Cui Bono

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

“We need to go.” My throat felt raw, and the words took more effort than they should have. “Dragonslayer….”

“Silver,” Flare said in a soft tone that was so unlike him, “I think he can wait; we need to—”

“It's a trick.” It wasn't a trick, but I really wanted to believe it was. It explained… so much: how I got to Bridle Hope so long ago, why ponies so helpfully gave me cybernetics, the burning sensation I thought was caused by star metal. I’d been such an idiot, and now I could see the full extent of my stupidity.

I could feel it, too. It was like a fire in my veins, and now that I knew it was there, I couldn't get rid of it. It surged through me, an immense magical power. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt it inside me, like it would burst forth and melt my body like the other subjects. Or maybe it would consume me slowly, turn me into a twisted monster so far detached from my equinity that I wouldn't be able to see it anymore. Like Simple Heart.

“Silver, c'mon, you're not stupid enough to think—” Flare kept talking.

“If Momma says it's a trick, it's a trick,” Serenity said sternly. She was still holding her gun in her magic, and I could feel it in my shoulder. The burning.

Flare opened his mouth, but I gave him one of my patented glares, and he slowly closed it. “We can talk about it later.” Yes, later. It was a trick, maybe. At the least, he was trying to weaken my resolve. I couldn't let it work.

“We do not care what is supposedly inside you,” Platinum Haze said. “We know that you are you, and we trust you, so we shall not let this come between us.” She gave me an unsure smile, but when I smiled back hers got wider and more confident.

“You too, Haze….”

I started walking towards the remains of the window, lowering myself so Serenity could jump on my back, to make it easier for her to get through. When I made it to the other side of the wall I was suddenly standing face-to-face with Wallkirk.

“I would like to examine you.” He was getting very close to examining one of Subtlety's bullets. “If what that video insinuates is true, you are something of a remarkable—”

I pushed my metal hoof against his… mouth? Whatever. It shut him up. “Shut up.” I pushed past the robot, ignoring the dirty look the face gave me.

I couldn't think about it, even if it seemed the rest of the world wanted me to. At least not until Dragonslayer was dead and his games were over.

“You know, Hired,” Flare followed after me swiftly, “technically what I said was: I was going to go with you until you found Serenity.”

“Hi, Flare!” Serenity jumped off my back and onto his, hugging him around the neck. “I missed you too.”

“You too, kiddo! Not your smell though.” Serenity giggled at Flare, though I wasn't sure why. “Anyway, Hired. I know I said that, but I think I'll extend that a little bit longer.”

“You want to turn Dragonslayer to ash too.” I said with a forced smirk. “The more the merrier.”

“Uh…” Platinum Haze walked over to the two of us, looking concerned. “We know we said we would not interfere, but we must inquire if killing him is truly the most profitable option available to us. Certainly there are other ways of dealing with him without murder?”

“Nope,” Flare said.

“No,” I replied after.

“Nuh-uh.” Serenity added a shake of her head to give her statement more impact.

“I doubt it,” Wallkirk said last, not that anyone cared what he thought.

“We simply mean that perhaps he has useful knowledge, and that hearing him out might be a wiser course of action. From what we have heard and seen of his actions, we deduce he is most likely proud, and if he thinks we are about to die anyway, he might be more loose with his words.”

I gave Haze a long, hard look, but when I saw how sad her eyes looked I had trouble continuing my previous line of thought. “I…” I chewed briefly on my lip. “I'll talk… but chances are I'll…”

“We understand.” She leaned down to give me a kiss on the cheek, but she stopped short at my still-bloodied form; so she pulled back, picked up a rag from her bag to wipe my face off (much to my protest), and then kissed it.

“Now fuck!” Flare said loudly.

I gave him a glare that let him know that I didn't approve of that sort of thing, at least not around Serenity. It didn't stop him from laughing to himself. It was nice, just hearing him laugh, it took my mind off… everything.

I sighed, ignoring the alien feeling inside, and kept walking. I wasn't sure at first that I was heading the right direction but then I saw monitors on the wall with brightly coloured arrows pointing me in the right direction. It didn't take long for us to reach a large set of double doors that seemed to beckon us.

“Knock knock.” I muttered to myself as I bucked the doors wide open.

The room we entered was… large. Not just large, cavernous. I had thought before the building was some sort of stadium, but I wasn't so sure anymore. There were no seats, just sheer walls all around until it reached what looked like the curved ceiling above, but it was hard to see with such little light. It was as if a stadium had been built without the intention of anyone actually watching.

“It took you long enough,” a voice said, stopping the five of us just outside of the doorway. It was coming from… something in the middle of the stadium that seemed to cover most of the floor. Just a huge mound of… stuff. Computer parts, building materials, at least one entire house, gems, caps, broken guns, just anything you could imagine in a giant pile. Walking on top of the pile was none other than Dragonslayer. “Hired Gun, Flare, Serenity… uh,” he looked at Platinum Haze, “I don't know who you are… or your robot. Does your robot have a name?”

“No,” Wallkirk said.

“Oh, good, easier for me to remember.” Dragonslayer started to walk down the mound, a sway in his steps. “What, you aren't going to shoot me?” He grinned.

“Take another step.” Subtlety's scope flipped up over my eye. “And I will. You wanted to talk? Talk. You brought me here for a reason.”

“To kill you, and I will be getting to that part. It'll be about time too, Celestia knows I've tried.” He stopped at the bottom of the mound of… stuff. “But first, I have a question. Have you figured it out yet?” Before I could ask what I was supposed to figure out, he clarified: “Figured out who I work for? Who made you so… special?”

“The Enclave,” I said at once. It was the only answer that made sense given everything I knew. How else could they transport me to wherever they… yeah.

“The Steel Rangers,” Flare said quickly. He looked over at me. “What? Makes more sense than your answer.”

“It was the NCA obviously,” Wallkirk said stiffly.

“We have not been in the city for long, but if we had to guess, it is probably the minotaurs,” Platinum Haze offered.

“Don't matter, some jerks,” Serenity finished.

Dragonslayer just smiled. “Hired was closest… we work with parts of the Enclave Remnants and organized the recent coup, but I don't work for them. Any other guesses?” He made a sharp whistling sound when nobody answered and the sprite-bot robot thing that had been stalking us floated up to him bobbing ever so slightly. Now that I got a good look it seemed really well worn.

“A long time ago, when our founder was but a colt in Eye Glow, he wandered outside the city. He was always a lonely child, timid and afraid of his peers, until he found this half buried under rubble.” He tapped the robot. “He brought it back to his home and repaired it, and when he did, he found a message recorded in it. The message was short, but powerful, and it changed a lot of things.” He tapped a button and a voice started to play.

“The portal to hell is paved with good intentions… the ponies of the past made mistakes… to get back to where we were we need to do better. Do better. You can't stand by and watch… you need to act, to do something good before it's too late. Who am I? I guess you can call me The Watcher.”

