Shot-for-shot retaliation only works when your artillery is more accurate than theirs.

“Alright, on three!” Hispano shouted before pushing her combat rifle around the twisted and still burning edge of our cover and letting out a burst that emptied her magazine. With a growl, she threw it to the ground. “Three!”

The two of us sprung up, darting out from behind what had at some point been an aircraft tractor, but now sat as a smoldering heap of nothing more than scrap metal.

Barking shots hissed through the air and cut lines across the pavement below us as we ran. The flight pack I’d stolen from that ranger bounced against my own as I forced my hind legs to keep up with Hispano’s impressive sprint. This was a race I couldn’t afford to fall behind in.

With my hooves pounding across the pavement, and my heart hitting my ribs just as hard, my eyes were fixed on the overturned truck sitting at the edge of a small mortar crater. It was a sandbagged position that had been pounded hard enough that most of it was just wet sand piles with mixed bits of torn fabric in it. Still, despite the mulching it had taken, the position was still somewhat covered, and held a crooked mortar tube sitting upright in it.

About halfway through our run, I spotted a couple of rangers currently huddled down inside. It was going to be a tight fit for all of us with how little cover there was, but we’d have to make it work!

A sharp hiss came from our left. I could only see the rocket for a split second as I looked back and saw it streak just past our flanks. It impacted one of the large hangar doors with a resounding blast as Hispano called something back to me. Whatever it was would have to wait!

With a bounding leap, the two of us dove into the mortar crater. I was unfortunate enough to land on top of the curled up third member of the huddled ponies. Too late to stop myself, I felt their ribs crack and give out under me with a thick snap as I came down hard.

“Oh shit!” Panicked, I scrambled to get off of them. “Sorry, I…”

My words died in my muzzle as I realized it wasn’t a third pony, rather it was the top half of one. Looking at the other two, I realized that they were likewise just as torn up and lifeless. Blinking, I glanced at the mortar tube they’d been using and found that it’s barrel had just as many shrapnel holes in it as they did.

“Don’t apologize, Dum Dum.” Hispano called back as she got my attention just in time. Flailing my forehoof forward, I managed to catch the bolt action rifle she’d tossed at me. “The dead won’t care unless you join them.” Snapping her talon, she pointed to the pony I’d landed on. “Quick, toss me that.”

Slinging the bolt action over myself, I reached down and yanked a short, pump action shotgun from the remains of the mare. With a frown, I looked at it before tossing it over to her.

“Why do you get the shotgun?”

“Because I can work the action?” She cooed as she quickly checked the chamber. “It takes two hooves to work a pump, ya know.” With a dissatisfied frown, she looked around below me. “At least it’s loaded. Say, did she have any ammo on her?”

Looking down, I hoofed at her bloody work overalls, but couldn’t feel or see where she would have kept any extra. I shook my head as I looked back at Hispano, but stopped dead cold when I noticed somepony moving behind her and looking at us.

Standing out from behind one of the burning cargo trucks on the tarmac, was an unhappy looking mule. He was seemingly unharmed, with his leather jacket sporting a few new holes in it that revealed the steel plated lining under it. But like us, he seemed under equipped for the fight as he only had his hellhound-paw jacket and sword with him.

“Night!?” Happy called out as he took a step toward us. “Thank the goddess, we’ve been pinned down here for minutes!”

He nearly jumped out of his hooves as a blistering burst of fire tore through the air. With a scrambling hop, he threw himself back toward the cargo truck. From behind him, a few other rangers poked their heads out, including Daisy and Bluebell, the latter of which had an aircraft’s belted light machine gun loaded and slung over her back.

A sharp buzz tore through the air. A relentless stream of red tracers cut a jagged through their cover, forcing them all to go prone on the wet concrete.

“Night,” Hispano glanced back at me before pointing at Bluebell. “If I can get that light machine gun, maybe I can use that flight pack you held onto and at least get some air cover going. Maybe actually take out whoever is pinning us down.”

Another set of short buzzing bursts sparked against the undercarriage of Happy and co’s cover.

“Fuck!” Happy whined out at us. “Hey, quick question. Would you mind killing these assholes already!?”

“We don’t have an angle or range on them!” She shouted and held up her shotgun for him to see. “But while we’re asking, I need that light machine gun you’ve got! Shoot them yourselves and come to us!”

“Fuck you, come to me!” He barked back.

A rocket streaked over their cover and again, slammed right into one of the large hangar doors. This situation was already well out of hoof, but it felt like it was steadily spiraling further out of grasp.

Hispano pressed herself up against the underside of our overturned truck cover and scooted herself to the edge. With a lean, she moved the peek around the edge.

Sparks and spalling burst from the metal truck frame as a few incoming shots bounced off of it.

“Goddess damnit!” She hissed as she pulled back from the edge, hugging her shotgun against herself tightly. “Night, I need to know what we’re up against.”

“Uh, what am I supposed to do?” I spat out as I moved to join her against the truck.

“Trade places with me and put that metal eye of yours to good use!” She grumbled as she used a talon to pull herself around to the other side of me. “Doesn’t it have some widget in it that can see where the bad guys are?” With a firm shove, she did her best to scoot me towards the edge of the truck.

“I don’t know!” I spat back and sat down hard and fought against her pushing. “I still haven’t discovered half of what this thing can do!”

“What do you mean you haven’t!?” With another firm shove, she got me off balance.

“The Architect said I’d learn over time, remember!?” Scrambling, I shoved the barrel of my stolen bolt-action against the warped bumper of the truck and braced myself against it. “If it had some sort of function for it, I think it would have been activated by now!”

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard!” She growled and continued to shove me forward. “Still, you’re the most durable pony I know, so make yourself useful and take. A. Peek!”

