One ounce of sniper is worth a pound of suppressing fire.

"I'm going to ask you, one more time." She sighed as she sat in the seat across from me. From the stiff way Ducky tented her hooves on the table, it wasn't hard to see that she didn't believe me.

Honestly, getting taken prisoner by the Steel Rangers had really lost its charm.

Sure, this time the base wasn’t radioactive, being assaulted by shadow ponies, and we weren’t frantically looking for a missing crew member, but still! There’s only so many small concrete rooms I can be sat inside in one lifetime. Seriously, if I found myself in another one after today it would be too soon.

"Who sent you here?” She leaned forward against the table as a crooked grin split her muzzle wide. “I’d say I’d have believed you were Enclave remnants, but those cowards haven’t been seen the last few weeks. So then, you’re mercenaries hired by ex-elder Pilaf to sabotage us, aren’t you? Tell me, how much did they say they'd pay you for this little gig?"

"I told you, we are the remnants of a convoy belonging to Burro Industries on our way south. We ran into some trouble around Vanhoover, and we came here to see about negotiating for repairs. That's it." I stated as flatly as I could. She didn't need the whole story, but that should have been enough to satisfy anypony’s curiosity.

"See, that's not all of it, is it?" She narrowed her eyes at me and smirked. Seriously? How did she catch on just like that? "Don’t worry, I'll just see what your friends say when I ask them. I'll see if I can't get them to be more... cooperative." Pushing herself to her hooves again, she turned to the door, walked over, and reached for the handle.

"You'd be making a mistake." I called out to her, forcing her to stop mid-grasp of the door handle. This whole 'interrogation' hadn't been what I'd expected, but just because she hadn't roughed me up with her little ‘bad cop’ routine, didn't mean they couldn't rough up the others. And that, I wouldn't stand for. "Believe me, I'm not looking to get involved in whatever shit you have going on here. But if you hurt any member of my crew, there will be dire consequences."

"So, you have been holding out on me." She smirked as she spun around on a hoof and leaned back against the door itself. "What? Be nice, or you’re going to use that fancy gizmo on your head to radio for reinforcements? Good luck. This bunker is thirty meters underground and magically shielded."

“Hey, Ping? You there?”

“Yes, Night?” His voice filtered into my head with an oddly calm cadence to it. “If you are worried about my well being, fear not. I am in a holding cell of some sort with Tofu and Happy. There are only a few nearby guards, and they are lightly armed. If you wish, I could orchestrate a breakout.”

“Not yet.” I thought back at him. “Are you in contact with Eliza?”

“No, they seem to have some sort of magical dampening on this bunker. I am curious to know if it isn’t the same type as the Galloway rangers used.”

Well, at least she wasn’t lying about that...

“See? Can’t do it, can you?” Lifting her hoof to her muzzle, she canted her head and laughed. "Of course, if you simply told me what I wanted to know, then I'd consider letting you go."

“I told you.” I was really starting to get sick of this…

“You’re lying!” She snapped. With a single hop, she bound across the small room and shoved her wooden chair aside so hard it snapped against the far wall. “You show up in an advanced cloudcraft with a Steel Ranger among you, and you expect me to believe-”

The door to the room slammed open, and a furious looking older mare cloaked in fancy looking red robes stomped inside.

“Miss Fancy Fowler Flap, just what in Tartarus do you think you’re doing!?” The mare all but roared as she walked up and without an ounce of hesitation, reached up and pinched Ducky’s ear in her fetlock. As Ducky whined and was pulled over, I noticed that the older mare’s coat color was the same. “The first time we’ve had guests fly in looking for help, and you detain them?”

“Ow, ow! Mom, that hurts!” Ducky whined and tried futilely to loosen the older mare’s grip on her ear. “Ow, fuck! Hey, that hurts!”

“Language, young lady!” The older mare snapped, removing her hoof from Ducky’s ear just long enough to smack her across the muzzle. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t have you on latrine duty for a month for this. In fact, you just lost your Scream seat privileges.”

Wait, her mom? What the hell was going on here? And what the fuck was a ‘scream seat’!?

“That’s not fair!” She continued to whine and whimper under the iron grip of her mother.

“Well you can have it back when you start taking your job seriously and not arresting innocent ponies.” Her mother tweaked her hoof and let her go, sending Ducky awkwardly on her hooves towards the door. “Now, go and release this poor mare’s friends. Then you can report to Scribe Cogwheel for your cleaning assignment.”

With stumbling steps, Ducky made her way out of the small room and disappeared around the corner into the hallway. Now that it was just the mare and I, she turned herself to me and used her still raised hoof to tip back the hood of her robes to reveal a nearly completely shaven down jet black mane.

“I apologize for the actions of my daughter.” She shared a kind smile that tugged at the wrinkles next to her tired looking pink eyes. “Our battle to push out our traitorous brothers and sisters was messy, and she lost a few of her friends in that fight. It’s because of that I’m afraid that she may have become a bit overzealous when it comes to protecting those she still has left in her life.”

“It may seem odd, but I get that completely.” I offered to her as I pushed back my seat and stood up. “I’m just glad that this misunderstanding could get cleared up faster than the last time I was a prisoner of the rangers.”

The second those words left my muzzle, I knew I shouldn’t have said that.

“Okay.” The mare smiled softly, but firmly placed her hoof on my chest to stop me from thinking of going anywhere. “While you aren’t a prisoner here, there are some things I would be happy if you saw fit to explain.” It was weird how kind her smile felt, but how strongly her words were telling me that this wasn’t a request.

“What would you like to know, Mrs...?” I sighed, carefully walking my flank back down onto the cold wooden chair behind me.

“You may address me as Elder.” She offered. Of course she was the Elder, my luck wouldn’t have it any other way! “And first, you can explain what you are doing with that impressionable young Steel Ranger on your crew. There’s not many chapters who’d so willingly give up a bright pupil to a mercenary group.” Again, though friendly enough, I didn’t much like what her words insinuated.