My eyes went wide. That… Dragonslayer couldn't be implying with that what it sounded like he was implying. That was impossible.

“Clean Cutt made the Watchers in the years following, he grew and cultivated them.” No… the Watchers couldn't be doing this. That didn't make any sense.

“NO!” Serenity screamed, pointing her gun at Dragonslayer. “Take that back! They'd… They'd never do that to Momma, or me! They're nice! Take it back!”

Dragonslayer just smiled. “You may not understand his methods, but you can all understand his motives. He came to Dise with a bright heart, ready to give unto the wasteland, to grow it, and what did he find? Desolation of morality. The basest sins on every corner, the greatest surviving technologies in the wasteland kept in hiding by feuding gangs, and an endless war that left innocents dead. Without a central authority, Dise is a death trap, sucking you in with honey before closing its mouth and trapping you.

“Do any of you truly understand what the city has? It has a water treatment plant. A plant that purifies water of magical radiation, and even if radiation can seep back in what that means is beyond compare! Think of how many children died of thirst or of radiation poisoning because there was no clean water! And Dise refused to share, the Mustangs too scared of losing their only edge. And the megaspell power plant, to think what ponies could do with that technology. These two things could be copied and rebuilt, and could you imagine how the wasteland would look then! But their usefulness is squirrelled away, helping Dise continue its torture of ponies’ souls.

“Something had to be done, but how? You can't build an army large enough to take over the city, you can't take the technology for yourself. The city is too fractured to properly fight, or control. So you either walk away… or do something drastic.

“Dise can't be fixed, and it can't be fought conventionally. So it needs to be wiped out. Not… what you're thinking. We aren't espousing genocide or anything like that; we're talking a revolution. Dise is a powder-keg, and eventually it was going to collapse in on itself, so we chose to speed up the project. Incite war, chaos, anarchy, let each faction blame their neighbour until the war threatens the civilians so much that they must run away to survive. Dise the city will die, like it was destined to from its inception.

“But from it we can build something great. From the destruction of the idea of Dise we can build a true paradise. We have been storing supplies, we have a small army of volunteers loyal to our cause and when the city turns to dust we will ride in and save it. The Watchers will be the heroes who saves Dise, and then the wasteland, when we get access to the technology the gangs have been hiding. We will spread the technology from here to Canterlot to Roam and everywhere in between. With it we can rebuild what was lost, we as a society can do better!

“Can you truly tell me this is not an honourable cause? You of all ponies have seen Dise at its worst. It's an impenetrable and unforgiving hellhole that sucks life from all who enter. It is not worth saving and… yes there will be losses, ponies caught up in the chaos, but we're doing what we can to lower the collateral damage. The megaspells we put in ponies are low yield with limited explosive potential, and spread low, manageable levels of radiation. But even if a thousand ponies get caught up, more would be lost if we didn't go through it…. Do you understand what we're trying to accomplish?”

I wasn't sure I did… he was trying his damnedest to paint everything they'd done in a good light. To explain why what they were doing was good, and part of me wanted to buy into it. That The Watchers were pushed into the fight by forces against their will, and are trying to save the wasteland through it….

But to do that by sowing chaos, sticking megaspells into ponies, and kidnapping fillies. Was the only way to save the wasteland to become a monster? There had to be another way…

“Momma, don't listen to him.” Serenity looked up to me with pleading eyes. “He's lying: he's not with the Watchers; it's a trick…. He can't be; they're good ponies.”

“We are unsure, Silver. He speaks of wanting to help but his actions are horrendous. In this way he reminds us of mother, but we cannot condone his actions regardless of any noble intent.” Platinum Haze looked down at me.

“If he wasn't such a dickbag I might be inclined to give him the time of day, but fuck him. Scrap him and talk to Clean Cutt, see what the real score is,” Flare suggested.

“He's threatening Dise, he's clearly mad,” Wallkirk added… helpfully?

I looked between my companions, unsure what to say. If he was right and what they did really would save more than they lost, wouldn't it be a good thing? If the end result was peace. I didn't know. “Why are you telling us this?” I said slowly, uncertainty still twisting in my stomach.

“The usual reasons. This is the part where I reach my hoof out to you,”—he mimicked the motion—“and plead: ‘We can save the world together, join us.’” He smirked. “Then you say: 'No, I'll never join you!' At which point I pull out this,”—his horn lit up and a remote floated out of his backpack—“and tell you that if you don't, I'll blow you up.”

“What!” My eyes went wide again. “Y-you can't!” I could feel the fire rising up in my chest again, waiting to burst. “You…” That remote, it was the same one he used the day he blew up the Laughing Stallion. And I didn't blow up then. He couldn't detonate me (And what a weird sentence that was). “You can't. …You've tried before.”

Dragonslayer smirked and threw the remote to the ground. “Well, you called my bluff. I guess I'll have to stick with the standard question. 'Join me and save the world, or deny me and die.'”

“I…” I looked at my friends, studying their features, remembering that I trusted them. “You kidnapped Serenity, killed The Batmare, and killed Pinprick making Spitshine an orphan. Everything else.. whatever morality you're saying. Maybe you're right. Maybe it'd be worth it. Maybe it'd be justified. Maybe you'd save the wasteland. But after what you've done… I can't join you.” I started to aim Subtlety. “Sorry. Goodbye.”

“I see,” he said calmly. “I figured it would be a waste, but five minutes of my time was worth the effort to try. You can kill them.”

The ground shook throwing off my aim.

“What the-” I started looking back towards Dragonslayer… past Dragonslayer.

Behind him and rising fast was a mountain of flesh and purple scales. From behind the giant mound of miscellaneous crap, a dragon rose.

It opened its mouth. I barely had the chance to see the flames before I felt the heat of them on me.

Only… they stopped. The flames crashed into a transparent purple vale, swirling around it and us like a vortex from hell. “Haze!” I said turning to the alicorn as soon as I recognized where it came from. The alicorn's horn was glowing in bright layers, and sweat was trickling down her face as she strained.

“W-we… advise you… to… get ready,” she grunted, bracing herself as if she was being physically pushed.

The fire died down as fast as it came, leaving a semicircle of flames still in front of us.

“Now!” she cried dropping her shield and turning. I grabbed Serenity with a leg and threw her onto my back, then ran back the way we came before the dragon got another chance!

We had barely managed to run down the hallway and duck into a side hall before a jet of orange death covered the corridor, leaving it a black and smoking ruin. “Fuck!” I shouted. “Fuck fuck fuck!” I looked around frantically. “We need to… fuck!”

I kept running, even though I didn't need to. The dragon couldn't fit in the hallway, it was too big… but if it wanted it could destroy the entire building. But even if we got out where would we go… there was no getting out of this one. If only I had my balefire egg launcher.

