Anything is amphibious if you can get it back out of the water.

Bright flashes pierced through the fog as the firefight at the airfield raged on.

While we’d seen plenty of battles on our journey south, I hadn’t quite realized that each and every one seemed to hold a unique sound to it. The hesitant chatter of old equestrian service rifles mixed in with the short buzz of a minigun made up the bulk of this fight’s noise. Both sounds were drowned out by the concussive blasts of a few mortars raining through the bright skies Hispano and I were just entering.

“I can’t see shit down below.” Hispano called out as she and I kept ourselves flying just above the wispy layer of fog. “I thought we’d at least be able to see those massive hangars through this crap.”

As usual, she was right. We could have been flying right over the Arcturus right at this moment and never known it. What we needed was some way to see through the clouds, like how last night in the rain…

My augmented vision flickered, and just like last night, a bright green wireframe linked itself together under us. The outlines of ruined Seaddle waterfront buildings ended abruptly on our right where I assumed the water began. Off ahead and to our left almost a kilometer away, I could just barely make out the boxy wire forms of the row of large hangars.

Well, at least I knew we were only slightly off course now, but at least we were only about a minute out…

“Hey, Night?” Hispano nudged me and waved a talon to get my attention. “What the fuck is that?” Stretching out a digit, she pointed off to just above the wire framed boxy hangars.

It was hard for me to make out at this distance, but amidst the fairly flat fog plain, sat a lumpy bit of normal cloud. To me, it was pretty reminiscent of a nonchalant cloud that a certain griffon had once used to follow us after we left Inuvik.

“Local Talons, maybe?” I asked. If I were a mercenary around a fight like the one going on at the airbase, I’d be interested in ‘helping out’ whoever looked to be the winning side.

“That’s what I thought, but…” She squinted her eyes at the lumpy cloud with a grimace. “It’s not built right. Talons like subtlety when it comes to hiding places. I could see this thing from a kilometer out, and it’s construction is almost amateurishly trying to imitate a bunker.” Looking over to me, she cocked an eyebrow. “Your ranger friends have any pegasi among them?”

“I didn’t see any.” I shook my head. “Doesn’t mean there weren’t any though. I hardly...”

The back of the cloud bunker shifted slightly, and a pony stepped through it. It was hard to tell as we closed in, but they didn’t look like a pegasus. However, what they did look like to me, was that they were wearing a boxy device on their back with a pair of shiny glass looking cylinders built into it.

“Shit, that’s a metro uniform.” Hispano grunted and shifted her flight so she could pull out Suiza. “Think they’re better than every race, but will use Zebra alchemic flight tech. Fucking hypocrites.”

Spotting us, the pony at the bunker nearly jumped out of their skin. A flash of green flame erupted from the box on his back, and in an instant, the pony took flight. There was a loud roar from their strange flight pack as it propelled them around the bunker for a moment before they dove right through the fog below and disappeared.

Well, at least one of the metro Rangers had the smarts to not risk a fight!

The cloud bunker bulged again and a more imposing looking figure stepped through. Wet with dew and glinting in the early morning light, it wasn’t hard to recognize the impressive armored form of a Ranger in power armor staring us down.

“How the fuck is that thing cloudwalking!? That’s not fair!” Hispano squawked and aimed Suiza right at the Ranger.

Several quick flashes from beside the Ranger tore half the cloud bunker apart, but sent three streaking missiles our direction. Both Hispano and I rolled opposite directions in the air before pulling up to turn the last of our speed into altitude. The missiles streaked under us, dipping down into the fog below.

A flashing warning popped up in my vision, as well as the radar-esque instrument I had used back at Maple station. Three red triangles were rapidly closing in on us from below, and when I directed my attention downward, I was greeted with all three missiles punching up through the fog right at us.

“Fuck, dive, dive!” I called out to Hispano as the missiles streaked towards us.

The both of us folded our wings and did our best impressions of darts as we let gravity pull us downward. The missiles tracked us, curving their flight paths as they followed at a speed faster than I’d ever be able to outside of a dive.

As we headed for the fog layer, Hispano twisted her wing and rolled herself right over me before leveling out a bit. One of the red triangles in her vision shifted and followed her maneuver effortlessly.

“What are you doing!?” I called out as I pushed my forehoof forward and braced myself for punching into the fog.

Hispano didn’t call back, simply keeping her focus on what was ahead of her. The last thing I saw before dipping below the fog was her headed right for the cloud bunker with a now very panicked looking power armored steel ranger in front of it.

You know, if only I’d been that smart…

The scream from one of the missiles hot on my hocks cut my thoughts off as I dipped down into the soupy fog layer. It was thicker than I’d realized, and the moment it enveloped me, I felt like I was swimming through it. Water wicked it’s way through my fur, mane, and wings, adding what felt like a whole pony’s worth of weight to me.

A terrain and low altitude warning flashed across my vision and I twisted my wings to pull myself up as sharply as I could. My flight pack whined as it did it’s best to straighten me out with the extra water weight I’d taken on, and I took only a moment to glance at the altimeter display in my vision. I was just a few meters above the ground, but I still couldn’t even see it.

Glancing at the radar display, I’d found the two missiles on my ass had both somewhat slowed down as they punched into the fog after me. I guess even they couldn’t see well in this crap. Still, each of them had chosen a different direction to fly, effectively cutting me off from flying anywhere but straight or down onto the ground.

A sharp blast from above me meant that Hispano’s little friend had found some sort of home.

“Alright, annoyance lost, and those fuckers are dealt with.” Hispano chirped into my head through her radio cap. While it was nice to hear that she indeed hadn’t exploded, it was even better to hear that even with all the radio’s in the area being jammed, ours still worked. “You lost yours yet, Dum Dum?”

