted her hoof, reaching for something in her saddlebag. Then Silver Ace looked away, looking to the door as another sound creaked from the floor above.

Rarity gave a silent sigh of relief as Silver Ace’s gaze moved away from her hiding spot.

Soft thumps slowly moved above them as another pony slowly began trotting down the steps into the basement. Swiftly, a cloaked pony sweeped into the room, their hooves almost seeming to glide across the floor as opposed to walking. The only indication they weren’t actually floating was the soft thumps of their hooves beneath their dark cloak as they moved gracefully across the room.

“Is it done?” Silver Ace asked as he looked at the cloaked pony, his brows knitting together and his voice sounding almost sad.

“It is,” The commanding voice of the cloaked figure spoke. I could feel a chill passing through my very soul as his voice reached my ears. I knew that voice.

A white hoof with swirling stripes reached out from below the dark cloak, pulling away the hood to reveal the zebra beneath and the dazzling blue eyes that I had only ever known as a baleful green in life. “Twilight has been dealt with. She is no longer a concern,” Kamari leered, his grin twisting into a vile and sickening smile.

Rarity froze, her eyes wide. Kamari’s words rang in her ears, echoing over and over again. Twilight was on longer a concern…

Even Silver Ace looked surprised. “Kamari… you… you didn’t… didn’t kill her did you?”

Kamari just rolled his eyes and began stalking around the room. “As much as I would have loved to… no. But I have extracted her memories and dumped them into the abyss below the Hollow Shades. She no longer has any recollection of anything that we are doing.”

I could feel Rarity relax a little, but her body was still stiff. At least Twilight was still alive.

Silver Ace’s eyes narrowed. “And did you find out anything about the security block she put on the Utopia Program in her memories?”

Kamari scowled. “No. It would appear our dear ministry mare erased all knowledge of it from even her own mind. Whatever it is she did, we will need to proceed with extreme caution.”

Silver Ace sighed, looking back down at his book for a second. “I tried digging through the program's database for anything different. It appears that one of the seven memory orbs has been dramatically increased. The amount of memory data that is currently being stored is almost too much for the program to handle. It would require a massive amount of power and time to properly boot up without exploding.”

Had I not been in Rarity’s body, my brows would have furrowed in confusion. Seven memory orbs? Last time I checked, the Utopia Program was only six memory orbs, one for each of the ministry mares. Who the fuck was the seventh?

Kamari didn’t seem to have much interest in questioning that little detail however. “Which orb?” He seethed, stalking a little closer to Silver Ace. I felt the air shift around me as he stalked only an inch past Rarity’s face. Rarity held her breath as to not have her breath rasp across the deadly zebra and alert him of her presence.

“Twilight’s own,” Silver Ace annotated. “It would seem that she has been adding a significant amount of her own memories into the program. For what, I’m not yet sure.”

“And Pureblood?” Kamari pushed, his body practically slithering around the room as he circled the older silver buck.

Silver Ace gave a small snort-like laugh. “He is unbearable as always, but he still remains oblivious to what is actually going on.”

Kamari’s smile grew. “Perhaps it would be best if we used him to sort out our little Twilight problem as well,” he nickered, finally coming to a stop in front of Silver Ace. “After all. He does want to go into the Utopia Program himself after all. Why not take out two birds with one stone?”

SIlver Ace gave a long, low sigh. “It’s risky, but I see your point.”

Kamari gave a quick, malice filled grin before turning and gracefully trotting back towards the stairway. “See that it gets done,” He paused, the edges of his lips twisting slightly into a vile sneer. “Before I go, I have one last question,” He turned his head, his piercing eyes looking back at Silver Ace with smug amusement. “What do you wish to do about Rarity?”

I felt Rarity’s heart jump in her chest at the words. She made a start to move and rushed for the exit, but before she could, a sharp stabbing pain shot up her leg and she fell limp to the ground. A fast spreading numbness pulsed up her body, sending her into a sudden paralysis. She tried to open her mouth to scream, but the numbness had already spread to her lips. She stared up in horror as Kamari stalked over to her, his spirally striped hoof reaching down and ripping away her stealth cloak to reveal the white unicorn mare underneath.

Silver Ace jumped back a little himself, surprised by the sudden action. He stared down at Rarity with wide eyes, his pupils pinpricks. “No… Damn it, no…” He whispered, his voice filled with Panic. “Damn it, not like this!”

Kamari gave Silver Ace a leering smile. “Worry not Silver Ace. I’ll make sure that she doesn’t leave this place with any of your precious little secrets,” He leaned down, giving Rarity a cold, mirthless smile. He unclipped the earpiece from Rarity’s ear and promptly deactivated it. “I know Rainbow Dash and Applejack are waiting for you outside,” He tapped a small earpiece that he had clamped over his own ear that I had neglected to notice previously. “I also know that they haven’t heard any of what we just said and that you haven’t told them anything. I’d like to keep it that way.”

Rarity tried to swipe at the earpiece, but Kamari easily kept it away from her while she was in her immobilized state. Rarity’s mouth twisted to say something, but again, no words came out.

“Grab that memory orb over there, would you my dear, dear Silver Ace,” Kamari demanded, his dazzling eyes never leaving Rarity. He leaned in even closer, his vile breath rasping across Rarity’s face. “When we’re done here, you aren’t going to remember any of this. In fact, you're going to remember finding nothing here at all.”

I felt another jolt of fear shoot down Rarity’s spine, then the world slowly swirled away from me.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on the floor exactly where Rarity had been lying. It was almost surreal, to close my eyes and open them only to find that two hundred years had passed and the room had fallen into complete decay.

Groaning, I pulled myself back to my hooves and looked around. Not much had changed. I was thankful to see that no raiders had decided to fill me with holes while I was out. Watcher floated a few feet away from me, his Sprite Bot looking up at the flight of stairs. At the sound of me standing back up, he turned to look at me.

“Did you find anything in that orb?” Watcher asked, his synthesized voice crackling a little.

I hesitated, thinking the contents of the memory orb over. “I… I think so. There were a lot of things in there I didn’t understand, a few things I already knew…” I paused, thinking of what Silver Ace had said in the memory. “Watcher, have you ever heard of the Utopia Program?”

Watcher was silent for a long time. “Yes, loosely. Twilight mentioned it in passing once. I don’t know much more than that.”

I gave a grim nod. “It’s a collection of the six ministry mares' memories. But this orb gave me the distinct impression that there might be another orb in there?” I shook my head, still confused. “No idea who the seventh orb could be though.”

“Any indication on the Zebra alchemy?” Watcher pushed, his Sprite Bot swivelling in the air to look at the wide array of beakers and dark tomes.

I gave another nod. “Yes. Silver Ace was working with somepony- er… somezebra named Kamari. I met him before in the Hollow Shades.”

“You think Silver Ace is still working with this Kamari character?” Watcher asked. Even with the synthesized voice, I could tell he was curious.

I thought about that for a second before shaking my head. “Even if they continued working together after the war, I doubt it. Last time I saw Kamari, he took multiple rounds to the back of the head and was tossed off the top of a pit before getting blown apart with a couple hundred balefire bombs.”

“What a way to go,” Watcher joked, his voice lacking the inflection required to make his statement humorous.

I smirked. “But I don’t think they were working together, even then. Kamari underwent great lengths to try and get his hooves on the A.A.S.S. before Silver Ace could. Even offered Crank and his other Cyber Ponies extensive amounts of caps to get them to turn on Pureblood and Silver Ace.”

“So you think either Kamari or Silver Ace betrayed each other?”

I hummed a little at the thought. “Possible. Kamari wasn’t exactly the most trustworthy zebra in the world. Maybe Silver Ace found out that his intentions were more sinister than he had previously thought and broke ties with him.”

Before he could give any sort of response, Watcher’s Sprite Bot gave a loud beep and he quickly swivelled around in the air, his metal chassis turning to once more face the stairs. “I’m picking something up on my EFS. We have company. Non hostile by the looks of it.”

Cautiously, I pulled Breaburn’s Liberator out in my magic. “I doubt anypony has been in this building in over two hundred years,” I growled. “What do you think the chances are that somepony finally decides to come in here at the same time as us by coincidence?”

There was a loud creaking noise as the sound of hoofsteps began to cautiously descend the steps into the basement. I backed up a little, my shotgun aiming at the doorway. Watcher said they were non hostile, but that might have just meant that they didn’t know we were down here yet.

“Watcher, how many,” I hissed at him, keeping my voice low so as not to be heard.

Watcher swiveled around for a second, taking a moment to check his EFS more closely. “Only one inside the building, but we have a lot more outside.”

Slowly, a pony pulled themselves out from the stairway and into the pulsing amber light of my glowing horn. I felt myself almost drop my shotgun in surprise.

“Mom...?”

My mom took a second to take in the shotgun aimed at her head before looking past it and giving me a weary smile. “Hey honey… I think it’s about time we talk.”

I took a surprised step back, my eyes darting around. “What the hell are you doing here? How the hell did you even find me?”