“Flare!” I turned to him. “I need you… once we get outside. Take Serenity to the boat. Get as far away as possible.”

“But Momma!” Serenity looked scared… or was it determined, it was hard to tell sometimes. “You said… you said you wouldn't leave me again!”

Somewhere deep in the building there was a great mechanical groan so powerful it seemed to shake the floor.

“Serenity I… I know I said that but…,”—She bit her lip—“keeping you safe is more important.” She started to pout, so I kneeled down and gently caressed her cheek. “Sweetie. I know you want to keep me safe… but you have to do this. I can't bear to lose you, not so soon after getting you back. I promise this will be the last time… but this… this is too much.”

She sniffled but eventually nodded. “O-okay. But this better be the last time.”

“Thanks…” I kissed her forehead and looked up at Flare. “Take her to the ship, wait for me… I know you've been meaning to go back to the pegasi and everything but…”

“No sweat, Hired. Those traitorous dogs don't need me killing them right away, I'm sure; they'll still be alive if it takes a day or so longer.” I was pretty sure Flare was smirking under his armour. “Just, you know, try not to die. I know your barding is supposed to be fireproof, but it's not that fireproof.”

“Yeah.” I nodded grimly. “Once we get outside, I'll distract the dragon, then you fly away. It's me Dragonslayer wants dead, so he shouldn't follow you.”

“What shall we do?” Platinum Haze was dutifully scanning the hallways as we took time to talk. “We do not like to fight…”

“I know…” I got back to my hooves and walked over to her. I had meant to kiss her on the cheek, but she was too tall and didn't seem to get my meaning. “Uh… just… you have other spells. Stop Dragonslayer from getting close. Use your shield if you can. You don't need to fight to be helpful.” I looked over at Wallkirk, his screen displaying a knowing smile.

“Yes? Oh, do you have commands?”

“Don't you have any like… weapons?” I asked.

“Of course, this platform has a rocket launcher with five missiles, and a large magical energy cannon,” the computer robot thing said.

“Right… just… shoot. Try to hit Dragonslayer. If he shows his face. He'll be easier to hurt.”

“Don't you trust my abilities?” I trusted him about as far as I could throw him… and I wasn't even sure what that meant.

I didn't bother replying to him because I felt it was just a stupid question anyway. I just walked past him and down the hallway. The first thing we had to do was get out of the building… and after that… I wasn't even sure.

---

We eventually found the way we came in: a giant hole in the exterior wall that looked like it had been burned and blackened. A roaring sound from outside reminded me what it was that made the opening. “How did he even get out?” I wondered aloud, though it was probably a stupid question.

“The stadium was built with a retractable roof,” Wallkirk explained, finally doing something helpful.

I turned back to him and raised an eyebrow.

“It's a training facility for pegasi; it was designed so pegasi could practice manoeuvres without being spied on from above,”—another design based on the assumption of a war against Equestria no doubt—“but some required more room, or more height.” I still wasn't sure that reasoning made sense, but he had been around back then so I would have to take his word for it.

“Right.” I peeked my head outside the hole and looked around to make sure Dragonslayer wasn't waiting for us. “Okay, Flare, Serenity.” I looked over to them. “Haze, Wallkirk, and I are going to make a run for it, and try to grab their attention. Wait until we're followed, then you two make a break for it.”

“Alright… just try not to die, if you die I swear I'll kill you.” Flare said.

“But, Momma,”—I looked down at Serenity—“how are you gunna, like… kill it after we leave?”

The ground shook when the dragon roared again.

“Leave that to me.” I said to disguise the fact I didn't really have a clue. “I mean. I've survived getting shot in the face twice, those landsharks, the Facility, and that giant scorpion. I'm good.” I gave my most convincing smile, but from the look in Serenity's eyes I knew it wasn't enough.

“Aright.” She climbed onto Flare's back. “Just…,” she chewed on her lip and lowered her gaze, “promise me y’all come back?”

“I promise,” I said sternly, before leaning down and kissing her forehead, “Nothing will keep me from you.” That seemed to be acceptable given her smile, so I turned away looking between Wallkirk and Platinum Haze. “Okay! We make a run for the building with the bridge we came through. That should be enough to draw their attention.”

“We can manage that.” Platinum Haze nodded. “We will prepare our shield spell, but we regret to inform you we cannot use it while moving.”

“Affirmative,” Wallkirk said, his back panel opening up and revealing a selection of rather large weapons. “Just getting ready.”

“Alright, go!” I was going to count to three and then run, but I didn't want to take any longer than I had to.

Mere metres out of the building I heard a great thudding of flapping wings, and another roar. As fast as we were going it didn't take long for us to be completely covered by a giant black shadow. I gritted my teeth and pushed myself faster, wishing I had dash or something to help me along.

It didn't help that both Platinum Haze and Wallkirk were faster than me, and I was losing ground every second.

The dragon roared once more, so close now I could feel it blow my mane. The thudding of wings got closer, and I remembered how stupid I was, and why I should never be allowed to make plans.

The dragon would have caught me too, but Platinum Haze tripped mid stride. She hit the ground hard on her chin, and I zoomed past her without even registering what happened until a second later. I looked back and saw the dragon descending on her, claws outstretched as if to grab her.

“Fuck!” I pivoted and turned towards her. I ran. I wasn't sure what I was planning to do when I got to her. With the dragon swooping down that fast, there was nothing I really could do, but I couldn't just leave her there! So I ran at her, and when I got over her, I jumped.

The dragon reached out, as I passed over her. Its claw wrapped around me tight, and I could feel it begin to squeeze. “Run!” I choked out to Haze. She looked conflicted for a second, but as I began to rise with the dragon she must've agreed; she got to her hooves and scrambled off.

The claws tightened around me. I gasped for breath, and I swear I heard my ribs cracking when the dragon squeezed making it feel like my chest was on fire.

There was a whistling sound, and explosion so close that it almost made me go deaf. Then the squeezing stopped, and I gasped for breath as I fell.

I hit the ground hard, and pain surged through my body as I rolled across the dirt. I flopped to a halt beside Wallkirk, and when I looked up at him I saw his rocket launcher smoking.

“You can't die yet,” he said as I groaned and got to my hooves. “Let’s go.” He swivelled and turned to the entrance to the building we were heading towards. It was thankfully close. I got to my hooves and galloped the rest of the way.

As I burst through the doors, I turned back to look and make sure Flare had left, and sure enough, far in the distance and getting further was a winged black speck. “Good,” I said slamming the doors behind me.

“We must apologize!” Haze said upon seeing me, running up to hug me with her wings. “We did not intend to fall in that manner, we are not very good at running and… we are sorry, we should not have left you.”