“She chose to come with us of her own free will.” I deadpanned at her. “She’s our ship’s lead mechanic, and…”

“Ship as in… that skycraft you parked here?” From the way she cut me off, to the expectant sideways glance she gave me as she maneuvered herself calmly to the opposite side of the table, I knew she wasn’t going to buy any lies from me.

“Have you heard of the Arcturus?” I asked as bluntly as possible. As you’d imagine, just hearing the name made her eyes widen for just the slightest of moments. “I happen to command that ship now, and Tofu has been a valuable crewmember on our trip so far.”

She was good at hiding it, but inside the Elder’s head I knew she was fighting a battle. Did I just lie about a ship I should know nothing about, or is this unassuming pegasus really the captain of the Galloway Ranger’s prized cloudship?

“The Arcturus, really? My my, that is a unique find. I’d thought it had been destroyed before the end of the war.” She let out a small chuckle as she sat herself down hard across from me. “How’d you… come about acquiring it?”

“It’s a long story.” I offered to her. “Believe me when I say it was a legitimate trade.”

“That’s great, but I’ve got nothing but time.” She simply sighed and cupped her forehooves together on the tabletop calmly. “So why not regale me with what I’m sure will be a truly daring tale?”

“There’s not much else to say?” I fired back flatly. “I did some jobs and traded the Galloway Rangers for it. We both walked away happy with what we got. That’s pretty much the end of it.”

“Oh? Quite a prize for a trade.” She laughed again, narrowing her eyes to study me. However, she let a short pause drop between us as I’m sure her mind was screaming at her now, asking over and over about how I’m able to lie to her so easily. Of course, unless she was smart enough to see that I’m not lying, then this whole meet and greet might take longer than I’d like. “I don’t suppose you recall what you traded for it? Or would you rather keep that ‘less specific’ because it might be easier for me to believe?”

“No, I can tell you.” I crossed my hooves across my chest and sighed. “First, my mule friend you have in another room and I happened to take control of the Ouroboros. You know, the train in the north that never stops and can launch megaspells it makes itself? Then after that, we helped kill Mr. Wizard up in Cantercross, keeping him from extorting the Galloway Rangers into helping him in his planned conquest of the north.”

Now that I think about it, we’d actually done a lot for them in the short time we were around Cantercross that we never really got compensated for otherwise. And that was even before the Factory stole the Arcturus.

“Oh, and then we helped them after a megaspell attack which had nearly wiped them out and drove their interim-Elder crazy. Which, by the way, we helped subdue so she didn’t try to crusade through the north wiping out everypony who wasn’t a Steel Ranger.” While that last bit was only really what people thought because of Ping’s little radio broadcast up there, Mrs. Elder here didn’t really need to know that. Smiling, I looked at her right in the eyes and shrugged. “So between the train and the other services we provided, yeah, it was a legitimate trade.”

“It sounds to me like quite an adventure your group has had.” She nodded to herself and dropped her gaze to her own hooves as she tapped them softly together. “A moment for me to soak it all in, if you would.”

As her eyes stayed glued on her hooves, I could almost see the gears turning in her head, processing everything. I’ll give her one thing, at least for as much as I could read ponies, it felt to me like she was actually giving my story a fair shot before dismissing me. That, or she was at least fairly convincing in making me think she was, I couldn’t tell.

Her steady glance shifted up, and she stared right at me.

“Tell me then, why come here to Bow-wing field?” She asked starkly. “Looking for work, or are you already on a job?”

“As I told your daughter, we ran into trouble north of Vanhoover, and the Arcturus was damaged.” I answered back as flatly as I could. How many more things was she going to demand to know? Did she need all of our life stories before she’d actually listen to what I was saying? “We figured that there might still be spare parts here for Mistral class cloudships since they were built here, so we set a course to come check it out.”

“And let me guess, somepony told you that the Applejack’s Rangers would be willing to help you out in your time of need? That since we’re in charge now, we’d give you whatever you wanted?” She smirked at me like she’d caught me on something before leaning across the table. “I’m sorry, but we’re not a charity.”

“I meant it when I said I don’t know what we got into by coming here. I didn’t even know you weren’t normal Steel Rangers until after your daughter held us at gunpoint.” Like, seriously? “You want to act like we are here to take advantage of you, when, and no offense, we don’t know who the fuck any of you ponies are.” That wiped the smug smirk right off of her muzzle, but brought an annoyed burning glare out instead. “It was our hope that we could come down and negotiate for some replacement parts, you know, even though we assumed that you rangers would be your normal stuck up selves and be difficult about it. But I’m so glad to hear that you ‘new’ rangers are so much friendlier to outsiders.” I deadpanned at her as I leaned back in my chair. “Capturing us, seizing our stuff, and sticking us in interrogation rooms? Yeah, you really do feel much friendlier than the normal Rangers.”

“Enough with the snark. I already ordered your friends released.” She snorted and pushed herself to stand up. With a concerned look, she started pacing back and forth slowly. “But I suppose you have a point, we haven’t been the best hosts. However, with former Elder Pilaf still outside the walls scheming with his fanatics to reclaim this base, we’ve all been on edge.” Stopping abruptly, she glanced over and let her eyes wander over the augmented side of my face. “So I apologize if I’ve come off as a bit abrasive, but on the other hoof, your story seems a tad unbelievable.”

“I understand that, but let me ask you then, what would it take then for us to come to an agreement?” While I didn’t have a lot to offer, there had to be something they needed here. Something to help them hold out against the other Rangers, or maybe…

Her eyes narrowed as her lips curled into a Solomon-esque grin.

“If you really do control the Arcturus, then I would like you to wipe out Pilaf’s forces.” In a bit of turn-about I wasn’t expecting, her blunt words slapped me right across the muzzle.

“Excuse me?” I blinked a few times as I wanted to make absolutely sure she’d just asked me that.

“Kill them all and I’ll consider negotiating for the parts you need.” She said with the exact same bluntness as before as she paced. “It shouldn’t take more than a dozen missile strikes, and of course, I’d be happy to supply you with the coordinates of their staging camps inside the city.” Again, she abruptly stopped her pacing and stared at me. “Unless… you were lying to me about commanding a Mistral class cloudship.”