Putting all her weight into one final shove, she dislodged my rifle, and pushed us both forward. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for the hit, and my hoof slipped, sending me down to the asphalt hard with her collapsing on top of me. I cringed as just the tip of my muzzle dipped past the wreck of the truck, and I could hear the familiar electrical whine of a minigun spinning up.

Hispano held me tight as a buzzing line of fire tore straight across where we’d just been, sending sparks and shredded metal showering down on us.

As soon as the buzzing died down, both Hispano and I scrambled to get fully back behind the safety of the truck. The tortured metal gave out a groan as it shifted and moved, bending down and folding over itself towards the assaulting rangers. The two of us cringed as we were left with cover that was half as high as before, and with this many holes in it, hardly capable of keeping us safe much longer.

“Okay, maybe that was a bad idea.” She cooed with a stiff exhale. “We need a solid plan.”

Looking across the ground at Happy and the others, a niggling thought hit my mind.

We needed to get to Happy and the others, but even if we could, that minigun out there would just make that cover look like ours in a burst or two. Hispano was right, we needed a better solution. We needed those rangers dealt with, and I had an idea of how to do it.

“Eliza, we’re pinned down trying to get to Happy.” I spat out and scanned my eyes across the sky for the enormous cloudship. “Can you assist us by taking these guys out?”

“Negative, Captain!” Eliza’s strained voice came back with a crackle through my mind. “I have twenty seconds until I have to be back on those launch mounts, or we’re going to need a lot more than all the rangers around to help in putting me back together again!”

The electric whine of the minigun filled the air again. A bright line of tracers tore across Happy’s cover again. He and Bluebell hit the ground in an instant, but I watched as one of the other rangers with them was too slow and took a few of the piercing rounds to the face.

“Fuck!” I roared out and slammed my hoof against the ground. My thundering heart felt like it hammered against my chest so hard that it made my hooves tremble. That, or it was the fact that right now, I knew we didn’t have anything left. Unlike last night’s last stand in the armory, we didn’t even have anything left to really fight back with.

The sound of mortars falling across the other sections of the airfield blended with the continuous fire from other groups just as stuck in as we were. The looming and semi-cloud shrouded form of the Arcturus dipping down out of the sky further down the runway mixed with sparks of penetration as it took fire over it’s landing mounts. The fear that ran through me as multiple flying rangers streaked overhead, laying down fire around Hispano and I that forced us to scramble back with the corpses in the makeshift foxhole.

Diving in a second time was just as unpleasant as the first as I came down hard on a muddy, half buried wooden box. It snapped from my hit with such intensity that I could still hear it as the reports from our assailants started to let up. Still, with Hispano caked in mud next to me, we’d at least both made it.

“Holy fuck, yes!” Hispano laughed as she flopped down into the muck next to me and dug her talons under me. “Looks like your luck’s turned around after all, Dum dum!”

She retrieved a muddy metal rod from the box that jabbed into my side uncomfortably as she pulled it back. With a worrisome grin pulling at her beak, she held out her prize to me. A dirty and slightly rusted old mortar round.

Again, I blinked a few times as I stared at it. Shifting my weight off the old box while still staying as low as I could, my eyes wandered across the wording on the crate I’d crushed. Right there under the hoof painted steel rangers logo, sat 81MM HE M374.

Oh, well, now there’s an idea! We could just fire mortars on them for a little distraction!

“Alright, you assholes.” Rolling herself over, Hispano kicked out with her hindpaw and bent the mortar tube on it’s mounting. With another hard kick, she knocked the whole thing over.

Or we don’t… shoot them? What the fuck was she doing?

“You want to take pot-shots at me? Force me into the mud?” Staying low, and with the mortar round firmly grasped in her talon, she maneuvered herself around towards the upended baseplate. With a resounding clang, she swung the mortar over and slammed it’s stem against stiff, muddy metal. The crimson red talisman sitting embedded inside the explosive’s tip hummed and began to glow softly. “Well, let’s see how you like diving for cover.”

“That is not how you’re supposed to use a mortar, Hispano!” I spat out as she held tightly on the tail stem of the now live and sensitive explosive.

As the last of the assaulting ranger’s shots trailed off, Hispano pushed herself up onto her hind paws. Much like she had with the grenade back when we’d, she arched herself around and put her whole body into throwing the heavy explosive.

It flipped end over end as it left her talon, disappearing over the top of the smoldering metal scrap next to us as she dropped hard back into the safety of our hole. There was a single shot fired in retaliation before the thunderous crack of the mortar round going off filled the air. Before the ringing could even peak in my ears, I felt Hispano reaching under me for another mortar.

“I’m going to throw this one, this time higher than before…” Hispano’s voice was hard to make out through the ringing, but my augment was quick to help tune it out of at least my left ear. “When I do, we run for the others. Got it?”

“Got it!” I nodded to her. It’s not like we have much choice, and we already pushed live missiles around today, so I guess I might as well embrace the crazy! “I’m ready!”

“Good.” She nodded and used her free talon to shove my mud-coated bolt action rifle back against me. “Okay, real important thing here, Night! We need to be in their cover before it lands!” Peeking under me, she scrunched up her beak for a moment as she reached under me again and grabbed the muddiest mortar round so far. “Actually, let’s be smart about this!”

Wait, was this a moment of rational realization here?

“You know what they said back in the day about cutting back at home so the troops could have more ammunition?” Hispano smiled as she gave the mortar a single shake that let half the mud on it splatter onto my hooves.

Not sure what she was driving at, I opened my muzzle to say as much, and found the muddy mortar stem shoved into my muzzle. Instantly I tasted everything from mud, rusted metal, and the distinct flavor of copper mixed in. Reflexively I tried to spit it out, but Hispano’s talon wrapped around my muzzle and stopped me.

