This was it. Once the campaign to retake Flankorage was over, the simulation would end, and I’d be able to return to reality. After the time I’d spent here, it was strange to think about going back, and I didn’t know if I was ready to leave. Sure, I was constantly placed in dangerous situations and forced to fight for my life, but the Wasteland wasn’t much different. Here there was no radiation, no raiders, no mutated monsters, and I could see the sky; however, there was also a war on that I knew the ending of, not to mention a living, breathing Ministry of Morale spying on Equestrian citizens. It was a tough choice, but it wasn’t one I’d be forced to make. Once the zebra marshal was captured and the zebra force surrendered, the simulation would end, and I’d wake up in Strategic Arcane Solutions, surrounded by Steel Rangers. I wondered what they’d think if I told them that I had operated their armor within the simulation.

I was actually currently still wearing it, jolted back to my immediate surroundings as the truck I was in traversed the bumpy terrain outside Flankorage. Shining Armor wanted to waste no time after the failed attack on the Old Flankorage Fort, and the attacking force from that assault was being transported to the crystal mines, to meet up with a fresh force from the camp. We were going to bring our full force to bear on the zebra camp and retake the mines for good.

Like before, hover tanks transported the majority of the regular soldiers, but the Steel Rangers weren’t asked to hoof it this time. Transport trucks freshly offloaded from trains were driven up to the Old Flankorage Fort and would carry us to our final destination. I checked the various dials and displays within my helmet as we neared the crystal mines, making sure everything was in order. The MWT mechanics had been incredibly quick in repairing and rearming the suit, and I was ready for another fight, minigun ammunition and missiles topped off.

The trucks came to a stop and the armored ponies within disembarked, most forming up into teams for the assault. My mission here would be the same as it had been at the Old Flankorage Fort, and I looked for the surviving members of my platoon. Once their hover tanks arrived, we met up and waited. The sun was beginning to go down behind us, and ahead the zebras began turning on spotlights and shining them out at us. As they began to fire their artillery toward us, we started our advance.

The hover tanks surged forward, firing their weapons at walls the zebras had erected around their camp. Missiles shot over the wall, damaging many of the tanks, and through the flashes of explosions I saw more of those walker robots. The Steel Rangers followed, myself tagging along closely behind again. Wings of pegasi streaked overhead as we neared the zebra camp, dropping bombs before wheeling around to restock for another run.

Then, we were in the middle of the fighting. We galloped past burning tanks and active ones who’d pulled up short of the outer trench, firing at anything that moved and wasn’t wearing Steel Ranger armor. One of the robots was still staggering around, severely damaged by tank fire, and I finished it off with a missile. The trench around the camp’s wall was ahead, and I jumped down into it. I fired my minigun in one direction while bucking out with my hindlegs at the zebras in the other direction. I spun around and halted my firing when I spotted my team down in the trench with me finishing the zebras off. Zebra reinforcements were charging through a nearby tunnel went under the wall, so I collapsed it with a missile, burying the enemy alive. Over the rubble, I led my team through the new hole in the wall into the zebra camp.

A group of pegasi flew overhead again as we entered, laying down another trail of destruction. Tents everywhere were burning, and craters disrupted their orderly rows. Really, other than the coloration, it looked almost exactly the same as the Equestrian camp. That wasn’t something I should’ve been thinking, especially not now. Better to focus on my objective, and remind myself that this was a simulation and I would soon be going home.

My objective was to capture the zebra marshal, but simply running all over the camp looking for him wouldn’t be very efficient, so I needed to pick a location to head towards. A command tent would be the most likely place to find him, but I didn’t see anything that screamed “command tent” as I looked over the camp. The zebras had built their camp around the entrance to the Flankorage crystal mines, and the land sloped gently down to the mines’ entrance, allowing me to see most of the camp. One larger tent looked promising, until a host of robots emerged from it, and I decided it had to be their equivalent of the MWT tent. If there was no command tent here, then perhaps it was somewhere else …

“Lieutenant!” the strawberry-coated mare with the flamethrower yelled to get my attention before hosing down a tent from which zebra soldiers were firing at my team, “What’s the plan?”

“THE MINES ARE OUR OBJECTIVE!” I replied before turning down the volume on my suit’s speakers, “We’ll head to the train tracks and follow them in.”

