The Second Longest Day

Just 'cause ya plant an apple don't mean the tree that grows'll be any good." -Apple family adage

"YA THINK THEY COULD'VE WAITED A DAY!"

A shockwave split through the air and hurtled toward the reconnaissance wing. Moving at the speed of sound, the shockwave was still too slow for a steel blue stallion. He rolled in mid-air, dove down, and then snapped up instantly. This created a smaller, more intense shockwave. Reconnaissance Wing Steel lay in a dead zone while the air around them was torn apart.

"Wave! Pay attention! What we’re ya yelling about?" the Captain snapped as he flew over.

"What's a matter? Busy showing off?"

"Stow that shit private! That cloud kicker kept your brains from leaking out your ears, not like that would change much."

"Captain, yes sir. Just fighting a hangover and the enemy." The air around the wing split apart again. This time, however, it was the cry of a dragon. Wave piqued. "Did they get him?"

"Naw, it's going to take a helluva a lot more than that. Damn it! Where's our bucking support?" A gold mare flew up to the pair as they argued.

"Um, we're getting new orders! Yes? Right away!"

"Wire? Report!"

"Sir, we're to proceed to the detention block right away. The enemy's hitting us from inside." A fourth pegasus, another stallion, joined formation.

"Good riddance! Let those flying death traps deal with the drag-" the new arrival's head sheared apart. Half of his head launched into the air with alarming speed. Viscera sprayed onto Wave and the Captain.

The reconnaissance armor the wing was wearing was much lighter than normal issue. It was built for stealth and speed. It offered no resistance to the high-powered bullet traveling at supersonic speed. Wire's eyes stared at the place he had been, as if she was still listening to him talking.

Wave cried out, "SNIPER, FOUR O'CLOCK LOW!” He and the Captain scattered in opposite directions. Without even thinking, they shifted into formation and maneuvered to attack. They started to serpentine toward their target when the Captain noticed Wire. She was hovering in place, watching as her comrade's crumpled form loll toward the ground. She'd seen him maneuver through cloud obstacles a hundred times before. He was a magnificent flier. Instead of dodging, though, he hit a cloud with a wet smack, smearing it with red. It was nothing like him. It wasn't him at all.

Wire felt something jerk in her neck as she was tackled. A fore-hoof felt numb and strangely warm as she spun through the air. "WAKE UP PRIVATE, or we're both dead!" The Captain had grappled her through the air as the two dove toward the clouds.

"S-sir, Captain. Gear Shift. He..."

"I know private, I know." Determination filled the Captain's face as he caught up with Wave. The sun was darkened by the form of a dragon. Purple and green wings seemed to glow as the sun illuminated their flesh. Wave continued to dive toward the sniper. A high pitched whine grew louder as he and the Captain charged the plasma arrays on their armor. The air hissed and crackled as Wave, and then the Captain opened fire. Wave interwove his flight with the Captain's. The display of formation and firepower stopped short when the dragon put himself between the approaching assault. The dragon belched a blast of green flame. Wave scattered in the opposite direction, feeling uncomfortably warm in his armor.

"Sir? SIR!" Wire cried out. Instead of avoiding the pillar of flame, the Captain rolled around it, towing Wire the whole way. From the facility, the maneuver looked like solid blue stripes were appearing on a bright green Heart's Warming candy cane. The Captain continued to fire. The dragon snatched up the sniper and took wing. The Captain changed course to pursue. Wire's expression changed.

"Sir?" Wave sounded anxious. "It's the Enclave. They want to speak to you." The Captain stopped in mid-air. As insane as it was, he wanted nothing more than to hunt down the dragon. It wasn't just his superior that was calling, though, it was the Council, the Commanders in Chief.