“The Institute was taken over by the Director. Most of the Institute scientists managed to teleport out of the Institute safely, but… well.. We weren’t exactly prepared for the wasteland. It’s been a rather hard adjustment.”

“I’m guessing that's the rest of the Institute Scientists outside that we were picking up on EFS then?” I asked, my eyes narrowing in on her.

Mother’s eyes narrowed a little in turn. “We?” Her eyes glanced over at the Sprite Bot hovering beside me. After a second of confusion, her face lit up with interest. “Oh… You must be Watcher. The Institute has been trying to figure out where you’ve been broadcasting from for ages!”

The Sprite bot was silent for a long second, then, with a loud burst of static, it began floating away, playing it's silly little marching song. I groaned and rolled my eyes. Thanks for the backup Watcher. I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to talk to that mysterious pony again.

Realizing Watcher wasn’t going to respond, Mother turned to look back at me. “Er, yes. The bars you saw outside are the rest of the Institute Scientist. Glasswing sent me to go talk to you. He felt you would be more inclined to listen if I talked to you first.”

I felt my lips curl into a small snarl. So that’s what this was about. My mother had no real interest in talking to me, or even seeing me for that matter. She just wanted to make a deal for the Institute. Well, I wasn’t going to be having any of it.

“If Glasswing wants to talk to me, he can do it himself,” I scowled, finally lowering my shotgun. “I’m not interested in playing one of his mind games.”

Mother winced and took a small step back. “Very well. I can go get him for you,” Slowly, she trotted back to the stairs leading to the floor above. She paused at the bottom step, looking over to me. “I do think we should talk at some point though Amber. Just the two of us. I want to make things right.”

“You should have thought of that before you left me without a mom and made dad think you were killed by raiders,” I shot back, sitting down on my rump and crossing my forehooves. “Get Glasswing down here. Then we’ll talk.”

A few minutes later, I heard the sound of three sets of hooves striding down the creaking steps into the basement of the building. Glasswing stepped out first, looking around at the strange room curiously before turning to face me more directly. Mother walked into the room after him as well, followed shortly by an Institute scientist with an impressive looking magical energy rifle.

“Amber. It’s been a long time,” Glasswing said with a faux smile as if we were old friends, opening his gnarled black hooves to me in a friendly gesture.

I gave the changeling a flat glare. “Don’t try to act like we’re friends, Glasswing. I helped you regain control of the Institute because you were a better option than letting Queen Insecta and Azar enslave everypony, not because I like you. You threatened me with Xayah’s life to keep me in line. Or did you think I was just going to forget about that.”

Both Glasswing and Mother winced at my venom. Glasswing quickly covered his wince with another glassy smile. “I understand that we have had our differences in the past, Amber, but in the end, we are both after the same thing. A better tomorrow for the Wasteland. And right now, if I am not mistaken, both of our plans for the wasteland align in a very specific way,” His smile faltered and his face temporarily twisted into a snarl. “Taking the Institute back from the Director.”

I raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously. “How did you know that’s what I was doing here?”

Glasswing gave me a smug little grin. “You just flew into Manehattan on a fleet of war wagons, bringing with you the single largest army of raiders in the Equestrian Wasteland. You then proceed to decimate an entire convoy of Enclave soldiers in mere seconds with an amount of firepower that would make the True Steels blush. Word travels fast in Manehattan,” He raised his eyebrows and gave me a cocky tilt of his head. “We are a collection of some of the greatest minds Equestria has ever seen. Please, try not to insult our intelligence by assuming putting the clues together and tracking you down would be difficult for us.”

Alright, fair. He had me there. “So what exactly do you ponies want with me?” I asked, already having a pretty good idea of what the answer was going to be.

“We want to make an alliance,” Glasswing soothed, offering his twisted hoof to me in friendship. “You want to take on the Institute? So do we. You might have an army of raiders behind you, but I think you know just as well as I that even that won't be enough to take on the Institute. The Director likely has hundreds of synths and Coursers waiting for you in there, not to mention slavers, Talon mercs and Canterlot Ghouls. And if we could figure out that you were coming for him, don’t think for a second that the Director doesn’t know as well. Now, we might not be much of fighters, but we know the Institute better than anypony, even the Director. Together, we might actually stand a chance.”

“But I’m guessing you’re going to want something out of this when we’re done?” I said back flatly. “Something tells me you aren’t just going to help me for free.”

Glasswing’s smile widened. “Well of course, we will be requesting control of the Institute again once the Director has been dealt with.”

I gave him a small chuckle. “I hate to break it to you, but you're going to have to take that up with Jinx. I already offered control of the Institute over to the Las Pegasus Raiders.”

Glasswings smile dropped into a look of sheer horror. “Y-you did what!” He shouted, his eyes going wide. “You offered control of the largest, most technically advanced facility in Equestria to a group of ruthless, morales, savage raiders!” He balked, taking an enraged step towards me. “The Institute isn’t even yours to give! You don’t have that kind of say!”

I just gave him a smug little smirk of my own. “You had your chance to help the Wasteland with your technological advancements. Instead, you sat on them for over two hundred years without sharing like a dragon collecting a hoard. Now the Institute is lost to you. Maybe you should have actually tried to help ponies, instead of putting it off till tomorrow like the goddess damned Enclave.”

“Amber, what have you done…” Mother breathed, taking a small step back. “These Raiders you work with… they’re everything that's wrong with the wasteland. You can’t seriously just give everything over to them.”

I grimaced a little. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the idea either. “Look, I’m not a fan of raiders, and even though I don’t like how you ponies deal with the wasteland, I can at least understand how you think you’re helping. Help me take Pureblood out, and I’ll see if I can cut some sort of the profit into the deal with the Las Pegasus Raiders.”

The loud clicking sound of a gun made all of us pause. I looked up, my eye locking on the large revolver encased in a glowing field of magic that had pressed itself against the back of Glasswings head. Glasswings eyes widened as he felt the tip of the gun pressing against his skull.

“Give me one good reason not to kill you, snake…” A voice hissed from the shadow of the room. I let my gaze wander a little, finally resting on a mare that had managed to sneak into the room with us undetected. She had a dusty brown coat and curly blond mane. Glinting in the darkness, I could see a lantern emblazoned talisman hanging around her neck.

She was not alone either. Two other ponies stood behind her, each one wearing the same talisman around their neck and a large minigun attached to their battle saddles.

I felt my panic subside and get replaced with relief as I recognized them. “Freedom?”

The leader of the Friendship Express shifted her gaze from Glasswing to look at me, her face still hard. “Amber? What are you doing with these monsters?”

“Glasswing and I were just trying to make out a deal in regards to the Institute,” I told her, feeling a little more trusting of this faction than I was of the Institute scientists. The Friendship Express had at least been nice before they threatened me. “We’re planning an attack on it.”

“We figured. Word around the city is that you came trotting back into Manehattan with an army of raiders,” Freedom said bluntly, her eyes once more darting to Glasswing who was beginning to look a little panicked. “Not a big fan of working with the Las Pegasus Raiders. You should have come to us first.”

“Didn’t know where you were,” I responded quickly. “You ponies were hard enough to find the first time. Besides, I don’t think the Friendship Express has enough firepower to take the Institute out on its own,” I took a moment to let my point sink in. After a few seconds of tense silence I gestured to Glasswing. “Do you mind lowering your gun? I think we can all talk this out.”

Freedom glared at Glasswing for a long second, her eyes narrowing as she tried to decide to lower her gun or blow his brains out then and there. Finally, with a grunt, she lowered her revolver. “You aren’t worth my bullets anyway.”

Glasswing gave a small cough and put back on his false looking smile, gently brushing a little dust off his lab coat and straightening his green sweater vest. “Thank you Amber Aura. Now, I believe you were so generously discussing our compensation for helping you?”

I just gave him a flat look. “I could still just have Freedom shoot you... You help us take on the Institute, I will see if I can convince Jinx to let you keep the facility itself, though you will likely lose many of the things inside to the raiders. I can’t make any real promises or offer much more than that, but it’s better than nothing, right?” I turned to Freedom before Glasswing had time to rebuke. “I’m guessing you want in on this as well?”

Freedom finally let herself crack a grin. “We do. The Friendship Express has been trying to get into the Institute for years, as you well know. Seems like the time has finally come.”

My expression faltered. “I’m assuming you aren’t going to want to do it for free either, are you?”

“No. The Friendship Express wants all the Institute files regarding synths and synth deployment as well as any synths that remain alive inside the Institute,” Freedom said sharply, her expression seeming to say she was leaving no room for argument.

“That's preposterous!” Glasswing shouted, spinning around to glare at her. “That is property of the Institute! You will not be taking all of our synths!”

“Synths should not be any ponies property!” Freedom scowled, her revolver once more rising. “They are alive, just like you or I! They are not to be treated as slaves by authoritarian monsters such as yourselves!”

“We made them!” Mother shouted back, her own horn glowing and reaching for her magical energy rifle. “They are just machines! No more alive than any protectron or Sprite Bot!”