Looking around, the wire frame forms of a cluster of mostly-collapsed buildings just outside of the airbase caught my eye. Specifically, one that seemed to just be a three story tall single wall with a few windows stood out the most to me. It wasn’t ideal, but putting the rubble between me and the missiles was my best option for now.

“Almost…” I grunted as I pulled my sopping wet wings inward and did my best to pick up as much speed as I could towards the ruins. “I have an idea!”

Almost as soon as I’d said that, the missiles at my sides had shifted their flights toward my flanks and sped up again. Their screeching engines made the air itself vibrate as I lined myself up with the rectangular wireframe hole of a central window on the building ahead.

Alright, Night! One shot to get through this and pray to Celestia above that those missiles aren’t smart enough to follow! Just fold in your wings, and…

I snapped my wings shut as the looming form of the ruined wall blocked out what little sunlight pierced through the thick fog. With only a moment before I passed through, my augment decided to update me about the window I’d chosen. Specifically, about how it had been boarded up at some point.

With a tremendous crack and crunch, my momentum carried me right through the old, waterlogged wood. The augmented half of my head took most of the brunt of the impact, and my painkilling talisman did it’s job well. However, my vision snapped to the side and I found myself tumbling downward in a half roll.

I cried out as I was dashed against the piles of brick below, and bounced a few times before sliding across a clearing. Finally, I came to a firm stop as a pile of old furniture ‘cushioned’ my body with a few thick wooden snaps. Medical warnings about various cuts across my body filled my vision as it stopped spinning. Another happy landing…

“Freeze, dirtbag!”

I blinked and turned my attention to a unicorn mare I could barely make out in the fog below the wall I’d just flown through. She took a step forward, and I could just barely make out the metro ranger armor she was wearing, as well as the glistening shine from the old equestrian stamped submachine gun in her yellow magical aura.

The screech from the pair of missiles after me ended with a pair of sharp blasts. The fog lit up with a pair of bright explosions that tore out the base of the ruined building wall. Fragments of bricks and mortar showered us as the whole wall shifted and tipped over both the mare and I.

Time to move!

Scrambling up to my hooves, I pushed my body to move. The mare however chose to freeze up as she turned her gaze upward to the falling structure. With as quick of a hobbling dash as I could muster, I threw myself over the nearest pile of bricks and out into what had once been the building’s sidewalk.

Tremors from the collapse nearly knocked me off my hooves as the rest of the two century old building joined it’s rubble on the ground. A cloud of dust, mortar, and fog tore through the air around me, coating me in a healthy amount of all three as it washed over me and forced its way into my lungs.

Even as I did my best to hack out the thick soup I’d just inhaled, I thanked Celestia that I’d avoided being crushed to death.

“Haha!” A jubilant call from behind me perked my ears.

I looked back to find that the Metro unicorn mare was still standing amongst the rubble. Around her hooves, were the now scattered and cracked remains of the same boarded up window I’d crashed through. Are you kidding me!? The ponies in Klondike taught me that applewood stunt ponies trained for days to pull off something like that, and she just..! I’ll admit, I was just a bit jealous, seeing as my luck this whole fucking trip has never been that good…

It was so unfair it made me want to scream!

With the shock from her astoundingly lucky placement wearing off, she turned her eyes and gun back on me with a curling grin.

“I guess it’s just my lucky day.”

A shadow passed above me in the fog and the mare in front of me disappeared into a cloud of gore and red mist that left my hearing ringing. I blinked a few times staring at where she’d just been, watching as the previously levitating submachine gun dropped into the rubble. With a metallic clatter, it came to rest next to the still standing, if shredded, remains of her four hooves.

Okay, that is more on par with my luck. Now I feel a bit better, less cheated at least! That probably says something about me as a pony, but I’ll be damned if anypony wants to tell me I don’t deserve at least a little break from bad luck.

“Well, I’d say that went pretty well, Dum Dum!” Hispano chirped as she swooped down next to me. “At least my last round didn’t go to waste.” Her sister’s barrel sizzled lightly in the water dense air, and it helped remind me that I could actually breathe again. “Now, let’s hope I don’t need another before we can restock.”

A bright glow pierced the fog, highlighting the massive row of hangars in light before the sharp crack of an explosion washed over us. A green balefireball rose into the sky for a moment before it dimmed and was swallowed by the obscuring fog once more.

“Shit, that was a balefire egg. They’re really using all the big guns for this fight.” Hispano commented as she got her sister slung over herself again. “Well, I don’t often say this, but I was wrong.” With a huff and a stretch of her wings, she used her talons to help wick some of the water from them, pausing as a long droning buzz from a minigun somewhere on the airfield hung in the air. “I don’t think this will be a quick fight.”

“The sooner we can help, the faster it’ll be over.” I nodded and shook my wings to try to get the water out as well. While that might have worked before, the dust and pulverized brick and mortar coating me instead stubbornly stuck to every bit of me. “And the quicker I can take a shower.”

“As if we haven’t had enough water for one day already.” Hispano smirked and kicked herself into the air. “That’s just how Seaddle always is though.” I did my best to follow, practically feeling the talismans my flight pack vibrate as they struggled to help get me airborne.

The two of us did our best to keep low and together as we headed toward the glows of several bright fires burning across the foggy airfield. My augmented vision pulsed again as we came around the side of the large row of hangars. It outlined a strange scene of overturned vehicles that matched up with most of the glows, as well as large ponies standing around next to various forms of cover, as well as a group huddled next to the cylindrical form of the Arcturus as it sat on the airfield’s bulky landing mounts.