“Hey, some privileged asshole in the past went without a coffee can or some shit for that mortar.” She smirked as she peeked up over the edge of our cover. “Don’t let their selfless sacrifices be for nothing when sacrificing your taste buds might just save our flanks here.”

Swallowing the urge to gag as best I could, I shot her my best ‘you didn’t have to do that’ look while keeping my muzzle clamped around the explosive.

Rolling over, I got my hooves under me and readied myself to spring up.

“Alright, three…” Hispano called out.

I took a few slow, deep breaths.

“Two.”

Focusing myself on the goal, I locked my eyes onto Happy’s worried gaze. He seemed to understand what we were going to try, because he simply gave a single, knowing nod to me.

With a spin, Hispano ducked down and swung the mortar back against the baseplate. I could have sworn it rang like a bell from the strike, but even if it had, it was erased from my mind as she spun back around.

“Go!” She shouted as she twisted herself back and loosed the explosive with an angry yell. She used her own torque to help her hop up and out of our hole. The moment her paws touched the wet tarmac again, she was off once more like a bolt of lightning.

Pushing myself up and forward, I was just slightly slower on the get-go than Hispano. Digging my hooves down, eyes right on Happy, I poured every ounce of effort into pushing myself forward.

The mud under my hooves however, had other plans.

With an unexpected give, my forehoof slipped right out from under me, torqueing me face first into the broken edge of the makeshift foxhole. Before hitting, I twisted my head to the side, trying to save the backside of the mortar from striking by letting my metal faceplate absorb the impact instead. However, as my vision fuzzed and I tasted even more wet dirt in my muzzle, the sound of the mortar’s talisman activating was the last thing I heard before Hispano’s thrown mortar went off.

In the blink of an eye, my momentum had died, and I flopped back down into the mud with a grunt. Chunks of tarmac showered down onto me, and the choking smoke from the first blast was blown over my hole, making it even harder to breathe.

Again, I almost spat out the mortar in my muzzle, but froze as I opened my eyes and saw the red glow from the tip. Right, can’t put it down now!

“What the fuck happened, Night!?” Hispano’s angry shout perked my ears, and I popped my head up just above the rim of the foxhole. It was hard to see through most of the smoke drifting by, but Hispano’s furious gaze did it’s best to try to punch through it.

With an electric whine, the buzz of a Ranger’s minigun returned to the air. Another line of rending fire tore into their cover. More than half of the old cargo truck in front of them groaned and collapsed over. I watched in horror as the heavy metal folded right down over them and pinned all of them down under it with a single, metal squeach.

Oh, sure, like you didn’t see something like this coming, Hispano. Couldn’t possibly be that something with our plan went wrong. No, that never happens to me! We just had to go throwing mortars around today! And of course, we didn’t even kill the fuckers pinning us down!

Grumbling through the mud and mortar in my muzzle, I wanted nothing more than to just scream. Of course my life always has to end up like this! Even though I’d done what I’d needed to to get rid of my curse, everything around me was still fucked.

Wincing from a spark that jumped off of the remains of the truck near me as the rangers opened up on me again, something inside me gave out and I felt something coming to me. A drive that was completely different than what I’ve felt before on this fucked up trip south.

It wasn’t anger at the rangers, though it should have been. It wasn’t fear either, though deep down I was plenty scared. This was a different feeling entirely, something far far simpler.

I just... didn’t want to come all this way to die in a muddy hole, so I wasn’t going to.

I set the bolt action rifle down against the lip of the foxhole. It wasn’t going to help me stay alive, so it could stay in the hole. Hoofing at my chest, I quickly worked to unbuckle my flight pack. Right now, it wasn’t going to help me stay alive either, so it could likewise stay in the fucking hole.

Once I’d slipped the pack from myself, I worked to get the ranger’s flight pack strapped around myself. The straps were looser than I’d have liked, but I didn’t have time to adjust them. With the quick release buckle clipped back in, I brushed off the small control panel that sat on the left side strap. Sure this whole thing was caked in mud, but if these rangers respected anything, I could bet they’d make sure it would still work even in these conditions.

I paused and perked my ears as the sound of heavy hoofsteps crunching across the rubble strewn tarmac met them. Staying low, and with my hoof hovering over the big red start button for the jetpack, I peeked my eyes up over the edge of the foxhole.

The stiff form of the power armored Metro ranger stepping up towards the others was not what I was expecting to see.

Fuck, they were out of time, and I couldn’t throw my mortar at that asshole without blowing them all up!

Reaching forward, I grabbed the bolt action again and pulled it closer. I did my best to quickly wedge it in a crack at the edge of my foxhole and roughly aimed it at the massive metal pony. Sliding my hoof down around the trigger, I pulled it hard and flinched as the rifle let out an impressive bark.

A spark skipped off the back of the ranger’s helmet, and with a smooth twist, it’s dark visor swung over. With a blink, I was back in Cantercross, staring down Tall Tale once again. But all it took was a grunt from the Ranger as he turned toward me to pull me back to the here and now.

“Hey, Asshole!” Happy screamed out as he used all four of his legs to push against the shredded steel above him. With a groan, the metal shifted and bent upwards, allowing Bluebell to scramble out.

Before the armored Ranger could react, Bluebell let out her own feral scream. She shoved the barrel of her light machine gun under his chin, and against the seal for his helmet. A dizzying burst of rounds sparked against the underside of the helmet that quickly shredded away the protective latch and seal, punching right through into the pony inside.

The unfortunate ranger collapsed, dead on the spot as his allies opened up at the now exposed Bluebell. She was quick to turn her gun on them and fall back, but she screamed and collapsed as a few rounds took literal chunks out of her hind legs.

