Fallout Equestria - The Code of Honor

by FireStorm2247

Chapters

Chapter 1: Stable 181
Chapter 2: Cruelest of Fates
Chapter 3: Hopeville
Chapter 4: Lucky Hallion
Intermission: Notes from the Author
Chapter 5: Dire Conditions
Chapter 6: A Matter of Experience
Chapter 7: Unyielding Regret
Chapter 8: Restoring Hope
Chapter 9: Blue Fire's Torch
Chapter 10: Talons of the North
Chapter 11: Lessons
Chapter 12: The Hunter
Chapter 14: Outsider's Touch
Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 1)
Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 2)
Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 3)
Chapter 16: A Night to Remember
Chapter 17: Monsters
Chapter 17.5: Gatekeeper
Chapter 18: Lock and Key
Chapter 19: Virtue's Downfall (Part 1)
Chapter 19: Virtue's Downfall (Part 2)
Chapter 20: Blue Fire's Voice
Chapter 21: Laid to Rest (Part 2)
Chapter 22: Lost Heart
Chapter 23: Breaking Point
Chapter 24: Storm Front (Part 1)
Chapter 24: Storm Front (Part 2)
Chapter 26: Eagles Rising
Prologue: The Structure of a Virtue
Chapter 13: Blue Fire and Grey Thunder
Chapter 21: Laid to Rest (Part 1)
Chapter 25: Duty and Discovery

Chapter 1: Stable 181

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Chapter 2: Cruelest of Fates

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Chapter 3: Hopeville

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Chapter 4: Lucky Hallion

“It’s my pleasure to offer hot death in a variety of exciting flavors. Take your pick.”

My eyes opened to behold a pile of yellowish sauce in a clean, white bowl…… what?

The events that had unfolded in the past two days had allowed me to sleep without interruption, and though I didn’t know how long I had been asleep for, I felt rather well rested. Around me, I could see as ponies were already up and stirring. Some were settling in and unpacking their things that they had brought with them from the Stable. Others still were eating from their supplies and drinking water. But as my senses continued to come back to me after my slumber I swear I heard voices outside our shelter, as if some of our survivors were actually walking about outside without any kind of hesitation.

“Are you hungry, big sister?” I heard the cheery voice of Blake beside me. He was still tucked under my wing, looking cozy with an empty tin can nearby. “I left you a can of food so that we can save the fresh fruit for later.”

I blinked. “A can of food?” I asked.

“Yeah, that can right in front of your nose. I set it there for a reason.” Blake said, reaching up to my face with a hoof to guide my eyes back to the bowl of sauce I had seen when I woke. Now that I was more awake than before, I saw that the bowl of sauce was actually part of a label that wrapped around a tin can.

“Canned applesauce… technologically preserved and ready to eat.” I read aloud, looking along the line of text at the bottom of the label. “Where did you find this?” I inquired to my brother, looking back to him.

“Security ponies found it under the floor. They said that there was a huge storage of food and water behind that big table. Then they brought some of it to Shore and his parents so that they could make sure it was safe to eat. They said it was okay, so now we’re all eating it! I split a can of diced carrots with Grace earlier in the morning. They were actually really good, and the water was okay too, even if it was a little warm.”

Food and water… stashed under the building? That sounded almost too good to be true. But for now, I would save my questions for later. I was quite hungry right now, more than likely an after-effect of loosing my dinner the previous night, and so I turned my attention back to the non-perishable before me. The top of the can had already been opened for me, and I could see the sauce inside. It looked a bit darker than what the remains of the label had advertised, but as I took the can in my teeth and tilted my head back to eat, the applesauce actually tasted quite good. I set the can back down for a moment, looking up at the ceiling as I analyzed the aftertaste. To my growing surprise, the preserved food didn’t leave any unpleasantness on my tongue. It had to have been here for at least one hundred years, and yet it almost tasted like it came with us from the Stable.

*tick tick tick tick*

I pricked my ears, hearing the ticking noise nearby. It was brief, the sound dieing away almost as soon as it came, leaving me rather baffled. “Did you hear that?” I asked my brother.

“Hear what?” he asked back.

Dang it… “Never mind. I’m just being silly.” I said back, instead turning back to my breakfast. I was hungry enough to forget about the noise, and I finished up my applesauce before setting the now empty tin can aside.

*tick tick tick*

I heard it again, now kind of irritating. The soft noise was brief again, coming and going in about a second., and it sounded in the same place… I was sure of that. But then as I begun looking all around, I could see that my Pipbuck’s medical screen was active, replacing whatever screen I had left on overnight. There was a strand of letters and numbers showing red on the top right corner of the screen: +2RAD/SEC. According to the medical screen, I had consumed a total of four RADS by eating that applesauce. I could also see that the small black gauge on my Pipbuck’s geiger counter had moved accordingly, rising just slightly from the zero at the bottom of the sensor. So that was the catch…

“Ah you’re awake.” I heard a pony call from up ahead of me. “Good morning.”

When I saw Shore, wearing his battle saddle and a pair of saddlebags, as the origin of the voice, I had to immediately ask him about the food. Even though I wasn’t very concerned about it, I still had eaten irradiated food, and I wanted some answers before I became overly worried. “Shore. This food that was found is irradiated. Did you know that?” I asked.

“Oh yes.” Shore answered with perfect ignorance to my concern. “In fact, every food item down in the storage is slightly irradiated. However, the radiation levels we discovered last night were very low and non-lethal. You see, the food was in fact preserved in terms of its texture, flavor, and nutritional value. Pre-war technology saw to that. However the mega spell detonations still had its effects on the preserved food, dosing canned and boxed pre-war foods with traces of radiation. It isn’t dangerous to consume this food, but the radiation dosage will add up over time.”

“So how long has this food been here?” I asked.

Adjusting his reading glasses with a hoof, Shore answered, “This is all original pre-war packaging, the boxes, the tin cans. It’s been around for one hundred and seventy-five years, preserved through arcane science. As for how long it’s been in Hopeville, I would have to say that it’s been stored here for at least five years. I could be wrong, but that is my best estimate after what little analyzing we did.”

“That’s quite something considering the age of the food and the technology behind it.” I said, finding myself rather drawn in by this morning learning seminar.

“I agree.” Shore said, looking over at the large receptionist desk. “It’s my hypothesis that there is still a weakness in the technology that preserves the food. While the ponies responsible for creating it were very intelligent, not even their ingenuity could hold back the effects of megaspells. It holds fair to conclude that radiation can still get through the preservation technology of the pre-war era, but in much smaller amounts. Therefore, these preserved foods take much longer to become too poisonous to digest, years upon years. There may be some food items that have laid in the wastes for a hundred years or more and can still be eaten. As for the food here, it’s still quite safe to eat and it actually tastes good. I’ll be honest when I say that I wasn’t expecting that. Ha, the marvels of pre-war technology.”

I smiled with him. But I wasn’t happy for the fact that pre-war tech had preserved the food we now had. I was happy knowing that we actually had decent food to eat. But still, radiation was a problem, no matter how long-term. “How long would we have until we start feeling the effects of radiation?” I asked him.

“Well, I’m no medical pony, but if I had to guess, I’d say that radiation poisoning would start going around after about three to four weeks of living off of the store we found. And unfortunately, we don’t have a large supply of medicine to combat the effects of radiation. At least this is what I heard from Gracie.”

“Do we really have enough food to live off of for that long?” I inquired.

“Yes. There’s enough down there to live off of for at least another two months. But regardless, we are going to have to be doing a bit of scavenging. This is actually why I came to find you.” he explained. “I came to talk to you earlier this morning, but you and your brother were still sleeping. But now that you are awake, I’d like to ask for you to accompany myself and Gunny on a quick scavenging trip around Hopeville’s north side. Captain Saber has already sent out one party to check on the ruined foundations and rubble of the pre-war housing district beyond the north side of town. He wanted me to investigate the Ministry of Peace recruiting center here because it had a terminal inside that is still running. I’m actually also surprised at that. A computer terminal, still running out here in this isolated town, is actually quite remarkable. But anyway, Gunny chose to venture with me to give me some security. I could use your help as another set of eyes, and you could also help carry useful items back to the City Hall. Are you interested in helping out?”

“Of course I’ll help.” I said, only helping because Shore was my good friend. I wasn’t very sure of how I would react if the captain gave me another assignment. The memory of my panic during the clearing of Hopeville stayed with me, even after a good night’s sleep, and it didn’t help that the guard who had been injured because of my lack of courage was resting nearby, sleeping on his side within Gracie’s makeshift clinic. What I would do to go back and relive that moment so that I could correct my mistake… “So we’re just scavenging through the recruiting center?” I asked as I rose up and stretched out my wings and my legs.

“That and the Hopeville Press.” Shore answered. “I’m certain that Captain Saber would’ve informed me if there was a terminal there, so we’re just going to rummage through it and see if there’s anything else we might be able to add to our supplies.”

Turning to Blake, I lowered my head down to meet his eyes. “Could you stay here and help Gracie if she needs it?” I asked him, and to his vigorous nodding, I kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you. I’ll be back soon.” I promised him, before I joined Shore.

Together we trotted out of the lobby and out into the streets of Hopeville. The sky was still completely grey with puffy clouds, but the transition from last night to today was very obvious, and now it was around midmorning. However, unlike the past two days, my mood was not dampened by this at all. Now there were buildings around me, a town, a place to call home in post-apocalyptic Equestria. To be living in a place like this, an actual town with an open sky around us, was strange… but good. I actually felt good while being in Hopeville, safe, and I had no doubt that the town would live up to its name so long as we did our part to preserve it. While most of the guards, as well as a large number of volunteers, were going through the grotesque work of clearing away the dead zombies from the streets, other guards and volunteers were moving in and out of buildings as they scavenged, searching for any useable items; in its own unique way, the town looked alive.

“Shore, Nova, good to see you.” I heard from my right. Gunny was trotting toward us from the eastern street, having been helping in the cleanup effort. He wasn’t wearing armor or a battle saddle anymore, but only a pair of saddlebags and his Stable issued barding which he had a single assault rifle strapped to. “It smells damned terrible over there. I’m glad to get away from that mess for a bit… but don’t tell the captain that I said that.”

Even from where I stood, I could smell what he had been smelling… oh what an improvement it would be when the bodies were gone, and their stink gone with them. “Have you been working out there all morning?” I asked, expecting an affirmative answer even before he said it.

“Basically.” he answered. “Captain Saber aims to have the streets cleared of corpses by the end of the day. It’s a lot of work, and it’s messy, but the sooner we can get ponies out into the streets and living life again the better. We already cleaned out City Hall while everypony was asleep overnight, so security’s really pushing themselves.”

“What exactly was up there on the second floor?” I inquired to him. I had remembered Saber saying that they had found something terrible, and that that had been the reason why ponies weren’t allowed to stay up there.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know the full details.” Gunny stated. “I’ll say anyway that Saber’s got a mind to declare that ponies had lived here not too long ago. A lot of us on the security team are thinking right alongside him when he says that the bodies we found up there were what was left of the previous residents. I’m not going to explain anymore details about it, but we cleared out the rooms so that ponies could live up there if they wished. All in all, City Hall’s turning into a cozy little fortification for us until we get the rest of the town cleared out and cleaned up.”

Well that was a bit depressing to hear. To know that other ponies had actually lived here who weren’t invaders, and to know that they had all been wiped out, made me hate the wasteland all the more. “That’s terrible.” I said, respectfully solemn.

“All we can do to honor them is to bury them and take care of their town for them. They’re in Celestia’s hooves now.” Gunny replied, nodding before turning to Shore. “Are we ready for this little scavenging trip?”

“Absolutely.” Shore confirmed. “I’m rather anxious to see how this pre-war terminal works. We might be able to find some valuable information on it.”

As we begun to walk, we turned away from the subject of the dead and engaged in a brighter topic of conversation that included the pondering of what we might find within the buildings. “Any pre-war technology would provide an advantage to us.” Shore explained. “I read that terminals were perhaps the greatest technological advancement for pre-war ponies. They allowed networked communication, data storage, and even brought about the construction of advanced security. It all just depended on what these terminals were used for. I’m hoping that with this terminal that the captain spoke of, I might be able to learn a bit more about what transpired during the pre-war era. Every bit of historical information would be valuable in that case.”

“I doubt that there would be much else besides stuff like that.” Gunny added. “After all, we’re just looking through a newspaper joint and a Ministry of Peace recruiting center. So far as I understand, newspapers didn’t need guns, and I’m sure that Fluttershy avoided firearms more than Gracie does now.”

“I think Hopeville was a little too peaceful in the pre-war era to be housing weapons.” I pointed out. “We’ll just have to try our luck elsewhere when the time comes to find extra weapons.” As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that we’d have to go out there and scavenge if we wanted to stay here. Every item, weapons, food, water, medicine, were all necessities that we would have to find elsewhere.

“That might be sooner than you realize.” Gunny said. “Captain Saber already sent one security team out to explore a bit. He sent them down that eastern road nearby. That was only a few minutes ago, and I know he’s already planning on sending another team or two out later. With you being a Pegasus and all, I would imagine he’d want your abilities for that job too, if you’re up for it that is.”

Just when I had been worrying about being called up for another assignment, the possibility had to happen. “We’ll see…” I said, trying to drop the subject before either of the stallions could inquire into the matter. “For now, let’s just do this first.”

We were coming up on the Ministry of Peace recruiting center. The entrance had been closed up again once the all clear was given the previous night, and the building remained untouched ever since. The Ministry of Peace poster was still in its place by the door, Fluttershy still looking forward with those sad blue eyes, making me stop and stare with sympathy again. War? Fear? Death? We must do better! Ministry of Peace. “You coming Nova?” Gunny asked. He and Shore were standing on either side of the door, waiting for me to stop looking at the poster.

“Sorry.” I stepped up against the wall behind Gunny as he levitated out his assault rifle. Even if the building had been secured once, it was understandable that Gunny would be cautious in entering. While City Hall was fully secured, there was always the possibility that somepony or something would’ve snuck into the building from outside of town. Until security ponies could establish a secure perimeter around Hopeville, we still had to be careful. Using his magic to open the door, Gunny pushed the door open with a creak and stepped inside. Shore and I waited outside the door until Gunny gave the all clear. The room was dark when I entered, mostly due to the windows being boarded up from the inside. Along one wall was a row of rusted benches, some still with moldy and dirty cushions showing where ponies would wait before conducting their business with the Ministry of Peace. On that same wall, posted above the benches, was another poster advertising the Ministry of Peace. You don’t have to be a Steel Ranger to be a hero. Join the Ministry of Peace today! It was the only poster within the rectangular room, the cracked and crumbling walls otherwise entirely grey.

At the far end of the room was a large desk filled with holes and discolored metal, showing where rust was breaking the desk down. At the top of the desk, amidst a scattered pile of ruined papers, was a white box of sorts. The back wall was glowing a monochrome green, flickering as the white box buzzed with life. “Ah there it is.” Shore said, prancing ahead of me and up to the desk. “It’s still in remarkable condition.” he commented as he examined the terminal with a critical eye. “And to think that it’s been sitting here and running for the past one hundred and seventy-five years.”

“I’ll go ahead and check out this side room, see if there’s anything worth taking.” Gunny said as he peered into the entrance to another room on the left side of the main lobby. “Look’s like an old office area of some kind. There’s lots of desks and chairs… a few papers… shouldn’t take me too long.”

When he disappeared into the next room, a resonating crash sounding as he looked through a desk, I begun looking about on the floor and along the walls, gradually making my way to Shore. The main lobby was rather empty aside from what I saw at first glance, only an occasional chunk of stone that had chipped from the walls or the ceiling resting on the tattered floor mat that led from the entrance up to the desk that Shore was now occupying. He was staring into the screen as he typed away on the large keyboard attached to the terminal from below the display monitor. “This is most curious. This terminal’s security programming shows similar characteristics to some of the Stable terminals I worked with.” Shore said as I stepped up beside him to watch him work. “Actually, it is quite identical to what I remember. It almost makes me wonder if Stable-Tec built these pre-war terminals.” I saw as the glowing green monitor changed from displaying a series of instruction to displaying lines of code which were lined up into two columns down the length of the screen. Within the code of numbers and symbols, I could see an occasional seven-letter word. “Oh I know this.” Shore said, a broad smile on his face.

“Um… what is it?” I asked. Unlike him, I was rather incredibly… clueless.

“This is a security program.” Shore explained as he begun looking amongst the lines of code. “It’s a puzzle of sorts… or a guessing game, if you will. With this, I have to find the password to the terminal. I have four chances to find it or else the terminal will lock down. Let’s see… here.” I leaned in closer to see as Shore guided a blinking green box down to one of the seven-letter words, highlighting it. Pressing a button on the keyboard, another display showed on the lower right of the screen. Out of his chosen word, herding, three of the seven letters were correct. “So you see,” he continued to explain. “I have three correct letter within this word which means that the terminal’s password has three of these letters in it. It’s very likely that the I, N, and G, are the correct letters… so if I pick… this word,” I listened while watching the screen, and he guided his cursor down to the word looking. According to the terminal, this word had six correct letters out of seven, and Shore nodded with an even wider smile. “now I have a mostly correct password. I just need to find another word that matches this one, minus one letter. I also still have two chances to find the correct word, so I have some room to guess if the occasion calls for it.”

“I’m glad you know how to do this, because I would have no idea.” I commented, looking away from the screen and blinking; the bright green was a bit of a stinger on the eyes, and I really didn’t know how Shore could stare at it for so long.

“Oh there’s nothing to it really.” Shore replied, not taking his eyes off of the screen. “Practice makes perfect with these kinds of things. Once you’ve been around the same programming for a few years, you tend to be able to recognize how it works right off the bat… AH HA! Success!” The sudden triumphal tone of his voice made me turn back to the glowing screen, and I saw that he had picked a third word. The display showed that the word cooking was the correct password, and the strands of code disappeared to show a menu of items. “And so this is what the terminal holds…” Shore said aloud, looking over the menu. There were three items on the screen, the first on the list being some sort of report titled, Recruiting Center opening. The second item on the menu was another document listed as Volunteer numbers on the rise. The final item, however, was what had caught my eye. The last item on the menu was listed as an audio recording, lacking a title or description to show what the audio recording related to. Either way, I remembered what Captain Saber had told me about my Pipbuck’s ability to make a copy of an audio log and then play it again from my own speaker; I was rather curious to hear the message on that log.

Raising my right foreleg, I asked Shore, “Shore, do you know how to get this terminal to connect to my Pipbuck?”

Shore had already opened the first file and had begun to read it when I asked. But looking away from the screen, he eyed my Pipbuck and smiled. “I do actually. If I recall correctly, these terminals should have a wire that connects to the exterior of your Pipbuck.” he explained as he begun searching around the body of the terminal. “It should be on the right side… there it is.” I saw as he searched the right side of the terminal’s exterior before finding what looked to be a small door near the bottom of the right side. There was a button above it, and when Shore pressed it with a hoof, the door fell open to reveal a short black cord tucked away inside a small compartment built into the terminal’s body. “That plug at the end of this cord will connect to your Pipbuck’s terminal interface port. That should be at the bottom left of the frame.”

“Found everything in there worth taking.” I heard from my right as Gunny returned from the second room. “I’m afraid it wasn’t much however. The place was mostly full of papers and junk, but I did find a rather large amount of bottle caps stored in the desks and trash cans though.”

Bottle caps? That seemed like something that would be an uncommon find in any ruin. Aside from that, they seemed like an item that would be quite out of place in a desk or cabinet. “Bottle caps, Gunny?” I asked, freely expressing my doubts.

“Sixty of the damn things, if you can believe that.” Gunny confirmed, looking rather baffled himself. “My gut tells me to keep them, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Sixty bottle caps in a recruiting center? The pre-war ponies who worked here must’ve drank a lot of Sparkle Cola, or whatever that pre-war drink was called. “What else did you find?” Shore asked him.

“Just an extra couple cans of preserved food, three in all. The rest of it was stuff that was irrelevant to the task of surviving.” Gunny answered. “Are you two about done here so we can move on to the Hopeville Press?”

“Almost, my friend.” Shore answered, looking back at the terminal. “I just want to be able to get this audio recording and the two reports here downloaded to Nova’s Pipbuck. Could you give us some magic to plug in this cable to Nova’s Pipbuck please?”

Gunny obliged, using his horn to remove the cord from its hiding place within the terminal’s frame, and as it hovered there, Shore pressed a button on the lower left part of my Pipbuck’s frame. A small piece of the frame slid open to reveal the port where the cable could be plugged into my Pipbuck, and when Gunny did this, I brought up my terminal notes screen. It only took a matter of seconds before the technology behind the Pipbuck recognized the computer data, and the three files were copied to my device. As I looked over the display, I inquired, “Shore, do you know if these files stay on my Pipbuck permanently or for only a limited time?”

“I believe they stay permanently.” Shore replied as he finally stepped back from the terminal. “If I recall, Pipbucks can store a tremendous amount of data. This would be an accurate statement if what I had been thinking earlier was true. Part of me thinks that Stable-Tec also made these terminals, in which case it would not be surprising if Pipbuck’s had this relationship to terminals and the data they store.” As I set my Pipbuck foreleg down on the table, pulling the terminal cord out of the device, Shore added, “When we are done with our scavenging of the Hopeville Press, I would very much like to read those files.”

“I actually want to play that audio recording as well. It’ll be interesting to hear some pre-war ponies speak about things that happened before the end of the war, so we’ll look over those records when we’re done.” I assured him before Gunny led us out back into Hopeville.

We walked along the broken sidewalk up to the entrance of the Hopeville Press. Copying the same tactic he used to enter the recruiting center, Gunny levitated out his assault rifle and pushed open the door. He entered first and gave a quick all clear before Shore and I followed after him. The press office’s main lobby was a narrow hallway that led to a registration desk. In front of the desk, on both sides of the hallway, were two entrances leading into other rooms of the press. However, there were no signs or other directories to tell what purpose the other rooms served.

We stopped at the end of the hall, Gunny looking cautiously into one of the rooms while Shore walked around the registration counter. Along the floor was a mess of old papers and bits of metal, and at intervals on the walls I could see divots where machinery may have once been fastened into the stone; up above, empty fixtures showed where light bulbs would’ve been. “This looks like the room where the papers were made and distributed.” I heard Gunny comment from my left. “There’s a bunch of old machines in here, and a lot of papers.”

“Hold on Gunny.” Shore called from behind the registration desk. “I believe I’ve found a safe of sorts. Come look at this would you? It’s locked and I don’t have the tools or the know-how to get it open.”

“Well now we’re talking.” Gunny said, rearing around to step up behind the registration desk. “Oh yeah, that’s a safe. And where there’s a safe, there’s loot. I’ll take a peek and see if I can get this thing open.”

“I might as well make myself useful and check that room you were peering into.” Shore replied, walking out from behind the desk.

“Take these.” Gunny called quickly, using his magic to lift his saddlebags off of him and set them over Shore’s back. “Find anything, just put it in the saddlebags and I’ll sort out the stuff you find when we’re done.”

With Shore leaving into the next room, and Gunny crouching behind the registration counter to focus on the safe, I was left alone and feeling rather awkward. Behind the desk I could hear Gunny’s magic as he begun to work on the safe, and when I came around to watch, I saw that he was levitating a pair of tools up to the lock. Upon inquiry, he explained that these tools included a screwdriver and a bobby pin. “The flat tip of this screwdriver can fit into the lock, and that’s what I turn the lock with.” he said as he worked. “The bobby pin allows me to pick at the lock which lets me turn the lock with the screwdriver until it opens.” I could see partly what he was explaining, as I saw the magic-coated bobby pin rotate left. The screwdriver begun to rotate the lock until it snagged upon the bobby pin. Gunny had to then move the bobby pin further left and try again. But when he did, the bobby pin snagged and the pin snapped, and Gunny lost focus of his magic, dropping the screwdriver and the two halves of the bobby pin. “Damn it.” he said, hitting the floor with a fore hoof. “I’m really out of practice.”

“Out of practice?” I asked him, unable to suppress a smirk. “Were you ever in practice?”

“Heh, yeah I was.” he answered, looking back at me with his own small smile. “Do you remember how many times Old Abernathy locked himself inside his room? I was the only one on the security team that knew how to open a metal lock without a key or a computer.” We laughed together at that memory of the Stable, a good memory to remember, before Gunny used magic to pull another bobby pin from a pocket in his barding. Returning his focus to the lock, I watched as he followed the same steps as before. This time, he rotated the bobby pin to the right, and he turned the lock with his screwdriver. The lock turned smoothly until it reached a ninety-degree angle from its starting vertical position, and it opened with a distinguished click. “That did it… open up.” Gunny said, setting his tools down as he nudged the safe door open.

Crouching down beside him, I could see the contents of the safe. Though it was a smaller safe, there was a variety of items inside, including a pouch full of jangling metal, (which Gunny identified as more bottle caps) a small box of preserved carrots, a newspaper with readable text, and a firearm that Gunny identified as a ten millimeter pistol. The pistol came with its own holster, and when Gunny checked the weapon, it was loaded with twelve rounds in its magazine. “Finally, some worthwhile treasure.” Gunny commented, looking over the weapon’s condition by rotating it with his magic. “It’s not in too bad of shape, but it could use some cleaning.”

By now, Shore had arrived after searching through the first room. The saddlebags he wore looked a bit bigger now, and Shore explained, “I picked up everything that looked useable. Most of it was just junk I found, but if nopony can get any use of it, then we can throw it away.”

“Sounds good.” Gunny replied, levitating up the food, bottle caps, and pistol. “This is what we found in the safe. It’s a good find overall.” He brought them to Shore’s saddlebags and set the items inside. “Let’s go look through this other room and then we’ll be done here.”

“You two go on ahead.” I said, half-mindedly paying attention to them. My eyes were drawn to the newspaper that Gunny had left behind in the safe. There was no chance that this paper was made post-war, and knowing this left me quite amazed at the fact that a pre-war newspaper had survived through the years in decent shape. This was another sliver of pre-war history, and I was very curious about what it said. I didn’t look to see if the two had left, but immediately reached a hoof inside the safe and carefully slid the newspaper out and onto the floor. The paper was crisply folded up so that what I assumed to be the title page was already facing me. Only the edges of the paper seemed to be wearing away, as everything on the title page was legible, including the cover photo of the issue. I never knew much about what megaspells were, but that limited knowledge didn’t stop the knot that formed in my stomach when I saw that cover photo. Though the color had mostly faded, I could see the distinguished shapes of three mushroom-shaped clouds that towered up into the sky. Whoever had taken this photo had been far away from the blasts, but close enough to be able to fully distinguish three separate clouds. Above the photo, the headline at the top-center of the page read in large and bold letters,

WAR TAKES HIDEOUS TURN: MEGASPELL CLOUDS SIGHTED IN SOUTHEASTERN EQUESTRIA

A section of the page underneath was dedicated to explaining the story behind the caption, and I read aloud, “During late evening today, field photographer Sunflower Flash of the Hopeville Press was returning to Hopeville from photographing the entrance of Stable-Tec’s newest revealed southeast Stable, Stable two-o-three, when she felt trembling in the earth. When Flash turned to search for the cause of the shaking, she beheld a balefire pillar towering into the sky on the southeast horizon. Even before she could take her first photo, a second pillar of balefire appeared beyond the first. Shortly after, a third balefire blast occurred near those. Sunflower Flash took pictures and then returned to the Hopeville Press, saying, quote, I don’t know what they were targeting, but the zebras have done the worst possible thing that they could have done, and have hit Equestria with amplified balefire spells. This war is turning for the worst. Unquote. The reason behind this attack is unknown and has left the staff of the press rather puzzled. Southeastern Equestria is mostly grassland, forest, and mountain, with only a few populated areas. So this brings up the question of what? Upon discussion amongst the crew of the Hopeville Press, only educated guesses can be made about possible targets of these megaspell detonations. These targets include locations such as Buckley Air Force Base or the town of Ashton. Investigations will continue from both the press and the respective authorities as to where these megaspells struck and why the zebras targeted the southeast. Because of this event, the press will be delivering new issues to the Equestrian heartland whenever a new update on this attack is received by our staff.”

I stopped reading, exhaling as I looked away from the words. I couldn’t begin to imagine how horrible that would’ve been to read this issue before the end of the world. Judging by the writing, the entailed attack must’ve been the first time that megaspells had been used as an offensive measure against Equestria. It must’ve been scary for everypony in Equestria to know that their enemies had gone so far as to use such a destructive method like the megaspell to attack. There would’ve been disorder across the land, rioting, panic, and then the heartland would be hit. Something about it didn’t add up though. Surely if this paper was kept locked away, other issues of the paper that included the promised updates would’ve been stored away as well. But of course, there was a multitude of possible reasons why this paper would’ve been stored while later issues were not. Still, this title page was a powerful, if small, piece of pre-war history and I wanted to keep it with me.

Gunny and Shore returned from the second room, their scavenging now complete. The title page easily tore from the rest of it, and though I did want to read the rest of it, I put it back in the safe and took the cover page delicately in my mouth. “What’s that you got there?” Gunny asked curiously.

I stepped up to Shore and carefully slid the page into his left saddlebag. “I found a page of that newspaper to be quite the read. I want to keep it with me.” I said, adding a smile for effect.

“A newspaper?” Gunny said, doubtful towards its value. “That doesn’t exactly match up with the word valuable does it?”

“No, but I want to keep it anyway.” I insisted, narrowing my eyes to replace my smile. “Do you really want to argue about something so unimportant?”

“Alright alright, keep it. It’s your choice.” Gunny said. Even though he rolled his eyes, I was glad he saw the pointlessness in the argument.

“Thanks. Shall we go?” I asked, receiving both their nods as an affirmative answer. Upon stepping outside of the Hopeville Press, I stopped to bring up my Pipbuck, remembering my promise to Shore. Gunny stopped ahead of me, looking back, and Shore stepped up beside me to look as I selected the audio file and played it.

---“This is Skip, pony-in-charge of the Ministry of Peace recruiting station in Hopeville. This is my first report. Of all the things to happen, I had never expected Fluttershy to visit us in person. We were a group of employees that had suggested that we move out of the heartland and set up shop out here. Any way to bring up more recruits for the Ministry of Peace is a plus for our cause, and so Fluttershy supported our idea and sent us to Hopeville. It’s a nice enough little town, very peaceful, and when the ponies here saw us come in from the northwest, they immediately asked us a lot of questions. I told them why we were here and who we were, and then the next day, we ended up with twenty names on the volunteer list.”---

The stallion who was speaking sounded very pleased with these results, happy even. I couldn’t blame him for that because hell, it made me smile too.

---“The next couple of days had gone roughly the same while we finished setting up. We got ten more on the second day, and twelve more names written on the list on the third day. And then on the fourth day, yesterday, Fluttershy herself stopped by for a brief visit. Upon inquiry of her visit, she explained that she was curious to see how things were going outside of the heartland, with us and the station, and when we gave her the numbers, she gave the biggest smile. After a hearty congratulations, she explained how proud she was and that this was a good achievement for the ministry. This was coupled by the mentioning that she was on the brink of creating something big and that she would be grateful for every volunteer that the ministry could receive. I had asked her myself what this creation of hers was, but she wouldn’t say. She only said that it would hopefully be something that would put an end to this war. Hey, I like the mare. She’s the most respectable and caring pony I’ve ever worked with, so her word was good enough for me. But all in all, I’d say that this warrants a celebration. If the head of the ministry thinks we’re doing a good job, then we know we’re doing something right. Great work everypony!”---

“Well that was an interesting recording.” Shore said as the audio tape ended. “It wasn’t as defining as I had hoped it would’ve been, but it was definitely a curious bit of information to listen to.”

“Apparently, the Ministry of Peace really knew what it was doing.” I commented, lowering my Pipbuck leg.

“I see Captain Saber up ahead.” Gunny said, cutting through our praise to the audio recording. “Let’s go drop off these supplies we found and see what he wants us to do next.”

Between the time of our scavenging and now, the streets looked much improved. There were still bodies left from the herd of zombie ponies, but more and more were being moved away by magic. Unicorns were moving the bodies past the east side of town and piling them far away from the pre-war houses and shops. On the opposite side of town, my heart sank as I saw a small group of ponies gathered around two sticks that had been thrust into the dirt. They were the families and friends of the two ponies who had died yesterday, laying their lost loved ones to rest. I remembered that mare who had died last night… the way she died… I shook my head to get the thoughts out before I could dwell on them, just in time to hear as Gunny called to the captain.

“Captain! We’re done sir.”

“Excellent. Any luck on the north side?” Saber asked as he approached the three of us.

Using his magic, Gunny levitated the saddlebags off of Shore’s back and set them before the captain. “We found a couple of things that we could use. A bit of extra food, a pistol, lots of bottle caps. Other than that, we just found a lot of junk and scrap.”

Before the captain could take the saddlebags, I reached out and snagged my souvenir with my teeth. Again, the question came. “A newspaper?” Saber asked, puzzled.

“Yes.” I said, spitting out the cover page onto the ground. “It’s just something I found that I want to keep with me for awhile.”

“I don’t see why not.” Saber replied with swift understanding. Turning to the saddlebags, he peered through them. “This sidearm and this food will help out with our supplies. But what about these bottle caps? Any particular reason why you decided to gather these up Gunny?”

“Sir, the fact that we found over seventy of these things within two buildings is enough to make me think that they must be important somehow. I’d like to hang onto them myself, see if I can find something productive to make from them.” Gunny explained. “If nothing else, then I’m wrong, and I throw them away.”

“Sounds reasonable to me.” Saber said, nodding in approval. “Good work. I’ve got something else I’d like done, and I expect that it’ll take most of the day today. This morning, I sent a team out east to search for any other signs of life and they’ll be back this afternoon. The next task I have for you is a similar job. I’d like the three of you to find Rosemary Grace and head east as a scouting party. Gracie told me that her patients are recovering nicely and that her new assistants can care for them while she’s out. So I’d like you four to take the road east, keep an eye out for any pony or any place, and check in on the other team as well. One of them has a Pipbuck with him, so you should be able to contact the team through the security channel when you’re close enough. Just keep in mind that I want eyes and ears only. If you find trouble out there, then do your best to stay out of it. But of course, stay alert and don’t be afraid to use your weapons. Before you leave, I’d like to talk to you in person for a moment.” He finished, addressing me directly and waving the others away. When we were alone, he looked back at the cleanup effort. I looked with him, seeing the progress from a much closer view. Now that there were nowhere near as many bodies on the streets, the sight was much more tolerable. “So Nova, how are you this morning?” the captain asked.

“Better.” I said instinctively, even though I was a bit nervous about this assignment. The fear of making another mistake like last night was sticking with me like glue.

“Do you think you’re ready for this assignment I’m giving you?” he asked, not doubtful but genuinely curious.

“So long as I don’t screw up again.” I said after a long moment of silence.

“Still thinking about yesterday?” he asked, nodding expectantly. “I’ll be honest, I was kind of hoping you would say that. It gives me the chance to explain something to you… explain what I’m seeing in you.” He paused to look back at me, and fixing me with a firm stare, he said, “You’ve got a lot of determination that’s being covered by this cloud of yours, and I want you to break out of that cloud and focus. If you can’t focus on the present, then that puts you in danger of getting hurt and possibly killed. I don’t want to lose you out there. I’ve lost enough ponies under my command to know that I don’t want you or anypony else becoming part of that statistic. You’ve done a lot for me already, even after what you went through in the Stable, but I need you to do this for me too. Spare me from having to dig you a grave. Do I make myself clear?”

I took in his words with surprise. There was strength in his words, a resolve to see that everypony here would be able to find comfort in Hopeville and start fresh. Now that Hopeville was becoming more secure, his determination was stronger than ever. “Yes.” I said, looking him in the eyes. “I’m just nervous still, that’s all.”

“I understand,” he replied with sympathy. “but remember what and who you still have left because that’ll be what will help you the most within the wasteland. It’s what is helping most of us out right now.”

I stared at him a moment, letting those two sentences ring in my mind. He was right of course, and I realized just how powerful the words behind his thoughts were. It was something that was taught in the Stable, to always remember what you have left, and to help get over my fear of making a mistake again, I’d have to draw strength from my friends. They had never let me down before, and I was optimistic enough to believe that the wasteland wouldn’t change that either, no matter how hard it tried. “Thanks captain.”

“Anytime. So,” Saber said, changing the subject. “I’m glad that you’ll do this task. I had your old saddlebags returned to Blake, the saddlebags you brought out from the Stable. So far as I remember, Blake was still in the City Hall lobby, so you can retrieve those before you leave. Gunny can show you how to equip saddlebags along with your battle saddle. I’ve got to get back to work on the streets. Good luck out there, and be careful.”

With that, he returned to his team to continue the effort of disposing the corpses on the streets. I found my cover page on the ground and picked it up in my teeth again before trotting back into the City Hall. The lobby was about as full as it had been when I had woken up this morning, some ponies casually conversing with each other while others trotted from room to room running errands and setting up living areas for ponies to settle into. At the far end of the lobby, I could see my baby brother standing with Grace as she levitated her saddlebags over her back and secured them. Also inside the makeshift clinic was Shore, waiting patiently with his battle saddle and saddlebags equipped.

I trotted over to where Blake had set his saddlebags, and found my own empty saddlebags laying on the carpet nearby. The first thing I had to do was reclaim my items and return them to my own saddlebags. The healing potion and the portrait I had kept from the Stable were still at the top of the provisions that were left, and so I took them and returned them to my own saddlebags. The cover page was the last item of my possession outside of my weapons, and I set that page inside just in time to see Blake scurrying up to me. “I heard that you’re going outside of town.” he piped up. “I want to come with you!”

That was something that I had feared he would say. Whether it was sooner or later, I had gotten the feeling that he’d want to stay by my side. While I did admire Blake’s helpful nature, there was no way in hell that I was going to let him risk his neck out there. “No Blake.” I said, firmly, but as gently as I could. “The wasteland isn’t a place for young colts to be traveling in. You’re staying here and helping out around town when anypony needs you.” He looked ready to protest on the spot, but I interrupted swiftly, adding, “We just don’t know enough about the wasteland right now to determine how safe it is out there. And right now, I’m under the firm belief that any part of the wasteland outside of Hopeville is dangerous.”

“But I want to go with you.” he insisted anyway. “We’re family and we should stick together.”

“I understand that Blake… but this is different.” I asserted gently.

“I don’t see the harm in it.” I heard from my left; Rosemary Grace was standing beside me. “Besides, Gunny and Shore will be there to protect him, and so will you. With all of us together, I know I feel safe. You should let him come with you.”

“This isn’t the same kind of environment.” I insisted. “I don’t trust it to be bringing him along with us.”

“You’re worried about him, and I understand that. But really, you two need to be together whenever possible. If you go without him now, you’ll start going without him every time you might be called out of Hopeville.” Grace said, more an assumption than a fact. But still, the possibility was a disheartening one… and one that I also didn’t want to allow the chance of coming to fruition. “Besides, I have faith in him, and I know that you do to. If he wants to help us, then let him. We’ll all watch out for each other out there.”

I sighed, irritated at her persistence. She was optimistic yes, but this optimism wasn’t helping me like it usually did. “If nothing else, letting Blake accompany us would show any peaceful ponies out there that we weren’t looking for a fight.” Shore put in as he joined us, bringing up another good point. Both of them seemed rather confident with themselves and with these proposals… so why couldn’t I be confident like them? Still worried, still adapting, that was no excuse.

Draw strength from each other…

“Alright Blake, you can come with us.” I said, giving in to see him smile a big smile. “But when we get out onto the road, you’re to stay no more than one pony-length away from me, and that is non-negotiable.”

“You bet!” Blake said, racing immediately to his saddlebags and ducking down underneath them to set them over his back. Again, the saddlebags looked to nearly drag on the floor because of Blake’s small size; only his hooves, his head, and his tail were visible. Scurrying back with cheerful energy, he declared himself ready for travel.

Shortly after, Gunny descended the staircase from the second floor to join us, wearing his security armor with his assault rifle strapped to it. His armor had been repaired, restoring it to far better condition than the skirmish with the five invaders had left it. He was the only one of us not bringing any saddlebags, joining us simply for the need of security on uncharted territory. “We about ready?” he asked us, looking among our makeshift exploration team.

“Yes.” Grace confirmed wholeheartedly. “This will be interesting to say the least. Our first task together…”

“I feel good about working with you three… er… four.” Gunny remarked, correcting himself and smirking at Blake. The little colt proceeded to smile wide and hop across the lobby to exit the City Hall.

“He’s all fired up and ready isn’t he?” I commented, unable to suppress the concern in my voice, even when I tried to smile.

“We can all look out for each other out there,” Shore assured confidently. “just like Gracie said. Have some faith my friend. Faith has won us Hopeville, I’m sure it can do more for us down the road.”

He and Grace proceeded down the lobby and out the door, and I felt as Gunny set my saddlebags over my flanks. “When you put these on, they’ll rest on your flanks so they don’t get in the way of your battle saddle.” he explained to me. “Each saddlebag has a secondary strap that can be attached to your battle saddle so that the bags don’t fall off when you move.” The saddlebags clicked into place, secured against the battle saddle’s main strap, and when he finished, he added, “I don’t think you would normally be wearing these, but so far as I understand, there’s an item or two you want to keep around. So I’ll leave it be.”

“Thanks Gunny.” I said with a more honest smile. “I guess I’m ready to go.”

“Hey Nova!” I heard a stallion call. When I searched for the origin of the voice, I found a pony sitting up on his blanket within the clinic. Marked with an array of bandages on his neck and shoulders, I recognized him as the security pony who had been injured last night; I winced on instinct.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked, feeling a bit awkward and still feeling a bit ashamed.

“Yeah.” the stallion answered with a nod. “The bastards bit hard, but I’ll push on through.”

“That’s good to hear. Um… will you be back out and helping soon?” I inquired carefully.

“You bet.” the stallion said with a smile. “I want to get out of this clinic as fast as I can.” I smiled at him… but I found myself shifting nervously. On my left, I could see Gunny, watching just incase the security stallion in the clinic wanted to say something nasty to me again. “Hey, look…” the stallion began, finally breaking the silence. “I uh, want to apologize for the way I acted to you last night.” An apology was the last thing I expected to hear from the security pony. What did he want to apologize for? He was the one who got hurt. “I know we’re all trying to adjust to this wasteland… to our new home here in Hopeville, and I just overreacted. I ain’t dumb… I know what you’ve gone through, and I’ve gone through a bit myself. A lot of us have… so I just wanted to apologize for my overreaction and I wanted to wish you luck before you headed out there.”

Wow. One thing’s for certain, that took a load off of my shoulders, and I was grateful for his forgiveness. I didn’t think that he’d be in the mood to forgive, and I hadn’t expected him to, but he did, and that gave me strength. “Thanks.” I said, smiling. “There was no need to apologize… I’m still learning my new place… but I’ll do my best out there.” Turning back to Gunny now, I gave a nod. “Okay, now I’m ready.”

“Alright, let’s move.” Gunny and I trotted out of the lobby and entered the streets of Hopeville. Passing along the City Hall’s eastern wall, we found Blake, Gracie, and Shore waiting together by the cracked remains of the street leading east, and together we left behind our new home on our first mission into the wasteland.

*** *** ***

Surprisingly, even after traveling through the rest of the morning, the ruins of the pre-war road still provided us a landmark path stretching east. According to my E.F.S. compass, we had gradually changed our course, moving southeast by the time the morning ended. It was early afternoon now, and we had been following the cracked road for about two to three hours. Hopeville had disappeared into the western horizon, and now there was only the great expanse of dead earth to make the landscape. Between the lack of scenery and the lack of wasteland life, my three friends and I had seen this assignment as a good time to bring back a little bit of our old selves. Being able to walk together and talk together again felt good, our duties no longer separating us. Hopeville was the subject of conversation, and now that our two hundred or so survivors had secured the town, we all had plans for what we wanted to do in our new home… except me of course.

“Saber told the ponies on the cleanup crew that once the rest of the bodies are cleared from the streets, we’re going to go through each building one after another and completely gut them out and clean them best we can.” Gunny began. “Saber’s hoping to be able to put ponies in each building, get some unique use out of each one and establish a community of sorts. But there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done outside of Hopeville. Mainly we just need to find more supplies, so I’ll be sticking with the captain and carrying out whatever orders he gives me.”

“Who would be in charge of Hopeville?” Blake piped up from beside me.

“Well, I imagine the captain would.” Gunny answered. “He really looked up to Crystal Sunset, so I’d suspect that he’d want to follow the organization of the Stable in her stead.”

“I think a lot of ponies would be willing to work with that now that they have a home to live in again.” I voiced optimistically.

“Hopeville is turning into a good place to live in already.” Rosemary Grace commented, smiling. “Once the buildings around town get cleaned up, I want to reestablish my clinic in the recruiting center that I’ve heard about. I haven’t seen it myself, but I figure that putting up a clinic in a place that once belonged to the Ministry of Peace would put a lot of meaning into the purpose of a clinic, and that’s to help and heal. For now though, I’m glad to say that most of my patients are back up and moving. The recovery’s been hard for them, but they’re getting through it. It just takes a lot of rest, a lot of help, and a lot of hope.”

“Well, Hopeville’s been living up to its name quite exceptionally.” Shore added. “I’m afraid that there’s not much for me to be doing that require my talents. A personal terminal isn’t something that I can get a lot of use out of, and there aren’t any other such terminals in Hopeville. So I figure that whenever the captain organizes an exploration team, I go out and scavenge. Exploration in the wasteland is a good alternative to my field until the time might come when I find something out there like a lab… oh how I miss my lab.”

The reminiscing science pony made me wonder all the more just how well my three friends were adapting. Of course, we were talking about Hopeville. But none of us had really said how we were fairing ourselves. This new lifestyle was forcing everypony to change, to battle through loss of home and family and survive in the wasteland. Time hadn’t allowed for me to think much about the state of my closest friends, but now I was beginning to wonder. “How are you doing other than that?” I asked gently.

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” Shore insisted confidently. “I may not have a laboratory anymore, but I’m ready to do my part to help. Life in the wasteland is different, being outside and all that, but I can get used to it quick enough. My parents have, and so can I.”

“It is hard.” Gracie agreed. “I’ve found myself thinking of home all three nights that we’ve been out here. I miss it, but there are ponies here who need me to be the medical pony I am. My profession is what keeps me going through.”

“I just do my job.” Gunny said, rather abrupt; that surprised me a bit.

*pop*

I heard something far away, a distant and very brief sound on the horizon that had a very slight echo to it. The sound had come and gone too quickly for me to try and get a fix on it, and looking around, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Did any of you hear that?” I asked, all of us coming to a gradual stop on the road to listen.

“Hear what?” Gracie asked, a whisper.

“I heard it too.” Gunny said, stepping up to my right side and following my searching gaze; the same noise sounded again, slightly louder.

“There it is again.” I heard Shore say from my left.

“Let me fly up and get a better view.” I told them, stepping away to get a clear space to takeoff from.

“I’ll keep my Pipbuck tuned to the security channel so that you can talk to us from up there.” Grace said, raising her foreleg and using her magic to tune the Pipbuck to the right setting.

I nodded, sitting down and bringing up the radio menu on my Pipbuck’s display screen. “I’ll let you know what I find.” I said. “If the source is close, I should be able to see it from a high altitude.” Snapping my wings open, I pulled them up and flapped them down to rise into the air, and then I took off ahead of the ground, following the ground before arcing upward to climb through the air. Counting twenty wing beats, I stopped my ascension and hovered, scanning over the ground far below me. There were four dots that I recognized right away as my friends, but then there was nothing else. Slowly rotating as I hovered, I scanned the terrain to look for anything that was out of the ordinary, something contrasting against the expanse of grey earth.

“Nova.” I heard Gracie through my Pipbuck’s speaker. “If you can hear me, it sounded like it came from ahead of us. Southeast.”

“I don’t see anything.” I replied into the speaker, hearing a third popping noise echo through the sky. I looked due southeast, keeping an eye on my E.F.S. compass for directions, and I squinted to try and find a way to help me see better. Still nothing… but then a light. I swear I saw it, a tiny pinpoint of light that had flickered to life for a split second; it was proceeded by another popping sound. Though I wasn’t certain, my curiosity bump was enormous… I wanted to check this out. “I’m going to scout ahead due southeast.” I spoke into my Pipbuck. “Just follow that direction and I’ll meet back up with you.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Nova?” Grace asked in reply.

“I know what I’m doing.” I insisted, already moving towards where I had thought I saw that flicker of light. “Trust me.”

“Just be careful up there. We’ll catch up with you later.” Gracie said, and I picked up speed to wing in towards my mostly unknown destination.

I beat my wings faster, trying to gain more speed to reach my target. Even through the whistling of the wind, I could hear the same popping noise as it gradually grew in volume and intensity, and it wasn’t long before those noises distinguished themselves; gunshots. I had no doubt that that was what I was hearing, the pops turning into bangs that resonated across the skies. There was somepony down there, and they were fighting something or somepony else. I searched the land again, doing my best to search quickly but accurately. But it didn’t take accuracy to see the flashing dots of light on the surface below me and right. The flashes of light appeared and died, and then the gunshots echoed afterwards; that was the place. Focusing, I turned to my radio. “This is Nova from Hopeville, broadcasting to any security ponies on the surface. If you can hear me, please acknowledge.” I announced into the speaker, and I hovered as I waited for a reply. Five seconds… ten seconds… no answer. If I was going to go check this out, it would have to be now. And even if the captain had warned me against finding trouble, somepony might need help down there.

Biting down onto my firing bit, I flipped the battle saddle’s safety off, and then I shot downward, ready as I thought I could be to fight whatever or whoever was down there. The ground raced up to meet me, and it only took seconds for me to be able to pick out the shapes of ponies on the ground. Around a cluster of rocky cover and half-a-dozen unmoving figures, seven ponies were all facing one way, firing onto another group opposite of them. This second group looked in bad shape. Three of them were already dead on their side of the battleground, and a fourth pony looked injured, hiding behind cover. Only two were firing back at the winning group, but the two factions were no more than a few pony lengths away from one another, making the battle a close quarters shootout, one pony firing nearly blind and returning to cover before another fired. Briefly, I stopped to get a clearer view, and to my alarm, I saw that the faction attacking the three outnumbered ponies wore that familiar black and red armor. They were more invaders… where the hell did they come from?! I didn’t have to second guess myself, and I knew that whoever these invaders were fighting were the ponies that needed help. Taking in a breath, readying myself for more killing, I swooped into action.

I dove first towards the invader that was closest to me, a white unicorn mare with a red spiked mane. She was grinning as she reloaded her rifle, a weapon with a strange action comprised of a bolt. As I lined up for the shot, I activated my S.A.T.S. spell and lined up my target, targeting the head of the invader mare. In unison, my markspony carbine and Fire Rose roared their presence, but the two shots missed, kicking up dirt around the mare and making her turn up with a start to see me. With a growl, I pulled back up and away as her own bullets lashed after me. I beat forward, arcing wide to pull out of range and buy myself some time to line up another shot. My S.A.T.S. spell was roughly half-way depleted, so I had enough charge to take one more shot with it, and as I angled in, I targeted the same pony. I angled in head on towards the invaders and lined up my shot. But bullets whizzed by me like angry insects, at least one of the invaders following my flight path, and I rolled out of the way and banked left to evade. In a desperate move to get back on target, I snapped my wings out full and halted, briefly, but just long enough to launch upwards at a right angle, and I coiled back around to face my enemies once again. But just as I righted myself, an explosion of fire erupted from up ahead, and I halted in surprise. The fire was attached to a trail of smoke, and it lingered all the way to its origin. One of the ponies on the defense had shot something that made that explosion… focus damn it!

I turned back and shot forward towards the lingering cloud of smoke left behind from the explosion. The force behind that explosion had killed two of the invaders, leaving them bloodied and dismembered. The remaining five were spreading out, and even my novice combat skill could let me tell that they intended to flank their enemies. I saw as another invader, a dirty orange earth-pony stallion with a matted and darker orange mane, break for cover that was closer to his enemies. Snapping hard left, I dived in towards the invader stallion and activated my S.A.T.S. spell, targeting his torso. I fired two pairs of shots, the first two kicking up dust around him, but the second two hitting him in the side and bringing him tumbling to a halt. I flew over him, but turned in the air and came to ground near him as he cried in pain; there was no way I was going to let this invader get back up. His weapon, a strange pistol with six cylinders, was lying nearby, and when he saw me land, he begun crawling towards it. I bolted towards the wounded invader, but the stallion had a remarkable amount of energy left, even after being shot twice, and he reached his pistol and swung it around to point at me. I skidded on the ground, burrowing my hooves into the earth, and I used that as a springboard to leap to my left as he fired. His awkward position prevented him from following me as I circled around him, and though he fought to right himself around to fire at me again, I had already crouched and fired. I had been close enough to the invader that I had no need to take time to aim; now he was finally dead.

Dust flew up around me as another invader targeted me, and I jumped back to focus, rearing around and leaping to cover behind a rock to catch a few breaths. Checking my E.F.S., I faced my cover as I prepared my next move, and saw the four red dashes marking the compass. Breathing, I counted silently to myself… one… two… three… and with a sharp inhalation of breath I dove out from cover and fired blindly. One pair of shots struck the rock that served as cover for the nearest invader, sending bits of stone into the air. The second pair just missed as the unicorn invader ducked back behind cover, spotting me, and I followed his example after, stepping back to cover as he swung around and fired his own weapon, a rifle-looking weapon that fired a single loud shot that ate against my own cover. I heard the crack of the same weapon fire again, raising dust from my cover, and I took that chance to step out from cover again, facing towards where the invader had been taking cover. He had stepped out at roughly the same time, levitating his weapon as he finished reloading, and that bought me enough time to fire once more, and the two shots found home, both shots hitting him in the chest and killing him. I ducked back behind my own rock, feeling as Fire Rose's auto loader kicked out the empty magazine and reloaded the pistol fresh. I glanced at my E.F.S., seeing that three red dashes still remained. I very carefully poked my head out from cover to check for any other invaders nearby. Though I could see one, the white unicorn mare, there was cover between the two of us that I could use to get closer.

I bolted out from behind the first rock and dashed to the second, seeing as the unicorn mare turned to fire on me. I felt as the bullets kicked up dirt against my coat, the bits of earth pelting me like needles, and I skidded behind the new closer cover. I quickly readied myself, preparing to jump from cover to fire again, but then I saw a shadow on the dirt. With a cry, I reared up just as a light brown earth-pony stallion leapt down from the top of my rock and plowed bodily into me. We tumbled over each other once, but then he was on top of me, driving a hoof into my chest to shove me against the ground. I understood unarmed combat as much as I understood science… which wasn’t very much, and my situation was not improved by the fact that this stallion’s physical strength was far greater than my own. I instinctively raised my own fore hooves over my face and planted them against the invader’s chest, shoving with all my strength as we wrestled. Using one foreleg, the stallion knocked away one of my forelegs, but I brought it back up and struck him full in the face; it wasn’t a strong hit. Immediately, growling in anger, he returned the favor and struck me hard in the face with a fore hoof. He hit me a second time in the face before I shoved again, making him stumble. But he still remained over me, and putting his full weight against me, he struck me square in the neck with a hoof, making me choke. Laughing, he taunted, “Look at the little filly trying to play tough pony! Oh I’m gonna carve you up good.” And then he reached around to a sheath on his shoulder, and I gasped as he pulled out a wicked looking and slightly rusted metal blade, sharp on one side with jagged teeth on the other. He situated it in his mouth so that the tip of the blade faced right towards me, and he struck me again with a fore hoof, trying to weaken me so that he could finish me off with the knife. I gave a cry of struggle as I managed to free up one of my forelegs from the tangle, and I reached and struck him in the jaw again, trying to knock the blade out of his teeth. But he had a death grip on it, and my punches were much weaker. He hit me once more, bucking me in the stomach with a hind leg, and that hurt just as much as being punched in the throat. I was in pain now, but when I saw as he moved in for the killing blow, the adrenaline erupted through me. Snapping my head left, my neck popping, I dodged the blade as it burrowed into the ground right by my face. As he yanked the knife from the dirt, rearing back for another stab, I pulled back my hind legs and with all my might, I bucked him in the gut. That was enough to make him drop the blade (which sent a sharp chill through me as the flat part of the blade slid down my foreleg) as he grunted in pain. I wasn’t going to let up now, and I bucked him again, making him falter. And then I bucked him a third time in the same place before I finally kicked him off of me and he fell over onto his side. Trying my best to ignore my pain, I rolled back onto my side and got to my hooves. He had risen with me, breathing hard and glaring at me. “You… you dumb BITCH!” he swore, his words carrying hateful fire, and he wasted no time in attacking again. With a cry he sprang forward… but I was the one with the guns. Rearing up, I followed his path and fired just before he would’ve plowed into me. The power behind the two weapons tore through the invader with enough force to nearly halt his momentum, and the stallion fell to the dirt, dead in front of my hooves. I staggered back to cover, collapsing against the rock for safety. My heavy breathing provoked a painful wave of coughing, my throat, my chest, and my stomach still hurting from the times I had been hit.

That brawl had been my first real near-death experience. Sure, I could have died in the Stable, and I could have died in Hopeville, but those were different. In that brawl, death was less than two hooves away from my face, literally, and I had barely escaped it. My mind was racing, building up to panic again as I thought about what would’ve happened to my brother if I had died then and there. At one instance, a very brief but very sickening image had flashed before me, showing me laying lifeless in moist dirt with that blade buried into my neck. I couldn’t imagine leaving my brother alone in this wasteland… this hell… I had to be here with him! I huddled low to the dirt, shaking my head with a growl as I fought against those thoughts. No, I was still alive, and those ponies were still fighting. Stomping a hoof on the ground, I cast away those dark thoughts, focusing on the present. When I turned and checked my E.F.S., there were still two red dashes left on the compass, but they were moving, and they were moving towards me. There was no way I was going to let myself get beat up on again, and so I snapped out my wings, fortunately untouched, and I launched into the air, catching sight of the two remaining invaders as they approached. Seeing their target escape into the air, they fired up after me as I looped around. They weren’t going to let me attack from up high without a lot of aerial acrobatics… so why not make a show of it? Even if I was fighting, being in the air was good for me, and I found myself grinning as I picked up speed. I shot back down in a dive towards the ground and then pulled up to draw parallel to the surface, putting about two pony-lengths between me and the earth. I heard the shots of the invaders, trying to pace themselves so as to not use up all of their ammo all at once. But I was going fast along the surface, the wind of my passage raising a trail of dust behind me before I pulled back up and coiled around, drawing in slightly closer to the two bullet-slingers. But as I cut across the air again, winding closer, I saw as one of the two remaining invaders went down. Whoever the ponies were that had been fighting them, they were coming out, realizing that they now had the upper hoof. There was only one left now, the white unicorn mare, and she was frozen, unable to think of what to do. With her former prey coming up toward her, and a very evasive target up in the sky that she couldn’t hit, she was unable to think. That was what had cost her life, as the side of her head erupted in a spray of blood, and she fell over onto the dirt, dead. With the last invader killed, I slowed and came to land on the ground. Though I had intended to give my wings a break, I found that my legs hurt more than my wings did. From this, I could add bruises to my overall injury count which had already included two gunshot wounds and a series of shrapnel wounds. I could feel a dimmer pain in my chest and in my throat, which was still sensitive to my own touch… yeah, those would definitely bruise.

I pricked my ears at hearing hoofsteps, and I looked up and to my right to see a unicorn stallion approaching, cautiously looking over the dead on the field. The unicorn had a solid yellow coat and his orange mane was short and clean, running down his neck and to his shoulders. His mane matched the color of his tail, which was short, only ending beside his knee. He was wearing a black vest with multiple pockets stitched to the fabric and by his side, he levitated some sort of compact weapon, not long enough to be a rifle, but not small enough to be a sidearm. He rotated it as he walked, pulling down some kind of lever from the bottom of the weapon before levitating three shells from one of his pockets. He loaded the three shells into the top of the weapon before pushing the lever back up. So the weapon was a shotgun of sorts… “Are you okay?” the unicorn stallion called.

It took me a moment, but I saw that he was looking at me… duh… “Yeah, a little shaken and bruised, but I’m okay. Are you alright?” I asked back.

The unicorn returned his lever-action shotgun to its holster on his back. “I’m not hurt.” he answered, stopping a distance away from me. There was reason for both of us to be tense, because both of us were strangers to each other in a hostile wasteland. “Thanks for the assist. I didn’t expect a Pegasus to be flying around out here.” the unicorn added, giving a smile.

For one reason or another, I definitely felt safer around this stranger, even if his apparent confusion at me being a Pegasus left me a bit puzzled myself. “I heard the noise from back out west.” I explained. “I was out traveling, so then when I heard it I decided to come and investigate. I guess I’m developing a tendency to ignore safety and go find trouble.” I finished with an uncertain little laugh, feeling that partially what I had said was true.

“Seems we’ve already got a similarity.” the unicorn stallion replied. “I was out scavenging in the north when I heard the shots.”

“Those invaders weren’t attacking you directly?” I asked, realizing too late that I had used the name bestowed upon them from the rest of my people.

“Invaders?” the stallion asked, raising an eye. “Raiders, you mean. Though I’m sure they’ve invaded several places. No, they weren’t attacking me. I found a group of ponies fighting against them. For only being four strong, they really left their mark on a raiding band of thirteen. But they lost three of theirs. My sister’s doing the best she can patching up the survivor, but she’s no medical pony.”

So he had a sister… and he was a traveler as well. At this point, I felt it safe to give some information, but I was more curious about who these ponies were that had come under attack. “I was out scavenging as well, trying to see if there was any place nearby. I was traveling with some friends, and they’re on their way here.” I explained. “Who were these ponies that were attacked?”

“Never seen them before.” the unicorn answered, nodding for me to follow him. As we trotted together, he added, “They looked too well equipped to be out here in the ass-end of nowhere though. I don’t know if they might’ve come from Challenger or someplace else.”

Challenger? What the hell was that? Wow I had a lot of questions coming up really fast… As we continued, I was about to ask him that very question until my eyes fell on the dead ponies we had been talking about. I knew who they were right away because of their armor, the yellow number 181 stamped onto the blue and black padding; it was Saber’s first scouting team. With the three dead security ponies, I also saw a unicorn mare laying down beside the fourth security pony, apparently the survivor, whose armor and weapons had been removed. The caretaker mare was the rather unique color of bright green, her coat a solid emerald color that matched her eyes. She had a long and flowing purple tail, and her equally violet mane was also long and combed over the right side of her face, nearly covering one of her eyes. She was levitating three red rags, cloths drenched in blood. “I’ve cleaned off a lot of blood, but some of these wounds are pretty deep and they wont stop bleeding. One of the raiders must’ve been using armor-piercing rounds.” she called to us… or just her brother. “Oh… hello.” she added uncertainly, spotting me.

I trotted away from the unicorn stallion and approached the security pony the mare was tending to. “Hi…” I said, only half-mindedly as I looked over the wounded security mare. The earth-pony was breathing very shallowly, and she was barely moving. Her eyes were shut and her face showed that she was in tremendous pain. Just at first glance I could see that she had taken half a dozen gunshot wounds, four to her chest and shoulders, and two more on her right side.

“We didn’t pack a lot of medical supplies.” the unicorn mare said to me, standing beside me. “I only had a couple of rags to clean some of the blood off of her. Plus, I’m not much of a medical pony. I deal in weapons, not physical health.” She added this last part rather shyly.

“That’s okay.” I said, casting a glance at the mare. For being a total stranger from the wasteland, she looked genuinely concerned. “I um… I have a healing potion in my saddlebags. Could you get it out for me?”

“Yes of course.” she said quickly, using her horn to open my saddlebags.

As she searched, I turned back to the wounded mare. “Hey…” I said, gently putting a hoof on her foreleg. “Hey, if you can hear me, I’m Nova from Hopeville. The captain sent me out here. Can you tell me what happened?”

The mare was unresponsive, only her sides moving as her weak breathing continued to allow her to cling to life. But after a moment, I saw her mouth move slightly, a weak reply coming out. “Ambush…”

I nodded, seeing as the green mare showed me the levitating healing potion. Even though it was a smaller bottle, I knew that every bit would help. “If nothing else, this should lessen the sting of the wounds.” Looking back at the security mare, I said gently, “I want to give you a healing potion. It isn’t a larger bottle, but it should help a bit. Can you open your mouth for me?” The mare managed to oblige, and upon slightly opening her mouth, the other mare opened the bottle and guided it to the wounded mare’s lips. She drank slowly, but she still managed to gulp down the entire potion without wasting a drop. Even though I had used a potion before, I was still amazed at seeing just how quickly the elixir worked. The wounds begun to mend before my very eyes, and even though they didn’t fully close, they looked much better than before and the security mare looked to ease a bit. There was nothing else that I could do for her now. Gracie would have to get here quick and give the mare proper medical attention.

“Did you say that you came from Hopeville?” the unicorn mare asked me as I stepped back from the security pony. Damn it… again, too much information had gotten out of my mouth that I had intended not to share.

“Um… yes.” I said, thinking fast. “I set up a temporary camp in the ruins of the town. I’m just setting up for a bit while I travel.”

“That’s a bit of a risky endeavor don’t you think?” the unicorn stallion asked me, sounding rather expectant of an affirmative answer.

“Why?” I asked back, suddenly feeling rather lame and dumb.

“Hopeville was hit by the Black Blood six days ago.” the yellow stallion answered. “You sound like you didn’t know that.”

“I actually… um… am from the heartland.” I lied, still unwilling to give out information about myself.

“Really?” the stallion asked, smiling. “I’ve done a lot of traveling up that way. But to be honest, I think its safer up there in the northwest than it is down here.”

“What makes you say that?” I inquired.

“There’s a lot going on around here. And believe me, I know most of it. I’ve been around the southeast, from Hopeville all the way to Ashton and everywhere around and between. The Black Blood Raiders are a real problem in these parts. Hell, so far as I know, Challenger and Ashton are pretty much at war with them.”

“Who are the Black Blood Raiders?” I asked, winning a look from the both of them that showed how much of an idiot they thought I was.

“I guess you really aren’t from around here. We just fought a dozen of them.” the unicorn mare pointed out.

“They’re the cruelest, meanest, most savage ponies in the wasteland, least out of all the ponies I’ve met.” the yellow stallion said. “They take no prisoners, they torture and butcher their victims for fun, and to top it off, they’ve got their own organized army. I don’t know where they come from, but they’re all over this area. You see, that’s how Hopeville got knocked out. They were a settlement farther out and more isolated from the others, so the Black Blood chose that as a target and took it out. I’m no tactical genius, but it doesn’t take a lot of brains to know that they’re trying to cut off the southeast from the heartland.”

So the invaders had their own organized force, and they had a name. The Black Blood Raiders were the ponies who had taken out the Stable… “What’s this region’s connection with the heartland?” I asked to get the thought out of my head.

“The settlements in this region send their own caravans up to the heartland at least once every month, if not twice or even three times. That’s how they survive is through trading with the big cities up there, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, even Old Appleoosa. Takes about a week to get up to the heartland, but it’s a necessity. They established a calendar for when they need to go and get supplies, and then they send a caravan up. Challenger primarily deals with that however, and then usually it trades some of its stock with the other settlements. I think that place is probably the safest in this region. They’re well-armed, well-trained, and are decent folk along with that.”

So Challenger was some kind of settlement. That was encouraging because now I could report to Captain Saber that we could interact with other ponies out in the wasteland, and possibly trade for the goods that we need. “Is there anything else you can tell me about Challenger?” I asked.

“Challenger is further southeast from here.” the stallion answered. “It’s a city that was built from the dirt up. Ponies banded together and made a settlement of metal sheet and iron plate. It’s a prosperous enough place, and they know how to barter and trade honestly and fairly. I’d recommend their shops to anypony, including you… hey I know that machine there.” I raised an eye, puzzled until I saw that he was looking at my Pipbuck. “You know if you’d let me, I can set a destination marker to Challenger into your Pipbuck, and you’d be able to see it on your map.”

I saw no reason not to, and this stallion and his sister seemed respectable enough… why not? I raised my Pipbuck leg as invitation, and he approached, looking over the machine with an expert eye. “This looks a little different than other models I’ve seen… it’s a little simpler but it’s still got most of the same functions.” he explained, speaking mostly to himself.

As he worked, the stallion’s sister asked me, “You said that you came from the heartland? What city were you born in?”

“I was actually born in a Stable.” I said. That much I had to tell the truth about.

“Wow.” the mare said, rather taken aback with astonishment. “Which one? Stable Twenty-four, Stable One-o-one, Stable Two?”

“Stable Two.” I replied quickly, smiling to bolster the wave of lies I was dishing out… why? These ponies seemed like good ponies… but I was still nervous around them and very hesitant to reveal information that I thought was sensitive. Why?

“We’ve heard of some of the local Stables in the heartland, but Stable Two was the only one my brother and I tried actually going up to. We knocked, but the door never opened… didn’t really think anypony lived in there.”

One little fib was one thing, but as more and more stacked up, it was hard to continue speaking. I sighed, giving up entirely and breathing in before I told the truth. “I have a lot of faith that we wont end up fighting amongst each other, so I’ll actually tell the truth to the two of you.” I announced. “I’m actually not from the heartland. I was born in a Stable, yes, but I wasn’t born in Stable Two. I was born in Stable One Eighty-One back west. The Stable was secluded and well-hidden, built far away from the heartland… Roughly three days ago, the Stable was attacked and we had to abandon it. I’m part of a refugee column of about two hundred ponies. We’re all that’s left of the Stable, and only yesterday we came across Hopeville and we took shelter there.” There was still a lot of information that I intentionally left out. That information was too sensitive, but I felt better telling them some of the truth now.

Their looks of amazement made me shift uncomfortably. “So you actually got Hopeville set up again as a settlement in this region?” the stallion asked after stepping back from my Pipbuck foreleg, finally letting me lower it.

“Well, kind of.” I said. “We’re working on cleaning up the town after we had an encounter with… um… zombies. They were dead ponies, walking around, and they attacked us in a herd.”

The two siblings exchanged glances. “Zombies sums it up quite nicely.” the brother said grimly. “They’re a very common sight in this region. While they’re not dangerous alone, they’re a real threat in a large group, and they’re always vicious.”

“You see,” the sister added. “those zombies out there were ponies who had been exposed to a massive amount of radiation. They turned into what we call ghouls, but then later on, they lost their minds and became feral. They attack any living thing on sight, and then if they kill them, they eat them… plain and simple.”

“You said that you call some of them ghouls?” I asked.

“Ghouls are the zombie ponies that aren’t zombies. In other words, they still live among us as reasonable ponies who wont eat you on sight, but they just look like zombies.” the sister explained.

“But about Hopeville,” the brother continued. “you say that you’re group from whatever Stable you mentioned actually live there now, and there aren’t raiders or anything out in that pre-war town?”

“No.” I said with a shake of my head. “The town’s safe for now, and we’re doing our best to establish our own community.”

“Well that’s damned good news.” the unicorn stallion said with a big smile. “Back before it was hit by the Black Blood, my sister and I traveled there from time to time to do some trading. Those were good ponies that lived there before… it’s a shame they got hit.” I nodded sympathetically with him, remembering that we had found the former residents of the town the previous night. I never saw them, but I had a feeling that that was for the better. “Well since I’ve been talking so much about trading, I should probably go ahead and introduce myself.” he said, standing up tall and proud before me. “My name’s Lucky Hallion and I deal entirely in the trading business. This mare here is my sister Marian, and she’s a good shot and a good repair pony. She acts as my caravan guard as well as the pony that fixes things that my customers might bring to my attention.”

“So you run a caravan.” I said, genuinely intrigued. “What’s your primary trade?”

“I provide safety my good mare.” he said, making it abundantly clear that he was always in better spirits when he was doing his job. “And that safety is the type of safety that can only be ensured by an abundance of weaponry. The way I see things is that out here, everypony needs to be armed in order to be safe. That way, at least everypony has a chance to survive out there against the wasteland, its monsters, the Black Blood, all of that good stuff.”

“I remember you saying that you’ve been around this region.” I pointed out curiously. “How far does your traveling take you?”

“I’ve been everywhere.” Lucky Hallion answered proudly. “I’ve been in this region for a bit, making stops along Ashton, Challenger, Plainwell. And then I’ve gone out and beyond to the heartland cities and all around Equestria to Salt Cube City, Hoofington, Trottingham, Baltimare, Las Pegas, the list goes on.”

“Seems that you’ve really established a name for yourself.” I complimented.

“You betcha.” Hallion replied with a smirk. “I do my fair share of scavenging, but I also make my own weapons when I find the parts I need. Some cities I’ve been to have been left mostly untouched, and so there’s lots of opportunity to profit from having a good eye for scavenging. Out here in this region, I’ve got a cozy little setup for while I stay here, and then I have other shacks and hideouts in other regions of the wastes that I stay in while I trade. And speaking of names, I think we’ve established an acquaintanceship, so I’d like to ask your name.”

I was about to oblige him and answer when somepony else answered for me. From behind me I heard hooves against the ground and with tremendous relief, I saw my friends racing up to meet me. At seeing Lucky Hallion and Marian begin to tense, I quickly intervened, trying to discourage negative thoughts by saying, “Wait, they’re all cool. These are my friends I had mentioned earlier. Hold on just a second and I’ll introduce them to you.”

Racing to meet up with my very out-of-breath friends, I gratefully embraced my little brother after he hopped down off of Gunny’s back. It was good to have him back and close to me again. “You look a little worn out.” Gunny said, even though he was the one lowering his head to catch his breath.

“Did we miss anything? What happened?” Shore asked between breaths.

“There was some fighting.” I explained. “I was beat up a bit, but I’m fine. I found the captain’s first team that he had sent out, and that’s who was fighting. Three of the four of them are dead, including the sergeant.”

“Damn it…” Gunny said, shaking his head but not yet looking up at me. “How did they die?”

“More invaders. I met two ponies who call them Black Blood Raiders.” I explained. “I should introduce you to them.” I turned to walk back to Lucky Hallion and Marian, my brother trotting along next to me and the others following behind. As we walked, I told Grace about the wounded security mare, explaining the wounds and how I had given her my healing potion. Immediately after my explanation, she trotted ahead and right past Marian and Lucky Hallion to begin working on the security mare. As for the rest of us, we stopped before the other two, and there was that strange atmosphere of meeting new ponies around us. “Hallion, Marian, these are my friends. That mare over behind you is Rosemary Grace. Behind me are Shore, the black earth-pony, and Gunny, the brick-red unicorn. This little colt here is my baby brother Blake, and I’m Nova… Everypony, this is Lucky Hallion and his sister Marian.”

Introductions and greetings went smoothly enough, and soon the semi-tense atmosphere had been suppressed enough for Lucky Hallion to repeat everything that he had told me to my friends so that they too would know what I knew. Like me, they took it in slowly; it really was a lot for my friends to think about, especially being newcomers to the wastes. After this, we had gradually come to decide that we would get to know each other even better by pulling loot off of the dead raiders as well as burying our three dead. Grace had stayed with the wounded mare the entire time, Marian being rather curious as to how a professional of medicine had worked to heal a pony. Blake stayed with Gracie of course, because I didn’t want him pulling equipment off of corpses; he wasn’t old enough for that yet. Shore had checked the sergeant’s Pipbuck, declaring it destroyed before joining Gunny and I. We helped Lucky Hallion with the looting of the corpses after we had put our dead to rest; we buried them with their armor and weapons, taking their ammunition. Upon knowing that Lucky Hallion was a rather prosperous weapons merchant, Gunny became instant best friends with him and their conversations strictly involved the listing of weaponry from the Stable, the description of their background experiences with firearms, and the explanation of where and how their passions for weapons came to be.

Our looting had taken only about thirty minutes, and between that and the funeral, we were done with our tasks in just over an hour. We met back up around Gracie as she finished preparing her patient for travel. Even though we had met two new friends, we had to get back to Hopeville and report back to Saber with the wealth of information we had received, about Hallion, about the Black Blood Raiders, about Challenger. Though I hadn’t predicted it, I wasn’t surprised that Lucky Hallion had interfered in our goodbyes to do his job. “Can I interest any of you in some trading before you leave back to Hopeville?” he asked, very professionally.

I smiled, looking over at Gracie. Of course, the patient with us had to come first. She needed to be back in Hopeville and resting, but for now, Gunny’s back would have to do for a bed until we returned. Gracie nodded, indicating that the patient, now having drank two other health potions and been properly tended to, would be okay during the trip home. “I don’t see why not.” I said, suddenly rather eager to see what this trading thing was all about.

“Hell yeah.” Gunny voiced strongly. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Lucky Hallion looked around on either side of him, raising an expectant eye. “Now where’d she run off to this time?” he asked Marian, his sister also looking about.

“She always seems to be… oh there she is.” Marian said, raising a hoof to point off to her left..

“There who is?” I asked, turning to follow where Marian was pointing… and screaming at what I saw! There, trundling forward on four skinny legs was a very hideous looking creature with two heads, a pair of horns on each one. The beast was burdened with a series of large sacks, solid briefcases and duffle bags, all jangling together noisily as the creature slowed to a walk and stopped before Lucky Hallion. “What is that thing?” I asked, raising a fore hoof in disgust.

“Oh, this here’s my pet brahmin, Betsy.” Hallion answered happily, patting the creature’s left head with a hoof. “She’s been with me for all twelve years of my caravanning career, carrying everything I want to take with me to trade on a trip.” Without delay, he used his magic to levitate one of the duffle bags off of the two-headed… cow… thing… and he set it before me as Gunny, Shore, and even Blake stepped up to see; Gracie remained with her patient at a respectable distance. After having removed three duffle bags in total along with one briefcase, lining them up before us, he used his magic to undo the straps that held the bags together along with the clamps that held the briefcase shut, and the four containers opened, revealing their contents.

Gunny gave a cough, and I saw him look down at the merchandise with starry eyes and a wide smile. Shore even looked impressed despite his preference for energy weapons. To be honest I felt that, even despite my low firearms skill, I was in paradise as I gazed down at the massive stock of weapons and ammo. “Please, enjoy my selection of high quality problem solvers.” Lucky Hallion said, humbly smug as he stepped back to let us browse to our heart’s content.

The three duffle bags had unrolled along the dirt, revealing a tidy yet awesome arrangement of ammunition, sidearms, rifles, and even weapon attachments. The first duffle bag I looked over was the home of a wide selection of ammunition. But really, I only knew so much about ammunition. I called Lucky Hallion over, and as he trotted up beside me, ready to help, I asked him about the ammunition. He begun to explain by drawing a hoof over a line of red and yellow shells, indicating that these were shotgun shells arranged in order of their respective gauges. There was at least fifteen shells of each gauge tucked into the duffle bag, and he pointed out eight-gauge, twelve-gauge, sixteen-gauge, and twenty-gauge shells. “I personally prefer the twenty-gauge.” he added. “My lever-action shotgun is a twenty and its served me well.” I nodded, looking away from the shells to come across a massive array of rifle and pistol rounds.

I think my head would’ve exploded trying to sort through all of these, and so instead, I asked him, “Hallion, the two weapons I have right now are a forty-five pistol and a five fifty-six carbine. Do you have ammo for those?” He pointed them out amidst the huge collection, and I nodded, scouting over the rest of the first duffle bag. The first bag of gear was an impressive collection all on its own, and moving down to the next duffle bag, it only got better. This bag had several small firearms and disassembled rifles and machineguns, from pistols to SMGs to hunting rifles and shotguns to heavy machineguns.

“I guess you don’t have much of a hard time keeping yourself defended.” I heard Gunny remark with a laugh that Hallion joined in on.

“Not at all.” Lucky Hallion answered with a grin. “Something catch your eye?”

“Now that I’ve seen just how impressive your collection really is, I’m thinking that if there’s something you’d recommend replacing this assault rifle with so as to more effectively take out the bad guys when I meet them, I would be a happy stallion.”

Deciding that there were just too many guns here for me to decide on something quickly, I listened in on Lucky Hallion’s explanation. “That depends on what your looking for. Assault rifles are typically well-rounded weapons, good at close and medium ranges, generally very durable, accurate. I can tell just by looking at you that you’re not looking at long range, so a sniper rifle, or any kind of precision weapon is out of the question. I’ve found and made a good selection of assault rifles that you can get accustomed to, but again it all depends on what you’re looking at arming up with. You mind taking your rifle off?” I watched as Gunny used his magic to levitate his assault rifle to the ground, Lucky Hallion looking it over with a professional eye. “To be honest, this already looks to be a pretty damned good weapon. It’s in good shape, well-kept…”

“That’s just an advantage of having been made and kept clean in the Stable.” Gunny said with a nod.

“Makes sense.” Hallion concurred, handing the rifle back to Gunny.

“So Hallion,” I called then, catching his attention. “if one of us does buy something, what exactly are we looking at trading?”

“Out here, the currency is strictly bottle caps.” Hallion explained, making me raise an eye. “Most shops do barter and trade too, trade an item for an item, or labor for an item, stuff like that. I do some barter and trade as well, an item exchange, but the currency is bottle caps. There’s tons of them out there in the wasteland, and they never go away. They’re almost as bad as pre-war bits.”

“So I was right!” Gunny said, looking at me with a triumphant grin as he levitated the pouch of bottle caps he had secured to his armor. “I’ve got seventy in here.” he said to Hallion, who’s eyes glinted at the sight of the post-war currency inside. “I just need a little bit of information on how the money flows out in the wasteland.”

“Well its simple.” Hallion explained. “One bottle cap is one, and items cost a certain number of bottle caps. You have enough, you can get the item. I like to consider my prices as being very fair, because while I do make a living off of being in the trading business, I also like to make sure that ponies are armed with the best so that they can take on the dangers of the wasteland. Go ahead and point at an item, and I’ll name a price. I’ve already chosen a price for each item, but we might be able to strike a deal with some negotiation as well. Your choice.”

As they continued their discussion, I had begun wandering over the goods again, contemplating on whether or not to buy ammo for Fire Rose. According to my Pipbuck, I had twenty-seven shots left, which was still okay. But then again, I didn’t know how long it would be before I would meet Lucky Hallion again. We would be back in Hopeville, and Hallion would be off in whatever corner of the wasteland he wanted to travel to next. Seeing that Hallion had both the ammunition and the magazines for my pistol, I called him over and asked a price for each magazine. For one magazine, it was ten caps, which I had instinctively thought as a rather good deal, considering that each magazine held seven shots. And so with Gunny’s approval, he levitated ten of his caps to Hallion and I removed one magazine from the duffle bag. Of course, Gunny had to help load the new magazine into the auto loader, but it only took a bit of magic to raise a panel from the pistol’s auto loader, load the magazine inside, and then close it again; checking my Pipbuck again, I saw thirty-four shots registered on my inventory screen.

Alas, it seemed that we would have to make a lot more bottle caps to make a larger purchase, and so we begun to wrap up, Gunny spending twenty more caps on another magazine of assault rifle ammo which he stuck into a free pocket on his security armor. And with that, our business was concluded. We rejoined around Gracie and her resting patient as Lucky Hallion and Marion stowed their duffle bags onto Betsy’s back. As Marion finished up, Hallion joined us to say his goodbyes. “Thank you all for your patronage.” he said, humbly dipping his head to us, and we returned the gesture. “And thank you Nova for your help today. I’m sorry about the loss of your friends and I hope for the best for Hopeville. It really is good to hear that that town is back on the map. I do intend to stop by there some time to see what’s new, so perhaps I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

“Thanks for answering my questions.” I said, now my turn to say my thanks. “The information you gave us is going to be invaluable to our captain. Hopefully we’ll be getting our presence known by some good ponies instead of raiders and zombies.”

With another dip of his head, Hallion returned to his sister and their pet… cow thing… Turning back once more as we begun to depart, he called, “It’s my pleasure to help out. Remember, I’d recommend trying to travel to Challenger if you get the time. Getting in contact with other settlements sooner will give you better chances to get into the trading circle around this region. Those ponies will really help your town get onto its hooves. Good luck out there! Keep your skills sharp and your eyes peeled!” And with that final farewell, we parted ways. My friends and I left in good spirits, eager to report our wealth of new knowledge to Hopeville… maybe we really did have a chance to start a new life out here.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Gun Nut (Rank 1): Conventional firearms are finding a new place in your heart. Each rank of this perk increases your small guns skill by +5.

Intermission: Notes from the Author

Notes n’ things:

Sweet mother Celestia! Four chapter (+prologue) in and I’ve already got over two hundred views! With this achievement, I decided to make this brief little notes page to say a few things as to the future of Fallout Equestria: The Code of Honor.

Firstly, I am DEEPLY humbled and honored by the view count this fan fiction has received. Five likes, no dislikes (HOOAH!), ten favorites, and over two hundred total views is a lot better than I ever thought this fiction would do, so again, I am greatly honored by the readers who have read my project up to this point and it is my hope that y’all will continue to follow Nova’s road up to its end.

Secondly, thanks to shit-tons of brainstorming, I’ve added in the “Others” character tag as well as the “Romance” story tag for future purposes. As I have been progressing with the next chapter, other ideas have constantly been coming to mind and so hopefully each new chapter will be better than the previous chapter. I have a lot of ideas for this, and I hope I can make them click together to make an overall enjoyable (and epic) story.

Thirdly, I’ve been pondering about whether or not to try and send this to Equestria Daily. However, I’m unsure of both the process of submission and the worthiness of that idea, so if any of y’all got the time and patience, I would like a little bit of input as to how the story’s been progressing in your opinions. Some feedback about the story in general would be most welcome. (EDIT: seems that EQD updates Fallout Equestria sidestories automatically so this one is already on the site. However I would still like some feedback if y'all got the patience for it, so do keep that in mind.)

Fourthly, I feel it necessary to restate my inspirational sources for this fiction. First and most importantly, Kkat’s original Fallout Equestria was a big inspiration for me. That story is one of the most well-written, engaging, and awesome stories I’ve ever read (hell I dropped Chris Paolini’s Brisinger just to read it LOL), and so the majority of the credit goes to Kkat and the original Fallout Equestria. Other inspiration sources include My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (duh), my good friend Talazar for turning me into a brony after I thought him to be the craziest maniac on the planet for liking MLP (YOU CRAZY FOO (he’ll understand)), and of course, the Fallout games. Fallout New Vegas is especially an inspirational pillar of this fan fiction because of its game play, storyline, and its DLCs, specifically Dead Money and Lonesome Road. It is, in summary, one of my favorite games.

And finally (or fifthly if you like), I want to say one more time how humbled I am for the views this story has received. Compared to other stories, this isn’t any big achievement, but I think it's quite the big deal, and so again, to those who’ve read up to this point, I thank you! And to those who have deemed this story as worthy enough to favorite/follow or whatever the term is, I’ll try my best to keep this story up and strong! Epic brohoof for all! /)

So, until the next chapter, this is FireStorm2247/SeniorAnonymous/Birkin-Star signing off!

Chapter 5: Dire Conditions

“If you surrender to the wasteland, you murder and torture… create evil like we see here.”

It was early evening by the time we returned home and it was so good to see Hopeville once again; more importantly, it was good to see that it was still in one piece. As we arrived at Hopeville’s pre-war welcome sign, we beheld clean streets… or at least streets that were cleared of bodies. There was only so much that could be done, as we couldn’t waste water on washing down the streets, and so a large section of the east side street was caked with streaks and splotches of dry black blood. But despite this, there were ponies outside, walking, chatting, and exploring around the buildings. There was even a group of four foals running about the roads around City Hall, chasing each other in a game of tag. Hopeville, once dead, was becoming more and more alive… Goddesses did that make my spirits rise… There was a group of ponies walking out of one of the east-side buildings, the first one on the street. Along the side of the house was a pile of rubble, debris, and ruined junk that had been broken down so as to find anything useful. Apparently, Gunny had been correct when he had said that Saber had been wanting to clean out the buildings and put them to use. With the help of enough ponies, it would’ve taken no more than a couple hours to get one building cleared and cleaned up. Now that first pre-war house, or shop, was being put to some use.

Guard ponies were patrolling along the streets and outside the perimeter of Hopeville. Thankfully, it was quiet… I liked quiet. Out in the dirt courtyard that made the center of town, two security sergeants were training roughly two dozen mares and stallions as they exercised, undoubtedly getting ready to enter into the security field. We were short-hoofed as it was, and the defense of a town would require a lot more than a dozen security ponies. There was another pair of guards trotting together along the north road, running to work out, and nearer to us, I saw Saber, resting alone by City Hall and gazing off to the south. He looked very much like some sort of honorary security statue, sitting on his haunches and looking out with focus. He didn’t even stir until we were past the welcome sign, and his initial reaction was just what I had expected it to be. His eyes had fallen straightaway onto Gracie’s new patient, resting on Gunny’s back as he bodily carried her into Hopeville.

“It’s good to see you all again.” Saber said, his run slowing to a trot before he stopped before us. “What happened out there? Where’s the other team?”

“They were ambushed by invaders out on the road, sir.” Gunny explained, lowly. “This mare was the sole survivor.”

“When we arrived, I treated her and got her wounds sealed.” Gracie threw in. “She’ll need a couple days’ rest before she’ll be ready to be back on guard duty, but other than that, she’s fine.”

Despite these assurances, the captain still cursed under his breath. But he nodded, giving a thin smile, and replied, “Alright, good work. You two go ahead and get her inside City Hall. Nova, Shore, I want a report on the rest of what happened out there.”

After Gunny and Gracie departed, I was about to start my explanation when Blake nudged my foreleg. “Can I go play tag?” he asked, rather enthusiastically smiling.

His smile made me smile - funny how that works - and nodding I helped Blake out from under the saddlebags he was carrying. “Alright, run along little brother. I’ll catch up with you when I’m free.” I said, and I watched as he hurried off to join the four other foals in their game.

“It’s good to see them like that again isn’t it?” Saber asked Shore and I, both of us nodding our agreement. “I can predict a good future here if we just keep our guard up… so what do you have for me?”

“Well captain,” I began. “the traveling was quiet. Up to where we stopped, there wasn’t anything out there. There were no buildings, no ponies.”

“How long did you follow that road for?” Saber asked.

“About three to four hours.” Shore answered.

“It was early afternoon when we heard the gunfire.” I continued. “I flew ahead to scout it out and I found invaders attacking a pair of travelers. We took out the invaders easily enough, and that’s when I met those two other ponies. They were two unicorns. One was a yellow stallion who called himself Lucky Hallion, and he had a sister named Marian. Lucky Hallion told us that he and his sister had been scavenging up north when they had also heard the gunshots. They came to help out our team, but they were already taking the fight bad. There was over a dozen invaders that they had gone up against.”

“So there were a dozen invaders that ambushed the team, and these two ponies came out to help kill them off. What else do you know about them?” the captain asked.

“They’re traveling merchants, or caravan-ers… how do you say that?” I asked Shore, who politely corrected me. “Caravaneers. But the two of them explained that they’re free-traveling sales-ponies dealing in weapons. They really did have quite an impressive stock.”

“That’s a curious pair to meet up with as the first friendly contacts.” Saber commented with a small laugh. “Was that it?”

“We stayed and did some business with the two of them.” I explained. “But they did answer a lot of my questions after our battle with the invaders. This is the important stuff.”

“Fire away.”

“The first thing I should say is that bottle caps really are important.” I began, recalling Lucky Hallion’s explanations. “Apparently bottle caps are the currency of the wasteland. Hallion said that most places take bottle caps or deal through barter and trade. I purchased a clip for my pistol, and Gunny bought ammo as well. Cost thirty caps for that, but it was a good deal overall. So Gunny has forty caps left.”

“That’s funny, because we’ve actually been finding quite a few.” Saber said, rubbing his head with a hoof thoughtfully. “We looked through each building and I decided to follow up with Gunny’s keeping the caps he found. I’d have to have a few ponies go through and count them, but we’ve stashed a few. That’s good to know.”

“Hallion told us a few other things.” I added, raising my Pipbuck leg and bringing up my map screen. Saber came by my other side and looked as I brought up the world map. From the small box that the map marked as Hopeville, a dashed line stretched down across the screen, ending farther southeast from my present location. “He gave me this destination marker on my Pipbuck. Apparently there’s a settlement farther southeast called Challenger, and he also says that the ponies who live there are supposed to be far better than invaders. And that’s better in the fact that we might actually be able to talk to them without being shot at. So he gave me the location of the settlement.”

“Apparently, Challenger is quite literally in a war with the invaders.” Shore threw in. “He said that they’ve been fighting for some time.”

“A war?” Saber repeated, quite dubious but also genuinely concerned.

“That’s what Hallion said.” I agreed with a solemn nod. “Lucky Hallion gave the invaders a name too. He called them the Black Blood Raiders, and he says that they’re a real menace in the southeast. He made it sound like the invaders were everywhere… I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“No, I wouldn’t shun that warning either.” Saber agreed; I could easily tell that he was already thinking about a new plan.

“Hallion mentioned something about another settlement called Ashton, but he didn’t set a destination marker for it.” Shore said after a moment. “He didn’t say much about it, but at least we know that there still is civilization out there.”

“I agree.” Saber replied. “And going out to see this settlement, Challenger, is going to be a top priority. There’s still a lot of things we need to get Hopeville running smoothly. Good work out there. You’ve given me a lot of information to think over. Tomorrow, I’ll have another assignment for you all, but for now, I’d say you’ve earned an evening to relax and a good night’s sleep after that. If there’s nothing else that you need to share, I’m going to head back to my quarters in the City Hall.”

“Just real quick captain,” Shore said quickly, raising a foreleg. “I’ve got saddlebags full of supplies that we found. Where should I take them for you?”

“That first building on the east side of town.” Saber answered, pointing “That was our first building that we cleaned up. We’re using that as our supply storage, so give the bags to one of the guards, and they’ll take care of it. Thanks Shore.” With that, Saber departed to his thoughts and we were officially dismissed for the rest of the day. This was our third day… and it was a long day. Now all I could think of was getting to sleep, trying my best to let my aching body recover.

Saying our goodbyes, Shore left for Hopeville’s new supply storage with our newfound supplies. When we had been checking the dead invaders for supplies, Lucky Hallion had let us take a share of the loot. We had taken all the ammunition that Gunny had identified as ammo that our security ponies used for their weapons. Primarily these were shotgun shells and assault rifle cartridges with a small assortment of other ammunition for the pistols and SMGs we had taken. All of the bigger weapons, rifles and the like, were what Hallion had claimed.

I picked up Blake’s saddlebags with my teeth and returned to the City Hall. Tonight I would still be sleeping in my spot by the clinic, which was now relatively empty. Gracie was already working, checking with her assistants on how her remaining patients were fairing. But other than them, there were not too many ponies in the lobby, most of them finding their own rooms in the City Hall to claim for their families. It would be a quiet night tonight… other than the fact that Blake came trotting into the City Hall just after I had set his saddlebags down to secure my resting place. “I told my friends that I still had my ball with me. Do you want to kick it around with us?” he asked, walking in front of me and excitedly going through his saddlebags while leaving me utterly stunned. He had taken his ball from the Stable?? And he had kept it all this time??

“Did mom pack it for you?” I asked, feeling a fresh wave of depression… even though my focus had been drawn away in my efforts to ‘help’ over the past three days, I still missed my parents greatly.

“Yep.” Blake answered, briefly pausing in his search; I knew he missed them just as much as I did. And then shortly after resuming his rummaging, he nudged out the ball from the saddlebag and it rolled out onto the carpet. It was a good sized ball, but small enough to be bucked or hit with a single hoof; had it been any larger, it wouldn’t have fit in the saddlebags. “So what do you say?”

Looking at the toy, I realized that that red ball, with its yellow stripe around its center, was one of the only possessions that we had that would allow us to remember our parents without thinking about the past. While I did have mother’s pistol, there was one big difference between it and Blake’s toy. Fire Rose was violence and power. Blake’s ball, given to him by dad on his first birthday, was innocence and happiness. Blake loved that ball almost as much as he loved his family, and with that kind of value, it instantly became a priceless treasure in my eyes.

I looked down at Blake and gave him an affectionate nudge. “I’d love to.”

“Did I hear somepony offer a game of kickball?” I heard to my left, looking to see that Gunny was coming down the stairs. He had removed his security armor and had stowed away his weapon… that actually seemed like a good idea, but of course, I didn’t know how to get my saddle off.

“You bet!” Blake confirmed with a happy hop off of the floor.

“Blake has his ball with him and he wants to take it outside. I’m going to go play too, and you’re welcome to come along.” I explained with a smile.

Gunny smirked back at me. “You’re going to go play in your gear?”

I lost my smile, feeling my face heat up as I gave an embarrassed laugh. “I… um… don’t know how to take off my saddle.”

Laughing, Gunny stepped up to me, horn dimly glowing with magic. “Let me help.” he said as he undid the clamp of my battle saddle. In one easy motion, the entire saddle lifted off of me and Gunny set my gear down next to the saddlebags. “Better?”

“Much better… thanks.” I answered, still embarrassed as I craned my head to look back at my coat. I could see the line that had been left behind by the saddle, the consequence of wearing it for three days straight without removing it. I could tell that I had gotten rather dirty since leaving the Stable, my grey coat slightly darkened with the collected dirt and sweat of the past three days. Briefly, it made me miss the Stable showers… but I guess having the saddle off of me would have to do, and now that I did have the battle saddle removed, I felt free, relaxed, and ready to play ball.

“Are you coming to?” Blake asked, looking up at Gunny with a smile.

“I miss this game.” Gunny said, smirking as he snagged the ball with his magic. “I’d love the opportunity to play again.” He bolted down the lobby and out into the streets, Blake laughing as he gave chase.

With a smile I tailed my little brother, running out into the streets after him as Gunny passed the ball to an eager young filly who came scurrying over from the west side of town to join the game. That filly was the filly I had saved in the Stable, now looking happy and healthy, and she hit the ball into the air towards me. With a laugh, I spun around and bucked out with my hind legs, hitting the ball across the street where a young colt hit the ball to Blake with his forehead. It only took seconds for me to get into the game, and by the Goddesses it made me happy. Out of all the things that I thought I’d be doing in the wasteland, this was not one of them. To have this kind of safety and freedom out in the wastes was something that I had nearly refused to believe in. But here it was looking me right in the face, smiling at me, and for the first time in my three days in the wasteland, I was actually happy. This was a perfect way to spend the evening in Hopeville.

*** *** ***

Morning consisted of a slight increase in my radiation level at breakfast, my geiger counter’s needle moving slightly upward along the gauge. Despite this, the box of celery sticks from our large store of food had proven to be quite filling for me. Blake was under my wing, just now waking enough to see his own breakfast of a fresh apple waiting for him; I had deliberately chosen that out of his saddlebags to spare him some radiation. He began munching away at his food after a tired good morning and we lay there together to enjoy our breakfast.

The lobby was now rather empty. Aside from the patients in the clinic, my brother and I were the only ponies still sleeping on the carpet. Gracie and her assistants still slept nearby in a small storage room next to the staircase, this way they’d be able to hear a patient stir and tend to them if need be. Outside of the walls of City Hall, I could hear ponies moving and talking in the streets, and as my mind begun to fully wake up to notice these details, I remembered that I would be getting another assignment from the captain today.

Before going to sleep the previous night Blake had asked to come with me once again, no matter what the assignment would entail. I had felt that going with me once and not getting hurt was due only to luck, and pushing that luck a second time was something I didn’t want to do… but I still surrendered. Despite how much I hated the idea, his clear-voiced insistence that he was going to go with me showed me that he was growing up. He was starting to resemble dad in a new way, a way that was making him stronger without making him dispatch of his young heart. There was plenty reason to be proud of that and as a big sister, it was my task to nurture that and protect that growth until Blake became a stallion. I knew that that was what mom and dad would’ve done, so the least I could do was try and take their place.

“Are we leaving soon?” Blake asked after taking another bite from his apple.

“I’m not sure baby brother.” I replied, but now that I was finished with my food, I could find out. “I’ll go see if the captain is outside and find out. Will you wait for me here?” At his affirmative nod, I stood up and yawned, stretching my body which was sore from our ball game yesterday. The game had lasted until it had been too dark to see the ball, and it was still amazing to me that so many ponies had ended up joining. Ponies from security and families resting in the City Hall had added to our game until we had eventually made the entire town center one large atrium. In the end, the game turned into a mess of trying to find out where the ball was as one pony passed it to another; oh the glories of having wings. I still had a blast, but of course, I knew the real reason behind my stiff body. Today, and perhaps the next couple of days after, would be where yesterday’s brawl would take its toll. My neck and my belly ached the most, and the additional discomfort in my chest didn’t help either.

With a sigh, I left the lobby and stepped out into Hopeville. Outside, there were three sentries walking along the streets, the ponies finishing up their graveyard shift. To my left, there were two mares lounging against the City Hall, taking in the morning together, and farther out in the courtyard, two foals were drawing in the dirt with sticks under the supervision of their parents. When I inquired to the two mares nearby about where I might find the captain, they had no idea, and so I turned to walk across the street towards the town center. But I had no sooner crossed the road when one of the young foals jumped to her hooves and ran over to me, giving me a hearty good morning and a broad smile. I recognized her as the filly I had saved in the Stable before she jumped up and hugged me; it was all I could do to stifle an “ow” as her forelegs went around my neck. “Hi there little one.” I said, smiling.

“Do you want to draw with me?” she asked, looking so hopeful that I was rather ashamed to have to say no.

“I’m sorry, but I have something I have to do for security today. Maybe next time?” I asked her back. Fortunately, she only smiled and nodded vigorously before she bounced back to her friend to resume her earthen artistry. Looking back up, I saw a stallion and a mare, undoubtedly the little filly’s parents, looking back at me with smiles of their own. “Good morning.”

“Morning, Nova.” the father replied. “How are you?”

“A little sore, but doing okay overall.”

“That’s good to hear dear.” the filly’s mother said. “Now that we’ve finally met you, we’d like to thank you for what you did in the Stable.”

“She told us about the explosion, about how you shielded her from the invaders and escorted her to safety.” the father added, his voice dropping to a very careful tone. “We know what you went through though, and we are all very sorry for your loss. For what it’s worth, you have our infinite gratitude.”

By now, I wouldn’t be surprised if everypony in Hopeville knew about the death of my parents. I gave my best smile, hiding away the small spell of depression that nudged through my thoughts. “I don’t want you to say that you owe me anything. I just… did what I thought was best is all.”

“Well, we’re very glad you did.” the father replied. “You’re definitely special… and I hope you don’t change.”

“Thanks.” I said, politely dipping my head to them. “Um, I was wondering if you could help me? I’m trying to find the captain. Do you know where he is?”

“He went to the armory a few minutes ago.” the mother said, pointing to the far building on the east side of town.

“With the weapons that were brought in from your group and from the group that scavenged in the north, he’s decided to make it just an armory.” the father explained. “The building next to it is useless because of its collapsed roof, so the third building on that street’s going to act as a general storage once we clear it.”

“Seems like another stroke of good luck.” I said.

“Well we’re all coming to adopt a saying. ‘We’re willing to work with any hope we can take.’ Luck or not, it’s going to help in making sure that we can survive out here.” the father said with finality.

“Well, I’d better get going.” I said after a thoughtful moment of silence; that motto had a very self-explanatory meaning. “I’ve got another job I’ve got to do today and I’d like to get the assignment early.”

“Then we wont keep you.” the father said, raising a hoof in farewell. “Again, thank you for everything. And be careful if you’re going out there.”

With a nod, I departed from the family in the courtyard and trotted over to Hopeville’s new armory. Two guards were standing watch at the entrance, but they let me pass without a word, one of them gesturing to the door. Upon entering, I was rather stunned with how many weapons there were within the building. The pile of junk that had been left outside must have once been scattered throughout the bottom floor, still dirty and stained. The walls were also very aged, cracked and chipped, but the building itself was in decent shape aside from that. On the right side, lined against the wall, were tables where various weapons lay in differing states of disassembly. There was one pony working at one of these tables, a unicorn mare who was using her magic to take apart a small revolver pistol piece by piece. At the far end of the room was a long countertop table built directly into the floor and on this table were more weapons, the better firearms of the litter. The line of weapons displayed on the counter were primarily assault rifles and other variants, and one security pony was looking each one over. He would look over one and then give a diagnostic review of each to another pony beside him, the captain. Saber himself was looking over a larger weapon, looking like one of the heavier machineguns that Gunny had once described to me.

“Captain, sir. Nova’s here to see you.” I heard one of the entrance guards call, and Saber looked up from his examination of the LMG.

“Ah, good morning Nova. How’d you sleep?” he asked, setting aside the LMG and walking around the table.

“Good.” I answered. “I’m ready for my next assignment if you have one.”

“Glad to hear it.” Saber said, straight to the point. “The information you brought me is invaluable, and so I’m planning multiple assignments at once. I don’t know if anypony told you, but there’s been a rise in the number of invader squads that we’ve seen since we got here. Our scouting party ran into two small groups when they were scavenging for supplies farther north. They found the wreckage of some old pre-war vehicles, delivery wagons of some kind, right at the same time when a party of raiders did. They had better luck than the first team I had sent out of course, but the point is… well if we keep bumping into the Black Blood, they’re going to eventually figure out that we’ve holed up in Hopeville and then we’re going to have a war of our own on our hooves.”

“How would they find out about Hopeville?” I asked, puzzled.

“They’ve hit the town before.” Saber explained. “If I were one of them, I would get suspicious if I saw ponies exploring the area. I can’t speak for the other settlements, but I’m guessing that its not common for settlements to be sending out a bunch of scouts. But we need to do this to get Hopeville onto its hooves, and I don’t want to seal off the town in the shape that we’re in… we have to grow or at least get more supplies because we don’t have enough to isolate ourselves yet.”

“Even if that’s the case, I imagine that finding other settlements would be better for us in the long run.” It seemed logical enough. Even if all of our Stable’s population had survived, I doubted that isolation would’ve won us much.

“I agree wholeheartedly.” Saber said. “And this brings me to your assignment. Yesterday, you showed me the location of another settlement. This place, Challenger as your friend called it… I want you, Gunny, Shore, and Gracie to go and find that settlement and spread the word that Hopeville is back up and running. We need outside help, and we’re going to need it more than ever if the Black Blood decides to attack the town. Right now, I think we’re safe, so we’ve got some time. This assignment will take multiple days because once you find Challenger, I need you to convince them in any way possible to help us out. We’re in dire need of Rad-Away, we could stand for more ammunition, and I would definitely open Hopeville’s doors to some extra ponies here for defense.”

“Begging pardon captain, but why not pick somepony else with more experience?” I asked. In truth, even though I felt a bit bad about it, this question also served as a way to find out if I would be let out of this assignment. The thought of leaving Hopeville for days on end, just after I had gotten settled in, was not appealing to me in the least. But of course, there was no room for negotiation.

“Because you did a great service in bringing me that information yesterday evening.” Saber answered firmly. “I want you to follow up on what you’ve done for Hopeville already and carry this assignment out. In that regard, I see nopony else that’s better for the job.”

Thanks Hallion… “If you think that greatly of me captain, then I’ll go.” I said, swiping a hoof across the floor to intentionally express my doubt.

“Remember, you’re not alone on this.” Saber said, his attempt at reassurance. “I know I’m forcing you into the fire this time, but Gunny and Shore will be looking out for you as well as Gracie. I know that you four are good friends, and the success of the last assignment tells me that you’ll work better with them than anypony else. I’m counting on you to get this done. We’re doing good things with Hopeville and I want that to keep going the way it is. Understood?”

“Yes captain.” I answered, mustering as much courage as I could into the response.

“I’m glad I can depend on you for this.” Saber said, placing a fore hoof on my back to show his appreciation. “Now, I’ve already tasked Gracie and Shore with packing all of the provisions you’ll need. You’ll have sufficient food and water for four days travel. After that, if you turn out empty-hoofed, then come back to Hopeville and we’ll get you re-supplied. I imagine it won’t be too difficult however. You should make it to Challenger in about two days. Gunny checked over weapons and ammunition for you last night, so you should have sufficient ammo as well, and your equipment should be cleaned. Once you’re geared up, we’ll send you off.”

With that, he dismissed me and I left the armory. The start of the fourth day, and I was already starting to do these kinds of jobs. It seemed a bit unfair to me… but that kind of thinking was what led to self-pity. My parents had always taught me against that kind of thinking and to be honest, I felt that anypony who thought like that on a habitual basis was kind of… well… selfish to say the least. Of course, I had to be careful with that, but I knew that it wouldn’t get me anywhere. With this kind of thing, it would be best for everypony if I just did the job and did it right. Saber was right in saying that ponies were depending on one another in Hopeville in order to secure ourselves in our new home… this was just another test to prove that I could do my part.

Taking a breath, I trotted back across the street and returned to City Hall. Sure enough I saw Gunny when I entered the lobby, talking with Blake as he waited. Gunny was wearing his full security armor and strapped to his back was an assault rifle and a combat shotgun. Secured around his right hind leg was a pistol holster with a revolver inside, and all of his armor’s assorted pockets carried his ammunition. Saying his good morning, he levitated up the battle saddle, mother’s pistol facing me… perhaps intentionally. “I cleaned your equipment and stocked you up with ammo. So you’re all set for the next trip.” he explained with a small smile.

“Thanks Gunny. It looks great.” I replied. In truth, the equipment looked brand new, even mother’s pistol. The action was shined up to make the steel glint, even in the darker lobby, and my guess was that Gunny had also disassembled the weapon and cleaned the internal components as well. It looked ready for battle and that was good enough for me.

“I’m glad you approve.” Gunny said. “Let’s get this on you as well as your saddlebags. Gracie and Shore should be down here shortly.” Levitating my battle saddle over to me, I fit my head through the firing bit and he set the saddle down over my back. As he secured it around my middle, the two ends of the main strap connecting by the clamp, he levitated my saddlebags over to me and set them over my flanks and strapped them down to the saddle. As he finished, I saw Shore and Gracie descending the stairs from the second floor. Shore was also wearing security armor and his battle saddle was secured around him, his laser rifle and multiplas rifle glowing their respective red and green. Gracie, like me, did not wear armor but only wore her saddlebags with her chosen medical supplies as well as a second pair of saddlebags with our food and water. And of course, Blake had slipped in under his saddlebags and had situated them so that he was ready to travel, looking excited for the journey.

“How are we looking?” Gunny asked as our team assembled.

“I’m ready to go.” Shore declared, adjusting his glasses. “This armor is a bit heavy though.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Gunny said with a smirk.

“I have faith that you three will take care if we run into trouble.” Gracie said sternly. “I’ve packed a dozen potions as well as bandages and other miscellaneous medical tools and supplies. That should be sufficient for the next four days.”

“And I have food and water too.” Blake piped up. “Everything will help.”

“That’s right.” I agreed, making him all the more eager to get on the road. “I’m ready to go too.” I added to Gunny, checking my Pipbuck’s inventory screen. According to the display, I had forty-two shots for Fire Rose and one hundred and sixty-eight shots for my markspony carbine. Having more ammo was a lovely thing.

“Alright, then I guess its time to go. The sooner we go, the more ground we can cover today.” Gunny said, taking the lead as we filed out of the City Hall one by one.

As we got out onto the street, I walked up beside my brother as we turned right and faced the south. On both sides of the street, several ponies were gathered, watching us go. The first feeling I felt was depression, depression that came because of the fact that we wouldn’t be seeing our new home for at least another four days. But as I begun to hear the farewells and the wishes of a successful mission and a safe return from the ponies watching us go, I gradually eased. At least a third of Hopeville had gathered to see us off, and I even saw as an older unicorn mare approached us and stepped up to Shore, a pistol in a holster levitating by her side. Without even hindering Shore’s walking, she placed it on his right foreleg and secured it with the single strap. “It was your father’s laser pistol.” she said to him, and I immediately recognized the unicorn mare as Shore’s mother. “He wants you to have it now. Use it well… by the way, it has a recharging unit inside just like your new laser rifle, so it still fires the same projectiles without having to use energy cells anymore.”

“You two finished it!” Shore exclaimed, happily embracing his mother who lightly laughed as she embraced him back. “Thank you mother. Tell father I said thank you, and that I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“We’ll be waiting for you dear.” his mother replied, backing away with a sad smile.

I kept my eyes off of them, avoiding thinking of the obvious, and only looked forward out to the south. We wouldn’t be using the pre-war road this time. Instead, we would be walking perfectly straight, following my Pipbuck’s directions to reach Challenger. And when we arrived, I really hoped that we would get in and get out, giving the ponies of Challenger the information we needed to give so that we could come back home.

*** *** ***

We took our first stop just after midday. As always, there were thick, dark grey clouds above, forbidding the sun’s rays from reaching the surface. Likewise, there had been no sign of buildings or settlements. The only changes on the surface was the sudden presence of boulders that spaced the area ahead. For now, we were using one of these rocks as part of our temporary camp, but I would have to scout ahead before we moved through this field of rock… which my Pipbuck’s map had conveniently named Boulder Field when I checked our position.

“It makes me wonder how exactly all of these boulders got here.” Grace commented as she levitated out a canteen and passed it to Blake, removing the cap for him so he could drink.

“It almost doesn’t seem natural.” Shore added, adjusting his glasses with a forehoof.

“I’m thinking it might be better to cut around these boulders.” Gunny said as Blake offered him the canteen. “It might add some time to the trip, but I’d rather play it safe.”

“The field didn’t look that large. I agree with Gunny.” Gracie declared with a nod. “It’s better to be cautious than to go barging potentially dangerous territory.”

“Yes. If they’re tightly packed in places, then they’d be good pinch points. Or there could be traps inside.” Gunny said; these were speculations, but logical ones.

“With so many encounters with the invaders over the past two days, I would accept that as an accurate theory.” Shore agreed.

“I can get a better view from the air.” I said, taking the canteen from Gunny and taking a quick drink before passing it to Shore.

“If you could, that’d help.” Gunny replied with a nod. “See how large that field is and maybe see if it isn’t as dangerous as I think.”

“Yes dear.” I replied back with a sarcastic smile.

Gunny shook his head with a short laugh. “Sorry.”

“That’s fine Gunny.” I assured with a light laugh before I stood and fanned out my wings. But just as I was about to take off, looking up in the sky, I saw something strange happening with the cloud cover. The sky was naturally filled with very thick and fluffy grey clouds… but where I looked, nearly right above me, the clouds had begun to give way, reducing the once thick cumulus clouds to a thinner and hazier version of their former selves… and beyond that haze, I could see a white circular disk. “Hey guys… look up there.”

It didn’t take long for them to see what I was seeing and even as we watched, more of the cloud cover was melting away, not fully parting, but dying enough for us to see that white disk a little more clearly. “By Celestia… I think that’s the sun.” Gunny said.

“Even with the clouds still in the way, it’s lovely.” Gracie also commented.

“That’s really something isn’t it Blake?” I asked, looking to see him staring up with the rest of us.

“Yeah it is.” he said enthusiastically. “I’d only seen the sun in books. That’s really cool.”

We must’ve been staring for at least another few minutes before I finally took my gaze away from that white disk above, and smiling, I sprang skyward. As I continued to rise with slow beats of my wings, I watched the sun as the haze continued to drift by it. But gradually, the cloud cover begun to thicken again, and I couldn’t help but sigh as the white disk of light once again disappeared from sight. It was a shame… but seeing the sun for the first time gave me a new reservoir of strength, something I could remember back to and smile at; it was still beautiful.

I stopped to hover and I looked over the field of boulders. They were spaced quite unnaturally, looking like some kind of maze that a pony would have to weave through in order to get to the other side… or simply go around the entire thing. The field wasn’t actually that wide, just long, and even though I wasn’t very good at judging distances, I felt that it wouldn’t cost us too much time at all to walk around this obstacle. After bypassing it, we could easily return to our course and continue on without much difficulty.

I heard something whiz by my right ear, my mane stirring as if pushed by a breeze… BOOM!! With a cry of alarm I lost my pace in the air, my wings snapping shut out of shock, and I fell downward back to ground, landing hard on my back as I heard Gunny shouting for everypony to find cover. I had fallen from a fair height, the impact knocking the breath out of me and stinging my entire body. And at the same time, my heart was pounding and my mind was racing with fear; that had scared the living shit out of me.

“That was a Goddess-damned sniper… of all the things… Nova! Are you hit?! Are you alright?!” Gunny called, catching sight of me as I tried to get back to my wits.

A sniper… and his or her shot had come less than a hoof away from splattering my brains out over the dirt… shit, get it together! “I… I-I’m fine.” I tried to protest, my breathing still quick. With an effort, and with some help from Gracie and Blake, I got back to my hooves long enough to get fully behind the boulder they used for cover. As soon as Gracie took her guiding hoof off of my back, I fell onto my stomach again, still in a state of panic. Blake lay down beside me, snuggling up against me as Gracie stroked my mane. I didn’t fight back, even though I felt a bit awkward at first… but their combined embrace did calm me down enough to speak again. “I’m… I’m not shot. The bullet grazed my mane… I just got the wind knocked out of me… from the fall.” I said, looking back at Gunny. His face was scared, fearing that I had been severely injured. But at my assurance to the contrary, his face eased into a tactical frown as he thought about how to handle the situation.

He and Shore shared the boulder next to ours, a small space in between them, and for a brief and rather frightening moment, Gunny bolted out from behind his boulder and dove behind another. “Where did that shot come from?” Shore demanded, more to himself than us, but loud enough for all of us to hear.

“I think it came from the other end of the field.” I said, finally a solid sentence. My initial wave of panic was now mostly subsided, replaced with the adrenaline-fueled desire to make sure that my brother was safe.

“Was there a delay between when you felt the bullet pass and the sound of the shot?” Gunny called back to me, and when I answered the affirmative, he nodded. “Okay… Nova, Shore, we need to advance up the field. These boulders aren’t very tall, but we can use them for cover as we advance and hopefully we’ll be able to sneak up on this fucker.”

“What if the sniper’s a Pegasus?” Shore asked; that was a perfectly valid question.

“I don’t think that’s the case.” Gunny answered lowly. “Come on! I need you two up here.”

I watched as Shore quickly moved up the field, joining Gunny by his boulder. “It’s safe to move up to here Nova… come on.” Gunny urged.

“I’ll stay back here and look after Blake.” Gracie said from beside me, and I saw as she levitated her sidearm from its holster on her right hind leg.

Nodding, I looked down at Blake with a firm stare. “You need to stay behind this rock with Gracie. Do only what she says, when she says it, understand?” Blake looked a little shaken as well, but he nodded, pressing himself tighter against the stone. And with that, I kissed him on the forehead before I ran from cover and dived over to where Shore and Gunny were waiting.

“We’re going to move from one boulder to another and make our way down the field.” Gunny explained to Shore and I. “We’ll move single file, but we need to stay close together. Keep an eye out for traps or any hostiles… Nova, your Pipbuck will be most helpful in that regards.” I looked down at my E.F.S. compass, facing towards the direction we were about to travel. There was no red for now. “I don’t see anypony up ahead right now… let’s move to the next boulder, up ahead and right.” On Gunny’s word, we moved together in a line up to the next boulder, getting in closer. Gunny carefully peaked out once again, giving us the all clear to move up to the next boulder, and we safely moved to the boulder after that before my E.F.S. picked up a red dash… and then a second.

“Two snipers…” I said, showing Gunny.

“Looks like they’re moving through as well.” Gunny observed, and I could see as the dashes were inching across the compass, showing that the ponies were advancing through the field, searching for us. “Either way, that sniper’s got support. We’re going to need to spread out and keep quiet… Nova, stay here at the middle. I’ll move to the right to that boulder nearby, Shore you go left. Stay sharp.” I watched as Gunny moved first, peeking out before hurrying to cover behind the boulder next to mine. He levitated his shotgun from its place on his back, a pump-action scattergun, and he loaded it with three shells. Shore had already moved to his rock to the left, slightly ahead of mine… and now we played the waiting game.

I kept my eyes glued to my Eyes Forward Sparkle, watched as the red dashes grew slowly closer. Now we could hear the voices, two ponies talking between each other and seeming to disregard stealth as much as I disregarded science. “I don’t care what the orders from the forward post are.” I heard one say, a stallion. “I know that I saw a Pegasus and I’m going to hunt the bitch down. You know how many we killed here before. This is just like one more. Besides, with this baby it wont take but five seconds.”

“You know the boss is going to break the shit out of you if you keep pulling this crap.” a second voice, a mare, replied.

“Fuck him!” the stallion snapped back. “He’s just another one of Bruiser’s playthings. He wouldn’t have the guts to fight me.”

“Pf. That chainsaw of his would tear you apart in a second.” the mare said with sinister confidence.

“Yeah, unless I blew his brains out first.” the stallion said back with a snort. “This is bullshit, come out and fight!” he then called, now addressing me, his prey. The two dashes were moving faster now, showing that they were nearly beside us. As quietly as I could, I turned the safety of my battle saddle off, and I tucked myself against my cover, hoping to get the jump on at least one of them.

Silence… and then a voice, the mare I had heard. “Found you!” And as I heard the cocking of a weapon, I knew she was right behind me. It was too late for me to react… I was dead.

BLAM!!

Dead…… no…… alive? I had froze in that moment, not moving, not breathing, not feeling, only staring at the ground. But the feeling returned to me as I exhaled, and I snapped back behind me to find the mare, a Black Blood Raider, laying dead behind me with her head blown clean off. Gunny was behind her, staring at me behind the iron sights of his shotgun. Then without a word, he ducked back behind cover just as the second raider spoke. “Ah ha ha ha! It’s killin time!” He must’ve seen the death of his partner, but the fact that the death of his friend didn’t concern him at all was rather sickening.

I snapped back to focus, following my E.F.S. and making sure that the red dash stayed in front of me at all times. With the three of us, we could flank the raider and finish him off quickly. But then I heard the raider shout again, taunting, “Special delivery!” And with a gasp, I saw as a metal apple rolled by my rock and stopped on the dirt about a pony length away from me. I wheeled and dove towards Shore just as the grenade went off, sending a shower of dirt over me. Even before the dust from the explosion begun to settle, I scrambled over the dirt to Shore as a deafening gunshot erupted around me. If the raider was aiming at me, he missed, but the shot made my ears hurt. Whatever weapon he was using, it was big.

Shore peeked out around the rock, and stepping out behind cover he fired his energy weapons, green and red lashing out at the raider. “I’ll keep him pinned down. You go around and flank him.” he told me, and nodding my head I looked out behind my cover. Shore kept firing down on one boulder, leaving scorch marks and melting through the rock at the same time. Gunny was also adding his own fire, using his assault rifle now and unloading an entire clip to keep the raider pinned. And then, when Gunny had to reload, I bolted from cover and towards where the raider pony was hiding… or had been hiding. When I rounded the boulder, ready to fire, the raider wasn’t there. Only a very large rifle was there, a scoped rifle with a heavy frame and a long barrel. I checked my E.F.S., and I saw that the raider was farther back, perhaps behind the next boulder. But just when I was about to check, the raider pony came charging from around the boulder, coming up behind me with a knife levitating beside him. His cry had given me enough warning to wheel around, and I reared back from a knife slash, backing up to give myself room to fire. He swung the knife again, and I ducked under the slash from the glowing blade as the unicorn laughed in his unrelenting charge. As he prepared the knife for a third attack, I dug my hooves into the ground and leapt to the side, springing left to finally get the space I needed to fire. Facing him, I bit down on my firing bit, and Fire Rose and my carbine fired their hot words. The first pair of shots missed, but the second pair tore into his sides. With his wounds, the unicorn dropped his blade and fell back onto the dirt. I wasted no time in finishing him off, firing two more pairs of shots into his head to finally kill him.

I checked my E.F.S., ready for more raiders, but the compass was clean, only showing me the green dashes that resembled my friends. With a sigh, I bowed my head to catch my breath, doing my best to keep myself from going into another panic attack. “We’re clear!” I heard Gunny call as he stepped up beside me. “Hey. You’re alright. We made it.” he encouraged me, lowering his head down to try and meet my eyes. I looked back at him and nodded, and I felt as he pulled me against him in an embrace.

Gradually, I got my breath back and looked away from the ground. Gunny was still looking at me, concern clear on his face. “You saved my life back there…” I said, managing a weak smile. “Thank you.”

“Hey, we’re all going to be watching each other’s backs. That’s what friends are for.” Gunny replied, the corner of his mouth rising in a smile. “Isn’t that what we promised when we were foals?”

We’ll always have each other’s backs no matter what. If nothing else in life is assured, then this promise can be the one thing that is.

Memories… We had made that promise in the Stable 181 atrium right in front of Crystal Sunset. Oh we had been so proud of that one… I think we had all stayed up the entire following night celebrating our friendship whereupon we got in trouble for keeping several residents awake; it was so foalish, but it was a significant event in our lives. “That’s right. I almost forgot.” I replied to Gunny, blinking back a tear. “Thanks again.”

Hey gave me a gentle squeeze before releasing his hug. “Any time… everypony alright?” he asked, and I saw Shore, Gracie, and Blake forming up around us. At receiving affirmative answers, Gunny stepped up to the dead raider, nudging the body to make certain that he was dead, and then he walked over to the raider’s rifle. Looking over it from barrel to stock, he gave a grim laugh. “If I had to make a guess, I’d say that this is a fifty caliber. I can tell by the length of the barrel and the muzzle brake at the end of it.”

“Is that bad?” Gracie asked, peeking out at the deadly weapon.

“Fifty is the largest rifle caliber, or at least the largest I’ve heard of.” Gunny replied. “A direct hit from that could take a limb off.” He looked over the rifle again, checking it part by part. “There’s one cartridge left in the chamber, none in the magazine. It looks pretty beat up, but I think this can be secured to a battle saddle. Shore, come here a second.” I watched as Shore trotted up to Gunny, looking over the heavy rifle as Gunny levitated it over his back. He situated it so that the stock rested at the base of Shore’s neck, the rifle laying parallel to Shore’s spine, and with a series of clicks, the rifle was secured. “Does that get in the way of you at all?” Gunny asked.

“No.” Shore replied, experimenting by craning his head back. “I can carry it just fine, but what do you want it for?”

“This would help Hopeville a lot if we could find ammo for it.” Gunny explained, patting down the dead raider for anything else that might’ve been useful; he only found one of the metal apple grenades which he quickly clipped to his security armor. “If nothing else, we might be able to sell it, so long as the ponies in Challenger have any common sense. I know I’d pay a lot to get one of these.”

Leaving Gunny to his looting, I fanned out my wings and rose into the air. Now I could look around within worrying about being sniped out of the sky… thank the Goddesses. I flew upward and stopped when I could see the entirety of the boulder field and beyond. The ground looked clear of enemies, and I couldn’t see movement around the boulders on the ground. However, as I scanned the southern horizon, I could see what looked like two buildings jutting out from the horizon, far beyond the boulder field. Out of curiosity, I checked my Pipbuck’s world map. There was no designation on the map to explain what the site might be, but they were definitely buildings. “Nova, what do you see?” I heard Gracie call through my Pipbuck’s speaker.

Looking away from the structures, I turned on my radio screen and replied, “There’s a pair of houses beyond the boulder field. They’re not Challenger… so I have no idea what they could be.”

Briefly, I heard an inaudible voice through my speaker. “Shore says that he remembers one of the raiders talking about a forward post…” Gracie said, her voice trailing away. I looked back at the buildings with narrowed eyes. That would make sense, because the two raiders here wouldn’t have had to walk too far from their post to come here and set up a camp… damn it…

I snapped my wings shut and dove back down to the ground, landing neatly among the others as Gunny returned with another weapon at his side. It was a sub-machinegun of sorts, and he brought it to me, opening one of my saddlebags and setting it and its ammo inside. Curious, I checked my Pipbuck’s inventory screen, and the item appeared on the list of things I carried. It was a 9mm Sub-machinegun, and my Pipbuck also showed it as a weapon in moderate condition, the bar about half empty… or half full. “A raider outpost…” Gunny said, thinking aloud. “I bet we could hit that outpost and take it out.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Gunny.” Gracie protested.

“Any decently defended outpost is going to have at least a dozen ponies.” Shore added.

“But they’re not well-trained. These ponies are reckless.” Gunny countered. “If we use everything that the Stable taught us about fighting, then we can easily take them. Besides, if we pass them by now, then that leaves them free to harm any other pony that might cross this way. This area’s desolate, sure, but do we really want to give them that opportunity?”

“Your heart’s in the right place Gunny,” I said gently. “but can we really afford the time?”

“If it means saving lives, then yes.” Gunny said, fixing me with a very militant stare. He was really serious about this…

“Maybe we can take a peek and see just how many ponies are there.” I offered, trying to find a medium between fighting and fleeing. “It may not even be a raider post.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Gunny said. “Let’s go.”

He took the lead then, heading towards the nearest exit to the boulder field. With a sigh, Gracie followed, and I guided my brother along with me as we followed after, Shore bringing up the rear of our little fighting force.

*** *** ***

“At least a dozen… and their all wearing the armor. It’s definitely a raider post… it isn’t pretty.” Gunny was peering out from behind our cover as the rest of us made our way to him, and it only took once glance for me to understand what he meant. We had circled around the boulder field and stayed to the left of the buildings as they had come into sight. When we were close enough, we could see that the outpost had been a farm before the war. There were two buildings still intact, one of them being a large blackened barn. The second building was a farmhouse, old and crumbling. They were so close together that a plank was put up between two windows, allowing anypony inside one building to cross over to the other. We had found a place to hide behind the one standing wall of a third building on the property, isolated from the other two structures. The rubble left behind from when the building had been standing was spattered with dry blood, but we had no choice but to crawl over it and take cover.

However, beyond our hiding place, spatters of blood turned into the sight of a massacre… it was the worst thing I had ever seen, and I made damn sure that my brother couldn’t see it, keeping his head tucked against my chest. Along one side of the farmhouse, limp ponies hung by their necks from nooses that had been tied and secured to spikes that lined the roof; each spike was adorned with its own shishkebab of organs. On the ground, against the wall on the same side, were other dead ponies that had been shot full of holes, now laying in a pile of mangled bodies. The lower half of the wall was nearly painted over with their blood and the ground was littered with their insides which had been carved out and strewn about. Even as we looked, I saw a raider pony urinating on the remains… and that was the final straw. Now I was all for Gunny’s plan to wipe these fuckers out and I knew he was ready to do the same.

“This isn’t as bad as what we saw in Hopeville…” Gunny whispered bitterly. “But I’d be ready for more of that inside those buildings.” He looked down at the rubble beneath his hooves, glaring in thought as he devised a strategy for wiping out this outpost. “The first noise we make is going to need to be big and do a lot of damage, because once we announce our presence, the bullets are going to fly.” He must’ve fully developed his plan now, because he looked over to Shore and took the heavy rifle off of his back to gently set it down. “There’s one shot in this thing, and there’s one guard on the roof of the barn.” he explained. “Nova, Shore, you two sneak into the house when the guard’s not looking, and then use this grenade to do as much damage as you can.” As he said this, he undid the grenade from his armor and levitated it over to me. Unfortunately, I’d have to carry it in my teeth… and the thought of carrying a grenade in my mouth was a bit concerning to me. “Just pull the pin and toss the apple. That’s all you need to do.“ At my nod, he continued explaining his plan, saying, “When I hear that explosion, I’ll take out the guard on the roof, and then I’ll join you two inside the farmhouse and we’ll clean it out. After that, we’ll cut across the plank and move into the barn. Grace, once I fire this thing off, I’m going to run so that they wont figure out where my shot came from. But I’d be ready to fight just in case.”

“Yes, of course.” she said, a little nervously, but still levitating her sidearm from its holster.

“Blake, you stay with Gracie, and for Goddesses sake whatever you do, do not look at that house.” I said to my baby brother, who looked so confused and in need of answers that I felt bad giving such direct orders. “I just want you to look at Grace and nowhere else, okay?” At his nod, I smiled as encouragingly as I could, giving him a quick hug.

Gunny was looking at me as I released my brother. His eyes divulged his hesitation at sending me to a fight, but I quickly picked up the grenade in my teeth, nodding before he could say anything about it. Though he had taken over as an impromptu leader so suddenly, he was good at planning offensive maneuvers; that was my opinion anyway. “Alright.” he said, taking my nod as the sign to get this mission kicked off. “There’s a side door on the house that’s concealed from the barn. When the guard turns away, move for the door. Wait for my command…”

Shore and I took up positions next to each other at the end of the wall, crouching down and ready to run. I could see the door that Gunny was speaking of, worn enough that it looked ready to fall down on its own; it was perfect for being able to buck down. “Go!” Gunny whispered loudly, and Shore and I made a beeline for the door, galloping side by side. We made it without alerting our enemies, and Shore and I took up positions on either side of the door. My E.F.S. showed seven red dashes inside the house, and I mouthed the number to Shore who nodded in understanding. I could see Gunny over Shore’s back as he slowly settled the rifle onto the wall, stabilizing it so he could look down the scope. Then Shore and I made eye contact… and our mission began.

Shore stepped in front of the door, rearing around to buck the door down hard with his hind hooves. And as the door came crashing down, I clenched down on the grenade’s pin and tossed my head to hurl the metal apple into the house’s first room. A quick few profanities, and then the explosion ripped the room apart, dust and debris flying through the open door frame. Shore entered first, weapons at the ready, and then I followed him just as the thunderclap of the .50 cal outside lashed across the sky. Now the battle was on, voices yelling to one another inside the house and outside. “This first room is clear.” Shore said to me, stepping into the next room. The first room was some kind of living room, now splattered with the remains of however many raider ponies had been lounging within… good riddance. The room that Shore had stepped into was smaller, used now as a kitchen, but there was nopony inside. He stepped out beside me just in time to see a raider pony step out of a room at the other end of the living room. A sharpened pitchfork was clenched in the earth-pony’s teeth, and with a growl he charged forward. Shore easily intercepted the pony, his laser rifle and multiplas rifle turning the earth-pony into an ashy pile of green mush.

Together we advanced over the gooey remains of the invader and into the room where he came from, having to quickly back up to cover as another invader pony fired wildly at us with some kind of assault rifle. After a pause, I sprang out into the open, finding the raider and activating S.A.T.S. to target his torso. I fired one pair of shots, and they struck their target, the raider dropping his weapon with a cry. I waited until the pony fell over before I lined up another shot with S.A.T.S., and when the pony was still, I fired again, killing him. With this larger room cleared, Shore trotted back into the living room, and I looked at my E.F.S.. More were coming from outside, and there was an entrance corridor on the left side of this room (I assumed it was some kind of pre-war dining room). To my right, my E.F.S. identified two friendly contacts, Shore and Gunny. “I’ll stay with Nova and keep the downstairs cleared. You check upstairs.” I heard Gunny, and a moment later he came trotting up to me. “Nice work on the door.” he complimented quickly before asking, “Any others coming in?”

“Left side.” I answered, pointing at the corridor. “There’s at least three.”

“That table there. Look out.” he said, and I backed away as he used his magic to levitate a large table that had been shoved to a corner of the room. He brought it before us and flipped it onto its side to give us some cover to use, and then he levitated out his assault rifle.

As I joined him behind the table, the door leading into the dining room came crashing down, and as the first raider entered, shouting hideous insults to the walls, Gunny and I rose and opened fire. The first raider went down, but his friends had the common sense to take cover. As Gunny and I crouched to reload our weapons, bullets struck the table as the raider returned fire. Then, Fire Rose was reloaded, the auto loader spitting out the empty magazine, and Gunny had finished reloading his assault rifle. Together, we reared up and fired again. One of the raiders was caught before he could get to cover, and Gunny killed him with several hits to the chest. I fired three pairs of shots, pacing myself to try and actually hit my target, but then I heard a grunt beside me, and I gasped at seeing Gunny as he jerked back and fell behind cover, his assault rifle falling onto the floor. “Gunny! Are you okay?” I cried, calling over the noise of the last raider’s weapon as I ducked behind cover with him.

“I just got hit in the shoulder.” he called back, giving his right foreleg a shake. “I’ll be fine, just focus.” As he collected himself, I reared back over the table, catching the raider with S.A.T.S. before he could duck back behind cover, and I targeted his head. The pair of shots missed though, and he made it to cover. I stood and waited, watching for when the invader would come out to return fire. And then he rose up, and we fired together. My pair of shots had missed again, but only because he had fired slightly quicker than me, and I cried out as I lurched back to hit the wall. Pain blasted through my foreleg as I landed on the floor, and I saw with dismay as blood oozed down my left foreleg and onto the dirty floor. The bullet had gone entirely through my leg, leaving a good-sized hole; my blood specked the wall behind me.

“Yeah! You like the sight of your own blood?” the raider taunted with a laugh as he fired again, his shot striking the wall above.

But in retaliation, Gunny reared back up over the table and fired. I heard the scream of agony as Gunny’s rapid-fire rifle killed the raider, and Gunny finished out the clip, tossing the empty magazine away to reload. “Do you?” Gunny asked back with bitter humor, but then he saw me. “Shit, Nova are you alright?”

“I got hit in the foreleg. I-it isn’t serious.” I said as confidently as I could, rising to my hooves without putting weight on my wounded foreleg. “I’ll need to be in the air to fight though. I’ll be useless on the ground like this.” I felt myself shaking, but I felt I was handling myself a bit better despite the injury.

“If you’re sure…” Gunny said, concerned until I gave him a weak smile. “Are we clear?” he asked. Sitting down, I checked my E.F.S. and gave a nod. There were no red dashes on the compass, showing that the house was clear of hostiles. “Let’s get back outside then. Come here, I’ll help you.”

I hobbled forward, leaning against Gunny’s shoulder as he supported me back into the living room. At about the same time, Shore came trotting down the stairs. “Two more are dead upstairs. There are more voices in the barn though.” he said.

“Head back upstairs and see if you can sneak up on them. Cross that plank into the barn. I’ll draw their attention on the ground so that Nova can hit them from above.” Gunny explained, and Shore left back up the stairs.

Upon getting outside, I fanned my wings and got airborne, hovering over Gunny as he advanced towards the large barn door, closed. According to my E.F.S., there were five raiders inside the barn, and I relayed this to Gunny, who only pointed up with a foreleg. “Hit them from above.” I said to myself, and I winged over to the roof of the barn; I could see the unmoving body of the guard that Gunny had killed with the heavy rifle.

Turning, I saw as Gunny stepped to one side of the large pair of barn doors and used his magic to begin to pull them open. Even before he opened it halfway, bullets tore through the old wood, canceling Gunny’s magic as he lost focus from the noise. But then, inside, I heard cries and the distinguished slicing sounds of lasers. Shore had made it inside and had successfully snuck up on the remaining invaders inside, and with the distraction that Shore made for the raiders, Gunny stepped to the front of the barn, making ready to go in with guns blazing… but he stopped. He stood absolutely still, frozen in place, and I didn’t know why until I heard something rumble to life from within the barn. Something was wrong… because Gunny was beginning to back up. And suddenly, the barn doors flung open wide with magic and a unicorn stallion came charging out of the barn. The deep red unicorn, aside from the red and black armor, wore a metal helmet that protected his head and neck and concealed his face, and at his side, a chainsaw coated in blood revved up with an ominous roar. Gunny crouched down and aimed, opening fire on the chainsaw-wielding pony with his assault rifle, several bullets setting sparks against the metal helmet where they struck the head and the neck. But the pony charged through the gunfire, heedless of it, and Gunny had to move, diving away as the chainsaw sliced across where he had once stood. The unicorn followed him, crying out in bloodlust as he charged again, madly swinging his sinister weapon.

The concept of a chainsaw maniac was frightening. What kind of psychopath would want to kill a pony like that??… This pony… he wasn’t a pony at all. He was a monster, a Black Blood Raider that killed for the hell of it and killed in the most gruesome of all possible ways… FOCUS! I had let one pony down and left him injured because of the thoughts that came from my fears, and I wasn’t going to let Gunny down; he wouldn’t have a second chance if he was caught. I angled down in a dive, lining myself up for a shot, and I activated S.A.T.S. to target the chainsaw pony’s rear right leg. I fired two pairs of shots, the first missing, but the second tearing through the pony’s leg. He staggered, but he didn’t even look at me as I flew by to swing around for another pass. He didn’t even seem to notice his wound, and he made another charge for Gunny with similar speed and aggression.

His ignorance towards his wound alarmed me just as much, and I saw him swing at Gunny again. My heart stopped in that moment, only beating again when I saw Gunny leap away to put some distance between himself and the maniac. But he still stumbled, nearly falling, and I saw with alarm that a section of his armor on his left side had been ripped open, and blood was oozing out of the hole; he had been grazed. That familiar feeling of adrenaline begun to pump through me, and I dashed down in another dive. Focusing in without S.A.T.S., I lined myself up for another shot and fired, the pair of shots striking the chainsaw pony in the right side. The pony staggered once again and this time, he turned the chainsaw in the air and used his magic to send it up after me. I nearly collided with the saw, its jagged teeth waiting for me, but I lurched back up, flying sideways as I shot past the machine. I halted in the air and wheeled back around for another pass when I saw that the chainsaw pony was stopped in place, looking past Gunny to where Gracie had come out. Grace was firing her sidearm at the chainsaw pony, each shot sending sparks off of his helmet as she used S.A.T.S. to target that area. She was providing a diversion, trying to lure the psychopath to her; Gunny looked weaker and in a lot of pain, and so I knew why. But as the chainsaw pony charged past Gunny, and Gracie bolted to lure him away, I saw with shock as the maniac kept running… straight to where Blake was poking his head out!

I screamed, my lungs burning as I charged forward, ignoring pain and beating my wings as fast as they would let me. Tunnel vision… I could only see the chainsaw pony in front of me as I rapidly closed the distance between us. And just when he was about to run around the wall where my baby brother had taken shelter, I crashed headfirst into the chainsaw pony with all my strength, my wounded foreleg erupting in pain as the two of us tumbled across the grass. The impact had forced the chainsaw pony to loose his focus on his weapon, and now he was finally unarmed as the two of us toppled over one another. We came to a stop well away from Blake, as was my intention, but now that I had gotten this monster away from my baby brother, my pain came back to me stronger than before. I gave a gasp, breathing through clenched teeth as I tried to suppress the hurt in my foreleg. But then a fresh piercing pain shot through my chest, and I cried out in agony, my eyes coming open to see the chainsaw pony standing over me. His grimy hoof was planted against my chest, and I noticed that he was wearing something with spikes all around it. An identical item adorned his other forehoof, looking like a spiked pony shoe, and stepping over me, pinning me underneath his weight, he lowered his metal helmet next to my face. I could hear the psychopath’s breathing inside, and his voice rose to speak like a deep tide of hate. “Now you die, cunt…” Then he yanked his hoof off of my chest, the spikes slipping out of my flesh as he raised the spiked shoe up for the killing blow.

But then, a gunshot, the loud crack of a rifle. A hole ripped out the metal helmet, blood and flecks of brain matter flying out of it, and the maniac pony fell off of me and onto the grass, dead. There was black seeping into my vision as I sought to find who was responsible for nailing that monster… ponies from Hopeville perhaps, coming to our aid by the captain’s orders… but the six ponies I saw advancing towards me weren’t wearing Stable security armor… they almost looked like raiders, but they weren’t wearing that armor either. They only wore what looked like worn leather and as the squad of six advanced passed me one of them, and earth pony stallion with a rifle in his mouth, stopped beside me, looking me over curiously before looking ahead again and raising his weapon. “Stop where you are or I’ll shoot!” the stallion warned somepony else through the firing bit.

His voice was hazy to my ears, dimmed, and the voice that replied was no better. “I’m not a raider damn you! Let me go to my friend!” The next moment, I saw Gracie as she skidded to a halt beside me, immediately levitating her medical saddlebags off of her back and setting them on the ground to fish out a healing potion. Then I couldn’t see anymore. Too much mental trauma, coupled with my very painful injuries, left me unable to fight back against passing out, and I slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing I heard coming from Gracie as she told me to hang on.

*** *** ***

“You ponies are crazy, challenging an entire outpost like you did. I’m surprised none of you died.” a mare’s voice said.

“It was the first time we’ve seen what they really did.” a stallion replied. “We saw the house… and then I saw what was inside the barn… all of those corpses chopped to bits… we couldn’t let this go.”

“Well yeah… but look at your group. Two of you are injured and your foal is shaking. You shouldn’t have come here.” another stallion said.

“It was my idea.” a third stallion spoke out. Even through the fog of my mind, I could hear the tone of regret his voice took. “I pulled them all into it because I wanted to kill the bastards.”

“Well, we’d be lying if we said that what you did didn’t help.” a second mare spoke up. “Butcher was a psychopath… we lost dozens to him… my little filly too. That’s why I’m particularly glad to see that this young colt is alive after your ordeal.”

“He was a mad-dog killer. When he was alive, I was surprised that he was able to lead an outpost.” a third mare replied. “Between his bloodlust and being hyped up on chems, it was discouraging to know that he was behind the attacks on our town.”

By now, I found the strength to open my eyes. It felt strange, waking up from having passed out, and it was difficult to move. My entire body felt like it was asleep and my hearing and sight only slowly improved. As I stirred, I saw that I was laying on my right side, my left foreleg having been dressed with healing bandages. My head was tucked against my chest, and so I could also see the assorted bandages that covered where the chainsaw pony had struck me with his spiked pony shoes. As I begun to recollect my memories, I dragged my Pipbuck foreleg across the dirt until I could bring my Pipbuck to my eyes. The medical screen was displayed, and the left foreleg of the digital Pegasus was outlined with a dashed line while the torso was flashing, showing that it recognized the injury to my chest as well. “You’re friend’s stirring.” I heard a stallion say. The voices were getting clearer now, my hearing nearly coming back full.

“Nova!” I heard a higher voice cry, and I saw as my brother hurried over to me, instantly bombarding me with nuzzling.

I gratefully accepted his embrace, so glad to see him unharmed; that made it much easier to push away the memory of that chainsaw maniac chasing after him. “Are you okay?” I asked hoarsely, having to clear my throat.

“I’m okay. I’m not hurt.” Blake assured me, looking me in the eyes. “But you are…”

“I’ll be fine.” I interrupted gently, nuzzling him again. “You didn’t look at the house did you?” I was preparing for him to confirm that he did, but he shook his head; more relief. “Thank you.”

“Drink this.” Gracie stepped around to come into my sight. By her side was an open healing potion, and she guided it to me so that I could drink. I chugged it down, feeling the immediate effect of the potion as the pain of my wounds eased, and she set the empty bottle aside. Looking down at my foreleg, she used her magic to gently pull back the bandage, checking on the injury’s condition. It was already beginning to seal, the flesh regenerating before my eyes before Grace covered it again with the bandage. She similarly checked my chest, nodding at the progress of the mend, and then without a word she trotted away to check on Gunny.

I could see my friend likewise laying on his side, a pad of his armor removed so that Grace could tend to the wound he had sustained from the chainsaw. It was a hideous gash, and I had to imagine that it had been worse before I woke. Though the chainsaw hadn’t fatally mauled him, it had easily eaten through his security armor and carved a gash down his side. Grace was currently applying some sort of disinfectant to the wound while Gunny was talking to a pony I hadn’t see before. The pony was a unicorn stallion, rugged and looking very dirty. His orange coat was covered with scars left behind from healed wounds, and he also wore an eye patch on his right eye… a strange accessory, but one that required no explanation; there was a scar that angled from his forehead over his right eye and across his cheek. “So where the hell did you five come from anyway? It seems kind of strange that you’d come from Challenger or some place farther out southeast.” the orange stallion asked.

“We’re actually trying to get to Challenger.” Gunny answered him. “We came from Hopeville.”

“Seems like you’ve got a knack for heading into Black Blood territory then.” the orange unicorn remarked with a smirk. “Wish we had that kind of knack, but Proudspire is in a hell of a mess right now.”

“Proudspire?” Shore inquired from his resting place near Gunny.

“That’s where we come from.” the orange unicorn explained. “It ain’t really proud anymore though, not after the past two weeks.”

“What’s the problem?” Gunny asked.

“We’ve been getting hit again and again by the Black Blood.” the unicorn replied grimly. “It was generally quiet up until about two weeks ago. Then the attacks started happening. At least once a day, a band of Black Blood would show up and start shooting. We’ve been holding them back easily enough, but it’s due largely in part to the fact that we got a supply shipment from Challenger that was brought down from the Equestrian heartland before the attacks began. Medical supplies, food, ammo… but now the Black Blood are cutting us off from the other settlements, and we’re going to start running out of supplies soon. If that happens, we’ll have to abandon the town.”

“There isn’t another way for you to get supplies anymore?” Shore asked.

The unicorn stallion shook his head. “They’re spaced so that they can intercept any caravan that tries to get into Proudspire, and now they’re chipping away at us.”

“That’s awful.” Gracie said, sounding genuinely sympathetic.

“We made it out because they still haven’t completely trapped us.” the unicorn stallion said. “At least not yet anyway.”

“Why did you come out?” I asked with a cough, catching the stallion’s attention.

He smirked at me. “Because of the commotion you lot were making over here.” he answered. “One of our spotters saw the guns blazing at this outpost, so we hightailed it out of Proudspire to see what was happening. We were hoping that someone was putting a dent in these bastards… turns out our hope wasn’t misplaced. That’s why I’d like to ask you lot a personal favor.”

“What’s that?” Gunny asked.

“Well, y’all seem to hate the Black Blood as much as we do, so I’d like to ask if you’d come with me and my squad to Proudspire so you can speak to our leader. She’d definitely appreciate extra help, especially since she’s finally organizing a counteroffensive.”

Gunny and I exchanged looks. This would be a major diversion from our objective, one that I wasn’t certain we could afford. I said, “We’re really hoping to get to Challenger within the next day or two… I’m not sure if we can help.”

The unicorn stallion looked discouraged. “You ponies are well equipped, and we know you can handle yourselves since you took out an entire Goddess-damned outpost by yourselves. Hell, this outpost was a third of the problem for Proudspire as it is. We need ponies like you to help us push back the raiders so we can reestablish contact with the other settlements. Please, we really need your help, any help you can offer… even if its just to sell something you don’t need.” At this point, he was practically begging for aid.

Proudspire, a settlement I had only heard of from Lucky Hallion, seemed like it was in an even worse spot than Hopeville. But for me, there was a personal addition to the equation. One of this stallion’s ponies had saved me from getting pummeled with spiked shoes. I would’ve died if it hadn’t been for their intervention, and then my brother might’ve died as well. If nothing else, then at least I had a debt to pay off. “I’ll come and help.” I declared, and the unicorn visibly brightened. “You or one of your squad saved my hide back there… the way I see it is that I owe you a debt that…” I began explaining before one of the Proudspire ponies shouted triumphantly, cutting me off.

A green earth pony stallion with a short black mane and tail, armed with a rifle that had its own firing bit, grinned wide, saying, “That was me! Totally me! Called it, called it! Uh… err, ahem… you’re welcome.”

I couldn’t help but giggle. “So like I said, because of that, the least I can do is try and help you. I owe you all that.”

“I’d appreciate it, and I know that Proudspire would appreciate it. Hell, you’re a Pegasus too. I’m willing to bet anything that you could make a world of difference for our little town.”

“If my big sister’s going, then so am I.” Blake protested from beside me. “And no stranger ponies are going to tell me not to.”

“I guess if Nova thinks it’s a good idea, then I’m in too.” Gunny said, looking over at me with a thin smile.

“Maybe I can be of some help as well.” Gracie thought aloud. “Do you have wounded in Proudspire?”

The orange unicorn nodded somberly. “Plenty. If you’ve got medical training, you’d be a great relief to a lot of ponies.”

“I am unsure of what I’d be able to help with, but I guess I’m in too.” Shore said with a nod, and that finished our group; we were all going.

“Hot damn!” the orange stallion whinnied, rearing onto his hind legs just like the rest of his squad as they celebrated.

After they calmed themselves, Grace politely said, “I just need some more time here to let these two heal up properly. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“No problem, no problem. We can go loot the farmhouse while we wait, see what kind of stuff we can scrounge up.” the orange unicorn answered affirmatively before gathering up his squad and leading them away to go looting.

I took the free time to embrace Blake again, and he snuggled up against me so that I could put a wing over him. That battle was scary… very scary… and to be honest, I was surprised that we had survived. The lack of training was obvious in the Black Blood Raiders, and that was ultimately what let us gain the upper hoof in the fight. While I had never been professionally trained by Stable security, both Gunny and Shore had been. They knew how to handle themselves, and against the Black Blood, it was all about keeping your thoughts together and remembering your training. Even for somepony like myself, my experience allowed my skill to exceed most of the raiders we had encountered in the past two days, and so that included me just as much as Gunny or Shore. But despite our varying levels of training, a big part of me thought about the presence of luck in that previous fight. Luck had seen to our sneaking up on the outpost, luck had seen to me being able to toss in that grenade without a mishap, luck had seen us all alive in the end… maybe, maybe not.

I shifted to avoid laying on top of my carbine, and I checked my Pipbuck’s medical screen. The torso on the computerized Pegasus was no longer flashing. Likewise, the left foreleg was no longer a dashed line, but a solid illustration; there were no other medical alerts displayed on my screen. With a breath, I hoisted myself up to my hooves and stood as I waited for the feeling to return to my limbs. “Are you okay?” Blake asked, rising with me.

“Yes. I feel better.” I answered before slowly making my way to Gunny. He was still laying on his side, looking out towards the barn with an empty healing potion bottle beside him. “How are you feeling?” I asked him.

“Physically… better.” Gunny said, his tone instantly making me worry. He confessed right away though, confirming my rising suspicion. “I’m sorry about dragging you into here.”

“We all wanted to take this outpost down.” I replied, unsure about what he meant.

“I know, but I don’t think I listened to your warnings enough about avoiding this place. I mean, you got hurt, your brother was nearly killed… I feel terrible about it.” Gunny did look down, but there wasn’t a need for that.

“I know… but we all made it and we watched out for each other just like before.” I pointed out, putting a hoof on his neck.

“It was still dangerous to you… to all of us… I think I’m trying to play the captain’s role when I’m still not as experienced. Hell, I don’t even think I’m cut out for a role like that.” Gunny said, scoffing at himself.

“You’re good at leading.” I encouraged. “I’d follow your orders just as much as I’d follow the captain’s.”

“That good huh?” Gunny asked with a doubt that sung to the world.

“Yes.” I replied firmly. “You’ve got experience, you’re brave, strong, you know how to control yourself in a fight. If I was the captain, I’d think very highly of you, and even though I’m not, I still think you’re a good leader.” Gunny was silent, nodding slightly as he listened to my words. “If nothing else Gunny, just remember that we took out this band of bastards in their little fortress. That should mean something.”

This won a chuckle from Gunny. “Yeah, we shot them up proper didn’t we?”

We both turned at a crash in the house. The Proudspire ponies were having a jolly old time smashing up the farmhouse that once belonged to their enemies, and I swear I heard one of them singing, the downbeat of each phrase of words being emphasized with another smash as one pony or another destroyed another piece of furniture or some other item in the house. But then, I saw an orange light beginning to flicker through one of the open holes that was once a window. One by one, the Proudspire ponies exited the house through the open doorframe, all laden down with saddlebags full of goodies and leather armor decorated with weapons. They looked ready to fight a whole army of raiders, and that appearance was strengthened by the fact that the orange light grew into a fire that burned within the living room of the house. “Just an insurance thing.” the orange unicorn stallion said with a wink… or a blink of his one eye. “ We got the barn and the farmhouse alight. Wouldn’t want the Black Blood setting up here again.” After a pause, he looked between us. “Are y’all about ready to go?” he asked us, looking around.

Gunny shifted and carefully got to his hooves as Grace looked over his wound. It was much better than before, now mostly closed thanks to the healing potion he had drank. Gracie also quickly checked my own wounds, now entirely gone, and she discarded the used bandages, giving an okay. “Alright.” the orange stallion said with a nod, watching as Gracie packed up her things. When she was ready, he trotted off, his squad following. “Follow us.” he beckoned. “We’ll take you to Proudspire.”

My brother fell in next to me as we all begun to move. But before we had even moved a few pony lengths forward, Gunny suddenly called for us to stop. One and all, we turned to watch as he approached the single wall of the third building of the farm, and he levitated out the .50 caliber rifle from where it had laid within the rubble during the fight. Even though it was empty, I could see the logic behind carrying it along; we might need it later. “This is our insurance thing.” Gunny commented with a smirk as he trotted over to Shore and secured the heavy rifle to the science pony’s armor.

“Damn.” the orange unicorn stallion said, looking with wide eyes onto the heavy rifle, most of his squad doing the same. “You plan on hunting an Ursa Minor with that thing?”

“Just raiders.” Gunny answered, his smirk unwavering. And with that, we finally left the outpost behind, letting it burn to the ground like it deserved.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Travel Light - What you lack in raw power you make up for in grace. When wearing light armor, light battle saddles, or no gear, you move 10% faster.

Chapter 6: A Matter of Experience

"I could use your help, but if you refuse… I’ll just take matters into my own hooves.”

BLAM!... BLAM!

Gunfire from a powerful rifle rang across my ears, but our escort of the six Proudspire ponies didn’t stop trotting. The fire was coming from a balcony built onto the top of the metal barrier that made a section of Proudspire’s circular wall. On the balcony was an earth-pony looking through the scope of a sniper rifle that had been fastened to the balcony railing by a gliding swivel mount. From the Black Blood Forward Post (as my Pipbuck had labeled it on my map), we had continued southeast until early evening. Careful to avoid shirking my scouting duties further, I had taken regular intervals to fly up and search the area for threats or locations. Fortunately we had not come across any more raiders, contrary to what our six new companions had thought, and instead, Proudspire had taken shape. Proudspire was composed of two rings of two-story buildings with which a series of planks and metal sheets connected each building together from the roofs, allowing easy access to each building’s rooftop. All of Proudspire’s buildings were surrounded by a tall, metal wall. This wall served a double purpose, the first being to act as a defensive barrier. It was tall enough that it would easily prevent enemies from marching into the town. The second purpose the wall served was to allow Proudspire’s guards to walk on top of it. The walkway that made the top of the wall was lined with balconies, giving guards various stations to watch out over the wasteland. Proudspire’s buildings were entirely metal, made from metal sheets that were connected together; hell, the entire town was made from metal. But despite its solid build, even I could see the toll that the constant attacks had taken on the little settlement. The walls were spotted with bullet holes and sections of the metal were charred and dented showing where explosions had damaged it more severely. Spaced along the dirt were small blast craters and scorch marks, landmarks of previous engagements, and the corpses of dead raiders decorated the fields, their stench tainting the air. It looked like a war zone, and Proudspire itself looked weakened and tired from it.

“Chalk up another one for me!” the earth-pony mare called as we approached Proudspire’s metal gate.

“That puts you at the top of the list! Don’t let it go to your head!” another voice called back, to which the earth-pony sniper let out a laugh.

“We make a game out of how many raiders we smoke.” the green Proudspire stallion leaned over to whisper to me with a chuckle. He had introduced himself to me as Cross, one of Proudspire’s rifleponies. He thought very highly of his skill with his rifle, which he identified as a thirty ot six battle rifle. He also claimed that it was his rifle that gave him his cutie mark, a rifle clip holding eight rifle rounds. So far, what I could make of his personality was a mix between over-energetic tendencies towards battle and a will to get the job done and kill the bad guys. His often eager discussion of battle and previous kills made me a bit uneasy, and he seemed to think that everypony shared that enthusiasm. But still, this was the stallion that had saved me from Butcher, so he was already an acquaintance of mine.

“This is Redfield!” the orange unicorn stallion called up as we stopped before the gate. “We’re back, open the gate!”

A second later, a unicorn peeked over the wall and down at us. “Redfield? Who the hell are those ponies?” the dark pink mare with a violet mane demanded.

“We picked them up at the Black Blood outpost to the northwest.” Redfield answered, briefly rubbing a hoof over his eye patch. “They took out that post by themselves and now they’re here to help us out. Maybe now we can put the real hurt to those bastards.”

“Well damn, it’s about time we had some good news.” the mare said with a snort. “I’ll go get Kayla. Open the gate!”

As she disappeared from view, the gate begun to shake, and then it slid across the dirt to disappear behind the wall. Redfield took the lead with his squad encircling us as they guided us into the town. We walked past the gate and onto a dirt path, flanked by four buildings, two on each side. This path dipped down into a circular dirt clearing that made the town’s center which was surrounded by a ring of eight two-story buildings. Even as we approached the town center, ponies were rather cautiously appearing from behind those buildings, looking at us with very wide and curious eyes. Mares kept their foals close with them, and stallions looked us over with firm and studious stares. None of them entered the courtyard however, and that made me follow their example, making sure that Blake was close to me.

As Redfield and his squad halted around us, I spotted a trio of ponies exit a building on my right. One pony was a very young light blue earth pony mare with a flowing sapphire mane and tail. She was so young in fact that she looked only a little taller than Blake, and perhaps only a little bit older. The second, walking by her left flank, was a beige colored unicorn stallion with a similarly colored mane and tail, walking with poise and composure. The third pony, walking by the little mare’s right flank, was a huge earth-pony stallion, powerfully built and looking big enough to rival Gunny for brute strength. A heavy machine gun was built into the right side of his steel plate armor which covered his entire body except for his head and neck, showing his short black mane, his dark blue coat, and his similarly colored eyes. To add to his overall intimidation level, he also bore a trio of parallel gashes across his neck, scabbed over as permanent scars.

Stopping before us, the three looked us over with their own stares of varying character. The big earth-pony was nearly glaring while the other stallion was calm and curious, perhaps a little haughty. The little mare however, was smiling as Redfield approached her. “Ma’am,” he began, dipping his head to her formally. “as you know, my squad and I left Proudspire earlier today to check out the Black Blood outpost to the northwest.” The little light blue mare nodded, very attentive. “When we got there, we found that the outpost had come under attack and was destroyed. These five outsiders we have with us were the ponies responsible for its destruction, and when we spoke with them, they volunteered to come with us and help our town against the raider attacks.”

“How destroyed was the outpost?” the little mare piped up; how destroyed?…

“Very destroyed.” Redfield replied, winning a snicker from Cross and the other members of the squad. “When we arrived, there wasn’t much left. These five ponies did most of the hard work by the time we got there. Cross killed Butcher, however, and then we looted the place and burned it down. They won't be using it again.”

“With Butcher dead,” the unicorn stallion observed, obviously pleased. “the rest of the raiders around Proudspire should back down.”

“They’ll still come after us.” Redfield replied with a frown, as if he thought that the unicorn’s observation was a dull and stupid one. “But either way, they got a dent put into them that they wont forget. With one of the Black Blood’s commanders gone, that’ll let them know that we aren't screwing around.”

“There are still other leaders though.” the unicorn stallion said warningly. “And the Black Blood wont let this mistake happen again so easily.”

“Then we’ll just have to come up with other strategies.” Redfield said. “And that’s what these five ponies are here to help us with.” Turning to us, he pointed a foreleg at Gunny. “You seem to be the one in charge, friend. Could you tell Kayla a little bit about yourself and your companions?”

The little light blue mare looked over at Gunny and smiled encouragingly, but just when he took a step forward to approach, the armored earth-pony stallion stepped in front of Kayla, making her squeak in alarm. “I’m sorry, but I cannot allow you to approach Kayla so well armed. You may speak where you stand.” the earth-pony said, his voice as deep as thunder; he looked tense, as if expecting Gunny to attack.

“Um, sorry.” Gunny said, a little baffled as he tried to make eye-contact with Kayla. “I’m Gunny. Behind me is Nova and her little brother Blake. Then the black stallion is Shore, and the red mare is Rosemary Grace.”

“Where did you come from?” Kayla asked curiously as she stepped around her big earth-pony guardian.

In all honesty, I felt that we were talking to a filly. She was smaller, looked younger… and she didn’t have a cutie mark! We were definitely speaking to a filly, a filly who lead an entire settlement, and Gunny, looking to have realized this as well, replied with as gentle a voice as he could (which still wasn’t very gentle). “We came from Hopeville. We…” Gunny was interrupted from a sudden round of surprised chatter among the citizens that were watching the conversation.

“Hopeville was destroyed by the Black Blood.” the unicorn stallion said, giving a smirk that told me he thought of us as the worst liars in the wasteland. “Surely you can’t expect us to believe this?”

“Well we weren’t from Hopeville originally.” Gunny explained, looking back at me. I knew he didn’t want to tell them that we were from a Stable; I was hesitant my first time too. But if we were going to help these ponies, then we couldn’t be keeping secrets from them, let alone their leaders. I nodded, and Gunny looked back at the unicorn. “We came from a Stable to the southwest of here, very far away. We were attacked by invaders, which I’m assuming are these Black Blood Raiders. Half of our population was killed off in the Stable and the rest of us abandoned it. After that, we traveled and after a time in the wasteland we found Hopeville. From the sound of things, we arrived just after the Black Blood Raiders hit the town. We did find the previous residents, killed and left in one of the buildings, and so we cleared the town and secured it as our new home. Two hundred ponies live there right now.”

Amidst increasing chatter among the Proudspire ponies, the unicorn stallion lowered his head down and whispered to Kayla. She listened for a moment and then asked, “And all of you are from the Stable?”

“Yes. That’s right.” Gunny replied. “In the Stable, I served as part of Stable security. Gracie is a medical pony, and a damned good one. Shore’s a brilliant scientist, good with computers and the like, and Nova’s an artist. She makes music and writes stories.”

I saw with a blush that Kayla had taken particular interest in the concept of music and literature. Of course, I knew that I didn’t look the part of an artisan (what with my rifle and my pistol). However, I hadn’t had the time to work on music during my four days in the wasteland, and to be honest, I didn’t expect that I would have the time, at least not for a very long time. “That’s really cool.” Kayla said, smiling. “I’m glad you came to Proudspire.” The unicorn lowered his head down to whisper to her again, and she nodded, asking, “How long have you been in the wasteland?”

“Four days.” Gunny answered. “We traveled for two days and found Hopeville. Now were just trying to get the town secured.”

“That settlement did serve as a point of trade for the southeast.” the unicorn stallion commented. “It would be good for all the settlements if the town could be brought back onto the map again, especially considering that it’s the closest town to the Equestrian heartland in this region.”

“That’s what we’re working on.” Gunny said with a nod. “We we’re actually on our way to Challenger to try and get some supplies and maybe even some additional security. Our captain’s certain that the Black Blood will try and hit the town if they find out that it’s up and running again. We also don’t know if they’ve found out about Hopeville’s reestablishment or not, but we’re not taking chances, not after what we’ve been through.”

“I’d gladly help you.” Kayla piped up enthusiastically, smiling until the unicorn stallion whispered in her ear again. “Um… but we’re not doing very well ourselves.”

“Then perhaps we could help each other?” Gunny asked carefully, to which Kayla nodded vigorously.

“Wait.” the unicorn stallion interrupted. “You five ponies are total strangers. You are in no position to deal with another town like you propose. The interests of Proudspire cannot hang on the hooves of outsiders.”

“They did a damn sight more for us today than you’ve done for us in the past two weeks.” Redfield countered hotly, making the beige unicorn glare. “They went through a lot back there, and now they’re volunteering to help. I think that they deserve a chance to get a little fruit out of the situation as well.”

“I would advise that you be careful around them Kayla.” the beige unicorn warned. “Even if they speak about helping Proudspire, they are still strangers.”

“I think it’s a great idea to let them help.” Kayla said, her high spirits undiminished by her advisor’s interruption. “And if they help us, then we can help them because we’ll be stronger. So what is it that we could help you with after you help us?”

“Begging pardon… uh, ma’am, but I’d rather help out around here before I make any kind of negotiations of my own.” Gunny said to Kayla.

She shook her head. “No no, I’m being serious. What could I do for you later on?”

“Well, since you insist on me telling you…” Gunny mumbled; it was clear that he wasn’t at ease giving requests to total strangers, let alone a young filly. “What Hopeville needs more than anything else is other ponies. Ponies to trade, to fight, to help our ponies get acquainted with the wasteland. So really, if you could lend a couple of willing ponies to come back with us to Hopeville when we move on, then that would be good enough for me.”

“Yeah I can do that.” Kayla said, smiling wide before the beige unicorn whispered in her ear. When he pulled his head back up, she then asked, “So, how are you going to help us out now that you’re here?”

“We all have our specialties.” Gunny replied. “Perhaps if we got a tour of your town, then we could find where to work.”

“Okay.” Kayla said, nodding with that same smile. “Somepony can take you to the important buildings in town, and then when your done, you can come and sleep in my quarters over there.” she finished, pointing at the building she had exited from to see us in the courtyard.

“Kayla, that is not a good idea.” her earth pony guardian voiced deeply.

“Why not?” Kayla protested to him, having to crane her head back to look up at him. “They’re really cool ponies, and they say that they can help us. I trust them, and I think everypony in Proudspire should. Besides, you sleep in my quarters. Redfield sleeps there too. It’s not like there’s going to be any fighting.”

“We’ll see. So long as they don’t break any of the rules, then I’ll stay silent and follow your words. But if they try and bring harm to you, or anypony in Proudspire, I will act.” the big earth pony said, glaring over at Gunny. While Gunny didn’t back down or even flinch at that stare, only looking back at him with slightly narrowed eyes, the deep-voiced warning was something that I would definitely take heed to. I wasn’t interested in challenging a pony who was as big as, if not bigger than, Gunny was.

“So they’ll stay with me when they’re done with the tour.” Kayla declared. “Then we can eat and I’ll let them make themselves at home.”

“As you wish.” the earth pony said.

“I can take them around town and give them the basics.” Redfield offered, to which Kayla nodded. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“I’ll be back in my quarters. Just take them there when you’re ready.” Kayla said before she departed, her guard and her… advisor… following after her.

“Cross, take the squad to their positions on the wall.” I heard Redfield order. “We’re still on duty despite our little adventure at the outpost.” With Cross and the squad leaving the courtyard, Redfield approached Gunny. “Alright then friends, let’s give you the grand tour of our musty little home here.”

I would keep myself from saying it aloud, but I did think that Hopeville was in a bit better condition than this town. Proudspire was purely metal and dirt, and both of those were worn with age. The metal buildings looked sturdy enough, but the signs of wear upon them were plainly obvious. Upon brown iron foundations built into the ground, the metal sheets that made the floors, walls, and roofs of the Proudspire buildings were rusting in places and in dire need of repair. This was the same through most of the town; there was just old metal. Some metal plates were decorated with white paint to show what function each building in the inner circle served. The buildings themselves were not spaced far apart, and the ponies walking in between them were confined to only allow maybe two through at a time should they have walked side by side. “How do ponies get around in Proudspire?” I heard Grace ask as Redfield turned and trotted to one of the buildings nearer the entrance gate.

“All of the buildings that make up the interior ring have doors on them.” Redfield explained as we stopped at the entrance of the first building. The white paint that decorated the metal above the door frame labeled this building as the Proudspire Saloon. “Each building’s second floor has a stairwell that leads to the rooftops. And the houses that make the outer ring of the town all have stairs along their walls that also lead to the roofs. The rooftops have built-in hatches so ponies can go into their homes from above too. It’s a bit of a mess, but we’re used to it. It’s how Proudspire’s been for all its years.”

“It’s an old town then?” Shore inquired. “It makes sense given the age of this metal.”

“That’s putting it nicely.” Redfield said with a chuckle. “But we actually don’t know how old the town is. I know my parents lived here, and then their parents before them… after that I don’t know. None of us do. But to be honest, I think it’s for the best that we don’t. Some things are best left to history, and that’s history that we don’t need to worry about.” I couldn’t help but prick my ears at that statement; that sounded familiar… “So this here’s the saloon, and then across the road there is the diner.” Redfield continued. “Any of you get hungry, feel free to come down to either of these buildings. The food’s pretty good, the drinks are cold, and the prices are fair. Sheila cooks. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all that needs to be known about it. Sheila can fill you in on any other questions you might have about these two joints.”

Next, Redfield guided us to the building next to the saloon, the second building of the inner ring. “This is our training facility where the guards we have learn to shoot and then continue to practice. We use to have daily routines with practicing, but because of our situation, we’ve had to cut it to one training day every three to four days. And sometimes those are interrupted by Black Blood assault teams. They have a knack for pulling off attacks when we’re training.”

“I might be interested in using that.” Gunny commented.

“It’s not like you’re out of practice.” Gracie remarked with a laugh.

“True, but this fifty cal might come in handy somewhere down the road, and I’ve only fired one shot with it.” Gunny explained.

“That beast?” Redfield asked, looking at the large rifle strapped to Shore’s back and giving a good-humored laugh. “That’ll take apart the entire back wall if we even have any ammo for it… actually I’m sure it’ll be fine to use. You’re welcome to it next time we have a training meet-up.”

Moving along, Redfield lead us to the next building of the inner ring. “This is our ammo press.” Redfield explained. “It’s the only piece of pre-war tech that we have in this town. It’s served us well while we’ve had scrap and powder. But we’re pretty much done on both of those because of the raiders. And to make things worse, the press itself has stopped working as well as the terminal. What little bit of supplies we have that we can make extra bullets from is just sitting there right now.”

Even before I looked and saw, I could tell that both Shore and Gunny would take interest in technology like that. I couldn’t blame them for it though. The existence of a machine that made ammo was rather interesting and it sounded like it could still be of some use. “And it’s controlled by a terminal?” Shore asked.

“Yeah… was. I think some of the internal components are fried on it though.” Redfield answered with a sigh. “We should’ve had somepony specialize in caring for the damn thing, and for the press, but we didn’t. We just know how to use it, not fix it.”

“Where did it come from?” I asked curiously.

“We dragged it down from an Ironshod Firearms Facility in the Equestrian heartland.” Redfield said with a smirk. “It took weeks to bring it back, but we got that bad boy hooked up and kept it running for a good long time. Now some of the major parts are dead and it’s just collecting rust.”

“I think I might be of some assistance.” Shore declared, Gunny also voicing his ability to tinker with machines.

“If you want to help, I won’t stop you.” Redfield said. “If it gets fixed, we can put the rest of the scrap we have left into making a few more bullets to help take out the bad guys. We can use every bullet we can get.”

“Do you have a clinic?” Gracie asked politely from beside me.

“That’s actually our next stop.” Redfield said, pointing at the next building to the right with a foreleg. As we approached the clinic, he said, “The purpose of this building is obvious. Unfortunately, we’ve got quite a few ponies in there, and our town doc was killed in one of the attacks. One of the Black Blood bastards lobbed a grenade over the wall and it caught the doctor outside his clinic. Luck was what killed him, not skill.”

“Do you have anypony else that knows medicine?” Gracie inquired.

“We have a mare working there sure, but she only knows how to make sure that the wounded get their healing potions, which we’re pretty much out of. Wounds go untreated simply because she lacks the skill to execute more advanced procedures, taking lead out, dressing wounds, setting bones. She does her best, tries hard, but it ain’t enough.” Redfield explained lowly.

“Well then I know where I’ll be whenever Kayla allows me to work.” Gracie said with determination. “I don’t have a lot of medical supplies, but I’ll use whatever I have to if it means getting those wounded ponies back into the streets.”

“We’d all be grateful.” Redfield said humbly. “There’s friends in there, family members. The sooner they’re patched up, the sooner we can regain some lost morale.”