The buzz of a minigun came from one of the pony outlines and a stream of bright tracers ripped a line across the fog toward the front gate of the airfield. Right, the big ponies are the ones in power armor. Good to know!

With a slight twist of my wings, I helped guide Hispano and I to touch down on the top of the Arcturus. As soon as we flared our wings to slow down, the fog thinned enough so that the glistening black metal hull came into view under us. While my augment kept me from truly feeling it, something like a muscle in the back of my mind, relaxed. It was good to know that our home was still safe and in one piece.

Another sharp burst of fire, and collection of barking shots in retaliation convinced us that hastily getting inside was the best idea for now. Without hesitation, Hispano slid her talons along the hull until she found the hatch and opened it for us. Waving her free talon with a smirk, she offered to let me go down first.

“Age before beauty, or ladies first. Just take your pick and get inside.” She offered as I rolled my eyes, but got myself spun around and headed down the conning hatch ladder.

Rung by rung I descended, pausing as Hispano climbed in and secured the hatch above us. We were dropped into the slowly blinking red emergency lighting in the cramped tunnel, and the fighting outside was somewhat muffled by the steady hum of the Arcturus’s reactor systems. However, as I reached the lower hatch, a different set of muffled noises came through the hull and forced me to pause.

“What is it...?”

“Shhh!” I hushed Hispano and perked my good ear toward the hatch. Muffled voices and quick hoofsteps came through clearer than before. Could just be Tofu and Dad? No, I don’t think so, it sounds too busy.

“Night.” Hispano hissed with a whisper from above. “What’s going on?”

“I think the Arcturus has been boarded.” I whispered back.

“Metro rangers?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head and tried my best to listen even harder. If only my augments had some sort of better hearing…

“Why would you need that, Captain?” Eliza’s curious voice emit from the intercom that happened to be right by my ear.

“Ah!” I yelped as my prosthetic hoof slipped from the rung of the ladder it was on, and my wet forehoof wasn’t able to keep it’s grip. With a wet thump, I dropped the final few rungs onto the hatch below.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, Captain!” Eliza gasped as the hatch below me let out a few clicks. “Here, let’s get you two inside!”

“No, wait…!” I whimpered and flailed my forehoof to grab onto the last ladder rung again. Unfortunately for me, the hatch opened before I could.

The world around me twisted as I slid off the hatch and dropped right into the middle of the thin layer of fog that lined the floor of the bridge. Either repairs had been going slower than expected, or there were now enough new holes in the Arcturus to let the morning fog in. Neither option left me feeling optimistic about the fight to come.

A few startled gasps filled the air around me, and before I could shake off the stars in my vision, the familiar feeling of a gun barrel pressed against my head made me freeze up.

“Don’t move!” The orange coated stallion standing over me commanded sharply.

“No no, wait!” Tofu called out as she practically flew across the bridge to my side. “That’s the Captain!”

“Captain?” The stallion stuttered before pulling the gun off of me. “So sorry, ma’am!” With a stiff and admittedly strong grip, he used his forehoof to help me back onto my three legs again. The stallion offered a sincere, but nervous smile as his amber eyes looked over me. “I didn’t know who you were. I promise it won’t happen again.”

“Why the hell are there so many rangers on our ship?” Hispano grumbled as she dropped down through the hatch. With a glare, she forced the stallion behind me to let out a soft whimper as he let me go.

“They were helping to fix the Arcturus before the fight started.” Tofu sighed. Though it was good to see her, she looked… tired. From the dark rings under her exhausted expression, undoubtedly, she’d been up all night working on the ship non-stop before this. “Now we’re all just trying to repair the damage as it comes in.”

“Okay…” Hispano huffed as she pulled Suiza forward and stripped the short five round magazine from her. “So they brought their guns onboard to… what? Shoot things into working order?”

“It’s just protocol.” The stallion next to me offered back as he slung his old equestrian combat rifle over himself. “I’d have thought a Talon would understand the merits of never being unarmed.”

With a smirk, Hispano took a step towards the stallion and carefully ran her talon up his chest and then along his neck. With a sharp flick, she made him flinch, and a few orange hairs drifted through the air off his chin.

“As long as a Talon still breathes, they’re never unarmed.” Hispano cooed softly before stepping past the stallion and shifting her talon down under me. With a few prods and pokes, she stripped the magazine from my subgun and waved it in front of me. “I’m going to go get us restocked so we can get back in the fight.”

“Hold up.” Tofu reached out and stopped Hispano mid-step, “You two can’t go back outside yet.”

“What? Why?” I spat out.

“We have an… opportunity to end the fight from here.” Tofu offered before pausing and turning to the bank of terminal screens behind her. “Eliza, you want to tell the captain the idea that’s been suggested by our new Ranger friends here?”

With a flicker, one of the central terminals flipped from it’s normal readout, to an almost hesitant looking familiar cartoon mare.

“In the case of a reactor overload, there is an onboard system override to help remove excess power from it in the form of an electrostatic discharge. Onboard capacitors shunt it through the hull to the inbuilt dischargers located across the ship, and from there it will find its own way to ground.”

“Wait.” Hispano snorted and shook her head at Eliza. “You mean we’ve had the ability to shoot lightning as a means of defense? This whole time!?”

“It is not a defensive system.” Eliza’s concerned mare flipped over to a more serious looking one. “I have been hesitant to use it as I cannot precisely target where the strikes will land, as well as in this current weather, if I generated a plasma powerful enough to incapacitate the attacking rangers, it would be an omnidirectional attack.”

“You’d… hit everypony out there.” I blinked as I started to understand Eliza’s hesitation.