Her pained scream made me flinch, and my hoof slammed down on the button at my side. With a violent shake and a pop that rivaled a gunshot, the jetpack strapped to me barked to life. Knowing how this went, I aimed myself in the general direction of up just in time for the thrust to peak and throw me straight into the open skies.

The launch was softer than my old jump pack had been, and I could definitely feel the fact that I was going much slower than I was used to. It let me flare my muddy wings out hard without consequence, and immediately I felt myself gain control of my flight. While I was slower, the constant thrust was a welcomed change of pace for me, allowing for each little tweak of my wings and legs to shift my flight. What I didn’t care for, was the shrill screech the pack made. I mean, my jump pack’s whine in a dive could grate some nerves after a few jumps, but I think this won out for sheer consistency.

Gunfire from below sent whizzing rounds up through the air around me, refocusing my mind. Right, sometimes slower wasn’t always better!

Twisting my wings, I rolled into a wide bank that took me back around toward the smoking form of the Arcturus sitting on the runway. It’s mounts had collapsed under it when it landed, and her hull had taken more than a few rough hits, but I was glad to see she was still in one piece.

With another twist, I banked myself around and doubled back on my course. With how much fog the Arcturus had cleared, it wasn’t hard to find the well fortified position the Metro Rangers had been huddled up in.

Half of the circle of concrete highway dividers was chipped but still standing, with the other half having been blown into chunks by what looked like Hispano’s first mortar toss. While there were five rangers huddled up in it, only two of them were in any condition to continue firing up at me. I just needed to tweak my wings and shift my tail slightly, and I’d be all lined up to…

My head snapped to the side with a crunch. My augmented vision fritzed out in an instant, and pain wracked my body. With no choice, I was forced let go of the mortar with a howl as instinct took over and I pulled my flight away towards Happy and the others.

I could hardly breathe, let alone think as my body felt like it was setting itself on fire as it turned itself inside out. I blacked out once I got close to the ground and the agony won out. I don’t remember hitting the ground, but what I do remember, is that everything started to fade.

It was like a strong wave from the ocean had washed over me, forcing me to bend to it’s will before it peaked, and then started to recede. I could feel my heart thundering in my chest again, setting a pace like the fastest metronome in the world, but something I could focus on. I wheezed as my lungs forced in deep and hard breaths, helping with each gasp to push back the clawing ache from every fiber of my being.

“Come on!” An angry shout brought my hearing back before the long, chattering burst of a machine gun filled the air. “Grab the wounded and let’s go!” Bluebell snapped. “Everypony, we’re moving to my barn inside fourteen! Let’s go, go, go!”

“No time to be laying around, Night.” Happy’s voice right in my ear was definitely welcomed, as well as the feeling of his wooden prosthetic helping to wrench me up off the ground.

Wounded? Shit, how long was I out? Was… Hispano!?

Okay, calm down, Night. I was alive, and that was great, but he’s right, this is not the time or place to have a crisis. Hispano is fine, she has to be.

Opening my eye with my own groan, I caught Happy’s concerned gaze as it brightened. Working my hooves, I even got a smile from him as I managed to stand up and hobble back in the general direction of the hangers. With each step, I found my strength return bit by bit, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief once I saw Hispano’s hesitant glance peek out from through the barely pony-wide opening in the large hangar doors ahead.

See, she’s fine.

“Fuck, am I glad you got that curse out of you, Night.” Happy forced a laugh as he helped me hobble the last few meters to the door.

“What?” The question slipped out of my muzzle, but also shot a stabbing pain through my head that nearly made me trip.

“You’ve been shot in the head twice now and walked away from it.” He chuckled as his strong grasp more than compensated for the momentary misstep I had. “Same eye even! Lucky bastard.”

“I don’t feel very lucky.” I groaned as once more the pain receded. But, taking a bullet to the head would explain why I felt like shit all of a sudden up there. It would also explain why I can’t see a fucking thing out of my left eye.

“Shit!” Bluebell shouted out before letting loose another long burst from her light machine gun. “We’ve got company!”

Both Happy and I spun around just short of the door and looked back. Three Metro Rangers punched through the edge of the thinning bank of fog across the runway. Each of them opened up with wildly inaccurate fire at us, but it was enough of a hint that Bluebell abandoned firing and hobbled towards Happy and I.

“Go! Get inside!” She shouted to us before her already injured leg gave out under her with a crunch and she tumbled down onto the pavement.

“Bluebell!” Daisy called out through the open door before sprinting out towards the old ghoul.

“Daisy!” Happy shouted as I could feel him fight his urge to turn and go after her. He looked at me, practically shaking before looking back at her with a whimper.

“I’ve got Night!” Hispano snapped as she ripped Happy’s leg from me and shoved him away from me, instantly using herself to help keep me standing. “Go!”

The two of us hobbled forward as Happy galloped off behind me. We hadn’t made it more than a couple steps before Hispano froze and perked her head up to the sky. I perked my own ear back and immediately picked up on something new coming from the northwest of us. It was soft at first, but steadily it grew into the familiar flapping buzz of old propeller engines.

Both Hispano and I flinched as a pair of heavy, rapid firing guns opened up from the edge of the fog. Bright yellow tracers streaked through the sky above the runway, forcing the approaching rangers to scatter and pull off their attack run.

Like a silver bullet, a gull winged skycraft shot into the open air through the fog wall. Twin cannons on it’s nose blazed away as it’s quad engines helped the old craft roar after a pair of the fleeing rangers. The bright morning sun glinted off of the hull of the gorgeous old flying boat, highlighting the Seaddler’s painted name for all to see.

“It’s… it’s not possible…” Bluebell stammered as both Happy and Daisy dragged her towards us.

“Hey!” Happy snapped at Hispano and I. “It ain’t a show! Get inside, now!”

