The shot star fired whizzes into lightning's hood,leaving a hole in the back of it...but leaving lightning himself unharmed. "Listen here you little shit,i don't care how you do it out in the wasteland,its bad enough as it is...i am not letting my friends become monsters...and you being one...is endangering that...so watch yourself."

"Fine...just keep that gun out of my fucking face." Lightning scoffs and turns around as Star scowls.

As the group continues down the path,keeping an eye out for any kind of danger,James still keeping a gun to lightning's head,especially closer now they all come across a long canyon that has a stone bridge.

"This...does not look good." Jerome pokes the start of it,seeing if its going to crumble.

Starberry steps onto the bridge and trots regularly across it. "Ya'll are too paranoid,c'mon lets go."

James slowly fallows her. "Don't jinx it starberry."

Lightning bass and Jerome just look at each other,gulp and slowly fallow after James as star dust walks next to Jerome...crack.

"What was th-" Before Jerome could finish the bridge crumbles under them,making Jerome shriek and Star make a little 'eep' sound as they both grab the ledge and look down at what is awaiting them underneath.

"BUCKIN HELL!!!" Starberry gallops to them and slides as she grabs star and Jerome's hoof...then she lost her grip,making both star and Jerome start falling with a loud scream."NO!!" She reaches to no avail and Star dust Grabs Jerome and puts himself under him as a crash and with a bone chilling crunch star dust screams as his spine fractures from the impact,his barding not doing anything to protect him aside from stopping Jerome's body from crushing his ribs.

Jerome coughs. "S-star,you alright?" Jerome gets up,flipping star dust on his back as he hisses in pain. "Damn,you hit your spine didn't you? fuck."

"YA'LL ALRIGHT DOWN THEIR?!?!?!" Starberry screams down at them,hopping the two moving dots are them alive.

"Y-YEA WE'ER ALRIGHT!!" Star screams back half as a reply and half in complete agony.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! STAR ALMOST BROKE HIS BACK!!!!" Jerome screams up.

"Shit..." Starberry mumbles to herself. "ALRIGHT,JUST KEEP MOVIN TILL YOU GET TO SURFACE LEVEL,WE'LL MEET YOU THEIR!!!" She gets up and rushes back to the rest of the group.

"A-alright,you heard her Jerome...lets get moving" Star dust tries to get up,only to fall down again.

"No,you can't walk,i'll carry you...you did save us both from getting a broken back so i kind of owe you one since you took the fall..."

"No...i can handle myself..." Star tries to get up again with a pained groan and his eyes become moist and water as the pain strains each bone and nerve in his back and limbs almost to the point where its unbearable,making him collapse on the ground in pain. "O-oooowwww."

"...Yeeaa sure you can." Jerome picks star up and puts him on his back as Star tries to get off. "Stop that,im trying to get you through this without you breaking your fucking limbs."

"F-fine you stubborn zebra." Star begrudgingly lets his zebra friend carry him.

As Jerome carries his fellow stable dweller through the valley a loud pang hits the floor in front of them,making Jerome jump back and hide in a rock as a psychotic cackle starts ringing through the air. "Come out my little ponies,i just want to MURDER YOU!!" A scaly,lizard like mare comes out with a stinger tail and using her mane to hold a gun as her reptilian green eyes dart everywhere and search for the zebra and pony she just saw.

"Shit." Jerome whispers as he slowly goes from rock to rock,trying not to get caught.

As star dust groans the lizard mare's head snaps to the large boulder that Jerome is hiding behind as he lets out a 'eep' and cover's star;s mouth. "Ohhh little ppoooooniiiiesss." As she trots slowly to the rock,cackling and loading the last bullet in her gun...ziiiiiiip "What was that?" She turns her head back only to come face to face with a metal apple attached to a string,temporarily stopping right in front of her...boom. "GRRAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" As two of the blasts tear at her like deathclaws she screams and Jerome jumps up with a cheer,thinking he killed his opponent...he celebrated too soon...the lizard mare glares at him through the smoke,panting and scowls before grinning. "Hehehehhehe YOU CAN'T KILL ME!!!" She proceeds to charge and tackle him to the wall of the valley.

"GAH s-s-shiiiiiit." Jerome struggles against her grip as she slowly chokes him.

"Any last word little zebra?" She cackles and snickers as the pony she forgot about rises slowly behind her,as star dust falls forward onto a rock for support he holds royal glory in his mouth and aims.

"Hey.bitch." Star says through royal glory's grip,making the mare turn...bang,a bullet tears through her eye and rips through the scales on the back of her head and the bullet hits the wall right next to Jerome's head,luckily missing him.

"...N-no...you can't kill me." she drops Jerome and chokes as she falls forward and starts leaking blood as her torn up brain leaks out with the help of a waterfall of blood and the gaping hole in her head...and finally...she took her last breath and went cold as ice.

"T-thanks star." Jerome says through little coughs and gasps of breath before getting up.