“Correct, Captain.” Eliza’s mare flipped over to a happy looking pony before a dismissive wave of Hispano’s talon flipped her back to her serious self.

“So what? Knock everypony out and we'll sort through ‘em while they're down!” Hispano shrugged and quickly slung Suiza over herself again. “We miss out on an otherwise fun fight, but after the night Night and I had, I can live with that!”

I mean, as much as I wanted to argue, I really couldn’t. Sure there might be a few ponies who’d hold a bit of a grudge for being forcibly knocked out of the fight, but the fight would be over. And with enough Rangers in here and underground, I’m sure we could detain all the metro rangers while they were still out!

“See, that’s what I thought.” Tofu nodded before leaning herself against Eliza’s terminals. “However, there’s a catch.”

“Yes.” Eliza’s mare nodded before frowning. “The discharge would more than likely have the range to also strike the Architect.” Oh, well to be honest, that’s… not great. “A strong enough charge could be enough to… kill him if he’s hurt badly enough already.”

“But it’s now your call, Captain.” The orange stallion next to me snorted. “You can end this fight.”

Well fuck. On the one hoof, he was right. We could end this fight right here and now. But if I make that call, and the Architect, Ping, dies with that jamming signal still up, then he’s just… gone.

“No, it’s too risky.” I shook my head. “We’ll find another way to help.”

“Fucking damnit!” Hispano spat. “I mean, I get it, but could we just get a break just this once!?”

“I understand your concern for your companion,” The stallion beside me offered as he put his hefty hoof up on my shoulder. “But despite what your… computer here says, I am convinced this is our best shot. You must activate the override.”

“Just… who are you again?” While I hadn’t meant for it to come out quite that harsh, but this guy seemed intent on pushing into our conversation.

“Captain, this is lead scribe Brightray.” Tofu pushed herself up from the terminal and gave her own dismissive wave at him. “He’s in charge of the Rangers who came on board, and is a skycraft specialist. He’s agreed to follow my command while they work on our ship, and I refused this idea of his.”

“Yes, and I am not challenging that command.” He shot back at her with a healthy dose of side eye that would have gotten him a smack across the muzzle from somepony like Delilah. “I’m simply saying that despite the risks, ending the fight outside should be done if we can do it.” Tofu surprisingly was a bit more restrained than that.

“And the Captain said no.” Tofu grunted and simply glared back at the guy. As she did, I could almost see the blood coming to a boil under his skin from her look alone.

“Look, before this becomes a fight,” I offered and pulled Tofu’s attention to me. “What are our other options here? Can we take off and just hit them with missiles?”

“I was just about to get an update on that from your dad before you dropped in.” Tofu sighed, turned, and hit a few buttons on the console behind her. “You got an update for me on the state of the cloud drive, Guster?”

“Ugh… I still can’t believe that’s your dad’s name.” Hispano grumbled as she crossed her talons. “Guster… pft.”

“You want the good news, or the bad news first?” Dad’s voice came through the intercom, as well as the noise of sparking wires and power tools somewhere off in another compartment.

“We’ll take the good news first.” I offered.

“Night?” Dad gasped, “Thank the goddess you’re alright! I was so worried…”

“News first, Dad. In the middle of a small war right now.” Hispano cut him off with a harsher tone that I’d really expected, but she had a point.

“Right, so the primary cloud generation systems are mostly undamaged and flight ready.” Dad offered as the screens behind Tofu changed. Schematics of the Arcturus itself displayed across a few of the screens, each one highlighting different parts around the sides of the ship in green and yellow. “However…” The center most schematic highlighted a large pair of abscesses on each side of the hull, flashing them in red. “The cloudwater tanks were drained before the fight so we could perform repairs, and have since been shot full of holes.”

“Fuck.” Tofu grumbled as she facehooved hard. “Without those tanks sealed, if we can’t pump in water to condense new clouds, we aren’t going anywhere.”

“Captain, if the fighting doesn’t end soon, then we risk irreparable damage to the Arcturus.” Eliza’s cartoon mare flipped to a sad expression as she looked between Tofu and I. The whole ship shuddered as an explosion outside rocked it. “Case and point. At the very least, you must get those groups of Rangers fighting near the Arcturus to seek cover further away.”

“Are you kidding me?” Brightray spat out, “You’ve seen the conditions out there! The fog out there is thick enough that just moving at all might get them misidentified and shot by our own forces!”

“And? That’s always a risk you take in a fight.” Hispano squawked and stepped forward, jabbing her talon into his chest sharply.

“So, what? You want me to just walk out there and politely tell them to move!?” He swiped her talon off of him and spun to meet her glare with a sharp one of his own.

“Sure!” Hispano growled as she flared out her wings sharply, spraying all of us with the water that had soaked into them on our flight here. “Then maybe you could actually do something useful rather than simply cowering inside our ship!”

As I reached up to wipe Hispano’s wing water from my face, I paused as a bit of the floor fog stuck to my hoof. Blinking at it, I had the most fantastically risky idea pop into my mind.

“Tofu, what if we didn’t have to make our own clouds?” I spat out and looked up at her. She simply blunk a few times as my question caught her a bit off guard. It seemed to catch Hispano and Brightray off guard as well, because they both went dead quiet. “Could we take off if we already had clouds to use?”

“Well, sure but…” She answered before screwing up her muzzle as she too made the connection. “You want to use the fog. Okay… hold on...” Turning back towards the console, her horn lit up as her magic washed over the keyboard buttons like a torrential rain. “Guster, I’m sending you some numbers. Double check them for me!” With a final hit of a key, she spun around and held her hoof up.

With a crackle, the intercom switched back over to the noises where my dad was working.