Hobbling forward toward the door with Hispano, I glanced back over her shoulder into the sky. I only got a glimpse of the Seaddler again before it plunged back into the fogbank, and it wasn’t a particularly good look. However, that being said, I could swear I could see the Skycaptain sitting in the pilot seat.

Even stranger was the fact that I could swear to Celestia herself that I could see her smiling…

“Ah!” I flinched as the heads-up display for my augmented vision returned in my mind for a single moment, then disappeared once more. “This sounds like someone dragging their hoof across a chalkboard from inside my head.”

I don’t know why, but my augment wasn’t fixing itself like normal. I mean, it fixed some of itself, but then it just seemed to stop, leaving a big metal hole where my augmented eye was supposed to be.

“Well if you’d hold still…” Hispano muttered as she carefully tweaked at the tweezers carefully grasped in her talon. With a slight tweak, she pulled them back a few millimeters before pausing again. “You know, rooting around in your head like this is much more Buck’s forte.”

“Okay, well next time I’ll make sure to only get shot in the head when he’s...” A sharp bolt of pain and static flashed through my head. “Ah, fuck!”

“Are you only going to stay still for him, too?” She smirked at me and continued to slowly pull the tweezers out from inside my eye. “Cause every time you move it only takes longer…”

“I’m sure he’s not doing it on purpose.” Happy sighed as he slowly walked across the old barn floorboards and plopped himself down next to me. “Where is the big fuzzball anyway?”

“He’s wherever that signal Ping was talking about is.” I paused as my own words hit me unexpectedly. Shit, Ping was still out there somewhere. “Fuck. We need to find…”

“Hey, slow down.” Happy’s soft words came with a light touch on my shoulder. “I’m sure he’s just… laying low for now. We’ll find him as soon as it’s safe enough to get out of here, alright?”

“Nopony is going anywhere.” Bluebell snorted as she opened the far door to the barn. “At least, not until I can reach out to the elder.” With what sounded like a significant hobble along the floorboards, she and somepony else came inside. “Well, whichever one it is that ended up winning.”

“At least the shooting sounds like it stopped.” Hispano muttered under her breath as she pulled the tweezers all the way out. “Which, by the way I wanted to ask, are we even safe in here?” Held firmly in between the tips was what looked like the back half of a rifle round. “Damn it, only half.” She sighed and dropped it onto the table next to her.

“Who knows.” Happy sighed. “They came out of nowhere and struck in every direction at once. And with the fog? There was just no way to coordinate.”

Hobbling around the other end of the table Hispano and I were seated at, Bluebell finally came into view of me with a profoundly forlorn look across her face.

“I’m not going to lie, he’s not wrong. They hit us hard and fast.” With a sigh, she stepped aside and let Daisy step past her. She was struggling to stand, but with a grunt, managed to help the Donkey shove a large green crate onto the table. “However,” Bluebell continued as she quickly flipped open the two latches on each side the crate, “I just saw a ghost flying through the skies out there, so fuck it. Today, anything is possible.”

“What’s that?” Happy asked, nodding at the crate as Bluebell pushed the top half of it up.

“Two way radio.” Bluebell answered flatly before she started to hoof at some of the knobs and dials inside it.

“That’s a radio? From when? Before recorded history?” Happy chuckled and nudged at me softly. Another set of sparks and bolt of pain shot through my head as a reward. “Shit, sorry.”

“Go be useless somewhere else, please.” Hispano hissed at him and shot him the healthy dose of side-eye I couldn’t at the moment.

“It’s not big because it’s old, it’s big because this radio is unjammable.” Daisy clopped her hooves together excitedly.

“Hah, that’s impossible.” Hispano offered as she carefully got her tweezers into position. “Unless this whole building is secretly a broadcast antenna, and you’ve got a city’s worth of spark reactor power to waste, then I call bullshit.”

Blinking for a moment, Hispano turned and looked over her shoulder at Bluebell.

“You don’t have any of that, right?” She asked, getting nothing more than a chuckle and dismissive shake of the head from Bluebell. “Thank the goddesses. We’ve run into enough secret shit like that on this trip already.”

“Not happy with standard encryption, the military ordered these.” Daisy commented as she reached into the case and started to toggle various switches and buttons. The whole thing gave a whine as it came to life. “Inside is a two-of-a-kind talisman, the other of which is inside the identical set we’ve got inside the command bunker.”

A burst of static emit from the small speakers on the sides of the upper lid of the large device, followed by a steady march of beeps that formed a loose repeating pattern.

“Now we’re talking!” She smiled and reached her hoof into her jumpsuit, pulling out a small pad of paper and a short pencil that she stuck into her muzzle. With her ears perked right at the small speakers, she started to jot things down at a frankly amazing rate.

“Oh fuck, is that why your eye isn’t repairing?” Hispano let out a light gasp.

She grabbed something with the tweezers and hastily pulled it back through my metal eye socket. No sooner had she pulled it halfway through that I could feel the repair talisman get to work in the depths of my augment. Carefully, she maneuvered her talon out of my augment, revealing the top half of the copper jacketed rifle round that had hit me. However, this half had a thin rod of metal with a prismatic sheen sticking out of its core.

“Starmetal.” Hispano huffed before carefully setting down the round and tweezers on the table. “I guess even Factory-tech isn’t sure what to do with that shit.”

“That’s… not possible.” Daisy let out a gasp and abandoned her work on the radio momentarily. With a quick hop, she reached right past Hispano’s scrunched up muzzle and swiped the starmetal bullet fragments right off the table. “No, fuck, where did they get this from?”

“Knowing the rangers, they probably had a stash somewhere.” Happy snorted before laying himself down on Bluebell’s couch. “They’d obviously been planning today for some time.”