The two Friendship Express operators wielding miniguns let their massive firearms begin whirring to life. Freedom took a threatening step forwards. “They think and feel and love and bleed! Seems pretty alive to me!”

“Do you not understand the concept of synths?” Glasswing rebutted, his curved horn glowing. “They’re made to look like ponies, not actually be ponies! A foal in a nightmare night costume does not make her an actual monster.”

“That’s enough!” I shouted, puffing out my chest a little and trying to look as big as I could despite being the shortest pony in the room, my voice rising above the sound of screaming ponies. Everypony froze, turning to look at me with wide eyed faces. I let my posture relax a little as I looked at them. “What are all of you? Foal? In maybe two hours tops, Pureblood is going to launch the Utopia Program. As soon as that happens, it's over for all of us. Do you understand that? So unless you all want to be fucking mind raped and forced to rebuild Equestria in Purebloods image while your mind and soul serve him eternally inside of a big world simulation also under his control, you’re all going to shut up, work together and help me fuck this asshole up. Are there any questions?”

There was a long second of silence as all the assembled ponies and changelings just looked at me. After what felt like an eternity, Freedom sighed. “Very well. We will work with these Institute scientists until the larger threat has been dealt with. But once this Utopia Program is out of the equation, we're going to discuss my terms.”

“Indeed,” Glasswing soothed, his eyes still glaring daggers at Freedom. “The remnants of the Institute agree to your temporary terms until a point where proper distribution of the Institute is applicable.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. Was he seriously trying to trick me by using larger words? “You will agree to the terms and gratefully take whatever I can give you when all is said and done,” I told him bluntly, trying my best to give him a death glare. From the way he backed up, I got the impression that it worked. “Is that understood?”

Glasswing’s faux smile weakened as he glared at me, but finally he let a look of defeat cross his features. “Very well. We accept your terms.”

I gave them all a wide smile. “Good. Now let's go talk to those raiders you hate so much and fuck Pureblood up.”

As we drew closer to the area the Las Pegasus Raiders had turned into a temporary camp, I could tell something was up. Ponies didn’t have their guns up and raised if things were normal.

The massive group of raiders had formed a large circle around a smaller group of heavily armed Earth Ponies in gold painted power armour. Every pony had drawn guns and was pointing them at the other. The very air itself seemed to have grown tense.

Jinx, who had been quite excited to speak with the leader of the True Steels the last time I had seen her, now lay flopped on her back in exasperation, a look of sheer boredom sprawled across her face. Standing before her, Iron Hock stood proudly, one hoof thrust towards the sky as he preached a never ending spew of impressively arrogant words at the huge sphinx.

“-The True Steels are the greatest, purest force Equestria has ever seen!” Iron Hock was booming. “We do not associate ourselves with scum raiders like you! We will crush you all beneath our hooves. The soil and ashes of the wastes will be drenched in your blood as we burn your savage tribes to the ground! I-”

Jinx’s eyes rolled up as he continued on. Her eyes restlessly looked around, spotting me slowly trotting towards the large group with a large group of Institute scientists and Friendship Express Operative behind me. At the sight of me, she seemed to take a deep breath.

“Alright Iron Hock, I have heard your case,” Jinx soothed, rising to her full height and looming over the leader of the True Steels. “Now you will hear mine. My raiders are going to storm the MWT Hub. We are going to rip apart the Institute and lay claim to the technology we find inside. You and your True Steels will join us and share in the spoils, or you will step aside. The choice is yours.”

I could practically feel Iron Hock seeth underneath his power armour helmet. “We do not negotiate with raiders!” He stomped his fore hoof down on the ground violently, making the whole area shake. “True Steels! Show these savages their-”

Before he could finish, Jinx’s paw flashed out, knocking the large stallion onto his back. A loud scream escaped his lips as he was suddenly reefed up into the air by a powerful surge of magic that swept across the street. A second later, Jinx’s mouth flashed forwards, her massive fangs flashing as her maw snapped shut around Iron Hock’s whole body.

There was a second of stillness as everypony stared up at Jinx in terror. I saw three True Steel Rangers take a horrified step back, their legs trembling as they stared up at the huge monster that had quite literally just eaten their leader alive.

Jinx gave us all a toothy grin before letting her eyes glow a dazzling gold. A moment later, Iron Hock reappeared on the street in a small burst of golden light, staggering and covered in a thick layer of saliva. He collapsed to his side, disorientated, looking up at Jinx in an expression of absolute fear.

“Be thankful I am merciful,” Jinx snickered, nudging the leader of the True Steels back to his hooves with a flick of her paw. “And that your armour isn’t very tasty.”

Iron Hock scrambled back up to his hooves and struck as heroic a pose as he could, trying his best to save face in front of his rangers. He gave a nervous cough, glancing around at all of us, though most of us were still looking at Jinx in shock and fear. “V-very well beast. We will work with you for now. But don’t think we will forget about this humiliation!”

Jinx just continued to grin down at him smugly. “Oh, I hope you don’t,” she raised her gaze to address me more directly. “Amber, I see that you have brought more friends with you.”

I gulped, still a little shaken from watching Jinx eat Iron Hock alive and then bring him back. “I uh… Yes. These are the Remnants of the Institute Scientist as well as the Friendship Express. They have agreed to help us take on the Institute.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Jinx cooed, her whole body seeming to slither towards us as she looked over each and every new arrival with appraising eyes. “I assume my dearest Amber has informed you of the situation?” Her eyes seemed to bore into Glasswing the most, as if daring him to rebuttal the deal I had laid out for him.

“The Friendship Express will help you deal with the Institute how we can,” Freedom said, nervously stepping towards the massive sphinx. “In turn, we expect to be granted access to the Institute's Synths. The rest of what you find inside it is yours.”

Jinx looked at her in amusement for a moment before shrugging her gargantuan shoulders. “Fair enough. I have little interest in reclamation of the synths, though I will likely need to talk Magazine down,” Her gaze shifted to Glasswing. “And what do you and your scientists hope to gain from joining this fight my little changeling?”

Glasswing chewed his lower lip for a second, glancing over at Mother for a moment as he thought. Finally, he gave Jinx a glassy grin. “The Institute would like to join forces with the Las Pegasus Raiders indefinitely.”

I froze. They wanted to do what!

Jinx’s grin was near unbearable as she lowered her head to look over Glasswing more carefully. “Oh? And why would you wish to do that?”

“The Institute will remain under my control and fully operational,” Glasswing cooed, a smug look crossing his face. “This is the only way the Institute will maintain any of its productivity. In exchange, we can supply you with weapons and technological advancement that you could never have dreamt of before.”

I glared at Glasswing. That hadn’t been the deal! The idea of the Las Pegasus Raiders getting full control of the Institute Scientists like that was a terrifying one. “Glasswing, that’s not what we-”

Jinx raised a paw to me, silencing me before I could interject further. “And why would that be of any use to me?” Jinx purred in interest. “I can simply take what I want from the Institute. As far as I see, you are of no use to me.”

“The Institute doesn’t make many weapons, but under you, we can,” Glasswing soothed. “You let me take control of the Institute again, and I can make you weapons beyond your wildest dreams. I only demand that the Institute is left to carry out its experiments uninterrupted.”

“Jinx, this is a bad idea,” I hissed, glaring daggers at the lab coat clad changeling.

Freedom nodded, her own eyes narrowing at Glasswing. “I am of the same opinion. Glasswing and his scientists are not to be trusted.”

“Perhaps,” Jinx purred, once more rising up to full height to look us all over. “But I find the prospect to be rather enticing. With control of a fully functional Institute, the Las Pegasus Raiders could very well become the greatest force the wasteland has seen since the bombs. I could build a raider empire the likes of which I could have never dreamed before,” her gaze shifted back to Glasswing. “So no. There is no deal.”

Glasswing balked. “What! But you just said-”

Jinx gave him a threatening hiss before letting a twinkle of amusement cross her features. “Are you a creature of your word, Glasswing?” Jinx purred, her lips twisting into a venomous sneer. “My instincts tell me no. How does a simple changeling drone overtake the changeling queen and rise to a position of power such as you have? Through honesty? Unlikely...”

Glasswing took a fearful step back as Jinx suddenly began closing in on him. His blue eyes darted back and forth as if looking for a way to escape. “Look… I can promise that what I’ve said here is-”

“I have to ask, dearest Glasswing, what happened to the great Queen Insecta?” Jinx’s golden eyes flickered over to where Mother had begun backing up as well. “Something tells me that she wasn’t very pleased about what happened to her…”

Mother trembled a little under Jinx’s intense gaze. “How did you know about th-”

“If you could manipulate and outsmart the queen of the changelings and her general, the leaders of a race known for manipulation and trickery, what is to stop you from doing the same to me?” Jinx continued, once more turning her hungry gaze to Glasswing. “Or are you happy simply being my servant for the rest of eternity?”