“What? Yes! No. Yes. I... I understand, ma'am's.” The Captain put down the radio. “Wire? Your radio.” Wire took the pony-pack radio off her back and hoofed it to the captain. He took the strap in his mouth and started spinning in place. After a few turns, he released the pack into the blue void. It cleared the edge of the cloud they were on and disappeared. Wire and Wave looked at each other in shock. “I've been ordered,” he started, but stopped with a sigh. “They want me to send you two into the base to deal with detention. Seeing as I'm RC certified, I'm deemed, “a critical resource too important to the enclave to be put in danger,” and am, “reassigned to active duty as personal guard to the Enclave.” I am to leave you two for Cloudsdale immediately.” Wire and Wave looked at their captain. He face-hoofed “Buffalo shit. That's what I think. Leave you two in this mess. Buffalo... shit. Alright here's the deal. I'm now a Lieutenant. They thought promoting me would make me report immediately. Wave?” The Captain went over to Wave, plucked off his gold captain's badge and pinned it on the stallion. “As acting captain of our wing, I'm now under your command. You see,” he smirked, “I didn't quite hear that promotion bit. I seem to have trouble hearing after our radio exploded. Don't think I'll be able to carry the duties assigned to me as captain for the moment. Now. You going to reassign me and take me out of this?” Wave grinned, too, getting what the Captain was after.

“Whatever for,” he shrugged, “I didn't receive any new orders.”

“But? The Enclave...” Wire started. The Captain and Wave smiled at each other. The Captain trotted over to her.

“Wire?” he put a hoof on her shoulder, “Get some experience and you'll fly straighter than any arrow. I think you'll make a fine officer someday. Right now, our best chance to survive is sticking together as friends. Wherever we're going, we're going together.” He put on his best smile and leaned into her chest. Her heart skipped a beat but then beat double time to make up. The sun made his mane shimmer and his deep, silver eyes made her feel at peace. He leaned in for a long, deep kiss. She returned it eagerly, her wings flapping a few times on their own. After, acting captain Wave took him aside while Wire nervously shifted through her gear, making last minute preparations.

“Oohh, you're in trouble now.”

“Me? Nah,” the Captain grinned at Wire, who noticed and redoubled her focus on the preparations. “'Sides, Wire needed something to help her get through this.”

“Celesia's gift to the mares, huh?” Wave rolled his eyes. “Just saying, there'll be consequences.”

“Yeah, I'll come clean, you know I do. Let's see? One cheater's kiss and my mare's gonna have to punish me.” The Captain started to do mock calculations with his hooves. “That's four spankings for the kiss, around twelve for not telling her...” Wave put a hoof in the Captain's mouth and face-hoofed at the same time.

“Forget I asked. You good, Wire? Great. All right, lead on,” Wave unplugged his hoof from the Captain's muzzle and pointed it at him, “you know the base best.”

All three took formation and then took to the air. The base was abuzz. Sky-tanks, armored pegasi, and other materiel rushed around the base in confusion. All activity was frenzied and rushed. It was if a beehive had been stirred up, but none of the bees knew what they were supposed to do. Steel Wing bobbed and weaved through the confusion like it was a normal day on the base. They approached the detention center just off the ground, weaving between buildings and equipment, looking like they were part of the confusion.

The three stopped short of the main entrance to the Detention center, taking position behind one of the hardened buildings that made up the military base.

“What do we know, Wire?” The Captain knew the mare would be gathering all the information she could, accessing communications local to the base, even if she couldn't listen in on longer-range communications without her pony-pack equipment.

“It's bad, sir. A dead zone has been setup around the block to avoid further casualties.”

“The whole block? For what? Is it an assault force?”

“Reports have been vague. The brass seems to be avoiding directly answering questions. Instead of assaulting with a full force, they've quarantined the area!”

Wave cut in, “That doesn't make any sense, why would they pull everypony back and send us in? What are we up against?”

“They want recon to tie things up quietly,” the Captain explained.

“We could've asked for more details, but the radio's gone dead.” Wave whinnied approval at Wire's comment, the Captain winced.

“Alright you two, stow it. C'mon Wire, give me something I can use. What are we looking at? I know you're hiding something juicy in that suit, you always do. And I don't mean that sexy, sexy flank.”

