so there I was chained up by a stupid smelly yak. Though to be fair he was twice the size of any yak I have ever seen his fur was a sickly green and his horns were a good two feet longer than normal. I looked around trying to see Fix but she was nowhere to be seen. seems she has evaded capture that’s good to know, I thought relieved she at least got away.

“You ponies think you’re so smart thinking you could sneak up on yak like that!” He shouted angrily slamming his left hoof into the snow.

“What do you mean we didn’t even know you were he…” I started to explain but I was cut off by more shouting.

“Your tricks won’t work on yak, I am the greatest warrior of the northern wasteland and any ranger scum who has foolishly entered my domain to try and kill me has been crushed like a can of tomato soup,” He says as he slammed his hooves into the ground causing the ground to shake.

“Sorry but I think you are mistaken great warrior of the North; I am not part of the Rangers whoever they are,” I said adding the great warrior of the North bit to play on his obviously simple mind. “I and my companion were simply heading toward the Crystal Empire.”

“Hmm, you said you are heading toward Empire yet you claim to not be a ranger, you little liar!” The yak said shoving his face against mine. “Do you think yak is a fool? No creature dares to enter the Crystal Grave.”

“Wait, Crystal Grave? What the hell is that?” I asked confused that the Crystal Empire would be called the Crystal Grave.

“It is called the Crystal Grave because any pony who enters dies almost immediately, save for the ghouls who call it home,” a softer female voice said as a mare wearing a black shroud that covered every part of her save for her yellow eyes which seemed familiar. “Warrior, could you please unchain this pony? She means no harm.”

The yak simply grunted and stepped behind me to undo my chains. “You are lucky, pony, that lady Shutter decided to let you live,” He grunted to me angrily.

“Don’t mind him he is just being protective. Warrior, can you please let us have a moment alone so we can talk?” Shutter asked the yak who in turn nodded and walked off without a word of complaint. “Now that he is gone it is good to see you again Seven,” She said giving me a hug.

“Uh, do I know you?” I asked even though this mare’s actions seemed to suggest that I did.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot I had my cloak on,” Shutter giggled as her hooves moved to her hood and pulled it back showing her familiar bubblegum pink mane and pale yellow coat.

“Ten!?” I exclaimed before I grabbed her and squeeze hugged her. “I am so happy to see a familiar face.”

“Me too,” She said through a strained breath as I hugged her, “can you please let go of me I am having trouble breathing.”

“Oh, sorry,” I apologized with a huge grin on my face before letting her go.

After taking a few deep breaths she opened her mouth to say something but froze in place. Following her gaze, I spotted six ponies coming toward us they all looked like walking corpses with decaying flesh and battle-damaged lightweight armor that appears to be made of junk.

“What are those?”

“They’re ghouls and they are not happy to see us. We need to take cover, we’re in for a fight.”

After Shutter gave her answer she reached into her bag and retrieved a collapsible sniper rifle and extended it into her Rabbit’s Foot sniper. Once loaded, she opened fire on the ghouls, easily blowing the heads off of three of them in seconds.

“Now a thing you need to know is these things travel in packs of twenty or more so arm yourself.”

“With what? There are no weapons around here!” I asked frantically looking around.

“Check your bag. I saw your old revolver in there along with your DDM rifle,” Shutter said as she fell the other three. “And hurry there is more coming.”

“Okay,” I said as I ran over to my bag and opened it seeing the two guns I used years ago, grabbing my revolver again felt good then everything turned to white.

I found myself in an underground hallway of stable, mangled body parts littered the floor, blood painted the walls, my fur was soaked with blood as I stood above Nine. “Why did you do it?” I asked angrily pointing my revolver at her head.

“You were too dangerous to keep alive,” Nine said spitting up blood. “So we decided to kill you and she was just collateral damage,” She added with a bloody smirk.

“So she was collateral damage? She had nothing to do with it and you killed her because you wanted me dead,” I said coldly as I pulled the trigger only for my shot to be deflected by a magic force field. Turning around only to be met with a bright flash of light that made my vision blur, “One... why, why did you let them do it?” Was all I said before Nine knocked me out.

