Odessa, Island of Carniola
Cosmo, Half an Hour Later

So the General brought us up to speed on De Witt… Damn it, I don’t know what to think. Should I be angry? Scared? Feel sorry for the bastard?

Can I just have something clean cut, just this once?

“Cosmo, you alright?” I looked up from my chair and saw Sky looking down at me. “You’ve been pretty quiet.”

“Wouldn’t you?” I asked. “It took me a long time to accept that I’d never see my mother again. Then not only do I find her, but she’s been used in some plan of De Witt’s to have an heir to little empire. Call me crazy, but that just doesn’t sound right.”

“Did anyone say it had to?” Sky retorted. “Cosmo, we’ve had our fair share of miracles. Is it really such a stretch that we don’t get another? And besides, you’re not an only child anymore. Didn’t you always say you’d love to have a little brother when we were growing up?”

“I did…” I muttered. “But not like this. Storm Cloud was born for a purpose, then got thrown away. He’s never known anything outside this island, and he doesn’t know what it is to be a free pony. Sky, the stuff we did is what I wanted to get out of a sibling. But I can’t get that out of a relationship with Storm, and I don’t even know what I do for him so an actual relationship between the two of us would be worth something.”

“Then take a risk.” Sky suggested. “Lets take him with us to the fortress. From the looks of things he’s fully capable of taking care of himself, and he hates De Witt’s guts just as much as I do.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I found a bunch of training dummies that looked distrubingly like De Witt. All fried to hell, and I doubt that your mother was able to sneak away from her guards to go practice.”

“So you think it was Storm?” I asked. “A ten year old colt? Really?”

“A ten year old who thought he was growing up in some far-flung corner of apocalyptia.” Sky pointed out. “Just give him a chance.”

After a few minutes of staring at the ground I sighed in defeat. “Alright… He’ll get a shot.” Almost immediately I felt a fluffy pair of arms wrap around my neck from behind. “And he was standing right there, wasn’t he?”

“Yup!” Piped Storm. “Now you wanna hear my plan?”

“You have a plan?” I asked. “For what?”

“To kill my father.” Stormy answered, looking entirely innocent as he said it.

And damn, was it creepy. “You want to pull a hit on him?” Sky asked.

“And you don’t?” Storm retorted. “De Witt’s paranoid and doesn’t think anyone can get to him in that little fortress of his.”

“So then all we need to do is get past a small army, find whatever bed he’s sleeping in and kill him?” I asked with a trace of sarcasm. “Well why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you didn’t let me finish.”

“I’m sorry, but there’s more to this bad idea?”

“There is, you’re just the scalpel.” I swung around in my chair and found that I had yet another guest.

“General, please tell me your on my side.” I half-pleaded. To be honest, stabbing De Witt in his sleep does have me a bit interested.

To my dismay the old stallion shook his head. “Look we do have a plan. It’s risky, but it’s a plan none the less. Once Dusk and the rest of his squad gets back I’ll brief you all.” Without another word the General left the room, leaving me the sole member of my camp in the middle of a sea of what is most likely borderline insanity.

Slowly everyone else in the room filed out, leaving me alone with the only company of a dripping faucet.

***

Cloud Runner, One Hour Later

“So run this by me one more time.” I said to Sky as the two of us shared a quick meal.

“I suggested that we take Storm with us-”

I shook my head. “I got that part Sky. But sneaking into that fortress? Come on, that’s crazy.”

“As crazy as surviving the attack on Canterlot?”

“... Alright, you’ve got a point.” I admitted after a brief moment of thought. “But how would we even get into the fortress undetected?”

Sky just shrugged. “No clue.”

I sat in silence for a moment before I smirked over at my companion. “Want to go find out?”

She didn’t say a word as she hauled me along to the command tent and brushed past the two ‘door’ guards. “General?”

Just like the first time we barged in, he was sitting in his armchair going over reports, but with some royal vistors this time. “Miss Sky, please tell me it’s important, because I’m very busy at the moment.”

“Did you hear about some little idea about storming De Witt’s fortress and offing him in his sleep?”

Both the lunar and solar diarchs turned to her with bemused expressions before the General chuckled. “You mean Stormy’s idea? Yes, we’ve spoken.” Two stools levitated across the tent and plopped down between the two princesses. “Now come, join us.”