“It must be hard on that mare.” I commented, looking at the entrance of the clinic.

“It is, but she’s bound determined to do the best.” Redfield replied to me. “Maybe she just needs a little help is all.”

We moved on to the fifth building of the ring, labeled as the armory. “This is where our spare firepower sleeps when it ain’t being used.” Redfield explained. “We’re doing okay on this end of town because of the Black Blood’s frequent donations of weapons and ammo. But we could always use more. Hell, there’s no such thing as too many weapons.”

“I agree.” Gunny said with a smirk. “What kind of firepower do you have here?”

“Nothing too awfully special I’m afraid.” Redfield replied. “Aside from the raider weaponry, which is usually in piss-poor condition anyway, we’ve mostly got assorted small arms and rifles, couple of thirty ot six and three-o-eight sniper rifles too. We’ve got a couple of LMGs and I think we still have missiles for our one missile launcher. We usually get our better weapons from a traveling guns merchant, but that stallion hasn’t been around for awhile. Too bad he isn’t on call.”

“Lucky Hallion?” I asked, not surprised that he would be known to Proudspire. “Why wouldn’t he have been here for awhile? Surely he makes rounds around the area?”

“I can’t say. He spends all his day traveling around the wasteland, so there’s no telling where he’s at now.” Redfield said with a shrug.

“Hopefully he’s gone to check out Hopeville.” Gunny remarked. “We met him yesterday, and we told him everything we told you.”

“Well, Celestia knows you folks could use weapons too. You’re building an entire town back up from what the Black Blood turned it into. That’s no small thing.” Redfield said.

“You’re still in a tighter spot than we are.” Gunny retorted. “Don’t underestimate us Stable folk. After all, we were helped along by a pre-war corporation.”

“Good point. Anyway, this next building might interest you a little more than the others.” Redfield continued, leading us past the armory and up to the entrance of the next building in the ring. “This is our general store. Back when we had travelers from other settlements or caravans coming down from the heartland, this would be our busiest building of all of them. Right now though, we don’t have a lot we can spare to sell. But we do have caps if you have anything that you don’t need.”

“Blake and I can check that out tomorrow.” I volunteered. “I’m sure we have a few things we could give you.”

“A general store ain’t about donations, friend.” Redfield said, looking amused at my charity. “You’ll get something out of any trading you do. Besides, Abigail wouldn’t want you leaving without a little something, even if its just a piece of charcoal.” He smirked at the entrance of the general store, now closed because of the evening hour, and then he looked towards the last building that made the interior ring of Proudspire. “This is our last stop.” he said as he nodded for us to follow him. The building was labeled as Chief's Quarters, in those exact words. “This is where you’ll be sleeping tonight.” Redfield explained. “This building is Kayla’s quarters. I sleep here along with her guardian. Basically, its where the leaders hang out.”

“Kayla is very young.” I commented, and Redfield looked back at me. Because of his lack of a response, I begun feeling that I may have been a bit out of line with that question. After all, I was a stranger to this town, even if my “deeds” had allowed me to start off in Proudspire as somepony who was already accepted, even slightly. “Sorry.” I added, lowering my eyes.

“Well, it’s not that your question is offending or anything.” Redfield said. “It’s just not my place to comment on that. If you ask anypony about it, it should be her, and don’t let that advisor of hers answer for you.”

“You don’t exactly seem to see eye to eye with him.” I pointed out, venturing instead into a new area of my curiosity; I really should work on this curiosity bump of mine. His previous tones with the unnamed advisor of Proudspire’s young leader allowed me to see that there was a bit of tension between them, or at least some kind of force that made for their relations to be strained.

“I just don’t like him is all.” Redfield said quickly. He, however, obviously wanted to drop that subject; I didn’t press it.

“So I guess that’s the end of the tour then?” I asked, changing subjects once again to avoid an awkward situation.

“That’s it.” Redfield confirmed. “You can go on in to Kayla’s quarters. Tomorrow you’ll be able to go to the general store and look around, and then I imagine that Kayla will be leaving you all to your duties. You volunteered for it, so we’ll be putting you to work here.”

“No problem.” Gunny assured for all of us. “Thanks for showing us around.”

“Your welcome. I’d better get back to my squad. I’ve still got about an hour on my shift. Don’t want to look like I’m shirking my duties.” Redfield said with a laugh before he saluted us with a hoof. “Go ahead and head inside. I’m sure Kayla’s already waiting.” With that, he departed across the town center to the entrance of town where he disappeared from sight.

Gunny used his magic to open the door, and he called into the first room to be met with a warm hello. Kayla welcomed us inside, and I followed Gunny into the room. The room was lit with a single ceiling light, bright for being so small. There was a scattering of furniture along the walls including two large couches, (a little grimy, but otherwise intact), an old dresser made of wood, and a pair of beds made from tattered blankets that were spread along the far left wall. A second room was next to the living room, separated by another wall and an open doorframe, perhaps a restroom of sorts. Stairs built against the far wall of the main chamber led up to the second floor, and Kayla was looking down at us from the top of the stairs. “The entire bottom floor is for you.” Kayla declared with a wide smile. “Make yourselves comfortable and then come upstairs for some food. Gabriel and Ironhoof are upstairs too, and so we can all get to know each other better.” Even before any of us could reply, she hopped back up the stairs and disappeared into the second floor of the house.

“Well, she says so.” Gunny said with a shrug, turning to Shore to levitate the .50 cal off of his back and set it gently along the wall. “Might try and fix this up a bit tonight.” he said. “Don’t know how much I’d be able to do without replacement parts, but I’m sure I can get it cleaned a bit.”

“You really should try and get to know these ponies better.” Gracie stated as she levitated off her saddlebags and set them next to the rifle. “Even if we will be working with them for the next day or two.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t.” Gunny insisted back, setting aside his own assault rifle and shotgun next to the big rifle. “But I’m sure we wont be singing the night away either.”

“If nothing else, food does sound good right now.” I said before pulling Blake’s saddlebags off of his back with my teeth and setting them down. “And it’s nice enough for them to offer from their own supply while we still have our own.”

“And it serves to better fortify a sense of trust between strangers if we accept.” Shore commented as Gunny undid Shore’s battle saddle. “Plus, I’m rather hungry myself.”

“Yeah let’s eat!” Blake piped up strongly, bounding up to the stairs as Gunny helped me out of my own battle saddle.

“I’ll admit, the day’s made me a bit hungry too now that we’re resting.” Gunny said with a small laugh, setting my battle saddle against the wall. “Guess it just takes me a bit longer to realize when I need to eat.”

Blake hopped up the stairs as I followed up after him, and I saw Kayla waiting by the stairs with a box of pre-war food labeled Dandy Colt Apples held in her teeth. Upon seeing us as we entered the second floor one by one, she trotted over to the other end of the room where a small circular table was set up. On the right side, three beds were set up at wide intervals, and on the opposite end, cabinets were packed tight together, storing food, water, and other necessities. Other than this, the house was very empty, more so than I had originally thought. Even from the outside, the houses of Proudspire looked large, and the interiors made the building look even larger. But then again, it was hard for me to judge, because I had only lived in small rooms and corridors. For being the first wasteland house I had been in, it was rather cozy. Between being spacious and well-built, despite Proudspire’s limited resources, it was a place that I wouldn’t mind living in. “Welcome to my house.” Kayla said as she sat down at the table between her guard and her advisor. “I hope it’s okay for you.”

“It’s lovely.” Gracie said with a sweet smile as we all walked to the table at her beckoning.

As we all sat down on our haunches before the table, Kayla introduced us. “You know me already.” she began. “I’m Kayla. The big earth-pony here is Ironhoof. He’s my assigned personal bodyguard, but sometimes I think he works too hard.” This last bit she said with a giggle, which the earth-pony smiled politely.

“The rules are the same as in every settlement. Don’t cause trouble, and you wont get trouble in return. You five seem like you would have no difficulty remembering that, so I welcome you.” Ironhoof said in his deep voice.

“And this is Gabriel, my advisor.” Kayla said, smiling at the unicorn who dipped his head to us.

“Welcome to Proudspire.” he said, his tone civilized and composed. “I hope that your visit will help us get back on our hooves. I’m certain that you are now well aware of our situation now that you have had a tour of our home.”

“Yes.” I replied. “We’ll do whatever we can, as promised.”

“There may be more good that you can do here than you realize.” Gabriel commented as he used his horn to open up his can of carrots. “I can tell that so long as you uphold your words, you’ll do this town wonders.”

“Thanks. We’ll try.” I said, turning to Kayla. “So will you tell us a bit about yourselves?”

“Yeah!” Kayla replied energetically. “I’m Proudspire’s leader and have been for about two weeks. It’s fun most days, but hard work. There’s a lot that I have to keep track of in town now that the raiders are attacking. Thankfully, most of the ponies around town help me make the best choices. They say that they’ll keep helping me until I get more experience with leadership. I think that I’ll get it down in about another year.”

“How did you come to lead Proudspire?” Gunny asked as he opened up his own box of food, Instamash.

“My daddy let me lead.” Kayla answered easily. “He had been planning to let me take his place for a long time. He said that he had a lot of faith in me.”

That sounded like something my father had said to me when I was a filly myself. Perhaps it was those exact words. “That’s a very noble thing for him to say.” I complimented. “I’m sure his faith isn’t misplaced.”

“Thanks.” Kayla said with a smile, now taking a bite of one of her apples. “What about you?” she asked, looking at me directly. “How did you become a music pony?”

I smiled back, blushing slightly. “Well, I’m not really a music pony.” I explained. “I’m not being modest about it, but I just haven’t made anything that’s my own besides some lyrics. I’ve always listened to music and I’ve always loved to sing. I’ve even had a habit of telling stories that I’ve learned about in history classes. At times, I was a caretaker for young colts and fillies in the Stable, so that’s where my liking for telling stories came from. I also highly valued pre-war history when I was taught in the Stable. Our Hall of Records held a lot of pre-war music files and I eventually just started listening to them by habit. They inspired me to listen and sing and eventually try my hoof at my own music. I hope that somewhere along the line I’ll actually have time to sit down and write and actually accomplish something that’s my own. I’m sure that I will soon enough.”

“I’ve only heard about Stables in stories and gossip.” Kayla commented. “What was life like in your Stable?”

“Safe, secure, filled with knowledge.” Shore explained. “Stables were a prime advantage for the ponies who got in because the war couldn’t break through them. So after the war, those ponies who lived in Stables were very secure with plenty of pre-war advantages. Aside from the basic necessities, our Stable had schooling, security, modern medicine, historical records, the works.”

“It was a place where we could try and follow the ways of the pre-war world, the world that existed before the Great War broke out.” Gracie added with a homesick sigh; I couldn’t blame her for that. “It was the Stable’s mission to follow the days of peace before the war, and that was the mission that was made to prepare us for life on the outside.”

“Did it help?” Ironhoof asked.

“There’s a lot of terrible things out here that we’ve seen, and Stable life couldn’t prepare us for it, no matter how hard our leaders tried.” Gunny replied. “Seeing the raiders and what they’ve done makes a pony wonder why and how something like that could happen.”

“Stuff like that is all too common out here in the wastes.” Ironhoof said with a nod. “You just have to get used to it, and then you’ll just have to keep fighting against those evils. I’m sure that you know how to do that. You were raised in a pre-war sanctuary. Pre-war virtues as better remembered in places like that.”

“So what’s your story friend?” Gunny asked as he ate.

“A short one.” Ironhoof replied. “I was born and raised here, and it has always been my job to keep Proudspire’s Chief safe. That is the case now. It is my duty to keep Kayla safe from the Black Blood. That is my story.”

“So uh… you’ve been doing that your whole life then?” I asked, feeling a bit awkward at the brevity of his explanation.

“Yes.” Ironhoof answered, swinging his big head over to look at me. “I’m not a soldier, but life provided me with the opportunities to learn all that I needed to learn about guarding somepony, so that is my profession.”

“It sounds like you have a lot of experience.” Gunny remarked. “Any kind of soldering is a good profession. What kind of opportunities led you to taking that job?”

“Opportunities that I would not like to discuss with outsiders.” Ironhoof said lowly, leaving us in silence.

Gabriel was the one who came to the rescue then, stating his profession. “I have been advising Proudspire for three years.” he claimed. “Whenever an issue arises that greatly affects the safety of Proudspire, I try to formulate the best possible road to take to ensure the stability of the town. I like to think that I’ve aspired to adequacy in my role.”

“You’ve helped me a lot.” Kayla voiced through a mouthful of apple.

“Yes, so you say.” Gabriel replied with a slight grimace. “Either way, I try and do my part best I can. In the end, however, Kayla has the final say on things.”

“What’s your view on this conflict your town is having with the Black Blood?” Gracie asked inquiringly.

“Well, of course we have to keep them at bay outside.” Gabriel answered. “We’ve done a good job with that so far, even without your help. But now that you five have intervened and killed Butcher, things are looking brighter for Proudspire. Still, there are other things that need to happen as well to ensure the continued safety of the town. But right now, I feel that it isn’t my place to tell that to strangers.” I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes, but when Gracie agreed not to pursue the topic, I had to agree with them. It wasn’t our place to inquire upon anything that we weren’t told directly from the townsponies.

The rest of our dinner was short and quick, most of us focusing on our food while still managing to maintain a more casual discussion of what future plans would include involving trade. We had only spoken for a few minutes on the matter when most of us were done, whereupon Gabriel insisted that he return to his house to get back to work. He left rather abruptly down the stairs, as if eager to return to his own rooms, and when he left, Ironhoof reminded Kayla of a task that required her presence, and we were thus dismissed to the first floor of the building to rest. Today’s events had left me worn out once again, and I was glad for the opportunity for another full night’s sleep so that I could catch my strength back for tomorrow. Helping Proudspire would be hard work for the five of us, and I had no doubt that being here would keep us occupied for the next couple of days. When we were done here, in one way or another, we would have to return to Hopeville to resupply. But hopefully, we would be able to bring back a few more things other than empty saddlebags. Even though I had vowed to help the ponies of Proudspire in any way that they needed me to help them, continuing to help Hopeville was still my top priority, and I saw Proudspire as a way to do just that. These were the thoughts that accompanied me to sleep; I was the first to fall asleep out of all of them, even as they discussed the work they would be doing for Proudspire the following day.

*** *** ***

White. Everything around me was white as I woke from an uneasy sleep, looking up to see a bright light fixed into a grey ceiling, and all around me, steel grey walls rose to the ceiling to make a living room. Blinking, I rose to my hooves and yawned, turning to look out one of the two windows that flanked the closed door of my room. Outside, everything was bright and quiet. There were no ponies walking about the halls, showing me that it must’ve been too early to be up. Why I had woken up at all, I didn’t know. I felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes at the most, and if I woke up in the middle of the night, it was hard for me to get back to sleep; it was a quirk of mine that I really hoped I could fix somewhere along the line.

I was about to turn back for my room when I cast a glance to the left and saw the corner of the hallway where it turned deeper into the Stable living quarters. The white lights were gone, replaced by a creeping blackness that slowly advanced around the corner. And there was a pony staring at me from it, eyes red around a black wavering outline and a wide grin made of gleaming white fangs. Even before I could get a good look at it, it opened its mouth in a shout, brief and demonic, before it suddenly disappeared into a black haze. With a cry of alarm I fell back from the window and fell on my back before the white lights flickered away, replaced now with blood-red ceiling lights. And I saw the door to my room slide up and away into the ceiling. The hallway, the floor… it wasn’t clear steel anymore. I got to my hooves, my eyes not moving away from the sight of black blood flowing down the hallway, and as I approached it, I cried as I saw a corpse slide past me… or I thought I cried. No sound would come from my voice, even as I begun to panic and breath faster… no, no breath was coming out either! I couldn’t breath!

I snapped back to look back in my room, and I found the same pair of red eyes staring at me from the back of the living room, black fog reaching out for me to try and drag me towards those eyes. I couldn’t stay, and if my quickly rising fear wasn’t enough to get me out, the sudden blaring of the Stable’s ominous emergency alarms was more than adequate to get me moving. I bolted out of my room and turned right, nearly slipping on the blood that coated the floor as I came to another involuntary halt. Before my eyes, corpses littered the hallway in clusters, laying in piles of gore, pools of blood, and empty bullet casings; the entire hallway was the sight of a massacre of Stable ponies, the ponies I had lived beside all my life. My heart was racing, threatening to rip itself out of my chest. I didn’t know where to go! I didn’t know what to do! In one direction, the corpses of slain Stable ponies waited for me to tread over them. In the other direction, darkness waited to engulf me…… and then I heard steps as somepony approached me, the sound of its hooves against the bloody floor particularly accented. I turned, seeing a unicorn stallion stalking around the corner of the hallway, his coat completely black and matted with splotches of bright red. The stallion wore a metal helmet that protected his head, and his fore hooves were adorned with spiked pony shoes. And at the unicorn’s side was a hovering chainsaw, its teeth glistening and its motor silent. “No… no… you’re dead! You were killed!” I protested, stepping back and bumping into another corpse, nearly falling again. No, this was impossible! How?!

“WRONG, NOVA!!” the stallion shouted back to me, his demonic voice tearing at my ears, making me cringe… and then the chainsaw roared to life. I was unarmed, equipped with nothing but Stable issued barding. I couldn’t fight this monster, not without weapons or help. I wheeled around with another cry and ran over the corpses of the slain Stable ponies. I ran for all my worth, splashing blood all over my stomach and my sides as I maneuvered around the lumps of corpses. The atrium was nearby, and a faint hope poked through my fear. If I could get there, I could get help. I made the turn and ran up the stairs, hearing the teeth of the chainsaw tear into the steel wall behind me. Up ahead, I could see flashlights in the atrium, a clear steel floor without blood or corpses waiting for me. I stumbled forward, struggling through the increasing number of bodies that littered the floor, now decorated with an increasing number of dismembered limbs and torsos, mangled heads and strewn organs… But no matter how hard I pushed forward, those lights piercing the crimson red of the Stable’s emergency lighting were getting farther away. I was loosing focus, panicking, and then I tripped and fell into a pool of blood. Trembling, I felt the blood soak my coat, splash against my face and sting my eyes, and I saw as Butcher drove through the corpses, closing the distance between us to kill me off, to make me a part of this slaughter. I was trapped, unable to move, even as I tried to scrabble my way forward. My wings wouldn’t work, I was unable to breath, I couldn’t think, couldn’t call for help! And then the flashlights disappeared and the emergency door slammed down, sealing off the hallway from the atrium and blocking my only means of escape. I cried again, looking back up as I lay on my back. Butcher was standing over me now, the chainsaw rearing back in the air, engulfed with magic. Then he cried out and threw the chainsaw down, the machine tearing through my belly… then everything turned to blackness as my screams echoed and faded away.

*** *** ***

“Nova, wake up! Wake up!” I heard, even through my own agonized crying. My eyes were clenched tight, and I felt as I was kicking and thrashing. Somepony was fighting against me, pushing down on me, and that pony flipped me onto my back. My body still wanted to struggle, fear still strong, but I finally opened my eyes to see Gunny standing over me, looking down at me as he bodily pinned me to the floor. His weight and his strength easily kept me still, even as I struggled to calm down underneath him. I was sweating profusely, breathing quickly, and I was unable to think straight. I snapped my eyes up to him as he said my name again. “Calm down, Nova.” Gunny said, seeing that he finally got my attention. “Calm down, relax. You’re with us. You’re in Proudspire, remember?”

Around me, I could see that my friends were all wide awake and looking at me. They were watching at a distance, and to my embarrassment, I saw that even Kayla, Ironhoof, and Redfield had all come down the stairs to see what the commotion had been about. With all of them around me, I was finally beginning to get my bearings. “Nightmares are scary.” Kayla said, looking over at me with concern.

“You just had a bad dream Nova.” Gunny added, stepping off of me and helping me to my hooves.

“I’m sorry… for waking all of you up.” I said, feeling groggy as I regulated my breathing.

“There’s only a half hour before morning. It’s about time for us all to get up anyway.” Redfield said through a yawn. Seeing that we weren’t under attack, he left back up the stairs, Ironhoof following him.

“I’ll get some breakfast for you if you like.” Kayla offered as she made her way to the staircase.

“We have our own supplies.” Gunny replied respectfully. “We can eat some of our own food so that you can keep more of your own.” When Kayla left with a nod, Gunny looked back at me, placing a hoof on my back. “You buck hard, you know that?” he asked.

I was confused at what he meant, my mind still clouded, until I saw the thin streamer of blood that had trickled down from the left corner of his mouth. “Did I do that?” I asked, my ears flattening back against my head. At Gunny’s nod, I lowered my gaze. “I'm sorry Gunny… I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s not a big deal.” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve had worse. Are you going to be alright now?”

I looked up at him, his eyes speaking his concern, and I slung my forelegs around his neck to hug him, pulling him in tightly and not wanting to let go. “Thanks for waking me up.”

“That bad huh?” he asked, to which I only nodded. “Well, it was just a dream. You’re safe here now.” He gave me a pat on the back before I finally let him go, and he nodded over to my saddlebags. “Getting something to eat and drink might help you too. After that, you and Blake and I can head over to the general store. Sound good?”

“Yes Gunny. Thanks.” I replied, making my way over to my saddlebags. But I had no sooner raised my hoof to open the saddlebag than Blake stepped up to me and butted in, making me draw my foreleg back. “What are you doing?” I asked, blinking.

“You had a bad dream. Let me help.” he said, immediately opening the saddlebag to look through its contents. “And don’t say that it isn’t a big deal, because it is. I hate nightmares.”

Despite everything, I couldn’t help but giggle. “Really Blake?… Fine.” I said, sitting down on my haunches as he rolled out a fresh apple to me. “Thanks baby brother.”

“You’re welcome.” he said, smiling proudly. “So we’re going to the store first? I wonder what that will be like.”

“I don’t know anymore about it than you do.” I replied before taking a bite out of my apple. “Apparently it’s a place where we can buy things, sell things we don’t need, or do trading. It sounds like a big part of the wasteland life, so the sooner we learn about it the better off we’ll be.”

“Do we have anything that we can trade?” Blake asked as he fished out a carrot from his saddlebags.

“No… I don’t think so.” I answered. “We’ll have to see what we can do when we get there.”

“Maybe they’ll have another ball there.” Blake thought aloud, and at my smile, he explained, “A friend of mine back home wanted one herself. She said that she left hers in the Stable so I told her that I would find her one.”

“Well that’s very sweet of you.” I said. “We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for one when we get to the store, and then we’ll bring it back home with us if we get lucky. Who is this friend of yours, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Her name is Melody.” Blake said. “She’s the one you saved in the Stable.” So Melody was the name of the filly that I owed some drawing time to; I wouldn’t forget it. “She played in our game of kickball too, and that made her really want a new ball. So I told her that I’d find one. I’m thinking that if I don’t, I’ll just give her mine. It’s not like she would hog it or anything.”

“We’ll see if we can’t find one for her, one way or another.” I assured, proud of my little brother’s generous spirit.

Breakfast went by quickly, and the rest of the half hour we had to ourselves was spent reequipping ourselves in all of our gear. Both Redfield and Ironhoof suggested this because of the high potential for another Black Blood attack during the day. “I’d be ready for at least one if not two.” Redfield had explained. “Attacks are random, but we always get warning ahead of time thanks to our eyes up on the wall. So if you hear some shouting going along the wall, you’d best be ready for a fight. I’ve already told my guards about you and Shore and Gunny. They’ll call for you if the time comes.” The fact that this city lived under a constant threat of assault from the Black Blood Raiders was disconcerting. This was more so because of the fact that the ponies here had adopted the attacks as a routine part of life. When an attack came, those who couldn’t fight had to hide within their homes, and those who could fight would be up on the wall. It was a rough lifestyle to tack on to the already tough living brought by the Equestrian wasteland itself.

When we stepped outside into Proudspire, the slightly brighter cloud cover to the east showed that it was early morning, and there was a scattering of ponies out of their houses already. Most of them were guards, distinguished by their leather armor and the weapons they carried with them. “The store should be open by now.” Redfield said to me as he begun making his way to the Proudspire gate. “Abigail is an early bird most of the time, so you’ll probably be her first customers. I’ll be up on the wall if you need anything. When you start working, just make sure you knock and check in with whatever pony’s in charge of the building you go to. Good luck, and thanks again.”

With that, Gunny, Blake, and I were left by the entrance of Kayla’s quarters. Over breakfast, we had gone over what we could get rid of for a little extra spending money. Alas, we only had the salvaged SMG and its ammo from one of the raiders we had encountered and killed the previous day. “It’ll be interesting to see how shops work.” I commented as the three of us made our way to the general store next door. “I heard the Overmare talk so much about how her ancestors were shop owners in the pre-war days. It will be enriching to actually see a shop.”

“Yes, it will be interesting to know how they operate, even if shopping isn’t really my thing.” Gunny replied.

“Unless the shopping involves lots of firepower?” I asked, smirking as I heard Gunny sigh.

“Well you know me.” Gunny began with abundantly clear sarcasm. “When I see a whole arsenal of weapons that I can buy I just turn into a little school filly.”

“Oh I know.” I answered, giggling as we stepped up to the entrance. But just as Gunny was about to knock, the door shimmered with magic and swung open.

Inside the building, we beheld a room identical to the room we had slept in last night. The main chamber took up the majority of the first floor with a smaller room off to the left and a flight of stairs in the back that led to the second floor. In front of the stairs was a large countertop table that spanned from wall to wall. On the tabletop was a line of various items from weapons to clothing to food and medicine and even random bits of junk and similar items that I couldn’t figure a use for. Behind the counter was a peach colored unicorn mare with a vanilla colored mane and tail. The mare was tidying up the countertop in preparation for the day, and spotting us, she waved us inside. “Welcome to my humble shop.” she said in warm welcome. “So you must be some of the ponies that have been causing a bit of a stir around town. I’ve heard a bit about you and your adventures in the saloon. I always go there after I close up the shop, and ponies are always talking. They say that you came from a Stable and that you left and reestablished Hopeville. That’s quite a feat under the conditions made by our favorite raiders.”

“We’ve had plenty of encounters with them already, ma’am.” Gunny replied. “But everything you heard was true. I’m Gunny, and this is my friend Nova and her brother Blake.”

The peach colored mare placed her fore hooves on the counter to see all of us, and she smiled at Blake. “Oh he looks like a dear.” she said, to which Blake puffed out his chest.

“He’s my baby brother.” I said, giving a mischievous grin as I messed up his mane with a hoof; he frowned comically before he readjusted his hair.

“Well, I welcome all of you to Proudspire. I’m Abigail and I’ve been running this shop for years. It’s my life’s work really. I started out in a settlement called Plainwell off to the northeast, but when I was a young mare I moved out and set out to find my own living. I found Proudspire and they gave me a building of my own when I told them that I was pursuing a profession in the wasteland trade. Since I started here I’ve built this place up with my own hooves and kept it running. And best of all, I’ve done right by Proudspire’s Chiefs. So I know I’m doing alright.” She spoke with jubilant pride, her words showing that she was very happy with her accomplishments.

“We’ve only read about shops and the like in our classes.” I explained. “It’s a strangely fascinating thing to see one with my own eyes instead of through the words of a textbook.

“Is that so?” Abigail inquired. “Well that’s mighty curious that they wouldn’t have a shop in a Stable, but I’ll be darned if I know. Anywho, if your looking to buy, sell, or trade, then this is the place to be. I do have some things I can sell since my shop hasn’t been completely devoted to supplying the townsponies. It will be soon enough with the raiders always knocking on our wall, but for now I still have supplies of my own. You’re all welcome to browse if you like.”

“We do have one thing we’re hoping to trade in or sell.” Gunny explained as we stepped up to the counter. Using his magic, he lifted up my saddlebags to a clear spot on the counter and pulled out the 9mm SMG and its remaining ammo. “When we found this, it was in decent condition according to Nova’s Pipbuck, so hopefully it’ll be of some use.”

“Oh yes.” Abigail said, levitating the SMG to her eye level to look it over. “If nothing else, this one can be disassembled for the better parts. That’s typically what we do with weapons we don’t get from Lucky Hallion, raider weapons or not. All the weapons we scrounge up after a tangle with a raider band get sent to the armory. Unfortunately I don’t get to put any of those on the counter. But anyway, this weapon is enough for seventy caps by itself, and the remaining ammo with it is worth about ten more. So if you’re looking to sell the gun and its ammo, you’d get eighty caps out of the deal. Sound good?”

“Sounds good.” Gunny replied, and in a flash, Abigail traded the weapon and its ammo for a pouch of jangling metal, the promised caps. When Gunny took it and combined it with his own remaining caps, he said, “One hundred and twenty. Is there anything here that I might be able to afford, ma’am?”

“Oh you make it sound like you wouldn’t be able to afford anything.” Abigail said with a laugh. “Of course dear, I have plenty of things for sale that you can afford. I always make sure my customers leave with something, even if its just caps or some small trinket. I don’t have much in terms of stock, but another supply caravan or two should fix that. Everything on the counter is what’s left of my supply aside from a few things under the table. Please feel free to browse what I have.”

“Actually, I was going to ask if you had one item in particular.” I stated, looking down at Blake who gave a hopeful smile up at me. “My brother and I are looking for a toy for young fillies and colts to play with. Specifically we’re hoping to find a kickball, or something very similar. Do you happen to have something like that?”

“I might.” Abigail said as she disappeared behind the counter to search through what she hadn’t put on display. A brief moment later, and she had found something that fit the bill to the letter. She levitated a blue ball, very similar to Blake’s in size, up onto the counter; Blake gave a cheer at seeing the replica toy. “Is this what you were looking for?” Abigail asked, looking at Blake with a smile.

“That’s exactly it.” I answered, rather amazed that she would have this item at all. Given her own supply situation, mashed together with Proudspire’s raider problem, I had been of the mind that we would have to search across half the wasteland to find what Blake was looking for. “Where did you get it from?”

“I was scavenging.” Abigail answered. “I’m not really one to sort through things and pick the best items out of a pile. I’m quite the packrat when it comes to scavenging, so I take everything I can fit in my saddlebags. Then I sort through everything and assign it a value based on quality of the item, and what the item actually is. Of course, a pony isn’t going to want to buy a damaged garden gnome for thirty caps, so I have to think rationally about my prices. In the end, I feel that every item is something that somepony will need somewhere down the road. So I keep pretty much everything I find. I’ve never been proven wrong yet, and you’re helping me against being proven wrong by saying that you were looking for this ball.”

“That’s an interesting way of doing things… I’m just the exact opposite.” Gunny commented with a smirk. “If I were a merchant, and I thank Celestia that I’m not, then I would deal only in weapons. The rest of the stuff I’d just leave alone and let somepony else find.”

“Every merchant has his or her special way of doing things.” Abigail replied. “Taking everything I find while scavenging is my thing, and I’ve prospered because of it.”

It definitely worked out for me and my current goal, and I smiled at her. “How much for the toy ball?” I asked.

“Oh it’s a little thing, but I can tell that your brother will have a wonderful time with it.” Abigail said, smiling down at Blake again. “I’d say five caps, and then its yours to take home.”

“Deal.” I said, not thinking twice. There was no need to, but I saw Gunny looking at me with a raised eye. He looked more amused than anything else, and because of this, I made my own little joke for it and fluttered my eyes at him. “Pleeeeease Gunny?” I asked, looking up at him with what I thought were those tricky puppy-dog eyes. He looked down at me with that raised eye, the corner of his mouth rising in a smile before he turned away and gave a short laugh, shaking his head. And then he levitated up his bottle caps and set five over the counter, and the deal was sealed. “Thanks Gunny.” I said with a pleasant smile before I saw the ball roll off the counter. It bounced once and came back down whereupon Blake caught it. As he set to work fitting it within his own saddlebags, I looked over the other items on the counter. Disappointingly, there was really nothing else that I found interesting. While I politely browsed over everything, Gunny sent over twenty-five more caps to buy a small box of slugs for his shotgun which he stowed away in his security armor. Afterwards, that was the end of our first venture into the store.

As we stepped out of the door and back into the streets, I saw Gracie and Shore as they trotted across the courtyard. They departed to head to their places of work, Shore going directly to the ammo press and Gracie carrying her medical supplies to the clinic. “I’m going to the armory.” Gunny said to me, looking over at the building next to the general store. “Redfield said some ponies in there might need help repairing some things, so I’ll see what I can do. You’re welcome to come with me if you life, you and Blake. I’m sure they wont mind.”

“I’m not a medical pony or a repair pony.” I replied. “So I think my role in Proudspire is going to be limited to guard duty. Now that we’ve visited the store, I think I should get up there and see if there’s anything I can help with. I’d just be getting in the way in the armory.”

“If you say so.” Gunny said with a shrug. “Guess I’ll see you this evening then.”

“See you Gunny.” When he trotted off to the armory, I turned to Blake and nudged him along with a foreleg. “Let’s get you to the clinic so you can stay with Gracie. When you’re in there, I want you to help her whenever she needs it. Other than that, you have a free day today.”

“Can I walk around town?” Blake asked as he trotted along beside me.

“I suppose that if Gracie doesn’t need any help you can. Just be careful.” I warned. “Even if we are helping these ponies, they’re still strangers, just like we are to them.”

“I know, I know.” Blake said. “I can take care of myself. I promise.”

“I’m sure you can little brother.” I replied as we stopped by the entrance to the clinic. Knocking on the door, I bent down and kissed Blake on the forehead. “I’ll see you later this evening. If you need anything, I’ll be up on the wall.”

“I’ll be fine big sis.” Blake assured once again before the clinic door opened.

A white mare with a maroon colored mane and tail looked at us through large glasses. “Can I help you?” she asked quickly; it seemed that she was already at work.

“Hi, I’m friends with Rosemary Grace and I just wanted to drop my little brother off with her before I go to my duties for the day.” I answered with a smile.

“Oh, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” the white mare replied. “We have a lot of patients in here and I don’t want…”

“It’s okay. I can keep an eye on Blake while we work.” I heard Gracie call from inside. Though the white mare looked a little irritated by this, she sighed and stepped aside to let Blake inside.

With a thank you, I left the clinic and trotted across the town center to the gate. There was a flight of metal stairs that led up to the top of the wall, and even as I begun to ascend them, I saw a guard pony stop and watch me. I recognized the dark green earth pony stallion as Cross, my previous savior, and he stepped aside to allow me up to the wall. “Welcome to the wall.” he said with a smirk. “Here’s where the real fun is around Proudspire. Up here, we pick a spot, set up our gear, and we stare at the wasteland and look for baddies. Then, if we’re lucky enough, we get to take a few out and show them the error of their ways.”

“Sounds easy enough.” I replied, trying to get into the same level of battle-eagerness as him; it didn’t work, and he saw right through it.

“You haven’t been around fighting too much have you? Yeah, any Stable left over from the Great War probably doesn’t see shit like that." he said, not giving me a chance to answer his question. "But hey, you’re in good hooves now, and we’ll show you how we get things done.”

“Cross, you need to get back to your post.” a stallion’s firm command sounded nearby. Redfield was just down the wall, and he saw his subordinate chatting away with me. Cross gave a salute to him and he made to depart, not before whispering to me, “When our shift is up, could I see you for a moment?”

I raised an eye at him, but his tone and the look in his eyes had a very serious complexion, as if he really wanted to speak with me later. For saving my life, I could honor that request. “Sure thing Cross.” I answered, to which he smiled and trotted away to his place at the wall.

“Nova, come here a second.” Redfield said, waving me over to him from farther down the wall. When I approached, he resituated his eye patch and said, “I’m glad you’re up here, we could use the extra eyes. How do you feel about some flying?”

“I’ve done patrolling and overwatch up in the air before.” I answered. “But uh… I wont be flying away from Proudspire will I?”

“No, not at all.” Redfield answered. “I just want you to fly above the town at intervals. Having eyes up there will let us know ahead of time if another assault team of raiders is moving towards us. That’ll help us out a lot.”

“I can do that.” I nodded, relieved by his answer at my question. “Where should I go on the wall?”

“You’ll be right here next to me.” Redfield answered. “I’ll have you go up into the air for five minutes every thirty minutes or so. When you’re not in the air, you’ll be looking through those binoculars for hostile hit-squads.” As he raised a foreleg to point at his balcony, I saw an LMG resting on the railing on a mounted bipod that was fastened to the wall. Next to it was another device, mounted onto the railing in a similar fashion. It looked like a pair of rifle scopes that were put together side by side, making a pair of tubes with lenses built into them.

“What a strange device.” I remarked, intrigued but confused.

Redfield chuckled. “All you have to do is put your eyes up to it and push it around with a hoof. You’ll get used to it ten seconds flat.” And with that, my first long day in Proudspire began.

*** *** ***

The end of our shift was drawing near now, at long last. Having been up on the wall for the past seven hours up to this point was brutal on my spirits, and I was about ready for some sort of scenery change. Guard duty had consisted of two things, one of which was flying. Between every thirty minute interval of time, I would fly up above Proudspire to get a wider view of the wasteland around the little town. While repetitive, flying above the town did allow me to see the full scope of Proudspire’s problems. The Black Blood had set up two larger camps for their campaign against Proudspire. One was positioned due east of the town, the second positioned to the south. Both of them were just barely visible on the horizon, leaving lots of open wasteland between them and their target. I didn’t exactly understand why they were positioned so far away, but I did know that these positions were strategic enough to block Proudspire from Challenger. According to my Pipbuck, which now had five map markers on its larger map, the path to Challenger would pass right in between the two camps, making a perfect bottleneck for any caravan trying to come through. And out beyond and around these camps, there could be other Black Blood threats that I wasn’t aware of yet. I could grimly admire the tact behind the positioning of the camps; maybe the Black Blood weren’t all idiotic raider ponies after all.

The second duty of my shift, which was the most painstaking of the two, was spotting. The job was simple enough, as I only had to stand there and look through the binoculars for any signs of trouble. Sometimes I’d even look out into the wasteland without them, but that did nothing to cure the shameful boredom that I suffered. There was a half hour of spotting, and then five minutes of flying. Then it would be back to spotting. Throughout my shift, I had to constantly remind myself about the commitment I had made in helping these ponies out and it was that reminder that kept me running through the tedious procedures smoothly. The saving grace that partnered up with this sense of duty was the fact that ponies on the wall were allowed to call to nearby fellow guards and chat, so long as they kept their eyes out over the wasteland. Therefore, conversations with Redfield and Cross became a much needed salvation from the dull atmosphere that guard duty brought about.

I pulled my eyes away from my binoculars and blinked, shaking each of my legs in turn to keep them from aching. From my left, Redfield offered me his canteen which I gladly took a drink out of. Proudspire’s water was irradiated, but only at a very minor level, and so my geiger counter clicked briefly before remaining silent. Fortunately, I still had very little radiation in my system, so that was one thing that I could keep my mind off of. Still, being on guard duty had given me a lot of time to also think of Hopeville and what the future would have in store for it. Thinking about future outcomes that haven’t happened yet was a terrible habit of mine, as was letting my mind wander back to the same thoughts again and again after I thought I had stopped thinking about them… oh what a mess.

“Everypony, heads up! The raiders are here to play, west side!” a voice shouted, snapping me away from my bout of thinking.

“Show time, Nova.” Redfield said, detaching his LMG from its mount. Within seconds, the entire wall was alive with activity as guards ditched their posts to run to the west side of the wall and set up their weapons. Turning off the safety of my battle saddle, I followed Redfield as he ran along the wall to join the others. Even as I ran, I could see ponies below as they were herded into the inner ring of buildings. From my vantage point on the wall, I couldn’t help but stop my trot and search. Blake had to be down there somewhere, and with the coming fight, I really hoped that he was with Gracie. I couldn’t see much between the buildings, and I felt my wings fan out on instinct. I wanted to search for Blake and make sure that he was safe myself. “Nova, come on!” I heard Redfield shout as he took up a place by the railing. “Your friends will be fine. We need you up here right now.”

I took a look back at the town below, fighting the urge to go and find my baby brother… but I tore myself away from it and joined Redfield by the wall. Even as I stepped up to him, I could see the raiders on the approach. There were two dozen of them advancing up the field, all garbed in black and red armor and armed to the teeth with a variety of rifles and sidearms. Seeing them this well armed made me glad that I was fighting beside a whole town’s worth of guards. “Light em up!” Redfield shouted, and I heard the cracks of rifles echo along the wall. Only a few ponies were firing the first shots of the skirmish, those ponies looking through the scopes of sniper rifles. Even as I saw two of the raiders in the pack fall, the rest begun to charge and bullets struck against the metal wall as they returned fire. The skirmish quickly escalated into a cacophony of gunfire as everypony on the wall begun to fire, igniting the battle.

I activated S.A.T.S. and took aim for the closest raider of the pack. At this distance, my chances to hit my target were slimmer, and I fired one pair of shots at the head of my target; I missed. As I attempted to line up another shot, sparks flew off the metal I stood behind, and I ducked back down behind cover. Beside me, Redfield was turning his LMG on its swivel mount with his magic, and he added his own thunder to the noise. Waiting a moment, I prepared to use S.A.T.S. again, and when I reared up over my cover again, I saw that some of the raiders were moving closer to the wall. Activating S.A.T.S. again, I targeted the same raider pony, aiming for the torso. A second pair of shots, and the raider went down, not dead, but wounded to where he couldn’t run. Encouraged by my luck, I used S.A.T.S. one more time and targeted the nearest raider, and when I fired, the pair of shots caught the raider in the foreleg.

“Nova!” I heard beside me, seeing Redfield as he used his magic to reload his LMG. “They’re starting to make their way to the gate! Go back around and make sure they don’t lay their filthy hooves on it!” Even as he spoke, other guards were abandoning their posts to run back to the north side of the wall. Out in the field, the raiders were advancing in a loose column, half of them running and half of them shooting, all of them making a run for Proudspire’s gate. I turned back and followed the wall to its northern face, passing by several guards on the way as they kept up the defense. Stopping just beside the gate mechanism on the walkway, I found Cross as he fired his rifle, balancing it on the railing and shooting with a custom firing bit built into the body which allowed him to stabilize the rifle against his shoulder. Behind the gate itself, the streets were now empty, all of the civilians having fully evacuated into their homes; that meant that Blake was safe and I could focus on the defense effort.

I looked back into the fields, stepping up next to Cross and taking aim with S.A.T.S.. The raiders were getting closer, and though more of the group had been killed, their charge kept strong. Now that I could see them more closely, I saw that they were gradually packing themselves up tighter, compressing their ranks and moving as a single unit. I targeted the raider in front, my spell having enough energy for one aimed shot, and I fired but missed. I ducked back down on instinct, waiting for S.A.T.S. to fully recharge, and Cross joined me behind cover to avoid being shot. Firing one more shot blindly, his rifle echoed with a distinguished *ping* sound as the rifle ejected the empty clip. Then, pulling the weapon down to him, he nudged out a fresh clip from his saddlebag and fitted it into the receiver with a pair of clicks. He looked at me, spotting me before I could look away, and he laughed… he laughed?! “Come on Nova! On three, let’s get back over cover and take out a couple more!” he called with a grin.

“How can you be laughing during the middle of a firefight?!” I exclaimed, totally lost.

“Because this is ze magicks of Proudspire! Killing raiders is what we do!” he explained triumphantly. “Now come on! Three… two… one!” He took his battle rifle by the firing bit and swung it over to rest it on the railing as he emerged from cover. In one swift move, his battle-excitement was replaced by fierce concentration as he aimed and fired, and pushing aside my earlier shock, I reared back up over cover with him and targeted another advancing raider with S.A.T.S.. Two pairs of shots, and my target went down, his head turning to mush under the combined power of my carbine and Fire Rose. Then I had to duck back down to cover again, Fire Rose's auto loader ejecting the empty pistol magazine and reloading the weapon.

Snapping back up, I saw that the raider group was cut down nearly by half. We were gaining the upper hoof, quickly, showing the recklessness and inexperience of the raiders we fought… damn it, I thought that too soon. Just as I begun to line up another shot with my partially recharged S.A.T.S. spell, I saw as two objects came sailing through the air towards us. They were metal apples, their stems removed. Briefly, my mind flashed back to the memory of the evacuation of the Stable, the six metal apples being thrown through the smoke, exploding violently and hideously killing five ponies. “Watch out for those grenades!” I shouted to the nearest pony as they came hurling towards the wall. Next to me, I heard Cross spread the warning, and as I threw myself down to the floor, I saw a fast-acting unicorn mare snatch the grenades with magic and hurl them skyward where they exploded harmlessly over the town. However, not everypony was as fortunate, as I saw fire from two other explosions erupt nearby. The explosions looked to do some damage to the wall, and one pony was thrown back along the walkway, but it didn’t look like any casualties resulted from the blasts.

Immediately, the guards responded with grenades of their own, hurling out three of them towards the raiders, and even before they detonated, a full volley of retaliatory fire was thrown from the wall. I got back to my hooves at the sound of the explosions and reared back over cover to take aim with S.A.T.S.. Even through the smoke, the spell showed where raiders were still pushing forward. The grenades had done some damage, and they had lost over half of their party. Targeting the closest raider once again, I fired three pairs of shots into his torso and down he went. At my right side, I felt as the auto loader of my markspony carbine went to work, kicking out an empty magazine and replacing it with a new one. Just as I was about to fire again, I felt as Cross pulled me down to cover with him. Shocked out of my concentration, I stared at him as he pulled his saddlebags between us. “What are you doing??” I demanded; Goddesses, Cross was a strange stallion.

“Finding a present for the raiders!” Cross called over the gunfire, quickly sifting through his saddlebags and smirking as he found what he was looking for. Reaching into the saddlebag with a foreleg, he rolled out two metal apples, passing one of them to me and keeping one for himself. “Have you thrown one of these before?” he asked. “Just take the pin in your teeth, bite down on it, and toss your head towards the bad guys!”

“I’ve thrown one before!” I called back, looking nervously at the grenade. “But I don’t like using them much!”

“There’s nothing to it!” Cross assured me energetically. “Come on, you can do it!” He took his grenade in his teeth, looking at me expectantly, and with a sigh I took the second explosive by the stem, bracing to emerge from cover again. And then with a nod, Cross and I stood up from cover and tossed the grenades, the stems staying behind in our teeth. While my grenade didn’t go as far as Cross’s, mine hit the ground and bounced to land in front of the advancing raiders. Cross’s landed dead on in the center of the group, and the two grenades exploded in a violent cloud of fire and dirt.

With the group of raiders scattered, Cross and I returned to cover; he laughed again. “Heads up, heavy weapon coming through!” I heard a stallion call from my right, and I saw as a unicorn stallion came galloping through, leaping over me and continuing along the wall. By his side, he was levitating a large metal tube, longer than the stallion himself was. I couldn’t tell what the device was until Cross called to me and explained briefly that it was a missile launcher. Crouched behind cover, I could see as the stallion set the tube down and opened it at the middle, levitating one of the two “missiles” strapped to his back and cramming it into the tube. Then as he closed the launcher back up, he raised it above the wall and pointed it downward. With a roar, the missile flew outward and struck the ground with a mighty explosion. I dared to look out over cover, and I saw the smoke left over from the missile’s impact. All around the missile’s blast zone were the bodies of the dead, the missile having struck the remaining raiders head on, making for a brutal finishing attack on the war party. Only three raider ponies remained, and those raiders were on the retreat now, forfeiting all hope of any success in their latest attack by throwing away their weapons and fleeing for their lives.

“That’s right you mothers, RUN!” I heard Cross shout after a laugh, even as the snipers took shots at them as they fled. When he turned to look at me, he grinned. “See? Quick and painless with lots of fire. That’s how we deal with raiders in Proudspire… hey, that rhymed.”

My mouth hung open slightly as I stared with bewilderment at the dark green riflepony. In just one day, he had proven to me that there was nopony in Proudspire that could match his eagerness for fighting. He was a good guard, but I found it hard to accept his attitude towards bloodshed. For me, killing was nothing to be proud of… hell, that statement sounded too professional for me. But still, fighting was serious business and Cross seemed nearly on the verge of making a game out of it. “You are just…” I began, stammering as I tried to express my thoughts through words.

“Tactical? Brave? Awesome? Or just handsome perhaps? ” he volunteered to me smugly, raising a foreleg and gazing out towards the battlefield as he snapped to a heroic pose.

In truth, he partly was some of those things. He was good at his job, able to think fast and work hard under the pressure of a gunfight without loosing his head to fear or anger. But still… “You’re crazy.” I said, unable to hold back a laugh.

“Eh, I’ll take that.” Cross said, his smirk resurfacing as he picked up his battle rifle and leaned it against the metal railing.

“We’re all clear!” I heard from farther down along the wall, Redfield checking the damage. “Nice work everypony. Chalk up your kill count in the saloon, and consider your shift officially over for the day. Y’all earned it.” A cheer went up from the guards as the atmosphere begun to ease, and ponies went to work collecting up their equipment for the shift change. As I watched, I saw that we had taken no casualties. Three wounded ponies were being helped away by their comrades, and a fourth had to be bodily carried down the wall, the mare having taken a nasty series of shrapnel wounds.

“Seems like we did a helluva job.” Cross remarked from behind me, and I raised an eye in question. “In the past few raids, we’ve lost a couple ponies. This is actually one of the first raids that we haven’t actually lost anypony. Kind of brings a little bit of hope back into the picture. Maybe soon we’ll finally be able to get out of this little hole the Black Blood have dug for us. Nice job.”

He spoke with precision and confidence, his leftover battle-eagerness cast aside. Despite his differences in personality, Cross, like the others he served with, really wanted their conflict to be over with. They had lost many lives, suffering heartbreak after heartbreak, and yet their will to fight continued even after fourteen days of relentless attack from the Black Blood. I could hear this in Cross’s voice, and I could sympathize with that. “We all did a good job.” I replied to him with a smile. “Proudspire will get out of this…”

“No I mean it.” Cross interrupted, taking a step closer to me. “I’m glad you and your friends are on board with us, and I’m glad you decided to come help. You say that you owe it to us, but really, by helping Proudspire, you’re doing more for us than we did for you.”

“No, now you’re just being silly.” I insisted. “I really do owe it to you for saving my life and my little brother. This is me honoring my debt to you.”

“But you’re helping out an entire town in need, over one hundred ponies. That’s no small thing.” Cross pointed out.

“But neither is saving a young colt who’s the most important pony in the world to a mare trying to help her friends.” I countered with a smile.

Cross sighed but laughed. “Should we just call it even then?” he asked.

“Maybe we should.” I replied, laughing with him.

Down below, the civilians were emerging from their shelters, cautiously entering the streets. Then came the reunions as guards found their loved ones, the streets filling with chatter. While Cross and I had been standing at our place on the wall, the entire day shift of guards had left the wall and the evening shift was setting up their equipment along the balconies. We were the last ones on the wall, and seeing the reunions down in the streets made me all the more eager to find my brother, now that I was allowed to. But just before I made to leave, I felt as Cross tapped a hoof on my shoulder. I turned, a foreleg raised in mid-stride, and he asked, “Could I ask you something before you leave?”

I had forgotten that he had wished to speak to me after our shift. Of course, why wouldn’t I have forgotten in the middle of a skirmish with raiders? “Of course. Go ahead.”

“I was um,” he began, shifting. His rising nervousness was easily noticeable, and that surprised me. This was coming from a stallion that laughed during firefights… why would he be nervous about anything? “I was hoping that perhaps you’d let me buy you dinner tonight at the saloon.”

Oh… that was why. “Um…” I began, my mind shifting to try and find an answer. For me, the question was awkward, but only in the sense that the question had never been asked to me before. Didn’t ponies usually eat by themselves or with their friends and family? And why did he want to buy me dinner when I had supplies of my own? Why was he so tentative about the request? If nothing else, perhaps this was the forming of a new friendship, a way to make my first friend out in the wasteland, away from the Stable ponies. Having more friends meant having more connections for Hopeville, and every friend of Hopeville was a friend that would help in the town’s restoration and the prospering of my fellow Stable dwellers. “Sure. I’d love to catch dinner.” I replied, smiling as my thoughts clicked together, more or less. “First I need to find my brother. Then I’ll meet you in the saloon.”

Cross smiled a big smile. “Sounds good. I’ll see you there.” he said, turning to pick up his rifle and saddlebags before he trotted off down the wall.

When he disappeared into the crowds below, I flipped the safety of my battle saddle to the on position and sprang into the air, the better to avoid the brunt of the crowds in the streets. I hovered in over the town center, scanning the area to search for my friends, and quickly, I saw a young colt jumping up and down in front of the clinic, looking up at me as he tried to catch my attention. By his side, Gracie and Shore were looking among the crowds, searching just like I was, and upon seeing me, they raised a hoof in a friendly wave. With haste, I dove downward towards them and snapped my wings back to pull up and land neatly before them, and Blake ran up to me to embrace me. I gratefully bathed him with affectionate nuzzling, glad that he had followed my instructions and remained with Gracie when the town was locked down. “When we heard the noise,” Gracie explained. “Gunny went running to the wall to help. Blake was staying with me in the clinic for the majority of the shift, and so he hid in the clinic with me when the town sealed up.”

“I was in the ammo press for the day, and so I kept working when the skirmish began.” Shore added, adjusting his glasses. “Gunny was with me for awhile but then he left to fight. He should be in the crowds somewhere… ah there he is.”

When I let my brother go, I craned my head around to see Gunny maneuvering around the gathered ponies in the town center and he stopped before us with a small smile. “Good to see you all safe and sound.” he said.

“Likewise Gunny.” I replied, smiling as I noticed that he had also kept himself from being wounded in the skirmish. “Are you all done with your work too?” I asked him.

“I’m done with the ammo press and the armory for the day.” he answered. “Shore and I fixed most of the major problems, but while he got the terminal operable again, I still need another component for the ammo press to run. I’m going out with a couple of the Proudspire ponies to investigate some old ruined power plant to the southwest of here. It might have what I need.”

“But don’t you need to… you know, eat and sleep?” I asked with a raised eye.

“Yeah this trip might be like a second shift, but the bonus is that I’ll get that ammo press running and then I’ll be able to make some fifty caliber cartridges. Let’s face it, we need to toss that rifle into the defense effort and quick.” Gunny said with finality. “I was actually going to ask if any of you wanted to come with me. We could use the extra hooves while we’re out there in the dark.”

“I suppose that since we are fixing the ammo press together that I can accompany you.” Shore said. “A pre-war power plant might have other useful items worth bringing back to Proudspire.”

“They said that they scavenged there before, but not through the whole building.” Gunny explained as he recalled a previous discussion. “Something about pre-war robotic security. I’m sure it’s nothing we wouldn’t be able to handle.”

At the mentioning of robots, Shore beamed. “Well now I’m definitely interested. Oh just imagine if I could get one of them back here! I could program it for security or maintenance or even basic housekeeping…”

“Easy there.” Gunny said with a smirk, pressing a hoof roughly against Shore’s muzzle to get him to quiet down. “You can come with me, just don’t go waltzing up to the first robot you see. It might zap you before you get a chance to tinker with it.”

“I know that.” Shore insisted with a frown. “I’ve read about robots and their functions in the pre-war era. I know the basics about them and what I don’t know about them is what I can learn when we go to this power plant.”

“Whatever you say brainiac.” Gunny chuckled, looking between Gracie and I. “What about you two? Interested?”

“I’ll be working in the clinic for the rest of the evening until I treat the newly wounded. Then I’ll be ready for some sleep.” Gracie answered. “Working in the clinic all day has turned out to be a challenge all on its own.”

“Understandable. Nova?”

“I actually have plans for the evening as well.” I said, feeling my face heat up slightly. “A guard pony invited me to dinner in the saloon, so I’m going to be there with him this evening.”

“I see.” Gunny said, nodding slowly. “Alright then. We’d better be off to get some food before we head out. We should be back around midnight I imagine.”

“Be careful out there, and try and come back in one piece.” Gracie encouraged, a bit doubtful but concerned all the same.

“Only for you Grace.” Gunny called back jokingly, and he and Shore trotted off towards the diner across the town center.

“Gunny concerns me sometimes.” Gracie huffed. “Him and his pride can be really stubborn sometimes.”

I laughed. “Well, he knows not to let that pride get in the way when it comes down to a fight. He’ll be fine, him and Shore both. Now, I need to get my battle saddle off. Could you give me a hoof real quick?” I asked to Gracie who nodded.

Trotting back through the town center, its crowds now dissipating back into their homes, we came up to the door of Kayla’s quarters. It was unlocked, allowing for Gracie to open it with her magic, but when we stepped inside, nopony was in the building. Even when we called for Kayla, there was no reply. “She must be out doing something.” Grace said, using her magic to get my battle saddle off of my back. “With the attack, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was visiting Redfield. I’m sure she’ll be back in a bit. Anyway, I need to get back to my duties in the clinic. There’s still a few patients left that need to be looked over, so I’ll see you tonight Nova. Have fun at your dinner.”

“See you.” I said back with a wave, looking down at Blake. “Stay with Gracie for a while longer while I go have dinner. After that I’ll pick you up and we can get some rest, okay?” At Blake’s nodding I smiled, giving him a quick hug before he scurried off after Gracie.

Turning back to my gear, I nudged my battle saddle up against the rest of my belongings. All of our saddlebags that weren’t being used for the day had remained untouched along with everything that had been inside of them. Despite Cross’s offer to buy me a full diner, I was still half tempted to bring something of my own, even if it was just an apple. I remained uncertain about somepony buying food for me, feeling as if I didn’t really deserve the generosity. Besides, I was still a stranger in the town and even though I had told myself several times that Cross’s saving my life made him a valuable acquaintance, that hesitation at not being well known around Proudspire lingered in my thoughts. I was certain that if I stayed here long enough, I would gradually come to at least become accepted around the settlement, but for now, I felt like I needed to contribute more to Proudspire’s interests. Of course, I realized with a tingle of newfound hope, we still technically had two more days before Captain Saber wanted us to return to Hopeville. Well, technically he hadn’t ordered us to return in four days, so perhaps we could split off a bit more time in helping Proudspire. But then of course, that interfered with my initial desire to return to Hopeville as soon as possible. “Ugh, I hate having so many things to think about at once.” I mumbled as I finished looking over all of our provisions. Right now I had a dinner to go to, and I felt as hunger was beginning to catch up to me.

Leaving my supplies behind, I turned and made for the exit. But then I stopped as a smooth voice spoke from behind me. “Nova… Nova is it? I was hoping I might have a word.” I looked back around and saw Gabriel, the beige colored unicorn advisor of Proudspire. He was standing near the middle of the staircase, stopping in mid-stride as he asked his question. “I’m sure you have things you must attend to, but I was hoping you’d have a minute to spare so that I might make a request.”

“Um, sure.” I answered uncertainly. “I don’t know how much help I can be to Proudspire’s advisor though.” Politics… I had read a couple books back in the Stable about pre-war leadership, and that was a subject I swore an oath to avoid.

“Oh, don’t be so coy.” Gabriel said with a chuckle as he descended the rest of the stairs and stepped up before me. “You’re already proving to be quite the helping hoof to Proudspire. Up on the wall, you uphold your duty and your sense of commitment to a debt that you feel you must repay. If I recall correctly, it was Redfield and his guards that saved you from Butcher. Am I right?”

“Yes, that’s right.” I agreed, feeling a tingle in my stomach… a rising nervousness. “Cross saved me.”

“Yes, so then I am not mistaken.” Gabriel concluded with a nod. “Because of the events that transpired at the Black Blood’s outpost, you have taken it upon yourself to help Proudspire however you can. I’ve seen this up on the wall when you helped repel the recent attack by the raiders. That sense of duty, it’s power.”

“What’s your point?” I asked, trying to hold back my unease through a neutral face.

“You’re… unique when it comes to strangers, and I understand now that your unique abilities could be rather helpful in completing a task that I need done. If you’re willing to listen, I will explain my situation.”

“I can try and help.” I replied, putting extra emphasis on the trying part.

“First, let me ask you a question. You lived in a Stable, a place that was clearly run by some form of leadership. So I want to ask you, when it comes to leading a community, do you think that inheritance or experience would best fit the role of leadership?”

Leadership? “My Stable was run by a family, and their lineage stretched all the way back to before the end of days.” I explained. “So really, inheritance and experience played their parts in concert. When one leader would step down, the next pony in the family line would take his or her place.”

The small frown on Gabriel’s face showed me that that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. He nodded, but he spoke with more of a drive as he replied, “Inheritance to a leadership role brings about the highest risk of collateral damage to the infrastructure of a community. Why? Because unless a pony that is lined up to inherit a leadership role is trained by the pony before her, then there is no experience, no knowledge. Without that, a community can’t hardly hope to survive. It’s no easy task leading a settlement in the wasteland, even for a well-experienced pony, much less for a foal.”

With a start of realization, which I hoped that I had hidden from Gabriel, I knew where this conversation was going. “Kayla is… young, true.” I said. “But she’s still Proudspire’s Chief. What exactly are you getting at here?”

“It’s not that I dislike Kayla.” Gabriel answered smoothly. “But she isn’t fit to lead this settlement. You should be able to understand my reasoning. She doesn’t even have a month’s worth of experience under her hooves. She has to be ousted from her post, and a pony with more experience in the field has to be nominated to take her place.”

“And I assume you would nominate yourself?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

“I would.” Gabriel answered easily. “I have been advising Proudspire’s Chiefs for years. I know this town like the back of my hoof. I know the landscape, the trade, how to maintain this settlement, get it out of this predicament with the raiders, and return Proudspire to its former glory. But I can’t do that with Kayla being the current Chief.”

“If you have all of these ideas, then why don’t you just tell her and help her to make Proudspire better?” I asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question, but Gabriel didn’t see it as such.

“You deflect from the point Nova.” Gabriel said, ignoring my question in its entirety and glaring at me. “Kayla is in the way, and until she is out of the way, I cannot work to make Proudspire great again. This is what I need your help with.”

I didn’t like this. “You want me to get Kayla out of the way?” I asked, baffled. “How would I do that?”

“Take a wild guess.” Gabriel said, his face easing into a smirk. This was the first time I saw him grin at all, and it sent a chill along my back.

“Wha…no… no, I-I don’t know what you’re planning, but I’m not going to take any part of that. In fact I think I should warn Kayla and Ironhoof to keep an eye on you.” I replied, trying to sound threatening. I thought that my words would have been enough to deter him from pursuing whatever plot he was formulating, but I was dead wrong; curse my nervous impulses.

He sighed. “Now that is a disappointment. So be it. Should you happen to rethink my request, I’ll leave the option open for you. Good day.” With that, he calmly turned back and made his way up the stairs to the second floor. I followed his movement until he disappeared beyond the top of the stairs. My mind only said one thing: Kayla and Ironhoof had to be warned. I had no doubt in my mind that the large earth pony would have no trouble keeping Gabriel in his place, no matter what the advisor unicorn might’ve been planning.

Turning back, I left and trotted out into the town center. By now, the crowds from outside had dispersed completely, returning to their homes or patrolling on the wall for the evening guard shift. Even before I had begun making my way to the saloon, I could see Cross waiting outside its entrance, and upon spotting me he waved me over with a smile. He seemed to have a warm hello waiting for me, but I interrupted him, quickly saying, “Cross, I need to know if you’ve seen Kayla or Ironhoof. It’s important.”

Blinking, he asked, “What’s the rush? You gotta catch a train?”

“Cross…” I said, fixing him with a stern stare.

“Alright, take it easy, I was just joking.” the green earth pony said with a smirk. “Yeah, they’re up in the diner. Just getting ready to leave I think. Why?”

“I need to talk to them real quick.” I answered, turning to begin to trot to the diner, only to stop a few paces away. “Sorry Cross.” I added, turning back to him. “I’ll be as quick as I can, I promise.”

He looked at me from the entrance, his smirk fading to a look of awareness. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“I think Kayla might be in danger.” I answered, and he raised an eye.

“What makes you think that?”

I sighed. “Look, come with me to find Kayla and then I’ll explain everyth -- eep!” I felt a heavy tap on my shoulder, and I jumped, only to find that the pony responsible was none other than Ironhoof himself. He was looking down at me with a raised eye, still fully adorned in his heavy steel armor and equipped with his LMG. “Um, hi.”

“You sounded rather urgent.” he observed. “You needed to talk to me?”

“Yes, actually.” I answered. “I think there’s something bad happening around Proudspire.”

“Really?” Ironhoof asked, his voice showing crystal-clear doubt. “And what might this be?”

I could tell that the big guard pony was going to need some convincing. I took in a breath, and I spoke my explanation. “I think Kayla’s in danger. I went to Kayla’s quarters to drop off my battle saddle, and then I was on my way here when Gabriel asked to speak with me. He said that he wanted my help with a task and so I listened. But then he spoke about leadership, saying that Proudspire needed a different leader. I think he wants to take command of Proudspire, and get rid of Kayla at the same time.”

Ironhoof frowned… not what I was hoping for. “Really, stranger…” he began, pausing to search for words. “that’s a rather bold claim coming from you. Gabriel is Kayla’s most trusted advisor, and certainly some ponies in Proudspire don’t see eye to eye with him, but he still has Proudspire’s interests in mind. I don’t think he would want to harm Kayla.”

“That’s exactly it.” I said, putting his speech to silence to replace it with confusion. “The worst part about it is that he asked me to get Kayla out of the way. When I refused, he told me that he’d keep the offer available. Then he simply walked away as if the conversation never happened.” Ironhoof looked to be having difficulty coming up with a response, and I knew why; I was still technically a stranger, even if I had served on Proudspire’s wall for the day. “I know I’m a stranger, but you’ve got to believe me.” I pleaded. “Something’s going to happen and you need to be there to stop it when it does.”

Ironhoof still stared at me, our eyes locked together as I waited for his response. Eventually, he let out a sigh. “Look, Nova, I appreciate you’re concern for Kayla’s safety, but her safety is my responsibility and not yours.” he said. “I don’t believe something will happen, but it is my job to keep all possible threats to Kayla’s life in mind. I’ll speak to Gabriel about what you told me, and I’ll stay alert.”

From the diner entrance, I saw as the little leader of Proudspire herself came trotting out of the diner, apparently in good spirits. “Ironhoof.” she called. “Are you ready to go? I’m tired.”

“I’ll be with you in a moment.” Ironhoof answered back before looking back down at me. “I’ll be sure to take what I’ve heard into account when speaking with Gabriel. You have my word stranger.” he said, dipping his head to me. And with that, he trotted back to Kayla, and the two headed for the Chief’s quarters to rest.

“I guess that’ll have to do.” I muttered, still feeling rather unconvinced. “Gabriel’s up to something, I just know it.”

“Ironhoof’s a tough buck.” Cross said, trotting up to my side. “He’ll make sure Kayla stays safe no matter what gets thrown at her.”

“Maybe I should just stay out of it.” I thought aloud, though not happily.

“Right now, maybe you should just get something to eat.” Cross said, jabbing me in the side with a hoof, and I looked at him to see that familiar smirk I had seen so many times today.

I smiled. “That sounds like a good idea, actually.”

*** *** ***

My eyes fluttered open as I awoke. It was dark in my room, and I could feel the body heat of another pony beside me. When I raised my head and looked, I saw Blake tucked under my right wing and snuggled up against my side, sound asleep and lightly snoring. Nearby to my left I could see Gracie, laying on her side and facing me as she likewise slept. But I didn’t see Gunny or Shore in our room, and I remembered that they had left for a scavenging trip a while back. Even through the haze of my sleepiness, I gave a silent prayer that I’d see them in the morning, and I sighed softly as I laid my head back down on the floor. Before I had woken up, I had been dreaming. But this dream wasn’t a nightmare, thank Luna. Instead, it was a rather accurate reliving of my dinner with Cross. The dinner was a total success in my opinion, and I had enjoyed the earth pony’s company. When we had entered the saloon, we were allowed to pick any table that wasn’t currently in use, and Sheila, the older mare who ran both the diner and the saloon, immediately served us with an appetizer recommended by Cross. I’d have to say that pre-war macaroni and cheese ranked up at the top of my list of favorite preserved foods. Afterwards, the main course consisted of one large dish which Cross and I shared. It was a meal made of a variety of pre-war foods, including apples, carrot slices, celery, an assortment of preserved flowers, and a side dish of applesauce with separate bowls for the both of us. This meal, brought with slightly irradiated water, made a very hearty dinner. Redfield had been right about Sheila - that older mare really knew how to throw together a good meal.

Through the dinner, Cross had told me his life’s story, full of tragedy and determination. Cross was born in the Equestrian heartland, specifically in the city of Manehattan, raised in a camp of wastelanders that were attempting to make a settlement in the ruins of the pre-war metropolis. According to the earth pony, Manehattan held its own array of dangers that were foreign to the southeast. Due to a lack of ponies living in the city, creatures once confined to the pre-war forests and wild lands had set up home in the metropolis. The creature Cross described in detail was something called a Manticore, a creature with the head and body of a lion with large wings and a scorpion tail. It was these creatures that had been responsible for wiping out the small settlement that Cross was raised in. The attack had left him as the only survivor, his parents and friends all killed, and he was forced to survive on his own in the Manehattan ruins; he lived entirely without any possessions to his name and without any allies.

As he grew and matured, he eventually came to find items that he could hang on to for more than a day, these items being things other than scraps of food and trickles of water. And when he aged into a young stallion, he left Manehattan behind and traveled southeast. This traveling brought more problems, as he frequently encountered raider bands. His first encounter had been something of great luck, as the first raider band that hunted him fell under attack by a wasteland caravan. The caravan rescued him, gave him medical attention, a stash of bottle caps, and gave him provisions to continue his travels. His continued journey led him to engagements with more raiders and more wasteland beasts, giving him a tremendous number of physical wounds come and gone and allowing him to hone his skills in combat. Of course, these constant battles were what made him develop what he called his battle craze. He had seen what raiders did to others in the heartland, and he said it outright that he loved to fight, so long as the fighting was between him and the bad guys.

Over his journey out of the Equestrian heartland and into the southeast, Cross had developed that kind of honor that made him want to protect his home should he find a new one. And sure enough, after spending his foalhood alone in Manehattan, and then fighting raiders afterwards, he found Proudspire. The town, more open than the Stable, took him in and accepted him as a new riflepony. Since his acceptance as a resident of Proudspire three years ago, he had been serving the settlement proudly and faithfully.

Because of his in-depth tale about his own life, I felt that I owed it to him to explain bits and pieces of my own life. I had told him about my family, their personalities, and what they did in the Stable. I ended up sifting through various memories and describing them to him, discussing my classes, my part-time occupation as a foalsitter, and my love for music and literature, all while reminiscing to myself. To my embarrassment, I had ended up breaking into tears once whereupon Cross led me outside the saloon, embraced me, and held me tight, letting me weep openly against him. The tears were brief, and we had managed to finish our dinner regardless, but after that little breakout, I had refused to discuss the Stable’s demise and the death of my parents. Instead, I had filled him in on our efforts on restoring Hopeville, explaining how we had found the town along with what we did within our first days in it. When I had finished by explaining that the town was being cleaned up, he had nobly declared that he would want to come with us to lend his hooves to Hopeville’s restoration. It was a touching offer, and it was what pretty much sealed our friendship. So, the dinner had been a success, and I swear I remember catching him looking back at me when we said our goodbyes…… I had looked back at him too… twice.

I smiled at the memory, shifting carefully to avoid stirring my brother from his slumber, and just when I closed my eyes to try and fall back asleep once again, I heard a noise. It was a soft sound, a gentle creak, and I opened my eyes again to find that the front door was opening. As the door slowly swung open, the soft light behind it faded away, and a pony nudged the door open and entered the first floor of the Chief’s quarters. The pony stopped briefly, nudging the door closed, and the pony’s figure became entirely encased in darkness. The only thing I could see in the dark was that the pony was a unicorn… and the pony begun to move. The unicorn crept towards the stairs, paused, and then suddenly cast a look over to me. I shut my eyes, hoping that I was quick enough to avoid being detected…… silence… and then I heard the gentle hoofsteps again. I raised an eye, seeing that the unicorn was moving up the stairs, and he disappeared onto the second floor. At that moment, my gut gave me a kick, and my brain begun to think as I became fully awake; something was wrong here.

I rose to my hooves, gently lifting my protective wing off of Blake, and though he shifted, he remained asleep. Looking back up to the second floor, I crept forward, sneaking up to the base of the stairs, and as quietly as I could, I made my way up after the unicorn. When I got to the top of the stairs, I could still see the dark silhouette of the unicorn making its way to the far end of the second floor. It was there that Kayla, Ironhoof, and Redfield slept, though currently, Redfield’s bed was empty. But as I carefully set hoof onto the second floor itself, I froze at seeing the unicorn’s horn begin to glow. It was wearing a pair of saddlebags, and I saw as one of the bags opened, a tool of sorts floating out of it. It was a slim plastic tube with a very long and pointy needle on the end of it, and before I could even blink, the unicorn thrust the needle square into Ironhoof’s neck. I quickly placed a hoof over my mouth to stifle a gasp. Ironhoof didn’t even stir, and I had no clue as to why… but then my eyes widened as the unicorn suddenly levitated two wicked knives from its saddlebags, and the unicorn’s head swung over to look down on the sleeping Kayla.

Goddess damn it I KNEW IT!

Forsaking stealth entirely, I sprang off of the floor and charged, and the unicorn turned back to face me just as I drove into it. We toppled forward, the two of us crashing into Kayla who woke with a scream, and I felt hot pain across my back as a knife sliced across it, dropping from its telekinetic field. Immediately afterward, I felt myself rise in the air, and I realized with shock that I was wrapped in magic. Before I could act, I was thrown into the wall and then sent skidding across the floor, the wound on my back searing with fiery pain. I came to a rude halt by hitting my head on the back wall, a terrible headache already forming as I staggered back to my hooves and charged forward again. The unicorn was facing Kayla, who was cornered and cowering against the wall, and the unicorn was raising his blades to attack. I intercepted the assailant once again, driving the unicorn into the wall and attempting to throw my weight against the pony to get away from Kayla. We fell to the floor in a wrestling match, but again, magic prevailed, and I was thrown once again, crashing through the circular table and tumbling along the floor to eventually come to a halt on my side. By now, I was gasping for air, and I could feel tremendous pain in my back as my wound bled openly; I couldn’t see it, but I felt the blood run along my coat. I struggled to my hooves once again, suddenly catching sight of one of the room’s cabinets ripping away from the wall, wrapped in magic. The attacker turned to see the floating piece of furniture, but the unicorn’s reaction came to late, and the cabinet struck him across the head, sending him toppling over Ironhoof’s bed and onto the floor amidst a pile of preserved pre-war food. Behind me, I saw Gracie, her horn shimmering with magic as she tore another cabinet off of the wall, readying it as another weapon, and she grunted again as she sent it at the attacker, just getting to its hooves. The cabinet struck the unicorn in the head again, sending the attacker back against the wall and making him loose focus on his blades, and they clattered to the floor. This was my chance, and springing forward, I pounced onto the unicorn. I landed over the attacker, scrabbling as the unicorn planted its hooves against me to shove me off. Unfortunately, I was a rather lightweight mare, and I slipped as the attacker shoved a second time. Landing on my side, I felt a hoof drive into my side, and I grunted in pain as the attacker threw himself over me. But right away, Gracie charged to us and barreled into the unicorn, driving him neatly into the corner whereupon she levitated her pistol and rammed it to the unicorn’s neck; she had brought her sidearm upstairs with her… good thinking.

Finally, there was silence that only our heavy breathing disturbed, and I got to my hooves with a grunt and backed away; my back really hurt. “Nova!” I heard a foal’s voice call from the stairs, and I saw Blake as he galloped over to me. “You’re hurt… are you okay?” he asked, worried as he nuzzled me.

I gladly pulled him close, but I didn’t answer, hearing Gracie as she recognized the attacker. “Gabriel…” …I knew it… “Why?…”

No answer came from the advisor pinned by Gracie’s sidearm, but I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned, I saw with a gasp as one of Gabriel’s daggers rose into the air. But it didn’t turn to face Kayla, still huddled in the other corner… it turned to point at Gracie. “GRACE!” I shouted, just as the knife launched forward.

With a cry of alarm, Grace fell out of the way just before the blade would’ve plunged into her. Instead, the knife continued forward, and it slammed straight into Gabriel’s gullet with a sickening *shink*. I stared wide-eyed as Gabriel choked on his own blade and struggled to free himself. He writhed for a moment, the blade having gone entirely through his throat and pinning him against the wall, and then with one final choke, his body ceased to move, and he died.

More silence proceeded as Gracie got to her hooves, backing away from the now lifeless corpse of the advisor pony. Me? I plopped down onto the floor, my back searing with pain, and my brother once again questioned my well-being. “I was cut a bit Blake.” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “I’ll be fine.”

“A-are you sure?” I heard from the back of the room, and I saw as Kayla rose to her hooves and approached.

“I’m not worried about myself.” I said after a breath. “Are you alright, Kayla?”

“S-shaken a little… but I’m not hurt.” she replied, settling down in front of me so she could look into my eyes; she was shaking. “I-I don’t understand. Why would Gabriel want to hurt me?”

I knew why. I knew that he wanted her dead so he could lead the town, but I didn’t think it best to explain that right now. Between my pain and her fear, an explanation of the truth would only put her more on edge than she already was. “Gabriel’s gone.” I said, trying to sooth her. “He wont hurt you now.”

“Oh my…” I heard beside me; that wasn’t a good sign. Gracie had stepped up to me and was looking along my back. “That’s a nasty gash. I need to get you some healing bandages. A potion might not hurt either.”

“Wait, Grace.” I spoke up quickly. “Ironhoof… Gabriel stabbed him with some kind of needle and I think he might have injected him with something. You should go see him first.”

Gracie didn’t look like she agreed with me, but she left me with a sigh and trotted over to Ironhoof, who still remained in his bed. I watched as Gracie looked the earth pony over, her horn shimmering with magic as she used some kind of spell. She lowered her ear down to Ironhoof’s neck, listening, and then she nodded and her horn’s light faded. “I think he was given something to keep him asleep, or paralyzed or something.” Gracie explained, returning to my side. “He should be fine, but I’ll keep an eye on him. In the meantime, I need to get this wound cleaned and sealed up. I’ll be back.” With haste, Gracie left down the stairs to retrieve her medical supplies and returned a moment later with the promised potion and bandages.

As she set to work on my back, my curiosity bump began to swell as I stared at Gabriel’s saddlebags which had fallen onto the floor near his corpse. I hadn’t thought of it until now, but I hadn’t found any probable explanation as to why he would’ve been carrying them, aside form hiding his knives. But surely with those blades, as well as that syringe, there had to be something else in there… I wanted to find out. “Blake…” I began, but then I remembered where the bags had fallen; I didn’t want him fetching something off of a dead pony. “Uhm, Gracie, could you bring me Gabriel’s saddlebags?”

“I really need to keep working on this wound.” she answered insistently, having begun to clean off the blood on my coat with a wet rag.

“Gracie, please get them.” I huffed back to which Gracie sighed. She trotted over to the saddlebags and levitated them over to me before quickly returning to her work again. Nudging one of the saddlebags open, I peered inside. This would at least allow me a distraction from the pain that would follow as Gracie cleaned my wound.

I reached a foreleg into the saddlebag, tracing the saddlebag’s interior to try and find any other items. While I came out empty-hoofed, I did feel items in the second saddlebag. Reaching in, I nudged out two items. One of these was a pistol with some kind of long black tube attachment at the end of it, a suppressor. The second item was a piece of paper which I found to contain writing. It was a brief note of some kind, and adjusting it with a hoof, I read silently:

You are to go into Proudspire and kill Kayla tonight. When Kayla is dead, you will take over the town and then work to convince the town to surrender. Then we’ll come and kill off every motherfucker inside and officially take the settlement. We don’t care how the first couple of steps gets done so long as they get done. You can leave the big killings to us. When this task is done, your assimilation into the Black Blood will be complete and you’ll be sent to Haven for new assignments.

I looked away from the note, speechless. With the sloppy penmanship and the crude writing, there was no way that this letter wasn’t sent by the Black Blood itself, and reading this letter made me understand that we had just stuck a massive wrench in a plan that put all of Proudspire in jeopardy. Gabriel had been working with the Black Blood Raiders all this time, and I knew that if the Black Blood won over an operative that held such an important role in the settlement, Proudspire would have to act soon. Otherwise, things might take a turn for the worst.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Friend of the Night - Why use a Pipbuck lamp when you’re a friend of the night? Your eyes now adjust quickly to lowlight conditions.

Chapter 7: Unyielding Regret

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 8: Restoring Hope

Author's Note

At last, the next chapter is done! While I do feel like I may have lost a bit of consistency in this chapter, I still like how it turned out overall. With school back in session, I've lost the concentration I had while on my summer break (since I need to focus on schooling as well). But regardless, I think this chapter has turned out mostly okay and has fulfilled its purpose as an effective bridge into the next chapter which will be dedicated to character and MAJOR plot development. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter, and please... constructive criticism is welcome. If any of y'all feel that something's wrong with this chapter that effects the overall quality of the story, PLEASE tell me. That is all.

Chapter 8: Restoring Hope

“A light shining in darkness… a chance to live again.”

Stillness.

The raider camp, now defeated, was calm. The only sounds to break the silence was the occasional voice that would speak out amongst the clusters of tents as an order was passed between ponies. After being dressed with non-magical bandages to cover his gunshot wound and stop the bleeding, Redfield had sent Rocky out to find the other Proudspire ponies and report back to him with information regarding the outcome of the battle; specifically, this included finding out Proudspire’s losses. While he waited, Redfield had taken the time to sit down outside the entrance of the metal building to relax his wound and recover as best as he could. He had asked me to join him after I had informed him of Cross’s death, and even though I had done my best to listen as he spoke, my mind was still clouded with the memories of Cross… and of how my attempt to save him had failed. “I’m sorry about Cross.” Redfield said gently. “He was a good pony. We worked and fought well together. When we were up on the wall, he was focused and dedicated to the defense effort, and he was the kind of pony that had that extra drive to get things done. He was a good fighter up there. He was a good friend of mine as well, and when we were off duty, we’d make occasional visits to the saloon together. Then of course, being the friends that we were, he occasionally told me about his personal life…… It was during the afternoon today that he told me about you and about how he felt towards you.”

I gave a light sigh as I swung my gaze to the ground, looking at where Cross’s battle rifle lay nearby; I instinctively pulled it closer to me. “He did?”

“Yeah.” Redfield stated. “He said a lot of good things about you, thought very highly of you and your ambition regarding Hopeville. I think that’s what he liked the most about you, how you always talk about honoring your promises. I can’t say that I disagreed with him about that. He was right about the way he felt.”

“I was just… I thought I could save him with that last potion.” I explained solemnly. “When you try and save a life, and you fail… it hurts. I feel like it’s-”

“If you think that you’re to blame for his death, then stop thinking like that.” Redfield interrupted sternly, making me wince. “You tried. It isn’t like you left him to die. Still, I understand that it hurts, and you have my sympathies. I wish things could’ve ended differently, and I wish things could’ve worked out between you two.”

I looked back at him, staring. I knew what he was talking about, and there was no denying the truth. If Cross and I had survived together, something may have very well emerged between us… that special connection that my parents had described to me in the Stable. According to them, a strong and romantic relationship between a mare and a stallion was one of the most honorable accomplishments a pony could achieve in his or her life. My mother and father both put a lot of emphasis on that, and while I firmly agreed with them, I hadn’t put too much thought to it while I lived in the Stable. I had been too focused on my studies to pay any Stable stallion too much attention, and that had been the case throughout my Stable life. Being out here didn’t change that at all. In fact, it easily made me cast any thought of it aside for the sake of my baby brother. But what happened between Cross and I happened naturally, a connection that formed from an unexpected yet genuine attraction. We had become drawn to each other in a sense… but now I had to let him go. “I do too.” I replied, nearly a whisper.

I heard a cough to my left, and looking, I saw Rocky waiting for us, his .30 caliber MG secured to his leather armor. Though he didn’t speak, his dispirited body language showed that he came bearing bad news, and when I looked back at Redfield, he appeared to have taken notice as well. “How many?” Redfield dared the question.

“Nine.” Rocky answered dismally. “Four mares, five stallions.”

“Nearly half…” Redfield mumbled to himself, his ears drooping slightly. However, he gave a quick nod and returned to focus, looking back at Rocky. “Alright. I want to get everypony moving, but we’ll go back and gather up the bodies of our dead first. We’re not leaving them here to rot in this camp. That’s the Black Blood’s new job.” Redfield paused again, giving a short sigh as he planned. “We’ll take the bodies out to the north end of the camp and then bury them before we head back to Proudspire. Any injured ponies that can’t walk will need to be carried, so we can’t loot the camp. We’ll leave everything here that isn’t ours.” With a quick salute, Rocky trotted back into the camp to carry out his orders. Turning to me, Redfield asked, “Would you be willing to carry one of the bodies out for me? I know it's not pleasant, but…”

I interrupted quickly, mustering my best smile. “I’ll do it.” I had no trouble in carrying a body if it meant honoring the sacrifice of a fallen ally, and I already knew who I would take.

Without another reply, Redfield and I parted ways, and I picked up Cross’s rifle and made my way back to the metal building nearby. As I expected, Cross’s body was still where it had rested after his passing, and as I stepped up to him, I gave a thin smile; without his wounds, he would’ve been mistaken for somepony that was simply sleeping. Setting the rifle aside, I lowered my head down and gave the stallion’s cheek a gentle nuzzle before I begun to nudge and push under him to get him onto my back. Rising back up to my full height and situating the body so that it laid parallel to my spine, Cross’s head drooped over my right shoulder, I gave a grunt and picked up my rifle again before moving forward. As I gradually made my way north through the camp, I could hear more voices speaking to one another behind me, orders being passed around to pick up the bodies and escort the survivors out of the camp… survivors? When that word echoed through the tents on the voice of a stallion, I couldn’t help but look back, and I gave an involuntary gasp through a mouthful of rifle. Under escort from two Proudspire stallions, one of whom was carrying a dead comrade, were two beaten unicorn mares and a young, light brown earth pony colt with a black mane. All three of them were terribly filthy, dirt and grime mixing with blood, both dried and fresh. But what really put a pang of misery through me was the fact that the colt was walking with a limp (his left foreleg looked to be troubling him) and was being helped along by one of the bruised mares who looked just as concerned as I felt. It wasn’t hard to figure out that those three ponies had been captives of the Black Blood in this camp. Now they were free; chalk up another victory for the night.

Progressing through the camp, I passed by the last of the tents that made the northern side of the camp and found a cluster of ponies gathered farther ahead. Even as I made my way to them, I could see two unicorns using their magic to cut into the dirt, making graves; only a few of our team had returned. “Welcome back Nova. It’s good to see that you made it.” I heard a feminine voice up ahead, speaking lowly.

Continuing in my trot, I looked to see a unicorn mare staring back at me with a slim smile. A light violet mare with a deeper purple mane and tail, she was one of the Proudspire ponies that had been a part of our attack team but one that I had not come to know by name. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that she herself was standing next to the body she had carried over. Laying at peace beside her was a light orange earth pony mare, the bullet wound on her chest showing that she had been shot in the heart.

I stepped up beside her and set my rifle down to speak. “Was she a friend of yours?” I asked as gently as I could, crouching down to ease Cross off of my back and onto the ground.

“A very dear friend.” the unicorn mare replied, stroking her fallen friend’s cream-colored mane with a gentle hoof. “What about you? I know you’re an outsider but…” she trailed off, looking at Cross.

“He was a good friend too.” I answered politely, stepping back from Cross where he lay. “He was the first wasteland pony I had really started becoming comfortable friends with. And I think he actually started to like me as more than a friend… at least that’s what Redfield said. Either way, Cross found something that he liked about me and he befriended me without hesitation. The fact that I’m a stranger… well, I guess that didn’t matter to him too much.”

“I see. I’m sorry for your loss outsider.” the unicorn replied softly, pausing for a long moment before she added, “This mare here was a very dear friend to me. We had been friends since foalhood and we had worked up on the wall a lot together. We’d always make sure that our stations on the wall were right next to one another, or at least close enough so that we could talk to one another during our shift. It was only recently that we begun seeing each other a little differently. In the end, she and I… well… we developed a thing for one another.”

“A thing?” I asked, actually confused until she looked directly at me, her eyes narrowing slightly as if she was a bit offended at my lack of understanding…… oh… “Ah… I’m sorry.” I apologized, feeling slightly awkward but no less sincere. “Then it seems we share the same reasons for honoring our fallen friends.” I added, thinking fast. She eased at that comment and nodded her agreement; in that moment, it paid to have a partially silver tongue.

“So what will you do now that Proudspire’s prevailed over the Black Blood?” the mare asked, watching behind her as more ponies left the camp and made their way towards us.

“I want to go back to Hopeville again.” I answered easily. “And I’m fairly certain that my friends will be feeling the same way. Though I’ve tried to keep it a secret, I’m rather homesick.”

“Well then, I’d better go ahead and say thank you.” the mare said with another thin smile. “You and your friends were total strangers a couple days back. Now, you’ve done so much to help us that I think everypony in Proudspire would remember you. So I just wanted to say my own thanks before you set off again.”

“I’m not one for taking compliments all the time.” I stated, a little embarrassed at the praise. “But I appreciate it.”

“You’ll probably be hearing the same thing from a few others before you leave.” the mare observed after a light laugh.

“Right now, I’d rather just get back and get a few hours of sleep in.” I replied with a half-amused smile, looking back behind me. By now, everypony from the team had returned, including our three new survivors. While I didn’t hear or ask, I had assumed that the three former captives would be allowed to come with us. They were huddled together a ways off from the Proudspire ponies, the two unicorn mares looking over the little injured colt who wept openly…… Goddesses he was so young…

Fuck the Black Blood.

I turned and begun to trot off towards the three freed captives. Seeing that little colt in such pain made my heart ache, and it made me want to help in any way possible, even if my helping him only involved gentle words and encouragements. Approaching them, I gave the best smile I could muster as the two unicorn mares looked up at me. “Hello.” I said warmly, seeing that they were both rather tense at my advance; I slowly came to a halt. “I’m Nova.”

“What do you want Nova?” one of the mares asked, not rudely but still a little bitterly. The mare had a blue-green coat and a dirtied silver mane, and she looked to be the most battered of the three former captives. She was marked with a vast array of cuts and scrapes, and she also had the most bruises against her coat.

“I saw your colt.” I explained, nodding to him as he sobbed. “I just wanted to talk with him and see if I could help him relax, if that’s okay with you two.”

The two mares exchanged glances, then looked back at me. “Why would you want to do that?” the second mare asked, a vanilla-colored unicorn with a deep orange mane.

The mare’s question struck me with a bolt of surprise, and I raised an eye, rather taken aback that they would question a caring gesture from a concerned mare. But as I looked between them, their expressions actually showed genuine curiosity… “How long were you two imprisoned?” I asked carefully, but the two of them only shook their heads at me, refusing to oblige me with an answer. While I had never been captured myself, their dirt and their scars gave enough evidence to what they had endured in that wretched camp for however long a time they had been trapped there; they wouldn’t know anything about kindness in the clutches of the Black Blood. “He’s just hurt and scared, and I hate seeing him like that. I hate seeing any foal like that… no young pony deserves it.” I answered sincerely.

The two mares looked at each other again. “It’s good to be out of there isn’t it?” the vanilla mare asked, to which her friend smiled a thin smile.

Looking back at me, the blue-green mare gave a nod. “If you want to talk to him, then you can. He could use the extra support in knowing that not everypony is out to hurt him. When he was dragged into the camp earlier today, he was thrown into a cage and locked up. Shortly after, a raider showed up and started to yell and curse, and then he twisted the little colt’s foreleg. It wasn’t hard enough to break the bone, but it’s still sprained. It happened just before the camp came under attack, so it’s still hurting the poor dear quite a lot.”

“We would’ve helped him earlier if we had any medical supplies.” The vanilla mare added lowly. “But of course…”

“It's okay. I understand.” I said, looking back at the little pony who’s head was still buried between his forelegs as he sobbed. Giving a sad nod, I stepped up to the little colt and laid down in front of him, and as the two mares watched, the young one looked up at me with a sniffle. “Hi.” I said gently, smiling sweetly.

“Hi.” his little voice replied, his eyes wide and watery as he stared nervously at me; I could see the fear in his gaze.

“I’m Nova.” I explained delicately, trying to sooth the injured and shaking little pony. “What’s your name?”

“L-Lucan.” the little colt replied, trying his best to smile at me in return.

“Lucan?” I asked curiously. “That’s a good name.”

“Thanks.” Lucan replied, his smile coming out now before suddenly being replaced with a dismal frown. He gave a little moan of pain and looked down at his left foreleg, lifting it carefully off of the ground to move it. “My leg hurts.” Lucan stated miserably. “A big pony hurt it.” He was keeping the injured foreleg stretched out and away from him, trying to relieve the pain of the sprained limb in anyway possible.

I suppressed a twinge of rising anger with a light sigh. “I’m so sorry sweetheart.” I said, a sincere apology. “When we leave, we’ll get you some help so your leg will feel better. A friend of mine knows how to take care of injuries, so she’ll take care of that leg for you. Okay?”

Lucan nodded before looking back at me. “Where are we going now?” he asked.

“You’re not staying here, I can assure you that.” I answered confidently, feeling a bit of pride at seeing the little pony’s spirits rise. “We’ll be taking you to Proudspire so that you can get some food, rest, and medical care. After that, then I suppose it’s up to the leaders to decide where you will go next.”

“You’re not one of the leaders?” Lucan asked curiously.

“No dear, I’m not.” I answered with a light giggle. “I’m a new pony to Proudspire just like you.”

“I wish you were one of the leaders.” Lucan said with a more confident smile. “You’re really nice.”

“That’s very sweet of you, little one.” I replied, flattered by the compliment, and after a moment I rose back up to my hooves. “Hang in there Lucan. We’ll be back to Proudspire soon and you’ll be as good as new in no time.” At the colt’s broad smile and vigorous nodding, I stepped back and looked over to where the graves were being dug. Most of them had already been finished, tired unicorns watching as the surviving earth ponies of the team went to setting the nine corpses to their final resting place. As the graves were filled, words were passed as the ponies talked about their fallen comrades recollecting short memories and stories, traits and good deeds. Even as they spoke, the last of the graves were being tended to by others, and Cross’s grave was now fully completed.

With a sigh, I trotted back to Cross’s body and I looked over the edge of the pit he lay next to. His grave was deep and long enough to be able to set the corpse inside at full body length without contorting it; it was as good a spot as any. Stepping over the body, I hooked my forelegs around his back and beat my wings to get off the ground. With my wings and my arms helping me to lift, I didn’t struggle as much in lifting Cross off of the ground and positioning the body over the grave. Next to me, I saw an earth pony stallion waiting patiently, standing near the mound of dirt that had been excavated away to make the grave site. Giving me a thin smile, he dipped his head respectfully to his fallen comrade. Then, I hovered in and set Cross down on the dirt before rising back out to land next to the stallion waiting for me. “Crazy son-of-a-bitch,” the buck remarked with a chuckle, making me look at him with a raised eye. He smirked at me as he placed his hooves to the pile of dirt. “I worked with Cross quite a bit on the wall.” he explained. “While we didn’t talk too much, I know that he loved killin raiders almost as much as he loved Proudspire.”

“He did love his home a lot.” I agreed with a smile. “Just like any honorable pony would.”

The stallion gave a grunt as he began shoving the dirt mound back into the pit to fill the hole, swiftly covering Cross beneath the earth. As he worked, I watched the grave fill, not taking my eyes away from where I last saw the body. As I stared, I could take in the details of the dirt as it rose up until it reached the top of the ground. Then the deed was done. “Be at peace.” the stallion said lowly, and I saw as he gave a quick salute to the grave with his hoof before he trotted off to help the others.

I blinked and looked back down at the patch of shifted earth that Cross now rested under. Staring back at the grave reminded me of how different things would be without him, how different the near future would become now that he wasn’t here to help me… I let out a weak sob, a pair of tears forming once again, falling down my cheeks when I shut my eyes. If he had been alive, I knew that he would be gearing up to come home with me and my friends, to lend his rifle and his skill to Hopeville and its restoration. He had declared those intentions yesterday, completely ignoring the fact that we had only known each other for roughly that long and pouring all of his honor into that promise. The thing about it was that Cross hadn’t made this promise asking for a reward, nor had he made the promise out of necessity. He did it for me, and for everything that I fought for. He had wanted to join my cause willingly, in honor of myself and my goals. Now, even if he couldn’t keep that promise, I felt that he had done enough for me. He appreciated me, respected me, cared about me… and that gave me a lot to think about for any time that I would be left to my thoughts.

As I opened my eyes again, gingerly wiping away the two tears, I heard hooves behind me. The Proudspire team was getting ready to move out, the rest of the graves having been dug and filled, the dead put to rest. As a final gift to Cross, I raised my left foreleg off the ground and brought it to my lips to place a kiss onto my hoof. Then, I reached over and planted my hoof into the dirt, pressing it down to make a depression in the soil. After lifting my hoof away, I nodded as I looked over the solid print I had left behind as a memorial on Cross’s grave. “Goodbye Cross… thank you.” With that, I picked up Cross’s rifle in my mouth and followed after the others to return to Proudspire; soon after, I’d be going back home.

*** *** ***

I woke up to the sound of somepony sifting through supplies, though when I opened my eyes, I saw that it was still rather dark inside our room; it must not have been morning yet. Around me, everypony was still asleep. Gunny had taken one of the two couches along the wall, Gracie taking the second, and Shore was sleeping on the floor nearby. Therefore, I knew that Blake was the culprit for the noise, and I looked over to see him as he removed a small box of pre-war food. The snack cakes had been given to us from Hopeville’s hidden food storage, and because of the hospitality of Proudspire, we still had roughly half of our supplies left, the more to use for the journey home.

Seeing me awake, he trotted over with the box. “Morning.” he mumbled through the box.

I gave a sleepy smile, fanning out my right wing in invitation, and Blake gratefully snuggled up against my side, fiddling with the box as I draped my wing back over him. “What are you doing up so early?” I asked him quietly, careful not to wake the others.

“I just woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep.” Blake answered before pulling open a tab of the box with his teeth. As he gradually opened the rest of the box, shaking out the a pair of preserved desert cakes, he asked, “So we’re going back home soon, right?”

“Yes baby brother we are.” I said, giving a light sigh; I couldn’t wait to see Hopeville again. Even if it had only been three days since I had left, I was insanely homesick, and seeing the town again would put a lot of needed encouragement back into me. After my time in Proudspire, I really needed to see what I was doing all of this for again… that town… all two hundred of its ponies.

“I can’t wait to give Melody the ball we found.” Blake said confidently before taking a bite out of one of the snack cakes. “I hope she’ll like it.”

“I think she’ll love it.” I assured him, giving him an loving nudge before smiling down at him. “Did I ever mention how proud I am of you?”

Blake looked up at me after swallowing another bite of his breakfast. “Yep.” he piped cheerily. “No need to say it again.”

“I’m very proud of you.” I said, smirking as Blake gave a playful frown.

“You’re almost as bad as dad was.” he said, chuckling softly.

“He smothered you with words way more than I do.” I insisted with a giggle.

“I did say almost.”

“Either way Blake,” I continued more seriously. “I just wanted you to hear that again. Over the past three days you’ve been very helpful and very brave. Between helping Kayla and being with Gracie while I was away, you’ve helped us tremendously. I’m glad you’re with me right now.”

“I’m sorry about Cross though.” Blake replied gently. “I saw you two before you left for the fight last night. When he didn’t come back with you…”

“It’s okay Blake.” I assured him, nuzzling him affectionately. “Besides, I don’t think he’d want me to be mourning for him any longer. If anything, he’d be wanting me to focus on getting back to Hopeville in one piece. He’d want me to keep my mind set on whatever else I need to do in order to help Captain Saber restore the town.”

“But you still liked him didn’t you?” Blake asked, looking at me with curious eyes.

“Yes… yes I did.”

“Morning.” I heard a groggy voice nearby, and I saw as Gunny was beginning to stir on his couch.

“Good morning Gunny.” I responded as he gave a mighty yawn.

“How are you feeling?” he asked as he hopped down from his bed and laid down beside me.

“Tired… but better, now that we’re going home.”

“That’s good to hear.” Gunny replied with an tired smile. “I’m ready to get back as well. I really want to report in and see what’s been happening while we were gone. It’s been a little unsettling to be away from my regular patrol duty for so long.”

“I’ll bet anything that Hopeville will still be the same way it was when we left it.” I assured, giving Gunny’s shoulder a light punch. “You’re not the only one that’s good at his duty.”

“Yeah… I’m just anxious is all.” Gunny replied. “Being here has been an adventure-and-a-half, but every day in Proudspire is making me miss home more and more.” His eyes flicked to his left to look past me, and I turned with him to see Shore as he stirred with a yawn. Briefly, as he blinked away his tiredness, he searched the floor with a hoof for his glasses. Finding them nearby, he fumbled them in his hooves before putting them on upside-down and laying there dumbfounded.

At my light giggle, he quickly readjusted them to fit over his muzzle properly. “Nopony saw that.” he claimed as he pushed his eyewear up to the bridge of his muzzle. Standing up and stretching, he gave us a good morning nod before going to Gracie’s saddlebags. “I wonder what’s for breakfast. I’m quite hungry from yesterday…”

“Anything sounds good right about now.” Gracie mumbled as she shifted on her couch and stretched. With all five of us awake, breakfast commenced in full, and we found ourselves waking quickly to the subject of home. Despite last night’s battle and the losses it brought, we were all in generally high spirits, thankful for the fact that all of us were alive and together as well as the knowledge that we would be in Hopeville before the end of the day.

Over our food, we found ourselves changing the subject of discussion to the memories of the previous night. Last night, both of the counterstrike teams had arrived in Proudspire at the same time, and we were all welcomed back with a hearty round of cheering from the residents and guards of Proudspire who had stayed behind. Afterwards, to my great admiration, a formal ceremony was held to honor the dead where Ironhoof and Redfield announced the names of those who had died in the battle. With each name came tears, followed by one fond memory, and then a moment of silence. During the ceremony, I had been given the privilege of sharing a memory I had of Cross, and I had gladly recounted our dinner together. I had told all of Proudspire about everything he promised me, a stranger, and I had told them about the most important thing he had shown to me. He had showed me that good virtues really did survive in the wasteland, in the hearts of those ponies that sought to live by them and cherish them as a part of themselves. Because of that memory, I made my own promise to Proudspire that both his rifle, which he gave to me, and his memory would travel with me until the day I died. These were the last words I spoke in memoriam to Cross.

After the ceremony, quickly prepared late-night festivities were arranged, and the only keg of Proudspire’s preserved hard apple cider was passed around to the Proudspire ponies who had returned from the counterstrike alive. Of course I had refused to drink, even with Gunny’s continual pestering and teasing; call me uninteresting, but the prospect of being drunk does not appeal to me. However, my self-dismissal from the festivities had allowed me to briefly reunite with Ironhoof who explained the bitter side of the outcome of the counterattack. A total of fifteen Proudspire ponies had died out of the forty we had sent which was, by no means, a good thing. Because of this loss, he warned that Kayla would not be able to send as much help along with us to Hopeville as she had originally wanted. With fifteen less ponies to guard the settlement, everypony would be needed to work and guard as Proudspire recovered. While I understood the situation in its entirety, I had gone to sleep to the worrying thoughts that we might very well end up returning to Hopeville empty-hoofed; today I’d find out if that was really the case or not.

Contrary to Gunny’s hopes, which he forgot easily enough while he ate, breakfast took just over an hour, and as we got moving, a peek out the door confirmed that the sun was beginning to rise, the clouds to the east just slightly brighter than the rest. With a nod, I trotted back inside and walked up to my gear; the others were now packing up and reequipping themselves for the journey home. Gunny, having slept in most of his gear, helped me put back on my battle saddle and my saddlebags. “Are you leaving your rifle behind?” I asked, attempting to make conversation while he fit my saddlebags back onto my flanks.

“The fifty?” Gunny asked, giving a nod as he concentrated. “Yeah. Tulip’s a jewel with that weapon. Saved my hide back in the camp last night, so I figured that the least I could do was let her keep it. It’ll serve Proudspire well.”

“What’s that weapon you have now?” I asked, looking at his new shotgun. “It looks different than your other one.”

“Yeah.” Gunny scoffed. “This is a riot-class shotgun. The reason why I have it now is because one of the raiders blew away my own shotgun instead of my head. This was the weapon he used… its got a little bit of that secondary value to it, aside from being a rather potent firearm. A little cleaning will do it wonders.”

“You never told me that!” I spoke up louder, rather shocked at hearing how close to death he had come the previous night.

“Well it’s kind of hard to tell you when you went and left the party and fell straight to sleep.” he countered matter-of-factly, chuckling as I tried to form a response. “But it’s no big deal really. I’m here now, that raider’s gone, and he left me a generous gift.” He strapped on my saddlebags, securing them to my battle saddle before stepping back to check over my gear. “You’re good to go.” he declared with a small smile. “I can secure Cross’s rifle to Shore’s armor if you’d like.”

“Sure. That’d be great.”

“What am I carrying now?” Shore asked as Gracie used her magic to help him equip his own gear.

“Nova’s new rifle.” Gunny explained, levitating the rifle over to Shore and swiftly securing it to the stallion’s back.

“Ah. Not a problem.”

“Leaving already?” I heard from above. On the stairs, Redfield was making his way down to the first floor, giving a light smile before adjusting his eye patch. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“We’re all just eager to get back home, friend. That’s all.” Gunny explained with a dip of his head.

“I understand entirely.” Redfield assured, stepping down onto the first floor with us as Gracie and Blake finished packing up the last of our belongings. “I just wanted to come downstairs and tell you that Ironhoof and Kayla are awake. Whenever you’re ready we can go and see you out.”

“Yes, I believe we have everything.” Gracie nodded, looking over our room. With Blake already carrying his saddlebags, our remaining food and water stashed inside, the room was left as it was when we had first arrived.

“Alright.” Redfield trotted back up the stairs, returning a moment later with a smiling Kayla and a steel-clad Ironhoof.

Together, the three of them led us out into Proudspire’s town center before we turned for the gate. Even through the darkness that had not yet been fully consumed by the approaching morning, I could see a small assembly of guards watching from the wall; though most remained at their posts, a few of them came to see us as we stopped by the gate. With a quick command, Kayla sent Ironhoof and Redfield back into town, and at my inquiry, the filly explained, “Last night, the three of us talked about what we could do to help you, since you kept your promises to help us. When I asked Ironhoof if we could send anypony with you, he decided that Proudspire could let two ponies go. We decided that we’d send Flare and Rocky as a part of your team. Rocky is a tough pony and a good fighter, and Flare is good with explosives and things. Hopefully they’ll be a good help to you.”

“Every pony that goes to Hopeville can help in some way.” Gunny replied gratefully. “Captain Saber will find a way. Thank you.”

“Of course!” Kayla replied with a beaming smile. “Redfield also said that it would be best if you brought the four strangers that turned up yesterday. He said that Hopeville would be a better home for them than Proudspire would. I agreed… we’ve still got a lot of things to do before Proudspire can return to normal.”

“I’m positive that the captain will welcome them without question.” Gracie stated with a determined nod. “After all that they went through with those raiders, he’ll have no trouble in making them a part of our Stable community.”

“I’m glad for that.” Kayla said with that same pleasant smile, looking to her left at the town center and giving a wave. Coming from down the dirt road, Ironhoof and Redfield were approaching with Flare and Rocky, both of them fully equipped with the gear they would be taking. Rocky was wearing a suit of leather armor with his .30 cal strapped to his back along with two long ammo belts; Flare was only carrying a pair of saddlebags. With them also were two unicorn mares, one of them carrying a young colt on her back, and I immediately recognized the three ponies as the former wasteland captives held in the raider camp the previous night. While they were all still rather dirty, I noticed with approval that their wounds had been tended to; they all looked to be feeling much better. But… didn’t Kayla say there was supposed to be four ponies?

“Where’s the earth pony that we helped yesterday?” I asked, looking around to see only blank and puzzled stares. “The one that had that explosive collar strapped on her?”

“She’s missing.” Redfield answered with a frown as he stepped up to us, the others trailing behind him.

“When we arrived at the clinic, the pink mare was gone.” Ironhoof’s deep voice spoke through his steel helmet.

“Didn’t one of you say that you remember seeing somepony walk out of the clinic?” Redfield asked, looking back at the three soon-to-be traveling companions.

The blue-green unicorn nodded. “I woke up for a few seconds to adjust myself on my bed, and I thought I saw somepony closing the door. But that was all I saw. Not to sound rude, but I was a little more focused on catching up with days of lost sleep.”

“No worries.” Redfield replied easily.

“If the pink mare escaped town, then she must have used one of the rooftops to leap over the wall.” Ironhoof observed. “None of the guards are permitted to open the gate at night.”

“I would ask around, but if she left in the middle of the night, then she’s long gone by now.” Redfield said, a little dismayed.

“I hope she’ll be okay wherever she ends up going.” Gracie said concernedly.

“I would have thought that she would’ve wanted to come with us, or at least stay here.” Shore added, giving a shrug. “But I suppose it is out of our hooves now.”

“Agreed. We need to get moving. The sooner we’re back in Hopeville the better.” Gunny declared.

“Then I suppose this is goodbye for now my friends.” Redfield said, raising a hoof in farewell. “Good luck out there.”

“We cannot thank you enough for the victories you have helped us secure.” Ironhoof voiced, genuinely grateful. “This isn’t the last we’ll see of the Black Blood, but it has shown that Proudspire is stronger than they believed. With luck, Proudspire will once again flourish.”

I gave a smile at Ironhoof’s rugged optimism. It was true that the Black Blood would more than likely make a return, but Proudspire had shown its truth strength last night, and they were victorious because of that strength; it was this kind of hope that would make me miss Proudspire a little. Even though the town looked like easy prey, there was a lot of determination residing within its citizens, and that was what made Proudspire special.

Suddenly, I felt a nudge against my chest, and I looked down to see the leader of Proudspire herself looking back up at me with a smile; she was sitting on her haunches and reaching up to me with her forelegs, waiting to give me a hug. I gave a giggle and let her sling her forelegs around my neck. “Good luck Kayla.” I said, giving her a quick bump with my muzzle.

“I’ll never forget what you did for me and my friends.” she said, whispering directly into my ear. “You helped us get back onto our hooves, and you taught me a lot of things. I think that if I just remember what you taught me, and I keep doing what I have been doing, then I can be the leader my daddy wanted me to be.”

“I have every faith in you that you will.” I whispered back as she released me.

“If any of you find yourselves coming back this way, or need a place to stay, I would always welcome you back.” Kayla declared, looking at each of us with a big and proud smile. “You’ll always have a home here should you need it.”

“Thanks again, Kayla. I’m glad we could help.” Gunny said, humbly dipping his head before turning to the rest of us and giving a nod.

At Ironhoof’s command, the metal gate of Proudspire gave a rattle and slid away, revealing the broad expanse of the southeastern wasteland; beyond that northern horizon was home. With a final farewell, Gunny took the lead, leading our band of ten ponies out into the wasteland, leaving Proudspire behind and once again putting Hopeville into our sights.

*** *** ***

The wind raced past me, my wings beating furiously as my tunnel vision kicked in, staring ahead at the town to the north. My gut was twisted into a knot, my breathing hard and short as I flew forward for all my worth, working my wings to their limits. I didn’t know what had happened, but the twin trails of smoke that were rising into the air from Hopeville threw my mind into a frenzy of fearful thought. Had Hopeville been attacked? Had it been destroyed?? Was everypony alive… or dead?? My friends and I had been looking forward to returning home all through the journey, which had thankfully gone without attacks from raiders or anything else. However, the smoke had been visible from a long ways away, and that had dashed all our hopes for reuniting with a peaceful and lively hometown. All I could think about now was what terrible fate might’ve befallen our only hope at life in the wasteland; there were so many possibilities, and none of them left my mind at ease.

I angled downward in a gradual dive before stopping to hover outside the south side of town. Now I could make out the finer details of Hopeville - the space between each building, ponies working in the courtyard, the origins of the smoke trails. One trail of smoke came from a building… or a former building. The corner house on the northeast side of town had been completely leveled, green fire licking out around the pile of stone rubble that was all that remained of the former structure. Near it, just in front of the Ministry of Peace Recruitment Center, was the second trail of smoke. It came from some kind of metal wreckage, surrounded by what looked like a small and shallow blast crater, likewise ablaze with bright green fire. Around the wreck, I saw four pony skeletons wearing tattered remains of the red and black armor of the Black Blood Raiders. Likewise, there were other corpses scattered along the north side of town, all of them wearing that similar tainted armor. The north street itself looked to be the main focus of whatever battle had taken place within the town, as there was also the presence of scorch marks and explosives residue. Other than this, the structural damage to Hopeville itself was minor, the east and west sides of town completely intact… thank Celestia.

Suddenly, I heard my Pipbuck’s speaker buzz to life before a voice spoke through it. “Nova? Nova is that you up there?” the familiar voice of Captain Saber asked.

Gratefully, I pressed a hoof to my Pipbuck to bring up my radio screen. “Yes captain, I’m here. What happened down there? Is everypony okay??”

“Everypony’s fine thankfully.” Saber replied, his tone taking on a rather urgent color as he added, “Come on down to the City Hall’s north side. We need to talk.”

Obliging without question, I dived down towards Hopeville. As I descended, I could see even more details of the town, and I noticed worriedly that guardsponies were using magic and various pieces of scrap to dig holes in the courtyard. Also, other guards were scouring the north side of town, scavenging from the corpses of the dead raiders to secure extra ammo and weapons. Ahead of me, next to the City Hall, was a group of six guardsponies congregating near the building’s entrance. I immediately recognized one, a dusty blue stallion with a matted light brown mane, as Captain Saber. He looked to be giving orders to the others, all five of which were wearing Pipbucks and were fully equipped in security armor with their respective battle saddles and weapons. Those five ponies were the security sergeants, and if all six of our leaders were gathered to plan, then something was definitely wrong.

Giving a quick flutter of my wings, I hovered in and landed next to the group, and Captain Saber gave a quick salute, the others turning to see me. “Welcome back Nova.” Saber said, trotting up to me before looking left and right. “Where are the others? They’re okay aren’t they?” he asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

“Yeah, they’re fine.” I replied, giving a sheepish smile. “I um… panicked though when I saw the smoke and I sorta… flew on ahead without telling them. I’m sure they’ll be here soon though.”

The captain instantly looked relieved. “That’s good to hear.” he said with a nod. “Before I get down to brass tacks, I need to ask you… how did you’re trip to Challenger turn out?”

“That’s a bit of a long story captain.” I answered timidly. “We actually didn’t make it to Challenger.”

“Really? Tell me about what happened then.”

As quickly as I could, I recounted my two days in Proudspire. Due to the brevity of my explanation, I had left out the sniper encounter in the Boulder Field and had also (intentionally) left out detailing the battle at the Black Blood Forward Post and the encounter with Butcher. I had however recollected my multiple encounters with Black Blood attack teams as well as the battles that allowed us to wipe out two larger Black Blood camps. “So we left Proudspire in the morning, and the settlement’s leaders sent along a couple of extra ponies to help us. Gunny and Shore and Gracie and Blake are on their way back with five others. It isn’t much, but at least we didn’t come back empty-hoofed. I can tell you about the ponies I met and other encounters we had along the way too, but things don’t look so good here.”

“We can all talk about it when we’re not in trouble, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve executed another successful mission. Every little form of aid we can get will be useful and I’m grateful for Proudspire’s generosity.” Saber said with an encouraging smile. “Well done Nova.”

“Now what about here?” I asked concernedly. “What happened?”

“Yes, this is where it gets bitter.” Saber said with a frown. “I’m afraid that my suspicions were correct. The invaders, these Black Blood Raiders, hit us about an hour ago with roughly thirty ponies. While I think they were here just to confirm that Hopeville was inhabited again, they were equipped with better weaponry and were actually a little more tactical in their attack. They hit us with heavier weapons like grenades, missile launchers, and other things like that. But that’s not even the worst of it.” Saber gave a flick of his head, motioning for me to follow as he dismissed his sergeants. Trotting ahead, we passed around the courtyard so as to not get in the way of the digging ponies, and we came up to the flaming metal wreckage that I had first spotted in the sky. “This was a weapon, and mind how close you are to this thing. It’s still irradiated.” Saber explained, keeping back from the flickering green fire. “The raiders brought in some sort of movable gun that a team of unicorns pushed and operated with their magic. The gun was mounted on an iron carriage, and it had wheels and everything. Basically it was a mobile heavy weapon, and that’s the most concerning part. This was the weapon that destroyed that house in one hit and it was this weapon that made those green flames. That fire…… it’s balefire.”

I gave a gasp, my eyes locked onto the hungry green flames. “What?? How could the Black Blood have their hooves on balefire weapons??” Balefire… it was the harbinger of the end times… the most powerful and destructive magical force in the history of Equestria. In the Stable, when I had become a mare old enough to read about it, I had studied balefire and its history. Balefire had been the result of zebra experimentation with megaspell technology during the Great War. According to old texts, balefire was necromancy-enhanced dragon’s fire which brought mass destruction over anything it was detonated over. Balefire, aside from its terrible destructive force, also left behind necromantic fallout which poisoned the lands it came in contact with, also corrupting living things with poisonous radiation, mutating them if not slowly and outright killing them. Balefire had led to the ultimate destruction of Equestria, and it had been written that specific targets of balefire bombs and missiles had included Cloudsdayle, Splendid Valley, Manehattan, and Fillydelphia, all targets within the Equestrian heartland. The bombs killed nearly everypony and everything… and the fact that the Black Blood had even an ounce of balefire weaponry at their disposal frightened me to the core.

“I don’t know,” Saber answered lowly. “but we should be glad that they only have balefire eggs, and not the really big stuff.”

“Eggs?” I asked, raising an eye… but still not looking away from the ominous green fire before me.

“The weapon was a mobile balefire egg launcher. There isn’t any other explanation because there aren’t many other weapons that can bring down a solid stone house in one hit.” Saber explained. “Balefire eggs are much weaker versions of the pre-war megaspell bombs. According to old books in the Stable, those came before the actual bombs came. My guess was that they were used on battlefields as heavy weapons for infantry, but I can’t say for certain. Still, this is a new threat, and a damn dangerous one. I wouldn’t be surprised if they roll in another one of those mobile launchers when they attack again.”

“Again?” I asked, very concerned. “Are they nearby??”

“They set up some kind of camp to the northwest.” Saber explained grimly. “That force they peeled off wasn’t even a fifth of the force they have up there. We sent the first raider band running with their tails between their legs, but they ran right back to where the rest of them were hiding, and that showed us that they’re planning another attack and soon. We’re trying to prepare as best we can, and we’ve got some additional help.”

“Help from who?” I asked curiously.

“Your friend Lucky Hallion, the traveling guns merchant. He and his sister came by just after the first attack. He talked about you a bit, saying it was you that told him about Hopeville’s revival.” he answered me with a thin smile. “After the introductions went around, he saw our predicament and volunteered his entire stockpile to our defense. I don’t know how, and personally I think I’d rather just avoid asking, but that stallion’s got enough weapons and hardware on that two-headed cow thing of his to fuel a small army. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

I eased up a little at Saber’s explanation. I had personally seen what Lucky Hallion was carrying before, and knowing that all of that was being given to Hopeville for the time being was very reassuring. “That sounds like him.” I said with a smirk. “I’m glad that he was true to his word and came here.”

“I’m just glad that he’s so willing to help. I didn’t expect that kind of support.” Saber remarked with a grunt. “Well, now that you know most of the situation, I’d like to get you up to speed with what’s going on and…”

“Actually captain,” I interrupted carefully. “I’d like to go back and make sure my friends are on their way in. I kind of feel bad for leaving them behind.”

“Alright, Nova.” Saber nodded. “But hurry up. I want everypony that can fight to be out here and helping with the preparations. I’ll explain when you get back… wait, isn’t that them over there?”

I raised an eye and looked back behind me, following the gaze of the captain. Sure enough, nine other ponies were visible near the City Hall. One of them, whom I recognized as Gunny, was carrying both of the young colts on his back as he and the others trotted down the road. I could tell that my friends were all just as worried as I had been; all of them were looking between the courtyard preparations and the smoldering building at the northeast corner of town.

“Good to see you all back in one piece.” Saber called, waving them over with a hoof. “And I see you brought some friends.”

“Yes sir.” Gunny said, lowering himself down to let Blake and Lucan back onto their hooves. “What happened here Captain? Were we attacked??”

“Yes Gunny, we were.” Saber answered, nodding for Gracie and Shore to join us as he filled them in on the attack, the balefire egg launcher, and the repelling of the first wave of Black Blood ponies. “I have no doubt that they’ll attack again soon, and judging by the size of that camp, I think it’s safe to say that they’ve got at least a company-sized attack force out there.”

“Over two hundred…” Gunny mumbled, to which Saber nodded gravely. “I guess we’ve got a lot of work to do then.”

“That’s what I was just getting at.” Saber stated determinedly, immediately shifting to that “mode” where he began to strategize. “We’re setting up sandbag barricades all along the north side of the City Hall. At the same time, as you’ll notice, we’re also digging up foxholes in the courtyard to give some of our ponies places to move around. That’ll help in keeping the streets covered.” He looked back around, swinging his gaze along the east and the west sides of town. “All those buildings are going to be used as bunkers where a few fire teams can shoot from elevated positions, and each one’s been packed with as much ammo as we could scrounge up. We got all of the buildings cleared out while you were gone so they’re completely empty since we haven’t designated them for any peaceful purpose yet. Other than this, I’ve got no idea about what else we can do to further fortify this town.”

Gunny nodded as he took in Saber’s plan. “Where do you want us?”

“Firstly, I’d like to know who these ponies you’ve brought with you are.” Saber said, giving a thin smile to our Proudspire compatriots. “I’m Captain Saber, chief of security and pony-in-charge of the Hopeville settlement.”

“I’m Rocky.” the grey unicorn introduced first. “I’m one of the security shift leaders at Proudspire. Nice town you’ve got here. It’s good to see it back up and running.”

“Or at least running as best as it can for now.” Saber replied with a grunt. “I’m glad you came. That machinegun you’ve got will help us out plenty.”

“What this old thing?” Rocky asked, craning his head around to look at his .30 cal. “Been with me for years. It’s good and reliable in a fight once you know how to take care of it. Ditched the tripod when my telekinesis could handle the weight. The thing weighs a good thirty pounds. Regardless, I’m ready to fight, especially after what your friends did for my own home. Tell me where to go, and I’ll be there.”

“Much obliged.” Saber dipped his head humbly to him before turning to Flare. “And what’s your name friend?”

“I’m Flare.” the red-orange unicorn mare said, giving a smile. “I’m not much of a soldier, but I love tinkering with explosives. Give me any kind of explosive charge or device to work with, and I’ll make one hell of a lightshow.”

Captain Saber gave a smirk. “Confident… good. I can see you making one hell of a mess for the Black Blood, so that’s something I’ll definitely be able to work with.”

Upon the captain’s looking at them, the two unicorn mares that had accompanied us introduced themselves without giving names. “We’re just two unicorn mares looking for a home.” the vanilla mare stated nonchalantly.

“We were Black Blood captives for a long time.” her blue-green unicorn companion added grimly. “Now that we’re free, we just hope we can return to as peaceful of a life as possible.”

“I see. Hopeville’s got its fair share of problems right now,” Saber warned, easing into a comforting smile afterwards. “but I’ll welcome you two to live here should you choose. And what might the foal’s name be?”

“I’m Lucan.” the little colt piped up; he looked a little tense, and I could tell it was due largely to the abundance of new ponies and scenery.

“Welcome to Hopeville, Lucan.” Saber greeted warmly, making the little pony give a smile.

Now with the introductions completed, Saber returned to his previous state of planning, and looking at Gunny, he said, “Here’s what I want to have happen. Gunny, you’ll be on gunner duty and I want you using an LMG. Go find Lucky Hallion up in the armory and get geared up with a new weapon and ammo. After you’ve got all of your new equipment, I want you to find Joker out in the courtyard. You two will be taking up a position in the northwest corner building next to the Hopeville Press.” With Gunny giving a salute of confirmation, Saber looked between myself and Flare. “Nova, I want you to take Flare to Lucky Hallion as well. If Hallion’s got explosives, it sounds like Flare should be the one to use them. When you’re done, I want the both of you to come back here and find me.”

“Captain, what should we do about the foals?” I asked, looking between Blake and Lucan, both of them looking concerned and in need of answers.

“We’re taking the foals and anypony who can’t fight into the City Hall.” Saber explained. “It’s our most fortified building. And speaking of this,” he added, turning to Gracie. “I want you to take the foals and the two mares here to the City Hall lobby. All of you are going to be there with the others who can’t fight. We’ve got some incapacitated ponies in there as well that could use your help, Grace. See what you can do for them.”

“Of course captain.” Gracie replied with a dip of her head.

Turning to the last two ponies, Saber said, “Shore and Rocky, I want you two to fall in with our ponies here in the courtyard. During the attack, I’ll be wanting the both of you in those foxholes and behind those sandbags.”

“If it’s okay captain,” Shore spoke up. “I would very much like to go and see my parents. I won’t take long, I promise.”

Saber gave a nod. “I understand. You should have a little time, but don’t be too long. As I said before, those raiders will be back here and probably very soon. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of preparations when they hit us again. Everypony understand?” With a collective “yes captain” from the ponies who had received their orders, Saber dismissed us and the group dispersed to their tasks.

Turning to Flare, I gave her a nudge with a hoof. “Let’s go find Lucky Hallion and see if he has any gear for you.”

At her nod, the two of us begun to trot away down the street, but I stopped at hearing Blake behind me. “Nova, wait up!” he called, hurrying after me; he looked rather perplexed. “Can’t I help?”

I gave a light sigh at his question, and I lowered my head down to look him in the eyes. “No Blake.” I replied gently. “You have to go with Gracie and stay in the City Hall until it’s safe again.”

“But I want to help you.” he protested defiantly, his face turning from confusion to one of hurt.

“I’m sorry Blake, really I am, but this is too dangerous.” I retorted sternly. “I’m not going to see you get hurt just because you want to help me.”

Blake looked at the ground, ears flattened back against his head as he gave a defeated moan. “I’m just… tired of being scared for you… tired of being left alone while you go out and fight.” The tone of his voice, sorrow mixed with guilt, told me that he was speaking the genuine truth. I knew he wanted to help me just for the sake of helping, and I loved him dearly for it. But keeping him out of fighting was the only option that I could take if I were to keep him alive… I wasn’t going to let him fight. He was still way too young for that, and though part of me argued that letting him travel with me was enough, another part of me felt terrible at seeing him like this.

I pulled him in and hugged him tight against my chest, planting a kiss on his forehead. “I’m not leaving you alone.” I said gently, stroking his mane with a free hoof as I heard him sob. “I’m doing this for your safety, baby brother. I’m not going to lose you too…”

“But why can’t you come with me to the big building and stay with me and Gracie?” Blake demanded shakily, looking up at me to wipe a tear away from his face. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

I gently wiped away another tear from his cheek, feeling a tear of my own start to form. “Because I made mother a promise that I have to keep.” I answered, blinking to keep that tear from falling. At his questioning look, I took in a breath and explained myself. “Before mother… passed away… she told me to help the ponies that had survived the Stable. That’s what I’m doing. The captain needs me to fight, whether it be because I’m the only Pegasus in Hopeville or because he thinks highly of me in some manner… I don’t know. But I made mother a promise, and I’m going to honor her by keeping that promise.”

“But I want to honor mom and dad too.” Blake said weakly.

“And you are, Blake.” I assured confidently, holding his chin up with a hoof so he wouldn’t break eye contact. “You’re honoring them by living on in this wasteland. They wouldn’t have wanted you to go looking for trouble and getting hurt. They would’ve wanted you to survive and continue to grow up, to live as happy and healthy a life as possible. I want that just as much as they did.” Through Blake’s proceeding silence, I noticed that he looked to understand my words, thinking over what I said. Still, I wasn’t fully convinced that he would leave with Gracie. “You’re still in the prime of your foalhood Blake. You’ve got to enjoy it by playing and learning and making friends… not by picking up a gun and facing down a dangerous raider… I love you too much to allow you to put yourself in harms way like that.”

He gave a sad little nod; it wasn’t the answer I was hoping for, but at least I knew that he would oblige me and leave. I gave him another hug, nuzzling the side of his face as he gave a sigh. “You can help me the next time we have to travel.” I said softly, releasing him.

“Please… just be careful.” Blake said, not looking back at me as he trotted over to Gracie. The medical mare, like the rest of our group, was looking between Blake and I. However, I found it easy to ignore the stares with my new concern for my little brother; he was obviously still upset.

“I’ll look after him while you’re away Nova.” Grace assured me, giving a supportive smile before she led Blake, Lucan, and the two unicorn mares to City Hall. “Good luck to all of you, and be careful.” I watched Blake go, suddenly feeling rather downcast, torn between multiple decisions concerning his well-being. While I ultimately knew that keeping him away from fighting was the most reasonable and sane thing to do, I also knew that his constant separation from me was beginning to make a mark, no matter how small. When the next opportunity presented itself, when my time wasn’t taken by fighting the mad ponies of the wasteland, I knew that I owed Blake some quality family time, even if it was just another game of kickball.

“Hey.” I heard beside me, and I looked to see Gunny looking down at me with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Blake wanted to help me fight… I refused.” I replied bitterly, Gunny giving a nod of understanding. “I guess maybe Gracie was right. The more times I separate myself from Blake, the worse he takes it.

“You did the most sensible thing.” Gunny answered, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Maybe all you need to do is spend some time with him after we kick these raiders out of the area. It may work better than you think.”

“I was just thinking that.” I replied with a thin smile. “I just feel bad for having to tell him to stay put, you know?”

“You know that’s for the best, and I think Blake knows it too.” Gunny assured, smiling. “He just doesn’t want to say it. He’s got the kind of brave and noble heart that the Stable and the Golden-Fire family wanted us all to have.”

“Yes he does.” I agreed, nodding; I was still proud of my little brother.

“Come on.” Gunny urged politely, nudging me with a hoof. “Let’s get going to see Lucky Hallion. Oh, and this belongs to you.”

When I looked, I saw as Gunny levitated over my battle rifle, which I remembered I had left on Shore’s back. “Oh… thank you.” As he brought it to me, I carefully took the weapon in my mouth, and with that, Gunny, Flare, and I continued towards the armory.

As we approached, a green unicorn mare with a flowing violet mane and tail trotted out of the building, levitating a rather sturdy-looking rifle to a waiting guard; I recognized her immediately as Marian, Lucky Hallion’s sister. “This service rifle has extended magazines as well as upgraded springs. It holds standard assault rifle ammunition with a twenty-round box clip, and it’s semiautomatic.” Marian explained with a business-like smile. “It should serve you well.”

“It looks good. Much obliged.” the guard replied before trotting back towards the courtyard, shiny new rifle in tow.

With her dealing concluded, Marian made to return to Hopeville’s armory, but she stopped in mid-stride upon seeing us, smiling. “Hey big brother! Gunny and Nova are here!” she called.

“Hello Marian.” Gunny said, giving a smile.

“It’s good to see you both again. Hallion’s inside.” Marian explained. “Come on, let me take you to him.” She trotted away into the armory, Gunny, Flare and I following behind her as she called for her brother again.

“Hey alright!” the voice of Lucky Hallion called from upstairs, the merchant stallion quickly emerging in the building’s stairway and coming down to meet us. “It’s good to see a couple of familiar faces, and it’s especially good to see ponies in Hopeville again.”

“If we didn’t have the Black Blood breathing down our necks then it’d be a better sight.” Gunny replied with a grunt.

“That’s what I’m here to help out with. Let’s just see what a little firepower and magic can do to lighten this place up.” Hallion replied smugly, stepping over to the armory’s countertop table where half-a-dozen pristine rifles were laid out and waiting for a pony to claim them for use. “So, I’m assuming that you’re all looking for some gear. I’ve got my current weapons load set up for the effort and there’s still some gear left that hasn’t been claimed. What can I help you with?”

Gunny spoke up first. “Captain Saber wants me to see you about getting a support machinegun if you’ve got one left.” he said; even though his face hid the emotion well enough, I could tell he was eager.

“A support gun eh? Yeah, I’ve got something to fit the bill for you.” Hallion said, turning and trotting around behind the table. After a brief search, his eyes fell to the floor before his horn shimmered with magic and levitated a larger and well-built machinegun for us to see. While the gun looked vicious in every aspect of its appearance, I was paying more attention to the weapon’s paintjob which effectively stuck out as a unique feature. Every part of the weapon besides the barrel and the chamber was coated with a color scheme consisting of multiple darker shades of green. But what struck me the most was the painting of Celestia’s sun on the stock. Every detail about it, from its core to the rays of light radiating off of it, as well as the color of each, was painted with incredible precision; it was an exact replica of what I remembered seeing in the Stable’s Hall of Records. “Here we are.” Hallion remarked as he trotted back over to us and set the weapon down at Gunny’s hooves. “Five point fifty-six millimeter light machinegun with expanded drums… I call her the All-Equestrian. This is actually probably one of my finest weapons that I’ve made. I put the whole thing together from scavenged and restored parts from similar models, and you can thank Marian for the paintjob. It’s mostly Everfree green camouflage, but it has some additional decals on it as well. On the right side of the stock is Princess Celestia’s mark, the sun that she used to raise in the era of peace. On the left side is Princess Luna’s mark, the moon which she rose in the night. You can understand the value behind it, at least to all those ponies that are a bit nostalgic about the pre-war world. Marian and I have met a few ponies like that during our travels… made a few weapons for them too. This is just one of those kinds of weapons we made for my own collection.”

“It’s beautiful.” Gunny stated with heartfelt sincerity, carefully levitating the weapon in front of him to look it over. “How long did it take you to make this?”

“A long time, friend.” Hallion chuckled. “Most of the time involved cleaning and restoring the old parts we found. Assembling it afterwards only took a couple days.”

Gunny gave a nod as he experimentally removed the large box clip, rotating it in every which way to examine it. “How many rounds does each clip hold?”

“One hundred and fifty.”

“Nice.” Gunny remarked with an approving nod, loading the clip back into the weapon. “I could get used to having this beauty around.”

“I’ve only done some test firing. She hasn’t seen live combat yet, but she’s all yours for the time being.” Hallion explained with a smile.

“I appreciate it, Hallion.” Gunny said with a dip of his head. “If you could, I’d also like you to take my assault rifle off of my hooves. I actually ran out of ammo for it a while back, but now that I have this bigger gun with me, and my shotgun, I don’t think I have much use for it anymore.”

“Sure I can take it. I’m sure I’ve got ammo for it somewhere.” Hallion said, removing Gunny’s assault rifle from his armor and setting it on the table. “Before you leave, you’d better take the rest of the clips I’ve got for the All-Equestrian. There’s only four others, but that should give you plenty of rounds.” Hallion added as he used his horn to levitate the promised ammo to Gunny, who proceeded to hook each clip to his armor with their built-in clamps. “Alright. You’re good to go.”

“Thanks Hallion.” Turning to us, Gunny looked between Flare and I and gave a thin smile. “Nova, Flare, good luck… and be careful out there.”

I set my rifle down to speak. “You too Gunny.” I replied, giving a smile of my own before he left and headed back out into Hopeville.

“So what else am I looking to dish out?” Hallion asked with an expectant smile.

“My friend here needs any explosives you might have brought with you.” I explained, Flare nodding her agreement.

“Well, come to think of it I might have some bricks of c-four stashed away.” Hallion said, placing a hoof to his chin to think. “I think they’re still with Betsy on the last couple of packs on her back. Marian, could you take Flare on over and see about getting her equipped?” At Marian’s affirmative answer, she lead Flare out of the armory and back out into Hopeville, leaving Lucky Hallion and I alone in the armory. “And what about you, Wasteland Ranger?”

“Why does that sound so formal?” I asked, giving a playful role of my eyes.

Lucky Hallion chuckled. “Cause I know you’ve been doing the right thing, and don’t say differently. I’ve seen you do the right stuff, so trust me when I say that I know a good-hearted pony when I see one.” he explained, making me lightly blush. “Now, what can I get you?”

“Well, I was hoping you’d actually have some battle saddle gear.” I began, nudging over my battle rifle. “I got this rifle yesterday from a friend of mine who passed away. I want to get it onto my battle saddle in place of my pistol which I’d use as a sidearm instead.”

Hallion took the rifle with his magic and looked it over, giving an approving nod as he turned it over and over in the air. “This is a good rifle.” he commented. “Thirty-ot-six, eight round clip, very sturdy. In my opinion, this model rifle was probably one of the best semiautomatic models made in Equestria during the war. However, I’m afraid that I don’t have the components I need to put it to a battle saddle right now. I’d need the plates to secure the weapon to the saddle itself, and then I’d need an autoloader that fit this rifle. I’m sure I’ve got the right stuff back at my safe house, but all I’ve got with me right now is ordnance and ammo.”

“Oh, well that’s fine.” I replied, casting a reassuring smile; I was still a little disappointed though. “If not that, then I do need some ammo for my pistol. Even if you just have a few extra clips I can use. I’m nearly out.”

“I’ve got those.” Lucky Hallion said with instant confidence. “Hold up.” Swiftly making his way upstairs, the merchant returned a moment later with three clips of what I assumed was the required .45 caliber ammunition. “I know it isn’t much, but it’ll keep you up in the air with both weapons. Let me go ahead and load these in and then you’ll be all set.”

As he worked, using his magic to open Fire Rose’s autoloader, I asked, “Would you mind keeping my rifle with you, or at least storing it away in a safe location? I can’t be up in the air and using a rifle that isn’t attached to a battle saddle. That would make flying a bit awkward for me.”

“Sure, I can keep it safe.” Hallion replied as he stepped away from my saddle. Checking my inventory out of curiosity, my Pipbuck showed that I now had twenty-six shots for Fire Rose.

“I’d appreciate it. The rifle is… dear to me.”

“I understand. It’s not a problem at all.” Hallion assured with a smile. “Is there anything else you might need?”

“No, I think I’m good.” I answered. “I’d best get back out there and see what Saber wants me to do. Good luck, and be careful.”

“You too. See you out in the fight.” With that, I left the armory and made my way back towards the courtyard, now marked with several foxholes as well as a scattering of sandbag barricades. The town square was thoroughly torn apart to make these defenses which were also spaced along the eastern and western roads. All around it, guard ponies, both veterans and the newly trained, were scurrying about as they made their final preparation checks. The hustle and bustle over the once flat Hopeville courtyard reminded me of Melody and how the little filly had been drawing in the dirt the morning I had left Hopeville three days ago; her drawings were definitely gone by now, and I couldn’t help but sigh at that.

Shaking my head to prevent myself from dwelling on the thought, I continued past the courtyard and walked in between the Hopeville Press and the Ministry of Peace building to enter the graveyard of old building foundations beyond the north side of town. There were five ponies working here, two of whom were guards that were keeping a lookout for raiders. The other three I recognized as Saber, Flare, and Marian, all working together farther ahead. “Captain, I’m ready for my next orders!” I called, trotting over to the trio.

“Ah good, right on time.” Saber replied, stepping away from the two unicorn mares as they worked. “I guess Lucky Hallion got his hooves on some explosives as well. Flare and Marian are hiding some c-four and a couple of frag mines in the rubble to leave a little surprise for the Black Blood. Anyway, now that you’re equipped and ready, I want you up in the air and patrolling Hopeville’s perimeter. When you’re up there, you should get a good view of the enemy camp to the north. That’ll allow you to track their movement and give us a fair warning when they approach. They’ve got a sizeable force, so we’ve got to be ready for anything.”

“I understand captain.” I replied, fanning out my wings and giving them a flap to rise into the air. “I’ll keep my eyes open.” At the captain’s nod, I launched off of the ground and rose up into the sky at a leisurely pace. As I flew, I couldn’t help but close my eyes, feeling the gentle breeze of the higher altitude brush against me while I climbed higher. I always eased during a quiet flight, no matter how long or brief, and as I kept climbing, memories and thoughts begun to take shape in my mind.

I realized that this day was our seventh day in the wasteland… one week… one week and I had already changed in several ways. Back in the Stable, I was one of the most peaceful ponies that had ever lived. Never in the Stable did I get into a fight with anypony, and when I had encountered any disagreements or verbal arguments (which was a rare occurrence by itself), one party or the other had always found a way to resolve the dispute. Certainly there were ponies that chose to avoid me, but there was no fighting at all. However, the Black Blood Raiders, one of the wasteland’s great evils, had taken that innocence away. In the past seven days, I had gone from that peaceful mare in the Stable to a full-blown fighter… which I felt was a kinder word for killer. Even though these were raiders, ponies that tortured and raped and murdered… I had still killed several, and I knew that I wouldn’t soon forget the engagements that had required me to act with deadly force. Despite these bitter memories, I still held no regrets, and I understood the fact that there was nothing honorable in killing. In the wasteland, it was a necessity, and so long as I retained that mindset, I knew that I’d be able to stay in the fight.

Aside from this however, I knew that I had also changed in smaller ways. I felt physically different… stronger and faster and generally more physically fit than I was in the Stable. The constantly moving struggle of helping my fellow Stable dwellers back onto their hooves again took a lot of physical effort, and I felt more confident in my own body and my own abilities that I did in my earlier days of peace and shelter. Of course, a lot of that came from the wounds I had sustained in my first week of life in the wasteland, but I had lost track of how many wounds I had received… maybe that was for the better.

While this perhaps wasn’t the most pleasant strand of thoughts to try and ease my mind with, they did serve as a reminder of what the wounds and the changes were for. As I leveled out in the air and hovered, I opened my eyes and looked back down at the town below me, giving a smile at the sight of my home from my advantageous viewpoint in the sky. My position high in the air allowed me to see all of the town at once as I scanned over the perimeter of home… east to south, south to west, west to north…… movement. Out in the far north, I could see a ripple against the stillness of the earth from my height in the sky. A long and compressed column of dots on the ground was moving right towards Hopeville; the raiders were coming.

“Captain Saber, I see lots of movement to the north. I think the raiders are attacking early.” I spoke urgently into my Pipbuck’s speaker. “You might want to get out of there and get with the others.”

“That was fast.” came his irritated reply. “Flare and Marian aren’t done setting the explosives, but I’ll get everypony else moving. Take up a position over the City Hall, Nova, and get ready. This is going to be a tough fight… best of luck.”

“You too Saber.” Arcing back down towards City Hall, I came in to hover over the building’s rooftop. Guardsponies in the courtyard were beginning to gallop to their stations, scrambling to the foxholes and the sandbag barricades to take up defensive positions and ready their weapons. Others still dashed for the houses and the shops on the east and west sides of town, carrying heavier weapons and their respective ammunition with them. Behind the two north side structures, I saw as Saber and Marian galloped away from Hopeville’s ruined housing foundations, leaving Flare behind as she worked. Below me, I could hear as the City Hall’s entrance doors closed and locked, and as the majority of the ponies on the ground found their spots and hunkered down, Hopeville became silent.

I lowered myself down and landed on the City Hall’s roof before crouching low onto my belly at the building’s edge. With a light sigh, I checked over my inventory screen on my Pipbuck and gave a nod. There were 26 shots left for my pistol and 131 for my carbine; it would do. Shifting my focus forward, I could see as the ponies in the courtyard begun raising their rifles, the noise of chattering voices beginning to sound beyond the northern perimeter of the town. As they waited for the raiders to appear in their sights, I couldn’t help but give a shiver while I switched the safety of my battle saddle off. In this moment before the battle, I missed Cross more than I had ever missed him since his death. His presence during the battles in Proudspire had given me courage that overpowered my natural fear of fighting and death, and I wanted him here with me to keep that courage strong and stable. I couldn’t help but feel that without him… I wouldn’t be nearly as strong as I had been. And yet, even through the bitter memories of his final moments that flashed back to me, I gradually found myself remembering my own advice, something I had said in Proudspire to a young filly who had known tragic loss.

Nopony ever truly dies. If you loved them with all of your heart, then they survive in you.

I couldn’t help but give a smile as I took solace in that, and I felt as my light trembling begun to subside. If Cross had seen me like that, he probably would’ve faced me with that familiar smirk again… maybe after a kiss and a few words of reassurance. While I thought about what might’ve been, I felt myself ease back into focus as fear was replaced by rising adrenaline. I could see as the opposing force closed in, and I scooted back away from the edge of the roof to prepare myself for the fight. I was still tense, but more alert, the value of the place that was the new target of our enemies now becoming the driving force behind my emotions and my focus. Everything we had worked for and everypony we lived by and loved, our entire existence, hinged on this battle. If we lost here… it was over.

*** *** ***

Casting a quick glance to my right, I bolted out of the courtyard towards my post, levitating the All-Equestrian by my side. The building at the northwest corner was where I was to set up, and I could see Joker waiting for me by the entrance. “Gunny! Hustle up!” he called, urgently waving me over with a foreleg.

“Is the sergeant up there?” I asked as I slowed my gallop to a trot as we entered the building.

“He’s already up there and waiting, but the raiders are on their way. We need to get ready.” Joker replied quickly.

We ascended a flight of stairs and hooked around to face a large room that made the entire second floor of the building. The room was devoid of all furniture and other household items, leaving only an aged stone floor and four walls; there was a total of four windows, two facing east and two facing north. One of Captain Saber’s security sergeants, a unicorn stallion, was looking out over the far left window on the room’s north face. Tucked against the corner near him were four boxes of ammunition as well as one medical box, distinguished with its bright pink butterfly. Resting along the wall next to the ammunition and medical supplies were two large weapons, one of them a missile launcher, and the second a .308 sniper rifle with carbon fiber parts; these were our extra armaments. “There you colts are.” the sergeant said as Joker and I trotted into the room. “Get set up and then hunker down. Saber’s orders are to hide until the first shot. Then, we’ll spring up on the raiders and attack at multiple directions.”

“First shot, sir? What exactly is the captain’s plan?” Joker asked as he levitated his sub-machinegun and checked the clip.

“My guess is that Flare’s out there for a reason.” the sergeant replied coolly. “Use your imagination.” Curious, I looked out over one of the east-facing windows. Down within the ruined housing foundations, I could see Flare as she set another brick of C4 into a hole in the ground and covered it up. After patting down the dirt around it and setting a piece of debris over the explosive to conceal it, she wheeled around and bolted away to the courtyard to join another pair of ponies in one of the foxholes.

With a grunt, I took up a position at the right-side window of the north wall and laid down on my belly, keeping the All-Equestrian in front of my fore hooves as I checked the weapon over again. Beside me, the security sergeant eased himself down onto the floor, levitating the sniper rifle next to him; I could hear Joker as he set himself up along the east wall of the room. “Gunny, Joker,” the sergeant said, and I looked to see him levitating two ammo boxes away from the stash, one floating over to me and another drifting to Joker. “these ammunition boxes are for you. One of them has a couple ten millimeter clips, and the other has another big clip for that LMG. Keep these with you at all times, no matter what. Remember that we may have to end up displacing if the raiders grow too thick. We’ll take out as many as we can from up here, but if I get the order to displace from Saber, then we’re moving. Understood?”

“Yes sir.” I said in unison with Joker.

“Alright… now we wait for those explosives.” the sergeant said, relaxing as he faced forward again.

As the three of us went silent, I levitated my riot shotgun off of my back and checked the drum magazine. All seven of my recently found flechette rounds were loaded inside and ready for use, and with a nod, I returned the drum to the weapon and loaded the first shell into the chamber before setting the shotgun aside for future use. But as I was about to do the same for the All-Equestrian, I could begin to distinguish voices drawing closer to our position, ponies relaying orders and shouting profanities; that was enough to tell me who those voices belonged to. As the first of those voices sounded just in front of our building, I carefully loaded the first round into the chamber of the All-Equestrian, pulling back the cocking handle and letting it slide forward again as quietly as possible. More voices, all clustered closely together, sounded out to the northeast as more of the raiders closed in around the town. And yet… no shots were fired. More and more voices, rising in volume and quantity, sounded around us… I was growing nervous. Was something wrong? What if Flare forgot something in her plan and we were waiting for a signal that wasn’t going to appear? What if a raider came up the stairs to find the three of us waiting here in dead silence for the cue to spring our attack?

My anxious mindset warped into a feeling of necessity. If the raiders got too close, the others in the courtyard would be killed… I needed to engage. I begun to shift and ready myself to fire over the window, preparing to take the first shot myself. But just as I moved, I felt as the sergeant placed a hoof on my foreleg, and I snapped my eyes to him to see him shaking his head, mouthing the word ‘easy’. At his order, I could only force myself back down and keep myself controlled.

Damn it, focus… focus! You’re a guard… get a grip on yourself and remember your training! Flare knows what she’s doing…

BOOM!!

The explosives outside detonated with a mighty thunderclap of sound; that was our signal.

My former tension was replaced by a rush of adrenaline as I sprung to my hooves and brought the All-Equestrian to aim out the window. I immediately beheld a whole mass of raiders, at least two hundred strong, outside to the north. Their advance was temporarily halted, most of them staggered and stunned by the powerful explosion that had incinerated at least a dozen of their companions. Without hesitation, I levitated the All-Equestrian in front of me and pulled the trigger, the LMG roaring to life and raining hell onto the raiders closest to our building, mowing down several. The enemy below begun to recover from their temporary shock and scrambled for cover as they were met with the wrath of the hiding Hopeville ponies in the buildings and in the courtyard. The raiders’ options for protection were limited to the Hopeville Press and the M.O.P. Recruitment Station, making those ponies that lingered at the middle and back of their long column easy targets.

Return fire struck around my cover and I was forced to back up and away. In front of me, the sergeant replaced his sniper rifle with the missile launcher, but just as he approached the window to fire, he fell to his stomach as dust flew up from the stone around his window; the raiders were fighting back in full. “They’re charging!” the sergeant called over the noise, rising over the window to quickly aim and fire the missile launcher. The projectile roared ahead, leaving a trail of smoke behind it, and once I heard the impact I quickly returned to my position. As I aimed to the northeast, I could see that the sergeant was telling the truth. Raiders were charging past the north buildings and making their way into the street, putting up heavy fire as they went. A brave (or insanely stupid) few of them bolted across the street and straight into the gunfire put up by the ponies hiding within the foxholes, only a scarce couple of them diving in to grapple with the guardsponies inside. With a glare, I aimed down my iron sights and fired again, targeting a clump of raiders hurrying around the west face of the Press. Without cover, most of the raiders within the group fell from their wounds, and after multiple confirmed kills, the first clip of the All-Equestrian went empty.

I retreated back and away from my window to reload, but just as I opened my ammo box to retrieve the next box clip, I felt as the armor protecting my left side intercepted a bullet. The armored pad prevented a gunshot wound, but I lost my focus on my magic, and both the ammo box and the weapon clattered to the floor. I whirled around in time to see as Joker dispatched a raider who had made it up the stairs, and as my comrade reloaded his own weapon, I heard the sergeant call to me. “Gunny! Check those stairs for additional hostiles!”

“On it!” I turned back to focus my magic on the riot shotgun, and pulling it to me, I pointed it toward the entrance and made my way to the stairs. Just as I stepped over the corpse of the first raider another red and black armored pony rounded the stairs, an assault rifle levitating beside her as she grinned maniacally into our room… and into the barrel of my weapon. With a quick trigger pull, the shotgun blasted the raider mare back against the wall, splattering blood and brains against the stone as the flechette round tore through her head and messily removed half of her face. As she fell lifeless to the floor, I ignored the sight of her grizzly demise and aimed down the stairs; no other raiders were advancing through our building. “Clear!” I called, quickly making my way back to the others.

“We’ve got orders from Saber to displace!” the sergeant called, strapping the sniper rifle to his armor and levitating the missile launcher beside him. “The raiders are getting thicker around the north side of town! Gather your weapons and ammo and let’s move!”

Complying without question, I quickly reloaded the All-Equestrian and levitated the weapon alongside the riot shotgun. Joker was carrying his own weapon along with our medical stash and the two remaining ammo boxes, and with all of our equipment in tow, I took the lead as we made our way back down to the first floor.

We emerged outside into the fray. Seeing the battle from ground level was different, and what I saw was nothing short of a massive riot and a close-quarters gunfight. The north side of town was absolutely filled with black and red as the raiders continued to fire onto the courtyard. Some of them had managed to get close enough to the foxholes to engage the guardsponies in hoof-to-hoof combat. On the east side of town, the windows of two buildings were alight with gunfire. Several other holdouts were also shown within the City Hall’s second floor, gun barrels poking out of the windows as their operators kept up steady fire. There were already several casualties on our own side, and while the raiders had suffered heavier losses thus far, they still had us easily outnumbered.

I focused ahead and fired at two nearby raiders, gunning the both of them down as Joker and the security sergeant galloped past me towards our next position. Having successfully covered their exit, I turned tail and raced after them as they entered the next house. However, I had no sooner begun to run than I had come under fire, and I felt my armor absorb another bullet, which struck my right flank, as I dove into the house. I fell to the floor, my two weapons falling with me, and before I could catch my breath, I heard as the sergeant called, “Joker, put down the supply boxes and sweep upstairs! Gunny, set up at one of those north windows! There’s more invaders advancing behind the buildings!” With a jolt of realization, I understood that the raider ponies were attempting to flank the courtyard defenses. If they got too far, they would be able to surround the town center entirely.

The first floor of our new position was one large room with only an aged stairway to hinder the rectangular shape of the floor; this building must have been an old pre-war restaurant or shop. I hurried to my hooves, levitating the All-Equestrian with me as I skidded to a halt behind the window. Sure enough, raiders were galloping along the western walls of the building, sneaking by while the battle raged in the courtyard. Before the closest raider could call to his comrades that he saw me, I thrust the barrel of my weapon out of the window and opened fire on the group, bringing down another five ponies and forcing the others to retreat back behind the neighboring structure.

“Upstairs, clear!” I heard Joker call from the stairs.

“Move to the second floor, Gunny! Go!” the sergeant ordered, punching my shoulder with a hoof. Displacing from the window, I scooped up my shotgun with my magic and followed the sergeant up the stairs and into the large second-story attic, likewise the only room on this floor. There were two windows on three sides of the room, and Joker was already firing down at the enemy from a west-facing window.

“There’s more moving along the west,” Joker called as I set up. “my twelve o’clock!” Quickly casting aside my shotgun, I approached the window neighboring Joker and aimed to the right to see a line of persistent raiders on the move. Together, Joker and I kept fire on them, forcing them back once again while still killing six more.

I galloped across the attic, switching my focus to the east and peering out one of the windows to look over the courtyard. To my dismay, the northernmost foxholes had been abandoned or taken over, and our allies on the ground were being pushed back. The courtyard was still the focus of the battle, but the Black Blood Raiders were gaining ground; there had to have been at least another hundred of them. Up above, I caught sight of Nova as she gracefully looped in the air before diving down to a target on the ground. Two shots, and then she veered left over the mass of enemy raiders to circle back for another strafing pass. Following her direction, I aimed towards the courtyard, levitating the All-Equestrian in front of my eyes to aim through its iron sights. Quickly finding my first target, a group of raiders firing on two ponies within a nearby foxhole, I fired with controlled bursts. The concentrated fire felled the group to buy some breathing room for the allies that had been under their attack, but now my clip was empty. I fell back down to the floor as return fire struck my cover, and I quickly replaced my weapon’s empty box clip with a new one. But just as I was about to fire again, I heard a short cry next to me, and I saw with shock as the sergeant toppled backwards. He fell back onto his side, his chest facing me to show that he had taken gunshot wounds there, two round piercing through his armor entirely; the sergeant was motionless, eyes frozen open and showing that he was already dead.

“Joker! The sergeant’s down!” I called over the noise, and Joker fell back to the floor to see for himself. But before he could react, he flinched as something bounced off of him, and I caught eye of a metal object as it rolled along the floor away from him… a grenade.

I dropped my weapon to focus my magic on the explosive, and with a flick, I sent the grenade away before it exploded violently outside. Almost instantly afterwards, a second metal apple sailed through the window and rolled across the stone floor of the room. Joker intercepted it this time and tossed it back outside with his magic, and he quickly rose to his hooves to fire a quick burst of rounds before being met with a spray of fire from below. Ducking back in, he faced the stairs. “There’s a lot of them around our building! I think we’re going to have company!”

Setting the All-Equestrian aside, I levitated over my riot shotgun and aimed towards the stairway entrance. Right on cue, an earth pony raider galloped around the entrance and into our room, spraying the wall with fire from his automatic pistol. One flechette round later, and the stallion was dead before another raider, a unicorn mare, barged past the corpse in a battle frenzy. “Eat it!” she shouted as her weapon, a double-barreled shotgun, sprayed buckshot square against Joker, shredding the top layers of his armor before I fired another round with my own shotgun; she joined her comrade in death.

“Joker are you alright?!” I called, still facing the stairs.

“I just got the wind knocked out of me… I’ll be fine. The buckshot didn’t get through my armor.” came his barely audible reply. “I’ll check the stairs! You keep that LMG working!”

As he advanced towards the staircase, I returned my riot shotgun to the floor and focused my magic on the All-Equestrian, returning it to my side and loading the first round into the chamber. But just as I was about to reengage, I heard as bullets struck the wall behind me, the noise of their impact mixing with sub-machinegun fire. Turning again, I saw Joker scurrying back from the stairs while checking his weapon. “Damn, I’m out of ammo!” he called, casting away his now useless SMG as he backed up next to me. “There’s a whole mess of invaders down there… we need to get out of this building before we’re overrun!”

“Jump through the window!” I replied, strapping my riot shotgun to my armor… only to catch sight of a large raider stallion as he rounded the doorway, a flamethrower strapped to his battle saddle.

“Barbeque, anypony?!” he called out sinisterly, arming the gas valve on his saddle.

“JOKER GET OUT!!!” Together, Joker and I wheeled around and dived through the nearest windows, a terrible roar unleashing itself as searing fire chased after us. I felt a quick wave of tremendous heat against me before I fell earthward and landed hard on the ground, my momentum making me tumble over myself before skidding to a rough halt on my right side. I lay there in a daze, the sounds of the battle temporarily muffled as I attempted to regain my senses. I searched around, my vision mostly clear, and I saw Joker as he staggered to his hooves. But in the sky behind him, I saw a pony angling in towards us… and I could hear my name on her voice.

*** *** ***

Fire Rose’s auto loader kicked out an empty magazine to reload my pistol as I dashed to the right, passing over the eastern street as bullets fired from below whizzed up at me. Shooting over the line of buildings, I scooped the air with my wings and arced up in a vertical climb to gain altitude, the one thing that could give me a break from the fire I had been evading for the majority of the battle. My wings ached tremendously, a toll brought by constant aerial maneuvering and fast-paced flying as the battle progressed. As I leveled out in the sky, halting in my climb, I took in the sight of the battlefield as I dived back earthward. The courtyard was almost entirely taken, and more and more of my allies below were being forced to find cover behind the multiple sandbag barricades that formed a defensive wall in front of the City Hall. The body count was hideous, the casualties sustained on both sides making an absolute graveyard of the northern side of town. Even through my focus, my heart still ached at the sight of this massacre. This wasn’t just a battle between a band of raiders and a lonely settlement… this was a conflict that had now ignited into a full-scale war.

I smoothly angled up from my dive, flying parallel to the earth as I selected another target with S.A.T.S., an earth pony mare crouching low in the open as she reloaded her own weapon. Firing one pair of shots with my spell, I scored a hit, catching her in the foreleg before I soared above her and away. Climbing again as I hooked right, I quickly studied the rear lines of the enemy company for larger threats. All of the raider ponies were past the north perimeter of town now, having climbed over the numerous bodies of their dead allies. Though the force had been generally better-equipped than other Black Blood war bands, they had fortunately not brought another one of the mobile heavy guns with them; this company was purely infantry. With this factual confirmation, I quickly contacted Captain Saber through my Pipbuck speaker. “Captain Saber, this is Nova. I’ve searched the rear of the enemy company and found no mobile weapon threats.”

“Understood, thanks.” came his quick reply over the speaker, gunfire mixing with the sound of his voice.

I circled back around, having arced with a wide enough flight path to put myself behind the enemy force, approaching from the north. With the fight still raging in the town center, attacking from the rear, where the least amount of enemy attention would be focused, was an ideal tactic. However, just as I was about to pick a new target to engage from the air, a flash of light caught my eye, and I looked to see a massive wave of flame roar out of the second-story windows of one of the western buildings; I halted in the air with shock. I had been keeping track of the movements of most of my allies on the field in order to ensure that I provided cover to the right sectors at the right times. The inferno immediately reminded me of Gunny; the building that was now in flames was the last building that I had seen him move to! But as I hovered, frantically studying the building and the surrounding areas, I could see to my instant relief that Gunny had made it out, looking to have leapt from the window in order to evade the fiery death that had nearly caught him. But now, he was laying dazed in the midst of the battle, and he would be an easy target without support.

Dashing forward, beating my lightly hurting wings furiously, I angled in towards my friend. Nearby, I recognized Joker, the two of them stumbling to their hooves together as bullets struck the concrete around them. Though they were under fire from two different directions, I spotted one of the two stallions’ assailants as he reloaded his weapon. The raider stallion was out in the open, and as I charged forward, I lined up a shot with S.A.T.S.. With just enough space between us to make the shot, I bit down on my saddle’s firing bit and my two weapons fired two pairs of shots; the second pair took the stallion in the back, and he fell on his side as I shot past him.

“Gunny!” I cried over the noise as I angled in towards him, hovering in to land nearby. Galloping the rest of the distance, I skidded beside him as he shook his head. “Are you alright?!”

“I just jumped out of a second story window and fell on my face… that’s all…” he replied with brief and faint sarcasm before he found his LMG and used his horn to bring it to his side. “Some of the other security ponies are on the move! We need to get out of the kill zone and find some cover outside of the courtyard!” At his word, I fell in beside him as the three of us galloped away towards the City Hall, which was rapidly becoming one of our last holdouts; with the multiple gun barrels and levitating weapons sticking out of its windows, the City Hall was becoming less a simple structure and more a fortified castle as gunfire further illuminated its walls, giving it a rather impressive and intimidating appearance.

Ahead of us, as we neared the fortifications in front of the building, I saw Shore waving to us behind his own barricade of sandbags. Swiftly closing the distance, Gunny leapt bodily over the barrier as I skidded around the side and fell to my belly to catch my breath; Joker followed quickly and fell low behind our new cover, scooping up a spare rifle that was leaning against the nearby wall. “I was beginning to think that you didn’t make it!” Shore called to Gunny over the noise, who was hurrying to his hooves to crouch against the sandbags.

“It was nothing!” Gunny replied, peeking over cover before ducking back down. “Who’s left?!”

“Plenty of ponies!” Shore replied, rearing up and firing a pair of shots from his energy weapons saddle before returning to cover.

“I meant on our side!” Gunny stated, looking temporarily irritated.

“Same! A lot of us fell back into City Hall to take up positions on the second floor!” Shore repeated. “Captain Saber and Lucky Hallion are just down the line of barricades! You should go see them!”

“Alright. Nova, Joker, come with me!” Gunny called back to us, and staying low, the three of us half-walked and half-crawled along the line of barricades as the torrent of gunfire continued.

Sure enough, crouching behind cover near the City Hall’s northeast corner was Captain Saber, currently relaying an order through his Pipbuck which I quickly heard through my own device’s speaker. “Attention all allies! Those who have not fallen back to the City Hall are hereby ordered to retreat from their posts! I repeat, abandon your posts and fall back to the City Hall!” As he lowered his foreleg, completing his message, he caught sight of us and waved us over with a frantic hoof. “Gunny! I saw your building after it went up! How the hell… never mind! Get over here damn it!”

“Joker and I leapt out of the second floor, but the sergeant with us was killed, sir!” Gunny replied, skidding to a halt beside the captain as we joined up with him behind his cover.

“I’m just glad you’re back! Listen up, all of you!” Saber ordered as I came to a halt beside Gunny. Around us were two other guardsponies as well as another security sergeant; Rocky was also there with his .30 cal, laying prone just outside of the sandbag cover before he rolled over to safety to hear Saber speak. “Lucky Hallion says that he has a weapon he needs to retrieve in the armory! We’re going to cover him while he advances and we’re also going to cover any others that come back from the courtyard!” At the signals of confirmation from the ponies nearby that made our temporary group, Saber gave a nod. “Hallion! When you run, hug the wall and then cross the street! The wall should give you temporary defilade from most of the enemy fire! Wait for my command!” In front of me, I saw Lucky Hallion as he gave a nod of confirmation before holstering his lever-action shotgun and preparing himself to run. Beside him was Marian, who I had not seen before, staring with focus at the road as she crouched low to the pavement. “Three…” Saber began, and I fanned out my wings, ready to hover up over cover and fire. “Two… one… covering fire!!”

I caught a brief glimpse of Hallion and Marian as they galloped away before I rose up and took aim with the others. Gazing ahead at the battlefield through S.A.T.S., I targeted a raider pony advancing down the east street, undoubtedly already going after the two sprinting unicorns. Aiming for the raider’s torso, I bit down on the firing bit and fired off two pairs of shots; both pairs found home and the raider toppled over, dead. With my first target down, I changed my focus to another raider who was firing on a trio of retreating allies. With S.A.T.S. recharging, I lined my body up with the raider in the courtyard and fired another pair of shots… a miss.

I lowered myself back down behind cover as my markspony carbine’s autoloader ejected an empty magazine and reloaded. A second later, I rose back over cover and took aim with S.A.T.S., finding the same pony yet again. With the spell assisting my aim, I scored a hit and forced the raider to fall back into a foxhole; the shot emptied another clip from Fire Rose, and I returned to cover as the autoloader reloaded the pistol.

As I waited, I looked left to see as other security ponies joined us behind our cover, successfully having retreated from the courtyard. When I looked right, I saw as Gunny crouched down beside me, having emptied another clip of the All-Equestrian. Behind him, Saber and his security sergeant peeked around the wall before promptly returning to cover as bullets struck the stone above them. “They made it!” Saber called to the rest of us as he reloaded his own rifle.

“Now what the hell do we do?!” his sergeant called to him before firing his assault rifle blindly over cover.

“Now we wait!” Saber replied as he peeked over cover again. “I hope whatever Hallion’s got planned works! The raiders are still thick in the courtyard!” As my curiosity commanded, I peeked over cover again. There were still several dozen raiders ahead of us, only kept partially at bay by the steady fire put up from the City Hall. But they were beginning to close in as the courtyard became empty of allied ponies, and we were now completely boxed in as the raiders attacked us from three different directions at once.

My attention was drawn away from the courtyard as I heard my name, and when I searched for the source, I saw Saber looking back at me, trying to get my attention. “Nova! I need you back in the air, now! If there’s one pony that can avoid being pinned here, it’s you!”

“I can’t leave you all down here!” I shouted back over the noise of the gunfire around me.

“That’s an order, Nova!” Saber snapped back at me sternly. “Things are getting worse… and if the worst comes, I need somepony to make it out of here alive and get help!”

I stared back at him, puzzled and not a little alarmed at his statement. I had never seen it before, but the captain’s face showed that his confidence in our odds of success was beginning to dwindle. It was strange to see him loose his normally hardened temperament, to see it replaced with one of deep concern as the battle raged… but no! This was my town, and there was no way in HELL that I was going to loose a second home! “No sir!” I shouted back defiantly. “There’s no way I’m leaving this spot!” Refusing to give him the chance to retort, I reared back over cover, placing my fore hooves on top of the sandbag barrier and taking aim with S.A.T.S.. Targeting the closest raider, a stallion making a dash from the courtyard toward our last line of cover, I bit down on my firing bit, my carbine and Fire Rose roaring as I fired off two pairs of shots, killing the stallion with a messy pair of headshots.

Bullets struck the protective sandbags covering my torso, impacting with dull *thuds* as the packed dirt absorbed the force of the projectiles, and I quickly hid again as S.A.T.S. recharged. A few seconds later, my spell replenishing halfway, I reemerged from cover and took aim at a raider that was dead ahead of me, firing from an open position just in front of the center of the courtyard. Activating S.A.T.S. once again, I targeted the mare’s torso and took the shot. But just when I thought the bullets would strike my target, the mare disappeared in a blast of green fire as a tremendous explosion erupted before my eyes. The deafening detonation tore me from my focus, and I instinctively threw myself down behind cover again, other ponies beside me instantly doing the same. After collecting my wits, I reared up over cover again, immediately fearing the possibility of another mobile weapon in the hooves of the Black Blood. But as I looked straight ahead, my eyes went wide as I beheld a green mushroom cloud that had taken shape within the courtyard, engulfing nearly half of it; in that instant, I realized that the blast had occurred inside the courtyard, among the ranks of the raiders. The battle had come to a screaming halt, both sides ceasing to fight as the spectacle loomed in the center of the battlefield. There had been dozens of raiders in front of us before the blast. The explosion however, had carved a hole right into the middle of the raiders’ ranks, and I saw several burning and partially dismembered corpses within the courtyard, green balefire eating away at the bodies of former Black Blood ponies.

However, I had no more time to puzzle out the shocking occurrence as gunfire once again sounded around me, and I ducked back down behind cover. At the same time, I heard Captain Saber as he shouted a new order to the ponies near him; his voice carried a triumphal tone. “Hallion’s got a balefire egg launcher! He punched a hole through the enemy offense! Counterattack and drive those bastards back!” One by one, security ponies left cover and opened up on the raiders in front of them, and as I looked back over the sandbags again, I felt a tidal wave of hope wash over me at the sight of the remaining Black Blood ponies on the retreat; they were running!

With fresh strength, I unfurled my wings and beat up into the sky, driving upward to pass over the courtyard before diving back down. Ahead of me, the force of raiders had been notably cut down in size, now looking much smaller from the last time I had acquired an overhead view of the enemy company; the balefire egg had done massive damage. As I angled in for an attack, I targeted a raider stallion below who was attempting to cover his retreating allies with rifle fire. Lining up for the shot and targeting the head, I fired two pairs of shots with my targeting spell, taking out the raider as I dashed over the retreating enemy remnants. Snapping my wings and banking left, I arced around in a tight turn to face the enemy for another pass. Without S.A.T.S., I lined myself up with a separated cluster of ponies below and fired off another two pairs of shots, wounding another raider before pulling up and away. With the remaining Black Blood focusing on their retreat, I met no enemy return fire as I flew on by, but just as I turned for another strafing run, my pistol’s autoloader loading another clip into Fire Rose, another mighty explosion erupted below as a new green mushroom cloud sprouted on the ground at the northwest corner of the courtyard, brutally blasting away several more raider ponies; that second balefire egg had done the trick!!

Every remaining raider pony was now throwing down their weapons and abandoning Hopeville entirely, even those who had been flanking the City Hall. The enemy fled in all directions away from the town, only a pathetic couple dozen of them remaining of their once proud company, and as the Black Blood retreated fully from the area, the gunfire gradually coming to a halt, cheering sounded forth from the town below me. That cheering, becoming clearly audible as I slowed in the air to hover, was the most relieving sound I had ever heard.

Since the demise of Stable 181, the situation had looked grave, the chances of survival within the wasteland appearing slim to everypony. Then, after two days of wandering, we found Hopeville, a town with hope written into its very name; it was a new home and a second chance at life. The Black Blood Raiders followed our movement, persistent in their objective, and aimed to take everything else away from us including our lives. Then they attacked us once again in our second home. The battle was fierce, and they had come so close to succeeding in their goal to finish what they had started in Stable 181. And yet, with the potent skill and leadership of Stable security, the tremendous kindness and generosity of a wasteland friend, and the indescribable value of Hopeville itself, we had now emerged triumphant against one of the Equestrian wasteland’s greatest evils. With each other, our friends, families… with Hopeville… we had survived our greatest trial thus far; now we could truly begin to rebuild ourselves.

I smiled at these thoughts, closing my eyes and taking in a long breath of air through my muzzle and slowly releasing it. And as I opened my eyes to gaze down upon my home again, I recollected a memory… a very defining memory… a declaration.

This is me trying to get my faith back from the wasteland. But in honor of you and dad, I wont let it take my faith away. I’ll find some way to keep that from happening.

I had spoken those words six days ago in front of my mother’s grave. It was a promise - a way of honoring my parents and everything that they had done for me in my life. And as I recollected those words and the memories that came with them, I understood with a strong sense of pride that I had now fulfilled this promise. Hopeville had been the means of preserving my faith, and it was Hopeville, as well as all the Stable ponies with whom I had fought alongside, that had given me strength in the wasteland. I now carried this strength proudly, and I gave a nod as I contently stored my thoughts away. With my mind now at comfortable ease, I once again took in the new peace that was settling over Hopeville, and looking up to the evening clouds above, I said, “I told you I wouldn’t let my faith die.” I let my own silence reign… only briefly as the statement sunk in, and with a smile I dove back down to reunite with my friends and the cheering below.

Somewhere in the heavens, my mother and my father were smiling at me…… they were smiling at all of us.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Gun Nut (Rank 2) - Bullets over lasers, that’s how you fly! Each rank of this perk increases your small guns skill by +5.

Quest Perk: Hopeville’s Blessing - Hopeville has truly lived up to its name, and it has given you new strength through hope and faith, just like the Stable once did. You gain a permanent +1 bonus to Luck and an additional 5% chance to score critical hits.

Chapter 9: Blue Fire's Torch

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 10: Talons of the North

(A/N - Please read the comment I have posted below this chapter. It will explain a few things about this chapter.)

Chapter 10: Talons of the North

“Years of silence… now dispersed.”

Entry #8:

I finally found the time and the courage to write again. It’s been 12 hours since I fled

12 hours since we had been attacked. The soldiers came out of nowhere, cloaked in their own tech, tech that my father had said he had seen on the battlefield. It was the perfect ambush and

and they killed everypony that was left. One of father’s friends saved me from being stabbed, bought me the time I needed to run

to carry the Torch and run. He told me not to look back, not back at him

or the body of my father or the enemy, but only to run back to the bastion for help. I’m the only one left from the convoy

the enemy is hunting me, trying to finish what they started ten days ago… was it really only that long ago? Not much time has passed.

I’ve got to get back to the bastion and tell the others even with my father dead, even after what happened.

I don’t know if I can go on though

what can I possibly do against such reckless hate and malice? What can I do against the enemy that’s already taken everything from me? And why are they hunting us, killing us? Was it simply because we were part of Equestria? Was it because we worshipped the Sun and the Moon? Was it because of how valiantly we fought on the battlefields of the war?

have to sleep and hope that they don’t find me. I can’t run any longer until I rest

If they do find me, then I’ll die sleeping. If they don’t, I’ll be able to return to the bastion.