“Well, it would get us off the ground. However…” He paused for a moment as if he were deep in thought. “So, the fog outside could lift us, but it would still be drawn in and pushed through to the recycling system, and then to the water tanks where it would leak out before it could be recondensed into new cloud. It’s not a flight issue, but a sustainability issue.”

“I might have an idea for that!” Tofu gasped and once again made her magic dance across the keyboards around her. “Eliza, can you use the barometric sensors to optimize a flight plan that takes the Arcturus through the thickest parts of the fog?”

The screens behind Tofu flickered and flipped over to show a multi-screen map of the airfield around us. An odd, winding arrow grew across it from where the Arcturus sat, twisting, rising, and falling across almost half the entire airfield’s length before coming back right to where we already were. Sure it looked like a wet noodle from one of Hardcase’s admirable attempts at spaghetti, but it was a plan.

“Path optimized.” Eliza’s smiling mare popped up on the screen just next to Tofu. “However, the path shown will give us an approximated two minutes and fifteen seconds of flight time before the fog in the area will become too thin for sustainable flight. After that, I will have a remaining fifteen seconds of usable cloud to guide the Arcturus back around and onto the maintenance mounts.”

“Two minutes of flight isn’t long enough to do anything useful.” Dad’s voice crackled through the intercom once again. “I mean, I’m willing to do it just to get out of this warzone for any amount of time, but we need something more sustainable if we plan to stay out of harm’s way.”

“What about a salvo of missiles?” Hispano offered. “We load them up before we take off, target them from the air, then let them have it.”

“Now that is an idea I can agree with you on.” Brightray nodded and turned to Tofu. “Targeted air strikes might just be the edge we need to finish this fight.”

“I hate to be the one to point this out…” Eliza’s mare flickered over to a more hesitant look again, “But firing missiles is hardly subtle. If the point of this maneuver is to get us out of harm’s way, we’d simply be advertising ourselves as a target by attacking.”

Ugh, why did there always have to be something? Some little detail that always threw off every plan of attack we made. You know, some days I just wish it could be as easy as it was up north. Where it was just me flying around on my own and dropping grenades and tank shells on the bad guys when they didn’t know I was even coming. At least, that had been the case before I’d gotten that loud ass jump pack from Boiler and…

Again, my mind ground to a halt as it rewound my thoughts back a few moments.

“Tank shells are silent…” I muttered to myself. “You’re right, Eliza, firing the missiles tells them where we are and gives them a target. So we don’t fire them.”

“If we’re not attacking, then like your engineer said, why are we going to do this!?” Brightray groaned and facehooved hard. He was about to speak up again when Hispano rudely shoved him aside to step over to me.

“Oh, I see what you’re saying, Dum Dum!” She giggled and pointed at Eliza’s flight plan on the screen and traced the path with her talon. “I bet you some of this takes us right over them. We just… push the missiles out and let gravity do the hard work! They’ll be so confused by the random blasts that they’ll be too busy running for cover to look up at us.”

“It’s a good idea, don’t get me wrong!” Dad offered as his voice crackled over the intercom again. “This path will keep us airborne, but we’ll be sacrificing our only source of cover to do it. As we swing past, the fog will be drawn into the active cloud drive and cleared from the sky, so they will see what we’re doing before long.”

“So we keep a set of missiles ready for when they do see us and fire on anyone that is dumb enough to shoot up at us.” Practically slapping the ship communications button with her hoof, she turned and shouted into it. “All hooves, brace and make safe all workstations. We are commencing immediate takeoff.” Tofu nodded and pointed her hoof at Hispano, Brightray, and at me. “You three, get to the weapons bay and inform the scribes there of the plan. I want to be ready to drop those missiles in two minutes.”

I have to say, the way that Tofu’s taken charge of things here? I could see a bit of how Double Delta was in her. Maybe it was just how the rangers up at Galloway were, or maybe they were both just doing what they needed to in order to survive, having gone so far from the home they once knew. Either way, she had come far from being the mare who didn’t know what she was meant to do with her life.

“Aye Aye, Ma’am!” Brightray shot up a stiff salute before turning and galloping out down the hall towards the aft of the ship.

Hispano and I glanced at each other before offering up the same salute.

“Aye, Ma’am!”

As Hispano and I turned and followed Brightray through the hallways, the Arcturus gave out another almost violent shudder under our hooves. This time however, the movement came with a quickening thrum through the hull as the cloud drives spooled up. Both of us did our best to brace ourselves against the bulkheads as the familiar downward pull of gravity intensified.

Hispano and I threw ourselves to the floor as a half dozen bright orange tracers ripped through the kitchen and galley as a muffled buzz from outside followed suit.

“Fuck!” She called out as another burst shot through the bulkhead behind us. “What the fuck are they even firing at us for!?”

“Either they’re firing blind at the other rangers, or they don’t want us to leave.” I offered back without thinking as I got my hooves under me again. “So much for a sneaky takeoff…”

“Must be nice.” She grumbled back as she pulled herself up and we continued on, through to the weapons bay bulkhead. “Being able to pick and choose targets while standing in the middle of an active warzone. Must be nice.”

“That’s what power armor was invented to do, after all.” Brightray called out before turning back to a trio of scribes who were actively using their magic to mount one of the missiles on a rack above one of the six now open launch doors.

Taking a step forward, I glanced through the nearest hatch. The wet runway was retreating away from us at a slow rate, but the expanding clearing the Arcturus left had revealed a pair of airfield ranger groups below us. They’d become pinned down behind a few overturned trucks near the repair mounts, using the Arcturus as a fixed point to cover their flanks. A fixed point that just up and left them exposed.

One of them looked up to us and tried to shout something up at us.

