Chapter 18
The Plains

The thing I remember the most about the first part of the day traveling through the plains was the paranoia I felt. It was like being back in the Desert, no cover for miles except the hills themselves. The feeling of exposure was overwhelming, if we encountered anything out here there would be no avoiding it. The wicked fast winds tore across the landscape with no major features around to hamper their movements.

At some point I noticed an eerie echo on the winds, like some distant whistling. Patches heard it too but couldn’t quite pinpoint the source even with his wing listening trick. Since we left Timberfold a little after 1030 I guessed we found the source of the noise around 1500.

Patches and I spotted the culprit at the same time, a speck against the sky. A Pegasus maybe two miles away was soaring through the air, whistling the entire way. No, they weren’t whistling. They were wearing whistling wingblades!

“That’s one crazy motherfucker,” Patches said as he squinted. His wings were straining to ‘hear’ every detail of the distant Pegasus. “You’d figure a lower profile would be preferred in a place like this, he’s miles away and I can hear that shit,” he observed.

“Isn’t it also a bad idea to be flying? It’d make it easier for hostiles to spot them from afar,” I commented as the Pegasus flew in a lazy circle then stopped abruptly. The whistling became very shrill for a brief moment.

“Uh oh,” Patches murmured.

The Pegasus must have spotted us because they dropped into a dive immediately. Right toward us, the whistling of their wingblades intensifying greatly. They had a grand wingspan as well, it explained the speed they managed to achieve so quickly. It also explained the massive swirling wall of air that slammed into us when the Pegasus halted some twenty feet away.

“Hands up!” The stallion ordered as he slowly drew closer, his wings whistling threateningly with every motion to keep him afloat. He had one of the old service rifles I remember seeing out in the desert. It was trained on us as he descended.

“Fat chance!” Patches called as he raised his own cannon of a rifle.

I drew my revolver and took aim as the blue Pegasus landed, keeping his wings and rifle raised as he did so. I couldn’t help but notice how his knees trembled when he touched down. He only dropped two or three feet, had it hurt that much? If it did hurt his face did not betray him, it was set in stone.

In spite of us outnumbering him, he did not back down. He was my height, maybe an inch or two shorter, but he had a wingspan that would have looked at home on Patches! He was wearing a mixture of the service armor I had seen many ponies wearing in the desert along with other scavenged parts to cover the rest of his body. Then it hit me, his wings. He was using them to signal his position to a much larger group!

“Patches, this guy isn’t alone,” I said, never taking my eyes of the Pegasus. His expression changed as he looked at Patches, giving him a more scrutinizing look.

“Well I’ll be,” he muttered as a smile crept onto his face. He looked at me and his brow furrowed in thought a moment. “I know both of you!” He exclaimed, lowering his service rifle.

Patches slowly lowered his rifle. “Sticks? Is it seriously you?”

“Sticks?” I asked, looking at Patches as I lowered my revolver.

“This guy was on my weather team back in the desert Alex!” Patches said with a massive grin, stepping toward the beaming Pegasus.

“Hahaha! How’ve you been?!” Sticks replied as he closed the distance to give Patches a handshake.

“We’ve been surviving!” Patches replied noisily as he vigorously shook the smaller Pegasus’ hand. Once he released, the two of them spread their wings to slap them in a sort of wing handshake that displaced enough air to stagger me.

“There they are!” Came a distant cry from the hilltop Sticks had flown over on his way to us. Atop the hill were nearly a dozen other ponies all armed and aiming their respective weapons at us.

“IT’S ALRIGHT! THEY’RE GOOD!” Sticks bellowed back at them, his voice echoing off the landscape. He had a set of pipes on him!

“Shit! Still loud as ever!” Patches said with a laugh. “Anyone else from the team with you?”

“You bet! Morning Dew and Gale both came with me! We started traveling and gathering survivors and we’ve been thriving ever since!” He beamed, looking from Patches to myself. His smile faded as he looked me over once more. His finger raised up as he thought aloud. “A-something… Ah… Rustwing. I remember Rustwing. You’re a Rustwing right?” His face was very animated throughout his train of thought up until he posed his question, ending with what looked like an exaggerated arched eyebrow.