Glasswing stumbled on his hooves and collapsed to the cracked road, landing heavily on his rump. “Please, you have to-”

“I will take what I want from the Institute. I will rip apart the walls of your precious facility and use them to build my empire. And when I am done, and only then, you may keep whatever scraps remain. You may continue your worthless little experiments alone, isolated from the rest of Equestria as you desire, but what we want, we will take, and you will not gain anything more,” Jinx scowled, her muzzle only inches from Glasswings face as she bared her fangs. “Or would you like to ask me to oh so generously give you everything else as well?”

Glasswing could do little but give a timid shake of his head. Chuckling to herself, Jinx finally pulled herself away. “Good. Be thankful I am willing to give you even that.”

I heard the clopping of hoofsteps behind me and turned to see my friends quickly approaching. Pyre and Mirra weren’t among them, but I felt myself smile when I saw that Scarlet was.

“Hey Scarlet,” I said, looking all my friends over. “Glad you could make it.”

Scarlet gave me a sad smile. “I am too. It’s good to see you alive and safe. The pegasi explained everything that's been happening on my ride here. Your friends have been filling me in on the finer details,” Her expression grew tense and she looked off in the direction of the MWT Hub. “You think we’re really going to be able to save Crank?”

I gave her as comforting a smile as I was able to give. “We’re going to do our best. I did make a promise, didn’t I?”

“And where exactly did you go, you foolish pony?” Xayah asked, trotting over to stand next to me. She gestured to the Institute scientists and Friendship Express Operators. “Do I even want to know where you found all these ponies?”

"They found me more than I found them,” I admitted sheepishly. “I got a lead on something Silver Ace was doing before the war back in Las Pegasus. I was just checking it out.”

Brisk raised an eyebrow at me. “And? Did you find anything helpful?”

“Maybe,” I responded, somewhat tentatively. “It looks like Silver Ace was working with Kamari back before the bombs.”

Xayah scowled. “Working with a worshiper of the stars? That is bad news.”

I gave a grim nod. “You don’t need to tell me twice.”

Star raised a hoof in the air, glaring at all of us and giving us a sarcastic smile. “Um, yeah, sorry to be an inconvenience, but who the fuck is Kamari?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but promptly closed it. “It’s, uh… a long story that we don’t really have time to get into right now. If we survive today, I’ll make sure to give you a rundown of everything.”

“Amber!” I turned at the sound of my voice, seeing Pyre waving to me from a group of raider hellhounds. Mirra gave me a smile from atop her back. “It’s time. Are you ready?”

Time? To finally take on the Institute? Had the moment really come? I felt myself shiver a little at the thought. I gave her a slow nod. “Yeah. Let's do this.”

I stared down the pair of binoculars at the MWT Hub across the street. As Pyre had told me on the walk here, there were quite a few guards. At least twenty mannequins stood sentinel at the front door of the crumbling structure, and up above I could see bits of movement on the collapsed section of the tower that bridged it to the Ironshod building across the street. Most of the mannequins just stood completely still. It was enough to make me think they were nothing more than spooky statues littering the wasteland, but every few seconds I would see one of their heads shift to look in a different direction.

I shivered a little, goosebumps rising on my flesh. Those things were spooky as fuck.

Standing in front of the group of mannequins at the front door stood a courser. They looked just about as all the others I had seen before looked. Dark black coat, with a matching dark leather trench coat. The glowing blue aura around their horn suspended a lethal looking institute rifle and their icy, piercing gaze swept back and forth, waiting for anypony who dared to approach the building.

“Tell me again why we don’t just launch an all out attack on the place?” Brisk grunted, looking over my shoulder at the building. “I mean, we outnumber them by a lot. We could easily take them down and make a rush for the secret passage to the Institute inside.”

“We aren’t doing that because we’re actually trying to win,” Pyre snarked back at him from behind us, crouching down in her impressive armour to stay out of sight. “The Institute already knows that the True Steels are in the area and want the building. An attack by them will likely cause a distraction that will benefit us. What the Institute doesn’t know, hopefully, is that there is an army of raiders waiting around the corner ready to attack. If we play our cards too early, we’re going to be in trouble. Or did you just forget the whole meeting we just had explaining that?”

“So what, the Las Pegasus Raiders are just going to sit back for a bit while we do the hard part?” I asked, shifting my binoculars to look at a different part of the building.

“The hard part is once we get inside,” Pyre grunted. “So unless you want the hard part to be getting inside as well, you’ll stick to Jinx and I’s plan,” She shifted so she could look at all of us. “You three clear on what you need to do.”

“Get into the secret tunnel, disable any security Pureblood has inside, and get the signal to you and your raiders without detection,” Xayah nodded curtly. “Yes, we know the plan.”

Pyre smirked. “Oh good, one of you can listen to instructions,” Both Brisk and I just stuck our tongue out at her.

“Good luck!” Mirra said cheerily from atop Pyre’s back, though I noticed there was a sliver of worry in her otherwise chipper tone. I gave the changeling a small smile in return.

“My True Steels are in position. We are ready to begin as soon as you are,” The voice of Iron Hock rumbled from behind us, making us all turn around to look at him. He was slowly approaching with two of his armoured rangers behind him. He gave us all a small scowl as he approached. His eyes flickered to me behind his visor. “I was wondering when we would cross paths again, Stable Dweller. Our fates seem to be leading us in very similar directions. Though I had thought even you and your striped accomplice above working with raiders," his voice seemed to ooze with hatred as he glared at Xayah and I.

I chose not to answer him. I had nothing to say to the murdering prick that had melted the corpses of Stable 25 into fuel.

“Good, then launch your attack when ready,” Pyre grunted, choosing to overlook his snider comment towards me. “Have you heard from Freedom or Glasswing.”

Iron Hock scowled. “The snake Glasswing has informed me that they are all in position as well. Freedom is leading them around the side.”

I nodded along as I digested the information. The admittedly short meeting we had done prior had laid out the plan in detail to me already, though I admittedly had had a fair amount of trouble focusing. My thoughts had been far too distracted with the events of the coming hour. Soon, for better or worse, things were going to end very, very soon.

The flapping of wings drew our gaze upwards as Star Breeze dropped down beside us, Scarlet wrapped tightly in her hooves. Once Star got closer to the ground, her legs released, letting Scarlet drop down to her own hooves.

“The war wagons are in position. As soon as Amber gets us the signal, they will be ready to bombard the building,” Star told Pyre, landing on the ground beside us herself.

Pyre nodded. “Thank you. You five ready?”

I gulped and nodded, bracing my legs, a bad feeling twisting in my gut. “Ready as I’ll get.”

“Good, then let's do this,” Pyre grunted, gesturing to Iron Hock. The large ranger gave a nod in response before rushing off with his True Steels. Pyre turned back to us, looking us all over with weary eyes. “And be careful. Please.”

Brisk gave a shaky smile. “I’m the wrong person to ask that of, but we will.”

I gave Pyre and Mirra a quick hug before letting the two of them pull away and join up with the squadron of Raiders that had taken cover around the corner of the street. I crouched down, my eyes returning to gazing down my binoculars as I watched the entrance of the MTW Hub. The Courser standing guard at the front had gone unnaturally still, stiller even than the statue like mannequins that surrounded him. I didn’t doubt that they knew something was wrong, I could only hope that they didn’t know the full extent.

We sat there in silence, waiting for our que to move. After what felt like fifteen minutes, nothing happened. I could feel my heart rate quicken. I could practically hear a clock ticking as each and every second passed by. My eyes glanced up at the sky, making out the pinprick of diffused light beyond the dark cloudlayer that signified the location of the sun. Just passed noon by the look of it. I gulped, that gave me maybe an hour or two before the Utopia program launched, it was hard to be exactly sure. We didn’t have time to just sit around.

“What is taking them so long,” I grunted, shifting my gaze to where the True Steels were supposed to begin their attack.

“Maybe something went wrong?” Scarlet suggested nervously, following my gaze, though her eyes couldn’t see as far as my binoculars.

Our conversation was cut short as a loud booming sound, followed by a missile streaking across the street and blasting towards the group of synths standing sentinel, flared up and filled the street with an earth shaking explosion. Faster than I could blink, the synths vanished in a blast of blue light, disappearing just long enough for the lethal explosive to detonate before re-materializing in the now smouldering wreckage of the doorway, their guns drawn and blazing with blue light as they fired upon the large swarm of True Steel Knights that suddenly burst out of hiding and started charging towards them.

“That would be the signal to go,” Xayah stated factually, pushing herself out from cover and rushing towards the building. I sprang out after her, my legs pounding against the cracked road as I sprinted towards the collapsing tower and into the fray.

Blasts of blue light and explosive projectiles flashed past me as I weaved back and forth in the firefight. I felt the ground trembling as blast after blast of the True Steels assault shook the tower and the surrounding area. Behind me, I saw Brisk and Scarlet darting back and forth as they pushed forwards behind me, Star shooting above our heads and making a desperate dash to a window higher up on the tower.