I wouldn’t hear it though, as the second they spoke, a rocket streaked forward and blasted part of their overturned truck away. Two of the rangers were thrown back by the blast, while the other three in the group kept their heads down as flaming debris rained around them.

“Now,” He grunted and did his best to push the missile mount forward to match it up with the floating missile. “if you don’t mind giving us a hoof, once we get the missiles on the rack, then we’ll get the ones ready to drop.”

His voice was drowned out as another buzz from below drifted up, and the squelch of holes being put through metal somewhere else in the ship met our ears. Another pair of scribes on the other side of the weapons bay struggled to roll out another missile from storage. However, neither were unicorns, and once it was in place next to the launch mechanism, they simply had to wait for the others to finish what they were doing.

“Attention weapons bay” The ship intercom crackled loudly and Tofu’s voice echoed over it. “The first target is identified, we’ll be over the first drop zone in thirty seconds. Get ready to release the first missile!”

Six scribes, three unicorns, a pegasus, and a griffon. There’s no way we were going to finish loading first. This… was going to take too long.

“We need a new plan, or more time.” I muttered under my breath.

The Arcturus shifted and rolled slightly under our hooves. The whole ship listed a few degrees to the side, forcing everypony to brace themselves. The two earth pony scribes who had wheeled out the fresh missile, grunted and grasped at the missile cart, trying to keep it from sliding forward into the open launch hatch.

“Hey, hold that missile!” Hispano shouted to the two as she leapt forward. I blinked as she hopped herself right past them and immediately dug her talons into a bag of tools set against the wall next to them.

“Hey, what are you… don’t touch those!” The bigger of the two scribes grunted and seemed fairly conflicted on if he should continue trying to hold the missile cart from rolling away, or forcibly drag Hispano out of the toolbag.

“Any of you ever heard the adage work smarter, not harder?” With a yank, she pulled out a well kept H&H industries power driver. Using her talon, she stripped out the power crystal from its bottom, checked the contacts, then slapped it back in. “Now, just hold that missile still.” With a squeeze of the trigger, the two century old power tool gave a whine as it’s socket tip spun up.

Hopping over, she got to work on unscrewing the sockets around the front of the missile. Naturally, the two scribes with her started shouting all sorts of instructions to her over each other, but Hispano blocked it all out. With a steady talon, she quickly dropped three of the four fasteners to the floor and looked over to me. She motioned for me to hobble over, and I managed to get across the floor just before the Arcturus leveled out from it’s sharp bank, only to then list the opposite way even harder.

“Alright, I’m going to remove this last fastener, and you are going to just… knock the warhead out the hatch. Got it, Dum Dum?”

“I’ll what?” I blinked at her and shook my head. “I don’t know what you expect me to do here!” Sitting down, I flailed my one and only forehoof while trying to maintain my balance on the highly slanted floor. “I’m supposed to just what? Hit it?”

“Are you insane!?” The scribe next to me shouted at her.

“It’s a live warhead!” The other one seamlessly continued, “If it’s hit too hard, or it strikes the hatch at all…”

“Night won’t let it hit the hatch.” Hispano snapped back at the two before looking at me, “Isn’t that right? And you wouldn’t kick it too hard and blow us all up, would you?”

“Hispano!” I snapped and again flailed my leg as I tried to wrap my head around just what the hell she was thinking here. “What’s ‘too hard’ even supposed to mean!? Do I touch it? Do I not?”

“Just... guide it downwards gently.” She huffed and deadpanned at me. “Honestly, I don’t see what you aren’t getting here. You have the easy part!”

Yeah, sure, easy! Just gently but firmly knock the highly sensitive live explosives out a hole a pony wide without touching it or having it touch anything else, or we all die.

“Don’t fuck this up, Dum Dum.” Hispano grunted as she pushed the power tool over the final fastener. “I want to hear you say it. Say it’ll go right down the hatch.”

What choice did I have but to try?

“It’ll... it’ll go right down the hatch.” I shook my head and did my best to force up a smile across my muzzle. “Yeah. Nopony’s going to explode today, not on my watch.” I scrunched up my muzzle as I realized the irony of that. “Well, except for those below us. They’ll explode, sure, but not us!” They… already know that, Night. You are making this worse. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing! I mean, I’ve never done this before, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Just… shut your muzzle, Night...

From the way both scribes cringed and pulled themselves back a bit, I figured I hadn’t instilled the most confidence with that. And I couldn’t blame them after all.

Again, the intercom crackled.

“We’re over the first drop zone!” Tofu shouted, “Green light to drop now!”

Lifting my hoof, I tensed up as the old world power tool whirred to life. The socket bit down on the fastener, and before I could blink, it was halfway out. We all took a deep breath and held it as Hispano’s grip on the tool’s trigger loosened, and the spinning bit slowed down.

“Get ready…” Hispano’s words were as soft as I was supposed to be with the warhead, and her gaze was locked on each and every degree of rotation left on the fastener. “Okay Night, just… careful now.”

Raising my hoof higher, I looked at it out of the corner of my eye. A thought from the back of my mind crept up on me. The deep blue the old magical bandages had turned it was even darker the way it was matted with wetness and the soupy brick and mortar dust from earlier. My hoof was dull, chipped, and had a thousand scratches on it, leaving it looking as rough as sandpaper. It’s condition really represented the thousands of steps I’d taken on my trip south, and just how rough it’s been on all of us.

“Night!” Hispano squawked as the fastener popped out, and the warhead dropped off the missile and fell like a rock toward the floor.

It wasn’t until now that I really could appreciate how far my hooves had taken me on this trip when my wings hadn’t been up to the task. They’d been tougher than I could have ever imagined myself being, but this wasn’t something they could help carry me through. I needed a weaker touch.