“Seriously?”

The General nodded. “Seriously.”

Wordlessly I took a seat next to Princess Celestia and glanced down at the maps spread across the small table between myself and the General. “So… What are we looking at?”

“Aerial photos and diagrams of De Witt’s fort.” Princess Luna said, cutting off the General before he could open his mouth. “We were trying to see if there’s a weak point that can be exploited for an infiltration group.”

I picked up one of the diagrams that the princess had motioned to and glanced over the red markings. Then I turned to the scribbles in the margin and frowned. “I’m pretty sure that blasting a hole in the wall defeats the purpose of getting in undetected.”

“Shock and awe is a meritable tactic.” The Lunar Diarch retorted.

“Ya, if you want to get us killed.” I snapped.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” I pointedly stated. “Look, if we make a bunch of noise before we go in we’ll get slaughtered beause the soldiers on the perimeter will have time to raise the alarm. But if we make a bunch of noise after-”

“Anyone who’s in our way will head for the wall.” Sky finished.

“Exactly.” I replied. “If the alarm goes up while once we’re behind the wall, assuming something big is happening in front of it, no one will be paying attention to what’s happening inside the camp. All we need to do is stay hidden until the guards take up positions.”

The tent was silent for a few moments, mostly as Princess Luna took in what I had said. Finally she turned to face me with a perplexed look on her face. “You’re no soldier.” She muttered. “Yet here you are tearing apart the idea we came up with and replacing it with something that’s clearly… Better.”

“And that’s a problem?” I asked.

“Not at all.” Princess Luna assured. “But how do you intend to get into the fortress?”

I picked up one of the photos of the fortress and pointed out a steep cliff on the northwest side, overlooking a sizable lake. “We climb up and over in this corner here. I doubt there would be a large guard presence overlooking a cliff when there’s two armies on different sides of the fortress.”

“I see what you’re getting at.” The General said with a smile. “We use our forces in the south as a distraction, draw the attention to the southeast corner of their fortress.”

“And while everyone’s looking down at the army, a few of us can get over the wall and find De Witt.” I said with my own cocky grin. “We can cut off their leadership with minimal resistance. And with no one in charge, their defenses won’t be able to react to a full assault properly.”

The General and both Princesses exchanged glances before he turned his attention back to me. “There’s just one thing.” He said with a grin, one that looks decidedly unnerving.

...Awe shit.

***

Cliffs below the Fortress, five minutes to midnight
Cloud Runner

Stupid, how can I be so stupid to open myself up like this?

“Focus Cloud!” Came the staticky echo of Cosmo’s annoyed-sounding voice.

A quick review of the cliff I had ‘volunteered’ to climb allowed me to notice the loose rock that I was about to try to haul myself further along with. It doesn’t matter if I can fly… It’s still a long way down to the beach. “Cosmo, how’d you even see that from down there?” I asked.

“This isn’t my first rodeo Cloud.” Came the retort over my helmet’s speakers. “Now focus, you’re almost to the top.”

The uniform feel of the metal beam that lined the bottom of the parrapet was all the confirmation I needed. A quick glance upward only solidified what I already knew. “This is Tempest, Northern Guard is ready to go.”

Nothing came in over the radio as I crawled up to the edge of the parappet, just in time to see the muzzle flashes on the hill opposite of the fortress, followed by the soft thumming sounds of the artillery guns as they spoke up in the darkness.

“What the hell?” I froze when I head the voice of a guard and quickly looked over to the right, internally sighing when I realized that it wasn’t me that was his center of attention. It was the shells as they fell to the earth and slammed into the far walls of the makeshift compound.

But I can’t expect this guy to stare at the explosions forever, and he’s in arms reach. Immediately the gears in my head started turning, and a sensation of dread started to crash into me. I sighed before leaping up onto the ledge. I blocked out everything, diverting all my attention onto this one guard. Everything seemed to slow down as I closed the gap and wrapped my arms around his torso… He didn’t even have a moment to struggle as I threw him against the wall of the parappet, before grabbing him by the belt and tossing him over the side and into the darkness from where I came. As a series of grappling hooks latched themselves to the side with a resounding click, the reality of what I had done started to hit me.