I advanced at the head of the team, counting on my Steel Ranger armor and superior firepower to protect me. The zebras weren’t executing any kind of organized defense, they were simply trying to defend against an unexpected attack. As such, it wasn’t terribly difficult to fight through them, even after we got ahead of the main line of Steel Rangers. There also didn’t seem to be terribly many of them. The size of the camp suggested a force larger than what could be accounted for from the defense and the force encountered at the Old Flankorage Fort. Had they been fooling us into thinking they were more formidable this whole time? Had our campaign to retake Flankorage whittled away at their numbers more than we’d realized? Were they pulling out now that they realized they were destined to fail?

A squad of zebras got the drop on us as we advanced, taking cover behind upturned tables and firing at us. My platoon quickly ran for cover behind anything they could find, but several fell anyway. I took the brunt of the attack as I swept the area with minigun fire. To avoid severe damage to my suit, however, I also sought cover, but very little was available. Fortunately, a wind of pegasi swept over the area, and one of the bombs they dropped took out the remaining zebras attacking us.

From a nearby tent of a different color and style than those surrounding it, a flock of griffins shot up, catching the pegasi and engaging them midair. Three of the griffins flew toward my team, firing their guns with their claws. I shot a missile at one, but she easily dodged it, and began to circle me while firing at the damaged points of my armor. The suit automatically injected me with healing drugs as she broke through at a weak point and damaged the flesh beneath, and I adjusted the settings in my helmet. With the magical press of a button, chaff flew from my flanks, angled upward this time, and shredded the griffin’s feathers. As she hit the ground, I finished her off with my minigun.

My platoon had finished the other griffins off by the time I was done, though not without casualties. The ten survivors followed me, our sights set on the train tracks that cut through the camp. They were visible through the lines of tents, and a train was sitting atop them at the point we were headed to. As we approached, a robot nearly as tall as the train tottered around it, supported by two stubby legs. A grenade-launching minigun on either side and a missile launcher on top began to fire at us, and I yelled for my followers to scatter.

I galloped toward the robot, trying to avoid being hit by its missiles as I fired my own at it. It was very heavily armored, and I had little effect. My team had spread out and was firing on the robot from numerous directions, hoping to hit a weak point, and I had to admire the bravery it took to face a machine whose shots would kill them in one hit. Not that I was entirely safe; my Steel Ranger armor would protect me from harm more than their combat barding would, but it still wouldn’t hold out long against the heavy munitions this contraption was using.

The robot made use of a flamethrower mounted on its torso when I approached, forcing me to back off. I focused my minigun fire on the flamethrower mount as I danced around to avoid the grenade and missile fire, in danger every moment of tripping in the craters all around me. One of the robot’s grenade launchers was blown off as a member of my team managed to damage the ammunition feed, and a few more grenades were fed out and detonated before the robot ceased their flow, crippling one of its legs and severely damaging its mobility.

As the flamethrower exploded in a blast of fire from a shot by another of my followers, I charged in toward the automaton. I threw all the metal zap apples I had at the robot before galloping away at top speed. Colorful lightning lit up the darkening camp as they detonated. The robot tipped forward ponderously as its systems were fried and it became an inanimate object.

No more enemies were in the area, and my team regrouped around the train to heal up and prepare for the push to the mines. Looking down the train track and using the magnification on my suit’s visor, I sighted the mine entrance, which looked heavily barricaded. That wasn’t all I saw, though; on the track between us and the mines, the zebras had set up a row of miniguns and were using them to hold off the Equestrian advance through the camp. Looking back up at the locomotive, our course was clear.

This train had been used to transport carts of gems out of the mines before transferring them to trains that would transport them back to the zebra homeland. It was the original, the same train that the Equestrians had used back when they’d controlled Flankorage, and so everything was labeled in a script I could actually read (once I’d removed the translation notes over them.) My team piled into a car farther back while I operated the locomotive. We were going to be crashing this train, and with my Steel Ranger armor I had the best chance of not dying in the impact. The zebras had already had the train running when we’d arrived, and all I had to do was shift it into forward motion.