“You don’t understand, the Rangers spent decades collecting all the starmetal ammunition in Seaddle.” Daisy muttered softly as she brought the bullet to the end of her muzzle so she could really get a good look at it. “They were supposed to all be locked up in the armory because they are so rare and dangerous.” Glancing over the end of her muzzle at both Hispano and I, she frowned. “You need to understand, balefire eggs were less secure than these were. The list of ponies who could access them is very short.”

“Then it sounds to me like you had somepony high up in your ranks helping them plan this.” Hispano sighed and carefully used her talon to pluck the bullet fragments from Daisy’s hoof.

“The elder had mentioned that to me, when we first met.” I spat out as I was reminded of her words. “She knew your supplies were being funneled out, but not how. But if that list is as short as you say it is, Daisy, then that’s something she needs to know about.”

“Sure, unless the good rangers lost the fight already.” Happy commented with a light wave of his wooden hoof. “Then what does it matter?”

“No, we didn’t lose.” Bluebell offered as she picked up Daisy’s pad and read it. “Is… this right, Daisy? Both Elder Pilaf and Elder Fenestron have apparently independently called for a ceasefire.”

“Yeah,” Daisy nodded as she stepped back over to the radio. “The message coming through from the elder is that both sides are going to meet to negotiate terms, at least, once an impartial mediary from the city can be brought in.”

“Sounds like a set up.” Hispano snorted.

“What?” Daisy screwed up her muzzle. “Why do you say that?”

“While it’s true we don’t know how bad it was out there, odds are neither side really knows that either.” Hispano shrugged and gave a stretch of her wings and neck, causing several uncomfortable pops from her joints. “So, given that we know someone higher up is helping the Metro Rangers, this sounds like the perfect way to take out the leadership here.”

“I don’t really think… come on, that’s just paranoia talking, right?” Daisy laughed to herself dismissively, but pausing as Hispano, Happy’s and my own tired gazes were cast at her. “Wait, you really think they’d try something so obvious? The rangers here would have to expect...”

“The rangers here might be more compromised than we think. Only a few loyal to Pilaf would be all it would take to act with your diminished command strength after that fight.” Bluebell snorted and hobbled out from the end of the table. Snatching up Suiza, she hoofed the cannon toward Hispano. “They’ve gone into a lot of work planning this, so I think you’re right. This ‘ceasefire’ could well be part of their plan.”

“So what do we do about it?” Happy groaned as he pulled himself up off the couch.

As annoying as it was, and among all the other priorities I knew we should be focusing on, I already knew the answer to that.

“We volunteer ourselves as impartial mediaries.” I sighed. Because of course we had to get stuck right in the middle of things again.

“Alright.” Hispano pulled her sister close and nodded to Bluebell. “Let’s go be bodyguards.”

“No.” Bluebell grunted as she put a firm hoof down on Hispano’s shoulder. “The four of us need to be ready to counter whatever plans they have in place.” Shifting her rotten hoof from Hispano’s shoulder, she pointed it right at me. “You go in alone as the mediary.”

“Sending in Night into that room unarmed is a bad idea.” Hispano cooed and shoved Bluebell’s hoof off of me. “He needs backup.”

“If his eye can do what I think it can, then he won’t need backup.” Bluebell smirked. “What we need to do first is get your robot friend fixed up.”

“How do you know…” The words slipped from my muzzle before I could stop myself.

“Seen one of them before, years back.” She offered. “Snuck into my hangars looking for a source of Rhenium, but that’s a story for another time. Right now, I bet the radio in his head could be linked to yours, and if that’s the case, we could broadcast the negotiation to the whole base.”

“Ma used ta do the same thing sometimes when… difficult groups came through.” Happy spat out as a sad smile pulled across his muzzle. “She used to let the whole town listen in, so nopony could kill her and make their own claims on what was discussed.”

“Bingo.” Bluebell nodded. “Letting them listen to the fact you know they’ve got an inside mare might be all we need to do to throw off their plans and turn a faux-negotiation into a real one.”

“Great, but that still means we have to go find Ping in the first place.” Hispano muttered and grumbled as she got herself slung over herself.

“We lost contact with him at the start of the fight.” I nodded. Please, Celestia, let him be alright and not laying out there in pieces. “It might be because he’s been injured.”

“Well, if that’s the case, we’re in luck.” She smiled and waved for us to follow her as she turned back toward the old wooden door she’d entered through. “Follow me, cause I know right where he’d go if he was looking for repairs.”

Bluebell led us back through hangar after hangar, past the fleet of prepped ‘boxcars’, and back through the manufacturing areas we’d entered originally. What I hadn’t really expected to see, was how the fog from outside had seeped in. It practically clung to the ceiling, obscuring the rusting rafters and ventilation ducts that crisscrossed the spacious roof. I know it probably didn’t compare, but part of me wondered if this was what it felt like for those in the wasteland before the Enclave was dissolved...

The door at the far end of the hangar gave a sharp squeal as she opened it, wincing as the heavy metal strained her well bandaged legs.

“Just through the airframe hangar and we’ll be in engine assembly.” She gave us a genuine smile before disappearing through the open door.

While I was glad for her help, her knowing about what Ping really was was worrying. While I’d had my slip-ups talking about the Factory, the fact that she didn’t elaborate about meeting one of his kind before… it didn’t win her any favors from me. For all I knew, she could be the reason one of the factory’s missing units was, well, missing.

“Hey, Night?” Hispano meekly muttered, holding her talon out as she slowed to a meandering pace. “Can I… can we talk about something?”

“Sure.” I nodded to her, looking up at Happy as he glanced back at me. I gave him a wave and a nod to let him know we’d catch up, and he returned the same before trotting up alongside Daisy. Turning back to Hispano, I offered a confused, but well meaning smile to her. “What’s on your mind?”