Got to sleep, rest

Can’t write anymore

Don’t want to

I looked back up at the top of the first page of the diary and read through some of the words again, my entire focus set into the slightly faded but still preserved text. Entry number eight was the first page of the diary, and therefore the first entry. Even after reading only one page, a deep feeling of sadness and sympathy was welling up within me, and answers to rapidly forming questions were only slowing piecing themselves together as I reread the text. The skeleton was the owner of this diary, of that there was no denying, and whoever the skeleton once was had experienced a tragedy of his or her own; if the words hadn’t been enough to express that, the way the entry had been written was enough. It’s lack of proper grammar and sentence structure showed that the pony had either written hastily or had been too distracted with other thoughts; I had a feeling that it was the latter. Already, the owner of this diary was similar to me, and it was an instant connection once I had read about the diary owner’s father being killed. Not only had this pony lost friends and family in an attack, like me, but the weapon that he or she had carried had my own cutie mark stamped onto the stock.

The Torch… Blue Fire’s Torch… it rested along the wall nearby where I lay. That rifle had an aura… it made me feel slightly uncomfortable when looking at it for too long… I still didn’t know how, nor did I find it possible, that a weapon could have such a similarity to me. A cutie mark was a part of a pony, and seeing it stamped onto a material item like that……

I forced my eyes away from the sniper rifle and back to the paper.

Upon another glance-over, it wasn’t hard to recognize what the word ‘stripes’ had meant; I now had no reason to doubt the involvement of zebras in the battle that had taken place here in the radio station. But the fact that this pony had been chased by zebra soldiers was something rather puzzling to me. Why would Equestria’s wartime enemy be hunting a single pony, wanting to kill him or her just as they had killed off this pony’s convoy? What could somepony and his or her friends have done to attract that much attention from their enemy? Maybe the next entry would say something about it.

I carefully turned the page and read silently;

Entry #9:

It’s all gone. All of it.

I survived the night, made my way back to the bastion and managed to avoid the striped soldiers, but I was still too late. Everypony’s dead. Stallions, mares, foals

Everypony

I am the sole survivor

There were no zebras here when I arrived. Only the dead left behind from the battle that had taken place here.

We weren’t prepared enough to fight them off. We didn’t have many weapons or survivors, and while there are dead zebras here, it still wasn’t enough.

Now I’m the only one left, and I don’t know what to do. After everything that’s happened in the past eleven days

I just want my father back. I want my friends back, my family. I want my life back

But everything’s gone.

I can hear my father’s voice, my mother, all of my friends, telling me to move on anyway. To be strong for myself and for all of my loved ones, even after their deaths

but it’s hard to when none of them are here to tell me in person, face-to-face like before. I don’t know how to honor their request.

If the zebras don’t backtrack to try and find me here, I’m going to bury my friends, all of them. Then maybe I’ll find the strength to head out towards the heartland. There’s got to be somepony out there who can help me.

Anypony.

I lowered my eyes from the page and let out a soft breath. So… this pony had lost everything? He or she had lost family and friends… all because of the zebras?

Same curse, different killers.

I flipped to the next page of the journal, a very short entry detailing the pony’s arrival at the town of Ashton. He or she had only written about how the town was still deserted and claimed that he or she would be hiding out within its perimeter for the night.

The next entry said the same things. The pony had continued to travel, claiming to still be hunted by a group of zebra soldiers while entering a rocky region of tall hills called Moonstone Peaks. The pony had entered his or her first solo engagement with the zebra pursuers, a small patrol of three scouts that had been exploring the terrain around the hillside. According to the journal, she had killed all three with Blue Fire’s Torch and the armor-piercing rounds she had loaded it with.

That was where the eleventh entry had ended, and as I turned the page, accidentally turning two of them, I noticed that the pages beyond the last entry were all blank.

I turned back to the correct page. One more entry;

Entry #12:

They finally got me

Two days after the Moonstone Peaks saw me using the rest of the food and water I had found in Ashton, and I still had to keep running. I kept heading in one direction, west, just trying to put some distance between myself and the zebras. They just kept coming though. I fought three other patrols throughout the day and I’ve been running for hours, just running and not looking back

just running

Dishonorable.

No.

I fought up to this point. I killed the enemies of my family and friends, my enemies. I fought them up to here in this radio station. When I got here, it was just like they had pulled all of their remaining soldiers together for one final effort to finish me off.

I think they succeeded.

I managed to hack into the terminal in the control room and find this chamber thanks to some distance I put between us, just a single stroke of good luck. I also managed to reset the terminal security program, but before I could hide, they made another push, and they caught me off guard

shot me up badly.

I sealed the door from the inside so that they wouldn’t get in, and after they tried breaking through it for awhile, they left.

They left

They know that the job’s done. They shot me with at least ten bullets. Each one did its job considering my lack of combat armor. Should’ve gotten some from the bastion or the convoy. Should’ve looked for potions and bandages too, maybe even more weapons. But I guess there’s no need to worry about it anymore

Even as I’m writing this, I’m bleeding out

I’ll die soon, in this room. I think it used to be a shelter of some kind. Now it’s empty, an appropriate place for my tomb.

Don’t even know why I’m writing anymore. Maybe just to pass the time I have left, to think about seeing all of my friends and family again in the everafter.

I kind of wonder if Celestia and Luna are up there. My guess is yes, especially because of everything I’ve seen. Everyplace abandoned - farms, Ashton, Buckley

Marefax destroyed

I think the war really did take a terrible turn. The sun went out days ago, blocked by cloud cover, and I think the radiation from Marefax is spreading across the region.

If it’s like this everywhere

If the world really did end

Goddesses, I wonder if I would’ve even found anything in the heartland. No, not after everything I’ve seen.

Doesn’t matter now. Everything just hurts.

I forced myself to put away Blue Fire’s Torch in some old case that was left in this room. Locked it up and hid it. Don’t know why. Maybe there’s a chance that another survivor is out there. One of my brothers or sisters might be outside right now, making there way deeper into Equestria to find help. Or maybe one of them is nearby. Maybe they’ll find my rifle.

I hope they do. If anypony finds it, it should be one of them. The Torch belongs in the hooves of its creators.

If any other survivor finds this diary, please believe me when I say that I did my best. In honor of my family, friends, and home, I tried

I tried

Forever honor-bound, forever strong

I looked up from the page to face the wall, my mind frozen in thought.

Last entry… things begun to add up.

This pony had been chased across the southeast, having to stay on the move lest he or she be killed by the zebras that were the pony’s enemies. The pony had suffered loss after loss throughout the course of at least five days, seeming to nearly be unable to find the strength to carry on. And yet still, the pony had made his or her way westward in the hopes that something would turn up, anything that could give some help. Even as the world began to darken in the aftermath of the Last Day, the pony struggled forward and carried hope.

But even that wasn’t enough to keep the pony from getting killed. The pony, now skeleton, had lost everything, and then had sacrificed even life itself in the pursuit of his or her goals. And as far as I could tell from the words written within the pony’s diary, those goals were nothing short of honorable. The pony had only wanted to help his or her friends, the survivors that had lived within this bastion - home perhaps - to live on. Even when the pony had lost loved ones, he or she had persisted and had continued to do so even when all hope seemed to vanished… and it had, it seemed… but the pony carried on…

Strong… even until the end of the road.

“Forever honor-bound, forever strong…” I whispered. I liked the way the words sounded. They seemed so familiar to what Stable 181 had taught us. Honor… one powerful virtue of several in the pre-war world, the world of peace before the war. This pony, whatever his or her name, had spoken of the word, the virtue, and he or she had tried to uphold it; in my opinion, the pony had done so.

I closed up the diary and let my hoof rest on it, letting out a breath and nodding before gently pushing it away. Just then, I felt a body shifting under my extended left wing, and I turned to see as Blake began to wake up. As he stretched out, he let out a tired groan before partially opening his eyes to look up at me. “What are you doing, big sis?” he asked sleepily.

“Oh, just reading.” I replied with a smile.

“Why are you up so early?” he inquired, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes.

I chuckled as I lowered my head down to bump the side of his face with my muzzle. “I couldn’t sleep.” I answered. “Slept for a few hours and then woke up. I couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards, so I stayed up and read.”

Blake let out a great yawn before looking over at where the closed diary lay away from me. “That’s the one that belonged to the skeleton in the hidden room.”

“Yes, that’s the one.” I said with a nod. When Gunny, Shore, and I had discovered the room and its various contents, Blake had wandered down to see our discovery for himself. Though he had seen the skeleton where it lay in the middle of the small shelter, he hadn’t been perturbed by its presence. Instead, he had simply avoided looking at it by looking over Blue Fire’s Torch at my side; he had found it rather ‘cool’ how my cutie mark had been painted on both sides of the stock.

“Are you going to keep it?” Blake asked, looking back up at me. When I nodded, he added, “And the rifle too? It’s really awesome-looking.”

“It is pretty neat, huh?” I looked back over at Blue Fire’s Torch where it rested along the wall. “Yes, I’ll be keeping the rifle too. At the moment, as far as I’m concerned, it’s mine because of its name and because of the flame etched onto it.”

But still… there was another reason.

The words written in the diary’s pages told a story of honor, courage, and drive, all in the absence of hope and even with the deaths of loved ones. The pony who had once been had valiantly traversed a long road, but still had come up short and had lost to the zebras and the wasteland that was forming in the wake of the Last Day. Though Blue Fire’s Torch was in my possession, I felt the need to carry the rifle not only as a weapon, but as a treasure - a treasure that I would see returned to the hooves of anypony, alive or dead, that had been a part of this pony’s family, one of her brothers or sisters. It was the least I could do to honor the pony’s bravery and honor.

“And it had two blue flames on it.” Blake added with a sleepy smile. “It could be like you and dad. Two of the same cutie marks, but still one honorable family.”

I gave a light giggle, lowering my head down to kiss Blake on the forehead. “I think that’s a great idea, baby brother.”

Blake let out a content sigh as he closed his eyes and lowered his head back to the floor, and I gently ran a hoof along his mane as he begun to fall to sleep again. “We still have a couple hours yet.” I said. “You should get some more sleep before we start moving again. We have a lot of walking to do today.” Blake only gave the slightest nod to my words, already nearly asleep, and I stayed beside him until he passed into the land of dreams once more, whereupon I carefully rose and stepped away.

As I stretched, I approached the control room entrance and looked outside. The holes in the ceiling of the neighboring room were dark, showing that it was indeed still night outside, and as I trotted through the news radio station, I saw Hallion, Marian, and Lucan asleep in the main lobby.

Quietly opening the double doors, I slipped out into the wasteland night to face the east. As of yet, there was no color on the horizon, and the land was utterly quiet… aside from a light and distant *clink* that my ears picked up. It had come from around the radio station, followed quickly by a second and a third, and as the noise sounded in continual rhythm, I trotted around the station wall to peer out to the source of the persistent sound. I immediately recognized it coming from the pile of wreckage we had passed on the way to the radio station several hours ago, and upon checking my E.F.S. compass, I saw one friendly marker on the display.

With a small smile, I trotted forward towards the wreckage, the hammering sound temporarily breaking before quickly resuming again, louder and quicker. As I approached, I suddenly heard my pipbuck chirp over the banging coming from among the wreck, and I raised my right foreleg to see my large map displayed. Aside from the eight icons that adorned the expansive map, a ninth had appeared, marking the wreckage and designating a name: Zebra Recon Craft Crash Site.

Raising an eye, I looked back up at the wreckage in front of me and studied it from the nose to the tail. This vehicle was nothing that I could remember from any of the texts in Stable 181’s Hall of Records. The only vehicles that had been discussed in a select few documents had been the great Pegasi warships… that and the occasional miscellaneous vessel used during the war like the somewhat common bombing chariots and the Vertibucks. This wreck, zebra or not, was completely foreign to me. “Hello?” I called to the wreck, and I flinched as the rhythmic banging of metal on metal halted with a rather hard *thunk* and a loud “OW! DAMN IT!” from a voice I instantly recognized.

Gunny rose up from behind what I could safely assume to be the double tail of the vehicle, and the stallion was rubbing his forehead with a hoof. “Hi…” he managed as he continued to rub his head where he had hit it.

“Sorry…” I muttered sheepishly. “Is your head okay?”

“Yeah, just a bump.” Gunny answered, lowering his hoof away to look back at me. “I thought you’d be asleep with Blake.”

“I was for awhile.” I replied. “I just woke up early and couldn’t fall back to sleep afterwards, so I decided to come outside for some air. Where’s Shore? I didn’t see him inside the station.”

“He’s keeping watch on the roof.” Gunny explained, nodding towards the station. “He used that fallen over radio tower to climb up and said he’d keep watch until we’re all ready to move again.”

“Speaking of which, why are you out here so early?” I asked with a smirk, jabbing a hoof at him.

“Same reason as you I guess.” Gunny replied with a shrug as he looked back to where he was working. “That and my curiosity got the better of me about this wreckage here. I know your pipbuck can identify locations and items. Did it give any kind of indication as to what this thing is?”

“Yeah. It said that it was some kind of zebra vehicle.” I answered, trotting up to stand outside the tail of the aircraft. “A reconnaissance aircraft of some kind.”

“Curious. I wonder if it had something to do with what happened at the station with that skeleton.”

“There’s a chance.” I replied, ducking under the tail and joining Gunny. “Is there something that you’re trying to find?”

“I found something that I want to take out of here, yes.” Gunny answered, crouching back down to look up at what I saw to be an open panel on the belly of the aircraft, behind which rested another metal sheet. “I got my hooves on a toolbox in the radio station’s storage room. It had a hammer, wrench, and a couple other tools, so now I’m trying to pry this thing out.”

I crouched down beside him to try and get a better view. “What is it?”

“It’s a radio box.” Gunny answered, his horn glowing again as he levitated out a wrench from the brown metal toolbox at his side and looked it over. “I can tell because of the acronym stamped on the side of the panel here. It says CVR, or cockpit voice recorder. I found a manual in the Hall of Records about them being installed in the Vertibucks used during the war. They could record conversations between the pilots and their bases. I’m just wondering if this one might have anything recorded onto it.”

“Huh… actually, now I’m kind of curious myself. Would you like some help?” I offered.

“Well… actually yes.” Gunny said after a thoughtful pause. “That pipbuck of yours has a rather bright lamp on it. If you could turn it on and shine it under here, I’ll actually be able to see what I’m doing.”

“Sure.” Crawling forward a couple paces and situating myself next to him, I raised my pipbuck leg and turned on the lamp to shine it over where Gunny was working.

Now bathed in light, I could clearly see the open panel and the sheet that rested just behind it, CVR just barely legible in small white letters on the metal. It was fastened into the aircraft by a series of ten screws, three of which had already been removed and dropped onto the dirt. Likewise, there were four larger bolts that required a different tool to remove, the wrench from what I could tell. As Gunny returned to work, his screwdriver floating up to the fourth screw, I let out a giggle. “So this is what it’s like working on machines.” I remarked. “Is this what you had to do back in the Stable when you weren’t on guard duty?”

“I wasn’t in the maintenance department much. Still, I knew how to use basic tools and such from my weapon maintenance training.” he replied as he removed the fourth screw. “Shore gave me plenty of opportunities to practice outside of the armory when he wanted a terminal to be serviced, just to make sure all the exterior panels and parts were holding together to protect the circuitry. When I was fixing things or breaking things down, they almost always involved weapons, but enough of that carried over into tinkering with other things too. I can’t do any of the fancy ‘build things from scratch’ stuff or anything spectacular like that, but I know enough to get by.”

“Plus there was the one time where my mother brought you in to fix our table.” I added, smiling at the memory.

“Yeah… and furniture.” Gunny stated with a chuckle, already moving on to the sixth screw. “I forgot how good I am at fixing metal furniture.” We both shared a round of light laughter, comfortable silence following as I watched Gunny work out the rest of the screws; two of these had taken more time due to them being rusted in.

“So now you just have the bolts left?” I asked as I peered closer at the panel.

“Yeah. I’m almost there.” Gunny answered, setting aside the screwdriver and wrapping the wrench in his magic. However, as the wrench approached the bolt, it instead lowered back to the ground. “But before that,” he began, and I raised an eye and turned to see him looking at me, a focused stare in his eyes. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something. It’s something that’s been on my mind most of the night.”

“What’s the matter?” I asked, suddenly a little worried.

“I’ve been thinking about what happened last night on that hill, the hill where we encountered that raider patrol.” he explained. “When we were engaged, I fought back with the intent to make sure none of the bastards lived. I mean, why wouldn’t I after our time out here? Why wouldn’t I after everything that happened?… But then that mare showed up… Ivy. When I reflect on what I did that night on the hill… I actually cringe when I think about how close I was to killing that unicorn. I had the shotgun to her head. I even fired just inches away from her. All it would’ve taken was one movement to bring that mare’s life to an end. To tell you the truth, I think that if you weren’t there, I would’ve killed her myself… so I wanted to thank you, Nova.”

I tilted my head, puzzled. “Thank me for what, Gunny?”

“For keeping me from pulling the trigger.” my friend answered, a thin smile forming on his face.

“Oh… well…” I began, a smile matching his as I felt a tinge of heat in my cheeks. “It was nothing really. All I did was just give her a chance to explain herself.”

“You did more than that, friend.” Gunny retorted with a snort. “You saw something that I didn’t see… something that I wouldn’t have seen. Unlike me, you saw through that red and black armor. You saw some good in those eyes, and then she proved that by explaining her history. What you did on that hill says good things about you, and I’m glad you were with me. By stopping me, you saved Ivy’s life and let her truth be told.”

“Oh, Gunny.” I replied, nudging his side with a hoof. “You were just trying to protect us. And if it makes you feel better, I was feeling the same way before I listened to Ivy tell her story. I almost didn’t say anything at all.”

“But you still gave her the chance.” Gunny interrupted gently. “And I’m glad that you did. Thank you.” Coming from Gunny, the praise was invigorating, and I smiled and nodded before my friend turned back to his work. “Now, let’s see if I can get the rest of these bolts out.”

I lit up the CVR with my pipbuck lamp as Gunny returned to work. The remaining bolts proved easy for Gunny to remove with the wrench, and when the last bolt fell to the ground, the CVR shifted in its housing and fell out of its place in the hull behind the cockpit, Gunny catching it with his telekinesis before it fell to the dirt. “Alright then.” he remarked with a smirk, setting the spoils of his work gently down onto the dirt. “Let’s see if we can figure out how to make this thing talk.”

“Actually, I think I already see something.” I remarked, looking along the bottom of the left side of the device and placing my hoof over a small metal flap. “Is that a thing that my pipbuck can plug into?”

Gunny ducked his head under my chin, briefly invading my space to catch sight of the flap secured onto the bottom of the CVR as I opened it, revealing three ports of varying sizes. “Yeah, I think it is.” he replied, shuffling back and crawling around to my other side. “Let me see your pipbuck.”

Raising my pipbuck leg (and awkwardly trying to keep the light fixed onto the CVR), Gunny focused his magic to open the terminal interface port cover on my pipbuck. Upon doing so, the cable slipped out and hovered over to the now open panel, pressing against each of the ports before finding the one that fit the head of my pipbuck’s terminal cable. As soon as it connected, I pressed the button that brought up my terminal records menu and saw just in time as a new fourth item was added to the list of terminal documents my pipbuck housed in its memory storage; the item was called Zebra Recon Craft Black Box Recording. “Goddesses, I feel like a nerd using this thing.” I remarked as I set the cursor over the item, giggling as Gunny removed the cable from the CVR and returned it to my pipbuck.

“Be glad Shore didn’t hear you say that. You’d get into a scientific debate.” Gunny warned playfully as he scooted up beside me. “Let’s hear the recording.”

With a nod, I clicked on the item for it to play. Immediately, my ears were greeted by the soft grinding of radio static, the sound growing and dimming as if the recording was trying to adjust itself to work. Then a stallion’s voice spoke;

“-oh-seven to command, I have taken heavy damage -bzzzt- took a direct hit to the fuselage -kzzzt, crackle- engine system is failing and I can’t -bzzzt- No response from the throttle or the flaps -kzzzt- gliding in towards the surface from high altitude for several minutes -bzzzt- Buckley must’ve had a better radar system than we -bzzzt, crackle, kzzzt- attempting emergency pullout! I can’t move! -kzzzt, crackle, bzzzt- was too slow… distracted with thoughts of home to focus on the mission. I’m tired… tired of this war and this fighting… years and years of bloodshed -bzzzt, crackle- wife and my children, I love them very much -bzzzt- If I die, I die for the glory of my homeland… not the Caesar -bzzzzzt-”

With a final trail of static, the recording ended, and I lowered my foreleg to the ground in silence, the words of the zebra pilot’s final moments echoing in my mind and keeping me from speaking. From what I had read about zebras in Stable 181’s Hall of Records, I hadn’t expected something like this. In the Stable’s records, zebras held hardly any similar emotions that ponies held, or at least the records never wrote about it. Only the parts about them being the enemies of Equestria, killers with the intent to bring the pre-war Equestria to its knees, was what the print of the texts had described; I felt rather downcast at knowing that some of that was rubbing off on me… I definitely knew better now.

“I guess even zebras could regret the war.” Gunny said lowly, pushing the CVR away. “Of course, every text we had in the Stable that described zebras only told about the bad shit… they probably intended to leave out anything that might’ve displayed the zebras as something better than monsters.”

“I know.” I nodded solemnly, freezing as I suddenly heard my pipbuck beep again. Looking down at my right foreleg, I saw that my pipbuck’s large map was displayed; a new location icon had appeared, and this one was given a name. Buckley Air Force Base was scrolled across a small portion of the map, further east and slightly north of our current position and perhaps just a day’s walk away (or at least half that time if I wanted to fly).

“Buckley Air Force Base?” Gunny asked, looking over my pipbuck’s map. “Didn’t Hallion say something about that?”

“He mentioned it.” I answered; boy, was my curiosity bump itching. “If we didn’t have a job to do, I’d probably go and scout out that place.”

“Hallion’s mentioned it enough times for me to be a little curious myself.” Gunny replied with a thin smile, crawling backwards and out from under the aircraft to stand on all fours. As I joined him, turning off my pipbuck lamp, Gunny let out a yawn before looking back at the radio station. “For now though, let’s go get something to eat. My guess is that Lucky Hallion will want another early start today, so we might as well start getting ready now.”

I gave a nod before the two of us ducked under the tail of the aircraft and left the wreckage behind. Though as we trotted along, I couldn’t help but glance back at the wreck. The aircraft had remained there for at least one hundred and seventy-five years… and yet there was no skeleton to show that the pilot had died in the crash… there was only an open cockpit. I wonder where he went…

Wherever he went, I hoped that he got to get away from the war he was so tired of… to see his family again like he deserved.

*** *** ***

“Mares and gentlecolts,” Hallion announced proudly as our caravan came to a stop. “welcome to Challenger.”

Before us, resting under the mid-afternoon cloud cover on a landscape of dirt and dried grass was the great body of the settlement… no… city, of Challenger; it was BIG!

We had started moving again early in the morning as per Hallion’s instruction, and we had made good progress throughout the day, running into no other raider patrols as we cut across the great emptiness of the Equestrian southeast. That emptiness, however, had eventually lead to the cracked concrete of another pre-war roadway. This old road had snaked its way deep into the south of the region but had, in turn, connected to a ponymade trail carved into the earth, making a dirt road that lead straight to the sight that I now beheld.

Challenger itself was a massive array of stone and metal buildings that spanned to at least five stories in height. They were lined side-by-side and evenly spaced, particularly along the length of the east side of Challenger’s north wall. Behind those buildings, I could see the tops of other buildings, equally tall, as they spread farther south. The north wall which faced us was made of solid steel, a great barrier that stood half as tall as the buildings it protected; the two ends of the wall each held a large built-in cylindrical tower, a watchtower of some kind. Within my line of sight was also a pair of barns to the east of the city, spaced apart from each other and built away from the city wall. Both of these were similar to the barn I had seen at the Black Blood Forward Post. However, these barns looked carefully tended to, and while there wasn’t any crop growing in the dirt beside them, I could see ponies going about their tasks around them. But the most impressive structure of all was something that was easily twice as tall as the buildings themselves. It was something that I couldn’t identify even if my life depended on it, but upon inquiry, Hallion freely filled us in. He identified the huge structure as a pre-war machine called a tower crane, the tower (or what Hallion called the mast) partially hidden behind Challenger’s wall yet still stretching above the city. A similar tower sat horizontal atop the mast, and Hallion explained its components to the group as we all looked on in awe, thereby unknowingly saving my brain from frying in my skull. The counterjib was the shorter end of the horizontal tower thingy and was where the motor and the counterweight of the tower crane rested. The much longer end of the horizontal tower thingy, called the jib, extended out towards Challenger’s north wall, stopping directly above it where an assembly of iron cables connected the tip of the jib to a massive steel door built into the fortification. Both the jib and the counterjib were connected by great cables to what Hallion identified as the tower crane’s apex, a short pillar of metal that rested atop the crane’s turntable and operator’s cab. Even from the distance between our group and the city, I could barely make out the figure of a pony rather swiftly climbing up the mast on a built-in ladder to reach the operator’s cab; Goddesses, if I had been an earth pony, or even a unicorn, I don’t think I would’ve been brave enough to do that.

“This place is just…” Shore muttered, absolutely awed at the marvel of a city before us.

“Amazing?” Marian answered for him, to which my friend nodded. “Hallion and I have seen a lot of wasteland towns in our travels. But in terms of settlements that were built from scratch, I think this one is the crown jewel. This place is packed with history, a history that led to the birth of a magnificent achievement. Hell, even that tower crane has a story of its own, but I’ll leave it to one of the city’s citizens to tell it. They take great pride in everything they’ve built over Challenger’s fifty years.”

“And right now, you’re only seeing one side of the city. Challenger stretches farther south to accommodate the number of citizens it has. It’s basically a really big rectangle if you look at it from a Pegasus’s-eye view.” Hallion explained, smirking as he nudged Betsy forward.

As we followed, making our way towards Challenger’s north wall, Marian added, “It’s places like this that give me a lot of hope for the future of the wasteland. This was the result of earth ponies and unicorns making the best of what they had and working together to build a home. It’s amazing what some cooperative work and drive can do.”

“There’s honor behind that.” I remarked with a smile, no longer staring in wonder, but now taking in the sight in admiration; I had only seen a part of Challenger, and I already liked it.

“And they built all of it from the ground up?” Gunny asked in amazement, still on the recovery path as we walked.

“Yep.” Marian answered with a giggle. “There was only dirt here fifty years ago. Then ponies from all over the north came down and started working together to build. Everything you’ll see inside those steel walls came as scrap from Equestrian ruins.”

“That’s really cool!” Blake piped up from his perch atop Betsy’s wagon, both he and Lucan looking out at the city with big smiles.

“It’s so great to see home again!” Lucan exclaimed happily, letting out a cheer as a great rumbling suddenly filled the air. As I looked over the city wall, I saw movement up above as the great tower crane slightly rotated on its turntable before the cables connecting the end of the jib to the door grew taut. With a groan, the massive steel door was lifted up and held in place, Challenger’s sign that we had been sighted and were given clearance to enter.

“We’ll be entering in through the city’s warehouse district.” Hallion explained as we continued ahead. “When we get in, and after we report in with the checkpoint, I’ll be heading straight to the trade administration building to fill out the necessary paperwork. It isn’t much. They just want something to keep track of the trade traffic in and out of the city.”

“In the meantime, we’ll be waiting for Hallion to finish so that we can drop off the shipment into the weapons warehouse.” Marian added, looking back at us before a smile spread across her face. “During that time, you’ll have a few moments to ask some of your many questions. You all have that look in your eyes.”

“Does Challenger have any problems with newcomers wandering freely within the city limits?” I asked.

“Not at all.” Marian assured. “Why?”

“Because I’d like to help Lucan find his parents.” I answered, looking up at the wagon to see the young colt staring eagerly at the open gate as we closed the distance.

“For Lucan, I definitely think that they wont mind.” Marian stated confidently before facing forward.

As we passed under the gate, I immediately beheld the sight of six ponies as they entered the open dirt clearing ahead and trotted towards us. Two of them had come from a compact shack just behind the wall and to my right. Three of the ponies had come from the far end of the clearing, emerging from a wide travel lane, behind which was part of a massive metal structure. The sixth had come from one of the two single-story stone buildings built directly ahead of the gate, and as we walked into the clearing, I could see the clear text of a large sign built over the closer building’s front door; Trade Administration.

“Welcome back to Challenger, Lucky Hallion.” A stallion’s voice drew my attention to the front of our convoy, and I came to a halt as Hallion gently urged Betsy to a stop before closing the distance between himself and one of the six Challenger ponies, a dark blue unicorn stallion with a short-cut white mane and tail. “It’s always a pleasure to see you here.”

“It’s good to be back, even for the short amount of time I plan on staying.” Hallion replied with a smile before nodding back to his cargo. “Everything that was on the supply order is in the wagon, and there’s even a little bonus. We ran into a Black Blood patrol on the way in, and we picked up all of their useable weapons and what was left of their ammo. All of that’s in the pile too.”

“Sounds good to me. Challenger can use all of the weapons it can get.” the blue stallion replied. “This shipment came just in time too. President Radiant Gem is getting ready to send another batch of soldiers out to the east. Most of these new weapons will probably go with them.”

“The Black Blood’s been moving around a lot lately.” an earth pony mare next to the blue unicorn added grimly. “And their presence to the southeast of Ashton has only been increasing.”

“Plus, they’ve been getting the strength in numbers to start setting up holdouts all over the southeast. Rumors have gone around about them being down by Wheaton, holding out in the Moonstone Peaks, and even setting up in a couple of the pre-war farmsteads nearby.” an earth pony stallion explained.

“In other words, they’re moving in, and quick.” the blue unicorn stallion finished. “It’s why we’ve been hard-pressed to get supplies out to the southeastern settlements. We here at the warehouse district are too busy making weapons for the soldiers instead of packing existing weapons up and sending them out. Aside from that, Challenger can’t even send anypony out on a bathroom break without them getting ambushed by Black Blood fire teams. Our soldiers make it through to Ashton easy enough, but the caravans are more vulnerable. They’re targeted more than the soldiers, as I’m sure you know from your run here.”

“I hope what we have here will help you, then.” Hallion replied, dipping his head to the blue stallion. “My first offer still stands, just to let you know.”

“Quite a few ponies around here are considering taking you up on that offer.” the blue unicorn remarked with a chuckle. “But President Radiant’s politely refused whenever the topic came up. I can’t say that I disagree with her either. Besides, what kind of a city would we be if we went around seizing the stocks of successful wasteland merchants?”

“Even when said merchants are offering on their own accord?” Marian asked with an expectant smile. “Stable 203 would serve as an excellent outpost.”

“I know. We may be in a tight spot… a very tight spot, but we’re not on our last legs. As we like to say, trade might very well save the wasteland one day. Right now though, we’ve got to focus on the Black Blood, and it’s our current task to get you over to the necessary paperwork so we can record this shipment and drop it off. If you’ll come with me Hallion…”

“Excuse me…” I ventured, raising a foreleg to catch the blue unicorn’s attention. When he swung his head over to look my way, I lowered my foreleg down. “Is it really that bad out there?” Ever since the stallion and his comrades had begun talking about the Black Blood movements around the region, the question had sprung to life in my mind, a part of which was unable to comprehend that the Black Blood Raiders could have enough ponies in their ranks to cover ground across an entire region of Equestria. I hoped that there was at least some chance that some of the stallion’s explanation had been exaggerated. After all, these were just raiders - gangers dedicated to making everypony’s life as miserable as possible…… right?

The stallion, however, only smiled back at me with a polite and understanding smile. “You must not be from around here. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked that…… well I’ll be damned. You’re a Pegasus…”

“Um… yeah… why do you sound so surprised?” I asked slowly, involuntarily looking over at Gunny and Shore where they stood next to me; both of them shrugged, looking just as ready for an explanation as I was.

“Pegasi are hardly seen nowadays.” the unicorn stallion explained. “Most, if not all of them, were a part of what was called the Grand Pegasi Enclave. Then, when the war ended, they all disappeared into the sky… I guess a few are still earthbound nowadays… But still, it’s a rare sight to see one. You just caught me off guard was all.”

“Disappeared?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

The blue stallion looked over me, his gaze studious before briefly turning back to his comrades. “You five go ahead and get Hallion the necessary paperwork. I’m kind of curious about his caravan guards here, and I’d like to ask some questions myself.”

“Yes sir.” the earth pony mare with him acknowledged, she and the four others leading Hallion and Marian towards the Trade Administration building as the blue unicorn turned back to me.

“To answer your previous question, yes.” he said with a nod. “They disappeared, as in ‘they sealed the sky and completely deserted the surface.’ On the Last Day, the pre-war city of Cloudsdale, which was the crown jewel of all Pegasi cities, was the first target to go. Balefire ICBM took it out. Once that happened, the Pegasi abandoned the war, sealed the sky in permanent cloud cover, and hid in their own cloud cities to stay safe. Enclave Command gave the order for every Pegasus pony to return to the clouds, and those who didn’t were the ones that refused or were caught by the bombs.”

“I thought they were down on the surface like all the others on the Last Day.” Shore commented with a thoughtful frown. “There was nothing in the texts that said anything about them leaving the surface and abandoning the war effort…”

“None of them would have anyway.” I replied, looking over at him. “All the books we had were saved days before the end of the world.” Shore slowly nodded his understanding.

“Still… they walled up the entire sky?” Gunny asked, looking up to the cloud cover over Challenger.

“I imagine some places can still catch a glimpse of sun and moonlight.” the blue unicorn replied, looking out to the north. “Places like the Ponave and the Trottingham region might… I can’t really say.”

“How do you know all of that stuff about the Pegasus ponies?” Blake piped up curiously before jumping down from the top of the wagon to trot up beside me.

“History tends to float around in the remnants of the old Equestria. Those who have the right eyes and have the desire to try and discover it tend to find it. Whether it be a few days or a few years, we find it. And me? I’m a stallion who likes to keep the history he learns in his head. I’ve done enough traveling in my time while Challenger was under construction and… oh,” the stallion chuckled. “I guess I should probably introduce myself before I delve off into a bunch of stories. The name’s Duke. Short and simple, easy to remember among the warehouse district.”

“I’m Nova.” I introduced with a smile, Gunny, Shore, and Blake following my example with introductions of their own.

However, when Duke looked over Lucan, the colt being the only one to not introduce himself, his eyes widened with a jolt of realization that I partly expected. “By the Goddesses, Lucan!” The colt gave a big smile from his place atop the wagon’s cargo. “You’ve been gone for three days! What happened??”

“I… I wandered too far from the new farm when dad was working on it.” Lucan muttered, his smile fading and his ears drooping in shame. “I-I didn’t mean to… honest, I didn’t… but when I saw those hills, I wanted to go and explore.”

“You always were the type to go rushing off to new adventures…” Duke remarked, a slight smile tugging at his face. “Have you been okay while you were gone?”

“Yeah. It was Nova that took care of me after I was rescued from the bad ponies’ camp.” Lucan added, looking down at me; I smiled encouragingly back at him. “She and her friends brought me to Hopeville. I even made new friends when I was there. And now I’m back home!”

“So the Black Blood captured you… I’m glad they didn’t… well… never mind. I’m glad that you’re back safe and sound. And I guess these four ponies here are to thank.” he remarked, turning back to me again.

“Are you… Lucan’s father?” I asked, curious and hopeful.

Duke, however, shook his head with a smile. “No, I’m not. But his father and I are good friends. Have been since foalhood…” Duke’s smile faded as he turned back to Lucan, he and Blake hopping down from the cart and trotting up next to me. “But… Lucan… when you went missing, your father went out there into the wasteland to search for you. He hasn’t been back since.”

“Dad’s gone??” Lucan exclaimed, ears folding down again. “Where is he?? He’ll be alright… won’t he??”

“I don’t know where he is, but I do know that he’ll be fine wherever he trotted off to.” Duke assured instantly, a confident answer that could only come from a lifelong friend.

“What about mom?” Lucan asked worriedly. “She’s here, right?”

“Your mother’s still here.” Duke replied with a nod, Lucan becoming only partly relieved at the statement. “She’s been holding down the house and working in the market square… but the past three days have been hard on her. She’ll feel world’s better when she sees you again, and speaking of which, you should get back to her. Also,” he added, looking back at me. “it might not hurt for one of you to come along with us, especially since it was you all that brought Lucan back.”

I looked over to where Gunny stood, and he gave a nod. “If you want to go with them, Shore and I can find one of the leaders and keep moving forward with our job here.” he offered.

“Okay. Blake and I will go with Lucan then.” I replied, smiling at him. “Meet you back here?”

With his nod of agreement, I turned and trotted over to the waiting Duke, who was looking at me with a raised eye as Lucan and Blake joined us. “What do you need to see one of our leaders for?” he asked.

“It’s… a long story.” I answered with a half smile. “Perhaps I could tell it to you on the way?”

“Sure. We have to cross through the presidential district before we get to the residential sector of the city, so you’ll have plenty of time.” Duke replied, trotting ahead and motioning for us to follow.

Nodding at Blake and Lucan where they stood beside me, the three of us followed after Duke and drew up with him as we passed by the Trade Administration; the neighboring building had a similar designation marker built over its entrance, reading Caravan Guard Recruitment Station. Beyond the station was another road of the warehouse district, and before we turned left on the ‘T’ intersection, I could see two other large metal buildings to my right, their great size making it abundantly clear that they were a part of the city’s warehouses.

Facing forward, I saw the road ahead passing straight between an open steel gate, the wall making a barrier between the warehouses and what I assumed to be Challenger’s presidential district. The two guards on station at either side of the open gate, two earth pony stallions armed with dual shotgun battle saddles and clothed in dark green combat armor, exchanged polite nods with us as we passed by into the presidential district. The first thing that came to recognition was the number of ponies on the road ahead. Here, there were several of them trotting along the road, and though it wasn’t crowded by any means, there had to be at least thirty ponies along this first stretch. To my left, immediately behind the gate, was a longer and windowless sheet metal building. When my eyes shifted to the right, I saw another building of similar make that extended up to the first road which branched to the right. As we passed it by, I saw even more ponies walking back and forth along it’s length; there were at least another thirty that I could see.

Instead of turning right onto the second road, we continued ahead on the primary lane, and my eyes were drawn to the great courtyard beyond the metal-barred fence. Though it was entirely dirt, just like Hopeville’s courtyard, there was a vast array of metal sculptures that dotted the great yard. Among them were alarmingly accurate recreations of ponies in various stances, from simply standing and looking out in one direction, to posing with a foreleg raised, to fully rearing up on hind legs. For one reason or another, these metalwork creations snatched up my interest immediately, and I couldn’t help but look over each that was close to the fence as we walked. The first masterpiece was the design of a unicorn stallion standing up on his hind legs and leaning against the pole of a battle standard. Close by, a metal earth pony mare wearing some sort of flat sheet metal hat was posed with a foreleg snapped up to her head in a salute. The third however, brought immediate recognition to me. The third metal figure was a Pegasus mare, outstretched wings perfectly detailed down to every feather. Even without color, the design of the mane worked into the metal was something that I immediately recognized, and it didn’t take the butter yellow coat and bright pink mane for me to tell that the metal figure was Fluttershy.

“Metalwork caught your eye did it?” Duke asked expectantly, and I blinked before looking to my left, seeing the blue stallion also looking over the Fluttershy figure beyond the bars of the fence. At my smile and nod, Duke gave a chuckle. “Challenger takes pride in everything that makes this city what it is. Our metalworkers are one of many prime examples.”

“How do they make all of that?” Blake inquired curiously.

“Challenger’s metalworkers actually showed up about fifteen years back. They were a small and isolated settlement out on the old Route 52, and when word was getting passed around about Challenger’s growth in the relatively quiet southeast, they were one of the settlements that came looking. Before then, they got their hooves on some arc welders from an old ruin out in the far north, got to using them for both defense and construction. Those things spit electricity like a regular lightning storm. Anyway, they eventually built their own forges out of old concrete blocks and by that time, they found out about us. So when they asked for shelter, we provided, and when they packed up their forges, they provided us with metal craft. You can identify the blacksmith ponies today by the pendants they wear. Each is a metal circle with a triangle fit into it. It was a tradition of theirs back in their old home.”

“That’s really cool.” I stated, nodding with approval as we continued to walk along the road.

“As you can see, they immediately got to work on the courtyard when they asked, and the president of the time approved.” Duke continued, briefly stopping to point. “You can see that big building beyond the courtyard, there. They built that too, from the ground up. That’s Challenger’s presidential palace. They’ve taught us all that strong magic and pre-war welding tools can go a long way.”

As I peered through the fence to look, I could see a massive building beyond the assorted metalwork figures in the courtyard. The building was made entirely of sheet metal and steel plate, and it stood five floors high, over double the size of Hopeville’s City Hall. More impressive than its sheer size was the fact that metalwork stairs had been built to lead to the entrance of the palace, in front of which were four smooth metal pillars that rose and connected to a balcony that extended from the roof. “How long did it take them to build it?” I asked curiously.

“About five years.” Duke answered as we began down the road again. “They mostly used their forges, but they had help with the salvage we brought in during the time. Most of Challenger’s buildings are made from when we tore down standing, or mostly intact pre-war structures piece by piece and reassembled and reinforced them. The palace itself has been standing for about nine years, and it’s still exactly how it looked when it was first made.” I turned to make another reply about how beautifully crafted the palace was, but he beat me to a response, asking with a smirk, “So, can I ask you a question now?”

I gave an embarrassed smile. “Heh. Sure…”

“I’m curious as to where you and your friends came from. That, and I’m kind of interested in finding out how you came to meet Lucky Hallion.” Duke explained. “When he shows up to Challenger, he usually doesn’t bring caravan guards along. Between himself and his sister, along with the cargo they bring, they tend to keep raiders and ghouls off of their backs just fine.”

“Well,” I began. “my friends and my brother and I are from Hopeville. But not originally.”

“Hopeville… I went there a time or two. Good and friendly town with a lot of decent ponies in it.” Duke said with a smile and nod. “Didn’t expect them to find a Pegasus such as yourself though.”

“It isn’t like that though.” I replied gently, winning a raised eye as a response. “Did you notice the armor that my two friends were wearing?”

“Yeah, some blue and black combat armor.” Duke answered, tilting his head slightly. “What’s so important about that?”

“That’s armor that was supplied to the Stables before the end of the world.” I explained. “We lived in one before we came outside. Stable 181.”

“Oh… I see.” Duke said, looking away slightly as we turned right on a corner in the road. Now, the road stretched straight forward all the way down along the presidential sector, this lane likewise spotted with several ponies going about their errands. The left side of the street was spaced with small, box-like, single story metal houses, the right side of the road still the same fence that surrounded the wide space of the presidential courtyard. “So, what happened?”

“The Black Blood happened.” I answered bitterly. “They broke into the Stable, killed half of our population and chased the rest of us all the way to Hopeville.”

“Wait, you mean the Black Blood followed you all the way to Hopeville? As in they were there before?” Duke asked, stopping at the edge of the road to give other passing ponies room to travel, two of whom were looking at me with curious eyes.

Tightening my wings against my sides in response to the passing ponies’ looks, I stepped up next to Duke. “I guess so. Our survivors traveled across the wasteland to search for a new home, and after two days, we found the town.”

“So Hopeville’s citizens welcomed you then.” Duke stated, his small smile at the thought of Hopeville offering charitable protection fading when I shook my head. “No?”

“When we arrived, Hopeville was abandoned. Then our security ponies found the residents in the City Hall. All of them were dead, and if any of them made it out, they haven’t returned.”

Duke’s ears flattened. “Goddesses…”

“That’s primarily the reason why we wanted to talk to one of Challenger’s leaders.” I added. “We need help getting Hopeville running again, and Lucky Hallion pointed us to Challenger to do just that. That’s why we were traveling with him.”

“But you said that the Black Blood attacked Hopeville.” Duke stated, unease etched in his voice. “Challenger’s been at war with them, and yet we’ve never heard of them moving out farther than some of the old pre-war farms to the east. They even come around the Moonstone Peaks, and Challenger itself, but never anywhere else.”

“It might interest you to know that they recently engaged the settlement of Proudspire too.” I added with a frown, making Duke all the more alarmed. “My friends and I were there when they were attacked, and we helped the settlement pick itself up and drive the raiders back. And after that, Hopeville was attacked by a Black Blood company, around two hundred of them. We fought them back as well, but now we’re dangerously vulnerable. We can’t take another attack like that again without supplies and perhaps some extra guards.”

“Why hasn’t Challenger been giving stuff to Proudspire and Hopeville?” Blake asked, he and Lucan trotting up next to me.

“My dad told me that it was because of the raiders.” Lucan piped up, sounding nervous himself.

“And that’s the truth. The raider threat near Ashton has been growing rapidly, and Challenger’s been forced to respond… maybe we’ve been a little too focused on that lately……” he answered, scowling in thought. “Are your friends going to talk to General Silverlight?” Duke asked me.

“When Gunny and Shore were done helping Hallion, yes.” I replied with a nod.

“I have a feeling that both she and Radiant Gem will want to know about what you just told me.” Duke said, nodding for me to follow him as he continued down the road before bowing his head in thought.

“I uh… didn’t mean to be the bearer of bad news.” I apologized, a long moment of uncomfortable silence having followed the news.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Duke replied, halting his train of thought with a light laugh. “It’s just that when you’re not in the city guard or the army, you tend not to hear as much as you’d want. A few of my friends serve, and they’re primarily where I get my information from. That, and gossip tends to flow quite freely around the city taverns. Still, the information isn’t exactly solid all of the time. That’s why it’s kind of unsettling to hear that the Black Blood’s been moving beyond Challenger… where was your Stable located?”

“Far to the west of here.” I responded. “I’d say at least two days away from Challenger, if not more.”

“The Black Blood must be scattered all over the entire southeast then.” Duke muttered, looking ahead as we approached another open steel gate. The two guards standing watch on either side of the gate stood still as statues as we approached, only briefly moving to give us a nod of greeting before returning their eyes forwards. “We’re going to be entering the residential sector now.” Duke said, his smile indicating that he was glad for a chance to change the subject. “Just to warn you, you and your little brother should stay close. Sometimes the streets can get a bit packed.”

“Yeah, there’s lots of ponies in the streets around midday.” Lucan added, enthusiastically cantering past us and trotting through the gate as the rest of us followed after him.

We passed the gate to enter a short open lane, flanked on both sides by five-story metal buildings. And at the end, I saw an almost constant stream of ponies across on an intersecting street, going to and fro as they ran their errands; it was literally a never-ending line of color. “There’s so many ponies…” I heard Blake say beside me, his voice easily expressing his awe.

“You’ll only see more as we get farther in.” Duke replied after a polite laugh. “Stay close.”

Approaching the end of the entrance lane, Duke and Lucan carefully stepped into the street and turned right, Blake and I following along right behind so as to keep close to them. All along the wide street were ponies, Challenger’s citizens, traveling into and out of buildings that lined along both sides of the road. Several ponies carried saddlebags as they walked, coming onto the road from other intersections farther ahead or disappearing deeper into the residential sector. And with these ponies came their many voices, all chatting at once as they continued on with their activities. But with this increase in activity came a sudden and very uncomfortable increase in the number of staring eyes. Whenever I would turn to look over one of the apartments or shops that lined the road, I would see one or more ponies looking my way out of the corner of my eye; with everypony in the street being either a unicorn or earth pony, it didn’t take much to know what part of me they were looking at.

“So, Nova,” I heard Duke say from up ahead. “what do you think so far?”

Aside from the stares…

“Challenger is impressive.” I remarked with a smile. “It’s amazing that all of these buildings were made from ruined salvage.” Most of the buildings on this first road were five stories tall, some a little shorter and others a floor larger, with smaller shops and structures nestled in between them. This gave a rather protective impression at first sight, the taller buildings looking like bodyguards to the smaller… which reminded me… “What’s the story behind that tower crane?”

Duke smiled big as he led us past the crowds and onto a second street heading south. “That beast was rebuilt and completed about five years ago, just after the last panels of Challenger’s wall were set up.” he began as we moved along. “A supply caravan found the thing in Manehattan, still standing in an old steel yard even after the balefire blast and the years of weathering that have slowly torn down that old city. After the leader of the expedition group to Manehattan got the crazy idea of trying to tear it down and rebuild it in Challenger, Radiant Gem sent most of the city’s army out to the city to secure a site around the crane. Then came the process of tearing it down, piece by piece, top to bottom. There was a second crane in the steel yard which was larger and had a greater reach than the one we have now, but for some reason, it didn’t survive the weathering. Having that second crane intact and operational would’ve made it a lot easier to dismantle the first, but either way, we cut it down piece by piece and salvaged some of the more important electronic and mechanical components from the fallen one. Then, piece by piece, we carted the whole damn thing back to the city and built it back up. Again, the metalworkers proved themselves, and with welder, magic, and a lot of persistence and prayer, we reassembled the whole thing and got it running. Back in the pre-war times, the crane would’ve been assembled by another larger crane, but seeing as how we didn’t have such a machine, we had to make due with what we had. But as you can see it’s still standing just fine. It’s Challenger’s point of pride, second only to the presidential palace.”

“Did you help make that?” Blake asked him, looking up at where he could see the crane even from the street.

“That I did.” Duke answered enthusiastically. “I was in Manehattan as a part of one of the salvage teams for about a year, and I helped carry some of the parts back.”

“How did you get the pieces across the wasteland?” I inquired.

“Wagons, brahmin, had some long flat carts with wheels that we tied the bigger parts down to with cables. All of those were under heavy guard on their trips to and from Manehattan. It took almost two weeks per load, and of course we encountered bandits and wasteland critters.” Duke explained. “It was quite the adventure.”

“So what’s its purpose?” I asked. “Other than opening the gate, I mean.”

“That’s really about it.” Duke replied, smirking when he saw my slightly raised eye. “That part of the wall used to be solid with no gate. Building that crane allowed for us to build a more fortified entrance to Challenger. If the need arises, we can use the crane to move crates over the wall between the warehouses and the supply bunkers in the military district, but we don’t do that much.”

“Impressive.” I complimented after a nod.

“Thanks. And speaking of impressive, that sniper rifle of yours is a piece of work.” Duke remarked, falling in beside me. “Where’d you get it?”

Blue Fire’s Torch…

“I found it.” I replied, feeling the rifle’s weight on my back from where it was secured to my battle saddle.

“Just found it?” Duke asked after a preceding moment of silence.

“Well I didn’t steal it.” I stated with a frown, looking over at him.

“I didn’t say that. It’s just that… you don’t see all that excited about it.” Duke replied easily.

“It’s… difficult to explain. I found it in an old ruin just to the northwest of here, and before now, it belonged to a pony who I think lived during the Great War.”

“And it survived fully intact for one hundred and seventy-five years?” Duke asked, and after my nod added, “That’s quite a find. Are you going to use it?”

“I… I really don’t know.” I answered, looking down at the dirt as we walked. Maybe if I somehow scrounged up the caps to install a firing bit into it I would, but at the moment, I really didn’t see myself as a very proficient sniper. “Right now, until I have some time to figure it out, I’m just carrying it.” Duke only nodded at that, perhaps that not-so-excited tone of my voice telling him that I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of the weapon; I still really didn’t know yet.

“That’s my house!” I heard Lucan pipe up happily, and I turned away from my thoughts to see as Lucan bolted on ahead, rather adroitly weaving between the ponies on the road. We had been on the same road for the duration of our chat, and I saw that the five story buildings behind us had given way to smaller shelters. Likewise composed of sheet metal, these buildings stood only two stories tall and were uniformly complete with stone steps leading to their front doors. These houses largely reminded me of Lucky Hallion’s shack by Stable 203, the difference between them being that the houses looked much studier and well-tended, evident by the lack of wear and tear that the wasteland brought to those shacks left alone for long periods of time out in the open.

Just a few moments later, I caught sight of Lucan as he ascended the stone steps to wait outside the closed door of a house just down the road on the left side. The colt was literally hopping in place as he waited for us to catch up, and when we approached the steps, he turned and enthusiastically knocked on the door with a forehoof and waited.

And waited…… and waited…… no answer.

“Is she home?” Lucan asked, a frown forming on his face.

“She should be. If not, then she’s in-” Duke’s words were interrupted as the door gave a light rattle, partially opening as an exhausted-looking earth pony mare’s head poked through.

“Yes? Can I hel…” the mare began, only to fall silent as she beheld the colt standing before her, a big smile on his face. “L-Lucan??”

“MOM!”

Fatigue forgotten, the door flew open as Lucan’s mother closed the distance and scooped up her son, immediately bursting into tears of joy as she hugged him tight.

A colt brought back to his mother, another promise kept.

Seeing the rather emotional reunion unfold, I couldn’t hold back a tear of my own, one which I quickly wiped away with a foreleg as I smiled, doing my best to ignore an image of my own mother embracing me. Instead, I reached over and pulled Blake against me in a light hug, an embrace which he returned by nuzzling my chest.

After a moment, Lucan parted from his mother, the mare giving him another kiss on the forehead before looking towards Duke where he stood to my right. “Duke… did you find Lucan?” the mare asked, wiping her snout with a foreleg as she begun to recompose herself. Lucan’s mother was a crème-colored mare, a square topaz gemstone on her flanks as her cutie mark. Her mane and tail were a chocolate brown, equally brown eyes watery with leftover tears.

Duke smiled. “That’s actually thanks to my new friends here.” he answered her, nodding towards me before the mare’s eyes focused on mine.

“You found Lucan?” she asked, descending the stairs with her son behind her. As she stepped up to me, I gave her a smile and nodded, whereupon the mare threw her forelegs around my neck to pull me into a hug. “Oh Goddesses, thank you… thank you so much for bringing my son back home!”

“Well, it wasn’t just me, you know.” I stated with a light laugh, patting the mare’s back before she released me. “But you’re welcome all the same.”

“Could you please fill me in on what happened?” she asked after a little laugh of her own. “Where did you find him?”

With the five of us assembled in front of the porch, I recalled the events of Proudspire’s counteroffensive, the successful destruction of the raiding camp leading to the founding of Lucan and the other two prisoners in his company. Lucan had happily described the proceeding events - how Gracie had healed his sprained foreleg, his arrival to Hopeville, the friends he had made and the games we had played together. Both he and Blake had gladly recollected their pony-pile, embarrassing me in the process when they recalled ‘how easy it was to bring her down.’ In the end, Lucan had even called me a good foalsitter, making his mother smile brightly as the last of her tears faded away. “It was a lot of fun there. I’m glad I met Nova and her friends.” Lucan finished, trotting over to me and throwing his forelegs around mine.

“You’re welcome Lucan.” I replied with a chuckle, returning the embrace before looking back at his mother. “Lucan told me that he lived in Challenger just before we left home to come here. Before then, I had no idea.” I explained.

“I’m glad you and your friends were able to take care of him while he was away, Nova.” the mare stated with her unfading smile as Lucan trotted back over to her, hugging her again before she extended a hoof. “I’m Bella… and I am eternally grateful to you. If there’s something I can do to help you, please just tell me.”

Bumping my own hoof against hers, I gave another smile. “My name’s Nova, and this is my little brother Blake. I’m glad that we could help. And please, there’s no need for any kind of reward. Seeing you and Lucan together is good enough of a reward all on its own.”

“That’s very kind of you. Thank you Nova.” Bella said again, turning to Blake to smile. “And thank you for being such a good friend to him.” Blake smiled back, puffing out his chest at the praise. “The last three days were difficult without Lucan home.” Bella added after a moment, a sad smile on her face as she held Lucan close. “But my husband left just a few hours after Lucan’s disappearance. He told me to stay here and watch out for our house and our booth in the market, but he hasn’t returned since he left, and that was three days ago.”

I nodded sympathetically. “Yes. Duke told me… do you know where he went?” I asked.

“He said he was going to start with the Moonstone Peaks just northeast of here, figuring it best since it’s where Lucan always wanted to go and explore.” Bella answered. “Then he said he would go to Plainwell if he didn’t find anything at the peaks. Plainwell’s the closest town to them.”

“He said he’d come home after Plainwell to try and find Lucan the following day if he didn’t find him on the first attempt.” Duke said, concern etched in his voice as he added, “He could be at either place right now.”

“Have you sent anypony out looking for him?”

“I’ve asked around, but both the city guard and the soldiers are too busy here at home and out in Ashton.” Bella answered with a sigh. “The guards here have their patrolling and guard duty. Plus, most of the new soldiers are finishing up their training to head out to Ashton, so they have no time because of where they’re needed. Aside from that, it’s dangerous to go out there alone. Without help from ponies trained in the use of firearms, Duke and I wouldn’t last out there, especially if we came across a raider patrol. We know how to use a gun, but we’re not skilled with one. The raiders could easily get the upper hoof.”

“Oh… I see.” I muttered lowly, frowning as I looked at the ground. Bella’s words did make sense. Even with weapons training, going out into the wasteland alone was all kinds of risky, and while having a gun and knowing how to use it greatly increased your chances of survival, the chance of running into a hostile fire team was just as great. But… that was the downside of being on the ground, walking the wasteland without the protection of Challenger’s walls to cover you from enemy fire…… what if…

Wings… flying…

“Perhaps you helped that other settlement to more quickly achieve your own goal of helping Hopeville, but sometimes you should offer the help freely, out of the goodness that the Stable put into you. You’re a good and honorable mare Nova, and I have a feeling that that’s not something you find often in the wasteland.”

A filly’s father had said that to me…… if there was any chance to follow those words with actions, then now was the time.

“What if I looked for him?” I offered.

“You… but you-”

I cut off Bella’s words by unfurling my wings. “I don’t have these wings for nothing you know.” I added with an encouraging smile. “You said that he went to Plainwell, and that he would come back right after looking around. Just a quick flight to Plainwell to ask some questions, then I’ll look over the peaks. After that, I’ll come back and tell you what I learned, or if I find him, I’ll bring him home.”

Bella, despite hearing what I thought was a solid plan, still spoke up in protest. “But it takes at least six hours to get there. And then it takes about four more to get to the peaks. You’ll be out there all night, and that’s not safe at all.”

“Wings.” I reiterated with a smirk, ruffling my feathers before returning my wings to my sides. “If it takes that long to get there by walking, then I can cut that time in half, if not more, by flying.”

“Please, Nova,” Bella began, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “you’ve already done so much for me by bringing my son back. I don’t want you risking yourself for me, especially since you hardly know me. I’m sure that one of the city guards could rally a group to go looking. I just need to keep asking.”

But even she didn’t seem so sure of her words. “Let me help.” I said, gently nudging her hoof away. “I want to. If nothing else, look at it as me just trying to build trust between Challenger and Hopeville.”

“You’re from Hopeville?” Bella asked with a smile.

Subject change to dissuade me… not working.

“Yes and no… but it’s a long story, and one that I’ll gladly tell after I go out there and look for leads on your husband.” I said, returning her smile with one of my own (despite it perhaps being a bit goofier); Bella sighed.

“You don’t have to do this… I mean, you’re just a stranger.” Duke spoke up, pointing a hoof at me. “We’re not expecting you to suddenly devote yourself to us.”

“It’s not that at all. I just want to help.” I said perseveringly.

“If you really want to…” Bella said, shaking her head slightly before smiling again. “then I’d be in your debt.”

“So it’s settled then.” I declared with a nod. “I’ll go to Plainwell, ask around and see if I can find anything, and then search the peaks before I come back-”

I felt a nudge at my side, turning and looking down to see Blake looking back at me with sad eyes. “You’re leaving again?” he asked glumly, ears coming back against his head.

“Only for a bit.” I answered after a light sigh. “I’m not going out and getting myself hurt. I’m just going to be flying to a town and asking some questions.”

“And I can’t come with you right?” Blake asked bitterly, looking away.

“I’ll be much faster by myself.” I replied gently, hugging him. “This requires speed, and I’ll be much faster while flying. That’s the only reason why I’m not taking anypony with me.” At Blake’s sigh, I gave him a peck on the forehead. “I’ll be back by dinner time.”

“Promise?” Blake asked, looking up at me with only the faintest smile on his face.

“Promise.” I answered, giving him another hug before turning back to the others. “I need to get back to my friends and let them know where I’m going. Could one of you come back with me to the warehouses and tell me a bit about Plainwell?”

Though I hadn’t asked for everypony to follow me, Duke, Bella, and Lucan had all volunteered to come along, the five of us heading back the way we came in a tight group. During the walk back to Challenger’s main gate, Duke had filled me in on what to expect in Plainwell. According to the warehouse stallion, the town of Plainwell was a smaller one, perhaps just a little larger than Hopeville was. Plainwell itself served as a resting point for travelers coming from the north, as well as for any caravans or ponies moving between Challenger, Ashton, and Hopeville. The town was inhabited by around two hundred ponies, a mix of settlers from the heartland and a small tribe from the far northeast binding together into one settlement. While it did rely on Challenger for supply, the settlement was somewhat independent, the ponies there sometimes traveling up past the heartland to Route 52 to trade because of the connections the tribe in the settlement maintained to their native homeland by the Route. They sometimes managed to bring back some of the fresh produce from the cropland up that way, and in turn, they would supply Challenger with a share of the goods in exchange for the shipments that the city brought to them.

“They’re very welcoming to most ponies. So long as you don’t look like a raider, then you’ll have no trouble with them.” Duke finished as we turned onto the final street leading to the main gate.

“That doesn’t seem too bad at all.” I agreed with a smile, looking ahead towards the gate. In the clearing, Hallion, Marian, Gunny, and Shore were standing by Betsy and the supply wagon, the cart now empty of its weapons shipment. However, instead of the warehouse ponies who had greeted us upon our arrival, there were three others. Two of them, earth pony stallions, were clad in the same green combat armor that the gate guards had worn, and both of them wore assault carbine battle saddles. But the third, an earth pony mare whom the guards flanked, wore a different outfit. She wore light black barding which covered her chest and belly, and on her back was a thick duster made of dark green leather. The cloak covered all of her back and her flanks, only her white tail, streaked with light-blue, remaining unconcealed. The mare’s mane was also a light blue and white, her coat a brilliant silver, and on her head was a black beret with five silver stars placed across the front.

As we entered the clearing, Gunny spotted us first and upon seeing Lucan and Bella, smiled and nodded to me in approval.

“So this must be your other friend.” the beret-wearing mare stated, and I turned just in time to see her dipping her head to me. “I’m General Silverlight of the city of Challenger. Welcome to our home.”

I returned the gesture to her. “I’m Nova. This is a beautiful city, and I’ve only seen parts of it so far.” I complimented.

“Well, everypony who lives here tries their best.” Silverlight replied with a light laugh. “It isn’t perfect by any means, and we still have our own in-city problems. But, we try.” Turning back to Gunny and Shore, both of whom trotted up to me, she added, “Your friends here just finished telling me about Hopeville. While I’m sure it won’t mean much, I’d like to apologize. Had we known about the raiders’ movements, we might’ve prevented Hopeville’s destruction and the fights that you and your ponies have been through.”

I shook my head at that. “I’ve heard that Ashton has taken up Challenger’s focus.” I said gently. “You’ve been trying to keep the Black Blood at bay, and that’s better than just ignoring it and letting them attack the other settlements.”

Silverlight nodded. “That’s what we’re trying to do. Their force has been growing every day for the past month, and training more soldiers and sending them out to Ashton is the best we can do to match their strength.” she explained sourly. “We’ve already engaged them in multiple firefights southeast of Ashton, and because of that, we need more soldiers to keep the town fortified… but still, with everything that Gunny and Shore told me, I know that Challenger needs to start focusing on both the raiders and the settlements.”

“So you’ll be able to help Hopeville resupply?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes, and Proudspire too.” Silverlight replied with a nod. “I was told about your time in Proudspire as well, how the settlement held the raiders back. I’ll have to talk it over with the president first, but I’m sure that she’ll understand when I tell her what I’ve been told. In fact, if there’s nothing else I need to be informed of, I should get back to the palace and get an audience with President Gem. If everything goes smoothly, I can have the warehouse personnel start assembling two caravans and send them out tomorrow.”

“That sounds great.” I said, letting out a sigh of relief; Hopeville would soon get the help it needed.

“We’ll be waiting for the orders, general.” Duke spoke up with a determined nod.

“Very well then, I’ll be off.” Silverlight said, adding to my friends and I, “If you four need a place to stay, check over at the Sunstone Inn and Saloon. They have beds for rent if you want to wait for the word.”

“We’ll check it out. Thank you, ma’am.” Gunny replied, raising his hoof in a salute which Silverlight returned (after flashing him a smirk) before trotting away, her two guards following after her.

“Thank the Goddesses.” I said, turning left and right to look between Gunny and Shore. “Seems like things are going to work out for Hopeville.”

“With a bit more luck, we’ll be able to get moving again tomorrow.” Gunny replied, looking out at Challenger’s open steel gate. “The sooner we get back with supplies, the better.”

“While we’re waiting, however, I would like to look around the city.” Shore stated, adjusting his reading glasses. “The warehouse ponies told us about some of the places in the residential sector while we were unloading the wagon, and I would very much like to see them for myself.”

“That, and we should probably go check out that saloon.” Gunny added, looking in front of his hooves at the two pairs of saddlebags that rested before them. “Hopefully I have enough caps to get us all a room to sleep in.”

“Oh, are you Nova’s friend?” Bella asked curiously, Gunny looking back up to see here smiling.

“Yes ma’am.” the stallion replied. “I’m Gunny and this is Shore.”

“I already thanked Nova and Blake, and so I’d like to thank the both of you for bringing Lucan back.”

“Certainly. I’m glad that we could help.” Gunny replied with a nod.

“Also, I couldn’t help but hear about you needing a place to rest. You would all be welcomed to my home if you wished to stay.” Bella offered benevolently. “It’s the least I could do for what you’ve done for me.”

Gunny looked back over at me, giving a shrug after a long pause. “I don’t know. What do you think?” he asked.

“That’s… very kind of you, Bella.” I said, a little hesitantly. “But I don’t want to impose.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t be.” Bella said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Besides, if you’re planning on leaving for your home again tomorrow, then I could put a roof over your heads and some food in your bellies so that you’ll be ready for your journey back.”

“If Nova wants to, then I will take up the offer.” Shore spoke up, nodding over to me; why did I have to decide??

I frowned as I thought over my options… though really, despite not wanting to impose and having an inn that would give us rooms… I knew that Blake and my friends could use the rest after the past two days of walking, and hell, I could use that too. Not needing to pay would just be a bonus. “Well, if you think it’s alright and we wont be in your way, then certainly.” I declared.

“Absolutely.” Bella replied with a smile.

“We get to hang out some more, Blake!” Lucan piped up, quickly trotting up to my smiling little brother and clapping forehooves.

“Gunny, Shore.” I said, calling their attention to me. “I need to tell you something… I’m heading out again.”

“Heading out again?” Shore asked, raising an eye.

“Yes. Lucan’s father went out looking for him on the day of his son’s disappearance. It’s been three days, and he hasn’t come back yet. So I told Bella and Lucan that I would go out to a settlement called Plainwell to the north and ask around, see if I can find some leads in regards to his whereabouts.”

“By yourself? That’s a little risky don’t you think?” Gunny asked, both concern and doubt etched into his words. “If you’re going anywhere, I’m coming with you to at least provide some fire support. If you run into any raiders or ghouls out there-”

I interrupted with a raised hoof and a shake of my head. “That’s the thing Gunny. I’m not going to run into anything on the way to there. I’ll be flying high up in the sky to avoid detection, and I wont land until I get to Plainwell.” I explained.

“But you’ll be gone into the night.” Gunny protested worriedly.

“According to Bella and Duke, it takes six hours to reach the settlement on hoof.” I replied. “Flying will easily cut that time in half. I might even get there in under two hours if I fly without a break.”

“Are you sure?” Shore asked with a frown. “It’s dangerous to be outside without some help.”

“I know that, and I know that the two of you are concerned, but I can take care of this.” I answered with a nod, smirking and winking as I playfully added, “I’m a big, tough girl.”

Both of my friends let out a sigh.

“Fine.” Gunny said with a shake of his head. “But you should at least take some provisions.” A second later, the unicorn stallion’s horn glowed with magic, and two of the saddlepacks on the dirt in front of him opened, a box of Dandy Colt Apples, a bottle of purified water, and a healing potion floating over to my own saddlebag. As he opened it and set the contents inside the right-side pack, he said, “Just be careful out there. If you’re not back within a day, Shore, Blake, and I will be out looking for you.”

“That won’t be a problem.” I replied, smiling as Gunny closed my saddlebag. “Oh, could you also take my sniper rifle and keep it safe while I’m gone? I don’t want the extra weight while I’m flying.”

“Sure.” With a nod, Gunny detached Blue Fire’s Torch from my saddle and secured it to Shore’s security armor.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back before nightfall.” I assured, keeping my smile before turning back to Bella and Duke. “Who’s the pony I’m looking for?”

“His name’s Shotshell.” Duke answered. “He’s a brown unicorn stallion with a golden mane and brown eyes, has three shotgun shells for a cutie mark.”

“He carried a pair of saddlebags and a black pump-action shotgun with him as well.” Bella added with a raised hoof. “Hopefully that will help you in your search.”

“Every little bit of information helps.” I replied with a nod. “I’ll do my best to bring him back.”

Even before I turned to face Blake, I felt his eyes upon me, and I looked down to see him gazing upon me with worried eyes; he was the most worried of them all. “Come back soon.” he said as I stepped up to him.

I lowered my head down and kissed him on the forehead. “I will. And I’ll be careful too, I promise.”

With Blake’s nod and farewell, I stepped away from the group and out into the open as I fanned out my wings. Then with a deep breath, I launched myself skyward, immediately pouring on the speed and passing over Challenger’s wall as determination set itself into my head. Though Bella and Duke hadn’t expected me to care, I did care… or at least I cared enough. It was all about family, and while my parents had been lost to me, I felt that I could prevent the same thing from happening to little Lucan; I wanted to give him the chance to grow with both of his parents there to see him through.

With my wings scooping at the air around me, I shot ahead towards the north, leaving Challenger behind.

*** *** ***

With the sky beginning to darken in the east, I knew that I had been flying for over two hours. At the first leg of the flight, I had been worried about my wings growing tired and while they were getting slightly achy as I continued forward, they were still holding up as I continued onward.

I had flown with only one break, pausing long enough to eat the food and drink a portion of the water that Gunny had given to me before continuing forward, eating up the distance as the afternoon progressed to the early evening. Down below, I could see the curve of the road that led to Challenger. I had been following it since the beginning, using it as a source to mark my path; it would be easy to follow it back to Challenger when I was finished. The road itself had been the only sight during my time in the air, aside from the Moonstone Peaks, which I had seen in the early stages of the journey. From up in the sky, I had been able to see that the peaks were indeed rather tall. Despite their height, however, the peaks were more like large hills, with only some paths, crevices, and rifts to break up the curves of their shape.

While I was on my own personal mission, flying alone and high above the wasteland made me miss flying in general… or at least the peaceful kind of flying. Over the past several days, I had been flying only to fight or to hurry to an objective. Flying through the sky, unimpeded by raiders, was very refreshing… and terribly nostalgic. Seeing the vast expanse of the southeastern wasteland, the endless sprawl of brown and black, brought the images of the pre-war world back. In Stable 181, there were many books about pre-war life and the era of peace, and many of these contained pictures that I could still recreate. Every time I looked below me, I could picture the dirt and dust as it vanished and transformed into sprawling green meadows. I could see the scattering of forestland and the occasional rocky peak, just as Hallion had described. And if I tried hard enough, I could see the farmland, plots of crops that southeastern farm ponies would be tending to without paying a single thought to technology and war. It made me wonder if Equestria could ever return to its old self… would ponies ever live in harmony again? It’s what Stable 181 and the Golden Fire family taught us to do, but could others do the same? Could we?

Seeing Equestria return to the days of peace would be both a miracle and a blessing. But after one hundred and seventy-five years of existence, the wasteland had fortified itself as a cruel place. Was there really a chance of seeing green again? Was there really a chance of seeing the kind of peace and serenity that existed two hundred years ago?… If there was a chance, then I wanted to help to find that chance in any way possible. Helping the other settlements, both Proudspire and Challenger and any others, was perhaps the most honorable way to attempt that. Helping others to help the wasteland was a way that I could do my part, for Hopeville, Challenger, the southeast… I knew that I wanted to do good.

Looking away from the ground far below, I straightened myself out and banked right to slightly adjust my course, the wind blowing in from the east neither hindering nor helping my flight time. However, as I lowered my altitude in my adjustment, I could see something in the far north. To my left, the pre-war road leading to Challenger had begun banking back to the northwest towards Hopeville. But straight ahead, the second pre-war road had taken shape, and a small yet solid plot of buildings was visible.

With my destination in sight, I dove back down to lower my altitude. Even as I shot downward, angling in towards Plainwell’s southeast side, I could see much of the layout of the settlement. The town was split in half, the pre-war road cutting right through it, and each half was composed of three rows of stone houses and other buildings that were evenly spaced, following the curve of the road. Each building had its visible wear and tear from the years, (cracked stone, crumbling corners and sides) but each and every one of them stood. But as I grew closer, adjusting the angle of my descent, my previous interest in visiting was replaced with an itching tension. There was no pony on the road, and there was no pony among the houses. For being a settlement in the southeast, there was no activity; it looked entirely abandoned.

Closing the distance between myself and the ground, I drew parallel along the road before beating my wings back to slow my approach, and with a final few flaps, I lowered myself to the cracked concrete and tucked my wings in against my sides, both of them grateful for the break as I looked out into the town; it was definitely deserted, or in the least, nopony was home. I took a step forward, reaching down and flipping the safety lever of my battle saddle off before my pipbuck chirped. Looking down at the computer’s screen, I could see the new marker displayed on my pipbuck’s larger map. Though empty, this place was definitely Plainwell, and if this was the last place that Shotshell had traveled to, then I needed to look around for clues. But now, I also needed to try and find out why Plainwell was silent. General Silverlight would want to know why, and the rather ominous stillness made me want to know why as well.

Focusing ahead, I walked slowly forward, scanning the first of the buildings on both sides of the road and checking my E.F.S. for signatures; there were no hostiles or friendlies at the edge of town. The first buildings I passed by were simple two-story houses, all made with stone exteriors. Most of them were without windows and doors, some of the open holes covered over with cloth and duct tape, the old fabric shifting in the breeze.

“Hello?” I called, not loudly, but hopefully loud enough that anypony within the surrounding buildings would hear…… no answer… I stopped in the street and took in a breath and exhaled before crouching down and closing my eyes, listening. I could hear the breeze, passing along the street and churning the dust. I could hear the sound of the cloth, light, but just loud enough to make sound as the wind passed through it… then… a small sound that passed through the draft… something different… coming from farther ahead.

Opening my eyes, I started forward again, moving slowly to sneak along the road. Despite the quiet, I still felt as if something was out there, and I checked my E.F.S. again… green. There was definitely something down the road, and with the possibility of a first contact, I quickened my pace, still crouched and moving with as little noise as possible as I drew up against the wall of a house on the left side. As I advanced, I checked the space between each building, finding nothing as I moved from house to house, the green marker growing closer. But as the symbol moved along my compass, showing that I was close to drawing parallel to it, I now could clearly hear the sound I had heard before - a sob. With this… came a very unpleasant scent that suddenly attacked my sense of smell. It was foul and acrid, and as I closed in on the building that the green marker resided in, the smell only grew more potent.

Stopping at the corner of the target house, I noticed an opening that would’ve been a window sitting just ahead; beyond that was the front entrance, lacking a door. “Hello? Is anypony in there?” I asked quietly, creeping up below the open window and listening for a response.

Another sob answered, a snuffle following, but then I heard a faint voice. “Don’t… come…”

The voice belonged to a mare, that much was distinguishable to me, and it was coming from the far end of the building’s interior. “Are you okay?” I asked, checking my E.F.S. again to still see a lack of red. The mare only repeated herself, however, her plea only slightly stronger on her struggling voice; she sounded like she was hurt. “I’m coming in. I promise I won’t hurt you.” I called, hoping that my words were enough of a deterrent to keep whoever was inside from panicking.

I snuck past the window frame and along the house’s front wall, approaching the entrance. But just as I prepared to cross the entrance and step inside, I saw a trace of color on the ground. There was red here, dark and… still wet… and as I stepped around the entrance, I froze in fear as I barely prevented myself from stepping down on a dead pony. A tail was draped over the body, leading to another body… leading to another… and another… and another…

Corpses… spread across the entire floor. There was at least twenty bodies inside, every single one of them riddled with holes, and their blood painted across most of the floor and along parts of the walls. It was all I could do to wheel away and stagger forward, tearing myself away from the sight just as I hitched forward and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the road. Even after only eating a small meal, I had thrown up twice in just seconds, feeling as if I nearly puked out my own entrails before I managed to stop.

With a miserable series of coughs, trying to spit out the terrible aftertaste, I turned away from my partially digested food, careful to avoid facing the building again as I took in deep breaths, the smell still attacking my muzzle. That feeling of panic that I had nearly forgotten rushed back all at once, nearly causing physical pain and shaking me when the retained image of the mass of bodies reminded me of the Stable massacre… all those bodies, just like what the raiders had done in our home. But back in the Stable, I hadn’t seen many of the casualties… they had been killed in the living quarters, away from me. In Hopeville, I had not seen the bodies that Gunny had seen in the City Hall - I had been outside with Captain Saber. This time, I did not have that grace… this time, I bore witness to this terrible horror…… this had to have been the work of the Black Blood… it just had to have been. Who else could’ve done something like this? Who would be so evil as to kill so many and toss their corpses in a building to rot away?… And where were they?… I snapped my attention to my E.F.S. compass again, nearly in panic as I searched left and right to check for any red. Then I double checked, frantically looking down both directions of the road and looking for any shadows nearby. Still, there was only the one green friendly marker and nothing on the streets. And upon looking more closely, I could tell that the pony whom the marker represented was inside the building of corpses; one of them had survived and was still alive inside.

Instinctively closing my eyes and letting out a shaky breath, I faced the building again and gathered my voice and my nerves. “Are… are you alright?” I asked, barely suppressing the urge to collapse and curl up as the memories of the Stable assaulted my mind, that urge to flee coming on stronger when there was no reply from the mare inside. “I’m… I-I’m coming in… to get you, okay?” I called, shivering at the thought of what I was about to do. I knew right away that I couldn’t leave that survivor in there… there was no way I would leave her… but to get to her, I’d have to go inside.

I opened my eyes with a sigh and checked my E.F.S. compass. Though the mare hadn’t responded, the marker was still present on my pipbuck’s display, and that meant she was still alive. “I’m coming in.” I called again, mustering myself up with a deep breath before focusing forward and stepping up to the entrance of the building.

Immediately, I searched for spaces between the bodies to step into, and I found the first of those spaces close by. One hoof in… slowly… over the first body… stone. Second hoof… same thing… Two more agonizingly slow steps and I was inside the building, the bodies all around. I raised my right foreleg to check my compass again, doing my best to ignore the coagulated blood that now decorated my hoof. The marker was to the left and forward, telling me that the survivor would be in the far corner of the building, and as I set my foreleg back down, wincing and letting out an involuntary squeak at the light splatter that resulted from the step, I asked, “Are you on the first floor… or the second?” The first floor room was large, taking up the entire space aside from an intact wooden staircase against the far wall and a smaller room in the left corner.

“First…” came the weak answer; she was in the corner room.

“Hold on… I’m coming.” I repeated, raising my foreleg for another step and stepping around the dead mare in my path. Everywhere I stepped, there was blood, still wet enough to make lightly audible spatters every time my hoof came down onto the floor. Every step made the urge to run all the more powerful… but no, I had to get this survivor out of here… I had to help her.

I halted my movement after stepping over a third body, looking over my compass one more time. The survivor had said that she was on the first floor and the marker was straight ahead, beyond four more dead ponies. The first of these was that of a stallion with three large holes in his side and another in his skull, bits of brain around his head. Suppressing a gag that came out as a rough cough, I searched for open spaces and found them, stepping over the dead pony. The next body was that of another mare, likewise killed with a headshot and covered with lacerations. I carefully made my way over the body, planting a forehoof down before it slipped on the blood-covered floor. I only avoided falling atop the corpse by snapping out my wings and quickly fluttering them to heft me up, buying me just enough time to plant my hooves more firmly onto the floor, and regretfully splashing my lower legs with specks of blood.

Letting out a sigh, I finished stepping over the body. Now I was nearly there, but as I stepped around the third body in my path and looked up to see the corner room, I froze dead as my eyes instead fell upon the next corpse.

Sprawled on his side in a pool of his own blood, laying across the doorway of the small room, was a colt…… so young and small… shot in the head with a small caliber weapon, a pistol judging by the small size of the hole. But what was even worse than that… his eyes were open, emotionless with death… but I swear I saw a light silver line where tears had trailed down his face from the corners of his eyes, washing just enough of the dirt away in their path to make their trails recognizable.

I choked back a sob as I finally turned away from the body, closing my eyes and lowering my head. “Goddesses…… I’m so sorry…” I muttered, shaking my head as a tear slid down the left side of my face. It wasn’t like there was anything I could’ve done for him… for any of them… but this massacre… I felt like I had to apologize. If there had been something, anything, that I could’ve done to prevent this… I would have…… but it had been beyond my reach, and that made me feel all the more wretched and heartbroken.

Looking back at the dead child, I carefully reached over and gently closed his eyes with a hoof. “Celestia… dad, mom… please watch over these poor ponies… they’re with you now…” I whispered, my silent prayer to these bodies that had once been Plainwell’s citizens; even though I knew none of them, it was my way to honor them for who they were… whoever they were before this atrocity.

Returning my focus to the corner room’s entrance, I walked over the dead colt and into the room. There were two bodies close to the doorway, and in the far left corner, I saw just a hint of movement from a third. The mare laying in the corner was matted with blood along most of her side, and what was worse was that a chunk of her back had been torn out by something and her left foreleg was gone entirely; how the hell was she still alive?

Trotting across the cleaner room, I made my way to the mare and reached around with my forehooves to undo my saddlebags. She needed a healing potion if she wanted any chance to survive, but just as I found the first of my saddlebags’ two clamps attaching it to my saddle, I felt a nudge against my free foreleg. “Don’t…” the mare’s voice croaked, and I turned away from my bags to see as the dying pony shifted. “I’m beyond saving.”

“But I have a healing potion.” I insisted, nodding back to my saddlebags over my flanks. “Please, I can help you.” The mare only shook her head at me, a very slight movement. “W-who did this?” I demanded softly, fixing the mare with a firm but gentle stare.

“Talons… soldiers from the northlands… they came back.” the mare replied, breathing heavily between some of her words; I could tell that she didn’t have much time left.

“Came back?” I asked, shaking my head slightly. “I don’t understand.”

“They come from… a city in the north.” the mare explained with difficulty. "A pre-war city…… not like Challenger…” She paused to take in a ragged breath. “They were… Challenger’s enemies many… years ago… when the city was…… being built… they’ve returned…… that’s what Shotshell told me…”

Shotshell? “You know Shotshell?” I asked, and at the mare’s slight nod, I added, “I’m looking for him. Is he here?”

“He came… into this house as well… early today…… just after the attack in the night… on our home……” the mare responded, her voice breaking as she lightly groaned with pain. “He asked me… if his son was here… I told him what I could… but then……”

“But then what?” I asked, tenderly nudging her belly with a hoof.

“They came… and took him as a prisoner.” the mare answered slowly, now struggling just to speak. “That’s why… you have to go…… warn Challenger… warn everypony… please…”

“I’ll…” As I begun to respond, I instinctively looked over my compass again.

Red.

Coming from my right side was a whole mass of red markers on my compass, so thick that I couldn’t count how many enemy contacts there were. “They’re already here.” I whispered, my breath picking up; the adrenaline was beginning to move.

“You have… to leave……” the mare stated again, managing to raise her head to look at me, eyes hazy with pain and fatigue. “Run, fly… and when you move, watch out for… their ‘storm drums’…… the Plainwell tribe’s name… for their great guns on wheels. One of them… took off my foreleg with one shot.”

“I… no… I have to help Shotshell.” I said, slowly but with firm determination. “His wife and his son, they sent me out here to look for him… and after seeing what happened here, there’s no way I’m going to desert him. I have to bring him home.”

The mare’s head fell to the floor again as she sighed. “I don’t… want to see… another good pony die here.” she said, closing her eyes.

“I won’t die here… and neither will Shotshell.” I said, gently placing a reassuring hoof on the mare’s neck, feeling a very weak pulse.

The mare’s head moved in a slight nod. “I believe you…… Go then… do what you think… is best for… the future…” her last two words were the weakest, and even as she spoke them, I felt as she begun to fail, and it was only a second later that she became the newest casualty in the building; with a sigh, I pulled my hoof away.

Though part of me immediately wanted to give this mare and that colt from before a proper burial, I knew that I had no time left. These Talon soldiers were approaching, most likely coming to look over this building again, and I was not interested in being taken prisoner… or worse. But still, what about Shotshell? Bella and Lucan needed me to find him, and now that I had a solid lead as to his whereabouts, I had a much better chance of success. I still had to think about how to get him freed from captivity however… but for now, I needed to focus on the hostile targets that were closing in, and more importantly, I needed to get out of this building.

Turning back, I made my way across the floor, carefully but swiftly stepping around the bodies. As I reached the building’s entrance and crouched along the wall, I could see the first of the hostile ponies. There were three of them at the front of a whole column of hostile infantry that was at least twenty strong, all of them wearing uniform night black armor, each suit with a set of three jagged white lines painted along its chest plate. Each pony was well armed with a variety of battle saddles, equipped with shotguns and assault rifles. Those who didn’t wear saddles, the unicorns of the group, carried well-maintained precision weapons from bolt and lever-action rifles to semiautomatics. But as they continued slowly down the road, some of their ponies diverting to check the buildings, others came into view… except they weren’t ponies.

Traveling at the back of the column were two creatures, both with large brown wings against their sides, long tails, paws with talons, and beaks on their faces - griffins. I had read about them and their involvement in the Great War. Griffins were largely a neutral party during the time, only serving one side or the other through mercenary work; I suppose it was the whole ‘serve the highest bidder’ thing. These two griffins carried two weapons each, one assault rifle and one large rifle strapped to their armor, the structure of the latter reminding me of Gunny’s .50 caliber rifle that he had given to Proudspire; the griffins must’ve been sharpshooters.

Between the two griffins, however, was perhaps the scariest asset of their column. Surrounded by a field of magic, pushed forward by a crew of five unicorns, was a large mobile gun mounted onto two wheels and a heavy iron carriage. Though the gun’s barrel was narrow in diameter, it was long, and the weapon as a whole was nearly double the size of the unicorns that pushed it forward. I didn’t know what the weapon was, but judging by the fact that this gun’s barrel’s diameter was still much larger than either of my rifles, I knew that I didn’t want to get caught under its fire.

The ponies at the head of the column were nearly upon me, and even as I watched, I heard as one of them pointed at my hiding spot, shouting, “Check that building! I want to see if there’s another ‘holier-than-thou’ white knight that came waltzing along from Challenger.” They definitely had Shotshell… and I had no more time to wait. Tensing, I lunged forward and out of the entrance to land on the street, and as surprised shouts came from the column, I snapped out my wings and shot skyward, just as gunshots struck the concrete below me.

As I shot past the rooftops, bullets following me up and zipping around me, I quickly leveled out and sped away due north. Below, I could see another group of Talons, a second equally-armed column that had been searching through the buildings on the northeast side of the road. However, upon seeing me above, there were alerts going up all over the abandoned town as they called back and forth to one another.

Suddenly, a shot flashed by me, barely missing my right side, and I craned my head around to see the two griffins in pursuit. They were quickly closing the distance between us, and it didn’t take much to tell that there was no way I would beat them in a straight flight… at least not yet. I had to maneuver and evade, and with a grunt, I tilted right and banked sharp to angle towards the ground in a dive, completing a one-eighty degree turn and shooting by my two pursuers. However, one of the two copied my move to stay with me, the other doing the same but arcing in the opposite direction. In response, I beat my wings faster, rising in a steep climb to take me higher up before halting and falling back down in a dive. As I predicted, one of the griffins had followed me upward, staying right on my tail. Now, we were barreling straight towards each other; time to fight.

At the same time the griffin brought her .50 caliber to bear, aiming for me, I clamped down on my saddle’s firing bit and fired, two pairs of shots sounding with the boom of the .50 cal. Though I missed both pairs of shots, the griffin had missed as well (though I felt the wind of the bullet), and we tilted in opposite directions to avoid crashing into one another. But up ahead, as I continued my dive, I saw the griffin’s partner below, hovering in the air as he aimed through the scope of his own .50 cal. If I continued in a straight dive, I would get hit for sure, and quickly, I banked away and right to level out, the shot the second griffin took going wide as I evaded.

Plainwell was just ahead, and I could see the two Talon columns below as they spread out along the town’s north side, positioning themselves to cut me off. I veered left and away from the town and its dangerous airspace, the two griffins now moving on an intercept course to my left. As we drew closer, I could see as one of them resecured his .50 caliber to his back to draw his second weapon, an assault rifle which he now held at the ready in his talons. I had no choice but to angle away from them, putting them directly behind me as I put on some speed to try and gain distance.

Another .50 caliber shot echoed in the air, and I felt as the bullet punched through my right-side saddlebag, looking back to see as the potion and the water that had been kept inside now dribbled out of their shattered containers and through the holes in the pack. More bullets followed the heavy rifle shot, and the assault rifle rounds forced me to drop altitude. As I hooked back around and righted myself facing northeast, I could see flashes of gunfire on the ground ahead. I didn’t know what it was, but any chance at a distraction was a chance I needed to take; if I continued to evade and dodge like this, I would wear myself out.

Mustering all my strength, I sped forward and dropped in low to the ground as I went, sending up a thin trail of dust in my wake. Behind me, I saw as one of the griffins leveled out just above my elevation, .50 caliber rifle brought up to aim as she slowed. The second griffin was higher up, slowly banking down towards me before lining up his own shot and firing. I leaned right as the first of his shots struck the ground, kicking up dirt around me. At the same time, the heavy rifle fired its next echoing shot, going low and hitting the blurred ground behind me as I sped forward and leaned left, passing just ahead of a line of assault rifle fire from the male. Then the gunfire I had spotted before was just ahead of me.

It was coming from some sort of camp with tents lined in three rows of ten and other shacks and watch posts scattered around as a perimeter. Black-armored soldiers were engaging armorless ponies who were fighting from multiple directions, occupying three shacks and catching a chunk of the Talon fighters in a crossfire. However, there were other solid positions that the Talons had formed, one of them including a dug-in mobile gun, the long barrel firing off ringing and very loud shots in rapid succession. The slower fire rate made me think that it was not only a mobile gun, but a precision one as well; right now, it was filling one of the three opposing shacks with large holes.

Beating back up, I passed by over the camp as my pipbuck beeped to label the location. I didn’t have time to look as the assault griffin fired back down at me, taking advantage of my increased altitude. Still, his shots fell behind as I poured on the speed to make up for the lost distance, and with a back-wing, I slowed to a crawl and turned in midair to hover and face the two griffins. The .50 caliber griffin immediately brought her rifle to bear as I halted, the second banking down from the left to come at me from an angle as I activated S.A.T.S., using the time slowing spell to think out my next actions. The .50 caliber griffin would be the first target, because in just a few seconds, she would shoot again, and hovering made me an easy target. The second griffin was just in the corner of my vision… one shot for each of them.

Executing the spell, time returned as I bit down on my saddle’s firing bit, my battle rifle and carbine roaring their next shots - a hit. The sniper griffin’s .50 cal fell from her talons as I scored a perfect headshot, her now lifeless body plummeting after the heavy rifle as I snapped around to face the second griffin. But before I could fire off my second targeted shot, the griffin’s assault rifle spit lead, and I felt two impacts from the burst of fire, one bullet hitting my upper left foreleg as the second struck my left flank. My second targeted shot canceled as I cried out in agony, the pain forcing my wings to snap shut as I toppled out of the air, the second griffin racing past me.

Quickly though, I forced my focus away from the terrible sting, concentrating on unfurling my wings out again and righting myself in the air. There was only a short distance between myself and the ground as I fought to make my wings work. But just before I would’ve hit the ground, my wings caught the air and I managed to pull back up, flying straight over a squad of Talon unicorns who were reloading their mobile repeating cannon. To my left was the group of opposing fighters, perhaps thirty to forty strong. As I flew along the battle below, I tried to focus in on that group. If Shotshell was here, he would be fighting with them.

With a grunt, I looked down at my left foreleg as I flew. A trail of blood had already gone down the limb from the bullet hole, and what was worse, the bullet hadn’t gone clean through. My left flank was the same way, blood streaking along my coat and concealing part of my blue flame cutie mark. Even as I flew, the wounds continued to bleed quite generously. No potions, no bandages… I had to land. Flying under fire was one thing, and flying after being shot but healed afterwards was another. But flying while wounded and bleeding, with no source of medical aid, was something else, and I didn’t want to risk another crash landing like back in Proudspire; there was only one thing left for me to do.

I tilted left and angled in towards the ponies fighting against the Talons, each of them creating a solid mass of green when I looked over my E.F.S. compass. As I made the final approach towards the group, several of them spotted me, most only casting quick glances and seeing me as a friendly (thank Celestia). However, one of them I saw caught my focus. A brown coat and a gold mane made the unicorn’s colors, the stallion having three shotgun shells on his flank. At his side levitated a powerful-looking black shotgun, shooting out a cone of flame as he fired at a Talon earth pony, now bathed in fire for his failed attempt to get close to their group; the shotgun wielding pony had to be Shotshell.

I hovered in towards the cover of a nearby shack, one of the three occupied by the friendly contacts and the one where Shotshell was closest. However, I learned the hard way that the bullet in my foreleg had embedded itself into bone. As I landed behind the safety of the back of the shack, my injured limb gave out with a crack and I fell onto my side as a jolt of pain ripped through me, causing me to cry out again. This immediately won the attention of a nearby unicorn mare who had been reloading a nine millimeter SMG. She was a light grey mare with a red mane and tail, equally crimson markings painted along her entire body. At seeing me collapse, she swiftly holstered the weapon to her tattered barding and trotted up to me with worried hazel eyes. “You are wounded.” she observed concernedly, already looking over my new bullet holes.

No kidding. “Ugh… please h-help.” I managed to say through a groan. Now that I was temporarily safe from attack, the adrenaline slowly fading, the pain in my foreleg was all I could think of. Coupled with the bullet embedded in my flank, the burn was nearly unbearable to me, turning to such when the mare suddenly proceeded to inspect my foreleg, raising it with a hoof and causing the pain to flare again as I cried out and whimpered.

“I do not have Challenger healing potions, but I do have something that will help.” the mare said (in a rather exotic voice), carefully setting my foreleg down before her horn glowed with magic.

“Sheva, are you alright??” I heard a stallion call out over the fighting; I didn’t look to see who it was.

“Yes, Shotshell. But this young mare is hurt and needs help.” Sheva calmly responded; how could she be so calm when the bullets were still flying? “I have something to help, but we must leave soon if we wish to escape.” Sheva turned her eyes back to me as a small, round bottle hovered in front of her, a watery, dark ruby liquid contained within. “Drink this.” she commanded gently as she removed the cork. I swiftly obliged, opening my mouth with a shaky nod as she brought the bottle to my lips to let me drink. But immediately, the strange potion struck my tongue with a tremendously vile taste, and I would’ve spit it right out had it not been for Sheva, the mare quickly bringing one hoof to the back of my head and the other to my jaw to keep my mouth closed. Then, she tilted my head back before I could fight her, and the drink went down my gullet.

After a moment, I was released, and I rolled onto my belly as I fell into a coughing fit, trying in vain to get the sour taste out of my mouth. “W-what… did you make me drink??” I demanded, my voice coming out as a rasp as I struggled to calm myself.

“It is a healing brew of my tribe, created from the land of Route 52.” Sheva responded, placing a reassuring hoof on my back as I took in deep breaths. “It will cure the wounds you have taken, quell the bleeding. But the pain will remain for a time.”

“Sheva, there’s more coming!” Shotshell warned from nearby, and I looked over to see him as he reloaded his shotgun behind the opposite end of the shack. “You need to tell your ponies to move or we’re going to get surrounded!”

Sheva nodded her reply before nudging me to look at her. “Please stay here for now. You are in no condition to fight.” Before I could protest this, the tribal mare trotted away, readying her SMG as she passed out of my sight.

With the bitter drink in my belly and pain in two legs, I shook my head and focused my attention to the unicorn stallion nearby who returned to cover after firing another two shotgun blasts. “Shotshell…” I called out, a little weakly but still loud enough for him to look at me, eye raised. “Are you actually Shotshell?”

“Yeah, I am.” the buck said hesitantly, levitating out two new shells and loading them into his shotgun. “But I’m afraid that introductions are going to have to wait for now.”

“Bella and Lucan sent me to find you.” I explained as loudly as I could, slowly rising up to my hooves. Already, the two gunshot wounds were closing, and my previously bent leg was beginning to mend; the pain was still there though, and I forced myself to my hooves while keeping my foreleg off of the ground, barely suppressing another cry as the pain continued to course around my left side.

Shotshell immediately frowned, looking over me with suspicion as his eyes narrowed. “How do you know those names?” he demanded.

But as I made to respond, my eyes widened as I caught sight of a black-armored earth pony sneaking around behind the shack, approaching Shotshell from behind with a combat knife clenched in his mouth.

“SHOTSHELL!!”

Even before I finished yelling his name, the unicorn buck ducked his head down low, the Talon’s blade swiping where his neck had been and scraping against the sheet metal of the shack’s wall. A split second later, the unicorn’s shotgun snapped back and struck the earth pony in the jaw with its stock. With the soldier stunned, Shotshell jumped away to put distance between himself and his new foe, and quickly righting himself, he aimed the shotgun forward and fired, a cone of flame engulfing the soldier; before the Talon could scream twice, I activated S.A.T.S. and finished him off with one pair of shots to the head.

With a *ping*, my battle rifle’s autoloader ejected the spent clip and fed another into the weapon. At the same time, Shotshell stepped over the burning body of the soldier to peek around the corner of the wall, ducking back almost immediately. “They’re moving up!” he called over the noise. “We’ve got to go now, otherwise we won’t be able to escape!”

“Do you have some kind of plan?” I asked back as he holstered his shotgun to his armor.

“Sheva and I planned something out while they kept us in our cells.” Shotshell replied, trotting up close beside me before looking back at his armor and opening one of its pockets with his magic. “All of the tribe’s remaining foals, along with their parents, are being herded up in the shack behind us. The same is happening for the other citizens. There aren’t many, but we’re hoping to get them out of here and back to Challenger while the rest stay behind.”

“Isn’t there some way the others could come too?” I asked, flinching as an explosion ripped up the dirt a few meters behind me. “Why are some of them staying behind?”

“If all of us left, the Talons would follow us and pick us off. With a chunk of us staying behind, we have a better chance of getting at least some ponies out alive.” Shotshell answered, shaking his head before adding a little more sourly. “Plus, those that are staying behind volunteered after losing their own families to the Talons…… Here, let me bandage these wounds. They’re still bleeding, and the last thing you need right now is to lose consciousness.” Even as he spoke, I was starting to feel slightly lightheaded, and when I looked, I saw as most of my left foreleg and left hind leg was covered over with red. Yeah… they’re definitely bleeding… still.

With a nod, I raised my foreleg higher, another bolt of pain quickly shooting through my crippled limb. Shotshell quickly undid the medical bandaging with his magic and secured two onto my first wound before moving on to the second and patching it up. “That should completely stop the bleeding.” he said as he finished. “These and the tribal drink will keep you alive while we head back to Challenger. Then we’ll get you some proper medical care… and I’ll want to be asking you some questions too. Now,” he added as he crouched down. “get on my back and hold on. Even with Sheva’s medicine, I know you’re not in the condition to walk, let alone run. That griffin is still out there, and those mobile guns of their’s will take you as an easy target.”

For time’s sake, I obliged and climbed onto his back, doing my best to ignore my protesting and crippled legs. Then he trotted over to the left corner of our cover and peeked around, letting me catch a view of the battlefield; there wasn’t a whole lot of progress on the skirmish - hardly any new casualties. Ponies fired and ducked, or fired blind over their cover as each side kept the other from advancing too far. The Talon soldiers were only advancing with the help of their mobile gun, its larger rounds carving into the cover provided by rocks, sheet metal, and occasional sandbags. “What are those things anyway?” I asked as he stepped back behind cover, readying himself to run. “Those guns of theirs?”

“The tribe here calls them ‘storm drums.’” Shotshell explained briefly. “But to put it short, they’re pre-war weapons. Twenty millimeter flak guns. I don’t know where the Talons got them from, but they’re deadly, and they’ve been using them for years.” Before I could ask anymore questions, he added, “Hang on tight. I’m going to sprint for that shack just ahead. If you’re strong enough to provide some fire support while we move, then I’d appreciate it.”

“I’ll try.” Carefully, I shifted so that I could look over my left foreleg. Then, with some effort, I managed to get my mouth around Fire Rose’s firing bit and remove the weapon from its holster. “Ah-khay.” I called through a mouthful of metal, lifting my head up and lowering it over Shotshell’s right shoulder to face the battle.

“Alright, hang on!” With that final warning, Shotshell leapt from cover and galloped out into the open. Already, bullets were striking the ground around us, kicking up dirt as the stallion ran.

While I wrapped my limbs around Shotshell as tightly as I could to keep from falling off, I aimed Fire Rose and brought up S.A.T.S.. Beyond the sights of my mother’s pistol, I could see several of the enemy soldiers peeking up from behind sandbag barricades, and three of them were taking shots at us. One shot, two shots, three shots, execute.

Activating the spell, I fired one shot which went low and struck the barricade the first pony was hiding behind. The second shot went wide as the speed of our passage moved the sights of the second target. But the third, by what I felt was luck, found home and struck the third soldier square in the head, sending the stallion reeling back as his rifle toppled over the barricade and onto the dirt.

By then, we were safe behind the wall of the next shack. The front entrance must have faced the battlefield, but in the back wall was a large hole carved into the sheet metal, and as Shotshell stepped around and inside, I saw a small collection of Plainwell’s survivors. There were sixteen here, split into five groups of what I assumed were families. Four of the groups consisted of one stallion, one mare, and one frightened foal. The fifth was made of one stallion, mare, and two children. The foals themselves ranged in age, the youngest perhaps even younger than Blake, and the oldest holding a nine millimeter pistol through telekinesis. Each of the mothers and fathers were armed with small arms, primarily pistols. Sheva herself was here, currently consoling her own little filly with a unicorn stallion (whom I assumed was her husband) at her side; he was the only one armed with something larger than a pistol or SMG, his weapon being a well-kept lever-action rifle.

Upon our entry, Sheva turned to see us and gave a nod. “Are we ready to leave?” she asked in her exotic voice. “Please, my daughter is terribly shaken.”

“We’re ready to go… except we still have one thing we need to take care of.” Shotshell said, frowning as he thought.

“Our warriors are already holding back their advance.” Sheva replied, cocking her head slightly but otherwise remaining calm. “Why do we delay?”

“They still have a griffin out there.” Shotshell explained bitterly. “If we try and move while they have a flier out there, he’ll be able to tell the other Talons where we’re going. Aside from that, he’ll be able to pick us off from the air.”

“The outsider is right.” the unicorn buck next to Sheva declared, nudging her gently with his muzzle. “We will be vulnerable on the ground. We can not lead our young outside while their sky warrior still fights.”

“What’ll we do then?” another mare asked, holding her young son close. “We can’t stay here forever…”

The sounds of the battle outside took over as the shack went silent. But before long, Shotshell craned his head back to look at me. “Hey, I hate to ask, but can you still fly?”

After holstering Fire Rose, I responded by ruffling out my wings and giving them a flap. Unlike my legs, my wings were untouched and were working just fine… well, I’d already flown with one disabled leg, so why not try flying with two?… This wasn’t going to be fun… “Yeah, my wings are fine.” I responded, clearing my throat. “What do you want me to do?”

“If you’re sure that you can fly, we need you to distract that griffin.” Shotshell replied, carefully lowering himself down so that I could balance on my hooves; despite my wounds nearly closing (and unfortunately leaving the bullets inside the healing flesh), I had to keep my left foreleg off of the ground. “I know you’re wounded, but I’m not asking for you to fight him.” Shotshell explained as I listened. “If you can get him to come to us, we can open up with the weapons we have and bring him down. Then we’ll be free and clear to evacuate.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Of course, there was the matter of flying and keeping up my strength after losing a good amount of blood… I refrained from saying that aloud, instead adding, “If that’s what it will take to get you all out of here, then I’ll do it.” The logic behind the plan was sound. I was the only one who could fly, and that griffin would be trouble to anypony trying to flee on the ground. At least with an enemy in the air, the griffin would be distracted; I just hoped I could last.

“Thanks.” Shotshell said, placing a hoof on my back with a thin smile. “Remember, all you have to do is lure the griffin to the shack, dive in low, and we can take care of the rest.”

“Right.” I agreed with a nod. “But I think we’ll only have one shot at it. There were other groups of Talons in the settlement itself. When they get here…”

“I know.” Shotshell interrupted gently, leaning up against me. “I’ll help you walk outside.” Taking his support, we made our way out of the shack and onto the dirt again, the survivors looking on behind us.

As we came to a stop beyond the makeshift entrance, Shotshell looked back at me again. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for you to make your pass.” he said. “When you’re close enough, we’ll make our move. And regardless of whether or not this works, we’ll be moving northeast to put distance between us and this camp. Then we’ll hook south to head to Challenger.”

“Okay. I understand.” I replied with a nod, looking to the darkening clouds as I prepared to leap. “I’ll try and meet up with you.”

Shotshell, however, nudged me as I crouched to spring skyward, and I eased away from my tension to look back at him. “And remember, be careful up there.” he said, a thin smile on his face. “I have a lot of questions to ask you.”

I smiled a half smile back at him, giving a nod before he stepped back to give me some space. Then with a beat of my wings and a painful push of my legs, I was in the air, gliding low to the ground before winging my way upward and around to face the battlefield. It only took me a second to spot my target. The griffin was banking and dodging, occasionally strafing the ground with machinegun fire, slowly but surely chipping away at those survivors who continued to fight. But what was worse was that Talon reinforcements were on the approach from the north, both columns I had seen in Plainwell nearly upon the field; I didn’t have much time.

Blasting ahead as fast as my wings could take me, I readied S.A.T.S. to draw the griffin away, approaching the enemy flier head on. But before I could get close enough, the griffin rose up from his latest dive and spotted me. He immediately made me his next target, beating his powerful wings to propel himself straight towards me and snapping his assault rifle up to take aim.

Up came S.A.T.S., and with the spell, I fired a pair of shots just as he fired a burst from his rifle. Both of our attacks missed, but as I banked right, hoping to pass the griffin by, I saw with shock as the griffin instead drove in towards me and closed the distance between us. Then, twisting right, he flashed by, and I cried out as sharp pain erupted in my belly, nearly making me lose my pace in the air again. Though I staggered, dropping in altitude, I kept myself up, managing to recover… but not while avoiding a glance at my torso. The griffin had literally used his own claws to hit me, carving three long gashes into my belly which had already begun to bleed openly; any deeper and I felt that my own guts would come spilling out… okay, not thinking about that… Despite the shock, my wings were still carrying me as I came back around to look for the griffin again. He was already on the approach for another attack, his assault rifle brought to bear. I couldn’t take another hit, or I’d be down and out for sure…

Instead of heading straight for him again, I snapped my wings shut and dove down, a burst of rifle rounds from his weapon zipping past me. As I banked up and bolted towards the shack, the griffin swiftly arced around and pursued, another line of fire from his assault rifle passing below me as his shots went low. The pain of my new wounds made evading a challenge all on its own, and veering hard right greatly disturbed the gashes along my stomach. Banking in the opposite direction did the same as I evaded in curves, the griffin staying with me the whole time and keeping me under fire. A fourth sharp left turn put the shacks into sight, almost directly ahead and below. Behind me, the griffin followed my turn precisely, staying directly in line with me; the griffin was taking the bait so far.

With every ounce of my strength, I pulled forward and dived again, angling in towards where Shotshell was hidden and waiting. But the sudden increase in speed was starting to make me lightheaded and unfocused… and those gashes in my belly weren’t feeling any better. “Only a dive and a fly-by… I can do this…” I said to myself, wincing as more bullets whizzed by my right side, barely missing. The griffin was closing in, and the pain was rippling throughout my entire body now, the wounds burning and my wings now starting to ache from the evening’s flying… one more hit and I’d be out… I’d crash……

FOCUS!!

I snapped from my thoughts and kept my wings flapping as I zeroed in on the shack. Up ahead, even in the increasing darkness of the approaching night, I could see as Shotshell’s head poked around the shack entrance. Upon catching sight of me in my approach, he ducked back inside, only to return a moment later with four others as they sprinted out of the shack and lined up to aim their weapons at me; time to spring the trap.

With one final effort, I drew level from my dive and turned hard right, snapping my wings out full to halt before bolting right, turning nearly at a right angle. The griffin, however, having been nipping at my tail the whole way down, did not turn as fast as I did. Through the noise of the battle and the wind against me as I bolted away, I could hear the distinguished volley of small-arms fire from below, mixed with the crack of a rifle, and when I looked behind me… well, if I wasn’t hurting so much, I could’ve cheered at the sight. The griffin had been brought down. Though I couldn’t tell how many times he’d been hit or where, his assault rifle fell from his claws as the griffin soldier plummeted down and struck the ground away from the battlefield and remained motionless after the impact. Towards the south side of the battlefield, the two other columns had entered the field, and those Plainwell citizens that still fought were now gravely outnumbered. This was the only chance that the families Shotshell and Sheva were leading would have to escape…

And now, it was my turn to do just that…

I needed to get out of the sky, letting out a pained grunt as a suddenly familiar feeling swept over me. I had passed out once after nearly being killed at the hooves of Butcher in the Black Blood Forward Post. Whether it had been the blood loss or the pain, I didn’t know, but my vision was blackening around the edges as I continued northeast and away from the camp. Below, the ground was void of any Talon soldiers. I would be able to land safely, and as quickly but carefully as I could, I glided in towards the surface and back-winged to pull into a hover before lowering myself down the rest of the way.

Landing on my hooves proved to be a little easier this time around, but I had a feeling that this was because of my being more accustomed to the pain in my shot limbs. Still, it hurt terribly, and I instantly lowered my head and closed my eyes tightly shut to try and mentally block out the burn. A moment later, and I allowed myself to open my eyes, and to my dismay, I could see that the gashes on my belly were still dripping blood, several droplets darkening the dirt under me as the wounds continued to bleed.

Through my darkening vision, I could still see the fading light to the west as I slowly turned to look back towards the direction of the fight. I could hear the shots clearly, though still distantly as they echoed in the air, and across the dirt and dust, I thought I saw figures on the approach… at least a dozen. But now, I could only hope that it was Shotshell and his group of survivors as I felt my limbs begin to tremble, fighting to support me in my weakened state.

With a weak groan, I crumpled to the ground and fell onto my uninjured side, my vision fading to black as I slipped away from consciousness.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Arcane Power - Arcane magic has been one of your greatest advantages in battle, and your effective use of it has shown this. Your S.A.T.S. spell now regenerates 20% faster.

Chapter 11: Lessons

Author's Note

And so we keep trucking along with Chapter 11! As a warning, this chapter contains no fighting. As was intended by yours truly, this chapter is a filler chapter paving the way for the next big event I have planned for the story. Mixed in is the intent of going into more detail about various points of the story which are hopefully easily recognizeable. It's my hope that the lack of combat in the chapter does not deter anyone from reading on. If it does, perhaps the promise of fighting and BIG EXPLOSIONS in the next chapter will remedy that. So far, I've been known best for my combat sequences, and I don't intend to back down in the next chapter. Carry on, my friends. Carry on.

Chapter 11: Lessons

“For many of us, the road is a difficult one, but the path is always there for us to follow, no matter how many times we may fall.”

*click*

I pulled back the cocking handle and checked the All-Equestrian’s chamber, levitating the weapon in front of me as I ran the thin rag along the interior one last time. After going through a full disassembly, all of the weapon’s internals were clean and operating smoothly. Doing so had taken over an hour and a half of careful inspection, starting after Bella had taken Shore, Blake, and I into her home, giving us a meal comprised of various pre-war preserved foods. This, of course, consisted mostly of apples and celery with a plate of hay fries. Still, it was more than welcoming to my empty stomach, and after eating, we had split off for the evening. Shore had decided to go exploring further into the residential sector while Blake and Lucan were currently dozing off at the opposite end of the living room. Thankfully for me, Bella didn’t mind the presence of weapons in her home, as Blue Fire’s Torch, along with Shore’s battle saddle and my own equipment, was stashed in the far corner of the living room. But aside from that, cleaning Hallion’s light machinegun was the only thing that kept my mind off of the fact that Nova was outside on her own.

I knew that my friend could defend herself, even though she wasn’t a guard. But still… letting her go like that, to fly out alone into the wasteland without any extra hooves to at least provide fire support … it made me nervous, and for more reasons than one. She didn’t have the training that Shore and I had received in the Stable, but more important than this was the fact that… well… she had suffered, and terribly. Sure, I had lost my father in the Stable, and my mother had died giving birth to me, making it so that I never knew her… but these events had happened years apart. While some would say that this fact wouldn’t lessen the pain and the effect of the loss, it did, or at least a little. Nova? She had experienced all of that in one day. At the cost of his own life, Damien, her father, had saved the Stable’s survivors by sealing the door and destroying the interior opening mechanism. Nova’s mother, Seiyara, had been just as self-sacrificing, volunteering herself to aid in the Stable’s evacuation, helping Saber to coordinate the effort and leaving the Stable only when the majority of the others had fled safely. Though noble, her life had been the price of her delay.

I still remembered that day as if it had been yesterday, and it was a day that had nearly torn Nova apart. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Blake had made it out alive as well, I don’t think she would’ve faired as well out here as she was now. Even though I hadn’t told her myself, I had been a little surprised to see return to her former self, only because she had done so much quicker than many of the other survivors. It was something that was expected of Saber’s surviving Stable guards, but not of residents. Eventually, though, I came to discover the reasons behind that. It was for Blake. It was to keep the colt safe and to help him grow up out here… to live as good of a life as possible. And it was for her parents. I had seen her on the day we left Stable 181 behind, up on that hill to put her framed family photo over the grave of her mother, and I knew Nova well enough to know that she had made promises, just like all of us had done. I admired her for her spirit and the honor that backed it. She was tremendously kind and noble to her friends and fellow Stable dwellers, and now, even to strangers. She had proved this to me on that hill, letting Ivy go instead of allowing me to take the mare’s head off simply because of the Black Blood armor she wore. She had even proved this before then, back in Proudspire when helping Kayla, Cross, and Redfield. But despite this, I couldn’t help but be concerned. I cared about all of my friends, and I’d defend them with my life. But with Nova, I felt a little different…… more protective, maybe… I didn’t really know.

With a sigh, I pushed the cocking handle forward and closed the chamber before setting the All-Equestrian onto the floor. Now, with the weapon reassembled, I knew that it was time to give it back to its rightful owner. Hallion had let me keep it to protect his caravan on the road which was as good of a reason as any. But still, he had let me keep it long enough, and since he was supposed to leave tomorrow in the early morning, I’d need to give it up.

“Everything alright, Gunny?”

I looked to my right to see as Bella stared at me from over the top of her book, balanced along her forelegs where she lay next to Lucan and Blake. “Yes ma’am, I’m fine.” I replied, rising to stand up on all fours. “I just need to head out and give something back to Lucky Hallion.”

“Okay. Will you be back soon?” Bella asked.

“Hallion and Marian just went back to the trading administration building to talk over some more business. He should still be there, so I’ll just catch him when he’s done.” I replied, levitating the All-Equestrian up and strapping it to my security armor.

“Can I come with you?” Blake suddenly asked, abruptly sitting up as I made to leave; I guess he wasn’t ‘dozing off’ after all.

“I thought you said you were tired.” I said with a small smirk, craning my head around to look back at Nova’s little brother.

“I just want to go outside and walk a little.” Blake insisted, smiling back when I raised an eyebrow.

“Well alright, come on then.” I replied, nodding for him to follow me; I had a feeling I knew why he really wanted to come with me.

The colt, however, gave a nod and quickly caught up with me as I used my horn to open the door. It was already dark outside, the streets much emptier than they were during the evening. The growing darkness had made it time for the city lights to come on, and each house and building contained a full light within, shining out of open windows and cracks under the doors. These lights were the only ones to illuminate the street after sundown, but with the buildings being packed so close together, they provided enough illumination for me to see while my eyes adjusted away from Bella’s candlelit living room.

“How are you, Gunny?” I heard Blake as he trotted along beside me.

“I’m doing alright.” I replied, looking down and to my right to see the little pony as he stared up at me. “And yourself?”

“Good, now that we aren’t walking across the wasteland.” Blake replied with a smile.

“Yeah, I hear you.” I agreed, smirking as I looked down the road again. “Are you liking it here?”

“Sure. If I hadn’t been so full from dinner, I would’ve gone with Shore to see more of the city.”

“You might get the chance to tomorrow.” I remarked. “If not, I imagine this wont be the last time we’ll be seeing Challenger.”

“Are we leaving tomorrow?” Blake inquired.

I nodded. “It’s my hope that we will. Captain Saber needs us to be back as soon as possible, along with that supply shipment.”

“So we’re getting stuff from Challenger?”

“Yeah, and apparently it’s a lot of stuff too.” I answered. “It’ll be just what we need to put ourselves back together, for Saber to arm us back up, and for Grace to get all of our ponies out of the City Hall.”

“I miss Gracie.” Blake muttered as we passed by the residential sector gate.

“I do too.”

“Do you think she’s safe? And Hopeville too?” the colt asked.

“Of course.” I replied, looking back at him and giving him a nudge with my hoof. “The captain’s never steered us wrong, and he’s never failed. In fact, I don’t think he knows how to fail. He’s still leading, and that means our home and our friends are safe. ”

“Saber’s cool.” Blake added, smiling at my reassurances… a smile which quickly faded. “But what about Nova?”

I looked back at the road ahead, exhaling as I thought about my next words carefully. “I know you’re anxious.” I said; I was worried too. “But have faith in your sister. She knows how to take care of herself.”

“I know she does, and I always have faith in her.” Blake insisted, a small defensive edge in his words. “But I just don’t like it when she goes off on her own.”

Which one of us did?

“We’ve been out here for only ten days, but we’re all learning to adapt.” I replied. “What Nova’s doing will let her know more about the area, but more important than learning and surviving is what Nova’s doing for others. You know her better than I do, and I’m sure you’ll agree when I say that Nova is trying to help others as best as she can, just like she helped us all on that long march across the region from the Stable.” Blake nodded his agreement. “I can see that conviction growing everyday. She’s definitely a model mare when it comes to following the Stable’s teachings about the Elements of Harmony.”

“That’s why I love her so much, aside from her being my sister.” Blake stated, still downcast. “But when she flies off without me, and she says that I can’t help her… I get scared and stuff.”

“I understand. But, you know that she’s doing it for your own good, right?” I asked cautiously.

“I know.” Blake mumbled; he must not’ve believed it, or he just didn’t like to hear it. “It’s just something that my dad told me… before we left our home behind…”

I waited for him to continue after his words faded away. However, the colt was silent as he stared at the dirt he walked over. “What did he say?” I asked.

“I… I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Blake said lowly.

Conversation ceased at that, as I didn’t want to press the topic. At that point, we were turning the corner and facing the open entrance to the warehouse district. The road ahead was almost entirely empty, only the patrolling guards and one family of civilians occupying the lane. The warehouse district was the same, only a few of its workers trotting along the streets around the giant warehouses.

It still amazed me to know that over the course of fifty years, this entire city had been built from the carcasses of pre-war buildings, the ruins of the Old World that the Last Day had left behind. But despite the achievement that the city was, there was something about it that I didn’t like as much. There were a lot of ponies here, and while Hallion had only said something along the lines of four thousand or so, it had seemed like there were so many more. Something about the crowds just put me a little on edge. Perhaps it was growing up in Stable 181 that had made me that way, because underground, it wasn’t really crowded. Sure there had been just over four hundred of us inside, but 181 was large enough to comfortably accommodate everypony and perhaps even a hundred more. Hopeville was small and generally quiet, something that I now realized I liked better. Though Challenger was impressive in all meanings of the word, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to live here. In Hopeville, there was peaceful quiet, conversations only emerging when they were wanted among good friends or when they were necessary for managerial situations. In Hopeville, there were no steel walls blocking out the view of the landscape; even though it was dirt and dry grass, I still liked the openness of the surface.

Challenger definitely did not have these, and that was why I missed Hopeville so much. It was home, and all things considered, it was a good home.

When I chuckled to myself at that, Blake looked back up at me with a thin smile. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing.” I replied with a shake of my head. “I’m just looking forward to heading back home is all.”

By now we rounded the last corner and were heading towards the main gate of the city, currently open as the city’s great tower crane held the steel door above the ground. Up ahead, the Trade Administration building was lit, the dim yellow-white glow peeking out from under the crack of the closed door and the two windows on its front wall. Outside however, to my surprise, I saw Marian as she patted Betsy’s right side, running a hoof along the hide of her trusty pack brahmin. The animal was no longer laden down with duffle bags and cases, but only had the cargo wagon harness strapped to her.

Even before we stepped into the clearing, she spotted us and gave us a friendly wave and smile. “Hello Gunny, Blake.”

“Hey Marian.” Blake happily greeted back.

“Hey there. Packed up already?” I asked as we approached.

Marian gave a nod as her smile slightly faded. “Yes. Hallion wants to get some distance on the road tonight after his meeting. We’ll probably camp out by the radio station again before we head back to two-o-three.”

“I see.” I replied. “Where will you two be heading off to after that?”

“We’re looking at heading up to the north to trade around the Trottingham region.” Marian answered, stepping away from Betsy to close the distance between us. “The last time we were up there, we found an untouched pre-war armory and got a lucky find. Have you ever heard of a gauss rifle?”

I nodded with a smirk. “Yeah. It’s probably the only energy weapon I’d ever use.”

Marian giggled at my reply. “Me too. Up there in Trottingham, we found one that was still intact, and over time we found the parts we needed to fix it up and restore it to brand new condition. We still have it locked away in our safe house in the region. Now, Hallion wants to finish cleaning out the armory and trade with the settlements around the Trottingham outskirts. Plus, we have some old friends up there as well that we’re hoping we can catch up with.”

“Finish clearing out the armory?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. We sealed it back up after a couple trips.” Marian explained, rather casually before smirking back at me. “We might be generous sometimes, but we’re still running a business. Plus, with the armory sealed back up and its pre-war defenses online, both of which are only accessible by us, we could also use it as a temporary safe house until we finish looting it. The armory itself was part of a pre-war military base of course, one of the few that wasn’t directly hit with a balefire missile, so it survived the Last Day and the one hundred and seventy-five years of wear and tear afterwards.”

“Isn’t Trottingham really far away though?” Blake asked, cocking his head to the side.

“It is. It’ll take between seven and fourteen days to get there pending on how much distance we cover per day. It could take longer.” Marian answered, smiling reassuringly at the young pony. “But we’ve traveled there several times before. We know the roads, we know the land and how to live off of it, and we know of some camps and outposts to stop by on the way. Believe me Blake, if we didn’t know how to survive on the road, we wouldn’t be traveling to such a faraway place.”

“Will you ever be back to the southeast?” I asked. “You and your brother have been good friends to Hopeville.”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be back” Marian answered with a quick nod, her smile unwavering. “We travel the entire continent together. It’s only a matter of time before we restart the circle and stop on by this region again.”

“Well, then I should probably give this to you.” I said, unhooking the All-Equestrian from its place on my armor and gently setting it down onto the dirt in front of her forehooves. “It’s a beautiful weapon, one that you and Hallion should keep with you. You two made it and put a lot of heart into it, and because of that, I can’t see it being in the hooves of anypony except the both of you.” Marian looked down at the LMG in front of her, scanning over its entire length from stock to barrel before looking back up at me and smiling again. “Thanks for letting me keep it for awhile, but I thought it was about time that I turned in my new toy.” I added with a half smile of my own.

But then, instead of replying, Marian raised a foreleg and stepped over the weapon, slowly leaning in towards me. And before I found the reflex to move away, I felt her lips press against my coat as she gently kissed my right cheek, momentarily holding the contact before leaning back just enough to break the kiss. “When I first met you, I didn’t really know what to think about you.” she whispered into my ear. “We were strangers to each other then. In some parts of Equestria, two strangers just pass each other by. In other parts, two strangers fight until one or both of them are dead. I didn’t know what to expect from you… maybe a fight… but throughout the days that followed, because of them, I’ve come to see you for who you really are, Gunny. In Hopeville, when you stood ready to fight and die for your second home, I saw great courage. On the trail to Challenger as we walked our road, I saw loyalty, loyalty that you held for your friends, your home, and even for my brother and I. On that hill when we were attacked, I saw strength in not only your fighting skill, but in your decision to spare that raider’s life. In Challenger, when Nova left on her own, I saw a caring heart.” The whole world had tuned itself out upon Marian’s speaking her first words. Her voice was all I could hear… her words… heartfelt and sincere. And briefly, she leaned her head back, her muzzle drawing side-to-side with mine as we stood close to one another. “These things I’ve seen in you…” she continued, her voice soft… pure. “During our time in Hopeville, I’d heard talk about honor amongst its citizens… and I begun to wonder just what that word meant.” She took a step back now, her emerald eyes focusing on my own as she smiled. “Now I know.” she said, confidence clear in her voice before she closed the distance between us again, draped her forelegs over my neck, and pulled us together into a hug.

I had been so focused on Marian’s words that I hadn’t been able to form an immediate response. These things that she had supposedly seen in me… were things that I felt I hadn’t been paying much attention to. Maybe more so than this was the fact that I was still feeling like an expendable asset. Even after Nova’s appearance that morning when I had sought solitude to mourn for my father’s death, and even after I had spoken to my father one final time in the cemetery… I still felt the same… even though that feeling had been depressed over the days after the burial of our dead. I was good at keeping those kinds of feelings, lessened or not, hidden from my friends… but to hear Marian’s words brought a new light to my mind. I had mourned… I had shed tears… I had continued to uphold my duty as a guard, carrying out Saber’s orders to continue the effort of restoring Hopeville to its former self. But to still feel as if I were merely a tool, waiting for death to take me away just like it had taken my mother at childbirth, like it had taken my father during the raid…… was this what my parents would’ve wanted me to be feeling like? Is it what Shore, Gracie, Blake, and Nova would’ve wanted me to be feeling like?

I turned my head slightly to see Marian’s green coat, her head laying against my neck. I returned the embrace, slowly pulling her more snugly against me as I placed my free foreleg over her back, and for a moment, we remained locked together. A few passing seconds later, and Marian let out a soft sigh as she lowered her forelegs. “If there was more time…” she said, her voice nearly a whisper as she rested the side of her head against mine, speaking into my ear again. “If our roads weren’t so far apart… I would’ve loved to travel with you and your companions…… but… fate has us walking very separate paths.” When I felt her begin to move away, I released her and watched as she took a step back, my eyes following hers as she locked her gaze to me. “I have my mission, and you have yours, but if what I’ve seen in you is what your Stable home taught you, then do everypony in the wasteland a favor and always hold on to those values. Hold them close. These are the things that make you who you are, and they’re what give yourself and your friends strength. It is because of this, because of who you are, that you are just as important to them as they are to you. Will you remember that?”

There was truth in her words, something that the death of my father had kept concealed from me. I had never thought of things that way after the Stable, only thinking that the sole purpose in living was so that I could continue doing my job of keeping the survivors safe, to honor the last request my father had made to me. And then after that… I thought that I would die soon after. I had thought that when the job was finished, when Hopeville was secured and that Black Blood company beaten back, my time would be up, and death would come for me just like it had come for my parents. But no…… there was more to it than that… I was wrong.

I looked back up into Marian’s patient bright green eyes as they stared into mine, waiting for an answer to her question. She was right… my friends still needed me with them… to fight and to live…… I knew now, and with a nod, I answered her. “Yes ma’am.”

“Promise me.” she said back firmly, her gaze resolute. “Promise me that you’ll remember.”

I raised an eyebrow, making her gaze harden until it was nearly a glare. With a light exhale, I nodded again. “I promise.”

Marian’s smile returned, as if those were the two most important words she needed to hear from me. “You’ve shown me a lot of things, brave heart.” she said, stepping back behind the All-Equestrian again. “If you keep holding onto those virtues you have, if you keep close to your friends, then I think there’s nothing that you can’t do out here in Equestria.”

I gave a half smile back to her. “You think so, huh?”

“I do, and I think a lot of others do to.” Marian replied, turning back to Betsy as she let out a soft sigh. “Your home, your friends, my brother… if you keep being yourself, if you stay strong and loyal, hold on to the desire to do good, then I think others will come to appreciate you too… communities, settlers, families… maybe even a lucky mare one day.”

“Marian, are we all set?” A voice called out before my response to her last statement, and I saw to my right as Lucky Hallion emerged from the Trade Administration, the first out of half a dozen ponies to leave the building.

“Yes. The wagon’s ready and Betsy’s been fed.” Marian replied as her big brother joined us.

“Good, good.” Hallion nodded, stopping when he saw the All-Equestrian on the ground next to him. For a moment, silence took over as he looked between Marian and the weapon, eventually swinging his eyes to me when his sister gave a slight nod. His stare was instantly serious, as if he were measuring out my worth, and the lingering silence eventually made me shift a bit. But then, Hallion’s horn glowed with yellow-white light as the All-Equestrian was lifted off of the ground. Briefly, Hallion blew air across it to shake off the dust against its Everfree camouflage paint. And then in one motion, Hallion levitated the weapon over my back and resecured it to my armor.

I couldn’t help but crane my head around to look back at the weapon, sitting firmly beside my riot shotgun; it was a perfect fit against the security armor’s padding. “You’re not taking it?” I asked with surprise, swinging my head back around to face the merchant.

The yellow stallion shook his head back at me. “No. You’re taking it.” he said. “You might need it.”

“I… are you sure?” I asked, very hesitant to keep the LMG. After all, Hallion had said that it was perhaps the best weapon he had ever made. Something like this was not only the prized creation and possession of another, but also a powerful and well-built weapon, and it was something that I didn’t feel right taking with me.

“Like all of the weapons that my sister and I create, the All-Equestrian has one purpose, and that’s to kill the enemies of the good ponies of this wasteland. Settlements, caravans, cities, any of those that contained ponies trying to make something for themselves while helping others do the same was someplace that I wanted that LMG to be.” Hallion explained confidently, leaning over to jab my chest with a hoof as he added, “It may be one of the best guns we've ever made, but if it’ll serve anypony well right now, those ponies will be you and your friends. I’ve run into others out there that have been trying to do their part to help. They weren’t playing hero or trying to be the center of attention. All they were trying to do was to survive and to help others that were less fortunate. In my eyes, that’s what I see you and your friends doing right now. You’ve proven that before, and you all have that look about you that says ‘I’m ready to help others if and when they need me.’ You lot remind me of some of those few good ponies out there in other regions of Equestria, and I’m damn proud that I met you all.”

Behind Hallion, I caught a glimpse of Marian as she flashed me a wink, a gesture that spoke the words ‘I told you so’ without a voice. “If that’s really what you think,” I slowly said, gradually lowering my head in a bow to the merchant. “then I’d be honored to take this weapon with me.”

“The All-Equestrian is yours.” Hallion answered me, and I looked up to see him smiling back at me. “And please, don’t thank us for it. If you have to, then do so by staying alive and using that weapon to kick some raider tail.”

I chuckled, mostly at the rather casual way he had spoken his last sentence. “Yeah. I can do that.”

Hallion nodded at me before looking back at his cargo wagon. “Then until our next meeting, stay safe, good hunting, and keep doing what you’re doing.” he said. “The southeast, hell, the entirety of the wasteland is going to need ponies like you and your friends now more than ever. Between the Black Blood and every other threat and battle out there, ponies like you can do a lot of good.”

“Even me?” Blake asked with an eager smile, taking a step forward.

“You too.” Hallion replied with a smirk. “Just wait and see.”

“Well, whenever I help, I’ll do my best.” Blake declared proudly.

I nodded in agreement with the colt. “We all will.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Hallion replied, stepping up beside Betsy. “Ponies like you give me a lot of hope for the future of this world we live in.”

“Give Nova and Shore our regards, and keep giving us that hope.” Marian added as she stepped up beside her sibling, looking back at Blake and I. “Carrying hope with us is one of our greatest strengths on our long roads.”

“Good luck out there.” I gave the siblings a final bow, and with a wave of farewell from the pair of merchants, the two of them turned for the gate, Hallion gently urging Betsy to move until the pack brahmin pulled the cart along and fell in behind them. And as the three of them passed out of Challenger and ventured back into the southeast and to whatever new adventure awaited them, a great rumbling filled the air. Up above, the great tower crane, its vast frame still visible against the dark sky, shifted and rotated slightly before its cables lowered Challenger’s steel door back into place, locking down the city for the night.

“I hope we’ll see them again.” Blake said, turning to look up at me. “They were both really nice.”

“Yes they were.” I answered with a thin smile. “I’m sure that somewhere down the road, our paths will cross again.” Even as I spoke, I couldn’t help but look at the wall of steel sealing the city from the outside. Marian’s words still echoed in my mind… her words about me… and how my friends still needed me. Those words made me wonder about just how I thought… how I executed my actions. While these actions had led to only a few injuries, the worst being the chainsaw of course… perhaps some of my choices had been reckless, or at least the choices I made when not following a direct order. Proudspire, the Forward Post…… perhaps there were some things I needed to think about for the future. But Marian had said other things as well - things about me that she had admired. Hearing that somepony believed in the virtues I tried to carry and saw them within me was something that made me proud… Marian’s words gave me strength. But her last words…… ‘a lucky mare one day’…… what about her?…… I let out a light sigh, shaking my head. Marian had been right about us, and we both had our tasks to complete. It was just unfortunate that these tasks separated us across an entire continent.

I felt a nudge against my right foreleg, and I looked down to see Blake smirking at me, briefly wriggling his eyebrows in a gesture which I couldn’t help but snort at. “Alright,” I said with a roll of my eyes, nudging Blake forward with a hoof. “let’s head on back. I know that I need to get some sleep, and I’m sure you could use some too.”

“I am kind of tired.” Blake agreed with a nod. “Hopefully Nova will come back soon.”

“I bet that we’ll see her in the morning when we wake up.”

Blake smiled. “Yeah, I bet so too.” And with that, we made our way back into Challenger, the All-Equestrian strapped to my armor and a whole train of questions to think over chained to my thoughts.

*** *** ***

“Bella! Open up, it’s the city guard!”

The stallion’s voice stabbed into my sleep without mercy, waking me with a start and instantly making me look to where my .44 magnum sidearm lay nearby. Quickly though, my initial tension faded and left me yawning and rubbing my forehead. “Why the hell would the city guard come knocking in the middle of the night?” I mumbled to myself. Through the windows of the living room, I could see that it was indeed still dark outside, and the room itself was only illuminated by one dimly burning candle on a nearby end table. To my left, Shore and Blake slept on separate bedrolls underneath the staircase at the back of the room. The little colt had managed to ignore the midnight disturbance, only shifting in his sleep. But Shore was stirring with me, looking just as baffled and annoyed as I was at the sudden commotion.

Another quicker knock at the door sounded, the same stallion calling, “If anypony’s in there, we need you to come out! This is urgent!”

With no response coming from Bella, whose bedroom was upstairs, I rose to my hooves. “Hold on a second.” I said, quickly stretching my tired legs before making my way up to the door.

Opening it with my horn, I saw three guards in the outside light provided by the houses. Two of the guards were earth pony stallions, armed with dual carbine battle saddles and wearing matching sets of dark green combat armor. The third guard, a unicorn mare, was waiting in the street away from the stairs and speaking into some sort of portable radio. “Is Bella here?” one of the earth ponies asked.

“Yeah, but I think she’s still asleep.” I answered, trying not to sound as tired as I was. “Can I help you with something?”

Before the first guard could respond, the unicorn mare in the street called him. “Sir, the general says that she’s on her way to the clinic. She’ll meet us there.”

The guard turned back to me after a nod to his comrade. “We need to take Bella to the clinic.” the guard responded. “Her husband’s just returned, and he’s brought a number of others with him. He’s requested that she come to the clinic.”

“You mean Shotshell?” I asked, my senses coming alert when the guard nodded. “That’s the stallion Nova went out to look for. Did you see a pegasus with them?”

The guard frowned, his face becoming concerned. “Yeah, there was a pegasus in their group, but… well, she didn’t look too good. I don’t know what got to her, but she was torn up pretty bad when Shotshell brought her in.”

“She…” Any instant reply wouldn’t come because of the pit quickly forming in my stomach, and I looked away from the guard, a million images suddenly churning through my thoughts. There were moments where one’s paranoia would be for nothing, moments where you could breath a sigh of relief and laugh at yourself for being so nervous when there was no reason to be. Then there were those rare moments, those terrible and gut-wrenching moments, where one’s fears would be confirmed as a reality and would leave a feeling of anxiety and tension like none other; this was one of those moments.

“I’ll go get Bella.” I heard Shore, and when I looked back, I saw as my friend passed a quick and concerned glance to the still-sleeping Blake before quickly trotting up the stairs.

I swung my eyes back to the two guards at the front entrance; I had to ask the most important question first. “Is she alive?”

“I don’t know.” the first guard answered lowly.

“You don’t know?” I asked; that pit started to freeze.

“Easy now. General Silverlight ordered us to come here once we escorted Shotshell and the others to the clinic.” the second guard put in hastily. “We didn’t stay long enough to hear what Doctor Miles said about her.”

I warned her. These words echoed like a voice in a cave, and I couldn’t get them out. I had warned her to take us with her, and now she was in a clinic, and I didn’t know how hurt she was… I should’ve gone with her anyway!!

I could’ve helped her… protected her…

I let out a sigh, shaking my head of the thoughts before I could blame myself. “I’d like to go see her.” I said, looking back up to the guards.

“You’re one of her friends then?” the second guard asked, to which I nodded a short nod. “Yeah, you should come with us too. If she’s come around, then she’ll be happy to see familiar faces.”

“Hey, what’s going on?” I turned to look back into the room again where the drowsy voice had come from. As fate would have it, Blake was now stirring, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he focused on the assembly at the front door. “Is Nova back yet?”

Perfect time to wake up…

“Um… Blake… I need you to stay here while I’m gone.” I said, trying (and mostly failing) to keep the worry out of my voice. “I have to go see somepony for a bit.”

“Is it Nova?” Blake asked with a widening smile, hope etched even in his tired words.

“It’s…” I let out a light sigh; I wasn’t good at lying in general, and I was even worse at lying to a child. “Yes. It’s Nova.” Blake practically leapt to his hooves at hearing that name, but as he came trotting towards me, I raised a hoof to stop him. “But Blake, listen for a second.” I added firmly. “Nova’s back… but the city guard say that she’s at the clinic. She ran into some trouble when she was out there yesterday.”

“The clinic?” Blake asked, cocking his head before his smile disappeared, swift understanding coming to him. “You mean… she’s hurt??”

“That’s what I’ve been told.” I answered bitterly. “I haven’t seen her yet, so that’s where I’m going.”

“But… s-she’s okay, right??” Blake asked, urgently looking between myself and the two guards behind me.

“I’m sure she’s fine.” one of the guards assured, stepping up beside me. “We’ll take you to her so you can see her as soon as Bella comes and joins us.”

The guard’s attempt to ease the young colt, however, did little to keep Blake calm. As he begun to pace nervously back and forth, Blake looked back at me with scared eyes. “I knew Nova shouldn’t have gone alone!” he remarked loudly. “She should’ve at least taken you or Shore if not me!”

“I know, Blake, I know.” I replied, quickly trotting up and stretching out a foreleg to halt him. “I absolutely agree. But right now, let’s just focus on seeing her. I’m sure that when we get there, she’ll be perfectly awake and ready to see you again.”

Blake let out a shaky sigh. “I hope she’s okay…”

I placed a hoof on his back in assurance. “I do to. But remember, she’s a tough little pegasus. We’ve seen her pull through injuries before.”

Blake uttered a short and sad little laugh. “You called her little…” he said with a sniff.

I smirked, chuckling with him. “Yeah. Just don’t tell her I said that.”

At the back of the room, hoofsteps caught my attention, and I turned to see Shore leading Bella and Lucan, both of whom were wide awake and smiling big, down from the second floor. “Oh please tell me it’s true!” Bella called out, passing Shore and trotting towards us upon descending the stairs.

I backed out of the way with Blake as she stepped up to the guards, the first one replying, “Yes it’s true. Both he and the general sent us out to wake you up. Also, Shotshell says that he hopes you don’t mind being woken up at this hour.”

Bella immediately shook her head. “No, of course I don’t.” she said with a sigh of relief.

“Alright then, let’s head out. Doc Miles is tending to the wounded and General Silverlight should be there soon.” the guard said, leading us out into the road as a group.

“Pardon me, but why is the general going to be there?” Bella asked as she locked her door behind Lucan, the last one out.

“Shotshell said something about Plainwell being attacked.” the second guard answered, briefly turning to the female unicorn guard and giving a nod before looking back at Bella. “He said the Talons were responsible.”

“The Talons… wait… the Talons??” Bella asked in shock, grouping up with us on the road. “As in the Talons that Challenger had fought years ago??”

The guard immediately shushed her. “Keep your voice down.” he whispered, looking up at the buildings on either side of the street. “The last thing we need right now is a panic in the middle of the night… but yes, it’s those Talons. According to Shotshell, they’ve returned from the north and they mean business. That’s why the general’s coming by the clinic as well.”

“Roger that.” the unicorn guard said, speaking into her portable radio before strapping it to her combat armor and turning to her fellow sentries. “Let’s head out shall we?”

“Follow me everypony.” The first guard took the lead of our group, leading us deeper into Challenger’s residential sector. Our hoofsteps were the only noise in its streets, and at the moment, only a scattering of houses and apartments further into the city were illuminated, making the guards resort to their personal flashlights to show the road ahead of us. The walk itself was utterly silent, and I occasionally caught Bella giving a concerned look back at us, or more specifically, Blake. The colt’s head was lowered, eyes focused only on the ground as he walked between Shore and myself, and when I gave him a nudge with my hoof, he only passed a halfhearted smile to me before looking back down at the ground; there wouldn’t be many words from him until we got there.

“Hey Gunny…” I looked to my right to see Shore looking back at me, worry clearly written behind his reading glasses. “I heard about Nova. Do they know anything else? Is she alright?”

“The guards said that they didn’t know how she was holding up.” I replied uncertainly, shaking my head.

“Nothing else at all?” Blake asked, distressed eyes looking up at mine. When I shook my head again, he looked back down at the ground.

“Hang in there kiddo.” I said gently. “Like I said, Nova’s tough. She’ll be alright.” Blake only gave a weak nod, not even looking away from the dirt, and all three of us falling into silence once again.

We made a second turn onto a long lane, five-story apartments spaced between a series of smaller houses lining both sides of the road. At the end of the lane was a courtyard free of residences, but blocked by a closed metal gate. Two unicorn guards on the night shift were standing watch outside of it, and upon spotting us, one of them raised his hoof to us as his companion opened the gateway. “General Silverlight and her group just passed through here.” the guard said as we approached. “They’re waiting for you at the other end of the market square.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Beyond the gate, the courtyard fanned out into a massive circular enclosure. Locked up stalls, booths, and closed tents ringed along the perimeter of the market plaza, and another ring of stalls created a smaller loop, making a circular lane that with its many shops both to the left and right of me. As we walked along the path, I could see another road that branched from the market square, leading straight to a collection of single-story shops…

“Is the general here?”

I snapped back ahead to see three more guards at the end of the lane, the stallions waiting near another opened gate. “She’s already in the clinic talking with Shotshell and another survivor. You all can go on ahead.” one of the three answered, nodding toward the next street.

When we came upon the next road, I instantly spotted the clinic on the right side, the two-story stone structure being built just outside the exterior wall of the market square as well as being the only building with its windows lit. The front door was already open, and as we approached the steps, another earth pony guard trotted out onto the top of the porch. “General Silverlight, ma’am, the others have arrived.” she called back inside before hopping off the deck and stepping to the side.

“Good.” came Silverlight’s reply from inside. “Shotshell, I think there are a couple of ponies outside who want very much to see you again.”

On cue, the guards escorting our group stepped aside as both Bella and Lucan picked up their pace to a trot and ascended the stone stairs. But before they could enter, a single unicorn stallion skidded to a halt at the doorway, blocking their approach. He was a brown buck with a gold mane, and he was wearing bloodstained leather armor, the largest concentration of it painted along his back and streaking down his sides. He had come to a stop at the same time as Bella and Lucan, all of them face to face, and only after a short moment of silence, the three of them swiftly enveloped one another in a big family hug. “You had me so worried Shotshell!” Bella exclaimed, muzzle buried into her husband’s chest.

“I know, I know… I’m so sorry I didn’t come home when I said I would.” Shotshell replied, holding both his wife and son as close as he could. “Goddesses, it’s so good to see you two.”

“I thought I’d never see you again, dad.” Lucan muttered shakily. “I was so scared…”

“I was scared too… your mother and I both were.” Shotshell gently replied. “But we’re all home now, and we’re all safe and sound.”

“Yeah… now we’re finally back together again.” Lucan remarked with a growing smile, to which his father gratefully nuzzled him.

“That we are, my son, and I’ll make sure that this family never gets separated again.” Shotshell replied, kissing his child on the forehead. “I promise you both that here and now.”

“You’re back with us, and our family is whole again.” Bella replied, giving Shotshell a heartfelt kiss. “That’s all I need right now. That’s all we need.”

“Yes, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Nova.”

My ears perked up at Shotshell’s words, and I looked back up at the top of the steps as he explained, “That mare saved my life, warned me about a pony sneaking up behind me to finish me off so I could react and defend myself. If her eyes hadn’t been quick and she hadn’t done what she did, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”

Bella gave a slow and concerned nod. “But you’re alright? You’re not hurt?” she asked as she looked over his dirty and bloodied armor. “There’s so much blood on you… where did it all come from?”

Shotshell shook his head. “No my dear, I’m not hurt, and I hate to say that this isn’t my blood…… it’s Nova’s.”

Bella let out a small gasp. “Nova’s??”

That was it.

I only gave a quick nod to Shore before I trotted towards the steps; I could tell that both Shore and Blake were trailing right behind me as we ascended the stairs. “Excuse me, we need to get through.” I said quickly, nearly bumping into Shotshell before the three of them cleared a path for me to enter the clinic. The first room of the building was a sort of lobby, a small square space with a single unoccupied desk, an assortment of medical paperwork stacked upon it. Beyond the lobby was the clinic itself, a much larger room in which multiple hospital beds lined three of the four walls, the fourth and farthest wall reserved for the medical supply locker, equipment table, multiple cabinets, and the two lines of yellow and pink first-aid boxes, all of which sat under the staircase leading to the second floor.

I immediately recognized General Silverlight, seeing her by the staircase directly ahead as she stood beside a younger unicorn mare whose body was covered with red tattoos. Upon seeing me enter, the general took a step forward, an uneasy look upon her face. “Gunny, you and your friends should stay in the lobby.” she warned. However, her words died away when my eyes found the very sight that she had been warning me against - the one that I had feared.

It was already too late for me to leave.

On the right side of the clinic, laying on one of the several hospital beds that lined against the wall, was the damaged and bloody form of Nova. Her bed had already been spattered and stained with crimson, and her collective injuries made a more terrible scene than I had dared to imagine. She was laying on her right side, her left dampened with water where the blood had been wiped away, making the hair of her coat stick up in short spikes. The red color had not entirely faded, however, and I could still see that these wounds had caused her to bleed all over her left legs and side. With most of the blood washed away, I had a clear view of two gunshot wounds as well as a ragged trio of long gashes along the length of her belly. A bronze, white-maned, unicorn stallion garbed in doctor fatigues and large glasses was currently by her bedside, gently applying a damp reddened cloth to the gashes on her belly to wipe away a thin trail of fresh blood before tossing the fabric into a short metal bin against the wall; it was filled to the top with bloody rags.

“Nova?!”

My senses snapped alert to the only voice that could’ve made me turn away, and I just barely managed to block Blake with my right foreleg as he tried to dash for the bed. “No Blake!”

“Let me go!” he protested sharply, shoving at my intervening limb to try and get around me. “I need to see her!”

“Please don’t let him over here.” the doctor, whom I assumed was Doctor Miles, warned gently. “I can’t have him interfering while I tend to these wounds.”

“I’ve got him.” I quickly answered back, looking back down to the struggling colt. “Blake, stay with me!” Taking a quick step forward, I managed to fully hook my foreleg around his chest, and I yanked him back against me, forcing him into a bear-hug that he wouldn’t be able to escape. Still, he looked back at his unconscious sister, easing in my hold as he called out her name a second time. There was no response from her as Doc Miles levitated a syringe and a small surgical blade, and upon calling her name a third time, also receiving no response, I heard as Blake let out a sob. “Don’t look at her.” I urged the colt, gently forcing him to look away before he buried his muzzle into my free foreleg; I could tell that he was fighting back the tears that wanted to come.

“Doctor, please… she is…” I looked at Shore as he stepped up beside me, staring apprehensively back at the doctor as he waited for an answer.

The older unicorn stallion gave a grim nod. “Yes, she’s alive.” he answered, lowering his blade and syringe back to the table. “She’s lost a large quantity of blood though, and I believe that if it hadn’t been for Sheva’s tribal medicine, Nova wouldn’t have made it back here alive.” He explained, nodding towards the unicorn mare sitting next to the general.

“What medicine?” Shore asked.

“An herbal brew from the far north, and one that I’m very familiar with.” Miles explained. “Some of us here in Challenger call it Bitter Drink, and we’ve occasionally traded with some of the tribes and acquired some bottles of it. The drink itself heals the wounds but leaves the pain that came with them behind. Having Nova drink a dose of it undoubtedly saved her from losing a fatal amount of blood. Now I just need to apply a shot of Med-X, extract the bullets, dress the wounds, and give her two or three healing potions. She should make a full recuperation on her own after that.”

I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh of relief, nodding.

“Don’t worry Blake.” Shore said, nudging the colt under my foreleg with a hoof. “Nova’s alive.”

Blake looked back at his sister. “So… she’ll be okay?” he asked with a sniff.

“Yes she will.” Miles answered with a thin smile. “Once I patch her up, she’ll be on her way to a full recovery.”

“Thank you doctor.” I said with a deep bow of my head.

“Don’t mention it. It’s what I’m here for.”

With that, the doctor turned back to Nova, and I nudged Blake forward and away from the sight of his sister, following Shore to the far end of the clinic. Now that I confidently knew that Nova would live through her injuries, my attention came to the mare next to General Silverlight. The tattoo-covered unicorn was light grey in color with a red mane and tail, and both she and Silverlight were looking back at us as we approached.

“I am greatly comforted that your friend will live.” Sheva said with a gentle smile, her exotic voice both compassionate and relieved. “I did not think that the medicine I had given her would have been enough to keep her alive, for it had been all I had managed to take with me.” She paused briefly in thought before adding, “Although, my husband had also managed to sneak a dose of the drink away as well, and he gave it to her after we had rejoined her. The wounds she had sustained later during the conflict were very wicked.”

“Whatever happened back there,” I stated, shaking my head. “she’ll live because of what you and your husband did for her, and I’m deeply grateful to the both of you. We all are.”

“As we are grateful for the help she gave our family and remaining tribe.” Sheva calmly replied. “Nova lured the enemy sky warrior into the path of our guns, giving us the opportunity to kill the monster and flee Plainwell. Without her help, I fear that we may not have made it back at all. A life for a life.”

“We heard about Plainwell being attacked on the way here.” Shore remarked, adjusting his glasses. “What exactly happened?”

“And how did Nova get so hurt?” Blake asked sadly.

“Our home was attacked and taken over.” Sheva explained with a sad shake of her head. “The black-armored soldiers were more than a match for our own warriors, and their storm drums… slaughtered our tribe. Only a few survived the attack because they were the ones who surrendered… though most who were unarmed were not spared…” Sheva sniffed and sighed. “The rest of us were taken as prisoners, held as such until our captors could decide our fate for us… but now, I wish to no longer speak of my home, for I miss it, and those of my tribe who died within it, dearly.”

“I’m sorry, Sheva.”

“I appreciate your sympathy.” she said back to me, a wan smile on her face as she walked towards the staircase at the back of the room. “If you wish to know more, then Silverlight or Shotshell can tell you. I must go and… rest for awhile.” With that, she departed, and I just barely heard a sob come from the tribal mare as she disappeared onto the second floor.

“The rest of her people are up there on the second floor. There were sixteen survivors out of around two hundred. It’s a damned shame, all of it.” General Silverlight muttered, and I looked back to see her likewise staring at the staircase. “I came here to get Shotshell’s report after he told my guards of their return. The Talons are a nasty bunch, despite how civilized they can actually be.”

“Who exactly are they?” Shore asked.

“The Talons started out as a mercenary company called the Jackals, originating from the ruins of the city of Hayward in the north. All I know about the city itself was that it was one of the few that wasn’t leveled with a balefire missile. Instead, it was taken out by a non-megaspell missile payload on the Last Day. I don’t know if the zebras ran out of balefire weapons after bombing the rest of the nation or what, but either way, that made Hayward one of the safest cities in the new wasteland the day after the world ended. So the survivors rebuilt their lives in what was left of their home, repopulated, gathered resources. Over the first one hundred years or so, they were probably the most successful community out there. Even when they were just starting to rebuild, they had the strength in numbers and the skill to grow and protect themselves at the same time. They repelled any and all attacks, were excellent scavengers, and raiders that sprang up learned to avoid them by habit. But eventually, it was that spree of success that created a desire among the Talons to expand. By then, they were strong enough and large enough to be able to send ponies out to explore farther into the wastes. They learned how to interact with other communities that sprang up, discovered bottle caps, trade, mercenary work.” Silverlight let out a mirthless chuckle, sitting down on her haunches before adding, “ I don’t know if it was their current leaders or just some stupid ambition, but mercenary work really appealed to them. Getting a contract with a name of a pony somepony else wanted dead, killing for trade and money… they just liked it, got good at it, and they weren’t afraid of any job offer. Every completed job won them reputation, goods, and occasional followers.”

“They don’t call themselves mercenaries anymore though.” Shotshell put in, trotting up to join us with both Bella and Lucan at his side. “They’ve occasionally taken to calling themselves a legion, though that isn’t used often.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, they’ve got every right to call themselves one.” General Silverlight remarked sourly. “There skill in combat was well known, nearly unmatched… and it was known even better when they began expanding forcefully. They started attacking smaller settlements, killing any that fought back and imprisoning those who surrendered. During that time, word of Challenger was spreading around as quick as the Talons were, and so it was no surprise that they heard of it too. That’s when they came to our doorstep about ten years ago. There was no diplomatic talk and there was no warning. They just started shooting, and that was their biggest mistake. They attacked us as the Talon Legion, and we were at war with them for well over a year. Despite their reputation as soldiers, their training, their skill, and their signature twenty millimeter flak guns, we still pushed them back out of the southeast. According to President Radiant Gem, her mother told her that it was because of all of the help we received from the outside. It almost seemed like the whole damned wasteland came to help us against them. Food and medicine from Route 52, weapons from Hoofington, personnel from the heartland. With all of that help, we sent the Talons packing, and once they were out of the territory, we never saw them again… until now.”

“They wiped out Plainwell, and they caught me by surprise when I got there. Took me captive when I was searching the town… I don’t know why they didn’t just shoot.” Shotshell recollected dourly, briefly pausing as Lucan hugged his father’s foreleg tighter, letting it be known that he didn’t like those last words at all. “They interrogated me once,” Shotshell continued, pulling his child close. “so they figured out I was from Challenger, but that was as far as they got before Sheva planned out a prison break. When they tried dragging her away for interrogation, she dispatched them and secured the keys to the cages they brought. After that, the break unfolded from there.” The stallion looked over between Shore and I. “Nova showed up just as we managed to escape the cages and take the fight to the Talons outside.”

“And what happened to her?” I asked, taking a worried look back at my unconscious friend.

“Griffins, the sharpshooters of the detachment.” Shotshell replied with a frown. “There were two of them, and she was engaged in the air. She gave them a run for their caps when she was up there though. She’s one hell of a flier in my opinion.”

“How do they have griffins with them?”

“Hayward was a city that ponies and griffins shared in the Old World.” General Silverlight answered me. “The griffins there may have actually been one of the few griffin population centers that were fully loyal to Equestria and fought for the princesses during the war. Those that survived the Last Day stayed in Hayward same as the ponies there and ended up following the same path afterwards.”

“So why on Equestria would they choose now to return to the southeast?” Bella wondered aloud.

“When they attacked us ten years ago, they came because we were a settlement under construction.” Silverlight answered matter-of-factly. “They saw a chance at us when we were in a weakened state, distracted with building instead of fighting. Unfortunately, today is hardly different. We’re still distracted, but now we’re distracted with defending ourselves from a new threat. If they haven’t come to take advantage of our situation with the Black Blood, then I don’t know why else they would’ve come. Either way, between planning caravan trips and new patrolling schedules, I’m going to have a full plate for awhile.” The general let out a sigh as she stood and adjusted her beret. “Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I need to try and catch a couple more hours of shuteye. The sun will be up soon, and tomorrow’s going to be a very busy day.” With a quick salute, General Silverlight headed for the exit before stopping in her stride. “And Shotshell, Lucan,” she added with a thin smile. “welcome back home… oh and Gunny, Shore…”

“Yes ma’am?” I asked.

“Keep your eyes open for a letter. I don’t know the status of Hopeville’s resupply caravan yet, but I’ll let you know first thing in the morning.”

“Yes ma’am, thank you.” At my nod, the general headed out to the exit, the voices of her guards rising up outside as she gave the order to move before the chatter carried out beyond earshot.

“I think it’s time that we got back to the house.” Shotshell proclaimed, standing up to all fours. “I’m sure we all could use a little more rest before tomorrow comes around.”

Before I could reply (and agree), I felt a bump against my foreleg. “Can we stay here until Nova wakes up?” Blake asked, looking up at me.

“We should probably go back as well.” I answered with a shake of my head. “I know you want to stay now, but we can come back tomorrow when we’re all a little more well-rested.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep again until Nova wakes up.” Blake sadly mumbled.

“Hey, if you want to stay up to speed on your friend’s condition, I can send one of my assistants out to fetch you tomorrow.” Doc Miles offered from where he stood by his opened medical locker. “Are you staying at the Sunstone Saloon?”

“Bella has taken us into her home.” Shore explained, smiling as he added, “If you could keep in touch with us about Nova, we would be most grateful.” Blake agreed with vigorous nodding.

“Certainly.” the doctor replied with a dip of his head. “I’ve just finished bandaging Nova’s wounds as well, and the healing potions are already working. She should be up in a few hours at most.”

“That’s very kind of you Doctor Miles.” Bella complimented with a smile of her own. “I hope for the best for Nova’s recovery. I still need to thank her for everything she’s done for our family.”

“And you’ll all get the chance to.” Miles assured before making a shooing motion with his hoof. “Now you all head on back and get some rest. I’ll keep checking up on Nova until she wakes up, and you’ll be the first to know when she does.”

Beside me, Blake looked only partially relieved at the doctor’s assurances, and as we left the clinic with Shotshell in the lead, I saw as the colt passed several glances back to where Nova slept. When we stepped outside into the city dark, I used my horn to lift Blake off of the ground and onto my back. “Don’t worry Blake,” I assured, more confidently than earlier. “Nova will be back up and at em’ again before you know it.” Though Blake didn’t speak his agreement, I saw him give the a very small, and perhaps a little more confident, nod at my words. “Just give her a little more time.” Though honestly, there were some things that needed to be discussed once Nova came to. While it perhaps was not the most pleasant of topics, Nova’s going out on her own had to be addressed as soon as possible before her solo flying became a habit.

*** *** ***

Wounded.

Two rifle rounds to my left legs, I was out of the air, and one barely-executed landing later, I was laying dazed and bleeding on the dirt. I was on my uninjured side facing an array of stone buildings, marked with the signs of one hundred and seventy-five years of age. Dark clouds hung overhead, stretching as far as could be seen and blanketing the town of Plainwell in its darkness. All around me, the air was bitter with the stench of cordite, blood, and smoke as the battle raged, the black-armored soldiers tearing into the tribal defenders with military tact and precision. They were an organized fighting force, unfortunately more than a match for the civilians and guardsponies fighting to keep their home out of enemy hooves.

And now, two of those black-armored soldiers approached me, hovering in to finish me off.

Two griffins, having successfully taken me out of the action, stared down at me with focused eyes, taking in the sight of their next kill as I lay weakened before them. Wordless, the male drew his assault rifle in his claws again, the weapon that had downed me, and he sighted me in as his female comrade watched behind him, a smirk on her face.

Then… a flash… but not from the weapon… no. The flash lingered, blazing white light that washed around me all at once, shining brighter to the east. My body didn’t allow me to move much, only enough to crane my head around to see the source of the glare which, as I caught sight of it, turned to the baleful green glow of balefire.

A mushroom-shaped balefire cloud, rising silently into the sky, took shape on the far eastern horizon, cutting out the sounds of the battle. Then, all sight was blasted away with a deafening and mighty roar.

*** *** ***

“You’re finally awake. How about that.”

The older voice of a stallion broke through the fog of unconsciousness as my slower and weakened senses begun to return. I found myself laying on a surprisingly comfortable bed, warm and cozy thanks to the clean blanket draped over me. All of my gear, pipbuck aside, had been removed, my back feeling much better due to the lack of the saddle. Every part of me was covered by the thick blanket except my head and neck which rested on a rather plush pillow, serving as an unfortunately excellent reminder of how I hadn’t slept in such comfort since before leaving Stable 181.

When I tried to move, slowly shifting my forelegs to try and prop myself up and look over my surroundings, I immediately felt a hoof on my back. “Whoa, easy there, easy.” the same older voice said gently. “You’ve been unconscious for nearly a day now. Just relax a second, get your bearings.”

I’ll admit, I kind of liked this blanket… okay, I’ll stay here for a second… yeah.

I eased back onto the bed, curling up a little as the stallion with me lifted his hoof off of my back. “Where am I?” I asked, the words coming out hoarsely.

“You’re back in Challenger now, the clinic to be exact.” the stallion answered. “You’re safe here.” With some effort, I managed to get my eyes open, and though my vision was a bit hazy as it adjusted, I made out an older-looking unicorn stallion, bronze-colored with a white mane. At seeing my eyes, the older buck gave me a friendly smile. “I’m Doc Miles. Welcome back.”

“You said… I was out for a day?”

“Just about, Nova.” Miles replied, stepping outside of my vision. “You were brought in last night. It’s evening of the next day now.”

A whole day.

I let out a sigh, one that came out as a ragged moan. “Great…”

“Now, don’t be too hard on yourself.” the doctor remarked with a light chuckle. “You honestly didn’t expect yourself to get right back up after taking two bullets and a set of claws did you?”

“No… I guess not.” I mumbled, sinking my head deeper into my pillow as Miles returned.

“Exactly. Now hold still a moment please.” As instructed, I remained at rest, looking ahead at one of the clinic walls as he pulled back my blanket. “Well, your wounds have healed nicely and without problems, so that’s a good start. Still, with all of the blood you lost on the way back from Plainwell, I don’t think it’s safe enough for you to be flying around again, at least not at the moment.”

I shifted to lay on my belly; my head ached. “My friends and I were planning on leaving today to bring a caravan to Hopeville.” I explained, clearing my throat.

Miles shook his head. “No. What you need right now is food, water, and rest. If you leave now and go running around out in the wastes in your condition, you’re bound to get hurt again, even if you don’t get into a fight with a raider squad.”

“Honestly, I feel fine now that my wounds are healed.” I insisted, perhaps a tad stubbornly as I tried to rise to my hooves again… only to be rewarded with an obnoxiously potent headache that forced me back onto the bed. “Ow…”

“See? You just get back under that blanket for awhile, and I’ll get you something to eat.” Before I could try and protest again, the doctor’s magic pulled the blanket back over me, covering up to my neck, before he trotted away towards the staircase and up to the second floor.

Only a few minutes later, he returned with a metal platter upon which an assortment of foods were assembled. “Here, eat some of this.” Miles said as he set the tray on a small counter by my bedside. “There’s pinyon nuts, preserved raisins, oats, and greens, and of course some water. These will help your body recover quicker from the blood loss.”

“I do feel kind of hungry… thank you.” Reaching over, I snagged one of the three bowls with my teeth and set it in front of me to munch on the preserved leafy veggies within. “If you don’t mind me asking, doctor, do you happen to have a shower or anything I can wash myself with?” I asked after my first swallow.

“Of course.” Miles easily answered. “You get some rest first, and I’ll let you use it first thing in the morning.”

“I’d appreciate it.” I couldn’t help but think back to Plainwell… trotting through those bodies… only a shower would get that grime off of me… I wanted it gone.

“I sent one of my assistants out into the city to fetch your friends.” Miles explained as he trotted into a lobby in front of the clinic. “You were kind of kicking around a bit before you woke up.”

“Oh… yeah, I was having a… strange dream.” I slowly explained. “I guess it really was a nightmare of sorts.”

“I see. Well, I won’t pry. From everything I heard about what happened at Plainwell, I’m not surprised that you would’ve had one. But your friends should be here shortly.”

“Have they come by often?” I asked, smiling thinly since I was sure that I already knew the answer.

“As often as they could.” Miles answered, trotting back into the clinic and stepping up to my bedside. “Blake’s been coming by more than the others though. Shotshell and his family have been taking care of him while your friends went outside. Your little brother’s hardly been away from your bedside.”

My ears drooped at the mentioning of my young sibling; I could only begin to imagine how worried he must’ve been. “Is he alright?”

“Oh yes, he’s fine.” Miles assured. “He’s been worried sick, but he’s gotten better. I’m afraid to say that you gave him quite a fright when you were brought in.” As if reading my very thoughts, he lowly added, “He saw you before I managed to get you fully cleaned up and moved to a clean mattress. I don’t think I need to go into the details.”

I shook my head, pushing away my partially finished bowl of leafy greens. “I guess I have some apologizing to do.” I muttered.

“Like I said before, don’t be too hard on yourself. You couldn’t have known about Plainwell’s fate in advance.”

“But my friends all told me that I should’ve gone with at least one of them.” I explained with another sigh. “I think I made a mistake.”

“Well, then maybe you should take your friends’ advice to heart.” Miles suggested with a shrug. “I’ve been out in the wasteland enough times to know that having friends in your travels is a great benefit. It’s an advantage that some ponies out there aren’t fortunate enough to have, and knowing that you came out of your Stable with a number of friends makes me believe that you’d agree with me completely.”

I gave him a short nod, turning my attention back to my food to finish off the greens that I had, for a moment, thought I wasn’t going to finish. “I’ve seen ponies who made friends with the wrong group. That’s just as bad.” I stated after swallowing another mouthful of my veggies. “Gunny and Shore are ponies I grew up with, and there’s another dear friend of mine tending to the wounded back home in Hopeville. And then there’s Blake. He’s the last of my blood family. I’m glad that they’re all with me out here, because I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

The doctor smiled approvingly. “In a world filled with uncertainty, it’s a great comfort to know that you have friends to watch out for you.”

Finishing off my greens, I set the bowl aside, but as I made ready to delve into the pinyon nuts and raisins, I heard hoofsteps in the lobby. “Hey, she’s awake.” the familiar voice of Shotshell declared happily, and I turned to see as he led Bella and Lucan inside.

“Hi there.” I greeted, waving a timid little wave before I adjusted myself under my blanket.

“It’s so good to see you up and awake again.” Bella cheerfully stated, the three of them coming up around my bedside as the doctor made room for them.

“She just woke up a few minutes ago.” Miles explained, smiling at me as well. “And she’s in good health.” Lucan let out a little cheer at hearing those words, one which I couldn’t help but blush at.

“I’ve just got this nasty headache now.” I explained with a playful roll of my eyes.

“You’re looking much better than before. Shotshell replied, placing a hoof on my back. “And I’m glad that’s the case, because we haven’t gotten to thank you yet.”

“You brought us back together again, Nova.” Lucan piped up happily, rearing up to place his forehooves up on my bed. “And you took care of me when I was in Hopeville. Thanks a bunch!”

When the little colt leaned over the mattress, trying to give me a hug, I leaned forward to let him. “You’re certainly welcome my little friend.” I said with a giggle, returning his embrace. “It was the right thing to do.”

“You gave us our lives back.” Bella added, likewise hugging me after Lucan let me go. “You and your companions will always be trusted friends to our family.”

“I’m glad we could help out.” I stated, returning her embrace as well.

“We’ve got something for you to pay for what you’ve done for us.” Shotshell announced as Bella released me, but before I could even move my mouth to protest, he added, “And we’ve already gotten everything together that we want to give you, so there’s no getting out of it. Gunny warned me about your tendency to be modest, so I came prepared. There will be no escape.”

At that poke at my character, the five of us shared a round of laughs before Shotshell levitated something off of his back. It was a sniper rifle, one that I immediately recognized as Blue Fire’s Torch. It’s sapphire, silver, and black camouflage paintjob was gleaming in the lantern light, showing off the rifle’s pristine condition to all eyes that laid upon it. But there was a modification on the beautiful and deadly weapon - the complete assembly of a firing bit, built into the rifle’s left side and attached to the trigger.

“Oh…”

“Gunny and Shore explained how you found the weapon.” Shotshell recollected. “It was assembled for a unicorn, apparently, so we decided to make it adaptable for your use.” As he levitated the weapon onto my pillow for me to see, he pointed a hoof at the firing bit. “You can see that the bit is built at a slight upward angle from the frame. That’s so that you can properly aim through the scope.” The weapon shifted in the air, the stock coming in line with my right shoulder. “If I just move the pillow,” Shotshell continued, setting the pillow onto the empty bed next to mine. “you can see that you can brace the stock against your shoulder. In order to use the scope, the user has to tilt her head slightly to the right so that her eye lines up with the lens.” I experimented by looking through the scope, or tried to, rather. Instead, my muzzle bumped against the firing bit, and I realized then that the only way to properly aim through the scope was to take the bit in my mouth as if preparing to fire. “Don’t worry, it’s unloaded. The safety’s on to.” Shotshell assured at my hesitance. “And the firing bit takes a little pressure to hit the rifle’s trigger, so you’ll have to bite down a little harder for it to work. When you’re firing, squeeze down on the bit, don’t chomp on it. If you squeeze the bit, the scope won’t move around, plus your aim will be even better when the bipod is out. The whole pressure bit thing is just a safety measure, and one that I thought would come in handy if you ever use this rifle. That way, you can look through the scope and search for your targets without accidentally firing the weapon off before you’re ready.”

“That’s helpful.” I commented, nodding before I leaned forward and took the firing bit into my mouth, pressing my right eye against the scope’s rubber eyepiece to peer through the lens. When I closed my left eye, the crosshairs were all I could see, simply made of one horizontal and one vertical red line that met at the center; I could picture the face of a raider in the scope, a pony who deserved the hole in his skull… I shivered.

“Are you okay?” Bella asked concernedly.

A moment of silence later, and I released the firing bit, giving a slow nod. “The new firing bit is a perfect fit. Thank you for getting it for me.”

“You’re welcome.” Shotshell replied, though raising an eyebrow as he levitated Blue Fire’s Torch away and returned my pillow to me. “But I saw you shake a little. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m just a little chilly.” I answered, perhaps a little too quickly.

Lucan cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Even with the blanket on?” he asked, making me facehoof at my own stupidity.

“Okay, you got me.” I huffed, looking back up at Shotshell. “It’s just that when I looked through the scope, I could picture seeing a raider… his last facial expression, his last motions… his last moments before I would fire. And then I’d see… well, you know…”

“I understand. It was hard for me too.” Shotshell agreed, his voice sympathetic to my worry, and upon my silent inquiry, he added, “Back when I was younger, before I raised a family, I served the city guard and had some experience with a scoped weapon up on the wall. The weapon was a trail carbine, forty-four caliber. It wasn’t as potent or effective as your rifle is at long range, but at a closer range, it could take a raider out just the same. My first time using that rifle wasn’t pretty, but the first time involved a member of a raider squad that was attacking one of Challenger’s farmhouses outside of the wall. That raider had killed one of the workers before I managed to take the shot that killed the bastard. I saw the grin on that maniac’s face, the psychotic fire in his eyes, and I knew that what I did was right.” He put a hoof on my back again. “It’s feels very different to do the dirty work behind a rifle scope at first, but when it’s done righteously, when it’s done to protect your home and your loved ones, it’s the same exact thing The same result comes, another enemy is put to rest, and you and those allied with you can live to fight another day.”

There was truth in his words, and they had their effect, making me smile a thin smile. “Yeah. Now I just need to start using it.” I commented, glancing at my rifle again. “Maybe some target practice is in order.”

“Once you’re feeling well enough to be out of that bed.” Miles put in with a smirk as he shut one of his supply cabinets. “You might be an outsider to Challenger, but I’d still expect you to follow a doctor’s orders all the same.”

“I will, Doctor Miles.” I assured with a giggle. “Thank you for the firing bit, really.” I added, turning back to Shotshell. “I had my doubts about wanting to use the rifle at first, but I think it could come in handy later.”

“I’m glad you like it. It’s the least I could do for what you’ve given me.” the stallion replied with a dip of his head. “And also, my wife has something to give you as well.”

Bella gave me a nudge with a forehoof before she dropped a leather pouch onto my pillow; despite the cushion, the bag still jangled, the sound of bottle caps easily recognizable. “Gunny and Shore told me about how money was an issue, at least when it came to making larger purchases.” Bella explained. “There’s seventy-five caps in that bag. Hopefully they will help you in the future.”

“I put some caps from my allowance in there too.” Lucan claimed proudly. “I wanted to help you like mom and dad did.”

“Oh, well thank you… but you didn’t have to-”

“Don’t give me any of that.” Bella interjected with a snort, waving my words away with a hoof. “It’s a small part of the profit from our stall in the market. We’ve made more than enough caps to sustain ourselves.”

“Yeah, so take them.” Lucan ordered with mock sternness, smiling when I roughed up his mane.

“Thank you.” I said in earnest. “We’ll put them all to good use, I promise”

After receiving one final hug from Lucan, the colt finally lowered himself back to all fours as Shotshell said, “While you’re recovering, we’ll give your gear back to Gunny and Shore, keep it safe in our home.” Then, stepping away with rifle and money in tow, Bella and Lucan following him towards the exit, he added with a smile, “And speaking of which, they’re here to see you now. Thanks again for everything, my friend.” My eyes snapped to the door, even as I waved my goodbye to the family, and sure enough, as the three of them left the clinic, they were replaced by my friends.