Okay, got it. So, she did just ask me to murder a bunch of ponies who we had no deal being involved with. Well, this sucks, but… time to force out something I know was going to hurt to say.

“No.”

Now it was her turn to deadpan at me.

“Excuse me?” She asked flatly. “Would you care to elaborate on why that is?”

“This isn’t our fight.” Sitting myself up straight, I wanted her to look me right in the eye as I said this so she could understand it. “I’ve made it a recent habit in my life to not agree to killing anypony just because it’ll be ‘worth my while’, because as it turns out, those kinds of ponies asking for that are usually some sort of deranged psychopath who ends up trying to kill me as well.” Pointing my forehoof at the various scars on myself, I couldn’t help but laugh in her face. “And yet, here I sit before you. So if you want to run your request by me again, maybe you could just cut to the chase and try to kill me now, because my crew and I aren’t your personal hitponies.”

Hispano would’ve slapped me for saying what I was about to, but… it needed to be said all the same.

“If that’s all you want, go talk to the Talons.”

Was it a bad idea to go and antagonize the Elder of this Steel Rangers base? It was probably one of the higher up ones on a short list of ‘how to get killed’ than I’d like to admit, but I’d gone through the ‘do me a favor’ song and dance too many times now. She wasn’t armed, and neither was I, so at least it’d be a fair fight. Well, at least it would’ve been one if I wasn’t one leg down…

“Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear.” She nodded at me and sat down at the table. “So then, do you have a list of parts the Arcturus is in need of?”

Like before, her words caught me off guard and it was like my brain stopped working for a moment.

“I’m sorry? What?” I blinked a few times as she simply shared a soft smile now. I wasn’t sure what she meant, was she really continuing like I’d said yes? “Did… you not hear me? I won’t go blowing up your enemies for you.”

“Yes, and now that we’re on the same page, what help do you need from us?” She rolled her hoof, half expecting me to pick up on whatever she was trying to lead me into saying. However, I’ll admit I’m not the brightest pony sometimes, but I was still lost. “Oh I, uh... lost you there, didn’t I? Let me see if I can’t get you caught up.” It was odd, her smile was the same one as earlier, but this time it didn’t feel hostile anymore.

“I started this little revolution in the Bow-Wing rangers after I heard about the Manehatten chapter over the radio having done the same.” She continued as she looked to relax slightly. “They called for all Rangers to remember what we stood for, that we’re not supposed to hoard away the tools that could help others, but rather to use them to make a difference. They called for us to exemplify what Ministry mare Applejack had done during the war, and give ourselves to fighting to better this world. Only now our fight wasn’t against zebras, but starvation and the senseless violence of raiders and gangers. To fight against those who would seek to make others suffer needlessly, and to help those who ask us for assistance.”

Honestly, that sounded like a message I could get behind. Still, it sounded too good to be true, and having been that naive myself, those ideals seemed ripe for exploitation. Which brings me back around to her request, which now seemed even more out of place.

“You must be wondering why then did I ask you to kill some ponies for me that are my problem to deal with?” She let out a soft laugh and shook her head. Wow, she was pretty damned good at reading me. “I needed to know where you stood. Given even the slightest chance of getting what you needed, would you slaughter ponies without hesitation.”

While I can’t fault her reasons for not trusting me, this seemed like a… flawed way of going about seeing if somepony was trustworthy. Still, it was kind of admirable that she cared enough to risk it. I didn’t want to say it this early on, but maybe she was a decent mare who really did just want to see everypony helped and taken care of in the wasteland.

But still a thought nagged at me...

“And what if I’d said yes?” I think I already knew the answer, but I was curious to hear it from her.

“I’m sure the scribes would have had a wonderful time cataloging your gear into a more… permanent storage locker.” She smiled at me before getting to her hooves. Still, that was exactly the response I’d expected. With a wave of her hoof, she turned to the door. “Come with me, young miss…?”

“It’s Night Flight.” I offered back as I got up out of my seat and hobbled around the table. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to the surface, miss Night Flight.” She offered as she glanced back over her shoulder at me. “There’s a lot of prepwork to be done if we’re going to land your cloudship on the runway for repairs. Assets to move, parts to find, and hydraulic landing struts to be erected and secured. Repairing your ship will be a tall order, but a challenge I know my Rangers will be up for helping with.”

“But we never decided on a deal.” I offered as she stepped through the doorway out into the hall. As my words hit her, she paused and turned back around to me.

“True, but given what I’ve heard from you, I trust you will stick to your word for now.” Reaching her hoof up, she hooked and pulled her hood back up over herself with a smirk. “For now, I need you to do me a bit of a favor that will save us both from a huge headache.” Oh Celestia, she still pulled out the ‘favor’ card. “I’ll direct you and your friend to Pilaf’s camp location. There, you’ll need to explain to him that he needs to stop dropping mortars on us for the next few days so we can complete our work.”

“Really.” I deadpanned at her. “I don’t see how that won’t end up with me getting shot.”

“Pilaf isn’t a mindlessly violent madpony.” She offered as she turned herself around. “Given his desperate position, He will most likely see reason if an outsider approaches him with a request on our behalf. He’s got no interest in making even more enemies than he’s already got right now. Plus, he’ll be little interested in destroying something as rare as a working cloudship.” Waving her hoof for me to follow her, she stepped out into the long concrete hall. “If anything, maybe while you’re there, you can figure out how he’s getting his supplies out from our storage bunkers here on base. But we can discuss that when you return. We only have a half hour or so before his daily bombardment, and I’m sure you don’t want tomorrow’s coming down right on your cloudship, so you best get going.”

Great. So while she seemed to have a perfectly reasonable outlook on helping the wastes, she wants to send me over to the one pony around here who doesn’t care. Again, none of this was my problem, their fight was their own. But… we need those repairs, and at least this way maybe logic and diplomacy could win the day before anypony died. Given our track record… yeah, prepare yourself for one hell of a nasty fight, Night. Still, as I followed behind the Elder, my mind wandered to an odd thought.