“Alex Rustwing,” I said, holding out a hand of my own.

He took my hand and shook it politely. “Nice to make your re-acquaintance Alex” he said with a smile. His eyes shimmered with honest happiness but I could feel them boring through my own eyes and into my soul. “Nice to meet the Queen Killer in person,” he said as he released my hand.

“Here I thought I’d escaped that name,” I said with a little shake of my head.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bring up that shit,” he said as he turned and started toward the group of approaching ponies. “Come on you two, care to come see what I’ve been up to?”

“Sure thing!” Patches said as he followed Sticks.

“Patches we gotta get to Canterlot!” I called as I followed the pair of Pegasi.

“We’re still headed Northeast!” Patches called over his shoulder. “It’s sort of the direction we need to go!”

“You two are going to Canterlot? You’re fuckin’ insane!” Sticks said with a laugh. “Man, I gotta say a part of me wants to go there just to see how fucked up it’s gotten though,” he trailed off, looking up the Mountain as he walked. His strides were impressive and he moved with a bit of a bounce, he kept up with Patches without jogging like I tended to when he started walking fast.

The Pegasus looked a little lopsided with such large wings, they didn’t fold up against his back properly which left them flared open slightly. The awkward flare of his wings didn’t seem to bother him at all though. They ridged at least two feet above his head and the tips of his wings dragged across the ground everywhere he went. It must have been a chore keeping them clean.

As he walked I noticed something in his gait was off, in spite of his rapid and large strides his legs trembled occasionally. If he was injured he was doing a good job of hiding it. The more I looked at it the more it looked like the walk of someone who had been injured a long time and gotten used to it.

Once we closed the distance with the group I was faced with the largest group of survivors I had ever seen outside a population center. Of the ten ponies before me, eight of them were Pegasi and two were Unicorns. Every single one of them looked fast.

“Meet the scouting party!” Sticks said enthusiastically. He then dove into a barrage of energetic introductions that I have a difficult time remembering. He was like a small blue version of Patches that could talk twice as fast. He certainly had the positive attitude…

During the introductions I caught a few names and faces. Elemental Point, a Unicorn from Manehattan, and his marefriend Elemental Wing, a Pegasus from one of the cloud forts to the far Northeast. Morning Dew was also part of the scouting group and greeted Patches with a similar wing handshake.

“Where’s Gale? I thought you said he was with you?” Patches asked, looking at Sticks.

“Oh he is with us!” Sticks said with a smile.

“I don’t see him,” Patches said as he scanned the group.

“Oh that’s because we ate him!” Sticks said with a grin.

I slowly drew my revolver and was about to raise it when Elemental Point spoke out.

“What the actual fuck Sticks?! Are you trying to get us shot?!” He yelled as he chased after the cackling Pegasus.

I exhaled quickly and holstered my revolver, watching the two ponies running downhill.

“It was just a joke! Calm down will ya?!” Sticks called back at the agitated Unicorn. “Come on we gotta introduce them to everyone else!” He said as he ran in a wide arc around the Unicorn and back up the hill. When he passed me he wasn’t even breathing hard, all signs I had seen earlier of his injuries seemed to be missing.

The group moved on to follow the energetic Pegasus who had taken to hovering above the ground with gentle flaps of his wings. In spite of the gentle nature of the motions his wingblades still whistled with every motion.

“You’re such a jerk making him run like that,” I heard Elemental Wing whispering to Point.

“He almost got us shot, he deserved it,” he murmured in response. “Besides, he chose to run away rather than fly,” he added quietly.

Our journey took us over a few hills throughout the afternoon. We finally crested one of the taller hills where we encountered the rest of their group, and what a group it was! They had at least two dozen wagons of varying sizes and dozens of people around them waiting for the scout’s return.

“Holy shit Sticks! How many people have you rounded up?!” Patches blurted out at the sight of the massive caravan of survivors.