Shore was the first one in, a big smile growing on his face as he saw me alive and awake, a smile which I gladly returned as he approached my bedside. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“A little sore, and still a little hungry.” I said casually, shrugging as I tried to take on a bored expression. It was an attempt that failed miserably in the first five seconds, and with a laugh, I threw my forelegs around Shore’s neck in a great big hug. “It’s so good to see you!”

“And it is good to see you on the mend.” Shore replied, wholeheartedly returning my embrace. “The doctor told us about your recovery, and it has been nothing but good news. You should be back to your old self in no time.”

“That’s definitely good news.” I agreed as I released my friend. “I kind of want to go out and fly again… without finding ponies that want to shoot at me.”

“I’m glad that you are coming to your senses.” Shore teased, jabbing me in the chest with a hoof before he stepped aside to let the next-in-line come through.

“Welcome back to the land of the conscious.” Gunny remarked with a half-smile, stepping up to my bedside. “It took you long enough.”

I likewise hugged around his neck, pressing my muzzle into his ash-colored mane. “I’ll try to wake up faster next time.” I vowed with a giggle. “How are you?”

“I’ve been busy, believe it or not.” Gunny replied as I let him go. “Shore and I both have.”

“How so?” I inquired curiously.

“The general recommended we take a look at the Caravan Guard Recruitment Station.” Gunny explained. “The station’s recruiting is open to the public, so when we checked the place out, we were hired in with a few others. We got sent to protect a caravan making a trip to some new settlement in the far south of the region, a town called Searchlight. We made one hundred caps each for the whole trip, and we never ran into any raider patrols on the way.”

I gave an approving nod. “Wow.”

“Also, we’ve gotten some new information on Hopeville’s resupply.” Gunny said, nodding at Shore to explain.

“The general had sent out scouting parties to search for raiders in the northwest territory of the region.” Shore explained. “The caravans for both Hopeville and Proudspire were delayed because one of the parties returned with information about a Black Blood camp. It was set up around a pre-war farmstead between Challenger and the settlements in that direction, largely blocking the route of travel for the caravans.”

“That figures…” I mumbled with a roll of my eyes.

“The general believes it to be the remnants of the raider force that attacked Proudspire. She said that it added up with what we told her about our time helping the settlement against them.” Gunny added. “That would include the survivors of the two camps that we took out during our time in Proudspire as well as any kind of command post they set up for the operation. She’s sending out a platoon tonight to wipe out the camp and clear a lane for the caravans to move tomorrow morning, so as long as you’re feeling better by then, we’ll be heading home tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’ll be feeling better by then.” I instantly assured, trying my best at an equally assuring smile when Gunny raised an eyebrow. It definitely looked like he didn’t fully believe me, and it surprised me enough that I wanted to ask him why. That question, however, died on my lips as Gunny stepped aside, revealing my baby brother behind him.

Blake reared up onto his hind legs, placing his forehooves onto the bed; that was all I allowed him to do before I pulled him tight against me. “Goddesses, I’ve missed you!” I exclaimed, bombarding him with nuzzling. However, Blake did not respond with words, nor did he even hug me back. His silence completely caught me off guard, and when I pulled away to find out why, I was shocked to see as two tears trailed down his cheeks. “Blake… what’s wrong??”

“I thought you were dead…”

The sheer hurt and sadness in his voice struck me like ice water. The adrenaline of my aerial dogfight over Plainwell, the pain of the wounds I had received… they were nothing compared to the wrenching in my stomach and the knot forming in my throat. My baby brother looked on the verge of breaking down as he sadly stared into my eyes, ears splayed back and body beginning to shake. “Blake…”

“You didn’t talk to me…” Blake interrupted me, voice cracking. “I called your name three times… you didn’t answer…” He hitched with a sob. “There was blood all over your bed, and I saw how hurt you got… The doctor said you wouldn’t die, but before then…… I was so scared… I thought I was going to be alone…”

“Blake… I…” I began, stopped when my young sibling suddenly threw himself at me, pulling me into a desperate hug of his own.

“Please don’t go outside alone again!” he cried, his words pleading, begging. “I don’t want you to go!”

I returned Blake’s embrace, wincing as I heard him sob again. “But I had to that time.” I insisted ever-so-gently. “It was quicker for me to go alone.”

Blake only shook his head against my coat, his muzzle buried into my shoulder. “I don’t want you to go alone, not now or ever again.” he repeated wretchedly. “I don’t want you to die…” Beside Blake, I heard as Gunny softly cleared his throat, and when I looked up, he fixed me with a firm gaze, nodding to my little brother.

I sighed, placing a hoof against Blake’s cheek and forcing him to look into my eyes. “Blake, what I did was the quickest solution to helping Lucan get his family back.” I delicately explained; even as I talked, he shook his head. “I was just trying to help them, and I did. I’ve done my part.”

“But you nearly died!” Blake protested. “You should’ve taken somepony with you! Anypony!… I would’ve gone with you. You know that I want to help you.”

“I know you do.” I replied, giving him a kiss on the forehead. “But this is a dangerous place, and we’ve all known that from the start. Just like you don’t want me getting hurt, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I should be helping you anyway.” Blake claimed, his eyes suddenly focusing into a rather shocking glare. “It’s what dad wanted.”

I grew uneasy at Blake’s glower, lowering my hoof away from the side of his face. “Dad?… What about him?” I whispered.

“You know what he said to me back home just before we left it behind?” Blake asked; I felt that knot in my stomach reforming. “He said to look out for you, to be a strong little brother, to be there for you, and to help you. He already knew that you’d protect me in the wasteland, but he wanted me to do the same for you. He always knew that life would be difficult outside of our home, and I think that’s why he said what he said. He said that families have to stick together, to be there for one another. He said that to me a whole bunch of times when I was growing up… and I can’t do that when you go outside on your own… and it makes me so frustrated… at you, at myself. When you don’t let me help, I feel so useless… and that’s one of the worst feelings for me.”

I was paralyzed in thought, Blake’s words bringing back memories of that terrible day… eleven days ago.

“I’m going to leave you here for a bit and see if I can be of any help to the security team upstairs. Your mother and brother will be down here too so just holler if you need something okay?”

“I understand dad… be careful up there.” My last words to him. After saying that, he had left me on that hospital mattress while Gracie worked on healing my very first gunshot wound. And that’s when I remembered…

Before he had left to help the security team in barricading the main entrance, he had said something to Blake, something that I hadn’t been able to hear amidst the chatter of the frightened residents, and the realization came to me - those had been the last words our dad had ever spoken to Blake. That had been the last time Blake had ever seen him… the last time they had talked face to face.

“The wasteland is no place for young colts and fillies to be wandering around.” I protested slowly, flicking my eyes back to his. “You help me by growing up, playing with your friends, and learning about being honorable in all aspects of life. Being out here with me, getting shot at and possibly hurt… that’s not the life I want for you.”

“But it’s what I want for me.” Blake replied, confident and adamant. “I’d rather be out here helping you, helping all of our friends in Hopeville, than living day after day wondering if you’ll come back home alive. I don’t want to live every day not knowing whether you’ve been hurt or not, or if you… died… I don’t want to be scared every day, watching you come home and then leave, again and again and again. We’re family, and a family has to work together.”

I blinked, feeling my eyes beginning to water despite no tears falling free. Even though I tried to piece together just how many times we had talked about this, I couldn’t even if my life depended on it. Right now, in my opinion, my young brother was being wholly irrational, nonsensical, and a little foolish to top it off. But yet, there was growing confidence in his voice, his body language, and his personality. Over the past eleven days, he had grown quite considerably, physically and especially mentally. The wasteland was beginning to change him, and so far, he was changing for the better. I had no doubt that this would be how he would continue to change - for the better - and right now, he was showing just how he had grown. He was becoming a young stallion in my eyes, and yet while the wasteland may have begun to change him, he was still holding everything he had learned in Stable 181 with him.

I saw the faintest smile pull against the corner of his mouth, and I smiled back at him, blinking another tear that threatened to fall before I pulled him in against me; this time, he returned the hug. “Blake, I’m so proud of you. You know that don’t you?” I felt him nod against my coat, and I nuzzled him along his neck. “I’m sorry little brother… my time here in the wasteland has been difficult, no more so than anypony else. You’re still young… but I can’t control your life.”

“I don’t want to put you in a hard spot.” Blake spoke up, hugging tighter around my neck. “This is just what I want for myself. I want to be out here helping you. I want to help my friends and the others in Hopeville, just like you. Even if I have to hide every time you find bad ponies and just help you carry stuff on the road, that’s what I want to do.” I looked up to see where my friends had gone, and I saw both of them sitting near the lobby, having stepped back a small distance to give Blake and I some privacy. But only a second later, the two of them looked my way, thin smiles gradually forming on their faces as they gave short nods.

I smiled back before resting my chin over Blake’s neck. Out here in the wasteland, my brother and I were both orphans… but we were orphans of the same family blood, and as such, we had to stick together. But more importantly than this was the fact that Blake had made a promise to our father, a promise that was the final words Blake ever spoke to him; that made his promise even more special. It was a strong and honorable promise, noble, and it was one that I now knew that I did not want to keep him from holding onto; he made the promise to honor our parents, just like I myself had done for Hopeville. Letting Blake travel with me in the wasteland would be a dangerous undertaking, one that already left me more than a little uneasy… but we were not alone. With my friends at my side… our side… Blake would be safe, for I knew that all of my dearest friends would do anything to keep him safe, just like I myself would; we would always be there for each other.

With another light sigh, I helped Blake up onto my bed, removing my blanket with my wings to allow him to lay down against my uninjured right side before I draped my right wing over him. “Alright Blake. Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll help Hopeville together… all of us.”

“Thanks big sis.” Blake said as he snuggled up against me. “I love you.”

“I love you too, little brother.” I sincerely replied, lying my head down on the pillow as we snuggled up together. “So much.”

*** *** ***

Midday.

After word had come in about the swift and decisive victory over the Black Blood at a farmstead called Brightheart, the warehouse district swung into action. The courtyard outside the great steel gate of Challenger was filled with activity, bustling with Challenger’s warehouse workers as they loaded the shipments aboard four waiting wagons from the district’s wagon lot. The four-wheeled wood and metal wagons were very large, large enough that they had to be pulled by two brahmin each. The wagons were built very similarly to one another, each protected by a cloth canvas draped over a reinforced iron roll cage, and at the top of each wagon was a mounted lookout platform for a guard to keep watch on the roads. Two of the wagons were adorned with a red tag, long streamers that hung down the side of the canvas to identify them as the wagons that would be sent to Proudspire. The other two, blue tags hanging from their sides, were for Hopeville; they were the wagons I was paying attention to.

I watched the warehouse workers load up the new supplies, my smile having remained plastered to my face ever since the loading process had begun roughly a half hour ago. Being part of Hopeville’s ‘delegation’ (as General Silverlight had put it), Gunny, Shore, Blake, and I had been allowed to see what was being sent to Hopeville in its resupply shipment. There was a whole crate that had been neatly packed up tight with medical supplies, ranging from potions and medicinal drugs to healing bandages, antibiotics, and clean surgical tools. Aside from that, three crates were loaded with bottled water and boxed foodstuffs, both of the preserved pre-war kind and the fresher kind, the latter made possible from a recently received trade shipment from Route 52. A fifth crate had been filled with approximately three dozen suits of reinforced leather armor. While the leather, according to Gunny, was not as thick as the armor of our Stable 181 security team, he believed it to be the next best thing. Two more crates had been loaded up with clean blankets, all of which would be distributed to the citizens for slightly more comfortable sleeping. And finally, two crates and a large metal cabinet had been devoted to carrying ordnance, ammunition, and even ammo-crafting supplies including powder, primer, lead, casings, and hulls. Included in the shipment had been newly made assault rifles, serviced carbines, and pristine long rifles as well as frag grenades and flash-bangs. There had even been a pair of forty millimeter grenade launchers, the heavier four-shot models, that had been picked from the warehouses to be thrown into the shipment; this delivery was exactly what Hopeville needed.

“Are you ready to go home?” Blake expectantly asked beside me, smiling up at me like he already knew my answer; he did.

“Oh yes.” I replied, smiling back at him as I nuzzled him on the forehead. Turns out that three healing potions, a large dinner, nine hours of sleep, and a short but enjoyable shower can do a wasteland pony wonders. Despite the blood loss I had endured in my last fight, I was feeling far better than I had yesterday. When I had woken up in the morning, I had immediately hit the showers, and afterwards, Doc Miles had released me with a warning that my body still needed time to fully recover; this meant no overly strenuous activities for at least a day if not longer. In truth, I did still feel a little sore, my body perhaps a little more sluggish as an aftereffect of the blood loss. Overall, however, the doctor still agreed that I had made a good recovery thus far.

Between then and now, my friends had all washed up as well, allowing us to be much more presentable and less foul-smelling when Shotshell and his family had taken my friends and I to breakfast at Challenger’s Breakfast Club. For breakfast, I had pigged out on the biggest fruit bowl I had ever seen, and after the hearty meal, we had gotten to spend roughly an hour at Challenger’s playground, a large public play area in the town center for the many children that inhabited the city.

Over the past three days, I had come to appreciate Challenger for not only its sheer size and impressiveness, but also for how its citizens lived. Life here was quite peaceful, and the citizens here all worked hard to make their living. Challenger flourished under the work of its people, the help that they gave one another, and the dedication and compassion of its leaders. In turn, Challenger was the key to the survival of the rest of the region, just as the city itself depended on the heartland, Route 52, and other regions of Equestria. The ponies here legitimately cared for the other settlements in the southeast as they cared for each other, clearly evident by their system of trade and by their involvement against the Black Blood, which was now growing even quicker than before. After all that I had seen and learned of Challenger over the past three days, I knew that there was harmony here… there was honor here. Even if it faltered at times because of raiders, bandits, or even internal tensions, it was here, and that was something that I greatly looked forward to telling Captain Saber all about once my friends and I got back home.

Familiar voices came within earshot to my left, and when I looked down the road, I saw Gunny and Shore trotting down the lane towards the courtyard. Both were fully geared up with their armor and weapons, and Gunny still carried the All-Equestrian, a gift from Hallion and Marian; it was unfortunate that I hadn’t been able to say goodbye on my own.

All around my two friends, trotting past them and towards the wagons themselves, were around a dozen or so ponies, all armed and armored to varying degrees. Between my two friends was an earth pony mare, chatting with the two bucks as they approached. She was a bright orange pony with dark brown eyes, her lighter brown mane and tail long and neatly combed through; she was perhaps a few years older than I was.

The mare with my friends branched away from the others, Gunny having pointed a hoof at me, and I rose to all fours as she approached. But just as I did, the newcomer quickly closed the gap between us, scooping up my left forehoof with hers in a vigorous hoofshake. “Well butter mah butt an call me a biscuit, if it ain’t the new pegasus Ah’ve been hearin about. You’ve done been the talk o the town for the past couple o days.”

“I-I-I h-h-have?” I managed to ask through the teeth-chattering hoofshake; I think my eyes were boggling in my skull.

“Eeyup.” the mare answered back enthusiastically, still not releasing her grasp on my hoof. “Ya sure have, at least around the warehouses anyway. Ah’m Auburn, by the way, and Ah’m the mare-in-charge of Challenger’s Caravan Guard Recruitment Station. Pleased t’meetcha.”

“L-l-likewise…” I responded shakily before she finally released me. After my hoof stopped moving on its own, I shook my head before throwing her my best smile. “I’m Nova, and this is my little brother, Blake.”

“Hey there youngster.” Auburn greeted, giving my baby brother a much more gentle hoofshake as he returned the greeting. “Ah’m glad Ah finally got to meet y’all. Ah know y’all are headin out with this here caravan. Yer friends told me a little bit about Hopeville, and Ah wish y’all the best o luck. Mah hired-ins’ll get those wagons back to yer home in one piece, Ah promise.”

“So those other ponies are guards?” Blake asked curiously.

“Eeyup.” Auburn answered heartily. “Lot a ponies in Challenger are lookin ta provide fer their families. It’s muh job to make sure they all get the chance ta do so, an guardin caravans is one of the best payin jobs in the city. It’s more dangerous work, but a lot o ponies toss in their guns to lend a helpin hoof to the other settlements of the southeast and the other regions beyond.”

“How far out into Equestria do your caravan guards go?” I asked, a little curious myself.

“Oh, pretty far.” Auburn answered easily. “Ya see, Challenger depends on settlements in the heartland, Route 52, and the Hoof fer supply and trade. Other regions beyond those are too far fer us to travel to. We’d run out o supplies before we could get a caravan to Trottingham an back, or Las Pegasus, or Dise, ya get the idea.”

I nodded. “By the way, if you don’t mind me asking,” I began, a new question sliding quickly into place after my first. “why exactly did you say I was the ‘talk of the town’?”

Auburn chuckled politely. “Ah’m sure you’ve come to see by now that yer the only pegasus pony in town. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it ain’t often that we surface ponies get ta see a flier like yerself. Now just imagine how we feel about seein two o em in the same week.”

“There was another pegasus here?” I asked, my ears perking up.

“Eeyup. He was here for a good long while too.” she explained, suddenly batting her eyelashes as a lazy smile adorned her face. “Ah don’t know if it’s somethin about stallion fliers, but he was a handsome feller. Fit brown buck, black mane and tail, deep and confident blue eyes… Ah met him in the Sunstone Saloon an got ta flirtin around with him a bit. We had a couple o drinks together, an he warmed up ta me enough ta start talkin about some o his travels. He’d been in the southeast fer awhile apparently, way before ah met im. He was explorin some o the towns by day, an he was stayin in one o Challenger’s rental apartment rooms by night ta rest his wings.” She let out a sigh, her smile fading quite suddenly. “There was only one more day he was here after we met. Ah caught him walkin in the streets early in the mornin, all packed up with his saddlebags an weapons, and we stopped ta talk for a bit. He said he was leavin ta go back ta his real home, ta keep watch fer any sign o the return o his family.” She paused long enough to blush. “Ah suppose it was a bit foalish o me to ask, but I offered a caravan guard position to im in the hopes that he’d stay a little longer. But that’s when things got a bit on the strange side.”

“How so?” I asked curiously.

“Well, he didn’t mind the offer o the position at first.” Auburn explained, frowning as she added, “But when Ah told him that the caravan with open positions was meant ta go ta the heartland city o Manehattan, he got a little sad. He said he woulda taken up the offer, cept he had some kind o commitment, a duty to uphold er somethin like that.”

I raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. “That’s… strange…”

“Ah know. He really seemed like he wanted the job, too, an hell, ah was ready ta sign im up for it. But he refused it in the end, sayin he had to be somewhere else, had to watch over his home.” Auburn shook her head before a sad wishful smile gradually tugged at her lips. “But other than that little bout o mysteriousness, he really did seem like a decent buck. Ah suppose Ah really wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with him anyway. He was kinda the strong silent type around most everypony Ah saw im around. Ah guess Ah just asked so that Ah might’ve gotten the opportunity ta know im a little better, if ya know what Ah mean.” I couldn’t help but blush a little. Meeting another pegasus, another pony of my own species who lived on the surface, would’ve been an interesting experience all on its own. But I suppose that if the buck was as handsome as Auburn claimed him to be, maybe I’d…… not go into details about what I might’ve done.

When I nodded to Blake, who was staring at the ground in an effort to avoid hearing any upcoming dialogue about handsome stallions, Auburn cast an apologetic smile at the both of us. “Sorry bout that.” she said, turning back to the cluster of wagons. “Well, the caravan looks like it’s nearly loaded up n’ ready to go. Ah need ta get goin and crack down on what’s left o the caravan traffic paperwork on mah desk. With any luck, Ah’ll be done with it by tomorrow and get a little more time off. Workin at the desk is almost as hard as guardin caravans is.”

“Alright then. It was a pleasure to meet you Auburn.” I said, bumping hooves with the mare one more time.

“Eeyup. Likewise, Nova.” Auburn replied cheerily. “Ah’m glad Ah finally got the chance to meet ya both. Take care out there, and if y’all come on back to Challenger, make sure ya stick yer head in the office ta say howdy.”

“Sure thing. Take care now.” With that, Auburn trotted back down the courtyard, disappearing around the corner of the Trade Administration building.

“Why did she sound so funny when she talked?” Blake asked quietly.

“It’s just an accent.” I answered, looking down at him. “Don’t you remember how Old Abernathy’s wife spoke like that before she passed away?”

“Um… oh yeah!” Blake said, smiling back up at me as he recalled the mare in question. “She always told funny stories in the mess hall. She was always really nice to me and my friends.” Indeed, when Gracie and I weren’t available to foalsit, Old Abernathy’s wife, Old Mare Charlotte, had always been there to see to the needs of the children in Stable 181. Fortunately, for the sake of our recollecting the past, she had passed away weeks before the Black Blood had come.

“She never had any foals of her own, but she knew how to care for them like they were.” I remarked with a smile. “She was my foalsitter when I was your age. Always a good storyteller too.”

“But she wasn’t always as energetic as Auburn. And she didn’t talk about stallions all the time either.” Blake stated, sticking out his tongue in a gag.

“Aw, don’t worry Blake. You can talk about handsome stallions around me any time you want to.” I assured with a big grin.

“Hey!” Blake exclaimed, reaching over to punch my foreleg, making me laugh at the same time.

“I was just joking.” I said comfortingly, reaching over to the grumbling colt and roughing up his mane. “Come on. Let’s go see the others. We should be ready to head home soon.”

Together, we trotted into the bustle of activity. Gunny and Shore were both standing beside one of the Hopeville wagons as the last crate was loaded inside, Gunny helping another unicorn stallion lift the heavy crate aboard. As we passed by the final cluster of guards, checking their weapons and ammo for the journey, Gunny closed up the tailgate and the canvas with his magic before the red glow of his horn died away. “Hey there you two.” he greeted with a thin smile. “The wagons are all loaded up and ready to go. When the guards are geared up, then we’ll be heading out.”

“Great.” I replied with a happy sigh. “I’m ready to go back home, at least for awhile anyway. It’ll be good to see everypony again.”

“That, and I bet the captain’s going to faint when he sees what Challenger’s sending us.” Gunny remarked with a chuckle, looking over the wagon approvingly.

“This caravan is going to be a tremendous relief to everypony. It has everything we need to replenish our stock and then some.” Shore commented, joining us to complete our small circle. “But I have to wonder how long this trip will take. Will we be moving on through the night? Or will we stop at the old radio building again?”

“I heard from one of the convoy leaders that we’ll be camping out either inside or outside of Proudspire.” Gunny answered. “To be honest, that’s probably the best choice out of all of them.”

Curious, I raised my pipbuck leg and dialed in to my larger map. “Proudspire is directly northwest of here, and Hopeville is directly northwest from Proudspire.” I explained. “They’re nearly in a straight line with one another.”

“That’s handy.” Blake remarked with a little laugh.

“It would cut down on travel time.” Shore agreed with a nod.

“But really, I wouldn’t mind staying in Proudspire again for another day.” I remarked, smiling in turn to each of my friends as I added, “I’m kind of curious as to how Kayla’s doing after her town beat back the raiders.”

“I’m actually kind of curious myself.” Gunny put in. “We’ll be there by evening so long as we don’t come across anything.”

“And I kind of miss Kayla.” Blake piped up. “We became friends really quickly. It’d be good to see her again.”

“Now you’ll get your chance to do just that.” I remarked with a giggle, leaning down to nudge him with my muzzle.

Then, the great and familiar rumbling of Challenger’s tower crane filled my ears, and up ahead, the massive steel gate of Challenger’s fortified entrance rose up and open. “All guards to your stations! We’re moving out!”

With the call being taken up all around the courtyard, I craned my head around to look over my gear. Everything was in place, from my saddlebags to my battle saddle and my sidearm to my newly modified sniper rifle, all secured together. And with Blake carrying his own saddlebags, filled with the medicine and food we had leftover from our trip, all of our supplies were accounted for.

The four of us fell in line behind the first wagon of the convoy as it begun to move, the two Hopeville wagons taking the lead of our train, and as we crossed under the gate, I looked left and right at the vast expanse of the southeast. “Let’s get these supplies back home.”

Beside me, Gunny gave a nod, a look of determination set into his features. “We get this caravan home, and we’ll have really made a place for ourselves our here on the surface.” he said, a smile growing on his face. “With this, I think we’ll finally be able to call ourselves a settlement.”

Footnote: 50% to level up.

Nova’s Updated SPECIAL Attributes:

Strength: 4
Perception: 8 (+1 when Alertness is active, +1 when Scout Flyer is active, +2 when both are active)
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 6
Agility: 7 (+1 when Scout Flyer is active)
Luck: 7

Chapter 12: The Hunter

“This is only the beginning.”

“So how about it?” Blake asked eagerly beside me. “You said it yourself that I should learn how to use one. You could train me just as good as any security pony could, and once I learned, I’d be able to defend myself just like everypony else. It would help a lot any time I travel with you.”

I looked back down at the smiling colt, grinning. “Are you sure that you’re ready to try and use one?” I asked. “I know you’re brave and all, but you’re still young.”

“Of course I’m ready.” Blake answered confidently. “Besides, shouldn’t I have a gun with me anyway? You and Gunny and Shore all have your own.”

“I know.” I replied. “But that’s because we’re older, and we were ordered to have our own weapons to protect Hopeville. Even Captain Saber said that everypony aside from the children is going to be carrying a weapon. It’s been a couple of days since that meeting, so my guess is that almost every resident has one by now.”

“But why shouldn’t my friends and I have our own weapons? Shouldn’t we have something to protect ourselves with too?” Blake inquired curiously.

“It’s mostly a matter of age.” I explained. “Some of your friends aren’t old enough yet, and their parents wouldn’t be very comfortable with their foals carrying pistols or rifles all around Hopeville. Plus, all of your friends have everypony in Hopeville to protect them, just like you have me to protect you.”

“You should let him.” a male voice remarked from up ahead.

I blinked. “Huh?” When I looked in front of me again, I saw one of the caravan guards looking back at me. He was a large unicorn stallion, copper-colored with a dark green mane and tail; he was around the same size and build as Gunny, but he was much older, apparent by the moderate graying of his mane. During the journey, my friends and I had gradually gotten several opportunities to make introductions and small talk with the guards and soldiers assigned to the wagon train. While a lot of the talk on my end had included inquiries as to my birthplace, many guards assuming that I had come from the clouds above, I had gradually come to know a few things about some of the ponies on the expedition; this stallion had been the most recent pony who had introduced himself to me.

Raemor was his name, and my first impression of him was that he had seen more than his fair share of both traveling and combat throughout his many years. This was largely evident from his rugged yet strong physical appearance, as there were several scars that remained unconcealed by his polymer Equestrian Army combat armor and the black duster that was clipped onto it just behind the neck. The stallion spoke with a rougher masculine tone, as if his voice had aged right along with his body, and his cutie mark, likewise uncovered by his armor, was that of an axe crossed with a rifle. Interestingly enough, both of the weapons on his cutie mark were weapons that he possessed, and aside from the .45 automatic pistol secured around his right hind leg, he carried a polished and sharpened fire axe along with a sturdy grenade rifle, a weapon that he had identified as a twenty-five millimeter grenade APW; both of these matched his cutie mark to the very smallest of details.

“I said you should let him.” Raemor replied kindly, slowing his pace to join Blake and I alongside the second wagon of the train. “He may be young, but so long as he can talk, he can listen. At least that’s what I’m assuming, anyway.” he added with a thin smile. “So long as he can pay attention, follow directions, and is actually serious about learning his way around a weapon, then he should have no trouble in at least using a pistol. Don’t you agree, Nova?”

“I like what he said.” Blake piped up, winning a chuckle from the unicorn.

“Well, I have talked about it before…” I slowly replied. “And I know my little brother doesn’t have a hard time listening and following directions…”

But still, there were a lot of things for me to consider in regards to Blake receiving weapons training. On one hoof, a large part of me agreed that Blake should have something to protect himself with. While I liked to believe that my friends and I could protect him efficiently enough, if the time ever came, and I dread to think it, where Blake wound up alone with none of us nearby, having a weapon of his own that he knew his way around might very well save his life. And aside from this, it wasn’t like Blake was a foal who had just learned to walk. He could listen and follow directions just fine. In Stable 181, despite his colossal level of energy, Blake could be mature when he wanted to, and when it came to learning about firearms, that was a good trait to have.

On the other hoof however, Blake was still a child, and I wasn’t entirely comfortable with giving him a gun to carry. Sure, I also didn’t want him coming out into the wasteland with me, but that was different. Firearms were extremely dangerous if misused, and I wasn’t entirely certain that Blake was ready to expose himself to handling a weapon of his own, pistol or otherwise. But more importantly than any other reason… Blake still had his innocence. Upon fighting the raiders inside our Stable home, I had created my own kill count. While they were raiders, evil ponies who deserved death, I had still taken the lives of others. Blake had not done so, and at this age, in this wasteland, that innocence was something that was very important to hang on to; it was hard to come by out here.

“The subject gives me a lot to think about. I trust my brother enough to think rationally around firearms, but there are some other things for me to take into account.” I answered more confidently. “I’ll just need a little more time to think things over.”

“So you might train me, right?” Blake asked expectantly.

I couldn’t help but giggle at his enthusiasm. “We’ll see.”

“Awesome!” Blake cheered. “I’m going to go tell Gunny and Shore!” And before I could even speak a syllable in reply, he wheeled around and pranced away to the rear of the caravan.

“Energetic fellow isn’t he?” Raemor commented with a chuckle. “It’d be a good decision to train him, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Actually, most of me agrees with you.” I replied, lightly laughing before I added, “Still, I’m a very protective big sister, and there’s always a part of me that protests against certain things.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. I myself learned how to use a pistol when I was a young colt, right around your little brother’s age. I might’ve been only a little older, but by no more than a year.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Oh yes.” the stallion sagely replied. “From where I came from, the sooner you learned how to use a firearm, the safer you’d be in your early years, and the more proficient you’d be when you became an adult. Of course, that’s the general philosophy that’s followed most everywhere in the wasteland. But in Hoofington, learning the use of a firearm at a young age was a rite of passage, and for any not under constant protection, it was something that would ensure your continued survival.”

“You came from Hoofington?” I asked, eyes widening.

“Yes I did.”

“I’ve heard some stories about that place. It doesn’t sound like a city I’d want to live in.” I stated lowly.

“If you can even call it living.” Raemor replied with a mirthless chuckle. “The stories might explain things, but they’re nothing compared to actually growing up there, seeing things there for yourself. All I’ll say is that Celestia and Luna had saved my life more than once in that cursed place.”

“Proudspire’s straight ahead!”

The two of us looked back ahead and up to where the call had come from, and I caught sight of the lookout at the forward wagon as she telekinetically lowered her binoculars, looking back around from her prone position atop the wagon.

An earth pony stallion clad in dark green Challenger combat armor trotted past Raemor and I and drew up alongside the lead wagon, staring out to the northwest as he asked, “Is it safe?” He was the caravan commander, identified by the red beret he wore.

“There’s no signs of trouble around the place.” the lookout guard answered, peering through her binoculars again. “Looks all clear.”

“Good. We need to get to shelter before the sun sets. The last thing I want is to run into an enemy patrol in the dark.” the commander stated, trotting back again and relaying the message to the wagons at the rear of our supply train.

We had been traveling northwest for around eight hours, traveling a straight path across the wasteland. On the way, we had passed by the pre-war remains of the Brightheart Farmstead, a larger farm composed of one barely standing house and three different barns that Challenger’s soldiers had cleared up before our caravan left the city limits. Before today, the farm had been the sight of a raiding camp, perhaps a little larger than the camps that had been placed around Proudspire. After the battle there, the camp had been leveled and the entire place had been secured as an outpost for Challenger’s soldiers, the tall feed silo there being used as a watchtower to keep an eye over the surrounding fields and guide in any travelers on their way to Challenger. When we had been spotted, food raided from the Black Blood’s stores there had been given to us for the trip, much to the approval of the caravan guard detail. After that, only one other landmark had come into sight, and even from its distance from us to the west, I still recognized smokestacks, smokestacks that belonged to the Southwest Regional Power Plant. Upon seeing it, Shore had marked its location on my pipbuck’s larger map (for lack of anything else to do while walking), making it so that I had acquired two new locations on my pipbuck map.

As for me, the walk was tiring, and I had a gut feeling that this had been one of the lingering side effects of my blood loss. Several times throughout the day, I had needed to board one of the wagons to lay down and rest. Much to my embarrassment, there had even been one time where Gunny had hoisted me up onto his back after passing his weapons to Shore, carrying me for a good half hour before I was able to walk on my own again. Fortunately, when I had to lay down, none of the guards had complained or laughed like I had initially imagined. Instead, the caravan had continued forward at a steady pace. And now, the rise in chatter amongst the guards was an obvious indication that they were glad to be nearing their destination; the first leg of the journey was nearly done.

“I’m glad we’re nearing the settlement.” Raemor said beside me. “Celestia knows I could use some time off of my hooves.”

I looked over at him again, seeing as he stared ahead with focused eyes. “Me too. My friends and I have been to Proudspire before. There are some ponies there that we’re hoping to catch up with before we leave for Hopeville tomorrow.”

Raemor nodded with a thin smile. “In this world of uncertainty, no matter which part of it we may live in, it’s good to have friends.” he stated, looking at me long enough to give a smile of my own at him before he faced the settlement again. “It’ll be my first time seeing this place, and I have different intentions then you and your group do. Ever since I came down from the north a while back, I’ve been hoping to get the chance to see the rest of the Equestrian southeast.”

“Is that why you signed up to protect this caravan?” I asked him curiously.

“Mm… you could say that.” he answered. “I saw this as the best opportunity to get a layout of the landscape and see what was out here. By the time this caravan arrives in Hopeville, I’ll have discovered four new locations, and that’s a good start.”

“Did you come down here from Hoofington?”

“I was born in Hoofington and I grew up there, yes. But once I made enough caps off of killing raiders and gangers and taking their stuff to sell it later, I left that place behind for good.” Raemor answered; I noticed a slight edge on his voice. “I lived in the heartland and worked as a gun for hire for many years after I left Hoofington, traveling between the heartland cities and the Trottingham region. Only recently did I leave the heartland and travel here.”

“It sounds like you have a bit of hate held out for Hoofington.” I remarked carefully.

“It’s not really hate.” Raemor replied. “Maybe a bit, but not fully. Life in Hoofington was hard, to put it lightly. Anypony who comes down here from that city will tell you the same thing. There’s just a lot of things that happened within its borders that I don’t like discussing. I hope you can understand.”

“Of course.” I responded with a smile.

Raemor nodded, apparently satisfied. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

Behind me, I heard hoofsteps on the approach, and I looked back to see Blake as he trotted back up to draw alongside me. “Gunny and Shore both said you should let me use a gun too.” he said with a rather goofy smile. “Just saying.”

“Oh did they now?” I couldn’t help but think of how Gracie would’ve reacted to that. She probably would’ve sighed an exasperated and oh so dramatic… okay not dramatic… sigh, just like I wanted to. Still, coming from Gunny and Shore, it wasn’t much of a surprise that they would’ve encouraged Blake along for weapons training as well. “Just don’t get too smug yet.” I warned jokingly, reaching over and bumping my muzzle against his neck. “I’ll need more than just a couple of minutes to think it through.”

“I know, I know.” Blake replied with a good-humored roll of his eyes. “Kayla told me all about the diner in Proudspire when we were there last time.” he stated a moment later, looking ahead to the approaching settlement to change the subject. “Do you think we can eat there tonight?”

“I’m already way ahead of you, little brother.” I answered with a wink, making him smile.

*** *** ***

With a rattle, the gate to Proudspire slowly opened, revealing the familiar and most welcoming sight of the dusty lane that led to the dirt courtyard at the center of town. Even before we had circled around the wall to enter the gate, the call had been taken up by the day shift of guards on the wall about the arrival of supply wagons under guard from Challenger’s soldiers. Now, Proudspire’s citizens lined the street, looking back at us with relieved and eager gazes.

“Keep the wagons for Hopeville outside the gate and get a fire going.” I heard the commander as he relayed his orders to his soldiers. “We’ll take the other two wagons into Proudspire and help distribute the supplies, and when we’re done, you’re all dismissed for the night. As for the guards, make sure you see me when we’re done here to receive your pay for the first leg of the trip. After that, you’re all likewise dismissed. Good work today everypony.” While his orders were relayed along the train, both of the Hopeville wagons were pulled past the entrance and lined up along the metal wall, giving room for the two Proudspire wagons to enter the settlement. Gunny, Shore, and Blake had regrouped outside of the wall, waiting for the wagons to cross into the town first.

“I’m willing to bet that Hopeville will have the same reactions as Proudspire’s citizens are having right now.” I commented when I joined them, smiling as I added, “Proudspire wasn’t this lively or happy the first time we came by.”

“Indeed.” Shore replied, equally pleased. “These supplies will do them a great deal of good.”

“The lack of raiders has a lot to do with it.” Gunny pointed out. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that there weren’t any bodies outside of the walls, no gunfire when we approached. It’s actually peaceful out here.”

“It feels good to come here on such a day. They deserve that peace.” I replied, motioning towards the gate. “Let’s get in there and see if we can find some familiar faces.”

Together, we passed by the open gate and entered the town. The two Proudspire wagons were pulling into the courtyard one behind the other, and as they came to a stop, the soldiers and the guards assigned to the wagons swiftly opened the canvas covers. As they worked, the citizens begun gathering closer around the wagons, all chatting amongst themselves and sharing the same big smile; that was something I couldn’t help but smile at myself. Nopony leapt upon the wagons’ cargo with greedy hunger, nor did they jump the guards and raid the wagons to loot. They stood their distance and let the guards and soldiers work until the caravan commander relayed his instructions to the populace. “Attention everypony!” the stallion called. “We’ll be unloading the food supplies first. Each of you are welcome to two items, whereupon the rest of the supply will be taken to the diner and the saloon so that it can be stored and then used as you like. Please form a line starting at the tailgate of the rear wagon and we’ll hand out two items of your choice to each of you.”

Just as a round of cheering was taken up by the civilians in response, my ears perked as I caught one voice that cut through the brief noise. “Well I’ll be damned. I should’ve know that you lot would’ve been in on this.”

I recognized the stallion’s voice, one that I had heard on my first visit here, and sure enough, when I turned to look to the source, I saw as a familiar orange unicorn buck, eye patch placed over his right eye, trotted towards us from the wall. “Redfield. It’s good to see you again.” I replied with a full smile, dipping my head in greeting.

“Hello Redfield.” I heard Gunny beside me, likewise bowing. “How are things around town nowadays?”

“Oh so much better, my friend.” Redfield replied with a hearty chuckle, stopping before us and reaching behind his head to adjust the strap of his eye patch. “With Gabriel and the Black Blood contingent he worked with out of the picture, we’ve all been able to get back on our hooves. And with this caravan, Proudspire will be back to its normal self in no time.” The unicorn stallion chuckled again as he added, “I can’t help but think that you four played a hoof in getting this caravan sent out to us.”

“Well no, not really.” I explained with a timid smile. “It was Challenger’s doing. They put the thing together and kept it safe until it arrived at your gate.”

“After we told them about Hopeville and Proudspire needing supplies.” Gunny pointed out, jabbing me in the side with a hoof as he smirked at my humbleness. “We let them know that the towns needed their help again despite the Black Blood. Don’t be afraid to take some of the credit.”

“Well, okay fine.”

Redfield laughed at that; he was definitely in much better spirits this time around. “Look, either way, you’ve all done us a hell of a service, even if all you did was talk to Challenger’s leaders about the situation.” Briefly, he looked back towards the courtyard where the food supplies were now being distributed. “I think Kayla and Ironhoof are down there supervising the distribution. You want to say howdy?”

“Yeah! Let’s get down there!” Blake piped up, already taking a few steps forward before the rest of us. At the colt’s energetic reply Redfield trotted on ahead, leading us down the lane and to the courtyard, and as we passed through a break in the crowd, I heard as Redfield called over the chatter. A high-pitched voice answered him with a cheerful hello just up ahead, and I quickly triangulated the voice as Redfield led us single-file to the wagons. Perched atop a supply crate at the back of the closest wagon was a light blue earth pony filly with a deep blue mane and tail, watching as one of the leather-clad Proudspire guards levitated over four food items to the next recipients in line, a young mare just out of foalhood and a foal in her company. “Enjoy!” Kayla called to the two ponies, both of whom thanked her wholeheartedly before trotting out of the crowd. Then, the young leader turned and looked straight into my own eyes. “Hey!”

“Hey Kayla!” I called back, Blake doing the same even more happily as Kayla leapt down from the crate.

Much to my amusement, the young filly sprang straight for my little brother where he stood beside me, nearly bowling him over as she flung her forelegs around his neck. “I knew you’d come back!” she exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too.” Blake replied enthusiastically. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been working nonstop.” Kayla explained, releasing her embrace. “And it’s been hard work too. I’ve been tired most of the time for awhile, and I’ve needed lots of help, but Ironhoof and Redfield both say that I’ve been doing a good job. Even other ponies who live here said so. Now that the raiders are gone, I’ve been able to get things done around town. We’re now able to safely send ponies out to that power plant for scrap stuff, guns, and anything else we can find. It’s become a supply source for us and should last for some time. That’s been our first major step.”

“It certainly looks like you’ve been busy.” I complimented, winning a big smile from the filly as she trotted up to me. “It’s good to see you again Kayla, and your settlement.”

She reared up on her hind hooves to hug me around the neck, giggling. “Thanks Nova, but this settlement belongs to everypony who lives in it.” she replied happily. “It isn’t just mine. I just try and help ponies be happy.”

I pulled the filly into a hug of my own. “Those are very honorable words and goals, Kayla. I knew you’d be a good leader, and just look at how much happier everypony is now. Good job.”

Kayla giggled again as she released me, her cheeks flushing with a light shade of pink. “Hey, are you and your friends going to stay for awhile? Now that we’ve got supplies again, we can give you all a really big dinner tonight!” Kayla declared.

“Well, we’ll be staying for dinner tonight and then sleeping outside with the caravan guards.” I replied after a short laugh. “But tomorrow morning we’re going to be moving on. Our home needs supplies too, very badly, and we need to get them there by tomorrow evening at the latest.”

“Oh okay. But at least we can still give you a good dinner. Oh!” Kayla exclaimed with a little hop. “And we have a present to give you too!”

I cocked an eyebrow. “You do?”

“Yeah! Redfield and Ironhoof and me made something for you. We were going to send it home with the other Hopeville ponies here, but now that you’re here we can give it to you now.” she explained.

“Somepony else is here from Hopeville?” Gunny asked from behind me. “Who?”

“Joker and Daisy.” Redfield answered. “The names ring any bells?”

“Yeah they do.” Gunny instantly replied, looking left and right along the crowd.

“They’re part of our security team.” Shore explained. “Do you know why they came?”

“We’re starting to revive our old trading habits.” Redfield answered. “They came with some extra scrap metal and spare rifle cases for our ammo press. In return, we’re giving them a couple of spare healing potions from the clinic to take home with them. They might be in the crowd somewhere, or in the saloon. I can help you look for them if you’d like.”

Gunny nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to go find them and get some updates on Hopeville.”

“I’ll come with you.” Shore put in.

“Then I can show Nova and Blake the present we have for you.” Kayla concluded, jabbing my foreleg with a hoof. “Come on!”

“Go ahead, Nova. We’ll meet back up at the gate later.” Gunny explained, looking over at Kayla and chuckling. “It looks like she’s pretty excited to give you that present.”

“Alright then.” I replied with a laugh. “Lead the way, Kayla.”

With a quick salute, the young filly trotted around the corner of the wagon, Blake passing me to join her as our group parted ways. We walked along the side of the rear wagon, trotting past the brahmin still harnessed to it before coming up to the next wagon. This wagon was not being unloaded at the moment, its cargo containing the scrap material, weapons, and ammunition of Proudspire’s shipment. Contrary to the crowd around the food wagon, there were only a scattering of citizens and a hoof full of Proudspire’s guards standing beside this one, and in front of the tailgate of the wagon, Ironhoof, clad in all his steel armor aside from his helmet, was looking over a clipboard with the caravan commander. In front of me, Kayla stopped and nodded for Blake and I to do the same, letting the two stallions talk.

“So you have enough here to sustain Proudspire until the next shipment?” the commander asked.

“Yes, this will do nicely.” Ironhoof’s deep voice replied. “When will the next shipment come?”

“We’ll prepare another one for Proudspire in between one to two weeks time.” the commander answered, Ironhoof nodding in approval. “General Silverlight’s hoping to have another caravan return with a new shipment of supplies from the heartland, at which point we’ll be making another round to both Proudspire and Hopeville.”

“How fairs the other settlements of the region?” Ironhoof asked.

“Not good, I’m afraid.” the commander answered lowly. “In Challenger, I’m also a ranking officer, and I was ordered to bring news to both Proudspire and Hopeville as to the present situation concerning the Equestrian southeast. That’s something that I’ll be wanting to discuss with you, Redfield, and Kayla tonight.”

Ironhoof only nodded again, seemingly unaffected by what struck me as uncomfortable words. “Very well. When night comes, we can meet in Kayla’s quarters to go over your full report.” The commander dipped his head in reply, and with an about-face, trotted off to the other wagon.

“Ironhoof, look who’s come back to visit!” Kayla piped up happily.

“Ah, the flier and her young sibling.” Ironhoof observed, looking down at me with a half smile. “Welcome back to Proudspire, my friends.”

I dipped my head in response to his own bow, Blake adorably doing the same beside me. “Hello Ironhoof. Things around Proudspire look much better.”

“Yes. I have not had anypony to fight in some time. This is a good sign.” he replied with a resonant chuckle, raising a foreleg and pulling Kayla against him in a gentle hug when she approached.

“I told them about the present we made for them.” Kayla said, placing her forehooves on her guardian’s chest plate to look up at the big stallion. “Is it still inside our house?”

“Yes. You can retrieve it now if you wish.” Ironhoof answered, to which Kayla nodded vigorously.

“Okay, I’ll go get it. Be right back.”

With a hop, skip, and jump, the filly bolted off back into the crowds, disappearing in half a second. “She’s very happy today.” I commented, smiling as I turned back to Ironhoof.

“Indeed she is.” the guardian replied with a deep chuckle. “She has been hard at work looking after those under her care, and she has been doing a very good job. The settlers here respect her and give her their full support. Her real father would have been very proud.” I arched an eyebrow at that - the way he said ’real father’ and the sudden concerned look that came with it - and at seeing my silent question, Ironhoof looked away to where Kayla had run off to, clearing his throat before adding, “Kayla has changed since the raiders were driven away. Two nights ago, I woke to her laying beside me on my bed. She had a nightmare that night and looked to me for comfort. I managed to calm her down enough to sleep, but it was then that she called me… her father. Since then… she has looked to me as a fatherly figure.” The armored buck sighed. “It has been… strange… being her protector when she thinks of me as such. When I was young, I learned only how to guard a pony, to protect them from physical threats… not to be a parent.”

“I see.” I looked toward the ground, thinking back to the Stable’s lessons… but really, there was only so much from those teachings that could help me reply here. “To an extent, guarding a pony and being their parent is the same thing.” I explained carefully, looking back up at Ironhoof as I swiftly pieced my thoughts together. “You still protect them and you still look after them. But a guard, like you’ve been trained to be, protects a pony out of duty or because they’ve been told to do so. A parent is so much more. A parent not only protects their child, but loves them unconditionally, cares for them, plays with them, helps them grow and learn.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Blake nodding.

“I have sworn to protect her, just like I had sworn to protect her father before her.” he stated, a frown beginning to form on his face. “And that in itself is another reason why I am hesitant. I failed to protect her father. He had been killed on the wall, defending Proudspire from a band of raiders. I had been on the wall with him, but not beside him, and I wonder if I could have somehow prevented his death…” Goddesses, that sounded unpleasantly familiar. “The fact that I failed to keep Kayla’s father alive makes me wonder if I am worthy of being thought of in such a way by a filly such as her. How can I possibly replace her original father?”

“I understand how that must hurt.” I replied sympathetically. “But things like that are beyond your power to control. The death of Kayla’s father wasn’t your fault, and she doesn’t hold it against you. That means that you shouldn’t either.” I saw a short nod from the big stallion, and I smiled back encouragingly. “Even if you protect her out of duty, you also care about her safety as the stallion you are. Kayla looks up to you as a father because you’re there for her. You should be honored.”

“I do wish to see her grow up, just like her father wanted.” Ironhoof replied, swinging his head around to look back at me. “She has been through much, and she has worked hard for Proudspire and its citizens. She deserves to live a long and prosperous life.”

“And the way I see it, you can help her do that in more ways than just guarding her because of an oath.” I stated confidently.

A faint smile tugged at Ironhoof’s lips. “Perhaps. We shall see.”

A moment later, a call of triumph announced Kayla’s return, and she trotted around from behind Ironhoof, pushing a small but long black box along the dirt. “Here it is.” Kayla said, looking at me as she scooted the case up to my hooves. “Redfield and Ironhoof made it for you. I mostly just watched them make it. Go ahead and open it.”

“What is it?” Blake asked, leaning against my left foreleg as I pulled the case closer with my free hoof.

“Open it and see.” Kayla encouraged with a smile.

“Alright. Blake, can you hold the left side of the box?” When my brother obliged, I pressed my hoof against the right side. “And lift.” Together, Blake and I lifted the box off of the ground, and a second later, the bottom of the container slid out, revealing the item within.

Inside the box was a black scabbard, and from the end of it jutted a hilt and pommel. The hilt itself was wrapped in leather, a clean-cut strip that fit between the pommel and cross piece perfectly. On the scabbard, I could see a small switch, and when Ironhoof reached over to push the lever forward, he used his other hoof to pull on the handle; out came the gleaming steel base of a combat blade.

“It’s a… a… what did you call it?” Kayla asked Ironhoof.

“It is a bowie knife, a larger blade for close-quarters defense.” Ironhoof explained, carefully lifting the blade out of the box and setting it on the ground. “Redfield and I found this in the armory two days back, and we decided to restore it to new condition. Kayla and I polished the blade, whereupon Redfield sharpened it. But he also inscribed a word into each side of the blade, one that we are reminded of in your presence.” Ironhoof proceeded to pull the blade out of its scabbard up to the very tip. The blade itself looked very new, lethally sharpened, and the spine curved slightly inward before curving out again, joining the edge to make a wickedly sharp tip. But what caught my eye the most was what I saw on the blade. Forged into the steel, as if finely carved into the metal itself, was the word ‘Honor’. “For everything you and your friends had given us, all three of us felt that we had not given you something in return. So we forged this new blade for you and your companions.” Ironhoof explained, sheathing the blade with a click. “I hope that none of you will come to have need of it for killing, but should the need arise, it will serve you well. Take it as something to remember us by.”

“I… wow… thank you.”

Ironhoof nudged the sheathed bowie knife to me with a hoof. “No.” he replied to me, shaking his head. “Thank you.”

“That looks really cool.” Blake complimented, watching as I pulled the blade to me.

“I don’t know if I’ll be the one to carry it, but it is a very beautiful knife.” I agreed, nudging the knife to Blake. “Could you put this in my saddlebag please? And do be careful. It isn’t a toy.”

“I know, I know.” he replied dismissively. Carefully, he picked up the knife by the sheath with his teeth and reared up on his hind legs up to open my left-side saddlebag, dispensing our new weapon inside. Doing so made my pipbuck chirp, and when I raised my foreleg to look over the screen, I saw that my inventory had been displayed; my pipbuck called the bowie knife Honor. “Who’s going to use it?” he asked, setting down on all fours again.

“I’m not really sure.” I replied. “I’ll show it to the others and see if one of them wants to take it. If not, I’ll carry it along in my saddlebags. Thank you again for this gift.” I added, turning back to Ironhoof and Kayla. “We’ll keep it with us, always.”

“I am glad to hear it… we are glad to hear it.” Ironhoof replied, looking down at Kayla and smiling as she hugged his armored foreleg.

“Now, who’s hungry?” the filly asked expectantly. “Sheila will be cooking up a lot of good stuff tonight in the diner.”

“Dinner sounds really good right now.”

*** *** ***

Weather.

Today was our thirteenth day on the surface, my friends and I, and yet there was nothing I had seen in all that time that came close to matching the beauty of what I was seeing now. This was something much different, a new side of the wasteland that I had never expected to see at all. It was something that actually gave the Equestrian southeast the right to be called beautiful.

Our caravan was now half as small as before, the empty Proudspire wagons and their escorts having been sent home to Challenger while the Hopeville wagons continued northwest. We had left Proudspire behind early in the morning, even before the sun had risen over the cloudy sky. Doing so had allowed us to make good time, as we had passed by the burned-down ruins of the Black Blood Forward Post in just under two hours of walking. The Boulder Field was beyond it, untouched and uninhabited, and we had arrived and passed it by very quickly. Now, we were nearly to Hopeville, and it had only been just over seven hours; that was when this happened.

Just minutes ago, the clouds had begun to flicker with light and spoke in rumbling voices to the wasteland below, whereupon water begun to fall on us. Lightning, thunder, rain - three things that had, only after a brief moment of confusion and shock, won my full admiration. Though it was lighter, the rainfall was most welcomed, cool and refreshing on my body, especially on my outstretched wings. The sound it made, the light hissing as the rain struck the dusty dirt all around us, coupled with the occasional resonant rumbling of the thunder above, put me in a state of relaxation. Judging by the pleased looks of the guards, they also didn’t mind.

But the light natural shower was only half of the beauty I bore witness to. In front of me, as if illuminating our destination, our home, were two rays of light, two breaks in the grey cloud cover that let the sunshine descend onto the land; they completed the midday shower. “It’s interesting, really.” Raemor commented beside me. “In Hoofington, the sun never came out in any circumstance. And over there, it would downpour, sometimes for a whole day straight. To see the sunlight come out in the middle of a light shower in the Equestrian southeast is… invigorating, to say the least.”

“Breaks in the clouds occur in the southeast occasionally, but not often.” a young mare guard from up ahead piped up. “Always happens randomly. Whenever the cloud cover gets thin enough, the sun can break through it for a bit before the clouds close back up. Sometimes we go weeks without sunlight, then sometimes the sun can be seen twice in a day.”

“Interesting.” Shore commented from behind me. “My guess is that there are no pegasus ponies to keep track of their cloud barrier here.”

The guard cocked her head in a shrug. “You might be right. Their big cloud cities that they hid in after the bombs fell seem to hover near the really important Equestrian city ruins. Caught a glimpse of an Enclave scout party in Manehattan when I was growing up. Because of the southeast’s lack of major cities besides Marefax, my guess is that the clouds here move around on their own.”

“I bet you could still tinker around with those clouds.” one of the Challenger soldier bucks pointed out from just behind the lead wagon, looking to me. “Unless surface-born pegasus ponies just can’t… I don’t know.”

I couldn’t help but squint up at the cloud cover. While I did know of a pegasus’ natural ability to move the clouds, stand upon them, or even create weather with them, the thought of doing any of these things myself had never crossed my mind… though it did suddenly sound rather appealing. “I’m not sure. Though now, I kind of want to go and try sometime.”

“Commander, I see Hopeville just up ahead.” the lookout on the forward wagon called, peering intently through his binoculars. “Everything looks normal, and we should be at the doorstep in about ten to twenty minutes.”

“We made good time today.” the beret-wearing commander replied, likewise at the front of the two wagon caravan. “Very good time. Let’s pick up the pace a little. The sooner we get there, the more time you’ll all have to rest.”

As the orders were relayed around, a half dozen guards beginning to urge the brahmin forward to a faster walk, I stopped and turned as the second wagon passed me by. Gunny and Shore were a couple yards behind it, an improvised rear guard along with a platinum-colored white-maned unicorn buck and bright pink unicorn mare with a golden mane and tail, Joker and Daisy respectively; all were perfectly uniform with their Stable 181 security armor. “We’re almost home.” I explained, watching as smiles of various sizes formed immediately upon the four of them.

“You four are going to love some of the new changes around Hopeville.” Daisy spoke up cheerfully. “Everypony’s been hard at work since Saber gave his orders.”

“What stuff happened?” Blake asked, he and I falling in line with the others.

“All of the buildings now have new purposes.” Joker explained. “Gracie’s moved her clinic into the M.O.P. building just like she wanted to, Captain Saber’s been training everypony on how to use firearms, and we’ve got about sixty capable guards for the town with more ponies currently in training. There’s even a firing range that’s been set up for guards and trainees alike to practice their skills, and all of that’s just the short list.” After a pause, he added, “Of course, the firing range hasn’t seen much use as of yet, but with this shipment, that’ll change in a big hurry.

“Hopeville also has its own general storage, diner, and we’ve even set up a small inn.” Daisy put in. “But developments aside, wasteland ponies from the northwest have actually come to town and settled in.”

I met her smile with a big one of my own. “Oh wow! How many came in?”

“Just over half a dozen, I believe.” Daisy explained. “The first family actually arrived the same day that you four left to go to Challenger. A mare, a stallion, and two young colts. They said they were a family from the heartland that made the journey to the southeast to live a peaceful life.”

“They were decent folks too.” Joker said. “They asked right away if they could help out around town for a place to call home, and Saber took them right in. Then this unicorn mare traveling solo came in a day afterwards. She was a younger unicorn mare who came to me on my night shift, said that she came to town because you all saved her from the invaders.”

“That’d be Ivy.” Gunny recalled, nodding with a thin smile. “I’m glad that she made it.”

Joker chuckled. “Saber took her in too, and she’s been one of the happiest ponies in town. Became instant best friends with little Melody.”

I couldn’t help but giggle at that; I had so called it.

“Did anypony else come in?” Shore inquired.

“Another family came by during the same day, looking for a settlement outside big city ruins to settle in.” Joker answered. “One mare and one stallion, and get this, the mare’s pregnant. They moved down from the heartland when the signs started to show, and they wanted a quiet place to bring their kid into the world.”

“Damn…” Gunny’s single word response summed up my own thoughts perfectly.

“Needless to say, they’ve got special accommodations, or at least the best and comfiest we could offer. Other than that, a couple of other travelers passed through from both the northwest and farther southeast.” Daisy explained. “We got around to some trading and let them stay in our new inn.”

“But after that, we left for Proudspire to try and get some more trading of our own done. We made two trips over the past four days.” Joker added with a light sigh. “Cram that together with a couple of guard shifts… Goddesses I’m tired.”

“But it’s all been worth it to see Hopeville restored.” Daisy replied to him, smiling as she added, “Now, I can’t wait to get back and start handing out these supplies. I bet there’ll be a party to celebrate this achievement.”

“Haven’t had a party in awhile.” Joker commented, smirking as he looked over to his pink companion. “I can’t wait.”

“I bet you’re -- eep!” Daisy jumped when Joker suddenly swatted her flank with his tail, and I quickly turned away to avoid revealing my insta-blush at seeing it. “You need to be a little more subtle, mister.” I heard the pink mare whisper; she still seemed quite accepting of the gesture despite her little warning.

“So um, perhaps I should go on ahead to let Captain Saber know we’re coming. Yeah?” I volunteered, not looking over to anypony in particular.

“He’d be glad for the heads up.” Gunny answered calmly. “And Gracie too.”

I nodded vigorously, grateful for the coming task. “Alright then. I’ll head over and meet you when you get there.”

But before that…

I recomposed myself and looked over at Blake, and leaning down, I asked, “Will you be okay if I go back to Hopeville and meet you there?”

“Yeah, sure.” Blake replied with a smile. “You’re just going home, and it isn’t far away. I can’t wait to get back there myself.”

I smiled back at him. “Alright. I’ll see you there then.” I bumped my muzzle against the side of his head in farewell… but then something else came to mind. “Hey…” I added, whispering. “You um… you didn’t see that, right?”

Blake cocked an eyebrow. “See what?” he asked; okay, good, he didn’t see that.

“Nothing. Sorry.” I instantly answered, stepping back a bit from the others to stretch out my wings and prepare for the brief flight back to Hopeville.

“What was I supposed to see?” Blake asked, turning around to look at me with genuine perplexity.

“It was nothing Blake.” Daisy replied, sticking up for me as she smiled at the colt.

Much to my embarrassment, the topic under question was immediately recognized by the others, briefly causing them all to stop. “Oh I just - ow!” What would’ve been Joker’s full explanation was silenced with a swift kick to his left hind leg by Daisy. “What’d I do?”

“Don’t corrupt the morals of the young.” Daisy chided her fellow guard.

“…I’m really confused.” Blake said, eyes looking between each of us for an explanation of some kind.

“Hey, you lot!” one of the caravan guards called from up ahead. “We’re almost there, so don’t fall behind now!” I could hear light chuckling from Gunny as he turned and left, Shore following him.

“Don’t worry about it, Blake. It was nothing.” I assured, giving him my best smile.

“Okay…” With a puzzled frown, the colt turned and trotted away to catch up with Gunny and Shore.

When Blake was far enough away, I looked back at the others and sighed with relief. “Okay then, now I’ll go.”

“I’ll make sure the troublemaker here stays in line until we get back.” Daisy assured, casting a firm yet amused look back at Joker, who smirked in return.

“Hey, it’s written into my very name.” he replied wittily.

Daisy sighed. “Stallions…” she muttered with a roll of her eyes, a gesture I couldn’t help but mimic as I spread my wings. But then, the two of them trotted ahead to catch up to the caravan, and with that, I sprung skyward.

Over the course of the journey, I had slowly gotten reacquainted with flying through periodic low-altitude flights around the wagon train. Headaches had been common on multiple attempts throughout the first half of the trip, but over time, they had faded almost entirely, and I was nearly fully recovered. Now, with home in sight as I climbed higher into the sky, any deterioration in my physical strength was instantly healed.

In just a couple minutes, I had closed the distance between myself and Hopeville, and I stopped and hovered to admire the town from my vantage point in the air. Hopeville, home, looked brighter and stronger, younger and livelier, more so than it ever had before. Below, even in the light shower, I could see dozens of ponies outside from the security mares and stallions patrolling the streets on dayshift to citizens in the courtyard and beyond the town perimeter enjoying their first ever experience with natural rain. There were other ponies scattered amongst the town who were renovating and building. The house at the southeast corner of town, the original roof of which had collapsed upon it, was currently under repair, a group of ponies from Stable 181 maintenance working to built a new sheet metal roof to keep the rain out and make the building usable once again. At the opposite end of town, the house that had been destroyed by the Black Blood mobile balefire egg launcher was currently being salvaged for any and all useful items, from scrap to intact equipment. And at the east side of town, scrap metal and stonework had been erected to form four parallel walls, making three wide lanes that stretched straight ahead to the north, making what must’ve been the new firing range and establishing it as the new eastern border of town.

But there were so many ponies that were missing from the picture down there, so many who deserved to be here with us but couldn’t… they were just to the west; I could see the graveyard.

Before my thoughts could turn to the past, I tucked in my wings and dropped towards the courtyard in a dive, leveling out a few yards above the ground to fly a quick lap around the town. I flew just above the height of the rooftops, making tight turns to follow the path of the buildings on all three sides of town as I searched for Captain Saber. With all of the preparations still being executed around town, I had no doubt that I’d see him outside, and as I flew above the buildings on the west side of town, I spotted the older stallion outside of the entrance of City Hall, garbed in full Stable 181 security armor and looking out over the town he was leading.

With another left turn, I lowered down to ground level, Saber catching sight of me before I back-winged, halting my momentum and landing easily on all fours. “Hi Captain!” I called cheerfully, tucking in my wings against my sides. “Did you miss me?”

Saber instantly smiled. “Nova! Damn good to see you back again. Welcome home.”

“It’s so good to be back, sir. You have no idea.” I replied with a giggle. “And I have some excellent news.”

Saber briefly looked out to the courtyard again as he trotted up to me in the street, and I saw that other ponies were beginning to gather, most of them smiling at me and uttering ‘welcome backs’ of their own. “And what might that news be?” Saber asked, smile unfading.

I gave a little wave to the scattered Stable ponies as they looked on. “Captain,” I began, turning back to him. “supplies are on the way. They’re less than ten minutes away from here.”

Saber dipped his head at my words, shoulders coming up before dropping back down as he sighed heavily. “Those are the best words I’ve heard in days.” he replied, looking back up at me and chuckling; I could tell that a very heavy load had just been thrown from his shoulders. “Well done, Nova. Well done indeed.” He turned to the slowly growing assembly in the courtyard, suddenly raising a foreleg in triumph. “Everypony, supplies are coming! Spread the word!”

I couldn’t help but flinch at the volume of the collective cheer that followed, some already trotting away into town to go tell friends and family of the new news - the very good news. But still, I smiled, watching as the crowd dispersed to carry the report away; the captain was watching with me. “Congratulations, sir.” I said, poking him in the side with a hoof. “These supplies were our last step to securing ourselves a life on the surface. With relations established to Challenger, we can have a life again. You did it, Captain Saber. Without your leadership, we may have never made it this far.”

The captain chuckled, swinging his head over to look me in the eyes. “We did it. We all did it.” he replied, looking me over and nodding in apparent approval. “It looks like you’ve been busy. Did you just come back from a war zone?”

I couldn’t help but timidly scuff my hoof on the ground at the joking comment. I suppose being ninety-five percent covered with weapons, ammo, and other equipment was enough to give off that kind of impression. “The past couple of days have been a bit of a journey.” I explained before nodding towards the south. “The caravan that’s coming is being led by one of Challenger’s ranking officers. There are some things that he’ll be wanting to talk to you and your sergeants about today.”

“I see. So what did happen while you were out there? What did you see?” he asked.

Together, we sat face to face in the street and under the light rain as I recollected the past four days, beginning with the discovery of Lucky Hallion and Marian’s safehouse in the region; as I had partially expected, Saber was adequately surprised when I told him that the safehouse itself was Stable 203. After that, I had briefly described our skirmish with the invader patrol, leading to Ivy’s freedom from the raiders she had initially joined. According to the captain, she was a very contributive and respectable mare, already winning over the hearts of Hopeville’s children through her artwork.

“After freeing Ivy, I found this.” I explained, craning my head around to look over Blue Fire’s Torch. “We spent the night in an Old World ruin, a radio station for the Equestrian southeast during the war. It had been the site of a skirmish between a pony and a squad of zebra soldiers, and according to Lucky Hallion, it happened during the war.” Saber’s ears perked up at the mention of Equestria’s wartime enemies. “We found a diary that had been preserved in the megaspell shelter we found under the station. It belonged to the pony who was being pursued by the zebras. And then we found the rifle perfectly preserved in a gun case… and… I still don’t know how or why, but it has my own cutie mark painted onto each side of the stock. You can see them because they’re a little darker than the blue camouflage over the rest of the rifle.”

Saber stood up and peered around me to check out the rifle for himself. “Well, no kidding.” he said, running a hoof over the stock. “That’s definitely strange to see. And it just came like this?”

I nodded. “Yes. The pony we found, just a skeleton now - he or she was the owner of the rifle before my friends and I found it. The diary itself called the weapon Blue Fire’s Torch, a family heirloom or something along those lines.”

“What makes you say that?” Saber asked, stepping back to face me again.

“The diary.” I answered. “There were a few entries in it. It talked about how the pony had carried the rifle with him or her throughout the course of several days while being hunted by the zebras. There weren’t many details, but apparently the zebras had killed all of his or her friends… they were being exterminated by them.”

Saber frowned. “That’s terrible.”

“The last entry was written when the zebras finally caught up to the pony, fatally wounded him or her.” I continued with a nod. “It said that the rifle belonged in the hooves of a brother or sister. It’s been at least a hundred and seventy years or so since that diary was written, and yet nopony found this rifle. So the way I figured it, I would carry it until I found where one of that pony’s brothers or sisters was buried. Then I’d return the rifle to it’s rightful place.” The captain smiled a little at that. “The thing is though… is that when I was reading that diary, I felt like… I felt different.” I explained, sluggish as I tried to piece my thoughts together. “The diary talked about honoring the dead, the friends and family that were lost, carrying on in their names and in honor of their sacrifices. Reading those words made me feel like I could describe the personality of the pony who wrote them. I want to say I almost felt like I knew that pony.”

“It seems to me that whoever this pony was, he or she believed in many of the same things that you do now.” Saber replied. “Your personalities, perhaps.”

“It was more than personalities that we seemed to share.” I explained with a slow nod. “I think something bad happened to that pony because of the zebras. He or she was being chased by them, and the pony lost his or her parents. Maybe that is primarily why I felt the way I did.”

“I see.” The captain put a hoof on my shoulder. “But it sounds like this pony was honor-bound to remain strong, no matter the circumstance. I see that strength in you as well. So perhaps there are things beyond those tragedies, stronger and brighter things, that the two of you share.”

I smiled thinly at the older buck’s words. “Thanks captain.” At his smile and nod, I continued my recollection of previous events with describing our finding of the zebra reconnaissance aircraft wreckage outside of the radio station, whereupon the location of Buckley Air Force Base was marked on my pipbuck’s larger map. And after describing our first visit to the impressive Challenger, I had intentionally skipped over the battle at Plainwell to tell the rest of the good news first. “Well, it was actually something that Proudspire gave to us when we arrived with their own supply wagons.” I explained, recollecting our visit to our allies to the south. “They gave us a bowie knife that they restored, had the word ‘Honor’ forged into the steel. Gunny has it right now.” Saber chuckled at that, his smile fading when I took on a more serious look of my own. “But between getting those weapons, the knife and my rifle, something else happened that Challenger’s officer will be talking to you in more detail about. There was a settlement to the east called Plainwell, built on the same pre-war road as Hopeville. Before we came out of Stable One-eighty-one, it was a town settled by tribals from a place called Route Fifty-two far to the north. I went there on the request of a mare looking for her husband. Both of these ponies were Lucan’s parents.” Saber nodded, remembering the colt. “But when I got there, the settlement had been attacked, its citizens killed nearly to the last. The ones responsible weren’t the Black Blood Raiders either. They were soldiers, part of a group called the Talon Legion from the northwest, and apparently they’re old enemies of Challenger that have just now returned after disappearing for ten years. There are two major factions in the southeast now, and both of them are at war with Challenger.”

“Goddesses…” Saber frowned in thought, eyes narrowing as he looked down at the cracked pavement under his hooves. “So now we have two different hostile groups to look out for?”

“I’m afraid so, captain.” I answered lowly. “The Talons engaged me on sight… and they wiped out an entire settlement and set up a base there.” Or rather, Talon Station Charlie, according to my pipbuck. “They’re picking up where they left off with Challenger, and according to the city’s second-in-command, they make targets out of all smaller settlements.”

“If it isn’t one thing, then it’s another… I guess we’re quite fortunate to be getting our resupply now.” Saber sighed. “Without it, I don’t think we would’ve had even the slightest chance protecting ourselves against two major hostile factions.” I nodded grimly at that, making to reply when a voice, one that I instantly recognized, called out my name.

I had only managed to stand and turn when a mass of bright red bowled into me, nearly knocking me onto my back as I was tightly embraced. “You’re finally back!!” Rosemary Grace exclaimed joyously. “I’ve missed you so much!”

Thoughts of the Talons and Black Blood stomped to dust by my friend’s welcoming voice, I laughed, hugging her as tightly as I could in return. “Good to see you. Things look so much better here now.”

“Oh, in so many ways.” Gracie replied, not letting go. “Everypony’s back into the streets. And this rain!” We both laughed together at that. “Hopeville has really become quite something, and the wasteland seems to be welcoming it in full.”

“Captain!” a guard buck called from down the road; he was facing the south. “Here they come, sir!”

Saber looked between Gracie and I as we released our embrace, nodding for us to follow when he had our attention. “Come on. Let’s go give this caravan the warm welcome they deserve.”

*** *** ***

“So you actually want to go through with this, don’t you?”

I stepped out of Captain Saber’s new quarters (formerly the Hopeville Mayor’s office), the second to last to leave after the meeting had concluded. When the caravan had arrived, we had worked quickly and eagerly to get the supplies safely stored in Hopeville’s new designated storage areas. Afterwards, Saber had called a meeting with the caravan commander to which Gunny and I had attended. The officer, true to his word, explained of the situation with the Talon Legion as well as the Black Blood Raiders’ increased activity farther to the southeast. There was no lie in his voice when he described both factions as armies, and at the moment, there was nothing for Hopeville to do except to stay on guard and always keep a sharp eye on every horizon. According to the officer, we were one of the three surviving settlements in the region, right alongside Proudspire and the newly established town of Searchlight to the south of Challenger; a total of only three settlements outside of the massive city and its sister city of Ashton was, unfortunately, not very encouraging.

However, the officer had let us in on a bit of General Silverlight’s plan, a new campaign that was already underway. The taking of the Brightheart Farmstead from the Black Blood marked the official beginning of a massive operation against the raiders, and it was now the first outpost of what was hoped to be many that would soon begin to spot the region. Farther to the southeast, Ashton was becoming a fortress. More personnel, freshly trained in Challenger, were moving in every three days, providing a steady growth in the number of soldiers stationed there. This was to meet the threat of the Black Blood’s primary base of operation, believed to be on the southwest end of a broad stretch of land called The Warpath. According to the officer, The Warpath was nothing more than a massive field of rock and dust beyond which, to the far southeast, was the undying spectacle of a massive sandstorm, one that stretched across the horizon, and one that had been churning for an unknown number of years; this had made it the declared natural border of the Equestrian southeast region.

Afterwards, the officer had closed his own discussion with the promise of another supply shipment in roughly two weeks, including the possibility of additional military personnel to become Hopeville residents while helping in protecting the town. That was when I had announced my next plan of action. “Yes, Gunny.” I answered my friend with a nod, the two of us stopping in the hallway as the others descended to the City Hall’s first floor. “I want to head to Buckley Air Force Base next and scout the place out.” In truth, ever since the location had appeared on my pipbuck after listening to the CVR box on the wrecked zebra aircraft, I had wanted to see the base for myself. “And believe it or not, I have more reasons as to why I want to go than just wanton curiosity.”

“We just got home, Nova.” Gunny replied, arching an eyebrow in apparent confusion. “You’re not even going to take a break before you go flying out over unknown territory?”

“I… well… look, that base has my attention for multiple reasons.” I repeated. It was a little harder to argue against obvious logic, and really, I should be resting a little longer… shouldn’t I? Perhaps a day with the children again, or meeting the new settlers? Many times before, I had always been eager to return home, so why did I feel like I was becoming eager to leave? “…It’s Old World military, Gunny. There could be a lot of valuable things in that base - food, water, ammo, weapons - items that could be of great use to Hopeville. And now that we have two veritable armies in this region, both of which are hostile to everypony allied with Challenger, I have more reason than ever to at least scout the place out. Hell, maybe Challenger already sent a group out to take control of the base. I don’t know what or who might be there, but it’s worth a look all the same.”

“My point still stands though.” came Gunny’s even reply. “We’ve not only just come home, but you’re still technically recovering from what happened to you at Plainwell. You need to rest for at least another day, and enjoying some time off wouldn’t hurt you either.”

“I’m fine, Gunny.” I assured, flapping my wings. “Our last day in Challenger and that trip with the caravan was more than enough rest for my strength to return to me. I bet I could just make a quick flight over the base by myself and come home in the same-”

“No!”

Gunny’s sharp reply caught me entirely off-guard, halting my words immediately and making me flinch in surprise. “Huh?”

“I said no.” Gunny replied, his voice low as he fixed me with firm eyes. “After what happened to you in Plainwell, there’s no way you can be thinking about going out there alone again. What if you got hurt and one of us wasn’t there with you?”

“I won’t let what happened at Plainwell happen again.” I replied with as much confidence as I could muster. “Those Talon griffins caught me by surprise in Plainwell. That’s all there is to it. If I encounter them again, I’ll be ready for them the next time I fly out on my own.”

My friend shook his head; he was beginning to look a little irritated… concerned too. “You can’t go out there by yourself, Nova… you just can’t. It’s too dangerous and you know it.”

“I’m perfectly safe when I’m above the surface.” I explained with what I thought was a reassuring smile. “When I flew to Plainwell, I stayed at a high altitude and had no encounters with any hostiles. What happened at Plainwell when I got there was just… unexpected.”

“I know that.” Gunny replied. “But that doesn’t mean that you should start making a habit out of going outside on your own. I know you’re faster by yourself, flying instead of walking, but staying in the company of at least one other pony is much safer than flying alone.”

“What I did for Bella and Lucan required me to fly.” I stated. “It was the fastest way to locate Shotshell and get him home.”

“But that-”

I raised my hoof to interrupt, adding quickly, “And, when I got there, Shotshell and those who fought with him helped me out of Plainwell when I was wounded. I still made it out, and I’m still alive.”

Gunny huffed. “I know, Nova.”

“If the need arises, then I can go out by myself again.” I pushed on. “Being a pegasus means that I can get things done faster, and sometimes, that’s what’s needed to survive.” A moment of silence lingered as we stared at one another. Gunny was clearly in disagreement, but not only with me. It looked as though he were trying to choose his next words out of a mental list or responses, uncertain of the best choice; I could see it in his eyes.

Then finally, “I won’t let you.”

I cocked an eyebrow, frowning. “What?”

“I won’t let you go out there alone, not again, not after what happened in Plainwell. I don’t want that to happen to you again, and neither do the others.” Gunny calmly asserted.

“And what would you do to stop me?” I challenged, taking a step forward.

“I could put you under arrest and keep you detained if I had to.” Gunny replied warningly. “At least long enough for you to get some common sense back.”

“What business is it of yours to decide what I do with myself??” I demanded, eyes narrowing.

Gunny locked his eyes to my defiant stare. “Friends look out for each other.” he answered slowly, emphasizing each word. “If you’re going to go out there and try and do something stupid, then it is my business.”

“I can make my own choices, just like you and Grace and Shore can! It’s not your place to interfere!”

“Shore and Gracie would agree with me on this!” Gunny retorted.

I stomped a forehoof to the floor. “The choice isn’t yours to make, Gunny! You’re not my father!!”

“THAT’S NOT THE POINT!!!” Gunny fired back fiercely, glaring angrily; the force of his voice immediately stamped out my own words, instantly making my eyes widen and my ears pin back against my head as I took a step back.

Perhaps it was my startled reaction, or just the fact that he knew that he had my attention, but the big stallion’s glare softened before he looked to the floor, sighing as he shook his head. “I’ve kept my thoughts to myself while you recovered from your wounds…” he said, much more quietly. “But not anymore…” he looked up to lock eyes with mine again. “It doesn’t matter that you can fly above all of the dangers on the ground, and I know that you can protect yourself. I’ve seen you fight, and I know that you’re capable. But what happened at Plainwell, how Shotshell and the town’s survivors had saved you… that was luck, Nova. That was just downright luck. If those civilians hadn’t been escaped prisoners, or if they hadn’t even been spared at all… those Talon griffins you fought might’ve very well killed you that day.” His stern stare fell to a very worried gaze as he spoke those last words, and he added, “If you had died… what do you think would’ve happened to Blake? I mean… did you really already forget about what you two talked about in the clinic?”

“… I…” I couldn’t find an answer, even when I attempted to speak. I could only clear my throat as thoughts and memories of Blake came rushing up to the eyes of my mind. Leaving Blake alone in this wasteland, without any blood family remaining, was perhaps… no… it was my biggest fear, put side by side with losing my baby brother altogether. And I remembered - remembered how scared and hurt he had been when I saw him after I woke… how he had feared that I had died.

“I know that you remember that day when you finally woke up and saw Blake again, and you know damn well that he would’ve been devastated beyond any possible description of the word.” Gunny answered for me, adding after a lingering silence, “I know that this all happened days ago, but when you talk about going out there again, all by yourself… it makes me nervous… afraid.”

He never used that word.

I looked him in the eyes again, the somewhat familiar feeling of the world around me being tuned out as all of my attention diverted to the stallion before me. “Why would you be afraid?” I asked, gentle but curious.

“Because what happened to you at Plainwell, everything that happened to you in the wasteland… in the Stable…” Gunny sighed lightly, then taking a step towards me, confidently spoke, "What happens to you matters to me.”

I stared into his eyes as his words set in, echoing in my mind like a voice in a cave. Gunny was one of my dearest friends, and I knew that he’d never lie to me. But the tone of his words, his confident, deep, yet gentle voice speaking those last seven words… I immediately thought back to Proudspire, the clinic… Cross. The riflepony’s voice back then, and Gunny’s voice now, carried equal sincerity, strength, and care. And it wasn’t just a hunch or an assumption that drove me to think this. No. I could hear these things in Gunny’s words. “I… I’m sorry.” I began, lowering my gaze. “It’s wrong of me to make all of you worry about me like that… especially Blake. It’s just… over the past several days, more and more threats have been showing themselves. The Black Blood have been growing in numbers… the Talons arrived… Though we’ve been building ourselves back up, we still need to keep working just as hard as before, if not harder, to try and make sure that we’re always ready to stand up to the danger that these two factions pose.” I paused, scuffing a hoof on the dirty carpet of the hallway before I added, “I never said it aloud… but I’ve gotten scared. We’re a town of one hundred and sixty ponies, and we’ve lost so much to make a place for ourselves. And now we have to stand up against two armies. I still have faith in Hopeville, in all of us… but that doesn’t take away the fear.”

“I know.” Gunny replied gently. “And I also know that fear can lead to desperation. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I’d say that this is kind of where you stand at the moment. Am I right?” At my nod, he continued, saying, “I know you, Nova. You’re always ready and willing to help.” I looked back up to see Gunny smiling a thin smile. “But you don’t have to do this alone.” he replied, closing the distance between us. “Don’t make it a habit of flying solo, even if you’re the only one who can fly.” A short giggle escaped me at that rather terrible joke, and I returned his smile as he added, “We all care about you, Nova. Let us help.”

I stepped forward and hugged him around the neck, my friend draping a foreleg over my back… well, sniper rifle… in return. “Thank you.” I said, hugging him tight. “And… I’m sorry about earlier.” I added. “It was wrong of me to be so stubborn.”

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” he replied, resting his head over my neck. “I know that I can’t force you to do anything, but I hope… I pray, that you won’t go out there by yourself again. Seeing you in that clinic… I don’t want to see that again.”

When he released me, I fell back to all fours, looking him in the eyes. For a brief moment, it was almost amusing to see him look so genuinely concerned. Gunny was never one to show anxiety to others, and it was one of many traits he was known for. It was also one of many that I admired him for - that, and his able mind, his kind heart, his strength and loyalty, and his honor-bound commitment to his fellow Stable dwellers (and yes, he was… also quite handsome…).

But here and now, I was touched by his compassion, honored by his words. It was a great feeling to know that I had the friends that I had. “Raemor was right when he said, ‘In this world of uncertainty, no matter which part of it we may live in, it’s good to have friends.’” I stated, sharing a smile with my friend before I leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on his right cheek before I stepped back. “I’m glad you’re with me, Gunny.”

Suddenly, static erupted on my pipbuck’s speaker, snapping both our gazes to the computer on my foreleg as a stallion urgently called, “Attention all security personnel! Report for security assignments immediately! We have hostiles inbound!”

“What?! Who are they?!” a mare spoke over the security channel.

“Black Blood squad, at least a dozen coming in from the north side!” the stallion answered quickly.

“Get a fire team into the second floor of the inn!” Captain Saber ordered. “I want four guards to every building to lock them down! Make sure everypony that can’t fight stays inside-”

Through the continuing radio chatter, Gunny and I bolted for the exit, my friend falling in behind me as we quickly descended the staircase leading to the first floor. Already, ponies were being herded into the City Hall through the main lobby entrance, the leaders of the group passing us by on the staircase as they hurried up to the second floor rooms. At the entrance, three guards were urgently waving the civilians inside, and I could see out one of the open windows on the first floor as several others were running for the City Hall from all over town, the guards and a number of armed civilians all scrambling in the opposite direction.

“Nova! Out the window!” I looked back around at the far end of the room, catching sight of Gunny just before he leapt through one of the open windows and out into the streets.

Quickly following his example, I jumped out of City Hall and onto the street before the two of us ran across the courtyard together. The guards were rallying by the new Hopeville Inn at the northwest corner of town, others lining up behind the Hopeville Press and the Ministry of Peace building. I could see the captain relaying his orders to a squad assembled by the inn’s entrance.

“Now go and set up!” Saber dismissed the team as Gunny and I joined up with the other guards.

“What’s going on, sir?” Gunny quickly asked.

“Good, you’re here.” Saber acknowledged, trotting up to us as he said, “We’ve got a squad of Black Blood raiders moving in from the north and they’ll be in range in just a few moments. Gunny, I want you on the second floor of the inn with that LMG. There’s ammo stashed inside, and Joker’s already waiting for you.” With a quick salute, Gunny left and followed the fire team upstairs, Saber quickly turning to me and adding, “I want you on the roof of the Hopeville Press with that sniper rifle of yours, and I want you watching them. If they try anything, pick them off.”

“But I haven’t used Blue Fire’s Torch before.” I replied anxiously.

“Nova, I need you up there.” Saber retorted sternly, jerking his head towards the newspaper building to our right. “If this comes to a firefight, then you can take to the skies, but right now that’s where I want you. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“O-okay. Yes, sir.” I said with a nod. “What about all the other residents? And the children? Are they safe?”

“Yes, they’re all hiding out in the buildings now. Ivy took the foals and is keeping them safe in the Repair Shop. Blake’s fine.”

I breathed a quick sigh of relief, nodding. “Thank you.”

“Captain, they’re almost here!” a mare called, one of Saber’s sergeants as identified by her pipbuck.

“We’re out of time! Everypony get ready, you know what to do!” Saber ordered, and without further words, he galloped down the road to join those behind the Hopeville Press.

Letting out a sharp exhale, I craned my head around and caught Blue Fire’s Torch by the stock, removing it from my battle saddle and beating my wings to get off of the ground before hugging the rifle to my chest. Even as I hovered up over the roof of the building, I saw as four teams of four guards begun to move out beyond the town’s north perimeter, moving single-file and sticking to sandbag and metal barricades placed in the ruined house foundations beyond Hopeville’s north side. Now that I was in the air, I could see more of the ground to the north, and sure enough, there was a mass of black and red armor trotting towards Hopeville, a dozen or so ponies galloping together in a tight cluster.

Hovering down, I set the rifle aside on the stone roof before landing, quickly lowering myself down onto my belly before examining the Torch. “Oh, I should’ve looked over this thing when I found it.” I muttered, eyes darting from one attachment to the next. “Okay…” I pulled the rifle in front of me, looking over to where the bipod attachment was folded up under the back of the barrel. The weapon was difficult to manage without a saddle, and I had to pull the weapon under my right foreleg to pull the folded bipod out from its locked position. It swung down and snapped closed perpendicular to the barrel, and I saw that there were two rods, the legs, that could be separated to fully assemble the attachment.

As I did so, finally setting up the bipod and placing it down atop the stone via the small metal plates at the bottom of each leg, my pipbuck came alive with shouting, first coming as a pleading and desperate voice, dimmed from its distance to the closest pipbuck speaker. “Please don’t shoot! We’re not here to fight!”

“STOP RIGHT THERE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” came the furious reply of one of the security sergeants.

With the bipod assembled, I quickly situated myself into a proper prone position, bringing the rifle butt up to my shoulder and hugging it tight before taking the firing bit in my mouth and pressing my eye against the rubber eyepiece of the scope.

“You guys gotta help us!!” a second stallion’s softer voice begged through my speakers.

“I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPONS! DROP EM!”

Blue Fire’s Torch moved freely from its place on the bipod, the swivel mount allowing me to turn the rifle wherever I could aim without jostling the rifle about. Scooting slightly to my right, I brought the rifle down and to the left, finally centering the crosshairs over the confrontation. The four teams of guards that had moved up now formed a half circle around the group of black and red armored raiders, still keeping behind cover. Captain Saber, accompanied by one of his security sergeants as well as three of the Challenger soldiers from the caravan escort, was heading out as well, the rest of the Hopeville guard standing by behind the perimeter.

“NOW GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! GET DOWN ON YOUR STOMACHS! DO IT!”

Through the scope, I could see as the raiders complied almost all at once, their weapons instantly retrieved by the unicorns of the guard teams as they were forfeited by their raider owners. When all of the raiders were on the ground and disarmed, hunkered under the rifles trained upon them, Captain Saber approached the group, stopping just in front of the line of guards. “Why are you here?” I heard Saber demand over my radio.

“Cause we don’t wanna die!” a mare answered desperately, and I saw the raider who spoke as she attempted to crawl towards the captain.

“DON’T MOVE!” One of the guards sprang over cover, ramming the butt of his rifle into the raider mare’s side with his telekinesis, stopping her movement as she let out a cry before he pressed the rifle barrel against the side of her skull.

“You’ve come to the wrong damn place to ask for mercy.” Saber said to the raider group, his voice dark with hate. “You should feel blessed that I’m even contemplating the choice of letting you walk out of here with your lives.”

“Please, you’ve gotta help us!” one of the raider stallions at the back of the group piped up. “Our camp was destroyed by the Talon Legion, and they were still coming after us when we ran for it!”

That got my attention, and judging by the captain’s silence, it caught his as well. These raiders had been attacked by Talon soldiers, the second faction of the southeast? So they weren’t allied with them? Just like Challenger was fighting the both of them, they were fighting each other? For a moment, I saw through my crosshairs as Saber stared down the raider group, the guards all likewise silent. Then, “Are you part of the original task force that attacked our town?” Several of the raider team nodded affirmatively.

“So this is what’s left of the invaders we drove back.” one of the security sergeants muttered, just loud enough for me to hear his words over the radio; I could hear the sheer detestation in his voice.

“What do you know about the Talons?” Saber asked calmly.

“They kicked our asses and were still chasin us!” one of the raiders answered fearfully.

“Serves you bastards right!” a mare guard shouted, her voice dampened by my radio speaker.

“Easy.” Saber remarked, quelling his subordinate before facing the raiders again. “Where was your camp?”

“Just north of here.” a raider mare timidly answered, barely audible to me.

I turned my rifle up and away from the raiders to look ahead, slowly scanning across the northern fields beyond Hopeville… no movement… no other approaching hostiles…

“Just a small force?” Saber asked, my ears perking as I registered the continued interrogation over my radio.

“Only fifty to sixty.” one of the raiders explained nervously. I guided the crosshairs down from the horizon and back to the cluster of ponies, checking over each of the raiders… nothing suspicious…

Captain Saber then turned around, turning his back to the raiders to talk to the sergeant behind him. “Get them on their hooves and escort them to the Hopeville Press. The building’s empty and if it’s under guard, it’ll serve as a good enough holding cell until I can figure out what the hell to do with them.”

I saw as the sergeant nodded, a slight movement that occurred in time with a second small movement coming from the cowering raiders, two movements in stillness… a faint glow from a unicorn raider at the front of the group, staring at Saber’s back as he… A GUN!

In just that second, I went from calm and focused to near panic, and as my crosshairs jumped to the center of the raider group, I chomped down on the bit.

BLAM!!!

Blue Fire’s Torch roared violently, a sharp and nearly painful crack of sound that echoed across Hopeville and beyond. The kick of the rifle struck my shoulder with unexpected force, but the scope fell back on target, and I saw as the powerful shot struck the dirt in between my target and a mare raider beside him, kicking up a spray of the dead earth between them while the raiders covered their heads, the guards ducking behind cover or throwing themselves to the ground simultaneously; I had missed my target, but the weapon the unicorn had been slowly bringing out, a silenced 10mm pistol, fell to the ground.

“One of them has a gun!!” I cried into my radio.

“GUN! GUN!”

I heard as the guards took up the call with their sergeant, recovering quickly from my thunderous intervention and bringing their weapons to bear on the raiders before them. At the same time, the same raider buck was bringing the pistol back up, desperately trying to get a round off as he scrambled to all fours. But just as I was about to take another shot to try and get the kill, gunfire sounded in two controlled bursts from two assault rifles, bringing the buck down and the assassination weapon with him.

But just as he fell, more of the raiders sprung to their hooves, and what had been tense silence in a controlled situation now dissolved into utter chaos. Two raiders at the back of the cluster immediately wheeled and darted away, galloping away in a panic as six of their cohorts leapt to engage the nearest guards in desperate unarmed combat. One other raider stood but didn’t move, the buck looking about in a frenzy and torn between multiple courses of actions. Only two of the bunch remained on the ground, now covering their eyes with their forelegs as the fight erupted around them.

Through my scope, I saw as three of the unarmed raiders were gunned down, having lost their grapple with the opponents they had chosen to face. The fourth was struggling against two unicorn guards, shoving and hitting back as one of them levitated a combat knife out. And then, as the knife came down on the raider’s throat, the guards finally bowling the stallion down to the ground, the fight ended.

Scope darting left and right, I could see that the other two raiders who had sprung into battle had been taken down as well, one from a combat blade in the skull, and another from a shotgun shell to the gut. Even the one raider who had stood, but not moved, was dead, shot by the Challenger soldiers who had been given a clear line of sight by standing directly in front of the group. Only the two raiders who had stayed still, one mare and one younger buck, were left alive, rifle barrels now pressed to their faces.

“Shit!” Saber swore through the radio, breathing heavily as he came back to his senses. “I felt the wind from that shot…”

I released the firing bit, looking away from the scope to let out a sigh of my own. “Is everypony okay? Nopony’s hurt?”

“We’re all fine here.” Saber answered me, his normal breathing returning to him. “I guess age is starting to catch up to me, Nova… thanks for saving my hide there.”

“Captain, there’s two of them on the run!” one of the sergeants spoke through his pipbuck. “Should we pursue?”

“No, leave them. They won’t come back.” Saber answered. “As for these two, put them in the Hopeville Press and keep them under guard-”

A distant yet sharp boom of sound made my ears perk, and a cloud of hazy brown rose upward from the dirt in the distance, making me snap my gaze back through the scope. The cloud of dust didn’t billow outwards, instead rising away into the air and revealing a small blast crater, around which were the broken and dismembered forms of the two raiders who had fled.

“Nova, did you hear that?” Saber asked through the radio. “Can you see what’s going on out there?”

I already saw.

Through my crosshairs, I found a line of black armored ponies coming straight for Hopeville, at least two dozen strong and all garbed in matching combat helmets and armor, some of them carrying strange black slabs on their backs. Behind them, a twenty millimeter flak gun aglow in magic was being pushed on its large wheels by a crew of five unicorns, the mobile gun also under escort by an extra squad of six more heavily armed soldiers, one of which was armed with what I recognized as a missile launcher and the rest carrying LMGs and combat shotguns. But then, from behind the gun and its crew, a figure took to the skies, launching straight up into the air and climbing high above my crosshairs; it was a griffin.

“The Talons are coming!” I shouted to my radio. “At least three dozen of them are inbound from the north! They’ve got a missile launcher and a mobile heavy gun with them… a griffin too!”

“Everypony get to your positions!” Saber ordered sharply, the voices of the four sergeants quickly passing around the order with him. “We’ve got more hostiles on the way! Move it, move it!”

Together, the guards fell back, some retreating back to the town perimeter (taking the two Black Blood captives with them) as the rest, armed with assault and precision rifles, returned to cover and took aim to the north. Joining the forward defenses were the collection of soldiers and guards of Challenger’s caravan, and among the lead ponies of the cluster, I spotted Raemor, setting his fire axe against the sandbag barricade he hid behind as he readied his grenade launcher.

“Free to engage when ready.” The radio chatter came to a gradual halt as everypony took up their respective positions, ready to meet the advancing enemy that was steadily closing in as dead silence overtook the town once again. It was with a shiver that I realized that this was exactly how Hopeville’s last battle had begun. When the Black Blood company had marched towards us, we had awaited their arrival in hiding, silently waiting for the time to strike. But now, we were facing a different opponent, one who was, as far as I knew, better trained, better armed, more confident, and much more coordinated. General Silverlight herself had recounted the basic traits of Talon soldiers, and they were nothing alike to the recklessness of the Black Blood raiders; now they were at our doorstep.

But while my thoughts lingered on this darker border, my eyes were skyward. The griffin was still hovering, occasionally drifting right or left as if to look upon Hopeville from different angles. He or she was of the Talon soldiers - of that, there was no denying. But the way the griffin lingered some distance away from the town… the griffin had to be the commander of this group… he or she just had to be. I had fought two griffins before as my first fight against another flying creature, and my body easily remembered the wounds I had taken from it. But this griffin was alone… one versus one…

The first shots rang from up ahead, and my attention snapped to the present as I caught sight of several guards ducking behind their sandbag cover, enemy shots striking the barricades. Then they were returning fire against the Talons with their bolt and lever action rifles. Up ahead, the attack force was in clear sight, two teams of six soldiers branching off in both directions from a forming line, galloping full force towards the town’s north side while putting fire on Hopeville’s forward defenses.

Pulling Blue Fire’s Torch tight against my shoulder again, I clamped onto the firing bit and aimed through the scope, bringing the crosshairs to bear on the team advancing down the east flank. They were already under fire from both the precision rifles and from the guards behind the M.O.P. building. But they were coming in fast, their thick, black combat armor providing sufficient protection from bullets that scored a hit; the advancing half dozen soldiers hardly even staggered when their armor took a hit.

BLAM!!!

One shot after leading the first target… miss… The earth pony buck stumbled as the .308 round punched into the ground under his hooves, and he temporarily fell behind from his five companions, providing me with another window of opportunity…

BLAM!!!

Hit.

Even though I had talked about it before, receiving words of advice from Shotshell, I flinched at the sight of the soldier… and at the shot I had just executed. My third shot struck him square in the side of the head, pink mist exploding from the other side of his skull as the bullet punched straight through him, and he toppled forward, tumbling on the ground before coming to a rough halt on his side, facing me…… his eyes were wide open… as if shocked that I had managed such a shot… I felt my stomach begin to churn…… why didn’t his eyes close?!

“Heads up! They’ve got deployable cover!”

The warning was the only thing that saved me from drifting from the fight, and I tore myself away from the grisly sight of my first sniper kill as the security sergeant spoke. I brought my rifle to face the north again, ignoring the sting in my shoulder and returning the scope to my eye as I made ready to fire. Up ahead, the Talon team moving in on our left flank was fully engaged, keeping steady fire on the sandbags and strafing the positions with assault rifles, and even two light machineguns that sprayed a steady stream of lead. But farther north, the line of Talon soldiers I had seen before was now stopped a few meters away from Hopeville’s defenses, black steel panels unfolding into place under the glow of unicorn magic; behind the assembly of cover, unicorns with precision carbines starting taking their own paced shots.

BLAM!!!

Just as one of the Talon unicorns ducked behind cover, I took a shot at the barricade he hid behind. The steel cover sparked brightly as the shot from Blue Fire’s Torch struck it, more sparks similarly flying from the other barriers as they came under heavy fire; they were utterly bulletproof.

“We need a bigger weapon at the north side now!” a sergeant spoke through the increasing noise.

“Just keep focus on those two fire teams!” Saber then ordered. “I have an idea!”

Obliging the command as Saber continued speaking through the radio, I swung my scope to the team that was coming up the west flank. One of them had already died, another going down as I focused in on my next target - a big earth pony soldier with a dual light machinegun battle saddle.

BLAM!!!

The shot went wide, passing by the buck’s left flank and striking into the dirt behind him as the scope wavered. But before I could line up my sixth shot, a quick series of four explosions sounded from the north, and I swung my scope to the direction of the noise. The blasts had come from Raemor’s APW, and he fired four more shots from the grenade launcher before ducking behind his sandbag barricade to reload. The buck had been targeting the left side of one of the barricades, and four of the soldiers were thrown from behind cover, hit from the close-range blasts of the 25mm grenades.

BLAM!!!

Hit.

One straight shot to the gut, and one of the soldiers who had been blasted out from cover went down before he could return to his position.

“Now!!” Saber shouted. “If you’ve got grenades, send them over the barricades!!”

Bringing my crosshairs down slightly, I saw as five unicorn guards levitated multiple metal apples from their armor, removing the stems and crooking the grenades before launching them at the barricades. One after the other, explosions ripped across the line of barriers, a good three quarters of the dozen or so explosives detonating in front of the Talons’ cover while three managed to get behind the barricades. But just as the dust cleared away, exchanged rifle shots returning after a brief moment of silence, I caught sight of one Talon unicorn, bringing a larger weapon up over the center barricade - the missile launcher… and he was pointing it right at me!!

*click…

The missile launcher fired, the engine at the back of the projectile igniting as it streaked out of the launcher and straight for me, and I only managed to scramble to my hooves and toss my rifle aside before the missile struck just below the roofline of the Hopeville Press, fire erupting before me as the force of the explosion blasted me off of my hooves, sending me sailing over the roof.

I landed hard on my back, slamming against the concrete of Hopeville’s northern road and bouncing once from the impact before tumbling over myself to the edge of the courtyard, coming to a rest on my right side as a grating and high-pitched noise rang in my ears. I felt tremendous pain against my chest, a sting that was shared with my forelegs. The sound of the gunfire was muffled to the point of indistinctness as I managed to get my head off of the ground to look over my forelegs. Thankfully, both limbs were still intact… but the fire from the blast had licked over them, and a majority of my grey coat was blackened over the affected areas, my left leg bleeding from where shrapnel from the blast had struck me; my pipbuck, surprisingly, remained undamaged from the close blast.

Though still ringing, my ears managed to pick up a sharper and louder weapon report from behind the Hopeville Press - the slower yet steady fire rate of the twenty millimeter flak gun. It was only shortly after when a number of the guards from the front came bolting around the corners of the Hopeville Press to take cover behind the buildings. There were at least forty guards lined along both the press and M.O.P. building… until over a dozen of them suddenly galloped off to the east, Raemor running to the head of the group and taking the lead.

That was when I picked up the familiar voice of Shore through the dimming whine in my ears, and I swung my gaze back to the north to see the black stallion as he came running for me, another fully armored security buck following right behind him. “Nova, are you okay?! We need to get you inside! Get up!” my friend called urgently as he skidded to a halt by my left side. With a grunt, I forced my limbs to cooperate, planting my right hoof down and hoisting myself up, clenching my eyes shut at the terrible burn that suddenly shot through both forelegs as both Shore and the guard helped me up to all fours.

“Come on!” the younger guard shouted as the two steered me down the road towards the Hopeville Supply building. “The Talons are raining hell on us with that big gun they brought in! Saber wants-”

The buck was suddenly cut off as bullets kicked up dirt around us, and my wounded legs couldn’t keep me up as the guard suddenly lurched back and fell against me, the two of us toppling to the ground together. Even as I hit the pavement, I felt as the guard’s body laying atop me was struck with several more bullets, and just as I tried to get out from under the now motionless buck, a disgusting crunch sounded through the now moderate humming in my ears. The lower half of the buck’s left foreleg had been severed by a larger caliber round, and I instantly froze in wide-eyed terror, seeing the bits of flesh… and the spray of blood…

Red and green flashed at the top of my vision, consecutive bolts of energy striking out against the Talons that had me in their sights as Shore tried to protect me. I screamed in both fear and pain, a terrible noise that added hurt to my pained ears, as I kicked and shoved at the dead guard I was laying under. And finally, I knocked the armored corpse away before scrabbling to my hooves, catching full view of the dead pony; the guard had been shot square in the side of the head at first, falling before his armor intercepted multiple shots… most of which would’ve likely hit me had he not been a meat shield… oh Goddesses!

Shore came around in front of me, making me pause just as I would have ran, and opened up with his energy weapons, firing to the east where a pair of Talon soldiers had come around the east side of City Hall. Behind the two, others were coming in from the south, running for cover behind the armory and the City Hall as more guards emerged from the buildings to engage them. “They’re trying to flank us! Nova, you’re too exposed out here! You need to get into the Hopeville Supply building!” Shore shouted over the noise, his autoloaders reloading his rifles after successfully disintegrating one of the soldiers, adding to the two already existing green goo piles. “There’s some healing potions stored in there! Go, I’ll cover you!” He quickly added before returning his attention to his saddle, firing the first shots from his fresh reloads as three other guards skidded to a halt beside him, putting additional covering fire downrange. At the same time, more shots struck the ground around us from another two enemy soldiers opening up at us from behind the storage house, and just a second later, Shore also staggered, his armor intercepting a shot that tore some of the protective padding from the chest plate.

Tunnel vision… that suddenly familiar feeling… I bolted without question, charged by adrenaline as I focused in on the target building, and propelled myself forward as fast as my crippled legs would take me. I passed behind the line of guards as they kept up their fire, and near the open entrance to the Hopeville Supply, another guard was taking cover behind the back corner of the building. Upon seeing me, he leapt from cover and took aim by the stairs, adding his own covering with his carbine before I finally staggered inside.

The building was clear, empty of both guards and enemies alike, and the knowing that I was out of harms way at the immediate moment returned my attention to my stringing legs. “Healing potions…” I repeated the words over and over again, getting my breathing under control as I looked over the many tables arranged along the walls of the building. Amidst the supplies that hadn’t been stashed in the designated storage unit, a number of excess healing potions were set upon one of the tables, and I wasted no time in stumbling over to the bottles of purple liquid and pulling one off the table. The drink quickly went down my gullet, and I tossed the empty bottle away as I felt the potion begin to work before hunkering down and facing the entrance, letting the medicinal drink seal up my injuries as I recollected myself.

“Captain Saber!” a male voice called through my pipbuck’s radio. “The Talons are trying to raid the armory! You’ve got to get more guards over to the south side of town! Do you hear me?!”

“Damn it!” Saber’s reply came, fighting to break through the sudden report of the Talons’ flak gun. “We need to secure the armory so we can get the forty millimeters up here! The Talons are using our own cover against us, and that mobile gun’s rolled in! It’s covering the enemy soldiers, and the weapon’s crew is protected by a magic shield that we can’t break through! I think multiple unicorns are powering it up, because they’ve got some serious magic!”

“They’ve got at least twenty soldiers by the armory and the City Hall, if not thirty!” a mare’s voice then spoke. “I think this is a platoon!”

“Keep up the pressure and hold your positions!” Saber answered back. “Commander! I need you and your soldiers at the south side of town! The armory is at the far end of the east road!” I heard a buck call out a garbled response in confirmation. “Circle around City Hall that way, and then flank the Talons from the west! We need that armory back right now!”

There was no more time to wait.

The healing potion had done its job, healing the burns, stopping the moderate bleeding, and removing most of the charring left behind. Now my legs only felt a little unsteady to be walking with as I took in a deep breath and stepped back up to the entrance, poking out of cover to check the south. In response to the new threat, more guards were already pushing along the east side of town, sticking to the buildings and using them as cover as they slowly advanced. Behind the M.O.P. building and the Hopeville Press, the now smaller line of defenders was still holding the enemy at bay, despite the frequent shots sounding from the enemy heavy gun, and I could see that Shore had made it safely back by the others in one piece.

Ducking back inside, I crouched and snapped out my wings, shaking them before I ran forward, leaping out of the entrance and lifting skyward over the courtyard. My wings, thankfully, had been untouched by the missile that had scorched my forelegs, which were now grateful for the fact that I wasn’t walking as the potion continued to mend up the last traces of the wounds.

I climbed higher over town and leveled out, veering left. Below, I could see the full scope of the fight at the south side of town, which spanned across the east road. The guards who responded to the attempted flanking maneuver had limited options for cover, and many who were not hiding behind the corners of the buildings were using the firing range itself for protection against enemy fire. Others still were out in the open and engaging the Talon soldiers up close, one pony in particular, whom I recognized as Raemor, sidestepping a rifle butt aimed to bash him in the skull before using his telekinesis to swing his fire axe in a deadly overhead slash, bringing the blade down on the unfortunate Talon soldier’s head. But beyond the fighting, the armory at the far end of town was indeed a target, and I saw as one Talon soldier emerged from the armory itself, carrying three weapons from the building in his telekinetic grasp.

Angling left and diving down, falling in range of the enemy group, I slipped into S.A.T.S. to target the soldier who had come out of the armory building, toggling for both shots to target the torso. I executed the spell, my rifles roaring out their hot words, and both pairs of shots found their marks, the two 40mm grenade launchers and the pristine assault rifle the soldier had been levitating clattering to the ground as he toppled over the armory stairs. Return fire met me immediately after, bullets whizzing past me as I shot past the enemy position and arced upward and away. But just as I pulled out of my first maneuver, corkscrewing back around and leveling out to face north, two bright red lasers suddenly slashed right past me.

With a yelp I came to a startled halt, suddenly feeling a rush of wind as something flew right over me, and I followed the direction of the gust to see a griffin as it shot out past Hopeville’s north side, climbing higher up arcing around in a wide circle. It didn’t take much to know that the griffin was coming around for another pass at me, but as I instinctively adjusted my course due west and out of the town perimeter to put distance between us, I begun to slow my speed as I noticed that this was the same griffin I had seen before the fighting began. This was the leader of the enemy platoon below, and now this commander had come into the fight… if I could bring the griffin down, this fight would be over.

I halted myself in my initial retreat, turning in mid-flight and hovering as I focused in on the Talon griffin. The enemy flier had completed his turn and was now coming in straight for me at a slow but steady pace, a maneuver that put me into a state of calm focus. “This is the leader… get rid of the leader… the others will go running.” I said in between breaths, a whisper to myself as I looked back down at Hopeville. “We can’t fail… not now.” I looked back up at the enemy flier, and with a growl I snapped my wings and launched forward, biting down on my saddle’s firing bit as I prepared to engage. Then my opponent fell into range, and I slipped into S.A.T.S..

The griffin was very male, evident by his stronger and much larger build. Aside from his head, which was marked with a long and ragged scar that ran across his right eye, he was protected with a full suit of Talon combat armor, complete with the trio of white claw slashes painted into the ebony chest plate. He was also very heavily armed, a light machinegun and a black assault carbine secured at his sides via a custom battle saddle that was reshaped to fit his body; each weapon looked to have its own trigger on the reshaped firing bit I saw in front of the griffin’s beak. But aside from the saddle, the griffin also had a rifle secured to his back, a shining silver rifle that must’ve been the laser rifle he had fired his first shots with. Secured to his chest plate, placed within its holster, was a large, pearl-white, five-cylinder revolver, a weapon that he was reaching for with his right set of claws.

I locked in one shot for the griffin’s head and executed the spell, but the pair of bullets went past him, too far to the right, as we closed in on each other. And just as the two of us veered in opposite directions, the shockingly loud report of his sidearm sounded as he returned fire with two shots. The sound by itself was enough to make me believe that I had been hit, but his attack likewise went wide as we soared past one another, and I craned my neck around as I righted myself, seeing as he begun to climb even higher above the town below.

With a twist of my body, I followed him up, finding the griffin right above me as he continued to ascend. With S.A.T.S. recharging, I took manual aim as I fell in behind him, aligning my path to his before taking another shot. The pair of bullets went behind my target as he suddenly leveled out and flashed by me, cutting a tight corner that I couldn’t follow. Instead, I continued upward, leveling out with a broader turn just in time to see the griffin swiftly coming in for his next attack. With a sharp dip, I dove down as the assault carbine on his battle saddle came to life, the rapid spray of bullets ripping by above me as we once again crossed by each other in our aerial duel.

By Celestia’s mane, this bastard was agile!

I snapped my wings out again to come to a halt in the air, turning quickly and facing the griffin just as he hovered into a stationary position and bit down on one of his battle saddle’s triggers. The griffin’s light machinegun then roared, a line of bullets swiftly arcing up to meet me before I bolted left and poured on speed. Behind me, the griffin was following me while he hovered, turning his body and not easing off the trigger of his LMG as he tried to bring his sights onto me. But it was then that I got an idea.

Banking right, I reached down and clamped my mouth around Fire Rose’s firing bit, yanking my mother’s pistol from its holster before righting my course and rising to bring the pistol to bear against the griffin. Up came S.A.T.S. as I locked in three shots and executed the spell.

Two direct hits!

The griffin staggered in the air, finally releasing his battle saddle as he banked to recover, his machinegun going silent. Though the shots didn’t seem to punch through his thick combat armor, they bought me enough time to make another move, and quickly holstering my sidearm, I tucked in my wings and dove after my target. But before I could close in, he spotted me, looking to spontaneously regain his previous strength as he shot ahead.

He was on a straight course as I angled in towards him, closing up the distance before I fell in right behind him to line up another shot and fire. I scored another hit, but only on a part of his gear, as one of the two bullets sparked off of the casing of the griffin’s laser rifle. Then the griffin suddenly snapped out his wings to completely halt his momentum, and I went wide-eyed as I barrel-rolled to the left, barely avoiding both a collision and the swipe of the griffin’s claws, claws that I knew were more than capable of cutting me to pieces.

The quick maneuver made it a brief struggle to stabilize myself in the air, and as I did, I copied the griffin’s move, whirling in mid-flight and coming about to face him. But just as I made to fire again, I saw with surprise as the griffin was not coming after me… nor drawing a weapon… not attacking at all; he was looking at me with a focused glare. “I thought it’d take a lot longer for me to track you down.” the griffin suddenly called, the two of us now hovering face to face with a good distance of airspace between us. “After you left Plainwell, I figured that you’d just disappeared. You might understand just how surprised I was when I heard that you were here, Nova.”

His voice was easier to pick up at our high altitude, the gunfire below in Hopeville dampened just enough for me to hear his words clearly… and I didn’t like them. “What are you talking about?” I asked harshly, glaring back at the griffin. “How do you know so much about me?!”

“I know that you were in Plainwell when the town was attacked. I know what happened there when you got into the fight. I heard all about it.” the griffin answered, his voice quickly darkening with hatred. “And now, I know that Hopeville is your home.”

“What do you want?!” I demanded.

“I’m under orders to map out the northwest corner of this region, to discover anything that might threaten Talon operations in the southeast.” the griffin answered. “I was the one who found that Black Blood camp, the one that I’m sure you know about, and my platoon wiped those fuckers off the face of the wasteland. But when I found this town nearby, found you living in it, I made it my new target.”

“You’re here because of me?? What do I have to do with the Talons?!”

“You think you can walk around the wasteland doing the things that you do, and there isn’t going to be someone who takes notice?” he asked in return, adding after a pause, “You fought against us at Plainwell, killed some of our soldiers.”

“You’re soldiers slaughtered an entire town of innocent ponies!!” I screamed.

“And I’m glad that I was there to give the order! “the griffin fired back, making my eyes widen with shock. “Yeah, I wiped out Plainwell, I wiped out the Black Blood camp, and now I’m here for you.” By the Goddesses… this griffin was just… evil!! “Everyone I’ve faced down and killed has been enemies of Hayward and its mission, and that is the consequence of their decision to either ally with Challenger, or fight against us. There is always a consequence to a decision, and in your case, I’m the consequence of your decision at Plainwell.” His battle saddle clicked, a magazine from his assault carbine ejecting as it was reloaded. “Enough talk. DIE!” Suddenly, the griffin bit down on one of his battle saddle triggers, and I dodged to the left just as his assault carbine opened up, strafing the air where I had just been hovering.

Quickly, I launched forward again, slipping into S.A.T.S. just as he begun to rise in the air, and I took another shot, one that went too far left. His evasion successful, he hovered just above my altitude and opened up with his LMG as I flew past and raced upward to climb higher into the air. As I reached the peak of my climb, the LMG went silent, and I came around to face him just as he was winging upward to meet me, drawing his laser rifle at the same time.

I clamped down on my saddle’s firing bit as we once again charged straight for each other, and I took my next shot, scoring a hit on the griffin’s shoulder. But his combat armor took in the full force of the shot that struck him, and he hardly staggered as he suddenly veered up and away, angling so that his belly faced me before he brought his laser rifle to bear. Before I could pull away in the opposite direction, bright red lashed up at me, and I cried as one of the red-hot beams struck my side, burning into my very flesh. My wings locked shut out of reflex to the pain, and I briefly lost my place in the air, tumbling downward before I could force my wings open again and catch the air to right myself; I felt as my battle rifle’s autoloader reloaded the weapon fresh.

Trying my best to ignore the agonizing burn, I snapped my gaze back upwards as I fell into hover, seeing as the griffin dived straight for me with his laser rifle tucked tight against his chest. I knew right away that I didn’t want to try and meet him head on again, at least not when dealing with that precision energy weapon…

I reached down, once again retrieving Fire Rose from its holster and leaning back to aim up, readying the trigger in my mouth as the griffin approached. And then I raised up S.A.T.S. again, time pausing just as the griffin brought the laser rifle to bear… one shot, right for the weapon… execute.

Sparks licked out from the laser rifle’s casing as I scored a direct hit on my target, and even the hardy griffin couldn’t prevent himself from dropping the rifle as the bullet punched into the frame, embedding itself in the weapon’s innards before the rifle plummeted towards the town below. But just as I would’ve privately celebrated, the griffin immediately went for his own sidearm, drawing the bright white revolver as I made to evade. The pistol roared, and I felt the wind of the bullet’s passage on my right shoulder before the griffin flashed by me, continuing his rapid descent.

Wasting no time, I holstered my now empty sidearm and let myself freefall, rolling into a nosedive as I gave chase, and catching sight of the battle on the ground… or what was left of it. Saber’s guards, along with the small squad of Challenger’s soldiers, had managed to secure the armory, wiping out most of the Talons that had tried to flank us from the south. At the opposite end of town, the enemy had been driven back to their deployable cover entirely, and the mobile gun was now unmanned, the crew having been killed off by what I could only assume to be Hopeville’s new 40mm grenade launchers.

Up ahead, my griffin adversary pulled out of his dive, and I copied his maneuver. We were both still at a fair height above Hopeville, but the sounds of the diminishing fight below were more perceptible as the two of us leveled out. The griffin was straight in front of me, presenting another window to take another shot and bring him down, but just as I took hold of my saddle’s firing bit, the griffin once again snapped his wings wide to come to a halt, a move that I managed to anticipate.

I pulled away hard left just as he wheeled on me in an attempt to execute a close-range attack, but as I likewise turned in midair, I saw as the griffin holstered his sidearm, once again focusing on me with a glare; he hardly looked tired or injured. “I’ll be honest,” he called to me. “I was expecting more from the pegasus that came out of Plainwell alive.” I only glared back at him in return, only waiting for his next attack while trying to keep my heavy breathing under control; my wings were weakening. “Hopeville seems to be able to protect itself rather well, but mark my words, it will not survive forever.” The griffin then rose higher up into the air, still keeping his eyes locked with mine as he went. “You’ve got my attention, Nova, and make no mistake, I will be back for you.”

“We’ve got them on the run! They’re on the retreat!” I heard a mare’s voice through my pipbuck’s radio.

“Let the rest of them run… they know that they’ve been beaten.” the familiar voice of Captain Saber replied, grunting in pain afterwards. “Secure that mobile gun… and get it into the courtyard…… then start getting me names… I need to know who made it and who didn’t…” I flicked my eyes back to the griffin, who had now taken off for the northeast, before looking back to the surface. Those Talon soldiers remaining were falling back in the same direction, keeping each other covered as they retreated under light fire. The battle was won… but there was no cheering this time, and aside from the occasional rifle shot, there was silence.

I looked back to the northeast, the griffin now just a black dot with small wings against the cloudy sky. Despite my injury and the fatigue coupled with it, my mind still found a way to begin formulating questions. The griffin knew me… somehow… and there was no doubt in my mind that he wanted me dead. But what for?… For Plainwell?… He said that he had expected more from the pegasus who had gotten out of Plainwell alive… so was it because I had made it out alive in the first place?

And why did he leave me alive now? I had been able to stay focused in the fight, ignoring my still-irritated forelegs and my other injury during the hectic aerial dogfight. But it was only a matter of time before the fatigue of constant flight and tight maneuvering caught up to me. He had seen me and had seen how tired I was starting to get. So why hadn’t he tried to go for the kill then?… Had he perhaps seen that Hopeville was driving back his soldiers?

But the most important question out of all of them was the question of why he went for Hopeville’s throat. This was something that I couldn’t answer, as even though General Silverlight had warned us back in Challenger that the Talon Legion made targets out of smaller settlements… I felt that that griffin held a more personal stake in this. The way he spoke to me, his voice filled with hate and disdain… there was definitely another factor involved in this that I couldn’t see.

With a heavy sigh, I flew slowly back down to the surface and landed in the courtyard as Hopeville’s hiding citizens begun to emerge from the buildings. And as I looked over the outcome of the battle, I begun to feel a knot form in my stomach. The Talons now had their eyes upon us, and I knew with the most profound sense of dread that Hopeville, now more than ever, was in danger.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Rifle Rumbler - There’s a special kind of beauty behind a good rifle. When using semi-automatic rifles or similar precision weapons, you ignore an additional 5 points of a target’s damage threshold.

Chapter 14: Outsider's Touch

Chapter 14: Outsider’s Touch

“Idle hooves tend to get blown off around here. Keep moving.”

“Hey. Don’t fall behind, outsider.”

I felt as one of my guard’s rifles jabbed me in the side, snapping my attention away from the waiting gate up ahead as I matched my pace with the others in the line. Blake and I were at the back as we were marched towards Buckley Air Force Base, with Gunny at the front under watch by a guard of four ponies, double the number of those watching the rest of us. The amber mare who had been giving orders to the others was in the lead of our group, and as my focus returned to our current predicament, I could hear as she and Gunny talked.

“So, who’s this Shimmer that we’re going to go and see?” my friend asked.

“Shimmer is our leader, our Eldest.” the mare answered, looking over her shoulder at him as they walked. “She’s led the people of Buckley Air Force Base for many years, and has lived over twice as long as that. Her age and experience in the wasteland has given her great wisdom, and that’s why we’re taking you to her.”

“Many years?” Gunny asked in return. “How long has this base been inhabited?”

“A long time, outsider.” the mare responded. “Longer than anypony in the outside world might think.”

“Ma’am, are you sure you want to be telling things to these strangers?” one of Gunny’s guards voiced, his eyes narrowing as he looked upon my friend.

“Don’t worry.” the amber mare replied. “I think they know better than to start something.” She was definitely sure of herself… and really, why wouldn’t she be?

“I-I don’t suppose… that there’s any chance we could just leave?” Blossom then voiced meekly, keeping in line behind Gunny and walking close.

“No.” the amber leader curtly answered, facing forward again as she added, “First, our sniper found you on that hill, scouting out the base, and then you all made it past the barrage. You’ve investigated our home, survived our defenses, and now you’ve seen our faces. Orders were that if an outsider survived the artillery, then they were to be brought in. Leaving now isn’t an option you have, and if you try to run, you will be fired on again.” She swung her head back around to look at Blossom once more, eyes set in a firm and warning stare. “And I don’t think you or anypony with you wants to go through that again.”

“Your barrage cut us off when we tried to go back the way we came.” Raemor voiced with a hard look.

“Yeah.” Blossom added nervously. “If you hadn’t fired on us, we would’ve just gone back.”

The leader only looked ahead again, this time for good. “That doesn’t mean the dirt on my hoof. What you outsiders would’ve done isn’t my problem. You’re all here, now. That’s my problem.”

At those words, Blossom only looked away, ears pinned back. I could see the tension in her stride as we neared the gate, tension that was amplified tenfold with Blake. Looking down at him, I could see as he nearly missed an occasional step in his walk, how he shook as he tried to keep up with me… oh Goddesses, he looked utterly miserable… “Blake…” I lowered my head down and nuzzled him along the side of his face, and he looked up at me in return with fearful eyes, eyes that nearly made me shed a tear. I’d never seen Blake so shaken up before, not even during the evacuation of 181, or during our fight in the Boulder Field, the Forward Post, or even in Hopeville… this was new to me, and this kind of fear wasn’t something that I wanted to see, nor was it something that he deserved to deal with… “I’m so sorry…”

However, my little brother, bless his brave heart, shook his head as he tried to work up a good smile. “I’m okay, Nova. I’m not hurt.” he replied. “And… and we’re still together right now. That’s what matters, right?” Looking down at him, I could see a light in his eyes, that childhood spark that the wasteland hadn’t claimed. It was still there even after barely dodging death… death resulting from an experience that I was responsible for… I’d almost killed him by letting him come with me… At that moment, seeing him smile was heartwarming, but at the same time, it sent an icy chill into my heart and mind both, and I could only manage a nod with a smile of my own in reply before looking forward again.

Up ahead, the first squad of Buckley ponies who had confiscated our weapons had already passed through the gate and were heading onto the left-side runway, walking towards the three massive hangers looming deeper within the base. At the gate itself, another assembly of ponies was gathering, splitting into two groups and gathering around the two sheet-metal watchtowers that flanked the entrance. Some of these ponies were armed and armored in the same fashion as our escorts, but the majority were completely lacking in weapons and were unarmored in any form of combat barding. They were currently being kept away from the gate by the guards, but more of them were flocking in from all over… there had to be at least fifty ponies by the gate so far… and I had no doubt that they were coming to see us with their own eyes.

A moment later, and the cracked concrete of the pre-war road merged into the entrance lane of the base. We were marched single-file past the gate, and just as Blake and I cleared it, the amber mare that led our line came to a stop, our escorts following her example and stopping us with them. Right away, I was nudged forward, and my friends and I were gradually herded into a cluster before we were once again surrounded by a ring of the Buckley guardsponies. No longer moving, it was easy for me to hear more chatter from the assembled crowd, the whispers my ears could pick up asking the same questions of how we managed to survive the barrage and why we were being let into their home. Some of the voices that I could hear didn’t sound very friendly either, and as I looked around at the many eyes that were staring upon me with curiosity, I could see more than a couple pairs among them that were glaring suspiciously.

I instinctively pulled Blake closer with a protective foreleg, the young colt likewise uneasy as he looked away from the crowd and down at the ground. “T-they’re all staring…” he nervously mumbled.

“It’ll be okay, Blake.” I whispered back, lowering my head down next to his to try and keep my baby brother calm while intently searching among the crowd… seeing if one of them was suddenly going to make a move. “We’re just here to see their leader. They won’t hurt us.”

“Everypony!” Suddenly, a buck’s voice called through the chatter, cutting the noise down to nearly nothing in a split second, and I snapped my eyes forward. “Please leave this area immediately. Mother Shimmer and Buckley security will deal with this situation. Please, return to your homes and your errands.” The strong voice that quelled the crowd belonged to a lone stallion approaching us from Buckley’s twin runways. He was a stout earth pony, his coat a pale red and his mane and tail a solid, dark green. A suit of blue and black combat armor adorned most of his body, similar to the other combat rigs I had seen already. It lacked the black cloak I had seen on most of the others’ suits, but like the amber mare who brought us in, his armor’s chest plate was adorned with several medals of shiny bronze, copper, and silver, a couple of them even gold. He was highly decorated, and if that wasn’t enough of a sign to indicate a position of leadership, the fact that the two crowds were beginning to disperse in response to the order made it clear that this stallion was important. Still, as the unarmed residents and a majority of the security detail obeyed the order and headed farther into the base, many still passed looks over their shoulders at us, so many that I found myself glaring before the same stallion spoke up again. “Archer reported seven contacts… and yet seven outsiders are here with us now.” the buck said, sighing as he added, “Either they all know how to take care of themselves and each other, or we’ve got some extra work ahead of us on the training field.” I looked back to the newcomer, seeing as he regarded my friends and I with critical brown eyes, his face set into a thoughtful frown.

“Is there something wrong?” the amber mare asked him.

“Mother Shimmer sent me out here to give you some new information. I’ll explain on the way.” the buck answered, nodding towards the runways.

“Let’s keep moving.” the amber mare ordered, to which our escorts quickly nudged us back into line before we begun to head deeper into the base, the entrance gate behind us rattling closed and locking us in. “So what’s going on?” the mare then asked, leading us onto the right-side runway.

“Do you remember that incident two weeks back?” the buck asked back. “That day when Marlena snuck out of the base and headed outside?”

“Yeah… what about it? She came back just a few days afterwards.” the amber mare replied.

“Mother Shimmer believes that Marlena might know one or more of these outsiders. Marlena’s on her way too, so she’ll meet us inside. ” The buck looked over his shoulder at us as we continued down the runway. “You can see that because of this possibility, Mother Shimmer’s got a new interest in meeting this lot.”

The leader mare likewise looked back at us, one eyebrow cocked in surprise. “I thought Marlena escaped on her own?”

The buck, however, shook his head as the two looked forward again. “No. Marlena was rescued.”

We were steered off the pavement of the entry lane and out into the dirt median between the two runways. Up ahead was a single-story structure, much smaller than all of the other buildings on base, that sat nestled in between the two runways. Two unicorn guards were stationed on either side of the steel double-doors that made the building’s entrance, and as we approached, they stepped away from the doors and gave a quick salute before telekinetically opening the entry. “Marlena’s already inside, commander. They’ll be waiting for you in the silo.” one of the guards stated, looking at the pale red buck leading us forward who gave a nod in return. However, just as we were about to enter, I caught sight of something on the wall, something that had been previous blocked by the guard stationed to the left of the doors. It was a sign, a green metal signboard bolted into the stone wall of the building… and though the old white lettering had considerably faded, I could still make out enough of the shapes to see just what exactly this building was.

Buckley AFB Balefire Missile Silo Entrance. Level 5 Authorization Required.

“You have a balefire missile??” I exclaimed, my verbal outburst causing the entire line to halt in surprise and set their eyes upon me.

Grace was the first to respond, as equally shocked as I was. “What??”

“Hey!” I jerked and nearly stumbled as a sharp rap on the back of my head kept me from speaking any other words. “Keep your voice down, outsider!” one of my guards ordered.

“Everypony calm down!” the amber mare spoke up, trotting back along the line as her subordinates came to a quick attention. The mare continued walking until she drew up in front of me, eyes narrowed. “And as for you, outsider, relax.” she said. “If we actually had a genuine balefire missile, the most destructive weapon ever made by ponykind, do you really think we’d be taking a bunch of outsiders right to it?”

“I… oh…” I found myself flushing at my own exclamation.

“No, we don’t have one. Not anymore, anyway.” the amber mare said, turning away with a roll of her eyes. “Now, until Shimmer decides if you can be trusted or not, I’d prefer if you’d stop talking.” I didn’t make any reply, too embarrassed at my mistaken assumption, which was the only response that the amber mare needed to return to the front of the line.

From just inside the silo entrance building, I could see the amber mare’s companion as he waved a hoof to us. “Come on, let’s not keep Mother Shimmer waiting any longer.”

“Move.” My guard’s rifle jabbed me in the flank, forcing me forward as we resumed our march into the building.

The entrance lobby was only a small square reception room, with two half-circle desks inside, one against the left wall, and the other in between two doors. Both of them were currently open, and each bore a small label plaque reading Launch Control. But instead of heading straight, we were ushered right, coming face to face with a reinforced steel bunker door, beside which was a wall-mounted terminal, glowing that familiar monochrome green light. Above the top of the door’s frame, a small security camera, currently active, swiveled over to us with its red light blinking under the circular lens. I could hear the gears of the focus optics working as we waited in the lobby, and only a moment later, a wheel on the center of door begun to spin, releasing what sounded like several heavy locks before the door came open, vertically splitting in half and folding once upon itself before disappearing into either side of the doorframe.

Beyond the door was a long and well-lit hallway of flat concrete, with a high ceiling supported by steel beams, and a wide lane to walk on. The first portion of the tunnel stretched in a moderate downward slope before eventually leveling out further in, and another sign just up ahead indicated that this service tunnel led straight to Buckley’s balefire missile silo. With another command to our escorts, the Buckley commander took the lead once again, and we were ushered into the tunnel in silence. Throughout the passageway, there were no additional chambers or hallways. In fact, this tunnel was absolutely void of almost any object, the exception being the bright light coming from the spaced light bulbs along the ceiling, casting a full and steady glow throughout the entire tunnel. It was then that I realized-

“It’s amazing that you have actual electricity here.” Shore remarked from further ahead, speaking my thoughts aloud.

“Buckley has a few measures of providing electrical power, outsider.” one of Shore’s escorts replied, the mare’s comment brief.

“In the heartland, and especially the Hoof, electrical light sources were a rare luxury.” Raemor recalled composedly, nodding to himself as he looked over another passing light bulb.

“The biggest city in the southeast, Challenger, has to resort to candles and lanterns.” Gracie chimed in. “Even in Hopeville, all we have are our flashlights.”

“So, you bunch are from all sorts of different places out there huh?” the amber mare asked, looking back at us from over her shoulder. “We heard about a town by that name. Last report that came in said it was empty. I guess that means you’re all a bunch of new arrivals in the town.”

“Report?” I asked.

“We know a bit about the region without making contact with any of the settlements or factions that live within it. We have to know what’s going on out there for our own safety.” the amber mare replied, facing forward once again, and thus ending the little conversation that had taken place. But by then, we were approaching the other end of the tunnel, another one of the heavy reinforced doors coming into view. Even before we arrived on the doorstep, the entrance begun to open, the door collapsing and folding into the walls to reveal another chamber beyond - the silo itself.

One by one we entered, stepping out onto a metal balcony. Right away, my attention was drawn to the far wall, and what I thought had been just a normal wall stretched upward… and up, and up, all the way until I was looking at a circular steel ceiling that towered above me, easily five to eight stories high if not more. This was undoubtedly the silo door, and it looked as if it would open into two half-circles - two massive steel slabs that sealed the silo from above, evident by the thin vertical split down the center. Now that I looked, I saw that the entire silo was circular and quite wide, the walls likewise made of steel and spaced with operational fans that spun slowly behind their protective fences. This circular shape made the silo from the top to the base, which was below the catwalk that hugged the silo wall, the same catwalk we now tread upon. It was part of a whole array of connected metal walkways that wove around the silo, stairs leading up to other walkways at higher levels, some of which extended platforms out over the silo, undoubtedly to allow repair teams to reach and maintain the huge balefire rocket that had once been stored here.

“This way.” the commander buck then ordered, steering us left toward a stairway just ahead. Unlike the others that led higher up the silo walls, these stairs led to the very base of the chamber, and as we were herded forward, I could see the floor of the silo over the guardrails. Down below, arranged in two tiers, was a small yet homey living arrangement that spanned most of the steel floor. On the top tier of the silo floor, two unblemished couches and a small table in between them were arranged just outside the bottom of the stairs. Near to those were a pair of tall wooden cabinets sitting one beside the other, both nestled up against the silo wall. Just to the right of the cabinets was a bookshelf complete with two full rows of preserved books, undoubtedly pre-war, and next to it was a writing desk, a number of papers lying strewn around an active terminal, glowing that familiar green monochrome glare. With the desk came a trio of filing cabinets, as well as another lounge composed of two other couches placed together in an ‘L’ formation, along with a separate cushy chair and another table. The bottom tier of the silo floor, connected to the upper level by a short flight of metal stairs, contained a queen-size mattress at its very center, likewise looking remarkably clean and unspoiled; it was even complete with its own blanket and pillow set. Next to one corner of the bed was a nightstand with a metal lantern and a communications radio atop it, along with another book and a small file folder. And sitting against the front of the mattress was a light-blue trunk, closed and secured with a complicated locking mechanism.

All and all, the setup looked to be a very cozy living space… even if it was arranged at the bottom of an empty missile silo. However, what caught my attention on the floor of the silo wasn’t the furniture. There was already a pony down there, but when my eyes fell to the Buckley citizen below, I froze with an involuntary gasp. In my time on the surface, I had once seen zombie ponies when our Stable 181 survivors had found and began to secure Hopeville. Though that had been the only time in which we had to deal with those mindless monsters, I still remembered fighting off a whole horde of the flesh-eating creatures, and I still remembered losing that security mare, her stomach ripped open and her guts strewn about her… those memories came rushing back as my eyes beheld the pony below. Facing the blue trunk, examining the metal lock, was what had once been an earth pony. But almost all of this pony’s hair and skin had fallen off, dead flesh exposed and rotted down to a disgusting dark brown color, clashing with patches of sickly green, red, and yellow. There was hardly a tail left on this pony, and along the back of the pony’s neck, only colorless patches of what was once a mane stayed attached. What was even more bizarre, however, was the fact that this pony’s very body emitted plumes of dark green smoke from literal splits in its flesh, long cracked scars that looked to be slowly burning even as I stared; this pony was, as Lucky Hallion had put it, a ghoul.

Unfortunately, my shock had caught the attention of my escorts as well as the very pony I was looking at. “Hey! Don’t look at her like that!” I felt my guard’s rifle smack me rather hard in the back of the head, making me stagger out of my trance as he added with a growl, “That pony’s our leader, so show some respect, outsider.”

“Please child, it’s quite alright.” an old and grating voice called, bringing my attention back to the ghoul pony below; she was looking up at us. “Bring them here so I might speak with them.”

At her order, we were swiftly guided back on track, and we descended the staircase to the base of the missile silo. As we stepped onto the metal floor, we were ushered into a line by our escorts, the seven of us coming to stand side by side and facing the ghoul as she ascended the stairs from the first tier and approached. Right away, both the commander buck and the amber mare trotted over to stand at her flanks, completely indifferent to the foggy plumes of green haze that emitted from the ghoul’s decayed body. Silence, bristling with tension, lingered between everypony in the silo as the ghoul came to a stop and carefully studied over my friends and I, her bright and nearly glowing green eyes focused with such concentration that I felt as if she was weighing our very souls. Something about those eyes, still full of life despite the crumbling form around them, told me that this ghoul was somepony not to be trifled with. And yet at the same time, there was a glimmer of authentic interest, and even concern, behind them as she studied our group of ‘outsiders’, the newest arrivals to her home. I could see all of this as those eyes fell right upon my own, and for a moment, the two of us stared… only three seconds locked under that gaze, and I surrendered, a slight quake passing through my entire body as that stare lingered on me… Something about the ghoul made my eyes dart between her and the far wall… and eventually, I found myself lowering my eyes to the floor, bowing my head in both fear and respect; I dared not offer any sort of challenge to her, this ghoul who must’ve been Mother Shimmer.

But only after another moment of silence, she finally spoke, saying, “Welcome, outsiders. When I heard Buckley speak, I held high hopes that you would make it to our walls.” When I looked back up, I was surprised to see the ghoul smiling at us, a welcoming, albeit yellow and crooked, gesture of genuine warmth. “This meeting has certainly been a long time coming. I’ve been waiting a good six years for ponies from the wastes to come along and visit.”

In that moment, I found myself transitioning from only minor surprise to complete and utter confusion, and when I looked towards my friends, I found them exchanging glances among each other, undoubtedly sharing the same sentiments. “Begging pardon, but you didn’t exactly roll out a red carpet for us.” Gunny replied first, voice bordering between anger and curiosity. “That, and we were on the verge of leaving before the attack cut off our escape.”

“Yes. If you don’t mind me saying so, you certainly need to work on making a better first impression on us ‘outsiders’.” Gracie added coolly, winning immediate glares from a number of our escorts.

Shimmer, however, only continued to smile, nodding understandingly as she looked between my two friends, taking in their words. “What you faced out there today is one of our greatest forms of protection.” she explained. “Those howitzers of ours keep us sheltered from the outside world, preventing any outsiders who might cause us harm from entering our beloved home and damaging or destroying what we shelter.” Again, Shimmer looked us all over from left to right, and as her eyes settled on me again, she continued, adding, “But when I see all of you, I see something very different from the common judgment my youngers have placed upon those who live outside. I can tell, simply by having these guards with us as I speak to you, that not many of my ponies believe me now. But I think that it was the howitzers, and your surviving the bombardment, that provided the chance to show that there’s something special about the seven of you.”

I couldn’t help but look away again, this time because of the words she spoke, words that I couldn’t quite piece together. According to Shimmer, she had been hoping for an outsider to come to their home… but at the same time, Buckley had been shooting at, and likely blasting to bits, anypony from the wasteland that came into range of its guns… “But… that doesn’t make any sense.” I voiced cautiously. “If you wanted an outsider to come to this place, why would you prevent them from coming by killing them before they could reach the gate?”

“The wasteland is a dangerous place, child. Everypony here knows that through their own experiences, and I know that you all do as well.” Shimmer replied to me, smile fading. “When Buckley was first settled, it suffered many assaults from raiders and soldiers of the wasteland, simply because this base was a one of the many Old World military structures scattered around the ruins of Equestria. Outsiders then believed that they could salvage valuable technology and weaponry from this place, and it was only when we acquired the means to properly defend ourselves that the attacks stopped. Needless to say, my youngers, and I myself, didn’t learn to trust the outside world. We isolated ourselves in response, relied on seclusion, and when the outside witnessed our new strength, they left us in peace for the most part.” Shimmer’s smile returned as she looked at each of us in turn. “We have lived this way for many years and have prospered because of it, but as time went by, I started to think of the outside world again, of how it might benefit us to venture out into the wasteland, to see what there is to see, and I begun to wonder if there were those in the wastes that wouldn’t seek to harm us. Eventually, I decided that only outsiders who would survive our artillery and reach our gates should be worthy to enter.”

“It’s starting to sound like you want something from us, Mother Shimmer.” Shore remarked.

The ghoul nodded at that, replying, “Yes. In the most basic of terms, I want to ask for your help with things. At first, only small things so that my youngers can get used to having a group of outsiders in Buckley. Then, so long as that goes well, perhaps you would be able to help us in bigger ways too. But ultimately, I want the seven of you to serve as an example.”

“An example of what?” Gunny ventured.

“For over sixty-nine years, seclusion has kept us safe, young one.” Shimmer answered him. “So far, we have thrived and grown, protected by powerful weaponry and sharpened skill. But even behind our walls, we have seen the world around us as it’s changed - armies on the march, the return of the Talon Legion, darker skies on the southeastern horizon…” The ghoul paused to let out a wet and ragged sigh, dipping her head slightly. “My youngers think our guns can keep out the world. But I’ve lived in it long enough to know that the outside is always changing. Its unpredictability may even become our undoing, should we not begin to open ourselves up to it. It’s my belief that we need to start letting the world in, only a little at a time, and that not every outsider should just be killed on sight.” She looked back up at us, her smile returning to her as she finished, saying, “Should you chose to help us, the seven of you would be our first step to starting on this path.”

There was no immediate reply from any of us after Shimmer’s speech, and when I looked, I saw as my friends were locked within their own individual thoughts; right away, my mind drifted back to the very recent past. These ponies had a very unique approach to welcoming outsiders, one that I was going to do my best to avoid in the future… and really, for the rest of my life, no matter how long or short. It was the epitome of irony that we would be greeted as potential friends and be asked for help upon meeting the leader of Buckley just after nearly being blown to bits by Old World artillery weapons. And in all honesty, a part of me wanted to tell these ponies to piss off and let us be on our way back to Hopeville where we wouldn’t have to worry about having bombs dropped on us. This stemmed purely from my concern for Blake’s safety, and the fact that my little brother was still shaking, restless where he stood leaning against my left foreleg. Though he had looked to recover to some degree on the way to our meeting, there was no hiding that he was still scared half to death from what he had just gone through.

But again, I was reminded that it technically wasn’t this community’s fault. Blake had either intentionally sugarcoated inner anger, or he was genuinely glad to still be with me, or both. Still, nothing could alter the fact that it was I, his own sister, who had nearly led him to his death. Had I left him in Hopeville and finally put my hoof down towards his diligence to travel with me wherever I went, he wouldn’t have had to walk around the battlefield of corpses or dodge Buckley’s artillery. He’d be at home with his friends, with Melody and Juniper, and he’d be safe behind Hopeville and the trained security ponies that guarded the town from the enemies of the southeast. But now, here he was, a temporary prisoner of a secluded tribe of artillery-slingers, and it was only I could be blamed for it.

Right now though, we had to work with the present situation, and as I thought of my brother, I begun to piece together an idea. “Blake…” I lowered my head down and nudged him on the cheek, catching his attention as I leaned in next to his ear to speak. “These ponies want our help around their home. Do you have anything you want to say about this? I feel it’s only fair that I let you speak your mind about it.”

“But I thought they didn’t like us…” Blake whispered back, looking me in the eyes with a nervous frown. “Why would they try and hurt us and then ask for our help? I know they said that they didn’t trust outsiders and stuff… but I still don’t get it.”

“I know.” I replied with a nod. “It’s… strange to say the least. I really don’t know what to think about it.”

“Their leader seems kind of nice though.” Blake remarked, the both of us casting a glance at the patient ghoul mare, currently speaking to the commander buck as she let us formulate our final decision. “Maybe if we help them, then they’ll be friends with us and not try and hurt us anymore.”

I nodded at Blake’s words; that was a real possibility. “Yes, that’s true… but Blake, if you want to go home, just say so, and we’ll leave.” I offered. “I don’t want to put you through anything that you don’t want to go through.”

“I do kind of want to just go…” he replied, pausing in thought as he looked away again; even before he continued, I could hear the uncertainty behind his words. “But, maybe if they promise not to try and shoot at us again… we could help them a little?”

“I could ask for you… but is that really what you want?”

Blake gave a timid little nod, a small smile taking shape as he answered, “I think that as long as they don’t try and hurt us again… that we should try. I think that’s best.”

“Hey.” I craned my head around at the whisper behind me, seeing Gunny as he leaned in to join our chat. “What do you think?”

“Did you talk to the others?” I asked him, both Blake and I turning around to face him as Shore and Grace came in close to form a tight circle; Raemor and Blossom stepped up to listen in from just behind them.

“Well, we’re kind of stuck between a bunch of decisions.” my friend replied in a hushed voice. “Going home right now is on everypony’s mind, but Blossom, Shore, and Gracie have all come up with good reasons to maybe stay for a bit and see if we can help out around here.”

“What do you have in mind?” I then asked.

“First, Blossom still wants to try and get a chance to look around for her friend, to see if perhaps she made it and is being kept anywhere on base.” Grace explained. “Even though I feel that her friend would’ve been brought to the silo with us if she made it here, I can’t blame her for wanting to try.” I nodded at that, even though my first thoughts on the matter drifted to the artillery outside. If Blossom’s friend hadn’t made it here like she had planned… well, she could’ve escaped… or the obvious opposite could’ve happened instead. “Shore thinks that it’s wise to stay around in order to learn more about this community, to find out just who we’re dealing with and what kind of a benefit or threat they might pose to Hopeville should they be planning on going outside. That’s where I came to agree with the possibility of staying, so that perhaps we could at least get them to warm up to us and thereby avoid any future hostilities.”

“Let’s face it, nopony here wants to have that artillery battery as part of an enemy force.” Gunny added. “As much as I want to get out of here, I think that at least helping them around the base a little will at least ensure that they stay off of us in the future.”

“Yes, and though I doubt they would venture outside too much even after we left, we cannot be too cautious on this one.” Shore remarked.

“I know that Challenger would definitely have their work cut out for them if a couple of howitzers started dropping shells into the city one day. Perhaps making a good impression on this base, or at least showing that we have no intention of provoking a battle, would be a wise course of action.” Raemor likewise observed. “However, leave or stay, I’ll side with the popular vote.”

“So what do you think, Nova?” Gunny asked.

“Well, those are all good reasons, and Blake and I were thinking about staying too, even if only for a couple of hours to try and help out with some little tasks.” I explained. “If nothing else, we can at least show that we’re a neutral party, and we’ll only lose a couple of hours of travel time as a result.”

A general murmur of agreement went around, exempting Blossom who only looked nervously back to Mother Shimmer, the ghoul waiting good-naturedly for our answer. “I guess it’s settled then.” Gunny declared, our discussion ring disbanding as we all fell back into our line. “We’ll stick around for a little while and help in what ways we can.” Shimmer’s smile was immediate at Gunny’s response for the group, though I saw more than a couple of our escorts looking very apprehensive at the proclamation. But before she could make a response, my friend quickly added, “However, we’re planning to move on soon, to head back to our own home. We hope to leave before nightfall.”

“Of course, child.” Shimmer replied. “From now on, you can come and go as you like. How much or how little you help now doesn’t matter to me, but it is my hope that the seven of you will validate my belief, and prove to my youngers that there are ponies out there who can be trusted.”

“We’ll see what we can do, Shimmer.” I assured, giving her my best smile. “And I guess that since we’re staying around for a bit, we should introduce ourselves as well. I’m Nova, and this is my little brother Blake.” Pausing to gesture to each of my friends, I added, “And these are my friends, Gunny, Shore, Gracie, Raemor, and Blossom. We’ll all try and help in what ways we can. We just need to know where to start.”

“Welcome to Buckley, all of you.” Shimmer replied with that same friendly smile. “I’m glad that you arrived here when you did. We’ve recently fallen into a number of problems that my youngers are currently trying to remedy.” she then explained. “Amber Dawn could use help with the bug problem that’s most recently come about, Doc Preston is tending to a number of wounded ponies in his clinic, and if any of you have experience with more complicated Old World technology, Lela and her assistants could use some extra hooves with computer terminal repairs for Buckley’s more advanced systems.” The kindly ghoul chuckled, an unfortunately dry and rough sound, as she added, “Or, if nothing else, you could simply ask Archer to tell you the story of our people when he gives you a tour of the base. That way you might know more about ‘who you’re dealing with’.” I saw as she gave Shore a quick wink before she continued. “I’ll let you all decide where to go and what to do, but before you leave, I have one more thing I wish to discuss, specifically with you, child.” She finished by pointing a hoof right at me.

“With me?… What is it?” I inquired.

“On your way to the silo, I’m sure you heard one of my youngers talking about a Buckley citizen, Marlena, who escaped the perimeter and ventured outside into the wasteland?” she asked, to which I nodded. “After six days outside, she returned to Buckley and told me about how an outsider had saved her life from a group of raiders. Specifically, she mentioned a pegasus who had saved her from a raider explosive, and when Archer reported a pegasus amongst your company after you were first spotted, I begun to wonder if you might’ve been the pony that Marlena had told me about. Do you remember anything that might’ve involved your saving the life of another pony whom you thought was just another wastelander?”

I couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow at this claim, as nothing came to mind regarding me and the liberation of a pony in need. And besides, how could little me, with my slimmer and lighter frame, possibly look like somepony who could make a daring rescue?… Although, as my mental gears begun to turn, I did remember Ivy… though that instance was more along the lines of hearing her out and releasing her before she would’ve been executed at Gunny’s hooves. And in any case, Ivy lived in Hopeville, not here… “I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything.” I replied with an apologetic shrug.

Shimmer though, only smiled again as she craned her head around to look at the back of the silo. “Perhaps you will remember when you meet Marlena herself.” she replied, then calling, “Marlena. Would you come here for a moment, please?”

I followed Shimmer’s gaze just in time to see as a pony hopped off of another couch set under the catwalk that we had entered the silo in, set on the portion of the silo that I hadn’t seen before. This pony was an earth pony mare, perhaps only slightly larger than me, with a cotton-candy pink coat and a long and bright blue mane and tail, a lighter shade than her dark sapphire eyes. What was most striking about her at first glance was the fact that she was very clean and well-groomed, looking as though she had just gotten out of a long shower and had taken considerable time in making herself presentable. Her coat was virtually spotless, devoid of dust and grime, and both her mane and tail carried with them a soft and beautiful sheen; I felt that a lot of mares out in the wasteland would’ve been awfully jealous of her appearance.

“Is this the pegasus you remember, child?” Mother Shimmer asked, the pink earth pony mare stepping up alongside her, her eyes locked to mine.

Her answer was instantaneous. “That’s her, Mother Shimmer. I swear to Luna that that’s the outsider who saved me.”

Right away, her assertion brought murmurs among the escorts, and there were more than a few that were looking square at me, some with skepticism, and others with open interest. “Are you sure?” Shimmer asked again, only to receive another affirmative nod in response; now I was just confused.

“Um… I’m sorry, but I don’t recall ever seeing you before.” I replied to Marlena. “I’ve never seen a pony like you outside in the wastes.”

“You mean you don’t remember Proudspire?” Marlena asked, taking another step towards me. “Don’t you remember flying out from behind the town wall after seeing me in that field? Don’t you remember the twelve raiders? What about the explosive collar?… Surely you remember something.”

Explosive collar? “Where did I… wait a minute…” my words were cut off by my own thought pattern as I revisited my days in Proudspire. The small town with the big Black Blood problem, it was under constant attack by two camps of raiders seeking to take over the settlement, which had already been close to running low on supplies due to Challenger’s occupation with keeping an eye on the raider presence near Ashton. When we had arrived at the town, I had been assigned as an additional guard on the town wall and, because of my being the only pegasus in town, patrolling the skies over Proudspire. Over time, I had encountered the raiders on a couple of occasions, helping the town guards beat back two raids, one where I remained behind the wall, and the second where I had gone out into the fields around the town. That was when I found a captive of the Black Blood on the run… fitted with an explosive collar… “By the Goddesses, it’s you!” I exclaimed, realization kicking me back to the present. Now, looking at this mare with new eyes, I recognized the pink coat and the blue mane, now cleaned of the dirt and blood that had once darkened and marred the colors; this had been the mare that Flare, Cross, and I has rescued in Proudspire… and she was a resident of Buckley Air Force Base!

“You see, Mother Shimmer?” Marlena asked back to Mother Shimmer with a smile. “I knew it was her!”

“But… you live here??” I asked, to which Marlena turned back to me and nodded. “Why were you outside?”

“Over the past couple of weeks, Mother Shimmer’s been talking a lot about the possibility of contacting the outside world.” the pink mare answered. “But when we didn’t follow up with action, I thought I’d try and take matters into my own hooves so that I could prove her right, … needless to say, it didn’t work out so well… so after you found me and I was healed by the town nurse, I made my escape and headed back to Buckley. I lost all the enthusiasm I had about trying to connect to the outside world when those raiders captured me, but I didn’t forget about Proudspire or you. Here and now, I already think that you and your friends can be trusted.”

Well… there were definitely fewer glares amongst the guards in the silo after hearing Marlena speak. And Mother Shimmer herself - oh did she smile. “I think you’ve already proven me right, child.” the ghoul said to Marlena, placing an old hoof on the mare’s shoulder (which the pink mare didn’t seem to mind at all). “Thank you.”

With that, Marlena backed away, giving me another smile before Shimmer returned her eyes forward and approached me. “And thank you, outsider, for helping Marlena come back to us alive. I have a very good feeling about you and your companions, and I hope that through your future actions, you will come to show my youngers your full potential.”

“You’re welcome.” I replied to the ghoul with a smile. “We’ll all do our best.”

Nodding in approval of my words, Shimmer looked over my friends again, saying, “When you return to the surface, Archer will be waiting for you and will show you around the base’s primary structures so that you can know the layout and help in whatever way you see fit. Depending on who helps with what tasks, your weapons and equipment will be returned to you, and should you need to eat, I’ll send the word out to my youngers that our mess hall is open to you and your friends. For helping Marlena, you’ve earned that much at least.”

“Oh, and please, Mother Shimmer,” Marlena spoke out, trotting back up to the leader and looking between us. “allow the spa to be open to them as well. It’s the least I can do to repay this pegasus and her friends for helping me live to see another day.”

Wait… spa?? “Did you say a spa? As in an actual, legitimate spa?” I asked, cautious as if my ears might have deceived me.

Marlena nodded enthusiastically. “Why yes. Before the bombs fell, Buckley had its own recreational building for the combat pegasi and other base personnel that were stationed here. When we settled the base, my parents reworked some of the building’s facilities and made their own spa. Of course, while it might not measure up to some of the grand pre-war resorts of the Old World cities like Manehattan, it’s complete with mud baths, massage tables, steam rooms, the works. Right now I run the spa with my sister, Gisela, and should you stop by, I’d be more than happy to let you and your friends make use of it. It even has regular shower rooms too, just incase the stallions in your company want to avoid hooficures and such.” she explained, giggling a little at the end of her sentence.

“I don’t see a problem with that.” Shimmer responded with a light laugh of her own. “But since it is your facility, I’ll leave the decision up to you, child.”

Oh… my… Goddesses… if I hadn’t been in the company of the Buckley AFB leadership, I would’ve let out the happiest little squeal of delight. Finding a spa was one of the last things… really the last thing I expected to find on the surface. Stable 181 had been outfitted with its own steam rooms, built in the living quarters for the residents to relax and unwind whenever they wished, and I remembered how refreshed I always felt after just a few minutes of lounging within the warm embrace of the hovering clouds of warm vapor. Unfortunately, my last visit to one of those rooms had been several days before evacuating the Stable, and knowing now that one existed out here, no matter how grand or small, added some extra drive to my intentions. But despite this most exciting news, I managed to keep myself contained, simply replying, “Thank you. I’d definitely be interested in visiting once I’ve helped around the base a bit.”

“Alright then.” Shimmer nodded. “Remember outsiders, I’m praying that you will prove yourselves to my people. Do well.” The ghoul leader paused long enough to crane her head around, catching the attention of the amber mare before saying, “Amber Dawn, please lead them back out to the runway. Archer will take them off of your hooves once you do.”

“Yes, Mother Shimmer.” Dawn replied, snapping a quick salute before trotting away to the stairs. “Alright everypony, back to your stations. I’ll handle things from here.” she ordered, her guards then quickly preparing themselves to move as she turned and looked back to us. “Come with me, outsiders. I’ll see you out to the runway.”

Without any further chatter, the seven of us reformed our line and followed, Blake and I taking the lead as we returned back up the stairs and onto the silo catwalk. The amber mare, Amber Dawn, led us back along the silo and into the service tunnel within which we had entered, the guards once escorting us into the base now trotting briskly past us without a second glance. But as we neared the end of the tunnel, I felt a nudge on my left side, and I turned to see Gracie as she drew up beside me. “What do you think of this place, Nova?” she whispered into my ear.

“To be honest… I think it’s full of surprises.” I replied. “I mean, first we find the base to be protected by howitzers. Howitzers. Then we come in and find an empty balefire missile silo, and after that, I find out that a pony I helped rescue outside of Proudspire is actually a citizen of this base who, according to what Shimmer’s been saying about isolation from the outside world, wasn’t supposed to be outside at all.” Gracie nodded at that as she listened, and I continued with, “I don’t know about you, but that feels like a lot of surprises to be taking in one serving.”

“I know how you feel.” Grace replied. “It makes me wonder just what else might be hidden here.”

“Just don’t get any ideas, outsider.” Dawn suddenly spoke, snapping my eyes forward and seeing as she stared back at us while she walked. “You heard Mother Shimmer’s orders. You’re all free to move around Buckley, and artillery crews will be instructed not to fire on you so long as you stay true to your word. These are special privileges that have been given to you, so don’t abuse them by doing something stupid.”

“Of course not.” Grace insisted in reply. “You simply caught us off guard is all, and on more than one occasion I might add.”

“That’s fine.” Dawn responded, facing forward again. “But I’m just warning you now so that we can avoid any trouble later. Besides, apparently your pegasus friend there saved Marlena, whose spa is very much appreciated and enjoyed by the community. You’ve already done us a service, so it’d be a shame to find out that the lot of you were just a bunch of scumbags to begin with.”

“Do you really think we’d be trying anything with a child in our company?” I asked, making no attempt to hide my agitation at Dawn’s increasingly unfriendly vocabulary.

“Maybe, maybe not.” she answered. “What I do know, however, is that whoever among you decided to bring a foal along for whatever you were doing out there isn’t the brightest outsider on the planet. I may not have been out in the wasteland much in my lifetime, but I know just how dangerous it can be with everything we’ve had to fight off and keep away from our gates.”

“I go where my sister goes!” Blake protested beside me. “It was my choice, so don’t call my big sister stupid!”

To this, Dawn looked back again, meeting Blake’s opposing stare with uninterested eyes. “Right, well maybe next time you’d follow your big sister into some radioactive ruins, or a den of feral ghouls. I’m sure you’d have a lot of fun then, too.”

Like hell he’d do any such thing!

“Hey!” I snapped, the amber mare instantly about-facing to glare back at me. “If you want to fire off that smart-ass mouth of yours, you talk to me, and only me. You leave my little brother alone.”

In response to my warning, Dawn stalked toward me, looking like she wanted nothing less than to throw a few punches my way. But as I got ready to meet that challenge, I lost sight of her as a mass of brick red stepped between us. “Hey, hey, let’s simmer down here.” Gunny interceded, staring me firmly in the eyes as I felt two hooves quickly fall upon my back to keep me in place; Shore and Grace stepped into my vision, both looking at me with admonishing eyes and shaking their heads. “We’re here to try and help, not start fights with each other. Let’s all take it easy so we can focus on what needs to be done.” ‘She started it…’, I thought to myself, about to voice this when Gunny, allowing no room for argument, turned to Dawn and immediately asked, “Now, Mother Shimmer was talking about a bug problem. What’s the details of that, and is there a way that we can help out?”

For a moment, tense silence lingered, but then Gunny stepped out of the way, and I saw Dawn already continuing down the hall towards the nearing exit. As the seven of us returned to following her out, she replied, “Since we’re almost outside, I’ll give you the short version of the story. Buckley’s primary power went out just yesterday, and we found out that giant sand hornets tunneled into the generator building and set up a nest. Before then, we’d occasionally seen them in small groups around the fields to the north of the base, but they’ve never established nests in the area… until now.”

“Giant sand hornets?” Gunny asked dubiously.

“One of the many mutated creatures out in the wasteland that are the result of radiation and taint.” Dawn explained with a nod. “Our scout informed us of multiple nests closer to the outskirts of Marefax, and my guess is that they’ve been expanding their territory from the north. Either way, this group of bastards decided that Buckley would serve as a good home for themselves. I led a team into the generator building last night to exterminate the hive, but we didn’t realize how much of a threat those bugs really were. We lost one of our team, and three more were severely wounded.”

“What makes these sand hornets so dangerous?” Shore then inquired.

“Their stingers.” Dawn answered. “They go deep as a combat knife if you get stabbed by one, and to top it off, their sting is extremely toxic, causing severe nausea, muscle weakness, dizzy spells, all of which are almost instantaneous. Basically, anypony who gets stung has to be carried to the clinic, or has to crawl there on their own. Now, combine their sting with their size, speed, their ability to burrow underground, and the fact that they don’t mind taking ponies for food, and you’ve got a terrible but effective bunch of damned monsters. And if we don’t get rid of them soon, they’ll be springing up right under our hooves in a few weeks at the latest. Now you can see the seriousness of this problem.”

Sweet Celestia… I hadn’t expected anything like that.

“And what are you doing about it now?” Raemor asked.

“I’m putting together a more heavily armed and armored team to make another go at getting rid of the problem.” Dawn responded, passing by the tunnel exit and stepping out into the lobby of the silo building. “Archer will be joining the team as well while his apprentices take over watch duty, so after this little tour he’s taking you through, any of you who want to help us can go with him. Personally, I think it’s more than outsiders can deal with, but I won’t stop you from helping should you choose.” As the rest of us filed into the silo building, Dawn stopped just outside the open doors leading outside, turning to face us as she added, “And one more thing, guards will be waiting outside the generator building with your equipment. If you decide to help clear out the bugs, your gear will be returned to you. For the rest, your stuff will still be under lockdown until Mother Shimmer says otherwise. Either way, help or not, toss the decision around in your heads a little and work things out while you’re walking around the base. If any of you come along for the ride, I’ll see you inside.” Without a farewell, Dawn turned and trotted back outside, and I heard as she briefly spoke again, saying, “They’re all yours, Archer. Don’t take too long, and remember what buildings are restricted to them. Until Mother Shimmer fully trusts the outsiders, those buildings stay off-limits. You’re not to explain what they are or what they hold inside. Understood?”

“Understood, ma’am. See you at the generator room.” a baritone voice replied, and as we headed for the exit, the same male called, “Let’s go, outsiders. There’s still work that needs doing.” At the stallion’s request, the seven of us trotted out of the building and back outside, forming into a loose cluster as the stallion called us over one more time, and I turned to face the source of the voice… freezing in wide-eyed shock…

Before us, waiting for us by the corner of the silo building, was a steel-blue stallion with a pure night-black mane and tail, and deep hazel eyes. He was currently garbed neck to hoof in a light set of Buckley’s blue combat armor, with some kind of small portable radio hooked into the chest plate. His armor was worn under a custom battle saddle, equipped with what looked to be two .308 sniper rifles with their scopes removed, and on his back, secured to the saddle’s main strap, rested an even larger scoped rifle, this one very distinguishable as a high caliber sniper rifle. But just above his saddle weapons, folded against his sides… were feathered wings…

He was a pegasus…… and I thought I had seen the last of Buckley’s surprises…

“I know you’re all from the outside, but word from Mother Shimmer is that one or more of you helped Marlena home. That’s already won my attention, so welcome to Buckley Air Force Base.” the pegasus spoke. “I’m Archer, and since you lot have supposedly taken a little interest in helping out around here, my orders are for me to show you the base’s key buildings so you can get a layout of the area.”

“We hope to give what help we can before we return to our own home.” I heard Grace explain. “Hopefully our efforts will at least show that we’re a neutral party.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Archer replied with a short nod. “Follow me, and I’ll show you around.” The pegasus then turned away and walked out towards the left-side runway, motioning for us to follow his lead; my eyes trailed his every step and kept my hooves locked to the ground.

Archer was the first pegasus I had seen outside of Stable 181, a pony I really hadn’t expected to see out here since hearing about what happened to the Enclave from Duke back in Challenger. Of course, I did remember how Auburn had mentioned seeing another pegasus once, having even gone to the point of describing her attraction to him before he had left Challenger. ‘Something about stallion fliers’ was what she had said… oh yes, I may have been a pegasus myself, but now I knew exactly how she felt… Archer was, from what I had seen of him in these first few seconds… very appealing… suddenly so, too. What was the little expression that Gracie had occasionally teased me with in the Stable?… Eye-candy?… Yeah, that was definitely the one. Archer was a sight to behold, even being fully equipped, armored up, and armed to the teeth with three powerful rifles. He had a plain yet handsome face, strong figure and composure, and his eyes… one look at them, and I remembered their hazel shade like the clearest mirror. Yet even during my years in Stable 181, I hardly ever eyed a buck like I was doing now, what with me always being in the Hall of Records and reading up on my textbooks for classes. And upon stepping outside, this hadn’t changed in the slightest, as I was focused on the task of settling Hopeville, helping Captain Saber, and more importantly, keeping my little brother alive and healthy. Of course, Cross had taken his own interest in me back in Proudspire, and because he was always trying to do right, albeit being a little… well, whacky in battle, I had started to take some interest in him as well.

But now… well, talk about a wake up call-

“Wake up call, Nova…” Shore voiced, his puzzled face suddenly blocking the good-looking pegasus from view and snapping me back to the modern world. “Are you coming with us, friend?”

Uh-oh… my friends getting confused? I needed a witty response, one I could use at a moment’s notice to get me out of a potentially embarrassing situation… “…What?…” …Oh, yeah that was a good one, a real gem…

“Nova, your acting kinda funny.” Blake quietly piped up beside me.

I looked down at my little brother where he stood next to me, seeing as he cocked a confused eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. “What? Am I funny?” I asked, looking back to Shore… and finding that the others, including Archer, were all likewise looking towards me with varying levels of puzzlement. Sweet Luna, was it getting hot in here… in the… outdoors?…

“Are you okay?” Blake asked, prodding my right foreleg with a hoof. “You’re face is kind of red. Maybe you should lay down somewhere?”

“I’m fine, Blake. I’m fine.” I quickly assured, shaking out my wings and snapping them back to my sides as I recollected myself. “So, let’s get on with this tour thing.” I added after a breath, walking forward towards the front of the group and giving my friends a big smile, deliberately overlooking their combined befuddlement. “Shall we go?” I asked.

Whether Archer had noticed my previous state or not, the pegasus simply nodded and cleared his throat before facing forward. “Alright.” he began, pointing a hoof towards the nearest structures. “Let’s head to these two buildings here. We’ll end at the generator building at the other end of the base.”

And so, with that little moment of inelegance solidly stamped into my life’s storybook, we finally got down to business as Archer led us out onto the runway and towards the first buildings of our tour. Now that we were beginning our first task, my thoughts began to pull themselves back together, and as I looked towards the three massive hangers, I asked the first question to the pegasus buck. “So, what’s the story of this base?”

Momentarily, he looked back at me, asking in turn, “In the wartime era?” At my nod, he faced forward again, saying, “Before and during the war, Buckley served primarily as a training base for combat pegasi and pegasus pilots. According to records stored here, they trained new air force recruits in aerial tactics, combat maneuvers, and vehicle operations for a total of eight weeks before sending them off to various battlefields across the war zone. From time to time, it also acted as a shelter for airborne couriers and a repair station for vertibucks and military cargo convoys. It’s even got a kill record for intercepting zebra reconnaissance craft with its own small array of anti-air weapons. But perhaps its most important purpose during the war was that it was also one of Equestria’s several ballistic launch sites before the bombs fell. You all remember the silo.” As he came to a halt, myself and the others following suit, I briefly remembered the wreckage outside of the Southeast Regional News Radio Station, how it had been a zebra aircraft; it had been one of Buckley’s kills. “This bigger building here served two purposes during the war. The tower was the air traffic control station for military aircraft and combat pegasi going in and out of the base, and the rest of it coordinated the base’s radar system and personal defense grid. Today, it serves the same function, aside from that tower that acts as our sniper nest. You’ll find me up in that tower during the majority of the day, and you’ll find our machine expert, Tech Sergeant Lela, down in the building itself should any of you want to take a swing at fixing some advanced pre-war technology.” Archer then nodded towards the second building to the right, a smaller structure nestled in between the ATC building and the first hanger.

“So Buckley has its own defense network to intercept any threats coming in from the air? Intriguing.” Shore spoke with a smile. “But what exactly is the problem with this network now?”

“I’m sure you were told about the sand wasp problem.” Archer remarked. “When the buggers tunneled into the generator room, the power failure damaged the defense array’s mainframe, as well as some of the secondary terminals, and shut down the turrets that make up the grid. Lela’s working on repairing the damaged components of those terminals so that we can bring the array back online.”

“Ah, I see.” Shore replied enthusiastically. “I happen to be rather familiar with electronics. Perhaps I might be able to provide some assistance with repairing some of those terminals.”

Archer turned at that, looking over my mechanically apt friend before saying, “At first glance I wouldn’t have believed you, but unless that armor of yours is something you scavenged out there in the wasteland, I’d say that your background as Stable folk gives validity to your claim.”

“I guess it’s no secret.” Gunny remarked. “Two of us aren’t from the Stable,” he explained, gesturing to Raemor and Blossom. “but the rest of us are. We came outside only recently too.”

Archer cocked an eyebrow. “So, one eighty-one, huh? Not a number on one of those gear-shaped doors I’ve seen before.”

“So you know about the Stables?” I asked curiously.

To that, Archer’s eyes fell on me and he gave me a small smile. “Everypony who lives on this base came from a Stable or descended from somepony who lived in one, outsider.” he said, my eyes going wider once again. “The blue armor you see everypony on the guard force wearing? That’s modified Stable-Tec standard-issue security armor. One of Stable-Tec’s Stables serves as the very foundation of the story of Buckley today.”

“Wow… and what is that story?” I asked.

“Follow me.” Archer nodded towards the runway, continuing forward as the rest of us fell in behind him. “Buckley’s ponies lived in one of the Stables for roughly one hundred years before settling here. That Stable was numbered one ninety-two, located due southeast of here.” he began as we walked. “Stable one ninety-two sheltered select members from the town of Ashton and the city of Marefax. But more specifically, it was designed under the promise to preserve musical talent after the bombs fell.”

My ears perked up sharply at those words. “Musical talent?” I asked, a smile quickly spreading on my face.

“That’s right. Sound engineers, DJs, instrumental and vocal musicians. Any and all music-makers from Marefax and Ashton, both amateur and professional, were chosen by Stable-Tec to bring their skills to the shelter so that they could survive the bombs.” Archer explained. “Of course, when you hear it at first, it’s an appealing proposition, and it attracted a good number of ponies from the southeastern region and even beyond that. The Stable had roughly five hundred residents when the door closed, a good three-fourths of them carrying their own instrument and their own musical backgrounds. Unfortunately, what Stable-Tec failed to mention was that the installation served as one of the corporation’s several “experiment” Stables. This one was geared towards making and testing white noise generators that implanted hidden messages into the brains of the residents.”

Experiment… the smile on my face and the questions in my mind faded away at that, as I remembered Stable-Tec planning some sort of project within our own Stable. Though I never knew exactly what kind of experiment was intended for 181, I knew from Crystal Sunset and some of my old classes that the corporation’s project, whatever it was, had been taken down by the Golden Fire family upon their capture of the installation. Apparently, 192’s own experiment had become active.

“What happened with that?” Gunny asked as we continued towards the first hanger.

“For a long time, the experiment remained mostly dormant, only undergoing brief periods of activity that didn’t cause much harm.” Archer answered him. “Music-making was the focus of everypony in the Stable in its early and middle years, whether it be electronic, orchestral, sacred, anything like that. After ninety-some-odd years though, the experiment took off full speed, and the Stable fell apart in only one year.” Here, he paused as he came to a stop beside a wide concrete lane that branched off of the runway, leading to the first hanger. “The experiment was designed as part of a testing ground for the development of a generation of ‘new soldiers’. This was done by exposing residents to subconscious messages from these white noise generators, which the Overmare hoped to use to control the test subjects hypnotically. Eventually, the residents came to find out that the ultimate goal was to create an army of completely obedient super soldiers that would fight far more viciously than normal pony troopers, and kill on command of their leader. I guess at first, nopony really took notice of the effects, but over time, some of the residents begun to show extreme aggression and homicidal tendencies, leading to riots and murders. In the final months of one-ninety-two’s existence, half the Stable’s population was insane and went about trying to kill off the rest. The Overmare lost control of the situation and ended up being killed herself, by one of her test subjects no less. As a result, the rest of the population that was still alive and sane quickly banded together, packed up their essentials, and fled the Stable. And then, after a couple of days of wandering, Buckley was found and settled.”

“That’s terrible.” Grace voiced behind me, and I quickly nodded my agreement with her. “That they would turn a Stable first dedicated to preserving music into a military experiment…”

Archer nodded along with me. “It was a rough few months when that experiment was activated, and it was worse on the surface. Raider gangs and wild animals were encountered frequently before Buckley was discovered, and there was some additional casualties to go along with what came from that experiment. But Buckley turned out to be the perfect home in this wasteland.” With that, he turned to the first hanger and gestured a hoof to it. “This hanger here is the munitions storage.” he explained. “Should you get on Mother Shimmer’s good side, she might let you have access to some of the spare ordnance we have lying around. And take my word for it,” he added with a little smirk. “there’s some pretty nifty toys in there.”

At his motion, we continued along the runway, and even before ten steps, another question came up. “So your people came from a Stable and settled the base.” Gunny said. “Obviously, it must’ve been empty when you found it, or nearly so. But I’m curious as to what howitzers are doing on an air force base? As I recall, those belonged out on the battlefield.”

“Good eye.” Archer remarked as we walked. “The howitzers we have weren’t on base when it was found. In fact, the only things that were here were feral pegasi ghouls and what was left of a radiation field. The base was hit with some kind of radiation bomb or missile, or something like that, because the base’s buildings were largely intact, resembling no damage that would’ve come from a balefire blast.”

“But why come to a base that was radioactive?” Grace inquired.