Shifting myself to the side, I shot my wing out. With a twist of it, I cupped my feathers around the back of the warhead and helped to guide it forward. A final flick from my wingtip as it slipped away gave it a slight tumble that let it flip just past the edge of the hatch and into the freedom of the skies.

With it disappearing into the wispy, thinning fog below the ship, all of us could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Relief that was punctuated by a satisfying blast from somewhere below the Arcturus. We’d actually managed to do it!

“Okay… good job, Dum dum!” Hispano smiled as she cooed with contentment, giving me a moment to feel glad we didn’t all just explode. “Now.” She snorted and lifted the power drill up and to the ready. And of course, as soon as I had that moment, she took it away… “Let’s get started on the next one!”

“You two are fucking nuts.” The scribe next to me muttered as he maneuvered himself so he could lift the front of the missile up. He was lanky for an earth pony, but didn’t seem to lack any strength because of it. “Do you know how many safe handling protocols we just broke?” His black coat had an almost prismatic sheen to it, though the oil that stained his ranger jumpsuit shared it as well.

“You said it, Drippy!” The other scribe nodded as he shoved his hoof up into the exhaust of the missile and lifted it from the cart as if it were made of paper. Though, for a mint colored earth pony, this guy looked strong, sporting an impressive set of muscles I’m sure that on any other day I could probably have admired for a length of time. “But… admit it. This is more exciting than dealing with month end inventory, right?”

With a strong heave, the two tossed the disarmed missile off the cart and onto the floor before pulling the cart back to the weapon storage racks.

“Fine, yes it is exciting.” Drippy sighed as they lined the cart up and just as easily moved a new missile onto the cart. The moment it was on, the missile gave out a light set of tones that almost sounded like a song before the two of them wheeled it back toward the hatch. “Yes, it was still a mistake to have let you talk me into getting on this deathtrap.”

Hey, the Arcturus wasn’t a deathtrap!

“Everypony, we have incoming! Hold on!” Eliza’s voice spilled out through the intercom right before the whole ship felt like it twisted around mid-air.

Before I could brace myself, I was thrown against the weapons bay wall. Both scribes grabbed onto the cart and grunted as it wheeled around and tried to pin them against the wall as well.

“Night!” Hispano squeaked out, forcing me to follow her voice and find her hanging mostly out of the weapon’s bay hatch with only a single talon holding her to the floor.

“I’m sorry for the rough maneuvers!” Eliza’s panicked voice over the intercom came through just as everything shifted with the Arcturus again. She listed harder than ever, groaning as she pitch over hard to starboard while feeling like she was rotating around again. “You’ll thank me later if we don’t explode!”

The second wild shift had thrown me forward. I whined as my head bounced off the floor, but I felt something tug me to a stop before I slid too far. Looking up, Hispano was acting as an anchor for me, and I was a lifeline to drag herself up and out of the hatch.

A fearful scream from behind me drew my attention, and I watched as one of the unicorns slid across the floor and disappeared out of the hatch.

“Peach Tree!” Brightray cried out as he held on tight to one of the missile loading arms.

In an instant, Hispano’s grip was gone, and she disappeared out the hatch. No words. No sound left her beak. She just… slipped away.

Blinking, the world around me fuzzed out, and for just a moment, I was back with Delta.

“Night!” His voice echoed through my mind. My heart pounded in my chest as I sat there just… reaching for him. “I… I need you to keep it together for me!”

And then he was gone again.

The sound of fighting down below the Arcturus washed in as once more the ship banked wildly. I was knocked back into the present when I noticed myself sliding right for missile tube one.

“I got you!” Brightray called out as I was yanked to a stop just short of the open tube.

“They have a towed surface to air launcher targeting us!” Eliza let out a strained whine with her words, and almost sounded out of breath. “The Arcturus wasn’t built for sustained maneuvers like this!”

“Subtlety is out the window, we’re going hot!” Tofu’s commanding tone came through with a crackle. “Weapons control, clear tube one for launch!”

The automated system whirred in front of me. The hydraulic arm that held the missile hummed to life and quickly set the missile down into the tube. With another hum, a second arm extended from inside the tube, holding the missile as it disengaged from the loading arm. The floor rumbled as the inner hatch lowered and shut, sealing with a hiss and emitting a buzz from the launcher keypad. The round green ‘ready’ light on it lit up and steadily began to blink.

“Weapons control, fire tube one!” Tofu barked sharply.

I waited for a moment, listening for the ignition of the missile’s motor and for it to go screaming away from us. However… it never came.

“Weapons control, fire tube one!” Tofu snapped again.

While I’m sure we all really wanted to get up and send off a high explosive gift to the Metro rangers, unfortunately with the maneuvers, we couldn’t really do that.

“Weapons control, you either need to fire, or switch over automatic control to the bridge!”

Again, Eliza threw the Arcturus back around. All of us in here shifted toward the front of the Arcturus as she pitched us downward slightly this time. Despite Brightray’s grip, I felt myself dragged around as I was pulled towards the still open tube two.

“Hey…” Brightray grunted, pulling my gaze back toward him. He was barely still holding on to the loading arm for tube one, but his eyes were locked just above me at the control panel for it. “I’m sorry. Please understand what I need to do.”

Of course, if he let go of me, then maybe he could reach the launch button.

“I have wings, I’ll be fine.” I nodded to him. He nodded back to me, taking a moment to breathe deep. “Don’t fall out after me.”

With that, he let me go.

With my matted fur all the lubrication I’d needed, I easily slid the short way across the floor to the hatch. At the speed I’d slid, however, I was thrown hard against the tube wall, and I twisted into a tumble as I dropped out of the open outer hatch into the rapidly clearing fog.