“After the last raid we pulled off? Eighty seven!” He looked down at the massive group and waved his arm in a large circle. He spread his wings and began whistling with his wingblades as he flew over them.

“What’s he doing?” I asked Elemental Point.

“He’s directing everyone to make a circle. We use the wagons to make a wall and post guards on top of them in shifts for the night,” he explained as he glanced at the sun. It was about to touch the horizon.

I couldn’t help but let out a little sigh, at this rate we’d be at the base of Canterlot Mountain by noon the next day. Which would mean camping out at the base of the mountain all fucking day or climbing it and spending the night on the windy and cold as fuck mountainside.

Morning Dew and a few other Pegasi took flight and joined Sticks up in the air as they condensed the moisture in the air into dense clouds. Instead of one large cloud, they formed a cloud ring that was slightly wider than the wagon ring. The Pegasi then flew straight up, the tops of the clouds trailing behind them and rumbling.

“A ring of storms to protect the wagon circle?” I asked as a few bolts of lightning arced from one cloud to another. The Pegasi had begun their descent already, the cloud tops gaining altitude on their own.

“Yeah, works really well,” Elemental Point started. “The tops of the clouds go so high most Bats don’t bother trying to fly over them and there’s so much lightning waiting to discharge into the funnel that flying into it is suicide. Then we just watch the ground from all directions, it’s worked so far!”

“What about Masters hiding out in the distance doing their mind control tricks?” I asked.

“We watch in pairs, if your buddy starts spazzing out you just raise the alarm and the next thing you know the vamps are running scared.” He explained.

“You speak like this has happened before,” I observed as we entered the wagon circle.

“Yeah we’ve made a bit of a name for ourselves out here in the plains. Only the stupid or the desperate ever seem to attack us anymore, and most of the time we get away with minimal injuries. It’s been almost a month since anyone’s actually died from a vamp attack,” he said with a shrug.

I couldn’t deny that they looked well-prepared. Most of the caravan actually looked like it was made up of families. It explained the numbers! I spotted Sticks speaking with a family, the Unicorn mare shared his eye and hair color. I couldn’t make out their conversation but when the brown Earth pony stallion who had been with him waved him over I caught a “sure thing dad,” over the noise of the caravan preparing their defenses.

“Just wait here for now, I got some stuff to take care of,” Elemental Point instructed as he trotted off.

I felt like a third wheel just standing there while everyone ran off to see to their own assigned duty. Patches seemed to be in an equally, if not more so awkward position than myself. The poor giant couldn’t seem to stay out of someone’s way every time he moved.

“Are you all just walking toward me on purpose or did I step into an intersection?!” Patches griped as he stumbled away from an Earth pony with a large plank over his shoulder.

“You actually just stopped too close to the wagon,” he called over his shoulder. “Everyone standing behind you was grabbing supplies out of it and you were just kinda in the way,” he said with a chuckle as he laid the plank atop the wagon. He slid it over until it had formed a bridge between the wagon he stood atop and the next one.

I found myself turning to inspect the entire wagon circle, they were building a catwalk that allowed people to patrol from atop the wagons. I walked over to a wagon and peeked inside, the frame had been reinforced to allow someone to walk on top of it. The added weight must have made it a pain to haul them around but it gave them extra uses. People who were on top of the wagons started unfolding panels that attached to the outer edge of the frame and formed a short wall atop the wagons.

“Interesting,” I mused as one of the guards was handed a large rifle with a bipod. They deployed the bipod and attached the feet to the edge of the panel that folded up, giving them something to rest the rifle on and steady it.

A few ponies were digging fire pits while others were preparing evening meals. The ponies preparing the food were actually getting it from hanging gardens in the wagons that allowed them to grow food on the move.

“Having fun learning?” Sticks said from behind me all the sudden. I jumped more than I’d like to admit and nearly fell off the back of the wagon I was peering into.

After steadying myself on the ground I turned to face the Pegasus. “There’s quite a lot going on here, just trying to keep up with it all I suppose,” I said as another board clunked noisily into place.

