“You got lives in you, hard to kill. Storm, bullets, sand and wind, yet still you walk. For now.”

Enemies.

I'd faced off against lots of enemies over the last few months. Some had only been short scuffles, firefights with raiders, skirmishes with the Enclave. Others had been more impactful, my battle with Kamari below the Hollow Shades, My fight with Azar in the heart of the Institute, and most recently, my confrontation with Pureblood within the Utopia Program itself. Many of my foes had died at my hooves, though some still persisted, continuing to spread their violence across the wasteland. Iron Hock, The Las Pegasus Raiders, Pestilence and Silver Ace had so far managed to evade or one up me at every turn, always staying enough steps ahead that taking them out became a much harder task.

But there was one opponent, one foe that managed to find themself in both categories. An enemy that I had simultaneously managed to kill, yet still managed to endure long after. At one point in life, he had been a scourge, a monster of the wasteland. In death, he had taken on a much more sinister, more metaphorical, role in my mind. I had come to think of him as the wastelands horror incarnate. The embodiment of just how vile and twisted the wasteland could warp you.

And I think, in a strange way, he understood that too. But more than that, he had embraced it. He had decided that if he were to be a monster, he would be the monster. The epitome of rage, violence and hatred. The metal harbinger of death.

And isn’t that just like the wastelands evil? Insurmountable. To longlasting to die, even in death. The wasteland was full of so much bad, that no matter what good was done, cruelty always seemed to find a way to take hold. The wasteland had sunk its teeth deep into Equestria. No one act could ever cleanse it. It brings to mind an old saying, one that had been echoed across the wasteland since long before I had ever even crawled out of the dull depths of Stable 25. It’s that war, war never changes… Not fully.

It were these chilling thoughts that echoed through my mind as I stared upon the metal behemoth of fire and death. Inferno’s blood red eyes locked with mine, his expression seeming to suggest he could hear every single one of these thoughts as if I had spoken them aloud. His metal jaw twisted backwards into a sickening grin, unveiling rows of jagged, metal teeth. He took a step closer, the ends of his flamers flickering with warm, glowing light.

“Well, Amber Aura?” the psychotic cyber pony sneered, taking another slow step towards me through the darkness. I could see Crank’s broken form lying behind him, his body seemingly lifeless, though I did notice the smallest spark of life in his glass eyes. “How did it feel? To escape me for so long, only to once more find yourself back at my mercy?”

I took a stumbling step back, trying to get away from the looming cyber pony. The shrouded floor beneath me seemed to shift, dragging me closer to where Inferno stood instead. In this place, in the depths of my mind, he was in control.

“Admittedly, the week’s been hell,” I told him snarky, trying my best to keep the tremor of fear out of my voice. I didn’t do a very good job. “Though, I will confess, your lack of presence was a very pleasant treat.”

Inferno hissed, his vile, slug-like tongue visible between his jagged teeth. He lunged at me, his bladed tail sweeping at my throat. I ducked low, curling my fore hooves up against my chest as I did a quick roll across the floor, his tail flashing above my head. I rolled back up to my hooves, my muscles tense and my legs bent into a battle ready stance.

I could see a moment of surprise cross Inferno’s face as I dogged him. A second later, the surprise was replaced with anger. “What? Do you think you can fight me, Amber? Think you can best me? Escape my retribution?” the ends of his flamers burst to life, sending a searing jet of flame lancing out at me from across the dark void. I leapt to the side, only narrowly avoiding being turned into a pile of cinders. “You couldn’t beat me in a fair fight back in your Stable. You couldn’t beat me inside your own mind, even with Crank to protect you! What makes you think you can do so now?”

I dodged another blast of his flamers, only to look up too late as his tail flashed out and struck me across the face. I was sent tumbling back, blood dripping down my brow where the sharp blade had nicked me. Inferno pounced forwards, the bottoms of his hooves shooting off a burst of flame as he tried to crush my skull. He’s hoof hit empty air as I rolled sideways across the dark floor, pulling myself back up to my hooves.

“Because last time we fought, I was weak,” I berated him, my eyes burning into his. I had just gone through hell and back inside of the Utopia Program. I wasn’t going to let this monster drag me back into hell now that I was almost free. “But a lot has changed since you last faced me. I’m not letting you hurt me any more! Never again! Now get the fuck out of my head!”

Inferno bared his fangs. “Enough has changed that you think you have what it takes to beat me?” His voice oozed with sarcasm. He lunged forwards again, his powerful fore hooves slamming into my chest before I had time to react. He loomed over me, his hooves pinning me to the ground as he glared down at me with a vile sneer. “Remember what I told you, Amber Aura. The wasteland has beaten you! You lost your friends to Fillydelphia, your lover to your own folly, your mind to me, even your own body was taken at the hooves of the director,” He leaned in closer, black sludge dribbling from his jagged maw and dripping across my face. “At what point do you just give up and die? Accept your fate. Every hero falls. Your time has come.”

Despite the disgust of the sludgy drool on my face, I gave him a smug grin. “You haven’t been kept up to date with what’s been going on in the wasteland, have you?” My horn glowed and sent a bolt of energy flashing outwards, knocking Inferno a few steps back. He scowled as he saw me pull myself back up to my hooves before him defiantly. “I rescued my friends from Fillydelphia. I fixed my mistakes and saved Xayah. I defeated Pureblood and, considering that we’re probably inside my mind right now, my real mind, not the synthetic one Pureblood gave me, I got my body back,” I crouched down a little, narrowing my eyes at him. “As far as I can tell, there’s only one thing left on that list of yours for me to do, and that’s get my mind back from you. Pureblood couldn’t stop me, So what makes you think that you can?”

Inferno snorted, a burst of steam puffing from his metallic nostrils as he stomped one of his powerful fore hooves on the shrouded floor. “Irrelevant. So the wasteland hasn’t broken you yet… It will. It breaks every pony eventually. Heroes break the fastest. It ravaged me when I was only a foal. You won’t last much longer. Your story is very quickly coming to its close, Amber Aura. How much longer do you really think you can survive the wastelands grasp?” His metal jaw warped into a smile. “Allow me to help speed up the process.”

He took another step toward me, his flamers once more beginning to build up as he prepared to douse me in fire. I quickly pushed myself away from him, whipping to my side just in time to avoid the searing blast of fire. I felt the heat lick at my side, singeing the ends of my mane. I skidded across the floor, my hooves bumping up against Crank’s broken form.

“Oh yeah, there was one other thing that I did while I was gone,” I said simply, giving Inferno a smug grin. I turned and placed my hoof on Crank’s withers, leaning down so that my muzzle was closer to his cybernetically enhanced ears. “I saved Scarlet from the Institute.”

Inferno charged, his bladed tail whipping at my neck. I jumped back, forced to retreat from where I stood beside Crank. “No! Your mind belongs to me now!” Inferno howled, his huge flamers letting loose a massive burst of fire that spewed out across the darkness at me. I dropped to the floor, my hooves frantically batting at my mane to try and put out the small fires that began smouldering in my hair. “You will not take that from me! I survived death! I defeated the great Cyber Alicorn Crank! I took control of your mind! You belong to me! ME! And I will have my justice!”

I tried to dodge out of the way again, only for his tail to coil around my neck and send me crashing to the floor. The sharp blade swung up, positioning itself over my face, its sharp point inches from my eye. “You will not escape me by cowering behind your precious Crank again! No! You’re mine! And I’m going to make you burn for what you did!”

The darkness around us shifted. At first I thought it was the glowing firelight beginning to form at the ends of Inferno’s flamers, but then Inferno noticed it too, his head lifting up from me to look at the darkness around him. “What in the-”

Blam!

Blue light flared across the darkness, slamming into Inferno’s chest and sending him flying backwards. Inferno screamed, his metal chest getting violently ripped open as the blast shot through him. I felt every hair on my coat stand on end as the huge beam of Tesla energy rippled through the darkness.

I raised my head, making out the large, metal shaped stalking towards us through the gloom. Despite everything, I felt myself smile.

“Inferno,” Crank growled, his gaze locked on Inferno as the psychotic cyber pony slowly pulled himself back to his hooves, the gaping hole in his chest slowly pulling itself back together. Crank’s own body was slowly shifting back into place, his broken glass eyes reforming and the numerous holes that pitted his body patching themselves back up. There was a loud clunking sound as both of Crank’s fore legs popped back into place.

“No… NO!” Inferno howled, his glassy eyes wide with hate and fear. He scampered back up to his hooves, his flamers puffing small bursts of flame. “You’re supposed to be gone! You can’t do this! It’s not fair!”

Instead of responding, Crank launched himself forwards, his bladed wings pushing him through the air at lighting speed. His tail flashed out, slashing through Inferno’s neck and sending black blood spilling down Inferno’s front. Inferno gagged, his hooves clutching at his throat as his body melded the wound back together. No sooner had Inferno’s throat reformed, than Crank was upon him again, this time blowing out one of his legs with another deadly blast of his twin Tesla Canons.

Inferno screamed, staggering back. He glared up, fear prevalent in his eyes as Crank rounded on him again. His flamers burst with light, only for Crank to rush straight through the flames, his metal hide wreathed in fire and his hooves rearing up to bashing Inferno across the head, denting his face in. Inferno collapsed to the ground, his body laying prone before the mighty cyber alicorn.

Crank paused, his wings splayed out at his sides and his jagged horn glowing a blinding blue. His eyes narrowed at Inferno, his mouth twisting into a hateful scowl. “Go. Leave Amber in peace.”

Inferno hissed, staggering away and pulling himself up before Crank. Inferno's right fore hoof dangled from a wire, one of his glass eyes shattered. He looked up into Cranks eyes for a moment before letting his gaze shift to look at me. For a long moment we all stood there, our eyes locked on the other. Inferno’s eyes bore into mine, as if he were reading my very thoughts as his body painfully stitched itself back together. Then, after a long moment, Inferno grinned. “No… You think you’ve beaten me, but you’re wrong. I know what Jinx told you. I know where this is headed. What awaits you in your final hours…” he took a step back, his grin widening even more. “You think you’ve been through hell, Amber Aura? You have seen nothing compared to what is to come.”

Crank stomped his hoof down, the darkness of the void itself seeming to vibrate at the powerful thud. “Leave. Now!”

Inferno returned his gaze to Crank, his grin unbearable. “You think you’ll get to see your Scarlet again? Not in this life. You’re far too late for that.”

“All I care about is that she is safe,” Crank monotone back with a growl, his Tesla cannons growing brighter with each second. “Now go!”

Inferno took a step towards Crank, his hooves scratching at the dark floor. “Why should I? What are you going to do? Kill me? You know you can’t. None of us can die here. Had we, then I would have killed you at the first chance I got,” I took a step back at Inferno’s approach. Crank quickly put one of his bladed wings out, blocking Inferno from me. “And you would have killed me too. Face it Crank. You can’t protect her from me forever. Eventually, the past will repeat itself, and I’ll become stronger than you again. You can only delay the inevitable.”