The train began to creep forward, but quickly picked up speed as I urged it on. A spotlight on the front of the locomotive lit up the tracks as we plowed forward, warning the zebras of oncoming doom. None of them decided to stay at their miniguns as the train rolled toward them, though a few tried to take the weapons with them before giving up and saving their own skins. The train bumped and jostled quite a bit as it ran over the heavy weapons, and I prayed it would stay on its rails. I wasn’t ready to crash it quite yet.

It managed to stay on course until it collided with the barricades at the mines’ entrance. I braced myself and locked the joints of my suit as the train lurched and bounced, shoving barricades and defenses away. It was most certainly off the tracks now, but continued to plow forward from momentum alone, tipping onto its side. At last, the locomotive scraped to a halt, and I released the locks on my suit.

Stunned zebras were concentrated at the entrance, staring at me as I emerged from the wrecked locomotive. The car my team was in had detached and come to a halt nearer the entrance without much damage, and I laid down covering fire with my minigun as they emerged and finished off the zebra defenders. We surveyed the damage a bit before joining back up and heading deeper into the mine.

There were still quite a few zebras aboveground in the camp, but that was for the rest of the army to deal with. We had a mission to capture the zebra marshal, and I was sure he had to be down here somewhere. The more I thought about it, the more sensible a location it seemed. Here he would be safe from surveillance, pegasus attacks, and artillery strikes (so long as one didn’t close up the entrance to the mines. Banners bearing a mysterious glyph that seemed to be a symbol of power hanging in a route deeper in also made it seem likely he was here somewhere.

There were a few squads of zebras in our way, but they proved to be relatively light resistance, and we almost always outnumbered them, allowing us to keep moving. The zebras probably hadn’t expected anypony to enter the mine until the camp above had fallen, at which point they’d be able to fall back to protect the marshal, but we were here anyway. Occasionally there would be a robot or two, but we were able to defeat them fairly quickly.

We were deep underground now, and it seemed we were nearing our objective as we entered a cavern with tunnels leading off both directly ahead and to the left. To the left were more of the banners and a short trot to a security door, but before we could investigate, a zebra strode out of the far tunnel. It was the same zebra I’d seen at the Basilisk fuel depot and atop the MAS Hub: the sorceress, looking to be in perfect health, if not in a perfect mood.

“It’s her again,” the strawberry-coated flamethrower mare commented ominously, summing up my thoughts perfectly.

Of course she would be here; why not? She’d survived an inferno and jumping off a building. I wasn’t sure she could even be killed. She was the perfect choice to guard the zebra marshal, and she wasn’t alone. She said nothing, only glared, as zebra soldiers marched in from two tunnels to surround us. Then, she opened her mouth and began to speak.

‘You have deluded yourself into thinking you could ever truly win,’ her voice grated inside my mind as she spoke aloud in her native tongue, ‘Give up now, submit to the Caesar. Your star-tainted mistress is nothing.’

“How do you-” I started to ask since she seemed to be in the talking mood for some reason, but she responded before I could finish my question.

‘Do your Equestrian magic? You unicorns think you are so complex and sophisticated, but your ways are simple to the Enlightened among us. You think that because you can do a few spells, that magic belongs to you and you alone? We have learned far more than you ever shall,’ the zebra said, inclining her head as she finished.

Apparently, she wasn’t in much of a talking mood, for the zebra soldiers began firing the moment she inclined her head. Many members of my team were gunned down, but a few were able to fire back and use the nearest zebra as a shield from their comrades. The zebra sorceress was focused on me, and I couldn’t afford to focus elsewhere, so I fired my minigun in her direction, firing the last of my chaff blindly in the hopes it would hit somezebra behind me.

The zebra sorceress ran to the side, circling me as she stayed ahead of my minigun fire and forced me to stop firing a few times to avoid hitting my fellow ponies. Sparks crackled around her forehead as she tore off my missile pod, which fortunately was empty. It provided enough of a distraction that I was able to jump toward her, intent on crushing her with my armored hooves if need be. With a venomous look, she sent me tumbling backwards, just like at the fuel depot, even though I weighed several times as much now.

I struggled to my hooves and fired my minigun at the nearest zebra before sweeping it around at the sorceress. She dodged out of the way again, but stepped right into the path of the flamethrower mare who’d been with me since the first mission to the MoM Hub. Flames engulfed the sorceress and seemed to dance around her body. Still burning, she jumped from the fire and struck the mare in the throat with a forehoof, collapsing her windpipe. As the flames died down around the sorceress, she waved a hoof and sent a fireball at my last surviving follower.

