The pain from having lead pumped into my chest was less than I expected it to be. Fuck... I doubt I was rescued.... so probably I've been captured. The sound of a truck engine reached my ears, as it seems they were the first part my body had decided to register information from. Slowly my vision returned to me, sitting across from was one of the humans. He's probably from the group that ambushed us. I blinked a couple times to clear my vision... and my HUD is gone. Fuck, they took my armor. How'd they get it off me? Did they have the armor tools?

"Hey, look who's awake. It's that bird from that portal in the desert." The human across from me said as he smirked a bit, his eyes hidden by a set of heavily tinted glasses. "Well you definitely took a beating, but you ain't as tough as I remember you being. They make you worse armor?" He chuckled.

I glared up at him, keeping my mouth shut. We weren't the only ones in the back of the truck, with two other humans sitting at the exit of it, both in different yet kind of similar gear to the one across from me.

"We were only a scout group. Once the rest of the force arrives, you'll be crushed into the sands. We beat your kind in Manehatten, we can do it again." I growled at the human across from me. It... it laughed back at me.

"Oh yeah? What, it took you like twelve attacks over the course of a year to actually get a breakthrough. And that wasn't even the actual army, those were reservists most of them."

Reservists!? Those were fucking conscripts that beat us so bad?!

It chuckled again. "Well, I see you're having a crisis of belief." He says as the truck lurches a bit as we stop. "Well, we're here. Up, let's go." He says as he pulls a nightstick from somewhere off of his armor vest, and prodded me with it. Not exactly being in a situation to do much resistance, I comply with the order. The sun was starting to set by now, the orange sky still beating down on me with the heat. With a hard smack to my neck, I stopped hating the sky and started moving again. We went off to a concrete building with thick bars over the windows. More of the humans stood guard, these ones wearing matching uniforms unlike my captors. The inside was thankfully air conditioned, the floors cool to the touch. He led me down a hall, and opened one of the cells, pushing me in before shutting it and locking it.

"Cherry? You're alive!?" A young mare's voice spoke from behind me. Looking at it's source, it was Anomaly. The young mare came up and hugged me tightly while I stood there stunned. "Thank God you're alive. I though you were dead when they mag dumped you."

"Yeah... yeah I'm alright... Just shocked is all. I... I expected to just be executed honestly." I respond, trying to get a grip on the situation.

"Well, even if these guys are mercenaries, they still have better morals than General Breeze." She responded as she moved away and sat down at a table as I joined her. "Well, it's been about a day since we were ambushed. The second team was entirely wiped out, and only us two, Golden, and Aurora survived. A few other ponies are here as well from another squad. Don't know from what unit, but we came in on the same truck."

So, we're not off to a good start. Fuck. I looked down at myself, looking at the bandages wrapped up around my chest, some of them stained a bit red. Sweet Luna... I feel like we've made a mistake with this war. "So, Anomaly... what do you know, if anything?"

She took a bit to respond, tapping her hoof on her chin. "Well, from what I've seen here, and my previous experience with a human before this war, we're at a disadvantage. We got a magic advantage, but they've got a magic of there own. Something they call ACE. Also that human that brought you in, that's Sergeant Blackjack. You may know him as the human commander who wiped out your Wonderbolts with a platoon of reservists."

My eyes widened at the news. He's who?!

"Wait, you're saying that that was the one who gave us so much trouble?"

Anomaly nodded. Oh, we've already lost. "Yeah, that's him. He saved me you know? And my mother as well, but she didn't make it sadly. Sometimes I wonder if she'd had survived if we took a different route, but that's in the past now. Nothing we can do now." She says with a shrug.

"I'm sorry Anomaly... I'm sorry you lost your mother. I know how that feels. What about..."

"My father? Killed by raiders. That's what led me to running off, and breaking my leg. Luckily Jack found me, and helped me get back home. Until you guys blew it up anyway." She glares a bit at me, before softening up. "I don't blame you in particular, though. The Enclave itself has my hate, but not you. You seem like a nice enough mare."

We get interrupted when the cell door opens, and a tray with some food is slid in on the floor. I go grab it, and place it on the table. It doesn't seem to bad, not gourmet quality obviously, but definitely better than eating slop. We ate in silence, not talking at all for the next thirty minutes. Anomaly was escorted out buy one of the guards for questioning. I finished the bowl I had, before just laying down in one of the beds. I wasn't exactly that tired, at least not feeling it. I stared at the ceiling for however long before eventually falling asleep. Tomorrow would be another day, and hopefully not the last day of my life.

Author's Note

Who knows why I came back.