Don’t underestimate the things that I will do...

It didn’t quite hit me until now, but… You see, we didn’t have a way to give ponies proper burials, no, we had to cremate them. Simply put, the mare that was in my bed a few days ago was no longer alive. She, and like many others, were dead… I didn’t want to admit it, but as I scrolled through the names of the ponies that died, a part of me told me that I could have helped them. Instead of just helping Grace, but that part of me quickly was drowned out by the slowly growing headache that I now get every morning. My lust for relaxation died with them though, as the only thing I wanted now was to look for the names of ponies that I knew. And god damn it, I knew a few of them. Don’t take me the wrong way, for I didn’t know them all. To me, some of these names were… just names. But others were… mares I slept with, to drinking buddies. I can't even remember there damn faces because of this headache! Really wish they would have added images to these list, but…

But I bitched about that enough already, no, you see I had something new to bitch about. Again… I’m thinking of calling myself a bitch at this point… Anyways, General Steed decided that it was a good idea to stop what he was doing and use communications to contact me. Why? We transmitted my findings to him. Simply put, I was glad that I didn’t send the last one about Valentine to him. Yes, that’s insubordination, but given how I normally deal with fraternization on a weekly basis, it’s not that big of a problem.

What is the problem, or what would be if I sent that specific recording, would be that Valentine would be brought into questioning. After telling them nothing, they would think he’s holding out information. Then things would get violent, and torture would ensu. Look, Crimson lance has great dental, but that’s about the only thing I like about them… I just hope I don’t have to explain why…

“Sir!” I stated, as the main monitor blinked on, showing the General himself. Like myself, all the ponies around me snapped to attention, and the ones that didn’t do it right away quickly got off there asses and did it anyways.

“Ah, Captain Cinder. Good,” he started, before shifting his eyes to the ponies around me. “All of you, leave the control room so that the Captain and I can speak alone,” He ordered, and without hesitation everypony around me shifted out of the room.

Several moments passed in utter silence as General Steed just stared at me. I wanted to fidget uncomfortably after a few moments, but I didn’t for the sake of appearance. “Captain, take a seat,” He started, before looking to his side and fiddling with something.

Before I could even move to take a seat, the screen I was looking at shifted and changed, showing a very angry looking stallion. He had one blue eye and one black eye, a dark green coat, and a well kept mane and tail. He was also covered in blood, and from the looks of it, he had skewered somepony with his horn.

“Take a good long look at this stallion, Captain,” the General stated. “You’re going to go after him. His name is Eggnog, and he is the leader to a Bandit group called Overshoot. He is known for murder, filly-napping, terrorism, arson and rape,” General Steed continued, before the screen changed to Eggnog standing next to several stallions, as well as robots. “He always has at least three guards with him at all times, as well as a small group of old rebuilt Loader bots. You can find a diagram of the Loader bots in our mainframe about Hyponieon,”

“His location is unknown, but he had a major involvement in the attack on our base. You will be following a lead that we have, and head off to a distinct settlement called Fire Stone,” He commented, before the screen shifted to one of a map. Fire Stone looked to be very far south of the base, but luckily it was near the border to the desert. “There you will speak to our contact, Doctor Zoom,” Yet again, the screen shifted to a very small Earth Pony stallion. Her black mane, eyes and tail contrasted very well with her white coat. In fact, she would look rather cute if she was not covered in blood. “In trade for this information, while you are in the area, you will be taking out any nearby Bandit encampments. They are small, nothing like the one you had to deal with before,”

“Finally… You may bring three Crimson Lance troops with you on this mission. Simply put, you will be commanding a small strike team,” The screen flipped back to General Steed, showing him frowning in disgust. “And though I would rather not have to deal with the low life, I must inform you that we need this stallion alive, and we need him yesterday. He has valuable information that we require… So do not murder him. Break his legs if you have too, but bring him in alive, Captain… And now, Captain Cinder, I have a simple question for you,” Leaning forward in his chair, he looked down at me with cold eyes. “How long will it take for you to assemble a squad?”

I didn’t really know how to answer that, and my hesitation showed. Really, this was not what I was expecting when I was told to go speak to him. Hell, this was out of left field, for fuck sake! Raising an eyebrow to me, General Steed shook his head, before the screen changed one last time… And this time, it was a clock that was counting down… “I’ll give you eighteen hours to decide who you will bring. First thing in the morning you are to report here. Oh, and do come up with a list of the equipment you shall be taking with you, on top of who you shall be taking... And we shall also speak about how failure is not an option, as well as a punishment if you do fail… Also, do not speak about this assignment to anyone… Now, do I make myself clear?” He muttered, before looking me over again.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” I yelled, giving a salute.

Again, he remained quiet. Looking me over, once more. It was really starting to get uncomfortable, but I tried my best not to fidget around. “No, Captain, I don’t think you do. Next time you decide to withhold information from me again, like with the report you set to me about the Bandit Hoodoo-Voodoo, and your fellow Crimson Lance trooper Private Valentine, you will suffer the consequences. Throught this mission you will send me reports of your progress, and you will not leave anything out,” And without another word, the screen shut off.