The True Steels clearly had the Institute synths outmatched in raw firepower. Even the deadly, disintegration beams of the Institute magical energy rifles were little match against the overkill that was Iron Hock’s battle saddle. Unfortunately, what they lacked in firepower, they made up with in sheer numbers. I saw flashes of blue lights flicker across the top of the tower's makeshift overpass, signalling the appearance of at least fifty more mannequin-like synths as they materialized above. Not long after, the street was filled with blazing blasts of energy as the synths rained death down upon us. I saw three True Steel knights drop to the ground, the corpse inside their armour sizzling away into dust.

“Push them back!” I heard Iron Hock roaring over the sound of gunfire. His voice was accompanied by another boom as his battle saddle mounted rocket launcher fired off an explosive blast into the swarm of synths. A courser lunged at him, their hooves flashing out and knocking him backwards where I lost sight of him amongst the charging True Steels.

I swerved as another blast of energy slashed at the ground around me. I dared a glance up, spotting a group of synths perched atop the building, their deadly guns aimed and firing at my position.

Gritting my teeth, I let my magic surge to life, creating a small shield of magic above my head. I felt my magic waver as five more beams of energy pounded against the magical construct only seconds later. The small crack in my horn throbbed, but I pushed through the pain, continuing my mad dash through the firefight.

Xayah reared up onto her hind hooves in front of me, her two mechanical legs flashing out and bucking at a synth that dove into her path. The synth's head was smashed open, metal clashing against metal as Xayah’s cybernetics crushed downwards.

Past Xayah, I saw Star dart through a shattered window, disappearing into the tower beyond. I put on a burst of speed myself, darting around a synth and True Steel that had engaged in a lethal hoof to hoof.

Xayah made it to the tower next, her right hoof flashing forwards and smashing one of the lower windows. A second later, she leapt forwards, sailing through the window and out of sight.

I ducked as an energy blast flashed over my head. I scowled, keeping low as more beams of light trailed me. A loud whirring sound started up behind me, accompanied by a hail of bullets as Brisk’s minigun opened fire. Moments later, the synth assailing me was ripped apart, their metal body riddled with bullets.

Scarlet raced up to me, helping me back to my hooves and urgently pushing me forwards. I gave both her and Brisk a thankful look before rushing the last few feet to the building, bracing my legs and leaping upwards through the window Xayah had shattered. Bits of broken glass scratched at my underside, but I all but ignored it as my hooves reached out and touched down on the cold floor of the building inside.

“Alright, what way?” Xayah asked me, her eyes moving from me to Brisk and Scarlet as the two quickly jumped through the window after me.

“Basement,” I stated, taking the lead as we began moving into the building. “The secret entrance is in the Ministry Mare Applejack’s office.”

Brisk nodded, his head low as he moved and peaked out around the corner of the conjoining hallway. A second later, he pulled back, the muscles in his hooves tensing. “We got seven synths at the end of the hall,” He told us, quickly feeding more rounds into his large gun.

“Probably more on their way as well,” Scarlet added grimly. “I doubt they want anypony getting into the Institute, least of all us.”

I nodded. “Any Coursers?”

Brisk shook his head. “Not that I saw.”

That was a relief at the very least. “Well, there are four of us. Five once Star meets back up with us. We can take them.”

Brisk gave me a grin. “Then let's not leave them waiting.”

The first synth went down in a flurry of bullets as Brisk stepped out from cover, his minigun roaring. The other six synths quickly dove for cover, their Institute rifles blazing.

I let my horn flare up, a protective shield surrounding Brisk as the synths attacks bore down on him. The synth's fire paused, only for another to fall as Xayah darted out, her anti-material rifle snapping off a single, precise shot to the head before she once more ducked behind cover.

Dropping the shield around Brisk and raising my one weapon with my magic, I jumped out from around the corner, rushing forwards with Brisk and letting loose two explosive rounds into the nearest synth. The synth collapsed backwards, their chest a broken collection of scrap metal and sparking circuitry.

I took a step back and took cover behind a topple filing cabinet in the middle of the hall as the synths once more returned fire. Sparks flashed around me as the synth's beams lashed against the filing cabinets' metal surface. I flinched back, one blast coming scarily close to taking off the right side of my head.

More beams of deadly light began flashing down the hallway, this time from behind us. I grimaced, looking up and spotting five more synths rushing down a flight of stairs behind us and charging down the hallway towards us before quickly arranging themselves into a more defensive position and taking cover behind a few of the buildings blasted open doorways.

I jumped to the side, the newly arrived synths fire driving me out of my cover. I saw Scarlet poke her head out, her own Institute rifle blasting off a few rounds into the synths as they began firing at us from all sides.

Fzzzzzat! Fzzzzzat!

I winced as a beam of red energy lanced overhead. I glanced up, making out the shape of Star Breeze as she flashed down the flight of stairs herself, her magical energy rifle firing off a steady stream of fire.

“What took you so long!” Brisk called out, pulling himself to his hooves and letting his minigun spin up.

“What took me so long? I’ve been here a good minute longer than you!” Star shot back, twisting in the air to avoid being turned to glittering ash by the synths' rifles.

“Yeah, on the wrong floor!”

“How was I supposed to fucking know you weren’t going to follow me?”

“None of us have wings!”

Star paused, hovering for a second. “You’re not wrong, and that’s not my fault.”

I bucked at a synth that rushed at me with a sparking baton, my hooves crashing against their metal chest and sending them staggering back a few paces. A second later, the synth collapsed, their head blown clean off by yet another impressively accurate shot from Xayah’s sniper.

Scarlet pulled up next to me, the end of her rifle smoking as she fired off a few more shots into the encroaching synths. “Amber, what's the plan?”

I hesitated, ducking back a little as another blast of energy shot over my head. “Not sure. We don’t have time to deal with these synths. Pureblood doesn’t need to kill us. He just needs to wait us out.”

Scarlet nodded. “Alright, you go ahead. Get the entrance open, clear the way. Star and I will hold the synths off.”

Alarm shot through me. “Wait, what!” I fired off a shot from Braeburn’s Liberator, blasting apart another synth before turning to her. “Are you crazy! There is going to be more coming! A lot more! You guys can’t handle all of this off on your own!”

“More reason for you to go on ahead. You don’t have time to deal with all these synths. You said so yourself, Pureblood doesn’t need you dead, he just needs to wait you out.”

I grit my teeth. “That’s suicide. You’ll die! Both of you!”

Star swooped down, her magical energy rifle blasting a hole through the chest of a synth. “As much as I’m not a fan of Scarlet here volunteering me, she’s right. If you have to stop and fight every fucking synth Pureblood throws at you, the Utopia program will launch long before you even reach the secret entrance.”

“But what about you two!” I shot back, staring at both of them wide eyed.

“We have reinforcements coming,” Scarlet smiled. “So long as you can get the way clear and get the signal back to Pyre. We’ll be fine.”

I hesitated a second longer, looking back and forth between them. Finally, I gave a small scowl of annoyance. “Alright, fine. You two win!” jumped out of hiding for a second, rushing over to where Brisk and Xayah had taken shelter. “Come on! We’re making a run for the basement!”

They both gave quick nods, clearly taking stock of the situation. I sprang over our cover, my quad barrel shotgun clearing the way for us as we shot past the group of synths blocking our path. A synth readied their weapon to fire, only to be blasted apart by a round of fire from Scarlet's rifle.

I put all my strength into running, darting down the hall and around the corner at the end. A few beams of deadly light flashed past me as the synths tried to shoot me down, but not a single shot made its mark as I darted out of their line of fire, Brisk and Xayah only a few steps behind.

“Do you think Scarlet and Star will be alright?” Xayah asked, casting a nervous glance behind us as we rushed along, her metal fore hooves clanging loudly against the ground as she ran. “I do not like leaving them alone against such adversity.”

I felt myself frown. “Neither do I… I hope they’ll be alright,” Please goddesses let them be alright…

I turned another corner and began rushing down a steep flight of steps to the lower levels of the tower. I could feel the floor beneath me shake as the True Steels continued their deadly onslaught against the synths outside. I prayed they didn’t collapse the tower down on top of us. Hopefully Iron Hock had more control than that.

We reached the bottom step and darted around the final corner leading to Applejack’s office. No sooner had I rounded the corner than I had to duck aside as two synths standing guard opened fire at me. One of the burning blue beams slashed at my side, making me yell out in pain. I dropped to the ground, clutching at the cauterized wound. Thankfully, I didn’t dissolve into ash right then and there, it just hurt like a bitch.

Blam!

A shot from Xayah’s anti-material rifle sent the first synth crashing to the ground, a bullet hole right between its synthetic eyes. Xayah went to fire again, only to be forced into cover as the other synth focused its fire onto her.

The synth advanced, its electronic eyes sweeping back and forth from the wall Brisk and I cowered behind to the mound of rubble that Xayah had used to take cover behind. It’s deadly energy rifle shifted, blasting away at bits of the wall, coating my mane in a thin layer of exploding drywall and ripping deep grooves into the corner.