Crank snorted. “Then I’ll give Amber as long as I can,” At those words, his cannons fired again, ramming into Inferno with a crackling energy and blasting him backwards, sending the psychotic cyber pony sprawling back into the shadows. Crank spun, turning to look at me with an intense look in his eyes. “Go, Amber. I’ll hold Inferno off as long as I can. Perhaps we will meet again, but for now, this is goodbye.”

My eyes widened. “What? What are you talking about?”

Crank turned, glaring into the darkness where Inferno’s body was slowly pulling itself back together. “I’m going to fight him. Hold him off for as long as I can. As long as I am fighting him, Inferno won’t be able to hurt you. If you see us again, it will mean that I’ve failed.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “There has to be something else we can do! I won't just leave you alone to fight him in here forever!”

“It doesn’t matter, Inferno is right. I’ll never see Scarlet again. Life has taken me too far away for that… All that matters now is that she stays safe,” He turned his eyes, looking back at me with half an eye. “You saved her from the Institute. That’s more than I could have ever asked of you. Just promise me you'll keep her safe. That she lives a happy life. Free of the wastelands evil.”

I nodded, taking a slow step back. “I-I promise… But I also promised that I would see you two together again. I still intend to stay true to that promise.”

Crank sighed, once more returning his gaze to Inferno as the flamer wielding cyber pony began to stalk back towards us through the darkness. “No Amber. That was always a hollow promise and you know it…” I looked down for a moment, and for a single second, I could have sworn I saw sorrow etch its way across his stoic features. When he raised his head again, his face was once more a mask of icy steel. “Go. Keep Scarlet safe and happy… Like I never could… Goodbye…”

Crank charged forwards, his hooves pummeling into Inferno and sending both of them rolling into the darkness beyond. The gloom around me shifted, sucking me up into its inky darkness and sweeping me away. I reached out, for the first time wishing I could stay in the dark void just a little longer, that I could help Crank, that I could save him from this fate. But it was all in vain. My mind swirled away, taking me away from the nightmare.

Then I felt cold. As if the blackness around me was made of a blanket of ice. I sunk deep into that freezing darkness, my senses dissolving into nothingness.

“Damn it! She’s not breathing! What’s happening!”

“Fuck! We need a doctor in here! Right now!”

“Come on Amber, you’re going to make it!”

“What if she doesn’t wake up… Can she even wake up!?”

“Don’t say that, she is going to be fine you foolish pony…”

“Amber's mind was transferred into a synth body… The probability of her mind still being active inside her old body is-”

“Star, just shut up! She’s going to be fine… she has to be fine!”

“Out of my way! Where’s my daughter! Where is- Damn it! I demand that you… Goddesses… no…”

“Hold her back!”

“That’s my daughter! Why won't she wake up! Tell me, right now!”

"I said hold her the fuck back!"

"Let go of me! Let go! I want to see my daughter!"

“Her mind is gone… Likely destroyed when she fell into the Utopia Program.”

“What about her old body!? Can we transfer her mind back in from the-”

“You saw what happened to her… she’s… goddesses, there was nothing but bones…”

“If Amber doesn’t wake, we’ll have to start without her. The whole of Manehattan cannot wait on the life of a single pony.”

“Just pull the plug. Save us all the trouble-”

“Back off, Dixie! Touch her and I’ll burn you myself! We aren’t killing her! She’ll make it… She will!”

“You want to start a war with the Disciples, Pyre? We have Jinx’s favour and you know it!”

“I said, back off. Now!”

"Oh my Goddesses... She's- She's pregnant!"

"Damn it! She isn't going to make it!"

"We need to put her on life support, right now!"

“Come on sis… please… you need to be okay...”

“Hey Amber… it’s me, Brisk… Your brother… I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but if you can… You can… Of course you can. You’re the toughest filly in the wasteland… You’ll wake up… We all know it, despite what those Institute scientists keep saying… You’ll wake up and somehow pull some crazy plan out of nowhere and save the day like always. You’re amazing like that…

“I just thought I’d try to keep you updated about everything that’s happening. A lot has been going on in a short amount of time and no pony is really sure what to do yet. We won, in the Institute anyway, synths are still a problem all over Manehattan, but we’ll get more into that when you wake up. But tension is still pretty high right now. The True Steels are causing a lot of trouble and Pyre is doing everything she can to keep the Las Pegasus raiders from tearing out each other's throats. I, uh… I don’t know if she’s going to be able to do it… I have faith in her, but… This new mare, Dixie, she’s in charge of the Disciples right now and… well, she seems to have it out for us…

“Xayah’s okay by the way. She made it through the fight. Mirra and Star too. Scarlet got hit pretty badly, but Star says she’ll recover after a little rest and some surgery. Just like you… Your mother is worried sick. Honestly, I was surprised how worried she was after everything you’d said about her, but she seems to really care about you. Threatened to kill all of us if you didn’t make it… Which you will. Of course you will…

“Then there’s- well… There’s a lot honestly. Jinx is gathering the leaders of all the factions around Manehattan to the Institute… We’re going to have a big meeting or whatever. They keep calling it a peace meeting, like they’re planning to agree to some kind of ceasefire, but we all know what’s really happening. We’re gearing up for a war right now. A big one. All of Manehattan is going to feel it I think… We’re just waiting on you… As soon as you’re up and okay and smiling again we’ll… Damn it, you don’t smile much anymore, do you… I wish you smiled more… I miss your smile. Xayah told me she misses it too… You had a nice smile, nicer than that sad look you always have nowadays… I don’t think there’s been anything harder for me these past few months more than watching the wasteland break you down…”

“Brisk…? Are you alright?”

“Huh wha- uh, yeah, I’m fine Xayah, Thanks. Just talking to Amber. Keeping her up to date. So she’ll know what’s happening when she wakes up… How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long. I did not hear what you were saying to her, worry not… She will get better, you know.”

“I know… she has to… She will. When has Amber ever let us down?”

“Exactly. Amber is too stubborn to die on us…”

“Yeah… d-did you need anything?”

“Pyre wants to see you in Glasswings office… The Outcasts are here.”

“Oh, uh… I don’t want to leave Amber alone.”

“I will watch over her. No pony will harm her while I am here, fret not you foolish pony.”

“O-okay… I’ll go help Pyre then… Come on Amber. Wake up. I believe in you…”

Slowly, my eyes drifted open, letting the clinical lights of the Institute flood my vision. I winced, desperately holding up a hoof to stop the lights from burning my eyes. I groaned, slowly sitting up, my head throbbing with a splitting headache and my whole body feeling weirdly blotted. Instinctively, I placed my free hoof over my stomach, feeling at a small, strange bulge there that I was not used to. I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, with my mind sunken into that strange darkness, but from the nasty cramp in my back, I could guess it had been a fair while.

“She’s waking up! Everypony! She’s- She’s waking up!” I heard a voice shout excitedly. They sounded distant and muffled, I couldn’t immediately recognize the voice, but I could still make the words out clearly. I could hear the sound of hooves frantically scampering across the floor as the ponies that had seen me assumable rushed to my side.

Blinking, I slowly pulled my hoof away, taking in the whole room. I was in some sort of medical ward, and after a few seconds of looking around, I realized it was the very same one I had broken into while trying to escape the Institute with Scarlet. There were a few other medical beds around me, each one containing the curled up bodies of ponies that had been severely wounded in the battle for the Institute.

I shifted my gaze again, turning my head to look up at the five ponies that now clustered around me, looking down at me with wide, gleeful eyes. Their forms appeared blurry at first, my hazy eyes unable to make out their silhouetted faces. I blinked away the haziness, my eyes squinting to try and make the ponies out.

When their faces finally made their way into my vision, I felt a little bit of relief flood into me. “H-hey,” I said slowly, looking up at Brisk, Xayah, Pyre, Mirra and Star as they all stood around me with excited but worried expressions. “What did I miss?”

As if my words had broken a dam, three of the five shapes lunged at me, wrapping me up in tight hugs. I gasped, falling back to the bed as Xayah, Brisk and Mirra all tackled into me. “Amber! You’re okay!” Mirra shrieked happily, curling up a little against my chest.

I grimaced, my whole body aching from the spine crushing hugs. “Y-yeah. When am I not.”

“We… We were not sure if you were going to wake up,” Xayah breathed thankfully, her hooves still wrapped tightly around me, her muzzle nuzzling at my neck. “Everypony said it was impossible.”

“It is impossible,” Star grunted from behind her, though she seemed to look relieved at my recovery herself.

“I knew you’d get better,” Brisk said flatly, pulling back from the hug a little to look me over. “You always do.”

I raised an eyebrow at all of them, suddenly feeling a little worried. “Wait… how long have I been out? You’re acting like it’s been months.”

“Your coma was only a few hours,” Pyre snorted, smirking at me from behind her power armoured visor. “But the probability of you waking up was… Well let's just say that I don’t think you’ve ever been this close to death.”

I grimaced. “Not even when I blew up the MAS Tower in the Hollow Shades?”

Pyre shook her head. “Not even then. Your synthetic body was completely destroyed… We were all a little unsettled when we blasted the Maneframe door open and found your charred skeleton curled up on the floor,” I could feel both Xayah and Brisk shiver against me at the memory.

I felt my heartbeat skip a beat in my chest at that statement. “So then… I’m guessing I’m currently in my normal body…” I glanced down at my hooves, craning my neck to try and see myself over Brisk and Xayah’s body as they continued to hug me. “I’m not a synth anymore.”

“You’re as pony as you were when you crawled your way out of Stable 25, sans a few mutations you picked up along the way probably," Star grunted, sitting down and crossing her fore hooves in front of her. "Not quite sure how though. Your mind transferring back to your original body after your synth body got destroyed is… well, it’s unheard of. You being alive right now is a scientific impossibility!”

There were a few more seconds of silence where no one spoke as Xayah, Brisk and Mirra continued to squeeze the life out of me, before Pyre let out a slightly forced sounding chuckle. “Alright, alright, let off of her. Amber could probably do with a full breath of air.”

Reluctantly, my friends released their crushing grip on me and pulled away, ironically enough, letting a good breath of air fill my lungs. I took a second to breathe in deep before looking back at them. The air in the institute was so much nicer than the wasteland, though it notably reeked of death and blood at the moment. “Alright, what did I miss?”

“Not so fast,” Star interrupted, leaning in close and staring at me with skeptical eyes. “What exactly do you remember? I don’t want us to need to explain everything, only to find out your last memory was when you got replaced with a synth and need to explain everything to you all fucking over again.”

I shook my head. “I think I remember everything. Rescuing you all from Filly, the Las Pegasus raiders, taking the fight to the Institute, the Utopia program…” I glanced up at them, my eyes looking back and forth to see if I had forgotten something. “Am I forgetting anything?”

“Only the stuff you were unconscious for,” Pyre nickered darkly. “Which, admittedly, is a lot of shit. The wasteland’s gone to hell in a hoofbasket while you’ve been out. So far we’ve been able to hold everypony together, but I’m not sure how much longer we can keep it up.”

“What exactly happened? In the Utopia Program, I mean?” Brisk butted in, his voice filled with curiosity. “When we found your body in the Institutes Maneframe, well… We thought you had died.”