I wonder if Hispano and Buck’s day’s have improved any since we split up, because I sure know that I could use their wisdom and company right about now…

Stepping back up into the open, breezy air was nice. Well, with the exception that a light drizzle had started to fall from the oppressive grey clouds above us. Then again, with my dress, gun, and grenades strapped back on, I was feeling good again.

I followed the Elder out from under the thick curved concrete cover that protected the entrance to the bunker, as well as several large crates that seemed to be filled with all sorts of various ammunition. Everything from small arms rounds, up to large gravity bombs and spell shells sat clustered together under the center and thickest part of the shelter. A flash from the stack caught my eye as the rain was pushed by the breeze. A soft pink shimmer flared up wherever the droplets struck, giving away that the whole pile was protected by some sort of magical barrier.

“Oh dear.” The Elder sighed, pulling my attention back to her.

She was staring off at a nearby structure that stood out amongst the piles of crates and wheeled vehicles sitting next to it. The object itself looked like half of some sort of propeller driven skycraft, but suspended vertically where it’s stubby propeller nose sat facing the ground. The propeller was half as big as something a skycraft this size would use, and it looked more reinforced. Then again, to pull something this size, I suppose it’d have to spin pretty fast...

Pushing the question of what half a skycraft was doing held in that position, a better question in my mind was why Tofu was currently curled halfway off of a makeshift walkway and into the vertically oriented cockpit.

“Tofu?” I called out as both the Elder and I started to trot over to her. Either she didn’t hear me, or she didn’t want to hear me. Regardless of which, I hoped for her sake she wasn’t fucking with anything bad enough to piss off the Elder. “Tofu, what are you doing?”

From around the backside of the odd craft, both Ping and Ducky trotted into view.

“Tofu was being instructed on this ‘scream seat’ by Ducky here.” Ping spoke up with his normal muzzle-wide beaming smile, but paused when he spotted the deadpan the Elder was giving to her daughter. “Our brilliant little mechanic here noticed that some of the cockpit lighting had failed at some point, and is currently fixing it as we speak.” Turning to the Elder, he gave a respectful nod to her and frowned. “I’m sorry if that’s overstepping our bounds, and I would understand if you wanted outsiders to stay away from your key defensive points.”

“So long as she doesn’t do more harm than good, she is welcome to attempt to...” That was as far as the Elder made it before Tofu slipped back on to the makeshift metal walkway with an excited bounce.

“All done!” Tofu smiled and clopped her hooves together with a giggle. “It should light up completely now, though I did notice a few corroded connections on some of the instruments while I was in there, so I swapped the wiring with some of the less corroded ones. So some things may not work anymore, but I doubt you’d be needing things like the altimeter anyway while the whole back end of the plane is missing.”

“No way, you fixed it?” Ducky blinked and traded her glances between Tofu and the open cockpit. “It’s been dark in there for years! Spooling her up and doing maintenance checks at night was nearly impossible without bringing one of those terribly heavy headlamps in!” With a cringe, she rubbed at her neck with a hoof. “On behalf of the Scream-team’s sore necks, you have our thanks.”

“It’s not a big deal.” Tofu beamed a grin back at her as she leaned against the half-plane. “Though, you need to keep up on regular maintenance for the panel interior or it’s just going to happen again.”

“Thank you for fixing it, young miss.” The Elder nodded to Tofu before turning a scowl to Ducky. “And you, young lady, have a new assignment to report to.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ducky sighed and hung her head. Turning away, she trotted off back toward the bunker we came from.

I know that sometimes I’m slow, but something finally clicked in my head.

“Wait, how is this thing meant for defense?” I asked, gesturing to the whole steel structure bolting the half-plane down into the concrete.

“The PF-84 Starstreak was a prototype built by Bow-wing to be a turbo-propelled anti-dragon interceptor, but suffered from a few key problems in it’s development.” Ping recited as he walked over, stepped past the abnormally stubby and thick propeller, and ran his hoof across the craft’s lightly corroded metal skin. “The vibrations from running the dual-arcane turbine engines caused a lot of problems in flight, and…”

“And it’s just about the loudest damned thing under Celestia’s great sun.” The Elder finished for him, narrowing her eyes and gesturing sharply at Ping. “Have you been a guest here at some point? I only ask because it seems odd for an outsider to know such specific knowledge when we harbor the only known prototype.”

Welp, time to nip this in the bud!

“We have… an archive of wartime projects onboard the Arcturus.” I offered as a half-lie to her in hope’s she’d take it. “And Ping loves pouring over them any chance he gets.” I’d much rather give up a few files rather than risk trusting the Rangers here to not take Ping apart if they learn what he is. Even if she didn’t believe me, well, my muzzle already knew how to move us past any questions. “And even so, what, do you use the vibrations it creates? Does it shake itself at ponies you don’t like? Seems fairly impractical if you ask me.”

“Oh, when I say it’s loud, I mean it. There’s a reason it earned the nickname ‘Starscream’ by it’s development team.” The Elder turned to me with a sly smirk. “That stubby prop on the front? Even at idle, the tips are moving faster than the speed of sound.”

“Oof, a constant boom like that has to be uncomfortable, even for the pilot.” My response slipped from my muzzle as my ears reflexively pressed against my head. I’d had enough near-deafening experiences on this trip so far, I didn’t need to go completely deaf.

“Correct.” The Elder nodded. “When throttled up, it has caused entire parties of assailants to become incapacitated. Though, the mayor of Seaddle has asked us not to use it too often, as even ponies in the city are affected when we use it. And now that we’re the Applejack’s Rangers, I intend to use it as little as possible to keep up favor with the city. Even though they’re still sheltering Pilaf and his little gang.”

“Oh hey, there you all are!” Happy called out as he appeared from inside of the covering the bunker was in. With a wide smile and a quick adjustment of his jacket’s sewn-on hellhound paw, he waved and trotted on over to us. “So what’s the deal, Night? Are they going to help us?”

“Well, yes, but…” I offered to him, but paused as what sounded like thunder rumbled through the air.