“Laying it on a little thick, don't you think?” She cut him off as he opened his muzzle, preventing any reply. Wave was impressed Wire was calm enough to joke. She was getting better at dealing with things. “You're right. Initial reports didn't mention a riot or a large assault force. Everything talked about one name before word came from up on high to cut off communication to the whole block. fluffykins.” Wave was taken aback.

“What, no snipers? No sky-tanks? Fluffykins? What does that even-” Wire shrugged him off.

“No idea,” she replied. The Captain shook his head.

“Those buckers! They want us to clean up their...” Wire and Wave turned to him. “Fluffykins was the name of a female hellhound the Enclave captured. She's been their experimental prisoner for years. They had her on one of the thunderheads. Don't ask. I just know. No idea what she's doing here, though.” Wave looked away nervously. “What is it?”

“You said a hellhound?” The Captain nodded. “Sir, an Enclave cell can turn a monster into a... well, I don't know, but it isn't good.”

“So?”

“They can cut a pony in half just by resting a claw on her, even with armor. That and they love killing ponies.”

“You saying we can't take 'em?”

“Not us, Neighvarro’s detention center. No prisoners in there for years. Enclave never wanted to put any threats near their important tech center. Place has been used for training detention recruits. I'm saying if Fluffykins is looking for other fighters to free, she's only gonna find-” The Captain looked around the corner, checked the guard post, and flew straight to the entrance. “Hey, wait!”

Wave went to follow him, Wire pulled on his recon armor. “Don't we need a plan?”

“The Captain's not gonna listen to anypony right now. A particular pony's in there. Listen, Wire, whatever happens, fly straight, stay calm.” She nodded, feeling a little unsettled. She followed Wave as he flew to the Captain, taking some evasive maneuvers as a precaution.

A claustrophobic reception area contained a shelf and chair behind ballistic glass. No pony was in the chair. At the opposite side of the room were two sliding doors. The Captain was furiously pecking at their controls. “Everything's on lockdown, I can't..”

“Let me.” Wire flew over. She was calm, even though the Captain was worked up. “These doors have a manual override. The warden has a set of keys so she can open any door. Problem is, they didn't count on me." Wave admired Wire, she was doing her best to soothe the Captain. The door clicked but didn’t open.

“Great job.” Wave and the Captain trotted up to the door and strained against it. “There’s something… RRHH!” The door gave a little and there was the sound of scraping metal. After The door snapped open with a metallic crunch. An armored head slumped into the room. Wire gasped as a tide of red flooded the doorway.

What was inside showed brilliantly against the eggshell white and clinical lighting of the prisoner processing room. Like the entrance, this room was small. It was higher, however, and had a desk with something on it. Sprays of blood decorated the walls and ceiling. The patterns looked like a pony had been trying to get the kinks out of a gardening hose, and the water had come out in sudden gushes. Only if the water had been blood.

Wire vomited and turned away. “No, dammit, NO!” the Captain roared. Ignoring all else, he started straight for the set of doors on the other side. He stopped when his first hoof inside the room made a splash. Pulling it up, he saw it dripping red. “Eh, how much…”

“Sir,” Wave called out. The Captain looked behind them, then at what Wave was pointing at. Along one wall, neatly stacked, were pony bodies. They were arranged like barrels. More bodies were on the bottom in order to keep those at the top from all shifting and rolling off. They looked even more like pony barrels because all of the heads had been cleanly removed.

“Goddess!” The sounds of Wire’s vomiting subsided into hacking. The Captain flew up to the next door and tried this one, too. He flew back over to Wire. “Soldier? Soldier!” She looked at him weakly. He put a hoof on her shoulder. “Listen up. We have to make sure this stops here and now. It’s bad, matter of fact, this is the worst. It doesn’t get any worse than this. But right now our wing beats as one or it doesn’t beat at all. I can’t get through that door and the only way we make it out of here alive is if we face what’s on the other side together. You with me? Can you do that? Stay with me for right here, right now.” She looked past him into the other room. The Captain wished he was a unicorn. He wanted her to believe. He needed her to believe.