“Well, firstly, the base was uninhabited by raiders, who avoided the place by habit because of the radiation and the feral ghouls. The geiger counters on the Stable pipbucks, however, indicated that the base was only lightly irradiated, even to the point where some areas were free of it, such as the service tunnels and chambers under the base itself.” Archer answered. “The ghouls were killed off upon arrival, and over the next few years, the radiation lifted away entirely, and the whole base became safe to live in. It was after that that the howitzers we have now were found, discovered in a massive weapons depot to the north called Fort Volker. Mother Shimmer led us there, having already known of its location, and it was the discovery of that Old World military installation that ultimately secured our place here. After we dragged the guns and their ammo back to base, the outsiders became aware of the firepower we possessed, and after a few demonstration of force, we were left in peace. Since then, Buckley’s thrived under the protection of our weapons, our own training, and of course, Mother Shimmer’s leadership.”

Now, we were coming up to the second of the three massive hangers, and as we continued by, Archer gestured to the building with his left wing, saying, “If you’ll look here, this hanger is where our mess hall is located. As I understand it, the mess hall is open to you, so go here if you need something to eat or drink. We’ve got plenty of food and water, so as far as I’m concerned, help yourselves to whatever you need.”

“What about that building there?” I heard Raemor ask, and when I looked back around at him, he was gesturing to our right, towards a much smaller building nestled in between the base’s twin runways.

“That’s the entrance bunker to Buckley’s underground systems, apart from the silo.” Archer answered. “Buckley is entirely self-reliant because the base’s water talisman survived the radiation and still functions to its full capacity. It had it’s own underground apple orchard during the war, but that did not survive. After a time, the residents of one-ninety-two went back to the Stable and transplanted it’s own garden into Buckley’s old one, bringing it back to life and giving us a steady source of food and medicinal herbs. They’re the sole reason as to how we’ve managed to live as an isolated community for so long. That, and we still have Stable one-ninety-two’s own water talisman as a backup, just incase the original one fails.”

“That’s incredibly fortunate.” Raemor remarked.

“Yes. And the truth is, there was a lot of luck that played into settling Buckley and building up the settlement.” Archer replied. “It took over four months to find the howitzers and our weapons stockpile, bring everything from Fort Volker back, and bring the vital equipment out of Stable one-ninety-two and integrate it into Buckley’s old systems. Throughout that time, there were frequent attacks by raider bands and other forces that were trying to seize the tech we had. There were times when the base nearly fell, but it still stood, and that’s where it is today. It’s a thriving community, just over eight hundred strong now, and we’ve only continued to grow. And to be honest, I think an interesting new chapter in Buckley’s history is going to take shape with you outsiders on board.”

Wow… this place, to put it simply, was one hell of a settlement. At first glance, I had only seen Buckley Air Force Base as an abandoned shell of what was once an Old World military facility. My intention had been nothing more than to enter the base, explore the buildings, and find any useful items to bring to Hopeville to aid in its development and protection. Now, I was standing on soil that belonged to former Stable dwellers, just like us, just like Hopeville, who had gone through their own trials and efforts to build a new home after their first was taken from them by a failed Stable-Tec experiment. This community had banded together, pooled their assets and their strengths, and had found and built everything they needed to live in peace and prosperity. They had discovered tremendous firepower and utilized the tools at their disposal that included their Stable’s advanced technology, as well as Buckley’s own resources, to create what was practically a fortress, a Stable on the surface. It was akin to a smaller version of Challenger, and even though Challenger itself was a city in its own right, and its citizens lived in safety and comfort, the ponies of Buckley had powerful and reliable Old World technology at their disposal, and their effective use of it made them, in my opinion, a powerful faction in the southeast, perhaps equal in strength, or nearly so, to Challenger itself.

“Excuse me, um, Archer?” Blossom’s timid voice suddenly asked from just behind me.

“Yes, outsider?”

“Before we arrived… one of my friends was heading this way, and she might’ve come into your territory.” Blossom explained as the pegasus’ eyes met hers. “Did… did any other outsiders try and enter the base just before we came here?”

Archer, however, shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not.” he replied. “The last group of outsiders that tried to breach the perimeter were a couple of raiders, and they were wiped out. That happened four days ago.” I craned my head around to look back at my newest companion, seeing as she only lowered her head to stare at the cracked pavement beneath our hooves. “Sorry, outsider.” Archer added up ahead, none too sympathetic.

“Hey, maybe she kept moving.” I whispered back to the violet mare, trying to offer some encouragement to ease her worry. “She could be out somewhere on that highway… you never know.” But this still won no answer from her, nor even any eye contact, and despite my wanting to try and comfort her in one way or another, I knew it best not to linger on the subject. I let her be, letting her gather her thoughts at her own pace; she’d speak when she was ready.

When I looked up ahead again, I saw as Archer paused in his walk and briefly gestured to the third and final hanger. “This hanger serves as a part of Buckley’s living quarters. The clinic is inside this hanger as well, so if one of you has any medical training, Doc Preston might be interested in recruiting your help. He’s an old coot and a bit of a grump sometimes, but he’s a damn good doctor, and he cares about his patients.”

“I could certainly provide some assistance.” Grace chimed in. “I was our Stable’s chief physician before we came to the surface, so if I help out anywhere, this will be the place.”

“Seeing as how your group and Buckley have it in common, I find myself a little curious about your Stable.” Archer replied, craning his head around to look back at us. “Perhaps if you all stay around a little while, I might be able to ask you all some questions about your old home?”

“Sure… I don’t see why not.” I answered with a smile, hopefully one that didn’t look too bashful. “I’d be happy to answer some questions for you, if you want.”

Archer gave a small smile back at me. “Thanks. Right now, of course, we’ve got some work that needs doing. But if there’s time, I’ll hold you to that offer.” With that, he turned to the right and trotted along, just before I found myself quickly batting my eyelashes; oh, he could ask me all the questions he wanted to. “Let’s keep going, then.” the pegasus buck added. “We’ll cut across the runways and head to the generator building, and then I’ll turn you all loose to help in what ways you want.”

I snapped myself back to focus as our group got moving again, and I fell in behind Gunny and Grace as we continued along, heading into the dirt median between the twin runways before stepping out onto the second airstrip. Two buildings were in front of us now, one of them a taller box-like building to the left, and the second a longer and more rectangular structure. The first of these was currently under guard, as I could identify four of Buckley’s blue-armored soldiers patrolling the perimeter, as well as two more standing still as statues by the large double-doors. “Archer, what’s that building there?” I asked. “The one that’s under guard?”

“That building’s off-limits to you.” he quickly replied, looking back at me with all possible seriousness, an obvious warning in his eyes. “The same goes for the isolated building in the southeast corner, and the farthest southwest structure. And I can’t tell you anything about them either. If anypony shows you what’s in any of those buildings, it’ll be Mother Shimmer. But right now, stay away from them.”

“O-oh, o-okay…”

“I’m just making sure you know to stay away, at least until you can be fully trusted.” Archer added, a little more sensitively, as he faced forward again. “And that won’t be an easy thing, outsider.” Turning away from the restricted building, I found myself looking over the rectangular structure nearby, where a whole cluster of Buckley ponies had gathered near its entrance. Among them, I identified the cheeky amber mare from earlier, standing still as a unicorn guard fitted a twin assault rifle battle saddle around her body. Everypony else within the group was likewise gearing up with basic weapons, largely precision and assault rifles, along with a number of shotgun saddles. A select few of the group, only three earth ponies that I could see, were equipped with the only heavy weapons in the arsenal - bulky, long-barreled, steel-grey weapons with what looked to be some kind of liquid tank secured to a heavy battle saddle. There were over a dozen guards assembled here, all outfitted with bulkier plated variants of the Buckley security armor I had seen before. But the gear that was most striking was a piece of equipment that I instantly recognized; each pony of the group was equipped with their own pipbuck. “This is the last building I’ll be showing you, and it’s where our biggest problem lies right now.” Archer explained as we approached. “This is Buckley’s generator building which houses the pair of spark generators that make the base’s primary power source. And this is where the tour ends, outsiders.”

“We’re just about ready to head in, Archer.” I heard the familiar voice of Amber Dawn call. “Have any of the outsiders decided to come along with you?”

“Just a second, ma’am.” Archer called across the runway in response, then looking back at us once again as we came to a stop. “Alright outsiders, this is where you figure out who of you is coming with us down into the generator building. I won’t feed you any bullshit, this isn’t going to be a cakewalk. Those hornets down there are deadly, and we’ve already had one casualty down there. So if none of you come along, I won’t hold it against you. Go ahead and figure it out, and then whoever comes along, just meet me there.”

Gunny gave him our group’s confirmation, and with that, Archer was trotting away to join his fellow guards, leaving us to make our final decisions. “Well, if any of us go, only a couple of us should do so.” Gunny voiced, turning around to look over the whole of our group. “This is some dangerous stuff, so I’m thinking the majority of us should stay topside. Opinions?”

“I’d be much more effective going to the clinic and helping there, considering both where my skills lie and the fact that the only weapon I possess is a revolver.” Grace replied as our group closed into a circle. “But do any of us have to go? I mean, mutated creatures… that’s where I draw the line.”

“I agree.” Shore put in. “Fighting against raiders is one thing… but predatory wasteland creatures that feed on ponies? I think it would be best for all of us if we stayed outside and helped in other ways.”

“We should go and help.” I countered, looking between my two friends. “At least one or two of us. Besides, these Buckley ponies look pretty organized and well-trained, so we’ll have very effective backup so long as we follow their instructions.”

“But take into account that we’ve never even seen wasteland wildlife before.” Shore argued. “We don’t know what those insects might be capable of.”

“I’ve seen and battled against a fair share of the products of taint.” Raemor spoke up. “Each one is deadly in its own way, whether they be manticores, bloodwings, hellhounds. If these ponies are struggling to contain this incident, then whatever is down there is nothing easy to beat. Don’t be eager to just rush in there to prove your trust to this community. There are other ways.”

“But still, if for no other reason, then we should at least see what kind of creature this is and just what kind of threat it can be.” I replied. “You know, the whole ‘the more we know about our environment the better’?”

“I just don’t think it’s the best idea, Nova. You could really get hurt if you go.” Grace voiced concernedly.

“I think it would be beneficial in the long run to help here, if not for this, then for Hopeville. It’s something else we can bring back to Saber when we go home.” I argued. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time I made a stupid choice.’ I silently added to myself, turning and looking into my little brother’s very apprehensive eyes; no… it definitely wouldn’t be the first time. “Blake, I’m going to go and help these ponies with their bug problem.” I explained, lowering myself down to meet him at eye level. “I want you to go with Gracie while I’m gone, okay? Can you do that for me?”

“But I don’t want you to go…” he answered anxiously, instantly throwing his forelegs around my neck in a tight embrace. “I don’t want to be alone in this place…”

“Hey, you’re not going to be alone.” I answered, hugging him tight against me in return. “Only a couple of us are going, so the rest of the group will be there to look after you.” Before Blake could form a protest to this, I quickly added, “And don’t worry about me. I’m a tough big sister.”

The colt released me, taking a step back as I raised myself to my full height. “Just… please don’t get hurt… and be back soon...”

I gave him my best assuring smile. “Don’t you worry about it little brother. I’ll be right back and smiling at you again before you know it.”

“Well, if you’re going, then I’m coming with you to provide fire support.” Gunny suddenly spoke, coming around from his old place in the circle to join me. “And you’re not getting out of that. Besides, it looks like that bunch of Buckley guards doesn’t have much that’s bigger than an assault rifle, so I figure a little machinegun magic might be of some use to them.”

“Then I think just the two of us going should be all that’s really needed.” I declared with a nod. “That is, unless somepony else wants to come with us?”

“I’ll help you.” Blossom spoke up, looking back at me with a faint smile. “If you’d like, that is. I just don’t know where else I’d be able to help this community. I’m not really medically or technologically capable.”

“Sure, if you’re okay with fighting dangerous creatures.” I replied hesitantly.

“I think I can handle a few bugs.” Blossom assured.

“Then I guess it’s settled.” Gunny voiced after. “Blossom, Nova, and I will help here, Grace and Blake will be at the clinic, Shore will be in the ATC building… and Raemor…”

“I think I’ll explore around the base itself, see what’s in the buildings that they’ve allowed us to enter.” the old buck offered. “They might be open to trade for some of the broken down weapon parts and other items we took from the raiders at the radio station, or perhaps I might be able to speak with Mother Shimmer again.”

“Alright. We can all meet in the mess hall hanger later today, and then hopefully we can head on home.” I replied with a nod. “But I think we’ve already waited long enough. Let’s get going, shall we?”

“Just please do be careful Nova, for me and especially for your little brother.” Grace spoke as our group begun to split. “I don’t want to see you being carted into the clinic while I’m there…”

I gave her a wink and smile as I started towards the generator building. “Don’t worry, Gracie. You won’t.”

*** *** ***

“I want controlled fire in there, especially on the lower level, so remember your training.” Amber Dawn spoke as we waited outside of the generator building entrance. “Those generators aren’t bulletproof, so no spray and pray, and no panic-fire. And remember, it’s important to stay with your teams and keep close when you move, because if you stray too far apart or go off on your own, one of those suckers will get you. Keep your S.A.T.S. ready at all times, keep your eyes on those E.F.S. compasses, and lastly, don’t underestimate these creatures. We’ve already lost Holly, and I do not want to lose anypony else down there.” Once more, I checked over my saddle. I had little doubt that Blue Fire’s Torch would be staying on my back, especially with roughly half of the building apparently being composed of offices, chambers, and catwalks; this information was according to both Amber Dawn and Commander Tracer, newly introduced as the red-coated and green-maned commander buck we had seen upon our arrival as captives. My saddle weapons, on the other hoof, were locked and loaded, having been left unaltered during their confiscation. Gunny was likewise reequipped with all of his weaponry, returning to much better spirits as a result of the familiar weight on his armor, and Raemor had been given my saddlebags which held the disassembled weaponry we had taken from the dead Black Blood in the radio station. Blossom was with us as well, checking over her lever-action repeater as the Buckley commanders spoke their orders.

“There are three sectors we need to secure.” Tracer explained, standing beside Dawn. “I’ll be leading team one to the back entrance of the facility and into the network of service tunnels that run underground and into the lower level. Team two will be led by Amber Dawn who will secure the upper floor’s offices and catwalks, and Archer will be in command of the third team which will secure the generators. Each team will have one flamer whose objective is to torch all of the hornet eggs as you move from room to room. Once the facility is cleared, we’ll be sending in a separate team to look over the generators and turn the power back on.” As it was, Gunny, Blossom, and I were kept together and assigned to Archer’s supervision. Including the four of us, our team consisted of seven members, with the other three including two rifleponies and our team’s assigned flamer. “Electricity is what makes Buckley go round, mares and gentlecolts.” Tracer added, turning to face towards the corner of the building and arming his shotgun saddle. “Let’s get it back and kick these bastards back to hell where they belong. Team one, on me. Let’s go.”

With that, the commander and his team of six galloped away and swiftly disappeared around the building corner, and just after, Amber Dawn gave her order to move. “My team will take point until we split up, Archer.” she explained, the pegasus buck giving a nod in return as he turned the safety of his battle saddle off.

“Hold on, sergeant…” one of the Buckley guards suddenly spoke up, and I looked to see a buck from her team standing with his ear against the primary entrance to the facility. “I think one of them is in the lobby. I can hear something scratching around in there.”

“Damn bugs… Ricochet, toss me a stun grenade.” Dawn ordered, turning to face one of the rifleponies of Archer’s team, a yellow earth pony stallion with an orange and black mane, who swiftly complied with the demand. He snagged one of the grenades from his armor’s chest plate, and with a flick of his head, sent it for Dawn, who in turn caught it with ease.

“Everypony back away from the door.” Archer then ordered, trotting up to stand by Dawn at the entrance as she prepped the grenade. “I’ll open the door for you, ma’am. On three?” At Dawn’s nod, he counted off as the guards gave the entrance a wide berth, Gunny, Blossom, and I following their example. “Three… two… one…” In one quick movement, Archer pivoted on his forehooves and planted a strong kick into the door, sending it swinging around and crashing into the wall, and just as fast, he leapt out of the way as Dawn sent the grenade hurling into the room before she too dove away. With the door open, my ears perked at the sudden presence of a rather alarming deep buzzing sound, which only ceased as the flash grenade went off into the entrance lobby. In swift response, Archer sprang forward and landed before the entrance, and his twin .308 rifle saddle roared off its first shot with an ear-piercing crack of sound. Then he fired again as he glared ahead into the building, and I heard a liquid splatter from inside the lobby. “Got him!” Archer declared, stepping away from the entrance and giving a nod. “Lobby’s clear.”

“My team, let’s go!” Dawn ordered, trotting into the room with her saddle primed, and five others following her inside with weapons at the ready.

Then, as the last of them disappeared, Archer gave a nod to us. “Let’s move, everypony. Inside.”

Archer then took the lead, the earth pony Ricochet following close, and the other two Buckley ponies heading in right behind him. Then my friends and I were moving, Gunny stepping ahead of me as he drew his riot shotgun, and Blossom staying close behind me. Upon stepping inside, I beheld a small and largely vacant lobby room, only adorned with a few old metal filing cabinets along its right wall, and a pair of small tables against the far side of the room. But upon seeing those, my peripheral vision caught sight of a motionless mass on the floor, something that everypony intentionally avoided stepping near. In a pool of thick green blood and gore lay what had once been some kind of winged insect-like creature. It was perhaps just a little smaller than a full-grown pony, and had four dark crimson-colored wings that clashed ominously with the murky red-orange color of its middle and upper body and the solid black that coated its lower body, including the long and curved dagger-like stinger at its very end. The creature’s six long legs were curled over itself where it lay on its back, nearly hiding the large hole torn into its body by Archer’s rifles, and I noticed lastly that this creature’s head, whatever it had looked like, was gone completely, having been blown clean off by the pegasus buck’s deadly accuracy; this creature was one of the sand hornets.

“Goddesses… that’s disgusting…” Blossom remarked quietly from behind me.

“Yeah.” Dawn replied quietly, giving the deceased insect a solid kick as she walked by. “And this one’s only one of the young hornets. The adults are easily two times this size if not larger.”

“… Really?” I asked nervously.

“Yes. That’s why you need to keep your eyes peeled.” Dawn answered, trotting up to the lobby’s one open doorway and peering out into the empty hallway beyond. “Looks clear up ahead.” she observed, briefly craning her head around to look over the others as she added, “The lobby is our fallback point. If anypony gets stung, this is where you’ll retreat before you leave the building and go straight to the clinic. Doc Preston is already working on some kind of anti-venom compound, so get there as quick as you can and get a dose of that.”

“Understood.”

“Let’s get going then. We’ve got some bugs to squash.” Amber Dawn took the lead, her team falling in behind her in a tight single-file line with weapons and saddles at the ready. Archer then fell in behind the last pony of Dawn’s team, and I followed with the formation, keeping quiet and light on my step.

Beyond the hallway was what looked to be another office area with spaced cabinets and tables. This room was declared clear as Dawn entered, but even then, I saw red markers on my E.F.S. compass, two of them that were rapidly skittering back and forth across the display. But then, just before Archer entered the office, my ears perked at the sound of buzzing wings nearby, and everypony froze in place.

“They’ve got keen senses.” I whispered to Gunny as he crouched beside me. “Hearing, at least.” He only gave a nod as he stared intently forward.

Up ahead, Dawn gave a nod and slowly continued her advance with her team following her up to the next open doorframe, this one leading to the first of the generator facility’s iron catwalks; it was completely out in the open, hanging above what I assumed to be the ground floor. As Archer entered, he took a left, motioning for his teammates to follow, and as I hooked around behind Ricochet, I saw another entrance leading to a third office. The bridging hall between them held a sign suspended on thin chains, reading, Lower Level Access: Authorized Base Engineers Only.

This was where the two teams were splitting, and not a word was exchanged as Archer led us up to the entrance of the third office. But just as he was about to enter, I backstepped with a gasp as another one of the sand hornets scurried into view. This one was larger than the first that Archer had killed, perhaps a little larger than Gunny was, and this one had instantly spotted us, it’s ugly head rearing to stare right at us. Just as it beat its wings, lifting into the air with a deep and angry buzzing, Archer shouted the command to fire, and both he and the unnamed riflepony next to him opened up. The hornet jerked in the air, flipping spastically as one of its six legs came clean off before the bug righted itself in the air. Then, with great speed it charged forward to attack, and I only screamed and hastily backed away in unison with Blossom as that disgusting buzzing filled my ears. But quickly, Archer snapped out his wings and lifted up into the air, matching the altitude of the insect before his saddle rifles roared again, this shot drilling into the beast’s torso and knocking it back into the office. Then Gunny pushed through the group and was after it as the insect jerked and twitched, trying to regain its footing in its injured state, and with one shotgun shell he finished the job, taking the hornet’s head off in a messy splash of bug goop. Now there was one more dead, but at the same time, the entire facility came alive with the buzzing of the sand hornets.

“Hey!” Archer suddenly snapped in a fierce whisper, and I saw him land before approaching me as I fought to calm my breathing. “If you want to help us kill these things, then you’ve got to keep your head on straight, outsider.” he warned with a glare that I found myself cringing away from. “Do you got that?”

“I-I’m sorry, Archer.” I shakily replied. “I’ve just, I’ve just never seen… something like that before.”

“Neither have most of us on this mission.” Archer retorted, his glare easing up as he added, “Look, you saved Marlena’s life out in the wasteland, so I’m willing to bet that you can handle yourself. Now can you keep yourself together?” I only swallowed and nodded my reply as my breathing begun to steady, and I righted myself to a more secure standing posture as I pushed past the cloud of my previous panic.

Archer in turn gave an approving nod, but only turned around in time to see as yet another sand hornet of similar size to the second came flying into the office from it’s entrance at the far corner of the room. Gunny was on it in a heartbeat, swapping his riot shotgun for the All-Equestrian and strafing the insect’s lower body with a hail of bullets. But whether these things felt pain or not, this one flew right past him, completely ignoring its plentiful wounds and launching itself straight for Ricochet. The yellow stallion was quick to respond, bringing his two markspony carbines to bear and firing three pairs of shots, staggering the hornet and halting its rapid advance. And then the other riflepony made his move, the grey-coated, orange-maned unicorn levitating up a bolt-action rifle and firing a single powerful shot into the beast, sending it against the wall and onto the floor where it remained still.

“Good work.” Archer complimented as he trotted back to the head of our group and advancing into the office. “There’s an egg cluster here, a small one in the far corner opposite the entrance.” he announced as Ricochet and the grey unicorn stopped next to him. “Torch it, Butch.”

“Nova, Blossom, get back.” Gunny spoke, motioning for us to join him where he stood at the opposite end of the room.

The two of us hurriedly trotted over to him, and I turned to see our team’s designated flamer, a big tan-colored earth pony with a brown mane, approach a pile of slimy grey orbs, the egg clutch. “Everypony take a big step back.” he warned, biting on the firing bit of his heavy saddle and arming the flamethrower’s gas valve. Then, with a tremendous roar, a wave of orange fire rushed out from the weapon and bathed the egg cluster in a roaring inferno, splashing the wall and forcing Archer and the rifleponies to back further away. Even Gunny shielded his eyes from the glare, Blossom and I following his example as the flames continued to erupt from the weapon. Then, after a few seconds, Butch released the trigger and the blaze ceased. Already, the egg clutch was melting away into a burning pile of black slag, and Butch himself gave a little chuckle as he turned his saddle’s safety on. “Ooh, toasty.”

“Let’s keep going.” Archer then ordered, pausing briefly as gunshots echoed deeper into the facility. “Looks like the other teams have engaged too. With any luck, we’ll be able to surround the hive and plow through however many are down there.” As he begun down the set of stairs in the entranceway, he added, “We’ll be coming up on the generators soon. This is bound to be where the majority of these bastards are too, so stay alert.” One by one, we descended the flight of stairs, eventually emerging onto the concrete floor of a wide and open chamber that was the generator’s building’s lower level. Instantly drawing my attention was a series of muzzle flashes high above on the catwalks, Amber Dawn and her team keeping back an even larger sand hornet, easily three times my size, that attempted to attack the catwalk from the air. On the ground floor, two of the smaller sand hornets were directly ahead of us as they searched for intruders into their nest, hovering just above the floor as their wings beat that ominous deep buzzing sound. There was no sneaking up on them, as they turned to find us just as Blossom, the last in our line, stepped onto the floor.

“Fire! Fire!” At Archer’s command, the Buckley ponies split off into two pairs of two to meet the hornets as they flew in from opposing directions. Archer clipped the first with another shot from his saddle rifles, tearing off two of the creature’s thin legs and sending it to the ground where it skittered along the floor. Ricochet was already after the second one, his carbines drilling bullets into the bug’s midsection with precision. But as the Buckley ponies engaged the first two, another sand hornet came darting around from behind a large military shipping container; this hornet was massive, easily half the size of the entire container it hid behind!

“Nova, another one up ahead! Take it out!” Gunny shouted through the noise of the gunfire, taking aim with his LMG and firing off another barrage of bullets. As Gunny engaged, I steadied myself and took my saddle’s firing bit in my teeth, then slipping into the embrace of S.A.T.S.. The huge hornet was coming straight for Ricochet and the flamethrower pony even as Gunny shredded it with the All-Equestrian. It was so close now that it would be upon them in less than a second… but then I got an idea, quickly locking in my next two attacks and executing the spell; both Cross’s rifle and my carbine spit out their first shots, striking the mark I targeted.

Without its left wings, the hornet toppled to the floor and landed on its back, its legs kicking wildly in the air and giving the flamer buck enough time to wheel about and douse the giant menace with a healthy dose of orange fire. Even as we got a brief break in the fighting, the gunfire from the catwalks, as well as additional fire further into the facility, echoed around the chamber with enough sound to recreate a firefight on the surface. Up above, Dawn and her team had killed off the bigger hornet to have it be replaced by three more smaller ones which they were fighting to evade and shoot at the same time.

“Let’s go!” Archer called. “There’s more up ahead, and we can’t stop until they’re all dead!”

The team quickly regrouped into a loose cluster, Archer once again taking the lead as we advanced further into the facility. Just ahead, the big military container revealed an expansion of the chamber that branched to the left, towards which we advanced while hugging the side of the storage crate. Another trio of the big metal containers lay stacked together in the far corner, and a sort of platform elevator sat dormant beside them. Around it was a whole mass of eggs, currently under guard by two larger hornets as well as a smaller one hovering a ways away, and as we emerged around the corner, the group of insects charged, barreling straight towards us as a single pissed-off mass.

“Shoot for the wings!” I shouted, taking sight of my next target before firing another pair of shots at the smaller hornet, staggering the bug long enough for Ricochet to finish it off with his carbines. The other two larger hornets immediately came under fire from the three Buckley ponies, Butch now using a 10mm SMG in place of his flamer. But as the three hornets were dispatched, I took a quick look back behind me to check on Blossom and Gunny. The both of them had fallen out of the group, and were standing close together as they were likewise engaged, already having killed two others and now gunning down a third hornet that had flown in from behind us. But those three weren’t the only ones that had come from that way, as while my two friends had caught the attention of the third hornet, another larger fourth had flown straight past them and their fire; this one was coming straight for me!

I had only just registered the creature’s presence before I suddenly found myself face to face with it, the giant killer landing right in front of me; it legitimately stood twice my height! Then, it’s lower body arched up and forward as the hornet crouched, jabbing its stinger over its head and straight for my chest. With a cry of alarm, I only barely ducked in time, belly to the floor as the dagger-like stinger stabbing right over me and into the container behind me, sending up a streak of sparks where the stinger scraped along the steel. Even as I fought to right myself from the quick evasive maneuver, the hornet geared up for another attempt to put a hole in me, springing into the air and coming to face me a second time. With my ears full of the creepy deep buzzing of the beast’s wings, I half-leapt and half-stumbled out of the way as the hornet jabbed at me again, and I toppled onto my side as I lost my balance in the attempted escape.

I quickly rolled onto my back to keep my eyes on the hornet, which was already nearly on top of me, and before I could reach for my sidearm, I had to roll away as its stinger punched into the concrete where my torso had been. Despite my dodge, the hornet was persistent in following my every move, hovering in so close to me that its hanging legs nearly brushed against me. One more roll, and the hornet stabbed into the concrete once again, the strike so close that I felt the skin of the bug’s body touch against my side. But as I rolled onto my back, the hornet swiftly hovering in over me for another stab, the killer insect jerked as it was peppered with bullets, and as it whirled around to face its newest attackers, launching itself forward, a rifle shot rang out and stopped the hornet cold, sending it falling to the floor where it finally died.

As I fought with the pounding in my chest and the adrenaline coursing through me, I saw Gunny, Blossom, and even Archer, all facing towards me with their weapons still pointing at the most recently killed member of the hornet hive. Then, Gunny was the first to gallop over to me, skidding to a halt as he looked over me concernedly. “Are you okay?? Did you get stung??”

“I’m fine… I’m fine.” I assured with as much courage as I could muster, rolling over onto my belly before shakily forcing myself to a stand.

“Are you sure?” Blossom asked tensely as she joined us. “That thing was on top of you the whole time.”

“I know… but I’m fine, I-.”

“AAAGH!”

A sudden wail of pain cut through the noise of the gunfire, and my words were cut off as the three of us snapped our eyes and weapons to the source. Behind Archer, the other Buckley ponies of our team were still engaged, and I saw two smaller hornets in their midst, one of which ripped its stinger out from Butch’s side and quickly backflapped away, evading retaliatory fire from Ricochet. But before it could come charging back for another attack, Archer scored a hit on it’s right wings, sending the creature reeling onto the floor before Ricochet finished it off, the grey unicorn killing the second with a well-placed rifle shot just shortly after.

I raced back to regroup with the others, arriving as Butch was helped out of his heavy saddle. “Ugh, the fucker got me good…” he spoke through clenched teeth, breathing heavily as Ricochet dragged the flamethrower away. “I can feel… that venom’s already working.” the flamer buck added, his voice already fading in intensity before he suddenly let out a series of grating coughs. “Damn it… there’s still… more of them…”

“We’ve gotten a lot of them already, Butch, so don’t worry about not doing your part. Right now, you need to get back to the clinic, and quick.” Archer remarked, turning quickly to Ricochet and adding, “Get him out of here and over to the clinic as fast as you can. He needs a dose of that anti-venom as soon as possible.”

“I got him, amigo.” the yellow earth pony replied, already taking up a position at Butch’s side; the flamer buck already looked wobbly on his hooves. “Just make sure none of them follow us out, alright?”

Archer gave a nod. “We’ve got you covered. Just go.”

Without further delay, Ricochet led the incapacitated Butch away from the scattered corpses of the hornets and back towards the stairs, and I heard as the flamer pony gave another series of coughs that was proceeded by the sound of vomiting, making me wince; Goddesses, these buggers were nasty bastards.

“There’s not as much gunfire.” Gunny remarked then, and I looked ahead to see the area near the platform elevator, completely clear of any more hornets.

“E.F.S. still says there’s a few more, so stay ready.” Archer replied, trotting ahead and advancing towards the elevator. “Bolt, I need you on that flamer.” he called. “There’s a lot of eggs over here.”

“I got it. Keep me covered while I bake these thing.” the grey unicorn answered, already trotting over with the heavy flamer, saddle and all, wrapped in his telekinetic grasp.

The rest of us joined the two Buckley ponies by the elevator as Bolt armed the gas valve, and I got a look at several pony-sized piles of the slimy grey hornet eggs all laying along the three-sided wall that surrounded the lift; there were at least ten eggs per pile. “Goddesses, there’s so many…” I couldn’t help but observe.

“Yeah. If all of these had hatched…” Gunny added.

“Don’t worry, outsiders. They won’t.” Bolt interrupted as he took aim. “Keep clear.”

“Outsiders, help me keep watch for any more while Bolt gets rid of these eggs.” Archer ordered, nodding for us to join him by the stack of containers.

Obliging, the three of us took up defensive positions side by side, scanning the surrounding area as Bolt ignited the flamer and got to work. Aside from the roar of the heavy weapon, there was only the occasional blast of gunfire coming from above as well as farther into the facility. And all around us were the corpses of what had once been a massive hive of deadly mutated hornets. It was hard not to imagine what would’ve become of Buckley had they let this outbreak go. If the hive had expanded and all of the eggs had hatched, and the offspring developed into grown hornets, many more ponies above would’ve gotten hurt and possibly killed. Also considering the fact that these hornets had laid dozens of eggs, Buckley may have very well become overrun in time, and that would’ve easily started causing problems for the rest of the southeast region; I didn’t dare to think about what might’ve happened if these creatures had arrived on Hopeville’s doorstep.

“Those eggs are done for.” Bolt suddenly spoke up, trotting up alongside us as he secured the heavy saddle around his torso. “Let’s press on.”

“The generators are just ahead.” Archer explained as he nodded for us to move. “Hopefully they weren’t damaged.”

Leaving the elevator, we continued deeper into the facility, passing by the stack of storage crates and coming up upon a divider wall. It spanned half of the width of the chamber, sporting several support beams that held the catwalks and offices above in place. But then, passing by the wall, we came upon our primary objective. Two large steel boxes upon a stone platform, all of which was secured to the far wall, made Buckley Air Force Base’s twin spark generators, the installation’s primary electrical power source. Currently, mounted atop the generators, two orange lights were spinning in a slow circle, some sort of warning signal. The generators themselves looked to be intact, as far as one hundred and seventy-five year old machinery went, but all around them were even more hornet eggs, piles of them lined side by side along the walls and even up against the generators themselves. But what was more disgusting was that a few of these eggs had already hatched, and in their place was an equal number of white worm-like… well… things… wiggling and writhing about on the floor, some of them still half trapped in their own eggshells.

“Ew… what are those things?” Blossom asked as we approached, grimacing in disgust.

“Well, if I had to make a guess,” Archer answered, stopping before an egg pile to examine one of the worms. “I’d say that these are what sand hornets are before they become flying terrors… Yeah, that is pretty nasty.”

“Then we might as well get rid of them, too.” Bolt remarked, once again arming the gas valve and taking aim at the first clump of eggs.

But before he ignited the flamer, Archer quickly placed a hoof on Bolt’s side, getting him to lower the weapon. “No, we can’t use that here. The fire might damage the generators.” the pegasus warned, staring intently towards the intruding mass of eggs. “We’ll have to move them first before they can be destroyed… but we at least know that the generators aren’t damaged. Let’s help the other teams take out the rest of the hornets that can fly and fight, and then we’ll get back to this issue.”

On cue, the buzzing sound of hornet wings grew louder in my ears, and I looked away from the generators to find two more on fast approach from the unexplored area of the facility. “Watch out!” I swung around and brought my saddle to bear before slipping once again into S.A.T.S.. Two programmed shots to the left wings of the closest target, and I executed the spell, the first shot missing before the second struck home. My hit halted the hornet’s speed entirely, sending it crashing to the floor as Gunny opened up with his LMG on the second one. His barrage crippled it, sending it to the floor along with its friend and allowing Archer to finish it off with his saddle rifles, while Blossom scored the killing hit on the other with her repeater.

More gunshots echoed further in as the two bugs went down, sounding much closer than they had before, and just ahead, another smaller hornet emerged from behind a second divider wall. But just as I made my move to engage, the creature was mowed down from fire on its left flank, and as the hornet keeled over in its own guts, a unicorn pony emerged to face us with assault rifle aimed and ready. His armor was spattered all over with the green gore of hornets, and with a tremendous sigh of relief, he simply let his weapon clatter to the floor before plopping down on his haunches.

“Hey, are you alright?” Archer called, leading us over to the tired unicorn.

“Yeah… we’re fine.” the buck answered, nodding to his left as he caught his breath.

“The service tunnels were filled with the damn things.” Commander Tracer explained, emerging from an entrance to the right that led to the first of the facility’s tunnels. There was a whole mess of dead hornets inside, and the commander was likewise coated with a fair share of bug gore. “The service tunnels were where they had burrowed in and set themselves up before taking over the rest of the building.”

“What happened to the rest of your team, sir?” Archer asked.

“Four of them were stung in the fighting and had to retreat to the clinic.” Tracer answered. “Our flamer’s in there taking care of all the eggs inside the tunnels, and once he’s done, we’ll be grabbing some c-four charges to drop into the tunnel they made. We’ve got to reseal it and hope they don’t try and tunnel in again.” Trotting past us, the commander stopped to look over the generators themselves, giving a nod of approval as he added, “The generators still look to be intact… we’ll have to move these eggs before we can get rid of them, but all in all, I’d say this little mission was a success. Good work on securing the generators, Archer.”

“Thank you, sir.” Archer replied with a dip of his head. “But I’d like to just point out that the outsiders also pulled their own weight during the fighting. To be honest, I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen of them in here. They can definitely handle themselves, to say the least, and they were all true to their word. They were a big help to my team.”

At that, the commander turned to face the three of us where we stood, looking over each of us in turn. “That right?…… I’ve always trusted Mother Shimmer’s judgment when it came to the security of this base.” he said, slowly nodding. “Maybe she was right about the lot of you, because to be honest, I didn’t expect anypony in your party to help us here. These bugs are mean bastards, but you still volunteered and you helped Archer get to the generators.”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t fun… especially when I was on my back and being chased around by one of those things.” I remarked with a little laugh. “They’re real ugly up close.”

“Believe me, outsider, I know.” Tracer replied with a smirk.

“Hey!” a female voice suddenly called from the catwalks above, and we all looked in unison to see Amber Dawn, along with her team, looking down over us. “We’re all clear up here. How are things on the ground floor?”

“We’re clear here too.” Tracer called back. “The generator building’s secure.”

“Thank Celestia.” Dawn huffed with a smile, her team of five letting out a collective cheer behind her. “Now let’s get the gear heads in here so they can get the power going.”

“Dawn, when you go out there, get a couple of guards together with some plastic explosives and bring them to the service tunnels.” Tracer ordered. “The burrow that the hornets dug to get inside is in there, and we need to seal it again. I want you to take charge of that and see to it that it’s taken care of.”

“Yes, commander.” she replied with a nod. “Come on everypony, let’s tell the others the good news.”

“We need to head back out for a moment as well. Mother Shimmer is likely already waiting for us.” Tracer then spoke to us, motioning for us to follow him towards the stairs. “And I’m sure that she’s looking forward to hearing what we have to say about you, outsiders.”

“You all did pretty good.” Archer chimed in, trotting up next to me. “Thanks for your help in here.”

“It was… quite an unexpected adventure.” I remarked, to which Archer gave a small smile.

“Didn’t expect to see any wasteland critters?” he asked, looking me in the eye as he added, “Well, we all go through it at one point or another. It’s better that you found these for your first time and not a hellhound… and before you ask, it’s better that you don’t know.” Oh… okay… “But, by the way,” he added, leaning in to speak a little quieter to me. “good job keeping yourself together down here. I had a feeling you could do it.”

“Oh… uh, you’re welcome… I-I mean, thank you… heh, thanks…” Isn’t is amazing how quickly one can find herself blushing again, especially when an attractive buck of the same species leans in to compliment her?…… Because that was definitely me at the moment.

“You’re the one that deserves the thanks, you and your friends.” Archer replied with a chuckle “You did a lot more than most everypony was expecting, and that’s definitely putting you on the right track.”

With Commander Tracer in the lead, we headed back up the stairs and across the offices, retracing our steps back to the entrance lobby. The lobby door leading outside was already open, and I could hear several voices outside in a mash of activity. Once we emerged, I saw that some sort of improvised clinic had been assembled just outside the entrance, with eight open bedrolls having been laid out in two neat rows. Five of them were occupied, all of the ponies having been stung by a sand hornet currently recovering from the toxic venom and the wound that came with it. Tending to the four patients was none other than Grace, currently helping Butch drink down a clear elixir in a round flask, the anti-venom. Nearby, a white unicorn stallion with a black and grey mane was putting away an empty healing potion bottle in his saddlebags, adjusting his glasses before turning and trotting up to Grace. “How is he, outsider?”

“This dose should suppress the poison that came from the barb left in the wound.” she replied. “I wish I had known earlier that those hornets had left a part of their stinger in the victim to keep the venom flowing.”

“I had not known about that either, and I’m glad that you caught it.” the white unicorn replied. “It certainly explained why the first sting victims weren’t recovering overnight. Thank you for storing the barbs away. I will be analyzing them so that I can understand more about these creatures, just incase we should encounter them again.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Doctor Preston. I’m glad I could help.” Grace said with a smile, lifting away the now empty anti-venom vial and setting it aside. “And that’s the last dose of the anti-venom we should need to administer. Now these four just have to rest.”

“And I want them to rest for two days in the clinic, not just one.” Preston added, looking over to a female unicorn in doctor fatigues, the assistant proceeding to write down Preston’s orders on a clipboard. “While the venom has stopped, I’ve already seen that it has a crippling sort of effect on ponies, leaving the muscles in a weakened state for a fair time after the initial sting. They should recover on their own, but I still want them under surveillance to check for side effects.”

“We’ll get them back to the clinic, Doctor.” the assistant then spoke, levitating the clipboard to her saddlepacks.

“Thank you.” Preston replied with a nod, spotting us as he faced forward before giving Grace a nudge with his hoof. “It seems your friends have returned, outsider.”

“Hey, Gracie.” I called with a wave, my friend snapping her eyes to me at the sound of my voice.

“Oh, thank Luna you’re all back. I was worried when injured ponies started coming out of the generator building.” she explained, trotting first up to Gunny and giving him a quick hug before doing the same for me. “They were practically puking their guts out when they came outside. Any longer, and I’m not sure they would’ve survived, hence the reason why Doctor Preston decided to move some of his medical supplies out to the entrance.”

“Good thinking.” Gunny remarked with a nod. “My guess is that things are going smoothly for you out here?”

“Yes, actually.” Grace answered. “I think I’ve just about finished with my part of this whole ordeal.”

“Hey, where’s Blake?” I asked, looking around and not seeing him amidst the ponies outside the entrance, that was until I suddenly felt something hugging my foreleg.

“Right here, big sister.” the colt in question piped up, staring up at me with a smile of happy relief.

“Oh, hi there.” I replied with a giggle, reaching down to nuzzle his forehead. “See? I told you I’d be okay.”

“I’m just glad your safe and not hurt.” he replied, reaching up to hug my neck and pulling me into a tight embrace that I gladly accepted.

“Mother Shimmer!”

I looked up to find both Tracer and Archer trotting away from the generator facility and out towards the runway, heading straight to where four ponies were approaching across from the ATC tower. Though I couldn’t hear what they were saying as the two officers stepped up to the group, I recognized Mother Shimmer among them, with Raemor standing beside her, along with two unicorn guards, both telekinetically carrying light machineguns for Shimmer’s protection. And after a long moment of discussion, the group begun to make their way towards the generator building.

“Hey guys, I think Mother Shimmer’s coming to talk to us.” I observed, Blake releasing me as I stood to my full height.

“Already?” Gunny remarked with a chuckle. “That was quick.”

“I hope she’ll let us have the rest of our things back now.” Grace added, stepping up by my right side as we waited. “It’s not a good feeling getting a new weapon and having it taken away before you can use it.”

“Ah, then I guess Shore and I are rubbing off on you a bit.” Gunny observed, smirking as he looked at our medical friend.

“Shhh.” came Grace’s reply, the three of us sharing a round of laughter. “I still don’t like guns… but regardless, it wasn’t a nice feeling.”

Gunny only rolled his eyes before looking ahead, that grin still pasted to his face; it was a smirk that I couldn’t help but share with him. “Okay, sure.”

“Well done, outsiders.”

We faced forward at the familiar raspy voice of Mother Shimmer, seeing as she approached us with Tracer, Archer, and her two guards, Raemor departing from the group to join me by my left side. “Thank you.” I replied with a dip of my head, Gunny and Grace doing the same.

“No, child. Thank you.” she said with a big smile. “You and your friends have done well to earn the trust of my people. Just a moment ago, I had visited our ATC tower, and your friend Shore has certainly proven to Tech Sergeant Lela that he knows his way around computers, both in repairs and reprogramming. He has helped her tremendously in restoring our defense array terminals, and now, as I have just heard from Tracer and Archer, the generators are secure, and the hornets’ nest has been destroyed. Once the engineers have completed all of the necessary repairs, Buckley’s electrical power will be restored, and everypony will be a lot happier. For your help in achieving this outcome, I, and Buckley, thank you.”

“We’re glad to have helped.” I responded with a small smile. “But, to be honest, I’m sure that you’re ponies could have easily done this without us.”

“And many will say this.” Shimmer agreed with a nod. “But they will also come to know that because of your actions, you, as outsiders, are ponies that can be trusted, accepted, and welcomed as friends to Buckley. And this, in turn, will begin to give all of us the courage to open ourselves up to the outside world. It is my hope that we will soon be able to end the seclusion that we have lived by for so long.”

“What will you do now that Buckley’s systems are being restored?” Grace asked curiously.

“That is actually something I wished to discuss with you.” Shimmer answered, looking my way as she added, “You have helped my youngers in a number of ways already, and I am firm in my belief that your intentions here are true. I believe that now, I can trust you enough to show you Buckley’s greatest treasure. Should you have the time, I would like for you all to come and walk with me.”

Oh…

I glanced back over to Grace, Blossom, and Gunny, finding the three of them looking back at me with varying levels of curiosity and hesitation. We had only been on base for a short duration, perhaps no more than two or three hours, and we had already been witness to Buckley’s powerful weapons and technology. But aside from this, the fact that Mother Shimmer was so quick to trust us caught me off guard… it made me wonder just how much help Shimmer was seeking from the outside world in order to help her people and their home.

“You’ve already got all of this technology on your side.” Gunny remarked, facing Mother Shimmer again. “Are you saying you’ve got something even more advanced than anti-air turrets and howitzers?”

To this, Shimmer only chuckled. “Child, there are other things in this world that are far more valuable and powerful than the weapons of our predecessors, believe it or not.” she remarked with that same warm smile. “Please, come and walk with me, outsiders.”

She gave a nod, motioning to her right for us to follow her along the front of the generator building. With Blake sticking beside me, and my friends forming a shapeless cluster around me, we followed Shimmer, Tracer, Archer, and the two guards past the generator building and back towards the entrance of the base. We followed a straight path, parallel to the runways, and as we walked, I took in the sight of the rest of the base that I had not seen on Archer’s tour. Just past the generator building, facing the east, was one of Buckley’s howitzers, a massive cannon sitting upon a heavy steel frame that was connected to two thick tires. The entire gun was supported and level with two steel support bars that jutted back from the sides just behind the wheels, creating an overall triangle-like shape that kept the gun firmly on the ground. It’s firing components were separated from the barrel and cradle by a single plate, a blast shield, and it was operated by a crew of six unicorns, all staring eastward with their gun; it was an eye-catching and very lethal piece of equipment, the largest mobile gun I had ever seen.

Further along the base’s east side, we came across the recreational building, the spa which Marlena had opened to us, and the place that I was still very interested in making a visit to before we left. Past the spa, a massive sprawl of reinforced metal shacks, old military tents, and Buckley’s original barracks buildings stretched east from the runway all the way to the fence that separated Buckley from the outside. The collection of residences spanned a wide enough area that gave it the right to be a town all on its own, and as we walked by, there were at least a hundred ponies going from house to house as they completed their various errands. Even more shacks were spread along the fence, bridging the first residential district with a second, equally large, collection of shacks and tents. All of these surrounded another howitzer and its crew, as well as the large closed doors of the balefire missile silo - Shimmer’s residence. There had to be between two and three hundred homes in total, and with two to three ponies living in each one, Buckley’s claim of its eight-hundred-plus population was perfectly valid.

Now there was only one building left on the base’s east side, and it was Buckley’s largest structure, isolated and nestled into the southeast corner. As we drew closer, I could see multiple sets of double-doors, and pacing back and forth along the front of the building in their patrol were three guards, all of whom came alert as they spotted us. “Mother Shimmer, are the outsiders allowed to enter?” one of them called, carbine ready to fire in his telekinetic grasp.

“Yes, child. I’ve given them my permission.” Shimmer kindly replied. “You and your team can take a break from your shift if you like.”

“Oh. Yes ma’am.” The guard turned and gave a curt nod to the others before the three of them trotted away towards the hangers.

“Outsiders,” Shimmer began after the guards’ departure, stepping up to one of the sets of doors. “when you first arrived and were brought into the silo, I had spoken of our reasons for isolating ourselves from the rest of the world.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Yes…”

“One of those reasons was to prevent anypony from the outside who might cause us harm from damaging what we shelter.” the ghoul continued, pushing one of the doors inward and giving us a smile. “Inside this building, you’ll find what it is that we protect. Come with me.”

The two guards followed after Shimmer first, opening two other doors and holding them for the rest of us. One by one, we entered, stepping hoof into a wide lobby space with a carpeted floor, an entirely clean and thin carpet of solid red fabric that covered the entire level from corner to corner. The room was supported by three circular steel pillars, all of which were unblemished and painted over in a solid coat of white, the same color that adorned the entirety of the walls, and even the ceiling. Around the entire lobby, attached at even intervals along all four walls, were ornate glass light fixtures, the bulbs inside each casting the entire room in a soft golden glow. At the left and right sides of the room, two staircases curved up and away to the building’s second floor, and directly ahead, another set of windowless double-doors were closed; Shimmer was leading us to them.

“Wow… this is pretty.” Grace commented, looking back and forth along the walls.

“What is this place?” Gunny asked.

“A haven, child.” Mother Shimmer answered, looking back at us with a smile as she approached the doors. “A shelter for one of the only Old World gifts that had remained untainted and undamaged by the politics and conflicts of wartime Equestria. It is one of the few things that can serve to remind us that Equestria, long ago, still held on to a part of its pre-war self, its innovations and its virtues, amidst the cloud of war.” She stopped in front of the doors, leaning forward to press an ear against them before giving a throaty chuckle. “It sounds like Saharra and her group are inside at the moment. We’ll try not to disturb them, but if we open the door quietly, we should be able to listen to them.”

As she nodded for us to join her, I only slowly advanced, taking in her words in my stride. The way she spoke of this building made it entirely obvious that whatever was here was highly valued in Buckley, perhaps even more than their impressive firepower and technology. I knew that both Hopeville and Challenger both relied heavily on their own weapons stockpiles, making them among their most valuable assets. But there was great meaning behind Mother Shimmer’s words, especially in the way she described this ‘gift’s’ relation to the old Equestria, the nation of our predecessors, and this made me very curious. But then, Shimmer pushed open one of the double-doors, and I was taken by surprise as my ears picked up a… peculiar noise. It was a sort of humming sound, a sustained pitch that emerged from the chamber beyond and drifted into the lobby, soft and soothing against my ears. And then, rising into existence came another color of sound, a slow and lyrical melody that was consonant against the drone, playing in a short phrase before falling silent and allowing the drone to sound alone once again. Then, as Shimmer entered, her guards following her, the same melody returned, drawing out the length of the last pitches of the phrase before a third new sound emerged, two different voices moving in shockingly beautiful harmony as the original melodic voice sustained the ending pitch of its phrase. Then all except for the drone went quiet, a brief pause before the harmonic movement returned again, extending its phrase before the original melody once again emerged from the silence. It briefly alternated with the harmonic movement, more sounds adding their own part to it before all of the voices eventually joined to play the melody together.

This was music…

The song continued as I found myself trotting forward, eager to step through the entrance and find the source of the sounds I was hearing. Shimmer’s guards still entered after her, and Tracer followed next, but then I was quickly worming my way through the door, and I almost stumbled into the next room, only saving myself a fall to the floor by stopping in absolute awe. Before me, all around me, was a massive chamber blanketed in darkness, a high ceiling and four walls making a wide open space. At the back of this space, the only part of the entire chamber that was illuminated, sat a grand stage painted in white, and atop it, an assembly of roughly forty ponies were arranged into an ensemble. Two groups, consisting largely of earth ponies, were positioned at the left and right sides of the large stage, and each member was currently playing his or her own string instrument, the front row of both sides playing genuine violins and violas, and the middle and back rows playing cellos and the larger stand-up contrabasses. Behind the left-side group, sitting on a raised pedestal, was a single unicorn buck behind a massive drum set, with a huge array of drums and different sized cymbals, along with other percussive instruments. And behind the right-side group of string players, likewise placed on their own pedestal, was an upright piano and a harp, two unicorn mares standing with them. And front and center on the stage was a single unicorn mare, brick-red in color with a cerulean mane and tail, who was levitating her own violin beside her, the bow sliding slowly and gracefully across the strings as she herself closed her eyes, taking in the beautiful sound she was helping to make.

But even as I tried to take in the sight, more ponies begun to emerge into the setup. Walking in a single-file line towards the front of the stage were five earth pony mares, all of them without their own instruments, and, as if responding to their approach, the strings begun to rise in volume, the cymbals giving a rolling buildup of sound, before all of the instruments faded to a quiet drone. And it was then that a voice cut through, and I saw as the leading mare of the line of new arrivals begun to sing in a beautiful and rich voice, pure, that sang a short melody on syllables, joined by the piano and a portion of the strings with a cymbal roll, before she walked gracefully along the front of the stage, making room for her followers. The five of them spread out along the stage as another one of the mares took up the first singer’s melody, the same instruments likewise accompanying her. After the second repeat, all five of them sung together as they took up their positions, the instruments growing steadily stronger in their projection, and the singers sung a second phrase in the same syllables as they stopped and faced towards us. Then, at the end of their last phrase, the entire ensemble fell silent as the solo violinist stepped back, the drone returning along with a quick entrance from the harp before the five vocalists standing at the head of the ensemble begun to sing in lyrics.

“High is the moon tonight.” the first mare sang, a second repeating the same music of the melody with syllables.

“Hiding it’s guiding light high.” the third mare of the five sang after.

“Heaven and earth do sleep, still in the dark so deep, I will the darkness sweep.” the second mare sang, the first taking up the melody in syllables, three of them then joining together in a vocal crescendo.

At its peak, the fourth mare of the group sang her own phrase. “I will the moon to flight, I will the heavens bright, I will the earth delight.”

I had to look away…

“Tell me my eyes don’t deceive me.” I muttered, finding Mother Shimmer standing beside me, smiling her big smile.

“They most certainly don’t child.” the ghoul replied. “This is Buckley’s concert hall, and all the music performed within it makes our greatest treasure. Music has been with the ponies of Buckley for one hundred and seventy-five years, ever since Stable one ninety-two. And ever since it was nearly lost when Stable-Tec’s experiment failed, we have guarded it and kept it alive. Within this building are one of Buckley’s three music libraries along with the vast majority of its musical instruments.”

“Three?” I asked, a nearly inaudible question.

“Yes.” Shimmer answered with a nod. “There is also a club for all electronic music, and our church for all sacred music, songs sung in praise to Celestia and Luna. While we defend ourselves with weapons and technology, music is our culture, our great prize and gift. And it is around our music that we are planning our first steps towards going outside.”

“This… this is amazing.” I spoke, breathless as I looked back to the stage and its ensemble. They had stopped singing, but a single stallion standing before the stage, perhaps this ensemble’s director, was speaking with the group of five singers as the instrumentalists adjusted the sheet music on their stands. But even as the ensemble transitioned, I caught another glimpse of the dark red unicorn mare, the solo violinist in the previous song - she was looking right back at me, eyes set in a cautious but curious stare that she only diverted when the director called her attention, completely oblivious to our presence as they rehearsed.

“I’m glad you think so, child.” Shimmer replied with a chuckle, giving a nod towards the exit, to which I only hesitantly followed; Goddesses, what else were they going to play?? I wanted to listen and watch!!

As the last of us left the concert hall, Shimmer’s guards closed the doors behind us as we assembled again in the lobby. “As of now, you are all free to explore these buildings, listen to ensembles as they rehearse, worship, or simply play music for the joy of it.” Shimmer declared. “I give you this because you all have justified my trust, and should you stay longer, I believe I’ve found a way for you to show your value to Buckley in full.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked her.

“Word is already spreading across the base of your efforts to help us, child. And I think that my youngers will soon come to accept having you in our home as guests.” she explained, smiling as she added, “If you wish to, there is one more task that we would welcome your assistance with, a task that will be our first step to integrating ourselves into the southeast.”

“And what exactly is it that you’re planning to do?” Gunny inquired.

Turning to him, Shimmer kept her smile as she answered, “Effective tomorrow, we are making an expedition to the Old World city of Marefax.”

Footnote: 50% to level up.

Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 1)

Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures

“One final song for home. One final song for us all.”

“Marefax??” Shore exclaimed, making me wince at the volume of voice that his shock brought to him. “You can’t be serious!”

“That’s exactly what I thought.” Gunny remarked, rolling his eyes before looking back down at me.

“I’m absolutely serious, Shore.” I asserted, ignoring Gunny’s blatant disapproval. “Tomorrow morning, just after sunrise, Buckley will be sending a convoy out to Marefax, and they’ll be holding a final meeting to discuss the preparations and objectives in the ATC tower later this afternoon. We’ve all been given Mother Shimmer’s permission to join in that meeting, so I want to go and listen in, and then I want to help them as an extra escort.” Both Gunny and Shore shook their heads together, Grace and Blossom likewise not attempting to hide their own hesitation towards agreeing with my argument. “Look, Shimmer said that this trip was being made for the sake of Buckley’s musical culture.” I added to strengthen my argument. “I don’t know what exactly they intend to do inside Marefax, but after seeing that concert hall and how these ponies live beside music… I want to help them strengthen that.”

“Nova, just because these ponies have something unique behind their walls doesn’t mean that you should be putting yourself at risk by going to Marefax of all places.” Gunny protested. “And keep in mind that we’re not talking about some kind of rinky-dink little town out in the middle of nowhere. This is a city, a massive population center of wartime Equestria that stretches for miles in every direction.”

“And?” I challenged.

“And it’s too damn big, which means that it’s going to carry more dangers and hazards.” Shore argued in response.

“Nova.” Raemor calmly spoke up beside me, and I looked to see the old buck staring sagely back at me. “Between Hoofington, Trottingham, and Manehattan, I am well-acquainted with the dangers that the old city ruins of Equestria hold, and I assure you that they are many. Each has its own hazards, anything from mutated wildlife to taint and radiation pockets, and even pink cloud and active military defenses. On the Last Day, Marefax was undoubtedly large enough to gain the attention of the zebras and one of their balefire missiles. There will certainly be radiation areas, and if the zebras used any other weapons on the city, there will be other necromantic threats - pink cloud and the like. That, and after one hundred and seventy-five years, raiders and creatures will have made homes in the ruins that are free of natural dangers.” He paused in his explanation long enough to look over my friends. “The others are right to object, and I too have to voice my own concern.”

“But this is different, Raemor.” I protested with a stomp of my hoof. “How often in all of your days have you seen a concert hall? How often did you come across an entire ensemble with each member carrying his or her own preserved instrument and playing music that was composed in the early days of the wasteland, or even during the pre-war era?”

Raemor shifted as he looked back at me, furrowing his brow as I fought on. “Well… never, but-”

“This is something unique that these ponies have here.” I interrupted, raising a hoof to indicate the concert hall now behind us. “Don’t you want to help that?”

“What about going back to our own home?” Gunny demanded. “Two hours ago, Buckley was staring at us behind the barrel of a howitzer, and now you’re trying to become best friends? I may have offered to help them before, but I’m not lowering my guard around them.”

“I think that initial tension is well behind us now, Gunny.” I countered, swinging my eyes back to him to see him suddenly stepping right up to my face.

“Nova, they almost killed us.” he whispered sternly. “We were all nearly blasted to pieces when they opened up on us with those guns.”

In all honesty, I had no wish to argue against my friends’ concerns, because they had every right to feel as such. But at the same time, I had to ask myself - was it wrong to open up so quickly to this community, to trust them? The way I saw it, Buckley was a distant relative to Challenger, in a sense. Both were organized and powerful settlements, easily equivalent to Old World towns like Appleoosa or Ponyville. Challenger, on one hoof, was the proverbial guardian of the southeastern settlements through trade and protection, and was open to trader and traveler alike. The only major factor standing between that scenario and Buckley was trust. This community had lived in isolation for years, even long before I was born in 181, and it was this isolation that forced Buckley’s ponies to steel themselves against outsiders; their instinct, just like my friends’ reservations, was something that I could understand. But now, Buckley was taking its first step to breaking its remoteness, and that was something that I felt could greatly benefit not only themselves, but the entire southeast region, too.

But were we the ones to help them?

My friends were right in that we had our own needs and tasks, and I knew that we had promised only a maximum of three days away from home to Captain Saber. Hopeville still needed us much more than any other settlement did, let alone Buckley, and the safety of our own home was still among my top priorities, side-by-side with the well-being of my baby brother. In his regard, getting him home again, and keeping him there from now on, would be the wisest course of action to ensuring his safety… but why was it so hard for me to simply let Buckley go and move on, to take Blake home, and for the both of us to just stay put?

“Music…” I whispered back to my friend, raising my voice to speak to the group as I added, “Back in the Stable, I was always playing music recordings in the Hall of Records, listening to the fruits of the imagination and talent of pre-war Equestria’s greatest musicians. I always felt like there was nothing better than hearing a melody by Octavia, or singing along to a song by Sapphire Shores. I grew so attached to music that I was starting to take my first steps to trying to make my own, but that was as far as I got before the invasion, before we lost nearly everything.” I stepped back and around to my brother then, pulling him close as he hugged me around my neck. “Once we got outside, seeing nothing but a vast open nothingness, I never thought I’d find anything like the music recordings in the Stable ever again, period… and now here we are, standing in the presence of a settlement that’s created its own culture around music and guards it with their lives.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at that, shaking my head at my own words. “It sounds silly, I know, but after seeing some of what Buckley has… I really want to get in touch with music again, even if it’s just to listen to some of Buckley’s ensembles or… something…”

Looking around at the group of companions, I saw that my argument had provoked some extra thought among each of them, even Gunny. While I wasn’t aiming to dissuade them from their own arguments, I had spoken my true desires. Buckley had much to offer and share if its citizens could only find it inside themselves to open their gates to Challenger and the other settlements. And after hearing all that she said of her own concerns for her people’s well-being, I felt that Mother Shimmer knew it as well as I did, if not more so. “To be honest, it was one of the last things I expected to see out here too.” Gunny replied, craning his gaze around to the hangers behind us. “Any of this, really… it’s just that I’m anxious to get back to Hopeville. I still fully trust the Captain, of course, but I just want to see it again, just to know that it’s safe.” I nodded understandingly

“I agree with the both of you.” Grace chimed in, Shore giving a nod beside her. “Buckley is truly an irreplaceable settlement in this world… and frankly, I’m also torn between helping this community one more time and going home. This is a kind of place where I feel like I want to contribute a little more effort into helping it grow, and let’s face it, these ponies are getting ready to take a very big step, considering their history.”

“And while my caution remains, I do have my own interest in visiting Marefax.” Raemor briefly added. “But again, I will follow whatever decision is agreed upon.”

“Hm…” Gunny hummed in thought. “Maybe we can split up then, some of us stay, and some of us head home to tell Captain Saber what we found here.”

“Split up?” Grace asked concernedly. “Are you sure?”

“Well, a couple of opinions are already clear.” Gunny responded with a shrug. “Nova wants to stay for a little longer, and for a good reason too. Me and my anxiety, on the other hoof, want to head back to Hopeville by no later than tomorrow morning. I figure that I can at least go home near to our schedule and give a report to the captain, keep him up to date on things. The rest of you can decide between those two options what you want to do.”

“I suppose…” my medical friend hesitantly agreed. “but as long as none of us go off alone. If you go back, at least one more of us should go with you.”

“Sounds fair.” I agreed with a small smile. “But, uh… perhaps we can discuss this further while we eat?”

“Indeed.” Shore remarked with a chuckle. “I am quite hungry, and that invitation to Buckley’s mess hall hanger is quite appealing at the moment.”

“Right. Let’s head in then, and we’ll pick up the topic later.” Gunny said with a nod, turning for the hangers and taking the lead.

We had reunited with Shore on the farthest runway from the hangers, the computer-savvy buck having been released from his duties after replacing the final broken component in Buckley’s defense mainframe. As was the outcome of Grace’s own tasks on the base, Shore had made his own positive impression on Tech Sergeant Lela, who had briefly emerged with him to extend her own thanks before returning to work. With Shore being the last to finish his assignment, we had all collectively left a good mark with the community, and were now officially welcomed as guests by Mother Shimmer, Commander Tracer, and Archer. This had led to the present, where the offer had been made to join in the planning meet being held this afternoon before the Buckley leadership left us to attend their own errands.

No that we were free to roam the base and all of its facilities, we had all jointly expressed the need for sustenance, even if only in small portions, before doing anything else. But as we crossed the median between the base’s twin runways, the sudden blaring of a klaxon alarm jolted our party to alertness. “Hey, what’s going on??” I demanded, spotting as red lights on the hanger walls began to flash and dim in slow repetition with the alarm.

“Nothing to worry about.” Shore assured me with an easy smile. “Tech Sergeant Lela must’ve rebooted the defense mainframe. She said that the alarms are what sounds the activation of the base’s defense network.”

“That must mean that the generators survived in one piece, too.” Gunny remarked.

“That’s right.” Shore agreed with a nod, then raising a hoof to point at the hangers. “Look there. Some of the turrets are coming up on the hanger rooftops now.”

I followed Shore’s direction, scaling the height of the front of the mess hall hanger before sighting one of the machines in question - Buckley’s defensive weaponry. The wagon-sized turret rose up from a hidden compartment below the ceiling, just near the forward edge of the rooftop. The weapon itself was nothing short of impressive - a huge minigun in a heavy frame mounted within a plated iron housing that protected the vital components and ammunition box, and fastened to each side of the primary weapon was a single rocket pod, each with four projectiles. Two more of these very same weapons were rising over the other two hangers as well, and as the alarms continued to sound, I looked back behind me, barely able to make out a fourth turret atop Buckley’s concert hall; as I looked around, I caught sight of two others, one over Buckley’s club building and the other over the church.

“Six turrets make up the entire grid, or so Lela described.” Shore explained. “They are quite potent too. Each turret uses a twenty-five millimeter minigun and two anti-air missile pods, built to shoot down anything from enemy aircraft, cruise missiles, and even balefire rockets themselves. It’s amazing that the targeting talismans and other more sensitive components survived for so long and still work to full capacity.”

“Well, I do know one thing.” Gunny replied with a smirk. “That’s a hell of a weapon. Wouldn’t mind lugging around one of those myself.”

“As if you need one of those monsters on your back.” Grace voiced with a huff. “You already have the biggest gun out of all of us.”

“And your point?”

“My point… Gunny, how many times have we argued about this now?” Grace asked with a sigh.

“A whole bunch.” the big buck chuckled.

Grace rolled her eyes. “Let’s just eat now, please.”

With a giggle, I nudged Blake forward and followed my friends as we resumed walking. Still, I watched curiously as the turrets on the hangers rose to their full height on the roof, eventually coming to a halt as they secured themselves into place, the klaxons going silent and the warning lights shutting down as the turrets locked into place and halted, standing as Buckley’s silent and watchful sentinels.

Now we were coming up to the mess hall hanger’s entrance, a single metal door that used a spinning wheel and an array of lever locks to open and close. As we approached, Gunny took the lead to use his horn, telekinetically turning the wheel and releasing the mechanisms to push the door inward. A short entrance hall later, and we emerged into a massive open chamber, the hanger once used to house the aerial war machines of Equestria now converted into a giant array of square and circular tables that made the mess hall. The tables took up the greater majority of the hanger’s floor space, and many of them were occupied by Buckley’s residents. There were easily a hundred ponies inside, eating and socializing and otherwise relaxing with their friends. Various tables were also being attended by what I guessed to be waiters and waitresses, identifiable by their simple yet clean white and black vests, who were moving in and out of the common area from a smaller room built into the east wall - the kitchens. However, most striking was the presence of a smaller building within the hanger itself, labeled Schoolhouse, and the music that begun to play in front of it. The building was a rectangular sheet metal structure resting at the hanger’s west side, and outside of this building’s single open entrance, a half ring of over a dozen smiling and attentive colts and fillies sat surrounding a group of four unicorns. One of them balanced himself only on his hind hooves behind a slim black keyboard instrument on a stand, some sort of piano variant. The second unicorn of the group wore what I recognized to be an acoustic guitar on a strap around his neck, levitating it to a playing position as the other two members of the ensemble, two mares, exchanged a lyrical melody on wooden recorder flutes, swaying lazily with the music they created for the entertainment of their young audience. As I watched the small ensemble continue to play, the two flute mares then joined together in rhythmic unison, playing a single melody at a separate yet parallel interval and creating a steady tempo that they continued to move to, the young ponies likewise leaning from side to side in motion with the music. Looking closer, I was amazed to see that, while their instruments were surrounded by telekinetic light, the flute players were using their own magic energy to cover and uncover the holes of their instruments in time with their tune, creating the desired melodies with pinpoint precision. For each note, the light of their spells would flicker away over one or more of the holes, and would likewise remain glowing over the others, to create the note to be played, and all of this was done with stunning accuracy; the only work the mares had to do without the use of their horns was to breath in and blow air through the instruments themselves.

“Hey, Nova?” I heard Grace ask from beside me, unfortunately interrupting my listening. “Are you coming?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m coming.” I replied, turning my eyes away from the ensemble to look back at my friend. “Sorry, it’s just that ensemble over there…” I explained to her, hearing as one of the flutists played a solo in a new phrase with the guitar now accompanying her in steady triplets, the keyboard creating a sustained electronic drone pitch underneath them. “I mean, look at them. Listen to what they’re making… doesn’t that just make you relax?”

“That music is very pretty.” Grace remarked; I looked over to see her smiling at me. “I can see why you want to stay.” she added. “I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out.”

“I know that we all should be going home together.” I added. “We made a plan and it was something we were going to follow, that way we’d be home sooner, back to where we belong. I don’t want to stay here in Buckley forever, of course… but-”

“Nova,” Grace interrupted, raising a hoof to my shoulder. “I understand, and I think the others do, too. Back in the Stable, music was one of your great interests. It was something you loved, something that relaxed you and freed your mind. We’d all seen you in the Hall of Records countless times, just listening away to those Old World recordings, taking some of the children you foalsat to listen with you.” My friend smiled as she added, “Music, like storytelling and caring for the Stable’s young, made you happy. And even then, you never got the chance to see the ponies behind it all, to see the music being performed with your own eyes. After seeing what I’ve seen here, I think it’s perfectly fair to let you take this opportunity.”

“Even if we have to split up?” I questioned.

She nodded, smile retained. “Yes. Even out here on the surface, we all deserve our own chances to be happy with what we truly enjoy. Make no mistake, I’m happy with Hopeville and with how far we’ve come. But I still do dream about making a school out of the Hopeville Press, and one day, I hope to realize that dream, to make it happen and avail it to not only our own foals, but to those who come with their families on the way to Challenger. The way I see it, that’s just like you and your love of music, and now that this opportunity has shown itself, you should take it, even if only for a day.”

“Thanks, Gracie.” I replied, gratefully giving her a smile of my own as I looked over the members of the small band. “Something tells me that out of what I’ve heard of their music so far, they still have so much more, more genres and more groups. I just… I want to hear it all.”

We giggled together at that. “Well, I imagine that’s going to be a lot of listening to do. Maybe after some lunch, huh?” Grace politely offered.

“Maybe after some lunch.” I agreed, turning around to see my little brother and the others all looking back at me with varying levels of amusement. Happily, I trotted up to Blake and gave him a nudge, a gesture he returned. “Is there a free table?” I asked to the general group.

“Looks like one just opened up near the kitchens.” Gunny answered, and I looked to see him pointing past me and towards the east wall, where I spotted an open table a short length away from the kitchen entrance. “Let’s head to that one.”

Trotting past me, Gunny took the lead and walked in between the first pair of occupied tables, the rest of us forming up behind him single-file as he guided us to the destination of choice. As we walked, I was both pleased and surprised as we received polite nods, waves, and even kind greetings from many of the Buckley ponies we passed. Though several residents kept their eyes averted to their plates or their conversations, or passed us only cursory glances, I found myself and the others exchanging bows and short words of greeting as I followed my friend through the hanger. The Buckley ponies I passed by tended to look much more comfortable around us, and it was funny to remember that only a couple of hours ago, these same ponies were looking upon us with hesitation, confusion, and even anger. This was definitely a nice change from our initial arrival here, and above all, it helped me ease into a more secure sense of safety, both for myself and for my brother; at least they wouldn’t be pointing field guns at us anymore.

“It still amazes me how quickly the latest news spreads around here.” Gunny remarked as we found our table. “We couldn’t have finished off those hornets more than thirty minutes ago.”

“It certainly does show an excellent sense of organization in this community.” Grace observed in reply, sitting down on her haunches by Gunny’s left side as the rest of us took up our own seats around the circular table.

“And it beats getting glared at and whispered about.” I added.

“Yeah. I think we’ve completed that part of the mission. At least they won’t come bearing down on us.” Gunny agreed with a nod. “Now, we just need to discuss our next plan of action, and who’s going where. I actually already have another task in mind that I’m going to be attending to after some food.” He paused to look over to where Blossom sat by his right side, and then added, “While Blossom doesn’t talk much, I haven’t forgotten about her own agenda.” The violet mare gave a bashful little smile at Gunny, one which he returned with an encouraging smile of his own. “Go ahead.”

At his word, Blossom looked back up to the table. “When we were led around the base by that other pegasus, he said that no other outsiders had recently attempted to enter the base. And that means that my friend is still out there somewhere.” she explained. “I’ve spent much more time in here than I would’ve liked, because every passing minute is another minute that my friend could be in trouble.”

“Where do you think she would’ve gone to?” Grace asked.

“She would’ve continued moving northward, I’m sure of it.” Blossom answered. “She didn’t come here, and Archer didn’t say anything about Buckley engaging any outsiders other than that raider patrol. I don’t know what’s out there on that highway that leads to Marefax, but if she followed the route we had initially planned to take, then she has to be hiding out somewhere along the road… maybe a farmhouse or highway service station.”

“Would she possibly have gone to Marefax alone?” Shore then inquired.

Blossom shook her head. “No, no. Before you all found me, when I had all of my friends together, we had agreed that not one of us would enter Marefax by ourselves. Cities hold more dangers than the areas around them, and that was something we knew already.”

“It sounds like if we could scout a few miles of that old highway, heading north, we might find where your friend is.” Gunny said. “It’s a highway, so there has to be a few pre-war places in between here and Marefax.”

“The farther you go, the more you’re likely to discover.” Raemor put in. “Manehattan’s a good example, as there were numerous structures surrounding even its outermost suburbs.”

Gunny hummed in thought. “When we do this though, I just hope that we won’t have to get too deep into the city.”

“She’ll have kept a safe distance away herself.” Blossom assured. “If she’s hunkered down somewhere, it’ll be on the road.”

“Then that’s where we’ll look.” Gunny replied with a nod, adding as he looked back around the table, “I’ve already volunteered to lead Blossom out there to search, and I figure that after we eat a quick meal, we’ll be heading out.”

He paused at his finished sentence, and I saw my friend’s eyes flick to his left, settling on something behind me. When I turned, I saw a young black unicorn buck with a light blue mane on approach, swiftly weaving between the tables as he trotted towards us. Like several others, he was garbed in a white vest, marking him as one of the table attendants, and he gave a nod of greeting as he stepped up to our table. “So you’re the outsiders.” he observed with an easy smile. “Word from Mother Shimmer is that you’re all to be welcomed as friends, so I say well met.”

“I’m glad we managed to get on Buckley’s good side.” I replied to the waiter with a dip of my head.

“Yeah. I just hope you don’t hold the whole artillery thing against us.” the buck remarked, his smile fading as he looked awkwardly amongst my company. “I know that that’s kind of ironic to hope for, all things considered, and really, I’ll understand if you do. But I saw the whole thing go down, saw those shells come down on you while I was walking along the runway. It was one of many times I’ve seen those things in action, and I don’t always like it.”

“Don’t always like it, huh?” Gunny questioned, cocking an eyebrow while avoiding eye contact.

“No. I’m not a guard, but word goes around about what gets killed by our guns, and the rest of us eventually find out.” the waiter replied. “I’ll spare the details, other than that of the many who have tried and failed to enter… some really came looking for help.”

“I’m sure that’s one of the many reasons that Mother Shimmer is looking to end Buckley’s isolation, then.” Grace remarked to him.

The black unicorn nodded. “That’s right. And everypony’s put their trust in that plan, and in Mother Shimmer. She’s never let us down.”

“A couple of us might be staying to help with your next steps.” I explained to him, the buck looking over to me. “It’s Shimmer’s hope that at least one of us will.”

“I can see the reasoning behind that, and I hope that one of you will consider it. Though I don’t know what exactly they plan to accomplish with this mission, it’s supposedly tied in with something that the artisans are cooking up.” the server unicorn explained, clearing his throat and levitating up a pencil and notepad as he added, “Either way, whatever you all decide to do is your business. I’m just here to get you some food and drink, and I’m happy to do it in repayment for your help in getting the power going again. Do you all know what you want?”

“Um… what do you have?” Grace asked with a smile. “I’m afraid we don’t exactly know ourselves.”

The waiter flushed a light red. “Eh… right. Well, first I should probably explain that all of our food is grown in our underground orchard. That’s how we’ve managed to live without scavenging for supplies outside.” he explained. “What started out as a design for a Stable-Tec apple orchard developed and expanded to accommodate other fruit plants, vegetable patches, wheat and oats, herbs for medicine, and other various plant life before it was officially installed into Stable One ninety-two. While we’re basically limited to grain, fruits, and vegetables, we’ve got a decent variety of each.” He paused as we pondered over his explanation, and after a long moment of indecision, he added, “If you’d like, I can bring a sample tray or two out for you all to share.”

“Does that sound good to everypony?” Gunny asked, each of us eventually giving our own gesture of approval before he gave a nod to the waiter. “Alright, let’s do that then.”

“Okay.” the black unicorn hastily jotted down the order, briefly looking up from his writing to add, “For drinks, we have water as well as flavored variants - orange, strawberry, watermelon, that kind of thing. And we also have hard cider, as well as a stash of Wild Pegasus and Buckweiser, if any of you are interested in more potent beverages.” Right away, half the group went with regular water, with Blake ordering strawberry water, Gunny opting for hard cider, and Raemor taking only a small glass of whiskey. “I’ll be back in a bit with your orders.” the waiter finished, stashing his notepad and pencil into his vest and dismissing himself with a quick bow.

“So, like I said, we’ll be heading out after we eat.” Gunny continued as we settled back into the conversation. “The afternoon’s already ticking away, and I want to have plenty of daylight out there. Now, the last thing I need to know is who will and who won’t be coming with us. While I’d appreciate some extra hooves out there, I don’t know if everypony’s already started making plans, or if Shimmer needs more help.”

“As far as I know, helping to repair the base’s mainframe was the only task I was needed for.” Shore spoke first. “I can help you.”

“If you require my help, tell me so, and I’ll travel with you.” Raemor put in. “But if not, I had intended to visit the church here, to take some time to unwind… to pray to the Goddesses.”

“I think it’d be best for at least one or two of us to stay here.” I voiced. “If you want eyes in the sky, I can come with you. But if not, I’ll stay here and be with Blake.”

“It really doesn’t matter to me how many of you follow me or not. Even if only one or two of you come, I still appreciate what you’re doing for me.” Blossom replied, turning to me with a thin smile. “While having you watching over us would be helpful, I really think that you staying with your brother would be better for the both of you.”

“Me too.” Blake chimed in, flashing me a big smile as I cocked an eyebrow back at him.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Alright. If you’re sure, Blossom, then I’ll stay behind on this one.”

“I think that’s perfectly fair.”

“I can come along instead, then.” Grace then offered. “Between Nova being treated by Challenger’s doctor after Plainwell that one day, and Doctor Preston allowing me the use of his own stock for my tasks here, I still have most of my own medical supply from Hopeville. If something should go amiss, I should be there with you, just incase.”

“Well, let’s hope not.” Blossom replied with worry. “I just want to find her and bring her back.”

“We’ll find her.” Gunny assured the nervous mare with another heartening smile. “Have a little faith, friend.”

“So then we’ve got this all figured out?” Grace asked. “You, Shore, Blossom, and I will go, and Nova, Blake and Raemor will stay here until we get back?”

“That sounds like the plan.” Gunny answered, looking among each of us. “This sound good?”

“If that is you’re final choice, then I am in agreement as well.” Raemor responded with a nod.

“Sounds good to me.” I confirmed, reaching over to hug my brother against me, the colt nuzzling my chest in thanks. “But when you’re out there, just please look out for each other. Like you’ve all been saying, you’ll be getting closer to Marefax with every step to the north that you take… so just look out for anything and everything… you know, the usual.”

Nods went around the table, sealing the next plan of action. But on cue, through the chatter of the mess hall, a male voice cut out and projected to us. “Order’s up. Here we are, outsiders.” The black unicorn buck had returned, horn alight with blue as he levitated two metal platters, seven drinks, and two pitchers all together as he trotted up to our table and passed the glasses around. “Purified water, fresh from the talisman.” he explained as my glass was set in front of me, filled to the rim with clear and untainted water. “Strawberry flavored water for the colt.” Blake’s glass was literally the same as mine as the waiter set it on the table, and as Blake returned to his spot, he looked it over with a curious eye.

The drink itself looked exactly like regular water, other than the presence of small bubbles on the waterline. But when Blake reared up and braced himself against the table, reaching over to cup the glass in his forehooves before taking his first drink, his face immediately lit up. “Hey, it does taste like strawberries!”

“Strawberry’s a favorite among Buckley’s foals as well.” the waiter remarked with a smile, setting Gunny and Raemor’s drinks before them. “And now the meal.” he added, the two platters floating over and setting down at the center of the table. “We’ve got the fruit platter for you, and the second one there is the vegetable tray, both of them with a little bit of just about everything that we grow.”

“Oh my!” Grace exclaimed with a smile. “Is that cantaloupe I see there?”

“That it is, outsider.” the waiter responded, stepping back from the table after setting the last tray down. “In the fruit dish, you’ve got cantaloupe, watermelon, red apples, green grapes, and a few strawberries as well. Then, in the vegetable tray you’ve got celery, lettuce, carrots, and an assortment of flowers.” And that was the whole of it, each tray adorned with a whole array of foods, divided from one other by plastic sheets so as to keep them from mixing; it looked perfectly portioned to fill our group of seven.

“Wow.” Gunny remarked with a shake of his head. “This ought to fill the belly rather efficiently.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you’ve all earned it for helping Mother Shimmer today.” the waiter replied with a bow. “Enjoy.”

With that, the black unicorn departed, leaving us to our feast of fresh food, and with an energetic nod, Gunny said, “Well, everypony. Dig in.”

*** *** ***

“Leaving already, outsiders?”

I looked up to the left-side watchtower as we approached Buckley’s main gate, seeing as a unicorn guard on watch there set aside his assault rifle to speak. “Only some of us are, and not for too long.” I called back up to the stallion. “There’s another pony out there that’s a friend to one of our company, and some of us are going out to search for her and bring her back to safety.”

“Another outsider? You’re not planning on bringing this pony here are you?” the guard questioned.

“Well… it’s kind of what we’d hoped, if it’s not much trouble.” I responded.

“Sorry, but I can’t allow that.” the guard buck objected. “We’ve already let you lot in, and you’ve done a fair share to help us, but that doesn’t mean that you can start inviting friends over like some kind of slumber party.”

… Definitely not what I had hoped to hear.

Just before we had finished our bountiful lunch, in only around twenty minutes, another guardspony had briefly met with us to discuss the whereabouts of our remaining equipment. Because of our ‘truce’ with Buckley, Shimmer had given clearance for everypony in our company that hadn’t helped kill off the sand hornets to have their weapons and ammunition returned to them, and after all of our gear was returned to its respective owners, we were ready to carry out our next plans. But this hadn’t been something that I had anticipated when we had been discussing our next course of action… and I felt just a little stupid at not having seen it coming.

“I’m sorry.” I called, stepping ahead of the group. “Maybe it’s a little too early to ask for favors, and I know that Buckley’s just starting to accept us around here, but this is important and personal.”

“Personal or not, it’s not my call.” the guard retorted. “Only Mother Shimmer decides what to do with that.”

“Wait!” Blossom suddenly spoke, trotting up next to me. “My friend means more to me than my own safety, and right now, she’s out there all alone, hunkered down in a ditch somewhere, going hungry, and scared to death of being found by another raider patrol! Please, you have to let us go out there and bring her back. If I have to, I’ll give you anything you want that I have, but I just want my friend to be safe again…”

I looked back over at her, seeing the genuine passion for her friend’s well-being behind her violet eyes; but the way she spoke made me concerned. “Blossom…”

“I mean it!” she called to the silent guard, completely ignoring my voice. “And if she causes any trouble here, I’ll take responsibility for her actions. I promise.”

“No, look… fine.” the guard eventually replied with a sigh. “You can bring your friend here, and I’ll inform Mother Shimmer. But this friend of yours is going to undergo the same treatment that you all did when you arrived. She’ll have to have any weapons on her stripped away and stored, and she’ll be under careful observation… and really, I can’t promise that Mother Shimmer will approve, but I’ll tell her what you told me. When do you plan on returning from this little trip of yours?”

“Hopefully between two to three hours from now at the most, earlier than that if possible.” Gunny answered from behind me.

“Okay, fine. I’ll make sure Archer knows to keep watch for you, that way you don’t get fired on by the artillery teams again.” the guard explained, briefly disappearing into the watchtower long enough for the front gate to activate and rattle open. “There.” the guard said, looking out over the railing at us again. “I’ve opened the gate for you, so whoever among you is heading out can do so. Just don’t make me regret doing this, outsiders.”

“Thank you, sir.” Gunny called, the guard giving a nod before returning to his station.

Then, beside me, I heard as Blossom let out a sigh of relief, making my raise an eyebrow in puzzlement. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked softly.

Her eyes fell to the ground as she lightly shook her head. “I was afraid…” she began, her whispered words cutting off as she swallowed hard. “I was afraid that I’d have to… offer myself to him.”

What??

“Why would you think that??” I whispered back in alarm. “These are good ponies, and you shouldn’t need to give them anything when it comes to trying to rescue a friend, let alone your dignity.”

“What dignity?!” Blossom snapped back in a fierce undertone, making me recoil back as a hard glare drilled into my eyes. “That was stolen from me when those raiders raped me in a broken down building, again, and again, and again. Why do you think I want to find my friend, Nova?” Eyes still locked to mine, she begun to angrily stalk away towards the open gate. “Because she’s all that I have left in this world, and I will not see her die at the hooves of those psychotic sons of bitches!” I was only left staring after her, silent as the violet mare turned away and trotted past the gate, leaving all of us at her back.

“Hey. What was all that about?” Gunny suddenly questioned, trotting up to my right side.

“I… I don’t know…” I began, though my mental gears swiftly clicked together to make me say otherwise. “Well, yesterday’s still on her mind… and it’s abundantly clear that it’s weighing heavily on her.” I paused to turn to my friend, seeing Grace and Shore likewise looking back at me with confusion. “Gunny, all of you, please keep an eye on her. Obviously, she’s not in the best of moods, and I’m worried.”

“Don’t worry, Nova.” Gunny assured with a nod, pulling me against him and into an embrace that I easily returned. “We’ve got her back, and each others’.”

Releasing me, he trotted out after Blossom, our newest companion waiting outside and facing the west, towards the direction of the highway. I gave Shore a similar hug as well, the buck giving me his own assurances before following Gunny out, and lastly, I embraced Gracie, releasing her before she said, “I know how you feel, friend, about Blossom’s well-being. The doctor part of me says that she should be staying here and just relaxing, staying out of unexplored wasteland territory… but I understand how important this friend of hers must be. I’d feel the same way about you, about everypony in our company, and I’d go out looking just like Blossom if one of you went missing.”

I nodded my agreement. “Same here, same here. Just… look after them Grace, even if they don’t need a bandage.”

“I will.” she replied, a smile growing on her face as she added, “And perhaps once we get back, we can visit the spa together and see just what that place is all about.”

I smiled in return. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Alright. We’ll be back soon, you three.”

“Goddesses be with you all.” Raemor spoke from behind me, bowing his head to Grace who fully returned the gesture.

“Thank you, Raemor.” Turning around, Grace passed the gate and joined where the others had formed a group. As I watched them enter a brief discussion, the gate rattled before sliding closed and locking, separating Buckley from the wasteland once again. A moment later, and my four friends were on the move, following Buckley’s chain-link perimeter westward towards the highway.

“Will Blossom be okay?” Blake asked, nudging my left foreleg.

Looking down at him, I met his concerned eyes with a comforting smile. “I think that, in time, she will be.” I replied. “She’s been through a lot recently, and it’ll take her some time to move on. But yes, I think that eventually she’ll come around.”

My baby brother slowly nodded. “Okay.”

In his eyes, I could see that he was thinking of things, and I had a hunch as to what exactly those thoughts revolved around. Blossom’s situation, in a way, was similar to Blake’s and mine. Somepony was out there who she cared for greatly, and having seen the bodies of her two other friends in the radio station, her claim that this mare she was searching for was the last friend she had was believable. While Blake and I had each other, our parents were gone, and it was hard enough living on the surface knowing that, in a better world, they would’ve still been with us. Our loss, and Blossom’s loss of her two friends, was relatively identical in impact, and thinking upon it, I felt a sort of connection to Blossom; for me, it was Blake. If anything happened to him, his safety would be my single and only concern in this entire world. He was the last of my blood family, and though I dreaded to think it, I knew that without him… well, to put it mildly, I’d have a much harder time going through the effort of helping my fellow survivors.

I could gather that this pony that Blossom was bent on rescuing was somepony that was very much like family to her, especially now that she was the last pony left of Blossom’s company before we had come across her. She was doing her best to prevent another loss in her life, just like I was doing my best to keep Blake safe… even if recent events could contradict that. For that reason, I lowered my head down and gave Blake a kiss on the forehead, embracing him one more time.

“I pray for a safe journey for them all.” Raemor voiced.

After Blake released his hold around my neck, I looked back around and faced my aged friend, patiently waiting for me. “And that they’ll find Blossom’s companion.” I added, to which Raemor gave a slight nod.

“Where will you go now?” he asked.

“Since you didn’t get around to trading, I’ll go to the munitions hanger and try and barter for some extra ammo.” I explained, nodding for Blake to follow me as I begun to walk towards the left airstrip. “Speaking of which, how are you on ammunition?”

“I have enough to last me for awhile yet. Since they didn’t tamper with my equipment, I still have all that I brought with me.” Raemor answered. “I apologize for not trading when I said I would, but Mother Shimmer found me first.”

“That’s fine.” I replied. “Though if I might ask, what did you two talk about?”

“I had told her that I was not originally among your group, and that I had come from elsewhere. Because of that, she was curious about my real home, and my opinion on Hopeville and my present company.”

I gave a little smile. “And what did you say?”

“Well, you know my thoughts about Hopeville, about how it reminded me of my home after Hoofington.” the old unicorn replied. “Of the present company, I am thankful that you allowed me to travel with you, and I respect your determination, your goals, and I respect you as the ponies you are.”

“And what of your home?” I asked after a moment of silence.

“That… well…” Raemor’s transparent hesitation to answer left me a little surprised, and I looked to see him staring out towards Buckley’s church. “Har… home is one of the things I pray for when I can.” he answered. “It is one of the reasons why I want to see this community’s church, because if it is a holy place, a genuine place of worship, then I will be in the presence of the spirits of the Goddesses… and I wish to seek their council.” Pausing, the old buck turned back to look me in the eye, taking note of my perplexed expression; he hadn’t said it, but I felt that this was a bit of a personal subject. “Don’t worry about having angered me or anything of the sort.” he added. “Like I said before, I’m just an old buck remembering old history.

I had to express my concern; the signs were becoming clearer. “Is home… a sensitive subject for you, my friend?” I asked. “If it is, you should just say so.”

Raemor hummed as he faced forward again. “Yes… I’m afraid it is, Nova.” he answered; I made a mental note of that response. “I’d like to take my leave now. If you have no further need of me, I’ll be in the church for awhile.”

“Sure thing, Raemor.” I replied with what I thought was a friendly smile. “I’ll see you later.”

“Of course.”

Without further talk, Raemor veered away into the dirt median separating the runways, making his way to the church as I continued towards the hangers with Blake at my side. Having already passed the balefire missile silo entrance, we were coming up on the munitions storage building, the closest of the three hangers to us. The side door itself was already open when we arrived, and a single stallion was standing outside the entrance, tapping a hoof over the pipbuck equipped around his right foreleg; the orange and black mane against his yellow coat belonged to a pony whom I recognized as part of our squad in the generator building.

“Hey, senorita.” Ricochet called with a wave. “How are you?”

“Hi there. I’m doing alright, especially now that I’ve had a taste of Buckley’s fresh grown food.” I replied.

“Oh yeah.” the yellow earth pony agreed with a smirk. “My personal favorite is the fruit salad the cooks whip up. That’s good eating.”

“All seven of us got more than our fill for lunch.” I explained as we stopped before him. “It was certainly delicious.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to eat any more food for the rest of the day.” Blake commented beside me, giving me a small smile.

“That’s typically their goal, little amigo.” Ricochet replied with a light laugh, then nodding to the hanger’s open entrance as he asked, “Are you two heading inside?”

“Yes. I’m just looking to trade.”

“I was on my break for a few minutes, and I was just about to head back in to return to my post.” Trotting ahead, Ricochet passed into the entrance, calling back, “Come on in. I’ll show you where the munitions manager is before I get back to work.”

“Alright. Thanks.” Nudging Blake to come along, the two of us followed after the buck, walking single-file into a small entrance hall similar to the mess hall hanger. Upon crossing it, we emerged into the massive open space that was the hanger itself. This hanger looked to have once been a repair bay of sorts, as the south wall was lined with numerous maintenance stalls, shelving units, tool boxes, and work benches - single-pony stations dedicated to the maintaining of smaller mechanical parts. At the north wall, I beheld an enormous store of steel shipping containers, lined side-by-side and stacked in twos and threes atop one another, spread along half the length of the hanger’s far side. Each of the containers had painted black labels on them, designating them as ammo containers, weapon crates, armor storages, or spare parts boxes, and each of them bore a faded yet legible print of Celestia’s sun, the mark of the Old World Equestrian Army. In front of those, four reinforced military convoy wagons sat side by side, each one in working order and large enough to haul one of the steel containers behind them plus extra. Next to all of that, occupying the rest of the north side of the building, was the largest stockpile of weapons and military hardware that I had ever laid my eyes upon. There were dozens upon dozens of ammo boxes, stacked in pyramid-shaped piles or on warehouse skids, all organized at intervals along the wall. Open wooden crates, three times the size of a fully grown pony, were packed over their tops with grenades and explosive ordnance, each one marked with the type of grenade or explosive device, ranging from simple frag grenades and flash bangs, to C4 bricks and devices called kicker charges. Along with all of this, dozens of rifle racks were mixed into the assembly, holding a whole set of weapons per unit that ranged from assault rifles and combat shotguns to precision carbines, sniper rifles, light machineguns, and grenade rifles and launchers of varying models. There was not one single weapon that resembled a worn down firearm of the wasteland, such as a hunting rifle or a lever-action shotgun - these weapons were all military-grade. But then, I nearly fell into disbelief when I spotted the final accessory to Buckley’s massive weapons depot. In front of the storage crates, set side-by-side to one another at the back of the hanger, were two fully assembled howitzers, the same model as those outside, that indisputably served as backup units should one of the other guns come in for repairs; one buck, a brown unicorn with a heavily grayed dark red mane and tail, was currently inspecting one of the steel shipping containers, and I saw a rack of giant gun shells within - howitzer ammunition.

Goddesses, these ponies could take on an army all by themselves!

“Sweet Celestia… look at all of that…”

“Eh.” Ricochet dismissively replied, pausing in his trot to look back at me. “You might think this is a lot, but really, it’s only enough to ensure that everypony in Buckley can be sufficiently armed and armored incase of an attack. And by sufficiently armed and armored, I only mean one combat rig, one primary weapon, and one sidearm with a good amount of ammo for both weapons. You might’ve already heard, but Buckley has over eight hundred ponies living in it, and the base itself is a big place. We need all of this to keep our home safe.”

“Well, I understand that. That’s how things are back where we come from.” I explained, Ricochet nodding in understanding. “But still, this is the biggest armory I’ve ever seen, and it’s all Old World military, too. There’s none of the more rugged and… well… less advanced weapons that I’ve seen being used by raiders and wastelanders. It all looks perfectly preserved.”

“That’s because it is, amiga. All of this is the spoils of our finding Fort Volker so many years ago, and it took months to drag it all back here. That was a difficult time for all of us.” Ricochet said, smiling as he added, “But if you think all that’s impressive, you must think very highly of Lily. I can’t say I blame you.”

Uh…

I cocked an eyebrow, clueless. “I’m sorry. Who’s Lily?”

Ricochet, as luck would have it, only threw a mirror image of myself back at me, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes in evident surprise. “Wait, Mother Shimmer didn’t tell you about Lily?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“Huh. I figured she would have since she went and showed you the concert hall and everything. Oh well. I can explain her easy enough.” he replied, nodding over to the west wall of the hanger where I spotted another sheet metal building established within the hanger itself. This building was much larger than the structure in the mess hall, greater in both width and height, and nearly touching the hanger ceiling while stretching along half the wall. This building was also more complex, complete with its own windows, two floors, and a closed sliding door; above the door, an improvised label had been set up, reading Lily’s Garage. “First, you should understand that Lily isn’t a who. Lily is a what.” Ricochet explained. “By now, you know that above everything else, we value the music that’s been with us and our previous generations since Stable one ninety-two. But while music is Buckley’s greatest cultural trait and most cherished gift, Lily is Buckley’s greatest weapon.”

“Greatest weapon?” I jabbed a hoof to the weapons stash that took up a fourth of the hanger all by itself. “You mean greater than all of that??”

“Well, technically Lily came with all of that.” Ricochet explained with a smirk. “And also technically, Lily wasn’t our greatest weapon when that balefire missile was around.”

Technically, I thought he was being too technical… “So you found ’Lily’ at this fort?” I asked, hiding my less gracious thoughts away.

“Yeah. She was the only one of her kind being stored there, too.” the yellow buck answered. “Found a whole bunch of files on her, some of them even stamped with the M.W.T. logo.”

That caught my interest. “The Ministry of Wartime Technology?” I asked in surprise.

“That’s right. But the ministry wasn’t directly involved with this project. The development was actually done by ponies that used to work for the ministry, ponies who quit or retired and moved to the southeast to escape the brunt of the war. Only when it was finished did the ministry discover it.” Ricochet explained. “All Applejack played a role in was testing it and approving it for use in the field.”

“What exactly was this project?”

“Lily’s a tank, amiga, and she’s a damn big one.” Ricochet answered. “Back during the early years of the war, vehicles were rare sights. But once the war really got going after Littlehorn, a whole new arms race began outside of the battlefield. The files designated Lily as the Judgment Project, a development program created late in the war with the sole simple purpose of not just killing zebras, but eradicating entire battalions with as little deployment of Equestrian ground soldiers as possible. Judgment’s objective was to create a line of heavy combat land vehicles for the Equestrian Army, units that could pass undamaged through necromantic spells, gun down enemy advanced robotics and vehicles with ease, repair themselves in the heat of the fight, protect themselves from heavy weaponry and countermeasures, and most important - combat the zebras’ Behemoth-class heavy armor, the primary vehicle of the zebra force. The Judgment Project vehicles were supposed to be the primary frontline elements of the Equestrian Army, ‘super-units’ built to save as many allied lives as possible by destroying the opposition before it reached them. In other words, they were pretty much your anti-everything unit when it came to ground warfare - powerful and hard to kill.”

“And you have one of those?” Blake asked curiously.

“You bet we do.” Ricochet answered him with a hearty smile. “I’m actually the commander of Lily’s crew, and I drive her myself. She’s Buckley’s protector, guardian of its people, shield of its traditions, and my own personal pride and joy.”

Blake cocked his head. “Why do you call her Lily?”

“Oh, well, that’s more of a Buckley thing than part of the actual project.” Ricochet responded with a laugh. “You see, just a month back, we had brought Lily out for a crew exercise, and had left her outside unattended while we received our exercise objectives. In that time, one of our foals painted a white flower on the armor. She loved the thing so much that she nearly cried when we were about to remove it. So, we kept it on, she was the happiest little filly in all of Buckley, and the name Lily stuck to everypony.”

I couldn’t help but smile as Ricochet continued to chuckle at the passing memory. “Aw, that’s adorable.”

“Oh, I know it. In fact, you’ll actually see Lily in just a few minutes if you stick around.” Ricochet turned and began trotting towards the garage, stopping long enough to look over his shoulder and add, “She really is quite the sight to see, and I’ve been with her for years. Even ask the munitions manager. He’s one of the veterans of Lily’s previous crews, and he knows even more about her and where she really came from than I do. He’s the brown buck out by the howitzer shells if you want to trade.”

“Alright then.” I replied with a smile and wave. “Thanks, Ricochet.”

With a final farewell, Blake and I headed for the north wall to go about our business. The munitions buck had since finished his examination of the howitzer shells and was trotting towards an open kiosk, within which sat a metal desk and a pair of filing cabinets. Even before we approached the booth, the elderly unicorn opened one of the cabinets and retrieved a clipboard from within, looking over the document on its surface before giving a nod and setting it aside.

“Excuse me, sir?” I called, the old unicorn swinging his gaze around to me.

“Hello, outsiders.” the buck responded. “I see Ricochet was givin’ you the history of ol’ Lily.”

“Yes. It sounds like it’s quite the machine from what he told us.”

“That she is.” the buck agreed with a reminiscent smile. “Me an’ her saw our own fair share of combat back when Buckley was buildin’ itself up. She played the largest role out of everythin we had in keepin us safe from raiders and soldiers.” Then, the buck paused, raising a hoof to his head as he chuckled. “Oh, where are my manners?” he spoke, raising a hoof to me. “The name’s Olli, and after everything you’ve done for Buckley, I can easily say that I’m pleased to meet ya.”

“Likewise, Olli.” I replied with a smile, bumping my own hoof against his. “I’m Nova, and this is my little brother Blake.”

Olli gave his same greeting to Blake. “Hey there, youngin.”

“Hi.” Blake spoke with smile of his own; he looked to be progressively growing more comfortable around the base.

“So, what can I do for ya, Nova?”

“I’m just hoping to see if you’d be willing to exchange a little ammo for some disassembled weapons I have with me.” I explained, nodding over my left shoulder at my saddlepacks. “If nothing else, I’m sure there’s a few good spare parts out of what I have.”

“Hm… mind if I have a look?” Olli asked, to which I gave a nod.

In a second, his horn flared up with magic, and I felt as my saddlebag came open and he looked inside. “I do have a couple of small things in there that are more personal items, just a note, a newspaper page, and a holodisk.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch em.” Olli assured, levitating out the various dismantled weapon pieces one by one and setting them aside. From the radio station, we had salvaged all that could fit inside the saddlepack without weighing me down in flight, these parts including one fully dismantled assault rifle, the firing components of a combat shotgun, three disassembled pistols of varying calibers, and the chamber and action of two semi-automatic carbine rifles. Inspecting each one quickly, Olli closed my saddlebag, leaving my own items inside, and brought the parts to his desk where he swiftly arranged them into a neat array for further inspection. “Alright, sure.” he spoke with a nod of approval. “I can clean these parts and store them away for emergency use. And in return…” He paused, looking over to one of the stashes of ammo boxes and humming in thought. “I’ll let you pick two different calibers, and I’ll give ya a supply of each. Sound fair?”

“Yeah. Sounds good to me.”

“Alright then. What are ya lookin for?” he asked, gesturing up to the nearest pyramid of ammo boxes.

“I’m looking for some extra machinegun rounds, five fifty-six. That, and perhaps some three-o-eight rounds.” I explained. “One of my friends has a light machinegun that he uses to provide fire support for our group when we travel outside Hopeville, and my own sniper rifle doesn’t use an autoloader, so some extra rounds for it would be handy to have around, just incase.”

With a nod, Olli got to work searching for the correct ammo boxes. But only after a short moment, he paused long enough to suddenly ask, “Scary things aren’t they?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Balefire missiles. They’re scary things.” Olli clarified, craning his head around to look me in the eyes. “I saw your cover page from the Hopeville Press, about the megaspell strike in the southeast.”

“Oh, that… Yes, they are scary, to say the least.” I replied in understanding. “I’ll be honest, even the picture itself made me grow a little cold for a second or two.”

The old unicorn nodded. “I hear ya. But in all honesty, seein a picture on a piece of paper, that’s not like seein the real thing.”

“You’ve seen a balefire blast before?” I inquired.

“Yep, and it came from the missile based here, too.” Olli answered, scanning the ammo boxes once again.

“You used the balefire missile yourselves?…”

“Once we’d looted everythin out of it that we could, we used Buckley’s balefire missile to destroy Fort Volker.” Olli responded, horn flashing as two ammo boxes removed themselves from the pile and hovered down to the floor. “We did it so that nopony in the region could rival our own firepower and be able to have a fair chance at invadin our home and doin major damage.”

“That doesn’t really seem like the best reason to fire off a balefire missile.” I observed with a frown.

“Oh? Would it have been better, then, if we’d turned it against Challenger? Or perhaps this Hopeville place I’ve heard of?” Olli countered, shrugging as he set the ammo boxes before me and opened them. “I mean, if we still had that missile today, just imagine what we could’ve done with it.”

“Okay, okay.” I huffed with a shake of my head. “You made your point.”

“The purpose we gave that missile was a prevention policy, something else to help ensure our own safety, and nothing more.” Olli explained with a small smile. “And for as long as we’ve lived here, it’s seemed to work… but I tell you what outsider, seein one of those giant missiles come roarin up out of its silo and arcin into the sky… it still puts a little fear into a pony, especially knowin that they were the bringers of the end times, the destroyers of worlds, whatever you wanna call em.” With a sigh, he added, “I can rightly say that I hope Buckley never sees another one again.”

I gave the old buck a solemn nod; I could understand what he meant, easily. “But at least you used it for a good cause, it being for the protection of your people.” I replied encouragingly.

“It was another one of Shimmer’s ideas before she was our official leader.” he remarked with a chuckle. “She said every single artifact of the Old World can become a treasure, so long as the right pony with the right virtues gets her hooves on it. That’s what she told us before we fired that thing off.”

“Huh… I’ll have to remember that one. Those are smart words.” I complimented, smiling as I looked towards the two ammo boxes before me.

“Well, she’s a smart mare.” Gesturing to the boxes, he added, “Now, the box on the right has standard rifle rounds, five fifty-six, and the left box has armor piercing rounds for larger rifles, three-o-eight.” As he spoke, he brought over his clipboard, briefly looking over the documentation and nodding before setting it back down again. “Accordin to the inventory list, I’ve got enough extra ammo to give you a maximum of thirty rounds for your sniper, and seventy-five machinegun rounds for your friend. This still leaves me with plenty of extra for our own guards to use outside of the storages they tap into. Just keep in mind that these will have to be manually loaded into your own magazines. I don’t have any of those to spare.”

“Sounds fair to me. Anything you can give would be welcome.”

At his nod, I watched as the old unicorn levitated over a leather pouch, loading the promised thirty armor piercing rounds for Blue Fire’s Torch into the bag. But then came a sudden churning of something behind me, my ears perking at the noise before my eyes were drawn to the east side of the hanger, the front of the building. The entire wall was coming open, splitting down the center and slowly coming apart to reveal the cloudy expanse of the outdoors. At the same time, something inside the hanger let loose a rippling roar, close, that came to life from inside the garage. The garage door was already opened and disappeared up behind the wall of the building, and from within the dim lighting of the structure came another roar, rising in intensity to a sustained and deafening volume. And then, with a sudden mechanical screech, out came a massive monster of dark grey steel, slowly emerging into the hanger on grinding treads. “Meet Lily, outsiders!” Olli called over the noise with a laugh, as I only continued to stare at the mechanical marvel.

Buckley’s tank was a colossal machine of war, with an elongated body that rolled forward on two wide treads which wrapped along, over, and under the vehicle’s full length. The armor itself was, as far as my inexpert eye could tell, simple yet effective steel plate, and judging by the sheer size of the tank itself, the armoring had to be thick around the greater majority of the hull. Lily’s armaments encompassed a wide array of weaponry - a single-barreled turret was placed on top of the body nearer the front of the vehicle, a second smaller cannon was mounted in a sponson built into the tank’s left side (with another undoubtedly on the right side), a minigun was fixed to the main gun itself, fastened to its right side, and behind the turret, positioned just in front of the open hatch, was a mounted long-barreled machinegun, complete with a large ammo box built right into its frame. At the very end of the sloped back of the machine, a long plastic flagstaff carried a single banner - Celestia’s sun against a white backdrop, marking it as a military machine. However, deadly and intimidating as the beast of a vehicle was, there was still one mark on the tank’s armor that caught me off guard, even when it had been described and explained to me. On the left side of the tank, just past the gun sponson, was a clearly visible white flower against the dark steel, a striking contrast to the bristling weapons, intimidating armor color, and deafening engine that accompanied it.

As the heavy tank rumbled on by, the great noisy engine and grinding treads only gradually growing softer, I looked back at Olli, the old unicorn merely continuing to smile. “She’s a beauty isn’t she?”

“I think one of my friends is going to flip when he sees that.” I amusedly replied, watching as the vehicle passed out of the hanger and onto the runway; with a screeching of gears, the right tread of the vehicle snapped still as the left continued to roll, turning the tank to the right before the internal components creaked again, activating both treads and sending the tank rolling straight again. “I’ve read about some vehicles used in the war. A lot of the articles and manuals I looked over dealt with the Enclave airships. There wasn’t a lot of information on Equestrian armored ground assets, let alone tanks.”

“In regards to that tank, there most likely wouldn’t be anythin on em anyway.” Olli replied. “When we put the dates together of the few remaining intact files in Fort Volker, we found that Lily’s development files put her production time near the tail end of the war, maybe only a few months before the bombs fell. Aside from that, her completion and approval dates were listed as being only a couple of weeks before the last recorded document. That, and when we found Fort Volker itself, Lily was the only vehicle stored within. Whether others of the same model or of a different type were made or not, we don’t know. What we do know, however, is that Lily is native to the southeast, figuratively speakin of course. Since Marefax was where a good number of retirees from the Ministries in the heartland traveled to, the city played the entirety of the role in the project’s funding and production. But we only know the most basic of details, and don’t really care about even those. What’s important to us is that that tank is secured in Buckley, and she’s our number one resort should the howitzers fail to keep our enemies away.” I gave a nod in response, taking in the brief historical description of Buckley’s vehicle. Though a war machine it was, there was a level of intrigue that I held for Lily. It was easy to understand the absolute and obvious rarity of such a vehicle, or any operational vehicle really, let alone a heavy combat tank. Though not a special talent of my own in any way or form, history had always managed to find refuge in my mind since my early years learning of the Elements of Harmony and their influence on the Old World. Throughout my time on the surface, this didn’t change, because no matter how little or large of an impact it made, there was always a certain feeling tugging at me when discovering an Old World site - Hopeville, Plainwell, the news radio station, and now Buckley. Nostalgia, longing, appreciation… despite the crumbling remains of the Old World I had seen, I was always reminded of how things were in the old days, or at least reminded of how they had been described in the Stable’s texts. That was something that I wanted to see for myself, the world the way it was before the war, from the natural aspects to the cultural. Buckley held some of that here, at least a sliver of pre-war tradition, behind their guns… but for the whole of Equestria to see that, to accept that, now…… it was a hefty wish.

Lily was just another example of something that provoked those feelings, what I felt when seeing an artifact of my ancestors - the ponies of the Old World Equestria. To the finest detail, it made me think of the past, to what Marefax would’ve been like while Lily was under development, to who the project workers were that brought Lily to drawing paper before sending her to the production line. But in the present, seeing Lily also made me… well, nervous. Howitzers, anti-air weaponry, a massive munitions cache, and now, a tank. Buckley had the tools to face down many foes, and in the worst of all possibilities… they had the power to combat Challenger, and quite possibly prevail over the entire settlement. Though Mother Shimmer was much more concerned with the safety of her own people from the outside, and I had yet to see the potency of Challenger’s own collected strength that currently resided in Ashton, the possibility that Buckley could launch an invasion of the southeast all on their own was a small patch of black haze that lingered in my thoughts, even if just barely. It was still enough of a reason not to fully abandon my guard… and a reason also to continue to aid this community and to win the entirety of their trust.

“Now then, these pouches have the ammo I’ve promised.” Olli then spoke, levitating over two leather bags and holding them before my eyes to see; the ammo inside clinked and clattered heavily even in the air. “I’ve also labeled them for you, so you know which is which, but remember that you’ll have to load them into magazines yourselves.”

“That’s not a problem. I appreciate it.” I replied, the two ammo bags hovering over to my free saddlepack and slipping inside.

“You’re welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me, outsiders, I’ve got some more inventoryin to do in preparation for tomorrow’s expedition.”

With a final farewell, I nudged Blake along towards the wide-open exit of the hanger, following Lily’s path back outside. When we emerged, I could still hear that roaring engine in the distance, and a rising trail of dust marked the tank’s position to my right, the metal beast rolling along Buckley’s south perimeter. However, much closer to me in my line of sight, trotting along the side of the munitions hanger, was a growing cluster of ponies, foals numbering well over a dozen to be exact. And to my surprise… well, pleasant surprise, Archer was at the lead of the chatty group of children, currently smiling as two foals closest to him happily laughed together. But then, “Hey, look! It’s the outsiders!”

Even before Blake or I could respond, or even move another step, over a half dozen of the children in the group came galloping for us and clustered around us in a colorful and energetic ring, bombarding us with twice as many questions in unison, some simple questions along the lines of what our names were, and others more bizarre like what language we spoke in the outside world. So out of the blue was the attention of the children that Archer had to come to my rescue, quickly calling out to his charges, “Hey, come on everypony, give the outsiders some room now.”

On command, the children who had nearly fully encircled myself and my brother backed a few paces away, giving us some breathing room as Archer came forward with the other foals that had stayed with him; the steel-blue pegasus himself looked appropriately amused as I gave a shy smile at him. “Hi, Archer.”

“Hey there, outsiders.” the buck replied, letting out a chuckle as he looked me over. “I guess I should’ve seen something like that coming.”

“Oh no, it’s no problem really.” I assured him, looking among the foals as they stared back at me with open interest. “Normally I’m good with children back home, but I just wasn’t expecting to be rushed by a small mob of them.”

Archer cocked his head in a shrug. “Sometimes you never see them coming.” he remarked, a statement that I couldn’t help but nod at as I briefly recollected Blake’s pony-pile that he and his friends had pulled on me in Hopeville. “So how are things going around base for you two?” he then asked. “I got the report about your friends heading out just before I left the tower for my break.”

“Oh, just trying to blend in and help out best we can.” I replied. “After our group reunites, myself and perhaps two or three others will be coming to the meeting later this afternoon about your Marefax expedition. It’ll be our final contribution to Buckley before we return to our own home.”

“You’re coming along?” Archer asked with a smile. “That’s welcome news, we could definitely use you out there.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Aren’t you coming though?”

“Of course I am. But Marefax is a big place, and a dangerous one.” Archer answered. “We pegasi have more than a few advantages when it comes to combat, and those are advantages that the convoy is going to need when going through the city streets.”

“Oh… is it really that bad?”

“It’s a city, outsider. Did you expect otherwise?” he questioned, to which I shook my head after a silent pause. “I’ve already been there, scouted and drawn out the safest routes, and noted all of the hazards. All of that was only a day before you and your friends showed up on our doorstep, and I can tell you that that made for a very long day.”

“You’ve already been there? I thought you weren’t allowed to leave the perimeter…” But when Archer cocked an eyebrow and slowly fanned out his wings, the clean feathers giving a combined shake before they returned to his sides, realization of the evident hit me. “Oh. You’re Buckley’s scout aren’t you?… Duh.”

Archer nodded with a polite smile. “They’ve got to know what’s out there somehow.”

“Right.” I agreed. “So, what exactly would you need two pegasi out there for, besides the basic overwatch detail?”

“Well, for one thing, the city streets in Marefax are narrow in the downtown sector, and there’s still a lot of intact buildings that can be used as ambush points.” the pegasus stated, though suddenly raising a hoof as he added, “I won’t go into details with the young ones around and about, but I will say that I hope you’ve had some time with that sniper rifle of yours. If you come along, you’ll be using it a lot.”

“Oh… I see.”

“But right now, I’m taking some time to join the foals here in their recess.” Archer then explained, looking back around at the curious and smiling partial collection of Buckley’s youth behind him. “They have an hour break before their last class of the day.”

“Archer, can the outsiders play hide and seek with us?” one filly suddenly piped up.

“Yeah! They gotta play games outside.” an energetic colt added.

“I’m sure they do, and I think that’s a great idea.” Archer encouragingly replied, looking back at Blake and I and raising an eyebrow in question. “What say you two? Care for a game?”

“My friends and I play hide and seek all the time back in Hopeville.” Blake chimed with a hopeful smile. “Can we play, Nova?”

“Hm, hide and seek? Sure, I’d love to.” I replied with a nod and smile back to my brother.

“Yeah! And then after that, Archer can race the outsider since they both have wings!” a second colt suddenly declared, winning immediate approval from his friends while startling me all the same.

“Hey, I kind of like that idea.” Archer remarked, locking eyes with me as the unexpected challenge was laid out. “When I get the chance to stop by, the kids always like the little air shows I put on for them, and sometimes I take them into the air on my back. A race, though, is definitely an interesting proposition. What do you think? Are you up for a little challenge, outsider?”

A race? Well now, that would certainly be something new. While I was never one to show off my uniqueness as a pegasus back in Stable 181, racing against Archer would have its benefits, especially if I won. Of course, I’d be able to see just what Archer was capable of in flight, and it’d be a good workout for my wings. My guess was that either way, between a game and this proposed race, I’d win some good reputation amongst Buckley’s younger residents, which was a good thing all on its own. But of course, as a last thought, it might also serve as a way to impress the other pegasus himself, something that I really had no problem with whatsoever. And besides, the way he proposed the questions with that less-than-subtle hint of smug confidence in his voice - the challenge had to be answered, and with a smirk, I rustled my wings. “Okay, Archer. You’re on.”

“Alright! This recess is going to be the awesomest ever!” the second colt cheered, his friends joining him in approval.

“But remember, hide and seek first.” another filly warned within the group.

I chuckled at that, Archer doing the same with me. “Yes, hide and seek first.” I agreed.

“And grown-ups have to seek!!” a third colt shouted.

Archer and I both gave a nod, the pegasus stallion replying, “Yes, and grown-ups have to…” The two of us exchanged surprised looks, the both of us suddenly catching on to the deceiving children. “Hey!”

But of course, it was already far too late to go back.

*** *** ***

“Gunny, eyes on.”

Looking to the right where Shore walked beside me, I saw him nodding ahead down the highway. Past the remains of a cluster of rusted down passenger wagons and mixed detritus, another pre-war structure stood off of the thoroughfare. It was a small brown edifice of wood and brick, no larger than one of the wasteland’s metal shacks. But the far half of the building had caved in on itself, taking the whole of the roof with it and leaving only three walls standing. Around it, two more crumpled wagons sat side by side next to the building’s west wall, and just visible past those, the corpse of a sand hornet lay full of bullet holes; somepony had been here recently.

“Grace, your pipbuck picking up anything?” I asked, flicking the safety of the All-Equestrian off and raising the sights to eye level.

“No.” came her reply from behind me. “E.F.S. is clean. But we must be getting closer. We’ve been seeing evidence of fighting ever since we found that single housing foundation.” And this was the truth of the matter. Though we had started off in silence, with a complete and total lack of buildings or other landmarks on the highway to Marefax, we had begun to come across fresh signs of recent skirmishes - newly dispensed bullet casings at the first foundation of what had once been an old farm house, additional casings and a jammed long rifle (.22LR) inside a large passenger wagon, then a trio of bodies slumped inside a rest stop along the highway. And all the way in between, we came across the occasional casualty laying along the road, freshly killed. The corpses strewn down the path had belonged to ponies not of the Black Blood Raiders or the Talon Legion, but anonymous figures equipped with failing weapons and garbed in pieced-together patchwork armor, ratty and grimy; they had been local raiders, undoubtedly natives of Marefax.

“We still can’t be sure if Jenny was involved with any of this though.” Shore remarked quietly as we approached the new building.

“But it’s the best trail we have to follow to find Blossom’s friend.” I countered, signaling for the others to stop as I focused ahead. “Grace, Shore, hang back a second and make sure nothing sneaks up behind us. Blossom, let’s check this building. There may be another clue inside.”

“Okay. Right behind you.” Blossom spoke up, Grace and Shore speaking affirmation as they armed their own weapons.

Silent as possible, I briskly trotted up to the west wall and passed between it and one of the old wagons, Blossom right on my tail. The north side, the collapsed portion of the structure, was the only entrance, and wasting no time, I stuck along the wall until I reached the corner. In one motion, I swung around and aimed the All-Equestrian inside, passing the barrel left and right and scanning the building’s vectors - all empty.

“It’s all clear here.” I called, lowering my weapon down as Blossom trotted past me, looking frantically about the brown and rotted walls. Inside, the former roof of the building now made the floor, still relatively flat aside from the occasional jagged piece of tiling jutting from the surface. On the walls, there was hardly any indication as to what exactly this building had once been. There were only a couple of picture frames, cracked and lacking photos, and a tattered paper casing that had once been a map of Marefax itself before being torn hastily from its place, indicated by the label plate that sat slanted along the wall. To the left, a pair of doors led to restrooms that made the building’s east side, and an old metal desk was visible through the debris in the far corner of the main room. But then I spotted something else, a vanilla-colored box bolted to the wall just above the desk, the hatch already opened to show that it had been looted of its contents. But as I spotted it, Blossom was already trotting over the rubble to investigate both it and the desk, and before she pulled up the hatch, she abruptly stopped and looked down at the floor, flinching in surprise at whatever she saw. “Gunny, look!”

Behind me, Shore and Grace came trotting inside, and I nodded for them to follow as I made my way over the wrecked roof to join Blossom and her search. There, thrown across the floor behind the desk was Blossom’s latest find - shucked and bloodied leather armor with an empty glass bottle resting on its side atop it. “That’s a healing tonic bottle.” Grace remarked from the other side of the desk, her horn flaring with light before the bottle lifted away to her. “And there’s just a small amount of the tonic left inside… still clean.”

With a hum of thought, I stepped up alongside Blossom as she looked over the armor, and I raised a hoof up to the box, pushing up the hatch and closing it shut; the three pink butterflies that greeted me were unmistakable. “It’s a medical box, and it must’ve been just recently looted.” I remarked.

“What about that armor?” Shore asked.

“I recognize it. It’s Jenny’s… she still had her own suit of leather armor on when she escaped the radio station.” Blossom replied with worry, dropping it and backing away. “She’s still out there, but she must be hurt. Jenny!!” She called her friend’s name again as she trotted back outside, looking hastily left and right in desperate search. “Jenny!!”

I exchanged a concerned glance with the others. “We’d better keep moving.” I said, my friends nodding. “We’re closer, but I don’t know how much time we have left.”

“Right. Let’s go.” Shore agreed, Grace tossing the bottle aside before the three of us left the ruined structure behind.

“Jenny, where are you?!”

“Blossom.” I called as I trotted up alongside her. The anxious mare looked back at me, a tear coming down her right cheek as she let out a shaky sigh. “Hey. We’ve got to keep moving north. We’ll find her.” I assured.

“I’m just so worried.” she replied, shaking her head as she levitated her trail carbine out in front of her, cocking the lever-action.

“We’re close. We’ve just got to keep looking.”

Without further delay, the four of us merged back onto the highway and continued north. The highway, ever since the beginning of the mission, was nothing but a straightaway, one long road connecting the city to the smaller towns that depended on its presence. Throughout our first leg of the trip, we had only set our pace to a walking speed, the better to keep an eye on details and search for clues. But as we got going again, Blossom set a new speed for us, running ahead at a fast trot that the rest of us were forced to keep up with. Through the next several minutes, we continued as such, but with no other buildings or notable locales in sight. Only the highway itself was changing, slowly but surely growing more congested with passenger stages and smaller wagons the farther north we ran; grimly, I noted that the vast majority of them were facing the south, away from Marefax, escaping the city.

Blossom’s quickened pace ultimately paid off, and eventually, another structure begun to loom to the left of the highway, a single large house placed at the top of a shallow rise in the earth with a wrecked barn next to it, the latter broken down almost entirely. “Looks like another farmhouse up ahead, Gunny.” Shore remarked as we briefly slowed.

“And there’s still a couple of bodies off to the sides of the road that I can see, also recently killed.” Grace put in. “But the evidence of the fighting is becoming less and more distant in between.”

“Yeah, but I can still smell cordite. It’s weak but it’s there.” I replied. “This might be the place. Let’s have a look.”

Blossom once again took the lead, trotting ahead as I followed up behind her. “Oh, I hope she’s there.”

Within moments, we closed the distance between us and the suspect farmhouse, and we came to a stop along the hill in front of a compacted cluster of around a half dozen wagons; the house was only a few meters ahead now. “It’s the Shamrock Farmstead according to the icon I just got on my map.” Grace said as I looked over the site, searching for threats. “It’s… hey… my pipbuck screen just went static.” I cocked an eyebrow and looked back around at Grace, watching in puzzlement as she tapped the screen of her computer with her free forehoof. “Oh wait, there we go. Huh, that was strange.”

“Pipbucks aren’t supposed to do that normally.” Shore remarked with a frown, trotting over to her and looking over the device for himself. “I wonder if the spell matrix is acting up.”

“We don’t have time to fix that right now.” I stated firmly, facing the farmhouse again as I readied my LMG. “We need to look this place over and see if Jenny’s inside.”

“Jenny! Can you hear me?!” Blossom called, taking a step towards the farmhouse as she listened for any kind of response.

After a moment of silence, I asked back, “Gracie, see anything?”

“No. The compass is still clear of hostiles or friendlies.” she replied with a shake of her head.

“Well, we still go up there and search anyway.” I insisted. “There might be more evidence of the fighting along this stretch of the highway.”

“But if the E.F.S. didn’t pick up anything… she might be…”

I stopped Blossom right there. “Hey. Don’t think like that.” I sharply interrupted. “We’ll find her, and we’ll bring her back.” Though not as confidently as I’d hoped, Blossom gave a hesitant nod to me, looking nervously back up to the farmhouse, carbine at the ready. With a wave of my hoof, I motioned for the others to follow as I begun to ascend the rise. Facing the highway was one side of the house, all of the first floor windows boarded up to prevent seeing whatever might’ve been inside. One by one though, we stacked up along the wall before I led the group to the north side.

Around the corner was the front entrance, the crusty door of which had fallen off of its hinges to rest on the dirt. A scattering of wooden shards lay around and on top of it with additional scattered litter surrounding it, perhaps part of another fight. With a quick nod to the others, I stepped around the corner with the All-Equestrian levitating just below eye level. I stopped by the left side of the entrance, listening in for any kind of voice or disturbance in the calm… nothing. But then, when I peeked my head into the house itself, my eyes fell upon another clue, the last clue we needed.

The entrance room of the farmhouse looked like the living room itself, a spacious chamber with a triangular wall dividing it from the back of the house. A staircase built atop that divider wall, making the triangle’s slanted side, led to the second floor, and another doorframe to the far left led to the back rooms. But on the divider wall itself, all four legs spread out and fastened to the wood with chains, was a pony, a violet unicorn mare with a dirty and sweat-matted blue mane. Her head was likewise secured to the wall with a separate chain, her mouth was gagged with a dirty rag, and her torso, likewise chained, was marked with unattended bullet wounds. The wounds were caused by a small-caliber weapon, perhaps only a .22 or a 9mm, judging by their size; despite that though, a small puddle of blood had already formed under her.

Returning my LMG to its place on my back, I stepped back and away from the entrance. “Everypony, get over here!”

“What? What is it??” Blossom demanded, hurriedly trotting up to me.

I looked back at the front entrance, finding that the mare inside was now wide awake, perhaps having already been so. She was looking back at me with frightened eyes, eyes which went wide as they then fell on Blossom. “Oh Goddesses, Jenny!!” The black-maned mare threw aside her carbine in a split moment, making a beeline for the door just as I caught sight of… oh Goddesses!

“WAIT!!!”

At my shouted command, Blossom came to a startled halt, her left hoof poised over the doorway and about to step down onto the very thing that I had barely found in time. “W-what is it?” she nervously asked, looking back at me with shock.

“Blossom… back up slowly.” I warned, taking a step forward. Hesitantly, she lowered her gaze to the floor, and gasped at the sight of the tripwire, tied to two metal rods hammered into the floor, and strung across the length of the door frame. Slowly, she brought her left hoof back and lowered it to the dirt away from the trap trigger, then backing away as I approached it. Keeping my forehooves at a safe distance away from the device, I hunkered down and analyzed the trap. Already, I saw that a miniscule lever was set to snap back if the tripwire was tugged or pushed, and another cable was wrapped around it. Following the second cord, I traced it up along the near wall where it ended at another switch. One final cable hung high above the floor, connecting that lever to the third and final part of the trap - a black and silver nail gun bolted to the divider wall, the tool pointing straight for Jenny’s head.

“Oh sweet Celestia.” Blossom shakily breathed.

“It’s alright. I can get this trap down.” I assured, laying flat on my stomach and looking over the tripwire once more. “I just need to think for a second.”

“I’ll head around the house and search the perimeter.” Shore then declared. “If Gracie’s pipbuck didn’t register Jenny, then others might still be around.”

That was definitely a possibility, one that quickly formed a tense pit in my stomach. “Good idea. Go ahead, and I’ll let you know when this trap’s down.” I looked back briefly as Shore trotted away behind the west side of the house, Gracie remaining as she set down her saddlebags and begun to sift through her medical equipment; Jenny would definitely need a potion or two.

Muffled tones from inside the house brought my eyes back to Blossom’s friend, the terrified mare squirming in her tight-fitting bonds as she tried to speak through her gag. “Hang on, Jenny. We’re getting you out of here and back to safety, alright? I just need you to stay calm for me.” The mare nodded as much as the restrictive chain would allow her, and though she tried to speak again, I looked back down to the tripwire, concentrating on disarming the lethal trap; if it went off, Jenny wouldn’t have the second chance she deserved.

Looking over the trap, I observed that the cord itself was suspended rather high up off of the floor, more likely to catch somepony’s foreleg as a result… and it was then that I got an idea, horn flaring as I brought over my riot shotgun. I removed the drum from the weapon, setting the shotgun aside and bringing the drum clip before me. Then I set it lengthwise along the floor and carefully slid it under the tripwire… no, the drum wasn’t large enough… but one of the All-Equestrian’s magazines might make the table I needed. Reloading the shotgun and holstering it, I brought the LMG forward and unloaded the bigger magazine, bringing it up to the cable as I set the weapon itself on the ground. Cautiously, I set the magazine down on its side, and carefully nudged it under the tripwire. Though the wire grazed the big clip’s surface, it securely rested atop the magazine without springing the trap, giving me the surface I needed to safely access the cable.

Out came Proudspire’s gift for the first time, the bowie knife Honor hovering before my eyes as I guided the polished steel blade to the cable. For a second, I begun to guide the knife back and forth across the cord, hoping to saw it apart. But only a moment later, I stopped at how much the trap moved to the touch, and I didn’t know how much or how little it would take to trigger the nail gun to fire. Pausing to look over the rig one more time, I nodded as I confirmed my initial thoughts on the trap. The cord was secured to the trap lever in a manner that required the cord to be tugged, snagged on somepony’s lower leg, to pull the levers and thus fire the nail gun. However, if the cable was cut at the center, the trap wouldn’t activate… and it had to be cut directly with a single swing.

“What are you going to do?” Blossom piped up behind me.

“I’ve got to cut the cable.”

“Wait-”

I didn’t, and with one solid swing, Honor came down on the line, the blade cutting cleanly through it and digging into the magazine; both sides of the cable fell to the floor… and the nail gun remained silent.

“You did it!” Grace cheered, and I only had a second to move both myself and my blade before Blossom charged in through the door. Without hesitation, she raced up to her friend and rose on her hind hooves, balancing herself on the wall with her forehooves before leaning in and vigorously nuzzling the trapped pony along her neck, half-crying as her words of joyous relief poured out to her formerly lost friend; through her gag, I swear I heard Jenny laughing.

“Blossom, let’s get her down from that wall so Grace can patch her up.” I said with a small smile, sheathing Honor and reloading my LMG as I trotted inside.

“Yeah, yeah sure.” came Blossom’s grateful reply, the happy mare lowering herself to all fours as her horn came alight; she first removed the gag, working her magic to untie the cloth before casting it aside and working on the chain around the trapped mare’s head.

“Thank Celestia you’re here.” Jenny sighed with great relief. “I never thought I’d see friendly faces again.”

But my attention was drawn away from the ensuing conversation as my eyes passed over the nail gun once again… there was something off about it, the way it was set up. The gun was secured to the wall via thin metal rods that had been hammered into the material, and plastic extensions connected the gun to these bars, supporting the tool’s weight. But then I saw something on the trigger, another cable aside from the one I had just disarmed. This one was not part of the trap, as instead, it trailed along the wall before running to the floor, then snaking up the old wooden stairs to the second story where it disappeared into the upstairs room; it was then and there that the cable was pulled with a sharp yank.

I snapped my eyes to Blossom to shout my warning, but too late, the nail gun’s trigger clicked. One after another, six nails fired from the tool, and I was witness to each one as they plunged into Jenny’s skull. And as her eyes rolled up into her head, blood welling out around the six spear-like projectiles and trailing down her violet coat, the mare I thought I had rescued went limp in her chains.

“JENNY!! NOOOO!!”

Blossom’s cry of utter agonized sorrow ripped my heart in two as a dark and terrible void swiftly filled my very soul. But only a second later, the living room exploded in shrapnel as gunfire erupted from the back rooms of the house, a whole volley of bullets shredding the living room to pieces. I half dove and half stumbled to the floor, Grace pulling Blossom down as she threw herself to the deck, before my horn flared with magic, pulling the All-Equestrian up in front of me. “AMBUSH!! GET OUT OF THE KILL ZONE!! MOVE!!” I cried, mustering as much volume as my voice would allow to speak to the others through the great noise. Beside me, Gracie was crawling towards the exit, but at the same time, was dragging Blossom out with her telekinesis, the crying and cowering mare having already been hit twice in the back near her hindquarters from the initial attack. Rolling onto my back, I raised the All-Equestrian to point at the wall, and opened up to provide cover for Grace. Over and over, I strafed the wall from left to right and back again, hoping to hit our hidden enemy through their own cover. But from the left side, one of those enemies suddenly came rushing out through the opening, a black-armored unicorn pony with a combat shotgun at the ready - he was a Talon soldier.

He and I made eye contact together, and I felt the harsh impact of a slug shell against my left side as his shotgun spoke first. But the All-Equestrian retaliated just after as I directed its spray of lead at the first adversary. The first bullet scored a headshot, but even before the enemy soldier fell, I kept the iron sights on him, the steady stream of shots ripping into him and spraying blood and bits of gore along the wall until the soldier lay in a motionless heap. Already, another soldier took the fallen one’s place, but I kept hold of the trigger, gunning him down before he could even get a shot off with his rifle. But still, enemy fire flew in from the back rooms to further demolish the living room, spraying wood shards and flecks of plaster; I had to get out before the entire thing collapsed on itself!

For a second, I took my eyes away from the house to look outside. Grace was already up and running, dragging Blossom along with her. Shore was with them, plasma and laser lashing out at the right side of the house as he covered their escape. It was my turn to leave, and I hurriedly scrambled to my hooves just as another Talon soldier emerged behind the stairway balcony, a large griffin with a laser rifle sighted in right for me. I wheeled and dove out through the exit, streaks of red striking behind me and charring the floor where I had just stood seconds ago. Two more followed me to the edge of the doorway, barely missing my flanks, but I could only rise and turn back to the house before the same griffin landed with a heavy thud on the floor, facing me head on. It was then that I noticed the long and jagged scar across his right eye, the very same scar that Nova had described to me after the Talon attack on Hopeville; then the scar lengthened as the griffin’s eyes narrowed into an angry glare, and he clamped his beak on the firing bit before him.

I was forced to dive again, dodging left as the light machinegun on the right side of his custom battle saddle roared to life, tearing a chunk of the wall down as it chased me. Scrabbling back up, I turned my LMG to the house, blind-firing as I wheeled and bolted back for the highway. Even as I ran, a half dozen bullets struck against my armor’s flank plates as well as its left side, the latter of which crumpled and gave as a larger-caliber weapon struck it four times in a line. All four of the shots punched through, armor-piercing rounds that tore right into me, and I staggered from the tremendous wave of pain that followed, losing my pace and toppling the rest of the short distance to the highway. I came to a rough halt on my injured side, the All-Equestrian clattering heavily to a stop on the broken pavement. But I reached out for it again and pulled the weapon close to me, my magic still functioning fully as I fought to ignore the sting of my new wounds.

“Gunny! Over here!” Shore was nearby, he and the others having taken cover behind one of the passenger wagons on the road. Beside him, Grace was firing back at the farmhouse with her revolver, and even Blossom, completely ignoring her own wounds and tears, was putting up fire with her trail carbine.

With a growl, I staggered up to all fours, unable to take a single step before more shots from the hilltop kicked up dirt and bits of pavement around my forelegs. The armor protecting my right side intercepted two more shots before I forced myself to gallop to cover, lunging forward and falling into place by Shore as the four of us ducked back down. “How many did you kill?!” I called to Shore, the metal of the chariot deflecting enemy fire for the time being.

“None!” came his reply. “They were all hiding in the back rooms and a couple troops blew out the boarded up windows to engage me! There must be at least half a dozen more in there!”

“Grenades!!”

At Gracie’s shouted warning, I snapped my focus back up, catching sight of five metal apples arcing through the air and dropping towards us. As one, Grace and I telekinetically intercepted the grenades mid-flight, catching them before launching them back to the farmhouse where they exploded all together. At the sound of the detonation, I stepped out of cover and took aim, seeing as the combined power of the blast completely blew out the front of the first floor of the house, causing the rest of the foundation to crack and split from the front to the back. Like added gunfire to the firefight, the already rotted boards of the first floor snapped and broke down, and with a groan under the weight of the second story, the house came crashing down to the ground, the tiled roof caving in before the structure became nothing more than a pile of rubble. But still five Talon soldiers remained outside of the debris pile, still putting fire downrange at us with assault rifles and carbines, and the griffin was nowhere on the ground…

I snapped my eyes up and right, scouting the sky behind my iron sights and spotting the target just as he dived in for a strafing run. Together we fired, and I scored a hit, causing his own trail of shots to carve into the street to my right as he was knocked off course. Just after, return fire from the hill forced me back to cover behind the chariot, but I still kept my eyes on the griffin as he circled back around, swinging back for another pass at us. With the others focused on repelling the squad on the hill, I had to keep that griffin from getting a good angle of approach to hit us, or from strafing us in general… and getting him out of the air was the best way to do that.

On his second pass, he leveled out over the highway, coming in low above the ground and pouring on the speed as he followed the path of the road towards us. His lower altitude provided the best opportunity, and with an effort, I willed myself into a gallop, racing head on for the approaching enemy flier. Just as he fired, his LMG coming to life again, I threw my own weapon aside and sprung, jumping straight for the top of a box-shaped chariot and sticking the landing. And then, momentum sustained as the griffin’s trail of fire tailed me, I leapt high, launching right into the griffin’s flight path. His speed prevented him from evading in time, and the distance closed in an instant as he smashed into me, the two of us crashing into the pavement together. I came to a stop in the dirt just after the griffin plowed into a third wagon. Quickly, I pulled myself up, ignoring the spread of the pain in my body as I whipped out my riot shotgun; I couldn’t let the griffin back into the air.

But my opponent had no intention of doing so, swinging around out of cover behind the wagon and biting down on his firing bit. This time, the black assault carbine on his saddle’s left side came to life, two shots absorbed by my armor’s chest plate before I leapt for cover, putting return fire downrange with three buckshot shells before skidding behind a fourth overturned passenger wagon. The griffin continued firing, the carbine peppering my cover and the majority of the shots punching through the deteriorating wagon entirely. Thinking fast, I continued forward, coming out of cover on the opposite side of the wagon and catching the griffin by surprise as I fired off another two buckshot shells, both of them pounding the griffin’s heavily armored chest before he dove back to his own cover.

With time to move, I galloped forward towards the griffin’s own barricade, coming around the right side and finding the griffin just as he turned to face me. Quicker than I would’ve thought, he barreled forward and rammed into me full force, knocking my riot shotgun aside before both of his clawed forepaws latched to my shoulders. His sharp talons dug through the armored padding as he tried to bring me to the ground, and I smashed my own forehooves back against his chest to halt his momentum, the two of us now locked in a battle of raw physical strength. In an attempt to trip up my balance, the big griffin briefly pulled back before driving himself forward again, a solid shove that my injured body struggled to absorb. But still I kept my position as we locked back together, and in response, I gathered my strength and shoved with a growl, all my muscles working to gain the upper hoof. To my satisfaction, I felt as the griffin gave a step of ground, backing under my own strength, and it was all I needed to hook my left foreleg along his side and throw him down to the dirt.

But just as quick as before, the untiring griffin swung up with his left paw and delivered a jolting punch to my chest, sending me staggering back and into the wagon. I kept my hooves under me as I recovered from the dull momentary shock, and as the griffin quickly stood back up and faced me, my magic reached for my sidearm, the .44 magnum revolver snapping up in front of me as I took aim. With a single bound, the griffin leapt to the left as I fired my first shot, the bullet punching through another wagon farther behind him. He wasn’t out of sight from his first leap, and I snapped the pistol to the right to follow him, firing another shot that went wide. But then he was on me, leaping forward and lashing out with his right paw, and I didn’t dodge in time before his claws carved across the left side of my face.

With a cry of pain, my magic faltered and dropped the sidearm as I staggered back, already feeling tendrils of blood running freely down my cheek and neck. With my eyes closed out of reaction to the terrible burn from the quartet of gashes, my only instinct was to dodge, and I sprang to my right, hearing as a more powerful weapon went off just in front of me. I wasn’t hit, and with the adrenaline still flowing, I forced my eyes open, seeing the griffin just to my left with a pearl-white five-cylinder revolver gripped in his right claws, already pointing straight for me. I was too far away from him to react in time before he pulled the trigger, and the revolver fired with a powerful crack of sound, the high-caliber round jerking me back as it drilled into my chest plate. Still, somehow, the armor held the bullet back, sparing me another wound, and I threw myself in another leap to cover as a second shot passed right by my left side.

In the short time behind safety I had, my horn flared up again as I reached for my last weapon, Honor silently sliding from its sheath as I readied the blade to stab. Then, through my peripheral sight, I spotted the griffin’s head to my left, and with a cry I spun and swung the knife. I missed my stab, the blade slamming into the old wagon as the griffin ducked under and backed away. With a yank, the knife easily ripped free and I charged again. In front of me, the griffin rose up to his hind legs, using his left claws to strike at me again. This time I dodged his attack, the miss giving me enough time to close the distance and slash again. The bowie knife caught, slicing through a chunk of his own armor’s padding before the griffin fell to all fours again. But before I could get another swing in, the griffin suddenly jerked forward and head butted me, an alarming and painful strike that sent me stumbling back. And then, before I could recover, he lurched, and his left claws hooked under and up, delivering a heavy uppercut to my jaw that knocked me off my hooves and sent me to the ground on my left side.

Dazed and out of focus, the pain that I had been suppressing by sheer willpower through the whole of the fight came rushing back all at once, breaking through the fortitude I had left to keep it at bay. With a grunt of pain, I only managed to roll onto my back, seeing the griffin staring down at me with a focused but cold glare. Though I had managed to score hits of my own, I bitterly realized that though the griffin looked to be tiring, even if only slightly, he had sustained no major injuries during the entire fight, his armor and skill both efficiently protecting him from all of my attacks. And me… I couldn’t fight anymore. My left side was cramping up, the muscles burning painfully from the four armor-piercing rounds still lodged inside. I couldn’t get my left legs to cooperate outside of the dose of adrenaline I had been fighting with, and after all of that, this griffin had disarmed me of every weapon I had. I had nothing left to use...... if he wanted to kill me now, I was at his mercy.

“I figured that I’d end up seeing one of you here.” the griffin spoke after a breath, tone dark and hateful. “But I was hoping to find Nova herself, not her fucking friends.”

“She… told me about you.” I angrily replied through my own heavy breathing. “What the hell do you want from her?”

“That’s not your business.” the griffin growled in answer, stalking towards me. “What is your business now is that you’re going to send her a message for me. I know that you’re one of her closest friends, so she’ll listen to my words through you.”

“Fuck you!”

In response to my defiance, the griffin’s revolver snapped back up to aim at me before he pulled the trigger, and I cried in agony as a shot tore clean through my left hind leg. Only a split moment later, and his left claws clamped down on my throat, crushing my vocal cords and keeping me from clutching at the wound. “You’re tough, I’ll give you that. But you should know when you’re beaten.” the griffin snarled, forcing me to look him in his harsh brown eyes. “You will tell your pegasus friend that I bested you today. You will tell her that I am still on the hunt for her, and that she has nowhere to hide from me. And lastly, you will tell Nova my name.” The griffin paused then, still glaring down at me as he holstered his revolver, fanning out his wings. Then, “I am Blackhawk, and I’m coming for her.” With that, he released his hold around my throat, and I took in a ragged breath and grunted at the torturous pain coming from my leg. But as I felt a gust of wind, my eyes were drawn back to the griffin, to Blackhawk, as his large wings beat to lift him into the air. And then he was off, winging away to the north towards Marefax and leaving me, his newest defeated opponent, lying in the dust.

“Gunny!” The familiar voice of Gracie took my eyes away from the sky, and rolling onto my uninjured side, I spotted the medical mare as she trotted out between two of the wagons on the highway, then finding me just a moment later. “Are you okay??” I could only cough in response as she came running up to me, skidding to a halt and already setting her saddlebags to the ground next to her. “Hang on, Gunny. You’re going to be okay.”

As she went to finding the needed medicine to fix me up, I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice again to ask the only question on my mind. But before I could, I felt as Grace begun undoing the armor on my left side, swiftly undoing the side-guards and removing the bloodied plate to expose the bullet wounds I had taken there. “Grace…” I managed to speak, catching the frantic mare’s attention as she paused in her work. “Where’s Blossom?”

“She’s with Shore. She made it, Shore too. We killed the others.” she assured with a comforting smile. “Only that griffin got away.”

But I only sighed in response, closing my eyes. “… I had her, Grace… damn it, I had her…”

Jenny.

Gracie slowly shook her head, smile fading to a sad frown. “Gunny…”

“I killed the trap… and she talked. She talked to us, Gracie!”

“Shhhh…” My friend ran a gentle hoof through my mane, shaking her head again as she looked me in the eye. “You did everything you could, Gunny.”

I shook my head, Grace lifting her hoof away. “I had her… and then that second cable… I should’ve seen it…” For a moment, Gracie only looked at me, sympathy in her eyes, before she somberly turned back to my wounds, dampening a clean rag with a bottle of water and levitating it, a pair of tweezers, and a roll of medical tape to the first of the four bullet holes. I didn’t feel a thing as Grace worked… I couldn’t feel anything other than that terrible void, that creeping emptiness.

Jenny… I had her… I was so close… and I’d failed…

*** *** ***

Wind.

The two of us flashed by over Buckley’s cemetery at the northeast corner of the base as we cut around the next turn in a sharp arc. Both Archer and I leveled out on the straightaway, following the shape of Buckley’s perimeter fence down below. But not even six seconds later, the next corner of the improvised race course rushed forward to meet us, and the two of us hooked the turn nearly at a ninety-degree angle before picking up the speed as we raced along the west side of the base; all the while, the cool wind was whipping at my face and my mane.

Racing Archer required the fullest effort and the greatest power that my will and my wings could muster, and even then, Buckley’s scout pegasus was always a pony’s length ahead of me. There was no denying that Archer was a well-trained and potent flier, and though he was roughly the same age as I myself was, maybe only a year or so older, he had been born and raised on the surface, thus having many years to hone his flight skill in a vast and open environment; this was his greatest advantage, but I was certainly giving him a run for his caps. In moments, we sped by over the crowd of cheering children, urging both of us forward as we entered the final lap of our three-lap race. As we cleared the hangers, rising in altitude and approaching the ATC tower, I tapped into what energy I had been saving from the beginning, adding that extra mental drive and kicking up the pace of my wing beats, allowing me to pick up even more speed. Slowly, I begun to close the distance between myself and my rival as the top of the tower flew by us, and we lowered our altitude together to draw level with the roof of the next building - Buckley’s club building.

The both of us nearly skimmed the rooftop with our hooves as we flew on by, and then the next turn was rapidly upon us, the rush of our passage taking us to the southwest corner of the base before we both turned hard left. In front of me, not even half a pony’s length ahead, Archer followed the turn precisely, leveling himself in a blink and pouring on the speed as I gave chase. On the perimeter’s north straightaway, Archer was beginning to gain more distance again, even as I strained for even greater speed. But then, I saw as the steel-blue pegasus jolted in the air, as if he had missed a step in some process; he had!

The next turn was already upon us, and as I hooked to the left to follow the ninety-degree corner of the perimeter, Archer took the turn too wide, drifting out beyond the fence long enough for me to pass him before he launched back onto the designated track. Now I was ahead, and with a triumphant laugh, I made myself as level as possible, craning my neck out straight and tucking my forelegs back along my chest to limit the wind resistance to a minimum. Now, straight as a dagger, I quickly regained the speed I lost on the corner and pushed onward, passing over the concert hall and blazing by the first cluster of shacks and residences. Though I didn’t dare look behind me, I knew that Archer was hot on my trail, and the thought pushed my mind into gear, keeping me focused on the upcoming turn; I didn’t want to recreate the mistake that Archer had made.

The cemetery behind the church building was coming up fast, and my peripheral vision didn’t see Archer coming up for a pass. Having passed this same turn twice, I was able to count in seconds my time to approach… four… three… two… one… I leaned left and snapped through the turn, a perfect execution as I merged onto the north perimeter. Like before, the straightaway brought the next turn in seconds, and one last time, I pulled through the northwest corner and onto the home stretch - the farthest hanger from me was the finish line. Again, I urged myself forward, wings aching from scooping at the air and throwing me forward against the currents. But then, passing over the first hanger, Archer came into my view, not from my right or my left, but from below me. He was pulling ahead inch by inch, wings beating in stronger and measured strokes against the air, flying straight as a bullet as we launched over the second hanger. And then the finish line flashed by as we passed one final time over the children that made our audience. Even from our place high above, I could hear their excited cheering, and the two of us slowed together as we circled around at a much more leisurely pace for our landing.

Down below, Blake was already waiting for me, standing just outside the majority of the group, and as I hovered in he gave an energetic wave. “You flew fast!” he called up to me. “Real fast!”

I landed before my little brother with a smile, gratefully tucking in my worn out wings as I gave him a quick hug. “It was definitely fast… and windy.” I replied with a light laugh. “But Archer was faster.”

“But not by much, outsider.” the pegasus buck retorted from my left, likewise smiling as the Buckley children around him celebrated his victory. “That wasn’t bad. That wasn’t too bad at all.”

Oh great… even after a friendly competition I was blushing at the handsome stallion; he’d complimented me! “Aw. Thanks.”

“Hey, I mean it. But if I might suggest something, perhaps you’d consider some training while you’re here.” he added, making his way through the crowd to step up to me face-to-face.

“You mean, train with you?” I inquired curiously.

“Of course.” Archer answered proudly. “I’ve helped train Buckley’s security forces as an assistant to Tracer many times. If you’d like, I can give you some tips and advice about flight, how to find the best currents, how to balance the energy you’re putting into your flight. I could even go as far as to improve your marksponyship both in the air and on the ground, and I could also show you a thing or two about unarmed combat. That was a fun race we had there, so if you’d like to train, you have but to ask.”

Oh my. That was definitely enticing, and for more reasons that just getting the training. As I thought it over, I was reminded that Archer had lived his whole life on the surface, possessing far more experience than I with combat, and even just open flying. Professionally speaking, getting the advice of a seasoned flier like Archer would definitely improve my own skill set, as I was plenty certain that he had valuable information and top-notch tactics to share. If nothing else, it’d serve to improve my own odds of survival and my contributions to the preservation of Hopeville, and that was what was most important, even if I’d get a little extra eye-candy along the way. “Sure. I’d love to.”

Then, “SANDY!”

The sharp and angry shout of a female voice sounded clear even over the chattering children, and both Archer and I turned back towards the southeast corner of the munitions hanger. The source was a golden-brown mare with a steel-grey mane and tail, trotting hurriedly over to us with nothing but a furious glare directed to one of the children in particular. The child in question, a brown-orange filly with a light grey mane and tail, came slinking out of the crowd, hunkered low to the ground with ears pinned back as the livid mare approached. “M-mom…”

“Why aren’t you in class, Sandy?!” the mare demanded, snapping up a hoof to jab at me as she added, “And what in the hell are you doing in the presence of these outsiders?! Explain yourself!”

“W-we’re on recess… a-and Archer met us with t-the outsiders. A-and… and…” My eyes widened as the young filly spoke, and I felt a surging anger of my own as I saw that she was literally shaking under her mother’s crushing glare.

“Ma’am, I assure you on behalf of the leadership that there’s been no trouble with these outsiders ever since their arrival.” Archer then interjected, calmly approaching the fuming parent. “When the children came out for recess, I met them for a game of hide and seek, and we then met the outsiders as they left from meeting with Olli. All we did was play a game, and then the outsider and I raced each other for the amusement of the young ones. That was all.”

But then the mare turned on Archer, directing her full fury to him instead of her daughter. “I don’t give a damn what happened! I will not have my child anywhere near these outsiders as long as Mother Shimmer in her ‘wisdom’ keeps them here! And honestly, I don’t trust you around her either! You’re not one of us no matter what you do for us!” Archer made no response to that, only standing calm and taking the blow as the hot-headed mare continued, “Tell Mother Shimmer that these outsiders need to stay away from our foals and the school, period. And furthermore, tell her that they should be staying away from our music halls. They’re not safe around these wastelanders.”

Goddesses, lady!

“I’ll be sure to direct your concerns to my superiors, ma’am.” Archer politely responded, bowing his head.

“Well, direct this to your superiors as well.” she replied, trotting over to the cowering Sandy and roughly nudging her away from the group of children. “One of these days, at least one of these newcomers is going to show his or her true self, and Buckley’s going to pay the price if something isn’t done about them. Mark my words, Archer.” The angry mother spoke his name with venom.

“Consider them marked, ma’am.” the pegasus assured with a nod. “I’ll let you be on your way. I have to get these kids back to class.”

With a snort, the mare nudged Sandy ahead of her as the two begun to trot away. But briefly, she turned back around once again, this time staring right back at me. “And as for you, outsider, you and that little waster colt of yours better stay away from my daughter.” she darkly warned. “And better yet, you should leave Buckley entirely, and you should take all of your friends and your troubles with you. Leave us out of your wasteland, because we don’t need it here.” There were so many things I could’ve spoken then, anything from ‘I’m sorry’, to ‘fuck off’, to anything in between. But I followed Archer’s example and remained silent, Blake too, as the mare and her child disappeared around the corner of the munitions hanger.

Her fiery outburst left all of the children with us in silence, only hesitant whispers eventually being passed about as Archer trotted back up to me. “Hey, I’m sorry about all that.”

“No, Archer. It’s okay.” I replied with a shake of my head. “In a community as big as this… well, it’s not too surprising that some ponies out there still wouldn’t trust us, even if Mother Shimmer already has.”

“Yes, but I should’ve seen it coming.” he insisted. “I could’ve avoided putting you into a situation like what we just had there.”

“It’s not your fault, so don’t worry.” I assured with a thin smile.

“Well, do me a favor and keep in mind that many of the citizens here trust you and your friends now, and they’ll trust you all fully once you come with us on this upcoming trip to Marefax.” Archer explained, then turning and trotting back to the foals behind him. “So just don’t let this get to you too much alright?”

I nodded. “Don’t worry. And hey, I’ll get back to you on that training offer later today, too.”

He smiled. “Sounds good, Nova. I’ll see you around.”

Multiple farewells came from the children as Archer led them back to the schoolhouse, goodbyes that Blake and I willingly returned as we headed out to the opposite side of the air base. With the trading now complete, our game of hide and seek energizing and fun, and my race with Archer placing a tolerable ache in my wings, the two of us headed for the church. Throughout the entire time between now and our first splitting up, Raemor had not reappeared outside, and it had already been well over an hour since he had dismissed himself to the church to pray.

“Nova, what was that about?” Blake asked as we trotted into the median between the twin runways. “Did we do something wrong?”

Looking down, I saw him wearing a look of both puzzlement and hurt, a face that made me downcast in turn. Blake had been having fun for the first time on this base when we had been invited to join in that game of hide and seek, and it had served as a great step on his recovery from the dark emotional print that Buckley’s rain of death had left on him. But having that marred by the distrust of one mare, who as far as I could tell was as harsh as a mother as she was in her social life, was frustrating, circumstances be damned. “No, we didn’t do anything wrong, Blake.” I assured, flashing an encouraging smile.

“Then why did that pony yell and stuff?” he then asked. “Why did she take Sandy away?”

Sandy had been the first foal to personally introduce herself to Blake, and when he had been elected to seek later into our game, the brown-orange filly had volunteered to join him. “She didn’t want her around us.” I gently answered. “And that’s only because she hasn’t come to accept our being here yet.”

Blake snorted in disbelief. “Really? Even after all that you and the others did for them?”

“Well, you can’t just make somepony like you.” I responded with a toss of my mane. “Trust is always earned, and for some ponies to trust you, you have to work even harder than you already have. It depends on how protective or accepting they are.”

“That sounds stupid to me.” Blake huffed as we crossed onto the second runway, passing by the entrance bunker to the underground garden and water talisman. “Everypony in the Stable trusts each other.”

“Yes, but remember that we’re dealing with strangers, little brother.” I stated in reply. “Unlike Proudspire, who needed our help and openly accepted us, Buckley is a self-sufficient community that doesn’t need Challenger’s caravans to survive. That’s the main reason why we haven’t been fully accepted here yet.”

“Yeah… I just wish she didn’t yell at Sandy.”

“Well, me too.” I replied with a nod. “But that’s not something that I can explain.”

As we crossed over the second airstrip, we were coming up to Buckley’s church. The building that had previously been denied to me on our arrival here was only around half the size of the generator facility that neighbored it, albeit standing roughly a full story taller. Like before, the church was under guard, with two of Buckley’s soldiers flanking the closed double doors that led inside, as well as three additional guards patrolling around the perimeter. Because of its height, I found it interesting that the building itself lacked windows nearer the top, with clear rectangular windows only lining the lower half of the building at close intervals; the rest of the structure was, to put it simply, a giant concrete box. To the left, near the perimeter fence, was another one of Buckley’s howitzer teams, the mighty gun currently facing up and out to the north to guard the base from threats that attempted to attack from the northeast corner. And just beyond the church, I caught a glimpse of the edge of the settlement’s cemetery, the improvised wood and metal crosses and gravestones marking the final resting place of Buckley ponies come and gone.

“Welcome to the church, outsiders.” one of the patrolling guards called from up ahead. A heavily armored unicorn buck had stopped on his route by the front entrance as we approached, clipping his light machinegun to his armor as he added, “Mother Shimmer gave the green light, so you and your little one are free to enter. Your friend who came by earlier hasn’t left yet, so he’s inside if you’re looking for him.”

“Yes I am. Thank you.” I replied with a polite smile.

“Sure. Just keep in mind that like the concert hall and the club building, the church is our most treasured site on base.” the guardspony warned, stepping aside to let us to the entrance. “We won’t confiscate your weapons, but mind your behavior in there.”

“You have my word that I intend no harm to a place like this. I’m actually a little curious about your church myself.” I responded as Blake and I trotted on by.

“It’s the most peaceful sanctuary you’ll find, outsider.” the guard explained, and I craned my head around to see the buck as he smiled a thin yet reminiscent smile. “And that’s because Celestia and Luna are with you in there, and are with you always. Enjoy.”

“Thank you.” I replied, bowing my head before facing front. With horns alight in magic, the two unicorn guards flanking the double doors pulled down the handles and pushed the doors inward, motioning for Blake and I to enter. And when we did, I was at a loss for words at the sight I beheld.

In an enclosure of smooth and undamaged grey stone rested Buckley’s holy sanctuary. Between two rows of spaced ornamental stone pillars and calmly burning oil lamps on polished wood tables was a carpeted aisle, a single thin mat of patterned red, orange, gold, blue, black, and silver that rolled through the very center of the church to the opposite end of the building. To either side of the aisle, raised stone platforms set in seven horizontal rows made improvised benches for worshippers to sit, roughly a third of these seats currently occupied by residents and off-duty guardsponies. This seating arrangement stretched only halfway along the floor, leaving a wide open area that made the back half of the church. Like the aisle, the back of the church was carpeted, the aisle mat bridging the entrance to a large square carpet of the same color array and design that connected to the far side of the church, where two large statues of shining bronze stood facing the entrance. They were replicated sculptures of Celestia and Luna themselves, Celestia to the right and the smaller Luna to the left, both bathed in yellow-orange candlelight as they stood poised and dignified, mighty wings outstretched as they stared forward with calm faces and unblinking yet powerful eyes. Above both of the statues were their respective cutie marks, the sun and the moon carved into the stone itself, and set evenly between them, perfectly preserved, was an Old World Equestrian national flag - Celestia’s sun set against a pure red background. Under the flag, set on the floor between the bronze statues, was a fountain of stone, flowing with clean and untainted water that sparkled in the firelight. And directly before the statues, set on wooden tables draped with clean white cloth, were two stone carvings of the Goddesses’ cutie marks, making small alters for worship and prayer.

All around the church, oil lamps and candles cast gentle flames across the entirety of the building. Even a chandelier of untarnished silver hung low from the flat ceiling, positioned over the very center of the church with each of its eight ends carrying a burning candle. But most stunning of all was not what the church was made of, but was instead the ponies within. At the far right corner of the building, an array of pedestals arranged into four separate levels (lowest at the front and highest at the back) held a total collection of around forty or fifty mares and stallions standing side by side. Earth ponies took up the front row, the shortest of the four, while unicorns stood on the other three levels, and all of them were singing together from their individual copies of black leather songbooks, their voices combined into one to create the purest and most divine sound I had ever heard... music truly suited for the Goddesses themselves.

With my ears filled with the soft and flowing melody of the church choir, I stepped hoof onto the carpet, silky to the touch, before the doors gently closed behind me. Slowly, Blake and I walked down the aisle towards the twin alters, and still there was more to see. To my left, directly opposite of the choir, five unicorn mares in glimmering silk dresses of gold and white lay on their bellies side by side, lounging atop blankets draped on a tall, rectangular stone platform. All of them lay relaxed with their eyes closed as they faced the choir, but their horns were alight with magic, occasionally flickering as they sustained whatever spell they were casting together. Though it took me a moment, I found that at various spots in the church, particularly by the windows, bright beautiful rays of glittering light were shining out and striking the floor, almost representing rays of natural sunlight. Aside from the magical glow pouring in from the windows, I noticed other light sources that glowed without candle or oil. These small spheres of white radiance were scattered along the upper half of the walls, stopping just under a breathtaking sheet of flowing gold light that concealed the building’s natural concrete ceiling. More of these star-like spheres were hovering opposite of the pillars flanking the aisle, and others still illuminated the choir itself; this was truly a holy place if I ever did see one.

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Tearing myself away from my stupor, I looked back down the aisle, finding a single unicorn mare garbed in a long brown robe as she cast a calm and easy smile at me; she had a yellow coat with a green mane and tail, her head and tail the only parts of her not concealed by her clothing.

“The church.” she clarified, turning and walking over to me. “It’s truly a place of peace and beauty is it not?”

I nodded back to the mare. “Yes, it really is beautiful.” I answered sincerely. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

The mare looked pleased with my answer. “If you think this is something, you should visit again in the night. I’ve been a priestess of the church for three years now, and still it takes my breath away. The Light Weavers truly create spectacles to behold.”

“Is that who those ponies there are?” Blake asked curiously, pointing a hoof at the five seemingly napping unicorn mares to the left.

“Indeed, child.” the priestess replied. “Their unique talent is to create art with magical light and illusions. While to some that may seem mediocre and useless, to all of Buckley, it is a thing of great beauty, and one of the many forms of art, just like the music sheltered here.”

I shook my head as I bathed in my own personal amazement. “I would’ve never believed that this place existed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

“Ah,” the priestess responded in realization. “you’re among the outsiders who have come to us recently.” Smiling, she added, “Blessings of Celestia and Luna upon you both. I’m Fiona, and I welcome you to our holy sanctuary.”

I bowed my head low in respect to the priestess. “It’s an honor to be allowed to see your church. It really is quite something.”

“Thank you. But truthfully, everypony in Buckley, outsider or no, should not be restricted from worship should they wish to do so. This is where we all come when we need guidance in our lives from the Goddesses, rulers of the Old World Equestria.” Fiona explained, a calm sort of pride lining her voice. “They may not exist in flesh today as they once did so many years ago, but they are still with us in spirit, and always will be until we finally meet them in the everafter.” With a light chuckle, the priestess turned around back towards the alters. “But my guess is that you are here for your friend.” she added, nodding to the bronze statues. “He’s still here, praying to Celestia’s alter. He must have really wished for council to have been there for as long as he has already.”

When I looked, I recognized Raemor where he sat on his haunches before the sun sculpture in front of Celestia’s statue. Except now, all of his armor and weapons had been removed, and his toned copper-colored back, with its rather startling amount of visible scars, was facing us as the old unicorn continued to pray. “I was coming to check up on him, just to see how he was doing.” I replied to Fiona, the priestess giving a nod in turn.

“Then I’ll leave you to your affairs.” she replied. “Please feel free to pray at the alters, listen to the choir, adore the lights, or do all of them at once. If you need anything, just let me know.”

With a smile, the priestess trotted off to the left where another one of the church’s visitors had waved her over, and turning to the alters, I walked down the rest of the aisle and crossed into the spacious portion of the church. Raemor was sitting with his head bowed down, eyes closed as his lips moved in words I couldn’t hear. As Blake joined me, I held a hoof out for him to wait, and I kept a respectable distance between myself and my elderly friend as he continued to speak. However, it was only a short time later that he finished, falling into complete stillness for a moment as he let his prayer settle in. Then, with a slight nod, his horn flickered to life with green light, and I saw as he telekinetically lifted a jeweled trinket before his closed eyes. The pendant had been previously hidden against his chest, and from my place nearby, I could see most of the details. It was a flat and circular medallion, black like obsidian with a trio of jewels set at the center in a horizontal line. The jewel on the far left was clear as glass, the middle jewel a bright green, with the gemstone on the far right a mild pink.

Slowly, Raemor brought the treasure to his lips, opening his eyes as he placed a gentle kiss on its surface. As I watched, he held the medallion there for a long moment, even closing his eyes again before he broke his embrace and let the medallion fall back against his scar-covered chest. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if he’d even notice me where I stood nearby, and when he looked back up to the bronze Celestia, I was about to call for him, despite how much I didn’t want to interrupt his meditation. But then, “Do you need something of me?”

The old unicorn swung his eyes around to look at me, startling me momentarily before I recomposed myself. “I’m sorry… I hope I’m not bothering you.” I explained. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. You’ve been in here for a long time.”

“In this place, this shrine of worship, we are in the presence of the Goddesses. You can feel their eyes looking down upon us in here, their voices providing council and guidance, their spirits - care and compassion.” Raemor replied, facing the alter once again. “I needed this, to be able to speak to them again. And since I don’t know when we will be leaving, I wanted to spend some time here before the chance was lost to me.”

As I listened, I trotted over to Raemor’s left side, likewise facing the alter before I gingerly sat down beside him, Blake sitting down next to me. For a moment, there was a comfortable silence between us as the atmosphere of the church settled in. The soothing and passionate voices of the choir, the flickering of the candles and the creations of the Light Weavers, the alters… as I sat there, my eyes were drawn once again to the bronze statues. “You know, when I was younger, I never really prayed to Celestia or Luna.” I said. “I knew about them because of what I learned in my classes back in the Stable, and I knew all about their time of rule both before and during the war. But unless I was in a boatload of trouble, or unless I was swearing… I hardly ever talked about them, let alone prayed to them or asked for their protection.”

“But you have, though.” came Raemor’s reply.

“Only when my parents died. And then back in Plainwell when the Talon Legion took it over and killed everypony.”

Raemor looked up at Celestia’s statue with me. “Celestia and Luna are not Goddesses of anger, jealousy, and vengeance. In spirit, they are still who they were so long ago before and during the war. And even though the conflict changed them, too, in the end they still cared very deeply for their nation and the ponies under its banner. It’s my belief that they still do to this day.”

“Many ponies out there in the wastes would say otherwise.” I replied with care.

“Indeed.” Raemor nodded. “Many suffer in one way or another in this new Equestria, a land filled with misery, and they have no room for faith as a result. Sometimes we come to ask how faith in the ghosts of pre-war leaders could bring about any benefit to our lives, any purpose or meaning. I think that keeping a tie between yourself and the Goddesses is an important way to provide you with something to find solace in, something outside of the mortal world to lean upon in times of strife, even if it’s a last option. That, and I think it helps to keep us anchored towards our goals.”

“What do you mean by that?” I inquired. “Like something to fight for?”

“Yes and no.” the copper stallion answered. “More than anything else, I think it provides strength, motivation, and courage without reaching a point of recklessness. It has its own value, so long as you are willing to believe in it and keep it close, even after the most trying of circumstances.”

I looked back up at the statues again as I let his words sink in, trading glances between Celestia and Luna. I could relate those words to my own experiences, and they were easily most compatible with the passing of my parents. After that fateful day, I hadn’t spoken more than three full sentences to Celestia or Luna while I focused on my own objectives. Like Raemor had said, there was really no time to think of it with all that my time on the surface had thrown at me, and in truth, I had not made prayer and faith in Old World faces a priority of any kind; nor was it even something that I really wanted or felt that I needed. But still, Raemor’s opinion on faith in the Goddesses was something to think upon. Two weeks and two days into my total time on the surface world, and I knew that I’d need every asset I could find to keep me going in the right direction, both in regard to my objectives and in the preservation of my virtues… whatever they were.

But this brought along with it another question. “Have you ever lost the faith you carry now?”

“Many times.” he answered. “And I only recently returned to my former faith in the Goddesses of old. This time though, I may have done so a bit too late for my own good, especially since the years are starting to catch up to me.”

“But all you’ve got is a graying mane.” I teased with a small smile.

“Hm. I’m afraid it’s a bit more complicated than that, Nova.” came his amused reply. Then he looked back at me again. “But I suppose that what I’m trying to say is that if I were to give you any advice of my own, it would be to keep the Goddesses as close to you as possible. I know that it sounds… well, to say it simply, I may be full of shit… but as I’ve sat here in this refuge, I’ve come to understand again what the words I’ve spoken to you meant to me long ago.”

“I don’t think you’re full of nonsense. Honestly, I think that this is something to consider looking into myself, something to spend some time getting in touch with.” I replied, smiling encouragingly. “With the way I carry on about virtue and doing the right thing sometimes, what’s there to lose?”

“Well, you don’t carry on about virtue. You and your friends, you all live by it. There is a difference.” Raemor remarked with a chuckle. “But in regards to what you said, I think it a good idea on your part to touch base with the Goddesses. With life in the wasteland as it is, we all go through periods of darkness. In such times, the Goddesses are ponies we can turn to and confide in, just like the friends we stand with here and now.” Yeah, I liked the way that sounded. But as I nodded my agreement, the old stallion faced the alter once more, saying, “Close your eyes, both of you, and relax. I’ll speak a prayer for us while we’re here together.”

“Oh… okay.” Though momentarily caught off-guard, Blake looking equally so, I gave a nod and let my eyes fall shut as I rolled my shoulders, easing into a state of calm as I faced the statues.

Then, I felt Raemor’s hoof on my back, and after a deep breath, he spoke, “Blessed Goddesses, full of grace, watch over our fellowship and guide our steps. Give each of us strength on the roads we walk and let us never forget of you as you stand beside us. In your names, we pray that your wings spread over Hopeville and keep it safe, to let it grow and prosper both by the efforts of the Stable Dwellers who have been forced to rebuild and by your own blessings. And as you have always done in the past and present, grant us your compassion so that we know that no matter what comes to pass, your light is always shining in whatever darkness threatens to cross our path. In your name, Celestia, the sun, and Luna, the moon, we pray.”

Silence followed Raemor’s prayer, and as his hoof lifted off of my back, a little shiver passed through me as I opened my eyes. In the wake of his words, I felt… I felt at peace, calm yet empowered. It was akin to how I felt when I imagined my parents at my side; I just… felt good. “Wow. Now I know what you mean when you talked about feeling their presence in this church.” I remarked, looking between Raemor and Blake, seeing my little brother smiling in approval with me.

“For me, praying is meditation, and it is a source of great comfort for mind and body alike.” Raemor explained. “Many times throughout my years, it has helped me pass through another day in the wasteland. And today, it has helped me considerably.”

As I listened to my old friend, I picked up a shift of tone in his voice. Whether or not he had intended for me to discover it, the somber quality of tone that his last few words adopted, nearly hidden in his speech, was easily identifiable to me. “How did it help you today?” I asked gently. “What did you pray for?”

The old buck hummed, glancing side-long back at me before facing the alter. “Would you believe me if I told you that I was dying?”

Well, that took a turn for the dark in a hurry. “What do you mean by that?” I asked back concernedly, half-startled that something like that would even come from Raemor’s mouth. “You still fight, you’re not crippled… I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

He slowly nodded. “Yes. Though I’m old, I’m not yet physically broken to the point of uselessness. But as I’m sure you know, there is more than one way that a pony can grow weaker. For some, it is bearing witness to and being part of many battles. And for others, it’s remembering things.”

“Are you talking about Hoofington?”

“Hoofington and the time after.” Raemor explained, then letting out a sigh. “Of my birthplace, I hold very few pleasant memories. When I left for good, it was a place I vowed to never see again.”

“You’ve kind of skirted along the subject of that place before, and I’ve heard before about what it’s like today… but what was it really like, you know, when you were there?” I asked.

There was a long moment of silence as the buck continued to stare at the alter, sifting through his thoughts. Then, “Hoofington was a dark place, seemingly cursed at times. From a distance, it appears as an array of towers, black as night, that rise up into the clouds… the cloud cover keeps the region dark at all times. The center of the city, The Core, glows a never-fading green, and nopony I know has ever entered it, as a network of pre-war defenses kills anypony who might get too close.” As I listened, I remembered Hallion talking about that part of the city once. But hearing it from Raemor, who had actually grown up there, made it sound much more genuine. “And as if that wasn’t enough, the city has it’s own unique danger, something that, as I came to learn, is called enervation. It kills anypony who comes in contact with it, but it cannot be seen or heard. It plagues the downtown area and the suburbs in pockets, keeps many from exploring too far into its depths. I was born and raised in the outskirts of the downtown ring, in a small settlement that my tribe established and called Dawngate. It was nestled no more than half a mile from the barrier that triggered the city defenses.”