“Well come on over to the fire and we can chat a bit, have some chow, that sort of thing,” he said with a smile as he motioned me over. He trotted over to Patches, who was being used as a jack for one of the wagons so they could change a cracked wheel.

“THIS IS REALLY HEAVY HURRY UP!!!” He bellowed from beneath the wagon.

“Hey, your bet not mine,” the kneeling Pegasus next to the wagon replied as he attached the new wheel and began tightening the bolt.

Patches took a deep breath, his arms beginning to tremble. “You’re just going slow on purpose now,” he grumbled through grit teeth.

“There, done,” The Pegasus said as he released the bolt. “Now set it down GENTLY or you’ll break the wheel and lose the bet,” he said with a grin.

Patches slowly exhaled and lowered the wagon, it gently creaked when it touched the ground. “Whooo! That wasn’t so bad!” Patches said as he wiggled out from under the wagon and stood.

“Considering how loud you were yelling I think you came close to losing that bet!” I taunted.

“Theatrics my dear friend,” Patches said as he leaned over to whisper. “It wouldn’t have been as dramatic of a victory if I didn’t at least pretend to struggle,” he hissed with a quiet snicker.

“So you’re saying the bet was rigged?” I asked quietly.

“Not rigged, the odds were just in my favor and Gale made the mistake of betting against me. He should have known better,” he continued with a quiet chuckle.

“What are we whispering about?” Sticks hissed in Patches’ ear.

“None of your business you nosy thing,” Patches said as he straightened up and turned to Gale. “Now pay up,” he held out his hand to the teal Pegasus. His wing was in one of those odd slings I’ve seen Pegasi wear after dislocations or bad breaks.

“Ffffffiiine,” Gale huffed as he reached into a pocket and withdrew a small candy. He held it up a moment to inspect it, I think he whispered a quiet goodbye to it and dropped it into Patches’ waiting palm.

“You did that for a piece of candy?” I asked flatly as my companion turned to follow Sticks to one of the fire pits. “ONE piece of candy?”

“Well duh!” Patches replied as if I had asked if ponies really needed to breathe air. “Come on, when was the last time you saw a piece of candy?” He asked. “The whole time we were in Timberfold I never saw a single piece!” He finished.

“What kind of candy is it?” I asked, hoping he at least got something decent for his mock trouble.

“Hard candy, individually wrapped,” he inspected the label closely. “Imported…” He continued slowly, to build suspense I presume. “Pineapple,” he exhaled the word slowly, then pressed the little candy to his chest. “Ooooooh, I love pineapple!” He sang.

I barely suppressed a laugh as we reached the fire pit and sat by the slowly growing flame. “You keep life interesting Patches,” I admitted with a smile on my face.

“Hey someone’s gotta get you to smile every now and then,” he said as he pocketed his coveted candy. “Otherwise there’d just be this angry scarred-up Pegasus walking around being a stick in the mud and that’s just boring!” He declared as he took a seat next to me.

I felt the scar on my face absentmindedly. “It’s not that bad is it?” I asked, looking up at my companion.

“Well, you were always ugly Alex, just get some face paint or something and nobody will ever be able to tell!” He threw his arms out and laughed.

I gave him a friendly punch and shook my head, trying to hide my smile from him. “Fucker,” was all I could manage whilst trying not to laugh.

Sticks walked over and offered Patches and I some food. Baked potatoes, my favorite. There were also slices of sun-dried tomatoes and I even spied a bit of butter on my potato! There were two chive stalks on my plate as well. Two strawberries rested on the edge of the plate along with a carrot.

“Holy crap, Sticks I don’t know if I can accept such a meal,” I said with a little laugh. “Are you sure you can spare all this?” I asked, looking to the blue Pegasus.

“Oh sure we can, we have a bit of a surplus that we gotta eat right now anyways. We’ve handed a bit out to strays like yourselves before. We’re almost growing too much for our group thanks to some of that magic we’ve been working on our crops. They get all the sun and water they need, combined with gravity growth and a pinch of magic fertilizer and you’ve got almost too much food,” he said with a chuckle.