I snatched up a piece of rubble off the ground with my magic and chucked it down the hall. There was a loud zapping sound as the synth instinctively fired at it, turning it to ash long before it had a chance to hit it. Unfortunately for the synth, that gave Brisk enough time to step out, his minigun already whirring to life. The hallway filled with blaring gunfire for all of two seconds before the whirring died to a small hum and the synth's mangled frame crashed to the floor.

“Alright, let’s go,” I grunted, pulling myself back up and swiftly moving into Applejacks’ office, my friends close behind. The office looked exactly as I left it, a large office room with a big desk in the center housing a terminal and a long since rusted and dust coated nametag. I quickly pulled myself up to the computer, typing the password ‘apples’ in before letting the lines of code flicker to life before my eyes.

“You would think that Pureblood would put more security in here,” Xayah muttered, glancing around the office. “Two synths hardly seems like enough.”

I glanced around wearily for a second before turning my gaze back to the terminal. “I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Brisk snickered. “That is still the weirdest expression ever. Who came up with that.”

Xayah shrugged. “Slavers probably.”

The expression was suddenly less funny.

“Ah, here it is,” I exclaimed at last, tapping a few keys on the terminal. A second later, the wall behind me slid open with a creak, revealing the secret entrance and long, dark tunnel into the Institute.

Brisk whistled, peering into the darkness of the tunnel. “Big tunnel. Shouldn’t give us any issue getting our army down there.”

I smiled. “My thoughts exactly,” I clambered back out of the chair and started on down the tunnel. “Now come on, we have work to do."

The three of us quickly trotted into the tunnel, the booming sounds fo gunfire slowly fading away as we ventured deeper into the tunnels depths.

We walked in darkness for most of the trip down the tunnel, not wanting to alert any possible guards further down of our approach. Granted, if Pureblood didn’t know we were coming by now, then I wasn't sure if a few guards finding out was going to make that much of a difference at this point.

The tunnel felt a lot longer than I remembered, and after a long while, my hooves were beginning to ache from trotting for so long. That said, I supposed this tunnel did travel all the way from the ruins of the MWT hub to the main Institute facility below Tenpony Tower. That was no short walk.

After a few more minutes of walking in complete silence, I heard Brisk chuckle slightly from behind me. I flicked my ear in his direction, curious. “What’s got you laughing?” I asked, my head shifting slightly to see him in the gloom.

Brisk just shook his head. “It’s nothing, just… It’s been a long time since it was just the three of us. I missed this.”

I paused a little at his words, thinking back. How long had it been since it had just been Brisk, Xayah and myself. Probably well over a month at this point. Reaching back as far as I could in my memories, I realized it hadn’t been since our first trip to Fetlock, when we had confronted the cyberpony Trip Wire and stolen the A.A.S.S. back for the very first time. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

Despite everything, I found myself laughing a little as well. Those had been the good old days. Well, good by comparison anyway. I had still felt like I had something to fight for back then. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Pyre and Mirra and Star and everypony, but yeah, I missed this too,” I agreed, giving both of my oldest friends a warm smile.

Xayah brushed up against me a little, making me aware of her exact location in the darkness. A small nicker escaped her lips. “A lot has changed in that time. I feel none of us are the same ponies we were back then.”

Brisk gave another shake of his head. “I’ve said it before, but it's honestly crazy. How far the three of us have come. Where did we all go wrong?”

Xayah snickered. “We thought it was a good idea to let Amber lead us.”

I gave her a playful scowl. “I never told any of you to follow me.”

Brisk just stuck his tongue out. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad we followed you. I don’t know what’s going to happen to all of us before the end of this, but I’m glad that I got to make a difference in the wasteland. I’m gladder still that I got to make that difference with you two or whatever.”

I smiled and pulled them both into a hug. “I feel the same way bro.”

I hugged them for a few more moments before Brisk finally pulled away and started trotting down the tunnel again. “Alright, that's enough mushy stuff. We do have a world to save after all, and not a lot of time to do it.”

I nodded, slowly following after him, Xayah at my side. As we walked, I realized I was smiling.

As we neared the end of the tunnel, we quickly found that our lack of light had been unnecessary. No amount of stealth was going to keep us from being undetected. Two large spotlights had been set up at the end of the tunnel, blinding us as we neared. Through the light, I could make out the shape of three figures, two black and one white. I felt myself shiver as I realized the two dark figures on either side were coursers.

I squinted, trying to make out the pony standing in the middle. It took a moment, the blinding lights washing out most of her features, but after a few seconds I my eyes widened a little. “Fleur?” I heard both Brisk and Xayah snarl from behind me at the mention of the Canterlot ghoul, their legs bending and their weapons readying for action.

“Damn it Amber,” I heard Fleur De Lis’ sad voice whisper, her pale eyes slowly watching us as we trotted towards her and into the near blinding light of the spotlights. She took a deep breath, pink vapours spilling from between her lips and oozing into a weird cloud around her hooves. “The Director told me you would show up here… I had hoped that you… ugh… I told you not to come back here.”

“And I told you I was going to stop Pureblood no matter what,” I stated back factually, raising a hoof to try and block some of the blinding light flooding my vision. “We can’t let him activate the Utopia Program.”

“You aren’t going to be able to stop him,” Fleur said back, her voice steady but tired. “It’s impossible. And even if it wasn’t, there isn’t enough time anymore…”

“This conversation is irrelevant,” One of the coursers cut in, their voice a chilling and icy monotone. Their horn glowed a dazzling blue, a lethal looking Institute rifle raising up to aim at me. “By order of the Director, you are to be eradicated on sight.”

Both Brisk and Xayah crouched down behind me further, their eyes darting back and forth between the two Coursers as they slowly began closing in on us. It had taken seven of us to take out just one Courser, and we had had the assistance of Pyre Blaze back then, something told me that we weren’t going to stand much of a chance against these two.

“Fleur, please,” I said, taking a small step back as the two Coursers stalked towards us. “There’s still time to fix all of this.”

Fleur shook her head again, her sad eyes unfocused as she watched the Coursers. She almost seemed unable to look at me. I couldn’t tell if it was regret or fear displayed in her eyes. “You’re wrong Amber. You are so unbelievably wrong.”

With her words, the Coursers rushed forwards, deadly energy rifles blazing. I threw myself to the side, a fizzling blast of blue energy flashing past my face. My shotgun raised up in my magic, deflecting another blast before shifting to aim at one of the rushing Courser’s heads.

Before I had the chance to fire, one of the Coursers slammed into me from the side, sending me sprawling across the floor. I raised my head just in time to see the very same Courser swing at my head with their hoof. The force hammered into me, sending me once more sprawling onto my face. I lost my grip on Braeburn’s Liberator, watching helplessly as it spun across the cold floor away from me.

On the far side of the tunnel, I saw Brisk and Xayah ducking away from well aimed blast after well aimed blast as the other Courser relentlessly assailed them. Brisk took a few steps back, his minigun spinning up as he prepared to fire at the Courser, only to be forced to stumble away as the Courser sent a flurry of searing energy blasts his way.

I felt my vision spin as another powerful strike from the Courser crashed into my head, slamming me against the wall. I gave a loud growl as I tried to pull myself back up, only for the Courser to wrap my neck in their icy teleconetic grip. I was reefed upwards, dangling from my neck as their powerful magic began to constrict, choking the air from my lungs.

I swung about desperately, trying vainly to free myself from their constrictive grasp. My flailing hooves ramming into the Coursers side, forcing a small grunt from their lips. The stepped back slightly, their magical grip only tightening more as they removed themselves from my hooves rather pathetic range. The movement forced their magic to release slightly, not enough to let me go, but enough for me to allow a small breath to rush into my lungs.

With a gasp, I let my horn flare up and wrap my fallen shotgun in my magic. It swung through the air towards me, levelling with the back of the Courser's head. The Courser scowled, fully releasing its grip on me as it was forced to jump away from the deadly shotgun blast that ripped through the air where their head had just been.

I dropped to the ground, gasping for breath as my airways reopened. My eyes darted up, narrowing at the deadly Courser as they began circling me, their faux smile twisting into something sinister. I saw it’s mouth crack open, it’s chilling blue gaze seeming smug. “X23-”

I slammed my shotgun against their head before they had time to finish the string of letters and numbers, giving them as threatening of a scowl as I could. “Oh no, not this time!” I groused, lunging towards them. The Courser danced aside, easily avoiding my attack as I bucked at them.

Across from me, I heard a yell as Xayah was knocked to the ground by the other Courser. I glanced up, seeing the Courser loom over her, their weapon raised to turn her to glittering ash. Before they had the chance, Brisk knocked them aside, forcing them to lunge to the side as he sent a steady stream of bullets their way.

The Courser attacking me spun around, their hooves flashing back and bucking at my chest. I hoped back, the attack missing by mear inches as I skidded across the smooth floor. I stumbled, trying to keep from collapsing and spun back around to the face the Courser, fury in my eyes.

Fzzzzzat!

No sooner had I managed to regain my balance than a sharp pain flashed through my chest, forcing me to once more take a staggering step back.

I looked down, eyes wide as I saw the large hole that had been blasted into my chest. I stared at the gaping wound for a second in surprise, shock almost numbing my body as I looked at the glistening wound. Blood began spilling down my front from where the energy damage had failed to cauterize.