Instead of looking away, and instead of staring into an imaginary sky in the room, Wire’s face changed. She looked at the Captain and nodded. She got up off her haunches and wavered a moment, but only a moment. “This stops here?” she asked. The Captain gave her a single nod. She brushed his hoof off and trotted straight through the horror to the other door. The Captain watched her and waved over his other comrade.

“Wave?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m in love.” Once again, Wave face-hoofed.

“No, just no! I can’t… I just... I’m not even talking to you right now.” Wave flew up to the door, taking a position above one of its corners. “Wait till we’re ready,” he whispered to Wire. She stopped in her work and nodded. Taking position on the other corner, the Captain nodded to Wave, who nodded to Wire. Wave and the Captain each took hold of one of the sliding doors. “We’re stacked,” he continued whispering, “Breach when the door opens. Wire, wait for us to secure the room.” She continued to work. After a quiet click, Wire looked up.

The Captain’s muzzle worked silently as he mouthed, “One, two,… three!” This door offered no resistance as the two pegasi pulled on it. They dashed inside the room, criss-crossing each other’s path. Each pegasus wound up on the opposite side of the room from the corner of the door they had taken.

As they disappeared inside, Wire looked around her and shivered. Something didn’t make sense. Why in the buck, she thought. And where would they go? And, why in the buck? The heads weren’t there, she could see the whole room and they weren’t there.

“Clear! Captain?” came from inside the other room.

“No, we need check the rest.”

Wire perked up, rounded the corner, and trotted toward the middle of the room. She stopped short. The décor of this room matched the other. Cold, white walls, unnatural ambient light, and the macabre. There they were, in the center of the first floor. Set up in a circle, muzzles pointed outward. Both ears on each head had been cut off. Wire turned away. As she did, she froze half way through her turn.

“C-captain?”

“Wire? We're not cl-” the Captain stopped. “WAVE!” Wave flew over the balcony to see. This room was larger than the other two and had two levels. Against the wall on one side of the room stood the figure of a female hellhound. It loomed over Wire, easily twice her height. The gray and white coat had black stripes while the top of the hellhound's head bore fluffy white hair. Two red eyes rested on Wire, who stood frozen. The hellhound's wolf-like mouth pulled back into a sneer, showing glistening fangs. She raised a paw which held an energy pistol. “WIRE! GET OUT OF THERE!” The hellhound pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. “THE SKY!” Wire snapped back to reality and kicked off the ground, taking wing. The hellhound broke into a smooth motion. She coiled on her hind paws and leapt at Wire. Wire had gotten a long way into the room, but the hellhound was flying now, too. Though she didn't have wings, the hellhound easily covered the distance to Wire, swiped at her, and landed in one fluid motion. Wire's eyes went wide as she tumbled to the ground.

“CAPTAIN NOW!” Wave shouted. The Captain and he flew to opposite sides of the room and opened fire. Their plasma rifles did more raw damage than almost all small arms. However, very few ponies preferred them because the projectiles of super-heated matter took time to reach their target. A projectile from a plasma rifle was nowhere near as instantaneous as other magical energy rifles, or even a standard cartridge rifle. The hellhound leapt between the plasma rifle blasts, jumped to the second level, turned and kicked off a wall directly at Wave. Wave panicked and flew low, diving to get out of the way. He felt wet as a single claw glanced his flank. He spun and landed into Wire.

While in mid air, the hellhound couldn't change direction, and the Captain let fly. Blast after blast connected as he followed the motion of his target. Other than landing, the hellhound made no sound. She turned to face the Captain, who was shocked that she didn't go down. Instead, she leapt again from the second floor. The Captain couldn't go any higher. Low and he could still be caught. He backed up as fast as he could with one powerful blast of his wings. He had taken a sliver of time to think and now the hellhound was rocketing toward him, eyes wild.

On the ground Wave looked over Wire. She was still breathing but bleeding badly. She was going to be dead soon.