And… I was left to my thoughts. Standing in silence, my mind started to race as I thought of ways that he could have known about the recording that I didn’t send him. The first one was that I had messed up, and sent it to him to start with, but that idea was quickly throw out the window, because the General told me that I withheld the information. Meaning somepony else went out and told him… Either I’m being watched, or this was just a really fucked up turn of events. I mean, my luck has been shitty for the past week or so, so I won't doubt it…

My thoughts were cut off by a knock at the door, and it dawned on me that I had been standing here in the control room in silence. Left alone to my thoughts… Moving to the door, I opened it, before stepping to the side, allowing those waiting outside to return to work. Silently, after they all entered, I slowly made my way outside.

The sun beated down on me, as I made my way back to… wherever. I didn’t really have a destination in mind. I was just walking... All the while my mind raced to come up with ideas of what I was going to have to do… ‘Who in the hell would I even put in my squad?!’ I asked myself, over and over.

I only personally knew not even a hoof full of ponies. Valentine and Grace were examples of that, but only one of them I would like to take with me on a mission… And there is no way that I would ever take Grace out on a mission like this. I mean, she’s a medic, she does have training, and whenever we had to spar back in basic she would always lay my ass out…

Valentine though, well, he saved my ass, and we’ve been a firefights. Simply put, he was on the list… I knew he followed orders, even though I didn’t most of the time, so that was a plus. Just… Need two more than...

It had been three hours since I had spoken to the General, and in that time I had made little progress. The simple thing would be just picking two ponies out and tell them, ‘You there! Congratulations! You’re coming with me to go die!’ But I didn’t really want to do that, because last time I had to deal with a random pony, he turned out to be a dick. Hell, I just took my third dose of painkillers today, and thinking about that dead bastard is making my head hurt.

Normally whenever I would need to find a soldier or two that would help me on a mission, I would just go down to the mess hall and ordering a few drinks. Who ever out drank me would win, and come with me out on whatever crap I was assigned to do. Due to recent events, there was no way in hell I was touching a drink… That and I kind of downed the last six pack in the base, not to mention vaporizing all base’s full stock of alcohol… Let’s not talk about that.

Really, it would be easier if I was allowed to speak about my mission. Just ask around and see who wanted to come with me. I know Grace would pop up. Then we would fight, I would yell at her, she would yell at me, she would get mad, I would get mad, then I’ll get sad over the fact that I got her mad, again… Then I would let her have her way, and she’ll thank me. It was something that we had done many times, and so… maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing… Just wish I didn’t have to sit here shifting through all the records on everyone in the base!

“No,” I muttered, “No, not you either…” With a swipe of my hoof over the screen the next Crimson Lance troop would pop up. Doing what I had done to all of them, I would read over the ponies details, and if I didn’t like what I saw, I would swipe over to the next one. “I’m pretty sure I slept with her once…” I whispered, before swiping over once more.

“I think that guy called me a dick before…”

Swipe…

“No, he gets in more trouble that I do…”

Swipe…

“Oh, yeah, no, I definitely slept with her before,” I muttered, staring at the bright yellow mare on the screen. “Celestia be damned I forget about Lemon Checks,” I laughed.

Swipe…

“Oh, hey, it’s Valentine…” I muttered, before slowly starting to read up on my friend.

Valentine was a Private First Class, his last name was Heart, and he had a clean record. No, seriously, my eyes slowly widened when I saw that he had a clean record. With how hard the Crimson Lance ran its troops, everyone had at least ONE mistake. Something that would mark them as a troublemaker or… something. I myself had roughly fifty of them. All of which were excused at some point or another, because I would ‘sleep’ my way out of them, but that’s besides the point!

“Wait… His last name is Heart? Well it does fit…Wait, didn’t I already know that? Damn it, I can’t remember...” I muttered to myself, as I continued to look over everything. In the end though, what was left to look over was standard. The basics of the basics. Valentine was, in a way, fresh meat to the Crimson Lance rules. I knew sooner or later that record would be messed up, or that he would do something to shift around what I saw here. But what surprised me was that he had been in the Crimson Lance for three years, and he was still a Private. I would have to ask him about that at some point…

Swipe…

Swipe…

Swipe…

As the clock ticked by and the hours began to stack up in the tenths, I let out a sigh of annoyance. I had been at this all day, just flipping through the ponies here in the base. Reading up about all those who I worked along side with, and learning everything from their names to details of their life that they would not want to be spread around.

Those ponies that seemed like a good fit for what I was going to do were either dead or wounded. So I would not be able to bring them with me. Those who I just didn’t like also would be great, but then I would just get annoyed at them. You could argue that I could just suck it up and deal with it, but given the bullshit I had to deal with already, I didn't want to have to deal more. Then there were the ones that I thought were attractive, but had little to no combat experience at all. And as much as I wanted to take them with me, having them panic and die in combat would be a whole load of crap…

But luckily… my slog through all of this was not in vain. As much as I complained about this whole process, I had found one mare that would work great. Her name was Country Pumpkin… I had seen her around base maybe one or two times, but since she worked the night shift, and was a scout, I didn’t really see her that often. She obeyed orders, but had a small record of disobeying then on occasion. After looking into why, I fould that she disobeyed orders when she thought they were dumb, and given what I was reading… she would be fun to deal with.