I just killed someone without hesitation or a second thought. I didn’t think about the moral or emotional repercussions, I just did it.

...Bloody hell, what am I turning into?

***

Cosmo

I didn’t have much warning to swing out of the way of the falling body. Just a quick ‘Incoming!’ that Storm called out before he yanked my line to the right, which while it got me out of the way of the rather… Unusual ‘weather’, it did a great job of leaving me thrashing about as I tried to once more grab footing as I dangled by my grappler.

And yes, I’m still wondering if it was a good idea to mount the thing to a bracer on my arm. Especially as Storm hauled me up and onto the solid floor of the fortress wall. “Good thinking kid…” I muttered as Storm helped me dust myself off.

“Well of course it was!” He chirped.

I just rolled my eyes and walked over to Cloud, who was kneeling down over the edge of the cliff. “Something wrong?”

“I killed him…” He muttered.

“The guard?”

“No, the Prench maid!” Cloud snapped. “Cosmo, I threw that guard off the cliff without even blinking. Am I alright, or is there something wrong with me?”

I just shook my head and patted the young stallion’s shoulder. “No, you’re perfectly fine.”

“Really?”

The tone of Cloud’s voice gave away the simple fact that he didn’t believe me. “Really.” I said, trying to sound as calm as possible, given the circumstances of why we were standing above a fortress full of Griffon soldiers more than willing to try and kill the lot of us. “Look I’m the last pony to talk to about it considering I’m most certainly detached from some levels of morality, but there are times that watching someone I shot just drop feels like my gut is tying itself into knots… But it’s not the lack of the emotion that’s the problem. It’s how you learn to live with it.”

Cloud was silent for a moment before he got up and stepped away from the ledge. “You’re making it sound rather easy… You know that, right?”

I couldn’t help but shrug. “Like I said, I’m not the best pony to talk to.”

“Incoming!”

Instinctively I ducked, pulling Cloud down with me as a burst of rifle bullets sailed overhead. “Then what the hell are you good for?” He questioned.

I ignored the quip and got to my feet, staring across the walkway at a griffon as he struggled to clear a jam from his weapon. In a flash I closed the gap that seperated myself and the guard. His eyes went wide as I smacked him across the beak with my revolver. As the poor sod staggered back to the railing over the fortress proper, I loaded two plus rounds and put his chest square in my sights.

BANG BANG

Two red spots started to immediately grow as the guard steadied himself on the guardrail before collapsing into a growing red puddle beneath him. “We good?”

“We’re good.” Sky replied as she slowly made her way over to the railing. “Now where do we start?”

I wanted to shrug, really I did. But something slammed into my gut and knocked me to the ground. I managed to look around and noticed that I wasn’t the only one with the issue. “What the hell was that?” I half yelled so I could hear myself over the ringing in my ears.

“What?” Sky yelled.

“I said what the hell was that!”

“Artillery shell.” Cloud said as he hauled me to my feet. “Just give me a sec.” He tapped a few buttons on his gauntlet before moving his hand to the side of his helmet. “Tempest to all batteries, watch your fire. We almost had one of those shells for dinner!”

“Tempest, battery one here. What the hell are you talking about? We’re tracking all of our shells, none have hit anywhere near you.”

“You sure about that?”

“Positive.”

“Cosmo?”

“Cloud, care to tell me what we’re dealing with?”

“Cosmo!”

“What!?” I yelled as I turned to face Sky.

“Try that!” She yelled back, pointing at a guard down in the camp with a large… Rail… Thing. As it sat on his shoulder another Griffon loaded something into the back of the weapon.

“Well, you just gonna stand there?” I heard my mother ask, followed by the soft sounds of metal pieces sliding against one another.

I rolled my eyes and vaulted over the railing, dropping to a roll as I hit the damp grass and vaulting back to my feet from the ground. The two guards were understandably stunned at the sudden acrobatics. Leveling my pistol at the sap holding the launcher made him stop for the briefest of moments before he straightened himself out.

“Come on.” I goaded as I cocked back the hammer on my revolver. “Make a move.”

Suddenly the guards turned around to face the glowing green eyepieces of a familiar ranger helmet. “You heard him.”

The two guards quickly dropped the launcher and tried scurrying away from their new opponent.