There was a pair of sharp hisses I had assumed was from tube one firing, but it was unnervingly growing louder, closer to me. I swear to Celestia, if I get hit by our own missile...

Everything went dark as the hiss grew into a roar, and something hit me. It let out a cry of it’s own as I felt it grab on. Shaking off the hit, I flared my wings and tried to stabilize my flight. However, it was hard as not only was I carrying something else, but whatever roaring noise I’d heard was actively fighting my attempts to correct my flight!

I looked up at just who was on me and blinked in confusion as a yellow eyed mare mirrored my expression. A pink coated unicorn mare in a Metro uniform wearing one of those weird jump packs from earlier let out a growl and glared at me. She wrestled between holding on to me and steering us, and despite my attempts to turn us, the thrust her alchemical jetpack put out overrode any bite my wings had in the air.

“Let go of me you fucking turkey!” She snapped at me before looking down at her side. I followed her gaze to see she was eyeing the cut down equestrian service rifle strapped to her. However, it was pinned under the somewhat familiar flight harness she wore.

“Hey, you’re the one holding on to me!” I fired back at her and flailed my single forehoof in her face.

“Oh. Sorry about that!” She screwed up her muzzle and blinked at me. “I’m still not used to flying this thing.” She chuckled and released herself from me, allowing me to flare my wings and level out with her. Just in time too, because we were now both skimming at a good pace just a meter over the wet concrete runway. Again, she scrunched up her muzzle as a thought hit her. “Wait a minute, why am I apologizing? We’re supposed to be fighting!”

Actually, I’d seen this harness before! Boiler and Hardcase had said this was the one that my pack was originally supposed to come with! It came with a whole bunch of neat features that my beaten up old thing could only have dreamed of having.

“Here’s a quick tip for your harness!” I chuckled as I reached forward and wrapped my hoof around a boxy bit near her barrel. “It has a quick-release fastener right here!”

With a simple squeeze, the harness all but fell apart around her. Like was supposed to happen with my original jump pack, the thrust cut out when the release was pressed, and she let out a short lived yelp as she dropped onto the runway below.

I cringed as I could swear I heard a few of her legs give out loud snaps, but from the screaming she was doing once she skid to a stop, at least she’d live!

Torquing my wings, I rolled myself over to fly straight, and pulled the mare’s flight pack closer to me. It was like an anchor, but that was because her tangled up rifle had stayed caught in the pack. Well, it wasn’t much, but it was at least something to defend myself with!

Now, to look up and find out where I can go to help with this fight!

I blinked as the large canvas covered side of a military cargo truck sat directly in front of me. Holding on tight, tucking in my wings, and closing my eyes, I braced myself for the inevitable.

There was a unique pressure and louder than expected ripping sound as my momentum carried me right through both sides of the canvas backed truck. But it did steal enough speed that I no longer had time to recover my flight. I got to feel a little bit of what that unfortunate mare did as I crashed down, bouncing and skidding a short distance across the pavement.

Despite the various scrapes and bruises I undoubtedly had, this was at least another successful Night Flight landing. Second of the day, in fact! Plus, the patch of canvas that had stuck to me as I ripped through it helped to keep my legs bound tightly enough to myself that I didn’t break them as I came to a full and complete stop on the runway! So there was that as a nice bonus!

Shaking off the stars in my vision as I laid there on the wet pavement, half wrapped in wet canvas, I noticed something amazing.

A beautiful clear blue sky had come out over the runway, and I could almost feel the warmth that it carried with it. Had there not been gunfire, explosions, and terrible screaming from the ponies around me fighting, I might have almost convinced myself that it was just a nice day out to relax.

A shadow in the sky passed overhead, and a familiar griffon swooped down next to me.

“Ran into something again, didn’t you?.” Hispano chuckled through a beaming smile as she reached a talon out. “Typical Night Flight landing.”

I reached my hoof up to grab it, but found that she instead had chosen to pluck the rifle I’d stolen up off the ground rather than help me. Oh, okay. I see how it is.

“Now come on, Dum Dum! No time to lay around all day.” She nodded for me to follow as she stripped the magazine from the old world rifle and checked it. “I saw Happy back this way. He and a few rangers are pinned down and could use some help.”

“Alright.” I groaned as I pushed the canvas off of me and got back to my hooves.

Looking up to the sky again, I saw the looming form of the Arcturus swinging around at the edge of the fog. It was almost like a monster vacuum, sucking up the foggy skies and turning them into blue skies above, and shrieking missiles below. Which, now that I think of it, really is kind of a weird juxtaposition…

However, the Arcturus wasn’t alone up there.

Several more Metro Rangers wearing those weird alchemical jetpacks darted around up there. They buzzed around the twisting and drifting cloudship like vultures, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they found a way to attack the ship. Fighting up in the air wasn’t something I’d really planned on doing in this fight, but that worry would have to take a backseat for now.

“You good?” Hispano asked as she slapped the magazine back into the combat rifle and pulled it close to her. “You know, despite it being tomorrow already, it really feels like we’ve already lived this day before.”

“Yeah.” I nodded and thought back to just how often we’d ended up doing this exact same thing over the last few months. “Just means we know the drill. Let’s go save Happy.”

Author's Note

As always, I'd like to give a huge thanks to TheFurryRailfan for all the hard work he does in reading over these chapters before they come out. Most can't understand the peace of mind that comes with having someone you trust go over your writing, and I am eternally greatfull for all the help.

And of course, a huge thanks to Kkat for creating FoE and allowing us all to play around in the post apocalyptic sandbox!