“It's fine.” I groaned, rubbing my ribs with my hoof. “It was an accident. Just be more careful.” Platinum Haze nodded vigorously, blood dripping off her chin as she did. Most of the lower part of her muzzle and neck were covered in blood. “Fuck, are you okay? You fell hard.”

Platinum Haze brought up a hoof and gently prodded the scraped and peeled flesh, flinching a bit when she did, and again when she saw blood covering her hoof. “We are fine.” She grimaced. “It was not a graceful fall, but we do not imagine the injury is serious enough to cause us to pause; though our wing is still injured as well, so if we do happen upon a healing potion….”

“So what’s the plan now?” Wallkirk interrupted. “My body is completely disposable, but the same cannot be said for the two of you, so unless you're hiding a teleport spell….”

I wasn't that concerned with what happened to me. From what I'd seen, I was going to die soon anyway: it was only a matter of time before the megaspell melted me from the inside out, and if it didn't do the trick the starmetal would. With a groan, I rubbed my forehead and tried to focus, but with everything that had happened it was hard.

“This is a military base, are we correct?” Platinum Haze asked. “Because if it is, would we not be able to deduce that there is probably some weaponry nearby?”

Wallkirk answered that for me. “Before the war this facility was primarily responsible for the training of new recruits, as well as other training programs, not for operational storage or field tests…. However, the NCA used it frequently for the transportation of materiel, so it's possible.”

That was… something. Not quite hope, but the closest approximation to it. “Where?” Wallkirk turned to me, the face on the screen looking disapproving. “I mean. Where do you think?” He really wouldn't know exactly where the NCA kept their weapons, but he might have an idea. More than me at least.

“There… was a rather rather large building that was used to house air transports and the like,” Wallkirk said, a picture of said building showing up on his screen, “but it's close to where the previous megaspell went off, so even if anything is there, there’s no guarantee of any of it working.”

“We can't run,” I grunted and pointed in the direction of the bridge. “So we have to fight. Our weapons aren't good enough… so we have to have…” I wanted to say hope, but the plan was lacking in anything of the sort. Maybe if I grabbed that balefire egg launcher I had stashed in the BS… but that seemed lost to me since I had burned bridges with Mr. House.

“What if there are no weapons there?” Platinum Haze asked, following behind me quickly. “Or we reach there only to find it all destroyed? After fighting our way there we cannot imagine we would have the strength to look elsewhere.”

“Then…” I looked back at Platinum Haze for only a second before turning my gaze forward and shutting my mouth. I had no encouraging words to give. Serenity was safe, and I was certain we were just biding time until our death.

If we were going to die though, it had to be a good death. We'd go down fighting… but we would go down.

“Then what? We do not believe you have finished your entire thought.” She was never good at taking a hint, was she?

“Nothing.” I kept walking, letting her suss out my meaning on her own. As oblivious as she could be, I figured she was smart enough to realize the implication of fighting a dragon without anything that could kill a dragon. She didn't say anything further as she followed me through the dusty building, so I could only assume she eventually understood.

It didn't take long for us to reach the bridge that lead to the other part of the building, and it remained eerily quiet the whole time. Which was good because the only way to make my impending death feel worse would be listening to Wallkirk as I waited, but at the same time it was… unnerving. There was a dragon nearby, and I couldn't hear it… that's really not the sort of creature you want sneaking up on you.

As we reached the bridge I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A bathroom, by the looks of the door anyway. I didn't remember seeing it before, but I wasn't about to argue good fortune. Platinum Haze's wing was still injured, and if we were to find a healing potion that would be the most likely place. “You two keep going,” I said as I veered off course, “I'll only be a second.”

I assumed they’d listened; by the time I entered the darkened bathroom they weren't following me.

There's really not much I can say about a bathroom. It was dark, but my cybernetic eye made it so that wasn’t a problem. There were half collapsed stalls and glass all over the floors and around the surprisingly still intact sinks. And there was writing on the wall (in blood, of course) that said something depressing, so I didn't waste my time on it. I didn't need any help on that front.

There was also a lovely little pale yellow box with three butterflies on it. I'll never know whose idea it was to put these medical boxes in every bathroom, but I loved whoever they were…

I also hated them, because for some reason they also saw fit to lock said medical boxes. What was even the point of that? Not that it stopped me at all, a tiny lock was no match to a sharp kick. There was a resounding smash and the box’s contents were open to me.

The final tally of useful medicine (Not including the pointless rolls of bandages) were: two healing potions (there had been three, but my kick broke one…), a RadAway, and two syringes of Med-X.

I looked to the bathroom door quickly to make sure nobody was coming in before taking one of the syringes and jamming it into the nearest vein on my leg. It had been a while since my last once, and I needed the relief. Nothing like facing ones death high.

Which was a term I never really understood. When I grew up I got all these lectures about how drugs would tweak me out of my mind, make me be unable to control my body, and everything else… but with Med-X it was never like that. Alcohol was more likely to make me lose control, Med-X just made everything… easier to deal with. I think.

Whatever, I was tired of people giving me lectures. Who knew better what I needed to survive than me?

When I was done with that I tossed the empty syringe onto the ground, gathered up the rest of the supplies, and headed back out the door. I couldn't have been gone for more than a few minutes, but sure enough, Platinum Haze and Wallkirk were already most of the way across the bridge. I trotted off to join them.

But I stopped. For a second I heard something, like a giant flapping of wings…

I jumped back just in time. The ground shook beneath me, and there was a great crash followed quickly by a plume of dust. It all happened so fast I could barely see, but when I opened my eyes the bridge was gone, demolished, and there was the body of a dragon in its place. The creature looked at me for a split second before roaring and flying off, leaving destruction in its wake.

Across the gap I could see Wallkirk and Haze were shaken, but thankfully unharmed. I opened my mouth to yell out for them, but before I got a word out I saw Haze's horn start to glow.

BANG BANG BANG

Had I not recently had some Med-X I would have jumped, but instead I turned quickly (when I did I finally noticed that I was surrounded by a purple bubble shield) to see a grinning Dragonslayer behind me.

“Damn, you caught on,” he said as the shield around me faded.

I looked back quickly to Haze and Wallkirk and shouted, “Keep going!” They seemed confused, yet turned to run off. I looked back to my enemy. “Just you, no dragon?”

“There's so many of you, we need to split up the work. At least until we find out where your little friends went scurrying off to.” He didn't seem to realize they were escaping the fight, and I wasn't about to correct him. “Besides, I want you all to myself!”

He charged, pulling a dagger out of seemingly nowhere with that magic of his. I tried to track him with Subtlety, but the shot I fired missed. He was too close, and too fast. Before I had the chance to fire a second shot he was beside me, his blade raking through my armour and across my ribs.

With a shocked gasp I turned, lashing out sideways with my metal hoof, but I hit nothing but air. Too fast. He was too damn fast. I backed up quickly as I finished my turn, firing off a few quick shots with Subtlety. I didn't expect them to hit him, I just needed to scare him off before he could get close.