Gone. All gone. Just like at the North Banks Sewage Treatment Plant. Just like Sundale as a whole. I knew it was a simulation, but this was just too much. My minigun roared as I filled the chamber with bullets, filling every last zebra here with holes. Every zebra except the one I was really after.

The sorceress nimbly jumped over my fire and landed on my back. I reared up and tried to crush her against the wall, but she jumped off to the side. Her hoof glowed as she struck my minigun’s barrels and bent them out of shape. I had no more weapons, but the armor I was wearing was a weapon all on its own, and I swung my heavily armored foreleg at her head. Of course, she just dodged it, as she had all my other attacks, and conjured up an explosion underneath me that knocked me off my hooves.

Before I could get back up, she magically removed my suit’s power supply and the Steel Ranger armor went dead. It was slightly harder to move without mechanical assistance, but the enchantment matrix was still intact, and I was able to rise to my knees before the zebra sorceress removed my helmet as well. My strength vanished and my attempt to rise to my hooves saw me fall right back to my knees again.

‘Still think you’re something special?’ the sorceress taunted as she trotted around in front of me and gave me a leer, ‘Magic is the privilege of the strong, and you are not enough.’

Green sparks began to appear in the shape of a horn on her head as she prepared to roast me with balefire. All her talk of magic reminded me of something I had unconsciously forgotten. Yes, my Steel Ranger armor was dead and I was unable to move, I had no more metal zap apples to throw, but I had magic. So what if all my weapons were useless to me? There were discarded weapons all over this chamber, and I didn’t need to be able to move to use them.

A metal apple had rolled out of somepony’s saddlebags and was on the ground near the zebra sorceress. I removed the stem with my magic and hoped that it would go off before the sorceress finished preparing her spell. Only the fact that she paused to step closer and look into my eyes before roasting me saved my life. Her spell immediately dissipated as the metal apple exploded, taking off her right hindleg. Flames began to build again as she lay on the ground gritting her teeth and bleeding, but I was ready, levitating a combat shotgun pointed at her face. Somehow, even the shotgun blast to the face didn’t kill her, though it did severely disfigure her.

The sound of power-armored hoofsteps came from the tunnel I’d entered through, and the zebra sorceress fled, trailing blood behind her. Two Steel Rangers entered the room a few seconds after she disappeared, and I urged them to go after her. I doubted she’d be able to concentrate enough to cast any more spells or be much of a threat anymore. Two Steel Rangers would probably be enough to finish her off. Now that no more enemies were in the immediate vicinity, I was able to focus on myself. There were no MWT mechanics to help me out, so I had to manually remove the busted power armor myself. Once I’d slipped free, I fetched the combat shotgun and one of the few fallen helmets that hadn’t turned into code.

This wasn’t over quite yet; the zebra marshal still awaited, only now I had to capture him on my own. The security door awaited, protected by a terminal designed by ponies that I was easily able to hack. Three red pips were on my EFS, and I observed them carefully before pulling open the door. One zebra guard was on either side of the door, and the marshal was directly ahead, seated behind a desk covered in communications equipment wired to the ceiling.

“Zaryues?” he asked, perhaps thinking I was the zebra sorceress, but quickly realizing his mistake.

I fired my combat shotgun twice into the face of the zebra to the right, which was enough to kill him, and slammed the butt into the nose of the guard to left, forcing her to drop her weapon. With the assistance of TATAS, I spun the gun around and fired two shots into the second guard as well. The zebra marshal was standing now, and had a gun in his mouth. I dropped my shotgun and grabbed his weapon with my magic, snatching it from between his teeth and firing it into his shoulder. Throwing the pistol across the room as he grasped at his wound, I picked my combat shotgun up again and pointed it at him.

“Well, get it over with and kill me already,” the zebra marshal demanded in perfect Equestrian after we stood there for several seconds.

“Not yet. The general wants to have a word with you,” I replied.

More Equestrian soldiers were moving through the mines now and it wasn’t long before word reached Shining Armor that I’d captured the zebra marshal. By the time he arrived, I wasn’t the only pony guarding the prisoner. The general trotted in wearing full combat barding, and it looked like he’d taken part in the battle for the camp personally. It looked as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, which was fitting since the campaign to retake Flankorage was about to finally succeed.

“Marshal Xerial, we meet at last,” Shining Armor said as he faced his counterpart.

“General Shining Armor, so we do,” the marshal replied, having regained some of his composure in the time since I’d kicked down his door, “Two great leaders, meeting at the end of a long and bloody struggle. I must admit, I’d rather expected our roles would be reversed, but what can be done now? I assume you want the glory of killing me yourself? Very well.”

“You’re going to command your legion to stand down before anything else,” Shining Armor said as he glared at the marshal. There was anger in his eyes, something more than just the contempt for an enemy he’d fought against for Celestia knows how long.

“So, how will you do it?” the zebra said casually after doing as he was told through the communications equipment on his desk, “We live in an age of gunpowder and lights, but we were both soldiers before that. You were even Celestia’s captain of the guard once upon a time, weren’t you? Do still have the ceremonial sword? That would be a fine way to go.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Shining Armor replied, his words filled with contempt, “You’re not mistaken; I would very much like to get revenge on the fiend responsible for the massacre of my friends at High Pines, but your punishment is not mine to dole out, I’m afraid. As you said, you’ve been a soldier for a long time; how many secrets about the zebra legions do you know? You’d never give them up willingly, of course, but Pinkie Pie has never had a problem with that. When she’s done poking around in your memories, we may even find some way to turn this war decidedly in our favor.”

The zebra’s eyes widened as he realized what Shining Armor was proposing. He slowly backed away as the general advanced levitating a pair of shackles. The soldiers in the room, including me, raised our weapons as the marshal jumped toward the desk and yanked open a drawer, drawing a sword from it. Instead of attacking us and trying to break free, however, the marshal thrust the sword into his own chest.

“General, you lose,” he laughed as he fell to the floor, blood dripping from his mouth.

“No, I think not,” I could barely hear Shining Armor whisper as he leaned down close to the zebra’s ear.

“It’s over,” the general announced as he straightened, “Now, I would like a moment with the pony who captured our foe.”

The other soldiers filed out of the room obediently, leaving me alone with Shining Armor. The zebra marshal dissolved into code as Shining Armor trotted around the desk to face me. He still looked tired, but now he looked like a tired pony who was about to get a good night’s rest for the first time in a long time. A small smile graced his face as he looked at me.

“I see you lost your Steel Ranger armor,” he commented, a bit more informally than what I’d expected from what I’d presumed would be my last conversation with him.

“Yes, the zebra sorceress again,” I said nervously.

“We’ll get her, I assure you,” Shining Armor said, looking distracted before coming back with a more professional tone, “You’ve done an exemplary job. Your struggles and sacrifices surely helped turn the tide in the liberation of Flankorage. You have my personal gratitude, as well as the thanks of the nation. You’ve done Equestria proud. I would only ask you one thing. Never forget what you have seen here, the good and the bad.”

“I won’t,” I promised, though it seemed a bit odd that something like that would have occurred in real life, or been meant for a training simulation.

“Congratulations, soldier,” Shining Armor finished, and gave me a salute.

I returned the gesture, and words appeared in the center of my vision.

I held the pose as my vision slowly faded and everything went dark for the last time.

Sensation slowly returned to my body, and I felt the padding of the simulation pod around me. I couldn’t move my limbs, and at first was terrified that the pod had paralyzed me, until I realized that it was just the restraints holding me down. Then I was worried I was blind, until I realized that the visor of the helmet was over my eyes. Then the real terror came. While I was unconscious, a tube had snaked its way down my throat to feed me, and it needed to come out now! However, the helmet on my head prevented me from using my magic and my limbs were strapped down.

I gagged and struggled to move as I heard the pod crack open and the lid slowly rise. Scribe Pestle’s face greeted me as she removed my helmet, but I was too busy trying not to choke to death to pay much attention to her welcoming smile. The moment the magical inhibitor was no longer in contact with my horn, I grabbed the tube and yanked it out of my throat, making a wet, sloppy sound as it came out, still drooling nutrient paste. I tried to get the taste off my tongue, something between alfalfa and toothpaste, but it was futile until I could properly rinse out my mouth. The gruel tasted worse than anything I’d ever eaten in the Wasteland, but at least it had all the nutrients my body needed and had kept me from wasting away while I was unconscious.

“Welcome back,” Pestle said as the clamps around my legs released, allowing me to move freely again.

“How long was I out?” I asked as I stretched my stiff limbs and sat up in the pod.

“About three days,” she replied as she shuffled back over to her terminal, and watched text scroll across the screen.

Three days. It hadn't been difficult to keep track of time in the simulation, but I was fairly certain it hadn’t taken seventy-two hours. Unless, of course, the gaps between missions weren’t instantaneous, but had been breaks to allow my mind to rest. That made sense, and it would also have allowed the simulation time to load up the next scenario, since every leap in time had seen big changes to the Flankorage landscape.

I clambered out of the pod and trotted over to Scribe Pestle’s work station, reaccustoming myself to my own body. Most of the text scrolling across the screen seemed to be statistics on my performance in the simulation. One column had a list of names accompanied by whether they’d died or survived in the simulation and what their fate had been in real life. I knew it; there was no way such a complex simulation could’ve been built up without using actual ponies. Pestle looked up suddenly as the printer attached to the terminal began to chatter noisily. When it finished, a ticket was printed out proving that I’d completed the simulation.

“Well, it looks like you did well enough,” Pestle said before passing me the ticket.

There wasn’t much on it, just my name, some fictional information about me the Steel Rangers had entered to make the computer think I was a soldier, and a long alphanumeric identifier. Across the bottom was printed a series of plus symbols stretching between two-thirds and three-quarters across; a score of some kind maybe?

“I’d better tell the elder the good news,” Pestle said as she rose from her seat, “I’m sure he’ll want to be there when you open the vault.”

“Right, of course,” I said, still adjusting to reality, “Do you think I could change first?”

“Yes, I’m sure the elder can wait until you’re more appropriately attired,” Pestle said as she looked the wacky simulation suit up and down.

Back in my (freshly laundered) Stable jumpsuit and Yellow doctor’s coat, I felt much more comfortable. Somepony had clearly gone through my belongings while I’d been unconscious, but nearly everything was still here. I knew for certain that nothing had been taken because I’d catalogued it all in a note on my PipBuck before entering the simulation. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the Steel Rangers, but we had a history that wasn’t exactly pleasant. The only item missing from my saddlebags was my magical energy rifle, but Knight-Sergeant Rare Sparks had left a note saying to see her to retrieve it before I left. She’d been the pony to capture me and bring me in, but I felt I could trust her.

Once I was decked out in my Wasteland attire again, with weapons strapped to and slung over my body, and my saddlebags at my sides, I made my way to the vault. I’d only been to see the heavily armored door once before entering the simulation, but my PipBuck guided me to it. It was amazing how good it was at mapping out rooms and deducing where I wanted to go based on what I entered in the Quest section. I resolved to use it for jotting down my objectives more often. Around the vault door were gathered several Steel Rangers, including Elder Manticore’s Fury and Head Scribe Sagebrush.

“Once more, I must object,” the scribe protested to her superior, “The technological wonders of this vault are not for a Wastelander to take! You go against everything the Steel Rangers stand for.”

“Do we stand for going back on our word? I made a promise, and a generous offer in hopes of mending a relationship with a pony we’d wronged. Just as the Steel Rangers as a whole must work more diligently than ever to mend a relationship with the Wasteland that my predecessors destroyed,” Manticore’s Fury rebutted, and turned toward me as I approached, “Besides, a job well done deserves a reward, and Scribe Pestle tells me you did admirably in the simulation.”

“Were you able to observe me?” I asked curiously, not seeing how that was possible.

“In a way. It was all through text, but Pestle didn’t mind digging through it,” the elder said, “But, we are all very anxious to see what General Shining Armor locked away here. If you would?”

I approached the vault door, also quite curious as to what lay behind it. I was doubly interested after having met Shining Armor in the simulation. What kind of pony was he, and what would he lock away here behind his simulation? I’d met him, yet I felt there was still much more to learn about this pony.

I inserted my ticket into a slot next to the door, and mechanisms whirred as the slip of paper was drawn in and read before being fed out another slot beneath. A camera over the vault door angled to point at my face, humming to itself as it tried to verify if I was who I claimed to be. It was apparently satisfied, as it retracted to its previous position and red lights along the side of the door flipped to yellow. Gradually, they shifted to green as heavy locks disengaged across the door. With agonizing slowness, the vault door slid into the floor and ceiling, the final yellow light turning green as it came to a halt.

Elder Manticore’s Fury beckoned me forward as the first to enter the vault, and I tentatively took a step into the darkened room. As the lights flickered on, I beheld the treasure trove the Steel Rangers had hoped for. Magical weapons and equipment were placed on shelves and racks all around the room. Stacks of datatapes filled with knowledge the scribes would eat up, crates of metal zap apples, a more portable version of the energy weapon I’d found in the MAS Hub, and in the center of the room, the greatest prize of all.

A fully intact suit of Steel Ranger armor hung from a maintenance rack, the undamaged metal shining in the light. It looked a bit lighter than the armor worn by the Steel Rangers outside the vault, but also more advanced. The pony within wouldn’t be a walking tank, but they would be able to move much more swiftly and naturally. The only weapons attached to the armor were two slim missile pods on either side of the torso, about where saddlebags would normally hang. Best of all, the helmet had space for a unicorn horn, and further examination revealed why. Shining Armor’s cutie-mark was emblazoned on the armor’s flanks; this was his personal suit of power armor, left here without ever being worn in combat, judging by its condition.

I knew I had to have it. Scribe Sagebrush would gripe and complain, but Elder Manticore’s Fury had promised I could have first pick of two things from the vault. This would be the first one. What other opportunity would I ever have to take a suit of Steel Ranger armor with the consent of the Steel Rangers?

With that decided, I looked over the rest of the vault for my second item. There were many interesting things here, including zebra weapons, such as the sword the zebra marshal had impaled himself on. That would be a nice upgrade from my machete, but I kept looking. Quite a few odd gadgets adorned the shelves, but I had no idea what the function of any of them was. Some looked like they’d interface with my PipBuck, but I wasn’t going to risk trying one out, using it up, and becoming stuck with it as my second choice.

Among stacks of procedure manuals and binders filled with maps and charts, there was an ornate wooden box. It seemed out of place here, but as I examined it, I recognized Shining Armor’s cutie-mark carved into the top. The box had a length and width similar to a sheet of paper, but was not very deep, and I wondered what could be nestled inside. When giving it a light shake didn’t illuminate me at all, I set it down and attempted to pick the lock. I figured the Steel Rangers (who were now looking around the vault as well) wouldn’t mind. If I kept what was inside, then I’d done nothing wrong, and if I didn’t, then I’d saved them the trouble of getting it open themselves. As the lock clicked satisfyingly, I popped the lid open and took a look inside. The interior of the box was lined with felt that dipped at six places to snugly hold the box’s contents. Within five of the divots were nestled memory orbs, and the sixth held a datatape. Whose memories had Shining Armor tucked away here? Were they the general’s himself? The tape probably held the answers, but I felt I would be overstepping my bounds by accessing it before claiming it as one of my choices. I already knew that this was what I was going to take. Memory orbs were a gateway into the mystery of the past (and also went for a good price) and I couldn’t turn them down.

“I’ve made my decision,” I announced as I trotted over with the box to Elder Manticore’s Fury, who was admiring Shining Armor’s armor with some other Steel Rangers, “I’ll take this … and the armor.”

“Preposterous! Elder Fury, you cannot allow this!” Sagebrush sputtered, “Steel Ranger armor belongs to the Steel Rangers! Of all the possible things in this vault we could lose, this is the worst!”

“Sagebrush, you’re right,” the elder said after looking thoughtful for a minute, “But a promise is a promise. He will have the armor, but not right away.”

“What?” Sagebrush and I both said at the same time.

“This armor was custom-made for a specific pony. Without some adjustments, I’m afraid it would be far too uncomfortable for you to move around in,” Manticore’s Fury explained to me before turning to Sagebrush, “While the modifications are being made, you and your scribes will have plenty of time to study it. However, once the adjustments are completed, this pony will receive what he was promised.”

“I would still advise against this,” the head scribe steamed.

“Your objection, as always, is noted,” Manticore’s Fury waved her off before turning back to me, “Is this situation acceptable to you?”