But Cloud dropped to the ground from above them with a thud, pointing what looked like a nightstick at the pair in as menacing of a manner as he could, given his inexperience. “You two heard the lady.” He said, the voice modulator on his helmet giving a scratchy effect to his words. “So what’s it gonna be?” He must of rolled his eyes under his helmet, because Cloud’s wings flared out and managed to light up the corner of the fortress briefly in a pale blue light as a shower of sparks grew from his wingtips.

The two guards immediately dropped to their knees and put both their hands over their heads. “Just don’t kill us!” The leader begged.

“We’re mercs, not raiders.” I said as I stepped between Cloud and the Griffons. As they watched I fished two of my “special” bullets out of my jacket before loading them into the cylinder and indexing it to the first of the rounds. “But then again I’m in a shitty mood.”

BANG!

Once out of the way I turned my attention back to the loader, kneeling down to get to eye level. “So I’ll ask you. Where’s De Witt?”

“I don’t know!” The Griffion insisted.

“You expect me to believe that?” I asked, cocking the hammer back on my revolver. He seemed to swallow a bit of his pride and shook his head. I rolled my eyes and stuffed my barrel against his chest. “Then tell me the truth.”

“Alright, alright! He’s in the shack in the middle of the camp.”

“Well, thank you.” I said as a small grin slowly grew across my muzzle.

BANG!

As I got up off the ground and pushed the limp Griffon onto his back, I had a wierd sensation tingle up my spine. “Did you have to kill them Cosmo?”

Oh, it’s just Cloud. “Stun rounds my friend.” I retorted, fishing a third round out of my jacket and handing it to the armored pegasus. “Instant knockout, lasts about four hours.”

“Seems helpful…” He muttered.

“It is.” I curtly replied. “Now he said De Witt was in some shack?”

“Probably the metal hut in the camp center.” Cloud said as he pressed a few buttons on his wrists before a projection leapt forward and gave us a scale model of the facility. “Everything else is just tents and canopies made of junk.”

“So he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. Who cares?” Storm said, finally adding something to the conversation.

But why make everything for your army out of junk? Sure I can see using what’s available, but I could’ve set some of these ‘bunkhouses’ up in about five minutes. “Or all this is just for appearances.” I said halfheartedly.

“What do you mean ‘just for appearances’?” My mother asked.

“Well…” Wait, maybe I’m onto something. “Maybe this is all just some sort of elaborate trick.”

“Wait, a trick?”

“Ya.” I insisted. “Think about it, up until we hopped the proverbial fence what did we see about this place? A few reports from some pegasi and some pictures that the Griffons grabbed in a flyover? This little hole in the wall just needs to look busy for the cameras.”

“Then what about Cloud’s map?” Storm asked.

“Actually this armor has a built-in three dimensional mapping program. All I did was turn it on.” Cloud explained.

“So if all this is just for appearances…” Mom must have started glaring at me, because those glowing eyepieces all the sudden dimmed slightly. “We need to get to that shack.”

“Goes without saying Mum.” Storm muttered as he flipped a rifle off his back. “Now who wants to go kill a monster?”

***

Cloud Runner

While he might not want to hear it, I can’t help but think that Cosmo is right. Other than the three guards we met when we walked in we haven’t seen anyone else. And this is supposed to be a fortress…

“Something wrong Cloud?” Sky asked as we walked through the makeshift village of makeshift shacks and tents.

“Just look around and listen. There’s nothing here!” Well nothing except the sounds of artillery shells landing on the other side of the walls, but that’s beyond my point.

“I hate to admit it, but he’s right.” Cosmo called out. “If there were Griffons in here we’d be getting shot at by now.”

“So we’re agreeing that it’s a trap?” I called back, glancing down at the weapons status display on my HUD briefly.

“I’d say so!” Cosmo yelled, just as a Pelican began to drown out his shouting as it swooped into the fortress proper from over the walls. As it swung into a hover just a few feet away from the shack we were headed for and disgorged three ponies from it’s belly I felt my heart sink as the reality of who was supposedly in that shack began to come into focus.

“Blaze Squad, this is Paris. Requesting status update.”

I slid to one side of the door, opposite my sister as she fixed a small pale green box to the doorknob. “Preparing to breach potential VIP location.” She said as she stepped back from the door and pulled out a small black remote.