“So you were part of a tribe?”

“That’s right.” Raemor nodded. “It was a tribe of worshippers to Celestia and Luna, and both my mother and father were very devout outside of the battlefield, often praying to the Goddesses for safety, luck, and prosperity as everypony in the tribe did. But at the same time, our tribe was also adept in both firearm and melee combat, and we had cleaved our way through a number of lesser tribes in our everlasting hunt for resources. We were called the Dawn Warriors, and were one of dozens of tribes and gangs in the city. Closest to us, there was the Strikers, the Tunnel Clan, The Pack, and the Black Blood Gang. Beyond them were other powerful factions like the Highlanders and the Serpent Tribe-”

“Wait a second…” I interrupted with a start. “Did you say Black Blood?… As in…”

“Yes, as in the very same group that is at war with this region.” Raemor elaborated. “The Black Blood Raiders, before they expanded, were once just a simple tribe that originated from Hoofington. During my foalhood and my years growing up, they were one of Dawngate’s most prominent enemy factions, known for their black and red armor and their savagery in combat, just as they are now. They were the destroyers of tribes, well-armed and thick in numbers. We had encountered and battled with them on many occasions, just like all of our neighbors… and it was this constant warfare that I grew up with… But it was also that tribal warfare that wore us down over the years.”

“I think I know where this is going…” I remarked forlornly

“Then I don’t need to explain it to you.” came Raemor’s bitter reply. “My parents sent me out of Dawngate when our tribe was near collapse. It only took one more merciless attack from The Pack to wipe out the tribe and our home completely, and my parents along with them. I was a young stallion then, and I had to live out on my own for another year afterwards before I found or bought better weapons, ample munitions and food supplies. Then I left the city behind for good.” The old buck sighed again. “I don’t like talking about that place. There’s too much there that I wish not to remember.”

I frowned, a prick of guilt tugging at me. “I’m sorry, Raemor. I thought being here with you would present a good time for me to know more about you… but I shouldn’t have pried.”

“Well, we may not be the best of friends,” he replied, swinging his gaze back to me. “but we have traveled together for a length of time. And besides, you know loss as I do, and so we have something strong in common, even if it’s not the best of similarities.”

“Yeah…”

Again, the atmosphere of the church took over as I instinctively reached for my brother and pulled him close, feeling him as he nuzzled up against my chest. “But after that, things got better right?” Blake suddenly asked, looking at Raemor from his place against me.

A faint smile formed on Raemor’s face. “Yes, things did get better.” he replied. “I worked as a gun for hire when I first entered the heartland region, escorting and protecting caravans and travelers on the way to their destinations. Between the heartland cities and the Trottingham region, I had carried out many successful jobs and failed none of them. That was Hoofington’s one true gift to me - combat skill.”

“How long did you work as a mercenary?” I inquired.

“For many years.” Raemor replied. “The job kept me sustained and paid, because the price in return for my protection was simply enough food to make my next meal or enough ammo to provide my weapon with another clip. Once I was settled into the routine, I more or less had a life that I could call decently peaceful.” He paused here, long enough that I saw his smile grow - it was both reminiscent yet genuinely happy. “And then, after so many years, I found Harmony.”

“You’re home outside Hoofington?” I asked, smiling with him.

“Yes. A small town in the ruins of the south Manehattan suburbs, built from the ground up like Challenger. For me, it was truly a blessed place.”

“Tell me about it.” I encouraged.

Raemor happily hummed as he adjusted himself on the carpet. “Well, it was a very simple place. It was a settlement built on the backs and efforts of some of the most perceptive foragers, ponies who always knew where to find the best items, be it food and water, weapons and ammo, building materials… Harmony was built on flat terrain, a wide patch of land that was miraculously gifted with tall, dry grass that stood about as high as my chest. Past the grass and through the gate at the south end were two rows of two-story metal houses, twelve each, that ran parallel from south to north. There was a wide dirt lane that divided them, leading straight to the market at the north end where all kinds of heartland merchants and scavengers made stops to trade and sell. The entire village had no more than… fifty or sixty ponies living in it at any one time, and it was enclosed with a simple chain-link fence. There were multiple latch gates built into it so citizens could go outside anytime they chose to do so.” The old buck continued to beam, the noticeable tide of good memories coming back to him making his growing smile contagious. “Harmony was graced with a constant breeze, gentle and cool to the touch, caressing the grass and always refreshing. And the day and night were spaced with rain showers. The children would always admire the lightning and cheer at the thunder, then play in the puddles in the morning, splash some of the merchants walking by.” Both of us shared a laugh at that. “It was the perfect place to settle down, and they took me in as an extra guard to patrol the perimeter or escort the merchants when they came into sight. There were hardly any threats to it either, only the occasional manticore, bloodwing, or small raider group passing close enough to the town to engage. All in all, it was a rather quiet settlement, a place of peace, a chance for ponies to live longer, happier, grow older.

“That’s a good home.” I complimented.

“It truly was.” Raemor agreed heartily. “And it was such for one reason over all the others. Harmony was where I met my wife.”

From the back of the church, the doors suddenly burst open, a loud jolt of sound that brought our pleasant talk to a screaming halt. When I looked, I saw a single guardspony standing at the entrance, looking quickly from side to side as he fought to regain his breath, his chest heaving as though he had just sprinted a great distance… if all the way across Buckley, then he had.

But then he spotted the three of us, jabbing a hoof at us as he called, “Outsiders. Archer needs you at the main gate. He says it’s urgent.”

Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 2)

At Raemor’s suggestion, as well as his promise to carry Blake with him to the gate after retrieving his own gear, I left the church and immediately took to the air, winging away to the south end of the base. Outside, it was still as quiet as it had been before, and thankfully, there were no signs of mobilization from Buckley’s own forces along the runways or by any of the buildings. However, as the front gate itself came into view, I saw that a small group of guards had already assembled by it.

And as I descended, the gate was coming open.

Standing at the front of a half dozen guardsponies, Archer stared out along the concrete road joining the base to the highway to the west, periodically looking back over his shoulder towards the base interior. As I angled in towards him, he spotted me from his place on the ground only to point with a hoof to the south, instead drawing my attention to the crater-filled fields in that direction. Even without looking, I knew who I’d find out there, but when my eyes fell upon the area and my pace in the air slowed, that hunch didn’t keep me from becoming immediately apprehensive. Four ponies were on approach from the road, already near the gate but moving slowly… only three of them were walking, the fourth member being bodily carried atop the largest of the group.

With a beat of my wings I picked up speed and lowered my altitude as I passed the base perimeter, quickly closing the distance between myself and the group… and confirming that it was indeed my four friends. They were close together as they walked, Shore in the lead with Gunny’s riot shotgun and LMG strapped to his own security armor. The bigger unicorn to which the weapons belonged was walking behind him, carrying a motionless Blossom on his back, and Grace walked beside Gunny on his left side, the first to spot me as I came in for a landing in front of them.

“Nova! Come down here!” her voice echoed up to me as she gave a quick wave.

“Grace! Guys, what happened??” I called back, lowering myself back down to the surface and quickly landing to trot the rest of the way to the group as they came to a stop, Grace then immediately closing her distance to me and pulling me into a hug that I heartily returned. But now, as I was standing right next to my friends, I saw with a start that Blossom was still very much awake, hitching with suppressed sobs as fresh tears trailed down her cheeks. Her dirtied face was streaked with those tears, her mane lightly matted with sweat, her back near her flanks dressed with red-stained healing bandages, and her eyes bloodshot when she occasionally tried to open them; she looked like an absolute emotional train wreck. “What happened out there?” I asked again, Grace releasing me as we locked eyes.

My friend only shook her head though, then looking at Gunny who took a step forward, an alarming limp in his left hind leg. “We need to get back to the clinic.” the armored unicorn replied. “I’ll tell you what happened on the way.”

“Sure… okay…”

Without further hesitation, I fell in by Gunny’s right side, and we began back to the gate. Up ahead, fortunately, the guards were clearing a way for us to proceed without trouble, even Archer stepping back and out of our path as he called a quick order to the others. “Clear the gate. There’s nothing else coming.” At the steel blue pegasus’ command, the guards turned about and trotted off back into the base one by one, only Archer himself remaining along with the tower ponies. “Hey, are you all alright?” he called.

“Please, if Doctor Preston would allow them, I’d like for Gunny and Blossom to rest in the clinic for a while.” Grace answered him. “They’re injured and need rest.”

“Could you go and find him and ask if they can?” I asked the pegasus, to which he gave a nod.

“Yeah. I’m sure he won’t have a problem with that. I’ll be back in a second.”

In a flash, Archer was in the air and zipping back into the base as we passed by the watchtowers, and with a familiar rattle, the gate rolled closed behind us. “Now, can you please tell me what happened out there?” I asked gently.

Gunny was the first to respond, sighing. “When we started, we merged onto the highway in the shortest time we could.” he explained. “At first, there was nothing out there but the occasional wrecked passenger carriage or cargo wagon coming from Marefax. But as we continued ahead, we began finding evidence of skirmishes along the road - empty bullet casings, broken weapons, bodies. We’d been out there for a fair amount of time before we found another one of the southeast’s intact farmhouses.”

“Shamrock Farmstead.” Grace explained from her place by Gunny’s left side. “It was standing, but already looked near collapse when we got there.”

“When we found the place, it looked empty.” Gunny continued, Blossom giving a whimper from her place on his back. “Grace’s pipbuck didn’t register any threats or even friendly contacts. But when we investigated it, we found Blossom’s friend. She’d been chained to a wall, rigged to a trap…” My friend sighed heavily then, my ears pinning back at the pain in his voice. “I… I disarmed the first trap trigger… I thought I’d saved her. After the trap went down, we went to work to free her… and then those Talon fuckheads attacked.” My friend shook his head. “They had Jenny rigged to die from the start. They made a trap with two different triggers, and I only found one. The other was in a different part of the house… and I didn’t see it until it was too late. They sprung the trap…”

Oh no… “Goddesses…”

“It was a fucking nail gun, Nova.” Gunny growled, a slight shake in his words as Blossom hitched with another sob. “What kind of monster would use a nail gun out of all things?”

“Blackhawk would.” came Blossom’s rough reply, the mare clearing her throat best she could.

“Blackhawk?” I softly questioned. “Who’s that?”

“We were ambushed at that farmhouse by a Talon Legion squad, only six soldiers. And a griffin led the attack.” Shore explained, falling in by my right side as he added, “That griffin was the very same one you fought in Hopeville when the Talons knocked on our door.”

I cocked an eyebrow in bafflement. “The same griffin? The… wait… you mean…” My mind swiftly fell upon the memory of that fight in Hopeville, and I remembered it down to the smallest details, causing my words to fall away as realization hit me like a sack of bricks. The griffin at Hopeville - he’d been the commander of the invading force that had attacked us on that day. And when we had engaged each other in our aerial dogfight, he had been fast, agile, and durable, an opponent that I hadn’t been able to beat outright. Now that I looked back, I remembered that I had hardly scored a mark on him, and he had barely tired at all in the air. He was very tough, and in the end, our fight had been a draw. But throughout the fight itself, he had spoken to me about how he’d been looking for me, searching after my engagement at the town of Plainwell. “You’ve got my attention, Nova, and make no mistake, I will be back for you.”That’s what he had said to me, the last words he had spoken when we had first faced off. But hearing now that he had engaged my friends out on that highway… sprung a trap on them and murdered Blossom’s best friend in cold blood… that put me on edge. “He had the scar across his eye, and he had the white revolver… everything?” I asked in shock. “I mean, what are the chances that he’d see us again out in this wide open region??”

“It was him, Nova.” Gunny answered with a grunt, his left hind leg staggering him as he kept his weight off of the injured limb. “He kicked my ass today… could’ve executed me out there. He disarmed me of all my weapons, he was quicker and more agile than I was… he wanted me to come back in this condition. That’s why he let me live, so I’d come back like this. Grace patched me up just fine, but my leg and side are plenty sore when I move the wrong way.”

“Goddesses… He was… he was looking for me, wasn’t he?” I asked, nervousness meshing with rising anger as Gunny gave a bitter nod. “Damn it!” I stopped to stomp my right forehoof into the ground hard as I could, glaring hotly with clenched teeth at the concrete under me as my friends halted just ahead. This griffin had attacked me first back home, and though he had clearly shown the hatred he had held towards me, he had never spoken as to why he was looking for me, other than that it had to do something with my presence in Plainwell during his mission to occupy the settlement. First he had attacked my home, ordered the strike that killed twenty of Stable 181’s survivors, including the father of one of the foals that I cared for. And now he had attacked my best friends out in the open upon their arrival to this farmstead on the highway, and he’d nearly killed Gunny out there; this griffin’s eyes were fixed on me, and more and more, he was making things personal. “I should’ve been there with you…” I seethed, then sighing as I fought to keep my anger from further escalating to a boil. “I could’ve fought him instead. I should have.”

“You couldn’t have known that he would’ve been there.” Grace spoke comfortingly. “None of us could have known.”

“But even then,” I protested, glare softening as my voice lowered. “I could’ve kept him distracted, kept him from pulling that trigger…”

“They had concealed themselves inside that farmhouse, hidden themselves away in the farthest rooms and boarded up all the windows.” Shore put in.

“But my pipbuck-”

“My pipbuck malfunctioned.” Grace interrupted me, raising her computer for me to see. “The compass is working just as it should now, just like everything else. But when we got there, Eyes-Forward Sparkle hadn’t registered anything, and before then, my screen was nothing but static… I have a feeling yours would’ve done the same.”

“But how?” I asked, perplexed.

“We don’t know. My guess is that the Talons must’ve used some sort of jammer or scrambler, a magic interference device of some kind.” Gunny answered. “Though I’ve never even seen a device that could tamper with a pipbuck, let alone heard of one, it’s the only logical explanation as to how they fooled us into thinking that they weren’t there. E.F.S. picks up all hostile and friendly targets, and pipbucks hardly ever act up.”

“Well… I could’ve done something!” I snapped back, my mind swimming through the possible outcomes that would’ve resulted from my own guns lending a hoof to the mission… if I had made better decisions over the past few days… if I’d been smarter, more persistent.

“It’s not your fault, Nova.” Blossom suddenly voiced, her soft and pain-streaked words halting my train of thought, making me ease back my temper; for her sake, especially after her latest and most terrible loss, I needed to be composed. “Blackhawk rigged the trap to two triggers, and Gunny disarmed the only one he saw… it was just bad luck…” I looked over to see the violet mare, our newest companion adjusting herself on Gunny’s back to stare back at me. “Your group’s taken me in and willingly helped me… and even though Jenny’s gone, I can still thank you all for everything you’ve done for me.” Slowly, her eyes narrowed at me, her tone rising in strength as she added, “None of you killed Jenny… Blackhawk did, him and his Talon soldiers… and I promise you now that the Legion will pay for what they’ve done.”

“We’ll see to that together.” Gunny put in as he continued forward, Shore and Grace following after him as Blossom slumped on his back and let out a tired sigh. “Right now, you need to lay down and rest for a while.”

Trotting to catch up, I drew back up alongside the group as we continued towards the Buckley hangers. But just ahead, Archer was already flying back to us, angling in low and closing the distance before he back-winged, halting his momentum to land just off to our right. “Preston says you’re free to use the clinic.” he explained to Grace. “There’s still some free beds available.”

“We won’t be there long.” Gunny spoke up. “I’ve just got to get off my hooves for a bit. My side’s killing me.”

“Don’t worry about how long you’re there.” Archer replied with a shake of his head. “When you’re feeling better, then you can leave.”

“I was supposed to say that.” Grace remarked with a half-smile, to which Archer politely bowed his head. “I’ll go ahead and take them to the clinic, make sure they get comfortable.” she added, turning to look back at me. “Because as I understand it, that meeting you want to go to is coming up soon, Nova. Am I right?”

“I actually don’t know.” I replied, glancing over at Archer. “Is it?”

“In a few minutes, actually. Fifteen, tops. Mother Shimmer just gave the call for the leadership to start making their way to the ATC tower.” the steel-blue pegasus answered. “But truthfully, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. If you want to stay with your friends, then do so.”

“Well, I don’t know. I mean… I should-”

“You should go.” Gunny interrupted, startling me out my conflicting thoughts; he was smiling faintly when I met his eyes.

“But you and Blossom are hurt…” I protested.

“This is something that you wanted to do.” the big unicorn replied, eyes flicking to where Blossom lay atop him… she looked to be sleeping now. “Don’t let us get in the way. When we get to the clinic, I’ll look after Blossom… Even though I’ll be resting there for my own recovery, I need to be with her either way. I owe it to her… and I have to ask her forgiveness.”

Beside him, I saw as Gracie’s ears pinned back at his words. “But… Gunny, Blossom…”

But the big unicorn only faced forward and continued towards the hangers ahead, leaving us at his back. And when I looked to Grace for answers, she let out a light sigh. “He’s taken this pretty hard, too.” she explained, tone soft as she and Shore grouped up beside me. “He blames himself for what the Talons did.”

I shook my head in worry. “I know it just happened, but… I really hope he doesn’t glue himself to the guilt.”

“It’s something psychological that isn’t going to go away for some time.” Grace responded. “We just need to be there for him, and for Blossom too.”

“It’s really all that we can do.” Shore agreed.

Farther off to my right, I heard as Archer politely cleared his throat. “Pardon, but your other friend is coming.”

When I looked, I saw Raemor heading for us at a steady gallop, his combat armor, duster, and weaponry organized and reequipped. Blake was with him, clinging to his back by holding secure straps on Raemor’s armor as the older stallion ran. “Hey, Archer. I’m going to walk to the clinic with Gunny and Blossom and see that they’re settled in and comfortable.” I explained to the pegasus buck. “After that, I’ll meet you up in the tower.”

“Sure thing.” he replied, fanning out his feathered wings and giving me an understanding smile, a gesture that I, truly, very much appreciated. “And I’ll let Mother Shimmer know that you’ll be a little late. So please, take your time.”

“Thank you.”

“Certainly… and outsiders,” he added, looking over my other friends. “I’m sorry things didn’t go well for you out there. I really am.”

“Thanks for the sympathy.” Grace replied, giving a dip of her head that Shore and I copied. And with that, the pegasus sprang skyward, flying back up towards his sniper nest at the top of the ATC tower as my friends and I started moving again. And waving Raemor over to join us, we headed towards the hangers together to catch up with our guilt-ridden friend.

*** *** ***

Horn glowing alight with magic, Raemor turned the handle of the door in front of me and pushed it inside, stepping aside for me to enter first.

After helping Gunny and Blossom settle into Doctor Preston’s clinic, proceeded by a quick discussion, we had decided that Raemor and I would attend the meeting regarding Buckley’s mission to Marefax while Grace, Shore, and Blake would remain behind to keep the others company while they recovered. Once the meeting was over, it was agreed that I’d share Buckley’s plan with the entire group, whereupon we’d decide who would be leaving where the next day. “As long as Mother Shimmer will let us,” I spoke to Raemor as I entered the building. “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to secure a spare shack or a few beds in one of the residential sectors once the meeting’s over with.”

The older buck nodded as he stepped inside after me. While making our way there, we had been discussing the matter of lodging in Buckley for the night, before which he had outright expressed his interest in participating in Buckley’s mission to me. “After all you’ve been doing for her people today, I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” he assured. “Besides, you’re to be part of the mission. With the level of organization and the diligence of leadership I’ve seen here, they’ll be wanting everypony going along to be in top shape for the trip.”

“I know.” I replied, briefly stopping as the door closed behind us, craning my head around to look back at my friend. “Just so long as everypony can get a place to sleep in relative comfort tonight.”

He flashed a small yet heartening smile. “I think you’re worrying too much. Right now, just focus on giving your undivided attention to this meeting. As Gunny said, you’ll most certainly have your own part to play in its success. I’m sure of that, too.”

I gave a smile back, letting out a breath. “You’re right.” I replied. “Let’s find our way to the ATC tower.”

Facing forward, I found myself staring down a single long hallway, with a dozen worn yet intact wooden doors, six on each side, marking the entrances of individual rooms. As we started forward along its aged and cracked tile floor, I looked along each door to the left and right, all of them sporting a label plate that marked the function of the rooms they concealed. There were office centers closest to the entrance, logistics sectors after that, and computer rooms for base operations nearer the end of the first hall. Within half the rooms, I could hear muffled voices reaching out to us as we walked by, likely members of Buckley’s guard personnel as they went about their errands. Up ahead, the hall ended at a T-intersection, two mares dressed in light variants of Buckley’s Stable security armor rounding the corner and trotting casually towards us.

Stepping against the wall and out of their way, I exchanged a polite nod with the pair, the leftmost then saying, “You two must be the outsiders going to that meeting. We heard Mother Shimmer talking about it with Archer.” Nodding back behind her, she added, “Take a right turn at the end of this hall and follow it all the way to its end. It passes around all of the ATC building’s terminal chambers and the mainframe itself, but the stairway to the top of the tower is right there at the end of it.”

“Thank you.” Raemor replied as the two continued on their way.

“Sure thing.”

Joining me at my side, we followed the Buckley mare’s directions and hooked a right into the next hallway. This hall was marked by a series of turns, containing a number of their own entrances into the same rooms before it leveled out into a straightaway deeper into the building. This hall was likewise spaced with multiple doors on both sides, and members of the building’s personnel moved back and forth among them as they went about their errands. Past the straightaway, the monotony of the hallway was broken by a small antechamber that led to a different sector of the building. A steel blast door awaited at the far side of the side-room, closed and locked up tight. Above it, an electronic label sign read, Buckley AFB Defense Array Mainframe. Level 5 Authorization Required, and in the same side-chamber, a wooden door sealed another room, a similar label above it reading Base Commander’s Office.

Past the side-chamber, the hallway led into one final series of turns, home to several other offices and the occasional janitorial storage room before we finally came upon the entrance to the stairs, also marked with a label - Air Traffic Control Tower Access. Authorized Systems Personnel and Traffic Monitors Only. The staircase itself was a series of spiraling metal steps that hugged the large circular diameter of the tower walls, and the passage was wide enough for two ponies to ascend comfortably at any time. Even as Raemor and I made our way up, we could hear voices echoing down from above, and when we reached the top of the stairwell, we stepped out onto a small, level lobby chamber. Beyond the short distance to its far end was an open door, past which I could see a short but straight set of stairs that ascended to the top of the tower. Two guard stallions were standing nonchalantly on either side of the open entrance, assault rifles holstered as they conversed with an unarmed and unclothed unicorn mare with a brick red coat and a cerulean mane and tail.

“The director has planned this out.” the red mare explained to the guards, both of whom wore small yet approving smiles. “It’ll be worth it in the end. Besides, while I may not be a guard myself, my time going through basic training with some of our current guards a couple years back has given me the knowledge to safely say that you jarheads are looking to put your skills to the test.”

“Well you’ve got us there.” the guard on the right replied with a chuckle. “Still, whatever this is that the artisans are cooking up, I just hope that it won’t cost us any lives.”

“Believe me, the director doesn’t want it to either.” the mare replied. “But what we found in Marefax, it has to be saved. Buckley has to protect it just like everything else that we safeguard.”

“Hey, it’s the outsiders.” the left guard suddenly announced, spying us first as he stood straight.

“Hello. We’re here to join in this meeting.” I explained as the other two turned to us as well.

“Oh yeah, I remember.” the mare replied, trotting towards us with an easygoing smile. “I saw Mother Shimmer lead your group into the concert hall during my rehearsal earlier today.”

“Hey, you’re that mare that was playing the violin solo I heard!” I exclaimed, recognizing the mare now that I stood face to face with her; she had been at center stage when Shimmer had first shown us Buckley’s concert hall. “It’s hard to forget a sound like that… I mean… it’s an honor to meet you in person.”

“Oh, well, that was just an introduction melody, and a simple one at that, nothing too special.” the music mare replied with a little laugh, raising her right forehoof to me. “But I’m flattered that you thought so either way. I’m Saharra, Buckley’s concertmaster.”

I gladly bumped my own forehoof against her own. “I’m Nova.” I replied. “And I’m a major music enthusiast myself.”

“Is that right?” she asked, likewise bumping her hoof with Raemor’s and exchanging a quick yet cordial greeting.

“Back where I came from, we had an old radio and some recordings.” I explained with an energetic nod. “Largely, they were from Octavia and Sapphire Shores, but there were a couple that Sweetie Bell and even Vinyl Scratch had made as well. I always listened to them when I had the time to do so.”

“Those mares are the greatest sources of inspiration for our artists here. It’s refreshing to know that music lives on beyond our own walls, even if only in some small portion.” Saharra replied with approval. “Just out of curiosity, do you happen to play your own instrument or sing?”

“Well, we didn’t have instruments back in the Stable, and we still don’t now in Hopeville.” I answered. “But I’ve sang a few times, really only for my parents and for the foals I cared for. That, and my baby brother sometimes likes to be sung to sleep.”

“Aw, that’s cute.” Saharra remarked back, to which I lightly blushed. “You know, I’m glad that you’ve got your own interest in music. I know that you’re coming here per Mother Shimmer’s request, but musical passion is going to be much more valuable on this mission to Marefax than simply obliging a request for help.”

“If your musical culture is involved in the framework, I’m certain that admiration for the arts will be the prime source of motivation for the desire to complete this mission successfully.” Raemor spoke up in response, to which Saharra nodded.

“That’s exactly right, outsider.” she agreed with a smile, turning then to the entrance and motioning for the two of us to follow. “And speaking of the meeting, Mother Shimmer’s already up in the control center with the rest of the leadership, so she’s about ready to kick this off. I’ll take you both on up.”

“Lead on.” Raemor replied as I gave a nod.

“See you later, boys.” Saharra spoke to the guards, both then passing their own farewells before resuming their duties.

A quick walk up the short flight of steps later, and the three of us emerged into the very top of the ATC tower. A wide open chamber made the main floor of the control center, and spaced around the edges of the chamber was a whole array of inactive terminals that made the tower’s monitoring systems – radars, radio relay terminals, communications devices, and other various machines that I couldn’t make head or tails of. In open spaces between the old computers that provided window access, placed at opposing positions, were four unattended sniper rifles set on bipod attachments set atop the window sills, three of the weapons .308 models like my own, and the other one that I recognized to be a .50 caliber rifle - Archer’s rifle.

At the center of the room, a large metal table was built into the floor, and was currently home to a small number of documents and file folders; all around it was the assembled leadership of the community. Mother Shimmer was standing at the left side of the table, the far end and the presumed head seat of the gathering. She was currently speaking in low tones to Commander Tracer who stood by her left side, listening back to her with an attentive ear. Beside Buckley’s commander and facing us, I recognized Amber Dawn, presently silent and patient at her place while beside her, and Archer himself sat looking over a thick folded up document on the table in front of him. There were only two others present in the room, the first a hazy blue earth pony stallion with a brighter green mane and tail. He was strongly built and physically fit, garbed in medium-weight combat armor whose chest plate was adorned with four medals, two bronze and two silver, that marked a position of headship. The last member of the assembly wore no armor and carried no weaponry, just like Saharra, and was a skinnier albino unicorn stallion with a blond mane and tail, only wearing a pair of reading glasses at the bridge of his muzzle.

“Ah, Saharra.” the white unicorn spoke with a friendly smile. “We’re just about to begin, and I see that the outsiders have held to their word yet again.”

“I told you all that at least one of them would come, and now here we are with two of them.” Mother Shimmer’s aged voice replied, and I looked to see the ghoul smiling at me. “Welcome to our meeting, outsiders.” she said, approaching us as Saharra and the others made themselves comfortable at their places. “Archer told me about what happened to your friends out there.” she then added, smile fading. “I’m sorry that things turned out the way they did for your group, as I assure you that I was ready to harbor the pony you sought to rescue as well.”

“Thank you, Mother Shimmer.” I replied. “I’m grateful for that, but I’m just more grateful that my four friends who went out there came back, even if they didn’t bring back Blossom’s companion. It was the Talon Legion that took them by surprise, sprung a trap on them out on the highway.”

“Indeed.” Shimmer nodded understandingly as we stood face to face. “The Talons are just as ruthless as most any raider.”

“They’re just much more coordinated and skilled.” the new blue stallion voiced with a nod of his own.

“We’ve had multiple run-ins with them in the past.” Commander Tracer added from his seat at the table. “We understand what you’ve been through today.”

“It’s Blossom that’s taken the worst of it, not me.” I replied to him. “She’s had it very hard the past two days.”

“Well, you and your group have done a great deal for us already, and considering this, your latest ordeal, the least I can do is offer her and the rest of you safe haven while you all rest and recover.”

“I know she’d really appreciate it. I do, too.” I replied, to which the elderly ghoul mare’s smile returned.

“We can discuss the details after our meet.” she said, to which I nodded my agreement. “For now, it’s time to start planning our first move into the outside world. If you and your companion will take a seat anywhere around the table, we can begin.” At her instruction, I made my way over to the table with Raemor as Mother Shimmer returned to her own place. I took my own seat across from Archer, the pegasus buck giving a small smile and nod that I returned as I sat down on my haunches, and as Raemor joined me at my right side, I saw as Shimmer gave a nod and cleared her throat. “As everypony in this room is aware of, I’ve been expressing my thoughts regarding the outside world for some time now.” she began. “While we’ve grown and developed under seclusion and secured everything that we need to survive, I’ve become concerned as to how further isolation might affect the safety and stability of Buckley.”

“Many of the civilians have disagreed with Mother Shimmer’s unease because of Buckley’s defensive measures and offensive might.” Tracer spoke after, looking amongst each pony present individually. “And I know that we’ve all had our own doubts about going outside in the past. But more and more, the signs are becoming clearer from the reports that Archer brings in from his periodic ventures outside.”

“For the benefit of this meeting, sir,” the sturdy blue earth pony spoke. “perhaps you could lay the primary issues out on the table again, just to remind us.”

“There are two issues that have become the focus of our attention, the first a minor subject, and the second a much more immediate matter.” Tracer replied. “The first is a local issue, and is that of genetic diversity. Like I said, it’s minor and very simple in comparison with the other, but it’s still something that needs to be taken into consideration.”

“When Buckley’s first generation left Stable One ninety-two and the white noise experiment behind,” Amber Dawn took over. “there were roughly two hundred and fifty survivors in its aftermath. In the seventy years that we’ve lived here, we’ve risen to over triple that number. We’re still growing… but to put it simply, it’s not enough to last forever.”

“But there’s surely enough unique blood to last for some time yet, correct?” the white unicorn buck put in curiously.

“Yes.” Tracer nodded. “The only family bloodlines in Buckley are those that had originally been selected to enter the Stable. There was more than a fair number of them, of course, but the point still stands. It’s better to get this out and into everypony’s head now instead of twenty-five or fifty years later when it might become a much more serious problem.”

“And while this will be revisited later, it still serves as something to back Mother Shimmer’s opinion on the matter of seclusion.” Amber Dawn added to the white unicorn. “It’s important to keep in mind as the meeting progresses.”

“That brings me to the second topic before we go into the Marefax mission itself.” Tracer then continued. “As the leadership and much of Buckley’s guard detail knows, things beyond our walls have been growing increasingly disconcerting. A war’s going on out there in the southeast, and Archer’s reports have made it perfectly clear that it’s affecting the entire Equestrian southeast. We’ve seen those black and red armored raiders on the move through our scopes, and we’ve had our own skirmishes with them when they’ve tried to send raiding parties to the fences. But what’s worse is that the Talon Legion has returned from Hayward in force after they were beaten out of the region ten years back. Since we had kept them at bay on multiple occasions ourselves, there’s no doubt in my mind that they’ll be setting their sights on us again somewhere down the road.”

“Last time, they sent smaller companies and platoons against the southeastern settlements, scattering their forces across the region like jacks. This time, though, they’ve come to the southeast with an entire brigade that’s setting up shop north of the town of Ashton, and they’ve been sending even more troops farther southeast to the region’s mapped out border in that direction.” Archer firmly explained. “We’re talking about three to five thousand troops at a minimum, and that number is rising every day.”

Goddesses…

“Challenger only has around four thousand residents, and maybe only half of them are soldiers, as far as I know.” I remarked nervously, exchanging a look with Raemor; even he looked a little taken aback. Though their initial attention had been focused on the Black Blood’s presence near Ashton, Challenger would have clearly noticed the Talons marching onto its sister town by now, especially with such a large force. If Archer’s observations were truthful, and I had no doubt that they were, the situation in the southeast had taken a very serious and dangerous turn; it had become exactly like what Raemor had said to me the previous night near the radio station - a literal three-way war with all sides fighting against one another.

The pegasus nodded. “They’ve brought enough soldiers to easily combat the entire region, and the fact that Challenger’s own assembled forces and the new raiders fighting against them are just large enough to keep the Talon brigade focused on Ashton brings to light the very real threat that the Legion poses to us. They’ve got the forces needed to launch attacks on Buckley should they gain solid ground in Ashton, and remember, they don’t care that we’ve isolated ourselves from the rest of the southeast and its new conflict.”

“So what are our options in response to the return of the Legion?” the blue earth pony asked the group.

“We’ve knocked the Talons back time and time again when they first arrived at the region’s doorstep.” Commander Tracer answered the buck. “Largely, your artillery crews are the ones that kept them at bay, them and Lily. And when they breached the perimeter, our guardsponies followed their training by the book and drove them out. I have every iota of confidence that we can repel them again now just like we did ten years ago. However, should the Talons become too aggressive, or bring in a brigade like the one at Ashton, we’ll have needed to create a dialogue with the southeast well in advance.”

“Are you suggesting an alliance?” Saharra asked the commander, words doubtful and hesitant.

“No. Absolutely not.” Tracer immediately answered, shaking his head. “While there are a few of us that are beginning to warm up to the possibility of opening our gates to the outside world, an outright coalition with outsiders is still very much out of the question. It wouldn’t sit well at all with the rest of the community.”

“But Challenger is a very organized city.” I put in, the assembly turning to me in unison. Despite the bit of uneasiness I felt at the sudden attention, I kept going, adding, “It’s responsible for sustaining the smaller settlements that have sprung up around it through trade with regions of Equestria further north of here. If Buckley was to lend aid to the war in Ashton, Challenger would have a much greater chance of success in holding its ground.” Much to my discomfort, silence was all that followed my words as the stares of the Buckley leadership lingered on me. “I… I understand,” I added with a awkward smile. “that what I just said was sudden and rather straightforward, but it’s the truth. Buckley is very well-equipped, and you’re all prepared for a fight-”

“No, outsider.” Tracer interrupted, raising a hoof to silence me. “Letting your group in and giving you our trust was one thing, but an alliance with the outside world, one that would drag us bodily into a war that we want no part of, is quite another. It would draw away too much of our resources and personnel, leaving Buckley itself much more vulnerable. Plus, the last thing anypony wants is a riot, and that’s something that would likely spring up within our perimeter as a result of a sudden partnership.”

“But-”

Tracer, however, shook his head at me, stopping me once again. “We’re ready to take our first steps into the outside world after nearly seventy years of isolation. We are not ready to plunge headfirst into the affairs of the southeast. That would place Buckley in a very delicate situation.” he reiterated, silencing any further suggestion to the opposite. “However, there is a way that we can possibly make contact with the outside world without us having to dive headfirst into it, and that’s something that can come to fruition if the mission to Marefax is a success.” Turning then to me, Tracer added, “But before that, we’ve got one thing that we need from you two, outsiders.”

“Sure. What is it?” I asked.

“I’m glad that a couple of you decided to come, because it was Mother Shimmer’s hope that you could present to the meeting your perspective on the wasteland.” the commander explained. “You’re from the wastes, and not only that, you’ve been living in it and personally experiencing the southeast’s current state of affairs.”

“While I’ve begun to support going outside, I felt that it would be very beneficial to my youngers if they heard for themselves what an outsider had to say about the world.” Mother Shimmer added on. “If you could oblige us and describe to us your time in the southeast, about your home and what life is like, I feel it would give us all some new perspective, something to keep in our thoughts as we go over our expedition.”

“Well… I’ve only lived on the surface for just over two weeks now.” I began. “Really, there’s not too much I can say about the southeast. As far as I know, the Black Blood Raiders - the red and black armored ponies you’ve been seeing - are an entirely new threat to the region, never encountered before because of their Hoofington origins.” I paused long enough to pass a glance at Raemor, who nodded in confirmation of the authenticity of my information. “Of course, there’s the Talons right now, but they’ve only just come back after ten years in hiding. Other than that, there really aren’t too many threats that the region deals with. From various ponies I’ve met during my time on the surface, including a traveling weapons merchant and Challenger’s military general, the common problems that exist in the southeast are merely the presence of ghouls from Marefax, the occasional bandit crew hiding out by the roads or in one of the old farmhouses, and various wasteland wildlife that make nests in the barren fields. But even then, I’ve hardly encountered anything of the sort when I’ve been out and traveling, other than the Black Blood and the Talon Legion themselves.”

After what I had said, it was certainly surprising… yet very interesting to see how quickly open curiosity bloomed on the faces of the Buckley leadership; just by looking among each of Mother Shimmer’s subordinates, I could tell that I had given an answer that they did not expect. “The lesser number of natural dangers around the southeast has to do largely with the very sparse placement of pre-war structures and towns.” Raemor added. “For example, the Equestrian heartland is composed of three major Old World cities, at least three larger towns, spaced pre-war structures and installations, and other various landmarks. The southeast, however, was largely uninhabited meadowland and plots of farm country before and during the war, and because Marefax is a city, it houses the majority of the region’s dangers.”

“So there aren’t many structures or locations out there?” Amber Dawn asked the older unicorn.

“In my short time here, I’ve traveled across much more open field than I have through Old World ruins.” Raemor replied. “From what I’ve seen, there isn’t much that would draw the attention of other threats to the region.”

“Other threats?” Saharra inquired.

“Yes. I’ve lived in multiple regions of Equestria throughout my many years, and there are far fouler things in some of those areas than there are here.” Raemor answered the music mare. “But primarily I speak of other factions, one of the most prominent being the Steel Rangers. They are deep-rooted in the heartland and have often ventured to The Hoof, perhaps elsewhere as well. Technology harbored in metropolitan ruins, along with corporate facilities where the ministry mares and their organizations operated from during the war is what draws their attention, and they’re often more focused on saving that technology than the denizens of the wastes. From what I’ve seen of them in my past, they only seek to keep Old World technology out of the hooves of wastelanders, and if the technology is advanced enough, they’re more than willing to fight and kill for it.”

“There’s the Grand Pegasus Enclave, too.” Archer put in, a thin frown forming on his face.

“You know about the Enclave?” I asked him curiously.

The pegasus laughed a single mirthless note. “I know that you never see them unless you’re around something that they’re interested in or something that they’ve deemed a threat. On some of my trips out into the wastes, I’ve seen fighter wings and scout parties out by the big city ruins. That’s where some of their own cities are built, closer to Old World population centers that might carry the greatest potential to threaten their secluded existence. That way they can monitor those regions and identify any threat quickly, whereupon they’ll either ignore it or eradicate it at a moment’s notice.” Then looking over at Mother Shimmer, he said, “It’s kind of one of the reasons why I’m leaning towards exposing Buckley to the outside world, perhaps eventually interacting with the southeastern settlements. I’d hate to see it turn into another Enclave, only going outside when we find something threatening or something that we want to have.”

Another moment of silence took over the meeting, long enough that Commander Tracer exchanged a glance with the pegasus stallion near him. “Well, that brings up another question.” Tracer said though, quickly swinging his gaze back around to meet mine. “What exactly are the settlements in the southeast like?”

“And your home.” Mother Shimmer put in, a polite reminder to me that drew my focus away from Archer and back into the conversation.

“Like I said, Challenger is the settlement that tends to the supply needs of the smaller communities around it. My home, Hopeville, is one of the settlements that it sends supplies to, and there are… I think… three others that have also been established around it. In the absence of the raiders and Talons, Ashton would likewise be inhabited, making a total of five settlements outside Challenger’s walls.” I explained. “Challenger itself is a big place, and has its own devised system for trading with the northern regions of Equestria, bringing supplies back, and distributing them amongst itself and the other settlements. Back home, we’ve begun trading with merchants that stop by on their way to Challenger, and we’ve even started integrating travelers that come looking for a quieter home. There’s a good number of ponies that come to live in the southeast.” A smile slowly grew on my face as I spotted Shimmer while she listened, the ghoul still patiently waiting for her promised description of my own home. “And Hopeville itself - it’s a quiet little town, and rather lovely in terms of wasteland standards. It’s a smaller place with all of its buildings, two-story houses and shops and a couple of others, forming a square perimeter around an open courtyard. The foals and I always like to play there, whether it be kickball, tag, pretty much anything. We once transformed Hopeville’s south side into a giant drawing canvas thanks to the artistic talent of the children… oh, how easy it is to get lost in memories.” I heard as Mother Shimmer joined me in a small laugh, even Saharra uttering a giggle alongside us. “When we found it, it was abandoned because of the Black Blood who killed off its former inhabitants. For the past two weeks, we’ve been doing everything in our power to make a new home out of it, and we’ve gotten to the point now where we’ve solidly placed Hopeville back on the map again. We get supplies from Challenger, we trade with another settlement closer to us, and ponies from the north have been coming in to live among us. Most recently we took in a married couple from the Equestrian heartland, looking for a quiet place to bring their baby into the world.” To that, Shimmer nodded in approval. “In summary, I really don’t think we could’ve found a better place to live in on the surface. All things considered, raiders and Talons aside, it really is a good home.”

“When you first came here, I noticed the combat armor that two members of your group were wearing.” Mother Shimmer remarked. “You and some of the others came from a Stable, too, am I right?” When I nodded, the ghoul turned to glance at her second-in-command. “They came from a Stable, and they’re building a new way of life on the surface.” she said to him, a smile touching her lips. “It seems that, in that regard, Buckley is not so different from this group of outsiders after all.”

Commander Tracer himself looked to already be deep in thought when he nodded. “Yeah… I guess not.” he softly replied. “Who’d have thought, huh?”

“Well, I for one thank you for sharing that information with us.” the white unicorn heartily put in, dipping his head to Raemor and I. “Mother Shimmer was definitely right in that it’s helped to shed a new light on things, and I will definitely be thinking it over again.”

“As will I.” Saharra agreed with a smile.

I bowed back to them. “Well, you’re welcome.”

“Now then, I think it’s time to get down to the primary objective of this meet, yes?” the white unicorn asked to the general audience. “Shall we dive in to the Marefax expedition?”

Commander Tracer nodded first as the others shifted in their seats. “Yes. Archer, let’s see that map you finished yesterday.”

Looking back in front of me, I saw as the steel-blue pegasus nudged the folded up document before him to the center of the table, whereupon he, Tracer, and Amber Dawn begun to unfold it together. Quickly, the previously compacted piece of paper expanded into a map, a very large and surprisingly detailed atlas that came to lay across the entire width of the table. By the name placed in bold black letters, the vast mesh of black squares, parallel lines, and other shapes displayed before us made a neat and orderly representation of the city of Marefax as seen from up in the sky. By simply looking at the map, with its drawn markings and figures encompassing the entire page, I could tell that Marefax was a large Old World city. Smaller squares were drawn in expansive and organized clusters closer to the right side of the map, spanning across its entire width, and a number of red and brown splotches decorated several small areas within; all of this took up roughly a quarter of the page. In front of those, a trio of twin parallel lines, each pair spaced far apart, led through a wide pink gap, connecting the smaller squares to larger ones at its opposite end. These larger squares of varying sizes took up the entire remaining three-fourths of the page, and the greater majority of it was colored over with red, brown, orange, and green shades.

“This is an overview of the city of Marefax.” Archer began, standing on all fours before placing his forehooves on the table, looking over his creation. “On this page, I’ve drawn a layout of the cityscape down to the very street, and I’ve calculated the best and safest route to take to reach both of our objectives.” Pausing to look back up among the assembly, he added, “Before I show you the route outright, there are some things that should be drawn to your attention.”

“Like what?” I asked, leaning forward to look closer at the map.

“The biggest thing to understand is that Marefax is a big city, and that there is no possible way to avoid every danger the city holds.” he explained. “On the map, you’ll find five colors placed at various positions.”

“There’s a lot of colored in positions.” Amber dawn remarked beside him.

“Yes, because the different colors represent different threats, and their positions mark the many hotspots of these dangers.” Archer replied, moving his right forehoof over one of the closer red splotches. “Red indicates the location of raider nests, and they’re present in both the downtown area and the outskirts, planted much more thickly in downtown.” he explained. “I’ve seen these ponies in action, as the different groups tend to fight with each other on the streets, and while I won’t go into detail, I can tell you now that they’re absolute psychos. They use both melee weapons and firearms, but tend to prefer fighting at close range. Plus, they’re always on the move, which is why the red markings are a lot larger than the other colors.”

“And what about the other colors?” Tracer asked him. “What do those represent?”

“Next to red there’s orange.” Archer continued, gesturing to the closest splotch of the designated color. “Sand hornets have made nests all around the Marefax suburbs. The route I’ve drawn out weaves around most of them, and they typically don’t attack unless you’re close enough to their territory that they spot you. They’re not the kind of predators that go out and hunt. They wait for their food to come to them.”

“At least we have that on our side.” Saharra remarked, rolling her eyes.

“The third color here is brown.” Archer continued. “Brown is the most common color to mark the most common danger, and that’s the presence of feral ghouls. Those zombie things are literally everywhere in the downtown sector, and I’ve seen plenty of them in the outskirts as well. Truthfully, I’d be surprised if there were less than a few thousand ghouls strewn across the entire city.”

“I can see the route you mapped out for us in the downtown sector.” Tracer observed, peering closer at the map from his seat. “There’s a lot of brown that it crosses through.”

“I’m afraid that a few skirmishes with ghouls is going to be unavoidable.” Archer replied to him. “There were just too many nests downtown to make a route that bypassed every single one.”

Tracer, though, shook his head. “That’s not a problem. That just means that all my time training the guardsponies won’t go to waste. What else is there?” he asked. “My guess is that green stands for radiation pockets.”

“That’s right.” Archer replied with a nod. “There aren’t many concentrated areas of radiation, but some still exist. The biggest pocket I discovered was in an area called the Marefax Southside Industrial Park. There’s an old pharmaceutical plant with vats of decayed product that have been spilling out radiation, and there’s a couple of other irradiated sites that didn’t have any source of identification.”

“What about the first target building?” Amber Dawn asked. “Is it irradiated as well?”

“No, that building’s clean.” Archer assured her. “The route I charted takes us around the radiation entirely, so we shouldn’t encounter any problems with that.”

“Good.” Tracer spoke in approval. “Now what about this last color?” he then asked, pointing to the wide curving line of solid pink that stretched along the width of the map.

“This area in pink used to be a channel, but according to some pamphlets and posters I dug up from a tourist information center in the suburbs, the channel didn’t hold water. Instead, it was a massive garden that ringed around the entire downtown sector, dividing it from the suburbs. During the war, it was called the Garden of Marefax, packed with thousands upon thousands of the most exotic flowers from every corner of Equestria. Hell, even flowers from the zebra lands were planted in it back during the days of peace. It was one of the top tourist attractions in all of Equestria back in its time, and I’ll be perfectly honest, it was actually very pretty when I saw it on the poster board. Right now though, it’s the home to a massive expanse of pink cloud, perhaps the deadliest toxin out of any in this wasteland.”

Well… that didn’t sound good. “What is pink cloud exactly?” I inquired.

“Pink cloud is a necromantic gas, Old World stuff deployed by the zebras on the Last Day.” Archer answered. “If you come in contact with it, it seeps into your flesh and your internal organs, causing near immediate rot and potentially liquefying you. Even slight exposure to it can cause organ failure, and prolonged exposure can fuse equipped gear to your hide. There’s no protection from it, not even breathing masks or filters, and it’ll kill you in seconds, minutes if you’re lucky.”

I leaned back from the table in disgust. “Oh my Goddesses…”

Archer cocked his head in a shrug, apologetic. “Sorry for grossing you out, Nova. But that’s what it is.”

“Your route takes us right through it, though.” Amber Dawn observed with a frown.

“No, look again.” Archer retorted, raising a hoof to point at the pink stretch. “See that pair of lines that I’ve drawn the route through, the lines crossing the channel?”

“Um… yeah, there.” the amber mare nodded.

“That’s a bridge, still intact, that can carry us over the gap.” Archer explained. “It was the sturdiest of the three that I saw. That, and it leads right to the industrial park where the first target building is located.”

“Hm… so your route takes us into a range of suburbs before we cross this bridge and head into the city industrial park.” Tracer observed, drawing over the map with the tip of his left forehoof. “And that’s the first target building you’ve circled there… then we continue ahead into the downtown area.”

“There’s a lot of turns we’ll be making to get to the second target once we cross to the heart of the city.” Archer put in. “A lot of the streets were blocked by rubble.”

“All that matters is that we carry this thing out with no casualties, and that we kill anything that tries to kill us.” Tracer stated back, leaning back and away from the map and looking in good and confident spirits. “This route’s good. Nice work, Archer.”

“Now then,” Mother Shimmer spoke up. “as we know, there are two buildings in Marefax that we hope to scavenge through on this mission. Commander, would you please share with the outsiders the first target to fill them in?”

“If you’ll look on the map, outsiders,” Tracer began, Raemor and I leaning in closer to the table. “you’ll see one circle here, just past this bridge.” At my nod, he continued. “This is the location of the Cirrus Communications building. Records that Archer salvaged from the building site have described the Cirrus Corporation as a local outfit during the war, building broadcasting and communications equipment that ranged from anything to telephones and short-range radio transmitters for the city to full-spectrum broadcasters and portable and even mobile communication units for the military.”

“I see where this is going.” Raemor voiced in understanding.

“Tech Sergeant Lela, who couldn’t attend the meeting because of her own duties, has assured me that our ATC tower can hold machinery that will convert it into a wide-range broadcast system.” Tracer explained with a nod. “If all the parts we need are there, that would allow us to contact any settlement or facility in the southeast that has a working radio without us having to go and meet them face to face.”

“That seems like a bit of a long-shot to me.” I replied, freely expressing my uncertainty as to the chance of acquiring that technology. “After one hundred and seventy-five years, I feel like most everything of use would’ve been scavenged out of there by now.”

“The entire building was committed to the production of broadcasting equipment, and it’s a big facility.” Archer remarked. “It’s a gamble, sure, but there’s still a fair chance of finding what we need.”

“And what’s the second objective?” I asked after a pause.

“Well, that’d be where Saharra and Ludwig come in.” Shimmer answered, turning and giving a nod to the white unicorn and the music mare beside him.

“Right.” the white unicorn, Ludwig, facing me with a bright and eager smile. “Before the decision had been made to scavenge through the Cirrus building, we at the concert hall had already come up with an idea backing Mother Shimmer’s new intent on opening up to the outside world. You see, just before the day that Equestria went up in flames, Stable One ninety-two took in all sorts of residents with musical backgrounds, and they all held their own connections with national music centers and performance halls, them being performers and teachers and the like. Now, about a week ago when Archer first begun scouting out the city, he discovered that one of those music centers had remained almost entirely intact, even after one hundred and seventy-five years of wear and tear!”

He spoke with such energy that I quickly found myself smiling with him. “Yeah?”

“Yes. It’s called the Moonrise Symphonic Theater, once a place for the musicians of the southeast to get together and perform their works for the public.” Ludwig answered cheerily. “It’s our second target on this expedition, and according to the map, Archer’s route ends right at the theater itself.”

“We intend to scavenge the building for any instruments that might still be intact and functional. Anything that we find, we bring back here and refurbish so that we can use them in our concert hall.” Saharra added with a smile. “Tell me, outsiders, have either of you ever heard of a bassoon? Or perhaps an oboe? A euphonium or a tuba?”

Passing a glance at Raemor, I saw the older buck shaking his head. “I’m afraid I haven’t.” he replied.

“Are these instruments perhaps rarer than others like the string instruments I’ve seen in your concert hall?” I asked.

“Oh much more so, outsider.” Ludwig answered. “You see, while we have many instruments of our own, the concert hall is still missing a few key additions to its orchestra, additions that, if we were to find them, would allow us to perform the more complex and most spectacular music of the Old World - symphonies, suites, sonatas and concertos, genres of music that date all the way back to Equestria’s pre-war days and beyond.”

Wow, now that would really be something. An actual symphony with a full orchestra… I could only begin to imagine the power of the sound, the purity of the music. If given the opportunity to come back to life, such a thing, rare as it would be, would truly be a treasure of great beauty upon the wasteland.

“Spoken like a true musician.” Ludwig remarked with a chuckle.

…Wait…

“Did I just say that out loud?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Oh Goddesses I did, didn’t I??

“You most certainly did just say that out loud, outsider.” the white unicorn happily replied, with Saharra nodding beside him. “And I am most pleased that you, as a wastelander, hold such high respect and appreciation for music. I truly did not expect it.”

With a thud, my head fell to the table, and I made absolutely no attempt to hide the furious blush spreading along my cheeks. “Ugh. How did that happen?” I asked myself, only then realizing that I had said that for all to hear, too.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Archer remarked, letting out a light laugh of his own. “Although, now that I think about it, it is kind of funny.”

Oh thanks! “Not helping, Archer!” I snapped, shutting my eyes tight as I fought to recompose myself.

“Leave the poor girl alone, Archer.” I heard Tracer speak up, similarly amused at the temporary detour the meeting had taken. “Let’s get focused back on the mission.”

“Yes, sir.” The commander’s intervention gave me the time I needed to wipe the red from my face, and I passed a glance at Archer as I recovered only to see him smirking as he shook out his wings.

Well, he seemed to be warming up to me quick enough.

In a moment, things quickly settled back to normal, and the commander took up the mantle and moved the meeting forward. “There’s only a couple of small things I need to go over before this meeting concludes, and the first thing is to go over what assets will be needed for this trip.” Turning then to the blue earth pony, Tracer added, “Since we’ll be covering a wide operation sector, we’ll be needing some extra firepower. From you, captain, I’ll need two howitzers - the spares from the munitions hanger - and crews to operate them. Who you pick to crew them, I’ll leave up to you, but we’ll be needing the artillery support if we run into any serious complications out there.”

“Yes, sir.” the artillery captain replied, peering once again at the map. “You know, looking over this map, I’d imagine that we’d be able to dig the howitzers into a solid and defendable position in or near the suburbs to cover your entrance into the downtown sector. Though… getting solid hits on targets in the city streets between any taller buildings would be pretty difficult, at least without us knocking down towers around you.”

“The howitzers would be able to cover us even past the industrial park.” Archer voiced, looking over the map and drawing a hoof over the area in discussion. “Most of these buildings aren’t that tall at all, and those that were have been crumbled down by natural weathering. Only when we get about a couple blocks past the I.P. is when the buildings reach over eight to ten stories, and they just get taller from there. Marefax still has a good number of standing skyscrapers left after all these years.”

“Well, what about Lily?” the captain asked. “The tank may be big, but she could easily fit through the city streets and wipe out anything unfortunate enough to cross her path.”

Tracer, though, shook his head at the idea. “Lily’s purpose is to defend Buckley against any threat that might make it by the howitzers. That, and I’m not ready to risk sending her outside for something to damage her. No. For the downtown sector, we should have everything covered with the rest of what I want to bring on this trip.” he explained. “I’ll be gathering an infantry group of around twenty-five or thirty guards, and I’ll make sure that each one has a primary and a secondary weapon, grenades, tactical gear, etcetera.”

“We should still make sure to pack a few heavy weapons while we’re at it. A couple of grenade machineguns, a missile launcher, and a fifty cal ought to do it.” Amber Dawn added, to which Tracer agreed with a nod.

“And we’ll be bringing out all four of our wagons too, along with their own teams to pull them. The wagons can serve as cover and support vehicles if things get hairy.” the commander explained, eyes then widening as a thought came to him. “And actually, going back to the subject of artillery - captain, do you have the Eagle Eye repaired?”

“Actually yes, sir.” the blue earth pony answered. “I just finished it this morning.”

“Excellent.” Tracer replied, then turned his eyes to me. “In that case, I have your first task for this mission, Nova. I think that I’ll be assigning you as the spotter for the artillery crews during the first leg of the expedition, marking targets for them to cover our advance into the city.”

“Oh… um, well, if that’s where you want me, then I think I can manage that.” I answered back to him, though hesitant as I forced the words through my surprise. “It’s just that I was already assuming that I’d be on the ground with the rest of your guards. That… and being an artillery spotter sounds like a big responsibility.”

“Well, you’ve got to know what you’re doing, of course. But it really isn’t that hard, outsider.” the artillery captain spoke up in assurance. “The Eagle Eye unit is a two-part camera and terminal system that combat pegasi used on the front lines to call in artillery strikes on fortified enemy positions during the war. The camera establishes an uplink to its partner terminal and provides a video feed of the area from its place in the sky above. Simultaneously, the camera is controlled from the terminal remotely by the assigned artillery coordinator while calculating the range and grid location of a target relative to the position of the companion terminal. If a target is marked with a smoke grenade from the infantry on the ground, then that data is relayed to the gun crews by the coordinator, and the crews destroy the target. Similarly, the coordinator can chose their own target by locking the camera onto it themselves and then relaying coordinates to the gun teams. It’s simple really.”

Uh… no.

“That still sounds like a complex process to me.” I replied, shaking my head.

“All you’ll be doing as an artillery spotter is making sure that the coordinator can see enemies with the camera.” Archer clarified. “Usually, that just means that you’ll be flying at high altitude in slow, wide circles around the operation area. If a threat comes up and it’s marked with smoke, the coordinator spots it through the camera, relays the data to the gun crews, and the howitzers do the rest of the work.”

“Huh… well, alright.” I gave the pegasus a thin smile, feeling just a little bit of my previous apprehension dissipate away. “I guess even I can’t mess that up.”

“You’ll do fine.”

“As for the rest of your group, outsider, you can all decide who among you will join us.” Tracer continued. “Any or all of you are welcome to help out, but the one thing I’ll be asking of you is that you follow orders whenever they’re given. I don’t know how things are done out where you come from, but in Buckley, we work together as a single unit, and everypony is a vital and indispensable asset for the success of the mission. If one pony is needed at a certain location in order to complete the objective, he goes without question. If he’s told to take a shot and kill an enemy, he does it without hesitation. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Teamwork and compliance are key to the success of any and every mission.” I replied with a nod. “That’s how we do things in Hopeville, too.”

My words brought a thin smile to the commander. “Good. I’m glad I’ll be able to trust you on this. Now,” Passing his gaze over the assembly one last time, Tracer rose to all fours. “I think we’ve discussed everything on the list. By nightfall, I want my two howitzers out on the runway, inspected, and ready to go along with their assigned teams.” To this, the artillery captain voiced his confirmation. “Sergeant Dawn, I’m going to put you in charge of readying our cargo wagons and assigning each to their respective objectives. We’ll need one for carrying howitzer ammunition, we’ll need one for the Cirrus Communications building, and we’ll need two for the Moonrise Symphonic Theater. Gather the pulling teams, fill them in on the mission, and make sure the wagons’ spark batteries are primed and ready.”

“Yes, commander.”

“And while you’re all doing that, I’ll be rallying up the infantry, issuing their equipment, and going over the directives. Everypony who’s a part of the mission is to meet at the front gate, fully equipped and ready to move, before sunrise. And that includes you, Ludwig.” At the last of his words, the commander cocked an eyebrow at the white unicorn.

“That means no late night practicing your conducting tonight.” Saharra added teasingly with a smile

Ludwig rolled his eyes in response. “Yes, yes I know. Besides, I’ll need my rest if we’re to have a celebratory concert tomorrow night.”

A concert??

“Anyway, yes, we’ll be there when the time comes, commander.” Ludwig continued. “Saharra and I will be the only ones from the concert hall to join you, though. We don’t want to get in the way of your guards.”

“I’ll be carrying my own weapons, put my time in basic training to use and make sure Ludwig stays safe in the streets.” Saharra put in. “And he’s only coming along to oversee the extraction of any instruments that might be left in the theater.”

“That’s fine.” Tracer replied, nodding as he wrapped up, saying, “Then we all have our tasks, and the mission begins tomorrow in the morning. I expect everypony to be on their game tomorrow.”

“Eat well this evening and rest tonight, children.” Mother Shimmer spoke after, passing a smile around at the assembly. “This mission is important, but your lives are twice as such.”

“And make sure everypony that’s going remembers that.” Tracer added sternly, letting the proceeding pause settle within the tower as he looked among each of his fellow leaders, nods going around; it wasn’t hard to understand Tracer’s firm approach on the subject, especially considering the simple snatch-and-grab nature of the mission to Marefax. “Alright. Everypony’s dismissed except for our fliers. If you two have a moment, I’ve got something that needs to be done.”

“Yes sir.” came Archer’s simple reply as the artillery captain took his leave, Saharra and Ludwig following him out.

“Well… I’d like to help, but I was kind of hoping to go back to my friends after this meeting.” I voiced uncertainly, Raemor stepping up beside me as I turned to the commander. “Two of them were hurt when they went outside earlier today.”

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry about that.” he replied with a thin frown, a small gesture of understanding.

“Nova,” Raemor spoke up, leaning in by my left ear. “Gunny and Blossom will both be resting by now.”

“I know that, but Shore and Grace and Blake will still be awake.” I retorted back. “Even if it was just to tell them that Tracer wants my help, I wanted to stop by.”

“If you stay with Tracer, I can tell them where you’ve gone.” my old friend offered in response, lowering his voice to a soft whisper. “Besides, as far as I know, you’re still working to gain Buckley’s full trust, and this is the settlement’s commander you’re talking to. This might be a very important task.”

I hummed in thought, Raemor’s words putting my options up onto the scale. “What’s the job you need help with?” I inquired to the red commander.

“I need scouts.” he replied. “There’s a location out there that I’d like to have a closer look at.”

“What location is that, child?” Mother Shimmer inquired curiously, even Amber Dawn passing a quizzical look to her superior officer.

“Well, not a specific location, but a specific area.” Tracer answered the ghoul. “After hearing Archer’s reports, the Talon threat has been making me think. I want to see if they’re already moving west towards us, maybe setting up camps and outposts along the way. If they’re clearly setting some of their guns on us, we might very well have to take the fight to them in order to catch them off-guard.”

“Are you sure that they would be marching on Buckley already?” Shimmer asked. “Like Archer said, Challenger’s been occupying their attention over in Ashton.”

“That’s true, but with the numbers they have, the risk is too high for us to simply sit back.” the commander replied with a shake of his head. “They can expand quickly, cover greater distances at greater speed, and because of that, we’ll be needing to monitor the area surrounding Buckley constantly and scouting out at farther distances to make sure we catch them in advance if they send an attack force our way.”

As she thought, Mother Shimmer eventually began to nod as comprehension came to her. In truth, Tracer’s argument made perfect sense, especially considering that Buckley and the Talons had been enemies ten years ago during the Legion’s first attempt at conquering the southeast. A force of thousands could cover a lot of territory, and factoring into the equation that the southeast’s smaller settlements consisted of no more than two hundred ponies apiece, the Talons could split its force into an adequate number of smaller companies to attack the settlements, all while still maintaining a solid position near Ashton with its main force. This in itself put Hopeville at just as much risk as Buckley or any of the other settlements in the region.

“You’re right.” Shimmer spoke, then looking back at me. “Outsider, if you could please help Tracer and Archer with this, I would be grateful to you. From what it sounds like, it’ll simply be a mission where you fly high above the surface and look for any sign of movement from the Talon’s forces.”

“That’s basically all it is.” Tracer assured. “And Archer here’s been on missions like this many times. You stick with him, do what he says, and you’ll be safe. That, and this shouldn’t take you any longer than a couple of hours at most. You two do your best to avoid any confrontation, then you’ll be back well before nightfall.”

I nodded. “Yes, I’ll help you. It’d actually be better for me to see for myself if there’s any Talon movement out there because some of my friends are leaving back for our own home tomorrow sometime. If there’s any activity out there, then it’ll be up to them to take that information to our own leaders. They’ll want to know about it.”

“Very well. I’m glad you’ll lend a hoof.” Tracer replied in clear approval, a tinge of relief dotting his words that I could just barely pick up.

“Thank you, outsider.” Shimmer added with a smile. “Since you’re doing this, I’ll show Raemor where you and your friends can stay for the night. There’s a pair of vacant shacks out in the residential quarter that I can lend to you for the night, and when you return, your friends will be able to show you where they are.”

“Thank you for that, Mother Shimmer. I really am grateful.” After a bow to the Buckley leader as she turned and made her leave, I turned back to Raemor. “Hey, Raemor, could you do me a favor and tell Blake that I’ll be back soon? Tell him not to worry about me?”

“Of course.” the old buck nodded. “And I’ll fill the others in on what we’ve learned in this meeting as well. That’ll allow us to decide who will come with you tomorrow morning and who will leave back for Hopeville while you’re gone.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. You just watch yourself out there.” At my nod, the old buck turned and left the control room, following after Mother Shimmer who beckoned for him outside of the door, and leaving Tracer, Archer, and Amber Dawn behind around the table; the latter of the trio was looking back at the commander with suspicion.

“What are you up to?” she asked, I myself noticing the rather casual tone that she used for addressing her superior officer.

“Everything I spoke was the truth of my concerns. But there’s more to it than just scouting out for the Legion.” Tracer replied, looking back between Archer and I. “I’ve got two things that I want done on this mission, with scouting out for the Talons being one of them.”

“Two things?” Dawn inquired. “What else could you possibly need to do outside?”

“Amber,” Tracer spoke, leaning his head down by hers. “Do you remember over the past couple of days when I’d come home after Mother Shimmer summoned me for a private meet between just the two of us?” At Dawn’s nod, “And do you remember what I told you about why she brought me into the missile silo? Do you remember what I told you about what she was talking to me about?”

Again, she nodded. “Yeah, you said that she was having some sort of memory deterioration… that she was trying to remember her less recent past and couldn’t, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But what’s that got to do with anything?” Dawn asked.

With a light sigh, Tracer sat back down at his place by the table, placing his forehooves from him. “I suppose you should listen in as well.” he replied to her, nodding for her to take her seat. “Especially since I’ve told you everything Mother Shimmer’s told me.” Across the table from me, Archer likewise took his seat again, giving me a prompt with his hoof to follow suit. As I did, Tracer looked right back to me. “As you’re well aware of by now, outsider, there’s a lot of speculation and hesitation among Buckley about going outside. Many support the notion, and I feel that more will come around after fully understanding the reasons behind the choice. But while many already support Mother Shimmer on the subject, just as many are not as willing to welcome the outside into our community. There’s nopony out there that outright hates her for pushing us in this direction we’re taking. Those who dislike the notion are simply nervous, hesitant to welcome such a big change into their lives, especially when solitude’s kept us safe for so long. That’s why we’re taking this step by step, treading very slowly and very carefully.”

I nodded at that. “I understand.”

“We all know that Mother Shimmer put’s the safety of Buckley and its residents before everything else, even when making difficult choices like the one she makes now. She loves this community with all her heart and soul, and she’s put a lot of effort into helping us build it into what it’s become today.” the commander continued. “That’s why she’s doing this, because she firmly believes that letting the outside world in will make us stronger as a whole. And like she said, you and your friends definitely proved that with the help you’ve given us today.” At my thin smile and nod, he added, “Because you’ve been to this meeting, and because you personally saw her upon your arrival, you know about her reasons why she wants to go outside, her concerns and her hopes for our future…… but she didn’t tell you all of the reasons.”

Silence.

In the quiet of my unspoken thoughts, I knew that I would’ve naturally been surprised at such a remark, even if only moderately so. But this was not the case after learning of Buckley’s secrets one by one over the course of just one afternoon, of their great importance and, in regards to the concert hall, church, and club building, their fragileness. Though we had only stayed in Buckley for so many hours, Shimmer had felt comfortable in revealing these secrets to us because we had upheld our word to help the community. Had we done anything else, anything different, and I knew that we would have never known about the concert hall, the Buckley armory, Lily, or much anything else. As such, Tracer’s words came as more of an understandable remark, one that still caught my interest, but one that reflected the importance of whatever information Shimmer had withheld. “I’m listening.” I replied with a polite nod for the commander to continue.

“Like Mother Shimmer said, her primary concerns are for the safety and the stability of Buckley Air Force Base. She loves her home and everypony in it, and that makes her just as equal to Celestia and Luna in character of heart as far as I’m concerned. But like every noble leader who spends her days looking out for those who look to her for guidance, there comes a time where she deserves to think about her own health, her own desires.” Tracer explained. “This is one of those times for Mother Shimmer, and her desire, her single wish for herself, is to remember. One of the main reasons why she wants to go outside again, is because she’s from the outside world.”

What?!?

Of course, out of the four of us, I was the only one whose shock clearly showed, though I was certain that it was more than enough to cover everypony left in the room. “You mean to tell me that Mother Shimmer, the very leader of a community that viciously defends its borders and kills anypony from the outside that gets too close to the fence, is an outsider??” I exclaimed, wondering right after if Buckley would eventually pop up with other mysteries to further melt the fuses in my brain.

“Well, no, not exactly. She wasn’t from Stable One ninety-two is what I should say.” Tracer replied, much more calm than I. “When Mother Shimmer first entered our lives, she had been found in Buckley itself. The complex was overrun with feral pegasi ghouls, the former personnel of the base before the Last Day. They’d all been so irradiated that they’d became walking conduits of radiation… glowing ones, as they became known to be. Our predecessors found her living in the service tunnels when they set about purging the base of the ghouls that lived there. She was already a ghoul then, living amongst the ferals who left her alone. She looked the same way then as she does now.”

“And how did your forbearers know she wasn’t feral like the others?” I asked, easing myself to a more civil level for the sake of learning what else there was to learn.

“Because she didn’t instantly jump up and attack them, would be my guess. Or she simply talked, or both.” Tracer replied with a shrug. “Either way, she was spared from the extermination, and after that, she begun to gradually integrate into the group, sharing her knowledge of the region to our Stable survivors in thanks for being spared from a bullet to the brain pan. According to her, she’d been out and exploring Equestria as far back as when radiation was still flowing freely over the plains, way before we showed up in Buckley, and so she had a treasure-trove of information to give.” Here, the commander let out a chuckle. “That added with the seventy-five years she’s been around Buckley, that makes her well over a hundred years old… hard to imagine… Anyway, she freely shared all of her knowledge. You can imagine the apprehension that our original Stable dwellers felt towards letting a stranger into their midst, especially with the white noise experiment still on their minds and considering that Shimmer was a ghoul. But more and more, she was becoming their guide in the wasteland, and quickly proving herself to be a valuable addition to the original survivors.”

“Like I told you before, she was the one who revealed the location of Fort Volker.” Archer chimed in. “She told the original survivors where in the fort to find the weapons that we have, and she told them about the neighboring regions like the heartland, all of the major Old World cities and towns closest to the southeast, the regional threats, everything. She became the roadmap for the revival of Buckley.”

Tracer nodded his agreement. “Over the course of five years, the base became a fortress, and Shimmer played the largest role in it, describing how the base systems worked, showing us where to find supplies outside. Once we had accumulated the howitzers and the ammo, the food from the replanted Stable orchard, and a secure source of fresh water, she even gave the order to launch the base’s balefire missile to destroy Fort Volker so that nopony else could have an easy chance at matching the firepower we have. And soon after that, she ordered the sealing of the base, our leaders agreeing to it without hesitation.”

“So that’s pretty much when she became Buckley’s official leader, right?” I asked, leaning forward as Tracer nodded. “And you said that she’s been trying to remember her past, thinking about it… was that the case way back then, or only recently?”

“She only begun to talk about it when she started weighing out the option of reopening the base and going outside.” Tracer answered. “But she’d lay down for hours in her silo just thinking about things, remembering her time on base and how she helped us to make Buckley our new home. She remembers all of that, and she remembers some of her exploration as well, walking the southeast and such. But beyond that, she’s tried again and again to recall any memory without success.” Shifting in his place, he added, “Because of her long life, her oldest memories eroded away with the passing of time, and though it might seem like a trivial thing to get worked up over, that’s what’s been weighing on her mind for some time now, months really. It’s gotten worse over the past couple of weeks.”

That was definitely different… fighting for the reclamation of memories, to remember things. But then again, the fact that Mother Shimmer was as old as Tracer said was, in itself, a unique aspect to the situation. It was obvious to me that Shimmer wanted these memories again, but the why of it didn’t really matter. For seventy-five years she had been here in Buckley, maybe even far longer than that, living in the body of a ghoul for most of her life; I had no idea as to what kind of psychological effects emerged from being a ghoul, practically a walking corpse, but it was clear that Shimmer’s hunt for memories was a part of that particular field. “I think there’s a lot of factors playing into all of that.” I replied. “Her great age is probably most prominent. That, and her being a ghoul might very well be tied in with it. If nothing else, it draws down to a basic desire to know who she was before changing your lives. It’s important to her.”

“Indeed, and that’s why I’ve come up with this mission.” Tracer replied, then looking over to Archer. “Nopony in Buckley knows what kind of pony Mother Shimmer used to be before becoming a ghoul, but Archer’s tracked down something that might reveal some of that history.”

I cocked my head towards the steel-blue pegasus. “Really?”

“Yes. It’s a farmhouse about two hour’s flight southeast of here, still standing. While I never went up close to search it over when I discovered it, I did see an old designation signboard on what was left of its barn. It’s called the Shimmermist Farm.”

“Interesting…” The simple correlation of this location to the situation was something I swiftly caught on to, making me raise a hoof to my chin in thought. “The name of the farm itself is enough to draw one’s attention to it in regards to this.”

Tracer nodded. “I’ve been looking into it over the past few days, always coming to the same conclusion. I think that Mother Shimmer once lived on that farm, and that she was even alive before the apocalypse itself took place.” I felt that, as a rule, a scenario like this would’ve been extremely rare to come across, but somehow, the pieces clicked together into a perfect image. Of course, there was no guarantee that Tracer’s theory was correct, but at the same time, the possibility of the truth of this connection made the farm very much worth the effort to explore; for Mother Shimmer, this was very significant.

“Have you brought this up with her?” I asked the commander.

“I have. But every time I asked about it, she’s insisted that it wasn’t important and that I not waste effort on looking more deeply into it.” came his reply. “But for a long time now, she’s been talking to herself when she’s alone, asking herself questions about a former life, if she was different from what she is now. I know, despite saying again and again how her history isn’t important to the present, that she wants to remember, dearly.”

“It sounds to me like she’s just refusing to believe that there’s more than enough room for both Buckley’s safety and her own memories.” Amber voiced, a light smirk crossing her face. “Gives a lot and takes little. Crazy old mare.”

“That she does. And I think it’s about time that Buckley gave her a little something back, something hopefully a little more personal and long-lasting.” Tracer responded, turning back to me. “So what do you think outsider? Now that you know the whole of what you’ll be doing, do you still want to help me out?”

“This is important, for both Mother Shimmer and you.” I answered with a small smile. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you and Archer to fly out to that farmhouse and investigate it.” Tracer explained, returning my smile with one of his own. “If it really does hold any connection to Mother Shimmer herself, then I want you two to search for anything that might bring back some of her memories, whether it be a diary, a trinket, anything.”

“I’m just curious, myself,” Archer put in. “if we do find anything out there, how do you think Mother Shimmer will take it?”

To this, Tracer was silent for a long moment, thoughtful. “Really, I don’t know. But what I do know is that even if Mother Shimmer doesn’t want us focusing on bringing her memories back, I still think that she deserves to know who she was before becoming a ghoul.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” I assured, rising determinedly to my hooves, Archer standing with me as he gave a nod of approval.

Both Tracer and Dawn followed us, the former giving a grateful bow of his head to me. “Thanks, outsider. You do this for me, and more importantly, for Mother Shimmer, then you’ll have earned my trust.”

“We’d better head out.” Archer voiced, quickly trotting over to where his .50 cal sat on its bipod attachment, folding the stand before grabbing its stock in his teeth and swinging it around to his back, fitting the rifle and its bipod into their secure place on his armor. “We’ve got a bit of ground to cover out there before we’ll reach the farm.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Archer.” Quickly, I checked over my rifles on their saddle, and likewise looked over Blue Fire’s Torch at its place on my back, glancing over all of my armor and gear to make certain of its secure state before I joined him out by the open windows.

“Good luck you two, and be careful.” Dawn spoke up, raising a hoof in farewell.

“Yes, ma’am.” With that, Archer snapped out his wings and sprang out through the window, quickly righting in the air and racing ahead out over the base.

Crouching, I tensed my limbs and let my own wings come unfurled before I leapt, one single jump carrying me past the window and over the left side runway. A short fall later, and I beat my wings to catch the wind, rising up and following after Archer’s trail as I made my way out to new unexplored territory.

*** *** ***

Flight.

Flight has a funny way of making you think about some of the little things in life. Over the course of two weeks, I had taken long flights only once before now. But even though this was the case, that time in the sky had allowed me to piece together a philosophy, one born of my own senses, of my own mind and sight. I believed that, for a pegasus, it never mattered how far one’s walked on the earth, how many steps through the dust one’s taken on his or her own hooves. No. Regardless of the distance, I believed that the land always carried a different face when looked at from the sky.

And to me, it was a face that carried just a sliver of the spirit of the Old World.

I was coming to understand that flying provided an escape from the wasteland life, from raiders and soldiers and mutated creatures, thus allowing me to see the surface with new eyes… to see it for what it had once been. If you allowed yourself the chance to seek it out, you could find tranquility up in the air, and at the same time, see it on the ground itself. And if you tried real hard, you could see the pre-war world itself, see the lush green meadowland and the healthy crops, the blue skies and the fluffy white clouds, and see the idea that was pre-war Equestria hiding under the mask that was this wasteland. That idea that had created so many a prosperous generation for my ancestors… more and more I came to embrace the optimistic belief that it wasn’t dead, but merely hiding. And it was hiding because it was fragile, oh so fragile… so much so that it could only be whispered about, only mentioned with the utmost care and respect, lest it disappear entirely.

Harmony.

A mile below me, the land slept in silence. There were no ruined landmarks to dot the dusty fields, no raiders or Talons on the move to mar the land with their hooves and claws, not even a gunshot echoing on the wind. Without things like that, the image of the Old World had a chance to peek out from its veil, the idea of harmony able to emerge and greet my thoughts, to remind me of the peace that once was and the chance to bring it back to the southeast again. It’s what Challenger fought for, it’s what Hopeville and Proudspire wished for, and maybe, just maybe, it’s what Buckley would soon be there for as well.

Easily matching pace with me at my left side, Archer nodded as I expressed those sentiments to him. We had been flying southeast for well over an hour so far, steadily nearing the two hour mark of our travel. Throughout that time, we had been making easy and flowing conversation spaced between our search for any hostile movement, revolving largely upon our observations and opinions of the wasteland, our various treks and missions undertaken, and our own lifestyles. With the free time we had in flight, Archer had reminded me of his curiosity towards Stable 181, and in exchange for answering his many questions about life in an Old World underground bunker, I had come to learn that he was quite the explorer, even flying out close to the border of Hayward to complete various reconnaissance tasks assigned to him by Tracer; interestingly enough, he had called the northlands in which Hayward was located ‘The Halo’, with Hayward itself sitting in the center of a vast circular plot of canyon and actual living forestland.

After this, things shifted towards the more personal, such as interests and favorite activities. We had come to return to my previous attraction to music that I had first expressed to him during his history lesson regarding Stable 192, and he had paid undivided attention as I had described my love of the musical arts and how it had accompanied me through my childhood and my years growing up in the Stable. Following that was talk of guns, during which time I had told him about the history of Cross’s rifle, my mother’s pistol, and Blue Fire’s Torch. At the same time, Archer had explained that, as a firearm aficionado himself, he had likewise bestowed a name to his .50 caliber sniper rifle. The heavy steel rifle was called the Longbow, and he had found the lethal semi-automatic rifle in a disassembled state in a raider den out north on one of his reconnaissance missions. Because of its formerly poor condition, he had installed a forged receiver, a refurbish chamber, and a new barrel and telescopic sight to make the rifle serviceable again. Ever since that time, roughly a month ago, it had become his preferred rifle, agreeing right with me about preference of conventional firearms over fancy energy weapons.

And then, eventually, I had come to take a turn for the philosophical. I didn’t know how, but flight had a way of shifting my mental gears onto the road of the dreamer, and though it wasn’t really the first impression I wanted to lay down in front of the pegasus male, I had a feeling that, judging by his faint yet visible smirk, he was pegging me down as such even as we flew. “I agree with you to an extent.” came his reply to my sentimentalisms on harmony and the Old World. “While there aren’t many, there’s been a couple ponies throughout the history of the wasteland who’ve had the courage to believe that the Old World ideals hadn’t completely died, to try and keep their own connection to it. It’s been through my own experience that I’ve come to believe that one needs simply to look for the signs of its preserved existence.”

“Signs?” I inquired.

Archer nodded. “Well, one example - during one of my recon flights into Hayward territory, I came across a tribe that lived in the forest who believed that the souls of pre-war and wartime ponies had the ability to manifest themselves into chosen mortals, thus keeping the spirit of the pre-war Equestria alive. A very select few of them even painted themselves the respective colors of some of those ponies, and they were highly revered and looked after amongst their tribe.”

“Wow, really?”

Archer let out a chuckle. “Oh yes. My first time there, the tribe chieftain introduced me to Twilight Sparkle reincarnated. I never knew if the unicorn mare was originally a wanderer who stumbled upon the tribe or was actually a tribesmare herself, but either way, they believed she carried the soul of Twilight herself. The mare nearly looked like and fully behaved like the purple unicorn in the books, too. She had Twilight’s cutie mark, mane colors, even eye color. She was even-tempered, studious of her surroundings, loyal and true to the tribe, book-smart, and alarmingly potent with magic. I’ve never seen any unicorn raise and fire five rifles at once.”

“That’s… bizarre.” The whole concept of a reincarnated wartime pony that Archer explained was something I couldn’t wrap my head around. Truthfully, it seemed a tad disrespectful amongst other things. “Why would anypony try to recreate another pony like that?”

“It’s kind of out there, true, but if it’s what the tribe believes, then that’s what it believes.” Archer retorted.

“I guess…” Though I was dubious towards the notion, I supposed that in the end, it came down to a different faction’s way of connecting itself to the Old World, keeping it alive. Besides, I’d never seen such a thing myself, taking away my right to criticize it. It was their way, that tribe, and it was a part of them - simple enough… though now, I was curious… “What other signs have you seen, Archer?” I asked.

“There’s a couple.” he answered with a single nod. “You already know how Shimmer views Buckley’s music as a line to the past. And while I’ve never integrated in with Challenger society, I like to think that they’ve got a real appreciation for Old World values and its way of life. Despite being a fight for survival, that desire is in there.” Here, he paused as he passed another look down along the surface, scouting out the terrain with a quick and expert eye before looking back ahead, continuing with, “You yourself and your group, your history - I think that’s another sign right there, with your Stable having committed itself to living by the virtues that were the Elements of Harmony themselves. But in truth, I think the most… motivational signs are the ones that haven’t been tainted by the influences of our modern world.”

“Like Buckley’s music?” I asked.

“Yes, that's one of them.” Keeping himself level in the air, the steel-blue pegasus then turned his head my way, looking me in the eye as he added, “But I’ve actually got a question for you, now that I think about it.”

“What’s that?”

“Have you ever watched the moon rise over the wasteland?”

I gave a slow shake of my head. “No, I can’t say that I have. I imagine it has to be quite something to see though.”

A small smile adorned his face then, one that I found myself sharing as he replied, “It really is. Hell, there’s really no words you can use to describe it. If you fly above the cloud cover at night, at just the right time, you can still see the moon pure as silver, with untainted light spilling all across the vast fields of puffy clouds. Even as a colt, I was always fascinated by the full moon, and I make it a point of watching it whenever I get the chance to.”

I let out a polite giggle at his enthusiasm, craning my head up to look upon the cloud ceiling above us, perhaps only a mile or so up from our current altitude. “What’s it like above the clouds?”

“It’s definitely something else.” he responded, the two of us facing forward again. “Walking on the clouds feels like your walking on a bunch of throw-pillows, and above the cloud ceiling, there’s not a single other cloud that blocks out the Equestrian sky. During the day, you can still see the natural blue that it’s always been, and at night, the stars are so close that you feel like you could just reach up and touch them yourself.”

“And here you were calling me sentimental.” I remarked with a grin. Oh, did I catch a blush there? Wait… no… darn it…

The pegasus buck only let out a chuckle of his own. “Maybe it’s a pegasus thing.” he replied, looking back down to scan the surface again. But this time, out of the corner of my eye, I saw his turning head stop as he focused on a certain location below us, and as I looked down with him, he said, “There’s our target coming up on the horizon just to our left. See it?”

As our pace slowed slightly in the air, Archer jabbed out a foreleg to point ahead. Below, the fields and gentle hills continued forward unchanged to the east. But sure enough, at the end of it, I could just make out a trio of structures taking shape. The first was a single house, at least two stories tall, nearly concealed by a brownish-grey haze rising from the ground itself. Off to the house’s left and just to its north, the framework of what I assumed to be a barn was still standing, with the majority of wall boards and roof tiles having long decayed and fallen off. At its front, bolted to the remaining beams, a large billboard sign still remained intact, black cursive writing set against a pale background revealing the farm’s name as the Shimmermist Farm. To the west of the barn, closer to our current position, a single tower stood, short, thin, and made of simple steel bars. But as we drew steadily closer, I could make out something else at the tip of the tower, looking to be some sort of mechanical array built into the metalwork. “So this is the place?” I asked over to Archer.

“Yeah, this is the place.” came his focused response. “When we get there, you’re going to need to be careful where you step. Like I said, I never went in closer than three hundred yards to the place when I first found it, but that haze you see there is irradiated.”

“Radiation? What’s causing it?” I inquired, squinting my eyes to peer closer.

“Just filth water and muck.” he answered. “The farm probably had a fair share of livestock that died here when the radiation from the balefire missiles spread to the region after the Last Day. That, and any liquid product, animal medicine, fertilizer - any of that might be a source, though I really can’t say with any kind of expert opinion. Still, just be careful where you walk, and keep an eye on that geiger counter of yours.”

I nodded in understanding. “Right… what about that tower there?” I asked, pointing ahead for Archer to see. “What is that?”

“Hm… judging by the antennae, it looks like it might be some sort of radio tower.” he observed. “I’ll need a closer look at it to tell for sure.” As we made our approach, Archer begun to lower his altitude and tilt to bank away to the left. Copying his move, I adjusted my wings for the drop and followed him in as we came upon the farm’s old fields, eventually falling into a straight dive towards the surface. As we drew even closer, I could pick out the scattered remains of what had once been a wooden fence, only spaced sections of it still standing to mark the large perimeter that was once the cropland belonging to the farm. But despite the large plot of former farmland, there was not even an ounce of plant life here, not even the dried and dead grass that tended to dot the rest of the region; perhaps it was a result of the radiation that lingered around the farm.

Suddenly, through the sound of the wind, I heard as my pipbuck gave a chirp. But the bleep was followed by another sound - the brief yet clear buzzing of static, making my ears perk up at the new sound. “Hey, hold up a second!” I called ahead, fanning out my wings full to halt my momentum and bring me to a hover. Below, Archer brought himself to a stop as well, turning in the air to look at me as I raised my pipbuck to my eye level.

“What is it?”

My computer had flicked over to its radio screen, the bright L alight with activity as it detected and measured the strength of an incoming transmission. On the top left of the screen, just below where the channel list showed the Stable 181 Security Channel in dark letters (showing that I was far out of range), another signal had come up, this one labeled in bright white letters as Radio Signal Oscar Tango, Channel 1790. “My pipbuck’s detecting a radio transmission.” I answered, looking down at the farmhouse below. “I think you’re right about that tower.”

Beating back up, Archer drew level with me and hovered in beside me. “Can you hear anything?”

To his question I pressed a hoof to the appropriate key on the terminal’s frame, tuning in to the signal; my speaker only projected a steady stream of static. “No. No good.”

“We’ll have to get closer to the tower to hear it then.” Archer replied, turning his attention to the farm below. “Right now we’re about a half mile away. I figure we can land about a hundred yards or so north of the farm and be able to hear it.”

“You’d think that the signal would be stronger.” I observed, turning off the radio and lowering my pipbuck away.

“Not necessarily. If that tower’s deteriorated enough over the years, then the signal will be weakened. Each of those antennae boosts the signal. Lose one and it loses strength.” Archer explained. “But I’m also seeing some movement around the site… I’d have to say that it’s probably feral ghouls with all that radiation around there. Follow my lead. I’ve got a plan.”

As Archer veered to a northerly direction and continued to drop towards the surface, I banked down as I flew after him, looking to my right to analyze the farm, now much closer. Yet through the cloud surrounding the actual farmhouse, I couldn’t see anything that presented a threat. We were flying by the site from the west, currently putting about two hundred yards between us and the farm… but when a break in that haze presented itself as we begun to veer right, I could just make out a pony shape by the house itself, head bowed and standing motionless in the smog; if it wasn’t a ghoul, then I didn’t know who would’ve been crazy enough to be standing in an irradiated zone like that. “What’s your plan, Archer?” I called, facing eyes forward.

“I want to scout out the farm and see how many hostiles are there, and then hopefully, we’ll be able to take them all out without any trouble.” he answered as he led. “After that, we can listen to that broadcast, and look in the house and the barn to see if there’s anything that might prove a connection between the farm and Mother Shimmer.”

“I hope we won’t find too many of those ferals. There’s bound to be more than just a few.”

“Don’t worry. That’s what the sniper rifles are for.” came Archer’s confident answer to my concern, briefly craning his head around to look back at me as he added, “You’ll be able to put your skills behind a scope to some use here, and I’ll help you out if you need it.” At my small nod, he faced forward again, gesturing shortly after to a position just ahead and to our right. “Let’s land over by that rise in the ground there and get set up. It’ll give us a good field of fire on any targets around the buildings. Follow me in.”

Winging forward, I copied Archer’s flight path as we passed into the north side of the farm and came in for a landing. Now fully lowering our altitude to just above the ground, still drawing closer to the farm itself, I could clearly make out some of the finer details of the site. The first thing I noticed was that the radioactive haze was emitting from multiple spots on the ground, around a dozen shallow pits and ditches that contained… well, only Celestia knew what. These were spaced all about the farmhouse and even beyond it, and I could now see at least four targets close together out around the house, with two others shambling around the barn and another standing by the metal tower; my guess was that there were more hiding within the toxic clouds themselves.

Up ahead, Archer slowed and back-winged to land solidly upon the ground, tucking his wings back against his sides as I hovered in beside him to land on my own hooves. Now on the ground, I could see why Archer had chosen this location, because while we stood at the top of only a very slight incline, it still presented an adequate height to provide us with the high ground, bringing with it a full view of the farm’s yards behind the wreck of its old fence. “Alright,” To my right, Archer was looking out at the yard, eyes scanning left and right with calm concentration. “go ahead and get your rifle out and set up right about there where you’re standing. I’ll set up next to you.”

Craning his head around, Archer bit down on the stock of his larger rifle and pulled it free of its place on his armor to set it in front of him, whereupon he laid upon the ground on his belly to ready his weapon and its attached bipod. With no time to lose, I did the same, reaching around to pull Blue Fire’s Torch from its straps before setting it on the ground in front of me. The rifle was already loaded with a full magazine, one round already in the chamber, and stepping into position, I lay down on my belly at Archer’s left side, tucking my rifle up under my foreleg to pull back the folded bipod under the barrel. Like back in Hopeville during my first combat scenario with the Torch, the bipod swung down and snapped closed perpendicular to the barrel, and I remembered the two legs of the attachment, reaching forward to separate and guide them into their locked positions to complete the bipod’s assembly.

“How many times have you used that thing?” Archer asked as I set the rifle’s bipod firmly into the dirt.

I scooted back to align the rifle butt with my shoulder. “Only once.” I answered, brief as I raised a hoof to switch the safety lever just in front of the stock to the off position.

“Have you scored any kills with it?” came his next question, to which for a moment, I didn’t answer as I pulled the Torch back, tucking the rifle butt firmly into my shoulder as I finally situated myself into a proper prone firing position. When I looked over at the pegasus stallion, I saw that he had already set up his own weapon’s bipod, and was now loading a large box magazine into the bottom of the Longbow. With a low and solid click, the magazine holding the much larger fifty caliber rounds locked into its place. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” he added, lower and more sensitive as his eyes met mine. “I understand if it might be a more personal question.”

“No, no. You’re okay.” I assured him, giving him a small smile. “Just one kill, one injury. Both of them were Talon soldiers who attacked my home.” Looking back ahead at the farm, memories of that battle in Hopeville faintly resurfacing, I added, “It still feels kind of different doing the work behind a scope though. You know?”

“I hear you. It takes a lot of getting used to.” Archer responded. “I guess I was just asking that to make sure that you know, for our present purposes, to make sure that you don’t hesitate. Remember that we’re only dealing with feral ghouls here. I know you’ve had a run-in with them before.”

“Yes. I promise, you won’t have to worry about that from me.” Focusing ahead, I took in a long breath and exhaled, lowering my muzzle down to the firing bit.

“Alright.” Beside me, I heard as Archer pulled back his rifle’s cocking handle, then letting it snap forward to load his first cartridge into the chamber. “Take aim, and let’s see what we got over there.”

Taking the firing bit in my mouth, I brought my right eye to the scope’s rubber eyepiece, peering ahead through the red crosshairs straight at the farmhouse. Haze greeted the scope lens first, the brown cloud emerging in a lingering and unending plume from the mucky pit of its origin. But through the scope’s magnification, I could now clearly see the corpse-like feral ghouls that stumbled about the premises, some pawing at the dry earth beneath them, and others mindlessly standing and staring… with eyes long dead and emotionless. “I’m seeing a total of nine ghoul.” Archer spoke up beside me. “There’s four by the house, one by the radio tower, two to the barn’s right side, and two more inside the barn itself.”

“Yes…” I could see the ghouls that Archer had indicated, all of them thankfully oblivious to our presence. “I see them. Should we take them out?”

“Yeah. When you’re ready, pick a target.” he replied. “I’ll wait for you to take the first shot.”

“Alright. I’ll take the one by the radio tower.” Swiveling the Torch on its bipod, I adjusted my position and swung the crosshairs onto my chosen target. The decayed pony was staring vacantly ahead at the base crossbeam of the radio tower’s foundation, head occasionally cocking from one side or the other as if it found something interesting written into the metal.

“On you.”

The ghoul’s back was turned to me, standing straight and presenting the back of its head to me for a perfect killing shot. Then, I squeezed my jaw on the bit, taking the shot, and with a sharp crack of sound, the feral dropped dead as the bullet punched through its skull.

BOOM!!!

Archer’s rifle fired off right after mine, with a painful blast of sound that echoed louder on the air and a force that kicked up a wisp of dust into my view. I saw the impact of the shot as it hit a second ghoul, blowing its head clean off in a shower of rotten goop as the corpse toppled to the ground. Right away, the seven remaining ghouls begun to howl, hiss, and scream at the disturbance, hectically looking left and right for the source as I brought my crosshairs over the third ghoul. Even before I lined up my second shot, Archer’s .50 erupted again, stinging at my ears as another bullet smashed into the brainpan of one of the ghouls by the house. But I kept my focus as the remaining ferals begun to move, galloping every which way as they searched for their attackers. For a moment, I lost my second target as the creature ran for the radio tower, but I quickly brought the ghoul back into my sights as it stopped to look over its dead companion where it lay.

BLAM!

My second shot struck the ghoul square in the side of the head, splattering the metalwork with flecks of gunky blood and gore. Then, a third shot from Archer’s .50 sliced through the air, drawing my attention to the barn as I swiveled the Torch back around. He had killed the fifth ghoul of the cluster, but I saw with a jolt of shock as the four remaining ghouls charged away from the barn, directly towards our position; they’d seen us!

“Archer, they’re coming right at us!” I called urgently.

“Don’t panic!” came his response. “Stay focused on guiding your crosshairs to your targets, and pick them off before they reach us! One shot, one kill!”

The urge to at least stand and bring my battle saddle into play was tugging hard at my mental strings, but still, I kept my eye glued to the scope and brought my crosshairs down to follow the ghouls’ paths as they drew closer. They were running straight for us, not attempting to weave or jump from side to side, making it easier to bring the sights to my next target. In unison we fired, and two more ghouls dropped, one from a headshot while my third target toppled to the ground from a shot to the chest. That left two more ghouls as they drew in no more than forty yards away, their gurgling howls racing to my ears as I quickly sighted in my next shot. Archer’s next round blasted out first, catching his fifth target right in between the eyes. Then, as the last ghoul came to twenty yards in front of me, it’s hideously corroded face nearly taking up my entire scope, I chomped down on the bit. The bullet struck right through the ghoul’s upper jaw, exiting through the back of its head in a spray of black as it tumbled to the ground, then lying motionless as the last dead member of the pack.

For a moment, silence lingered in the wake of my shot’s echo, even my breath holding back as I let the crosshairs linger on my latest kill. Then, “Clear… nice shooting.” Archer’s words of commendation let me exhale as I drew my eye off of the Torch’s scope. Looking over at my teammate, I saw him looking back at me with a small smile, giving a nod as he caught my attention. “I’m glad you stuck with your scope, as I’m sure you now understand, sniping has its moments. Sure, there’ll be times where you’re caught in a situation that requires you to be moving and shooting at the same time, but I prefer to use precision whenever I can make the situation call for it.”

“You were a really good shot there yourself, you know.” I complimented back in reply. “I don’t think I saw you hit anything other than the head.”

The pegasus buck chuckled. “Well, with everything I’ve done for Buckley over the years, I’ve had a lot of practice.” Pushing his rifle aside, Archer rose up to his hooves before compacting the bipod and picking up the rifle stock in his mouth, swinging the weapon around over his back and securing it to its place on his armor. Following his move, I rose to all fours again, taking a quick moment to brush off the dust on my kevlar vest before folding up my rifle’s bipod and returning the weapon to its own place on my back. “Just out of curiosity, Nova, do you have any other clips for that rifle? I only saw you set up with one clip.”

I looked back over to Archer, cocking an eyebrow at his question. “Of course I do. They’re in my saddlebags.” I answered. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, just looking over your armor, I’d recommend that you look into getting an ammo sash for your extra clips, or at least getting some pockets for your kevlar vest.” he explained. “They’d make it a lot easier to reach for a new magazine when you’ve got to reload, and that might just make all the difference if you find yourself sniping again. Just a little tip for future reference.”

Looking over my armor, was he? Was that all? “Hm… I never thought of that.” I replied to him, keeping the sudden materialization of my less appropriate thoughts in silence; where’d they come from anyway, seriously? “I got this armor from Hopeville’s leader, since he was insistent that I wear armor for my trip to Buckley. The vest itself is adequate protection… but I was just so used to autoloaders and using my battle saddle that I didn’t think about extra pockets for the Torch. I don’t really use it too much… but still, you’re probably right.”

“Understandable. But just remember that for firearms by themselves, without a saddle, you always want your ammo to be as easily accessible as possible, like your sidearm there and the little belt you have for your clips.” he explained. “Just an observation.”

Well, he could observe all he wanted to… okay, moving on.

I gave a nod as I turned back to the farmhouse. “I get it.” Pausing, I lifted my pipbuck and reactivated my radio, once again bringing to life the static of the farm’s radio tower channel. “Ready to head in?”

“Yeah. Let’s see what we can find.” Motioning with a hoof for me to follow, Archer took off towards the farm at a solid trot that I quickly copied. But not even a few steps in, and a change in the level of static on my radio speaker caught my ears. It was becoming thinner, less noisy as we advanced… but then…

A stallion’s voice…

“can hear me, this is Lance Corporal Macon broadcasting on all frequencies.”

“Hey. Archer, are you hearing this?”

He was already looking back at me, the both of us coming to a stop as I brought my startled eyes to my pipbuck screen. “Let it play.”

The message continued with, “My family and I have taken refuge in an emergency cellar due east of Buckley Air Force Base, and due northwest of Ashton.” The stallion in the broadcast sounded middle-aged, perhaps around the same age as Shore’s father, or Melody’s. But the tone of his voice… he sounded tired, weakened. “We have enough food and water to last us for a little while yet, but we don’t have any medicine of our own.” There was another pause in the message here, the stallion letting out a light sigh. “My daughter is very sick with a heart condition and needs urgent medical assistance. If you’re hearing this message, please come help us if you can. Look for our farm, Shimmermist, with its name written on a large signboard…… we’re listening for any response, tune channel one seven nine zero to reply… Message repeats.” And so the message played once again from the beginning. “If anypony out there can hear me, this is Lance Corporal Macon broadcasting on all frequencies.”

I looked back toward the farm again, searching for anything that might resemble an entrance to this emergency cellar; I couldn’t see anything yet. “Is somepony in there?”

Archer turned back to pick up his pace again. “I’m not sure… but we can find out. Come on.”

Continuing forward, I drew up beside Archer as we proceeded past the fence and into the farm’s backyard. Crossing the perimeter caused my pipbuck to bleep once again, but this time, as I stopped to look, the computer’s larger map was displayed, having created a new icon that read Relay Tower KX-B8-11 even as the distress message emitting from it continued to play on my speaker. Without a word, I lowered my leg and hurried to catch up to Archer, who stopped just in front of the first of the radioactive pools; when I drew up beside him, my pip buck’s geiger counter begun to tick.

“How bad?” he asked.

After checking my pipbuck, “Only one rad per second. I guess these pits aren’t too lethal.” Still, that didn’t keep me from grimacing at the disgusting brown and green muck that gurgled and bubbled within.

“Before we leave, remind me to get some Rad-Away for the both of us.” he said, nudging my side with a hoof. “I always keep a couple of pouches on me for emergencies.” At my nod, he turned to the house. “I’m going to look over the house and see if there’s anything still intact. Would you mind checking out the barn? We can meet back in the yard when we’re done.”

“Sure. Be careful, though. E.F.S. isn’t reading any other hostiles around here, but some more ghouls might be in that house.” I warned.

“I’ve got it.”

With that, we went our separate ways for the time being, and I skirted around the first pool of radioactive goop, drawing far enough away from it and the others that the ticking ceased. The barn was just ahead, the wooden beams of the framework already working towards deteriorating to the point of collapse. What had been a set of large double doors lay on the ground before me, their large rusted hinges still attached to the frame, yet lacking any bolts or nails. The entrance was simply a wide gap left behind from their collapse, and inside the barn itself, already visible due to the lack of wall boards, was entirely empty, with only the framework of what had once been animal stalls remaining… but then I saw…

Another chirp drew my attention to my pipbuck, and I halted to look over the terminal. Again, it had displayed another icon on my map, this one sitting right next to the relay tower marker and labeled as Shimmermist Barn Cellar.

I looked back up to the entrance of the barn, my eyes drawn to the back of the crumbling structure. Whether it had been because of the near collapse of the old building, or because of some quirk in the system, my pipbuck had not discovered and mapped out the barn itself, but rather the rusty pair of iron doors fixed into the debris-covered wooden floor. “My daughter is very sick with a heart condition and needs urgent medical assistance. If you’re hearing this message, please come help us if you can.” The message was on its fourth loop now, the tired stallion still broadcasting his plea for aid. By now, the static had disappeared down to a very dull buzz, allowing for the voice to project much more clearly through my radio. And as I stepped into the barn itself, even my light step creaking the ancient floorboards, the signal continued to grow in strength and clarity; it had to be coming from the cellar itself… the stallion had to be in there, and his family.

Cautiously, I approached the cellar doors and glanced them over. They had hoof-sized handles built into the metal, likely intended for earth pony use, and neither of them looked to be locked or bolted down. Slowly, I hooked my right foreleg around the handle and gave a short tug. Though the hatch budged, there was resistance from the rust that had accumulated on its edges. Still, I adjusted myself, still keeping my grip on the handle before I tried again with a sharper pull. Again, the door moved, but didn’t come open… then I tried one last time, and with a grunt, I yanked on the handle, the hatch finally coming open. With a groan, the door swung up and back fully on its hinges, and I let it come to rest on the ground before peering inside the cellar. A dark entryway greeted me, ratty wooden steps descending down into the cellar itself.

“We have enough food and water to last us for a little while yet, but we don’t have any medicine of our own.”

Raising my pipbuck again, I looked among the numerous buttons along the frame, finding and pushing down on the button that brought my lamp to life. As bright as any candle, the lamp showed me the full expanse of the entrance hall as I shined the light inside. It was a short descent to the bottom of the cellar, only ten steps leading to the dirt floor below them. “Hello? Is anypony in there?” My voice was met with no reply when I called into the cellar, making me raise my pipbuck to check over the E.F.S.; there were no friendly or hostile contacts inside.

Ears alert, I stepped inside the cellar, past the one closed door and onto the first steps. I could feel the boards bend underhoof, the worn nails and screws barely keeping the constructed staircase intact as I descended. Thankfully, there were no incidents as I passed the stairs, stepping hoof onto solid dirt again. Now, my lamp illuminated a single chamber, a homemade shelter with stone walls and a ceiling of wooden crossbeams with iron reinforcements; the room carried multiple signs of desertion. Dust had accumulated thickly within the cellar, lingering in the air and coating the furniture and other items inside. At the center of the shelter, a single wooden table, aged and fragile, stood on six legs. Atop it was an array of empty and bent tin cans, small and crumpled up cardboard boxes, and vacant plastic bottles, all the remnants of what had once held pre-war preserved food and drink. To the right, along the wall, were three sets of iron shelving units with an assortment of damaged mechanical parts, old tools, scrap metal, and other miscellaneous items. Against the left wall, the only item on that side of the chamber, was a single metal hooflocker, bereft of items and likewise dust-coated with a completely detached lid sitting on the floor in front of it. At the back of the cellar, I spotted a pair of large cots resting on frames bolted into the stonework, the beds largely useable aside from the accumulated dirt and dust. Atop the highest one was the remains of a pistol, stripped of most of the interior parts, sitting next to an overturned and looted ammunition box.

The room was otherwise very empty, with no visible trace of occupation… no sign of any wastelander who may have been hiding out here and broadcasting the message still cycling through on my pipbuck. But this left behind questions, making me curious as to just why this looping message was playing with nopony around. As I walked into the room itself, passing between the old wooden table and the broken hooflocker, I begun to think of just who might’ve been hiding here. Travelers, perhaps… lost on their way to Challenger?… Raiders… trying to trick ponies into coming into their lair? The latter thought made me pause in my stride, tension beginning to well in my belly. But then, as I lowered my poised foreleg to the floor, I felt as it brushed against something solid… and flaky.

What I saw sent a bolt of shock through me, drawing a sharp gasp from my throat as I hurriedly stepped back and away, bumping into the side of the table with my flank, several of the discarded food containers clattering to the floor, before I finally snapped to a stop… wide eyes glued to the floor.

Two pony skeletons, stripped entirely of flesh and cloth, lay side by side before the cots. Their bare bones had become sensitive and brittle to the touch and were likewise coated with dust, just like the furniture around them. As I took a step forward, looking more closely as my eyes softened after the passing of my initial scare, I noticed that their skulls touched together at their muzzles, the bones of their forelegs intertwined where they lay, and…… “Oh my Goddesses…” Ears pinning back, I raised a forehoof over my muzzle as I spotted the final accessory of the room. Just in front of the skeletons’ heads, nearly tucked away and hidden underneath the bottom cot, was a rectangular metal device, about half as long as my foreleg. A small microphone on a flat pedestal was connected to the main device by a cable, and on the right side of the device, a speaker box sat silent. And finally, amidst a series of large knobs, dials, and buttons, a yellow light glowed dimly on the front of the main device, illuminating a red arrow that sat over a number… 1790. It was a communications radio, still actively broadcasting and awaiting any form of response to its repeating distress message; these skeletons, whoever they had once been, had been trying to broadcast for help, using this device to talk to the outside world while the relay tower outside amplified the message… which had been on a loop ever since their deaths.

“Nova, are you down there? You okay?”

Archer’s voice drifted down from the entrance of the cellar as I stood staring at that radio, and the skeletons that lay in front of it. The message was on its… well, I lost track of how many times it had played up to this point, but as Lance Corporal Macon announced his name through my pipbuck speaker once again, I raised the computer to eye level and nosed the button to shut down my pipbuck’s radio, blocking out the distress message. Before I turned to join Archer once again outside, I passed one more look around at the active radio as thoughts pieced themselves together into a plan of action; I’d go see what Archer needed now, but if I had my way about it, I’d be coming back to this cellar one more time.

For now, I crammed the image of those skeletons to the back of my head, calling back up, “Yeah, Archer. I’m alright.”

When I made my way to the exit, I found the steel-blue pegasus pulling open the remaining door, swinging it fully open just as I begun to ascend the stairs. “Find anything down there?”

“A radio of some kind.” I replied, gladly remerging into the cleaner air. “It’s the source of the distress message.”

Archer gave a nod, peering back down into the cellar. “A HAM radio probably… find anything else in there?”

“A couple skeletons.” I answered him lowly, turning off my pipbuck light. “Two of them.”

“Just two?” I looked back at the pegasus, giving a short nod. “I think I might know who they were.” Turning around and trotting away out of the barn, he called back, “I found a terminal in the farmhouse’s second floor, and I looked through some intact video logs on its system.”

I walked on out after him as he stopped outside the barn’s collapsed double doors. “And?”

Slowly, a sad smile formed on his face as he fanned out his wings, motioning towards the house. “You’ll just have to see them.”

Oh…

Spreading my wings, I took off side by side with Archer, and we made the short flight to the farmhouse itself, collecting a miniscule dose of the radiation that hung in the air above the property. Unlike the barn, the house was largely intact, and aside from the natural wear and tear - peeled paint, chipped wood, and missing roof tiles – it actually seemed rather sturdy. But like the barn and the radio tower, my pipbuck designated the house on my larger map, and as Archer slipped in through an open second-story window on the house’s north face, I glanced long enough at my screen to see the name it had given - Shimmermist Farm.

Facing ahead, I carefully glided into the house through the open window, landing inside what appeared to have once been a bedroom of considerable size. However, like the cellar, most everything of any value had long since disappeared. Placed within the room’s four cracked and crumbling walls, a large bed frame, devoid of a mattress, sat next to me, tucked against the farther corner of the room from the open doorway at the southeast end of the room. An old three-drawer dresser sat on its side along the west wall close to the bed, cracked and emptied of all of its contents. At the opposite end of the room, leaning against the middle of the east wall, a large nightstand with the oval frame of what had once been a mirror leaned precariously to the left, one of its four moderately long legs having snapped clean off. At the south wall, an integrated closet unit, likewise completely empty, sat with its shutter doors open, one of the two having fallen off one of its twin hinges. But between the closet and the bedroom entrance, an intact metal desk with a single closed drawer held atop it a familiar box-like computer, the silver frame built with two steel bars, one on each side, resembling mouth bits for carrying, and the screen flickering the same green hue as the others I had come across before. Along with the terminal, I also saw a heavy steel safe sitting underneath the desk itself, the solid teal light on the front door showing that the safe was indeed still locked… and given the presence of at least a dozen broken bobby pins scattered around at its base, it was right to assume that the safe was a tough one to pick open.

Archer was already at the terminal, briefly typing away at its built-in keyboard before stepping aside, motioning for me to join him by the desk. “I pulled up the list of saved video files.” he explained as I approached. “Most of them are corrupt, but there’s still two recordings that are accessible.”

Stopping before the terminal screen, my eyes scanned over the display of words. According to the terminal, there was a total of twenty-two video logs that had been recorded onto its memory. Of them, only logs one and twenty were available, the others displayed with the word corrupt at the end of their titles; a blinking cursor hovered over the first video log. “You said that you saw these videos already?” I asked, sitting down on my haunches as Archer gave a nod. “What exactly are they?”

To this, Archer reached over and tapped a key with his left forehoof, accessing the first video. “Proof.”

The screen briefly went dark at the strike of the key, then swapping out for a hazy hue of grey. Then, I found myself face to face with a fit and handsome vanilla-colored earth pony stallion with a dark orange mane and tail, his image hardly blemished by the light visual static that came from the aged computer. Behind the buck was the bedroom window, a square of solid and untainted blue visible through the clear shining light that was the sun, and all around him was the same bedroom that Archer and I now sat in. Except in the video image I saw, the bed contained a plush mattress, the mirror on the nightstand was polished and gleaming, the dresser was intact, and the walls were clean and cared for.

This was not the wasteland… not at all.

The stallion’s brown eyes flicked up, momentarily eyeing something above the desk before he faced me once more, his forelegs sliding off of the table as he cleared his throat. “This is Lance Corporal Macon, Marefax Third Battalion, Bravo Company.” he began, speaking slow as he looked me in the eyes. “I-”

“Macon.” A giggle suddenly sounded through the video feed, causing the stallion to look to his left as a mare entered the bedroom. She was likewise an earth pony, her coat a shiny copper and her mane and tail a brilliant sapphire, her emerald eyes carrying with them a loving look as, with an amused smile, she said, “You don’t have to say that kind of stuff anymore, remember?”

“Yes, dear… old habit.” Macon replied, watching as the mare stopped by the nightstand and looked herself over in the mirror. “I’m just testing out this camera hardware we got from the Lightning Brothers in Marefax. I guess it’s working alright.”

To this, the mare looked away from the mirror and walked up behind Macon, gently wrapping her forelegs around his neck and resting the side of her head against his own; the both of them now faced the camera. “I know. But I also know that you’re having a hard time leaving the war behind you.” she tenderly retorted, nuzzling along the side of the stallion’s face.

Macon, however, only frowned. “Well… when you’ve seen things like the Battle of Hayward, or Operation Harvest Moon… it gets a little difficult to put it all behind you. Sometimes I don’t know if I can at all.”

“I did.” the mare softly countered, leaning forward to try and make eye contact with the reminiscing stallion. “And you and I were in the same battles together. I have every confidence that you can, just like me. That determination you have is one of the main reasons why I married you in the first place.”

Macon let out a short laugh, finally turning to the concerned mare, his wife. “I am trying, Misty. I really am.” he said after an exhale, ears pinning slightly back before the copper mare leaned forward, pressing her lips against his as they locked together into a loving kiss.

When she broke her embrace, Misty released her hold around Macon’s neck and returned to all fours, holding that same smile as she said, “You’ll get there with some more time.”

“Well, at least for now, I don’t have a choice.” Macon responded with a chuckle. “Those watermelons aren’t going to pick themselves… and the crops really do a good job of taking my mind off of certain things.”

Sharing in his light laughter, Misty trotted over to the bedroom window, looking out over what must’ve been their vast plot of cropland. “Did you ever think that we would eventually come to own all this?” she asked. “Two ponies, born and raised in Manehattan, brought together in the fires of war, purchasing their own farm to live on together?”

“To be honest, no I didn’t.” Macon replied, craning his head around to face his wife once again. “I figured that if I’d returned at all, I’d either end up in a hospital learning how to walk again, or I’d be back in Manehattan working in that old police station.” At his words, Misty looked back over her shoulder and smiled once again. “I’m kind of glad that I managed to keep my limbs and follow your advice at the same time.”

“I’d like to think that I made the right call once we left Hayward. After all, eight years in the service is a good chunk of time, and the southeast is becoming a refuge for Equestrian veterans.”

To this, Macon nodded, looking back at the camera. “I can’t argue with you there. Most every day I go out to Ashton or Plainwell, I see more familiar faces, even some from what’s left of the battalion.”

“I think the region’s doing its best to stay out of the thick of the war.” came Misty’s reply. “I know that we’ll be seeing officers on our doorstep now that the harvest is around, looking for their cut of the product for the stallions and mares on the frontlines, but that much I’m willing to do.”

“And I think that the region’s doing more than its part because of the supply of food that comes from it to feed the troops.” Macon added, rising to all fours and walking away from the active camera to join his wife by the window. “Other than that, I think the region deserves to stay out of the fighting. Besides, the peace and quiet of the southeast is what makes it the perfect place to bring our little miracle into the world.”

Miracle?… Oh…

The silence between the two lovers in the recording spoke all the words I needed to understand, as Macon raised his right forehoof to touch against Misty’s belly… her very large belly…… Misty was pregnant.

For a moment, the two only shared a loving nuzzle, the soon-to-be mother leaning her head against her husband’s neck afterwards. Then, “What do you think, Misty?” Macon’s question carried open curiosity upon its words, but was laced with a tone of happy anticipation. “Colt or filly?”

“Oh, I don’t know… but not knowing is one of the most exciting parts about the whole thing.” Misty answered, smiling all the while. “I do know that I really don’t have a preference between a son or a daughter. The fact that I’m going to be a mother soon, and that you’re going to be a father, makes me happy enough. But I think I’ve come up with a name for each gender, just so that we might be ready when the time comes.”

The two looked eye to eye, still leaning against each other. “Yeah?”

Misty nodded at her husband. “Yes. Should we have a son, I like the name Forge. I think that a name like that represents a strong heart, great courage and skill, and unfaltering determination, just like his father.”

Macon chuckled at that, giving a nod as the two bumped their muzzles together again. “I’ll think that one over. But what if we have a daughter?” he inquired, nuzzling along the copper mare’s neck. “What characteristics would she have that are alike to her beautiful mother?”

“Well,” Misty spoke thoughtfully. “if we have a daughter, I think that her name should be one that resembles caring and compassion, a name that speaks of helping others through the good deeds of a kind heart and an intelligent mind. For a daughter, I want her to be Shimmer.”

Shimmer……

“I like the sound of those. They make excellent naming possibilities for the farm, too.” Macon replied, approving without pause as Misty let out a light laugh. “I’m serious. Some farms out there have been named after specific members of the family that it belongs to, and even others are named after things like family icons and prized possessions, like the Shamrock Farm or the Searchlight Farm or the White Mane Dairy Farm. While we bought our farm together and raise it together, live on it together, I plan on bestowing it a name dedicated to both you and our future child, my two greatest gifts in life.”

“And you’ve already come up with two names?” Misty asked amusedly, shaking her head slightly against her husband’s shoulder.

“For a son, I can see… Mistfire Farm, a symbol of strength just like the name Forge.” came Macon’s thoughtful answer. “I like that one. And for a daughter… something that speaks beauty… Shimmermist Farm.” Misty let out a giggle, shaking her head, but with no sign of displeasure.

The pieces clicked together.

But then, my senses returned to the present as I caught sight of Archer’s hoof, pressing down on a key that stopped the video feed and returned the computer display to the flickering green of the main menu. Slowly, I turned to my wingmate, the stallion already staring back at me with a knowing look; there was no second-guessing what we had just seen.

“I guess the commander’s hunch was right.” Archer spoke, to which I nodded.

“What about that other video?” I asked after a moment of silence, turning back to face the computer screen again.

Wordlessly, Archer reached over once more, scrolling the cursor down the list of corrupted video logs until he came across the second and final accessible log, then pressing the key to play it. Like before, green faded to black, and black turned to grey. Then, a new face appeared on the monitor, a face with wide blue eyes that belonged to a young blue-grey colt with a two-toned grey mane and tail. The child stared right into the camera with a mix of hesitation and curiosity, silent as he observed the recorder. But then, his eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement before he called, “This doohickey is plum confusin!… Whadya do with it?”

The colt’s accent immediately reminded me of Auburn from Challenger, the energetic caravan guard recruiter mare I had met back when I had stayed in that city; they actually sounded very alike, if my memory served right.

“It records everything you say and do once you push that button. That’s all, child.” The voice that met the baffled little colt in response was the exact opposite. The mare’s words were smooth, voice clear and silky with its tone amused, yet warm and friendly.

“That’s it?” The colt didn’t sound so much disappointed as he did perplexed, as if he were expecting it to explode into a spectacular blast of confetti like some sort of instant party cannon instead of simply sitting there and recording what it saw. “Ah think city folk make some weird gizmos.”

“You sound just like your father.” the hidden mare replied, lightly laughing as her voice grew slowly louder. “While that might be true, those gizmos are a part of our ever-changing world. Like my parents have been saying, ponies have been rapidly developing new machines and devices ever since the middle of the war, from the mundane to the advanced. It’s hard to escape the spread of modern technology nowadays, even in farm country.”

“Muh pa’s been sayin the same stuff.” the colt remarked, trotting away and exiting the camera frame as the device continued to record. “He said that Equestria’ll be forever changed once this tussle with the zebras is over.”

As silence took over the video, the camera now recording the entirety of the bedroom, I took note again of the blue and white beyond the closed window. The curtains were drawn back to let in that same pure sunlight to illuminate the chamber through the clean glass, showing clearly just how tidy and cared for this room was; it made me want to see what the rest of the house had once looked like.

But then, the colt remerged into the camera feed, about-facing to stare back at the bedroom entrance where a young mare came into view. Though she stopped partway into the screen, only her head, chest, and forelegs visible, I could still clearly see all of her colors as she swiveled her head to the camera. The mare’s coat was gold in color, striking when compared with her flowing sapphire mane and her green eyes, colored like polished emeralds; this mare was, in all honesty, very pretty.

“Is it true that the war’s been goin on fer nineteen years?”

At the colt’s question, the newcomer mare’s eyes briefly widened in surprise before she turned to her young friend. “Aren’t you a little young to be asking questions like that?”

“No!” the colt defiantly answered; I saw the mare crack a smile at his stubbornness. “Ah’m a young a-dult!”

“Indeed you are, child.” the mare agreed with a giggle.

“Ah read them newspapers that we get on the farm with ma an pa.” the young pony continued, bolstering his own defense. “The Hopeville Press place’s always talkin bout the war, so Ah know a little bit bout it.”

At this, the mare’s face dropped into a thin frown. “Yes, I know they are…… The truth is that the war really has been going on for nineteen years now. But from the sound of things, Equestria’s coming out on top with the technology it’s been putting out. Maybe this thing will end soon.”

“Ah hope it don’t end before I grow up.” the colt strongly voiced. “I wanna be able ta be a soldier like muh pa was!”

“You want to be a soldier when you grow up?” the mare asked, lowering her head down to the colt’s eye level. At the young one’s vigorous nodding, she said, “Well, I think that the new Equestria’s going to need every soldier it can get for a long time once the war passes by. Once you grow up and become big and strong, I think that you’ll have your time to wear one of those uniforms.”

“Ya really think so, Shimmer?” the colt asked, a broad and rather adorable smile spreading across his face.

The golden mare, Shimmer, gave a nod. “I think so, young one.”

Now glowing with pride, the colt proceeded to prance happily about the bedroom, transitioning into a goofy sort of march before he completed one full circuit around the room, stopping at his former place in front of Shimmer. “Hey, why d’ya keep callin me stuff like ‘young one’ an ‘child’ an… stuff?” he then asked, smile swapping to a look of genuine curiosity. “Besides, Ah already told ya that Ah’m a young a-dult.”

“You might be a young adult, but like it or no, I’m still older than you are.” Shimmer answered warmly. “Besides, you’re not the only one I call things like ‘child’ or ‘younger’ or ‘young one’. I call Sadia that, too, and every other foal I take care of. It’s grown into a habit of mine over the past couple of years.”

“But that’s like old pony stuff.” the colt remarked, cocking an eyebrow. “You ain’t that old.”

“Ha! Oh no, words like ‘younger’ are not just for old ponies, Trent.” Shimmer countered. “I see them as the words of a guardian, which is like what a foalsitter is, second only to parents and relatives. Since I care for ponies like you and Sadia when your parents are out on longer errands, I feel that those words are a proper and respectful address.”

To this, the colt raised a forehoof to his chin, humming in thought before he merely shrugged. “Well, if y’all say so. Ah actually kinda like it. It sounds like somethin muh ma would say.”

All of a sudden, the camera begun to vibrate, the image shaking lightly yet rapidly, and in unison with Shimmer and the colt with her, my attention was drawn to the window as rapidly brightening sunlight glowed at the top of my vision. For only a moment the light lingered, nearly blinding in brightness before it faded away… only to be replaced with a light yet bone-chilling shade of green. That color remained at the window, blanketing the outside world in its hue as the camera continued to shake. And outside the room, my ears could just make out a steady rumbling within the camera feed.

“S-Shimmer… what is that?” the colt nervously asked, the gold mare herself likewise glued to the floor. “Why’s the house shakin?”

“I’m… I’m not sure.” came her hesitant reply.

“SHIMMER, TRENT, GET DOWN HERE NOW!!”

The shouting and urgent voice was instantly recognizable as Macon, the stallion calling up from farther away into the farmhouse. “Dad?? What’s happening?? What’s that green light??” Shimmer demanded, her own voice now tinged with swiftly accelerating anxiety.

“A balefire weapon just went off to the southeast! Gather up Trent and Sadia! We’re going to the shelter, right now!”

“Oh Goddesses… come on Trent, we have to go!” A look of dread materialized on Shimmer’s face as she snapped her eyes toward the camera again, the young colt in her company immediately bolting out of the room behind her. But before anything else could was said or done, the golden mare wheeled for the terminal, and her left forehoof frantically snapped up over the camera, blocking the view of the entire room before the log abruptly ended.

The computer once again returned to the main menu, the green glow covering my face as I was left staring. There were two things that left a solid imprint in my train of thought from that last video, both of them weighing equally as heavy. The last video had provided us with every bit of proof to show that the golden mare in the video was the Mother Shimmer of today. Their personalities were exactly alike, a perfect reflection in both the past and the present. And with that, I remembered those eyes. The green eyes I had seen in the video were the exact eyes I remembered when I had first arrived in Buckley. Those eyes carried a bright flame with them, showing great strength with their natural shine, and they were the only eyes that had ever gotten me to actually fear a pony, a fear out of respect.

But the second impact that the video had left behind was something much more spine-tingling, something that didn’t draw another connection to Mother Shimmer, but had instead drawn a connection to my own memories of the wasteland. Though not directly catching sight of it, the video had captured the exact moment of a balefire strike, and had shown just enough afterwards to show the reactions of those who had been witness to it with their own eyes. There was no doubt in my mind that, during the wartime era, much of the southeastern region had begun to gather supplies, seek shelter, and for some, even proceed to evacuate to the region’s Stables, after seeing that explosion. But others, like the Hopeville Press, would’ve remained in order to spread the word about the explosion to the heartland and other territories of Equestria.

My Hopeville Press cover page that was tucked away in my saddlebags, with that picture of the trio of balefire mushroom clouds on the horizon, was all the proof I needed to confirm that.

“So that’s it.” Archer voiced beside me, returning my attention to the situation at hoof. “I think that’s pretty ample proof, don’t you?”

I nodded in wholehearted agreement. “Yes. But what should we do with this terminal now?”

“We’re taking the whole thing back to Buckley.” Archer answered, reaching over to place a hoof on the left side of the terminal’s frame. Giving it a gentle shove, slightly shifting its position on the table, he nodded. “It’s not too heavy, so I don’t think it’ll be a burden. But first, I want to explore the rest of the house and see if there’s anything else we can take back to Mother Shimmer that’ll jog her memory.” Turning away and trotting past me towards the bedroom exit, he briefly stopped in his stride to look back at me over his shoulder. “In the meantime, would you be willing to take a look at that safe and see if you can get it open? I’ve got a couple of bobby pins and a screwdriver with me if you want to give the lock a try.” But to this, I refused. Unlike him, I knew of my complete lack of knowledge and understanding towards lock and tumbler. That, and I had absolutely no clue how anypony other than a unicorn was to use such tiny tools to successfully pick a lock on any safe or trunk. While there might have been a way, I was absolutely clueless, and this was what I told my wingmate. “Well… if that’s the case, how about looking for a key. The safe is still locked up tight, which means that the key still has to be around here somewhere.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it wasn’t here, then I think that would’ve meant that some other wanderer would’ve gotten the safe open a long time ago.” Archer replied.

“Hm… alright, I’ll look around the bedroom and see if anything turns up.” To this, we exchanged nods before he departed deeper into the farmhouse, leaving me to scour the bedroom.

By itself, the room already looked empty of anything of use, let alone a key. Having been picked clean over the many years between now and the war, I was left with only the remaining furniture of the room to look over. The desk upon which the terminal sat upon held its single drawer closed, the hoof handle still intact, and hooking my left foreleg around the grip, I pulled the drawer back and peered inside… empty.

Moving on, I made my way to the closet unit, searching along the room’s ruined carpeting up to the broken shutter doors of the closet itself; this was empty as well, exempting the disgusting evidence of what was left behind after somepony had made a personal bathroom out of it some time ago.

Eagerly whirling away from that little bit of nastiness and putting it behind me, I made my way across the west wall to approach the toppled dresser. All of the shelves had been removed and scattered, leaving the dresser open and hollow. This however, also turned out to be vacant, with no items hiding in place of the drawers, and leaving me to turn my attention to the bedframe. Lacking its mattress, I could clearly see all parts of the rusty frame and the floor beneath it; the entire corner of the room was void of any items; that left just the nightstand with the mirror frame.

Even as I approached, trading glances between it and the aged carpet as I continued to scan the floor, I could see that the nightstand also carried no items atop its counter. However, the piece of furniture also lacked drawers, the only place a hidden item could be being under the nightstand itself. With this in mind, I stopped at the front of the stand and crouched down low, nearly lying flat as I attempted to see through the dark space underneath the nightstand. The remaining legs held the rest of the bulky piece of furniture at a high enough height to allow me a full view of the floor below it… but similarly, this also turned up empty; this room was as barren as the southeast itself.

With a light sigh, I rose back up to full height and trotted back to the computer and its desk, ears perking as I heard sifting coming from a nearby room. “Find anything, Archer?” I called.

“Just an old frisbee so far.” he answered. “I found it in an old toy box. I think this might’ve been Shimmer’s bedroom back in the day…… How about you? Did you find anything that might get us into that safe?”

“Sorry, but I couldn’t find any sort of key up here. This room’s empty.” Looking back at the black safe underneath the desk, a feeling of disgruntlement begun to inch its way into my mind, a surprising mood for me considering my general lack of interest in acquiring loot. Every material item I had needed or wanted in the wasteland was not for myself, but was supply for Hopeville, something simply to add to my home’s collection of resources. Only in special cases had that ever changed, such as the instance of finding that toy ball in Proudspire during our first visit to the town. But now, I was becoming more and more curious as to what exactly was in this safe, this safe that hadn’t been cracked open by at least a dozen lock pick attempts… maybe it really would be worth a shot to try and pick the lock myself.

With that in mind, I raised my right forehoof to close the desk drawer. But when I did, my ears twitched as I heard a muffled rattle echo from within the drawer itself, keeping my hoof glued to the handle as I registered the short noise. It had definitely come from inside the drawer… but then… that didn’t make any sense, especially since there hadn’t been any items inside. Was it just some side-effect of the aging material?

Curious, I opened the drawer once more and looked inside, and again, I was met with an empty space, not even a loose screw inside. Baffling as it was, I couldn’t help but look a little closer at the bottom of the drawer. Natural wear had weakened the metal considerably, but it still held together in a solid sheet to make the bottom of the unit… except for the bend in the back right corner. The metal had folded down considerably in that area, as if a hoof had punched down on it. But when I lowered my head down to pass a glance at the bottom of the drawer itself, I found that there was no blemish on the bottom that resembled the warped metal.

Looking back up, I raised my right foreleg up and over to place it inside the drawer, pressing down at various points to see if I could copy the same effect. Though nothing came of the effort, the gears in my head were turning, guiding my actions as I once again lowered myself to the floor to look over the bottom of the drawer. Something was off about it, something that I couldn’t quite figure out.

Partly crawling under the desk itself, inching my way between the desk and the right side of the safe, I reached up and begun to feel around the edges of the drawer, the bottom, the sides, and finally the back.

And that’s when I felt it - a button, just large enough to distinguish itself from the metal screws still remaining in place, sat at the center of the drawer’s back panel, completely undetectable from any other angle of sight. This had to be a sort of opening mechanism… perhaps the safe was electronic, and this opened it? With nothing to lose, I placed my hoof properly on the button and pressed it down. With a click, I heard as something unlocked and swung open, followed by something lightweight dropping onto the carpet with a soft thud.

Success!

Quickly, I scurried back out from under the drawer and sat back on my haunches to turn my attention to the safe… which hadn’t unlocked. The blue light was still glowing, the reinforced door still latched up tight. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw that something had indeed opened - it was the entire bottom panel of the desk drawer, now opened like a waiting mouth, and on the floor below that was what had been hidden within the entire time. The safe’s key, darkened with age from its natural brass color, had been hidden in the drawer. But what I hadn’t noticed before was that there had been two bottom panels in the drawer, creating a false bottom within which the key had been stashed… clever.

In triumph, I pawed at the key to nudge it across the carpet and bring it to me, then carefully clasping both hooves around it to bring it to my eye level. Finally balancing it on one upturned hoof, I could see that the key was very intricate in design, relatively long with multiple metal points and cut indents creating a complex pattern, revealing just how sophisticated the lock was; the key’s design certainly helped explain the casualties of former lock picking attempts.

“Hey, Archer! You were right. I found a key in a hidden drawer compartment.” I called.

“Told you so.” came his reply from farther away, to which I smirked. “You get that safe open?”

“I’m going to right now.”

Turning to the object in question, I could see that the safe was not all that complex in design. The only additions to the front of the box was the lock itself and the blue light above it, showing it’s locked status. Still, that didn’t keep me from wishing for my own unicorn horn as I fumbled around with the key, attempting to get the trinket situated at the right angle to place it in the lock. Eventually, this led me to clasping the back tip of the key with the ends of both my forehooves, whereupon I nearly fell forward and bashed my head into the desk trying to fit the key into the lock. While not my most graceful act, I still managed to fit the key all the way into its place in the lock, and scooting closer to the safe, I gave the key a turn to the left, a satisfactory click sounding from the locking mechanism as the blue light flickered away.

With a smile, I gladly set my forehooves back to the ground before pulling the door away. Within the safe, I found seven items, but nothing that I had expected to find. In place of simple scraps of food, a few bottle caps, and maybe a small box of ammo, was a slotted plastic tray holding six unblemished crystal orbs, perfectly preserved. And with them, making the seventh item in the safe, was a polished tiara of black metal, a single circular slot built into the front of the otherwise undecorated headpiece. But regarding first the headdress, then the crystal spheres, I couldn’t recall seeing or reading anything that described just what these items were. Nothing in Stable 181’s Hall of Records had even made mention to artifacts like these, not even providing a diagram… as far as I knew, these were simply knick-knacks for the house.

“Archer, are you about done?” I asked, looking away from the safe to the entryway to the bedroom. “I need you to come see this.”

Only a few seconds later, and the steel-blue pegasus reemerged, trotting back into the room carrying two items in his mouth. One of them was the frisbee he had mentioned before, a dusty yet intact plastic disk, with its blue color still visible after so many years sitting unused. The second item was something that I hadn’t expected at all, watching with a raised eyebrow as Archer dropped it and the frisbee to the floor. It was a stuffed animal, a foal’s toy doll resembling a small and incredibly adorable purple puppy. The fuzzy puppy had four stubby limbs, its hind legs stitched with dark purple on their lower back half to resemble paws… or perhaps shoes. The doll’s head was larger, complete with two floppy ears that were likewise colored dark violet. It had two solid buttons for eyes, painted in black and white to resemble near-perfect representations of real eyes, which were partly covered by an added fold in the fabric. There was also a round area of black fabric that had been worked into the doll, resembling a large nose at the end of its face, and finally, a slit had been opened at the front of the head to resemble an open mouth, complete with a dash of red within to create a tongue.

But alas, time had not missed its mark on the cute toy doll either. Tiny bits and pieces of the doll’s fur had fallen away, one on the end of its nose, another on its right forearm, and a third just above its eyes, revealing the stitches underneath. There was also a significant tear in the toy’s right ear, creating a sizeable hole in the fabric. And thirdly, unlike its stumpy limbs, the doll’s torso was flat, all of the stuffing having been removed; whether this had been because of the passing of the years, or because of the foals who had once owned the toy, I didn’t know.

Just by looking at it, I wanted to scoop up the doll and give it a big hug, snuggle up with it… and maybe take a nap, too. “So, what did you find?”

But alas, the matter at hoof pushed my foalish desire aside.

“Um… well, I actually don’t know what these things are.” I answered, refocusing my thoughts to the present as I nodded over to the safe. “I was hoping you could tell me, because I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

“Let’s have a look.” Then stepping up to me, Archer peered into the safe with me, the both of us looking over the crystal orbs inside. “Oh wow… I know what these are.” Archer’s voice was hushed when he spoke, and I watched as he reached a forehoof over to the tray, tracing it over each crystal orb inside. “These are memory orbs.”

“Memory orbs?” I asked curiously.

“They were arcane devices built by wartime unicorns to record events with moving picture and sound, like a camera recorder except much more complex and very rare.” Archer explained, pulling the tray to the edge of the safe. “These orbs allow the viewer to see a memory through the eyes of the pony who made it. The spectator relives the memory to its fullest, and is able to see, feel, and hear everything that had taken place in the memory while still retaining their own consciousness. You basically feel like you are the host’s body, executing its actions, all while becoming unaware of your own body and surroundings.” At my silence, my rather awestruck silence, he added, “In their original design, only unicorns were able to use them, because magic was needed to interact with the memories contained within. But eventually, there came a way for earth ponies and pegasi to see them as well. That’s what this is for.”

With a hoof, he nudged out the metal circlet, bringing it next to the tray of memory orbs. “What’s it called?” I inquired, reaching out to touch the tiara for myself.

“This is a recollector.” he answered. “The headgear allows non-unicorns to access the memories in the orbs, because the recollector itself establishes the magical uplink to the memory that unicorns can do naturally.”

“Wow… that’s really something.” I remarked with a slow shake of my head.

“That’s arcane magic of the Old World for you.” Archer replied with a light chuckle.

But I wasn’t laughing. Looking over the memory orbs again, the pieces begun to fit together. “These memory orbs must’ve belonged to Macon and Misty.” I observed. “Or Shimmer herself.”

Archer nodded. “Yes. That’s why we’re taking them with us, and the recollector.”

But as he set the tray and the recollector on the floor, a new question came to mind. “Should we look at these memories ourselves?” I asked him, watching as he pulled the contents of the safe up next to the two toys he had salvaged. “We did watch those videos after all.”

To this though, he shook his head. “To be perfectly honest, I think these should be for Mother Shimmer’s eyes only. We only watched those video recordings for proof of a connection between this farm and Mother Shimmer, and we found it. These memories are much more personal, especially now that we know the truth of the matter.”

Though my curiosity bump itched like crazy, urging me to try and argue for a chance to see what exactly memory orbs were capable of, I knew that Archer had a point. If these orbs held actual memories created by Macon and Misty, Shimmer’s parents, then those memory orbs were, in truth, a part of those ponies. And in turn, those ponies were family to Shimmer, a part of her. These memories were very valuable under the circumstances of their discovery, and thus my mind settled that if anypony should get the right to see these memories first, it was Mother Shimmer and nopony else. “So how are we going to carry it all?” I asked instead.

“I’ve got plenty of pockets on my armor.” Archer replied, swinging his head left and right to look himself over. “It’ll take me a bit to properly secure all these items down for the flight, and I’ll probably have to get out of this armor to do it, but I should be able to carry most of it myself.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help carrying the stuff… or putting it away?” I inquired; was it weird hoping for both a yes and a no answer at once… I mean, with Archer getting out of his… yeah, stopping now.

“No, I think I can get it.” Archer answered me, thankfully oblivious to my hidden (and much less appropriate) thoughts. “I should be able to fit everything into my rig. It’ll just take a little thinking on my part to pack it all down. Of course, the terminal is something I’ll have to carry by hoof, but that’s not a problem. In the meantime, I don’t know if there’s anything else you want to do here, but we should be able to get moving again shortly. I think our work here is nearly done.”

Actually… yes… there was something else I could do, something that I needed to do before we left the farm behind.

After an exhale, I wordlessly raised my pipbuck leg and looked over the terminal frame before nosing the button that activated my radio speaker. “My daughter is very sick with a heart condition and needs urgent medical assistance. If you’re hearing this message, please come help us if you can.”

As I lowered my pipbuck leg to the floor again, letting the repeating distress message play for the both of us, Macon’s voice brought me back to the real world in full, albeit in a much more dismal fashion. “For one hundred and seventy-five years, this message has been playing.” I said to Archer, solemn as I lowered my eyes to the floor. “Those two skeletons I found down there… I think that’s what’s left of Macon and Misty… it just has to be. They’d been waiting for help that may or may not have come. I don’t know for sure, but I feel that if they had received help, they wouldn’t have died on their farm, hiding away in a cellar until their last breath.” Letting out a sigh, I looked away to the open bedroom window. “I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for them, just lying there, letting that message loop endlessly, and waiting day after day for help as the world burst into flames around them and their farm…… That’s not something that any decent pony deserves, and those two were an honorable family just trying to make a life for themselves and for Shimmer. They were just one of so many families that had everything taken away from them by the war, by destructive balefire.” I shook my head at my own melancholy moment; in all honesty, Archer could chuckle if he wanted to… I wouldn’t stop him. “While I can’t do anything to atone for that, to restore what the war took from Equestria and its citizens, I can at least do something for this family, to honor their names and their lives.” I declared. “I’m going to shut off this broadcast once and for all. If I do that, then maybe Macon and Misty… and even the Goddesses themselves if they could hear that message from wherever it is they are… maybe they’ll all be able to rest a little easier.” Even though those last words had sounded better in my head, I knew what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. If nothing else, it was something I could do for Mother Shimmer, something as a token of respect to her and her lineage. Through technology, her father was still speaking, and not even to his own world. This wasteland was a totally different place, one that didn’t care for his voice, and had no room for his plea for help that he was trapped in… but I had an easy way to release him from that, to let him rest, and all I had to do was return to the cellar and turn off that radio.

Looking back at Archer, I was slightly surprised to see as a small smile spread on his face as he gave a nod. “I think that’s a good idea.”

“You… you don’t think that was cheesy or anything?” I asked, slightly suspicious of the matter. “What I said, I mean?”

The pegasus buck brought a hoof to his chin in thought, looking up at the old bedroom ceiling. “Well… maybe a little.” he replied, making me deflate as the timid bit of pride worming its way to the surface was curb-stomped back into its hole… that was until he looked back at me and passed me a wink before turning his attention to the terminal and getting to work.

Oh Goddesses… where’d that insta-blush that slapped itself to my cheeks come from?

Though thankful that he really didn’t see my own words as a great mess of tacky weirdness, it was more the fact that my face was boiling red that I promptly about-faced and sprang out the window, gliding away to the barn. However, I was also grateful that by returning to my newest objective, landing at the barn’s entrance to see the open cellar doors at the far end, I quickly fell back into the state of focus to remember the importance of my own personal goal, to me, to Shimmer, and to the spirits of the Old World family that had raised her. And as I made my way back to the cellar, I sent up a short prayer to the Goddesses, and to my parents, hoping that Macon and Misty could see their daughter now, as the noble leader of Buckley who held great virtue and light in this world of uncertainty around her.

*** *** ***

Chapter 15: Ghosts and Treasures (Part 3)

“Buckley ATC, this is Archer. Can you hear me?”

After a moment of silence, a stallion’s voice responded through Archer’s portable radio. “Loud and clear. How’d things go out there?”

“Well, we’re back in one piece, and there were no Talons out and about on our recon route.” Archer answered his fellow guard. “All in all, mission accomplished.”

“Commander Tracer will be glad to hear that.” the tower guard responded. “He actually radioed the tower about fifteen minutes ago, told us to inform you that he’ll be waiting outside the missile silo bunker entrance. He should still be there now.”

“Alright. We’ll head there right away.” Archer replied. “Tell the sentries and the howitzer crews to hold fire to the east, Nova and I are entering Buckley airspace at low altitude.”

“Roger that. Welcome back.”

Just ahead, Buckley Air Force Base sat at peace within the crater-filled fields surrounding it. Late evening was quickly passing by, the first signs of night showing behind us in the east, and Buckley itself was beginning to glow from a number of activated building lights, from the solid white light shining through the windows of the church, to the nightlights of the base’s hangers and the concert hall, to the bright multi-colored lights pulsing out from the windows of the base’s club building.

Though it wasn’t home, approaching the base was still a tremendous relief. Today had been an incredibly long and exhausting day, so much having transpired over its course that left me with much to think over, and now that we were on our final approach to the perimeter of the settlement, I knew that the day was soon, finally, going to come to a close. In all honesty, only four things were on my mind now, and those included checking up on my friends and my little brother, a trip to Buckley’s spa, dinner, and sleep… in that order.

To my right, matching pace and flying side by side with me, Archer looked over to me as we came up on the base’s east perimeter. “Let’s go ahead and give this stuff to Tracer.” he said. “After that, I’m sure that you’ll be free to go.”

After having shut down the Shimmermist Farm broadcast and leaving the site behind, I had expressed my growing tiredness to my wingmate during the return trip. The day had certainly been long, but in truth, I felt more that it was what had taken place at the farm itself that had instilled this sense of weariness into me. Knowing the history of that place, its connection to Mother Shimmer, and what it had once been to her compared to what it was now was part of the reason why. But more so than that, it was because we had found the remains of her parents. Those skeletons, knowing and seeing with my own eyes who they had once been, and knowing how they had died - waiting by that radio day after day for a response that never came - left me adequately disheartened. But it also left me with questions, chief among them one that I asked myself with anxiety. When Mother Shimmer saw the terminal, the memory orbs, and the toys from her old bedroom, how would the deaths of her parents, knowing the how and the why of it… how would all of that affect her? Indeed, Archer had asked the very same thing, and that was before we had left for the farm; at hearing my own concerns, he showed that he was just as worried as I.

At his nod, he motioned for me to veer right, and I fanned my wings out wide as I banked and followed him over the perimeter towards Buckley’s twin runways. True to his intent, Archer had carried everything that we had decided to bring with us from the farm by himself. The six memory orbs, the recollector, and the stuffed animal had all found secure homes in his combat armor’s pockets, and the frisbee had been tucked away between two of the rig’s protective pads on his left side. He had even carried the terminal in his forelegs throughout the entire flight, not stopping even once.

Now, we angled in for our landing, placing the missile silo entrance bunker directly in front of us. Outside of the small building nestled between the runways, only two ponies waited before its open entrance, and as we dived down and quickly closed our distance to the bunker, I discovered one of them to be Commander Tracer, currently garbed in his combat armor. And the second of them, to my surprise, was Gracie, currently waving up to me as we descended.

“Hey, Grace!” I called in greeting, backwinging to draw myself parallel to the ground and halt my momentum before landing solidly on all fours, tucking my wings back to my sides. Beside me, Archer hovered in more slowly, carefully lowering the terminal and setting it delicately on the dirt before likewise landing.

“Hey.” came my friend’s reply; the bright red unicorn’s smile was refreshing to see. “I take it things went well out there? Raemor told us something about scouting for Talon Legion patrols.”

I nodded. “Yes. We didn’t discover any enemy groups out there on our route. That should mean that they’re all much farther east of here.”

“That’s good news, damn good news.” Tracer voiced with a nod of approval. “That gives us a couple more days, at least long enough to focus on tomorrow’s mission.”

“And we found these.” Archer said, catching the commander’s attention. Turning to the pegasus, I saw as he placed his left forehoof atop the terminal, the same monochrome green that had accompanied us all the way back to Buckley flickering away on the monitor. “Turns out that your hunch was right, commander. On this terminal are two accessible video logs, and in my pockets, I have six memory orbs with a recollector, a frisbee, and a stuffed animal, all items that we found on the farm. The video logs on this terminal were the only things that Nova and I looked at ourselves, but they’re all the proof you need to show that that farm really was Mother Shimmer’s home all those years ago.”

Glancing back at the commander, I saw the red earth pony as he bowed his head, looking back at the terminal. “So… she really did live during the wartime era.” he spoke, letting out a sigh. “To be perfectly honest, I was expecting you to come back empty-hoofed. The whole thing just seemed too unlikely… it still kind of does.”

But Archer shook his head. “No. Mother Shimmer was once a gold earth pony with a blue mane and tail and emerald eyes, the same eyes she has today. She lived as a single child to a military family that was honorably discharged from the service after eight years on the frontlines, and she spent her days as a foalsitter, caring for children brought to her home while their families were away.”

“The mare on the video spoke just like Mother Shimmer talks today, and the same personality is something that’s easily recognizable.” I added. “When we were on the farm, we found the skeletons of the ponies who’d been Mother Shimmer’s parents, laying in a looted cellar with a HAM radio that was broadcasting a looping distress message. Whether it had been on the day that the bombs fell or a short time afterwards, they had set up the message because Shimmer had some sort of heart condition, a critical illness. That message had been playing for one hundred and seventy-five years before I finally shut it off.” Though I was looking the commander in the eyes, the buck listening with unbroken attention, I saw Grace and her wide-eyed expression in my peripheral vision.

“I’d have you look at the video logs,” Archer spoke after me. “but this is something that we can’t make up. Believe me, we were doubtful, too. But this is as real as it gets.”

Tracer, though, shook his head. “No, I… with how seriously you both are going on about this, I believe you.” The commander looked back up at us. “It’s just, with this stuff that you’ve found out there, and knowing that Mother Shimmer’s been alive for over one hundred and seventy-five years… it’s really something else to take in.” Pausing, the red buck approached the terminal, looking over the frame and scanning the video list display on the flickering monitor. “Alright. Let’s get this stuff inside.” he ordered after a breath. “Mother Shimmer just returned to her quarters in the silo for the night. We’ll take these items to her, and then I want to leave her alone while she looks them all over. She’s going to need time and privacy when she sees just what these are.”

Definitely understandable.

“If you want to leave now, you can go ahead and do so.” Archer then spoke, nudging my side with a hoof at his polite offer. “Once we give Mother Shimmer her stuff, we’ll be going our own way, too.”

I nodded gradually. “I guess if you two don’t need help carrying anything, then I’ll take my leave.” I replied, taking a step back and passing a glance at Gracie, my friend waiting composedly a few paces away from us. “But if I could ask a favor…”

“Of course.” Archer assured.

“Let me know how all this turns out.” I said. “You know, how Shimmer takes all this in. I’d like to know.”

He nodded with a small smile. “I can do that.”

With a grateful thank you to the steel-blue pegasus, I turned away and made my way back to my waiting companion. But after only a few steps, “Nova…”

Craning my head around to peer over my shoulder, I saw both stallions looking back at me, Tracer smiling. “Well done. Thank you for doing this for us… it really does mean a lot.”

I smiled in return. “You want Mother Shimmer to be happy, to give back to her and to grant her wish to remember. Between my short time here on base and from what I saw on that terminal, I’ve come to get a basic understanding of the pony that she was and still is. She’s a caring soul, somepony who’s already done a world of good by leading Buckley through a prosperous life. It was my pleasure to help her.”

“I just want you to understand how important this is, to me and to her.” the commander responded. “After everything you’ve done for us, even after we greeted you with high explosives, I speak from the bottom of my heart when I say that I’m sorry… sorry for giving the order to fire on you earlier today. I know now that you and your group are decent folks, and I’m glad that you’ve stuck around. I hope you’ll understand and forgive me.”

“Well, there’s no denying the truth that Buckley’s bombardment was… well, terrifying.” I replied, a little less warmly despite my efforts to speak otherwise. “I hope my friends and I never go through anything like it again.” But still, between how deeply I had gotten involved with Buckley over the course of just half a day, and knowing that I, Blake, and all of my friends were still alive and intact (more or less in poor Blossom’s case), it wasn’t too hard to let a small smile return to my face. “While I’m not really sure I can speak for everypony in my company, I myself like to think that that’s all behind us now.”

Tracer chuckled a single humorless note. “I understand. It was a mistake, one that I regret, but I’m glad that there’s no hard feelings between us, considering you, at least, will be joining the expedition tomorrow.” he said. “I will, however, say that one of these days, Buckley will pay you back for all the good you’ve done us. Of that, I give you my word.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you, commander,” I replied, though shaking my head after. “but I think for now, Buckley’s paid us back enough by giving us a place to rest and recover for the night.”

“If you say so.” Dipping his head, the commander bid us farewell, saying, “I’ll leave you to your rest then. You’ve all more than earned it.”

I returned the parting gesture. “Thank you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

With a nod, the commander turned his attention back to the computer terminal between his and Archer’s front hooves. “Come on, Archer. Let’s give Mother Shimmer her stuff back.” he spoke, then taking one of the terminal’s handle bits in his mouth before he and Archer disappeared into the silo bunker.

“I was wondering how a simple patrol managed to last almost four hours.” Grace remarked, my friend already facing towards the east side of the base as I looked back to her. “I was starting to worry.”

I briskly trotted up to stand at her side. “Sorry. It was just something that Tracer wanted to have done, something that he was keeping secret from Mother Shimmer.”

“Oh, don’t be sorry. I’m just glad you’re back.” Grace replied, swinging her head around to look back at me with a smile. “Although I can’t help but be curious – what were you doing out there exactly? You went to some kind of farm?”

As I begun detailing my latest escapade into the southeast, Grace led me across the runway towards the northernmost sprawl of Buckley’s residential shacks, taking us to our temporary abode. On the way, I began by recounting the more important bits of the meeting in the ATC tower, briefly skimming over the expedition objectives and recalling the orders and position I had been given before describing Tracer’s secret mission. I told Grace of how Mother Shimmer had been suffering from memory loss, sometimes spending hours at a time confined to her silo and asking herself about her former life, trying to remember the things that had occurred far into the past. I explained also that this had been a factor to play in her decision to begin exposing Buckley to the outside world, and I told my friend of how Mother Shimmer had not come from Stable 192 like the rest of Buckley’s residents, but had instead been found on the base itself; like me back when I had first heard this, Grace was appropriately shocked.

Finally, as we entered the north residential sector of the base, I described the Shimmermist Farm itself and what we had found there – the radio tower, the looping distress message, the cellar with Shimmer’s parents’ remains inside, and finally, the farmhouse with the objects we had collected and returned here. “I’m sorry to hear about that radio tower.” Grace said at the end of my recollection. “It’s a shame how they died, truly.”

“I know.” I agreed with a solemn nod. “I can’t imagine going through that myself, all of that insufferable waiting they endured while the world was going up in flames around them.” Together, the two of us stopped on the walk-lane between two rows of metal shacks, coming to a halt outside the door of what I assumed to be our provided shelter for the night. But my own thoughts kept right on walking at the presence of the present topic. “And… and you know, for a time… I actually thought that the broadcast was coming from travelers that needed help. I thought we’d find a family lost on their way to Challenger, or somepony who’d been ambushed by a raider patrol… But that message was… just playing again and again for all these years…” Goddesses, just talking about it pinned my ear back against my head, and I lowered my eyes to stare at the dirt underhoof as I shook my head. “I can’t help skeletons, Gracie… I can’t help ponies that are already dead.”

“Oh, Nova…” I felt a hoof under my chin, forcing me to look back up to Grace, whose eyes showed great sympathy. “Please don’t beat yourself up because of this. You didn’t know.”

I let my shoulders rise and fall in a sigh, averting my eyes. “I just thought there’d be somepony who actually needed help, somepony looking for another to help them in the right direction… or something…… But it was just the wasteland playing a sick joke on me in the end.”

“But you still went in there with the right intentions.” Grace remarked. “You were still ready to help, and more importantly, you were willing to do so. Just because you found long-dead ponies instead of living ones doesn’t change who you are, nor does it change anypony’s opinion of you. This was just something out of your control.”

“I know it was… but it’s still just as disheartening.” I replied lowly back.

“Yes, I know it is. But I just want you to understand that this doesn’t make you some kind of bad pony. You’re still very much the same Nova that we love. You understand that, right?” To those simple yet comforting words, I merely gave a small nod, whereupon Grace’s hoof left my chin as she took a step forward, placing a kiss on my forehead. When she released me, I looked back up to her as she stepped back, seeing a smile adorn her face. “Now then, I don’t know about you, but I am more than ready for our trip to Buckley’s spa that we had been planning earlier today.”

“That sounds nice.” I replied, letting a smile come back to me. “How are the others?”

“As I’m sure you’ve gathered, this is our shack.” Grace explained, horn glowing alight with magic as she focused on the door handle. “I moved Gunny and Blossom here while you were gone. They’re both sleeping inside, and Blake is as well.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “He actually fell asleep before nightfall?”

“Oh yes.” Grace replied with a nod. “I think the day’s been more than a bit tiring for all of us, some more than others.”

“Well, I’m glad he’s managing to get some rest.”

“Shore’s inside as well, but he’s awake, tending to his energy rifles.” Grace continued, slowly pushing over the door as she lowered her voice. “And Raemor’s out walking around the base. It’s been quiet here, and we’ve all welcomed it with open arms.”

I nodded my approval of this. “Good.” As far as I was concerned, we were done working for the day, and peace, quiet, and relaxation was something that we all needed.

Upon pushing the door in enough for us to walk through, Grace entered the shack first and I followed. Inside, the shelter was but a single chamber, plain yet spacious. Against the east wall to the right of the entrance, a single metal table lay against the corner of the shack, currently occupied by Shore who was tinkering away with one of his energy rifles. Directly ahead at the shack’s far end, three intact mattresses sat side by side, spaced a few hooves apart. Two of them were occupied at the present time, the leftmost bed taken by Blossom and the center bed by Blake. Gunny likewise slept, laying on his belly by Blossom’s left side on the metal floor. The both of them had stripped away all of their gear, stashing it in designated piles along the shack’s left wall, which was where Gracie quietly made her way to as she passed a warm hello to Shore.

“Welcome back, friend.” the black earth pony greeted me as I pulled the door shut with its hoof handle.

“Good to see you again, Shore.” I replied, trotting up to him to give him a quick hug. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Although, I have discovered that I am running dangerously low on energy cartridges for my multiplas rifle.” As he explained, he turned back to the disassembled plasma weapon on the table, my eyes following his stare to the tidy arrangement of weapon parts. He had dismantled the rifle down to the smallest parts, even the autoloader having been removed and opened up for inspection and cleaning. “I have only two cartridges left, enough for fifty or so shots before the weapon will become useless.” Shore continued, reaching out with a hoof and gesturing to two small yellow-orange canisters placed at the far corner of the table. “While I am glad to say that my laser rifle’s recycler still works perfectly, I might very well have to look into using a conventional firearm should I have no luck finding any more cartridges for my other rifle tomorrow.”

“Oh. You’re coming with me to Marefax?” I asked with a smile, to which he nodded.

“It’s not as important as coming with you and being able to contribute a little more to Buckley, but hopefully the city will yield to me a resupply of ammo. I only carried what I had on me out of the Stable, and everything else had been left in the armory.”

I gave him a slow nod. “I see. Well, I’m glad you’re coming along.”

“I figured that at least a couple of us should go with you.” he responded, looking away from his dismantled rifle to smile at me as he adjusted his reading glasses. “And Raemor is already planning on coming as well.”

“I’ll be staying here on base tomorrow just to be with Blake while you’re away, Nova.” Grace spoke up from the other side of the shack, my friend setting her revolver and her saddlebags quietly down on the floor next to a spread open suit of Equestrian Army combat armor and a grenade rifle – Raemor’s gear. “I offered that he go back home to Hopeville with Gunny and Blossom tomorrow morning, but he insisted otherwise. He wanted to stay as close to you as possible.”

I let out a light sigh, shaking my head as I turned and trotted over to Gracie as she set down her leather armor suit, having removed the last of her gear. “That sounds like him.” Craning my head around, I caught Blue Fire’s Torchby the stock with my teeth, pulling the rifle free from its place before setting it down on the floor.

But then, as I sat on my haunches to begin fumbling with the main strap of my battle saddle, “Oh, by the way, Nova,” Behind me, Grace looked back at me from her place by Shore’s work table. “one of Buckley’s ponies stopped by our shack while you were away with Archer and said that he was looking for you.”

“Who was it?” I asked curiously, undoing the buckle of my saddle’s strap and taking it off to set the two rifles by the Torch.

“His name was Ludwig, a white unicorn with a blonde mane and tail. He’s apparently the music director of Buckley’s concert hall.” Grace answered, making me stop just as I removed the first plate of my armor. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah, he was at the meeting with me earlier today.” I replied, returning my focus to getting out of my armor. “What did he want?”

“He told us to tell you that he would like to see you in the concert hall tonight before you go to bed.” Shore explained. “He didn’t really tell what he wanted to see you for, but he had said that he had been pleasantly surprised at your interest in music and was hoping to talk to you in person because of it.”

With all of my armor’s plates removed, I lowered my forehooves to the floor to look back at my friends. “Curious… I wonder what… oh!” With a jolt of realization, a smile quickly came to my face. “I wonder if he wanted to talk to me about Buckley’s upcoming concert… maybe he wants me to help him prepare and organize it!”

“If that’s the case, I think it’d be quite the opportunity.” came Gracie’s reply, my friend smiling with me. “It sounds like he’s well aware of your love for music.”

“Well, I did kind of unintentionally make it known during the meeting once Ludwig talked about making a concert in celebration of a successful first journey into the outside world.” I explained, flushing a bit as I turned back to my kevlar vest to work myself out of it. “It’s kind of embarrassing when you speak your thoughts aloud and you don’t even know you did it… you know, until it’s too late. In truth… I don’t think that kind of thing happens to anypony else except me…”

“So that’s what happened.” Shore remarked with a chuckle.

“Yeah, it was a slip.” I replied, ignoring his amusement as I pulled free of my vest and set it atop my growing pile of gear. Then, I removed my sidearm, keeping it and its extra clips together on the belt that wrapped around my left foreleg as I set it down. “He definitely did brighten up when I spoke out my interest, though. Ludwig’s really passionate about music, and hell, he’s overseeing part of the expedition itself.”

“He is the director of music in Buckley. If he’s interested in seeing you, especially because of your appreciation of the musical arts, I think you should stop by the concert hall tonight. It could be really important.”

“I think so, too.” I responded in agreement to Gracie’s observation. “But first, if I’m going to see Buckley’s music director, I’m going to need to clean up a little. I haven’t had a shower since before we left Challenger, and these ponies get showers every day.”

“Yes, that might be best.” Grace stated with a polite giggle. “It’ll be good for the both of us, really. Are you about ready?”

“Just a second.” Raising my pipbuck leg, I looked over my computer’s frame for the appropriate key, and finding it at the top of the frame, I used my free forehoof to push down on the button that released the clamps holding the device around my foreleg; with a soft thud, the computer fell onto the pile.

Now I was completely free of gear, a somewhat odd feeling as I rose to all fours and stretched, shaking out my legs one by one and flapping my wings a single beat before returning them to my sides. “It definitely feels good not wearing all that stuff.” I remarked, turning away from my equipment only to halt as my eyes passed over the sleeping members of our company. All three of them were still sound asleep, more than managing to do so through our chatter. Blossom had shifted, lying at the edge of her mattress with her muzzle just brushing against Gunny’s neck. Nearby, Blake was laying on his left side, lightly snoring as he dreamed… and yet something was missing……

Turning back and returning to my equipment, I pawed through the pile until I found my saddlebags, then opening the left-side bag. Mine and Blake’s shared blanket was held within, hastily folded and stored away the previous morning, yet still clean. Quickly, I snagged the blanket in my mouth, the cover easily sliding out of the bag before I turned and walked with light steps to where my baby brother slept. Setting the blanket down on the floor, I expanded the cozy coverlet fold by fold, drawing it out to its full size. And then, taking one corner in my teeth, I carefully, ever-so-carefully, pulled it up and over Blake’s mattress, setting it down over the snoozing colt. A couple of delicate adjustments later, and the blanket covered him up to his neck, leaving only his head to poke out from underneath.

And he didn’t even stir.

With a smile, I lowered my head down to place a soft kiss on his right cheek, then giving him a single affectionate nudge with my muzzle before I silently stepped away. Behind me, Grace was smiling, Shore giving a nod of approval as I rejoined them. “Alright. Now I’m ready.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come along, Shore?” Grace asked after nodding at me. “They do have just regular showers for stallions.”

“I actually think I’ll wait one more day.” he answered. “Marefax will be a whole new world of dirt and grime, so I think it probably best to wait until I’ve experienced what that city has to offer. Besides, somepony needs to be awake in our shack, and since Raemor is out and about, that pony would be me.”

“Suit yourself.” Grace replied, horn glowing as she trotted to the shack door and opened it, then adding with a sweet smile, “Although, you really should think about getting a shower. It would probably make you feel better.”

After a moment of silence, Shore hummed in thought, and I looked to him to see him slowly letting his hooves off of his plasma rifle stock. “Well… perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to rinse off at least.”

“And you wouldn’t be as stinky.” Grace added in cheery singsong, turning away from him to face the door.

“Hey, I’m not that bad.” Shore protested, thankfully unaware of the small smirk that rose to my lips and proceeded to grow as his narrowed eyes took on an uncertain look. “Am I?”

“Come along, Nova.” Grace called, carrying a triumphant smile with her as she cantered out the door, and with a giggle I followed her out; oh, poor Shore.

Behind me, the door swung back on its hinges and closed on its own, and just ahead, Gracie continued down the lane at a lively trot; that same smile of victory was plastered to her face as I drew up alongside her. “Well, way to pick at Shore’s pride.”

“Oh, I just like to tease him.” Grace replied to me, laughing lightly. “Besides, we’re all a bit aromatic right now. And actually, I think the boys haven’t even washed since we left One eighty-one.”

“It’s not like there’s a lot of opportunities to do so.” I pointed out, the two of us exiting the residential sector and turning right, walking parallel to the east runway. “And even when there is, there’s usually something that has to be taken care of. But still, I’ll probably end up going through the same talk with Blake tomorrow. He hasn’t been doing nearly as much physical work, but he’s getting pretty dirty, too.”

“I understand that being clean isn’t a major concern out here, but I know that I’d like to take advantage of opportunities to groom myself should they arise. It’s kind of one of those little treats now, not like the daily routine it was back in the Stable.”

She certainly had a point with that. “Right. And really, I think this spa will be a great way to unwind. It’s actually kind of exciting.” I said with a smile. “Back in the day, spas were a fairly common place for friends to get together. It’ll be interesting to see one for ourselves.”

“Yes. And that Marlena character really seemed to have a deep love for her own.” Grace replied. “I remember her talking about her parents having created one out of one of the base’s old buildings. The facility was practically built again by the family and then passed from one generation to the next. That speaks greatly of the care and talent going into its preservation and its success.”

Already, the building in question was close by, the stone structure smaller all around than the generator building that neighbored it. The front entrance of the spa was alight in response to the coming night, two hanging lanterns set on either side of the larger single door sitting center against the building’s west face. On the door itself was a square window through which a soft golden light shined through, the three light sources combining to illuminate a single poster on the wall. As we approached the entrance, I could make out the board to the right of the door, a greeting panel whose message was printed cleanly in black marker, sitting below the word OPEN written in bold letters.

Welcome to the Buckley Air Force Base Spa! This facility is open from mid-morning to late evening every day - simply look at the sign to see if we are available. Remember - no scheduling is necessary! Just come on in!

“Hm… that’s an interesting welcome.” My eyes had fallen to the very end of the short message, where two dots and an upward-arching line made a smiley face, an awkward… yet warm and welcoming addition to the cheerful posting.

“Well, when dealing with other ponies constantly on a daily basis, one does need to be as friendly as can be.” Grace remarked, likewise observing the poster as she giggled. “Everypony has their own way of approaching that, and I can tell that Marlena and whomever else owns this spa are quite cheery indeed.”

“Let’s go on in.” I urged, smiling as I trotted up to the door, hooking my foreleg around the handle and pulling it open to enter.

Closing the door behind us, we entered into a lobby chamber, a small but colorful arrangement that made the spa’s waiting room, as indicated by a chalk board hanging outside the entrance to the spa itself, reading, Welcome! Please wait here for one of the spa staff members. Somepony will be with you shortly! Along the right wall of the room was a row of cushioned seats, each with silky fabric covers of their own color, ranging from bright blues and greens to moderate reds and yellows and even darker purples.

“Oh my! Nova, look at these.” To my left, I found Gracie as she motioned for me to join her, pointing then to three potted plants set together in the room’s front left corner. The three vases were of polished metal, silver with a gold hue seemingly imbued into the material gleaming along their rounded sides from the bright ceiling lights above. Within each, an awe-inspiring clutch of vibrant and blossoming flowers was planted in a home of brown soil, rich in color and life, the exact opposite of the dry earth of the southeast. The flowers themselves were each their own symbol of beauty – there were circular white and yellow flowers with unblemished pedals, broad golden bell-shaped flowers with orange centers, and five tender red roses, all of them fresh with dew from a recent watering.

“They’re beautiful.” It was a pair of words that I spoke in an unintentionally quiet voice. Lovely as they were, they brought with them a sudden but brief recap of a time not so long ago, of how I wished for things to be just a little different, for the existence of two others in this world at my side. “Mother would’ve loved these.”

My friend and I traded glances, Grace giving a sad smile to me. “Well, if you really think about it, she’s actually seeing these flowers with you. You do have your mother’s eyes after all.”

I looked away from her, back to the flowers as the tiniest of smiles tugged at the corner of my mouth. “You think so?…… They remind me of her, how she used to grow beautiful things like these. There were the blue roses that she loved so much, you know, and I think bell-shaped flowers like these ones grew next to them, and the apple trees, too. There were so many different flowers and crops stuffed into there that I don’t really remember too much of the layout.” Grace nodded along with my newest bout of reminiscing; my smile grew. “But the Stable orchard was her haven, her place of rest, her great passion. Seeing these flowers now… it makes me glad that Buckley has the means to grow them just like we once did. At least somepony or another should keep that alive. I’m sure mom would’ve tried herself somewhere along the line.”

“I bet she’s glad to see that they actually do survive up here in our new home.” Grace encouragingly added, to which I gave a good-spirited nod; I bet she was.

Then, my ears perked as a hoof rapped on the wall, drawing my attention to the end of the lobby where a familiar pink earth pony with a blue mane poked her head around the corner of the doorframe, her eyes coming to rest on me as a great big smile spread quickly across her face. “Hi, Marlena.” I greeted, returning her gesture with a smaller smile of my own.

“Nova! I’m so pleased that you decided to come over!” the pink and blue earth pony exclaimed, trotting fully into the lobby to join us by the flowers. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d even take up my offer.”

“Sorry. I was out on a mission that Commander Tracer gave me, and I just got back a few minutes ago. I’ve only just gotten the free time to stop by.” I explained with a polite chuckle to the happy mare. “I wasn’t planning on skipping out on a visit to a legitimate spa. Neither of us were.”

“Well, welcome! Both of you!” Marlena replied, bowing her head to both of us in turn before gesturing for us to follow her as she trotted back to the lobby exit. “Please do come in. We have a variety of services for you both to choose from, and you’re free to avail yourselves of any or all of them.”

Leading us out of the lobby, Marlena brought us out to the first room of the facility, a wide open chamber that was home to two rows of massage tables – plush, cushioned beds which sat upon steel frames that raised them up to around a grown pony’s head-level. Out of the twenty or so beds in the room, only three earth pony stallions made up the patrons of this particular service. Each was being attended by a member of the building’s staff, three groomed unicorn mares garbed in thin and silky white gowns, and as each stallion lay seemingly slumbering on their tables, the mares worked their forehooves along their customers’ backs, shoulders, and necks, looking down upon them with care and focus as they administered their massages.

“You made a good choice coming by during our later hours.” Marlena remarked as she craned her head around to look back at us. “During the middle of the day especially, all of these tables are usually full, and we often have others waiting in the lobby.”

“So you always have ponies coming in?” Gracie curiously inquired.

“Oh most certainly.” Marlena answered with a vigorous nod. “Everypony in Buckley has their own tasks on base, whether it be guard duty, tending to the base’s old computer systems, or working underground in the orchard or the service tunnels and maintaining the buildings. The spa is simply meant to allow our residents to clean up, relax, and even heal if they get cramps and aches on the job. As you might’ve come to gather, we don’t charge anything to any of our customers either. We’re simply another cog in the settlement’s proverbial clockwork.”

“Has that been your policy from the beginning?” I then asked, Marlena nodding.

“Yes. My parents set that into place first thing.” she explained. “When they passed it on to myself and my big sister, we didn’t change anything that they had done with it.”

“This really is a lovely place.” Gracie complimented, waving a forehoof over the expanse of the massage room. Even the walls and ceiling lacked the constant spiderwebbing cracks and spaced blemishes that Hopeville’s houses and shops had. Of course, age had its own affect upon the building… just nowhere near as bad as others out in the wastes.

“Thank you. We most certainly do try to keep it as welcoming as possible.” Marlena replied gratefully. “With this room, there are four others that we have in this building.” Pointing to her right toward a hallway at the far end of the rectangular massage room, she said, “The chamber at the end of that hall is where ponies go to get hooficures, mane and tail grooming, and for unicorns, horn treatments – it’s basically the place for body care and styling.” Then, gesturing directly in front of us, another short corridor leading to a visible room behind it, Marlena added, “The room there is our mud bath and hot tub room, and the steam room branches right off of that. The steam room is the most commonly used facility in the spa, second of course to the showers. If you’re only looking for a shower to clean off the dirt and grime of the outside, that room is at the opposite corner of the facility.”

“We were certainly hoping for more than just a shower.” Grace assured with a polite laugh; Marlena, to my amusement, did seem a taste nervous about an affirmative answer to her last sentence. “But we might need to take a shower before we avail ourselves of anything else.”

The pink mare cocked an eyebrow, and I noticed the sense of understanding slowly coming to her as she looked us over, taking in the accumulated dirt and grime the both of us possessed. “Oh, well… perhaps, but only if you want to. I assure you that you can start anywhere you please.”

“That’s very nice of you, but if nothing else, it’s at least a common courtesy that we can give you. We are kind of filthy.” I replied.

But then, Marlena’s attention suddenly driffted away from us, and she shot up a foreleg to give a wave to somepony else, and when I looked, “Gisela! Come over here and meet the outlander that rescued me!”

To the right, another earth pony, similarly washed and groomed as Marlena herself, was carrying a small stack of white towels towards the hot tub chamber. This mare, for a moment, looked exactly like Marlena, with a pink coat and a blue mane and tail. It was only the shades of her natural colors that were different, with her mane nearly blue-white in color, and her coat a deeper, darker pink. The new pony’s sapphire eyes, the same color as Marlena’s, swung to us before she froze in place. Then before I knew it, the mare had ditched her towels completely, the white cloths falling to the floor before I was swept into a strong hug. Taken off guard, I found myself letting out a sharp exhale at the surprising strength of the embrace. “OH GODDESSES THANK YOU! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!” Gisela cried as she clung to me; sweet Celestia, she squeezed me even tighter!

“You’re welcome.” I managed to breathe in reply, tentatively returning her hug with a pat on her back. “Could I… please breath now?” I hoped I hadn’t sounded rude, but seriously, this mare was strong!

“Oh!” Finally, she released me, and I stumbled a step before quickly righting myself in and taking a breath. “I’m so sorry. It’s just that, Marlena told me about what happened to her, told me about you, and she had been outside for so long, and…… I-I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re okay.” I assured, giving her my best smile as I finally looked her in the eye. “I just need to breath like everypony else.”