"No...probleeeeem." Star falls onto his side and groans as Jerome goes back to him and picks him up.

"I'm starting to think i need to keep score of who saves who the most." Jerome chuckles and continues up the newly developing hill. "Good,a hill,going up,that means were getting closer to the end of this...i hope."

As the hill comes to a end theirs the sound of guns being cocked and hoof steps clopping in different directions,setting up a ambush...and Jerome is setting up a ambush for them,as he plants land mines a pony ahead of them starts approaching them as he holds absolutely still,holding star dust on his back.

"Don't try talking star." Jerome whispers to his fellow stable dweller as he just nods and plays dead.

"Howdy their." The pony smiles through the hat and has his holster strangely close to his mouth. "You uhh,up for a trade?"

"No thanks,we got what we need." Jerome looks around,noticing the shadows of other ponies as they slowly creep out and he even sees a large camp behind the pony.

"Well we'll be taking em off yer hooves then." The pony grins as other similarly dressed but dirtier,muddier ponies come out,holding guns and aiming...and they are right ontop of Jerome's traps.

"Hmmm nah were good." Jerome smiles,making the thug's smile to vanish...beep.

"What are ya'll talkin about? we got ya'll surrounded,if ya don't,ya dead." The thug steps forward...beep.

"...Look under you." As the other thugs look under them they all go wide eyed...beep...beep...beep beep beep BEEP BOOM.

Explosions of shrapnel and blood blast the thugs into pieces as each mine links into the other and scattering their limbs everywhere and making a complete bloodbath. "N-no way." The lead thug falls back as he tries not to get hit by the shrapnel,Jerome just standing their,smiling as star and Jerome get sprinkled with shrapnel but it just rolls off of them.

"Now,what was that you we'er talking about?" Jerome grins as he glares at the thug,taking out a zipper bomb.

"Y-YOUR A MONSTER!!!" Just as the thug is about to get up and run away his head gets blasted to pieces,but nether Jerome or star flinch...the shot was towards their fleeing enemy...they had nothing to flinch about.

Star dust groans and lifts his head and looks up. "...Phantom." Star smirks weakly,trying to ignore the still growing pain as he sees the familiar,cloaked pony with the black hat and mask around his neck.

"I prefer 'Douglass' thank you very much." Douglass the phantom pony leaps down and jumps from rock to rock and landing safely on all 4 hooves,his gun still in his mouth and he proceeds to spit his signature revolver into his holster.

"Hey didn't you save me from the giant lizard things?" Jerome puts his zipper bomb away.

"Yes,i did and im about to tell you your about to make a wrong turn,theirs a split in the rode,one goes up one goes down...take the one that goes down,the other path is a deathclaw nest."

"Thanks for the tip...although that would be Jerome's choice...i kind of have a injury." Star dust tries moving only to hiss in pain,that fall had really done a number on his back and he is not one to recover quickly,only live through the injuries.

"Yes i saw that,and damn that looked painful...but you did it to make sure your friend doesn't go through it...so at least one good thing came out of it." Douglass starts trotting ahead of them as Jerome starts fallowing them.

"Yea,i guess he did save my ass,and in a way saved his own...kind of."

"I really never gave a shit about myself did i?" Star looks back on how many times he simply did not give a flying shit about himself even in the stable.

"I guess not." Jerome smiles back at him and it goes from a smile of comfort to a smile of relief as he notice star seems a bit less strained when smiling. 'OK...smiling makes it hurt less...well fuck logic but what works,works...i guess.' Jerome silently thinks to himself as he trots down with their new phantom pony friend.

Eventually after Douglass leads them through a dark,Erie tunnel,making sure nether of them shoot anything in their and coming out the other side with nothing but a bit of cold water on their shoulders.

"Why did you make it so we can't shoot anything in their?" Jerome looks back at the cave while trotting up.

"Because not only will we get swarmed by shit we can't see but we will also wind up trapped in their because once a sound reaches into their,it will collapse all around us,maybe even on us." Douglass says without missing a beat or batting a eye making Jerome stop talking completely.

Star dust had fallen asleep a while ago...and he wakes up just in time to see 3 pony shaped figures standing in the light ahead of them and one raises a hoof...and waves and Star nearly shoots up but gets stopped by the crack in his back and making him fall limp again...the figures start showing detail and he sees starberries face,smiling as James is next to her smiling as well as they trot down for their 2 friends and to greet the new,familiar pony as lightning stays behind.

"Howdy ya'll good to see to see ya still alive." Starberry goes to Jerome and takes star dust off his back.

"And who is this?" James looks at the phantom pony. "...Phantom?"

"Good guess,but i prefer 'Douglass'." James nods and makes a mental note not to call him phantom pony if he can.

"I guess we really need to find star a doctor,that fall couldn't have been easy." James comments getting a 'YOU DON'T SAY?!?!' glare from everyone. "Ugh."

"C'mon ya'll,he doesn't look like he'll take much more." And as soon as starberry finishes her sentence...Star returns to sleep.