“What about the butter?” I asked, pointing the fork he handed me at the little melting pad.

“Trade! People love getting food and will trade luxuries for necessities,” He explained as he began mashing his baked potato into mush on his plate and tore his chives up onto the pile.

“Why are you mutilating your potato?” I asked as he laid the dried tomato slices on the mess.

“It is scientifically proven that mashing potatoes makes them 500% tastier,” Sticks said as Elemental Point and Elemental wing took seats next to him.

“I’d like to see the official documents behind that study,” I murmured quietly as I set about eating my meal. It was fantastic.

“Damn, I hate to admit it Sticks, but you live pretty freaking good out here,” Patches said between mouthfuls of potato. Sticks had given him an extra and he was nearly finished with his meal already.

“Did you even taste any of it?” Sticks asked as he leaned forward to get a better look at Patches’ plate. His face was contorted into an exaggerated expression again, was it just normal for him to do that?

“Oh don’t get on my case, you always eat like a starved dog Sticks,” Patches said before scarfing down his last potato.

Sticks narrowed his eyes and started eating with what looked like a deliberate slowness.

“Uh oh, someone challenged Stick’s conduct again,” Elemental Point said with a chuckle. He looked over at another pony and waved. “Hey Sand Stone! We’re over here,” he called to an Earth pony who’s coat resembled the desert sand I saw so much of.

He strode over with a little colt in tow and took a set. “How’s it goin’ lovelies?” He asked as the little colt whom I presumed to be his son sat next to him. “See anything crazy when you were scouting today Sticks?”

“Just these two,” Sticks motioned to Patches and myself. I noticed he was starting to eat faster now that he was distracted. His eyes shifted around almost constantly now that I took another look at him. The constant visual monitoring of his surroundings looked passive though, not like the active scanning caused by fear or paranoia.

I was beginning to fear the introductions were never going to end! It was a large group and many of the people here were close-knit friends and family. Almost everyone wanted to get a look at the new temporary additions to the group.

I was introduced to a strange zebra who’d taken the time to dye all of his black stripes green and called himself “Doctor Derp.” I wish I was kidding about that one. Sticks mentioned that a lot of people had taken on new monikers to hide their old identities.

There was a strange Unicorn with a black coat and mane named Diamond. He spoke strangely and seemed to avoid me after the introduction, muttering something about authorities. Not that I minded, it was getting difficult to keep track of so many new faces!

There was a grumpy Earth pony who went by the name Oak Door. When his family called out to him from across the campsite they were loud enough to echo off the landscape. When questioned why they were yelling at him in that strange language he simply stated that they weren’t yelling at him.

I was introduced to a very polite Unicorn who happened to be mute. I cannot for the life of me remember what her name was.

I met an Earth pony named Bolt Catch, he was easily six and a half feet tall. Maybe taller, grey coat and the creepiest outward stare of the group. He’d apparently been a blank flank up until the outbreak and the demand for firearms shot through the roof. He excelled in maintaining and manufacturing firearms of all types.

“I’m gonna share a secret with you but you better not tell anyone or I’ll find you,” he said whilst leaning forward. “When I find you I’ll eat all your food and I won’t even leave an I-O-U,” he said with a snicker.

“Bolt, no,” Sticks said. “Don’t share the secret project with them, it’s not ready,” he explained.

“Awww, fine,” he looked at me and grinned. “I’ll bet the secret is just eating away at you now!”

“Not rea-” I was cut off suddenly by Patches.

“Yes! I have a mighty need to know!” Patches exclaimed.

“Well too bad! You’ll never know! Muahahahaha!” He threw his arms into the air as he laughed.

“Nooooooo!” Patches cried out. Sticks and I shared a sigh as our idiots had their moment.

Their interaction gained mercifully few stares. Bolt Catch’s shenanigans must have been a regular thing to this group. It still didn’t stop me from getting caught in the shock wave of embarrassment Patches sent my way.

“So, where is this group headed? Timberfold?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation back into the mundane.