“No, it’s too early…” The Elder nearly went white under her cloak as she tensed up. Looking at me, she wrapped a hoof around my side. “Get to cover!”

As soon as she’d screamed that, a whistling from the sky turned into an ear shattering blast. Dirt and chunks of concrete rained down onto the bunker’s concrete cover while more whistles filled the air. Another set of blasts erupted from closer to the container camp we’d flown over on our way in.

I was yanked to the side as the Elder sought cover against a large transport truck. She threw both herself and I against its side right before a thick buzzing made the air vibrate. A line of bright tracer fire skipped across the ground around the front side of the truck, and nearly clipped both Happy and Ping as they galloped to join us.

“Fucking Pilaf, you moron.” The Elder muttered under her breath as she turned herself and slid along the side of the truck until she was just about at the front of it. She poked her head up over it’s hood, looking toward the south east. With a gasp, she ducked just in time for a shrieking shot to skim across the hood of the truck just over her head.

“What the hell is going on?” Happy snapped as he pressed himself up next to me.

“Pilaf’s scouts saw me out here. He’s got at least one sniper waiting for me.” The elder called back, sticking close to the truck as she slid herself along it back towards us. “He’ll be ordering adjustments to the next barrage, so we need to move to the bunker. We’ll be safe once we’re inside.”

“Yes, but what about Tofu?” Ping asked, pointing towards the half-plane.

I blinked a few times as I saw her peeking out from inside the cockpit. Her hooves were shaking so badly that they nearly rattled the metal skin.

Another buzzing filled the air, and a line of tracer fire dragged over our heads. It tore through the top of the truck, breaking the old wooden boxes in it, and sending sparks showering down on us from the metal ones. I watched in horror as the line drifted and ran right across the Starscream.

A bright pink flash flared up across the skin of the plane, and a large magical bubble deflected the rounds from impacting with Tofu’s frightened form.

“Hey!” The Elder shouted out at her. “You need to start up the engine!”

“What!?” Tofu screamed back with a flail of her hooves. “Are you crazy? I’ve never started anything like this before!”

“I’m sure you can figure it out! When you get it going, walk the power up slowly.” The Elder snapped back at her. “Keep it running for fifteen minutes, then shut it down. The assault will be over by then, and it’ll prevent their ponies from moving into the base, okay?”

“F-fine!” Tofu called back as she turned her attention down towards the controls.

Within a few seconds, between the continued blasts erupting all over the base, and the constant sound of gunfire to the southeast, the engine of the half-skycraft hummed to life. Celestia, she figured it out that fast? The thick propeller started to rotate, but was picking up speed slowly. If I wasn’t hiding right now, I’d go over and remind Tofu that she was a goddess damned genius.

“Alright, when I say run, we’re going around the back of the truck in an attempt to make a break for the bunker, alright?” Turning around, the Elder moved back towards the front of the truck.

“You realize that’s back towards the ponies shooting at us, right!?” Happy shouted back at her.

“Trust me, we’ll make it.” Shifting to standing on her rear hooves, she reached up and grabbed at the large rectangular driver’s side mirror on the truck. With a few yanks, she unsuccessfully tried to rip it from it’s mounting.

“Allow me.” Ping offered, easily pushing her aside. Without any effort at all, he reached up and sheered the mirror straight off it’s mount. He held it up to the Elder as her gaze momentarily darted between the mirror and his beaming smile.

The mirror exploded in his hoof.

Bits of glass scattered as the whole metal frame of the mirror was nearly torn in half. A line of concrete sprayed up directly under me as a bullet carved through it, and I nearly jumped high enough that the ponies on the other side of the truck would have been able to see me.

“Shit, another sniper!” The Elder called out. “Go, go! Run for the bunker!”

Turning as the elder ran past me, I noticed that Happy was ten steps ahead of us and already well on his way over there. A bright flash caught the ground far to his right, and the ricocheting sniper round missed Happy and skipped right over the whole width of the runway. As impressive as it was, my hooves had somewhat forgotten to move.

As soon as I’d realized I’d lagged behind, something picked me up from behind and nearly tossed me up into the air. It wasn’t until a striped muzzle pushed up from under me that I realized Ping had literally thrown me onto his back. Using the sort of speed only a machine like him could offer, he ran the two of us nearly past the Elder.

With a skidding stop, the three of us nearly bowled into Happy when he slowed down just under the protection of the concrete arch. As soon as we’d crossed under it, a set of loud blasts erupted from behind us, and the four of us were thrown to the floor.

I blinked and fought to quickly reorient myself, looking back just in time to see the flaming and twisted wreck of the cargo truck come down onto its side. Another pair of mortars exploded, further tearing the metal apart while flinging hot shrapnel against the pink shield that protected the concrete bunker.

“Okay, we made it.” The Elder shouted over the ringing that hung in all of our ears right now. “We’ll be safe in here until the Starscream ramps up and turns us all deaf.” Er, well, all of us probably with the exception of Ping. Fucking he and Buck are both ear-muting cheaters. “Come on, let’s get inside.” She waved for us to follow her towards the door.

While Happy was right on her hocks, I paused and looked back out towards Tofu and the half-plane. She was still huddled inside the cockpit, but she seemed more relaxed now as the spinning propellers grew faster and louder with each passing second. Her eyes glanced up and over at us, and she gave me a small wave and smile to make sure I knew she was alright. Seriously, not that I had anything to pay her with, but she definitely needed a raise after this!

“Eliza, I need surveillance of grid four one five point six right now!” Ping snapped as he practically heaved. It was weird, as he turned his gaze to me, I could almost swear he looked pale.

“Ping, what’s wrong?” I didn’t know what was going wrong with him, but this was a particularly bad time for something like this to happen.

“I… I looked.” Ping offered back in such a convincing tone of panic that it instantly made a tingle of fear climb up my spine. “That shot that took out the mirror, it came from the north, not the east…”

“Yeah, it was one of Pilaf’s snipers, so what?” The Elder grumbled as she waved us to come in with her. “Hurry up! We need to shut this door before the Scream gets up to speed!”