It seemed to work, because by the time I backed up a few steps we had switched places, me facing him and him with his back to where the bridge once was. “You could just die. Fall on my blade. I promise I won’t think any less of you…”

“Fuck off.” I brought up Subtlety. It was a good gun, but nearly useless at such short ranges.

“This way you won’t blow up when you die. No collateral damage. Just you.”

“I won’t anyway. Your trigger doesn't work.”

“You assume that's the only way to set you off.” There was something decidedly wrong about his smile. “You've got it all wrong, my dear. The chip that House's surgeons moronically broke is just an intermediary between the magic trigger and the bomb. The bomb inside you is still active, and there is more than one way to set it off.” Out of his bag he pulled out a small syringe with something glowing and white inside it. “Now stay still….”

That wasn't happening. His little vial of something awful came flying towards me in a burst of magic and I ducked right, the vial of whatever it was missing me by a mile. Something else scraped against my neck though. Fuck, I hadn't even seen him throw his knife. It was shallow, but still!

I straightened myself as quick as I could and bit down on my bit, ready to end him once and for all.

No bullets came out of Subtlety…

I bit harder but it didn't do anything except hurt my teeth. In shock I looked down trying to figure out what the problem was. Then I saw it. The knife Dragonslayer threw wasn't aimed at me, it was aimed at the cord that connected the firing bit to my battle-saddle. “Fuck.”

BANG.

I stumbled back when a round slammed into my shoulder. Pain flared, but the Med-X from before was enough to dull it slightly. “This has been fun.” Dragonslayer looked so Celestia-damned smug. “But it's time to end this. I'm sorry it had to come to this but we can't have you mucking up everything.”

I refused to let him win… not like this. I didn't have my gun, but I was killing ponies long before I got it! So I did the only thing I could do, I charged.

There was a brief look of shock on his face, and the sound of a gunshot barely missing me, then I hit him.

We slammed together with such force our hooves left the ground. We soared out, over the gap where the bridge once was. We fell and fell and fell until we came to a sudden stop in the rubble below.

---

“…Get up. You have to get up.” Through tear-blurred eyes, I saw Wildfire kneeling above me, tears streaming down her face. “I can't lose you, too….”

I reached a hoof out to her. To touch her, embrace her, promise her I was okay and everything would be alright… but my hoof passed through her, and her body turned to red mist blowing away with the dust.

“Wildfire….” My voice was sore… as was the rest of me…. High above I could see the ruined building, and the ragged hole I fell from. It was so high up. I would ask myself how I survived a fall like that, but I've had worse. Though last time I was in a hospital for a month, even with the help of healing potions.

I rolled to my hooves. Or rather I attempted to, as my legs collapsed from under me when I tried. “Fuck.” I groaned, digging into my bags. The two healing potions I had intended to give to Platinum Haze were there, and they were delicious. I'm sure Haze wouldn't mind me taking them, considering the circumstances.

They did their job well enough to help me stand and walk, but they weren't enough. “Fuck,” I said as I tried to walk without constantly wincing. I still had some extra Med-X in my bag, and it was damned tempting to take another to help me along, but I didn't want to overdo it, not when I still had a bastard to kill.

The rubble I was standing in barely looked like a bridge anymore, it was just a mess of stone, metal, and glass… and amongst it somewhere was Dragonslayer.

I heard a cough.

So I followed it to find Dragonslayer halfway down the rubble pile from me, with a piece of rebar sticking through his back and out his stomach.

As I stood over his crumpled form I realized that I had forgotten just how small he was. Skinnier than Flare, shorter than Pearly, and with his barding torn open, I could count every rib in his chest at glance. His skinny legs, pawing uselessly at the rebar through him, were lacking any definition, anything that looked like strength. I was nearly twice the size of him, I realized.

He’d always been so much bigger in my imagination. A smug figure thwarting me at every turn, an opponent to fight and defeat. But he never was. He didn't get the better of me by being stronger, or faster, he beat me by moving diagonal when I charged straight on. Like this, without his tricks, and schemes, and plans… he was nothing.

I felt a little bit of pity for him in that moment, but just for a moment, then I remembered all he had done.

My metal hoof pressed into his forehead, eliciting a gasp. “You're going to die. If you want to beg forgiveness. Do it now.”

“D-do you—” He coughed. “D-d-do you know what we did to h-her?”

I pressed harder. “Who.”

“Y-y-your d-daughter.” There was a faint smirk on his mouth, somewhat undone by the way blood had matted his mane over half his face.

“What did you do to her?” I ground my teeth. He’d had her for so long, and if they could plant a megaspell in me in less than a week, I could only imagine what horrors they could do to her. “Tell me.”

“N-nevermind.” His smirk grew as the sun above us was suddenly and immediately shadowed. “You'd never believe me.”

A second too late I realized it had just been another one of his tricks. But by then the dragon was on top of me, wrapping its claw around me and dragging me into the sky. “EAT HER!” I heard Dragonslayer yell from the ground before screaming in pain from the effort.

The dragon pulled me high into the air. The roof of the giant stadium passed by (it had been opened at some point), and soon the entire chasm was far below. We were so high up I could see the many canyons laid out before me. It looked liked somepony had dragged a giant dagger across the surface of the earth, but as we grew higher I realized just how small the canyon was in the grand scheme of things.

There was just so much ground below me. To the east I could see as far as the river we’d come down on, but it was so small the details were lost to me. To the north I swear I could see the vaguest hint of Dise's skyscrapers on the Horizon, but it might have been wishful thinking.

Suddenly the dragon let me go, and I was flung into the sky. My hooves flailed as I soared against my will. Looking down I could see the Dragon's open maw ready to swallow me whole. A pink and black pit. What a way to die.

Survive

Except I wasn't dead. There was time. And I didn't want to die.

There was still work left undone, ponies to protect, but it was more than that. I wanted to live, because I just wasn't ready to die. Since Foundation, I kept living for other ponies, but this time I wanted to live for me.

I started to fall, and so did my options. The mouth came rushing towards me, and I tried to remember all the times I'd seen Flare fly. I lacked wings, but something still had to be applicable, right?!

I angled my body so I was pointing away from the creature's mouth. Still, it wasn't working. Falling too fast. I didn't have wings, but I needed something to move me.

Then the idea hit me, almost too late. I kicked my good hind-leg into my cybernetic one.

BANG!

My leg hurt like a bitch, but when the shotgun went off it was just enough. I landed with meaty thwack into the corner of the dragon's mouth before bouncing off.

I was free! Sort of. I mean, I wasn't food, so that was good, but I was still hurtling uncontrollably down a dragon's neck. At least until I slammed into the dragon's shoulder, fell off onto the dragon's leathery wing and started rolling down that instead. Out of options, and closely reaching the end of the wing that would send me off into even more certain death, I let the sword in my leg spring forth and stabbed downwards.