I sat back against my pillow, looking up at the roof. Where did I even begin explaining what I had just been through? “Well… I suppose it all starts with a mare named Twilight Sparkle…”

Everypony was silent as I finished explaining what had happened within the Utopia Program. I didn’t blame them. I wouldn't have known what to say to a wild story like that myself. Finally, Star just gave a loud snort. “Well that explains it.”

Brisk looked over at her, his mouth hanging open slightly. “Explains it? I just feel more confused.”

“If what Amber says is true, and I’ve learned not to doubt Amber when she says crazy shit no pony would believe, The Utopia program can take minds out of ponies anywhere in the wasteland and bring them into Utopia. It’s only logical that Twilight could have just as easily sent Amber's mind back to her old body,” Star whistled. “Fuck Amber. I have never known anypony to evade death as much as you.”

“So you really met Twilight Sparkle then? As in ministry mare Twilight Sparkle?” Brisk said, his eyes raising in disbelief. “I mean, I didn’t listen much to history class back in school, but even I know who she is. She’s like, the most famous pony in Equestria, save for the princesses themselves.”

“I once heard there was a tribe of ponies up in the frozen north that worship Twilight Sparkle. They believe she became an alicorn princess after completing an ancient wizard's unfinished spell,” Xayah nodded factually.

Brisk pointed his hoof at her and gave an exaggerated nod. “My point exactly. You met that Twilight Sparkle?”

“Well, not that Twilight. She wasn’t an alicorn. And I only met a memory of her, but yes, Twilight as in Twilight Sparkle Twilight,” I said, nodding and rolling my eyes a little. “But I think the real Twilight died a long time ago… or when the Goddess exploded, or whatever. I admit I’m a little fuzzy on the details of all that.”

“And Farmer?” Mirra asked curiously from atop her perch on Pyre’s head. “Our mysterious friend? He was actually there? And you talked to him?”

I gave her a slow nod. “I… I think so. My memory was a little fractured at the time, so I didn’t really recognize him at first, but I’m pretty sure it was him. I wouldn’t have been able to even get to Pureblood without him. He spoke highly of you by the way.”

Mirra practically beamed at that. “We’re going to try and save him right? Him and Twilight?” to my confused look, the small changeling elaborated. “We can’t just leave them in the Utopia program. We've got to get them out of there somehow.”

I gave a slow nod. “Of course. I don’t know how yet, but I’m not going to let-” My eyes shot wide as a thought struck me and I bolted up out of bed. “Farmers body! What happened to it! I sent Scarlet to retrieve it along with my body! Do you have it! Is it-”

Pyre put one of her metal clad hooves to my mouth, shutting me up. “Calm down Amber. Your body has been on ice for a full week. You need to regain your strength,” she shifted her hoof so that it was over my chest and slowly pushed me back to the bed. “And no. We’re sorry Amber, but now it’s our turn to talk, and we’ve got bad news.”

I stilled, not wanting to miss a single word they said. “What… what happened?”

“Star, you were there. You want to tell her?” Pyre asked, turning her head slightly to look at the small pegasus.

Star grimaced. “Our attack on the Synth Creation wing didn’t go well. Pureblood had the whole place crawling with more Coursers than we had troops. I doubt we would have lasted very long if Iron Hock, Razor Blade and his Disciples hadn’t shown up. Razor Blade and Iron Hock stayed behind to buy us a few minutes to escape, but even they couldn’t last very long against that kind of fire power… Razor Blade didn't make it out. It was a bloody massacre in there…” Star paused, her hoof trailing down a long, new scar on her neck. After a second, she sighed. “Scarlet retrieved your body from the stasis pod. I tried to get her to leave with us when we made for the exit, but she insisted to go back for your frozen friend, Farmer, you called him. A Courser threw a pulse grenade at her… The stasis pod and Farmer inside were obliterated. Scarlet managed to jump clear, but… well, she hasn’t woken up yet either. I have full faith she’ll make it through though. I’ve seen weaker ponies survive worse.”

I nodded, my whole body suddenly feeling heavy. I had sent them on that death mission. I should have known that Pureblood would have had the Synth Creation wing heavily guarded. Scarlet, Farmer and Razor Blade were all on me.

“But Farmer is still okay, right?” Mirra asked, her face pale from worry. “He’s still alive inside the Utopia Program, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. He should be. Just like I was still alive inside the program after burning myself up,” I glanced at all my friends as if waiting for them to give me confirmation, but no pony really knew for sure. My only solace was the fact that I had likely been talking to him when all of this was going on, logically implying that his mind was still fine.

“Can I see Scarlet?” I asked cautiously, looking up at them.

Star shook her head. “No. Not yet. Both of you need to stay in bed. At least for a few more hours. Don’t worry, she’ll be okay.”

I was having a very hard time not worrying. Especially after what I had just promised Crank. “Alright, so what else have I missed?” I asked, pushing the conversation along. I furrowed my eyebrows together, trying to remember details from what felt like a rapidly fading dream. “There was something about a… a peace meeting?” Where had I even heard that?

Brisk abruptly stood up a little straighter, his ears perking right up in interest. “So you heard me? When I was talking to you?”

I paused for a second, trying to remember. All I could really make out were strange, vague muffled sounds. “I think… maybe. I’m not sure if-” A certain memory played out in my mind and I froze. Slowly, I turned and gave Brisk a smile. It was a little forced, and he knew it too, but from the way his expression brightened, I figured he got the message. “Yeah. I did. Thank you.”

“Well, you heard right,” Pyre said, drawing my attention back to her. “We may have taken control of the Institute and defeated Pureblood, but right now we have another massive problem on our hooves. Nine massive problems actually. To take on the Institute, you brought almost every major faction into one location, and most of these factions don't exactly see eye to eye. The Institute has just become a powder keg full of the most powerful ponies in the Wasteland and right now, even one wrong move is going to make it explode.”

“The Institute remnants and the Friendship Express have been debating who should take control of the Institute. The Las Pegasus Raiders have been trying to stake their own claim on the place as well, but so far the scientist and the Friendship Express Operatives have been unwilling to negotiate,” Xayah told me, resting her body down and lying her head on the mattress of the bed. “I am surprised that they have not yet turned violent.”

“They will turn violent,” Pyre confirmed ominously. “The only thing keeping them in line is Jinx, but she’s got a whole other mountain of issues to deal with?”

I felt my gut twist. “What kind of issues?”

“Well the Las Pegasus Raiders for one,” Pyre growled. “With Razor Blade dead, his second in command, Dixie, has taken charge of the Disciples. Let’s just say I almost wish the role had gone to Viscera instead. Dixie is charming, has a smooth tongue that’ll convince you into doing pretty much anything, is cunning enough that no pony can get one up on her and she’s about as deadly as a Hellhound pumped up on Dash. Not to mention she’s one of the most blood thirsty ponies from here to Hoofington. With her causing trouble, Magazine trying to claim the Institute for the Operators and the Pack about ready to turn on me any chance they get, the Las Pegasus Raiders are currently readying themselves for a civil war. Jinx and I have our hooves full trying to keep them from starting an all out bloodbath.”

“Aren’t the Las Pegasus Raiders like, always a small push away from having a civil war?” I asked innocently, trying to figure out exactly what made now so much worse than it already was. "Isn't that in part how Jinx keeps them all in line?"

“Not like this,” Pyre grunted. “Two raider bosses getting replaced in the span of two days is already enough to cause some tension, but we just dropped all of them into Equestrias single most advanced technological facility in the centre of Manehattan. Worse, we’ve shown them just what Manehattan is like. A massive fortress of unclaimed potential. For almost two hundred years, Manehattan has been a no ponies land. Over the years, lots of factions have tried to take control of the city like Red Eye took Filly, but no pony has been successful. Manehattan’s always been just too damn big. But right now, pretty much every faction in the wastes is realizing that that’s about to change. Ponies are eyeing up chunks of the city, carving out territory, readying troops, securing battlements. Manehattan is currently preparing for the biggest battle it’s ever seen, and with the Enclave invasion still in full swing, things are going to get messy really fast.”

“And it’s not just the Las Pegasus Raiders,” Brisk scowled, glancing behind him at what appeared to be a True Steel scribe that lay unconscious on one of the other medical beds. “The True Steels are taking ground all over Manehattan. Already they’re making pushes out of their base Fort Strong in Fetlock and towards the centre of the city. The Steel Rangers and the Applejack Rangers have been trying to hold them off, but with the True Steels overwhelming firepower and both ranger factions needing to fend off the other at the same time, things aren’t going great.”

As if our mentioning of them had summoned them, the sliding door to the Institutes medical wing slid open, making way for two fully power armoured Steel rangers. They trotted in, marching across the room to stand over the body of a wounded True Steel knight that was resting on a medical bed a few feet away from us.

I narrowed my eyes at the two rangers, but they seemed to have little interest in me. “Wait, what hell are Steel Rangers doing here?” I asked, my voice just low enough that the rangers couldn’t hear me. I had dragged a lot of different ponies with me to fight Pureblood forces in the Institute, but the last time I checked, the Steel Rangers weren't one of them.

Pyre glanced over at the two rangers as well before shaking her head. “With Iron Hock and his True Steels causing the amount of trouble that they are, and Jinx and I doing our best to stop a blood bath from starting, we sent a few messengers out to inform the Steel Rangers and the Applejack Rangers about what we're planning. Both factions sent a small squad out to the Manehattan MWT Hub, each with a representative to represent them at the peace council.”

I raised my eyebrows at her in surprise. “Wait. Hold up! To stop an all out war that got caused by having too many factions that hate each other all in one place, you and Jinx thought it would be a good idea to bring in two more factions that also hate each other and everypony else? Am I missing something?”

“It’s less crazy than it sounds,” Brisk smirked. “I admittedly didn’t get it either at first, but not including the Steel Rangers and the Applejack Rangers would practically be a declaration of war in itself.”

Pyre nodded. “It doesn’t matter if this war council ends peacefully or in violence. No matter what happens after today, Manehattan is going to undergo massive changes, territory is going to get divided up and many ponies are going to walk away with less than they started with. If we were to start handing territory over to other factions without the knowledge of the Rangers, we would practically be holding a massive sign above our heads that reads ‘fuck you rangers, you aren’t our allies’, which trust me, we don’t want. Or, worse still, we might accidentally assign territory that one of the rangers groups already occupies to another faction. Not only would that piss off the faction we gave the territory to, but it would be considered an invasion to the Rangers which naturally would start a war in its own right. Best we weather the heat and deal with every faction at once, then risk accidentally starting a war with some really powerful ponies.”

I grumbled, my eyes looking over the two Steel Rangers as they spoke in low voices to the wounded True Steel. They seemed to be having some form of heated debate, though they kept their voices hushed enough that I couldn't make out anything they said. “Fuck, this war shit is complicated,” I groaned as I watched the two Steel Rangers finally storm off with a huff. Clearly they hadn’t gotten the response that they’d wanted for the True Steel. “I suddenly have a newfound respect for Jinx. It’s a tough balancing act to do.”