I could go on as to why I wanted to bring her along, but hey, she had a really cute face. I’m a sucker for cute faces… Alright, fine, I’m a sucker for most mares to start with, she had cute freckles. Besides, not that many mares could pull of the military flat manes, and she wore it well. Now all I had to do was find… one more. I let my shoulders slump down, and let out a very annoyed and very loud moan.

“I, um, take it that it’s a bad time?” The voice of Grace asked, as the door to my room creaked open.

“MMmmhhhhhhh…” Was all that I answered, giving her a wave of my hoof to come in.

“Let me guess, headache or… does it have to deal with you speaking to the General alone?” She asked, as she stepped over to me.

“Both...” I muttered incoherently.

“Right… I’m guessing that you’re not allowed to talk about it-”

“Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to come up with a squad?” I asked, well, growled... “I’ve done it before, but somehow, today is just a bitch!”

“Um, kind of, I don’t normally go out on missions, since… we’ll you know, I’m a medic and all,” She answered, giving me a surprisingly happy look. “But if you need-”

“You’re not coming…” I started, cutting her off.

“Ah what the hell! Why not? You know I like going out on the field, even though I normally don’t! Come on, Cinder!” She nearly yelled.

“Look, Grace, we’ve done this before… I remember each one vividly, even though I wish I didn’t… I’m not going to let you come with me, end of story, no ifs, no ands, no buts, alright?”

“I got you painkillers and alcohol, and don’t even get me started on how you mixed the two together, Cinder! I didn’t get onto you over that because I knew you needed a break, so the least you can do is give me this!” She argued, pushing herself towards me.

“Please don’t bring that up, alright? I suffered enough-”

“Oh no you don’t, Cinder! Enough of that Poor me routine, alright? Ever since you’ve been shot, you’ve been riding that crazy train! Yes, I know you lost your leg… I kind of wish i was there with you to help administer immediate first aid, because maybe then you’d still have it! But you got a replacement! You were lucky enough to catch the eye of the General, and I’m so… annoyed that you keep complaining about it…”

As I opened my mouth to state a sarcastic comeback, I found Grace’s hoof shoved into my mouth. “I’m. Not. Finished.” She stated angrily, before letting out a long sigh. “You’re not the only one that had a long day… We had to, well, put a few ponies to sleep today. They were injured in the battle, and thanks to everything that was going on, we could not keep them alive for too much longer. Cinder, you’re not the only one that got wounded. I had to help a Doctor perform open heart surgery today… And if we gave him painkillers then he would have flat out died due to complications. Cinder, that stallion had to feel us cutting into his heart…” She murmured.

“I mean, he’s fine now… but do you understand, Cinder? You've got it easy, alright? So shut up about that whole thing… And… And,” She let out a long sigh, before facehoofing, “I went off the handles again, didn’t I?”

“Kind of,” I muttered, before pushing Grace away from me so that her hoof was no longer in my mouth. “But…” Damn it, she was right. Again. For the… I don’t know, I don’t keep track of how many times Grace was right. I do know it’s around a hundred…

“But I’m just tired, Grace. You gotta understand that,”

“I do but-” It was my turn to shove my hoof in Grace's mouth.

“No, Grace. You don’t understand. The General’s going to be sending me out to hunt down the pony responsible for all of this-” Waving a hoof to the window, I pointed at the destroyed parts of the base… “-and it’s not just a ‘go here and take this guy out’ thing, I got to track him down, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take, or even if it’s possible! And there is a chance that I’m going to die, because apparently he’s a big thing, and we’re only sending four ponies out… And I’ve only found two ponies to come with me!” I groaned.

And there it was. The sparkle in Grace’s eye. The same one that she had whenever she would need me to do something for her. Slowly pulling my hoof out of her mouth, Grace smiled. “You know Cinder, if you need a pony that you can trust to go with you, I can fill the part,”

“No…” I muttered, knowing that it was coming.

“What? Why not?” She asked, with her smile growing larger. “Don’t you trust me, Cinder?”

“...” I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. She already knew I trusted her, hell, I would do a lot of crazy shit for her.

“Come on, you know I love going out on missions, right?” She asked, while her eyes started to sparkle. “You know that I need time away from all this stress, right? Time in a relaxing environment? When we’re very close?”

Oh for fuck sake… “I hate it when you act like a this, you know that?” I asked with deadpan eyes. “So just…. Stop, alright?”

“Only if you let me join you, Cinder.” She commented, in a strict tone.

“Alright, alright… Fine…”

“Great, so when are we leaving?” She asked, giving me a stupid smile…

To be continued...

Author's Note

References
“Title song, found here.” (Yes, I used this song in the last chapter.)

“Fallout 4, Kellogg. How? His name rhymes with Eggnog, and he works with the Overshoot, also known as the institute… Yeah, it’s a stretch.”

“Tinder! That shity place where people can swipe over you!”

Not as many references this time around...