The blade slowed me with a sudden jerk as it tore a hole through the beast. Eventually it managed to slow me enough to stop, but I swear I could hear my metal leg strain in the effort.

“GET OFF ME!” The dragon's voice rumbled through the air liked thunder as it suddenly dove straight down.

Wind whipped against my body as we surged downwards, and my hind-legs flailed in the air. Still my sword kept steady, but I could hear the joint start to creek and stretch. I'd have to find some way to get down relatively safely and soon, or my leg was going to break off and I'd find a less safe way to get down.

I didn't even realize how far we had dropped until the creature turned to the side and I could see down. We were closer to the ground, but a fall at that height still wouldn't end well for me. Not that anything I did ended well for me.

The only hope I had was to try and dislodge my blade and try to land on a building high enough that it would only break one of my two remaining legs, then I could limp to safety. I realized then, as I was hurtling through the air on the back of a dragon, that I was probably going to die despite my dramatic resolution to live… and I didn't really care. That's not to say I wasn't afraid (how could I not be?), but that I knew I was probably going to die. Still, I refused to be resigned to that fact. I chose to fight it, because stupidity is always an option.

Then the stupid choice appeared to me. The six-story building near the stairs out of the canyon that I had searched earlier was closing in on us, and it looked high enough to fall on. I didn't have time to aim properly, so as soon as it looked reasonably close I yanked on my sword, tearing it from the dragon's leathery wing.

I started to slide down the wing. Then roll. Then I felt suddenly weightless as I rolled off the side of the beast. The feeling lasted as long as it took me to crash, back first, onto the top of the building.

I could barely hear the dragon’s roar over my pained scream. Those screams turned to gasps as the sharpness of the pain turned to a dull throbbing all over my body. I was alive. Somehow… I wanted to laugh, or cry, or maybe both. It seemed funny to me that I had lived. After all that.

Perhaps it was a bit of a premature reaction, because as I rose to my shaky hooves, I felt the ground shift beneath me. The dragon had landed. I had just turned to where I’d heard it land when I saw it rise above the building, its claws digging into the roof to stabilize itself. The beast looked down at me, and even from the sixth floor building it was still towering over me. Its eyes burned a fiery red as it opened its mouth. Rows upon rows of sharp teeth lay within, and for a second I saw a spark of a flame inside.

BOOM

The grisly vision was gone in a sudden explosion. Another impacted the dragon's forehead, and it recoiled, roaring in pain. The third and the fourth made the beast reconsider its attempt to set me on fire, and it chose instead to beat a hasty retreat.

“You know, Hired,” Flare's voice boomed as I saw his black armoured form land beside me, “you sure do get yourself in trouble a lot.”

“Yeah.” I took a seat on the roof, either that or my legs gave out, but I like the first interpretation better. “You don't say.” Serenity jumped off Flare’s back looking very pleased with herself. “What are you two doing here…”

“Saving your life.” I could hear Flare smirking even though I couldn't see his face. “You look like shit, by the way.” I couldn't argue with that. During one of my dramatic falls I must have cracked open my skull because the blood running down half plastered my mane to my face.

“Thanks.” I looked over at Serenity, trying my best not to look annoyed. They shouldn't have come back, it defeated the whole point of getting them away. “Doesn't answer my question though.”

“Well…” Serenity scrunched up her face in thought. “Well, because ya can't protect me… well ya can, but only if you're with me. I ain't stupid, I can see. The world's a big messed up place, and if ya step down the wrong alley, or even the right alley at the wrong time ya ain't gunna live long. You can't hide me away and expect me ta live. Sure, I could go and hide on that boat, but last time we were on'a boat it was attacked by pirates, and you went'n drove'em off. If you weren't there, who knows what would'a happened. So the way I figure it, if ya want ta protect me, like really wanna, the best way ta do that is be nearby. And that way I can protect you too.”

“But it's dangerous here, there's the dragon an—”

Serenity cut me off. “The whole world's dangerous! True, some are less than others, but if I hadda bet on what was the safest place in the whole wide wasteland, I’d have'ta say by your side.”

“Serenity…” I had to try and talk some sense into her. There was a dragon flying about, it wasn't a time for games.

“No, don't. Momma…” She took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. “I'm staying. So I can protect you, and you can protect me.”

I gave her a stern gaze, to show her I didn't approve, but she met my gaze and didn't back down. Eventually I gave a reluctant sigh and said, “Okay.”

“Now aren't we a big ol' happy family!” Flare said putting a leg around my neck. “So charming, so heartfelt. The emotions! If I weren't so jaded I would cry.”

“Get off me.” I said harshly, and Flare did, but only with a chuckle. “Flare, go find Platinum Haze and that robot. They were heading this way. From the building with the bridge. We'll find a way down, meet you outside. Unless the dragon comes back.”

“A fine plan! Really it is.” Flare flapped his wings and took to the air. I don't know how he did it, but I could always tell he was grinning even when he was in full armour. “Try not to get eaten while I'm away.” And with that he zipped off across the canyon.

“We can probably get down through here!” I heard Serenity yell. Somehow in my brief conversation with Flare she had managed to run across the roof and was staring down a hole made by the dragon's claws. As I walked over to the massive gouges I was… greatly discouraged by the fact that the holes were easily big enough for me to fit through.

“Right…” I leaned down and peered into the building, there didn't look to be anything dangerous below. “Here goes nothing.” With a hop I landed onto the dark floor below. It smelled like smoke and sweat.

---

The fight I had with the ghouls had gutted a lot of the interior of the building with fire, but the fire had tapered off leaving only the faint scent of smoke and blackened walls wherever the fire had spread to. Every so often, echoing through the halls, I could hear a ghoul's cry, but none came near us. Maybe somewhere in deep recesses of their broken minds they remembered me.

So it was safe-ish, and the building was large enough that it was going to take a while to get out. “Serenity,” I said slowly, “I need to tell you something.”

For once she was walking beside me, not riding on my back, so she stopped and looked up at me. “What is it, Momma?” I couldn't help but smile when she called me that.

“Walk and talk,” I said continuing on my way, not talking until I heard her catch up with me. It was easier this way because I wouldn't have to look at her. “I… a while ago I said I would eventually tell you about my other daughter… I think it's time.”

“Momma…” she said, suddenly very serious, “you don't have to. I know it... I mean it ain't easy.”

“I… need to.” It wasn't closure, not really. But Serenity needed to know, and I needed to talk about it eventually. “Just… it was a while ago. Back when I lived at a place called Marefort. Me and… a friend found a town that had been attacked by raiders. There was only one pony left alive. A little filly named Foundation… I think you would have liked her…”

“So you took her in?” Serenity asked, obviously knowing the answer.