“Copy that Blaze Leader. You’re clear to engage at your discretion.”

“Goes without saying…” She muttered.

“You ready?” Cosmo quietly asked as he made one last check of his rifle.

“As good as I’ll ever be.” I whispered back.

“Alright! In three, two, one-”

BANG!

The door bounced inward before striking the wall and swinging back, nearly closing before Dart reared back and kicked what was left clear off it’s hinges before she ducked back behind the wall. “Specter!”

The dark green stallion didn’t say a word, instead flipping on a light on the rifle he was carrying and ducking into the shack. After a few moments of silence he stepped back out and focused on Dart. “You need to see this.”

I just followed my sister into the shack out of reflex. While I was expecting some sort of bloodbath, that thought died a quick death as I saw what the stallion was talking about; a concrete stairwell, going down far enough where Specter’s just touched the concrete floor at the bottom. “Well… That’s something.” I said absentmindedly.

“No shit Sherlock.” Dart spat as she flicked her radio back on and put in an earpiece. “All batteries, this is Blaze Leader. Cease fire and prepare to pull out, the fortress is a bust.” In the corner of my HUD I saw a message pop up that read “hijack channel”. I simply hit the select button on my wrist and a window representing a new radio channel opened up.

“Paris to Dart, what the hell are you talking about?”

“The base is empty.” I said, drawing the surprise of my sister. “We found a grand total of three guards. One is dead, the other two are knocked out. And the ‘buildings’, assuming you want to call them that, are just for show.”

“Damnit… So the whole place was just a distraction?”

“I’d say so.”

“Paris, this is Ranger.” Said Cosmo over his own radio as he knelt down at the top of the staircase. “Look, the recon flights saw soldiers and I’m going to assume that this tunnel was their escape route. I’m going to take a team to follow it. Ranger out.”

“You’re taking a team?” I asked.

He nodded. “Let’s just take this outside.” Abandoning Dart, the two of us walked out to the rest of our companions crowded around the door. “Alright, listen up! I’m taking Sky and Cloud and we’re going to go follow that tunnel. Once we find where it ends, we’ll radio the location. Until then, the rest of you sit tight.”

“And who said you could do that?” Cosmo’s mother asked.

“I did, get over it.” He snapped. “Anyone else have a stupid question? No? Alright then, move it!”

I just followed Cosmo into the shack without a word, before my sister’s arm blocked me from continuing down the stairs. “Something wrong?”

Dart nodded and clipped a holstered pistol to my right thigh. “Just don’t want you to go without a fallback.”

“Worried I can’t handle myself?” I quipped.

“Hell no!” Dart insisted before she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Under my helmet, of course, I cocked an eyebrow. I finally noticed that her hair had gone from a shiny grey to a dark green with white tips. When did that happen? “Look, the last few days for me have been hell and I’ve seen a lot of good ponies die. I just don’t want you to whack a hornet’s nest without some bee spray. Know what I’m saying?”

“Ya… I think I do. I do have one question though.”

“Fire away then.”

“What happened to your hair?”

Dart just rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way. “Just get going Cloud.”

I nodded silently and started walking down the stairs. About halfway down I turned the lights on my helmet on and illuminated the long passageway in a dull green light. Cosmo was already standing there with Sky and swung his rifle onto his back. “So you ready Cloud?”

I just shrugged. “As much as I could hope to be.”

“Well, I’ll take it…” Cosmo muttered. “Now do you realize there’s a chance that some of us won’t be going home after this? If you want-”

“Does it matter?” I asked. “We’ve got a psycho to stop. As long as that happens… Well I’d die content.”

Cosmo nodded. “Cloud you’re something else.” He muttered. “Now come on. Lets go stop the monster.”

Author's Note

Finally! That was Midnight ladies and gentlemen, after much fuckery and loafing around. In theory I took care of the last of the editing, but I'm fried. In the case anyone catches something stupid, no matter how small, give me a heads up so I can at least fix it when I don't feel like I've been run over by an ATV (and yes I know what that feels like).

The next chapter Sacrifice will wrap up the arc that The Long Road has been covering. Sure it'll take some time to finish everything, but with how Broken Mirror Part II is coming along Cloud and Sky will both play important roles in the prologue and onward.

Anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker