As Starberry,Star dust and Lightning all make their way back to James and Jerome,Star gets a uneasy and wavy feeling in his mind like something bad is about to happen,making his ears twitch. "Why...do i feel like things are about to go down hill?" Star dust looks at Starberry in the eye.

"Get used to it,ah get that feeling allot but ah never pay much attention to it." Starberry reflects on the past times where she felt like bad things are going to happen and she was mostly right.

"Alright i guess..." Star dust sees the large city his friends were at...only to see fires and the sounds of gunshots. "...No." Starberry,Star dust and Lightning all gallop to the city as it slowly burns.

Star dust coughs as he rushes through the fires and gunshots from unknown sources,occasionally rolling under falling ruble before it hits the ground,Starberry and Lightning flying over head,scouting out the area. "What the fuck happened here?" Star dust pants and his eyes dart around and he sees James galloping away from gunfire as he fires back at the invaders with his sawed off. "JAMES!!! JAMES!!!!" Star dust yells while galloping towards him.

"NO,STAR,WAIT!!!" James tries using his magic to stop the bullets from hitting him and manages to just muster up the energy to cause a flicker of protection from a bullet before it could do any harm to star or hit his barding,letting star slide over to James.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!?" Star takes out royal glory and aims,firing at whatever is in the smoke.

"THEIRS NO TIME TO EXPLAIN,JUST RUN!!!" James grabs Star's hoof and gallops to the exit,dodging gunfire and trying to avoid being crushed by ruble.

"WAIT,WHAT ABOUT JEROME?!?!" Star looks around...then everything freezes as he looks into the small white eyes of the thing he fears most...insanity in its physical form was starring at him...right in the eyes,its bone molded mouth and grin sticking out of the shadow of his psychotic hood,the flesh of other ponies who lost their sanity forming grinning and screaming faces on its body,its cloak mocking star with a image of himself trapped in it...and right in insanity's arms...was Jerome,it was not just star's imagination...his deepest fear was standing their,holding the pony he came out of the stable with,insane and laughing in sync with the laughs in star's head. 'Run.' All star could think about is getting away 'Forget Everything And Run.' He kept wanting to save his friend but his mind knew better...he couldn't even do it if he wanted...all he could do was run,run and keep his eyes away from it...so he did.

As James looks back,hopping Star was fallowing,he sees Star burst out of the smoke,with utter fear in his eyes,his pupils so small they resemble pin heads. "OH SHIT!!!" James falls back as Star dust rushes past him and pants while clutching his head,hopping that he didn't somehow go insane just by looking at the creature.

"FORGET THAT SHIT,NOPE,SO MUCH NOPE!!!!" Starberry and Lightning land.

"Star? where's Jerome." Starberry looks around,hopping to see the zebra.

"NOPE,as much as i want to be the good guy and save him HES ALREADY DEAD AND I DON'T THINK ITS POSSIBLE TO SAVE SOMETHING THAT'S DEAD!!!" Star shivers and curls up into a little fluffy blue ball of shaky fear.

"...Holy buck ya'll look scared...ah aint gonna push ya then." Starberry hugs Star dust and tries comforting him with reassuring him.

"...You sir are a pussy." Lightning nearly laughs if it wasn't for the fact he feels a gun being pressed up to his head.

"Say that about mah brother again...and ah'll have yer head removed." Starberry glares at him.

"Wait,hes your brother?" Both Star and Starberry stop and look at each other then to Lightning.

"Uhhh no,he aint mah brother," Starberry facehoofs so hard Star can hear a 'Smack.' 'Why did ah say he was mah brother?' Starberry thinks to herself,feeling a little bit like a idiot.

Star dust gets up and sighs as he stretches his wings and shakes off the fear as he tries to bring down the fluff of his coat,wondering why his coat even fluffed up only to have it poof more. "Ugh." He brings it back down again. "Hey where's Dou-."

"I'm right here." Douglass seems to come out of the shadows,unharmed and just leans on the wall without a word.

Star raises his hoof to question him but decides its best not to question the teleporting gun slinger with the body armor under his coat.

"Ahlirght,now where are we gonna go? we can't put out fires...at least not with what we got...and most of them ponies their already got out." Starberry scratches the back of her head as she tries to think of somewhere to go,allot of the places she knows are ether too far or would get them all killed without their bomb throwing friend.

"...I have a idea." James says causing everypony start starring at him. "Why not go to one of the stables near here? i heard stable 49 is pretty close."

"Hmmmm,ah fuck it,SURE!!!" Star throws his arms into the air,knowing nowhere else to go at the moment as Douglass just stands their,his eyes still hidden under his hat and his duster still flowing.

"Ah screw it,sure,lets go." Starberry looks at the flaming city as the buildings heat up with fires and embers,bringing down the city and its buildings one by one. "S-should we help these ponies before we go? ah think they could use it."

"Nope." Lightning lands and crosses his fore legs and looks at the flaming city with nothing but spite in his eyes and the tip of his Mohawk sticking out of his hood.

"But what about the kids in their? ya'll think they'll be fine?" Starberry starts sounding worried as she looks back at the city.

Doug finally speaks up,his often motionless mouth feels strange to watch move when hes saying something. "Listen,Starberry,im worried too but theirs nothing we can do,if we try then it will get us all killed plus them,were no use to anypony dead and we may not be able to do anything now but we will make up for it later,okay?" Starberrry looks at the strange pony,not expecting something like that to come out of him then slowly nods. "Alright,now lets move."

Star dust looks at Doug,then to Starberry then to James and lightning as they all look back with their eyes sparkling with a mix of understanding and confusion before they all simultaneously shrug and fallow Star dust as he walks ahead of Douglass and starts leading the group once again.

As they walk along the road,Star keeps thinking back to the little filly,her tears rolling down her face,her heart broken from seeing her whole town dead in front of her...he could only hope for the best and pray to Celestia she can survive on her own. 'Celestia,Luna,pleas help that poor filly...pleas...im so sorry...' Star tries holding in his tears,not hearing his friend's conversations as his inner voice seems to beat at him too much to be able to listen.

"Star? ya'll alright? ya look like yer going to cry,ya miss Jerome?" Starberry raises a eyebrow as he gets closer to Star...he forgot about Jerome...and being reminded just made it worse.

'Shiiiiiittttt.' He now had both the image of his stable friend,dead and the little filly looking at her dead family,making him stumble mid-trot and his vision goes blurry making him nearly fall on his side.

"Star?" Starberry quickens her trot and helps him up again. "Ya'll alright? ya look a bit...pale." She notices Star's eyes are watery as teardrops slowly drip from his eyes. "...Star?" She slowly wraps her hooves around him as James,Lightning and Douglass all stop and look at Star,wanting to question whats happening but not saying anything. "Its gonna be alright Brother,ah gotcha."

'This may be the first time i'v seen Star cry...im not sure weather stable ponies cry allot or something really bad happened.' James thinks as he takes a step forward only to get stopped by Doug who shakes his head,making James step back into line.

"C'mon,tell me whats wrong." Starberry lifts Star's chin up as she feels his cold tears dripping onto her hooves. 'Ah'v never seen a pony cry like this...was losing Jerome that hard on him? no no he was close to this before then,ah could tell...Jerome just pushed him over the edge.'

"I-im...im fine Starberry...t-thanks for your concern." Star dust rises to his hooves,his tears slowly stopping as he trots onward,making the rest of the group fallow him.

"Uhhhh okay then...as a distraction:any of you heard of the reapers?" James tries to strike a topic to distract Star and the others from what just happened.

"Yea,i have,not very tough." Starberry,James and Lightning all nearly stop but manage to keep moving,starring at Douglass,wide eyed.

"Are you shitting me? their the most bad ass of the bad ass,how do you think they got their title?" Lightning the heavy weapons alicorn says a bit shocked that something doesn't think the reapers are tough.

"Luck." This time...everyone did stop and they all turned to look at the pony who got the title of 'Phantom' "Life,fighting,everything you can think of is all just a roll of a die,how it turns out is not based on skill,or guns,or armor just chance...and i never roll snake eyes...never...thats how i survive...a roll of the die,click,boom."

"...Well...that uhhh...is a intreastin way of seein things Dougy." Starberry thinks about it as she comments on Doug's thoughts.

"Well it makes sense to me." Now everypony turns to Star. "It makes sense to me at least,i survived a shotgun blast to the face,a ring of explosions and falling into a valley...on my fucking spine and Luck is what saved our asses many times,all luck is is the roll of a pair of die,right?" Douglass nods with a small smile,glad somepony else understands his point of view.

"Alright...i guess im with you here." Lightning sighs and scratches the back of his head,now thinking that their right...even he could probably take down a reaper.

"Right then,im convinced as well...sure as hell makes more sense on how i became a alicorn." James looks around and thinks about how he even became a alicorn...which is a story for another time.

"Well ya'll believe whatever,ah never liked reapers,their just idiots with big ass guns or too buckin stubborn for their own good." Starberry scoffs a bit as she resumes fallowing Star along the road.

Star and the others slowly trot off the road,to a cave entrance.

"Well,here we are lads,stable 49..." James trots ahead of Star dust,opens the make shift wooden door and sees the entire stable door rammed into the side of the cave. "Holy bucking shit." James,Star dust,Lightning and even Douglass all stare at the stable door.

"...Mother of celestia what the fuck did THAT?!?!" Douglass out of all of them is the first one to speak up for some reason,this was probably the first time any of them have seen him shocked because something.

"...Ah have no idea..." Starberry blinks as she is astonished that something managed to pull the door out and ram it into the fucking wall.

The whole group slowly passes it,seeing no sign of explosions,only the rust and overgrowth of stable 49 as Erie creaking sounds and strange scurrying sounds rush through the halls.

"...James,this idea is both the best and the worst idea you have ever had."

"I would question you Star my friend but i have learned never to Question the logic of a blue Pegasus who has survived falling on his spine." James and Star both look around as they walk around the dark,rusted,mucky halls.

"...I...i need to go to the living quarters." Lightning seems to just trot off before anypony could even respond.

"Aaaaalllrrright?" Star raises a eyebrow at the strange act.

"Don't worry about him,hes got a gun that shoots metal apples...he'll be fine." Douglass says as he peeks into a room only to see some strange shape standing up in the darkness,its nothing but a faint outline...and its head is twitching and moving rapidly in all directions,when its at one side it instantly moves to a different like its a strange twitching zombie on seizures while high and suffering from the shakes. "Uhhh hello? are you alright?"

Star moves to him as James and Starberry stand back. "Ummm hello?" Star slowly moves into the room and as he looks closer...the creature grabs his head,its head still twitching everywhere...its a pony,a stable pony with one eye with pupils as big as its whole eye and its red and the other the size of a pin head and blue and the mare screeches into star's face...click...boom,her head gets blown off as soon as Douglass's bullet shatters her brain. "GAH FUCKING,FUCKITY,SHIT,BALLS,FUCK!!!!!" Star quickly falls back and scoots away from the body. "BY CELESTIA'S HORN WHAT THE SHIT?!?!?!"

Douglass rushes in and helps him up as James and Starberry look inside in a hurry,wondering what happened. "Are you alright Star?" Doug tries to keep calm himself,wondering what the fuck he just saw as he tries to stop Star from freaking out.

"Yea...yea im fine." Star dust pants as Starberry and James go and look at the body.

"...What in the buck?" Starberry turns the body onto its other side and examines the body,seeing what happened to the poor pony to make it go this psychotic.

"Ummm guys,we have company." James peeks outside only to see a strange creature covered in slime,about the size of Luna herself,using its claws to go through the halls,its green eyes blending in with the rest of its green scaly body and it seems to hiss with a snake like tongue and teeth so sharp they can penetrate power armor like a ripper through butter. "And hes pretty big."

As the others are about to get up to go look at whats coming their way the creature itself teleports and appears in front of Star dust. "HOLY SHIT!!!!" It hisses loudly and slashes at him only for him to drop-dodge it,making it knock back Douglass and spit some kind of strange green goop at Starberry,tying her up before back-clawing James into the wall as its hiss turns into a roar. "FUCK!!!" Star rolls out of the way as it turns to hit him with its spiked tail.

"...Target acquired." A robotic mare's voice rings through the room as out of nowhere a mint green mare shaped robot with a greenish blue mane and tail comes out of nowhere with red and black glowing eyes and it rushes to the creature,tackling it down before its hoof turns into a blade,ramming it into the creatures eye making its blue blood splatter all over her,making the blade turn into a ribber,tearing its head apart. "...Goodnight." It picks up the whole creature,regardless of its size and throws it through the fucking wall before trotting up to hit and hits it with a pair of pulse hooves that she made from her own hooves. "Target ter-." She hits it again. "Mi-." Hits it again. "Nated." One last hit making its head splatter onto the floor.

Everypony stares at the machine,wide eyed and jaws hanging open. "...What the fuck?" Star says while getting up,amazed that a robot just destroyed such a large and fast creature.

The robot turns to him and the red in her eyes turns into a pink as she doesn't have a mouth she still makes a cheerful voice. "Hello mr- data unavailable,pleas enter name."

"Ummmm...Star dust?"

The robot processes the data. "Hello Mr Star dust,i am:Medley,i am programmed to protect you."

Star just stands their,silent. 'What?!?! something 200 years old is programmed to protect me?' "Ummm show information?"

The machine brings up a holographic image of somepony that actually looks allot like star but with a much lighter coat,greener eyes and a hat and vest,for a moment Star thought they may be related...they may be. "This is your Image is it not Mr Star?"

"Umm yes thats me..." 'Not really but its a robot made to protect me so im good with it.' Star dust gets up,examines the new robot as it looks at Him in the eye.

"Well...looks like you got your own body guard." James smirks at Star...then their was a bone chilling screech.