Gisela and Marlena both let out a short giggle, the former trotting over to stand next to her sister; sleek and feminine in body as Gisela was, she has surprising strength, a true example of earth pony might. “Right. I’m just so glad that I got to meet you, to meet you both.” Gisela replied, now with composure restored. “Marlena’s my baby sister, and I was so scared when she went out there all by herself that I had to let somepony else run the spa in my place. Buckley’s guards wouldn’t even let me leave the perimeter to search, and that just added fuel to that fear I felt. Marlena’s the only family I have left, and this place just isn’t the same without her…” She paused to let out a sigh. Then, “I know she went through some bad things out there, but the both of us are whole again now that we’re together and running the spa.”

I nodded understandingly as the second spa pony spoke, and I couldn’t help but notice that she sounded quite a lot like me. I could tell in just the first few seconds of my hearing her that she was very protective of her younger sibling. This I understood, as well as that, no matter how slight, we shared a faint connection. We both had a sibling in our lives, albeit Marlena being fully grown, and we both had the same protective instinct. It was just a shame to hear that it was because of Buckley’s ironclad lockdown policy that she hadn’t been allowed to pursue Marlena on her own; that in itself wasn’t fair to her at all. “I have a younger sibling of my own, the last of my family.” I explained to her. “I know how you feel, and the circumstances in the aftermath of Marlena’s disappearance weren’t right. I’m glad that I could help… although, I can’t help but notice that Marlena has quite a knack for disappearing. Did she tell you that she snuck out of Proudspire in the middle of the night when she was on the mend in the town’s clinic?”

At my words, I found Marlena flushing bright red, darkening her pink cheeks and eliciting a chuckle from her big sister. “Is that so?” Gisela questioned, smirking back at her sister who gave a short little nod. “I’m going to have to be keeping a closer eye on you it seems.”

“In all honesty, I’ve learned my lesson, sister.” Marlena replied, casually brushing away a lock of her bright blue mane from in front of her eye.

“I’m sure you have,” Gisela nodded before her smirk spread into a sly grin. “but this just means that I know who’s been sneaking into the oatmeal cookie jar at night.” And so Marlena’s recovery effort went down the drain, the younger pink mare facehoofing as her cheeks went even redder, drawing a laugh from all three of us as Gisela then reached over and hugged her sibling tight. Then, as Gisela and the rest of us calmed, the older sibling gestured grandly out to the spa, putting on a proud smile as she said, “Anyway, welcome to our spa, outsiders! What can we do for you this evening?”

*** *** ***

Amazing.

It was the first word I could think of regarding how I felt. Upon leaving the spa, I was significantly relieved and refreshed, feeling, perhaps for the first time since 181’s takeover, like a normal mare. Grace and I, though insistent that we hold to our word and start with showers, had begun our time in the spa by lounging in the mud baths at the pressuring of Marlena and Gisela both. Though at first I had been hesitant at plopping down in a tub of mud, I found that it was actually rejuvenating in its own way. That, and it offered us the best time to make easy-going conversation with the two sisters, learning of how life in both our worlds went by on a daily basis and asking simple casual question back and forth.

Afterwards, we were then brought to the shower room, taking the time to fully clean ourselves off before making use of the rest of the spa’s services. In my opinion, the shower had been much more relaxing than our first activity, as I easily recalled the wonderful feeling of the warm and radiation-free water cascading down my sides, wings, flanks, and neck, letting it soak my mane and tail, covering every inch of me in its revitalizing touch as it banished the wasteland’s dust and filth to my shower stall’s drainpipe, leaving my coat wholly clean again and bringing out the blue, black, and grey that were my natural colors.

After drying from that, we came upon the steam room. This had been a real treat, as unwinding in the cloud of hot steam allowed me to feel my muscles begin to loosen. I had realized then that many of those muscles had, much more likely than not, been tight ever since Stable 181’s evacuation. My body was certainly glad for the long amount of time I had spent simply lying on the bench and letting the steam wrap me up like a blanket; this was especially the case for my wings, the soothing haze allowing them to fully recuperate after the amount of flying I had done today and in days prior.

Then came the massages, the best part of the spa. As per her request to pay me back for helping her sister return home, I had allowed Gisela to apply my own while Marlena had attended to Gracie. Gisela’s practiced hooves had made for an absolutely divine massage, rubbing along every inch of my back, shoulders, and neck, working every spot just right to smooth out the remaining tension in my muscles; the only thing that would’ve made it even better was if it had been Archer doing the hoofwork.

The last stop in the spa had been to the styling room, Grace having insisted on me getting my mane and tail brushed with a hooficure on the side. However, the latter activity had been something that I had come to politely refuse. Whether it had been the filing tool itself, or how it had felt when put to my hoof, I didn’t like ponies touching my hooves, at least not with metal filing utensils. Instead, Marlena had let me out of the hooficure, leaving my hooves alone, and moved on to brushing my mane and tail. Because of Grace’s additional time spent with her hooficure, Marlena and I had decided to experiment with a couple different mane styles. Though my mane wasn’t quite long enough to make a lengthy ponytail out of, Marlena had tried brushing it out to its full length, flat and smooth along my neck and head. That had definitely upped my feminine side, and had Grace, Gisela, and Marlena all convinced that stallions would be falling over each other to get my attention. I had been certain that they were simply bluffing, but it had entertained some possibilities on how Archer and Gunny and Shore might’ve reacted. Marlena had then decided to mimic her own mane style with me, combing my mane back while still letting it hang long against the back of my neck, making me look exactly like one of the spa ponies working the later hour. By then, Grace’s hooves had been done, and Marlena, somehow, perfectly returned my mane and tail to my preferred tomboyish look, the “Rainbow Dash Style” as ponies in the Stable had sometimes called it.

That had marked the end of our time in the spa, and after a hearty farewell, we left the two sisters to close down for the night, darkness having settled over the southeast long before we had finished. Now, Grace having returned to our shack for the night, I was on my way to Buckley’s concert hall to tend to the last errand of the day. I was in much better spirits now as I walked alone down Buckley’s east runway, and though sleep was already calling to me, I was very curious as to what Ludwig wanted to see me for.

As I walked along, passing by the base’s south residential quarter and several of its awake citizens as they socialized to my left, I found that Buckley was already hard at work setting up tomorrow’s venture to Marefax. On the opposite runway to my right, a whole column of equipment was being laid out and checked over. One behind the other, three large wagons, Old World military armored cargo carriers, were being set up by ponies in engineering jumpsuits as they installed the spark batteries and looked over the hulls for weaknesses. Similarly, guard crews were positioned by each wagon, two to three members of each group inspecting some sort of heavy weapon; my guess was that each wagon would be outfitted for defense as well. Behind the wagons, two howitzers were being checked over by their gun crews, and I recognized the voice of the earth pony howitzer captain from the meeting as he gave out orders to his subordinates. And behind the field guns was Buckley’s fourth cargo carrier, with two full racks of the giant howitzer shells, nine in each, sitting beside the wagon’s open tailgate, waiting to be loaded in; seeing the convoy as it was set up definitely put a nervous twinge in my gut, especially considering that I had never been a part of such a large operation.

Facing back forward, I saw one of Buckley’s howitzer crews with their assigned field gun, a second team trotting towards them from the ATC tower as they prepared to take over on night watch. Just in front of them and to the left, I could clearly see the concert hall’s multiple sets of double doors. Like before, the building’s entrance was under guard, three unicorn guards patrolling back and forward with light machineguns in their telekinetic grasp. The one female of the three guards spotted me first even before I was at the entrance, alerting her two companions as I approached. However, to my pleasant surprise, they didn’t immediately ready their weapons at my presence, the female only giving a brief wave before she called, “Ludwig’s already inside, probably wrapping up another rehearsal. He said we should be expecting you, so you can go on in.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Coming up on the entrance, one of the male guards pushed open the door for me, allowing me to enter without a fuss.

I remembered walking into the concert hall’s lobby for the first time, recognized the feeling of the thin yet soft red carpeting underhoof. The white steel pillars, three of them holding up the similarly colored ceiling above, were illuminated to a gentle golden sheen from the baroque glass light fixtures spaced levelly along the four walls; the lobby was just the right level of dim to make a peaceful and welcoming setting. Straight ahead from the concert hall’s main entrance, another set of double doors were closed, bridging the lobby to the performance space itself. Beyond those doors, I could hear voices speaking back and forth, with only the occasional musical note or short phrase being played out at random intervals; it sounded like some of the violin players were squeezing in a few more notes after the rehearsal’s closure.

Cautiously, I nudged open one of the doors and poked my head inside. Unlike my first visit, the gigantic performance space beyond was lit in its entirety, allowing me to see just exactly how big the room was. The stage I had seen before was set farther to the back of the room where it was connected to a walled-off chamber that was only accessible from the stage itself, perhaps some kind of preparation area. But all around the stage, set high up upon the walls and supported by metal spires were rows upon rows of seats, all set into one massive ringing balcony that overlooked the stage. These seats were undoubtedly what the staircases to the second floor led to. However, curiously, the polished wood floor itself was completely bare, carrying no seating arrangement of its own.

On the stage, members of Buckley’s orchestra and (to my surprise) some recognizable singers from its church choir were gathering up their music folders, stands, or instruments as they prepared to depart for the night. In front of them all, looking back and forth among the personnel and their set up, was Ludwig, the white stallion suddenly tapping his hoof against the stage’s floorboards before his musicians, one and all, looked to him. “Well done tonight on this rehearsal.” he spoke. “As you all know, tomorrow, I will be away from the concert hall to oversee a part of the Marefax operation, and I hold very high hopes that it will bring us the instruments we need to complete our orchestra. Because of my absence, I will leave you all to practice on your own time tomorrow. Get with your sections, run through any trouble spots together, and be ready for a quick rehearsal before the concert tomorrow night.” A general murmur of confirmation went around the group at their director’s words, and with a nod, Ludwig added, “For the orchestra members, make sure to focus more on the two symphonies and the suite that we have selected during your practice time. Remember, pending how tomorrow will turn out, this will be the first time that music on such a grand scale as those three works will have been played in Buckley, so we want it to sound as close to perfect as we can manage. You all are sounding absolutely wonderful, and I’m very much looking forward to another successful performance tomorrow.”

With that, his musicians carried on with packing their things, Ludwig himself turning away to his right and descending a short flight of stairs at the end of the stage to step down onto the floor. It was then that I decided to enter the performance space, stepping through the door and letting it close behind me as I made my way towards the stage. In only a moment, Ludwig had found me looking towards him, waiting to get his attention, and he gave a cheery wave as I picked up my pace to join him. “Ah, welcome outsider. You’re right on time.”

“Hello, Ludwig.” I greeted with a smile. “This concert hall is amazing. I’ve never seen a building so big before.”

“Oh, isn’t it?” the buck asked. “As I’m sure Mother Shimmer explained already, this is Buckley’s greatest treasure, and has been ever since the settlement’s founding so many years ago.” Pausing long enough to turn back to the stage, many of the musicians having already cleared out to the backstage area, he added, “And it is my hope that you will become a part of it.”

“What did you want to see me for?” I inquired curiously. “My friends told me that you had come looking for me earlier today, but I was outside with Archer on an assignment from Commander Tracer.”

“I understand.” Ludwig motioned with a nod to follow me, the director steering me back towards the stage before he said, “Today at the meeting, you showed me that you held a very high opinion of music. In all honesty, this was not something that I had expected to hear from an outsider, and I was very surprised, yet very happy to have been proven wrong.” As I listened, the white unicorn stopped in front of the wooden steps leading up to the stage, looking down at a black saddlebag as his horn flickered with soft light, pulling back the flap of the saddlebag to open it. “Saharra had told me that you spent a fair amount of time around music back where you came from, listening to it and even singing on occasion. What I would like to do, if you wouldn’t mind sparing the time, is have you go up on that stage and sing for me and a couple of others. I would be very interested to hear you, as I have a gut feeling that you do have a potentially lovely singing voice. And if my hunch is right, I would very much love to have you sing a song for our upcoming concert.”

“Oh…” Well, this hadn’t been what I was expecting.

His hunch towards the musical value of my voice was one that I had a difficult time believing fully, and it left me with a mix of emotions. I was flattered that he’d think of me as a singer with a decent voice, and I was excited that I was standing here within Buckley’s performance space, even triply so at being offered the opportunity to reconnect with music on a much greater level than simply hearing it being played. But at the same time I suddenly became rather timid, hesitant to simply traipse on up to the stage and sing in front of a bunch of strangers. When I sang, when those sparse moments actually came around, it was simply for the enjoyment of my parents and friends. And that was before the wasteland entered my life. Now, it was simply for Blake’s benefit, to sing him to sleep should he ask it of me… and I hadn’t even done that since leaving Stable 181. That was a realization that put a bit of kick into my train of thought; I really should make an effort to do that again sometime.

“Oh?” Ludwig was still seeking an answer in front of me, cocking an eyebrow as he waited.

“Um, well, it’s just that I haven’t sung that much, and I’ve never gotten the opportunity to read any sheet music before.” I explained, shyly scuffing a hoof along the floor. “I’m not sure if I know enough about music to sing for Buckley.”

To this, Ludwig hummed, bringing a hoof to his chin as the light around his horn disappeared. “I see… let me ask you, when you’ve sung before, how did you learn the song that you sang? If you hadn’t read sheet music before, you must’ve have come to memorize it on your own. How did you go about it?”

“I think that was really about it.” I answered after a moment’s silence. “There was a lot to listen to, and if I listened to it enough I came to memorize it. Um, have you heard of Fluttershy’s Lullaby?”

Ludwig smiled and nodded. “Oh yes. It’s a beautiful melody.”

“That’s a good example as to what I’m trying to get at. I’d listen to that song enough times that I’d remember the words and be able to sing it exactly as I heard it, with correct pitches and everything.” I explained.

“I understand. You can recreate a musical tone from memory, identify its sound, and then sing it.” Ludwig stated. “Hm… I believe that if you had some time to devote to musical study, at least to the point where you would have a basic understanding of pitch classes and individual note names, I’m beginning to suspect we would find that you have an auditory ability called perfect or absolute pitch, or the ability to name or recreate a given musical note without a reference tone.” Yeah… he lost me there. I truly was intrigued with what he was describing to me, but I had never heard of such a thing before in all my life. When I expressed this to him though, he only smiled again, horn glowing as he removed a small file folder from his saddle pack. “There is a quick way that we can find out. Please come and join me up on stage. Saharra should be up there still, I do believe.”

“I’m right here, Ludwig.” came a call from beyond the steps, the voice recognizable as belonging to the mare in question. And as I ascended the steps after the director buck and stepped onto the stage, “Hey there, outsider. I’m glad you could come.”

I gave a wave to the red cerulean-maned unicorn as Ludwig stepped up to her. “Saharra, if you could please lend me a hoof with a quick test,” he began. “I want to see if our outlander friend here has perfect pitch. Could you please fetch your violin?”

“Perfect pitch, huh? Sure, give me a moment.” Turning away, she trotted to the back of the stage and pulled away the far end of the curtain with her magic before disappearing behind them.

“So what exactly is this test?” I then asked, shuffling as I cast a look around the stage. Though silent, I noticed a few lingering onlookers from the orchestra and choir, keeping their distance but still glancing back between us and their equipment as they finished packing.

“It’s simple, really.” Ludwig answered. “When Saharra returns, I’m going to have her play a pitch of her choosing, and then I want you to sing it back to me as accurately as possible. I want you to recreate the pitch with your voice.” I nodded, that faint tingle of nervousness clinging to the back of my mind. Though I thought oppositely, this was apparently quite obvious to the white unicorn, as with an easy smile, he added, “And please don’t mind the small audience. You understand that this is quite the unique situation we find ourselves in with you on our stage.”

“I know,” I assured, though quieter. “but I’m still a little uncomfortable singing around ponies I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry outsider.” a new voice called, belonging to a silver unicorn buck with an ashy red mane, carrying a closed guitar case along his back on a sash. “Nopony’s listening to judge you. It’s just what Ludwig said – we’re kind of curious.”

“I’m ready.” Saharra called, the red mare reemerging through the curtain and now wielding her pristine violin and its bow in her telekinesis as she trotted up to stand beside Ludwig.

“Right. Are you ready, outsider?”

Oh boy…

I let out a breath, shaking out my wings as I sought to calm myself. Then, giving a nod, I replied, “Yeah… I think I’m ready.

At that, Ludwig sat down on his haunches, Saharra levitating up her violin by her neck and setting the bow across the strings. “Alright. Now, let yourself relax.” Ludwig urged with a comforting smile. “Stay calm and focus on the pitch you hear. Let the sound sink in for a moment, and then sing it back to me on ‘ah’.” I gave a nod of understanding, letting my eyes close as I evened out my breathing, lessening the impact of the sense of anxiousness that had welled up in my belly.

I heard the first pitch, a beautiful and rich sustained sound from Saharra’s violin. It was a single note, and when I looked, I saw Saharra’s horn alight as she drew the bow slowly across one of the hovering instrument’s strings, the closet string facing me of the four. Beside her, Ludwig sat waiting with a patient yet intrigued smile, and others still were looking back at me, waiting… I cleared my throat as the note rang. I could hear it I my head, the exact sound and its class of pitch…

Then I opened my mouth and let myself sing out what I heard, quiet at first until, to my private satisfaction, I found that I had matched the pitch exactly on my first attempt. With more confidence I let the volume rise, putting more strength in my voice as I held the ‘ah’ syllable with Saharra’s violin; that’s when the instrument cut out, and me along with it, silence taking over.

I met a wide pair of eyes when I looked back at Saharra, and I found myself looking back to similar gazes among some of the other remaining musicians. Ludwig himself, along with half of my temporary audience, was much calmer, but was smiling brightly. “Um… was that good?” I asked.

“Good?” Saharra asked back, lowering her instrument away from her neck. “That was… shocking.”

“Please, let’s have another pitch.” Ludwig gently interrupted. “I’d like to try a few more notes just to be sure.”

I found both a sense of pride and anticipation taking shape as Saharra returned her violin to its playing position, setting the bow against a second string, the farthest from me, and once again letting another note come to life. This one sounded a little different, and just by hearing it, I could tell that there was an odd interval’s distance between the frequency of this pitch and the last one. Still, as I heard it play in my head, my mind processing the sound for me to hear internally and externally together, I let myself sing out the pitch, once again copying it perfectly with my voice.

Three more times after, this test was repeated, Saharra playing a new pitch for me to sing back to Ludwig. After the fifth time, every time having been the same success that the previous had been, the white unicorn buck looked among the assembled orchestra members. “Let me see here… we had assigned Flynt to the electronic keyboard part for The Voice, right?”

“Yeah, but he’s long gone. Left as soon as you said we could.” a unicorn buck replied, a smaller plastic instrument case at his side.

“Ah. Well, that’s okay. Are there any contrabass players left?” Ludwig then questioned to the stage. At once, three ponies stepped forward, one earth pony stallion and two unicorn mares, and responded; behind them were three of the larger stand-up instruments, still sitting out of their cases. “You all know the song I’m talking about, at least the basic progressions. Would you three mind lending the bass to our friend here?”

“Wait, what are we doing now?” I asked, looking hastily back and forth between Ludwig and the bass players, the latter beginning to pick up their instruments and position themselves to play where they stood at the front edge of the stage.

“I have one final test for you, outsider.” Ludwig answered, briefly nodding to Saharra before standing and walking to me; the file folder from his saddlebag was levitating beside him. “Within this folder is a piece of music, one of the many songs that are kept within Buckley’s libraries. You have already proven that you have quite the voice with you already, but I would like to hear you sing more than just a single note at a time. I want to hear you sing a phrase, a vocal melody.” Stepping around to stand by my right side, the director brought the file folder before the both of us and snapped it open. I was now face to face with a genuine page of preserved sheet music, a page drawn all over with an assortment of circle and stem markings all set up in a specific arrangement to create a song called The Voice. According to the page, this was the vocal part of the piece, specifically labeled as ‘mezzo-soprano’ in the upper left corner.

I had not the slightest clue what these markings meant, or what the purpose was of their arrangement on the paper… but I did know that everything on this page made a thing of true beauty, a treasure, just like Mother Shimmer had said. And knowing that I was now in the presence of one of these treasures, one out of hundreds if not thousands of songs that Buckley held behind its wall of firepower…… I felt honored and privileged… and so excited!

“If you’ll look at this with me,” Ludwig then said, raising a forehoof up to place it on the page. “this is one of the songs that I’ve picked for Buckley’s upcoming concert. However, whether it is used or not will depend solely on you, outsider.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Me?… Why’s that?”

“Throughout your time here, Commander Tracer and Mother Shimmer have found ways for you to prove your trust to Buckley.” he replied. “As I already said, it is my hope that you will join Buckley’s musicians in participating in our newest concert, and I wish that even more now that I have heard the first sounds of your voice. But as to why – I planned this out as another means of approaching a peaceful relationship between Buckley and your company, perhaps even between us and your home in the wastes beyond as well. I feel that having Buckley’s citizens bear witness to an outsider singing alongside the artists they already know will give them a much stronger sense of comfort to your presence, especially if you sing a song such as this one.”

“But are you sure it’ll work like that?”

“I am very confident in it.” Ludwig answered with a smile. “Music is what all of Buckley lives to enjoy and protect. In this matter, music will hold the strongest impact upon the ponies here.”

I cracked a small smile back at the director, his surefire confidence in the matter making me all the more eager to progress with this last test. With that, he took a moment to briefly explain the markings on the paper, showing me that the circular marks, some of them with stems atop them, represented notes. He showed me that a single circle represented four beats to the rhythm, a single circle with a stem on it representing two, a filled circle with a stem representing one, and a filled circle with two stems, the second branching off the top of the first, representing half a beat. He explained that various markings told the singer to sustain a pitch for a longer length of time, particularly double the original value of the first mark; these lines bridging two neighboring marks called slurs. After that he had detailed the opposite of written notes, which were small black boxes or vertical squiggled lines that represented rests, or moments where the singer was silent. He also showed me staves, a combination of five lines that stretched one below the next down the length of the entire page, each set of five spaced from the other and containing their own number of notes. At the top stave, to its left, was a pair of numbers (one atop the other) that represented what he called a time signature, and beside that was a symbol that he called a treble clef. Below the notes on each staff, the actual lyrics to the song were written in, a tool for helping to learn it.

At the end of Ludwig’s brief tutoring session on the basics of what was written on the page, I found myself reading part of the song's lyrics aloud, discovering for myself the strength of the meaning behind them. “I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain. I am the voice of your hunger and pain. I am the voice that is always calling you…” I spoke, briefly glancing away from the music to look to the white unicorn; he only smiled and nodded back to me. “This is amazing…”

“But you have yet to sing it.” Ludwig countered with a chuckle. “I believe the others are ready for us now. Yes, Saharra?”

While I had been distracted, the red unicorn mare had relocated to a new place on the stage. She was now standing in a group with four others, made of the three contrabass players and the grey unicorn buck, guitar now held in his magic; I noticed that each of them only carried their instruments… no music. “Yes, Ludwig, we’re ready whenever Nova is.” came Saharra’s reply, the five of them bringing their instruments to playing positions.

“If you’re ready, I would like to hear you sing the first phrase of this song.” Ludwig stepped off to my right, letting the music rest on the stage floor in front of me. “I’ve established by now that you listen to music and recreate it with your ears as your primary asset. With this in mind, I’ll have Saharra play the melody for you on her violin. If you’d like it repeated, simply say so, and when you think you have it down, signal to me and I’ll cue the others to play as well as your entrance.”

“Alright, I think I’ve got it.” I replied with a nod, looking back down at the paper. Looking at the notes on the page, I realized that, because of my lack of actual musical study, I would have to rely more on my ears to help me sing it. Still, as Saharra suddenly begun to play the tune, the hauntingly beautiful melody that I would soon be singing, I begun to establish the correlation between the written notes and the duration of the pitches.

I followed this to the end of the phrase, ending on the word ‘free’ which was sustained for twice as long as a ‘whole note’ as it was called. For my benefit, I had Saharra play it again as the other players waited patiently. From memory the violinist played the vocal line, allowing me to take in the flowing purity of her instrument as she recited the line with her bow, copying its written note changes perfectly. The third repetition I requested let me focus in on the pitches, and I let my mind free itself as I recalled the frequency of each note, when it sounded in the melody, and readied myself to recreate it all.

Then, as Saharra closed the phrase for the third time, I gave a nod to Ludwig, and he raised a foreleg up and faced his five musicians, all of them coming alert and waiting. After a pause, he gave a nod and began conducting the beat, all three contrabass players drawing their bows along their strings to create the first chord of the song. Then I was on, opening my mouth to sing the first word. ‘I’ was a sustained word, possessing pitch fluctuations that I sang to the best of my knowledge. After the first word, I carried on through the phrase, singing, “hear your voice… on the wind.” I found myself closing my eyes as I sung, nearly shivering as I heard the basses change their chords with my words, the first chord once again sustained as I sang, “And I…… hear you call out… my name.” Taking in a breath at the ensuing pause, I heard Ludwig’s forehoof tap against the stage floor like a soft drum as I carried on with, “Listen my child, you say to me.” Through my concentration, I heard the acoustic guitar join in. “I am the voice of your history.” The song was picking up, rising to an inevitable peak as I sang out, “Be not afraid come follow me. Answer my call and I’ll set… you… free!” I let out the last word and held it strong, and for a moment, I was wrapped in sheer power as Saharra once again joined us, her violin blooming out from the calm with a solo as the basses set the beat with unison changing notes, the guitar matching the beat with quick rhythmic plucking of the strings.

And just like that, as my breath depleted, the phrase ended and we came to a stop.

I let my eyes come open as I took in a breath. Of those who had been playing at my side, I found the same reactions as before now amplified, especially from Saharra herself. “Outsider… that was amazing.”

The acoustic guitar buck had spoken that to me, causing a bashful smile to tug at my lips. “Was it really that good?”

“Nova, I’m surprised that you don’t hear it yourself!” Saharra voiced, lowering her violin and bow away from its playing position. “You were spot on through ninety percent of that entire phrase, and your voice was beautiful!”

Wow…

“I agree.” Ludwig added nearby. “If you had the time to devote yourself to a few weeks of applied singing lessons, the talent you already possess could be refined to a professional level. That truly was lovely to hear.”

“I… t-thanks…” I was positively touched by these kind words, and my mood was already further improved in the aftermath of what I had just sung. But even if I had managed to sing the pitches correctly, I wasn’t so sure if everything being said was entirely accurate. “I still don’t really think I have that great of a voice though…”

To this, Ludwig only smiled, trotting back up by my side. “My dear, your voice… I see it as a songbird - a beautiful entity that yearns to fly free and be heard. But at the same time, I see this songbird trapped in a cage of timidity and uncertainty that prevents it from doing so. Hearing you today in just this short amount of time, I can see that you have a gift for music whether you know it or not, one that has taken shape because of your love of the art. And I believe that this gift is just now beginning to come to light, both to you and us, to the wasteland even. This is something that you would do well to nurture and care for, as this untrained talent can lead you to accomplish great things. And certainly, music is not something that can help you in physical fights and such, but there are other great things out there besides winning battles and completing missions.”

Slowly, I nodded my understanding, smiling all the while. Never in any of my years had I thought of my own singing that way, and truly, I never even contemplated hearing something so deep as what I heard from Buckley’s director of music. This was a whole new thing for me, an entirely new level of appreciation for something that I had, once upon a time, simply looked at with a simple shrug and smile. Whether it had been modesty or an overly-high expectation as to what a quality singing voice should sound like, I had simply seen my own voice as a thing of entertainment and, in the case of my baby brother, comfort. To hear Ludwig’s words, here and now, put new strength and confidence in me, and sweet Celestia did it make me feel good!

“You certainly do have a beautiful voice, Nova.” Ludwig added, patting me on the back. “I can say with every ounce of truth in my words that I would be glad to have you as a part of our concert tomorrow. Will you join us for this?”

I spoke my answer without a second guess. “I’d love to.”

*** *** ***

Before I knew it, the next morning had arrived, bringing with it the newest items on my agenda. As I came to discover the night prior, Ludwig and Saharra both were habitual night owls, and at the former’s insistence, the three of us had remained in the concert hall for three more hours after its closing in order for me to sing through the entirety of The Voice and work at memorizing the lyrics and their related pitches. This had been accomplished through simple but constant repetition and practice, Ludwig guiding me through the song phrase by phrase, Saharra then playing the melody on her violin, and me finally singing it back until, within the last ten minutes of our session, I had the whole song memorized.

Though it involved no evasive flying or precision rifle-work, the rehearsal had been tiring. With a complete lack of breaks, the virtually non-stop singing had begun to put a strain in my voice, a tingling in my throat that threatened to make my voice crack every once and awhile. However, this was easily bearable, because I had been absolutely spellbound to the song I had been assigned to sing, lost in the blanket that was my concentration and my love for music. Between this and the encouragement from Buckley’s concert director himself, I was blazing with confidence in my musical capacity, and at the end of the rehearsal, when Saharra had finally convinced Ludwig to head to bed and get some rest for the trip to Marefax, I found myself humming the entire tune to myself five times over before I finally retired to the shack to sleep. That night had warranted the best sleep I felt that I ever had out in the wasteland. It was a peaceful and comfortable sleep, wrapped up in my blanket with Blake snuggled up against my side, my protective wing draped over him like always. It was shorter, this I knew, but I still woke feeling well-rested when the guard came knocking on our door.

In truth, had it not been for the wakeup call we had received, I would’ve slept right through the rally time that Commander Tracer had assigned to the expedition. Everypony had woken up together, and after a quick breakfast, worked quickly to pack up and reequip all of our gear. Because Gracie would be remaining on base to be with my baby brother, she had distributed most of her remaining stock of medical supplies to the rest of us. She had given the larger quantity of these to Gunny and Blossom, leaving myself, Shore, and Raemor with a combined total of four healing potions, one super-strength restoration elixir, and three bottles of rad-x with five radaway pouches. This had left her with what she declared to be just enough to keep for ourselves for later use, though we had decided that some haggling with Doctor Preston was in order to purchase more supplies.

After being refitted with our weapons and equipment, and giving Raemor a small portion of our food and water to carry on the trip, we had rallied at the front gate with Buckley’s convoy. It was when I had joined up with the ranks of the base’s volunteers that I had met up with Archer, who, true to his word, came to me with some new information regarding Mother Shimmer. However, it wasn’t news that put me at ease, as Archer had only seen her once, during which time she had been crying at her desk. The pegasus hadn’t bothered her, but with the memory orbs and their recollector sitting around her mattress, it wasn’t hard to tell that the revelation of Mother Shimmer’s past had hit her hard… very hard.

Archer’s report made me all the more worried for Shimmer, and the fact that the ghoul leader of Buckley hadn’t even arrived with Tracer to see the expedition out of the gates amplified that concern even further. But still, the convoy finished its final preparations under Tracer and Amber Dawn’s supervision, whereupon Gunny and Blossom gave us their farewells before heading southwest back towards the news radio building. And only a short time later, I had found myself once again giving my baby brother a goodbye hug and kiss on the forehead as I ventured out into unknown territory with Shore and Raemor at my side, all three of us now members of the most heavily armed convoy I had ever seen.

*** *** ***

Marefax.

All around me, Buckley’s convoy rolled along at a slow but solid pace, hugging the left side of the Old World highway heading north. And straight ahead, the glow of the early morning light illuminated brightly enough for me to behold our destination in full. Grey crumbling towers, shrouded with a black ashy coating against the dim cloud ceiling, rose from the earth like colossal gravestones reaching desperately for the sky. And all around them, the decayed shapes of shorter buildings under the bosom of those silent high-rises made miles upon miles of metropolitan ruin, the result of the Last Day and the balefire missile that had brought its wrath to the city and its populous.

We had first seen the city as thin, dead appendages rising over the northern horizon, spotting it just an hour past the remains of the Shamrock Farmstead; Shore had pointed out to us the collapsed structure, where he and the others had been ambushed, as we passed it by. Beyond that came the first challenge to the convoy, as over two hours past our discovery of the Shamrock Farm, the highway had quickly become congested with Old World passenger wagons and carriages, soon blocking any easy path on it from the expedition’s pulling teams as they hauled Buckley’s cargo carriers and two howitzers behind them. And by the time that we were no more than a half hour from the city border, the convoy was having to guide the wagons out into the fields themselves, as the rusted corpses of wagons and chariots continued to thicken, spreading out onto the road’s shoulders and eventually scattering out into the fields themselves the closer we came to the city limits. The expansive graveyard of Old World transports made it perfectly obvious that a lot of ponies had tried to escape Marefax on that fateful day… and yet many, if not all of them, whether by the heat blast, the destructive shockwave, or the fires and the proceeding radiation brought by that missile, had perished, and all in mere minutes… seconds even…

My ears perked as my pipbuck emitted a chirp, giving me a welcoming distraction from the devastation ahead as I paused in my walk to look over the screen; I found that the computer had placed a second marker on my map.

As part of the infantry escort surrounding Buckley’s cargo wagons and field guns while en route to the city, I was able to pause and observe my surroundings whenever the pulling teams had to surpass a divot in the earth or other obstruction. One such obstacle was currently causing difficulty for one of the howitzers, forcing its crew of six unicorns and four extra guards to pause and work the gun’s left tire free of a ditch with their combined telekinesis. We were coming up onto another farm just outside the city limits - a smaller destroyed farmhouse, a row of four rickety metal shacks, and a pair of rubble piles that had once been barns were what my pipbuck labeled as the Red Grove Vineyard. Behind the shacks, I could see rows upon rows of what had once been the farm’s crop - short trees planted one next to the other, stretching west, which had once held bushels of grapes and berries. Now, they were merely sticks poking up from the ground, dried up skeletons of their former selves that looked ready to crumble to dust in the gentlest of breezes.

“I’m surprised we haven’t come across anything hostile yet, sir.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll see something out here soon enough.” Commander Tracer replied to the cautious voice; when I passed a glance over, I saw that he was speaking to one of his guards, standing at the head of the convoy and watching as the first wagon continued onward with Saharra, Ludwig, Raemor, Shore, and the rest of its escort staying close by.

“What makes you think that, commander?” the guard buck asked.

Tracer raised a foreleg to gesture to the urban boneyard in front of us. “Because in a place like this, silence on its outskirts represents a calm before the storm, and that storm is going to consist of every threat that Archer laid out on that map. You’d best enjoy this peace while it lasts, son, because things are going to get interesting once we cross into the city itself.”

At that, the guard dismissed himself with a quick but nervous salute, trotting back up to the second wagon in line as it passed out of the vineyard and further along the road. Only a moment later, as I begun walking again, Archer swooped down from higher up and hovered in above the commander. “Commander, if I might make a suggestion?” he spoke. “We’ll be coming up on the city’s tourist information center within the next couple of minutes, and it’s the last building on the highway before the city limits. With it being positioned just outside the border, I think that it’d make an ideal firing position for the howitzers.” The commander nodded for the pegasus to continue, attention focused on the convoy as it continued forward. “This highway ends right in the outskirts but instead turns into the Silver Arrow, a two-lane road that can take us through the outskirts and all the way up to the Silver Arrow Crossover, the bridge we’re going to take into the downtown sector. I figure that if the guns are set within close proximity of that tourist center, they’d still be able to cover us all the way to the industrial park.”

“That could work.” Tracer commented with a nod. “If it’s right outside the border, then it would be a good place to set up and keep the gun crews out of harm’s way, long as there aren’t any sand hornet nests nearby.”

“No, the closest nests to our route are in a place called Fairfield, a residential township of the city.” Archer assured, watching with the commander as the third wagon was pulled past them. “We shouldn’t have too much trouble with them, but we’ll need to be more careful the farther in we go.” By now, the stuck howitzer was pulled free, the gun crew putting their telekinesis back to work in rolling the weapon forward on its two tires. Slowly, the convoy was coming back together from the delay, with the three empty cargo wagons lined up in the front, the two howitzers pulling up after them, and the wagon with the guns’ ammunition making the caboose of our train.

With the convoy piecing itself back together from the short postponement, I picked up my pace to a trot, putting the Red Grove Vineyard to my back as I rejoined the column by the third wagon. But just as I did so, I heard hooves land right behind me, belonging to Archer as he tucked in his wings and joined me by my left side. “How are you doing?” he asked me, a small smile that I was slowly becoming familiar with adorning his face.

“I’m… okay.” I answered… perhaps a taste too slowly to be fully believable. And when Archer cocked an eyebrow, easily catching on, I spoke outright, adding, “It’s just kind of hard for me to look at this city at the moment… you know, knowing what happened to it and everything.”

“Ah… yeah, I understand.” he replied. “It’s not an easy thing to take in.”

I nodded. “Yes… but really, it’s just me and my nostalgia.” I urged myself to let out a little laugh at that, adding, “It has a habit of kicking in when I see Old World places, or when I’m left to my thoughts. And it’s kind of swooping down in force now that I’m looking at a city.”

“Well, I can be honest when I say that I haven’t met anypony that longed for the ways of the past more than you.” he replied, once again bringing a light blush to my face. “But I still understand. If there’s anything I can do to help out, even if you just need a listening ear, feel free to let me know.”

Aw, how gentlecoltly of him. “Thanks, Archer. But in truth, I think I’ll be plenty focused away from all that once Tracer sends me up there with the Eagle Eye. I have every intention of doing whatever I’m told and doing it right on this mission.”

“That’s good.” the pegasus buck remarked with a nod. “How’s the new gear fitting you?”

“I don’t really like the position of this camera thing under my stomach, but overall I think it’s just fine.” Before we had left on our trip, the artillery captain had pulled me to the side in order to fit me with the promised Eagle Eye unit, the new gear I’d need as a part of my assigned role as artillery spotter. While a single terminal and compacted desk had been loaded into the wagon carrying the howitzer shells, the other half of the unit had been fixed to my M.P.D. armor via a lightweight metal housing that used its own set of cables to secure itself to my armor’s side plates. The housing held the camera device, a turret-like array that was composed of the camera itself, hidden up to its lens in a half-spherical shielding unit that rotated every which way, allowing the camera to see anything on the ground below me while I was in flight. The last addition to this new equipment was a piece of headgear in the form of an old military hat – a patrol cap – with a headset fastened into its fabric. Connected to the headset, hovering by the right side of my mouth from the thin plastic extension tube built into the headset’s frame, was a small microphone that would simultaneously allow me to communicate with the convoy’s artillery coordinator as well as hear orders given from Tracer throughout the mission. While basic in its functionality, the wartime technology was definitely interesting to learn about, and when put on, the only complaint I had about it was the awkward addition of weight on my belly, as the camera hugged my body dead center around my stomach… and though I kept the thought hidden from everypony else, the thing did kind of make me feel fat…

With a good-natured chuckle, the pegasus responded, “Yeah, tell me about it. I’ve worn that thing a couple of times, but I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to get used to once you’re up in the air.”

“Makes sense.”

“Just remember what the captain said.” he added. “Keep yourself as level as possible, and fly in a wide circle around the convoy’s position. The artillery teams need you to fly in those lazy circles to see the targets, so don’t divert off unless you’re told to do so. I’ll be up there with you to attack targets from higher up, too, so you’ll have some protection and some reminders of what you need to do if the need arises.”

“And everypony in the convoy is linked through this one radio frequency?” I asked, raising a hoof to tap the mic by my mouth.

Archer nodded. “Yes. So at some points, you might hear multiple voices talking back and forth. It just depends on what’s going on. So make sure you listen for your name to be called, that way you know what you need to respond to.”

For the next few minutes as we continued down the highway, I had Archer run over the rest of the basics, both to make me more secure in knowing my responsibilities and for the simple benefit of hearing them again. We were coming into hazardous territory, each step carrying us closer to what was undoubtedly the most dangerous place in all of the southeast, and if I forgot something, or didn’t do something correctly, it might very well cost a life. The focus that I gathered up at this thought was amplified knowing that both Shore and Raemor would be staying with the convoy the entire time, fighting back anything and anypony hostile that came at them from the vast stretch of ruins that we would be crossing.

As Archer and I wrapped up our conversation, ending with his suggestion that I trade my pipbuck’s larger map for the local variant, voices begun to give out orders to check weapon loads towards the rear of the convoy. “Looks like we’re coming up on the tourist center.”

At Archer’s remark, I craned my head forward to peek past the wagon we walked alongside. Though we walked outside of the highway, still thickly packed with the rusted hulks of old transports, I could spot an intact brick building with a crumbling black tile roof just ahead and right of the highway, a short off-ramp leading to the structure itself. But what caught my eye more was something sitting on the opposite end of the highway, parallel to the building. Sitting on two rusted legs dug into the blackened earth, bent forward on its frame, was a very old metal signpost. The broad signboard had once been painted over with an array of vibrant yellows, blues, greens, reds, and light greys which had now faded to hazy and lifeless versions of their former selves. Along with this, the sign had been perforated with bullets, leaving numerous holes that tore away at the legibility of the text worked into the artistic design of the board. But still, with all of its wear and tear, and with its faint colors, there was no mistaking the purpose of the board, and there was no missing what the remainder of the text spelled out.

Welcome to Marefax – The Garden City
Enjoy your stay!

“Alright everypony, it’s time to get this show on the road.” Tracer’s voice carried out over the entire convoy, drawing everypony’s attention toward the rear of the train as it came to a halt. “Captain, take the guns and the ammo wagon straight ahead about thirty yards to that clearing before the first street. All the houses beyond that are wrecked, so you’ll have a clean lane to fire from.”

“Yes, sir. Move it, everypony!”

“Remember, our first target is the Cirrus Communications building.” Tracer continued, the convoy infantry rallying close by to listen in. “It’s a long walk there, so stay alert at all times. Keep close to the wagons for cover and protect them and their pulling teams from anti-armor and any other heavy weaponry if we run into raider nests. These wagons have to survive, or else we won’t be able to cross any further into the city. I want no less than ten guards to every vehicle, but when we’re on the streets, put space between yourselves. I don’t want three ponies getting hurt at once because of a grenade. Remember your training, and be prepared for anything.”

The guards begun to disperse as Tracer concluded, scattering to take up their positions around the stationary wagons. As I watched, I saw both Shore and Raemor heading to the front of the column, passing quick waves to me as they trotted ahead. Along with the other preparations, I saw as rectangular hatches sprung open on the armored tops of the boxy wagons, four mounted weapons emerging from the holes to lock into place atop their vessels, with their assigned operators following them up and swiftly checking them over. Two of the wagons, the first and third in the column, were armed with bulky pony-sized grenade machineguns, long-barreled repeating guns that fired the larger forty millimeter grenades in rapid succession. The second wagon of the train was armed with a mounted missile launcher, a different model that, instead of being built with the break-action that I had seen on Proudspire’s launcher, used a heavy revolving cylinder containing three chambers that gave the launcher three missiles to fire before a reload. The final wagon, which would remain behind, was mounted with a heavy machinegun, an all-purpose fifty caliber weapon that would be used to cover the howitzer teams as they provided support for the convoy. These two teams were already moving ahead, pulling the howitzers up side by side and digging them in as the pulling team of their ammo wagon brought the vehicle around.

“Archer, Nova,” Commander Tracer called, bringing my gaze to snap behind me where the mission leader stood, nodding up to the sky. “it’s time for you two to get up there. Go ahead and get airborne while the artillery sets up, and keep your ears open for communication being tossed around on the radio. You both know your roles?”

“Yes, sir.” Archer replied, with me nodding beside him.

“Alright then. Good luck you two.” With a dip of his head Tracer turned and trotted back to our three-wagon train, moving ahead to the lead vehicle. “Let’s roll!” At his word, the guardsponies taking up the call, the three wagons begun to move again, the pulling teams carrying them forward as their gunners finished their weapon checkup, locked and loaded. And with them, after Archer’s nod, the two of us were on the move too, springing skyward and flying a circle low above the convoy.

The organization and the crispness of Buckley’s guards, the swiftness of their following of orders, and the amount of preparation that had been put into today’s task made for an interesting group to be working with. Our reduced convoy of three wagons had a total of thirty-four guards, including Tracer himself, Saharra, Shore, and Raemor, with Ludwig having taken shelter within the armored protection of the center wagon, being the only non-combatant among us. All of this was moving forward as a single mobile unit, the wagons lined single-file and inching closer to the highway as the dead transports on the road slowly begun to thin out past the city welcome sign.

As Archer and I began to climb higher up, still flying in a slow, wide circle directly over the others, I began to see more of the terrain in the path of the convoy. Ahead of them, a narrower street, barely recognizable from the scant remains of concrete that had once made it, crossed the highway perpendicularly, creating a four-way intersection that separated the first of the city’s residential districts from the fields to the south. Beyond that road, a vast and heartbreaking expanse of scorched houses, ruined shops, and other demolished suburban structures, over ninety percent of them crumbled down to nothing more than foundations or skeletal frames, made the graveyard that was the Serenity Springs Township, named from the intact stone marker just past the intersection. While the highway itself ended at the intersection, a narrower town road, what Archer had called the Silver Arrow, continued straight ahead. From this main road branched several streets, dividing the outskirts into an even larger expanse of suburban blocks that stretched outward to the east and west while gradually curving in, following the overall circular shape of the downtown area as far as the eye could see.

“Outsider, can you hear me up there?”

The voice buzzing in my headset took my eyes off of the ruins below and the train entering them, jolting me back to focus. “Yeah, yeah I hear you. Who is this?”

“I’m Cale, the artillery coordinator for this mission.” the buck explained in reply. “You and I are going to essentially be partners while the convoy makes its way to the industrial park.”

“Okay. So, what’s our first step?” I asked in reply.

“I’m going to go ahead and turn on the camera, so don’t mind the noise.” came Cale’s answer. “While I’m doing that, climb a little higher. I can see you from here, and I think that if you raise your altitude a little more, I should be able to have a full steady view of the convoy.”

With a quick affirmative, I banked upward at a sharper angle, hastening my ascent. Archer was staying close by as I flew up, and underneath me, I heard as the camera begun to whir to life, the gears and other internal components buzzing as the unit activated. At the end of my climb, I had more than quadrupled my height above the convoy, and the three cargo carriers moving through the first block of Serenity Springs resembled pudgy rectangles amidst the squares that made the housing foundations surrounding them on both sides, the infantry guards now dots moving with the wagons.

Still buzzing under my belly, the camera continued to move as I leveled out, letting myself glide at an easy pace on the cool wind. “That’s a good height.” Cale spoke up. “Just head a little farther east and that should allow me to have the view I need.”

Without word I followed the instruction, winging away straight ahead out over the east side of Serenity Springs. A quick flight later and I was given the okay, establishing myself at the right distance away for Cale to have a full view of the wagon train and the surrounding area. And with a final order to maintain my circular course around the convoy’s airspace, the mission had finally begun.

With Archer diverting off to fly ahead of the train’s path, executing his own patrol route, I was left near the nine o’clock position of the train as I flew my counterclockwise circuit. Alas, being alone up in the air once again allowed me to take in the dead quiet of Marefax, except this time, I was seeing more of the city than I had seen from low altitude. As the convoy moved, it would be coming upon a scattering of intact buildings along the way, the first of these (about two blocks down) still carrying a large readable signboard on its front wall above the metal double-doors that was its entrance – the nearby Serenity Springs Grocer. Further along the rubble-strewn road, seven blocks down, the blasted houses gave way to a temporary clearing, a divider between Serenity Springs and the next district. But placed just before this was the second standing site on the route, a series of nine fenced-in rectangular structures set in three-by-three formation along with one larger building behind them; I had no idea what it was.

A shiver passed along my back as I scanned over the first portion of our route to the heart of the city. One hundred and seventy-five years ago, this had all been part of a bustling and lively metropolis, with hundreds of thousands… maybe even millions… of ponies going about their day, working, shopping, touring the city, playing and mingling… countless families - mares, stallions, foals, elderly… they were all here by the score, and all it took to wipe them all off the face of the earth was one single weapon, one push of a button. Now, the blackened field of destroyed houses, the streets littered with rubble and scattered detritus, and the tombstones that were the city’s skyscrapers was all that remained. It was only the occasional echoing report of a rifle deeper into the city, light even to my keen ears, that served as a reminder that some souls still remained here, raider or otherwise.

Below, the wagons were moving smoothly, weaving around broken down carriages in their way while still staying in formation. With the silence and the chilly air as my company, I was passing by behind the train, the camera of the Eagle Eye occasionally whirring and buzzing under me as Cale continued to scan for hostile positions. Within minutes, the wagons were coming up to the grocery store, the first wagon now crossing to the closest corner of the building’s parking lot, occupied by at least a dozen strewn-about wagons and a much higher concentration of old garbage; on that terrible final day, I was sure that they had belonged to families shopping for supplies, food for their families’ dinner tables…

I sighed.

“Commander Tracer, this is Eagle Eye.”

Through my microphone, I heard Tracer’s reply. “Go ahead, Cale. Do you see anything?”

My camera buzzed again as the machine adjusted. “I’m seeing two potential targets ahead of your current position. The first looks like a roost of feral ghouls in an old housing foundation down the road, just a couple houses ahead of the grocery store. If you give us the okay, we can drop a shell on it and clear the majority of them away for you.”

“How many are there?” the commander asked.

“I count at least ten on the road, but there’s probably a few more hiding within those busted homes.”

“Okay… what about the second target?”

Again the camera shifted. “About four blocks ahead of you is a broken-down house with more ponies in it.” Cale explained. “I’m seeing… Goddesses, they’ve got corpses hanging from nooses on that house…”

Raiders…

I warned the two stallions of that through the chat, immediately looking ahead down the road with narrowed eyes. The rows upon rows of housing foundations and barely-standing residential buildings made it hard to pinpoint where this nest was, but there was no denying that what I had heard was the handiwork of raiders; they were the only ones I knew that’d do something like that.

“Can you see how many there are?” Tracer inquired.

I heard with a small frown as Cale let out a shaky breath. “Yeah… yeah there’s at least a squad there, six at least… probably more.”

“Alright, I don’t want to use up all of the howitzer rounds within the first few minutes, considering we could only spare eighteen shots for the trip, so we’ll let our wagons handle the ghouls.” the commander ordered after a thoughtful pause. “Set coordinates on that raider house and drop a shell on it. Ponies with guns are far more dangerous than creatures, and I don’t want the train to have to face any of those until the downtown area if I can help it.

“Roger that, commander. We’re going loud.”

With that, my mic went silent, as did the world around us. The grocery store didn’t appear to hold any hostile targets, as while I spotted a half-dozen guards searching over the parking lot from my place up high, there was no gunfire coming from the site as the convoy continued to move by unhindered.

BOOM!

From behind, the thundering report of one of the howitzers raced across my ears, and I looked to see a plume of white smoke drifting skyward from one of the field guns farther behind us. Then, a moment later as I quickly looked back to the street, I saw a wrecked home farther ahead as it went up in a violent explosion of fire, dirt, and shrapnel, the raider den obliterated whole from the single howitzer shell.

“Direct hit.” Cale announced through the mic.

I couldn’t help but crack a faint smile as the fire dissolved away, leaving a lingering cloud of thick dust as debris continued to fall from the sky around the blast site; at least now, the howitzers were pointing at ponies who deserved it instead of my friends.

The sudden report of rifle fire drew my eyes back to the grocery store. Just beyond it, the first wagon and its escort had encountered the pack of ferals that Cale had spotted. All at once, the infantry formed into a loose line and put concentrated fire downrange as a line of sharp explosions strafed the street ahead, sweeping away a number of the incoming hostiles all together. The forward wagon’s grenade machinegun fired a second burst of rounds as I found it, six detonations, one by one, decimating another pocket of ghouls emerging from the carcass of another house; the building and the ghouls around it were blasted to pieces by the deadly weapon.

Beyond that only three other ghouls remained, continuing their charge through the thick dust, undaunted by the bits of meat and rubble that fell around them. But then, executing all possible means of the word overkill, the second wagon of the train, whose pulling team had brought it off to the right side of the front wagon and behind the infantry formation, let off a round from its revolving missile launcher, the rocket-propelled projectile roaring forward before consuming the last targets in a fiery explosion.

“All clear?” Tracer called through the mic after a pause. “Anypony see anything else?”

“I’ve got nothing, sir.” a female guardspony answered.

“Yeah we’re good.” added a male.

“All clear from up here.” Archer spoke, chuckling as he added, “You know, Brock, if you start blowing holes in the road at every turn, the wagons are going to have a harder time getting to the downtown area.”

“Sorry, fly boy. I can’t help myself.” the same guard responded with a laugh, the column continuing ahead and bypassing the small blast crater left by the missile with relative ease, despite Archer’s joking concern.

Another block later, and Archer was engaging targets farther ahead at the wreckage of the raider nest, reporting back that a couple of strays had survived the initial blast of the howitzer shell. Still, without any help, he had made quick work of them from the air, his twin .308 rifles only firing thrice before he returned to higher altitude.

But only just after the pegasus’ rifles went silent, gunfire was picking up again, keeping the entire convoy on alert as it progressed. The noise was soft on the air, but was still easily strong enough that my ears could distinguish the varying calibers. Lighter pops of sound were the product of low caliber weapons, perhaps thirty-eight or nine millimeter. Machinegun fire was mixed in, evident by the burst-fire that carried out on the air, and even sharper bursts of sound led me to believe that lever and bolt-action rifles of moderate caliber were also involved in the hidden gunfight.

“Archer, do you hear that?” Tracer asked through my headset.

“Sounds like a shootout.” came the pegasus buck’s response. “We may have to divert from our original course if it’s too thick.”

“I understand. Fly ahead and see what’s what. If we have to deviate, so be it.”

“Should I go with him, commander?” I asked, watching as Archer veered north to scout the road.

“No, I need you flying that circle for now.” he responded, making me frown. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your time to help us out on the ground, but you’re the eyes of our gun crews right now, and I want you to stay that way.”

“Yes, commander.”

Looking back ahead, I could just make out Archer’s shape against the morning sky, patrolling in a loose circle above the first clearing about three blocks ahead of the wagon train. He continued his circuit in silence as he branched out, gradually making his way northward farther down the Silver Arrow to investigate the next residential district, with the gunfire showing no signs of lessening. “Do you see anything, Archer?” I questioned; the lingering silence, combined with the fact that I wasn’t out helping him made me restless.

“Yeah. It looks like I was right.” he answered. “I’m seeing two big groups of raiders holed up on opposite sides of the Silver Arrow engaged in a gunfight. They’re about three blocks into the next township after Serenity Springs, called Fairfield, past the Greener Pastures Greenhouses and the clearing surrounding the site.”

“Then we’ll need to find another route to bypass the firefight.” Tracer observed.

“Already on it, commander.” Archer replied. “The train will be coming up to the greenhouses soon. When you’re there, you’re going to hook a right to the more intact streets, travel two blocks east, and then continue north. That’ll give us a large enough distance to slip by unnoticed. We can return to the Silver Arrow after a few blocks on the new road.” Up ahead, the dot with wings that was our second flier hooked around, on his return approach back to us. But then, as a particularly loud shot echoed on the air, a cry of agony pierced through my headset, and with a gasp, I snapped my wings out full to jerk to a startled halt.

Archer plummeted down out of the sky!

“Archer?!” I lost sight of him behind a standing house. “Archer, are you okay?!”

“Archer!” came Tracer. “Come in!… Damn it…”

“Goddesses… we’ve got to help him, commander!” a male guard spoke up. “Those raiders’ll be on him in seconds!”

“Everypony pick up the pace!” the commander barked. “Move!”

“I’m going out there, Tracer!” I then called through my mic. “He needs support, and I can reach him the fastest!”

“Get out there and find him, outsider.” came his reply. “You do, then dig in to a defensible position and wait for backup. The wagons will be there soon.”

Even before Tracer had finished, I was winging away, following the Silver Arrow and keeping my eyes glued to where I had last seen Archer’s form. Quick as I could, I passed by the Greener Pastures Greenhouses site, over the surrounding clearing, and out above the township of Fairfield. By now, I could see the muzzle flashes of firearms against the wrecked houses and shops farther north, the gunshots ringing clearly up to me. I could even see shapes moving on the road, the combatants of the battle below, and some of them were beginning to branch off towards me.

Then, from my mic came another familiar voice. “Outsider, this is Cale.”

I kept my eyes on the ground, scanning the wreckage below me. “What is it?”

“I’m just giving you a quick warning – I’ve snapped a picture of Fairfield and the howitzers will be sending some rounds your way.” he answered. “You have to let me know if the shells are coming in too close to you since I won’t have video feed from the camera. Understand?”

I came to a hover once more, focusing my attention to the southernmost roads. “I understand.” On the Silver Arrow, the small figures I had spotted were clumped together into a group, on the move and advancing quickly across the second block down from the greenhouses. “I think Archer landed within Fairfield’s south side, maybe within the first block, because I’m seeing raiders moving towards that first road intersecting the Silver Arrow.”

“Okay. Search there and we’ll keep fire away from you.”

Suddenly, a loud burst of gunfire preceded five rapid consecutive shots that whizzed by my right side, and with a yelp I banked hard left before dropping into a nosedive. From below, the street was lighting up with more gunfire, and this time, several shots were coming for me. There was no time for any retaliation as the streets came rushing up to me, and righting myself quickly to draw parallel to the Silver Arrow, I poured on the speed and bolted, flying just high enough to pass over the hole-filled rooftops of a trio of standing houses. More shots followed me from just below, the raiders now clearly visible in their pieced together armor and their ratty weapons. There were dozens of them, each spaced along the street and digging into positions behind rickety walls or destroyed wagons; I was in the thick of the fight now.

Hurriedly, I arced back around, passing over a four-way intersection before reversing course and heading back to Fairfield’s south perimeter. It was then that my ears perked to a familiar noise - the sharp clap of sound that came from a .308 rifle. It was close, and looking back down to the surface and ahead, I spotted a trio of raiders armed with melee weapons running close together, cutting across an old backyard to leap one after another through the window of a standing wall to my left, one of two that was left of the house it had once been a part of. The second barrier, facing north, blocked my view of what was behind it, but I put my full trust in my ears; the shot had definitely come from behind those two walls.

Flipping my saddle’s safety off, I urged one final burst of speed out of my wings and turned left, another round from the .308 sounding even closer. Then, passing the west barrier by, I turned in flight, rotating in the air while dropping back behind the wall, winning defilade from the raiders on the streets. Behind the walls, I found our downed pegasus trapped in a corner. Two corpses lay nearby, and even as I beat my wings and charged, Archer abruptly wheeled and bucked, hind hooves lashing out in a swift and powerful strike that snapped the neck of a crowbar-wielding earth pony stallion; but then, the remaining two jumped him. One male earth pony and one female unicorn drove into the pegasus together, tackling him to the ground before the male swiftly pulled back the lead pipe in his mouth and slammed it down on Archer’s left shoulder. At just a few yards away, I let myself slip into the embrace of S.A.T.S. and targeted the raider buck. Just as he reared back for another swing, my carbine and battle rifle fired together, a pair of shots driving home into the raider’s back and knocking him off of the struggling pegasus. But even before Archer could get back to his hooves and recover, the unicorn, undaunted by her companion’s demise, once again slammed into him, bowling into his side and forcing him onto his back as I hovered lower to line up another shot.

At this distance, I could see that the unicorn was brandishing two weapons in her telekinetic grip as she straddled the pegasus under her. One was a combat knife with serrated teeth, a weapon that she promptly attempted to stab Archer with as I lined myself up for my second shot. Still, Archer snaked out of the way of the attack, the knife plunging into the rotten floor and just missing his throat. But then came the unicorn’s second weapon, a grey canister with a long iron nozzle at its end, which suddenly spit out a tongue of orange flame as she pulled the trigger and angled the tool to face her target. “You want to be my new coltfriend?” the unicorn asked with a toothy grin, cackling maniacally as Archer fought to keep the flame from the blowtorch away from his face.

BLAM!

A pull of the firing bit, and the psychotic unicorn mare wasn’t laughing as two bullets struck her in the upper back, staggering her as the fire of the blowtorch went out, the improvised weapon clattering to the floor. “Sorry, you’re not my type!” Rearing back with his hind legs, Archer bucked the mare off of him with a single kick, sending her to the floor as I hovered in to land.

“Archer, are you okay??”

But just as I landed and tucked in my wings, Archer having risen to all fours, the pegasus wheeled only to shout out, “GET DOWN!” With a yelp, I fell flat to the floor, a broad machete sweeping above me as I landed on my belly. Then, I heard a cry of pain behind me as Archer fired off his saddle, his twin .308 rifles making short work of my would-be killer. Quickly, I scrambled to my hooves, making my way up beside the pegasus as his saddle’s autoloaders ejected spent clips and loaded his rifles fresh; one shot later from him, and the blowtorch mare who had been trying to rise jerked back to the floor from a headshot, blood pooling out around her.

For the moment, we were in the clear.

“You alright, Nova?” the pegasus asked.

“I’m not hurt.” But even though I wasn’t, I felt my heart sink as I saw the wound on the buck’s left wing. The appendage was hanging limp at his side, nearly dragging on the floor because of the lucky shot that had struck it. Blood seeped freely from the wound - a sizeable hole created by a moderate to high caliber cartridge – and dripped to the floor. But worst of all, through the blood, I could still make out a glint of broken metal in the wound; the hollow point round had lodged itself into the wing. “But you need a potion to at least stop the bleeding, Archer. That wound’s ugly.”

“We don’t have time for that.” he retorted, grunting in pain as he tried to lift the crippled limb up. “Ow…… We’re close to that fight down the street and there’s more raiders coming in.”

“Well I’m making time!” I sharply countered, craning my head around to rip open my right-side saddlebag. “You need to get that wing healed up.” Even as I spoke, my ears perked at a recognizable low whining noise in the air, growing swiftly in intensity before a violent blast of fire and rubble erupted just ahead. A second explosion of equal magnitude quickly followed it, striking to the left of the initial blast as I clamped my teeth around the healing potion, pulling the bottle out from my pack.

Another shot from Archer’s rifles drew my attention to the end of the west wall, where he quickly ducked back behind cover as bullets kicked up dirt just in front of him. “Damn it, Nova, don’t worry about me! There’s no time!” he shouted. “Get your saddle ready, there’s more coming in!”

But stubbornly, I chucked the potion low over the ground, the bottle landing easily on the floor and rolling the rest of the way to him. “Then drink that when you get the chance to!” I replied, facing the north wall before checking my E.F.S..

Yeah, that was quite a bit of red.

Quickly, the pegasus raised a hoof to his portable radio. “Commander Tracer, this is Archer!” he shouted through our communication channel, even as bullets begun to rip through the unsteady wall that made our cover.

“Archer, we’ve been trying to reach you. Are you alright?” Tracer asked.

“We’re both fine! Nova’s with me and we’re holed up just inside Fairfield!” he responded through the increasing noise of the gunfire peppering out cover. “We’ve got a lot of bad guys coming after us though, and my left wing’s crippled! I’d really appreciate it if those wagons would hurry up and save our asses!”

“Hold on, you two. We’re moving as fast as we can.” the commander assured. “Until then, do what you have to do to hold them off. I’d recommend trying to fall back to the greenhouses and rendezvous with us there.”

“Here they come, Archer!” Focusing between the wall and my E.F.S., I saw as the hostile markers begun to fan out, showing that they were closing in.

“This isn’t solid cover!” Archer replied, pausing long enough to take a swig from my healing potion. “But there’s a couple of old wagons parked just behind us that’ll give us better protection! Let’s get behind those!”

Carrying the potion bottle whole in his mouth, Archer made a beeline southward toward a neighboring foundation, and turning and following after him, I could already see a pair of rusted cargo wagons lined lengthwise one behind the next just beyond it. But even as we leapt over the short remains of the foundation’s north brick wall, the bullets begun to fly. Bits of debris pelted my face as a loud rifle shot struck to my right, other smaller caliber shots striking all around it. Miraculously, Archer and I escaped to our cover with no injuries, and though my armor had absorbed two shots at my flanks, I was still just as alert and focused, the adrenaline pumping freely. Now, crouching with Archer behind the left wagon, we were ready to fight back.

Archer went first, setting his partly-finished healing potion down against the side of the wagon before he wheeled out from cover, firing two shots from his saddle before he hurried back. Then I was next, and after a brief break in the fire, I leapt past Archer and into the open, activating S.A.T.S. once more to scope the field. Up ahead, I saw a half dozen targets spaced between the housing foundation we had crossed and the remains of the house that Archer had landed in; others were farther behind. Two of the raiders, two unicorn stallions in bloody leather armor, were side by side, one armed with a shorter rifle and the second with a double-barrel shotgun. I took aim for the riflepony first, dialing in one shot before executing the spell.

The buck went down hard as the pair of bullets drilled through his weak armoring and into his chest. My attack granted his raider partner a shot at me, and dust flew up in my face as the shotgun roared, the shot striking just in front of my forelegs and forcing me back to safety. Once there, bumping up against Archer, I heard a *ping* from my battle rifle, the autoloader ejecting the spent clip and reloading the weapon. “Nova, go to the other end of our cover and make sure none of them try to flank us!” the pegasus spoke as my battle rifle locked closed, ready to fire. “When we kill off enough of them, we’re going to displace out of Fairfield!”

With a quick nod, I reared around and bolted away behind the second vehicle that made our barrier, a wider and taller metal husk that had once been a heavier freight wagon. E.F.S. showed that one hostile was moving in fast towards my side of our barrier, leaving me little time to react. Out came Fire Rose before I stepped from cover, aiming downrange to spot the raider as he approached. Brandishing a heavy steel wrench in his teeth, the earth pony made an easy target for S.A.T.S., and one activated spell later, the buck was down in the dirt with two holes in his chest.

But then, returning to cover, I found myself face to face with another hostile, a grinning unicorn buck with a filthy green coat and greasy grey mane and tail, and before I could respond to his presence, the thick wooden board he held in his telekinesis swung and struck me hard against the left side of my head, knocking my pistol from my teeth and across the floor as I was sent sprawling onto my right side. Even before I could fully stand, I was smacked to the ground again as the same board smashed down on my left side, only my battle rifle preventing a painful impact. Thus being saved from a broken rib, I managed to roll away as the buck tried to hit me a third time, and with a grunt of effort, I quickly brought myself up to my hooves, tasting copper in my mouth and staggering from the burn in my side as I faced my assailant.

“Show me where it hurts!” the buck called to me, carrying the same grin as he leveled the board for another attack. “I’ll make it all better! I promise…” The insane raider proceeded to chuckle after he spoke, then lowering his head to point his horn at me before he charged, laughing all the while. This time, though, I was one step ahead, and with mouth already gripping the firing bit of my saddle, I chomped down and fired, my rifles blasting a single pair of shots that smashed through the raider’s brains, sending him toppling to the ground in a motionless pile, his mad laughter silenced.

But another took his place, an even uglier unicorn stallion whose mushy yellow coat was caked almost in its entirety in dried blood. This buck, however, looked upon me with eyes that sent a chill down my spine. Tiny pupils surrounded by bloodshot red made the gaze of the stallion as he paused in his run to look me over. His left ear (his right looking to have been bitten off) twitched as he giggled with freaky giddiness, and it was then that he removed his weapon from its sheath atop a single harness secured around his torso; metal against metal created a grating sound as the raider revealed the worn sword holstered along his back. “I haven’t gotten my protein for the day!” he spoke up, the sword turning in the air above him as he bared bloody, rotten teeth. “Come closer…”

What??!

My eyes went involuntarily wide as the maniac rushed me, the sword’s lethal tip pointing for me as he let out a battle cry. But I held fast and let my rifles meet his charge, locking in two shots for his head in response; to my immense satisfaction, the first shot immediately killed him before the second blasted his head wide open, pink and red goop painting the dirt as the rest of him fell limp.

Upon leaving the calm of S.A.T.S., I heard the low whine of another incoming artillery shell, and I winced as a mighty explosion ripped out from the earth just behind our wagon cover. A second explosion followed right after it, just like before, taking out another standing house frame just due northwest of us.

“Look at me when I’m charging at you!!”

Behind me and to my right, a new raider’s voice shouted out through the partly diminished noise of our fight, and I wheeled back around to see Archer as he intercepted another unicorn melee attacker. The pegasus nimbly dodged out of the way of a swipe from the raider’s sledgehammer, then swiftly bringing his right forehoof down to deliver a staggering punch to his opponent’s muzzle. The raider stumbled back, head bowed from the shock of the blow, giving Archer the time he needed to finish him off with a shot from his saddle.

The pegasus ducked back behind cover, long enough to reach for his potion to drink again. More shouting was nearby though, and hurriedly I raced back to retrieve my sidearm, scooping it up with my mouth and tasting the bitter floor before rejoining Archer. “They’re starting to wise up a little!” the pegasus called after casting away the now empty potion bottle, letting out a breath. “The rest of them actually have rifles, and they’re firing from cover now!”

I holstered my pistol, shaking my head; I could feel blood trailing my cheek where the board had hit me, and red likewise marked my firing bit. “How many more are out there??” I asked. “Did the whole fight come after you??”

“I guess so!” Archer answered over the gunfire. “The howitzer’s cleaned out a bunch of them, but they still outnumber us!”

“Archer, Nova, we’re just over a block away from the greenhouses.” Tracer’s voice sounded through my mic. “Where are you two?”

Archer replied first through his portable radio. “The raiders are trying to pin us behind cover just inside Fairfield! We’re going to make a run for Greener Pastures!” At Tracer’s affirmative, the pegasus then looked to me. “Nova, you go first! I’ll cover your exit!”

I jerked with a start as a bullet pierced through our cover entirely, passing just over my back. “We can cover each other! You take left, I take right!” One after another, three more shots punched through our safeguard, all passing dangerously close to us. Whether our barrier was weakening, or the raiders were packing better weapons and ammo, there was no more time to discuss the matter, and nodding, Archer bolted as I trailed hot on his tail.

We ran full gallop past the nearest housing foundation before we stopped to turn together, facing the wagons that made our former cover. The raiders were beginning to advance now, three of them running by the wagons entirely while two more took up positions behind them. Two of the forward three were to the left, and the third, a unicorn mare, was sighting her bolt-action rifle on me from my right. Once again, S.A.T.S. guided my aim as I dialed in a shot for her. Though farther away, the display showed a good probability of a hit, and firing, I incapacitated the mare with a shot to the left foreleg, at least taking her weapon out of the spaced but steady stream of fire coming at us.

Archer likewise got off a shot despite the bullets flying by him, and one of the two enemies to our left toppled back from the twin .308 rounds that punched through his armor and into his left shoulder. Then we were on the run again, leaping together over the crumbled wreck of a short wall and into another collapsed house. Inside the shell of the home, I could see the clearing just down the Silver Arrow as Archer branched off to take us onto the road. With our enemies briefly lost within the ruined houses, we had just enough time to put some distance between us and our pursuers, booking it straight down the left lane of the two-lane road. But the raiders were back on us just as quickly, and we turned around, halting our gallop together just as three more enemies appeared on the road.

But as they did, the low whine of incoming howitzer rounds resounded in the air, and as the raiders one and all retreated off of the road, I knew that they did too. Seconds later, the first round smashed to the right of the road, just in front of the Fairfield’s first four-way intersection. The second one, came in even closer, and I knew that it took out at least one target when the fireball engulfed the two wagons we had hidden behind. But then, I had to shield my eyes as both wagons suddenly exploded AGAIN! With a deep roar of sound, two miniature mushroom-shaped clouds of green rolled into the air as slabs of rusted metal, now all that remained of the former cargo carriers, flew in all directions.

I didn’t stay long to gawk at the spectacle, as Archer shoved me along before the both of us picked up our pace and continued to run. The explosions provided us with much more time to flee, and just a short gallop later, we were out of Fairfield and running straight for the Greener Pastures Greenhouses. But we weren’t out of the fire yet, as we had just crossed the border back into Serenity Springs when I felt a burning impact against my right flank, the armoring absorbing the bullet that hit me and preventing a wound; Goddesses, these bastards were persistent!

“Head left!” Archer shouted, still in full gallop as he crossed in front of me. “That wagon there!” Though I didn’t respond, I could see the aforementioned vehicle as I hooked left and followed, nearly slipping as a bullet clipped just behind my hind legs. The wagon was alone on the street, a long passenger carriage with shattered windows and a blackened hull toppled over onto its side. Though the greenhouses themselves would’ve offered better protection, the wagon was much closer, and we needed new cover.

Halfway there though, and Archer once again skidded to a halt and turned around, driving me to do the same. Our pursuers were spreading out along the road, and out of the five that I could see, two of them were running for the greenhouses. Archer put fire on those two raiders as he began moving backwards toward cover, dropping one while the other raced on by, and taking the opportunity, I called up S.A.T.S. again on one of the stationary targets. The earth pony was chasing us with a saddle composed of two short-barreled rifles, and had already fired a shot when my spell brought time to a temporary stop. This time, when the spell released, my shot missed, just as his struck my chest plate. My vest still held, but the pair of bullets staggered me from the force of their impact. And beside me, just a second later, Archer let out a grunt, similarly stumbling before he reared away. “Ugh!… Come on! Get behind the wagon!”

I had no problem following that order, because even as the original four remaining raiders begun to advance, even more began to file into the street from Fairfield, laughing and shouting all the while. There were at least ten that I had counted before turning away and making a dash for the wagon. Up ahead, Archer stopped just in front of our cover to turn and fire two more shots, covering me as I closed the distance between us before leaping behind cover, finally winning defilade from the fire that chased us all the way out of Fairfield.

Archer was right behind me, concrete chips and dust kicking up after him as he barely escaped the raiders’ crosshairs. Now, as I heard a volley of shots spark off our barrier, I knew that we were temporarily safe. But almost a dozen raiders were bearing down on us, and Buckley’s wagons still hadn’t come; we needed that firepower and we needed it fast! “Commander, where the hell are you?!” Archer called through the com-link, his saddle weapons reloading to full clips.

“We’re about to cross into the clearing now, and we see the raiders coming out of Fairfield.” came Tracer’s response. “I’m sending the infantry ahead. Just stay alive and we’ll come to you.”

“Thank Luna!” Archer replied, standing up straight and leaning back against our chariot’s undercarriage. “Nova, stay here on the right side and keep those raiders back! I’ll take the left!”

With a grunt, I whirled and lunged across our barrier to move up to its left edge. Then, I stepped out of cover and took aim with S.A.T.S.. Five raiders farther back were peppering our wagon with light and medium rifles and sidearms, standing farther back down the road. But four were rushing us, more melee attackers that had divided off into two pairs to engage Archer and I simultaneously. On my side, the closest attacker was an earth pony mare, maneless and wearing an eyepatch. She was brandishing a wicked bladed weapon in her mouth, a jagged cleaver, and behind her, a unicorn buck in leather armor was levitating an aluminum bat with horrific nails driven into its upper half.

They were coming in fast as I targeted them both, the mare already rearing her head back for a swing as she approached. Activating the spell, my rifles fired and brought the mare to a halt, the shot tearing through her right foreleg. But the second shot, despite how close the raider buck behind her was to me, went wide and struck the pavement at the unicorn’s right side. As time returned to normal, I felt a sharp blast of panic race through me as the raider let out a savage cry, bringing his weapon over his head to strike. But with a yell of my own, I leapt away and to the left as the bat came crashing down on the concrete. Quickly, I whirled around to face my opponent, but already, the raider was bringing the bat around for another swing, and I ducked down low as the weapon passed overhead. And after that, I had to quickly rear up as the unicorn’s magic swung the bat in the opposite direction, the nails on the tip nearly striking my chest plate before I fell back to all fours.

His last swing had given me a large enough window to counterattack, and though S.A.T.S. was still recharging, I was already facing the raider to line up a shot. But just as I bit down on the firing bit, I felt another impact on my left side, a bullet punching into the guard. The bullet, though stopped by the plate, threw off my aim as I fired, and my shot went too far to the left of my target, and with a *ping*, my battle rifle went inactive to reload; in my efforts to dodge every attack the bat-wielding pony threw my way, I had stepped out into the open where one or more of his comrades had easy sight of me to fire.

Even as I got my equilibrium back and leapt to the right, more bullets continued to strike the ground around me. But when I tried to get back to cover, to at least get out of the direct path of the rifleponies down the road, the unicorn intercepted me and swung his bat again. Once more, I ducked under the attack, even as the raider laughed over the rising noise of the fighting. “This is some fucked up foreplay isn’t it?” he taunted, lunging forward once again for another attack. This time, I sprang up and snapped out my wings, beating up as his bat swung under my hooves, and with another beat to propel myself forward, I flew over him and back behind the wagon before landing roughly on all fours; Archer was still at his place, once again stepping out of cover to put another shot downrange.

I spun back around in time to see the raider unicorn strike out at me once again. I ducked low in response, the bat passing by and smacking into the metal underbelly of the passenger wagon. But then, I had to rear back onto my hindlegs as a second raider, the earth pony mare I had shot in the leg, took a swipe at me with her cleaver. The blade missed on its first pass, but the lighter weapon was easier to swing, and a gasp escaped me as I landed on all fours again, the blade already coming back for another strike. This one cut across my vest, carving through the protective material to slice across my chest. I didn’t cry out, but the burn that immediately erupted there told me that the attack had drawn blood, and even then, the two raiders pressed. The mare swung again, and I dodged left for the blade to slice past my neck on the right side, and then I had to drop to the ground as the bat sailed by over me. Then, the mare came back again, forcing me to rear back up to dodge a swipe at my forelegs.

“Don’t make me beat you too much!” the male shouted, laughing as he swung the bat over his head down at me, making me lean left to evade. “I don’t like my meat rare until I’ve had it in my bed for a day!”

But now, after all the dodging, I was finally in a position to strike back. With the mare pulling back for a more powerful strike, I had enough room to bring my left foreleg around, and with the most hateful ‘fuck you’ I had ever screamed in my life, I brought my hoof around and up and socked the male raider square in the jaw. Even my lighter and more fragile limb staggered the buck as he stumbled back into the wagon with a metallic thud. The momentum behind my swing brought me around with my back to his female companion, and just as she lashed out with the cleaver again, I crouched forward and bucked out, my hind hooves connected solidly with her head, forcing the earth pony raider to lurch back as she dropped her cleaver to the pavement. Then, I spun again to face my opponents, and this time, my mouth was already clamped on the firing bit as I activated S.A.T.S.. One shot for the dazed mare, and one shot for the bat-wielding pony, and I executed the attack, finally dropping both of them with clean headshots.

My heart was racing, my breath short from the physical exertion of dancing around the raiders’ attacks, but still the firefight continued, and the report of Archer’s twin rifles drew my attention back to my fellow pegasus. As I returned to cover, leaning against the wagon and stepping back from the bleeding corpse of the nail bat stallion, Archer pulled back to cover and looked back to me. “Some of our ponies are drawing the attention of some of the raiders!” he called to me, his saddle reloading. “We’re almost done!”

But as I made to reply, my ears perked up at a noise just behind… and above us. With a start I leapt forward and whirled to face the wagon, and I found that another raider had climbed up atop our cover. But this one, another unicorn stallion, was already levitating six different objects close around him in his telekinesis… metal apples that he removed from a sash holding just as many more of them.

And with a grin, he pulled all the grenades’ pins at once, making no effort to move from his place above the wagon, but instead lifting his head up and bellowing out a bloodthirsty cry to the clouds above.

“ARCHER, RUN!”

As I turned tail and fled, I caught a glimpse of the pegasus stallion doing the same. But a second later, the suicidal raider’s cry was replaced with the detonation of the grenades, and the immediate and much more powerful explosion of the wagon he had stood upon. The force of the old transport’s detonation launched me off my hooves and through the air, and even through my own scream, I heard as my pipbuck’s geiger counter erupted into a solid buzz from the radiation wave as green light shined bright from the blast. The deafening explosion threw me several yards before I landed hard on my back, tumbling and rolling over myself for several dizzying seconds before I came to a halt on my left side.

My head pounding and my ears ringing from shellshock, I took in a ragged breath and coughed out the exhale, forcing myself to move my limbs. But as I got one forehoof planted on the ground, I jerked back onto my side and shielded my eyes as the wrecked frame of the former transport, now a burning green metal fireball, landed with a heavy crash just beside me. Once more, my gieger counter begun to tick rapidly, and I could feel the heat of the balefire against me as I forced my legs to work. Quick as I could, though struggling, I pulled myself up to my hooves to stumble away from the wreck. But only two steps in, and my left hindleg buckled, the pain in the limb bringing me back down to the ground as I let out a yelp; it was then that I noticed the long metal shard that had run it through, jutting out from the front and the back of the limb as blood welled up around it and trickled down to the concrete.

“Oh… damn it…” I grit my teeth as that terrible burn lingered in my crippled leg, once more forcing myself up to a stand.

“Look! It’s pegasus on a stick!”

“Come to me, my pasty cake!”

“It's time for a new meat hammock!"

Looking to my right, I gasped at the sight of four more raiders galloping through the rolling smoke left from the explosion, their combined voices and laughter a tumultuous wave of psychotic glee. At the head of the group was a unicorn mare armed with an iron pipe as she charged me, and behind her, three other ponies likewise armed with melee weapons were stampeding after her, eyes all on me.

I reared around to face my newest opponents as they closed in, grunting with pain as my leg threatened to force me into another collapse. With my injury, it was harder to quickly set up my next shot with the rapidly approaching targets, and even as I finally got a line on the leader of the small group, the unicorn mare was bracing her magic for a swipe at me. But then, as I braced for a collision, two fast energy bolts, one red and one green, lashed out from the left and struck the mare’s right side. The impact staggered her, and as she stumbled, her hide begun to sizzle and glow a brilliant red. Then, there was nothing left but a pile of ash as her three companions halted and turned towards the source of the attack.

Shore emerged from behind one of the nearby greenhouses and met them head on, chomping down on his saddle’s firing bit to open up with his energy rifles. And at the same time, with a strong battle cry, Raemor came charging out into the open with his fire axe held aloft in his telekinetic grasp. The rearmost raider of the pack had little time to react, and though he attempted to swing his own weapon in response, Raemor was the quicker, and the axe blade smashed down into the raider’s skull, driving him into the ground for a gruesome kill. The next raider, unlike his friend, was ready to attack, and lunged forward to lash out with his combat knife. But the older stallion, having already yanked his axe from the corpse of his latest kill, was already facing his enemy. He parried the raider’s attack with the axe handle, and with a quick turn, brought the blade around to slice across the raider’s chest. Then, as his opponent staggered, Raemor spun the axe twice over his head before driving it into the raider’s lower jaw with a deadly uppercut, a spray of crimson escaping into the air as the raider fell back to the street, dead; the third, having made a reckless charge for Shore, met his end at the barrel of my friend’s multiplas rifle, nothing but a puddle of green goo remaining of the former raider.

Then my two friends were turning their attention to the raider group down the street, Shore keeping up steady fire as Raemor tossed his axe aside to pull out his grenade APW, launching a barrage of the smaller 25mm grenades at the cluster. Beyond my two friends I spotted, to my great relief, the convoy itself finally rolling in. Buckley’s infantry was swarming into the street and engaging, some swiftly spreading into the greenhouses to take up positions behind cover while others put steady fire downrange, easily driving the accumulating raider force back into Fairfield. Behind the infantry, the head wagon of the column was entering combat while the other two moved into view behind it, and the mounted grenade machinegun blasted the first stretch of Fairfield to smithereens with an unceasing stream of 40mm grenades. Where over a dozen raiders had been before, there was nothing left but bodies and smoke, and through the bullets coming from my allies, I cracked a small smile as what raiders had survived retreated off into the ruins.

“Nova!”

I thanked the Goddesses as Archer’s voice sounded behind me, and I craned my head around to find the pegasus buck limping towards me. “Goddesses… Archer are you okay?” I asked concernedly, stumbling a step toward him.

The stallion had taken another wound, a bullet that had punched through the thinner armoring of his right front leg to plunge into the flesh. He was keeping his weight off of it as he hobbled up to stand before me, and with a nod, he answered, “I’ll live… but your leg… we need to get that-” He was interrupted as the injury in question spiked with pain, my attempt to shift the limb causing it to give out once again, and I staggered forward to fall against his chest. Thankfully, even as I uttered a pained grunt, hissing from the sting, he caught me with his injured foreleg, holding me against him as I fought to stay standing. “We need to get that piece of metal out of there so the wound can heal.” he finished lowly; I could only sigh in response, resting my head over his shoulder and leaning into his hold.

Around us, the sounds of gunfire were finally diminishing, and I heard as the order begun to work its way around the convoy to regroup. Behind me, I heard Shore and Raemor confirm back to one another that they were in the clear before their hoofsteps came toward me. “Goddesses, Nova… your leg…” Shore came up by my left side, placing a hoof on my back. “Are you okay?”

When I got my balance again, Archer lowered his foreleg away from me, and I backed up a slow and cautious step to look back at my friend. “Well, I’m not feeling the best right now… but I’m alive.” I answered, forcing a weak smile to try and ease Shore’s very pronounced concern; it didn’t work, and the stallion instead gave me a gentle hug, an embrace that I gratefully welcomed.

“We saw that wagon go up when we were approaching the greenhouses.” Raemor spoke up, coming to stand beside us as Shore released me. “Your geiger counter is almost in the red, Nova.”

With a groan, I lifted my pipbuck up to eye level, whereupon I found myself face to face with the computer’s medical screen. It was alight with activity, the cartoonish pegasus pony wearing a pained frown with its left hind leg now drawn with a dotted outline showing its crippled state. And along with the physical condition report, a radiation warning was flashing yellow, the geiger counter needle dangerously close to the red zone. I shook my head at that, lowering away the computer with a sigh. “Sweet Celestia… all that radiation from just one wagon?”

“Hey! We need our medic over here!” Archer suddenly called.

When I glanced around toward the greenhouses, I spotted a trio of Buckley guards that had emerged from behind the greenhouses looking back at us, another two standing farther back as they kept their eyes on the road leading into Fairfield rifles ready. The center guard of the front three, an earth pony buck with a combat shotgun and assault rifle on his saddle, acknowledged Archer with a nod. “Right. I’ll go get her.” In a flash he was bolting away into the lingering smoke, the second guard of the three following after him while the third turned her attention to the street; the rest of the infantry was returning from their pursuit now, orders carrying back and forth.

“The radiation wave was caused by the detonation, which was in turn caused by the damage done to the spark battery block.” Raemor explained, bringing my train of thought back to my recent question. “If they take enough damage from bullets or explosions, they’ll detonate.” As he explained this, with me myself doing my best to take in the information the old stallion supplied, he used his horn to open up a pocket stitched into his Equestrian Army combat armor. From the pouch came a clear packet of orange liquid, labeled with red marker as Rad-Away. “Here. Drink this.” With his magic, he removed a plastic straw connected to the pouch from its protective casing and punctured the packet before holding the drink out to me. With his help, I slurped down the medical beverage, a sour elixir that felt a little syrupy going down; still, it hadn’t been nearly as harsh as Plainwell’s Bitter Drink.

Thanks to the mix, upon my finishing up the last bit of it from the pouch, my rad meter begun to drop again, quickly falling back into the green until it halted in the middle of that healthy zone. It was higher than it had been, but the one pouch would be sufficient for now, and with a small smile, I said, “Thanks, Raemor… that whole spark battery thing is kind of dumb if you ask me. It makes me have to drink that Goddess-awful thing.” I gave a nod to the empty Rad-Away pouch as Raemor tossed it away.

“I don’t like radiation remover either. Takes away my appetite.” my old friend replied with a chuckle, matching my own smile before a concerned and focused frown took over. “Now, we need to fix that leg.”

I grimaced, looking back at the lengthy spear-like slab of metal in my limb. “It’s going to hurt isn’t it… getting it pulled out?” Of course, I already knew the answer… but I definitely wasn’t looking forward to experiencing this…

“Sorry, Nova.” Archer spoke, giving me a small nod. “I’m afraid that you’re going to have to bear through a bit to get that leg patched up… here comes the medic now.”

When I swung my gaze back to the greenhouses, a small party of Buckley personnel were coming to meet us. At their head was Commander Tracer himself, and at his flanks, Saharra and two guards, along with a grey unicorn with a violet mane and tail in doctor fatigues, were trotting along to match his pace. “I was scared of what I’d find when that old carriage went up.” the red commander said, coming to a halt as he and the small group with him joined us. “I’m glad to see you two alive. I’m just sorry we didn’t make it sooner.”

“Better late than never, commander.” I replied, as lightheartedly as I could; he wasn’t amused.

“Was anypony else hurt?” Archer then asked.

“No, everypony’s fine, and we got all the raiders we could find.” Tracer answered, to which the pegasus let out a relieved sigh. “We shouldn’t be bothered again for a while.”

“Good… I wasn’t counting on being shot down like that, sir. I’ll do better next time.”

It was Saharra who spoke up, wearing a heartening smile as she said, “Don’t worry, Archer. We’re all here and alive.”

“Well, I’m here and alive because of Nova.” the stallion remarked back; even in my weakened state, I found myself snapping my eyes to him. “If she hadn’t shown up when she did, I would’ve had a blowtorch put to my skull… She saved my life.”

A small yet genuinely thankful smile formed on his face as our eyes met; great, even now, after everything we had just went through, I was still blushing at the pegasus stallion… I couldn’t help but agree with myself that his wounds made him look even more attractive. “Well… um… just… just remember that you saved my hide, too.” I bashfully responded, taking a step toward him.

Big mistake.

Once more, my hind leg buckled, and with a single sharp shout of pain, I fell to the ground, only catching myself with my forehooves to prevent myself from completely collapsing. Shore was right by my left side in a second, Raemor quickly stepping up to my right as both tucked their muzzles under my belly, helping me back up as I rose to a shaky stand. “Sophie, let’s get Nova’s leg patched up, please.”

In response to the commander’s order, I heard a mare’s voice reply, “Yes, sir. I need just a few seconds to get my supplies out.”

“Go ahead and lay down, Nova.” Shore spoke, leaning forward to make eye contact. “We need to patch you up.”

“Actually, you may want to take your battle saddle off.” Raemor added. “You’ll need to lay on your side until that metal’s out.” I gave Raemor a nod at that, the unicorn undoing my saddle’s main strap before taking the rig away and setting it aside. Then, with a sigh, I gradually lowered myself down. For a painful few seconds, the metal ground against the flesh of my leg when it snagged on the concrete, forcing me to freeze on more than one occasion. But eventually, I managed to spread out fully on my right side, by which time the unicorn nurse approached with a single doctor’s bag in her telekinetic grip.

“Hello, Nova.” she greeted, setting the bag down with a smile of comfort. “I’m Nurse Sophie, one of Doctor Preston’s assistants. I was assigned as the convoy’s medic for the journey, so I’ll be taking care of you.”

“Hi… so, can you get this thing out of my leg?”

“Yes. But, I have to warn you now that this will not be without pain.” she firmly answered. “Once that metal piece is out, I’ll need to clean and sterilize the wounds and then give you a healing potion or two, pending on how the injury heals. With that in mind, I have to ask that, no matter what, you try your best not to move around much until I’ve finished tending to this leg. Can you stay still for me while I work?” At my nod, she begun to levitate out a number of items including two thick white towels, an assortment of medical tools on a metal tray, and a healing potion. “Now, you two are her friends, yes?” Speaking to Shore and Raemor, she added, after their confirmation, “I’d like some help from the both of you. Since you’re a unicorn, I’d like you to hold this cloth for me. Once the metal comes out, I’ll need you to apply pressure to both wounds until they close, and they will bleed.”

“Certainly.” Raemor replied.

“And for you,” the nurse continued, looking to Shore. “if she reacts too much to the process, I’m going to need you to hold her down until I can finish. I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem, but just stand close and be ready.”

Together, Shore and Raemor stepped to their respective positions, the old unicorn taking the two towels as I found myself looking up at Shore standing above me. “I’ll try not to be much of a nuisance for you.” I spoke up to my friend, letting out a soft chuckle.

“You are a tough mare, Nova. I’m sure you will be fine.” came his encouragement, passing me a warm smile before looking ahead at the nurse again.

“Are we all ready?” Sophie asked.

“As ready as I can be, I guess.” I replied after a sigh, Shore and Raemor voicing much more confident answers.

“Okay, on three.” I shut my eyes tight and braced myself, feeling Shore place a comforting hoof on my foreleg as the nurse counted down. “Three… two… one…” I didn’t look at the nurse or my friends when the countdown completed, but I most definitely felt as the metal was pulled from my leg.

And Goddesses, did I scream.

*** *** ***

“Parkington Street…”

Once more, I repeated the name on the first street sign, the wagon train coming to a temporary halt just beyond the exit of the Southside Industrial Park. After nearly another hour passing through the outskirts on the Silver Arrow, we had come up to the Silver Arrow Crossover, a massive suspension bridge, crumbling yet standing, that connected the city outskirts to the great expanse of gigantic buildings that made downtown Marefax. At the Crossover entrance, which had been just past an old diner and a vehicle yard - Audrey’s Diner and the Zane Wagon Scrapyard specifically - we had encountered a small platoon of raiders, forty or so, who had occupied the tollbooths and made themselves a fortified bunker within which to hide out and raid. Thankfully, this was nothing that four howitzer rounds and a barrage of forty millimeter grenades couldn’t handle, and we had quickly conquered the fortification with only a scattering of injuries.

After this, we had advanced on the bridge itself, and I had gotten my first look at the Garden of Marefax. What had once been a vast earthen channel of flowers from every corner of the globe that ringed around the entirety of the downtown sector, truly a wonder of the Old World, was now nothing more than a heartbreaking pit of thick pink haze that swirled, churned, and rolled ominously under us as we crossed that bridge. On our way through, having progressed unhindered by additional raider patrols, talk of the pink abyss had come up on the communications link in whispers, everypony in the convoy taking in the terrifying sight with awe and apprehension alike. During that time, I had learned from Archer that the source of the pink cloud had come from underground, as understood during his days spent here making his map for the journey. Though he didn’t know from what, and how, his hypothesis was that whoever had brought the megaspell to the city had detonated it underground to prevent anypony not already evacuating Marefax on the Last Day from hiding in the city’s sewer network or service tunnels, where a chance of waiting out the balefire missile, even if slight, had existed; it was a very grim reminder of how war on such a grand scale worked.

Without incident we had passed the Crossover, whereupon we emerged into the city’s Southside Industrial Park. The park, before the end of the war, had been a sprawling expanse of massive production sites that had added considerably to the fires of Equestrian industry. Though most of the buildings had been unidentifiable husks and hilly piles of rubble, our travel through the park had let my pipbuck’s local map identify several structures on our route, including Madison Utility Manufacturing, Marefax Steel, Marefax Pharmaceuticals, the Ironshod Firearms Marefax Branch (comprised of an office complex linked to an assembly plant via a metal skybridge), and even a musical instrument factory called the Mason Piano Company. When word had gotten around of the latter site, Ludwig had insisted from his place in the forward wagon that the building be investigated. Though the structure’s nearly collapsed state should’ve been an indicator, Ludwig, Saharra, and a small team had rooted through the building in a quick but thorough search for instruments to load up and return to Buckley. However, aside from several wrecked pianos and other unfinished models on the factory’s assembly floor, nothing turned up aside from a sparse collection of instrument maintenance tools and supplies; these were taken anyway and stored in the lead wagon.

The last intact site in the industrial park had been the expedition’s first target building, the Cirrus Communications compound having been built neighboring the Marefax Steel foundry to the north and the Madison Piano Company building to the south. It was here that our convoy split up once again, the third wagon in the train remaining behind along with an escort of ten soldiers who, after being read an equipment list provided by Tech Sergeant Lela before our departure from Buckley, begun to loot through the old factory to find as many components as possible for the ATC tower’s planned transformation. And now, with just two wagons and twenty-four infantry personnel, we had crossed out of the industrial area and into downtown Marefax itself. At that time, I had been called back down to the surface, whereupon I had been ordered to leave the Eagle Eye camera unit with the team remaining in the industrial sector. And with this, Commander Tracer gave the order for the howitzer teams to hold fire and save the remaining seven shells they had packed for the return trip.

Now we were venturing into dangerous territory with no fire support.

All around me, the city buildings towered up high above, growing steadily taller the farther north I looked. Behind me, the exit of the industrial park felt more like a spiritual gateway, a portal between two worlds that gave me the option to turn back and run, or to face forward and stare down some of the southeast’s greatest threats, whatever lurked within the carcass of Marefax. The buildings alone put me on edge, the groans and creaks of their metal foundations echoing across the litter-filled streets and meshing with a light yet audible breeze that brushed against my body, speaking in its hushed and chilling tones. The steel and stone constructions were all so tall… I felt that one would get up off its foundation and crush me with a single step, and looking up at the tops of the even taller skyscrapers at the city center, farther away yet already feeling so close, made my stomach queasy. In the presence of this city, within its very midst… I’d never felt so small and fragile in my whole life…… but with how far we’d come… there was no turning back now.

“The next street we’ll be moving onto is Maple.” Archer explained from just in front of me. “Should be just ahead.”

“Let’s get moving then.” came Tracer’s response. “Everypony keep your eyes peeled, and if you spot a hostile, call out the target.”

The convoy begun to move once more as the pulling teams hauled the two wagons forward. The grenade machinegun wagon, the turret operated by an earth pony mare named Kenzie, was in the lead, with the missile launcher wagon following behind it, a unicorn stallion - Brock - still in the gunner seat. Now that I was on the ground with the rest of the train, I was finally back with my companions, and both Shore and Raemor stayed close by as we moved. Archer himself was farther up at the front with Tracer and a unicorn guard, the later pony using his horn to levitate up Archer’s hoof-drawn map to track our progress. And Saharra, the last pony I knew that was a part of this journey, was at the back, staying close to the second wagon’s closed cargo hatch to guard Ludwig who resided inside.

As if the city was reacting to our very presence, more and more echoes of gunfire begun to sound in the air. Though Parkington Street was clear, the noise was closer, and it kept everypony on high alert for more raiders. Thankfully, we had come across no threat as we rounded the first street corner. The signpost on the old sidewalk was still intact enough for us to read the street names painted in white against the green metal. Maple Street was the only direction we could’ve chosen either way, as both other streets of the four-way intersection were clogged off with massive piles of blocky rubble.

Like Parkington, Maple Street was home to multiple six to eight-story structures, likely once having been apartment complexes or even offices, spaced by narrow alleyways. On both sides of the street, each and every building was inaccessible from the ground floor, the entrances having either been boarded up or blocked by rubble from the deteriorating buildings. Not a one of them was perfectly flat at their rooftops, each having aged together as the years went by. Up ahead, between the scattered rusted hulks of old wagons, sections of entire buildings had fallen apart, with their remains strewn across the road. The obstacles made for some difficulties for the wagons, and one such collapse had created a wall across the entirety of the road. Though traversable on hoof, the pulling teams would have a much harder time getting the wagons over the rubble; it was when we reached this obstruction that Tracer ordered us to a halt.

“This wasn’t here before…” I heard Archer remark from up ahead, the buck turning his eyes to his right and upward; I followed his gaze to see the interior rooms of an old apartment building, the entire north face of the building having come free to topple to the road. “This was a very recent collapse.”

“Alright then. I’m going to need two volunteers to keep watch from the top of the rubble pile… there, and there.” Tracer ordered, gesturing to both ends of the pseudo wall. “Likewise, I’ll need a couple others to keep watch behind us, and I’ll need the rest of you to help move this rubble. We need to clear a hole so the wagons can continue. I’d also like a word with our three outsiders as well as Archer and Bolt. Everypony else, get to work.”

Immediately, the convoy was alive with activity, orders relaying back and forth to designate each guard to a task. Together, Shore, Raemor, and I made our way to the front, rallying by Tracer and Archer just as Bolt, the grey-coated, orange-maned unicorn I recognized from the fight in Buckley’s generator building, stepped into view from the front of the first wagon and joined in our circle. “We’re going to be here for a few minutes, so while the guards get this rubble moved, I’d like the five of you to come with me and make sure there aren’t any raiders or ghouls waiting for us down the road. If any buildings are accessible, I want to root through them as well, just in case.”

“If I remember my map correctly, the next street is Warren and branches off northward from Maple.” Archer explained in reply. “We should get a look at the street corner and see if anything’s lurking on the next road.”

Tracer nodded. “Agreed. Let’s move then. Hopefully we’ll be out of this mess shortly.”

With a nod, Tracer took the lead, trotting past the first wagon and its pulling team to stop in front of the rubble. Already, over half a dozen unicorns were beginning to pull away the chunks of rebar and twisted steel bars from the top center of the pile, and at the top of the pile, on both ends of the roadblock, four guards were setting up defenses, two earth ponies with their light machineguns sitting on bipods and two unicorns with .308 sniper rifles, all keeping their eyes on the street as Tracer begun to ascend the rubble. Bolt followed after, and Archer trailed behind before Shore and Raemor followed him up.

As for me, I gladly flew the short distance over the rubble to land on the opposite end, seeing the rest of Maple Street as it stretched ahead. Thanks to Sophie, the laceration on my chest and my crippled hind leg had been healed entirely, restoring my body to its former self. The nurse knew her medical work, and though my formerly wounded leg was a little more sensitive than the others, I was able to walk with only a slight limp. As for Archer, he had taken to digging out the bullets from his flesh by himself with a combat knife, despite Sophie’s protest, and he was criticized for damaging his injured wing even further than before when the pegasus had rather forcefully removed the hollow point pieces from the joint. As a result, his injury, according to Sophie, would be keeping him grounded until after a day or so of resting the wing.

Before me, Maple Street was empty, with only a light drizzling of rubble and three spaced wagon carcasses to mark the cracked concrete. Like the front portion of the street, the building entryways were once again boarded up or blocked by debris, and a quick check of my E.F.S. confirmed no hostiles in the vicinity. “It looks clear so far.” I spoke, looking back up to the rubble pile as Tracer descended, the others following close by.

“Let’s move up the street.” the red earth pony replied, trotting past. “It looks like there might be a couple of buildings that are opened up just ahead.”

I waited for Shore and Raemor to finish their trek across the uneven rubble and join me before I followed the commander in his search. As it was, there were indeed two buildings near the end of the road that looked intact enough to enter. The first building, on the left side of the street, was another apartment complex, a building whose west neighbor was leaning against it, having snapped free of its foundation but being saved from collapsing into the street wholesale. But the one on the right, near the street corner itself, was a much shorter building, only two stories, which carried with it an intact signboard above its open double doors that read: Lightning Brothers Electronics Outlet.

“Lightning Brothers?” The name was ringing bells on my train of thought, and I repeated it aloud again as we continued towards the searchable buildings. But that was when I found Archer looking knowingly back at me from his place near the front, and I remembered, with a start, just where I had heard the name before. It had only been yesterday when I first heard it - Macon and Misty had bought a camera from the Lightning Brothers to record events onto their terminal, events that Archer and I had been able to see with our own eyes one hundred and seventy-five years later; nostalgia came creeping back as I lowered my eyes to the road underhoof.

“Outsiders, how about you three check out that electronics store while I take Archer and Bolt to sift through the apartment here.” the commander ordered, our group coming to a brief halt. “The convoy will broadcast to us when the debris is clear off the road, so Nova, keep your ears open to your headset.”

I nodded, reaching up to adjust my patrol cap and its microphone. “Yes, commander.”

“Alright then. Disperse and get to it. And be careful, all of you.” With that, the commander reached for the harness of his only weapon, a large silver semi-automatic pistol, before giving the nod to Archer and Bolt, both priming their own weapons before they trotted away together to the apartment.

“Let’s see what’s inside this store shall we?” Behind me, Raemor undid his fire axe from its place on his back and held it at the ready as Shore took the lead. Single file, with me at the rear behind Raemor, we approached the shop and stacked up along the wall outside the entrance. The entire front face of the store had once held two large glass windows on either side of the doors. The former of these had been blown away, and the wrecked metal doors were currently wide open, both barely clinging to their frames.

Then Shore stepped up to the open window and aimed inside, scouting left and right for hostiles before giving us a nod. “Looks like it’s clear on the first floor.” he said, trotting up to the doors. “Do you see anything Nova?”

“No. E.F.S. is clean too.”

“Okay. It should be safe to explore, then.” Shore replied, stepping by the open doors and into the dimly lit building. “Oh. There’s a terminal in here.”

As Raemor and I emerged inside the old shop, I spotted Shore as he trotted around to the east side of the room, stepping behind an ‘L’ shaped countertop table built into the floor at the far corner. Atop of the table, amidst a scattering of old papers and clipboards was a terminal the exact same design as the one on the Shimmermist Farm, and, when I looked, it was of the same design as two others on the opposite end of the room. The west side of the chamber belonged to four rows of shelving units where items for sale would’ve been displayed. Presently, these included the two replica terminals as well as three radios of differing models. However, none of these items were intact, as each contained a blackened frame and gaping holes, showing where the internal components had been destroyed in one fashion or another. With them, other bits and pieces of scrap were scattered along the shelves, showing the remains of what had once been other electronic devices.

“Hm… this computer is already unlocked.” Shore spoke up; I turned to see him briefly disappear behind the desk, lowering his head to investigate another item. “A safe was connected to this terminal, but it’s already open as well.”

“It’s likely that this building has already been picked clean by scavengers.” Raemor observed, both he and I trotted over to the desk.

“I remember Hallion saying something about that when he was in the region.” I added, looking back to Shore who nodded to me.

“This terminal only has a couple of corrupt video files and an old inventory list.” the black earth pony explained, adjusting his reading glasses with a hoof. “Except one file looks intact.”

“Another video?” I asked, stepping around the counter to join my friend in front of the flickering green screen. A total of six items were listed in the main menu, four listed as corrupt data while the fifth was a typed document; the bottom item on the list carried a title to label it, reading For You, The Viewer. “That’s curious…”

“I think it’s another video file.” Shore replied, scrolling the blinking cursor down to the item.

“If you two want to view the document, I can scour through the second floor.” Raemor offered across the counter.

“E.F.S. isn’t showing anything in this building.” I replied, raising my pipbuck for the old stallion to see. “I think the building’s safe.”

“I like to see with my own eyes.” came his response, dipping his head. “No offense, but I don’t trust technology as much as you do.”

I gave a small smile and shrug. “Everypony has their preferences.”

“I’ll go ahead and check upstairs with you, Raemor.” Shore spoke up. “I still need to keep my eyes open for any energy cartridges that might be hiding around.”

“I’m curious about this video log. I’d like to see it, if that’s all right with you two.” I said afterwards.

“Sure. We’ll be back in a minute.” With Shore’s final remark, the two stallions were off to the east end of the building where, amidst a quintet of toppled shelving units and destroyed electronic appliances, was an intact metal staircase leading to the second story. As the two ascended one after the other, I turned to face the monitor, and with the press of the key, activated the video log.

In a flash, green faded away to black and black brightened to grey as the video loaded up. And then, ashy green covered the screen as I found myself facing an unblemished wall. But more important than the color was the barrage of different sounds coming from the video’s audio recorder. There was a multitude of voices sounding, mostly mixing together all at once to make a dull indecipherable noise… except for the spaced yet frequent screaming and shouting coming from beyond the camera recorder. But then, “Yes sir…… I understand sir……” The voice belonged to a stallion, middle-aged. “But, beg pardon sir, shouldn’t we try and do something about this city? I mean, all of Marefax has gone into a frenzy. There’s traffic jams and citizens are starting to loot and hoard supplies. Ever since the whole city witnessed those zebra missiles flying by just west of us about an hour ago, they…… yes sir…… no sir……” The one-sided dialogue, the tired tone of the unknown male voice, put a chill through me; I didn’t like where this was going. “Wait, you mean… the National Guard Bunkers… the Guardian Project… went offline? That’s how those missiles got through??………” A long pause proceeded the shocked tone of the hidden stallion. “A-and Buckley too??…… Sir, that means Marefax is an open target! The southeast is defenseless!…… Sir…… But sir, Cloudsdayle was just one city, and we’ve sealed the rest of them away! We can’t just abandon the surface like this! There are millions of ponies here and just one Raptor in Marefax would save……… yes sir, of course I love my family…… no, I’d never betray them……… no sir…………” A sigh escaped the unknown buck, a sigh of utter defeat. “Yes sir… yes sir, I’ll be at the rendezvous in ten minutes… I… I just need a moment…… yes sir… thank you, sir… I will, sir.”

Another moment of silence proceeded, the video only projecting the mob of voices outside. Then, hoofsteps, and a moment later, I came face to face with the stallion I had heard. He was a yellow buck with orange eyes, mane and tail two-tone red, and at his sides was a pair of wings. This stallion was a pegasus pony, and currently, he looked to be on the verge of tears, a face that made my ears pin back in sympathy. For a long time, he and I stared back at one another, the pegasus buck’s ear occasionally perking up as a particular volume of a shout or a word sounded outside of his walls. In the lingering silence, he even turned away from the camera to adjust the strap of his saddlebags, the only items he wore on his body. But then, finally, after a sigh, he said, “This is Staff Sergeant Lightning Strike, Marefax Second Battalion, First Artillery Company…… Goddesses… I haven’t said that in a while… not for two years, anyway…… As I speak, Marefax is plunging into chaos, and I have no doubt that the zebras are sighting in on us. As one of the soldiers on the Equestrian Reserve, I still maintain contact with my battalion’s commanding officers… and I just got word from General Wind Walker himself that we’ve lost contact with both Buckley Air Force Base… and the National Guard Bunkers to the northeast. We don’t know how they fell… but the loss of these military posts have left Marefax completely exposed… and the General has just given the order for all pegasus ponies in the southeast to evacuate the surface… and rally above the cloud ceiling at a temporary checkpoint before we’re rerouted to Neighvarro for new assignments.” Again, the pegasus sighed, shaking his head. “General Wind Walker led the battalion through some tough fights during the later stages of the war… but this… leaving all of Marefax’s unicorns and earth ponies to whatever fate awaits them… this is fubar… and technically, I’m committing treason for even thinking like that… guess the general saved me from the firing squad on that one…… But, in all honesty, if it wasn’t for my wife and son… and my brother and his pregnant wife already having left for the cloud cover… I’m not sure if I would’ve complied with the order to run.” Lightning Strike stopped once again, looking up over the camera and around at his shop; his eyes carried with them a certain look… one that said without words that he had no true desire to leave his shop behind.

“After our time on duty, Lightning Wave and I came here for peace, for someplace to work a civilian job and make a civilian living.” he said, looking back to the camera. “We made this shop together, and it was our livelihood, the living we wanted for ourselves, to support our wives that we met along the way, the children we’d come to have… and now I’ve got to abandon it all because of this fucking war.” He looked away from the camera. “After nineteen years, the whole damn thing’s reached the tipping point… ever since those balefire blasts went off southeast of here two days ago, I feared the worst… And now, after those zebra missiles flew right by the city just an hour ago… those fears have been confirmed…… Goddesses, I never thought I’d actually live to see the apocalypse… or an apocalypse of any kind…… but all the signs are there… it’s really happening…”

Suddenly, through the dim roar of voices outside, a new sound cut through the audio of the video recording, a noise that drew a gasp from me and the Lightning Strike both; a raid siren. The alarm blared ominously through the entire city, easily cutting into the video log and dominating over the other sounds on a single dissonant pitch that sustained itself for several seconds. Then, the note fell before rising back up to that single scary warning tone, a blaring cry for everypony to find shelter, to flee in any and every direction away from the city, to save themselves and their loved ones. It was the city’s final word; a balefire missile was coming.

The siren continued to rise and fall, and I winced as a wave of terrified screaming replaced the dim rumble of the previously somewhat composed voices outside. Yet still, the video continued, and the pegasus bowed his head; even through the screen, I caught a glimpse of a tear as it fell from the stallion’s eye and dropped behind the counter. Then, he rubbed a foreleg along his eyes, clearing away the other tears that wanted to fall, before he looked back up at the camera. “Well… this is it, I guess…” he spoke. “In minutes… everything my brother and I worked to achieve outside the soldier’s life will be turned to ash…… I’ve heard rumors from other pegasi veterans that the pegasus officers in the Equestrian Army and Air Force are working on making their own army altogether, just with us pegasus ponies… don’t know what…” Again, the pegasus shook his head. “But I don’t like the sound of it… something tells me that it’s going to be an uncertain future from here on out, even if the other pegasus cities have been hidden away… I guess we’re not exclusive to that though… an uncertain future…… I can’t imagine what the surface will be like once the dust settles. It isn’t fair that we have the capacity to fly above the clouds and away from the eyes of the zebras while the rest of ponykind has no choice but to stand by while the world goes up in smoke… I hate that so much…… but I’ve heard of those Stables that were made all around the Equestrian territory… might have some hope rebuilding with those around.” Even with the siren continuing to sound, and the screaming still coming from outside, the pegasus cracked the faintest of smiles at the camera, holding it just long enough to let it sink in. “I don’t know what’s going to happen once I get up to the clouds with the other fliers… but hopefully, when this mess passes, the leadership will have their shit together, and we can act.” With a sad shake of his head, and another tear, the buck added, “So, to any surface dweller that sees this video… from me to you… just… hang on. Do what you can to survive… look after yourselves and those you love… work together to rebuild… and hopefully, soon, the pegasi will return to help you, to help restore Equestria…… For now… just hang on…… and good luck.” Then, slowly, Lightning Strike reached up over the camera with a forehoof, and with one final wail from the warning siren, the video ended.

I was left with a terrible heartache for the pegasus, and that dreadful siren continued to ring in my ears, making me shut my eyes tightly for several seconds. Lightning Strike, another soldier during the war, like Macon, had been forced to flee and leave his whole world behind, and he had no choice but to watch it burn from his safe place in the clouds above. For me, my world was Hopeville and its people, and while I couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to watch that town, all the progress that I and my fellow Stable dwellers had made in restoring it, topple to the ground, Lightning Strike had witnessed the destruction of civilization itself. But what was worse than that, was that he had wanted to ease the impact of the catastrophe, to save Marefax’s citizens with help from his superiors and the soldiers at their command. But because of one single order, that chance had been taken from him, the chance to do something good stripped away because of protocol; I couldn’t imagine what that had been like for Lightning Strike.

“Don’t count on it…”

I jumped at the sudden voice, and nearly jumped again at seeing both Raemor and Shore standing by me. I had been so absorbed into the video file that I hadn’t noticed their return, but the voice hadn’t belonged to either of them, as they had both looked at me with varying levels of sympathy, Shore much more so than Raemor, who only looked at the terminal with a sort of solemn understanding. But no, the voice had instead come from Archer, the pegasus standing on the opposite end of the counter where both my friends and I looked back at him. “Excuse me?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow as I forced my attention away from history.

“I said don’t count on it.” the pegasus stallion responded, his tone curiously darker, eyes slightly narrowed as he looked to the far end of the room. “The pegasi coming back to the surface?” Archer shook his head. “You’d think that one of the last bastions of pure ponykind would have an interest in restoring Equestria to its former self, helping those that lacked the ability to follow them to safety… but don’t count on that.” For a moment, we were all silent as the steel-blue pegasus turned to look me in the eyes, his glare easing up as he did so. “I figured I should get that out now before you start getting your hopes up about it.” And before I could even ask as to what in the world he meant, he turned away and walked back outside, leaving me staring after him with nothing but utter confusion.

“Um… is he okay?” I asked back to my friends, looking back and forth between them with concern.

A look of similar confusion was all I got from Shore, while Raemor answered, “I’m not sure. But that video log must’ve made him remember something for him to become so suddenly irritated.”

“He was always so calm and easy-going yesterday, it just seemed like that was how he always was.” I replied, looking back to him. “That seemed a little out of character for Archer.”

Then, “Commander Tracer, this is Kenzie. The rubble is nearly cleared out enough for our wagons to cross over. We should be moving in the next couple of minutes.” The female voice on my microphone brought my focus back to the matter at hoof, and the continuation of the expedition took precedence over my worry for my fellow pegasus; still, I made a note to inquire about that to Archer directly at an appropriate time.

“Alright, good work everypony. We’ll head on back.” the commander replied.

“We should get going as well, Nova.” Raemor spoke up, trotting back around the counter and heading for the shop entrance.

With a nod, I followed him and Shore back out of Lightning Strike’s shop and back into the street.

*** *** ***

Halstead.

Following the train as part of the rear guard, with Archer, Shore, Raemor, as well as two other guards clustered around and beside me, I rounded the street corner to leave Indigo Road behind and emerge onto Halstead Boulevard. About a half hour earlier, we had been traveling due north on Warren Street, and had spent roughly twenty minutes heading on a straight route closer and closer to the Marefax Skyline, the cluster of skyscrapers at the very heart of the downtown sector. Warren had been a four-lane road with widened sidewalks, with a raised median along its entire length that had once held proud towering trees. Now, however, the road had been nothing but an example. The buildings along Warren had shown greater and greater levels of destruction and decay the farther north we went, leading Archer to explain that we were walking ever closer to “ground zero” – the impact point of the balefire missile that had destroyed the city. Though he had assured us that we would be keeping a safe distance from the blast crater, it was still a chilling thought to know that we were closing in on the epicenter of the city’s demise, and it was magnified further with the sudden darkening of the cloud cover above.

Once a brighter grey to resemble the midmorning light, the sky had become a much darker shade of the former grey-white, and as we had continued along our route, slowly but surely thickening with rubble and obstacles, it had begun to thunder. After Warren Street, which had yielded a brief firefight to fend off a small pack of scavenging feral ghouls at its end, we had finally hooked onto a new road, veering eastward on Indigo Road as soft thunder and dim lightning continued to accompany us. Indigo Road had been a smaller and narrower street, and had been the graveyard to a number of old wagons piled together against the buildings, a result of the shockwave of the missile. Near the end of the road, I had been witness to another one of the larger transport wagons, this one having held within it a host of pony skeletons blackened from the balefire that had swept out and consumed all in its path; I had nearly cried as the nostalgia hit me like a bag of bricks.

Now, with that transport behind me, but still fresh on my mind, we were on Halstead Boulevard and continuing northward. The ruin here was similar to that of Warren Street, rubble thick and hindering the wagons’ progress, forcing crews of unicorns to move ahead of them and clear the road of concrete blocks, steel bars, and even remains of old wagons. Buildings continued to flank us from both sides, more and more withering closer away to just their frames and interiors. But up ahead, I could distinguish intact buildings, these ones with labels marking their names; they were the first I had seen since Lightning Strike’s electronics store.

On the right side of the street, three structures built side by side were intact enough for access. The closest was labeled in blocky red letters as a pharmacy, though one letter sat isolated from the others, the only one left of what I was sure had been the name given to the pharmacy itself. Next to that building, a black signboard with cursive white lettering was legible enough to make out the words Songbird Jewelry Store. And finally, beyond that, an electronic sign flickering with red light spelled out Tea’s Shake and Sandwich Joint. However, parallel to the jewelry store, a single rusted away wagon sat horizontal across the road, and ironically, it looked to be along the same model as our own cargo wagons, blocking just enough of the street to prevent our vehicles from passing; one side of it would have to be pushed out of the way.

“Alright everypony, hold up.” Tracer ordered from up ahead, the convoy swiftly coming to a halt behind him. “We’re going to have to move this…”

“Beg pardon sir, but I think some of us unicorns could use a bit of a breather.” a female guard voiced from somewhere along the train.

“Playing street sweeper is fun until you start getting a headache, sir.” a male guard added afterwards, this guard shaking his head as I spotted him just in front and to the left of me.

After a moment’s pause, the red earth pony nodded. “You’re right… alright, everypony, take a few minutes, just sit down and grab some food and water from the provisions you packed. Rest up a little, but make sure to stay alert. We’ll see about getting past this wagon when we’ve all got some sustenance in our bellies. I just need two guards to follow me past the wagon and see what’s ahead.”

At his word, six unicorns in my sight immediately plopped down on the concrete, a couple even gratefully shedding their primary weapons before joining their companions for a quick snack. By my side, I caught sight of Shore stretching out before sitting down himself, and Raemor’s horn flickered with light as he pulled out a bottle of dirty water from one of the pockets on his armor. “Would either of you like a drink?” the old buck asked, unscrewing the plastic cap with his magic.

To the question I gave a nod, and I sat to take the bottle in my forehooves, taking a swig of the water before handing it back. “Thank you.”

“Certainly.” the copper unicorn replied, passing the bottle to Shore who likewise gulped down a mouthful of the water.

“Hey commander… uh…” My ears perked at a nervous mare’s voice that suddenly sounded over my headset.

“Holy shit…” a male voice spoke up, whispering into my ear over the com-link.

“What is it?” Commander Tracer asked, voice cautious.

“There’s a lot of bodies in here, sir.” the mare answered; simultaneously with the majority of the guard detail, I shot back up to all fours and faced the obstruction in the road.

“Everypony up… now.” Tracer ordered, sharp but calm. “We need to get that wagon out of the way and then get the hell off this road.”

“Goddesses, we’ve walked right into a raider hideout haven’t we?” I heard a male at the front call out.

“Merciful Luna, they turned the jewelry store into a fucking meat locker!” a second mare shouted, sounding nearly at a panic.

“Everypony stay calm.” Archer quickly interrupted, his much more composed voice sounding both beside me and over my headset. “Half of us get to work on moving that wagon, and the rest of us keep a lookout for hostiles. We need to focus.”

“Yeah… yeah, okay.” a second male replied, taking in a breath.

“Come on, let’s get this hunk of junk out of the way, and quick.” a third ordered.

“Keep your eyes on the buildings. Some of them have multiple floors.” the pegasus added, looking up himself at the top levels of the closest multi-level structure to his left. “Call if you find something.”

Now, an eerie quiet overtook the train, Commander Tracer and four other guards reappearing from behind the wagon as a crew of five unicorns and six earth ponies got to work on pushing away the wagon. The rest of the train was slowly scanning the surrounding area, covering all of our flanks and searching the open windows of the buildings looming over us. “This wasn’t on the map either was it?” came a guard’s questioning voice through my headset.

“This street was the closest to a nest a couple blocks away to the southeast.” Archer replied, the pegasus backing up next to me as the two of us, along with Shore and Raemor, stepped by the rear wagon. “This was the only street that would take us through the next city block. The rest were sealed off by rubble.”

“The deeper into Marefax we get, the more like a maze it becomes…” a female guard nervously observed.

Up ahead, a metal grinding echoed along the street as the obstruction was beginning to shift, the combined telekinesis and physical strength of the crew attending the obstruction sufficient enough to move the vehicle away. “Nova…”

To my right, Commander Tracer was approaching at a brisk trot. “Yes?”

“We’re going to be taking a right on the next street before we head north again on the road after that.” he explained, stopping in front of me before pointing a hoof up, gesturing to the taller ten-story structures at the end of Halstead. “I’d like you to take up a sniping position on the most secure rooftop on one of those buildings and check for any hostiles up ahead. With luck, any raiders nearby will be occupied somewhere else within their territory so we can slip by.”

I nodded, spreading out my wings. “Yes, commander.”

“Archer, I’m going to have you sneak up to the street corner and set up a sniping position on the ground.” Tracer added, turning to the steel blue flier. “Diego also brought a sniper rifle along, so I’ll send him with you as another set of eyes on the ground.”

“I’ll go meet him then.”

“Alright. Everypony get ready to move, and keep your eyes and ears open.” Tracer ordered, the wagon pulling teams reequipping their harnesses as the guards took up their positions; the wagon had been moved only a short distance along the road, but just enough for our carriers to pull up to the sidewalk on the right side and inch past. After a quick farewell to Shore, Raemor, and Archer, I beat my wings to spring into the air. With a general lack of room to maneuver freely in the street, I dipped before pulling up to fly parallel to the buildings. Within seconds, I passed over the rooftops and leveled out, ready to scan for a position to set up shop.

But instead of open roof, I came face to face with a team of two ponies, crouched quietly and lying in wait… both of them wearing tattered leather armor.

“RAIDERS ON THE ROOFTOPS!!”

Just as I screamed my warning, the unicorn bucks jumped to their hooves, lever-action rifles snapping up to point right at me, and I jerked my wings shut to drop just as they fired, the twin shots whizzing right above me. Then, as my wings once more came unfurled, halting my momentum, “Contacts front!”

“On the road, dead ahead!”

“Take cover!”

Right after the frantic radio chatter began, muzzle flashes erupted like lightning against the hulls of our wagons below me as the guards at the front begun putting fire downrange, meeting a raider squad that had poured out from the street corner just ahead of them. More of them, at least another half dozen, emerged from the next street on our route to take shots at the guards at the front of the train as they scrambled for cover. But at the same time as the ground force of raiders made their move, more gunfire sounded from the rooftops themselves, and not just the one I had first encountered. From two different positions, unicorns were peering over the edges of the rooftops and pointing their rifles straight down to put lead onto the train from above; the convoy was boxed in!

But even before I could speak a word, I found the same two raiders as before bringing their rifles to point at me, and I poured on the speed to get away. A quick flight forward, bullets lashing by just behind me, and I was pulling up at a sharp ascent to pass the roofline before hooking hard left and coming around. The convoy was out of my view now, and all I saw were the raiders attacking the train from above. There were four in total, two at each of the positions, and the foremost pair were still keeping their iron sights on me; I had to get into this fight, quick!

The pair of unicorns were firing again as I leveled out from my turn, forcing me to bank right to avoid them. Then, in an attempt to open a window for a counterattack, I dropped down, intentionally skipping a beat in my wings before I leaned left and picked the pace back up, weaving in a successful zigzag. The maneuver put me a step ahead of my targets, buying me the time I needed to bank back right and line up with the enemy, and I slipped into S.A.T.S. to dial up my shots. One shot for each of them, and the spell activated, my rifles roaring to combine with the noise below. The first missed, striking the rooftop just in front of the raider and making him stumble back. But the second was a hit, catching the second unicorn in the right hind leg. The shot staggered him, and right before I flew by overhead, I saw as he stumbled back one step too far, losing his balance as he stepped over the edge and plummeted down ten stories to the pavement below.

But now, the other two raiders were after me as I arced left for another pass, and this time, two assault rifles from the unicorns sent a hail of bullets after me, one absorbed by my side guard before I aborted my next pass and dove back below the roofline. Below, the battle was continuing in force. To my great relief, Tracer had led the infantry to shelter in the jewelry store, the sandwich shop, and the pharmacy, setting up defensible positions with plenty of cover to put fire on the raiders on the street. However, the two wagons had been abandoned because of the raiders on the rooftops, and already, three enemies were making a break for the lead carrier. It didn’t take much to tell me what their intentions were, and there was no way in hell I was going to give those raiders forty millimeters of grenade-spewing destruction to turn against my friends; for now, the raiders on the rooftop could wait.

Spreading my wings to level out from my dive, I shot by over the second wagon and caught sight of my targets as I drew up to the first. With S.A.T.S. recharging, I had to angle in for the shot, and I lined up directly in front of the lead raider of the three and fired. My mere presence in the air caused the three to slow, caught off-guard, and my shot struck home in the leader’s throat. I pulled up and away as he fell, beating upward as fast as I could as more bullets streaked by around me. But then, as I leveled out once again, backtracking, I felt two impacts simultaneously, one bullet striking my leg guard as another hit my back plate; the latter pierced the armoring, and with a pained cry, I lost my pace in the air.

The bullet had, fortunately, just missed the right wing joint, but as I got my wings to snap back open, trying desperately to catch myself, I still felt the pain wash over the affected area. I couldn’t beat my wings fast enough to catch the air again, but I managed just enough to slow my fall, and passing over the first wagon, I brought myself roughly to ground, stumbling a step forward before I came to a full halt. Tucking my wings back against my sides, doing my damnedest to ignore the burn in my back, I quickly surveyed my surroundings. I had landed by the nose of our second carrier, and I was on the left side of the street. Up ahead, the vehicle that had blocked our path now lay across the left sidewalk and roughly half the road; the enemy would be coming around the right side or up over the wagon, and the rest of my team was fighting from the buildings just beyond that.

Bullets drilled into the pavement, eliciting a yelp of shock from me as I made a run for it. The raiders from the rooftops were chasing me, the bullets cracking the concrete behind me forcing me to fall back, and I skidded around the nose of our front carrier to take cover. “Nova, where are you??”

I recognized the commander’s voice over my headset. “I’m hiding behind one of our wagons!” I shouted, metallic clangs sounding above me as bullets reflected off my cover’s armored plates. “There’s enemies on the roof that are keeping me from running!”

“I’m sending a couple of our guards to get you out, just hang on!” Tracer replied. “You three, get ready to move! Diego, knock out those targets on the rooftops!” Suddenly, from the wrecked wagon just behind me, laughter alerted me to a presence there, and I saw two raiders emerge on top of the Old World vehicle; one of them pulled the pin from a red grenade in his telekinetic grasp.

“It’s bath time!” the male unicorn shouted with glee, hurling the metal apple straight for me. It skipped along the pavement and stopped at my hooves before I leapt away, springing once to the right and then scrambling back along the right side of the wagon. The grenade detonated, a wave of fire rolling out just in front of me and bathing me in a splash of heat and lingering smoke.

“Oh, you’re fast!” the same raider called with a sinister laugh. “Get back here, my little meat muffin! My friend needs you!”

“I need another head for my merry-go-round!” the second voiced after, his own shouting even closer to me. “Yours is perfect!”

Adrenaline surging, I turned back just after my two opponents rounded the corner toward me, and in unison, the second drew a pump-action shotgun as I chomped down on my firing bit. We both fired together, the buckshot pellets striking my chest plate dead on as my own shot hit his lower left front leg, the bullets ripping out a chunk of his hoof as he collapsed to the ground; even he wasn’t insane enough not to cry out.

The raider who had thrown the grenade was already after me as I tried to line up another shot, and he lashed out with hoof adorned with a steel ponyshoe. The metal unarmed weapon missed my muzzle by inches as I forced myself to rear back, and I retaliated with a punch of my own. Though light, I scored a hit across his own jaw, making him recoil away. But as I made to fire again, the raider leapt away behind the wagon, my shot missing and striking the old wagon behind him. He was out my line of sight by the maneuver, and even as he dodged away, his comrade was staggering up, bringing his shotgun to bear with a maniacal grin even as the stump on his hoofless foreleg bled openly. “Don’t worry, I’ll just get a new hoof from you!”

The shotgun fired as I ran for the opposite end of the street, the pellets sending up a spray of concrete dust as I skidded to a halt and reared around. The pump-action loaded the next shell as I brought my rifles to bear, and he fired again, the scattershot punching hard into both of my foreleg guards at once, sending just enough force to the limbs to trip up my balance and send me falling onto my side. With a cry, I rolled, desperate to get away, and the next shell from the raider’s shotgun smashed into the pavement where I had just fallen. The racking of the pump-action weapon sounded much more like a death bell in that moment, singing out for me as the adrenaline charged through my veins; I wasn’t going out like this!!

With a twist of my body, I rolled again onto my back, biting down on my sidearm to pull it from its holster in the same maneuver. And simply pointing and praying, I fired desperately, Fire Rose spitting out five rapid shots until the trigger clicked on an empty chamber. Still, behind the iron sights of my mother’s pistol, I found the raider lying dead, the shotgun fallen by his forelegs. But there was no time to celebrate, as two more raiders, two female earth ponies with their own battle saddles, emerged to take his place, and the male unicorn from before now stood atop our lead cargo carrier, already eyeing the unattended 40mm grenade machinegun.

Through the noise of rifles and a buzz of sound from some sort of full-auto weapon, a piercing crack of sound echoed through the street, and I caught a glimpse of another raider falling from the rooftop as I scrambled to my hooves. Then, the earth pony raiders were firing and I was running, diving to cover at the back of the forward wagon. But right away, the male unicorn raider from before was after me, and he… toppled off the wagon and over me to land motionless on the road. And then, a friendly leapt off the wagon and scurried over to join me; Kenzie had killed the raider atop the cargo carrier.

“When the bullets started coming down from the roof, I took cover inside the wagon!” she shouted over the noise.

“There’s two more between us and the rest of the team!” I called back after holstering my empty sidearm; I had no time to reload it manually.

“We’ve got to deal with them!” With that, the orange earth pony mare with a short red mane reached around and bit down on the weapon over her back, a military assault rifle with a built-in firing bit that she brought before her.

Without a moment’s pause, she turned and leapt out into the open and fired, keeping the trigger down to send out a spray of lead at our targets. I joined her right after, running past her before facing down the road. The two mares had been joined by yet two more raiders, another earth pony mare and a unicorn stallion, the former armed with a single pistol and the latter carrying a crowbar in his telekinesis; if more raiders were getting to us…… I needed to get to the others!

Another crack of sound from the louder rifle echoed in the air before I brought up S.A.T.S. once more. Kenzie had already killed one of the earth ponies, and the second was taking cover. The two newcomers were in the open though, and I targeted the pistol-wielding pony with a single shot before executing the spell; a hit to her chest brought her down.

But with a *ping*, my battle rifle ejected an empty clip, prompting the auto loader to kick in, and my markspony carbine was likewise reloading. Kenzie too was on an empty clip, and the both of us were forced back to cover as the remaining earth pony mare returned fire with her assault rifle saddle. Then, both of my weapons’ autoloaders locked new rounds into the chambers, and I was ready to fight again. But then I stepped from cover, only to find that the crowbar stallion was already waiting for me, and I couldn’t react in time as his hooves reached for me, grabbing me by the neck and throwing me past him and into the ground.

I let my momentum carry me into a roll, and with that I dodged a swipe from the crowbar, the steel tool cracking the concrete at the force of the raider’s swing. In a flash, the murderous buck was after me again, charging forward to close the gap between us. “You’re going to look good as a neon sign!” he shouted as I rolled to evade him, my attacker once again bringing the crowbar down on the pavement.

On my last roll, I brought my hooves back under me and pulled myself up, turning to face the raider as he charged once more. “SCREW YOU!” I screamed back, biting down on the firing bit and firing two shots in rapid succession, bringing the raider down and ending his psychotic charge.

“Nova, run for it!!” The call followed a third shot from the higher caliber weapon, and just behind me, I saw Kenzie racing for the old wagon up ahead, the way now clear of raiders even as the gunfire continued in full beyond it. And even as she ran, more friendly contacts emerged, three male guards diving frantically for cover one after another before Raemor joined them, my friend making the caboose of our much needed support. As the gunner mare and I ran to meet them, I recognized one of the guards as Bolt, swiftly reloading the carbine at his side.

“Over here!” one of the other guards called, Kenzie and I skidding to a halt behind cover with the others a moment later. “Diego just knocked out the last of the raiders on the rooftops!” the guard buck explained over the fighting. “Kenzie, we need you on your gun so you can blast this wagon away! Once that thing’s nothing more than scrap, that grenade machinegun can mow down the rest of these fuckers!”

“How many of them are left??” I asked back, listening as I turned my attention to my sidearm, pulling it and another clip out with my teeth before setting them on the ground and working to reload the weapon.

“They brought in twice as many as we have!” Raemor answered me. “They’re recklessness is there weakness, so we’ve kept them from gaining ground!”

“Was anypony hurt??” Kenzie then questioned.

“No deaths, but a few of our guys took some hard hits!” the second guard stallion answered. “Sophie’s tending to them under fire!”

“Right now, the whole damn thing’s a stalemate, and we’re taking turns blasting through each other’s cover and taking potshots at each other!” Bolt added, turning to Kenzie as he added, “That’s why we need this scrapheap out of here, Kenzie!”

“I’m on it!”

With all due haste, the earth pony gunner ran back for her position, approaching the front left side of the cargo carrier and climbing up the support steps. But then, right after reloading my pistol, holstering the weapon and the empty magazine, I was being nudged forward by Raemor. “This vehicle’s going to detonate when Kenzie uses that grenade machinegun!” he quickly explained, the two of us picking up pace with Bolt and the other two guards as they ran past Kenzie’s wagon and up to the second. “We need to take cover!”

Oh no, not this again!

I ran with no argument, following the guards as they took cover behind the second wagon. Then, as Raemor and I likewise took shelter, Bolt put a hoof up to his own communicator. “Everypony take cover!! Kenzie’s taking out the wagon with the forty mil!!”

“Everypony down!” Tracer ordered back, all five of us crouching low to the ground behind our cover. “Kenzie, hit it!”

A second later, and the repeating blasts of the 40mm grenades carried to my ears, and the tremendous detonation of the Old World vehicle’s spark battery unit followed suit, green light flaring around us as the old vehicle went up in a roaring ball of balefire. Then, even before the noise of the explosion died away, “Come on, let’s get in there and finish this!” Bolt shouted, already running out from cover and back towards the fight as I opened my eyes and stood back up.

Swiftly, the two other guards followed after, and finally, Raemor and I gave chase. Now, there was nothing left of the former obstruction besides scrap plate, the entire vehicle having been blown apart. Through the dying smoke, I could make sight of the battle zone, finding well over a dozen raiders protected by slabs of stone, rebar, and even another wagon lying on its side by the sidewalk. In front of them, scattered in the middle of the road, were numerous bodies, the corpses of the rest of the enemy force. Opposite of that, completing the frantic shootout, our team of infantry was holed up within the three named buildings on the right side of the street, some even having taken positions on the upper floors; more raiders had tried to charge directly into the buildings, only meeting a messy end and laying dead at the entrances to the structures.

But now, most important, Kenzie and her implement of destruction had a clear line of sight on the remaining raiders. Now, we were the ones attacking the raiders from multiple angles, and knowing this too, Tracer once again spoke through the com-link. “Kenzie, light them up!!”

*** *** ***

BLAM!

One shot from S.A.T.S. and another feral ghoul fell at my hooves, and a second later as my battle rifle reloaded, I turned to see as a female unicorn guard nearby smashed the butt of her rifle against another feral’s face, sending it to the ground before jamming the rifle barrel to the creature’s head and pulling the trigger; her shot was the last before silence ruled the streets.

“Clear!”

The call went up around the convoy, followed shortly by a swift roll-call, and gratefully, I let myself relax. All around us, a pack of over forty feral ghouls lay dead on the pavement of Nellis Street, and even more of them had been blasted to meaty pieces by the wagons’ mounted heavy weapons. We had found the herd huddled together in the first floor lobby space of an unnamed tower, a building that stood at least twenty stories up and spanned over a third of the block; even as I trotted back to the lead wagon with a sigh, I knew that there were more ghouls inside the building’s other floors, and I thanked the Goddesses that we weren’t heading in to explore the old structure.

After fighting our way out of the raider ambush on Halstead, we had continued along at a fair pace as Sophie tended to the wounded, our rear wagon becoming a mobile clinic. Unfortunately, our numbers were diminishing slowly, as six guards already lay recovering inside the wagon, having been incapacitated because of the ambush and now leaving us at eighteen to continue alongside the cargo carriers. Nevertheless, there were no casualties, and we marched onward, merging onto Tango Street and crossing it unhindered onto Granville Road. After that came 89th street and the 89th Street Cinema, an Old World movie theater that had caved in entirely except for its front wall, revealing its name to us as we passed. On the same street was the second music-based site we had found throughout the journey - the First Staves Instrument and Sheet Music Center. However, unlike the Mason Piano Company in the industrial park, the smaller shop had been picked clean of everything but wrappers and scraps. And, worse than that, I had been the one to discover a slice of the Old World left inside the building, the skeletons of what I assumed to be the former shopkeeper and his or her family, complete with two much smaller skeletons that was all that remained of the family’s children, all huddled together in a compact storage closet. There had been a small written diary with three preserved pages in that closet as well, revealing the skeletons’ identities and their last sorrowful thoughts before their demise on that fateful day.

I left that diary and its words behind… Lightning Strike’s voice was more than sufficient in fueling my nostalgia without me carrying that book around. And still, the further along I went, following Buckley’s mission deeper into the corpse of Marefax, I was becoming sluggish, weary as the city exploited my mental weaknesses. Every piece of the Old World I discovered with the convoy pressed down on my conscience, straining my will, and making me all the more hesitant to see what else was hidden in the city’s broken streets. To put things lightly, I was already planning on making another visit to Buckley’s spa, and I was sure as hell looking forward to the concert, and being with Blake again; more and more… I wanted out of this place.

But still we moved on, and upon leaving 89th Street behind, we had hooked onto a road called Wilshire, a short straightaway that carried us to Friendship Heights Avenue. This was the home of the Friendship Heights Scenic Park, a flat sprawl of dirt that had once been a grassy field filled with stone monuments for ponies to mingle and rest from the hustle and bustle of life in the downtown sector. It was certainly a curious landmark, almost seeming out of place as we passed by, as it had been completely surrounded by crumbling buildings; it was as if the city leadership had forgotten to erect another tower where the park was.

From Friendship Heights we had turned onto Cornerstone Road, this street also home to another intact building that was once a local post office. Though we hadn’t run into another hostile squad of raiders, the post office bore the gruesome signs of their passing, the exterior walls of the building defiled with splayed corpses, splashed blood, and crudely written profanities. But then, after turning onto Lotus Street past the post office, we had come upon Nellis Street and continued north.

We were now near the end of the street, or at least the end of the portion of it that we were traversing, as, according to Archer and his roadmap, we were approaching our next turn. “This next street we’re going to be turning on is the second-to-last on our route, commander.” the pegasus stated, the convoy preparing to move once more. “We’re almost there.”

“That’s good news.” Tracer responded, nodding as I watched from my distance away from the two. “What else are we going to be coming across before we get there?”

“The rest of the route was free of raiders and ghouls when I mapped it, so as long as none of them move from their territory, we’ll be safe.” Archer explained, then raising a foreleg to point straight ahead of us. “Behind this building here is a clearing where the city’s farmer’s market was set up. We can cut across that to head onto Franklin Road, we follow that east for a bit and after that, we hook north on Starlight Avenue, and the Moonrise Symphonic Theater is right down there.”

The commander nodded again. “Alright, good. We’re going to go ahead and get the wounded rallied up, while Sophie tends to them and gets them back on their hooves, we’re going to keep moving. While we do that here, I want you and a couple of others to search the courtyard and Franklin Road just to make sure that the route’s free of raiders.”

“Yes sir.” With a quick salute, Archer turned and trotted away to disappear behind the forward wagon, Commander Tracer and a unicorn guard with him folding up the roadmap before they too trotted off to new tasks.

“Hey, Nova! Could you help me out a second?” I snapped my eyes to the left, recognizing the voice of Saharra, and spotted the concertmaster supporting a wounded guard buck – a white-coated, green-maned earth pony – back onto the street from the sidewalk. Both of his forelegs were bleeding freely, crippling him to a hobble that forced him to lean against the red unicorn for balance.

“Goddesses, are you alright?” Hurriedly, I trotted over to the pair and took up a place by the wounded stallion’s left side.

“A couple of ferals teamed up on me during the fighting and bit through my armor.” he explained, gingerly stepping down on his left front hoof and still grimacing. “I guess that’s what I get for not taking my brother’s advice about wearing heavier armor.” he added with a grim chuckle. “I’ll probably get an infection for this… just in time for the concert, too.”

As Saharra and I helped him along, I managed to get an understanding of just how painful his injuries were. The bites the guard had sustained were nasty, as the fabric of his light armor rig had been shredded by the gnashing teeth of the ghouls that had attacked him. Because of that, the fronts of his forelimbs had been entirely exposed, and the flesh was savagely torn, leaving deep lacerations and ragged bloody holes. “Don’t worry, Echo. Sophie will fix you up just fine.” Saharra encouraged, helping the buck right himself as he stumbled against her in his latest step. “This is a cake walk for you, and besides, you’ve got two mares leaning up against you to help you walk. We dig scars, you know.”

“Oh, is that what this is about?” the guard asked with a playful roll of his eyes, smiling slightly.

I found myself blushing as Saharra smirked. “Well, we do.” she asserted, the two of us abruptly stopping as the buck staggered again, falling against me as I quickly adjusted myself to keep his weight supported.

Getting himself upright again, the guard laughed a single light note. “Okay, Saharra. If you say so.”

A couple seconds later, and we were helping Echo to the ramp leading inside the rear cargo carrier. Inside, I could see Sophie’s makeshift clinic, currently home to nine recovering guards with magical healing bandages over their respective injuries. The nurse herself, with Ludwig levitating her assorted medical gear close by, was currently encouraging one of her patients inside - a young unicorn mare who had taken a painful bite to the back, now holding back tears as the nurse drizzled a healing potion directly atop the wound. “I know.” Sophie spoke softly, with sympathy. “I know it hurts, dear.”

“Merciful Luna…” the young mare hissed, eyes clenched tight. “I would say that I didn’t sign up for this crap, OW… but I did…”

“Sophie, we have another wounded guard with us.” Saharra gently interrupted, waving a foreleg as the nurse looked to us. “He’s been bit on both his forelegs.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you for helping him here, you two.” the grey unicorn replied, setting aside the partially empty healing potion to join us. “I’ll help him the rest of the way in. My guess is that the commander will need you out there when the wagons move again.” At her prompt, Saharra and I stepped aside, Echo giving us both a quick thank you before leaning against the nurse and hobbling into the clinic.

“How are you holding up, Ludwig?” Saharra called into the wagon, the white unicorn looking toward us.

“Oh, I’m alright.” he replied with a small smile, running a hoof along his mane. “I may not be a fighter, but I can manage. Don’t worry about me too much.”

“I said I’d look after you, so don’t tell me not to do my job.” Saharra chided playfully, the two of them chuckling together. But with a quick reassurance from the music director that he was, despite bearing through the fighting we had encountered so far, still faring well, Saharra and I left him to his duties and returned to the street, hooking around and heading together toward the front of the convoy. “Hey, thanks for helping me out, Nova.”

I looked back at Buckley’s concertmaster, meeting a smile. “Of course.” I replied with a friendly nod. “Is he a friend of yours?”

“Mhmm. Echo’s in the church choir, sings as a member of the baritone section.” she explained. “It’s harder to pull off guard duty and being a member of the music department together, but he’s done it for around two years now.”

“Have you two been in the music department for that long?” I inquired, curious.

“Oh no, I’ve been in the orchestra for over five years now.” Saharra answered, the two of us drawing along the front wagon whose pulling team was gearing back up to move. “Back when he was just a guard, we often passed each other by and made casual conversation. When he auditioned for the choir and joined, we had more time to get together because of our rehearsals and concerts, and we’ve been best friends ever since.”

I smiled and nodded, opening my mouth to reply when, “Nova, Saharra!” The voice belonged to Archer, and I looked ahead to see him a short distance ahead at the very front of the convoy, assembled with two unicorn guards, along with Shore and Raemor, as he waved a foreleg. “Would you two mind joining us to search the Farmer’s Market Square?”

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” Saharra voiced, picking up her pace to a trot that I quickly followed.

“I’ll help, too.” I added, stopping by my friends and giving them both a warm smile that they greeted with smiles of their own; they had both been uninjured in the fighting, though Shore’s security armor had been torn in several places.

“Thanks.” Archer replied, turning to look out ahead at the expanse of Nellis Street. “The convoy’s going to be up and moving in a bit. During the time that they traverse the rest of this stretch of road, we’re going to be making sure that nothing else is waiting along the next bend. We’re close to the destination now, so if there’s anything up there, we can hopefully catch it ahead of time and prevent another delay.”

Beside me, Saharra let out a sigh of relief. “Good, good. I just hope that there’s something in that theatre after all this trouble.”

“We’ll find out soon enough.” the steel-blue pegasus replied, trotting ahead with a nod for us to follow after. “Right now, let’s just focus on keeping everypony alive.”

Sticking close together, our group of seven left the wagons behind and moved on at a steady trot, keeping to the center of the road as we passed by the rest of the base of the twenty-story building that had been the ghouls’ lair. Beyond that, encompassing the rest of the city block’s west face, concrete foundation gave way to open terrain, a smaller patch of blackened earth that ended at the stone stairway of another wrecked building to the east, unnamed. A low metal barrier, bent back and rusted in several sections, but still largely intact, followed the shape of the market square and divided it from Nellis Street as well as Franklin Road up ahead. In the market itself, a junkyard of wood, metal, and canvas was spaced only with a total of four old produce stalls. And only just barely visible beneath the layer of scattered rubble, a concrete walkway weaved its way around the square, the entrance of which was just ahead of us, designated by a heavily faded signboard bolted to two metal spires; a smiling earth pony mare in a straw hat, coat orange and mane and tail lime green, was resting a hoof over a basket filled with apples, welcoming us to the Marefax Farmer’s Market Square.

“I’m going to keep moving up and have a look around the next road.” Archer explained from just in front of me. “Anypony want to have a peek around the market and that building there?”

“The one behind the market? I can look into it.” Saharra voiced, the pegasus buck nodding.

“I’ll go with her.” I added, followed by Shore asserting the same.

After Raemor decided to stay with Archer and the two other guards, we split off at the market entrance – a break in the barrier – and with Saharra taking the lead, she, Shore and I stepped hoof onto the walkway. Even from the street, we could see that the market square itself was abandoned, and with the tower we had just passed having no entrances facing us, we could focus on the building beyond the market square. It was a strange structure, what was left of it, with the entrance sitting behind metal pillars holding up an extension of the roof. The building itself was a much shorter structure, nestled in with ten to twenty story buildings all around it across Franklin and at the east end of the block.

Then, “I think it’s starting to rain.”

Ahead and left of me, Saharra stopped long enough to cast a look up at the clouds above, and it was only a moment later that I felt a raindrop on my muzzle, a low rumble of thunder accompanying it. I looked up in response, likewise glancing over the expanse of darker cloud cover. “We might end up walking back in it.” I responded to her, catching sight of a flash of lightning within the clouds themselves, shortly proceeded by another flicker of light.

“It is starting to pick up a little.” Shore agreed after.

As we continued walking, we drew side by side, another wave of thunder rumbling much deeper and louder than before. “Well, with any luck, we’ll be heading back to the industrial park within the next half hour or so.” Saharra replied, smiling faintly as she added, “And with a new array of instruments that we can restore to good condition.”

“Curious…”

Shore’s observant tone made my ears perk, and when I looked over to my friend, I saw him staring with focus toward the building we were to investigate. “What is it?” I asked him.

“It looks like some kind of camp was set up at the top of those stone stairs there.” he answered, nodding ahead for me to look. “See that barrel? There are char marks all over it, and there’s a stack of wood next to it. It must’ve been used for a fireplace.”

We were approaching the stairs at a steady pace, and as we closed the distance to the building, I could see what Shore had spotted. The barrel was standing just at the top of the staircase, and the old container was blackened around holes that had been punched into the rusted metal. Beside it was a small stack of unused wooden planks, and next to that, I recognized a personal hooflocker sitting atop an intact metal bench near the edge of the stairs. “Maybe a merchant?” I offered.

“I don’t know.” Saharra replied, the three of us approaching the base of the stairs. “Let’s go see.” Together we ascended the flight of stone steps, a short trek that eventually proved Shore’s theory correct. At the top of the stairs, the barrel and firewood were joined also by discarded wrappers and a pair of empty glass bottles, and with them was a thin metal sheet, rectangular in shape and covered in a torn and dirty brown blanket to make an improvised bed. But within the abandoned encampment, scattered amongst the setup, were spent bullet casings belonging to a heavy-caliber weapon; there were only around a dozen or so, but their sheer size made me think of Archer’s fifty caliber rifle – Longbow.

“I guess whoever was here was driven off… or killed.” I observed lowly, scuffing away one of the casings by my hoof and sending it clinking down the stairs.

“I think the former is the more logical.” Shore replied to my right. “Because whoever was here before left in a hurry.”

When I looked, I saw the black earth pony standing by the bench, hoof holding open the lid to the chest. Curious, I trotted up to his side to look into the trunk myself, beholding the meager collection of items inside. The first was a small clump of ammunition, a total of nine alarmingly large rounds, looking the same size as the empty casings. Next to them was another bottle, this one unused and filled with a dark liquid, the intact label on the glass reading Sparkle Cola. A small box of bobby pins sat beside the pre-war drink, and an empty healing potion bottle lay next to that. But then, beside these, was the final item in the case, one that I recognized with a start – a hoof-sized square of white plastic, flat with two reels protected under an aluminum sheet, and a small attached compartment on its side containing a short black cable was the assembly that made a holodisk.

“Hey!” Saharra suddenly called. “You guys, I think I found the raiders that had been here before.”

The violinist had moved on while Shore and I looked over the case, and she was now standing at the entrance, a flashlight in her telekinesis that she was shining into the building. “They’re dead then?” Shore called back, the two of us leaving the hooflocker at our backs and joining Saharra by the entrance, one which lacked a door entirely.

“Yeah. Six of them are dead here.” she answered, nodding inside with a grimace. “It’s a little messy… and don’t go inside. The smell would probably kill you all by itself.”

Indeed it was a mess, as when I looked inside, I saw the beam from Saharra’s flashlight shining over a cluster of corpses, each laying no more than a few hoof-lengths away from the others, and each already showing signs of decay. Three of the bodies had been dismembered to various degrees, one even missing three legs, and a fourth was seemingly missing a belly with its torso having been blown wide open. The raiders had died in what was left of an entrance lobby, a spacious rectangular room with ruined furniture along its right wall and a long table near the back. Just behind that, I could see two doorways leading deeper into the building. However, I could also see through the dark inside that both of these entrances had been blocked off by rubble, the building having collapsed on itself in that area. The lobby had been the only place where these raiders had been hiding, and the two corpses nailed to the table with iron hooks was all I needed to see to know that this chamber had really been their hideaway. But the raiders who had once occupied this building now lay surrounding a blast crater on the floor, small but still easily noticeable despite the dry red-black that caked the old tile; it looked like a well-placed grenade had seen to putting their madness to an end.

Backing away, I briefly raised my pipbuck leg to look over the computer display. “E.F.S. is clean. Whoever was here at this camp made short work of the raiders in that lobby.” I stated, then lowering the computer away and bringing my hoof up to my headset. “Commander Tracer, this is Nova. The market square is all clear.”

After a moment’s pause, “Good, thank you. The wagons are on the move again, so we’ll meet you on Franklin Road.”

“Okay.” With that, I lowered my hoof back to the concrete, letting out a little sigh.

“Well, it’s six less bad guys for us to deal with, then.” Saharra replied, shutting off her flashlight and storing it away before levitating her assault rifle before her. “Did you two find anything in that case?”

“Actually, yes.” Shore replied, turning to make his way back to our latest discovery. “There are actually some scant supplies here.”

“And there’s a holotape, too.” I added, both Saharra and I following after my companion to rally at the bench. “I kind of wonder if it might have belonged to whoever made camp here.”

“Huh… interesting.” With a spark from her horn, the unicorn lifted the holotape up from the case and to eye-level to examine it. “Can we listen to it?”

“Nova’s pipbuck can play holodisks.” Shore replied, leaning forward to look past me and at Saharra as she turned the device in the air. “That cable you see there plugs into a port on Nova’s computer, and then she can access the data in the disk.”

“Oh okay, I get it now.” Focusing on the holotape, the unicorn unwound the cable and held it out to view the connector at the end of the cord. Then, looking me in the eye, “Do you want to listen to it?”

After a moment’s pause, I gave her a nod. “Since the market square is secure, I think we have a minute to spare.” I sat down on my haunches before lifting up the pipbuck, turning the computer to reveal the port for the tape to plug into. “Go ahead and plug in it, and we’ll see what we have.”

With a nod of her own, Saharra leveled the tape to the computer and plugged the cable into the port. Right away, my terminal gave a chirp of sound, recognizing the device and simultaneously bringing up the notes and records display on the screen. In the memory bank, the files from the Hopeville M.O.P. building were still at the bottom of the list, and with them was also the first holotape I had found in the Southeast Regional News Radio Station – still labeled M-5.13. But above that was another name, the name my pipbuck had designated to this new recording… one that caught me entirely by surprise.

M-5.5

“That’s certainly interesting…” Shore remarked, looking over the screen by my side.

“What is it?” Saharra asked, cocking an eyebrow as she joined us, keeping the tape aloft.

“The first time I had found a holotape like this one, it gave me that name.” I explained, raising my free foreleg to point a hoof at the screen. “And now I find this one… and it has the same letter and number code as the first.”

“Well, play it.” the concertmaster urged. “Maybe you’ll recognize something else when you listen to it.”

“Yeah…” Perplexed as I was, my curiosity bump was already itching like mad, and with a nod and a focused frown, I tapped my hoof to the playback button, activating the recording.

“Empty… just like every other city I’ve walked.” My ears perked right away at the voice on the log, a stallion’s strong tenor speaking with a mysterious tone, with confidence; I had heard this voice before… my ears wouldn’t lie to me. “The heartland, the Hoof, the north, seen Old World cities where ponykind tries to rebuild, forming settlements and tribes, living off of the crumbling buildings and scattered wreckage like the city has any part of its spirit left to give…… our race is stubborn like that... but stubbornness is part of the will to live, I suppose.” Within the log’s playback, I could hear the sound of shifting, the stallion adjusting himself to a sitting or lying position at the ensuing silence. Then, “Seen life here too, not like the southeast... but twisted and sinister, raider gangs not of the Black Blood moving on the roads free of fallen rubble. Watched as two groups fought one another at an intersection, heard their laughter through the flames and bullets as they tore at each other for sport. They wore the same tattered armor, almost like they were of the same tribe. But the victorious group took the bodies of the dead away, enemy and ally alike, gutted them and nailed them to the side of an old antiques shop, put them on display for others to see. There's nothing new in that, seen how raiders act before… just another sight to keep me from forgetting.” I caught the change in tone that gradually sounded over the recording’s progression, the buck taking on a much more somber voice at the last sentence. It was a sentiment I could share with this pony, even though I didn’t know what it was that he couldn’t forget. “Came across scattered terminals in a sleeping part of the downtown area, uninhabited by gangs and creatures. Saw the last entries of ponies who lived here before the end, and saw about how they cared for their home, even with the war and the corruption all around them… they cherished it. Average workers and soldiers, families, a whole city of worthy souls… all extinguished in a flash of light, a wave of fire, green.” Here, the stallion let out a low sigh, the crumpling of a wrapper sounding over the audio; Goddesses, he sounded almost as nostalgic as I was. “Marefax… that’s what this place is called… so much smaller than the other Equestrian metropolises, but still full of just as much life as any of those in the heartland. Easy to understand that when you look at its history, find what it was that made the city thrive. It was a good place once, before the end of things... like home once was. Like the wasteland is trying to be...” The stallion's voice trailing off, I noticed yet another change of tone, recognizing this time a small swell of nervousness taking place of his calm confidence. It was a surprising change, one that made my ears flick, especially after it had proceeded his words of Marefax, the wasteland... and his home... Something in that topic of the wastes made him nervous... but what... and why? “Only the wind in the streets here now, the voices of the buildings, the ghosts of the past. Can hear them speak their pain, their tears… can hear them crying for the ruin that was brought here if you listen long enough… just like my home, like my ancestors who once lived there.” I felt my ears begin to fold back at those words, yet another reminder of the destruction that had been written here; I could tell from the stallion’s voice that he and I shared sympathy for this city. “The destruction here, it brings back memories of home, of the streets I first walked after leaving the Legion’s shadow, finding the steps left behind by better ponies than they, or perhaps even I, ever could be.” he continued, a mix of confidence and subdued apprehension meshing together in his words. “Destruction’s similar there, larger in scale, but caused by the same source… Equestria's greatest mistake... the action that spoke to history the strongest.” Another pause fell here, the buck once again shifting while his words sunk in. He had spoken of Equestria, the word at least, with a hint of worry... maybe even fear, as if the topic of the nation of ponykind was one that was bitter on his tongue. “As I walk the streets of this city, I can see glimpses of what it had once been, echoes of a thriving community full of life, serving Equestria as it was made to do, just like us… And like us, it was extinguished, plunged into the darkness by the fear of ponykind…” Again, I noticed the change of tone in his voice, literally feeling the melancholy in his words as the stallion let out another sigh, one of defeat, to let himself focus. Then, lowly, he said, “Marefax… once something great, now nothing more than the tomb of two million ghosts... a statistic that I pray never has to be made again...”

With those dismal last words, the log ended, leaving us once more in the silence of the city, and leaving me to ponder the message. I knew that voice… I’d heard it before. The same stallion had spoken a recorded message to me in the holotape I had found in the radio station, back when he had taken the remains of the sole pony who had died in the building’s fallout shelter and buried them, paying his respects to the mare it had once been. Back then, he had spoken about Blue Fire’s Torch, about his initial discovery of the rifle, and had made mention of his ancestors, what he learned from them. Now, in this log, he had spoken of them in more detail… just a little more.

‘Like us’ was what he had said, and whoever ‘us’ was, whatever their relation to him was, he said that they had ‘served Equestria’, and then had been ‘extinguished’ because of ‘the fear of ponykind’. But in the end, I was left wondering as to just who ‘us’ had been, how they had ‘served Equestria’. The somber lining in his voice when he spoke of his ancestors got me to draw a connection between us – perhaps there was some sort of similarity between my history and his. If he was speaking of his settlement, his home… like Hopeville, then maybe there was some likeness between us. He had mentioned the Legion, the Talons. That much I could piece together… maybe he was somepony who had come under attack by them, like me? Maybe that was why he ‘left their shadow’… But then again, it didn’t fully explain why he spoke with a suppressed yet distinguishable nervousness when mentioning the Old World Equestria, or at least the nation it had become during the war. He-

“Hey, we’d better get moving.”

Saharra’s voice, coupled with another rumble of thunder, knocked me out of my trance, and I looked to see her gazing out to the north; the convoy was already rolling down along Franklin Road, approaching us at a solid pace. “Yeah… okay.” With a nod, I stood back up to all fours, Saharra detaching the audio tape from my pipbuck. For now, the time for questions would have to wait… but still… “Hey, Saharra? Could you put that tape in my saddlebags, please?” I asked the violinist. “I’d very much like to keep it with me.”

“Sure. That pony was a little too… cryptic for my liking anyway.” she replied, chuckling as she used her telekinesis to open my pack, setting the tape inside before closing it again. Then, after she scooped up the ammunition, bobby pins, and Sparkle Cola from the hooflocker, the three of us descended down the stairs and made our way back through the market square.

The rain was beginning to pick up into a light sprinkle now, visible raindrops striking the ground with increased frequency as we turned and made our way to the metal divider separating the market from Franklin Road. We came to a stop together as a much more solid clap of thunder sounded above us, standing just in front of the metal barrier as we looked skyward. The thunder hadn’t been too loud that time, but it definitely showed that the coming storm system was close; in my head, I was growing more certain of my previous statement that we’d be walking back to Buckley in this weather.

At that, Saharra faced forward and leapt over the divider and onto the sidewalk. But as I made to copy her move, a hoof on my back stopped me. “Are you alright, Nova?” Shore asked with concern. “That recording really seemed to draw you in.”

“Oh… yeah, I’ll be okay.” I replied, nodding slowly. “It’s just that… I had heard that same voice before, on the first holotape I’d found in the radio station that night we found Blossom.”

“Are you sure it was the same stallion?” my friend questioned, adjusting his glasses on his muzzle.

Right away, I nodded. “Yes. That voice, the way he talked about things, how he expressed his message… yes, it was the same stallion. I know it.”

“He certainly is a curious character.” he replied. “He seems to know a lot about the Old World, if it isn’t that he simply makes an effort to connect himself to history in some way or another, what with the way he spoke of his ancestors and the like.”

Again, I nodded. “Both times I’ve heard him speak, he’s left me with a lot of questions.” I explained, flashing a small smile. “I probably should smarten up and not occupy my thoughts with them. I mean, they’re just holotapes, made who knows how long ago. Besides, there’re more important things to be doing right now.” Together, Shore and I looked to our left, finding the wagon train on approach down the road, the lead wagon almost parallel to us. “Like wrapping things up here and getting back to Buckley in one piece.”

One after another, Shore and I hopped the rail and trotted along the sidewalk to rejoin the train. “Alright.” the black earth pony replied. “You were just really focused on that recording. It looked to have a little bit of an impact on you.”

Well, considering that the stallion who had spoken in the recording was the same who had recorded a message on the last holotape I had found, and considering that the stallion had known about Blue Fire’s Torch but had not taken it because of some sort of self-promise, and considering that I had heard him speak as if he had known the dead pony who the rifle had belonged to, a pony who had, according to her diary, lived at the end of the war itself… there was just something about this stallion that made me curious, made me listen to his messages and wonder at the why of it all, why he thought the way he did, what his history was, what connection he held to Blue Fire’s Torch.

So many questions.

But to Shore, I only shook my head, giving him a fuller smile. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

By now, we were back among the ranks of the wagon train guards, both Shore and I drawing alongside the lead wagon and continuing eastward down the road. Up ahead, Archer, Raemor, and the two guards with them, had also returned, and I could hear as the steel-blue pegasus gave his report to Commander Tracer, saying, “Franklin Road is clear, and we didn’t see anything down the next bend either. It should be clear from here to the theatre.”

“Good, good.” the commander replied with approval. “Fall back in, and we’ll see about wrapping this half of the trip up within the next few minutes. Good work.” At his dismissal, the two Buckley guards disappeared behind the first wagon to return to their posts, Raemor coming back to join Shore and I as Saharra stopped Archer long enough to pass him the large-caliber rifle rounds and the bobby pins we had found in the hooflocker.

Then, with everypony back together again, the train continued in relative silence down Franklin Road, with only the continuing symphony of the thunder to divide it. Within the next minute, we passed by the market square entirely, ruined buildings once more flanking the train on both sides. Again, the buildings were completely inaccessible from the ground, and most of the towers within my line-of-sight had crumbled partway down their length from top to bottom, slowly shortening as the years of wear carried on. Farther ahead, rubble blocked off the route eastward, a huge mound of rebar and twisted iron stretching at least five stories up, if not higher, and when I looked, I could match it to another tower, only two walls remaining from the top levels of the structure, while the rest had fallen to the street or had caved in on itself; beyond that tower, to the east, the buildings showed even greater levels of decay, some with only their frames remaining on the upper stories.

Fortunately, we were turning off of this street just before we would have come across the roadblock, according to Archer. But as we neared the intersection of Franklin and the new Starlight Avenue, a new building caught my attention. It was a smaller structure nestled under the shadows of the taller towers all around, sitting right along the street corner. Though inaccessible, with the roof having caved in and collapsed all four stories of the building, I could make out an intact signboard above the destroyed entrance, red letters against a cracked white and gold backdrop spelling Equestrian Air Force Recruitment Station. I noticed also, as the wagons moved on by, that the building had caught the attention of other guards, one of them being Archer himself as he sidetracked to move in closer to the site. But from my place in the train, I could make out the writing of four intact posters placed around the former entrance of the structure, the same posters that had caught Archer’s eyes. To my surprise, one of them was a poster for Buckley Air Force Base itself – a V formation of five steel-armored pegasi flew over a family of smiling earth ponies, one mare, one stallion, and one filly who all stood beside a short metal pole thrust into the ground under their hooves, the Equestrian flag raised to its top flying proud. And written in the space between the two groups was the poster’s slogan: Angels on Equestria’s Shoulders.

Just above Buckley’s poster was a promotional advertisement for another military installation, this one called Altus Air Force Base. A vehicle took up the majority of the space, a contraption that sat on three tires with its twin propeller engines, one on each side of its sleek body, sitting dormant. The vessel was equipped with two short wings just behind it’s pointed nose, each bristling with heavy weaponry, and in front of the vessel, two figures, one an earth pony mare, and the second a larger griffin, posed proudly with confident smiles on their faces. Both of these figures, and the vehicle with them, stood upon a square of concrete, and all of that sat in front of a black and orange backdrop, the outlines of giant hanger buildings still visible. But then, upon reading the quote inscribed in white at the bottom of the poster – Altus Air Force Base – Our Pilots Today, Your Heroes Tomorrow! – I recognized the vehicle as a Vertibuck, this model of the attack aircraft having once appeared in a history book back in the Stable; the actual model evaded my memory, but the vehicle itself was unmistakably a Vertibuck.

The third poster of the collection was a wholly different one. Framed in dark blue and sandy orange, the poster contained eight pegasi silhouettes flying with wings outstretched around its left, right, and upper edge. The fliers surrounded two larger figures wreathed in dark blue with ominous yellow eyes, and flanked by them, occupying the center of the board, a cyan-coated and rainbow-maned pegasus mare in a black combat suit and facemask stared back at me, yellow eyes nearly glowing with all the confidence and determination in the world. That pegasus was Rainbow Dash alright, and underneath her hooves, written in big bold letters, was her cry to the people – VICTORY – Just a wing’s beat away!

The fourth and final poster of the collection was a poster for the recruitment center itself. This one lacked fancy artistry, only carrying a single symbol against a black background – a red outline of a shield, with feathered wings open wide from both sides and a pair of steel spears making a V shape under it, surrounded the cutie marks of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and above the symbol were the words: Make the difference and earn your wings! Visit your local E.A.F. recruiter today!

It was a surprise to see these posters intact, especially considering their proximity to the epicenter of a balefire strike that had otherwise scorched the entirety of Marefax. But still, there they were, tattered around the edges and faded, all staring back at me even as I forced myself to look back ahead. Thankfully, we were quickly rounding the bend and merging onto the final street of our journey. This road immediately broadened as we turned onto it, and amidst the scattering of old wagon husks, I could distinguish four total lanes that made Starlight Avenue. Here, a cluster of the buildings lining along the right side of the street were cut down to only two to five stories in height, the majority of them relatively intact because of the much taller towers shielding them all around.

Starlight stretched northward as far as my eye could see, and I shuddered ever so slightly at the clear view the road presented of the Marefax skyline, the tallest standing towers in the city. For being a pegasus, it was a bit surprising to me when, after tracing the entire height of those towers all the way to the top, an unsettling pit formed in my belly. But what was worse than that, when I forced my eyes back to ground-level, I caught sight of a light green haze at the far end of this road… faint, but there; we must’ve been getting close to ground zero.

“The theatre’s going to be on the right side of the road.” Archer spoke up, the stallion flier suddenly trotting past me to return to the front of the convoy. “If I remember right, the building’s entrance is a lot like Buckley’s concert hall, with several sets of double-doors. There should be a courtyard in front of the theatre as well, so keep your eyes peeled.”

“Kind of wonder if this was one of the main tourist traps in this place.” a male guard spoke up, an earth pony at the front.

We were passing by the first of the shorter buildings on the right side of the road, and I immediately took notice of a much more elaborate design, even in its aged state. Pillars of cracked yet solid stonework lined the four-story building’s front face, holding up an extension of the roof which was shaped into a gentle triangle. A set of at least thirty stone steps led up to the front, and hung up between each pillar, scant tattered remains of formerly rectangular banners shifted lazily in the breeze; so little remained of them that I couldn’t even guess at the symbols they once held, though my first assumption was that at least a couple were Old World national flags.

Next to this, an identical structure, though in much worse condition than the former, was bridged to the first one via a single-story tunnel connected to each building at the very back. The large three-sided structure surrounded an open concrete yard, and only what was left of an iron gate divided it from the road. A minute of walking brought us past the unnamed structure, and we continued down Starlight Avenue passing by two more compacted sites, blocky buildings only five stories high. Then we passed by what was left of a restaurant, three stories high with the remains of what had once been a wide balcony on the third floor. A two-lane driveway, complete with a worn iron arch at its entrance, branched from the street to lead to the upper-class restaurant’s entrance, a spacious cul-de-sac that was currently home to three rusted-down carriages, lined up one after another by the short set of stairs that climbed to what used to be the building’s entrance itself, now congested with rubble.

Continuing beyond those, we came across an even larger site, a six story building of a circular design that sat behind a large parking lot. The entrance held a familiar design, the entrance marked with stone pillars and a set of twin double-doors leading to an open lobby space. We didn’t divert to investigate the building, but the partly intact neon sign placed against the wall facing the road, somehow miraculously flickering with purple light, designated the building as a hotel. The further along we went, the more Starlight Avenue was showing itself as a main strip for visitors in the Old World, and rightly so, because beyond the remains of the hotel, a new building came into view, a basic rectangular building that was five stories up. But that was all that was basic about it. A courtyard separated it from the road, divided from the street by a wrecked metal fence, and at its center was a huge stone fountain, a sculpture comprised of a thick iron pillar with a dish-shaped cap at its top, a central vasque around its middle, and an even larger pool at its base. The giant fountain took up about half of the courtyard, and the courtyard itself was surrounded by a broad driveway, one that hooked off of Starlight Avenue and arched in a moderate curve to draw alongside the building’s entrance plaza before hooking back to meet the road again. The entrance of the structure, unlike many of the others we had passed before now, did not consist of a staircase, but only a short flat walkway that led to six sets of double-doors, all of which were still intact.

This structure was, all things considered, the most beautiful of all that I had seen in this city thus far. Of course, wear and tear had made its mark, even a section of the wall facing us having come down entirely, giving us a view of the entrance chamber. Cracks, chips, and holes were plentiful in the masonry along its west face, but to me, everything that was still intact outweighed the damage done to it. Because above the entrance, a plain white sign, tilted because of its weakened supports, carried upon it legible writing in bold black cursive, neat and tidy in its design, which revealed to our team what this building was.

Moonrise Symphonic Theatre

“Wow… there it is…” Saharra was the first to speak as the entire convoy came to a gradual stop on the road, voice soft as she took in the sight of the Old World concert hall. “And it looks like it’s still largely in one piece… that’s good-”

“Alright, this is the place. Everypony move into that courtyard.” Tracer spoke up quickly, bringing the concertmaster’s, as well as my own, attention back to the new situation. “I want the wagons to cover both entrances, one gun on each end of the driveway, and I want the majority of the guard detail to stay outside for the time being. If there are any raiders moving along this road, we need to keep them from taking us by surprise.”

The orders to move again were passed around swiftly, and I followed the pulling team of the lead wagon as they turned their vessel right and guided it onto the driveway. The guards at the head of the train entered ahead of the first wagon, Saharra, my friends, and I all among them, keeping weapons ready and scanning the area for hostiles. For now, according to my E.F.S., things were quiet here, the same observation passing along the infantry as the front eight guards divided and took up positions – four by the fountain and four at the entrance.

As the first wagon entered, the pulling team guided the vehicle along the arc of the driveway, pulling past the building’s double doors before eventually coming to a stop. The second wagon crossed the fence after and stopped a short ways in, and the second wagon’s escort followed suit, the remainder of the guards spreading out into the courtyard and setting up around and even inside the fountain as Commander Tracer and Archer, the last to enter, trotted by and toward the entrance.

“I want only six ponies to go inside until we find what we’re looking for.” Tracer announced, the commander briefly looking over the arrangement of his subordinates and giving a small nod. “Archer, Bolt, Hope, you three will be with me.” he added, pointing between two of the guards by the entrance at the mention of the latter two names.

“Sure thing, sir.” a unicorn mare, Hope, replied from her place at the theatre entryway, checking the assault carbine in her telekinetic hold.

“And Saharra,” Tracer then added, swinging his gaze around to us. “go ahead and get with Ludwig. This is where we’ll need his help, so you two will be coming with us as well.” With a quick nod, Saharra was trotting away to the lead wagon, the tailgate of which was already coming open.

“Can my friends and I come with you as well, commander?” I spoke up, catching the stallion’s attention just as he made to turn away.