“Yeah, actually. I’m guessing you just came from there since we bumped into you,” Sticks observed. “Was it your first time there or have you been there before?” He asked, his plate now clean.

“First time there,” I admitted. “Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering,” he said with a little smile as he motioned for me to give him my own empty plate. “What do you think of the whole vamps living with uninfected thing they got going on there?” He asked as I handed him my plate.

“I suppose it is a system that works and could hopefully be used as a model for the rest of Equestria,” I said as Sticks gathered everyone’s plates. “Minus some of the extra paperwork,” I added with a chuckle.

“Hah! I agree with you on that one!” Sticks called over his shoulder as he departed to one of the wagons where a wash basin had been set up.

Not wanting to continue a conversation at a distance with the polite Pegasus who’d so kindly taken our plates for us, I turned back to Patches and Bolt Catch.

“I’ll… I’ll give you this candy if you tell me the secret!” Patches exclaimed, holding out the little pineapple candy.

“Ooooh! Really?!” Bolt asked, his hands coming together into a little temple.

“No,” Patches said as he quickly withdrew his hands and pocketed the candy. “Pineapple is my favorite, I would never dream of giving it away,” he said with a huff as he upturned his nose.

“Damn youuuuuuuuuu,” Bolt said as he held out his hands in a mock strangling gesture over the fire.

“Isn’t that hot?” I asked.

Bolt looked down at the fire in thought a moment then looked back at me, his arms still over the fire. “Yes,” he said with a little nod.

“Are you just going to leave your arms there until your fur catches fire?” I asked, feeling a little concerned for this pony’s mental faculties.

“Hmmmmm,” he looked up in thought, furrowing his brow and drawing his lips in. He leaned over to inspect the underside of his arms for a moment then looked back at me. He then looked at Patches, still the target of his strangling gesture. Back to his hands, the underside of his arms, me. “Nah,” he said as he allowed his arms to fall to his sides.

Sticks walked back over after a few moments of merciful silence. “Hope I didn’t miss anythi- what’s that smell?” He asked as he sat. “Smells like burned fur,” he slowly looked at Bolt. “It’s you isn’t it?”

Bolt slowly nodded, earning a sigh from Sticks.

“Where were we? Oh yeah Timberfold. So you really do think the rest of Equestria could pull that off?” Sticks asked with a little smile.

“Think? I hope, to be honest. Part of me is worried it’s not going to happen anywhere else,” I said, feeling myself trail off as I looked down.

“You’re not worried about yourself,” Sticks observed. That was fucking creepy, did he read my mind or something? I looked back at him and a grin spread across his face. “I was right! You’re worried about someone else in all this!”

“You seem pretty worried about everyone here, do you feel responsible for them?” I asked, trying to turn his prying around on him.

“Sort of, yeah,” he admitted. “I’m not officially the leader or anything, but this whole caravan thing was kind of my idea. A way to stay mobile and safe, away from known population centers where the vamps like to hunt,” he looked over his shoulder at his family, then slowly scanned the wheel at everyone else. “We only ever have to stop at towns for things we can’t make on our own, like medicine. Some of us are old and have chronic conditions that can’t simply be ignored,” he said with a little sigh as he gave his own family another worried look.

“It’s good that you worry about them,” I said whilst giving him a reassuring pat. “It means you’re a good person.”

His eyes shined and he smiled at me. “Same to you Alex.”

“So you’re going to Timberfold for medicine then?” I asked.

“That and warmer clothes, we need to be more prepared for winter. We also need to be ready for new additions to the group. To be honest, food and building materials are the only things we really have a surplus on. We could do with a little more lantern oil and maybe some more soaps for clothes and dishes,” he let out a little sigh, the stress showing for the first time on his face.

Suddenly his leg tensed up and twitched a little, he inhaled sharply and gripped it. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Mmmfine, I’m fine,” he said as he rose, wobbling a bit as he did so. He started hobbling away. “I’ll grab some sleeping bags, you need some?” He asked over his shoulder.

“I picked one up awhile back,” I responded. “Are you alright?” I asked.

“I already said I’m fine,” he muttered as he forced himself to straighten up and walk normally.