I turned to head to the door as the Starscream’s engine grew loud enough that it started to beat out some of the gunfire at the edge of the base. Before I could take more than a step however, Ping’s striped hoof shot out and stopped me.

“That shot wasn’t from Pilaf’s ponies, or meant for her.” Ping’s frightened voice filtered into my mind. “Night, I saw him.”

“You saw who?” I wasn’t sure what was going on, but as soon as I’d thought that, Ping forced an image into my mind.

It played through my augment like I was seeing things as they happened through Ping’s eyes. I watched him pull the mirror off of the truck. Then it exploded, just as it had, and his eye traced the round as it skipped under me. But as the Elder turned and ran, Ping spun and looked back along the side of the truck to the north.

It was then that I noticed something out of place. Running all the way along the north side of Bow-Wing field, there was nothing tall enough to snipe on where he was looking. No trees, or buildings outside of the walls of the Ranger’s base where anyone could have taken that shot from. Only the city of Seaddle itself sat off in the distance.

Ping’s vision shifted and I watched as he focused in. His view zoomed in above the smaller hangers at the edge of the field, focusing more on the leaning skyscrapers that sat on the south edge of Seaddle. Near the top of the closest one, a part of it had collapsed, and a shine from something sat out of place in it. It was still hard to make out at that distance, but there were definitely a pair of ponies up there.

“I can confirm the shot trajectory.” Eliza’s voice chirped up. “If Ping hadn’t been holding that mirror, Night, you would’ve...”

An image of the same tower popped up in my mind, this time at the angle the Arcturus could view it from, as well as in better resolution than Ping’s eye held. My whole body froze up as it focused on the two figures sitting in the open ruins of the tower. Even as the Starscream picked up to a near full speed, I just couldn’t do anything but stare at what was in that tower.

Sitting together with an obnoxiously large rifle on an ornate brass tripod, was Solomon and Rook.

No, there was no way, that’s impossible.

They’re both alive.

Solomon is alive.

With a sharp bang, the Starscream’s props hit supersonic speeds, and I was thrown to the ground. My whole body felt like it was being hammered by sucker punches. There was nothing anymore but pain and the piercing scream of that engine. Hell, I couldn’t even see! All I could do was force my eyes closed as my stomach forced its way up my throat.

At the very least I passed out quickly.

The feeling of being beaten to death was replaced with a dampness that pressed against my numbed skin. Opening my eyes again, I watched as Ping swung the bunker door closed behind him. As soon as it was shut, he sat down hard against it looking far more pale than ever.

I couldn’t blame him. Solomon was alive, and he’d nearly killed me.

A wooden hoof swung into my vision, and Happy pulled my attention over to him. He said something that I couldn’t hear. Hell, there was nothing but obnoxious ringing in my head now. He shifted himself, and winced as he cupped his ears with his hooves. A small amount of blood trickled from them, and when he noticed, of course he seemed to panic a bit.

I reached up with my hoof and pat the side of my head, finding the same small amount of blood. Looking down, I found that my entire side that had faced the Starscream was now a mottled collection of blacks and blues. Fuck, thank the goddess for my painkilling augment!

“Night?” Ping’s voice struggled to get through the ringing in my mind, but got me to shift my attention to him. “If Solomon and Rook are out there, then we can’t risk bringing the Arcturus down.” His worried gaze didn’t falter at all as he stared through me. “She can’t go back like I can, Night. If Rook teleports a bomb on board, there is no telling the damage they could do to Eliza. I’m sorry, but… I won’t risk her.”

I hated to say it, but he was right. Fuck, that must have been how they got out of the explosion before! How the fuck didn’t I consider that?

“You were eager to be done with him.” Ping offered, letting a weak smile split his lips, if only for just a moment. “I too had hoped that you had gotten rid of him once and for all. This… miscalculation however, is distressing. We must return to the Remora and consider an alternative location to repair the Arcturus.”

Another hoof pulled my attention over, but this time it was a surprisingly strong grip shoving my head to the side. With a whimper I couldn’t hear, something was poured over half of my head. The following snaps and crackles as the restoration potion did it’s thing were nice to hear before the sound of Happy’s panicked breathing and hum of fluorescent lighting returned to me. It was a bit unsettling however to also still hear the constant drone of the Starscream’s engine even through the bunker walls and sealed door. Geeze, she wasn’t kidding about how dangerous that sound was...

Looking up, I caught the Elder’s annoyed glare before she moved over and poured a bit of the potion into Happy’s ear.

“I told you to get inside and shut the damned door.” She huffed as Happy let out his own whimper from the magic taking effect. “The magical shield will stop most bullets and shrapnel, but not sounds.”

“Shit, Tofu’s still out there!” I gasped and pushed myself to get to my hooves.

“Easy there, you aren’t opening that door again.” The Elder’s strong hoof again reached out and stopped me in place. “Inside the Scream seat is the safest location on this base. The shield that powers it is connected directly to the arcane generators that power all of the underground bunkers here. So as long as she stays inside the seat, she’ll suffer minor hearing damage, but she’ll otherwise be fine.”

“Night, what’s going on?” Happy grumbled as he hoofed at his ear, flicking away a few remaining drops of the potion from it. “Why the hell did you and Ping stop?”

“Because,” Ping spoke up before I could, widening a nervous grin across his muzzle. “We were both worried about Tofu, but now that we know that she is safe…” He hung on that as he glanced over at me with a sharp glare. “Night, now is not the time to tell Happy. Informing him that Solomon is still alive will do nothing but send him into a panic. I am asking you, Night, do not tell him. There are too many variables here, and we can’t afford to misstep again.”

“This is too big of a development, Ping.” I said flatly as I turned to Happy. “And I’m sorry, but he deserves to know.”

“Know what?” Happy’s gaze bounced between Ping and I for a moment before landing squarely on me.

“The shot out there, the one that hit the mirror? It wasn’t from Pilaf’s sniper.” Raising my forehoof, I laid it on Happy’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “It was from Solomon and Rook. They’re still alive, and they’re in Seaddle.”

“What?” He seethed and sharply knocked my hoof off of him. “And you two weren’t going to fucking tell me?” Twisting his hoof back around, he jabbed it hard enough against my dress that he pushed me back a step. “I can’t believe you, how long have you fucking known!?”

“I didn’t know!” I tried to say as he again pushed me back, but I stepped on part of my dress and tumbled onto my flank. “You asked why I stopped out there, and I told you! Ping and Eliza showed me right then and there that they were alive.”

“Night is right, until I showed him, he had no idea.” Ping chimed in as he stepped past the Elder and put his own hoof on Happy’s shoulder. Just like with me, he simply shrugged off the gesture.

“So just you didn’t wantto tell me?” He hissed and clenched his wooden hoof hard enough that it let out a strained creak. “What, you don’t fucking trust me anymore? I thought we were friends, Ping!”

“We are friends, Happy.” Ping’s expression twitched and shifted to a more worried one. “I do trust you, but you have to understand, we miscalculated before, and… and I do not want to fail again.” As he reached out for Happy again, he seemed to almost start to break down. “My intent to hide it from you was for your benefit, and to avoid this exact over-reactionary type of response.”

“Yeah, well guess what, you fucking failed.” Happy snapped at him and pushed himself up to his hooves. With stiff, angry steps, he turned and headed for the stairwell that went down into the base. “Do whatever you want, I don’t care. Come and find me when you ‘intend’ to stop treating me like a math problem and start acting like a friend again.”

“Happy, don’t…” I reached out for him.

“No.” Ping’s hoof wrapped around mine and pulled it back. Even his grip seemed unsteady as he stepped up next to me with a weak smile. “He is right, I have once again made a mistake. And seeing as this is my fault, I must take the steps to fix it.” Glancing over at me, his grin widened, though the apprehension and regret in his eyes poured through stronger than ever. “Friendships like the ones I’ve made with you and Happy are more… challenging than I’ve anticipated. However, it’s strange. I feel that what I did was right, and those at the Factory would have agreed with my stance. But somewhere inside, I feel an inexplicable pull to see things from Happy’s point of view. It is something your entire crew has seemingly cultivated in me that I was unaware of before.” Blinking a few times, he scrunched up his muzzle and scratched at his chin. “Perhaps I am not explaining it right. Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

“What you’re talking about was something that the Old World prized.” The Elder sighed as she reminded the both of us that we weren’t exactly alone here. “Something most ponies lost in the fight between our two races. It’s a common bond formed between only the best of friends. Something that’s not quite tangible, but still exists to bind us to each other.” Sitting down, the Elder rested a hoof on each of our shoulders. As she looked Ping straight in the eyes, she smiled softly. “It’s something from our founder we’d lost in the last two centuries, and the basis for why we split from Pilaf and the old ways. The Ministry Mares called it ‘the magic of friendship’, and while it hasn’t been common in the wastelands, recently, we’ve started to see it more and more.”

“Let me guess, since the ‘Lightbringer’ brought the clouds down?” The words tumbled from my muzzle with more disdain and anger than they probably should have.

The nod I got from the Elder however, only made me feel worse about that slip. As much as I wanted to kill the mare for what she did to Mom, I couldn’t deny it. Ever since that day, the wasteland had started trying to change. And though I’ve seen plenty of monstrous ponies fighting to keep it the same, I’ve not been the only one pushing back to make things better for everypony.

“You… aren’t a normal zebra, are you?” The Elder spoke up as she narrowed her eyes on Ping. With a shift of her hoof, she clamped her hooves around his head and studied him. “You have arcane implants. That’s how you’ve been speaking with your friend here non-verbally, isn’t it?”

“I uh… I had my eyes replaced, yes.” Ping’s worried gaze worsened as he reached up and plucked her hooves from the sides of his head. She fought him, but she was no match for his strength, which… only doubled her suspicions. With a gasp, he released her hooves, and she accidentally hammered the sides of his head with them. With a convincing cry, he pushed himself back and fell to the floor in mock pain. “I messed up again and she got too close, Night. She’s onto me!”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to…” The Elder gasped, leaning down to help him but. However, she paused just short of offering him her hoof. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t pry, but I feel like you aren’t being honest. Don’t worry, you have nothing to fear from me.” Shit, was she even able to read lies of Ping? Was that her special talent, or was my bad luck back again? “It’s just… your augments are so seamless, and I’ve never seen a zebra with such extensive ones.”

“Calm down, I’ve got this, buddy.” I offered back to him, stepping up and helping Ping get back to his hooves. “It’s fine, Elder. He’s always been a little defensive about letting others in on what he’s been through. I myself didn’t know about them at first, but he’s been through a lot in his life. Not to mention the fact he was held captive for years by some assholes in the north before Happy and I found him. So maybe in the interest of working together, you can cut him a bit of slack.”

There. Hopefully there’s just enough truth in that for her to know I’m not lying to her. Then again, she saw through that before, so this could go either way. Celestia knows we don’t need her to turn out to be another Coconut Curry…

“Alright, if you say so.” Stepping back again, she straightened herself out and looked toward the stairwell. “Well, we have a little while before Pilaf’s attack winds down. You are free to wait up here, or come down below. Either way, that door will not be opened for anypony else, mine or yours, until the attack ends and the Starscream has been spun down.”

She offered little more than a sideways glance to Ping as she trotted past us. It wasn’t until I could hear her hoofsteps trailing off down the metal stairwell that I felt like I could talk freely with Ping. When I turned to talk to him however, I was blindsided by a striped mass leaping forward.

“I’m so sorry, Night.” He whimpered as he wrapped his legs around me in a tight hug. Other than being a bit surprising, it wasn’t a bad hug. It wasn’t uncomfortably tight, though his limbs felt like they were shaking ever so subtly. “I’ve never felt this way before, it’s… it’s unlike anything I’ve known.” For once, maybe it wasn’t for show. Maybe he was actually afraid.

“Really, it’s fine, Ping.” More concerned than confused, I gave him a few pats on the back. “I’m sure that if you apologize to Happy, you’ll find that he’s still your friend. As I am as well.”

“No, that is not…” He paused and pulled back slightly. Staring at the floor, he searched his mind for the best way to get out what he wanted to say. “As you know, we are no longer allowed to fabricate replacement bodies or copies of ourselves at the factory.” Letting go of me, he held his hooves in front of himself and stared at them. “In an instant, this body would have been compromised, and I could have ceased to be. Because of that jamming signal in the city, there would be no ability to transfer, no backups to take over. And now, if she finds out the truth...”

“What jamming signal?” I’d thought he’d meant the one here in the bunker, but that wouldn’t have affected him out there.

“I uh… it…” He blinked at me as a look of deeper shame washed over it. “Eliza and I picked up a jamming signal from the city that seems to be tuned specifically to jam signals sent to and from the Factory.”

“Uh… that’s not exactly something comforting.” More than that disturbed me, was the next question that came rolling out of my muzzle. “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“Because Eliza and I did not know where it was coming from.” With a sigh, he flattened his ears against his head and looked up pleadingly at me. “Believe me, I wanted to speak up, but until Buck landed on the Inuvik, and I was brought here, we were not able to triangulate it’s position with any accuracy. Please, you have to believe me, I was going to tell you when we found out where it was!” With a hard, metal smack, he slapped his forehoof over his muzzle and whimpered. “I know you and Happy are disappointed in me, but… I didn’t think it was going to be a problem! Then… then that shot came in, and I realized that in an instant, I… I might have died. And now the Elder is suspicious of me, and… it’s all my fault!”

With another whimper, he slumped toward the floor in tears. With a hard shift of myself, I leaned forward and used myself to prop him up, throwing my hoof around him to steady us. As he cried, I found him wrap his hooves around me as well and squeeze me tightly.

I get why he didn’t tell me, even before Solomon factored back into things. There have been more than a few times on this trip where I’ve come face to face with my own mortality, so I think for me my response has somewhat numbed with each occurrence. But Ping’s never really felt that before, at least not since he’d been locked away by the Rangers in that train. Now, more than ever, Ping was learning just what it meant to be alive.

“That won’t happen, Ping. I promise.” I know I couldn’t guarantee that, and I’m sure Ping knew that too. But I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him after all he’s done to help us. “I’d rather not blow this place up, but if the worst comes to pass, we’re all going to make sure you get out of here. As for that signal, I promise we’ll look into it as soon as we sort all of this out.”

“That is... reassuring to hear, Night.” He offered only the barest of a forced smile as he continued to hold himself tightly against me. “I am sorry for once again being an inconvenience. I am sorry for being wrong about Prince Solomon and Rook being deceased. And, I am sorry...”

“Hey,” Scooting over, I wrapped my hoof around him tighter. “All of us thought we were finally done with them. It’s not your fault that no matter what we do, we can never seem to kill the fuckers. You are allowed to make mistakes, Ping. We’ve all made our fair share.”

“I suppose... you are correct.” He nodded to me and gave me a squeeze with his own hoof before pushing himself back up. “I feel better knowing you will help me, and for that, know that I will also endeavour to continue helping you. Now that we all know he is still out there, Eliza and I will create a plan to hunt Prince Solomon and Rook down.”

“That sounds great, Ping, and…” I said, pausing as the gears in my mind got gummed up with something he’d said. Now that we all knew. No, we didn’t all know. “Shit, Hispano doesn’t know!” Ripping my leg from around Ping, I pushed myself to get up and head for the door. “I need to go warn her!”

“Wait, Night!” Ping gasped as his hoof shot out and snagged my hindleg tightly. “You cannot leave, not until the Starscream is powered down.”

I heaved and struggled against his grasp, but it was no use. Goddess damned mother of fuck! This… this was bad. I got lucky that Ping stopped that round, but Hispano’s off all on her own and she doesn’t know.

“Night, calm down.” Ping’s hooves came down firmly on my shoulders, and he forced me to spin around.

“I need to go, Ping.” I know the second I opened that door I was going to be in a world of hurt, but… what else was I supposed to do? “I can’t just sit here and wait for Solomon to kill her!”

Today was supposed to be a day just for Buck, her, and I. Thanks to me, all of that got screwed up, and now she’s all alone. I swear to the goddesses, if Solomon does anything to hurt her...

“I am not asking you to wait long.” He offered in a calming tone that really wasn’t helping quell the rampant panic I was feeling right now. “Just sit, and breathe. I’m sure Hispano is alright, and as soon as that door can be opened, I’ll ask Eliza to find her.”

Thoughts and images of Eliza finding her dead popped up by the dozens in my mind. It was only brought to a screeching halt by the fact my augment shut itself off and the sharp stabbing pain from my well bruised side made itself known. As I bit my lip and whined, I caught Ping’s unimpressed gaze at me.

With a flicker, my augment booted up, and I was thankfully basked in sweet numbness again.

“I am sorry I had to do that, Night, but you can’t think about those things.” Ping’s tone was softer than before, but his gaze was just as flat as ever. “Thanks to what happened out there, I think I now understand more about how you organics feel about mortality.” Taking a deep breath, he nodded over to the door with a frown. “However, because I now know how it feels to come so close, in fifteen minutes, whether the attack is done or not, I promise I will open this door for you. But you must give me that time, Night. That is all I ask.”

Fifteen minutes, that’s all I had to wait. I could do that. I… don’t know if Hispano will last that long, but Celestia willing, I could do that.

“Okay.” I nodded and sat down hard. Staring at the door, I focused myself on it. The moment it was open, I would be out and in the air towards Hispano. “Fifteen minutes then. That’s all I need to wait.”

I could only hope I wasn’t too late.

Author's Note

As usual, I must give my thanks to TheFurryRailFan for going out of his way to go over these chapters. The help rendered over these years is nearly incalculable, and it means the world to me that he's still so dedicated to helping out.

Of course, I also need to give a big thanks to Kkat for creating FoE in the first place.