“One of the toughest,” Pyre grimaced. “One wrong move, or we make it look like we’re favouring one faction over the other, and thing will go to hell really fucking fast."

I raised an eyebrow, glancing around the pristine walls of the Institute. “And what about the synths? Now that we have control of the Institute and Pureblood is gone, who controls all the synths? I’d imagine that whichever faction has control over them is going to be getting a lot of heat from the other factions.”

All my friends cast nervous glances at each other at that question. I could feel a small spike of panic as they all went dead silent. Finally, Xayah let out a long sigh. “Right now, we do not know. Shortly after you entered the Utopia Program, the Synths began withdrawing. Accounts from some of the Applejack Rangers have told us that they have been gathering on the outskirts of settlements like Tenpony Tower and that a large group of them were seen appearing in the Ponypalooza Hotel.”

I felt more and more panic rising up inside me. I had seen first hoof many times now that whoever was in control of the Institute’s synths, was not to be ignored. “And we don’t know who’s controlling them? They’re just doing all of that on their own?!” That didn’t sound right. Could a whole army of synths just mobilize itself like that?

Star shrugged. “We thought Pureblood was controlling them at first, but when it became clear he was out of the picture, everypony started blaming each other. Freedom accuses Glasswing of taking control of the synths when he took over the Institute’s sprite bots system. Glasswing accuses Freedom of taking control of them in our raid on the Synth creation wing. Dixie is blaming Magazine and her Operators for the same thing. The only pony that doesn’t seem to care is Iron Hock, who just seems to be utilizing the chaos the synths are creating to grab more territory around Manehattan.”

“But we have control over the Institute! Shouldn’t we be able to override the synths ourselves?” I asked. “Or at the very least, it should be obvious who does have control over them.”

Brisk shook his head. “I mean, I don’t get how any of the science works, but from what your mom kept saying, the whole synth control system was redirected to another location shortly after you entered the Utopia Program. Whoever is controlling the synths somehow managed to override all of the Institutes security measures. Glasswing was able to decrypt the username of the pony that system controls were sent to, but whoever this pony was seemed to have used an alias, which brings us all back to square one.”

I cocked my head to the side. “An alias? What alias?”

Star gave a loud snort. “They called themself Leaden Excellent. Pretty stupid name, huh?”

I froze, exchanging a worried glance with Xayah, whose face had taken on a very similar one to that of my own. That was indeed an alias, but one that I very much recognized. I knew exactly who it belonged to. “Silver Ace,” I growled, once more trying to pull myself out of bed, only for Pyre to once more push me back down. “Silver Ace must have overridden the synth control as soon as Pureblood was inside the Utopie Program,” Suddenly, everything made sense. “He planned all of this, of course he would have been waiting to take control. He’s going to use the synths to keep all of us busy while he enacts his plans in the Utopia Program!”

“Which are what, exactly?” Pyre asked quizzically, her voice practically cutting me down. “I don’t remember you telling us what he was even trying to achieve.”

I paused, mostly because I didn’t have a solid answer for her. “He’s, uh…” I scowled, and shook my head. “Does it matter? All the bloodshed and death we’ve had to deal with was because of whatever crazy plan he has! He tried to kill me just because he said he knew I’d try to stop him if I wasn’t taken out of the picture! He was working with Kamari for crying out loud!”

“Okay, okay! I get it. Silver Ace is trouble. I wasn’t doubting you on that,” Pyre rebutled, waving a hoof at me to calm me down. “What I was more trying to ask, is what he is up to. It’s hard to stop a pony when we don’t know what their plan is.”

Again, I paused, trying to think that all through. “I… I don’t know. He was working with Four Star before the war, apparently. That might have something to do with it. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what.”

Xayah raised her eyebrows. “Zebra sympathizers? What did he have to do with them?”

I shook my head. “No clue. Maybe he was one? Maybe he was just using them? He seemed to be pretty adamant when I first met him that the war between ponies and zebras was still happening. Either way, that group seems to be at the centre of all of this.”

Star Breeze tapped a hoof to her chin. “Four Star? As in the old pre-war company that built that apartment building that my team and I set up shop in back when I was with the Enclave?”

I nodded. “Same one, yeah. They specialized in building the monorail that surrounds Manehattan, but they built that place as a front for secret meetings and stuff. Silver Ace had an apartment there.”

“Admittedly, we never bothered to go through any of the dusty old terminals lying around that building back when we were there. They didn’t really have any value to our Hellhound research. But maybe if that was where he had been staying back in the war, there might be a clue or something as to what he’s planning?” Star suggested.

“Silver Ace was the kind of pony that seemed to like covering his tracks though,” Brisk pointed out. “If there was anything there, there’s a good chance he destroyed it years ago.”

I felt a small jolt of excitement flash through me. “But maybe not. When we were first there, I found a terminal in his old apartment. The next time we visited I managed to hack it open and get a whole bunch of information on him. That was where I first learned about the Utopia Program to begin with. Silver Ace had to leave in a hurry because of the bombs back before the war, and then he spent the next two hundred years trapped inside Stable 101. Chances are, he never had a chance to go back and clear it out.”

“So there’s still a chance he left some sort of clue there for us!” Mirra chirped happily, fluttering her insectoid wings a little and doing a silly looking dance atop Pyre’s back.

Pyre glanced back at the small changeling with amusement before letting out a long sigh. “Now let's all just slow down for a second. We’re a long way away from the Four Star apartment building. The complete other side of Manehattan to be exact,” She interjected, turning her gaze to face all of us again. “And we still have big problems of our own here in the Institute. Need I remind you that we are standing at the brink of an all out civil war? Probably the biggest battle Equestria has ever seen since the great war itself? We can’t just go galloping across Manehattan to dig through the ruins of some old apartment building for some big secret that may or may not even exist.”

I frowned, trying to come up with a counter to that. Pyre was right, of course. She often was. If we ran off to go secret hunting right now, that would put the Las Pegasus raiders in complete control of war delegations. And if there was one group of ponies that I definitely did not trust being put in charge of preventing mass carnage, it was the Las Pegasus raiders.

“Alright, so we try to deal with this war first,” I agreed, feeling a little put out that for once I couldn’t just go tromping off to do my own thing. “We try to keep all the factions in line, at least until the larger threat is out of the way. Then, when things have calmed down, we’ll try and get out to the apartment building and see what we can find.”

“And what about the Utopia Program? What are we going to do about that?” Brisk asked, glancing behind him as if he could see the looming white spire of the Institute’s maneframe through the white, metal walls. “With Silver Ace in control of it, could that cause us issues? Like, might he try to erase our minds or something?”

I shook my head. “Not while Twilight is keeping him from taking full control. Unfortunately, I don’t know how long that gives us. A few days, a couple hours? Depends how clever Twilight and Farmer are.”

“Furthermore, there isn’t anything that we can do about the Utopia Program at the moment,” Pyre added with a nicker. “Magazine took a bunch of her Operators into the maneframe to try and take control of it a few hours ago. She liked the idea of a massive memory orb that could mind control the whole of Equestria. Imagine her face when she found all of the terminals inside the Maneframe completely fried and the Utopia Program surrounded by a massive force field.”

For the third time since waking up, my eyes shot wide and I shot straight up, trying to climb out of the bed as fast as possible. Once again, like the last two times before, Pyre pushed me back down. “What are you talking about? What force field?”

Pyre cocked her head to look down at me. “Oh? You didn’t know? I thought it was just how the Utopia Program usually was. The whole big, glowy ball of light thing has some sort of impenetrable force field around it. The A.A.S.S. does as well. Doesn’t matter what we try, missiles, grenades, Jinx’s magic. Nothing can get through. That and no pony seems to be able to control it through the maneframes control terminals either. All of the Maneframes power was redirected to another location somehow. Pretty much exactly like how the synth controls were,” She frowned, a realization passing over her. “And there’s no sign of Silver Ace’s body. We found your corpse in there, and the hollow shell that used to be Pureblood, but Silver Ace is nowhere to be found. If he’s in the Utopia Program, we have no clue where he’s hidden his body.”

I shiver raced through me at her words. “Project Redirect,” I breathed, my voice practically a whisper.

Xayah’s ears folded flat against her head. “The project Silver Ace was trying to access in the Steel Ranger’s base in Fillydelphia?”

I nodded. “It was a failsafe for the Utopia Program. When activated, it would allow Silver Ace or Pureblood to control the Utopia Program remotely for a select location outside of the Institute. Silver Ace must have known we were going to take control of the Institute. That’s where he must have teleported after we freed him in the synth interrogation wing. That’s where he’s hiding and controlling everything!”

Brisk frowned. “And… you know where this location is?”

I gulped, a small part of me not wanting to say the answer out loud. “If what Pureblood told me inside the Utopia Program is true, then yes…” I took a deep breath, my heart thumping heavily in my chest. “He’s in Stable 25.”

The next hour was the epitome of boring. After Pyre was called away to deal with some Las Pegasus raider issue that she didn’t think was important enough to bother me with, supposedly one of the Pack hellhounds had gone awol, Star Breeze had me go through a bunch of stretches that made my limbs feel like they were one fire.

“Your body has been cryogenically frozen for a full week,” She scowled at me when I complained about doing the stretches for the fifth time. I never had been the most physical pony in the world. “And being frozen for a fucking weak means you haven’t moved your body for a fucking weak. Do you know what that means?”

I slowly opened and closed my mouth. Admittedly, I had no clue what that implied. I was good at machines, not ponies, and that included pony biology. “Uhhh. That I have a really bad back cramp?”

Star groaned and slapped a hoof across her face. “It means you have muscle atrophy. Your body's lack of physical activity results in muscles wasting away. So if you ever want to be in fighting shape again, you’ll do the fucking stretches.”

What was there to do after that but follow her lead as she ran me through another collection of painful stretches. I sure as hell didn’t want my muscles wasting away. Assuming I had muscles to begin with. I wasn’t a strong pony either.

When we were finally finished, Star insisted that I needed to get a good rest before I was in any shape to move around more, and from how much my body ached, I believed her. That didn’t change the simple fact that I wasn't tired though. My body had been in a coma for a week, I had gotten plenty of rest.

And so it happened that I was wide awake when the door silently slid open and the sounds of metal clad hooves gently clopping across the floor filtered into my ears. I moved to shift my head to look at who had entered when a commanding voice whispered. “Make sure they’re all asleep?”

I knew that voice. Iron Hock.

Not knowing what he was here for, I shut my eyes, pretending to sleep as I listened to the sounds of a few True Steels trotting back and forth between the isles, checking to make sure none of the injured ponies were awake. One of the Rangers stopped in front of me, I could hear their muffled breath through their helmet's ventilator and I could see the lights through my eyelids shift as they waved a hoof in front of my face. A second later, they silently trotted away.

“Everypony is asleep,” I heard one of the True Steel report as they trotted back to stand before Iron Hock.

I cracked an eye open slightly, watching as Iron Hock trotted down the rows of medical beds, his gaze sweeping back and forth. “Good. Point me towards the pony.”

I felt myself internally wince. Damn it, please don’t be after me. Please don't be after me. I was in no position to fight a bunch of fully armoured True Steels right now. Instinctively, I shifted my hoof to grab my quad barrel shotgun, only to remember that Pureblood had snapped it in half.

Fuck, I had liked that gun too.

To my relief, they didn’t seem to have much interest in me, instead coming to a stop in front of the bed holding the wounded True Steel knight I had spotted earlier. A moment later, one of the True Steels moved forwards and shook him awake, while another clamped their hoof over their mouth. The True Steel jerked awake, thrashing as they found the metal hoof clamped tight over their mouth. They stilled as their eyes locked on Iron Hock looming above them.

“Silence,” Iron Hock breathed, his helmeted gaze leaning down to glare at the bed bound True Steel. “We don’t want to wake any of these ponies. Obey.”

The True Steel on the bed gave a slow nod, his eyes looking a little fearful. I didn’t blame him. Iron Hock might have been an arrogant, self absorbed fanatic, but he was also incredibly imposing. And after having fought him, I could confirm that he was a deadly combatant as well.

The True Steels pinning their wounded comrade down pulled away, releasing their grip on his muzzle to allow him to speak and get a good breath of air.

“What did you tell them?” Iron Hock ordered, his voice low and scathing.

The True Steel knight’s eyes widened, more fear creeping into them. “Wh- I don’t know what you’re talking ab-”

“Don’t lie to me soldier,” Iron Hock snarled, the back of his power armour silently opening up and a deadly looking energy blaster popping out to aim at the wounded True Steel. “I know the Steel Rangers came in here to talk to you. What did they ask? And what did you tell them?” His voice was filled with so much malice that even I wanted to crawl away and hide from the looming True Steel Elder.

“I-I didn’t tell them anything, h-honest,” The True Steel gasped. “They wanted to know about our battle plans for Manehattan. How we’ve been taking so much territory so fast.”

Iron Hock scowled, the deadly energy weapon on his back glowing brighter with every second. “How do I know you haven’t lied to me?” His voice practically oozed with disdain. I got the distinct impression that he had no interest in listening to the soldiers' response.

“I… I would never betray the True Steels. The Steel Rangers are weak,” The True Steel stammered pitifully. I noticed a very distinct lack of proof in his claim. After a long second, Iron Hock grunted, finally taking a step back. The True Steel seemed to let the muscles in his shoulder relax as Iron Hock's impressive bulk moved away from him. “Thank you. I promise, I would never betray you like that.”

Iron Hock turned, facing one of the True Steels beside him. “As we planned,” He said simply, his voice coming out in a low grunt. The True Steel he spoke to gave a curt nod before stepping towards the wounded soldier on the bed. His hoof flashed out, slashing a strange bone like knife across the soldier's throat. The soldier’s eyes shot wide, blood spraying from his slit open throat. His mouth twisted into a scream, but no sound came out as he drowned in his own blood.

I flinched, clamping a hoof over my mouth to stop from letting out a loud gasp. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but I hadn't imagined that Iron Hock would have one of his own soldiers executed like that so mercilessly. Then again, knowing Iron Hock, maybe I should have.

Once the wounded soldier finally stopped moving and lay still on their bed, blood seeping over their corpse and dripping onto the floor, the True Steels moved away. “Dispose of that weapon,” Iron Hock ordered. I snapped my eyes shut as I realized he was moving in my direction. “Let everypony think he was murdered by one of that flamer wielding raider bitches hellhounds.”

I grit my teeth. He was trying to frame Pyre Blaze and the Pack raiders? Iron Hock probably intended to use his now dead soldier as a martyr. I had no intention of letting that happen.

The quiet stomping of hooves slowed to a stop. I felt a shiver of fear pass over me as I realized that Iron Hock must have stopped at the end of my bed. I didn’t dare crack an eye open to check.

“Who would have thought, Stable Dweller, that when I met you all those days ago on the edge of Manehattan, that you would become what you have,” My heart hammered in my chest as I heard him speak, his voice coming out in a low rumble. Did he know I was awake? My leg muscles tensed, preparing to jump into action if he attacked. “I should have killed you when we first met. It certainly would have saved me a lot of trouble… How easy it would be for me to kill you now. Slit your throat while you sleep… Such a pathetic way for the great Amber Aura to die. I could so easily tear the Las Pegasus Raiders apart with you. Lash you apart with one of Dixie’s blades. The bitch Pyre would declare war on the Disciples on the spot…”

I bit down on my lip, trying everything I could to not jump from the bed and strangle him. But I didn’t dare. Something told me I’d lose that fight.

“But not yet,” Iron Hock sighed, taking a small step away from me. I could hear the magical energy weapon on his back retract back into his armour. “Your little coma is the only thing holding up the council, and I need time. Your time will come though, just as sure as the war for Manehattan.”

So news that I had woken up hadn't reached his ears yet. Perhaps my friends were keeping that bit of information close to their chests? If so, I'd have to thank them for it.

“The coast is clear, High Elder Iron Hock,” one of the True Steels informed him as they stepped up to us.

“Good. I want you to send a message to Fort Strong,” Iron Hock said bluntly. I let a long breath escape through my muzzle as I heard the sounds of him trotting away.

“Do you want us to launch an all out attack on the institute? With our weaponry we might be able to-”

Iron Hock stomped a hoof on the ground, silencing him. “No. The Las Pegasus raiders are too strong. With that stupid Sphinx leading them, any attack that we launch would be far to costly. Something needs to be done about that. I want you to get our ponies out in Fort Strong to get our weapon ready. Once we’re done here, Jinx needs to be taken care of.”

A moment later, I heard the door to the medical wing slide open and the sound of metal clad hooves trotting out. I waited there for a long moment, still pretending to be asleep. Finally, once I was sure they were gone, I pulled myself up, biting down hard on my tongue as my weary, atrophied muscles flared with pain. I slid to the floor, my legs trembling as I tried to pull myself across the room.

I stumbled over to the bed where the murdered True Steel lay, blood still rolling down his slashed open throat and dripping into a dark puddle on the floor beneath him. I place a hoof over his muzzle, not expecting to find any breath. A small sigh escaped my lips. He was very definitely dead.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered softly, shutting the slaughtered soldier's eyes with a shaky hoof. I wanted to say his name, but the truth was, I had no idea who they had been. “I just sat by and let them kill you… But I won’t let them get away with it. I promise,” I told him, pulling away and half limping, half crawling towards the medical centre's exit. I wasn’t going to let Iron Hock and his band of fanatics frame my friend for a murder they didn't commit.

I had almost reached the door when it slid open once again, making way this time for a slightly taller mare with a very similar coloured coat as myself. She had a large bag slung over her shoulder and she was dressed in her usual white lab coat. I paused, my eyes locking with hers.

“A-Amber…” my mother breathed, her eyes looking me over in shock. “You’re… awake?”

I gave a gulp and a nod, not having expected this sudden confrontation. “Th-” My voice caught in my throat and I quickly cleared it with a cough. “Iron Hock was just here. He killed a pony and made it look like one of the Pack did it.”

Mother looked past me, her eyes locking on the bloody form of the deceased True Steel soldier. “Damn…” She muttered, turning from me for a moment and calling out into the hallway. “We have a dead pony in here. We need a doctor, ASAP!”

A few Institute Scientists, along with a small hoofful of Las Pegasus Operators and a very overtired looking Star Breeze came rushing in a few seconds later, clearing up the blood and whisking the dead stallion away. Both Star and Mother convinced me to get back into my bed, assuring me that there were plenty of other ponies that could deal with the issue of the Ture Steels right now. Apparently, my recovery was more important to them than making sure Pyre didn’t get framed and starting a war.

“Pyre is a smart pony and knows what she’s doing,” Star assured me, stepping back to stand beside mother as she crossed her fore hooves together. “Now stay in bed before I need to strap you down.”

I nickered at that. “Don’t do that, Brisk’ll get jealous.”

Star raised an eyebrow at me. “What? Why the fuck would-” Her eyes shot wide. “What the ball-licking-fuck Amber!? You and Xayah are a thing and you and Brisk are like siblings! That’s just all kinds of wrong!”

I felt myself flush. “No, wait! That wasn’t what I-” I stopped myself when I realized that explaining this joke would probably involve telling Star about feelings Brisk had for her that he probably didn’t want me sharing. “Uhhh- Sorry. Bad joke.”

“I’ll say,” Star grunted, though I noticed that ironically, there seemed to be a little bit of jealousy in her own tone. “Now, on to what’s important. You saw Iron Hock and a few True Steels kill him with a Hellhound claw and claim they wanted to frame the Pack for it?”

I nodded. “Yes. What should we do?”

“You, nothing. I’ll get the information to Pyre. She’ll know more about how to handle this. Maybe she’ll even get Jinx involved. I don’t know,” Star grunted. She turned and pointed at Mother. “You keep an eye on her for a bit. I don’t want Amber trying to do any crazy heroics right now and my gut tells me she’s going to try.”

Mother nodded, sitting down beside my bed. “Don’t worry. I had no intention of not doing so.”

Star just huffed and flew out, leaving Mother and I alone in the medical centre save for the last of the Institute scientists that were still filtering out and the unconscious bodies of wounded ponies.

“That Star Breeze is quite the character,” Mother pointed out, clearly trying to lessen the tension between us. “Quite the mouth on her two. Haven’t heard a pony swear like she does in a long time.”

“She’s not that bad once you get to know her,” I countered with a sigh. “And you get used to the swearing.”

The two of us were silent for a long time, not really knowing what to say to each other. Finally, Mother broke the silence. “Your friends didn’t inform me you had woken up.”

“Admittedly, they don’t know you very well,” I responded harshly. I had no reason to be mad at her right now, and from what I had heard, she had been quite upset that I had been stuck in a coma. I let my gaze soften a little. “And they’re probably really busy. Keeping ponies from fighting each other and all that.”

Mothers own gaze softened. “Yes. Your friend… Pyre Blaze, was it? I remembered seeing her name on one of our synth recon lists…” She scratched the back of her head awkwardly, probably realizing that mentioning she had a hoof in having Pyre replaced by a synth wasn’t the best thing to bring up in my presence. “She’s got a lot of work cut out for her, and things aren’t looking good, but she’s doing a good job, all things considered.”

I forced a small smile. “She’s rough around the edges, but Pyre is one of the best ponies I know. Definitely one of the strongest.”

“I noticed Mirra is referring to her as her mom now,” Mother noted. She smiled at that, though there was a sadness in her eyes.

I let a smile of my own settle across my face. “Yeah. That was a long time coming. I’m glad to see the two of them finding happiness in each other. Mirra deserves that much and… Well, I think Pyre’s needed it for a long time too,” I paused when I saw Mothers face grow just a little sadder, her features almost becoming heavier. “You’re thinking about your role in taking Mirra’s mother away from her?”

Mother nodded. “I never thought, all those years ago when we swapped Insecta’s mind with my own, that I’d need to face consequences for those actions.”

“She’s not angry at you, if that helps,” I said slowly. “She was a little confused when we first found out of course, but she doesn’t hate you. She knows Insecta was a monster.”

“Was she?” Mother asked, looking up at me with wide, questioning eyes. I couldn’t tell if she was looking to me for an answer, or if the question was rhetorical. “Of the two of us, was Insecta really the monster? Because as far as I can tell, I was the one who stole someponies body without their consent and robbed a filly of her mother.”

“Robbed a filly of a mother who also happened to be a homicidal maniac that wanted to mind rape the whole of Equestria,” I pointed out. “Look, I’m not defending you. What you and Glasswing did to Insecta and Azar was wrong, but that doesn’t make Insecta any less of a monster.”

Mother was silent again for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "I... I'll be honest, I don't really know how to bring this up, but..." She hesitated again, her eyes lowering to look at where my stomach lay below the thin, white blanket over my body. "When you were in your coma, we did a CT scan on you... and we found, well..." She looked up at me, her eyes looking for answers. "You're pregnant?"

I turned my head away, not really wanting to talk about that. Anything but that. "I... Yeah. Not a happy story."

I wasn't looking at her, but I could feel Mother practically wilt beside me. "Oh... I see. I'm... I'm sorry to hear that. Truly... I won't push the topic any further if you don't want me to."

My eyes were starting to feel awfully wet all of a sudden. I let out a shaky sigh, too afraid to look back at her. "It's Pureblood's child... Or rather it's his his... I don't fucking know... His vessel... He wanted to grow a living pony that he could put his mind into so he wouldn't be a brain bot forever..." I bit my lip, my memories flaring with the horrific images of being surgically sliced open, tubes being expertly slid beneath my flesh and into my stomach. "He place this... This fetus in me... Surgically... Just thinking about it makes me feel sick and wrong, I-"

I had to stop as an overwhelming sense of guilt flooded through me, choking the words in my throat.

Mother gave a shuddering breath, leaning forwards slightly. I turned my head a little, catching her extending one hoof out to me gently out of the corner of my eye, silently offering to give me a hug. After a moment, I gave her a slow nod. Not a second later, I felt her hooves wrap around me in a tight hug.

"I th-thought about killing myself when he did that," I moaned, a tear dripping from my face and soaking into her shoulder. To my surprise, I found tears leaking from her own eyes as well. "But not because I wanted to die... I... I wanted to hurt Pureblood for what he did to me! I wanted to kill the baby"

I felt mothers hoof slowly stroking my mane as I sobbed. "It's okay. Pureblood can't hurt you anymore... You're safe now," I didn't think that any pony was safe right now, not with Silver Ace still out there with his army of synths and every pony readying themselves for war, but I understood her sentiment.

"Am... Am I a bad pony?" I asked, my voice coming out more like a silent gasp. "For wanting that? For wanting to kill my baby simply out of spite?"

"No... No of course not," Mother soothed, her hoof pulling out a thick knot in my mane. "What Pureblood did to you was evil. You have nothing to feel sorry for."

"But it was more than just that!" I insisted, almost desperately trying to make her see what I was talking about. "I've killed so many ponies! And I keep doing it! Sometimes I forget just how many ponies I have killed!" I pulled away from her, looking down at my hooves. "It was so hard to kill ponies when I left the Sable, but now... It's getting too easy. I takes me wanting to kill an unborn foal just to realize that. What the fuck is wrong with me!?"

Mother looked me over, her eyes lingering on the tears that streaked my face. "I think your actions speak volumes about who you are as a pony, Amber. And I think you know deep down, just as well as I, that you are far more than just a good pony... You're one of the best."

I snivelled, whipping some of the tears from my face. I probably looked pretty gross right now, all snotty, cheeks damp. But I didn't care. "Thank... I still feel kinda shit, but... I don't know... Maybe that's just proof that I am a good pony after all."

"You know, the Institute is capable of preforming abortions, if you want," Mother said slowly. It wasn't a suggestion, she just seemed to be making me aware of the fact. "We usually need to keep a pretty tight population limit down here, so child control was crucial. It's part of the main reason the Institute began bioengineering Changeling reproduction."

I looked down at my stomach, rubbing my hoof slowly over the small bulge. It was hardly noticeable at this point, I doubted I would look noticeably pregnant for another two months at least. I felt something twitch under my hoof. A small kick perhaps? Unlikely, the foals legs likely hadn't formed yet, but the shift in movement made me smile anyway.

"No... I... I think I want to keep it," I looked up at Mother again, this time my eyes were free of tears. "You're right, Pureblood can't hurt me anymore. He's gone. His mind erased forever. This baby, I won't let it grow up to be what he wanted it to become. It's just proof that I won," I gave a sly looking smirk. "And who knows. Maybe I'll be a good mommy one day."

Mother smiled. "I think you'd be a great mommy."

I let my smirk grow a little. "And I bet you could probably be a pretty good old grandmare."

"I'm suddenly feeling remarkably older," Mother smirked back, though there was a flat tone to her voice. After a second longer of silence, Mother turned, reaching her hooves into her saddlebag. “I, uh… I brought you something by the way. A gift,” She pulled out some sort of gun from her bag and placed it on the bed before me. “I saw that your shotgun got destroyed. I thought that… Well, this gun isn’t as nice as your old one, and it’s probably a little different than you’re used to, it’s a prototype, but I thought that you might, er… that is to say I felt you should have it.”

I picked the weapon up gingerly in my hooves, looking it over. It appeared to be some kind of shotgun, though I had never seen one like it. It was made of some sort of pristine, white metal, clearly Institute in design, and had a singular barrel with a muzzle that looked half way between a combat shotgun and a magical energy rifle. It had a large drum magazine built into it that appeared to hold standard 12 gauge shotgun shells, but I could feel my confusion growing as I noticed a second slot of ammo on the side that I couldn’t recognize an ammo type for.

“What… exactly is it?” I asked, rolling it around a few more times in my hooves, trying my best to leave the more depressing thoughts of the previous conversation behind and properly appreciate the gift. “I’ve never seen a shotgun like it before.”

“I doubt you would have,” Mother said, her voice a mix of nervousness and excitement, her eyes looking me over more than the gun. “It was developed here in the Institute. It was intended to be wielded by Coursers, but the cost to manufacture the weapon was too high for mass production,” she pointed at the different ammo slots on the gun. “It fires typical shotgun shells, but it also uses Fusion Cores. When it fires, it melds the two ammo types together.”

I furrowed my brow. “Wait, so it’s a ballistic, magical energy weapon?”

Mother nodded, taking the shotgun from me and pulling a fusion core out of her saddle bag. She slotted the large yellow canister into the side of the gun before aiming the weapon at the wall. Her magic pulled at the trigger, firing the weapon, a bloom of red fire bursting from its muzzle as a spray of buckshot burst out, each individual pellet blazing with crimson light. The blast flared across the white wall, burning the surface black.

I looked over the weapon with wide, excited eyes. “Woah…” I muttered, taking the shotgun back from Mother. “That is… woah… That’s wild!”

“It’s extra effective against robots,” Mother noted. “It was designed to incapacity rouge synths easily, but a Sentry Bot or Sprite bot will go down with just a shot or two from this as well.”

“And you said it was less good than my last weapon?” I snickered, sticking my tongue out at her playfully. “This is pretty damn good.”

Mother smiled. “I recognized your weapon when you first came to the Institute, actually. The Institute had a few files on different weapons developed during the war. Braeburn’s Liberator. One of a kind, manufactured by Ironshod Firearms. Equipped with a targeting talisman, fire talisman and practically unbreakable… well, clearly breakable I suppose, but hard to break at the very least. This gun doesn’t have any fancy features like that, and while its magical energy bonus is nice, it’s not nearly as good at ignoring armour like most shotguns are, so taking out metal armour or Celestia forbid power armour is going to be a bitch.”

I rolled the weapon over in my hoof again. My eyes widened as I noticed that the red Institute insignia that had once adorned the side of the weapon had been burned off and replaced with a drawn on image of a red screwdriver in front of a Stable-Tec Logo.

“Did you draw this?” I asked, rotating the weapon around to show Mother and pointing to the symbol.

Mother smiled. “I, uh… Well I know that you aren’t a big fan of the Institute, so I… I burned it off and… well… I don’t know, maybe I’m just being silly, but I figured it looked dumb with a large burn mark on the side, so I drew on something I felt you might like,” She hesitated, her eyes looking me over nervously for a second. “It’s a- a picture of both of our cutie marks and I thought that-”

“I know what it is,” I said flatly, turning the weapon back around to look at the drawn on symbol again. “It’s pretty hard not to figure that out.”

Mother shuffled her hooves a little. “So… uh… do you like it… the weapon… not the symbol on it, but like, the symbol too I guess and-”

“The symbol is perfect,” I answered softly, cutting her rambling off and reaching out to give her a quick hug. “And the weapon is a nice bonus as well. Thank you.”

Mothers body stiffened at the hug, clearly not sure how to react. “I-I’m sorry. I’m terrible at his whole mom thing,” She chuckled, albeit very awkwardly. “I always thought running away to the Institute was the best thing for you… I still think it might have been… but I don’t really know anymore… I don’t even know where to begin.”

I smiled. “Being here for me and burning of a symbol that means a lot to you because you know I don’t like it is a pretty good start. It, uh… It says a lot I think.”

“Amber!” A charismatic voice drew my attention up from mother. I spotted the Changeling, Glasswing, trotting towards us, his usual glassy smile plastered across his face. “I am pleased to see you have woken up,” He soothed, his gnarled back hoof straightening his green sweater vest. “I was hoping to talk to you for a moment. Alone, if we may, Shining Aura.”

My mother pulled herself back to her hooves, instinctively following Glasswings commands as per usual. Or so I had thought. Instead, she planted her hooves in front of her firmly. “I am currently watching over Amber. Whatever you have to say to her, you can say to me as well.”

Both Glasswing and I stared at her with awed, slack jawed expressions. Mother had never, not once in the small amount of time I had known her, ever opposed one of Glasswings orders, or even suggested the Institute might not be perfect all the time. To see her suddenly do so… I think for a second I actually felt proud of one of my parents.

“Shining Aura, that was an order,” Glasswing responded sweetly, his smile cracking slightly, but never fading. “Please. This is important.”

Mother took a slow breath. “No.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at the sheer look of shock that crossed Glasswings face. His glassy smile faded and he just stood there lamely, mouth open, clearly at a loss for words, his translucent wings dangling limp at his sides. He glanced over at me pleadingly, as if trying to beg for me to have my mother stand down. That just made me laugh more.

“It’s okay mom,” I finally chuckled. “I won’t be going anywhere and Glasswing won’t hurt me. Not his style. Besides, even if he did hurt me, he would have the whole of the Las Pegasus Raiders to answer to.”

Glasswing looked a little pale at the idea, but quickly nodded. I really didn’t expect him to attack me anyway. Glasswing was never one for doing the dirty work himself. He was a snake, good at getting what he wanted through words. Violence wasn’t his style.

“Yes, thank you Amber,” Glasswing said, awkwardly straightening his sweater vest again and letting his charismatic smile settle back onto his face as his elytras once more folded up against his back. “I won’t be but a moment.”

Mother took a quick second to stare Glasswing down before stepping back. “I’ll be outside if either of you need me,” she turned, trotting away and out the door.

Slowly, I turned my head to face Glasswing. “Alright, what do you want?”

“She’s never done that before,” Glasswing breathed instead of answering, his eyes locked on the doorway Mother had just exited.

“And it probably won't be the last time,” I told him smugly. “Without the Institute, you have a lot less influence than you used to, I'm afraid.”

“Trust me, I know that all too well,” Glasswing sighed. He trotted over, sitting down next to me. “How are you feeling Amber? You must feel awful after everything you’ve been through.”

“I’ve had enough ponies ask me that already. Just jump to the point. You clearly want something,” I scowled. I was in no mood to deal with Glasswings psychological games at the moment, especially after having an emotional breakdown only moments before. But then again, when was I ever in the mood to deal with the two faced changeling.

Glasswing huffed. “Very well. I’m sure you’ve heard at this point that in a few hours, Jinx is going to be holding a peace meeting over the fate of Manehattan. Pretty much every faction in the Wasteland is going to be there. True Steels, Applejack Rangers, Steel Rangers, The Las Pegasus Raiders, The Friendship Express, The Institute of Course,” he tapped a hoof to his chest as he mentioned the Institute.

I nodded, following along. “Yes, I know who’s all going to be there. We’re trying to keep from starting an all out war, apparently. If you want to know more about it, I’m probably the last pony you want to ask. I was asleep for most of all this.”

Glasswing smirked. “Oh, I don’t need information. I am well aware of all the factions and their desires. Having changelings spies as your allies makes learning such things rather easy and trite,” He paused, glancing around to make sure no pony was listening in. “No, I'm here for something else. See, when the council starts, I want you to help me get reinstated as head of the Institute.”

I gave him a flat gare. “And why in Equestria would I do something like that? You asked this of me before, and I said no.”

“Actually, I believe you said you can try and cut some sort of the profit into the deal. Your words, I believe. And this was before civil war hung in the balance,” He let his fanged mouth twist into a sweet looking smile. “Imagine the repercussions of giving the Institute over to somepony that wasn’t its current acting head? It would be a clear demonstration of favoritism. Naturally it would be an act of war against the Institute remnants, and it would put into question other things as well. If you are picking favorites, ponies will start wondering if they are being screwed over,” He pulled himself back up to his hooves, quickly trotting away from me. “Food for thought, Amber. The choice is yours, of course. I understand that regardless of your choices, the Institute will likely be changed forever after today, but just make sure your choices are the right ones for the wasteland. We’re all walking on thin ice here. Step wisely…”

The next hour passed just as boringly as the first hour I had woken up had. Mother had returned to my side, which was nice, though we didn’t have much to talk about save what our lives had been like. Mother seemed happy to hear that my grades had been good back in school, which seemed ridiculous to me. I had spent the last chunk of my life fighting for survival and trying to stop the literal end of all pony kind. The last thing I had cared about recently were my school grades, but here I was telling my mom I had A’s all across the board. I didn’t bother telling her I had only gotten a high B in history.

What?! My specialty was machines, not pre-war Equestrian literature! I wasn’t even sure why they taught that in Stables!

Brisk had also stopped by for a few minutes to give me a few quick updates on what was going on. Apparently, according to Brisk anyway, they had cleared Pyre’s name, but there was not nearly enough evidence to accuse Iron Hock of the murder that I had witnessed only an hour before. He had covered his tracks far too carefully. The official story was that a rogue member of the Pack had killed the True Steel in their sleep, a story that most beloved as one of the Packs hellhounds had indeed gone missing a few hours ago and no pony could find them amongst the dead. The whole situation was apparently putting some bad heat on the Pack, but it was nothing Pyre didn’t seem to be able to deal with. The Pack's Hellhounds were notorious for going on rampages anyway, and most ponies were already aware that the Pack was becoming restless under Pyre’s leadership.

After having run out of things to talk about with my mother and having taken to staring up at the roof and counting the near blinding clinical lights that I saw up there, Xayah trotted into the medical ward, pushing along a wheelchair with her two cybernetic fore legs. I sat up as she approached, eyeing the wheel chair.

“I’m guessing that’s for me and it means the peace meeting is about to start?” I asked as Xayah pulled up next to me.

Xayah shook her head. “No, that is still an hour away, though the wheelchair is for you. Star suggested that we get you moving a bit. She does not recommend walking much yet, but she said I can push you around in this,” Her striped face flushed slightly. “Besides, I had no desire to turn down an opportunity to be with you.”

I gave a small nod and let Xayah and mother help me climb into the chair. I didn’t really need help, at this point I felt like I could walk fine, but I figured there wasn’t much point arguing with my friends. They were all trying to help me out the best they could, and I was not unopposed to getting better as fast as possible.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Mother told us as Xayah began pushing me out of the medical centre. “I figure the Institute remnants are going to want my help trying to sort all of their stuff out.”

I gave her a nod and small smile. “Alright. I’ll see you around mom,” For the first time, I genuinely looked forward to seeing her again. "Thank you... For being there for me when I need it."

“You and your mother seem to be doing better,” Xayah noted as we walked down one of the many halls of the Institute. “I am glad to see that something good has come from you both reuniting.”

“Well, there’s still a little bit of awkwardness between us,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair a little. “I doubt there ever won’t be, not after what she did. But I can tell that she’s genuinely trying to do better, and I can appreciate that for what it is.”

Xayah nodded. “Hold onto your family. Even when you sometimes wish you could give up on them. One day they won't be there for you to give up on.”

I glanced back at her, making out the melancholy look across her pretty face. She was thinking of her own mother and daughter, killed at the hooves of raiders. I reached a hoof back and squeezed one of her cybernetic ones. She couldn’t have felt the touch, her hooves being made of metal and all, but she smiled at the thought. “I won’t. But that of course goes for you as well.”

Xayah smiled. It was slightly pained, but the smile was still genuine. “Thank you, and I am aware. I would still be imprisoned in Filly otherwise.”

I glanced back around, my eyes roaming over the white Institute walls. A group of Applejack rangers marched past us as we walked. I hadn’t seen them around yet, though I had already been made acutely aware of their presence in the Institute. Finally, I glanced back at Xayah. “Where are we going by the way?”

Xayah gave a small shrug. “I had no destination in mind. I figured you would enjoy anywhere that wasn’t that medical centre,” she paused, looking down at me with her emerald eyes. “Is there somewhere specific you want to go?”

I hesitated. There was a place actually, but it just felt strange to say it outloud. “I uh… I was hoping we could go to the Institute’s Maneframe.”

Xayah came to a slow stop. “Why in Equestria would you want to go there you foolish pony?” Her eyes narrowed slightly at me. “Star said no heroics.”

I waved my hooves frantically. “No no! Nothing heroic, I just…” I raised my bare fore hoof to show her. Getting my old body back meant I got my old Stable barding back, complete with the ballistic weave Coco Pommel had sewn into it during our stop at Tenpony tower. But it also means that I was without something as well. "I had only just gotten my pipbuck back. It’s still in there. On my, uh… synth's corpse…”

Xayah’s narrowed eyes softened, though her voice was still filled with trepidation. “You want to go see… your corpse?” At my nod, she sighed. “You are a strange pony, Amber Aura.”

“And you love me for it,” I nickered back. Xayah just smiled in response. Matching her grin, I pointed down the hallway dramatically with a hood. “Now onwards!”

“The Maneframe is the other way,” Xayah soothed with a small roll of her eyes as she spun the wheelchair around and began pushing me the opposite direction.

I blushed a little. “Oh… I knew that.”

“I do not like this place,” Xayah commented, looking around the dark interior of the Institutes Mark II Crusader Maneframe.

“Neither do I,” I admitted, my gaze locked on the massive pulsing sphere of light below me. True to Pyre’s words, the massive memory orb was surrounded by a glowing silver force field. “I have nothing but bad memories of this place,” If that wasn’t the understatement of the year. I’d lost two friends inside of this place. First Rubber Band, and then Fleur De Lis. Could I call Fleur a friend? Not to mention I'd also lost my shotgun here, though I admittedly cared less about that than I did the first two things.

“We found your body at the bottom of the Maneframe,” Xayah told me, slowly pushing me down a ramp along the steep, metal walls that lead down to the bottom. I felt the uncomfortable heat of the Utopia Program washing over me as we passed, but whatever strange forcefield Silver Ace had placed around it seemed to be keeping most of the intense heat in. Enough that it wasn’t just burning our flesh from our bones on the spot anyway. “We were all very… discouraged… when we found your body like that.”

A few seconds later, Xayah pushed me out onto the bottom most level of the maneframe. I glanced up, making out the glowing Utopia Program hovering above me. It was almost beautiful to look at. Godly even. I might have liked to look at it more had its existence not made my life a living hell.

Stealing myself, I glanced down at the floor where a small, charred skeleton lay curled up. The bones were blackened and burned and what little bits of hide and flesh remained looked more like overcooked steak than pony flesh. Their broken jaw was twisted open in an eternal scream, their left and right fore hooves shattered from the impact of hitting the ground. Their horn, broken as well, lay a few feet away, its tip rendered completely to ash.

“Yikes,” I said, my voice trying to sound sarcastic to give the grim scene some levity. I tried to force a laugh. It sounded more like a chicken choking. “I confess to having never thought I’d get to see myself like this.”

“Just get your pipbuck and let's get out of here,” Xayah said hastily, her voice filled with sadness. “I do not like seeing your body like this.”

Getting out of my wheelchair for a second, I trotted over to where my synth body had fallen and looked it over. I reached down, pulling a small piece of cybernetics out of my charred skull. I looked it over; some sort of synth component by the looks of it.

I slid the magically still intact pipbuck off of my synth's skeleton and clamped it back over my own hoof, looking it over. When Stable-Ten made stuff, they clearly made it to last. It felt kinda good, finally having my body, stable barding and pipbuck all back together. It was as if I was finally whole again for the first time in a week.

“Alright, let us get out of here,” Xayah pleaded, her eyes averted to not look at my corpse on the floor. “I do not know how much longer I can bear this.”

I nodded, turning to return to my wheelchair, when something else caught the corner of my eye. I turned, my amber gaze fixating on the small pulsing sphere that had landed in the corner of the room. I limped over to it, picking the device up slowly in my hooves.

“Is that…?” Xayah started to ask, but she cut herself off as she stared at the orb. We both knew exactly what it was. There was no mistaking it.

“Yup. Balefire bomb,” I said grimly, tucking it carefully into my saddlebags. I knew it wouldn’t explode that easily, but one doesn’t just toss a city leveling bomb in their bag without being a little cautious. “I was going to use it to take out Pureblood. Maybe my stupidest plan yet.”

“You hadn’t been planning on coming back then, were you?” Xayah asked, her voice barely a whisper. Her gaze couldn't meet my eyes.

I glanced at her for a second before looking down at the withered pile of bones on the floor that had once upon a time been me. “Does it look like I had any intention of coming back?” Neither of us said anything else as I climbed back into the wheelchair and allowed Xayah to begin pushing me back out into the Institute.

“It’s fine, really!” The sound of the voice reached my ears even before Xayah pushed me into the room.

I felt a smile cross my face as we entered into the synth creation wing, where we found Scarlet standing on a small pedestal in the middle of the room before Glasswing and a couple other of his Institute scientists. I smiled because Scarlet was alive, awake and standing up on her own. I was not, however, smiling at the state she was in.

The hide on Scarlet’s left side had been completely burned off by the deadly blast of the pulse grenade she had been hit by, leaving her burned flesh exposed. Her left eye, bloodshot and bruised, seemed to be set into a broken socket and her left fore hoof, which she held raised to keep from applying pressure to it, was clearly broken.

“Are you certain? It would give you quite the tactical advantage,” Glasswing smiled at her.

Scarlet shook her head at him. “Nono. No Cyber alicorn. I have no desire to be a cyborg. I just want to be myself. Normal old pretty me.”

Glasswing nodded. “If that’s what you want. But you would be more… synthetic alicorn. No cybernetics invo-”

“No!” Scarlet snapped. “I don’t like alicorns! Synthetic or real!... And Cyber alicorns are…” Scarlet paused, looked up and finally spotted Xayah and I in the doorway. She gave me a warm smile, clearly just as glad to see me awake as I was glad to see her. “There’s a lot of baggage attached to cyber alicorns.”

Glasswing nodded, passing the clipboard he'd been writing on over to the scientist beside him. “You heard her. Exactly as she wants. No deviation,” the scientist nodded in response, rushing off to a control panel beside him.

“What exactly is happening here?” I asked as Xayah pushed me forwards to greet them.

Glasswing turned, noticing me for the first time. “Ah, Amber. I was not expecting you out of bed so early.”

“I’m pretty much at full health already,” I admitted, standing up from my wheelchair just to prove to everypony that I could before I sat back down. “My friends just want to make sure I don't over exert myself.”

“Glasswing has agreed to repair my body,” Scarlet told me, stepping down from the podium and limping up to me. She ran a hoof over her burned off hide, wincing a little at the pain. “Perks to being a synth I suppose. All my parts can be replaced while I’m in the Institute.”

“Your friend Scarlet is lucky,” Glasswing confessed. “Had she had this injury inflicted upon her anywhere else in the wasteland, it would have been permanent. Here, though? She will be good as new by the end of the hour.”

I raised an eyebrow at Glasswing suspiciously. “I don’t suppose this is an attempt to try and sway me to help you regain the Institute, is it?”

Glasswing looked almost offended. “I would hope you don't think so low of me that you would assume every kind act of mine has political implications,” At my silence and arched eyebrow he gave a small cough and adjusted his collar. “Alright, it was your mother who told me to do this. As soon as you were no longer under her care, she came to me and insisted I aid in Scarlet's recovery. I had no objections to doing so,” he let a small smile rest across his fanged muzzle. “That said, I do hope the demonstration can prove to you just how valuable the Institute can be.”

I gave a small snort, though I really did appreciate what he was doing. I made a mental note to thank Mother for doing this the next time I saw her. Furthermore, Glasswing had a point. The ability to grow ponies new synthetic limbs or organs at will was a giddy inducing idea, and no doubt would be a huge breakthrough for modern medicine.

“Glasswing, we need you over here,” One of the scientists spoke up, calling Glasswing over. The charismatic changeling gave us all one last sheepish grin before excusing himself, leaving us alone with Scarlet.

I stood up from my wheelchair, gesturing for Scarlet to take the seat instead. Xayah looked about to protest, but it was very clear that Scarlet was in much more dire need of it than I was.

“Brisk and Mirra came by and told me everything that happened,” Scarlet started, slowly sinking herself down into the seat. It wasn’t the most comfortable chair in the world, but from the expression of bliss that crossed her face, I guessed that it must have felt leagues better than standing with her broken leg. “You really met Twilight Sparkle? In that Utopia Program?” I nodded, not sure why she seemed to find that important. A second later, she gave me an answer as she pulled a small, purple figurine out to show me. “I found this during the battle for the Institute. It was sitting in an old office collecting dust. I figured that since you actually met her, you might want it.”

I slowly took the small figurine into my hooves, looking it over. It was indeed a small statuette of Twilight Sparkle, incredibly similar to the one of Rarity I had found and given to Coco Pommel so long ago. Just holding the thing made me feel, I don’t know… Smarter, somehow. I rolled it over, reading the inscription that had been emblazoned on its base. ‘Be Smart’. Fitting.

I gave a small smile and hugged the statuette closely to my chest. “Thank you. I love it,” I really did, too. Just having the small figurine in my possession made me feel closer to Twilight somehow. I pulled it away from my chest and looked it over again. “This was just sitting on a random desk?”

Scarlet shrugged. “I don’t know if it was random. The office might have belonged to anypony before the war. There was a nametag on the desk though, I think. I didn’t really get a great look during all the chaos… Scootaloo… it said, maybe.”

I smiled again. Of course it had belonged to Scootaloo. Who else would have been in possession of it but the Stable-Tec founder that had sent me on this wild quest to begin with two hundred years ago?

“I also heard that… that you managed to get your mind back into your old body,” Scarlet asked, looking my body over curiously.

I gave a small smile. “Yeah. Thanks for getting it back. I heard the fight to get it was pretty brutal. I really appreciate that you went back to get Farmer’s body, even if it didn't work out. I’m sorry you got hurt so badly because of me.”

But thanks was not the reason Scarlet had brought it up. “And is… Is Crank in there with you?” She asked, making a small stab of guilt pass through me for not bringing that up with her sooner. The last thing she had heard of Crank, he had been beaten by Inferno, practically on the brink of death. Fear and anxiety must have been eating away at her from the inside this whole time. “Or… is he still… Is Inferno…”

“Yes, Crank is with me… And Inferno has been dealt with for the time being,” I said, forcing a small smile.

Scarlet face light up a little and she tapped her hooves together sheepishly. “I don’t… that is to say… I don’t suppose there’s any way I could talk to him…”

With a heavy heart, I had to shake my head. “Crank is managing to hold back Inferno for now, but he told me I likely wouldn’t see him again, not while Inferno is still inside my mind… I’m sorry…” At Scarlet’s disheartened expression, I reached out a hoof and lifted her chin up a little. “But I’m not going back on my promise to you both. I’ll find a way to get you back together. I swear. I owe you both that much.”

“You don’t owe us anything,” Scarlet said slowly, her expression still downcast. Before I could respond, she pointed to my pipbuck, clearly wanting to change the subject. “I see you got your pipbuck back as well?”

I glanced down, raising my hoof to look my pipbuck over. “I, uh… Yeah. It feels good to finally have it back. I don’t know how you ponies all cope without this thing. It makes life so much easier!”

“So you… went and saw your body too then?” She asked hesitantly, her eyes looking me up and down as if expecting me to suddenly collapse.

Xayah flinched at the question. “We did. I did not like seeing it again…”

“And you’re holding up okay?” Scarlet asked, giving me a worried look. “I know that finding out you died can be… uncomfortable…”

I gave her a small nod. “I mean, yeah. It’s not like it was my actual body. Just a synth, right?”

Scarlet gave me a sad look. “Yeah. Just a synth,” she shook her head quickly, that train of thought seeming to make her uncomfortable. “Did you ever figure out what Silver Ace wanted your Pipbuck for?”

I shook my head, clicking the small pipbuck screen on. “No clue. He said there was some important asset on it that he needed, but he never said what.”

“Is there any way to check what files he might have taken off?” Scarlet asked, raising her eyebrow at me. “I don’t really know much about Pipbucks so, I wouldn’t know, but Crank taught me a bit about terminals back in the day. There might be some sort of file recovery…”

Xayah smirked. “If there was a pony that would know how to work with Stable-Tec tech, it is Amber.”

My eyebrows knit together as I thought about that. “There wouldn’t be any sort of data recovery. If he removed the file, it would be gone, but it might have saved the file name in its metadata at the very least.”

Curiously, I tapped a few buttons on the pipbuck, pulling up the device's metadata. I scrolled through the lines of code, my eyes sweeping over numerous file names I had downloaded over the years. At last I found one file that had recently been redirected to another device. I felt my whole body go cold.

“Amber? What is wrong?” Xayah asked, clearly noticing the worry that crossed my face.

I let my pipbuck leg drop back to the ground, my eyes looking up at her with concern. “I think we might have a really, really big problem.”

Everything had happened so fast back in the Hollow Shades that I had completely forgotten the file was even on my pipbuck to begin with. I don’t think I had ever really realized what downloading it onto my pipbuck had even implied. The sudden realization that I had been carrying it around for all these weeks made my legs want to collapse out from under me. All this time, and I had been carrying around the single biggest weapon in the wasteland on my hoof like it was nothing.

The file Silver Ace had taken was titled simply, ‘Luna Prime: Activation’.

I lay with my back pressed up against the hard surface of my bed, my eyes fixated on the clinical lights embedded into the ceiling of the Institutes medical centre above me. My thoughts raced through my head faster than I had any hope of keeping up with, making me feel more overwhelmed than I already was. There was so much I didn't know. What was Silver Ace planning? Why did he need Luna Prime? What did it have to do with Kamari? Was there some answer to my questions hidden in the depths of the Four Star apartment building? I wanted to scream. So much to solve and not enough time to do any of it, and that was only if we could stop a full on war from breaking out.

Yeah, right. No pressure.

I groaned, reaching up as far as I could into the air with all four of my hooves, feeling the tense muscles in my legs stretch to try and accommodate my movement. I was already feeling about back to full health, but my hooves and joints all still felt sore. I hoped that would go away soon. I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to just lie around in bed and regain my strength. Something told me that that time was rapidly drawing to a close. Something big was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon. I could feel it.

Besides, I was sick of this hospital bed. I wanted to get back out there, rejoin the fray. Maybe that was a bit of Brisk rubbing off on me. Despite everything, that thought made me smile a little.

The sound of metal clad hooves against the floor drew my attention up to the doorway, my eyes needing to adjust for a second after having stared into the bright light on the ceiling for so long. When my blurring vision finally managed to focus, I saw Pyre standing in the doorway, Mirra sitting happily atop her back. Her helmet was currently off, giving me the first good look at her scared face and tired eyes in a long time. The dark bags that had formed under Pyres eyes were a testament to her stress and lack of sleep.

"You ready?" She asked me, not bothering to pass the doors threshold.

I slowly pulled myself out of bed, taking a second to steady myself on my hooves as all the blood rushed to my head. "Ready for what?"

Pyre gave me a grim look. "The war council. Everypony is ready. All we need now is you..."

I could feel my heart thump heavily in my chest at the thought. Had the time really come? I gave a slow nod, trotting over to stand beside her. "I, uh... Yeah. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Pyre gave me a small smirk before raising up her power armour helmet and slipping it back over her head, obscuring her face once more. She turned slightly to look at me one last time, her red tinted visor seemingly glowing in the light of the Institute. "Good. Then come on. We've got a lot of work to do."

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Sorry about how much exposition was in this chapter; It had to happen at some point. Big things are coming, it's only a matter of time...

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat

I hope you all have a great day!