“Yeah, we took her in.”

“Why?”

“Why?” That question stunned me for a second. “Because… somepony had to.” The answer seemed to satisfy Serenity so I kept talking as we moved through the smokey building. “We lived for a while, it was a good time, the three of us. I even learned how to read so I could read her bedtime stories.” The thought brought a smile to my face. “But… one day the town was attacked. And I… did something stupid. And…” My voice caught in my throat, and I couldn't continue.

“Momma…” Serenity said softly.

“And I never forgave myself. I never…” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. It was hard to talk about, hard to keep talking. Every part of me just wanted to run away, to hide from what happened. “When I saw you for the first time, you looked like her when I first saw her…

“But you weren't her; you… you're different, so different. And that's great. And I knew I couldn't let anything bad happen to you. At the same time I knew if you stayed near me it would. Ponies I care about die. So I tried to push you away, and protect you at the same time… but it wasn't about you. It was about me, and Foundation.

“I needed forgiveness. I needed to forgive myself, to do something right. I thought maybe if I treated you right, if I protected you, I could look myself in the mirror.” I looked over at Serenity, walking silently in thought beside me. “It wasn't fair. You… I love you. And you're so smart, and resourceful and… special. I tried to put you on a pedestal, protect you for my sake, and…”

“I shouldn't have. You are not Foundation. You aren't just a way to make up for old mistakes, I never should have placed the burden on you… Just… know that I have always cared for you, I just needed to remind myself why caring was important. I'm sorry.”

I don't like talking; I never had. Maybe when I was a really little filly, but even then the words were meaningless. Emotions came hard for me. Talking about them was worse, but it needed to be done. Serenity had seen so much, been through so much that I needed to tell her… The words had come pouring out; I couldn't have stopped them if I tried.

“Momma, I…” She sighed as we started down some stairs. “I understand… It's… I wanted you to be my momma. To protect me… because… I don't know. But I understand… I don't blame ya for how ya felt.” She paused for a minute before continuing. “Thanks for tellin' me though. I know it ain't easy for ya but… I don't know, thanks.”

Perhaps telling her right then wasn't the best of ideas, as the silence in the air became palpable. It made the rest of the walk through the dank smokey building awkward, but I had no doubt she was using that time to think about what I said. I just wasn't certain that was a good idea.

---

“You won’t believe who I found!” Flare said immediately, as I opened the door to finally leave that smoke-ridden building. Apparently Flare had been waiting just outside the door to surprise me. “Your favourite pony in the whole wide world.” He waved a wing to Platinum Haze and Wallkirk who were standing a bit back, looking confused at Flare's antics. “And Platinum Haze.” Ha. Ha.

“You're an idiot,” I said, pushing past Flare so Serenity and I could finally leave the building. Flare didn't seem to mind, if his incessant giggling was any indicator.

“How are you faring, Silver?” Haze asked me as I closed the gap between us. “We were most worried when we saw that beast descend upon you, and we are fearful to even ask how you managed to outpace us here.”

“I flew.” was the only answer I could come up with, luckily Serenity was there to fill in the gaps.

“She rode on a dragon’s back! I think it tried to eat her, or set her on fire, maybe both. Luckily Flare and I scared it off! We're brave like that.” Serenity took this as an opportunity to pose dramatically with her gun in her magic.

“We are sure you made a most fearsome foe,” Platinum Haze replied, leaning down to ruffle Serenity's mane with a wing, “But still… we are glad you are relatively unharmed.” I didn't feel unharmed, I felt like I'd just been too close to a megaspell. Which was almost the truth… “We should hurry on our way though; the dragon will not remain occupied for long.”

“For your sakes, I do hope that weapon cache is still operational,” Wallkirk said, with a smile on the face his screen presented. I suppose it was hard not to be smug when you weren't in any real danger but everyone else was.

“Yeah…” I was still uncertain about that plan. Still, it was the only plan we had so I turned to it. “Lets pray it's th—”

A deafening roar that echoed across the canyon cutting me off. Shit.

“Flare, Wallkirk! Hit it with your heavy weapons! Platinum Haze, Serenity; to me!” The dragon swooped overhead, flames spitting out and setting the ground alight but thankfully missing. “Serenity.” I kneeled down and looked at the little filly. “My battle saddle is broken, how fast can you fix it?”

“Uh, I….” She stared at my battle saddle, thinking so hard I almost swore I could see smoke coming out of her ears. “I don't know.”

“Just try.” I said quickly tearing off the broken device. “Please.” She gave a quick nod and took out her tools.

I looked around to get a grasp on what was happening. Flare was starting to take flight, and I could see the rocket pods inside Wallkirk's Ponitron start to unfold. Maybe we didn't need whatever weapons were hidden.

The dragon swooped down for another pass, but this time it landed, and when it did, I felt the ground shake under me. Wallkirk was off to its side and fired a rocket in the dragon's direction only for it to careen off to the side and into the air just missing. Before he had a chance to fire off another one the dragon's tail whipped around lazily, slamming into the robot with a crash and sending it sliding through the dirt.

I turned away from the twisted metal that once housed Wallkirk and saw the dragon staring down at me, mouth open. “Haze!”

Once again Haze's purple shield enveloped us just in time for the flames to slam into it in a wall of light and smoke. Eventually the orange flames died down leaving Platinum Haze panting in exhaustion as the shield faded around us. I was about to say something to Haze when I saw him standing across from me a smirk on his face.

His clothes were bloody, but he seemed no worse for wear, though he might’ve been faking it. Apparently Dragonslayer had some healing potions on him… which I should have expected. He always seemed to be prepared.

“Hired Gun. You should have killed me when you had the chance.” Two knives were pulled out of hidden pockets with magic. “I'm sorry it had to come to this.”

Before he had a chance to live up on his threat, two somethings exploded in the air. The dragon pulled back and screeched in pain, its face smoking from where Flare's grenades had slammed into him. It didn't seem to do any permanent damage, but it must have hurt. “Avarice, kill the pegasus quickly.” The great beast flapped its wings with a grunt and took off after Flare who smartly zipped away.

“Haze, protect Flare. Or try to.” Haze looked at me for a second. I had forgotten that Haze’s wing was injured, and the alicorn winced as she unfurled her wings, but while it obviously pained her she flew off in pursuit of the duo all the same. “Serenity, stay back. Work on the saddle.”

“I…. Okay, Momma.” She grabbed the saddle with her magic and started to drag it across the ground.

“Just you and me, Dragonslayer,” I said, starting to circle around him, careful to avoid the parts of the ground still wreathed in flames. “Sure you don't want to call your dragon? You can't fight me.” He was going to try at the very least. He chucked his daggers at me; I batted them away with my cybernetic leg.

“You're seriously calling me a coward.” Dragonslayer ducked under one of my kicks. “Do you think I care?” He backed off as I swung my cybernetic leg sideways at him, but not far enough as my sword came shooting out of it scraping across his cheek.

“Yes!” The idiot chucked another knife at me, though I'm not sure where he pulled that one from. “You're arrogant. You want to kill me. One on one. Or I'd already be dead.” I batted the dagger away again only to realize I was looking straight down the barrel of a pistol. How many weapons did he have on him?!

BANG BANG BANG

I side stepped to the right as fast as I could, but at least one of the bullets scraped against my leg. I grunted in pain as I tried to get out of the line of fire. “You’re already dead.” More bullets, he kept shooting until the gun clicked, but he was aiming wildly, and most missed. Most. “Even if you kill me The Watchers won’t let you live.”

I gritted my teeth through the pain as I quickly turned and bucked. My shotgun hind-leg exploded the pistol into shrapnel and it was so very satisfying. “Fuck The Watchers!”

“You don't fuck The Watchers!” I heard a snap and looked down just in time to see one of the knives Dragonslayer had thrown earlier come whizzing back through my cybernetic leg cutting an important looking wire. Before I could manage to stabilize myself after the buck, I fell flat on my face. “The Watchers fuck you.”

I rolled quickly away when I saw another blade flying through the air, just narrowly avoiding a dagger in the back of my neck. “You said. They wanted to save the wasteland.” Dragonslayer was on top of me rearing up to try and stamp on my face as I laid on my back. “Give everyone. Water, energy. Remember?”

“We will.” For all his bluster, in the end Dragonslayer was a skinny stallion, and it was easy enough to bring up my still-working leg to block his attempts to stomp me. Even if he had succeeded, I don't think it would have hurt that much. “You think you're doing good by getting in the way, you think you're some big hero, but you're not. You're just a stupid mare harming the only ponies actually trying to protect the world.”

“Maybe I'm stupid.” I grabbed his leg with my good leg and used my massive girth to easily flip our positions. Even if he incapacitated my cyber leg it was easy to stand over him. “But you can't take the high ground. And kidnap little fillies. At the same time.” We had rolled so far we were right next to a part of the ground still on fire from the dragon earlier. Flames licked near us, and I could feel myself start to sweat.

“It was for the greater good.” Before I had the chance to shut his mouth for good I felt a series of hot sharp pains in my back. His horn was glowing, and I didn't even to look behind me to know that my back was starting to look like pin cushion. It took all the willpower I had not to cry out in pain. “We'll save who we can. But those who get in our way need to be dealt with. What is a couple deaths to the entirety of the wasteland.” There was a knife at my neck, it was cold and sharp and already starting to cut into me.

“Everything.” I rammed my head down as hard as I could and headbutted the base of his horn. He cried out in pain, and I did the same as the knife he was holding cut into my neck. It was just one cut though, and wasn't too deep. Hopefully. “I wonder.” I said, my voice harsh and raspy. “How many ponies. Used that same logic. To sleep at night.”

“Y-you. Don't understand.” Blood from my neck dripped onto him as I gave him one last chance to explain. Between the fire close to us, and the neck wound I was starting to feel a bit dizzy. “The wasteland can't… it can't be saved by heroes. Only by ponies… ponies like me.”

“But not you. Not anymore.” I reared up. Even with knives in my back, a profoundly bleeding neck, and a single working foreleg, it would be more than enough to squash his tiny head like an grape.

THWAP

I didn't see the dragon fly low, and I didn't see its tail slam into me. I did see the flames as I soared over them though. I felt pain as it shook my body. And I felt the warm blood coming from my neck as I fumbled with my good leg to put pressure on the wound. Maybe that headbutt was a bad idea.

As I laid there I realized I missed too much during my fight with Dragonslayer. Flare was on the ground, his armour visibly smoking, and Platinum Haze was there with him, trying to help him up. The massive building I had landed on before was completely engulfed in flames, and was half-ruined from the dragon’s and Flare’s fight that I hadn’t been paying attention to. Serenity though. Serenity was nowhere to be seen. I tried to call out to her, but no words came out.

The ground shook.

The dragon landed in the flames it had created, seemingly unconcerned with the heat and the pain. It was so massive, so huge. Looking up from the ground, I felt so terribly small, and so afraid. How could we fight this thing… everything we had done by that point to the dragon amounted to nothing more than scratches and mild annoyances. Between the dragon’s massive legs, past the flames, I could see Dragonslayer struggling to his hooves.

So this is how we lost? It wasn't what I expected to be honest… we did good though. We fought as hard as we could, against all odds. But how do you kill a dragon that's stupidly loyal to a manipulative bastard? Those odds… you can't beat those odds. No matter how hard you tried.

The dragon's head lowered towards me, glaring at me with chilling reptilian eyes.

“THIS WAY!” a shrill voice called out. “LOOK THIS WAY!” The dragon turned his head towards the sound, looking confused and annoyed that something distracted it from its supper.

Serenity was standing there, beside Dragonslayer. He must not have heard her approach, because she wouldn't have let him. In the distance I heard him say, “What the.” as he turned his head towards the little filly suddenly yelling beside him.

BANG!

BANG!

Two shots to the head.

The purple stallion's head jolted back. A spray of crimson mist flew out behind him and he collapsed as a purple corpse. Serenity stood there, grim determination in her eyes as she stared at the body in front of her. I didn't like the look in her eyes, but… it was hard not to be proud of her. In her pink magic was a zebra gun, and it seemed funny to me when I remembered where she got it from.

The dragon's eyes went wide in shock. “PAPA!” it yelled as it rushed towards the corpse.

Serenity jumped back, but it wasn't necessary.

As the dragon rushed towards the corpse it began to… shrink. I don't know how else to describe it, but when it stood before me it was a massive over-six-story-tall monstrosity, but by the time it was cradling Dragonslayer in its arms it was less than a metre tall. Only frightening if you were a bloatsprite, or radroach.

And it was crying. In between blubbering tears I could hear it repeat the word “papa” over and over again.

I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes, content to take in the moment. The world smelled of sweat, smoke and blood, and all I could hear was crying and the crackling of flames. But it was over. Somehow… in some way, for a reason I couldn't even begin to describe… I smiled.

Level Up!

Skill Note: Speech 80

Quest Perk: Death from Above: You take half damage from falling!

((A/N: Hey guys, I’m sorry it took so long to get a chapter out to you. I’ve been bust with life, but that’s not really a good excuse for such long delays. To that end I am sorry, and will try to be faster in the future. Anyway. I need to thank Kkat for writing FoE, as well as my editors TheBSDude, Julep, and Menti. Also a special thanks to EquestrianNarrator for his work narrating this chapter. His work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKEOfCxCcjYppvHA2zlA9vlNmRNnxnUr2

Also this guy I know wrote a story, you should read it: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/196350/fallout-equestria-wings-youve-earned )