With a moan of pain, I glanced back up, my suddenly spinning vision locking on the glowing end of the Institute energy rifle hovering a few feet in front of me, suspended by the vile Courser's blue magic. The Courser grinned at me, watching with amusement as I took a shaky step towards him. I grit my teeth, trying to raise my shotgun with my magic, only for a spike of pain to shoot through me once again and drop me to the ground with a moan. I tried to raise my shotgun again with my magic, only for my magic to fizzle out and letting me do little more than clutch to the weapon desperately with my hooves.

“Amber!” I heard Xayah scream, but her voice was suddenly sounding very far away.

I tried to look around, but my hazy vision made everything just seem like strange blobby shapes as opposed to ponies. I saw the shadowy form of what I assumed to be the Courser, knocking Brisk to the ground, looming over him and pinning him to the floor with an impossibly strong hoof.

I saw a striped shape, likely Xayah, rushing towards me, only for her form to give a yell of pain as one of the Coursers shot a blast of energy through her leg. Xayah collapsed to the ground, trembling as waves of pain washed through her.

A shadow passed over me, drawing my attention to the Courser that now towered above me. They grinned down at me, their piercing gaze sending shivers shooting down my trembling spine. “Did you really think you could just waltz into the Institute?” The Courser hissed, their magic slowly raising their energy rifle. “Did you really think the Director would simply let you get back in the same way you got out? There are hundreds of us in the Institute, and you couldn’t even kill two of us.”

Spat a wad of blood from my mouth and gave the Courser a grin of my own. “Actually, I managed to kill one of the two of you? See ya...”

The Coursers' eyes widened as they realized their mistake too late. My hoof abruptly tightened around the mouth trigger of Breaburn’s Liberator, sending all four rounds of buckshot straight into the Courser’s face. Their head exploded, bits of viscera and cybernetics shooting in all directions as their body dropped to the ground beside me with a thud.

My grin of satisfaction was washed away moments later as the Courser's corpse started to rise up from the ground beside me, wire tendrils slithering out from its brutalized neck and slowly pulling its pulped head back together. Fear flashed through me, followed shortly by a spike of pain that once more lanced through my chest. My head dropped back to the ground, my breath coming out in heavy gasps as it suddenly became hard to breath.

"Wha- how?" I gasped, staring in horror as the Courser pulled itself back up into a fully standing position. The last Courser I had fought had been many things, but it hadn't been able to regenerate, and it defiantly hadn't been able to survive its head being blasted off.

The Courser simply smiled at me, its magical energy rifle raising and gently resting the end of its barrel against my head. "The Director was quite put out when you managed to kill that last Courser he sent your way," The Courser cooed, his words filling me with dread. "He was determined to make sure that such a mistake does not happen again. Killing us is not going to be so easy anymore."

With those words, I knew it was over.

The Courser pinning Brisk to the ground gave me an almost impressed look before pressing the barrel of his rifle against Brisk’s head. “Regardless of your attempts to neutralize us, you have accomplished nothing here,” The Courser cooed. “You are all still going to die.”

And with that, both of Courser’s magic began to tighten around the triggers of their guns.

“Wait!” My breath caught in my throat as Fleur’s raspy voice called out, causing the Coursers to pause.

Both Coursers glanced up at the Canterlot Ghoul, who had until this point, been watching the fight in silence from the closed doorway. “There is nothing to wait for,” The Courser holding Brisk down replied flatly, their eyes returning to Brisk. “The Director has ordered their execution.”

“Let me talk to them for a moment,” Fleur demanded, taking a step forward. “They only have half an hour before Utopia activates anyway. It doesn’t matter anymore. They’ve lost...”

The Coursers just shook their head, the triggers of their energy rifle still only mere inches away from firing. “Delaying their death is only risking the probability of our failure and is a direct contradiction to the Director's orders.”

“Just one moment. Please,” Fleur practically seemed to be begging now, her hazy eyes taking on a strangely desperate look.

After a few moments of silence, the Coursers both took a synchronized step back, their energy rifles raising away and letting Brisk and I release a sigh of relief. “You have one minute,” The Courser above me scowled, his icy gaze narrowing on Fleur. “Your actions will however be reported to the Director and if any of them try anything in the next minute, they will be shot on sight.”

Fleur nodded, giving the Courser a thin smile before trotting over to me and slowly sinking down to my level. I was grateful that she chose to not get too close, or risk burning me with the pink vapours that wafted around her body.

“W-what are you doing,” I croaked, my unfocused eyes trying their hardest to look up at the Canterlot ghoul.

Fleur looked at me for a long moment before drawing her head a little closer, her eyes narrowing. “I think I want to ask you the same thing.”

I just stared at her in confusion for a long second. “I’m… trying to stop the Utopia Program…” I finally grunted, pushing through the pain that the effort of speaking wrought.

“Why?”

The words sunk into me like a knife. Why was I trying to stop the Utopia program? It was a question that had plagued me for a while. Truthfully, this had all stopped being my fight when Azar flooded Stable 25 with pink cloud.

However, the answer came to me much faster than I expected.

“Because it's wrong,” I said at last, choking on my own words. “Because Pureblood is wrong…”

Fleur raised a rotting eyebrow at me. “Is it really wrong to want to return Equestria to its former glory? To make it as beautiful as it once was? You haven’t seen the Equestria that I once knew. If you had, perhaps you would be on a different side.”

The answer spilled from my lips before I had the proper amount of time to think my words through. “It is wrong to want that when the cost is a hundred generations of slavery and mental torture, yeah,” I coughed, pain flaring up my side and blood dripping from my lips. “Besides, Pureblood isn’t returning Equestria to the way it once was. He’s returning it to the Equestria that he wishes it used to be. He’s own Utopia. I don’t think that’s the kind of Utopia that most of us want to live in… even you… Definitely not Fancy Pants...”

Fleur's expression hardened for a second before letting a softer expression cross her face. “You realize that you never could have won here, right? You can’t beat him.”

I felt myself shiver, though my conviction didn’t waver. “So I’ve been told. But If we just let him win, then there really wouldn’t be a chance for any of us.”

“You’re minute is up,” One of the Courser above Brisk ordered, their rifle once again levelling at Brisk's head.

Fluer gave the Courser a nod and began to move away, but I quickly reached out with my hooves, grabbing onto her leg before she could get too far away. I winced as I felt the oozing pink mist around her burn at my flesh. “Fancy Pants once told you that civilization needs balance,” I said desperately, fear starting to creep into my voice.

Fluer nodded and pulled her leg away. “I know. You’ve tried to sway me with this before Amber. I spared you once because I know that's what he would have wanted, but I’m sorry, that fact isn’t going to change anything anymore. Fancy Pants is gone. He’s not here anymore. Just because he believed that there might be hope for a better world doesn’t mean there is one.”

“But you aren’t gone, are you,” I said back flatly, trying and failing to suppress the pain in my chest. “Do you believe there is a chance for a better world?”

Fleur paused, finally looking back at me with a cocked eyebrow. “What does it matter what I believe? I can’t change anything.”

I shook my head, looking to where Xayah and Brisk were watching me from their spot on the ground a few feet away. “There’s always something we can do. Fancy Pants knew that standing up to Pureblood would lead to his own ruin, but he stood up to him anyway, and because of that, there are hundreds of ponies that weren’t subjected to Purebloods whims.”

“And now all of those ponies are dead,” Fleur retorted, taking another step away. “In the end, everything was meaningless anyway.”

“But it wasn’t meaningless,” I said back, grimacing as I pressed my hoof against my chest to try and slow the bleeding. “Not if we let all those ponies he tried to help mean something to us. If we let Pureblood win, then Fancy Pants’ death really will have been for nothing-”

“Silence,” The Courser above me shouted, his eyes narrowing at me as if trying to blast me apart with their gaze alone. “This conversation is of no relevance. Continuing it is illogical,” Again, their magic levelled their gun at my head and tightened around the trigger. I saw the other Courser's magical grasp tighten around its trigger as well. “Your minute is long since over. They die now.”

Blam!

The Courser above me jumped back with surprise as Fleur raised an elegant looking revolver up in her magic and fired at him. The shot missed, the Courser easily managing to dodge, but he was forced to jerk himself away, his own shot going wide and missing my head by inches, leaving a black sear mark on the ground next to my face. I flinched away, my eyes clenching tight as I expected the shot to vaporize my skull.

The Courser looming over Brisk raised their head in surprise, their own weapon raising to face Fleur as the Canterlot ghoul spun their revolver around in their magic to face them. The Courser ducked back, Fleurs shot gazing the side of the head as she tried to put a bullet through their brain, the shot slashing a thin strip of hide from the Courser's face and drawing blood.

The Courser glared at Fleur, his piercing eyes narrowed to slits. “You would disobey the Director?”