Snapping out of my memory in time to see an army of these ghoul creatures approaching quickly putting my revolver back in my bag and grabbed my DDM rifle along with several clips of ammo. With my bag back on my back, I loaded my rifle and prepared for the upcoming onslaught of these creatures, to my left was Shutter with her sniper and at my back was Warrior the yak with an oversized hammer.

“Okay are you two ready to fight these creatures?” Shutter said while reloading her sniper her gaze showed her fear but her speech and posture didn’t show it at all she really changed since the last time I saw her, I thought as the yak stood tall and spoke.

“Yes my Mistress Yak is ready to fight these ghouls and be victorious,” Warrior said proudly as he stomped his hooves on the snow raising his mighty hammer.

“I am so ready this fight will be a fun one,” I stated with a smile for some reason I was eager to fight these ghouls, that was when they ran at us with their weapons raised.

The first one to get close enough to attack had Shutter’s rifle barrel down their throat and within a millisecond later they were turned to a red mist as she pulled the trigger. Turning back to the horde of ghouls as they approached pulling my rifle up I pulled the trigger the familiar sound of agonizing screams filled the air as limbs were blown off, the sound strangely made me happy but I didn’t know why but I didn’t get to dwell on it long as I was hit by a wooden club knocking me out of my thoughts with an anger-filled scream I grabbed the ghoul who hit me and put my hooves around its head then proceeded to break its neck and I then burst into a fit of insane laughter as I watched its lifeless corpse fell to the ground.

“So which one of you is next?” I asked the ghouls with a wicked grin on my face, why am I enjoying this? I shouldn’t enjoy this, I thought to myself as I continued to tear these ghouls apart like they were made of paper.

“Seven!” I heard Shutter call snapping me out of my trace and what I saw afterward horrified me. My hooves were around Shutter’s left hoof I was only a slight tug away from ripping off her arm, behind her the ground was littered with the mangled corpse. Upon seeing this my body refused to move and I then collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

My eyes shot open to find I was on Warrior’s back the yak was carrying me somewhere turning to my right I spotted shutter walking alongside him. I let out a groan for some reason my whole body burned like I was on fire, noticing my groaning Shutter turned to me. “You okay Seven?” She asked.

“I am fine, where are we going?”

“To the Crystal Grave, you said you and your companion were heading there maybe they are already there. Anyway, you need to rest because you used up all your stored energy.” Shutter suggested before I drifted back asleep.

After I and Ten put our gear on we made our way to the Sky Chariots where we were greeted by a bright blue pegasus with a mane that continuously shifted color. “Hey, are you guys ready to make the jump into enemy territory with the best Sky Chariot driver ever?” She asked with a cocky smile.

“Nice to see you too Sixteen see you are as confident as ever,” I said with a smile as we hoof bumped.

“Hey look who it is the Lunatic and The Scaredy pegasus,” A voice mocked I turned around and saw six pegasi in a group all stared at us with mocking grins and smiles.

“Hey guys cut it out, these are my friends,” Sixteen said moving in front of us.

“So your friends with these outcasts they are nothing but a joke, lowest scores in the academy and they have never seen real combat,” The leader of the six-pointed out.

“We are going on a mission today in Yakyakistan to destroy those cannons so the command doesn’t think of us as outcasts so ha,” I said trying to prove to them that the higher-ups had faith in us.

“Wow you got a suicide mission, how lame you two will most definitely get killed,” the group nodded in agreement to this statement.

“No, they will succeed and all of you will be apologizing to them when they get back,” Sixteen said before turning away. “You two come with me we are heading to Yakyakistan.” She began walking toward the sky chariot Ten following close behind. I turned to look at the group with the craziest smile I could do while making my eyes glow green causing them to freeze in terror, with a laugh I followed Sixteen and Ten then everything faded to white.

My eyes opened once more and the first thing I see is a kingdom’s ruins the castle in the center looked like a dragon took a huge bite out of it, the rest of the kingdom was difficult to see due to an extremely dense green fog.

“Where are we?” I asked through a groan.

“Ah, Seven you woke up just in time to see what is known as the Chrystal Grave named for the fact that any pony who enters dies almost immediately from extreme radiation poisoning,” Shutter explained. “Hopefully your companion has not entered this death trap”

“I hope so too,” I said looking at the Crystal Grave in fear and hoped that Fix It didn’t go in.