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” I scrunched up my muzzle and shook my head. “For what?”

“For letting go, up on the Arcturus.” She sighed and looked over her shoulder to the hanger doors. “Everything was so hectic in the fight, and we were getting tossed around so much.” Forcing her eyes shut, she shook her head. “I saw that mare slide out, and… I couldn’t let her fall.”

“It’s alright, you did what you had to.” I nodded to her.

“It’s not alright though, is it?” She hung her head and sighed deeply. “I was too slow for Delta. I couldn’t let it happen again. I didn’t even stop to think about it, I just let go of you, and...”

The memory of Delta slipping from my hooves replayed in my head, and I couldn’t help but tense up from it. I knew what she was feeling, I’d felt it up there in that moment as well.

“Did you catch her?” There wasn’t anything else I could think to say. No comfort could replace the mistakes we made to lose Delta. But if something good could come out of those mistakes, even if it was just a reaction made out of regret. Then maybe in some small way we could start to make it up to him.

“Yeah.” Hispano sniffled, and pulled her flight cap down over her eyes. “But that’s not what I’m afraid of. This keeps happening, Night. I keep letting go of you, trying to go faster, trying to keep ahead of the danger.”

“What do you mean?” Sitting down, I reached out for her, but found her pull away.

“I left you behind out there, Night. You tripped, and I was too focused to notice.” With a sniffle, she pulled her flight cap back up. “I wanted to get to the others, to help save them. I almost lost you because of that.”

“That’s the risk we’ve always taken.” I understood what she was saying, I knew the conflict that brewed inside her. “How many times have I acted without thinking, just throwing myself at a problem because I wanted to be the hero?”

“Yeah, but you weren’t raised to win.” She shook her head and crossed her talons as she too sat down. “I’m afraid that one of these days, I’ll turn around and realize that I was too fast. That I left you alone, and that will have gotten you killed.” Looking up at me, her watering eyes hit me harder than I was prepared for. “I shouldn’t have taken that job. I shouldn’t have left the ship. I should have stayed.”

“I know I wasn’t raised to win, Hispano.” Scooting myself closer to her, I reached my wing out and wrapped it around her softly. “You know I wasn’t even raised to live in the wasteland, but you know what? I’ve managed to survive and do alright.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me as she glanced down at my missing legs and the myriad of scars across my body.

“I never said it was easy, or that I’ve done it completely alone.” Smirking, I gave her a prod with my hoof. “But you want to know the truth?”

“What?” She spat out as she turned her flat glare away.

“When you left yesterday, I wasn’t afraid.” I offered to her as I scooted myself close enough to finally get my forehoof around her side. “Annoyed, sure, but it wasn’t until Solomon attacked that I was worried about you. Do you know why?”

“Because he’s an annoying bastard who refuses to die?”

“Well, yes that,” I gave her a relenting nod before pulling her close, “but I wasn’t afraid before because you are an amazing griffon, Hispano.” At that, she simply rolled her eyes. “I know some of it is false bravado you tell us in good fun, but I’m serious! You are the most capable person I’ve met in the wastes, and I rely on that, Hispano. Don’t slow yourself down on my account, because I believe in you being that much better than me. And were Buck here, I know he’d agree with me on...”

That was as far as I’d made it before she turned her head and pressed her beak into my muzzle. It was sudden, but definitely not unwelcomed! She let out a long sigh through the kiss as I could feel her stress melt away.

Breaking the kiss, she leaned her head over and rested it against my neck.

“Thank you for not leaving me, Night.”

“Buck and I would never dream of it.” I offered back as I rested my head against hers. Though, as like all the nice moments of respite on this trip, it would have to be cut a bit short. “We should probably catch up with the others, though.”

“Yeah.” She nodded and pulled away from me. “Hey, is your eye repaired enough that you can maybe reach out? When was the last time you tried to contact Ping?”

“Back on the Inuvik. Hold on.” I muttered. As she got back onto her hindpaws, I focused on reaching out. Ping, are you out there? Static burst through my head in response, forcing me to wince as it filled my mind. “Ah, fuck...”

The rough noise toned down slightly, shifting to something like you’d hear when tuning between radio stations. Slivers of a voice cut through the static, but only long enough for partial syllables and odd sounds to form. The cadence of what I could hear however was strange, oddly rhythmic. Almost like… music.

“I’ll take that as it’s still not working.” Hispano sighed.

“Yeah, it’s not…”

Another stabbing blast of static filled my head again. My augmented vision fuzzed and a spike of pain shot down my spine as it again sounded like every frequency known to ponykind bounced around inside my head. I let out a whine as I couldn't do anything but squeeze at my augment with my hoof until the sound dulled out again.

This time, the sounds resolved into exactly what I’d thought it had been. Music, but being sung by Ping.

“We three, we’re all alone. Seems like we’re living in a memory. That’s my echo… my shadow… and me.”

“What the fuck…?” I finally spat out. “He’s… singing?”

“Who is?” Hispano shook her head and reached out to steady me. “What? Ping?”

“We three, we ain’t no crowd. Fact is, we ain’t even company. That’s my echo… my shadow… and me.”

“Yeah… it’s strange.” I did my best to focus and will the noise in my head to quiet down and at least allow me to think. “But at least it’s something. At least it means… he’s alive.”

Despite everything that had gone wrong today, at least he was still alive.

“Come on,” Hispano grunted as she helped me back onto my hooves. “Let’s go find the others.”

Dipping through the heavy door Bluebell had opened, we made our way into the next large hangar. It was much like the last one, filled with towers of machinery meant to build and arrange cloudship parts. However, all the way at the other end, was a small collection of aircraft, as well as a large, sleek looking white airplane that looked like a triangular dart. Approaching it slowly, was the others.

Following behind Hispano, I got myself up to a hobbling canter that paced oddly with the slow and relaxed tune Ping was feeding into my mind. In fact, the more I listened to it, the more I realized that I knew this song. It was one of the few bits of wartime music that the Enclave had played over the radio.

He must be sending it to me for a reason, like an SoS, he’s asking for help!

“Hey, glad you’re back with us, Captain!” Eliza’s voice piqued over the music and nearly made me trip. With a pop, her frowning cartoon mare popped up in my augmented vision. “I wish I had better news, but I think Ping’s broadcasting...”

“Yeah, I hear it!” I laughed as I pushed myself back into my hobble after Hispano. “He’s going to be alright, Eliza! We’re looking for him now!”

“He’s… he’s not alright, Captain.” Eliza’s hesitant voice nearly stopped me in my tracks. “That song… it’s what he sent before the Rangers locked him in that train.”

“What?” Blinking, I looked up as Hispano stopped herself and looked back at me.

“It’s what he sent when he thought he’d never see us again.”

“Shit.” Okay, well, that’s less good than before, but still more than we had five minutes ago. “Alright, don’t worry, Eliza. We’ll find him.”

“What’s going on?” Hispano asked.

A heavy clang resounded from further through our warehouse and made both Hispano and I jump. Looking ahead, neither of us could see the others anymore. Just like that, the two of us pushed ourselves into a sprint towards where they had been.

Various shouts and clanging noises filled the air as we approached. It was hard to tell between my heavy hoof beats, thumping heart in my chest, and music in the back of my head, but it sounded like a full on fight was going on. Oh, please don’t tell me there are Metro Rangers in here!

“I’ll fucking kill him!” Bluebell screamed out as Hispano and I darted past the small collection of parked aircraft.

The three of them had ended up underneath the large white plane we’d spotted from the other end of the hanger. Both Happy and Daisy restraining Bluebell and keeping her on the bottom steps of a ladder that stretched up to the cavernous twin rectangular intakes that were slung under the narrow delta-winged craft.

It was hard to see as Hispano and I skidded to a stop, but I could just barely make out the glowing eyes of Ping as they peered out from inside the intakes. Something shiny sat inside of his muzzle, as well as in his hoof as he raised it up. It looked to be part of a long, slender, silvery piece of metal that was somewhat identical to the blades of the large engine he stood in front of. Slowly, it disappeared into his muzzle, and he brought the piece in his hoof up to replace it.

“No, no. Don’t you fucking do it!” Bluebell seethed and fought against both Happy and Daisy.

With a spine-tingling crunch, Ping slid the piece of metal into his muzzle and started to chew on it.

“Uh, Ping? Buddy?” Happy grunted as he fought against Bluebell’s tugs. “Maybe listen to the nice mare and come out from there so we can help you out. Alright?”

“It’s useless, he’s not thinking straight.” Bluebell snapped and ripped her foreleg free of Daisy’s grasp. With a hard flap of her wings, she nearly pulled free of Happy’s grasp as well. “Hey, you want Rhenium, right? I can get you all you want, okay? I’ve got piles of it elsewhere, just stop eating my prototype!”

Ping’s unblinking eyes turned on her for a moment and simply stared. It was a strange, empty gaze, and unlike anything I’d ever seen on him before. Slowly though, the metal in his muzzle disappeared inside him and he was left staring in an unnaturally unmoving way.

“That’s it, if you follow me, I can lead you to all the Rhenium turbine blades you want.” Bluebell smiled and waved for Ping to follow.

A yellow spark shot from somewhere on Ping’s body, lighting up the dark intake enough that I could see that he was missing his right forehoof completely, and that half of his real body was heavily damaged and exposed. With a stiff shift, he turned his head back toward the turbine’s fan blades without twisting his neck, and swung his forehoof straight back to the nearest one.

“No, no, no!” Bluebell whined as he effortlessly tore away one of the blades. “Goddess damnit, you oversized toaster! Cut it out!”

“What the fuck is he doing?” Hispano finally managed to ask the question that had started to emerge through the music in the back of my mind.

“Fixing himself.” Bluebell sighed and finally took a few steps back from the stairway. Tearing herself from Happy, she turned and walked back towards Hispano and I. “Same thing happened before, except he didn’t eat my prized plane!” Growling back at Ping for a moment, she took a few deep breaths before sitting down. “Look, those blade’s he’s eating are three percent Rhenium, which he’s using to fix the power core inside himself. Once that’s stabilized enough, he’ll come out of whatever emergency power-save coma he’s in and will actually be cognizant again.”

“How long will that take?” I asked, but couldn’t bring myself to look away from Ping as he continued to eat the turbine blade he’d torn off. “And how do you know all this?”

“Minutes? Hours? I don’t know.” Hanging her head with a sigh, she glanced back over her shoulder at him again. “Like I said, it’s a long story for another time that I’m far from proud of. For now, we just have to wait and hope he can fix himself enough before you get too far into negotiations with Elder Pilaf and Elder Fenestron.” Turning back to me, she prodded me in the chest with her hoof. “But that’s for us to worry about. For now, you need to get down into the main bunker, and have a talk with Elder Fenestron. She needs to know the plan.”

“Alright, I’ll go.” Nodding, I finally pulled my eyes from Ping, and swung them over to Hispano.

“Be careful, Night.” She offered with a weak smile and an outstretched talon.

Taking it with my hoof, I did my best to offer her a smile back.

“I’ll try my best.”

Author's Note

As always, I wanted to give my thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his dedication in keeping up with going over every chapter of this story. Even though it's been hard to keep writing consistently, you are always there to help, and that really means a lot these days. Thank you.

Of course, a big thanks to Kkat as well for creating FoE in the first place as well!