“NO!” Wave turned around to see the hellhound miss the Captain, but fall straight on him. She raised a claw to add another trophy to her collection. Wave rolled on his back and fired in a frenzy. He saw tiny waves of green energy roll off the hellhound as the blasts met their mark. The hellhound was still moving and a shock of panic took him. The hellhound's red eyes reflected green as he kept firing, adding to his panic. The paw came down and he pushed up his hind legs to stop the blow. The onslaught of weapons fire pushed the hellhound back bodily, so that his hooves stopped the paw, but one had been impaled by a claw. The hellhound roared.

“NOT BEFORE FLUFFYKINS HAS TWO MORE!” The sound was deafening and horrifying. Fluffykins opened her jaws wide and brought them near her prey. Wave hadn't noticed, but his weapon cell had run out of charges and wasn't firing anymore. He didn't notice because there was still the sound of gunfire. He whimpered as the jaws lowered to devour his face.

Fluffykins' horrific visage twisted into a nightmare. Wire cried out, unfortunately still conscious. Her wide mouth suddenly glowed green. The sound of gunfire changed as Wave saw the outline of the Captain move into his peripheral vision. Fluffykins' jaw was knocked to one side as the rest of her head began to melt. Thinking fast, Wave used his free hind leg to prop up Fluffykins, pull his other hoof free from the claw, and push against Fluffykins with both hooves. He wasn't trying to keep Fluffykins from falling, he needed to guide the luminescent, green, dripping mass that now made up half of Fluffykins' head away from Wire and himself. “Captain!” he cried. The Captain was by his side in a flash.

“Th-there's a med box on the desk in the other room.” The Captain was gone and back before he had finished speaking. Getting to his hooves, he worked quickly. Wave had been trained as the combat medic for the his wing, and now he was relieved that he was there. Breathing a prayer of thanks, he carefully lifted out the two healing potions inside. Everything was starting to get to him. Tears started to fill his eyes. He tried to talk out his anxiety as he worked. “Captain! Tourniquets, hind leg, wing, NOW! Leg first. Stay with me Wire, c'mon.” Her eyes were still open, he didn't even take time to check if she was alive. He opened her muzzle and drained the first healing potion. He stopped and looked at her. The longest moment he'd ever known passed.

Suddenly she choked, coughed, and sputtered. “YES! Good girl! Get that outta your lungs! Swallow whatever you can. SWALLOW!” Her eyes were wide, she looked around, confused. Her throat worked and her chest heaved as she drew in breath.

“W-Wave? What's wrong? What's going on? Am I okay? Am I okay?” She started to panic and he knew she was going into shock.

“Wire, I'm here, I'm here! You can't believe what you just did!” He motioned furiously to the box the Captain shrugged, confused. Wave looked back and pointed, instead of gesturing. The Captain looked at what he was pointing at, picked it up and went over to where Wire's head lay.

“What's wrong? What's he doing? Don't let him touch me!”

“Hey hey hey. Look at me. Right here. Right now. Remember? You can't believe how amazing you were.” Wave used his weight and held her down. She struggled, but he held her firmly. Firmly, but gently. “You just saved-”

“No, no we didn't, we're still in danger! You don't understand! She's going to stop us all. Starve us out. The Enclave's done for! And when it's over, oohhh, ow, they're gonna kill us for things we didn't even do! We have to get to the hub it's it's... it's … the … key.” Wave looked up to see the Captain toss the empty syringe aside.

“Okay, good. Great. Good. I need those right there. Damn, I love a good medical box!” Wave was shaking now. The Captain gathered the packet he was pointing to. “Flip her on her back.” The Captain sucked air in sharply as Wire was rolled on her back. Wave took off his armor and then his uniform. He padded Wire's haunch and tail with the uniform. Then he got a closer look.

There was a clean, straight line across her flank and thigh. It was below the haunch. Everything below that line was missing. “You ever seen a cut like that? Buck, no! Here.” He tore open the package, handed some things to the Captain and kept working. “I'm sorry wire, I can't reattach it. Not with only two. You'd probably, ugh!” he strained to twist open a bottle. There was a snap and he turned it over and began squeezing a gel onto the wound. He spread it all around the wound. and what was left of Wire's hind leg.

“Bleed a lot more. Then when we'd move you, it could come out. I'm not taking the chance of you bleeding out while somepony else thinks about getting to you. Base has gone ta hell. No more. Not today. Not losing you too. We just graduated, right? Hold right here. Right bucking here, make sure her upper body doesn't move. Keep her hooves outta the way.” Wave squirted some gel on each hoof, rubbed all over, then swirled his hooves in the air until they dried. “Ah, feather-brained shit-head!” He tore the package open so that the top was completely open. He put more gel on his hooves, rubbed them together, and dried them again.

He gingerly picked up a thin circle from inside the package. He held it in his forehooves and sat his haunches down squarely on Wire's upturned barrel. He peeled one thinner side off the disc. He adjusted one of his hind legs so it lay between Wire's legs. “Sorry girl, I know you're not gonna like this. Captain? The tourniquet.” The Captain got in place. “Not yet,” He leaned over her while holding the disc. “Okay, now.” the Captain released the tourniquet as Wave lightly lay the center of the disc on the stump of her hindleg. He took one foreleg and pushed Wire's stump against his hind leg. He then pressed down. “Okay Captain. Just fold this down. Only touch the top of it.” The Captain came over folded the sides of the disc. Layers inside of the disc started to mesh together and the disc grew thicker. After he had finsihed, the disc now resembled a cast over the stump.

“Now the wing.” The Captain sighed as they turned over Wire to reveal that Fluffykins had sheared off her wing along with everything else. The wing was bleeding a lot less and Wave repeated his earlier process. Only this time, the disc remained a disc with a small budge where the stump of Wire's wing was. Things went much faster.

They both sat down for a moment after everything was done.

“Whoah. You're a genius,” the Captain marveled. Wave sighed.

“Nah. The mare that came up with this is.” He sighed. The Captain came over.

“Yeah, well you're here right now, and you knew enough to save our friend's life.” Wave shook his head. “Just wish we could've stopped this.” He jerked a hoof around the room. The heads were still arranged.

“Wave, I don't know what you're talking about buddy,” the Captain looked over. “We just d...”

“Yeah, hell of a lot of good that did. What's up?” The Captain took off his helmet and dropped it to the floor. His silver eyes narrowed, his dark blue mane was wet with sweat. “Hey, Captain? Captain!” The Captain ignored him, flying to the pile of heads. Stopping over the pile, flew up, rolled, dove down, and then snapped up again. Wave put his hooves to his ears just in time; they were still ringing from the shockwave. “What? What was that for?” he yelled. Trotting up to the captain, he stopped short.

Somewhere from down the hall there was a new voice. The Captain came to rest on the ground so softly that his hooves made no sound. The shockwave had scattered the heads, but there was one right underneath the spot he'd preformed the maneuver. The voice in the hall was getting louder. He sat in place, and picked up the head. Unlike the others, this one was perfect. The ears were still in tact and the pony's expression was peaceful. Two soft, yellow eyes stared at the Captain. He brought it close to his chest and started to wail into the soft, chestnut mane. It wasn't a cry, it wasn't a scream, it was an open-muzzled moan. Wave sat next to him and looked down.

The voice came into clarity, “An' just how can ya be sure she's okay? Yer tellin' me that Spike... yeah, I got that part. An' now ya want me ta just leave her? Well, ahm on mah way right now. Ah'll be there.”

A rust colored blur burst into the room, flying so fast that he almost knocked into the other two sitting in the middle of the room. Wave looked up. A rust colored pegasus with an orange mane floated opposite Wave and the Captain. He wore a black desperado hat.

“Sorry, folks, Ah'll just... Ah'll just.” His sentence stopped short as he looked around.

“Calamity? Calamity! How are you back? No, they tossed you out.” Wave noticed his worn, dirty saddle bags and clothes. “Those buckers tossed you out, I never forgave them for that. You undercover?”

“Wave! I, uh, thank ya.” Calamity didn't know what to say.

“You can't be here. Not unless you're undercover, or wait... is this you? This is you? You're with them?” Calamity rose to the question.

“Listen Wave, this had ta happen. I can't tell ya how bad-”

“This? This! Calamity. Our friends, the people we're fighting for. They're dying.” Calamity sighed.

“Ah know this ain't gonna sound right. But ah ahm fightin, Wave, just as hard, maybe even harder for our other pegasi. Retreatin ta the clouds ain't right, an' tha Enclave, they're just killin' ponies down there.”

“We got something in common? Both fighting for pegasi? Here have her. She WAS MINE, and YOU TOOK HER! WELL, here she is. THIS is what you're fighting for.” The Captain had gone up to Calamity and thrust the head of his lover at Calamity's chest. Calamity whinnied, backing up. “Look at her, LOOK AT HER!” Wave backed up, aghast. Calamity looked away. “Why can't you finish what you started? You took everything else I loved, but your dragon, your bullets, and your GODDESS DAMNED HOUND didn't take me.” Even the full swing of post-graduation reverie, Wave had never seen the Captain angry, never seen him lose his cool. “Get back here! Look at what you buckers accomplished! And take the rest of them too. The bodies are in there!” The Captain pointed to the room behind him. The head dropped and the Captain cried out. Realizing what he'd done, he scrambled over to it and picked it up, stroking it softly. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. You know that, right? I'd never let go...” the Captain's words trailed off into half-sentences and sobs.

“Ah, Ah.”

Wave looked at the floor, defeated. “He's right, you know. The bodies are in the next room.”

Calamity panicked and flew toward the exit. He glanced back out of habit, making sure they weren't going to pull a gun. As he did, he saw the sadness in Wave's eyes and the madness breeding in the Captain's. Without thinking, he lost altitude and splashed down on all four hooves in the middle of the next room. Wave heard a terrified whinny as Calamity saw what was there. Moments later, there was a soft whoosh as Calamity flew away.

Addendum I:

Technology Considerations for Pony Arms and Armor

Research proposal from Lab 212, Neighvarro

While such a clinical title like “Technology Considerations..." may not indicate it, a strong consideration must be made for pony anatomy when designing new technology for military use. While the constant drumbeat of "make it work, and yesterday" often drowns out the clear need for style, we at Lab 212 believe the confluence of the two is the answer to the needs of the military. Form is just as important as function, and those coconut-heads in the upper echelons of leadership would do well to remember that.

Pony anatomy is not conducive to carrying things in their legs and hooves. Over the centuries, we have adapted many different ways and strategies to carry and wield tools. Unicorns, of course, most often aim and activate tools or weapons with simple levitation magic. Earth ponies are more inventive. In the most basic case, an earth pony will hold weapons in their muzzles. Years of practice, or clever earth pony design, allow many devices to be operated with hooves. Indeed, the lances of old (and new, in the case of magical energy lances) were first attached to the back by earth ponies. This ancient tool gave rise to the modern battle saddle, allowing present-day arms to be operated by any pony with the use of a harness and control bit. This last development proved invaluable in the evolution of armor.

For example, battle saddles allowed for much larger weapons to be carried by ponies. Furthermore, simply having to operate a saddle along with any complex targeting mechanisms proved too cumbersome and unwieldly. Why not integrate the battle saddle into a targeting spell, and then, why not integrate both into armor? This way, all any pony would have to do is operate one simple mechanism. The interface between all the others is handled behind the scenes.

The scientists at Sky Lab 212 think this is not enough. Why should any pony need to operate any mechanism at all, when any pegasi could operate their weapon by simply thinking! Why, they could identify, target, and fire faster than any gunslinger could ever hope to achieve the old-fashioned way. And with Lab 212's magical neuoro-interface, nothing less than an across-the board boost in soldier performance is just a thought away! Think of the possibilities of combat-ready pegasi that have done nothing less than made their weapons an extension of themselves!

With trials already complete, this technology is ready for field testing in our Reconnaissance units. Think of us when this year's funding conference is held, and we'll ensure that soldier success is a present-day reality and not just a future rumination!

Author's Note

Ch. 1 Completed.
-Where'd Fluffykins get the energy pistol?
-Medical bandage after Calamity leaves.