“I suppose I could wait a bit for the armor,” I said. The Steel Rangers still had a lot to answer for from putting out the bounty on me, but I trusted Elder Manticore’s Fury. He would keep his word, and I would get my power armor, if not immediately.

“Excellent,” the elder replied, “Make sure somepony takes your measurements before you leave. Also, if I remember correctly, Rare Sparks wants to see you.”

“Knight-Sergeant?” I announced myself as I rapped on the doorframe of Rare Sparks’s quarters, and the power-armored mare beckoned me in, “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I have something of yours,” she said as she rummaged through a hooflocker and produced my magical energy rifle.

The weapon wasn’t quite the same as how I’d left it. For one thing, it had been cleaned up and repaired better than my shoddy attempts could. There was also a conical contraption added to its end.

“I added a focuser to improve accuracy and damage,” she explained as I examined the rifle, “I know all too well how fickle magical energy shots can be. This should make less guesswork out of aiming. Consider it a thank you and apology for all we’ve put you through.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” I said, a bit surprised.

“Also, if you don’t mind, I’d like to accompany you to wherever it is you’re headed next,” Rare Sparks, “The least we can do after everything is to offer you an escort to safety.”

“Aren’t you needed here?” I asked, my surprise only growing.

“It’s all right, I’ve already gotten permission from Elder Manticore’s Fury,” the Steel Ranger replied, “Besides, now that the vault is opened, we’ll be moving back to the MWT Hub soon, and this gives me an excuse not to assist with the move.”

“Well then, sure. I suppose a Steel Ranger escort certainly wouldn’t hurt,” I said.

Like Manticore’s Fury, I felt I could trust Rare Sparks. Otherwise, I would’ve been pretty tentative about letting a Steel Ranger take me out into the Wasteland, probably to kill me in my sleep and take my spoils back. A Steel Ranger escort would definitely improve my chances of survival as long as I knew she wouldn’t stab me in the back.

I had no more reason to stick around the SAS, and as I was well-rested from my time in the simulation pod, I saw no reason not to leave right away. The reactions from the Steel Rangers I passed on my way out of Shining Armor’s secret underground facility were mixed, but most seemed favorably inclined toward me, and several congratulated me on completing the simulation. The rest saw me as a thief, somepony who’d swooped in and stolen the spoils that were rightfully theirs. It made me glad to have a friendly Steel Ranger at my side.

The day was just beginning as we stepped outside, Celestia’s sun starting to light the clouds to the east. Then, the Wasteland was suddenly lit up by a second, brighter flash of light to the southeast. The buildings of Flankorage’s city center blocked most of the light, but it was still enough that I got a sinking feeling as to the cause. Without thought, I rushed into the nearest skyscraper, smashing through a window and squashing a radroach with my hooves. I raced up the stairs until I was high enough to see over the other buildings and found a window to look out of to the south.

Horror gripped me as I stared out at the sight, and Rare Sparks also stood in shock beside me. In the southeast suburbs of Vanhoover was something that hadn’t been seen in Equestria in centuries. Roiling smoke of sickly green with flashes of fire within rose toward the sky, the top billowing out and making the formation look rather like a mushroom. Checking the direction and apparent distance with my PipBuck’s map, there was only one place the megaspell could have gone off. The Republic of Rose was no more.

Level Up
New Perk: Paralyzing Buck – All unarmed attacks with your hindhooves do double damage. Not just for trees.
New Quest Perk: Pod Pony – During your time in the Flankorage simulation, knowledge of computing unconsciously seeped into your mind, and you are likely to find you know something about computers without realizing you ever learned it. +10 to Science.
Weapon improved: Magical Energy Rifle > Focused Magical Energy Rifle – Rare Sparks has added a focuser to your magical energy rifle, greater accuracy and +2 to damage.
New Companion: Rare Sparks – A mechanic in the Steel Rangers who quickly rose to the rank of Knight-Sergeant, Rare Sparks is incredibly skilled at maintaining and restoring technology, and is no pushover in a fight, taking full advantage of the Steel Ranger armor that she modified and improved herself.
New Quest: A Withered Rose – Investigate the Republic of Rose’s destruction.
Big Guns +6 (25)
Explosives +4 (43)
Lockpick +1 (46)
Science +15 (85)
Small Guns +2 (86)
Speech +1 (35)
Unarmed +1 (24)