Fleur took a hesitant step back, her breath coming out in panicked pants as both of the Coursers began to stalk towards her, their monotone expression unreadable. “I… I don’t… I mean… I should…" She fumbled with her words for a second, panic beginning to flare up in her eyes as the Coursers drew closer and closer. After a second, she too a deep breath and stood up taller, taking on an elegant, headstrong pose. One surely fitting of her stature. "I am. I think I should have a long time ago.”

Both of the Courser’s lips twisted into a sinister grins that in no way reached their eyes. “Then by order of the Director, you are to be executed as well.”

Before Fleur could react, both Courses lashed at her, their hooves slamming into the side of the Canterlot ghouls head and sending her slamming into the ground. Their institute energy rifles fired, blasting three holes into Fleur’s side. Fleur screamed, her hooves flailing as she tried to ward off the Courser’s deadly assault. Fleur let out a shaky breath, the pink mist oozing from her body slowly patching the wounds back together.

She raised her head, glaring daggers at the Courser's. "Do your worst..."

The Courser's rifles raised, both barrels pressing firmly against her decaying head. "As you wish."

“Excuse me! What is it with you ponies and not waiting for me before starting the party!” A booming voice called out, causing both of the Coursers to freeze in place. My ears perked up at the sound of the voice, a small smile touching my lips. I lifted my head, looking down the hallway at the imposing power armoured form of Pyre, grinning at all of us through her helmet. “I mean seriously, you think you’d have learned to at least wait for me at this point.”

Pyre was not standing alone. Behind her stood a group of at least sixty hellhounds, each one armed to the teeth and giving the Courser a toothy grin. Behind even them, I could make out the shadowy shape of Jinx looming into the darkness of the tunnel, her glowing gaze cutting through the gloom and hundreds upon hundreds of Las Pegasus Raiders rushing into position around her huge paws. I caught sight of the Institute scientist remnants and the Friendship Express moving into position amongst them, Mother, Glasswing, Freedom and even Sprocket leading the raiders onwards. The stomping of hooves signalled the arrival of a squadron of fully armed True Steels, each one moving into a defensive position and levelling their explosive weaponry down the hallway.

Magazine trotted forwards as well, her smile need unbearable as she went to stand a step behind Pyre, her gatling laser glowing as it readied to send a rain of death upon the two Coursers. Two Securitrons rolled up behind her, metal plates on their bulky shoulders popping open to show rows upon rows of missiles primed and ready to fire.

I saw Mirra climb up atop of Pyre’s head and give me a friendly wave and smile before turning her sights on the Coursers and giving a threatening hissing, bearing her small little fangs.

The Coursers glanced down at me for a second, their smug grin all but gone. “You called for reinforcements?”

Brisk pulled himself up to his hooves with a small grunt before tapping a hoof against his pipbuck. “Of course we called for reinforcements. We gave the signal the second we opened up the tunnel. Did you think we were idiots?”

Both of the Courser’s eyes darted from Brisk to the army that had made its way into the tunnel. After a long second, the one closest to me let a grim smile settle across their lips. “Well, fuck me...” The Courser had hardly finished their sentence before teams of Hellhounds flashed forwards, their huge claws ripping the Courser to shreds. screams filled the tunnel as chunks of flesh and cybernetics were ripped from its body and sent flying away in every direction.

The other Courser stumbled back, their magical energy rifle managing to turn a single hellhound to sizzling ash before Pyre lurched forwards and slammed into him, sending him toppling to the ground. The Courser reeled back, preparing to strike Pyre back, only for a rocket to flash out from one of the True Steels, the massive explosive detonating against their chest and ripping the front of their body apart.

The Courser dropped to their haunches, pain scrawled across their face. Glasswing stepped forwards, eyeing the Courser with clear distaste. "The Institute really has gone to the dogs, as they say, hasn't it?"

The Courser didn't get to respond as Glasswing sent a beam of energy out of his rifle and lancing through the Coursers face. Their body glowed blue for a second, before they fizzled away into a pile of sparkling ash.

The sound of flapping wings pulled my attention from the dying Courser to the roof above, making out the form of Star as she darted towards me, a healing potion tight in her grip. I gratefully took it, letting its healing abilities patch my wounds back together. My chest still hurt, but I at least didn’t feel like I was about to die. I hated fighting Coursers.

After I had drank the rest potions contents, I looked up, giving Star a thankful smile. I saw Scarlet walking towards me as well, only making my smile widen. “I’m glad to see you are both alive,” I said truthfully, stretching my legs and pulling myself up to my hooves.

“And we’re thankful to be alive,” Scarlet said back, her voice sounding just as thankful as I felt.

Star just snorted and gave Scarlet a grumpy glare. “Okay, yay, your plan worked. Now don’t fucking volunteer me for a death mission next time.”

Across from us, I saw Pyre trot over to Xayah and Brisk, Mirra hopping off her back and giving each of them a healing potion of their own. “I’m glad you’re alright,” Pyre said, turning to me.

I puffed my chest out a little and grinned. “And you thought I wouldn’t be?”

“Well you did fail to get through the tunnel undetected, and I did have to save your sorry pink ass,” Pyre nickered back, her metal clad hoof gesturing to the broken forms of the Coursers on the ground beside us.

I just gave her a playful roll of my eyes. “I didn’t want to steal all the fun from you.”

Pyre snickered at me through her helmet. “Right, let's go with that.”

I heard Jinx approach before I saw her, turning to face the huge sphinx as she stalked through the tunnel towards us, her head bowed to keep from scraping across the ceiling. Ten fully armoured raiders moved in a defensive position around her, keeping her covered from all sides, though I doubted the raider queen needed much protection.

Jinx’s eyes seemed to glitter in the dark, their glowing slitted pupils landing on the shaking form of Fleur De Lis. Her eyes seemed to glow brighter for a second as she stared at the Canterlot ghoul before giving her a toothy grin. “It is good to have you on our side, Fleur De Lis.”

Fleur just shuffled back a little, her eyes wide with fear. “H-how did you…”

Ignoring her, Jinx turned to me. “Iron Hock and Razor Blade are taking care of the synths outside. They will be joining us shortly. Are you ready?” At her question, all the raiders seemed to quiet down, turning to me and waiting for me to give the order to at long last storm into the Institute.

And there it was, the final question. I turned and looked towards the large door that I knew led into the Institute. What had Fleur said? Half an hour until Pureblood launched the Utopia program? If that was true, then there wasn’t much time to waste. The eleventh hour was here and the clock was soon to strike twelve.

Brisk seemed to notice my hesitation and quickly trotted over to me, placing a hoof on my withers. “We got this,” He said, his eyes looking far more determined than I felt. “Since when has the wasteland ever been able to hold us down for long?”

Xayah trotted over next, giving me a warm smile of her own. “Once upon a time, I told you I would follow you wherever this journey you're taking us on would lead,” Xayah said, leaning in a little to nuzzle me. “Now is as good a time as any to finish it.”

I turned, looking at Star and Scarlet who both gave me reassuring nods. "I've got your back in there Amber," Scarlet reassured. "We'll stop all of this. We'll get your body back, and maybe we'll even save Crank somehow too..."

Mirra quickly fluttered over, perching atop me and lounging lazily across my back. I twisted my head to look at her as she gave me a fang filled grin. “I think it’s about time we give Pureblood what’s coming for him, don’t you? Besides, we have my mysterious friend to save in there too!” she added with a happy chirp.

With a small laugh, I turned to finally look at Pyre. She stared back at me for a long moment, her posture headstrong as if she were a soldier waiting for my command. After a moment, her shoulders relaxed. “Don’t look at me,” she finally said. I could see the smallest of smiles splay across her face from behind her visor. “I’d follow you into hell if you asked me. The Institute ain’t nothing compared to that.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fleur staring at me intently. I slowly sifted my head to look at her, my amber eyes locking with her hazy, pale ones. “You know you still won’t be able to win this fight,” she told me, taking a step away and clearing the way for me to approach the terminal locking the doorway.

“Is that going to stop us from trying though?” I asked her back, slowly making my way past her and towards the terminal. I raised my hoof, steeling myself for what came next.

“It should,” She replied, her eyes transfixed on my hoof hovering inches above the terminal's controls. She let a small sigh escape her lips. “But it won’t.”

I nodded, giving her a smile. A real one for once. “Exactly. Because otherwise we will lose regardless,” and with that I turned to face Jinx and the rest of the ponies and Hellhounds that now stood at attention. “So yeah. I’m ready. Let's give them hell.”

My hoof pressed down on the terminal. There was a second of silence as we all waited for something to happen, the only sound that of our hearts beating rapidly in our chests. Then, with a loud screech, the massive doors into the Institute began to slide open. Blinding light flooded into the tunnel, and with a mighty roar, our army began to pour into the Institute.

I hated violence, but I was going to bring it about anyway.

End of Part One

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. You would not believe how busy these past two months have been.

Originally, this chapter wasn't supposed to be split into two parts, but due to how long it was getting and the fact I hadn't added a new chapter in over two months (The longest this story has ever gone without a new chapter) I decided to split it up. Besides, I figured y'all probably didn't want another 30k+ chapter.