I noticed worried looks from Elemental Wing, Elemental Point, Bolt Catch, and Patches. I was the only one at the fire pit who didn’t know what just happened.

“Someone care to fill me in?” I asked.

“I will,” Patches said before the other three could talk. “I was there when it happened,” he said, looking down slowly as he let out a little sigh. “You weren’t always around when my weather team and I were conducting operations, especially once you started all that underground shit. In fact, we started most of the distractions that allowed you to go underground in the first place, remember?” He asked, looking at me.

I nodded, prompting him to continue.

“We were brewing up a supercell thunderstorm, the kind that make nasty tornadoes. Since we were doing it proper, the way nature does it, we weren’t flying in a circle to force one into existence. We had to set the whole engine up to make it work, I won’t bore you with all the jargon but part of making a tornado exist is having another air mass hit the engine just right to make it all work. I had Sticks fly out ahead to build up the air mass and sling it over. The Changelings were waiting for him to try, they had a few flak teams waiting in the sand and they fired on him as soon as he flew overhead,” Patches paused a moment to read the expressions of the others. By the look of it they hadn’t been told quite the same story.

“Was this operation 43-96? The fourth queen we made a move against?” I asked, derailing Patches’ story for a moment.

“Yeah,” he responded.

“So this was the cause of the delay? They just told me the weather team was having trouble starting the storm,” I said quietly.

“Well that’s technically true,” Patches admitted with a little chuckle. “They clipped him pretty bad and he went down, thing is he really liked landing on his hooves. Even when it was in his best interest to land and roll or try to glide or slide or anything else, he’d just come crashing down on his hooves. He broke both his legs when he landed,” Patches said with another sigh.

“Damn,” I muttered, looking at Patches as a small grin crept across his face.

“Stubborn bastard still killed half the flak crews and scared the other half away so we could start the storm,” he shook his head and chuckled. “He never did know when to give up.”

“Fucking Mary Sue,” Elemental Point muttered as he sipped some water.

“I told you to stop calling me that,” Sticks said as he returned and tossed his sleeping bag onto the ground.

“I know,” Point replied as he caught the bag Sticks tossed to him. “But you keep doing Mary Sue things and I have to point it out,” he said with a chuckle.

“No you don’t,” Sticks halfheartedly argued as he unzipped his jeans and yanked them off. His legs were covered in compression sleeves. Thin ones on the straight parts, extra thick ones supported his joints.

“Oooh!” Patches teased.

“Oh shut up Patches,” Sticks said with a little laugh. “I’m not taking my boxers off,” he said as he started working all the compression sleeves off. I counted over a half a dozen surgical scars on his legs before he crawled into his sleeping bag and let out a little sigh.

“Is that a challenge?” Patches asked as Sticks crawled into his sleeping bag.

“Don’t go starting something you can’t finish,” Sticks said with a grin.

“That sounds an awful lot like a challenge,” Patches insisted.

“Try again later Patches,” Sticks said as he rested his head.

“We should get some sleep,” Elemental Point said to Elemental Wing. “I have second watch tonight and you have third,” he reminded.

“I know mr calendar, you don’t have to remind me every night,” she responded.

“But there was that one time-”

“One time! Shut it!” She snarled.

“Ok!” He responded as he retreated into the bag like a cocoon.

I laid down on top of my own sleeping bag, using it to separate myself from the cold ground and nothing more. While staring straight up at the ring of storm clouds they seemed to form a massive eye that stared back at me. I resolved to sleep on my side that night.

Judging by Patches’ expression he was thinking the same thing.

“That big circle bugging you too Patches?” I asked.

“Mhmm, it just doesn’t look natural,” he said as he rolled onto his side to look at me.

“It feels comforting to me,” Sticks said, I could hear his smile, then a yawn.

“That’s nice dear,” Patches teased.

I closed my eyes to pray to the Sisters, somewhere along the line I fell asleep.

Author's Note

The shout-outs! They're real! This was a fun chapter to write! I elected to do it instead of sleeping!

-Jake