But to that, he answered, “I’d like at least two of you to stay out here. We’ve got enough injured right now that I want to keep the majority of us close to the wagons for protection. One of you can come along if you’d like, but I’d prefer you to be here right now.”

Slowly, I nodded, replying, “Sorry. I’m just a bit curious about this place. That’s all.”

“I reckon you are.” the commander buck replied with a small smile. “But I don’t have time to discuss it, so come along if you want. If you do, though, just do me a favor and put the objective before your own curiosity. We still have a job to do.”

“Of course.” I assured, smiling back before turning around to Shore and Raemor. “Would you two mind if I went with them?”

“We can stay out here.” Shore assured, both he and Raemor giving their own nods. “We’ll wait for you.”

With a quick thank you, I about-faced and trotted along the rest of the courtyard, both my friends heading to the front of the fountain behind me. At the entrance doors, Tracer was gathering those he had called for, Archer, Bolt, and the white-maned, lime green colored unicorn Hope already waiting by his side. And just to my left, Saharra was leading Ludwig up to the entry, the music director’s eyes looking over every inch of the theatre with open fascination. “This place must have truly been a sight to see back in its day.” came his astonished remark. “Such a shame to see it like it is now…”

“Alright everypony, let’s focus.” Tracer spoke up, the last of us joining around him. “Ludwig, you’re going to be our roadmap in this building, so I’ll need you and Saharra to stay in the middle of the group with me, the better to keep you out of harm’s way if we run into anything in there.”

“I understand.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a weapon, Ludwig?” Saharra inquired, a tinge of concern in her words. “Even if it’s just a sidearm? You can have mine.”

“Oh no. Remember, I’ve had no training with weapons before, and they’re more dangerous in the hooves of those with no experience than with guards.” Ludwig answered with a shake of his head. “No. I’ll go where the commander tells me, hide if I need to, and run if I need to, but I’ll be more than sufficiently protected with the six of you nearby.”

“Just make sure you stay with us at all times, and keep close.” Tracer warned, winning a solid nod from the concertmaster before he added, “Bolt, Hope, you two are going to take point, and Archer and Nova will take up the rear. There’ll likely be narrow corridors and tightly placed rooms in here, so remember your training, cover each other, and check every corner.” With a ‘yes sir’ from the guards under his command, Tracer gave the nod. “Bolt, Hope, after you.”

Together, the two guards levitated their weapons close, pushing one set of double doors open wide enough to aim their rifles into the lobby before opening the doors completely and stepping inside, Hope checking the right side as Bolt covered the left. Then they were moving into the lobby, looking down their iron sights along the walls as Saharra, Ludwig, and Tracer followed after them. “Lobby’s empty, sir.” Hope spoke up, soft but audible as Archer and I came in last, side by side.

The entrance of the theatre was, at least in comparison with Buckley’s concert hall, far larger, and back before the end of days, had likely been far grander at the same time. Though short, the square room was wide and stretched far, with four even rows of stone pillars stretching from the doors to the far wall, creating five aisles of equal width. The room was completely bare of anything else, no furniture or even old carpet to break the grey and white checkered pattern of the tile floor; I supposed that if a hundred ponies were waiting outside for a seat to a show, though, that this room served in its purpose.

Cautious but swift, we advanced down the center aisle and to the end of the entrance chamber. At that point, we came across two different hallways parallel to the far wall, one to the left and one to the right. There were no signposts to guide our way, but our options were limited to the hall to the right, the left having caved in on itself to block the way with rubble; a skeleton lay at the bottom of the pile, its head, neck, forelegs, and two pairs of rib bones having not been crushed by the collapse… but with the whole family of skeletons I had seen in that music shop, and all those skeletons in that big wagon, I was able to handle this a little better upon seeing it.

Down the right hall we went, following it straight for a short distance before it begun to unwind in a slow arc to the left. As it started to turn, the checkered floor became spaced with what I recognized to be picture frames, though each that had fallen with the front facing us was bereft of an actual picture. Still, I noted several with intact rectangular placards on the bottom side of each metal frame, white letters carved into the black material spelling titles like Arianna – Harp, Stingray – Trumpet, Slider – Trombone, Dancer – Flute, Pearl – Clarinet, Candice Blackmore – Alto, Hugo – Tuba, and, as we continued down the increasingly long hallway, many others.

“Are these names?” I inquired softly, stepping over another picture frame. “Who were they?”

“Yes, I believe they are names.” Ludwig answered back, equally quiet. “This hallway might have very well been devoted to performers who were specially honored for their talents. Some of them may have very well been sheltered in Stable One ninety-two all those years ago.”

“Quiet… hold up.”

I nearly bumped up against Saharra’s flank as the group came to a sudden stop, and looking to the front, I saw Tracer trotting a couple steps ahead to look over an intact door. It was the first we had come across, sitting parallel to our position as the only door in a small square lobby room; a wrecked table and a ruined lounging couch adorned the small chamber.

The hallway we had been traversing now branched off to our right in a sharp turn, and this time, a placard fastened into the wall designated the passage as the path to the concert hall’s seating and balcony access. “This door doesn’t have a label on it…” Bolt remarked curiously, only to be nudged by Hope, going silent as he looked back confusedly at the commander.

“Do you hear that?” the commander softly asked, nodding for the group to move into the short room in front of us.

“Hear wha… wait…” I stood still, Archer stopped a step ahead of me to look back, as my ears perked. There was a small, muffled sound coming from behind that door, a light staccato beeping… but E.F.S. showed, not one hostile target, but two. “There’s two hostiles behind that door.” I whispered, creeping quickly over to where the others had assembled.

“Sounds like a turret that’s closest to us, commander.” Archer spoke up, his ear likewise perking up as he listened in. “One of those ceiling-mounted buggers like the ones we have back home.”

“Hm… what do you think Ludwig?” the commander asked. “The hall leads to seating, but this door doesn’t have a designation label. Any idea where it might go?”

“Well, if this place shares roughly the same layout as our stage in Buckley, then this door would likely lead to the maintenance sector backstage.” the white unicorn answered thoughtfully. “Concert stages that are made to entertain hundreds to thousands of guests, like this one, had to have crews to maintain it and work the lighting on a regular basis. The rooms holding the various tools and equipment usually made one quadrant of the building, and the rehearsal space, practice rooms, and instrument storage area made up another.”

Taking in his explanation, the commander nodded, then turning to Hope. “Hope, I’m going to have Saharra open this door. When she does, you toss in an EMP. We’re going to knock out those hostiles.”

“Understood.”

“Bolt, you should have your suppressor with you. Go ahead and attach it to your rifle. If that other contact’s a raider, I want a silent kill.” Tracer ordered – the grey unicorn guard getting to work – as he stepped back from the door. “The rest of you, stand back.” he added, guiding Archer, Ludwig, and I back to the far end of the room.

Together, the three unicorns of our group lined up side by side, each keeping away from the front of the door. Then, the three of them passing a nod to one another, their horns came alight with magic in unison. In one swift maneuver, Saharra pulled the door back, Hope taking a step forward and pulling the pin of a blue-grey apple before letting it fly into the hallway. Two seconds, and a flash of white, silent aside from the light cackling of electricity, briefly washed the hallway with light. Then, carbine aimed ahead, now equipped with a black tube extended from the barrel, Bolt stepped into the hallway, Hope falling in behind him with her own weapon raised to her eye-level. I flinched at a sudden shout from farther away, but just after, a trio of muffled gunshots met the cry of alarm, and all went quiet.

Both of the red marks on my compass were gone.

“Clear.” came Bolt’s voice, Saharra turning and giving an affirmative nod to the rest of us.

“Good work.” Tracer responded, the rest of us following the commander up to the entrance.

“It was definitely a raider, sir.” Bolt commented as I rounded the corner. With rifle lowered, he was staring just down the hall, looking over the body of a unicorn buck with a scraggly mane and tattered armor, a rusty machete on the floor next to him; yeah, that was a raider alright.

“The turret was a homemade job then.” Archer observed, the stallion looking up at the ceiling with a thoughtful eye where he stood beside me.

“It is a good deal less intimidating than our own, huh?” Hope asked with an amused snort.

“I’ve never seen a turret like that before.” I remarked, partly curious myself at the small mounted gun on the roof, now pointed at the floor directly beneath it after having sagged in its housing, short-circuiting because of the strange grenade Hope had thrown. The turret was a compact weapon, like a short-barreled assault rifle, and looked to be that of a low caliber at first glance.

“They’re portable units. Can be hooked up to most every surface.” Tracer quickly explained, trotting into the hallway as Bolt and Hope moved ahead. “There might be more floating around, so keep your eyes and ears open.”

Quickly, our group got back into formation, Saharra ushering Ludwig to the center of us as we crossed along the first short hall. At the front, Bolt and Hope checked each pair of rooms we crossed, three in total in this first hall that were nothing more than small storage rooms, each lined with tool cabinets and shelves in various states of disrepair. At the end of the hallway, with another presentation of a lack of options by a different collapsed section of the building, we hooked left. Though a little surprising, the first raider we had encountered was the only one that had been present in the maintenance wing of the backstage sector as we continued along, and though we eventually encountered another turret in front of a T-intersection that hooked back around to the backstage exit, this one had been deactivated, sitting idle in its frame.

“Ah, I think we’re close now.” After what seemed like an hour (though likely only minutes) of cautious and silent walking, all of which slowly built up my level of tension, Ludwig’s words of certainty were a great comfort to my ears. We were at another T-intersection, the third we had passed in the maintenance wing. But unlike the last two, this one carried a branch that hooked to the right, deeper into the theatre. And the crooked signboard attached to the wall designated this hallway as the stage access hall. “I have a feeling that this mess of hallways extends all the way around the stage itself. If we cut across the stage, we might save ourselves some time, commander.”

“Hm. Good idea.” Tracer agreed with a nod, gesturing for Bolt and Hope to move down the new path.

“You know, with all these halls, it’s going to be a real trick trying to move anything out of here and back to the wagons.” the grey unicorn buck observed, still staring with focus down the sights of his carbine as we moved.

“Oh no, Bolt.” Ludwig replied with a soft chuckle. “I can assure that any instrument we might recover could be moved through these halls with ease.” At the end of this passage, a closed metal door, windowless, waited to be opened. And as we approached, both Archer and I turning around and backstepping to keep watch behind us, Ludwig continued with, “Really, all that we might have difficulty moving is something like a piano. Oh, that would certainly be something to find an intact piano.”

“Calm down, Ludwig.” Saharra joked with a giggle, Tracer then silencing them on purpose.

“Multiple voices behind the door, commander.” Hope whispered, my ears perking at her discovery of the newest threat before I craned my head around to look. “I think a few raiders are on the stage.”

“Great…” I muttered.

“I hear them.” Tracer responded, quickly turning to Bolt. “Flash bang?” Keeping his rifle afloat, Bolt unbuttoned one of the pockets in his combat armor, pulling out a black metal apple with twin white stripes, giving him a nod. “Right. Everypony step back and don’t face the entrance. I’m going to knock down this door, you toss in the flash bang, and we take out every raider we find.”

“Got it.”

Together, Archer and I turned away, Saharra bringing Ludwig past us and further down the hall to safety, and a second later, I heard as the commander delivered a solid buck to the door, knocking it clean off its worn hinges before, with a shout, Bolt hurled the grenade. I barely shut my eyes tight, holding my foreleg protectively over them, before I heard the detonation of the grenade. Right after, gunfire sounded, coming from both Hope’s rifle and Bolt’s suppressed carbine, and as Archer and I wheeled back around, the startlingly loud report of Tracer’s large sidearm added to the noise.

One after the other, Archer and I passed the open doorway, stepping onto the broken door itself as we searched for more targets. Three raiders already lay dead on the floor, and I caught sight of a forth further ahead just as he was brought down by a clean headshot. A fifth startled raider was in my line of sight, bringing a 10mm pistol to bear as I activated S.A.T.S., and one shot from my saddle later, she went down. After, I reared around to my right as the gunfire continued and took aim, Archer and Hope both taking down two other raiders at the edge of the wide walkway we were now standing upon. But just like that, the firefight was over, the ensuing silence bringing me to release my hold on my saddle’s firing bit.

“All clear.” Bolt called, Hope taking up the message after him.

“Well done.” Tracer replied, having holstered his larger pistol into its sheath around his left front leg. But now, with the seven occupying raiders dead, the silence presented us all with the time to see just what room we had entered, and me… as my body begun to calm from the brief adrenaline charge… I gasped at what I saw.

Before me, all around me, was the concert hall itself, a massive chamber whose floor was packed with rows upon rows of ruined seats, each row just slightly elevated above the one in front of it. And above that, at the far end of the room, a gigantic balcony that ringed around the entire eastern side of the room carried a similar arrangement, the entire room easily holding hundreds of seats, maybe even over a thousand of them. Looking over the balcony had brought my eyes to the ceiling, which was in itself a giant mural of blue, black, white, and grey color, a breathtaking representation of an Old World night sky. There was a full moon at the very center of the dome-shaped ceiling, glowing white, and a myriad of stars accompanied it, clustered together across the entire painting’s expanse. Though not numerous, fluffy clouds painted in grey, illuminated by the moon, seemingly drifted across the ceiling as I stared, and with all of this, two pegasus ponies, their silhouettes a bluish-grey against the dark sapphire sky, were painted with white eyes opened and wings outstretched as they flew… no… danced together in the moonlight; I noticed specifically that one of the two looked more masculine, more strongly built, the second more feminine, more sleek and graceful… and I could play out a scene of those two as they swooped and dived together, like some sort of romantic ritual.

The beautiful mural carried down onto the walls themselves, stars and spaced clouds covering the entire expanse of every wall down to the floor. But alas, like every other building in the city, this one showed heavy damage. Though the moon and the two dancing pegasi were spared, there were three gaping holes in the ceiling where the stone had given out, a light but steady rain now falling through them and onto the seats below. The largest of these holes was overtop the balcony, rubble from the collapse having taken a chunk from the center rows of seats with it to the bottom floor, smashing another cluster of the seats nearer the back of the room. A portion of the south wall had caved in entirely, thankfully not enough to cause a total collapse of the hall, but enough to have accumulated a hefty pile of rubble, showing the hallway beyond it which would have otherwise been concealed. The collapse even stretched beyond the performance space, with the farthest point of the collapse, beyond the hallway I had seen, revealing a sliver of the dim hue of the city sky beyond it.

“Mother Celestia… look at this place.” Hope remarked, likewise looking up at the mural with near jaw dropping awe.

“I never thought I’d see anything like this outside Buckley’s fence.” Bolt added, shaking his head as he looked over the north wall. “Goddesses…”

“Oh… oh my…”

Ludwig’s voice carried over to the right of us, the music director having already emerged into the room with Saharra at his side. But unlike us, he was looking straight ahead as he walked, slowly walked, along the wooden causeway. The path followed the shape of the wall, which turned at a gentle angle towards the south wall, making the fourth side of the room. But it was in that direction that I caught sight of what it was that Ludwig had come to find.

The performance stage… and on it was a whole graveyard of dried pony bones, no full skeleton still intact. The bones… the many, many bones… surrounded broken-down chairs and rusted metal music stands, and with them, numerous like the bones they rested with, were corpses of brass, wood, and plastic. My time in Buckley’s concert hall, rehearsing with Ludwig the song he wanted me to sing for the settlement’s upcoming concert, had allowed me to identify several instruments that Buckley’s ponies created their music with; the sight of that stage, the instruments and the bones, brought a sad tear to my eye.

The bones were piled with the wrecked remains of the instruments they once played. There were violins and violas, all cracked, chipped, and darkened with age, strings snapped… There were clarinets in the mix, the delicate metal keys having worn down and fallen apart. I could see trumpets, now rusted husks of their former selves, and there was a horn I could see, bell folded back and delicate slides crushed. There were some flutes in the mix, bent and misshapen with several missing keys… a piano with all of its legs having snapped off to bring the instrument crashing down onto the floor. A set of large drums, amidst other percussive instruments I couldn’t identify, were ruined, drum heads snapped and frames cracked…… and there were just so many other instruments.

“Celestia, Luna… don’t tell me that there was a concert here when the world died…” My prayer came out as a whimper as I shook my head… my nostalgia was burning me from the inside out at this point…

“No… not exactly, Nova.” Ludwig spoke up from his place ahead of me, drawing my attention to him at the answer he gave, not the one I was expecting. The stallion had stopped a few paces away from the necropolis on the stage, Saharra standing beside him with ears splayed back, and was looking back at me, composed… but with eyes showing heartbreak of his own. “All of these seats are empty… but the stage… perhaps they had been rehearsing.” He paused to look back over the stage and the wreckage upon it. “Or maybe they already knew that the end was coming.” he added after a sigh. “Maybe they just wanted to get together again, play one last tune together… one last song for themselves… one last song for their home…… Goddesses rest their souls.”

I bowed my head at that, speaking a silent ‘amen’ again and again before I felt a hoof on my back. “Hey…” Archer spoke, gentle and careful, and with empathy.

“Sorry…” I ran a foreleg across my muzzle, sniffing and holding back the tears I wanted to cry for those ponies, for this place. “Nostalgia and all that…” I said, forcing out a single light note of laughter. “You should know my drill by now…”

At that, he only looked into my eyes for a time, the both of us silent until he gave my back a sympathetic pat, then lowering his hoof to the floor and looking ahead. “So is this it, Ludwig?” Tracer asked the white unicorn; even he showed a degree of sympathy to the director stallion.

Ludwig shook his head though, looking past the bones and broken instruments and settling his gaze on a closed wooden door. “No, commander. I believe that the instrument storage is the closest room to the stage itself.” he explained. “The rubble that blocked our access to other hallways before likely kept us from going there directly… but I think that behind that door, we’ll find our way to where the facility kept its remaining instruments. If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to have a look there before we leave for good.”

“Sure thing, Ludwig.” With that, the commander craned his head around, finding Bolt and Hope where they stood together nearby. “Are you two good to go?”

Together, the two guards gave determined nods. “Yes sir. Let’s find us some instruments.” Hope confidently declared.

With a nudge from Archer, the two of us joined up with the others where Ludwig and Saharra stood. Though the bones and broken instruments took up the majority of the space, there was an open lane of travel that followed the edge of the stage, and forming into a single-file line, we eventually got back on track, moving along towards the doorway Ludwig had indicated.

Bolt had taken the lead once more as we made our way around the stage, passing behind the line of destroyed percussion instruments with each of us having to tread around more scattered bones along the way. Together, Bolt and Hope took up positions on either side of the door as the rest of us approached it, and with a nod, Bolt turned the handle with his magic and pushed the door open, rifle trained beyond it as he silently stepped through, Hope following in behind him.

We got the all clear from the two guards after a moment’s pause, and one after another, the rest of us filed into the next hallway. Again, I found myself looking upon another compacted corridor like those in the maintenance wing of the building. But unlike the grid-like layout of that sector, this new hall stood alone, stretching straight for a short ways before branching slightly to the right. There were no other rooms along this hall either, nor were there even picture frames. There was only the faded white of the brick walls, the cracked tiled floor, and the worn ceiling with fallen panels to mark this hallway.

Still, it was a relatively short walk before we found ourselves at a fork, with a second hall crossing this one to make a four-way intersection. The path turning to the left, undoubtedly caught in the collapse I had seen back on the stage, had been blocked off with rubble. The path continuing straight led to another small cluster of rooms before dead-ending, the farthest room away labeled with a sign designating the door as a stairway access. The path to the right was short, and led only to a single door that sat at its endpoint. The door itself was metal, sturdier in its place around the frame holding it, and largely unharmed save a few scratches and points of rust; at its center was a small square window, the glass still fully intact.

“Where to next?” Bolt questioned, lowering his rifle and turning back to us as Ludwig made his way to the front.

“This hall in front of us likely leads back to the maintenance wing, probably to the parts that we’d been cut off from by rubble.” Ludwig responded, trading glances between the two paths, eventually settling on the hall branching right. “This hall here is kind of curious though. Perhaps we could look and see where it goes.”

“Okay.” With a short nod from the commander, Bolt and Hope drew up side by side, keeping their rifles aimed as they advanced down Ludwig’s path of choice, the director following close behind with Saharra and Tracer before Archer and I turned with them.

In moments, Bolt and Hope were upon the door, the latter using her magic to test the hoof handle as I looked over my compass. There were no hostiles, but with that came Hope’s bit of news. “It’s locked, commander.” she spoke.

This brought a hum from the brick-red earth pony. “A couple of solid kicks might bring it down. If not that, then we might have to go back to the convoy and get a satchel charge.”

“I’ve got lockpicks with me, sir.” Archer suddenly spoke up, taking a step forward beside me. “I can take a swing at getting that door open.”

“I see. Very well, give it a try.” At his word, the commander stepped aside, Hope and Bolt backing up from the door as Archer trotted to the front of our group.

Right away, the pegasus stallion set to work, sitting on his haunches in front of the door before reaching up for one of the pockets on his chest plate. One after another, he brought out a flathead screwdriver and a small, partly crumpled cardboard box, letting them both fall to the floor. From the back of the group, I watched the pegasus with a curious eye. I had seen Gunny picking locks before, but he had strictly used his horn to help bring up the tools he needed to work the lock. Telekinesis was a huge advantage in that case, and seemed to be the only way for anypony to tamper with locks. But still, Archer was working, currently holding a single bobby pin by its tip between his front teeth as he guided it into the lock. A single practiced movement saw the bobby pin inserted into the mechanism, whereupon he brought his right forehoof up to hold the pin in place before reaching down and scooping up the screwdriver in his mouth. Then he adjusted it to be holding the end of the grip in his jaws, the flathead facing the lock, and like with the bobby pin, he guided the tool into the keyhole.

Despite everything, I couldn’t help but shake my head, impressed at the task the pegasus was executing, and all without magic either. He was finally situating himself to work the lock, having pressed his hoof to the top of the screwdriver, and returning his teeth to biting down on the tip of the bobby pin. Then, with short movements of his head, he began adjusting the bobby pin within the lock, ears perking as he concentrated. And then, seconds later, he begun to push down on the screwdriver with his hoof, the lock beginning to turn, and with a click, the lock gave.

Amusingly, the pegasus pulled his head back and spit the bobby pin onto the floor, likewise letting the screwdriver fall to the tile before he pushed the door open. “You’re welcome.” he remarked with a small smile.

“Not bad, feather-brain.” Hope replied with a light laugh, Bolt stepping by Archer to enter the room to search for threats as the pegasus picked up his screwdriver and guided it to its pocket, the bobby pin box following after help from Hope’s telekinesis.

“Good work Archer.” Tracer likewise complimented, stepping ahead after Hope and entering the room with Ludwig and Saharra falling in behind him.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think lockpicking could be done without magic.” I spoke up, stopping by the pegasus as he stood back up onto all fours.

“Just takes a lot of practice.” he replied with a light chuckle, then gesturing to the reward of his effort. “After you.”

Giving him a smile in return, I turned and stepped into the new room, hearing the all clear once more. Now, we were inside a large rectangular room, likewise painted in a dimmer yet solid white on the floor, ceiling, and walls. But right away, simultaneous with a soft gasp of shock from Ludwig and Saharra both, I came face to face with shelves, storage units of varying sizes that were set into no specific pattern, each made of reinforced plastic that had been fixed to the far wall. The units spanned the entire length of the far wall, and within several, like bricks missing out of the wall itself, black cases, closed up tight with latches of silver and gold, sat undisturbed and untouched. Some of the boxes were small, no taller than half my foreleg. Others were thin yet long. Some were midsized, perhaps reaching up to about the base of my chest in height. And yet others still were larger. One near the far right corner of the room sitting upright was taller than I was, and another next to it was only slightly smaller. In total, there had to have been at least twenty to thirty cases in those shelves. But I found that, what had drawn the attention of everypony else in our group, was not the cases themselves, but was instead a large item sitting at the right side of the room, pushed up against the wall.

It stood on three legs, with a fourth leg between the front two from which extended three metal pedals painted in gold, nearly touching the floor. Atop the legs was what some might have assumed to merely be a thick table, a flat surface that was curved along its right side, turning elegantly inward to create a rounded end at the back, whereas opposite to this, a row of black and white keys spread along the instrument’s entire front face. And its entire body, somehow reflecting light even in this dull room, was painted over in a coat of pure glimmering white.

We were, one and all, staring back at an undamaged, undefiled, genuine grand piano.

In my head, the same question played over and over again, asking myself as to whether or not my eyes were deceiving me. But no… what I saw here and now, was real… and somehow, despite all the shit that was outside the walls of this storage room, what I was seeing now had survived through one hundred and seventy-five years of abandonment… I was at a loss for words…

“Oh my… it’s magnificent.” Ludwig was the first to break the silence with words, and as Bolt, Hope, and Saharra begun to make their way to the storage shelves, Ludwig approached the beautiful implement of music with the utmost care. It was as if he were afraid that his very presence would see to the instrument crumbling down to kindling, becoming one with the ruin all around it… I would be afraid of that, too…

“I’ve got to admit, I’m impressed.” Tracer spoke up, remaining in his spot with Archer and I as Ludwig stopped before the instrument, reaching a gentle hoof up to trace along the piano’s frame down to the keys themselves; a single sweet and heartening note, pure, echoed in the room when he pressed one of the black keys down.

To the left, my ears perked at the sounds of careful rummaging, and I looked to see Saharra and Bolt using their magic to guide the biggest of the cases down to the floor, laying it flat onto its side as Hope removed one of the smaller cases from another shelf nearby. Together, both cases came open, whereupon Saharra’s eyes went wide as she beheld the contents of the largest case. “Ludwig, come see!” she called, looking eagerly over to where the music director admired the piano.

“Is that what I think it is?” came his question, the white unicorn taking a single step forward, nearly overflowing with anticipation.

“A tuba, Ludwig!” Saharra happily replied. “A fully intact Miraphone!”

“Here’s another one.” Hope added, her own words quickly growing with their own enthusiasm as her telekinesis lifted out a brass instrument from the case she opened – an untarnished trumpet. In moments, everypony other than the commander himself was beginning to pull cases from the shelves, each of us coming to open one of our own to find yet other preserved instrument. The case I opened revealed a disassembled flute, silver metal glinting up at me in welcome, and beside me, Archer had discovered a large woodwind instrument, one that Saharra had gladly explained to me to be a bass clarinet.

“This is amazing…” Ludwig commented from his place by the tuba case, both he and Saharra having lifted out the huge metal horn to look it over, inspecting every valve and slide. “So many instruments… perfectly preserved…”

“But how did these not eventually wear down?” Bolt questioned, carefully setting down the violin he had uncovered. “After one hundred and seventy-five years, I’d have expected to find rusted scrap and cracked wood like those instruments on the stage.”

“As would I.” Ludwig agreed, smiling bright all the while. “But you see, these instruments have survived over all these years because of their cases. You did notice the panels, yes? The flicking green lights?” Through his explanation, I pulled the lid of the flute case closed, nodding to myself as I found the tiny light bulb on a square metal panel. “These cases are like the same ones that were brought into Stable One ninety-two when our first generation evacuated to the shelter on the Last Day. They were built to maintain just the right humidity and temperature to keep each instrument in top condition!”

I looked up at the excited stallion, eyes wide. “Wow…”

“They’re just like the cases in our own concert hall.” Saharra added, looking over another open case that she had set at her side, the longer container being the home of a trombone, likewise perfectly conserved.

“But what about the piano?” Tracer then asked, standing by the instrument and looking over its keys. “Those other instruments might’ve had their own specialized cases to protect them, but there isn’t a case in this room that can hold this beast here.”

“Yes… that, I actually can’t explain.” Ludwig responded, eyes narrowing in thought. “I believe that normally, a piano left out like this would have normally come to grow into a state of disrepair, and yet this one looks like it had just come off the factory floor. It is a strange thing…” It was definitely something that begun to turn my mental gears as well, though I myself couldn’t come up with anything close that might provide an explanation. Though raiders may not have gotten to it, I was fairly certain that, even after sitting untouched for one hundred and seventy-five years, the instrument would’ve accumulated its own damage, or would’ve at least become more sensitive, brittle with decay perhaps. But that was most certainly not the case here.

“Well, who are we to question it?” Saharra energetically spoke up. “It’s a beautifully preserved piano, maybe very well being the last of its kind, and it’s been sitting here in this room, with all these other instruments, for all these years, in perfect condition… Goddesses, this is almost too much to take in.”

Ludwig let out a good-natured laugh at the concertmaster’s words, the two of them exchanging a strong hug, making me smile at the same time. Explanations be damned… this was definitely a special occasion, especially for Buckley’s music makers. “Yes.” Ludwig replied with a smile to the unicorn mare (who was nearly in tears at this point). “And now, we get to take them home.”

From his place by the grand piano, I heard as the commander let out a chuckle of his own. “I’ll call the wagon train and let them know the good news.” he said. “Looks like we’ve got some moving to do.”

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Gun Nut (Rank 3) - Standard firearms have become your weapons of choice, and you just wouldn’t have it any other way. Each rank of this perk increases your small guns skill by +5.

Skill Notes:

Small Guns (75)

Chapter 16: A Night to Remember

Author's Note

Behold MUSIC! This chapter was a blast to write, because this is the chapter where Nova gets to show off her musical potency on Buckley's concert stage. As this is the chapter containing Buckley Air Force Base's anticipated concert, there are several songs included within this chapter. While I obviously can't force you to listen to them, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE y'all to listen to them in full when they come. The majority of the songs will be marked with this symbol - <-=======xxXVXxx=======-> - and will be separated with dividers (*** *** *** <-- those things). I placed these songs between the dividers so that you could listen to them in their entirety before proceeding with the chapter in an attempt to fully integrate the readers into the story as actual audience members to the concert itself. Only the last two songs of the concert do not use these symbols, and the links to these songs are integrated into a line of text. For these last two songs, they are meant to be listened to while reading the chapter, as you will find the lyrics written in full in the chapter. Click on the link, and read the chapter in unison as the video plays. Hopefully you, the readers, will take advantage of this, even though my taste in music is a little different from the norm, and hopefully I've done alright in making this concert a unique part of not only this story, but in the entire FoE fandom. Carry on, and enjoy the music!

And of course, credit for these songs goes to their respective composers. I own none of the music.

Chapter 16: A Night to Remember

“My heart is full when you are by my side.”

“Nineteen… twenty… twenty-one… and twenty-two.”

In front of me, Saharra was once again taking inventory within the lead wagon, looking over and nodding in turn to each instrument case stashed within the cargo hold. The twenty-second case was what I currently held by the handle in my jaws, a larger box containing a horn we had uncovered from the storage room, and at the concertmaster’s nod, I trotted up the open tailgate to deposit the instrument inside with the others. “Thanks, Nova.” she said, turning to me with a big smile. “Hey, would you do me a favor and tell Ludwig that the first wagon is almost full? Since the second wagon has our wounded inside, we still need to fit everything we can in this one, but I’m afraid that the piano and probably one or two of the other larger instruments will have to be stored in the second one. This wagon still needs space for personnel to move around in. So, would you please let him know for me?”

I nodded in reply. “Yeah, of course. I’ll go tell him.”

“Thanks.”

With that, Saharra turned her attention to stacking up the instruments around her, working at arranging them into neat rows like building blocks, whereupon she would begin using bungee cables to secure the load to the wagon wall. But as I turned away and stepped hoof back onto the concrete of the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre’s driveway, I couldn’t help but pause and look back to the wagon again, taking in the sight of the spoils of our journey. With all the destruction of the Old World around us, after spending all morning traversing this ruined city, it had been so unbelievable that these instruments, these treasures, had remained untouched for so long. This was especially a mystery regarding the Moonrise Grand Piano (as Ludwig had come to name the albino gem of an instrument), which had not even been protected with its own special environmental case, unlike the other instruments we found; and still, it sat for one hundred and seventy-five years, perfectly new and preserved.

Now, I was staring back at twenty-two instruments, all loaded up and ready for relocation back to Buckley, and still more were on the way from the storage room, including the piano itself. Aside from that piano, we had found twenty-eight instruments in total, and after each of them was inspected, Ludwig had tallied up our find to a total of three flutes, two oboes, three clarinets, two alto saxophones, one tenor saxophone, one bass clarinet, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, one euphonium, and one tuba, along with which were additional string instruments to add to Buckley’s already extensive collection including three violins, two violas, and one cello. It was a tremendous find, and though we were all more than happy with what we had discovered, Ludwig had expressed a shred of disappointment at the lack of both a baritone saxophone and a contrabass clarinet, instruments that Buckley’s many musicians, sadly, did not possess. But regardless, everypony in the convoy, even the wounded, was in fresh spirits as we begun to load up, preparing for the trip out of Marefax and back to Buckley Air Force Base.

Facing forward, I set a brisk trot for the double doors and passed into the entrance chamber, whereupon I took a second to run a hoof over the back of my neck behind my patrol cap, catching some of the rainwater that had accumulated on my mane there; the rain had picked up to a steady shower now, not heavy, but still constant and still accompanied by frequent thunder and lightning. Inside the theatre entrance, a pair of unicorn guards were coming out of the hallway and into the room, lugging behind them the hefty tuba case. “Hey guys,” I called, slowing to a stop as they approached. “Saharra said that a couple of the larger instruments will need to be loaded into the second wagon. My guess is that she’ll want you to set that beast aside until the piano comes along.”

“Sure, no problem. Thanks, outsider.” one of the bucks replied.

Exchanging nods, we passed each other by and continued on with our tasks, and I trotted along into the first hallway. Unlike when we had first arrived, the hallway was now clear of the picture frames we had encountered, cleared away to make life easier on those who had been assigned to the challenging task of carting the grand piano through the building. Just a few seconds into my trot, and I was already hearing Ludwig’s voice echo along the walls, a female guard answering him as I came up to the entrance to the maintenance wing. The door had been pulled back, allowing room for the piano where it hovered just beyond it, floating only inches above the floor as it was engulfed with telekinetic magic. The instrument almost took up the entire hallway all on its own, and had only fit within the maintenance hallways after disassembling its detachable legs and shutting the heavy lid closed. In the chamber itself, already past the doorway, Ludwig and Hope were focusing on the instrument together with horns alight, carefully guiding the great piano forward.

“Careful now, careful.” Ludwig urged, a slight strain in his voice as he kept his magic going.

“Mother Celestia, she’s a big girl.” Hope grunted, taking a step back as the first inch of the piano cleared the doorway; it just barely squeezed by the hinges of the door.

“Hey, Ludwig…” I gently called.

“Yes?”

“Saharra sent me to let you know that the first wagon is almost fully loaded and ready.” I explained. “She said that the piano and maybe a couple of the larger instruments will have to be stored in the second one though.”

“Okay. Thank you for letting us know.” Ludwig replied, still focusing on the movement of the piano. “Nova, if you wouldn’t mind doing me a favor now… head back to the wagons and have another unicorn come and help us. Raemor’s guiding the piano from behind it, and Hope and I are well enough, but another horn would make this go by faster. I know the commander is looking to leave as soon as he can.”

“Sure, I’ll get somepony to help out.” I assured, then asking after a moment’s pause, “Is there any way that I can help you three move that piano along?”

“Thanks for the offer, outsider.” Hope replied, digging her hooves into the floor as she grunted again. “But this is a job for telekinesis. The commander could probably use you outside though, keeping watch with everypony else.”

With a short nod and farewell, I headed back out the way I came, quickly traversing the hall and returning back to the theatre entrance. The process of loading up the instruments had been a repetitive one, with only a small number of guardsponies running back and forth with cases in tow, Tracer keeping the majority of his force on watch in the courtyard. This method had gotten me well-acquainted with carrying orders between different groups while they went about their tasks, with the only difference being the increase in rainfall… still pouring stronger even as I paused by one of the sets of open double doors to look outside. The shower was moderate, normal, but I caught sight of a rather bright flash of lightning gleam against the buildings on the opposite side of Starlight Avenue, illuminating the raindrops themselves in its split-second glow. Thunder sounded right afterwards, my ears perking at the crack of noise that was followed by a rippling rumble which slowly faded into the horizons. In the past, I had only been outside with a light shower with the occasional distant rumble of thunder to accompany it. Back then, I had found comfort in the wild weather… but this storm was much bigger, my ears picking up the steadily shortening gap between the flash of the lightning and the strike of the thunder when they occurred; if the rain kept picking up, it was going to make getting out of Marefax more difficult and more dangerous… it’d give the local raider and ghoul populaces another curtain to lurk behind, adding to the infinite number of hiding places they already had in this jungle of urban ruin.

Taking in a breath and letting it out, I trotted back out into the rain, turning left and heading over to the second wagon of the train. Near the tail of the carrier, I saw Shore standing with his head bowed, and Bolt and an earth pony stallion that I didn’t recognize were standing a few paces ahead of him, keeping guard outside the driveway’s entrance and scanning the road. Each of them, as well as the other guards I saw around and within the fountain, were all taking the rain quite well, some sitting near perfectly still at their assigned posts while others continued to patrol back and forth with slow steps, each with complete focus on Starlight Avenue. However, much to my amusement, I found that Shore was, futilely, trying to keep his reading glasses from getting too wet, and I heard him as he let out a frustrated sigh.

“You’re probably not going to win, Shore.” I remarked with a polite giggle, causing my soggy-maned friend to crane his head around to look at me; yeah, his glasses were definitely wet.

“I know. I guess seeing water spots on my lenses is better than seeing nothing at all though.” he replied, tossing his mane to shake out some of the accumulated water in his hair. “How are things going in the theatre?”

“The piano’s almost out, now.” I answered. “I’m actually looking for the commander. Is he by this wagon?”

“He stepped out into the street, actually.” Shore replied, nodding ahead. “He should be just beyond the entrance.”

“No, he’s coming back now.” Bolt suddenly spoke up, the grey unicorn calling out to the road as I turned to look.

“What’s going on?” the convoy leader asked, trotting back onto the driveway.

“The outsider’s looking for you, sir.” the unnamed guard stallion answered, nodding back to me.

“Commander. Ludwig’s looking for a little more help to get the piano moving.” I explained. “He says another unicorn would move things along considerably. And also, Saharra says that the piano’s going to need to be loaded into the second wagon, and maybe another one of the larger instruments as well.”

“That right?… Bolt, go ahead and lend Ludwig a hoof.” At the commander’s order, the unicorn guard passed a quick affirmative before trotting away to the theatre. Then turning back to me, he added, “There’s still five wounded in that wagon that aren’t going to be back in action for the rest of this trip because of their injuries. They need space.”

“These wagons are pretty big though.” I countered. “Do you think that maybe just the piano could be loaded up inside?”

“There’s no room in the other?” Tracer asked.

“Saharra wants to leave space for Kenzie and anypony else within the wagon to move around if need be.” I explained, looking over to the first wagon at the opposite end of the courtyard. “The bulk of the instruments are already loaded in though. She’s tying down the load now.”

“I’ll go ahead and have a talk with her, see if she can fit a few more cases into the first one.” Tracer replied, stepping up beside me. “If we need to accommodate a couple instruments into the second one, I’m sure we can manage.”

I nodded at his plan of action, then asking, “So, is there anywhere you want me to be, commander?”

“I’ve actually already had Archer set up a sniping position on the roof of the nearby hotel, said that he’d have a good view of the street and the courtyard from there.” came his answer. “He insisted on flying up there despite his recovering wing. Sophie didn’t like that much, but I’ll be honest when I say that I’d prefer to have a couple snipers looking over the road. If you want to join him, I’d appreciate the cover of that sniper rifle of yours.”

“Sure. I’ll give him a call.” Raising a hoof up to my headset, I spoke into the microphone. “Hey, Archer. It’s Nova.”

After a moment of silence, “How are you doing down there, Nova?”

“Well, I’m a little wet, but I think we all are at this point.” I answered with a little laugh.

“I hear you. Storm’s picking up.” he replied over the com-link. “So, what do you need?”

“Um, just calling to ask if you wanted any help.” I asked. “The commander told me you set up a sniping position down the road.”

“Yeah, I set up shop on the roof of the hotel next-door to the theatre. It’s a perfect vantage point to cover the road, and I still have full view of the wagon train.” the pegasus stallion responded. “You’re welcome to join me if the commander doesn’t need you on the ground.”

“Actually, things are almost finished down here, which is why I called.” I explained. “Once the piano’s out, there should only be one or two more trips left before we can leave.”

“Glad to hear that.” Archer replied. “Why don’t you come on up then? An extra set of sharp eyes could do some good up here.”

“Alright. I’ll be there.” Lowering my foreleg back away from my headset, I nodded at the commander where he waited beside me. “I guess I’ll head on up to where Archer is, help him cover the road.”

The commander gave his own nod in reply. “Sounds good. But once we start moving again, you and Archer come back down and join us on the ground. I need everypony together when we’re mobile.”

“Of course.” With that, I snapped open my wings and beat up into the air, hovering above the second wagon before winging away down Starlight Avenue, keeping just above street-level. It was a very brief flight back to the hotel, and after coming up to the wall facing the road, I hooked straight upward to pass by all six stories, and at the roofline, I halted to a hover and leveled myself out in the air. After a quick search, I found my fellow flier lying flat on his stomach, with the fifty caliber Longbow already set up on its bipod just behind the edge of the roof, stock tucked up against his right shoulder and long barrel facing the street by the theatre. Currently, Archer’s eyes were off his rifle’s scope, the stallion taking a quick break to wipe rainwater from his face with his left foreleg.

“I thought you were supposed to stay off that wing.” I commented, hovering in to land behind him and tucking my wings back against my sides.

“I was.” came Archer’s simple reply.

I couldn’t help but frown as I walked to his left side, standing just before the edge of the roof. “Didn’t it hurt trying to fly up here, though? I mean, that hollow point hit you hard.”

But Archer was rather undaunted. “Yeah, it hurt. My guess is that I’ll be feeling it something fierce overnight.”

“Well, don’t hurt yourself too much.” I replied concernedly, reaching around to bite down on my sniper rifle’s stock and pull it free from its place on my back.

“If it means getting this job done, then that’s something I can bear through.” At that, he looked back at me, watching as I set Blue Fire’s Torch onto the stone. “Besides, anything I can do to help move this thing along quicker is something that I won’t pass up. Truth told, I’m starting to get a little tired of this city.”

“You and me both.” I agreed wholeheartedly, lowering myself down on my belly beside him. “I’ve seen enough here already, between the raiders and ghouls, and all the scraps of history hidden here. It’s… tiring… to say the least.”

“Speaking of that,” Archer responded. “how are you holding up, other than being wet like the rest of us?”

I paused in my assembly of my rifle’s bipod, locking eyes with the pegasus at his question. “Well… I could be better… I could be worse.” I answered with a small smile. “I don’t know… the whole place is just wearing me out, making me tired.” Turning my attention back to my rifle, I spread the legs of the bipod to a V shape, finishing the setup before setting my rifle into place at the edge of the roof. “You know, when you come from a place that was still living by pre-war values even as it tried to learn about the wasteland outside, history tends to leave a mark on you, especially if you follow it close in your studies and come to appreciate that history. Seeing everything I’ve seen here just doesn’t mix well with that.”

“It makes you wish things were like they were all those years ago, back before territory and natural resources were anypony’s concern.” Archer replied. “Believe me, I know. I’ve wished it more than a few times myself, and there’s occasionally something I come across in my travels that make me think of old history, too. It’s always there no matter where you go.”

To that I nodded. It was easy to match the meaning of his words to the present, as his mention of ‘different circumstances’ reminded me of his reaction to the video log we had found in the electronics outlet, of how bitter he was at hearing about Lightning Strike’s hope that the Old World’s pegasi population, having been ordered to retreat above the clouds, would return to the surface to help the earth ponies and unicorns restore Equestria to its former self; puzzling as that had been, it was an action that justified his words, and made me a little curious. “Like the um… like the electronics store? That video log we found?… I’ll be honest, your reaction to that recording was a little surprising…”

However, that only got the pegasus buck to look away again, not even nodding as he slowly turned his head and looked out onto Starlight Avenue. “Well… that’s a little more complicated.”

Another louder rumble of thunder sounded as I made to reply, the noise drawing my focus back to my rifle. With the bipod out, the weapon was fully assembled and ready for use, and quickly shifting myself into a proper prone position, I brought Blue Fire’s Torch to my shoulder. Out over Starlight, things were still quiet, but my elevated position on the hotel roof allowed me to take in just how much rain was coming down now. The solid shower was like a gray curtain against the black faces of the ruined buildings, illuminating with white in time with the lightning that continued to strike around the city. Thankfully, my view of the street was still relatively clear, even without the aid of my scope, but it was the rain itself that was starting to get to me. It was getting to the point now where my mane and tail were completely drenched, my patrol cap suffering a similar fate, and even the padding on some of the plates on my M.P.D. armor were beginning to soak; I liked the rain… but now wasn’t the best time to become a soggy pony.

Once more, I tossed my mane in a futile attempt to shake out some of the accumulated rainwater in my hair. “Goddesses… I’m definitely going to see Marlena and Gisela again when we get back.” I remarked.

“It’s a nice place they run isn’t it?” Archer replied.

“Yes it most certainly is.” I answered with a smile. “I’ve been there once already, but hopefully they won’t mind me visiting again so soon. I really want them to fix up my mane.” Archer cocked an eyebrow at me then, cracking a small amused smile of his own that made me giggle. “Sorry, I just don’t like my mane all flattened out like this, at least not without it being combed back first. Right now, it just feels like a mess, and I want it back to normal when I’m singing at the concert tonight.”

At that, Archer’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh… I didn’t know you were singing.”

I nodded, smiling even wider. “Mhmm. Ludwig wants me to sing a piece for the concert. He said it was his way of helping to establish a peaceful relationship between Buckley and my own group.”

“That’s one way to do it.” Archer replied, nodding with approval. “My guess is that if Ludwig chose you to be a part of the concert the day before, then you must have a hell of a singing voice.”

I cocked my head in a modest shrug. “Well, that’s what he told me. I believe it though, and I had a lot of fun practicing last night.”

“What song are you singing?” Archer asked.

“It’s called The Voice, arranged for solo singer and a small ensemble.” I explained. “It’s a very powerful song, and Ludwig said it was composed during the wartime era as a tribute to Celestia and Luna. Oh it’s wonderful!”

The pegasus stallion chuckled. “Buckley’s musicians put on concerts regularly, and most everypony on base gathers in the concert hall to see each and every one of them. Those concerts – that’s what we love about our home the most, and it’s those performances, the fruit of all the hard work and practice that Buckley’s music makers put into their talent, that we really fight to protect in this world. They’re truly things of beauty, every time.”

“I can just imagine… and I actually get to be a part of that tonight.” I couldn’t help but shake my head, my words softer in the rain as I faced the street below. “It’s such a privilege, truly. I can’t wait.”

“I look forward to hearing you sing, Nova.” came the pegasus’ reply, the stallion giving me a small but genuine smile when I met his eyes again. “I have a feeling you’re going to be great on that stage.”

Thankfully, this time, I wasn’t blushing at the stallion’s kind words. “Aw, thanks. I hope I do well, especially considering how important these concerts are to the community.”

“Ludwig always makes the right choices when it comes to picking members for his ensembles.” Archer responded, once more facing the street. “He saw musical potential in you. That means something.”

“Heh… maybe you’re right.” Well, if nothing else, I’d definitely to my best to prove Ludwig right in his choice, to justify his belief in ‘the caged songbird’ that was my musical aptitude. Cherished as these concerts, and every song within them, were to Buckley, I knew that in the end, all I could do was give it my all, to let my love of music be my guide, and to dedicate the performance to my brother, my friends, and Archer too; while it’d be nice… I didn’t truly need Buckley’s appreciation on the stage.

But Marefax wasn’t the air force base… and we still had a job to finish.

Facing forward with new determination, I brought my right eye down to the scope of the Torch and sighted down the red crosshairs. Down below, Starlight Avenue was still clean, and by what remained of the theatre fence separating the courtyard from the road, a pair of convoy guards, nearly fully concealed within the steady rainfall, patrolled on the sidewalk.

“Commander… how are we looking down there, sir?” Archer spoke up in question beside me.

“The piano’s almost outside now.” Tracer responded shortly after. “Hey, make sure to load those disassembled piano legs into the second wagon so they stay with the instrument they belong to!” When I looked, I could just make out movement in the courtyard, one of the guards trotting over to the hulk of the second wagon. “We’re about done down here, now. One more trip should do it.”

“Sounds good, sir.”

“And how are things looking from your crow’s nest up there, Archer?” the commander asked him.

“Street’s still clear. We not seeing anything right now.” the pegasus answered.

“Good. Keep watching from up there until you see the wagons moving. When you-”

“Wait…” I had heard their words as they conversed… but I had kept my eye glued onto my scope… and something had just come out into the open farther down the street, having emerged from the neighboring structure to the theater just north of the train’s position. “Archer, I think there’s something on the road… just north of the theatre. See it?”

It was definitely a pony, I could see the shape of the figure, but even as I kept my eye on it, another flash of lightning revealed to me a second figure behind it, seemingly materializing out of the rain curtain. “Shit… commander, there are two potential hostiles approaching your position from the north.” Even as he spoke, the two guards patrolling by the street had turned tail and swiftly galloped back into the courtyard, Tracer passing out the order to hold positions and stay alert.

But that wasn’t all…

“Archer there’s more!” Three more specifically, all coming out of the same building that the first two had come from at the sound of the thunder echoing across the sky.

“Make that five, commander.” the pegasus stallion added, voice low. “…and they’re moving slow. They’ll be peeking out around the right side of the courtyard in a moment.”

“Everypony, keep your eyes on that right flank.” Tracer ordered, quiet but sharp. “Ludwig and Saharra, get that piano loaded up and then make your last trip into the theatre to get the last of the instruments. We need to get out of here.”

Then, another flash of lightning, bright, once more illuminated the road long enough for me to clearly see the five unknown contacts on the street; they were slowing to a stop just outside the courtyard. “Archer, did you see that?” I asked over the sound of the rain. “They’re stopping.”

“These guys can’t be just random wasters…” came his tense response, a sharper blast of thunder ripping over the city’s sky. “Commander, what do you want me to do here?”

“Give them a warning shot.” Tracer replied. “Get them the hell away from the theatre entrance.”

“Roger.” Only a moment later, and the Longbow roared out, its voice like thunder all on its own, and through my scope, I saw as all five unknown ponies threw themselves down to the road in response to the fifty caliber shot.

But then, “Sweet Celestia, third floor in the building ahead!!”

“Son of a bitch! Raiders!!”

Through the rain, muzzle flashes sprouted to life, flashing like a strobe light from the building parallel to the theatre, and the roar of an alarmingly loud volley reached my ears, making me gasp as gunfire from at least a dozen windows rained into the courtyard. And even as frantic orders blared through my microphone, the Buckley guards scrambling for cover behind the wagons and fountain, I spotted even more contacts emerging onto Starlight Avenue from the north, pouring out from the towers further along the road.

“Goddesses… Commander, be advised, I’m seeing a whole platoon of those raiders down there on the street, at least forty strong!” Archer urgently spoke, his warning carrying through the com-link. “They’re coming for you!”

“Get to work everypony!” came Tracer’s order. “We’ve got to hold out until the rest of the instruments are loaded up!”

With that, I pulled the Torch up tight against my shoulder, sighting in for the street. “Nova, it’s open season on those bastards!” Archer called beside me. “Let’s hit them and keep the train from getting swarmed!” A sharp, quick affirmative later, and I clamped down on my rifle’s firing bit, centering my crosshairs on the first target of choice. The raiders at the front of their growing cluster on the street were already drawing parallel to the courtyard, each putting fire downrange onto the wagons, and the hostile I chose first was armed with some kind of saddle. Though the heavy rain prevented me from making out the fine details, I could see enough of the figures to line up my shots, and chomping down on the bit, I fired my first round.

My target dropped as the shot echoed in the air, and beside me, Archer fired a second round from his own rifle, taking down another member of the crowd of enemies. Then, right as I swung my crosshairs up to set up my second shot on a new target, a line of explosions suddenly ripped across the face of the building where the raiders had sprung the ambush, the 40mm grenade machinegun on the first wagon blasting the front of the already crumbling structure to pieces even as a missile from the launcher on the other carrier screamed from the courtyard and smashed into the street, blowing away a trio of raiders at the front of the cluster.

Now the battle was engaged in full, heavy fire exchanging from both sides even as a recognizable psychotic shouting reached my ears, the scene looking literally like a warzone as I brought my crosshairs down on my second target. With a sharp crack of sound, the Torch fired again, another raider falling to the street as the bullet hit home before Archer took another shot, making our combined fourth kill. Then, as my rifle fell back into position from the recoil, I brought my scope down closer to the courtyard’s northernmost entrance, catching sight of a pair of hostiles closing in on the driveway there. These two were melee attackers, the silhouettes of two larger club-like objects hovering between them. Already, I knew what their plans were, and with all of Buckley’s ponies facing the street, they would be in the perfect position to get the jump on the first guard they came across by attacking from the side.

I’d already seen this maneuver in the past, and I wasn’t letting that happen.

BLAM!

My third shot felled one of the melee attackers, though only crippling one of the legs and keeping the raider from continuing his approach to the courtyard. However, unhindered by his comrade’s injury, the second target continued, now only booking it down the rest of the street at full gallop with another trio of raiders falling in behind him as he moved. As I quickly sighted in, Archer firing another round beside me, the small pack of attackers closed in on the north entrance, and I took another shot.

Miss!!

I growled as the Torch reset itself from the recoil, taking my mouth away from the trigger to speak into my microphone. “Heads up! There’s raiders entering the courtyard from the north! Watch out!”

Not waiting for a reply, I bit down on my rifle’s firing bit again and returned to looking through the scope. By now, the four raiders I had seen before were already in the courtyard, but I saw as a pair of guards ducking by the lead wagon of the train found the raiders as they crossed onto the driveway, engaging them before they got too close. Back on the street, the raiders were seeking cover behind open windows on the ground floors of the western buildings and the fallen rubble that pockmarked the street, digging into semisolid positions; one such position was blown away as another missile flew from the courtyard and blasted another crater into the street. Still, not one of the enemy ponies was aware of mine and Archer’s position on the hotel roof, and their choice of cover didn’t protect their flanks. With most every raider on the street in plain sight behind my scope, I picked a target, and without pause, lined up the crosshairs and fired; even through the rain, I saw a spray of blood from the headshot I delivered to the unsuspecting raider.

As I realigned my rifle from the recoil, my ears perked, but not at the sound of the fighting or of Archer firing his fifth shot. With another flash of lighting winking in and out of existence, the rain began to ease, just slightly, enough for me to begin making out the finer details of the fight we found ourselves in. Now, I was beginning to make out tattered leather and rusty metal on our attackers, crude melee weapons and worn rifles and pistols… grinning faces. Yeah, these guys were definitely Marefax raiders.

“Nova, I’ve got to reload!” Archer called over the steady roar of the gunfire. “Keep hitting them!”

I shifted to settle the Torch back into my shoulder, returning the stock to its place before lining up another shot. I could see the raider’s features now – ashy green mane, patches of hair missing, and a muddy brown coat, currently shouting something I couldn’t hear as he fired shot after shot from a combat shotgun; I put a hole right in his torso.

It was then that I heard Archer as he loaded in a new magazine for his own rifle, and pulling back the massive bolt of the .50 cal, he chambered a new round by pushing the bolt closed once more, resettling himself as I sighted in another shot. By now, some of the raiders on the street were beginning to stir, the enemies by those recently fallen from mine and Archer’s sniper work looking frantically along the ground; they were searching for us.

But others were fully on the move again, and from the top of my scope, I caught sight of more raiders running for the fight, reinforcements. I didn’t know how many were left, and though a fresh bombardment from Kenzie’s grenade machinegun struck the face of the building hiding raiders on its third floor told me that we were making progress, the train still had to have been outnumbered. The reinforcements themselves numbered well over a dozen, another pack of raiders drawn to the sound of battle… but then I saw…

“Oh Goddesses… ARCHER, LOOK!” At the front of the fresh support, I saw a terribly familiar machine of war, a mobile gun unit built on a heavy iron carriage supported by two large wheels, long and narrow barrel pointing out to the fight as the crew of five unicorns pushed it forward with their combined magic.

And Archer saw it, too. “Shit! Everypony, they’ve got a twenty millimeter rolling in from the north!” Archer warned urgently through his radio. “I say again, flak gun twenty millimeter heading your way!”

“Merciful Luna, how the hell did they get their hooves on a Talon gun?!” a male guard demanded through the gunfire echoing around him.

“Oh that figures!!” another male spoke up.

“They must’ve beaten a Legion unit!” a concerned female guard responded.

But what the hell would the Talon Legion be doing in a condemned place like Marefax??

The former Talon flak gun had indeed been given a touchup by its current owners, armored plate smartly placed at the front to provide the internal components additional protection from direct fire. But with them were wicked metal spikes jutting out from the steel, a limbless and headless torso impaled upon them just below the barrel; under those spikes, a white rectangular plate contained a single word written in dried blood – RUN.

Oh, screw these guys!

With a growl, I sighted in on the flak gun, another bolt of lightning and rumble of thunder accompanying a shot from Archer’s rifle. His round dropped one of the unicorns of the gun crew pushing the weapon forward, and I brought my crosshairs onto a second one, the unicorn shouting orders.

*click

Empty! “Crap, crap, six and done, six and done!” I mentally berated myself for being stupid enough to forget, and hastily I scrambled up to a sitting position. “Archer, I’m reloading!”

“I’ve got em!” he called back, the Longbow roaring out another round as he kept his sights on the enemy flak gun.

“Brock, steady on that missile launcher!” Commander Tracer’s voice spoke up through my headset. “When you see that flak gun, let loose!”

“I got it!”

Craning my head around, I reached a foreleg back to my right-side saddlebag and undid the flap, forcing it back before digging in. As Archer fired another shot, I found a new magazine at the bottom of my collections, and pinning the clip against the fabric, I guided it up to the lip of the bag and tossed it out, whereupon it clattered to the stone surface. Keeping my bag open to save time, I knocked the clip over to the waiting Blue Fire’s Torch and threw myself back down onto my belly, returning my rifle stock to my shoulder. Then, I reached for my spent magazine and ejected the clip, pushing it aside before reaching with both my hooves to the fresh one. But it was then that I saw, to my dismay, that this clip only had two rounds left in it, two brass casings visible in the tiny slit down the center of the magazine; this had been the partial clip left over from my usage of it at the Shimmermist Farm.

But two was better than none, and wasting no more time, I righted the clip and guided it into the weapon, successfully locking it in place before quickly pulling back the cocking handle and pushing it forward again. Then, taking up my proper prone position again, I bit down on the firing bit and once more looked into the scope. I caught sight of the enemy gun crew, now nearly upon the courtyard, just as Archer fired another shot from his rifle, taking out another one of the pushers by the flak gun. But just as quick, another raider took the fallen one’s place, keeping the lethal weapon moving at a steady pace as the battle continued to rage. With a growl, I drew my crosshairs up to one of the unicorns guiding the weapon along, and I fired.

My shot sparked along one of the twenty millimeter’s plates, the bullet drawing up short as another shot from the Longbow smashed into my former target’s chest, knocking him back. “Come on, Nova, focus!” In my head, I repeated those words again and again, taking just a little more time to get myself calmed down as I swiveled the crosshairs back onto the flak gun. Once again, a new raider took the place of Archer’s latest kill, this unicorn coming from just behind the gun from a new cluster of six raiders, rushing in to join in the fighting.

“The piano’s loaded up!” Tracer’s voice once again sounded. “Just a little bit longer, everypony!”

“Ludwig better hurry up!” a female guard responded, grunting as she either ducked or emerged to fire.

“One more trip!” another mare spoke up.

One more trip… we were almost ready to move!

Taking in a breath, I pulled my crosshairs left to bring them onto another one of the pulling crew, centering the sights right to the raider’s skull. Then, exhaling slowly, I squeezed down on the bit, the Torch firing once more; headshot.

But now I was out, and as the Longbow sounded once again, dropping another member of the gun team a second later, Archer’s rifle likewise went empty. “Come on, Nova! Reload!” he urged me, already reaching for another one of his armor’s pockets as I pulled back from my scope and firing bit. “Come on!”

In response, I hurriedly sat back up onto my haunches, scooping up the empty clip I had set aside, balancing it on my right hoof, and then throwing it back into my saddlebag. But as I made to reach for my last magazine, likely at the bottom of the pack, bullets whizzed up and smashed into our position, eliciting a startled yelp from me as I fell backwards onto my back. Beside me, Archer frantically scrambled back, dragging the Longbow with him as more shots continued to pepper our cover. With a grunt, I rolled back onto my side, bringing myself around to quickly grab my own weapon by the stock and pull it back; thankfully, the Torch hadn’t been hit.

“Damn it, they found us!” Archer spoke as I caught my breath; my heart was pounding something fierce! “You alright, Nova?”

“Yeah, I’m not hit…” I answered after a breath. “You?”

“I’m fine. We’ve got to relocate to a new rooftop, though, and fast.” the steel-blue pegasus replied.

“There it is, Brock! Nail that gun!” came a male guard’s voice over my headset.

Though I didn’t see, I heard as another missile launched from Brock’s turret, the detonation of the warhead reaching my ears a moment later. But then, “Goddesses, they shot the missile out of the air!” And I heard the ringing repeating cracks of sound that was the twenty millimeter entering the fight; the gun had gotten a line on the courtyard!

Suddenly, a scream of pain pierced into my headset, making me wince in shock.

“Oh shit, Brock’s hit! He’s hit!!”

“Get down!!” Tracer shouted to the frantic female.

Goddesses, that twenty millimeter was chewing them up! “Archer, they’re in trouble!” I called to the pegasus.

“I can’t get a shot on that flak gun!” Kenzie’s recognizable voice shouted, another series of detonations sounding over the continuing gunfire. “It has to be drawn farther down the street!”

“Pack up your rifle, Nova!” Archer replied to me. “We need to move! We’ll move to the theatre rooftop and set up there!”

Right away, I reached for my rifle and folded up the bipod, returning it to its place under the barrel, even as the frantic conversation from the courtyard continued, Tracer calling, “We need somepony back on that missile launcher! Who’s got flash grenades?!”

But then, an entirely new voice sprung up over the com-line, a mare who likewise spoke with desperate urgency. “Commander Tracer, this is Vikki from team two! Please come in! Commander??”

“Vikki, we’ve been engaged by a small company of local raiders!” Tracer responded. “We’re about ready to move here, but we’ll be fighting our way back to you! What’s your situation?!”

“Sir, we’ve been engaged at the Cirrus Communications compound by the Talon Legion!!” she cried. “They came out of nowhere!! We’re pinned down!!”

Goddesses, the Legion was here??

“Damn it!…Vikki, we can’t reach you right now!” Tracer replied. “You’ve got to dig in and keep them back!”

“No, sir, we need you to send Archer or that outsider back to us!” Vikki hastily explained. “We need the Eagle Eye online so we can get artillery support! They’ve got flak guns, and they’ve trapped us! Please send help!!”

“Nova!” Right away, the commander had called me, ripping my focus back to him. “Are you hearing this?? I need you to go back to the industrial park and get to the Eagle Eye! Do you hear me?!”

“I hear you, commander!”

“Get out of here! Go!” And after a pause, “You two, get ready to move to that missile launcher! The rest of you, toss the flash grenades!”

“Oh Goddesses… Archer I’ve got to go!” I called, the pegasus buck already at the east end of the hotel rooftop.

“I know, just go!” he replied, snapping his head around to look back at me with firm eyes. “Help our other team!”

“What about you??”

“We’ll make it out of this, don’t worry!” he answered, eyes narrowing to a glare as he stomped a hoof. “Just go, damn it!”

With a grunt, my mind racing, I turned away from the pegasus stallion and reached down to pick up the Torch by its stock in my mouth, then craning my head around to quickly refit the rifle back into its secure place on my back. Then, swiftly securing the rest of my gear, closing my saddlebag and flicking the safety of my saddle off, I turned to face the south and ran full gallop across the rooftop. With my running start, I snapped open my wings just before I leapt off the rooftop, and beating my wings frantically, scooping at the air, I launched myself skyward.

I quickened my pace swiftly as I left the first battle behind, quickly coming upon a cluster of the taller towers we had passed on our way to the theatre. I weaved in between a neighboring pair of them as I climbed higher up, and as I passed by the twenty-story giants on Franklin Avenue, I leveled out on a southbound course and poured on the speed, giving all I could muster. The rain was pelting my face because of the pace I set, and even now, lightning regularly flashed, the thunder easily sounding over the wind rushing by me. Below me, Marefax’s skeletal towers flew on by, like decaying claws reaching up for me to drag me back to the surface. I was flying low in the city airspace, the rooftops just a short drop away, and even through the rain, I could just make out the streets themselves as they cut the city up into blocks and districts.

Bringing my eyes down onto my pipbuck, I kept my pace going in the air as I dialed in my local map. Archer’s advice on switching to the local variant had proven to be very sound, as I was presented with a complete layout of all of the structures we had discovered on our journey through the city. Though they were widely spaced across most of the glowing green square on the display, the markers that made the industrial park were clustered close together, and they were shown to be directly south and just west of my current position as I moved. I lowered my computer away, locking my eyes onto my new trajectory and adjusting course before urging my wings to work faster, pushing myself even faster through the rain.

“Vikki, this is Nova.” I spoke into my microphone. “Can you hear me? I’m on my way over right now.”

“GAH!” came the mare’s yelp of surprise; I heard as bullets ricocheted from some sort of metal barrier close by her. “You’re the outsider, right?! Thank the Goddesses! Please, please hurry! We’ve already got multiple wounded, and we can’t get to our wagon’s grenade machinegun! We need that artillery support, yesterday!”

“I’m almost there, just hang on.” Even as I spoke, I felt that I was flying far faster than I ever had before, and below me, the buildings were moving by one tower per second. I had kept my altitude perfectly level, the buildings growing steadily shorter the farther from the city center I flew, and by now, I was already at the outskirts of the downtown sector. In the far distance, I could just make out the support arches of the great suspension bridge that was the Silver Arrow Crossover; the industrial park was just to the north of that.

Adjusting my approach, I angled left and let myself glide into a steady drop as another flash of lightning accompanied my maneuver. At a quick glance at my pipbuck’s local map, I found that I was coming up on a familiar landmark, one we had passed when first entering the city. Though I didn’t physically see it, the Lightning Brothers Electronics Outlet, sitting on Maple Street, flew by below me as I drove on towards the industrial park, now close by. And now that I was close, my ears picked up new fighting from directly ahead. Rifle fire was heavy, constant, showing fierce combat, and meshed within the growing noise, I recognized the repeating claps of sound signature to the twenty millimeter; I would be coming in hot, landing right into the middle of the approaching combat zone.

Having traversed half the city in minutes, my pipbuck revealed that I was coming up on my target markers, and the familiar six to eight story buildings that marked Parkington Street showed that I was seconds away from crossing into the industrial park. With that, I lowered my altitude even further, passing right over the Parkington apartments’ rooftops before dropping in to no higher than six stories above street level. Now, focusing ahead, I could make out muzzle flashes in the rain, at first only one cluster to the southeast of my position. But then a second one appeared by that, just to the south of the first, followed swiftly by a third farther to the southwest of the second, and a fourth just west of the third, until I was looking over the entire scope of the battlefield. I was definitely in the industrial park now… but I couldn’t see which building was which! The rain was becoming too thick, picking up swiftly again as a new bright flash of lightning illuminated the landscape, a shockingly loud thunderclap sounding all around me.

Briefly, I halted to a hover and looked over my pipbuck again, quickly scanning the local map before finding the Cirrus Communications marker. And after a couple of looks, I matched the marker to the compacted formation of muzzle flashes at the center of the field, the second group I had identified. “There… Vikki, I’m here!” I called, launching myself forward and angling in to land. “I’m coming in fast from the northwest!”

“Thank Luna!” came the mare’s reply. “We’re dug in just outside the Cirrus Communications building, right at the main entrance! Please hurry!”

I was already on the way, now dropping down to no more than two stories above the ground before leveling out, making my final approach to the second team. Now the surface was visible, enough for me to see the road that we had taken from the industrial park to the city’s downtown border as it approached. But it was right when I crossed it that some of the muzzle flashes I had been seeing became brighter, pointing right for me!

A barrage of bullets, repeating rounds from assault rifles, blasted hot lead at me as I raced by the Madison Piano Company building, where I could just make out one of the Talon positions to my left. There was a cluster of black-armored infantry, at least six that I could see, behind deployable steel-plate cover – the same that had been used in their attack on Hopeville. And with them was another team, this one stationed with a twenty millimeter flak gun pointing south, ablaze in magic as it was reloaded by its crew. As I crossed the street, I suddenly felt the left side guard of my armor absorb three impacts almost simultaneously, not penetrating, but stinging my side with jolting force as the impacts pushed me off course. But still, I managed to save myself from crashing, leaning with the direction of the push before I concentrated my strength and snapped myself into level flight again, then beating up a wingbeat to get the Talon iron sights off of me.

Then, finally, I spotted Buckley’s cargo carrier, the vehicle positioned parallel to the face of the Cirrus Communications compound, with the tail end facing the open double doors that made the building’s entrance. Within the entrance plaza, some of Buckley’s ponies had clustered together into a tight circle, having arranged an improvised position that provided full cover from all angles – a ring of unevenly shaped concrete slabs that had been set in a wide loop around them, providing room for the guards within to maneuver and to pop in and out of cover to return fire. The wagon, however, had been deserted, sitting a short but treacherous distance away as fire pounded away at the makeshift fortification that the guards had effectively trapped themselves in; there were only ten guards within the circle, two of which were curled up on their sides, wounded and out of the fight.

With the fire coming in from opposing directions, I had no time to properly land. The position came up within seconds, and I had still been going nearly full speed. I managed to snap my wings out full as I angled in towards the position, dropping my speed just enough for me to calculate my quick approach. But then, as I let myself drop, more fire from the left and the right caught me, and both of my side guards intercepted two more rounds each that sent me tumbling the rest of the way down to the ground. I ended up landing on my back then, skidded across the ground before sliding headfirst into the concrete barrier, coming to a jarring halt.

“Outsider, are you okay?!” Through my daze, I recognized Vikki’s voice, and a second later, I found myself staring up at a mantis-green earth pony mare with a drenched purple mane, looking down at me with wide violet eyes.

I shook my head, trying to shake off the aftershock of my landing as I rolled onto my side. “Yeah, just a bump on the head…” I assured as best I could. “Ow…”

“Stay low, outsider! The Talons have us boxed in!” a nearby buck warned nearby, then reaching up to blind-fire a single round from his carbine. “And they’ll keep sending rounds at us if it means keeping us away from our wagon!”

“We’ve chased back two attempts they made of sending teams to jump on us at close range while the rest keep us pinned!” Vikki explained over the noise of the fight, both of us crouching low as I regained my senses. “And there’s still energy mines farther out to keep them from charging us directly, but they’ll make another attempt soon, so we need to get you hooked up with the Eagle Eye, now!”

“Where is it?!” I asked, wincing away as a bullet whizzed right over me. “It’s not on the wagon right?!”

“No, I snagged it right after the Talons showed up!” a second mare spoke, a magenta unicorn with a red mane ducking down just beyond Vikki, levitating the familiar camera unit low over the ground and tossing it to me.

“But we’ve got some trapped wounded taking cover behind that wagon!” Vikki explained. “We need to get to them, too!”

“There’s only ten of you here!” I replied concernedly, pulling the Eagle Eye close to me. “All the others are behind that wagon?!”

“Yeah, six of them, and only a couple of them can still fight!” she answered, briefly turning to call to the unicorn mare behind her. “Now, come on, we need to get this on you!” At her prompt, I adjusted myself on my hooves, keeping low but lifting my belly high enough off the ground to allow the unicorn guard to wrap the Eagle Eye unit around me and fit it back into its proper place. “Cale, this is Vikki!” she spoke, watching as the unicorn guard secured the camera into its place. “The outsider made it to us and she’s almost ready to go! Get those smashers ready, because you need to save our hides here!”

“The gun crews are standing by.” came the artillery coordinator’s reply. “We just need you to show us our targets and we’ll give you some breathing room.”

“There, it’s secure!” the unicorn guard shouted, giving one of the unit’s cables a final tug before scurrying back to her position.

“Everypony! Flash-bangs, on my mark!” Vikki ordered, trotting back to a vacant position by a concrete slab to my left, and as I turned and followed her movement with my eyes, keeping low, she leaned against her cover and looked back at me. “Get ready outsider! This won’t distract them for long!”

With a nod, I let my wings snap out as another flash of lightning illuminated the rain all around. Then, after a pause, Vikki shouted the command, and each fighting member of the team within the stone circle tossed out their own individual stun grenades, the black metal apples sailing away and disappearing into the rain one after the other. Instinctively, I shut my eyes, ears perking at the sharp pops of sound springing up in a quick wave. Just after, as I let my eyes opened, I flinched as a shockingly loud detonation erupted with green light to my right, very close to the barricade. “Talons coming in from the west, heads up!” a guard buck shouted, the unicorn immediately turning his military shotgun up and over the barricade and firing three consecutive shells, those closest to him adding fire with their own rifles.

“Outsider, go! Go, now!”

Vikki’s urgency was met with more rounds from the Talon attackers smashing into the west side of the barrier, forcing the three guards who had managed to put some shots downrange to return back to cover. But the unicorn stallion at the center had not been quick enough, and he cried out as he was blown back from a particularly powerful round, flecks of his blood spattering onto the wet concrete to be washed away by the rain; he’d taken a direct hit to the shoulder!

That was all the motivation I needed, and with a grunt, I launched myself vertical, wings beating frantically to carry my weight in the straight climb back into the sky. The distraction brought by the barrage of stun grenades had won me enough time to climb high enough to where the ground was once again hidden by the steady rainfall, and after several seconds of not being shot at, I let myself come to a hover as I brought a hoof to my headset. “Cale? Cale, I’m up!” I called. “The Eagle Eye’s ready!”

“I’m bringing the camera online now.” the artillery coordinator replied to me, the aforementioned machine already whirring in its place under my belly. “Stay on the move up there, outsider… and Vikki, use flares to mark targets. Smoke won’t work in this rain.”

“I’m sending the first flare out as soon as I get an opening!” came her sharp reply as the fighting continued to rage around her. “You’d better be ready when I do!”

Once more, I was left with welling anxiety and frustration as I flew south to get into position and properly cover the battlefield. Easily, I would have much rather been attacking enemy positions from the air. With the rainfall as thick as it was, I knew I could use it to my advantage to stay cloaked from eyes on the surface, especially with my natural gray coat color blending easily into the steely haze created from this bout of more volatile southeastern weather. But instead, I was stuck doing nothing as the Buckley ponies continued to hold out for their lives while this damn machine activated, not even allowed to lend my own guns to the fight.

I knew that what I was doing was what was needed, REALLY needed, but… ugh!

Then, as I leveled out into a slow and casual circular circuit (annoyingly out-of-place with the firefight below), a bright ball of red light suddenly sprouted on the surface, easily cutting through the rain and revealing my distance from the street below as it sailed northward in a gentle arc from where it had been fired. A second later, and the flare had come to a stop, burning brightly even as the rain continued to pour upon it. “There’s a flare on the first target, Cale! Artillery’s cleared hot!” Vikki’s voice called through my headset. “We need the one-o-fives to hit it now!!”

“I see it, Vikki.” Cale replied, the camera buzzing under me once again. “We’re firing. Danger close. I say again, danger close.”

“Everypony down!”

The ensuing silence between our communications was immediately accompanied by another rumble of thunder that proceeded multiple flashes of lightning. Below, I winced as another one of the team’s energy mines detonated, the plasmatic explosion proceeded by the sharper blasts of a trio of frag grenades, whereupon the repeating cracks of sound from a twenty millimeter picked up again, all of this accompanied by constant rifle fire, creating an ominous symphony of warfare below.

Then, the flickering flame of the flare lingering on the ground sprouted into a raging inferno as one after another, two artillery shells smashed down onto the designated target area with a deafening roar. “That’s it, you got it!” I spoke, watching hopefully as the towering flames created from the detonations were swallowed up in the rain.

“Ha! That got one of their flak guns!” Vikki called after. “Perfect hit!”

“The gun crews are reloading.” Cale responded, voice calm with focus. “Mark another target for us and we’ll take it out.”

“There’s two more clusters, one to the south of us, another to the southwest!” Vikki explained after a pause. “I think we can make a run for the wagon now! If you just fire south of our position, you can at least get the rest of these guys off our backs until we get our vehicle back into the fight!”

“Range?” Cale asked.

“I’ll send a flare to our wagon! Fire fifty yards directly south of that position!”

“Understood, send it. Outsider, make sure you stay-”

Cale’s voice suddenly cut out from my focus at a sharp thunderclap of sound. However, the sound came not from the sky, but from a decipherable rifle just to my left, and as the fifty caliber round slashed right over my neck, a griffin sharpshooter materialized from the rainfall and gave chase as I dropped from the air in panic.

Holstering the large rifle quicker than I would’ve imagined, the griffin swapped it for his second primary rifle as adrenaline bucked me into action, and I immediately brought my wings out full and took off, shooting northward as fast as I could. “Cale, I’m under attack!” I cried, hooking hard to port as carbine fire strafed just to my right. “They’ve got a griffin with them, and he found me through the rain!”

“We’ve fought them with artillery more than once, they’re bound to know what we’re up to.” Cale replied with worry. “Nova, you’ve got to shake him off, and Vikki, get to the wagon and make it quick. They’ll be spreading out now.”

I was torn from the conversation as I executed a sharp right turn, another two rounds from my attacker’s carbine streaking right past my tail as I weaved. Then he copied my maneuver, following my path exactly before opening up again. One after another, three bullets sailed by me before a fourth struck my right flank plate, absorbed by the armoring there before I banked and hooked left again, swerving in a hectic zigzag. By the next maneuver, climbing up sharply with another right turn, I knew that I had to easily be out of the industrial park, but still the griffin pursued, and when I cast a quick look back, evading left as my pursuer fired again, I found the griffin’s form against the rain… and if I remembered my history, this griffin lacked the pearl-white revolver and the scar across his right eye that the Talon leader who had attacked my friends – Blackhawk – possessed. He was like the other griffins I had seen, brown fur along most of his body with white feathers on his head and neck, talons on his forepaws and a long tail; but this griffin was just a soldier of the Legion.

“I’ve marked our wagon with a flare!” Vikki’s voice sounded again over my headset, cutting through even as I attempted to circle around and backtrack. “Send another barrage!”

“Nova, I need you back there!” Cale spoke up, much to my aggravation.

“This griffin is still chasing me, damn it!” My opponent cut me off, turning nearly at a right angle to meet my wider arc, and suddenly drove forward, aiming to close the gap between us. But then I pulled a trick of my own, and as he continued, I ground myself to a halt, coming to a brief hover before I immediately turned left and fled back the way I had come. This, at least, had bought me time, as my adversary disappeared within the rain again as he likewise came to a stop. “Okay, Cale, I got away for a few seconds. I’m only going to be able to make a quick pass.” I explained, letting my ears guide my way back to the fighting. “After that, I’ve got to fight this griffin.”

“Be careful up there.” the stallion replied.

“Okay, look for that flare, I’m making my run.” I settled into a moderate pace, letting myself slow to what I believed was a safe speed, but still looking regularly over my shoulder.

With a steady buzzing of gears, the Eagle Eye unit moved under me, swiveling in its turret and zooming in and out as Cale searched for Vikki’s second target flare. Helping the process along, I dropped altitude in a gradual descent, keeping myself flying straight all the same. Only a few seconds later, and the dim flashes of gunfire ahead of me were accompanied by a brighter flickering object. It almost looked like they were shooting at the flare, until a line of six explosions suddenly strafed across the ground, dangerously close to those muzzle flashes farther south; even more followed in their wake, a frantic but fiery barrage coming from the Buckley team’s cargo carrier.

“Alright, I see the flare. Firing, fifty yards south past the marker.”

Another pair of shells were on their way now, and having completed my pass, I quickly angled right and cleared out of that area, making sure I was well away and above the immanent impact zone of the howitzers. Then, when I judged my new position as a safe place outside the battlefield, I came to a hover and immediately faced the north, bringing my pipbuck to my eye-level. The compass was marked with one hostile marker, my adversary. As I had initially assumed, he had still been behind me even after I had slowed to give Cale his chance to find Vikki’s second flare. But when I tried to activate S.A.T.S., to use the spell to intercept the target on his approach, nothing was picked up. If it hadn’t been for E.F.S., I would have ultimately assumed that I was alone in the rain. But no… the marker was moving slowly to the right as the griffin moved, concealed by the downpour; even another flash of lightning couldn’t illuminate anything directly ahead of me.

Directly ahead… one more look at my compass, and I saw as the marker begun to slide even quicker down the right side of the display, and just as it looked to come at me head on, I bit down on the firing bit and triggered S.A.T.S. again… nothing… but then, with a start, I adjusted my place in the air and beat upwards to face the falling rain directly; the griffin wasn’t above me either.

To my right, two more howitzer shells slammed into the industrial park, and a white-hot bolt of agony ripped across the left side of my neck just as I leveled out in the air. I cried out, or tried to, only to be cut off as another bullet struck my belly from below, knocking the wind out of me as the Eagle Eye unit took the round, snagging it within its delicate array of mechanical parts. The combined hits knocked me out of my place, and I dropped a short ways as my aerial opponent shot by me before I caught myself in the air, leveling back out.

“Outsider, I just lost my video feed!” Cale called into my headset. “Are you okay?!” Indeed, the camera had saved me from a bullet in the gut. But now, the artillery no longer had its eyes to shoot accurately, and there was still some fighting left on the ground.

To Cale, I could only grunt a reply, gritting my teeth and shutting my eyes tight as the side of my neck burned with scorching pain. But as I made to reach a hoof up to where the bullet had grazed across my neck, to hold the already bleeding wound, I stopped myself, eyes snapping wide open as I forced my body to work through the shock of the injury. I beat upwards, driving myself to a vertical climb as I searched through the rain for the griffin. This time, I found him just as he completed a sharp arc to come to a hover above and to the west at me, presenting himself with the perfect angle to make use of his .50 cal.

As he reached for the larger rifle slung across his back, having already put away his carbine, time slowed to a standstill as I pulled up S.A.T.S., my jaws already clamped around my saddle’s firing bit as I lined up for an attack. Two dialed-in shots for the griffin’s torso, and I executed the spell, my rifles belting out hot words to my attacker. He jerked in the air, both pairs of shots hitting home in the belly plate of his black Legion armor. The consecutive hits staggered him just enough for him to lose his place in the air, though he quickly caught himself after a brief plummet. But I was on him in a split second, and completing my vertical ascension, I matched his altitude as he pulled his sniper rifle back up in front of him. My guns fired again in unison with the thundering fifty, and I felt the passage of the bullet as it raced just past my right side. My own shot went wide as well, and by that time, we had closed the distance to each other. Both of us evaded from what would’ve been a head-on collision, the griffin dropping farther down as I peeled away to the right. But then I hooked back around, banking sharply to the left even as my right wing joint popped from the twisting maneuver. The griffin was attempting to lead me, the scope of the .50 caliber attempting to draw a line similar to my flight path.

I ground to a halt just before the rifle fired again, roaring in unison with another bolt of lightning. The round passed right in front of me as I let myself drop, falling over backwards into a short freefall. And with a twist of my body, I rolled left and back upright, then pulling up to level out as I drew Fire Rose from its holster. Up came S.A.T.S. once more, my maneuver putting me right in line with the griffin once again as he finished loading another round into the chamber. Two shots, left wing, and with the rainstorm’s thunder sounding, my mother’s pistol struck out at the griffin and nailed him, the second shot hitting the joint dead on; with a cry of pain, the griffin went spiraling down to the ground.

I immediately gave chase, keeping Fire Rose held tight in my jaws as I dove downward to catch up to the tumbling enemy flier. Only moments later, and the surface came back into view, forcing me to halt my momentum and level back out into a hover just shy of the ground. But the griffin was already there, currently laying on his left side on the edge of the street just to my right. Though being the enemy that he was, I couldn’t help but pause, my eyes widening just slightly as a mild shock swept over me. The griffin had landed on the already crippled wing that I had hit, and now, the limb was hideously broken, mangled where it lay splayed out from his side. But what was worse, the griffin had not landed on just solid concrete, which would’ve been hard enough by itself. No, the flier had landed within a mess of thick chunks of rebar that had been blown free of the industrial complex it had formerly helped to support, and I saw the pointed metal pike that had impaled him through his lower torso, the wickedly sharp point having been more than sufficient at driving through his armoring; he had nearly missed it, too…

Now, looking down on the heavily wounded griffin… I felt a tinge of guilt pushing its way through the adrenaline that surged in my veins.

I had dived down with the intent of finishing the griffin quick and painless, even after he had lost his ability to fly. The sooner I killed off this flier, the sooner I’d be able to help Buckley’s team fight their way out of the Legion ambush. But that was before I saw this…… I could see him shift in the rain as I stared from my place of dominance in the air, his right front leg slowly moving as he tried to ball up his claws into a fist, letting out a weak series of coughs. There was no way the griffin would be getting right back up from that to fight again, and in truth, it was a miracle and a half that he had even survived the drop, even if he had managed to slow his plummet with his wings… he was completely at my mercy now… just like how Ivy had been at the mercy of Gunny when the barrel of his riot shotgun had been pressed to the back of her skull, just like Blossom at the hooves of the Black Blood when she was being raped in the news radio building. I had seen this kind of thing before in my two weeks plus in the wasteland, and it was true that I could have chosen to leave one or both of them behind and let fate have its way, to let the raiders have their fun with a defenseless mare, to let Gunny blast Ivy’s head open like he had wanted to. But both of those cases were different than the one I found myself in, because I had not been directly responsible for the situation those two mares had found themselves in. Blossom had been captured and held prisoner by the winning side of a large battle, taken as the spoils of war, and Ivy had integrated herself with the wrong faction at the wrong time, with Shore finding her as the only one left alive from the raider party that had ambushed Lucky Hallion and his wagon.

But now, I was the only one here at this very moment. Shooting this griffin down had cost my adversary, at the minimum, a shattered wing and a crippled torso, and miraculously, he was still alive. Had he died, I would’ve called him another kill and moved on… but all he was now was utterly helpless… and I was the one responsible for it.

Already, different thoughts were battling one another for control. One urged me to put the bastard out of his misery, one more bullet to the brainpan to end it all for him. After all, he was a soldier of the Talon Legion, the faction launching an all-out assault on the Equestrian southeast. Hopeville, Plainwell, Ashton, whether he had been to any of these places yet or not, his faction had invaded my home, killed twenty of Stable 181’s survivors, and an officer of his faction had attacked my friends, made me his personal target. This griffin was just a soldier, but of the same enemy party – why not just leave him to bleed out and move on? At least I’d give him the rain and lightning and thunder to keep him company until his dying breath. Why not just turn away, let him pray for mercy from the Goddesses?

Because… I did this to him…

I could easily say that I had never hurt anypony this much, ever. Every fight I had been in through my efforts to help Hopeville rebuild, grow, and survive had led largely to quick kills by the combined power of agile flight and accurate shooting. Those whom I had not dispatched instantly had been killed shortly afterwards by those I fought alongside. But I had never left any that had survived a direct engagement with me, let alone just barely and with a whole mess of hideous injuries. That, and I had killed more raiders than anything else in my time on the surface. There was no sparing raiders like those that lived in Marefax – psychos who were already long gone – and there was no mercy to be given to Black Blood ponies who were nothing but one great raping and murdering disease on the face of the southeast. I had seen something in Ivy the night we had encountered each other, my gut instinct telling me that somepony so young who had joined the ranks of the Black Blood had to have a story as to the why of her actions, something that would show her real innocence; Ivy was an exception. But this… this wasn’t something I could just turn away from. I had expected the griffin to recover from the fall, at least enough to avoid being impaled on a metal stake, and I had braced myself for our battle to continue on the ground. But now, the griffin below was critically hurt because of me, and I knew he was out of the fight… more and more, the urge to help him was pressing me to move.

After all, he wasn’t a raider… ruthless as they were, the Talon Legion had a history that had begun as soon as the wasteland itself had. What if this griffin had a family to go back to in Hayward, like the soldiers of Challenger who might’ve had families in the southeast’s capitol city? What if this griffin had some kind of occupation back in his home, like Challenger’s metalworkers? If General Silverlight’s stories added up, Hayward was very similar to Challenger in all of those ways…… no… for this soldier, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt, and I’d give him the chance to leave this place and recover. With how badly I’d hurt him, even if it was through fair combat, it just didn’t feel right to leave him or execute him.

Hell, maybe it was just the connection we shared together, seeing as how I had been run through the leg just a couple hours back; I wouldn’t be forgetting that for a long while.

Two tremendous explosions to my left drew me out of my thoughts, and I looked to see as two raging clouds of fire rolled up into the air from the artillery shells that had smashed into the battlefield. “Be advised, Vikki, we’ve only got one more shell left from our stock. If you need it, we need to make it count.” Cale warned through the com-link.

“I don’t think we’ll need it now!” Vikki called, an air of triumph in her voice. “That last barrage nailed their right flank! I think we can push them back!”

I didn’t catch how they pulled off another artillery strike without the Eagle Eye, but either way, it was beginning to sound like the Legion attackers were beginning to falter. The rolling flames from the howitzers quickly melted away in the rain, only to be replaced by another long barrage of 40mm grenades from Buckley’s wagon, a twenty millimeter flak gun still adding its own hot words to the fray.

If I was going to get this griffin out, I had to stop thinking and do it now.

Holstering my pistol, I flew down the rest of the distance to the ground below and pulled up to backwing and drop to all fours in a gentle landing. The crippled griffin lay just in front of me now, coughing again as he attempted to get free and move. The futile effort brought him back down as he let out a ragged groan, definitely feeling the metal in his torso. But that was when I stepped into his line of sight, and right away, the griffin tensed up, going silent as I slowed myself to a cautious walk, glaring; a quick search showed me that his rifle was far from his reach, having landed several pony-lengths south down the road.

“Ah… shit…” the griffin coughed again at his attempt to speak. “Thought you… thought you were Buckley’s pegasus… Didn’t think I’d be taken out by the one… Blackhawk was talking about.”

“Shut up!” I sternly retorted, making my way up to him; I had no interest in talking about that name at the moment.

“What… what are you doing?” the griffin questioned, cringing away as I closed the distance between us. “Why isn’t your weapon drawn?”

“I may have beaten you up there, but I’m not letting you die like this.” I replied, looking the griffin in his avian eyes. “It doesn’t feel right killing you when you can’t fight back, and… it seems like an evil thing for me to just let you bleed out onto the pavement.”

“You… you don’t sound so… sure of yourself.” he remarked, grunting as the metal ground against his innards.

I really wasn’t… and to be honest, my previous explanation had sounded better in my head than when I had spoken it aloud; it made me wonder for the seventh time just why I was helping this griffin… yes, I was counting. “Look, believe it or not, I was impaled with metal today, too, so I know that pain you’re going through.” I replied, rolling my eyes. “And truthfully, I don’t think anyone should suffer through that, even if he is an asshole working for a bunch of other assholes.” Swiftly, I added, “But fair warning – if you make any move for that rifle on your back or try to attack me while I’m helping you, I’m going to put a bullet in your skull. I just want that to be clear.”

The griffin actually let out a single note of laughter, then coughing in a stronger fit afterwards. “You’re… a strange one…”

Well, I at least had a good feeling about him taking heed to my words. “Just shut up and focus on getting this thing out of your gut.” I stepped around to get a better view of the wound, standing perpendicular to the griffin’s sprawled out body. “Okay… I think you’re going to have to push yourself off this thing. Can you brace yourself on your front legs?”

“I can try…” he weakly answered, carefully moving his forelegs to set his claws into the pavement. Again he swore, still managing to get his front paws under him. But the metal spike, at least from what I could see sticking out from his left side, looked to be shifting; I was no medical expert by any means, but I had a feeling that the metal had the potential to cause a lot more internal damage.

“Wait, stop.” Despite being in the presence of, for all intents and purposes, an enemy, the griffin obeyed my words and ceased, still keeping his paws on the ground despite his trembling forelegs. “Let’s take this slow.”

The griffin soldier let out a sigh, sagging as he took in a deep breath. “Okay… what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know how secure that pipe is, but if we move the wrong way, I think it might break. I don’t know how possible that is, but if that happens, then it’ll take more than just healing potions to fix the wound.” Weighing out my options, I stepped around the griffin and stopped in front of him, the soldier looking up to look me in the eyes. “I don’t have anything that I can cut that metal with, and tampering with it will probably make a mess of your insides.” I explained, looking over the griffin’s head to the bleeding wound. “I think we’re going to have to pull you all the way off.”

“I don’t think I’d want… to take that too slow…” Again the soldier coughed, but this time coughing a loud and ragged note whose strength sent red flecks to the ground. “I hope this didn’t punch through… anything vital.”

“Okay, you’re bleeding out, and you’re coughing up blood now.” I retorted, making no effort to hide a little irritation. “When I’d been impaled through my leg, a quick yank was all it took. The sooner you’re off of that thing, the better.”

“You didn’t… get a full fucking body piercing though… now did you?”

Touché.

“Then if nothing else, we’d better get you up quick before Buckley’s team drives away the rest of your comrades.” I argued, a little more civilly. “Over my headset, it sounds like you’re not exactly winning anymore.”

But it was that argument that won a little more impact, and I noticed how the griffin’s eyes widened for just a second, the soldier then letting out a sigh. “They’re strong opponents… have a huge advantage with those Old World guns and machines…” he said, shifting his forelegs before he shook his head, another weak note of laughter leaving his beak. “The Old World’s going to play a big role… in the weeks to come… Blackhawk’s been saying that for a long time now.”

“We’ve got to pull back! Cut through the suburbs and rally back at Delta Station! Move!”

The anonymous mare’s voice cut through the griffin’s words, making him cock his white-feathered head with a start at the orders that came through his own portable radio – the rectangular black box clipped to his chest plate. I used the moment to press forward, saying, “If we don’t get you off this thing, you might not get back to your friends. And I can’t take you as a prisoner. Buckley won’t allow that.”

That sealed it. “Fine… fine, let’s get this over with.”

With that, I approached him, looking once more over him before I came to my decision. The best way to get through this was if I helped pull him up from in the air, and I communicated this to him as I beat into the air, hovering in over him. “You’re bigger than I am, but I can use your armor to get a hold of you and pull you off of this thing.” The griffin merely nodded, enough of an indicator to me that he was ready, and slowly, I moved in to hover right above him before reaching both forelegs down to the armor protecting his shoulders. Though it took a moment of searching, I found two places where I could grasp on the armored padding, despite it feeling more like an awkward hug in the process. Ignoring this, though, I spoke up once more, saying, “Okay, on three, I’m going to need you to push yourself up, and I’ll pull at the same time.”

“I got it.” came his reply.

I nodded, holding his shoulder armor tight. “Okay, ready?…… One, two, THREE!”

Gathering my strength, I beat my wings to give me additional pull as I tugged hard on his plates. The griffin yelled out a long and painful cry, and I grimaced as I heard the metal sliding along his flesh. But still, the soldier kept going even as he took in a sharp breath and cried out again, forcing himself up with his forelegs as I pulled him up from above. Then, with a final sickening sound, the metal rod slipped from the wound and the griffin was free.

He immediately toppled back to the ground as a thick spurt of blood splashed to the rain-soaked pavement, and his larger body nearly carried me back to the ground with him before I let go of his shoulders. Again, he let out a cry, his right paw snapping over to clutch the hole in his torso as I flew around to land by his head. “AGH!… Shit, that burns!”

“Settle down, keep calm.” I urged the legionnaire, lowering my head to try and look him in the eye. “I panicked when I had that metal slab pulled out of me, but I learned that you can’t do that. You have to keep your head clear. Just breathe.” Already, the soldier was managing to at least keep himself from crying out again, letting his now bloody paw settle back to the concrete as he fought to get his breathing leveled out. “There you go… just breathe.” I encouraged, reciting some of the words of comfort my own friends had said to me, back when I had gone through this very same thing; over the next few seconds, he was beginning to calm. “I’m uh… guessing this was your first time going through something like this?” I asked after a moment, cautiously making an effort to lighten the mood as the Talon soldier pulled himself together. But the griffin only looked at me, cocking an eyebrow and wearing a mildly annoyed scowl; I nearly facehoofed as understanding hit me. “Oh… wait… bad use of words. Um… my mistake.”

But still, the griffin eased, giving me a small nod. “Yeah… first time.” he answered, then letting out a sigh. “You?”

I nodded back in return. “Yes, mine too. Hurts like nothing else though doesn’t it?”

Despite the scenario we found ourselves in, two enemies sharing a sudden and unplanned truce, the griffin laughed again, a light but lasting chuckle. “Yeah, that’s putting it pretty lightly.”

“Raptor, report in!” The same mare who had first spoken through the griffin’s communicator called out again through the diminishing sounds of the fighting, drawing both our attentions back to the radio. “Buckley’s artillery will have us zeroed if we don’t move, so we’re falling back to Delta Station! Have you finished up in the sky?!... Raptor, respond! Are you okay?!”

For a moment, the two of us exchanged looks… I knew that I’d have to leave, and very shortly. Plus, judging by the griffin’s expression, I felt that he knew the same. “What are you going to say?” I asked.

Silent, he turned his attention back to his radio, raising a foreleg to tap a claw against one of the buttons. “Rayne… this is Raptor.” the griffin spoke. “I’ve been shot down, my left wing and foreleg are broken, and I think I’ve got a couple busted ribs… I’m getting off the street to take cover…… That pegasus really wanted me dead, but the last hit I scored chased her off.”

“Yes, I see your beacon on my pipbuck!” came Rayne’s relieved response. “I’ll come to you and get you to the rally point! Just hold your position and I’ll find you! It won’t be hard to sneak past this Buckley group!”

“I understand… I’ll hold position here.” With that, Raptor let his claw off the radio, then turning back to me as he shifted to lay on his belly. “You’d better go. I’ve held my word, but any other Talon soldier that comes over to find me is going to shoot you on sight.”

After a pause, I nodded to him, letting my wings fan back out as I prepared to return to the Buckley team. The griffin had made a convincing story, and since he hadn’t tried to kill me up to this point, I knew that he was giving me my window to escape, to disappear back into the rain. And though a part of me felt like I should’ve given some sort of farewell gesture or word… my mind just couldn’t come up with anything to do so. In reality, we were both still enemies. He was a soldier of the Talon Legion, the force that Hopeville would fight again and again if it appeared on our horizons. And whatever the Legion’s intentions were here in the southeast, I had a feeling that Raptor would continue to obey his orders and fight against Challenger and the southeastern settlements. Though it was actually kind of depressing to think about, I was fairly certain that if we were to ever meet again, we would clash just as we had today, even after this. It was a strange situation… but now, the deed was done. Raptor was free, and I knew that he’d recover to live and to fight another day, and maybe even to see Hayward – his own home – again someday.

But as I turned away and stepped forward, my wings ready to carry me back up, Raptor spoke up one last time.

“Why did you spare me?”

I paused, lowering my head as the sound of the rain took over, now free of bullets and flames. In the silence, I tried to think once more as to the why of my actions, to be able to give him an answer that would sate the question. I really, truly did try, and I knew that he wanted to know. Hell, he called me a ‘strange one’, and today made the perfect example of that designation; it proved him perfectly right. I had made multiple arguments in the privacy of my own thoughts that supported my actions – that it didn’t feel right killing him when he couldn’t fight back, that I didn’t want to just blatantly execute a wounded soldier. But there was still a part of me that felt differently about those arguments, a part of me that felt that they weren’t really reasons why. Maybe there was a deeper and more moral motive as to why I had spared him, buried somewhere under all the other churning thoughts and all of the new memories that our journey to Marefax, and our time in the city itself, had given me in just seven or eight hours. But Goddesses, for the life of me… I just couldn’t find that reason. I was too tired, my body was tired, my mind was tired, and my heart yearned for the coming night tonight in Buckley, to be back with my baby brother and with my friends, and to immerse myself into the musical treasures guarded behind Buckley’s guns. I just wanted to be done with this place, this ruined city. We got what we came for, saved what deserved to be saved… now, I just wanted to leave.

Finally though, after what must’ve been a solid thirty seconds or so of standing in the rain, I looked back at the griffin soldier over my shoulder, and with a small smile and a shake of my head, I answered him. “I don’t know.” And facing back forward, I got a quick running start before I launched back into the sky, leaving Raptor to await his reunion with his companions; soon, it would be my turn to rejoin with my own.

*** *** ***

“Goddesses, Buckley ain’t never looked so good.”

From just behind and left of me, I heard one of the stallions speak just as my eyes settled on the air force base, resting in perfect peace just beyond the crater-filled landscape surrounding its viciously defended perimeter. At last, at last, we were on our final approach back to the base, having pulled our wagons off-road for the last leg of the return trip to save ourselves time. It had been over a four hour journey, after bringing every team from the mission back together again, from Marefax to familiar turf, and everypony in the wagon train had had their fill of walking. Me? I didn’t care how much walking had to be done. I was just glad to leave Marefax at my back, and to put Buckley Air Force Base in front of me once again.

It wasn’t my own home, but I had to agree with the unnamed guardspony. Buckley’s giant hangers were all visible to us, as was the A.T.C. tower and the club building next to it (which was called, as I had learned from idle chatter amongst the guards during our return journey, Club Eternity). All of these buildings sat strong and proud against the light gray backdrop of a late afternoon sky, which I had come to appreciate and be much more thankful for after today’s expedition. The wasteland sky had returned to its normal cloudy self, the rainstorm we had been soaking in back in Marefax having dissipated roughly two hours into our journey back. This now gave me a perfectly clear view of Buckley where it lay, and I gave a nod of approval at the sight of that place, that place that was full of life and home to a thriving community, of which I felt I was now, more or less, a friend to. “Yes.” I remarked. “Buckley does look rather beautiful, doesn’t it?”

To my left, I caught sight of the male guard who had spoken before as he trotted by. He slowed his pace long enough to look back at me, giving me a small smile and nod before proceeding ahead to the lead wagon.

With Shore and Raemor by my right side, I was keeping pace to the left of the third wagon in the train, all three of us walking at the center of the column. As the train continued onward, the chatter of the guards swiftly picked up in volume and energy as they drew ever closer to a well-deserved rest. Talk was being passed around about trips to the spa, prayer sessions at the church, a night with friends at Club Eternity, and much to my embarrassment, my ears had picked up a talk between two guard bucks of how one of them was apparently supposed to receive a “special present” from his marefriend for being brave enough to volunteer for the Marefax expedition.

After letting my cheeks burn from having overheard that bit, I had decided to strike up some conversation with Shore and Raemor, and had jumped right away into the subject of the concert. Though Raemor had been present in the air traffic control tower for the Marefax meeting, he had not fully shared my excitement for the upcoming event. In fact, throughout the majority of the return trip, my old unicorn friend had been largely silent, and had more than once confined himself to the silence of his own thoughts. Idle talk with him was concernedly short, and though I was curious as to what was on his mind, I kept myself from pressing the matter as per his request.

Shore, on the other hoof, was looking forward to the concert nearly as much as I was. Having heard of it multiple times already, he told me that he intended to ask Gracie to join him in attending Buckley’s event, and had also, much to my pleasant surprise, revealed to me that he had begun developing some feelings for her. In his explanation, he had blamed the wasteland for bringing these feelings to the fore of his mind, pointing out that the cause had been the difficulty of keeping Hopeville alive with everything that Stable 181 left us with. Of course, I had seen Shore keeping close to Grace, a specific instance being after the burial ceremony for those lost in Hopeville’s battle against the Black Blood. In response to that, my friend had explained that the two had been growing closer throughout our time on the surface, Grace often coming to him for emotional support. Apparently, her level of guilt in regards to her duties as chief medic in Hopeville had been more severe than she had let on during my talk with her all those days ago. But, on a brighter note, the two had begun to bond through other means, Shore making frequent trips back to the clinic to help her, and learning a bit about medicine in the process. In turn, she would join him on patrol or share meals with him and his parents. And within the past week, the two of them had made it a habit to sit outside late at night to watch the sky, admiring the cloud cover for what it was, together ignoring that it blocked away the sun and the moon behind it.

In the end, Shore concluded that there was nothing overly intimate between them yet, and that they had done nothing to show that. Still, this was welcome news to me, and I vouched for him, expressing my opinion that a romantic relationship sprung from their long-lasting friendship might shape into a very strong connection between the two, should Grace feel the same way towards him. Predictably, that was what made the scientific stallion nervous, and while I told him that it was understandable, I also made sure to encourage him as to the opposite, to emphasize how important this could turn out to be. The two of them had been friends for so many years, and each had played a major role in each other’s lives. He knew this just as much as I did, knew how many times the two of them had been there for each other, both in times of struggle within Stable 181 and in the good times growing up together. And I made sure, through my own words, that he knew just how much meaning was behind that.

Though my words didn’t serve to make him more courageous, my friend had appreciated my support on the subject and spoke his assurances that he’d think all of that through before the time of the concert. And I made sure that I kept the fact that I was singing in the concert a secret, because now, I had something else that I could devote my vocal performance to tonight, and I’d be damned if I didn’t give my friends the best sound my voice had to offer.

Several minutes passed, during which time the train circled behind the blasted warzone around Buckley, which years of artillery bombardment in defense of its territory had created, and merged onto the smaller road that connected the base to the Old World highway to the west. Now, having just wrapped up the more casual topic of dinner, myself, Shore, and even Raemor, hoping to get ourselves another one of the Buckley orchard’s fruit dishes before the day was up, I looked up ahead just as Buckley’s main gate begun to open. Beyond the fence, civilians and other guards were already beginning to assemble, much like they had when my friends and I had been captured and led here. Within the base itself, things were largely quiet, the silence only broken by the moderate yet solid roar of Lily, the base’s metal behemoth of a tank currently rumbling north along the eastern runway; Goddesses, that tank was on the other side of the base, and I could still hear its engines loud and clear.

Scattered out along the base grounds, ponies from the residential quarters of were beginning to flock to the gate, some of the citizens of the settlement already assembling into two rows, one by each of the gate’s watchtowers, for the wagons to travel between. I could hear voices coming from the slowly growing crowd by the gate’s twin watchtowers, shouts and even cheers rippling out to us as we closed the distance between ourselves and the safety of the base. To my amusement, some of the train guards were already calling out happy energetic responses, shouting out the names of friends and loved ones and waving. I could virtually feel as a great wave of relief swept over the expedition force, washing away Marefax’s shadow, casting aside all the reminders of the wounds everypony had received fighting the city’s psychotic populace, and replacing it with the joy of finding home again, and bolstering the knowing that the expedition was a total success for Buckley.

We had completed both objectives in the city as stated in the original meeting. Every instrument that had survived in the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre, including the great pearl-white grand piano, had been removed from storage and loaded into the wagons before Commander Tracer had pushed the raiders back, taking out their flak gun and killing off the greater majority of the attacking force. Likewise, the Cirrus Communications team had been successful in finding multiple intact machines, terminals, and components, and had completely filled their wagon with gear that would serve to reprogram Buckley’s air traffic control system into a regional broadcasting system; it was Commander Tracer who had said that the tower would, once having undergone the appropriate modifications, be able to communicate with anypony in the region holding a working radio, including Hopeville and the few pipbucks contained within the settlement.

And finally, the artillery team, though having used all but one of its shells, had gone through the entire expedition without any direct engagements, save for one attack from a couple of stray sand hornets. The fifty caliber machinegun on the munitions wagon had easily done its part to protect the howitzers and their gun crews, and they had experienced no casualties or injuries. If there was one setback to be found in the expedition, it was that the Eagle Eye camera, the only one of its kind that Buckley possessed, was destroyed. Though confident in Tech Sergeant Lela’s ability to get it running again, the artillery captain had been adamant in claiming that it would take weeks to get it working properly again. In the meantime, Buckley’s artillery teams would have to make use of their training experience in order to judge distances to targets and fire their guns accurately. It was declared only a minor hindrance, and was utterly trivial when knowing that the cherry on top of the whole ordeal was that it had gone without a single casualty. It was a genuine testament as to the skill and organization behind Buckley’s fighting force, and I, for one, was truly impressed… even if, in the end, there remained a certain longing in the back of my mind, a wish that Buckley might put that skill to use in helping Challenger and the smaller settlements that the city attempted to nurture and protect.

“Everypony form up on me!” Up ahead, Commander Tracer was standing on the left side of the road, calling out just before the first wagon came to a halt in response to his order, the others following suit as the red earth pony spoke up. “I don’t have to tell any of you how important this expedition was for Buckley.” he said, the guards from the wagon swiftly gathering together around the commander. “Through your efforts, this base will be able to reach out to the outside world within the safety of its own walls, and we will soon be on the road to learning everything there is to know about what life on the outside is like.” Together, Shore, Raemor, and I trotted up closer to the commanding officer, stepping up to the outside of the assembled group to listen in. “Mother Shimmer’s plans for Buckley’s future are beginning to unfold now, and I can see in many of you a sense of hesitation at the execution of these plans. But remember just how long Mother Shimmer has guided Buckley, how she had led our grandparents and our parents from being simple wanderers from a corrupted Stable to becoming the most powerful settlement in the entire southeast. Throughout her history with us, her commands have been few and far in between, her leadership has been fair and kind, and her decisions have always been made for the betterment of our home. And I know that each and every one of you still places your faith into her, and knows these things to be true.” Here he paused as murmurs and nods passed along the assembly, and he was silent long enough to look among each of his subordinates surrounding him in a half-arc. And as a small smile touched his lips, he added, “With this in mind, these are my final orders for you. First, make sure to take in and understand this achievement, and take pride in knowing that you’ve all helped to make this happen. Because while many are still nervous about integrating into the outside world, I have every faith that what we have done today will mark a giant step towards a brighter future for our children, and our children’s children.” Again, approving nods and words went around the group. “Secondly, also make sure to understand how much it means to Buckley’s artisans that we accomplished our goal at the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre.” Tracer went on. “These instruments will serve well in the concert hall, and it’s thanks to all of you that we’ve brought them back to be played, admired, and preserved here in Buckley.” To my private approval, heartier cheers went up at the mention of our collected treasure from the Old World theatre, and even I couldn’t help but let out a celebratory holler with the assembled guards. “And finally… everypony here – return to your friends and families, relax and spend time together. You have all more than earned the rest of the day and the coming night off. And that is the most important order of them all, so if I see any of you in uniform tonight, I will personally haul your asses back to your waiting loved ones.” Together, the guards begun to laugh and talk together as Tracer let those words settle in, and with a final nod, he finished with, “The pulling teams need to take their cargo wagons to their specified locations, and the spare howitzers need to go back to the munitions hanger. The guard detail is dismissed. Welcome home, everypony!”

With that, our much livelier wagon train was on the move once more, and within the next minute was crossing the perimeter back into Buckley. As soon as the first guards passed the fence, the entrance came alive with shouting voices and hooves stomping the pavement in applause, the growing crowd of civilians and the occasional sentry welcoming the expedition home with all possible heartfelt sincerity. Mares and stallions from the crowd meshed quickly into the train as it moved, some passing praise and congratulations on a successful journey, and others sweeping up and embracing their husbands and wives, their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. Whoever they were to one another, things begun to take a turn for the emotional, and though the entire journey had only been made in around half a day, it was, considering Buckley’s circumstances, entirely understandable. And on top of that, I couldn’t help but smile as I crossed the perimeter with Raemor and Shore at my side. For this settlement, it was indeed a time to celebrate the accomplishment it had made, and more important, the efforts of those who took the greatest risk in executing Buckley’s first tentative step into the outside world. I was glad to have done my part to help in its mission, and I had every bit of faith that this mission had indeed set a course for a brighter future outside the cage of isolation, a new world that Buckley would hopefully share one day with Challenger, Hopeville, and the other settlements of this growing region of Equestria.

“Nova! Nova!”

At the sound of my name, I came to a sharp halt, ears perking. Even through the growing noise of the crowd, I heard the call that carried my name as it cut through the voices. And moments later, as I scanned the line of Buckley ponies to my left, the little gray colt with the blue and white mane and tail who was the culprit wormed his way between two of the Buckley citizens in attendance of our return, carrying the biggest smile on his face.

“Blake!” As my baby brother wound his way in between two mares watching the convoy pass, I ran ahead and closed the distance to him just as he freed himself. With a leap, he threw himself into my chest, hugging me tight around my neck as I scooped him up against me, bombarding his neck and shoulders with affectionate nuzzling. “Hey there, baby brother!”

“I’m so glad you’re back, Nova!” he replied, likewise nuzzling up against my neck as he stayed latched to me. “I missed you so much!”

I let myself giggle at that, and shifting, I sat back on my haunches before gripping Blake head in my forehooves, pulling him away to look him in the eyes. “Goodness, Blake, I think your hugs are getting stronger every day.” I replied, chuckling again as we looked into each other’s eyes; Goddesses, his smile was the most adorable and heartwarming thing I had ever seen.

“Good!” he said back, pulling himself out of my hold only to throw himself against me again, the both of us laughing together as I hugged him tight once more in an effort to match his strength. This time, I had no intention of letting go, even as the fourth wagon passed on by behind us, and I only closed my eyes, so eternally grateful to be back with my brother again.

Then, I felt another hoof on my back, a gentle touch that brought me to look up and to my right. There stood the bright red unicorn mare with a pink and white mane and tail, my favorite medical mare, smiling down at me. “Hey, Grace!”

With a laugh, she pulled me into a great big hug, resting her head over my neck. “Welcome back, Nova. It’s so good to see you again.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” I replied, hugging her with my right foreleg even as I kept hold of Blake with the left. “I’m so glad to be out of that city.”

“I’d have to imagine so.” Releasing me and taking a step back, I was met with sympathetic eyes. “I was worried about you three, what with all the dreadful stories we’ve heard about that place from Lucky Hallion and Challenger. Hopefully we’ll be refraining from making another trip to a big city for… well, the rest of our lives.”

I nodded, oh so very vigorously. “Oh, you can count on that.”

Smiling at my assurance, I watched as she turned her attention to a patiently waiting Shore, the buck giving her a smile of his own before she swiftly embraced him, forelegs around his neck as she pulled him in. “Oh Goddesses, I missed you, Shore.”

“Likewise, my friend.” he gently replied, draping a foreleg over her back, Grace leaning into his hold. “How are you?”

“So much better now that you’re all back safe and sound.” Gracie answered him with a giggle, leaning back to briefly nuzzle along his neck, pausing as she found Raemor where he stood keeping quiet farther away. “Good to see you in one piece, Raemor.” she happily added.

“Thank you.” the old stallion replied, dipping his head in greeting. “It’s good to be back where it’s safe.”

“How are you holding up, Raemor?” I asked, both Blake and I looking back to him where we sat together.

“I’m well enough.” he answered, slowly moving into a walk again, following the wagon train as the last howitzer passed us by, the main gate rattling closed once more behind the gun team. “But I think I could use another visit to the church after I clean myself up.”

I cocked an eyebrow at the brevity of his response, a concerned frown quickly shaping itself on my face. I suppose that a short reply was something that I should’ve expected, especially given how little he talked on the way back to the base. But that didn’t stop me from becoming worried about him. True, we had only been traveling together for a couple days, but that was beside the point of my worry. He was still a member of our group, our team, and that made him an ally that I cared for, whether he wanted that to be the case or not. “Do you want to talk?” I asked, cautious. “I’ve noticed that you haven’t been in the best of moods since leaving the city…”

“I appreciate your concern, Nova, but no thanks.” he replied gently. “You’re back here with your friends and your little brother. I would rather you enjoy the time with them than worry about an old stallion like me. I’d rather just dismiss myself if you have no further need of me.”

“Come now, Raemor.” Grace spoke up, Shore releasing her to allow her to step around and approach him. “You may think we aren’t exactly comrades-in-arms, but you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind whenever you wish. Whoever of us is around will listen, I assure you.”

At that he gave a little shake of his head. “Honestly, I’d rather not go into detail about it.” he replied, turning away from us to face the direction of Buckley’s church. “Let’s just say that I… didn’t find what I was looking for in that city.”

Grace cocked an eyebrow, attempting to decipher his response. “Whatever do you mean?” However, despite her pressing, the old stallion merely walked on by, leaving us at his back as he followed the train and the dispersing crowd of civilians deeper into the base. “Oh…”

“Something about Marefax certainly hit a sensitive spot.” Shore observed, turning back to me with an equal expression of puzzlement as my own was.

“The poor dear.” Grace spoke softly, sympathetically. “I hope he tells us what’s going on. We can’t help if he doesn’t tell us what’s wrong.”

I sighed. “It was hard for everypony – for us and for Buckley’s team. And for Raemor, right now at least, I just don’t think he’s comfortable telling ponies he’s hardly known about his personal thoughts. We can’t blame him for that.”

“I know… I just hope he comes around.” Grace replied, both she and Shore nodding.

“Me too.” Looking down and to my left, I could see Blake as he gazed up at me with curiosity, searching for answers. “Don’t worry, baby brother.” I assured him, lowering my head down to nuzzle along the side of his face. “Raemor’s just had a bit of a day.”

“Was the big city that bad?” he asked.

“Yes, it was a very bad place.” I answered, sagely nodding. “That’s why I didn’t bring you along that time. Marefax is no place for a growing young colt like yourself. It’s far too dangerous.”

“Oh…” Pausing, Blake leaned up against my foreleg, resting his head there. “Are you okay, big sister? You weren’t hurt or anything?”

“Well, I was hurt.” I explained gently. “But Buckley has good ponies living in it, and they took care of me while Gracie stayed with you. So don’t you worry, I’m perfectly fine.”

Looking back up, Blake’s smile returned to him, making me smile along with him. “That’s good.”

“Hey, Nova!”

The sudden call of my name drew my attention to the left where, amidst the few remaining civilians that mingled with their returned companions, Saharra came trotting towards us. The concertmaster mare was still garbed in her combat rig, but her assault rifle had been discarded, likely left with the wagons as they split up to head to their various destinations. “Hi there.” I greeted, letting myself rise to all fours as she approached.

With a smile, she came to a halt before me, then asking, “Glad to be back?”

“Yes, and it’s certainly a far sight better than when I first came into Buckley’s territory.” I replied, casting an easy smile back to her. “Don’t worry, I’m not holding it against you. Just stating the facts.”

“I understand. Believe me, I do.” she assured, pausing to pass a look at my little brother. “And how are you, little one?”

“Good, now that my sister’s back.” he happily piped up.

Saharra nodded, a light and good-natured laugh escaping her. “I can imagine.” she replied, looked back up at me. “Hey, Nova. I just came back to tell you that Ludwig’s looking for you. Now that we’re back home, he wants to start getting set up for tonight’s event.”

Ah yes… it was time. “I was already planning on heading back to the spa to clean up. Equestria gave us a long enough shower as is, but another meeting with Gisela and Marlena would see me back to my normal and cleaner self.”

“Yes, that’d be a good idea.” Saharra agreed. “You have some time, but Ludwig wants everypony to be at the rehearsal in about an hour or so. You know where to go.” At my nod, she dismissed herself, passing a quick hello to Shore and Grace before setting pace at a steady trot back towards the concert hall building to the northeast.

“Rehearsal?” Gracie quickly questioned, cocking her head in curiosity as I looked to her.

“Yeah, I need to get going and drop off my gear at the shack.” I explained. “After that, I’ve got some things I need to do around the base for Ludwig.”

“You’re leaving again?” Blake asked, his voice already tinged with worry.

“Oh no.” I assured swiftly, turning to face my young sibling and look him in the eye. “I’m not leaving Buckley again today, I promise. But somepony wants me with them this evening to do something. I just have some tasks to do to help out.”

“But you just got back…” my baby brother protested with a frown.

“Oh, I know baby brother.” I replied, giving him a delicate nuzzling along his forehead. “But I have to do this, especially since it’s a surprise that I’m making for you and the others.”

At that, Blake’s ears perked up as he locked eyes with me. “A surprise?” he questioned, a small and interested smile returning to him. “What kind of surprise?”

“A good one.” I spoke, intentionally brief as I cocked an amused eyebrow.

“Well yeah, but what is it?” he pressed, rolling his eyes at my prior response.

I giggled at the adorable question. “Well, if I told you what it was, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, silly.”

Blake smiled bigger. “But if you tell me, I’ll still act surprised.” he offered, nodding to urge me to give in.

But I didn’t. “Oh no. That’s not how these things work, goofball.” I countered, whereupon my baby brother sagged in defeat.

“Aww… okay…”

With a polite little laugh, I leaned back forward and place a kiss on his forehead. “But don’t worry. I know you’ll love it when you see it.” To my private satisfaction, those words got him to smile again.

“A surprise, huh?” Grace then put in beside me.

“Yep. A surprise for you and Blake and Shore and Raemor. All of you.” I replied, giving my friend a single determined nod.

“Hm…” Judging by the faint but present smirk on her face, I had a feeling that Grace was already beginning to fit the pieces together… but, at least Shore still looked fairly clueless as to the nature of my surprise; that was still a victory. “Well, if you need to get this done, then we should probably get moving.”

I smiled back before turning away from her, joining my brother at his side as we faced the residential quarter. “Yeah, good thinking.”

And as we begun the walk back to our shack in the north residential quarter together, I focused ahead, carrying that smile with me through each step; I could hardly wait for the coming night!

*** *** ***

With a final powerful chord, suspended at full strength from the grand assembly of brass and woodwind instruments, Ludwig gave a wave of his conductor’s baton and cut the note off as the piece finished, every single player halting their sound simultaneously as the concert hall went silent. And then, with a nod, Ludwig lowered the baton away, the players assembled before him relaxing as mutters of approval went around. “Ha! Well done!” Ludwig spoke, a big smile on his face as he looked approvingly amongst his ensemble of musicians, stomping a hoof on his podium in applause. “Well done indeed! This has been an excellent dress rehearsal, and each and every one of you is sounding absolutely wonderful!” Pausing, the proud music director buck turned to face the large congregation of all of the participants of tonight’s concert, looking back and forth between us, taking in the sight of our presence. At this point, after not only rehearsing my own song in front of all these musicians, but now being among the ranks of so much musical talent, I was nearly shaking with excitement. Everypony who was on the roster for performing in the concert had been summoned to the performance area, from Buckley’s large symphony orchestra, to the singers of Buckley’s church choir, to the DJs and techno-wizards of Club Eternity, and even a youth ensemble comprised of over a dozen children of varying ages, as well as six adults who supervised their rehearsals and played tunes with them. Between every ensemble, it was safe to say that there was well over a hundred total musicians that would be making the magic happen; and to think that that was over one-eighth of the settlement’s total population!

“You’ve all put so much work and care into this, and I think this will be an outstanding concert because of your efforts.” Ludwig continued. “And remember, thanks to the efforts of all those who journeyed to Marefax today, we now have a full complement of instruments in the orchestra. For the first time ever, we will be playing music of the grandest scale, of the larger genres that may very well have never been heard since the war itself. Because of this, our performance tonight will be one-of-a-kind.”

“Hey, and don’t forget the outsider!”

From somewhere in the crowd, Saharra’s voice called out to Ludwig where he stood, and immediately I shrank, flushing in embarrassment as Ludwig and several of the nearby musicians turned their gaze to me. “Yes, most certainly.” Ludwig agreed heartily. “Please, applaud her! Her voice is truly a gift upon the outside world!”

Though I shook my head, waving a hoof to shoo away the compliment, hoofs against the floor made my effort a feeble one. Thankfully, whether it had been my utterly embarrassed composure or not, Ludwig mercifully raised a hoof up to bring the applause to silence, whereupon he returned to speaking again. “As of now, we have just under an hour before the concert will begin, and we will open the doors to Buckley’s citizens in around thirty minutes” he explained. “In that time, please make sure to take care of any final errands and preparations, whether it be getting dressed, checking instruments, anything. When you’re not performing, you’re free to sit amongst the audience on the ground floor and partake in any of the dances that are a part of our repertoire for the night. Just remember the order of the songs on the roster for tonight’s event, and keep track of the concert’s progress.” Pausing, he turned to look back at the orchestra on stage, glancing back and forth between them and the rest of us on the floor. “Are there any questions for me before we disperse?”

After a moment, I raised a foreleg, the only one to do so. Once he spotted me, I asked, “When should we return back behind the stage when it’s our turn to perform?”

“I’d recommend you come backstage to get ready when the song before yours begins, which goes the same for everypony.” Ludwig explained. “For you, Nova, you should return at the start of The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun.”

“That comes right after The Mummer’s Dance, which is Loreena’s first vocal solo of the concert, if that helps.” Saharra added.

I nodded. “Okay, I can do that.” However, if I remembered the concert program I had seen correctly, I didn’t have to sing until near the end of the event; ooh, I’d have so much to listen to before then!

“Any other questions?” This time, silence met Ludwig’s query, and with a smile, he gave us a nod. “Very well. I’d like the orchestra members to bring their stands backstage while the choir sets up their risers and the Eternity ponies prepare their equipment. Remember that the choir is opening the concert after the children’s ensemble plays their piece as the audience finds their seating. Also, I need all of our soloists outside of the ensembles – those being Loreena, Saharra, Glider, and Nova – to head to the backstage dressing room. Moonbeam’s waiting to fit you with your concert attire and makeup… except for you Glider. You don’t get makeup.”

“Aw, damn it.” remarked the brown unicorn pony with a smooth crimson mane close by my right side, rolling his eyes with a smirk; he was Buckley’s principle pianist, and would be showcasing the Moonrise Theatre’s grand piano that we had recovered from Marefax. “You just know how much I love wearing me some eyeliner.”

“Maybe next time.” a mare next to him teased, an albino earth pony mare with a flowing golden mane; this pony was Loreena, a popular singer in Buckley that was adored for her small-ensemble work in the settlement’s concerts. “But come along, we need to get ready.”

“Y’all have fun putting on your silly dresses.” another buck at the front of the crowd spoke with a polite chuckle, a red-orange unicorn stallion with a wild black mane. “DJs don’t do fancy clothes.” He was, in fact, one of several DJs at Club Eternity, known specifically as DJ Flynt; he would be playing as part of the instrumental accompaniment in my own song.

“Says the buck wearing orange-lensed glasses.” Saharra countered.

“Jealous.”

“Dresses??” My question drew the conversation to a halt, Ludwig turning to look at me with surprise as I realized that I had, much to my embarrassment, more blurted out the question rather than asked it civilly. “Sorry…”

“It’s okay, outsider.” Loreena responded, giggling politely as she stepped forward to meet my eyes. “Yes, aside from those in the larger ensembles, the soloists in each concert are tasked with wearing special and more ornate dress-clothes for their appearance on stage. Normally they pick what they want to wear beforehoof, but since you are new to Buckley, Moonbeam will have likely picked one for you already.”

“And she always knows what to pick from our storage.” Saharra chimed in. “I don’t know what she’s specifically chosen for you, but I’m sure you’ll like it, even if you’re not a big fan of dresses.”

“Oh no, it’s not really that… it’s just that, back in Stable One eighty-one, we didn’t have dresses.” I explained. “Or at least not like… the ones for special occasions like this one. The most we ever had were just gowns and things.”

“Moonbeam keeps quite a selection.” Ludwig replied with a smile. “They’re all pre-war and wartime dresses, all perfectly preserved. Some of them were even made by the hooves of Rarity herself. You might like what you find.”

Wait… whoa… “The Rarity? As in the mare who ran the Ministry of Image??”

“The very same.” Ludwig answered.

I cracked a smile, impressed. “Oh wow…” Up ahead, Loreena and Glider made their way towards the stage, whereupon Saharra followed after them, snapping me back to focus so that I could do the same. With a quick chat, the concertmaster decided to take the rest of us to where this Moonbeam pony was waiting, and as we left, the assembled musicians in the performance space begun to go about their final preparations. The backstage entrance was a polished metal doorway that was built into the left side of the back wall of the stage, a second door sitting just to the left of that. Both of these doors would be concealed at the official start of the concert by some sort of drop-down panel, which would divide the wall from the two raised platforms at the far left and right ends of the spacious stage; this panel would leave just enough space behind it to conceal the groups that would wait their turn during the song that came before them.

But just as Saharra’s horn came alight to open the door, said door swung open on its own, whereupon a tide of energetic and laughing children came pouring out, forcing her to scramble out of the way as they rushed out onto the stage. As I watched amusedly, after stepping back to take safety from the stampede, I noticed that some of the Buckley colts and fillies that came onto the stage were carrying a pair of colorful and hollowed out plastic tubes on their backs. There were reds and purples, yellows and oranges, greens and blues, each one pair varied from the other in length. With them were older children, two of them carrying cello cases slung over their backs, a third carrying a smaller violin case – one of the new violins from the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre. These were the younglings of the settlement’s youth ensemble, all of them emerging onto the stage in swift order. A pause followed, whereupon Saharra stepped forward to check beyond the door again. “Oh, please go ahead.” she said, stepping back. “We can wait.”

“Thanks.” Next from the door, a big deep-voiced unicorn buck emerged with horn aglow. In front of him, a big percussion instrument on a tall metal frame was pushed forward on small wheels, the instrument composed of an array of wooden rectangular bars that were laid out like a two-tiered table, each bar with a letter engraved in the material and a sort of metal pipe underneath; atop it rested two mallets with heads wrapped in green yarn. “We’ll be out of the way shortly.”

Behind the big unicorn, another smaller unicorn stallion was likewise pushing another one of the percussion instruments forward, this one an exact copy of the first. “Wow. I’ve never seen instruments like these before.” I remarked, glancing at Glider where he stood next to me.

“These are marimbas.” the buck explained, watching as the members of the youth band continued out onto the stage, one of the older children hauling out a compact electronic keyboard behind the marimba unicorns. “Each one of those wooden bars you see makes its own pitch when struck by a mallet, and those pipes underneath them allow the sounds to resonate. They’re not used as often in our concerts, but when you get to hear them, they’re really something.”

“And what about those plastic pipe things?” I inquired, turned back to the stage where the orchestra members had now almost fully cleared out, making way for the children. “What are those?”

At that, Glider chuckled. “A childhood favorite of mine – they’re called boomwhackers.”

I cocked an eyebrow, making the stallion smile bigger as we exchanged glances. “What… seriously?”

He nodded. “Yeah, seriously. Each one of those pipes makes its own pitch, determined by the length. I think each of those kids is carrying two of them that are the same note. They’re a boatload of fun when you’re learning about music, and we always start the kids off with some experience with them.”

“They’re all unicorns.” I observed curiously.

“You kind of have to be in order to play the boomwhackers, or at least a pair of them at once anyway.” came Glider’s reply; indeed it was that there were four unicorn colts and four unicorn fillies, all eight of them telekinetically removing their respective “boomwhackers” from the strap holders that had secured the strange instruments to their owners’ backs.

By now, the rest of the youth ensemble had entered the stage to set up, the last of the personnel behind the two unicorns pushing out the marimbas being three string players, each with a viola in tow, and a unicorn mare levitating what I recognized to be the bass clarinet case that we had uncovered from Marefax. “Alright everypony, let’s not keep Moonbeam waiting.” Saharra spoke up, taking the lead and disappearing behind the door to the backstage area.

Loreena followed up behind her, and Glider let me enter afterwards before he closed the door behind us. The backstage area of Buckley’s concert hall was very similar to the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre, with a short but wide hallway leading to a four-way intersection. Saharra led us down the next hall branching right, which hooked inward to follow the curved shape of the back of the stage itself. Our trip was short, however, and after a left turn at the end of the second hall, Saharra led us to a set of open double doors.

“Ah, Saharra, come in!” A cheery mare’s voice from inside the room greeted the concertmaster as she trotted inside, returning the greeting with one of her own. “Oh good, you’ve brought everypony. Please come in, come in.” At her beckoning, Loreena, Glider, and I followed Saharra inside, where we came face to face with a quintet of closed closets built into the far wall of the otherwise open chamber. The only other additions to the room included a pair of long wooden dressers, each with its own full body mirror leaning against the wall next to it, to the left, and five large privacy stalls – changing rooms – to the right; a single light built into the ceiling provided a moderate level of light for the room.

“Moonbeam, I know you’ve met Loreena and Glider before.” Saharra spoke up with a chuckle. “But I’ve got one of the outsiders with me who’ll be singing in the concert tonight. I’d like to introduce you to her.”

From ahead, Saharra stepped aside to reveal a peach-colored unicorn mare with a darker orange mane, meeting my eyes with a curious stare. “Hey there.” I gave her a tentative wave. “I’m Nova… one of the outsiders I’m sure you’ve heard a bunch about.”

“I certainly have heard a lot about you and your friends.” Moonbeam replied, laughing nervously with a faltering smile to match. “I must admit, I was nervous about you at first. I didn’t know what a group of outsiders might have had in store for Buckley. It certainly put a kink in my schedule, what with me looking over my shoulder every other minute for some crazy knife-wielding psychopath.” Wow… thanks… “And now here I am, about to give you a dress for our newest concert. My, my, how quickly things have changed.”

I was more than ready to change the subject, especially considering that she had supposedly been searching for a psychotic pegasus mare… who just so happened to be small and lightweight and fragile, smaller even than Moonbeam herself was; I mean come on, I was literally the embodiment of…… not-scary-rampant-psycho-murderer-mare. “Well, this concert certainly is something.” I said, a short but awkward moment of silence filling the room just before. “It’s really an honor to be participating in it.”

“I heard you singing during the rehearsal a little bit ago.” she commented, much more easygoing now. “You have a voice to match some of our own singers here.”

“She just doesn’t believe it yet.” Saharra remarked with a chuckle.

“I’ll believe it,” I assured, a little laugh of my own escaping me. “but only if my friends say the same thing.”

“You’ll prove it to them soon enough, outsider.” Glider encouraged.

“And if you’re going to do that, you’ll need to look the part as well.” Back in front of me, I saw Moonbeam as she turned away to trot up to one of the closet doors, the center one of the five. “When you were rehearsing your piece, I had managed to get a look at you and take in your natural colors, outsider. I have a dress here that I’d like you to try, as I think it will complement those colors rather well.”

As she opened up the closet, I took a step forward, as of yet unable to see any of the said dresses that might’ve been behind the doors. “Do I really have to wear a dress for this concert?” I asked, hastily adding, “I have nothing against dresses, truly. It’s just that I feel like I’m not trusted enough around here to wear one yet. It’s like Ludwig said back there, some of your dresses were made by Rarity. I mean, if I were to damage it…”

“You’re right to be concerned, and I appreciate that.” Moonbeam answered, closing the first door and moving to the fourth closet to the right, rummaging through it. “These dresses and their preservation are my prime concern and passion here on base. But truthfully, the concerts themselves are much more important than articles of clothing.” Pausing, Moonbeam let out a soft ‘ah-ha’ as she found the dress she was looking for. “Still, it’s been tradition in Buckley for soloists outside of the largest ensembles to wear the more elegant clothing rather than just standard black or white gowns or full tuxedos. And hopefully, you will like the one I’ve picked out for you.” It was then that she stepped back out of the closet and, with horn shimmering soft light, brought before my eyes her choice.

Hanging on a simple metal hanger was a graceful and breathtaking silk dress of pure sapphire. At what I distinguished to be the front of the dress, small diamond and sapphire gemstones glinted at me in the light of the room, and along the fabric, threadwork in the form of three thin silver lines wove in gentle curves from the front to the end of the dress. There looked to be two parts to the outfit, with what looked to be some kind of cloak that extended slightly up and outward from the main body of the dress. On the whole dress, there was nothing that was overdone, no excess decorations or fluff, nothing that threatened absurdity or outlandishness. Instead, its elegance was combined with what I felt to be a rather simple design, something that was made to express grace and beauty, but doing so while carrying with it a degree of strength, of confidence and spiritual fortitude.

I was a thread away from speechlessness. “Goddesses… it’s beautiful.”

“I had a feeling she’d like it.” Saharra remarked quietly from her place nearby, leaning over towards Loreena who let out a polite giggle.

“It’s one of Rarity’s designs, likely made during the later years of the war.” Moonbeam explained to me, smiling as she removed the hanger and set it aside, analyzing the masterpiece with loving eyes. “A lot of her more complex designs came during the pre-war era, back when her duties in the ministry didn’t take up her time, at least as far as I know.”

“How did you come across it?” I asked, likewise looking along the rest of the dress as Moonbeam checked it over.

“Rarity didn’t just make dresses for her friends.” she answered. “Back before the ministry took up her time, she made quite a name for herself in the fashion business, and her dresses took up places in markets all around the country. Even during the war, she still had some spare time to do what she loved the most, and her designs were still highly regarded.”

“As for how Buckley has its own,” Saharra added. “a lot of the musicians that Stable One Ninety-two took in had their own concert attire, and some of the more renowned performers in Marefax came with some of Rarity’s dresses. The Stable, with Buckley following after, has kept them safe ever since the beginning of the wasteland days.”

“Wow… I’m almost afraid to wear it. I don’t want to damage it.”

To my apprehension, though, Moonbeam shook her head. “Oh, don’t worry about that, outsider. We’ll get this dress on you right quick.” Pausing, she turned back to the other three soloists, giving them the command to sit tight while she fitted me with my dress, and then, facing back to me, she nodded for me to join her as she presented the shiny blue fabric. “Alright, go ahead and start by fitting your head through here. Once you do so, I’ll do the rest.”

With a nod, I complied, tentatively stretching out my neck before she slid the dress over me. My head fit easily through the hole, whereupon the dress rested atop me like one big cloak, before Moonbeam’s horn flashed with light. I immediately recalled the feeling of being picked up by telekinesis, back in Proudspire when Gabriel had tried to assassinate the settlement’s young leader. This time, the spell only lifted up my right foreleg to slide the limb through the leg slot at the front, Moonbeam doing the same to my left foreleg right afterwards. The spell startled me, though only slightly, and to the point where I was soon lost in discovering how my forelimbs looked with the equipped dress. The silk ran down to just past my knees, and with a light gasp, I discovered that the gemstones adorning the dress were arranged on the chest of the outfit, the alternating diamonds and sapphires starting at my shoulders and working their way down the silk in a V shape, the point ending at the base of my chest. At the center of my breast was a larger sapphire gemstone, circular-cut, that glittered softly with the smaller stones to either side of it.

I raised a forehoof to touch the stones, tracing the left side up to my shoulder, then tracing the edge of the silk that fit comfortably around the base of my neck. Then, lowering my hoof back to the floor, I looked over my shoulder to see that Moonbeam had, true to her promise, already secured the majority of the dress to me. The dress had covered my upper and middle back, wrapping around my torso to equally cover my belly, all of this ending just shy of my hips. But my hindquarters were then covered with what looked to be a second part of the dress – the wide and long cloak-like attachment had been sewed into the main body of the dress, beginning at the shoulders and fanning out along over my sides and back. Moonbeam was now smoothing out the silk before letting it fall gently over my haunches to cover my hind legs, flanks, and my tail. Then, lifting up the left side, I heard as a pair of buckles clicked, connecting the back of the dress’s tail to the main body; upon doing the same with the other side, Moonbeam was finished.

“There.” she proclaimed, nodding as she trotted back around to stand beside me. “How does it fit?” Experimentally, I stretched out each of my legs, taking a couple of steps to feel how I moved with the priceless dress covering my body. It was a comfortable fit, a little loose, but still secure… with the only exception being my wings, which were not able to move; they had been pressed to my sides by the main body of the dress. However, when I expressed this concern, Moonbeam only smiled. “Ah yes. Let me fix that for you.” she replied, turning to trot back around to my left side. “A little alteration magic should solve the problem.”

I cocked an eyebrow, following her with my eyes. “Wait, what are you doing now?”

“You’ll see. Just hold still a moment.” Again, Moonbeam’s horn came to life with light, but this time much brighter, the light even seeming to pulse as she focused on my left side. To my shock, I saw as the fabric of the dress begun to split, as if an invisible pair of scissors was cutting into it, and Moonbeam guided the bizarre spell to cut through both the outer layer and main body of the dress until, wrapping the limb up in telekinesis, my wing was able to easily unfurl and open up wide again. It was then that the unicorn’s first spell then worked in reverse, and like a healing potion for dresses, the precise cuts Moonbeam had made immediately fused back together, wrapped delicately around my wing joint until the light from her horn faded away into nothing.

For a greater lack of descriptive sentences, the words expressing my stunned mindset amounted only to, “Holy crap…” I gave my now free wing a couple of flaps, admiring how the gray feathers, every single one of them undamaged and present in the places they should be, meshed into the sapphire fabric, the dress now like a backdrop of the moonlit sky in the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre’s mural. “How in Equestria did you do that??”

“It’s an alteration spell, a pre-war dressmaker’s favorite.” Moonbeam answered, executing the same procedure on my other side. “I learned it years ago from a book. It’s ideal for mending tears and adjusting the size of an article of clothing, but only so long as you don’t use it too often. It can be very taxing if it’s used on a daily basis.”

“I have a feeling that it would be hard to find a spell like that out where you come from, outsider.” Loreena chimed in, casting a smile our way as Moonbeam brought my right wing out with her telekinesis.

Considering that the spell was used for altering the fabric of dresses… well, yeah.

With a final nod, Moonbeam declared herself finished, letting the light of her horn fade away. “Feel better?” she asked me, to which I gratefully nodded; both of my wings moved just as they had in my M.P.D. armor. “Good, good. Now then, I have just a couple of things to add to this dress, and then, I’ll need you to have a seat by one of the dressers. Gisela and Marlena may have cleaned you up, but a little makeup goes a long way, and that’s something that you must have up on stage.”

Wait a second… “Makeup?… Wait, I’ve never worn makeup before.”

“There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?” Moonbeam asked, trotting away to the leftmost dresser and opening its bottom right drawer.

I frowned thinly. “Is it really necessary?” I asked, dubious. Back in Stable 181, there had been a collection of mares who had spruced themselves up with various makeups, – powders and eyeliner and eyeshadow and other things of the like – but I had never really understood the point of the stuff. Sure it might’ve made mares look more appealing to the Stable’s stallions, but it was my mother who had indirectly influenced me to stay away from the stuff. She had said that is wasn’t makeup and a desire to prettify herself that had attracted my father to her, that it was her natural looks and personality that had done so, and that that was good enough for her; therefore, natural looks were my kind of thing.

“You’re in a concert, my dear pegasus.” Moonbeam replied with horn glimmering back to life, multiple containers floating on up to the top of the dresser. “Even if it’s light, I think a small application of some basic makeups will make a lovely final touch on you.”

Yeah… I guess there was a first time for everything. “I guess… just so long as you don’t brush my mane or anything. I like that just the way it is.”

“Of course. Although, I do have a couple of trinkets for you to wear, some extra things that match the dress.” Moonbeam replied, closing the dresser drawer to trot back over to the closets, this time opening the far left one. “A little extra decoration, especially the right kind, can really make an impact on how you present yourself.”

Well, that was certainly a little more appealing than makeup. “What do you have?” I asked, stepping over to stand a distance behind the dress mare as she rummaged through the closet.

“Just a couple of things.” she explained. “I already planned ahead when I picked out that dress for you, and I think they’ll compliment the outfit perfectly… Ah, here they are.” A moment later, and the mare emerged with two items in her telekinetic grasp. “What do you think of these?”

The first item was a bracelet, a basic design that consisted only of a single curved plate, but with the steel-blue color of the metal, very similar to Archer’s coat color, glinting in the light from a recent and thorough polishing. The second item, however, was a breathtaking flower, a sapphire daisy with twelve lush petals and a vibrant yellow center; underneath it was a metal clasp. “Oh my… that flower’s gorgeous.” I commented with a smile.

“It was freshly picked from the orchard, and not even an hour ago, actually.” Moonbeam replied with a matching smile. “If you’d let me, I’ll go ahead and put these on, and you can go see how they look in the mirror.”

I nodded my approval. “Yeah, sure.”

At that, Moonbeam stepped up face to face with me, first bringing up the metal bracelet. “Right or left foreleg?” she asked, to which, after a moment of thought, I raised my right foreleg. With her magic, she levitated the bracelet up to the waiting limb and clasped it down, fitting snugly between my knee and my hoof. “It’s an interesting replacement for that computer of yours isn’t it?” she commented, nodding in approval as she looked the trinket over.

I agreed with a laugh. “It’s much more comfortable, too.”

“Indeed.” she replied, sharing my laughter. “And now, the flower.” The beautiful blossom hovered up over my head, and at her command, I bowed as she craned her head up to see. Then, with a flick of her magic, I felt as the clasp under the flower slipped into my mane and closed, holding the daisy in place on the right side of my head, right by my ear. “There. Let’s have a look at you.”

At her gesture, I followed the unicorn over to one of the full-body mirrors… and I stopped as the mare in the reflection met my eyes. Never in my life had I pictured myself trying to wear spectacular clothing, to dress myself up in such a way that would completely reverse my generally tomboyish physical appearance. Never, ever, had I believed that I could even come close to resembling a ladylike figure, a mirror model of some of the mares who had lived in Stable 181. And yet now, staring back at me was a reflection of that very figure who donned a gorgeous blue silk dress, with glimmering diamonds and sapphires on her chest and silver threadwork that wove along her sides like thin ribbons of moonlight. The steel-blue bracelet around her right foreleg glinted in the mirror, and the flower in her mane sat perfectly still, tilted at just a slight angle by her ear.

In my eyes, what I saw was an icon of genuine ladylike beauty and grace… and… “Goddesses… that’s me.” The words came out in a whisper, my reflection and I shaking our heads in unison. Had I attempted something like this back in One eighty-one, I would have laughed at myself for the sheer ridiculousness of it all. And had I thought of the possible existence of something like this on the surface world, with the way it was now, I would have discarded the thought immediately. This was not something that belonged in the wasteland… this was something that didn’t belong to our world. But now, in Buckley, I was a wastelander utterly transformed by history’s treasures, the secrets that all those howitzers protected.

As Moonbeam trotted back to the dressers, giving me all the time I needed while she prepped my makeup, I shook my head before looking up to the ceiling. With all of this, I just had to wonder if, somewhere up there, my parents were looking down upon me, their little filly… now looking every bit a lady as I, or they, could have ever imagined. I smiled at the thought, and I swore I felt my parents smiling back at me. “Mom… dad…” I thought to myself. “This song’s for you.”

*** *** ***

Voices.

Beyond the door, I heard the gentle roar of ponies’ voices as the citizenry begun to file into the concert hall for the upcoming performance. Saharra and I were together outside the back of the stage, the both of us having undergone our full dress-up before we dismissed ourselves. For me, Moonbeam had used only a small dosage of makeup that consisted of light powder on my cheeks and neck, a thin layer of eyeshadow, a single application of eyeliner, and a small touchup job on my eyelashes for what she said to be “more definition”. Saharra was now wearing a deep crimson dress that matched her natural coat color, with patterns of gold silk etched into the sides and the chest; a cerulean sash adorned with diamonds stretched from her left shoulder and crossed diagonally across her chest, hooking back up and around behind her forelegs.

“It doesn’t sound like the youth ensemble’s started yet.” Saharra observed. “They’ll be playing the welcoming tune shortly, though.”

“Will I have time to find my friends?” I asked her.

“Oh certainly.” she assured. “Just make sure to use the other door instead of going back onstage. The door will take you right back out to the main floor.”

I nodded. “Okay. I’m going to go ahead and find them, then. I’m really excited to listen to the other ensembles.”

“Oh I know. You’re positively gushing with enthusiasm.” the concertmaster teased; it was true. “Just remember to come back to the stage at the start of The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun. You’re up after that.”

“I will.”

With that, Saharra about-faced, and with a smile, said, “Alright then, Nova. See you on the stage.”

Going our separate ways, I immediately raised a hoof to the door handle, turning it and pushing the door open. On the stage, the divider panel had already been lowered, concealing the backstage area from the eyes of the audience, and without the door to barricade the way, the sound of the voices reached my ears in full. “Sweet Luna, there’s got to be hundreds of ponies in here.” I muttered, turning my attention to the second door nearby and trotting over to it. The door led directly to a single hallway, a narrow walled-in walkway with a gradual downward slant that eventually leveled out at the main floor. Setting my pace at a steady trot, I followed the hall all the way back down until I emerged onto the floor. Without the wall blocking my way, I was allowed to take in the full sight of the concert hall… and it was impressive to say the least.

The grand balcony above the main floor was filled with ponies, with well over a couple hundred already having taken seats while more still steadily filed in. On the main floor, families and small groups of friends were taking up spaces for themselves, spread just far enough apart from one another to allow a comfortable arrangement for each to sit together. The layout reminded me of a park where families would have picnics, and it spread all the way out to the opposite end of the concert hall, the giant space already taken up by another couple hundred attendants.

Now, the question was how I was going to find Gracie, Shore, and Blake in this gigantic crowd. And yet, no sooner had I asked myself this when I heard my name close by, traveling to my ears even through the noise of the steadily growing assembly. But instead of finding my friends as the culprits, I was surprised to find Commander Tracer nearby as he gave me a wave. The commander of Buckley’s armed forces was wearing his blue and black combat armor, all of the plates having been repaired to new condition and with his copper, bronze, silver, and gold medals polished to a brilliant shine. On his head, he wore what I recognized to be a beret, made of black fabric with an Old World military patch sewn into the front, containing the red shield, open feathered wings, and two steel spears in a V shape surrounding the cutie marks of Celestia and Luna that made the Equestrian Air Force logo.

“Oh, hello commander.” I greeted, dipping my head.

“You look nice, outsider.” he replied, returning the gesture with an easygoing smile. “Looks like you spent some fashion time with Moonbeam.”

I nodded with a chuckle. “Yeah, she really knows her stuff… She picked this for me since I’m singing up there later in the concert. It’s a really pretty dress.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised that Ludwig would pull something like that.” Tracer remarked, shaking his head in amusement. “It’s a good idea, really. I look forward to hearing you.”

“Thanks.”

From behind the commander, I saw as a couple of citizens stepped aside for another pony, a mare I recognized as Buckley’s Master Sergeant, Amber Dawn, who was currently pushing a small, white, four-wheeled carriage with her forehooves. Tracer, following my gaze, spotted her and gave her a warm smile as she stepped up beside him and lowered herself to all four hooves, bringing her wagon to a halt. Her own outfit likewise consisted of combat armor, the lighter variant, with her own medals likewise cleaned and glinting; she lacked the beret that the commander wore, but otherwise looked very similar to Tracer’s own uniform. “Hey, Amber.” Tracer hailed. “How’s the little guy?”

“He’s just as excited for this concert as everypony else is.” the amber mare replied, giggling as she peered into the carriage… what I now recognized to be a baby carriage. Then, looking back up at me, Amber Dawn gave me a smile of her own. “Hello, outsider. How do you like the concert hall?”

“Oh, it’s great.” I replied, forcing my attention back to her as I mimicked her smile, then looking back up at the balcony. “It’s even more impressive at seeing just how many ponies are coming in.”

“Most of the settlement files in for these concerts.” Tracer explained, swinging his head down to look into the baby carriage, adopting a rather fatherly smile. “This is Oscar’s first.”

“Oscar?” I asked.

“He’s our son.” Amber answered proudly.

Oh… OH! “You two are married…”

“That’s right. Have been for years, friend.” the commander answered, both parents turning to me and swiftly taking note of my surprise; they replied with silence.

I was quick to apologize, even though they hadn’t called me out on it. “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting that you two… well, you know, with you both being officers here…”

“It’s okay.” Dawn replied with a shrug. “But while you might think it’d be awkward for Tracer to pass orders to me, and for both of us to work together as ranking ponies on base, we’ve grown more than used to living two lives.”

“On normal days, we spend a few hours out on base training the guards, inspecting vehicles and equipment, tending to whatever Mother Shimmer needs us to do.” Tracer explained. “We’re different ponies then, but outside of that, we get the rest of the day to be with our son, to be ourselves as a family.”

“Do you want to come see him?” Amber then offered, nodding even as I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “He’s wide awake and full of energy.”

“Um… sure.” With a timid smile, I approached the baby carriage, stepping around the right side of the wagon before peering inside. There, in a pile of clean white blankets, a baby colt lay with stubby legs spread out as he writhed and kicked in his bed, wide curious eyes looking this way and that as the baby pony took in his new surroundings. Little Oscar had a bright orange coat that complimented his mother, and already, a lock of dark green was growing on his head and hindquarters, the beginning of a mane and tail that resembled his father’s hair color. And when those wide and curious eyes fell on me, I just couldn’t contain myself from the overly adorable sight. “Oh, isn’t he just the sweetest little thing?”

Beside me, Amber Dawn chuckled again, lowering her head down to nuzzle her child. “He’s our angel.”

“How old is he?” I asked.

“He’ll be five months old next week.” Tracer answered with pride.

I turned back to the little colt. “Aw, he’s adorable.” But then, Oscar suddenly let out a cute little wail, smiling big as his forelegs reached up for me, making me lean back in slight surprise.

But to my cluelessness, Amber laughed, saying, “I think he wants to give you a hug.”

“Uh…”

“Don’t worry. He does this a lot for some reason or another. All our closer friends have been subject to his baby hugs.” Tracer added to my left, similarly amused as I looked up at him. However, at my hesitation, he only gave a nod. “Go ahead, Nova. I trust you.” Again, I faced the child, Oscar uttering another squeaky cry with forelegs swiveling while he waited for me. And shaking my head, with a baffled smile, I complied with the young one’s demands.

Carefully, I lowered my head into the carriage, bringing my muzzle down to Oscar’s waiting forelegs. When in range, the baby colt’s hooves latched on, embracing me as he burbled incoherent toddler words. A hushed note of laughter escaped me at that, my breath passing over him as his little forehooves patted along my face, whereupon I tentatively nuzzled along his chest and belly. “I think he likes you, outsider.” Amber spoke beside me.

After a moment, Oscar’s forelegs let my muzzle free, and I pulled back away, giving the baby his space. “He’s so cute.” I complimented in reply.

“Thanks.” To my right, I felt Dawn’s hoof press my side, and looking at her, I saw a look of slight but noticeable concern. “Hey, um, I was actually hoping to find you tonight, just to get something off my back.” she said, to which I cocked an eyebrow. “You know, back when you first arrived, I was just doing my job bringing you in, making sure that you didn’t turn and try to attack anypony on the base and all that… but at the same time, I was kind of being a jerk to you and your friends… and even your little brother in one case. So… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for all of that. I know that you’re a friend of Buckley now, so I was kind of hoping that we could start over.”

I smiled at that. “I think we can safely set all of that stuff behind us now.” I replied, noticing how the master sergeant visibly eased. “I’m glad you apologized though, not that I would’ve minded if you didn’t. But in regards to my brother, yeah, some of the stuff you said was annoying… and I did call you a smartass because of it. But, like I said, I think we can put all that in the past where it belongs.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Amber replied, raising a foreleg to me, whereupon I bopped my hoof to hers. “So, would you like to join us for when the concert starts? We’d be glad to have you.”

“I was actually looking for my other friends.” I explained, looking past her and into the crowd. “If I find them, I can bring them back here.”

“I saw Archer farther back.” Tracer replied, nodding towards the entrance doors of the main floor. “I think he was with a couple of your friends.”

“Oh, good. I’m going to see if I can find them, then.” Already trotting away in search, I called back to add, “When I do, I’ll bring them to you.”

“Sounds good.” Amber answered. “We’ll be here.”

With that, I focused back ahead, scanning along the mass. At the moment, I couldn’t find any familiar faces amongst the base’s civilians, and the crowd was continuing to thicken. But thanks to Moonbeam, I had an easy solution to the problem, and with a flap of my wings, I sprung up above the heads of the multitude of ponies. Though that caught the surprised attention of those nearest to me, I only cracked a small smile as I hovered to continue my search, and finally, after a moment, I found a familiar pink and white mane amidst the field of color. With a short flight, I found Gracie standing with Shore and Blake, all three free of weapons, armor, and saddlebags, looking this way and that as they likewise searched for me. Thankfully, there was enough space to land easily by them, and hovering in, I tapped Gracie on the back before landing on all fours beside her.

My approach had startled her, as I had playfully intended, and she was shocked further when she turned to face me. At my presence, she took a surprised step back as she looked me up and down, eyes widened. But that surprise quickly morphed into a big smile. “Oh my Goddesses, Nova!” she exclaimed, lunging forward to wrap me up in a hug, an embrace that I happily returned. “Wow, look at you!” she continued, releasing me as she looked over my outfit again. “You’re so pretty!”

I laughed at her compliment. “Thanks, Gracie.” I could now chalk that commendation up as one that I had only formerly thought I would never hear.

“Whoa! Cool clothes, big sister!” Blake then spoke up, stepping up to my right before I likewise embraced him.

“Hey there, baby brother.” I responded, nuzzling along his forehead.

“Was this the surprise you were talking about?” he asked, looking up at me in open curiosity.

“Just part of it.” I answered, releasing him as Shore stepped up beside Grace. “You’ll see the rest soon enough.”

Then it was Shore’s turn, the both of exchanging our own embrace. “Hopefully I won’t mess up your dress, friend.” the stallion said, the both of us releasing one another.

“Oh don’t be ridiculous.” I assured, waving a hoof dismissively. “This is one of Rarity’s designs. I don’t think a simple hug is going to do anything to it.”

“Rarity’s??” Gracie exclaimed, to which I nodded in reply. “Oh wow, that really is something.”

“I know it.” I agreed, stepping back from Shore to give myself some space. “Hey, where’s Raemor? Is he coming?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” Shore answered, adjusting his reading glasses. “We had found him just before we came here, but he wanted to be left alone.”

“He still wouldn’t tell us what was wrong.” Gracie added concernedly. “But, perhaps he’ll come by later on.”

“Hm… I think in the next couple of days, I’m going to see if I can’t get him to open up to us a little bit more.” I replied after a moment’s silence. “I was kind of hoping he would come, too.”

“Archer came with us, though.” Grace explained with a smile, nodding behind me when I looked back up to her.

Sure enough, when I craned my head around to look, I found the steel-blue pegasus standing a short distance away, looking to have just finished mingling with one of the civilian stallions who was trotting back into the crowd. The pegasus was now completely stripped of armor and weapons, and he wore no barding or saddlebags. No. He was completely bare, steel-blue coat fully exposed… and Goddesses, I had to say he was quite a sight. The handsome stallion was sturdily built, not bulging with muscle but still toned and physically fit, and with that, he also maintained the sleeker and… well, frankly, sexier… ahem… character of the pegasus species. I could tell by looking him over that he had made his own trip to the spa to wash up, his coat devoid of discolorations, and his midnight-black mane and tail a single solid and unblemished color. His wings, like my own, were well-kept, not a single feather out of place; even the brutal injury that his left wing had taken in Marefax was completely gone. However, I found one feature about him that was particularly striking, that feature being the stallion’s cutie mark. I recognized the shape of a puffy cloud, from the bottom of which lashed out a lightning bolt. But the strange thing about it was that the whole mark was done up in black, with a lingering charcoal hue surrounding it like an ominous aura of smoke on his coat.

“Nova…” The stallion’s voice snapped my attention up to his eyes… those strong, striking hazel eyes. But to my surprise, I found that those very eyes were looking at me slightly widened, Archer’s mouth hung just barely open as he approached me… as if he were trying to find the right words to make his next sentence with. But then, frozen in place, I found my right foreleg being delicately hooked in his, and slowly, the pegasus raised the limb up to his muzzle before placing a tender kiss just below my bracelet.

Then, bowed over the leg, his eyes flicked up to me. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

Oh… oh my…

In half a second, I found myself blushing hotly as Archer released my foreleg, now smiling back at me with that small but confident smile of his as he patiently waited for a response. “I… I bet you say that to all the mares.” I managed, cocking my head to the side in a futile attempt to hide my embarrassment.

But the stallion shook his head, still keeping that smile. “Hardly.”

Somehow, someway, my blush intensified… any moment now, I’d be bursting into flames.

“Oh… th-thank you…”

Then, my ears perked at the sound of a procession of quick and lively musical notes, and I turned to find that the youth ensemble, having already been set up, was now beginning their tune as the crowd begun to go silent. The ensemble had set themselves up so that the eight younger unicorn children carrying the boomwhackers were lined up at the front of the stage. Behind them, set up in an arch, were the eight older string players of the ensemble, and on either side of the formation was one of the ensemble’s marimbas, each attended by two older unicorn children. The ensemble’s electronic keyboard was set on the far left side, wielded by a young earth pony filly, and the bass clarinetist, an adult unicorn mare, was set on the right. The boomwhackers were striking the floor to accompany the steady melody coming from the right-side marimba set, and the two double basses, played by adult earth ponies, added to the music as their players plucked at the strings with their hooves. Then, another layer of sound was added as the second marimba set took over the melody, with the strikes of the boomwhackers growing in volume as the music continued to build upon itself.

Music to the rescue!

“Oh, they’re starting.” As the catchy tune continued, I motioned for Archer to join me by the others, my friends coming to stand by me. “Commander Tracer and Amber Dawn are set up just over that way. I told them I’d bring you all to them when I found you.”

“Sure, lead the way.” Grace happily replied; to my great amusement and approval, she was already bobbing her head to the energetic beat of the tune. Thankfully, appealing as the melody was, Gracie still followed behind me as I guided my companions back through the crowd. And as I led them on, I quickly found myself humming with the introductory tune as it progressed.

Now, the concert had truly begun!

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

With a laugh, I happily stomped my forehooves on the floor in applause, the concert hall erupting with cheering from the hundreds of ponies inside. On the stage, the children set their boomwhackers to the floor and smiled, waving to the crowd as the string players set their instruments down to bow on their own accord, the talented marimba players, bass clarinetist, and young pianist doing the same. A moment later, and the ensemble swiftly gathered up their instruments, the adults of the group helping to move the larger instruments as Buckley’s youth ensemble cleared off the stage, the applause beginning to fade.

The piece that they had played, serving as the greeting song to welcome everypony to another musical event, had perfectly fit with the purpose it had been given. It was so lively, so colorful and rich, and so otherworldly, quite in the literal sense of the word. Whether it was supposed to be one of the concert’s “dance tunes” or not, I had found myself up on my hooves and swaying with the beat, and Grace had saved me from looking like a total fool by joining in my dancing with equal enthusiasm; to my pleasant surprise, the Buckley citizens around our spot on the floor had only smiled at our shenanigans, a couple of them even dancing together in response.

I loved this concert already, and we had so many more songs to go!

As the youth ensemble exited behind the divider panel, my eyes caught motion coming from the ceiling, and I gawked at the sight of a wide platform lowering down from the ceiling. It was suspended by multiple steel arms, the whole thing like an industrial-grade elevator as the system mechanics above it faded out of sight, the lights of the performance space suddenly dimming to almost complete darkness, leaving only a small array of lighting units to illuminate the stage. As the platform slowly descended, the corner of my vision caught movement from the stage, and once more, applause roared back to life in the hall as Ludwig emerged. Carrying a smile on his face as he trotted onto the stage, Buckley’s music director was garbed in a handsome tuxedo with a white shirt and bowtie and a black overcoat, and his blonde mane was combed back and smoothed out.

Adding my own hooves to the noise, I watched as he trotted over to the front and center of the stage, facing the audience of hundreds and giving a humble bow. Then, the stomping cut out with uniform swiftness, and with horn glowing, Ludwig spoke. “Welcome, one and all, to a brand new concert!” he announced, his amplified voice carrying across the entire performance space. “I will be brief, but I do have an announcement to make… As you have likely heard, Buckley has made its first venture into the outside world today, sending an expedition out into the wasteland beyond our fences for the first time in almost seventy years. The goal – to find and secure Old World technology that would ultimately give us a foundation to make an attempt to integrate into the outside world. But hoof-in-hoof with this was an objective devised by Buckley’s musicians – to find Old World musical instruments that survived the balefire apocalypse, and to bring them under Buckley’s protection. And I am proud to say that both of these objectives were completed successfully, and with no loss of our own.” His words were met with strong applause, voices cheering… although, I noticed, not as loud as before, as my friends and I likewise applauded Ludwig’s words. “Tonight,” the director continued, the noise dying away. “Buckley’s musicians are proud to bring you a special event, one that would not have been possible without the valor and bravery of our homeland’s fine guardsponies and the commander that leads them. Everypony, before we begin, please give a round of applause to Commander Tracer and any and all Buckley guards that are present for tonight’s concert. They’ve earned the praise!” To my approval, the audience’s response was much stronger as they stomped and cheered, and with a smile, I turned to my left to where Commander Tracer sat nearby, giving a small wave before Amber Dawn reached over, drawing him in to face her and planting a loving kiss on his lips. “And now,” Ludwig’s amplified voice continued, drawing my gaze back to the stage. “without further ado, I present to you Buckley’s artists from every corner of the musical world, here to present to you some of the finest treasures from the Old World.”

As Ludwig dismissed himself from the stage, the lowering elevator behind him came to a halt, the steel arms setting it down soundlessly on the stage before they were released from the clamps on the platform, retreating back into the ceiling from whence they came. On the platform, a set of iron pedestals arranged into four levels held an assembly of around fifty mares and stallions, all standing side by side and holding, whether on music stands or telekinesis, songbooks from the church.

Buckley’s church choir would be starting off the concert tonight, and from the front row of the risers, an earth pony mare garbed in a simple black cloak stepped down as applause once more carried through the concert hall. And after a deep bow, she turned about and faced the choir, raising her right foreleg that brought every singer to attention. And then, with a fluid motion of her hoof, the choir sounded its first note.

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

With a final motion of her leg, the choir conductor commanded the ensemble’s final chord, the fifty voices up on the risers sustaining the sound at a surprisingly soft volume. And slowly, the chord faded out into nothingness, the ethereal grace of the song’s ending eliciting a shiver to travel up my back. Silence was allowed to follow the song’s closure, that final chord ringing in my ears as I greedily kept it in my memory. Then, the concert hall was alive with hearty applause that I eagerly joined with, watching as the conductor turned and bowed with a smile.

“Goddesses, I love the sound of those voices.” I commented over the noise, leaning over to where Blake, Grace, and Shore sat by my right side.

“It’s awesome!” Blake cheered enthusiastically.

“It most certainly is.” Gracie agreed with a giggle, Shore nodding beside her. “It’s so soothing, so elegant.”

“It looks like they’ve got another song for us, too.” Archer remarked, turning to look at me where he sat by my left side, between myself and Commander Tracer, Amber, and little Oscar.

Already, the applause was fading out, and when we all turned to the stage again, I saw as the conductor once again faced her ensemble, right hoof coming up again as the choir came to attention. And with the same fluid motion, the voice of the choir graced our ears once more.

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

With a sigh, I smiled and bowed my head as the final breathtaking chord rang from the choir, basking in the purity of the sound and the proceeding silence as the choir conductor cut her singers off. I was among the first to stomp my hooves for the beautiful song, my brother and my friends all following suit with the rest of the hall. Up on the stage, the choir conductor once again faced us, and together, both she and her ensemble bowed to their admirers. This time, the applause went on for what seemed like minutes, the choir standing tall and proud and taking in the approval of the audience. But when the ovation begun to fade again, movement from behind the stage’s divider panel caught my attention. A red-orange unicorn stallion with a wild black mane, DJ Flynt, leapt out onto the stage, and behind him, a cluster of half a dozen others came filing out. The applause immediately reignited as Flynt grinned to the crowd, looking out into the audience through his orange-lensed glasses and trotting up beside the now-amused choir conductor. “Hello Buckley Air Force Base!” the DJ called, horn alight to cast a similar amplification spell to Ludwig’s. “Yeah!”

I couldn’t help but smirk as my ears took note of the extra-enthusiastic cheering coming from some of the mares in the audience.

Trotting on by, likewise giving waves and smiles, three of Flynt’s crew members (consisting of two unicorn stallions and one mare) carried with them a heavy black table with two large built-in speaker boxes and cables coiled up neatly on its flat back. Upon bringing it to the right side of the stage, they set it on the floor, whereupon the mare of the team immediately took hold of the cables and unwound them with her magic, guiding them to some sort of outlet on the stage wall.

“Man, I’ve gotta say, there’s nothing quite like hearing the church choir.” Flynt spoke with energy as his team set up shop. “They’ve got a lot of talent in order to belt out a sound like that, and you just know their hearts are two hundred percent into their music. How about y’all give ‘em another round of applause, huh?”

The audience immediately complied, causing, I noticed with a laugh, the choir conductor to flush before she bowed again. At the far left end of the stage, a second team of three unicorns, all mares, were setting up a similar speaker array to the first as, behind them, another unicorn mare, electric blue with a neon purple mane and tail, emerged carrying an electronic keyboard and an instrument stand in her telekinesis. This instrument she brought up to Flynt, whereupon she swiftly set up the stand and placed the keyboard atop it.

Adjusting his glasses, DJ Flynt continued with, “But I tell you what, there just comes a time when you need a little more rhythm in life. The church might pack the melody, the elegance… but we at Club Eternity pack the beat!” The crowd’s voice rose once again as the energetic DJ paced along the stage; to his right and left, his teams of lively unicorns were coming to attention, waiting for their cue as their contraptions were set. “I think it’s time that we give y’all a taste of that tonight.” Flynt asserted, trotting back around behind the assembled keyboard to join the mare at its keys. “And to all you guys and gals on the floor,” he added, drawing a hoof past all of us as he kept that smirk up behind his glasses. “don’t disappoint us by not getting up and dancing. Because these next few tunes are made just for that!” With a laugh, the DJ looked between his crews, the choir conductor snappily raising up her foreleg to cue her singers, all of whom had set aside their songbooks to stand relaxed on their risers. And getting nods from both teams, Flynt faced the keyboard and gave the nod for his portion of the concert to begin.

And as the first electronic notes rippled out through the speakers, my friends and I all stood as the DJ commanded; within seconds, we were one and all moving to the beat.

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Even as the song continued to die away, the ponies in the audience were already cheering and laughing together as Flynt, his fellow DJs, and the choir all continued to smile and grin together. I was facing Blake, with Shore standing by my left side and facing Gracie as we let ourselves relax from our dancing, which had been everything but skilled or professional. In truth, the stomping and spinning and jumping to the beat might have been, to some, the most ridiculous-looking thing in the wasteland, especially in my case with the dress I wore. But not one of us cared – we were having fun, my outfit and makeup were just fine, and all of our energy now merely served to fuel our laughter that followed the song’s closure. It had come as a total shock to me that electronic music had, somehow, been shaped to coexist with choral tunes back during the olden days. It was certainly not a combination I had been expecting, and yet, I had just heard it and danced to it, with all my friends, old and new, at my side.

And there was still a whole night left.

From the ceiling, the metal arms of the elevator reappeared, falling silently to the stage as DJ Flynt once again amplified his voice with a spell. “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” As the spirited DJ and his team soaked in the approval of the Buckley citizenry, the metal arms locked back into place on the platform that held the choir, and with a light groan of metal the elevator begun to recede back up to the ceiling, carrying Buckley’s church choir with it as the ensemble members waved their farewells. “Give one more shout to the church choir for me! They’ve done good tonight!” Flynt added, backing up a few steps to watch the elevator as the audience heartily obeyed his encouragement.

As I recalled the dress rehearsal, I knew that what was coming up next were tunes from Club Eternity itself, music that wasn’t paired with a different ensemble, but only pure electronic music from the Eternity DJs themselves. Though the phrases I had heard from the rehearsal earlier in the day did not chalk up the club music to my absolute favorite genre, what I had heard was very pleasing to the ear and quite catchy… epic, as Flynt himself had callx. Either way, it had still been amazing to learn that the tables up on stage, powered through Buckley’s spark generators, packed all of the dials, buttons, and other components that they needed to create a huge range of different timbres. They could even mimic whole choirs and orchestras, create their own percussive elements with an electric touch, and create a seemingly limitless number of background effects to create a diverse genre of music. All in all, I was more than ready to hear a couple of full tunes in this style.

With the elevator locking back into the ceiling above the stage, Flynt turned his attention to the audience, looking among us over the rims of his bizarre glasses. “Alright, everypony. We’re gonna keep dishing out the beats for y’all now with a club favorite.” he explained, trotting back to his place by the electronic keyboard. “I tell you, I don’t know why, but this next tune we’ve got lined up really gets me thinking, gets the mental gears going. I think that when you spend enough time with all this equipment, blasting through hours upon hours playing through some of these tunes and tinkering around with them, it makes you look back on the past… and it makes you think – ponies like Vinyl Scratch and DJ Foxtrot really knew what they were doing back then. They really knew how to make something that could impact a pony, inspire them… now those are a couple of pre-war idols for us guys and gals in Eternity, and if those Old World DJs are up there listening to us tonight… well, these next jams go out to them, and they go out to all of you in the audience tonight, who’ve got the blessing to hear what they’ve left behind for us.”

Then, adjusting his glasses, his smirk returned to him as he left his reminiscent speech. “Now let’s get this party started!”

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Through the noise of the dancing crowd on the performance floor, I barely heard as the song cut away. But I did hear as a new tune picked up right away, emerging lightly into existence, as if forming from the voices of the hundreds of ponies around us.

Around me, Shore, Grace, and Blake had been dancing at their own paces to the last song, none of them even looking to be anywhere near tiring. Even Commander Tracer had been on the move during the previous tune (more because of the pressuring of his highly-amused wife), somehow moving his legs to where he looked to be trotting in place; I had no idea how he pulled it off, but at my inquiry, he had explained to me that the dance move was called a shuffle… Goddesses, more power to him, because I had no clue. Only Archer had been the more relaxed among us, seeming to prefer listening to the music rather than dancing to it, as he was still doing now.

“Don’t quit now, big sister!” Blake called, already dancing as the tempo of this new song begun to solidify. “The music’s starting up again!”

I laughed in reply to my baby brother’s enthusiasm, gladly trotting up to his side to take up a position to dance with him. “Oh don’t worry about that.” I assured, once again allowing my body to sway and my head to bounce as my ears picked up the beat. “I’m right here with you.”

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

“Well, I’m already tired.” Grace spoke, leaning against Shore where he stood as the second of Flynt’s songs came to an end, catching her breath. “I need to take a break from all this dancing.”

“I’m glad you said so.” Shore responded looking down at her as I grinned. “I was near done myself.”

“Aw, you guys are no fun.” I teased, turning to Blake where he continued to prance about near me; the beat of that last tune was still planted firmly in his head. “You should take some lessons from Blake. He’s a regular bucking bronco over there.”

Yeah, he was definitely blending perfectly with everypony else on the performance floor, as not a one of them were tiring at all; I guess we outsiders had a thing or two to learn about dancing.

“Goddesses, you guys and girls are a damn fine crowd!” The mare next to Flynt with the neon purple mane and tail spoke now, giving a hearty wave from her place behind the keyboard as Flynt begun to tap away at its keys; a single, unaccompanied melody echoed through the building, a repeating phrase that I could already move to. “I love being here on this stage, it really is something else.” the mare progressed. “And this is actually my first time up here. I-” Her words came to an abrupt stop as cheers were thrown her way, both from the performance floor and the balcony, startling her for a brief moment before she smiled again; her blush reminded me of myself as I added my own applause. “Alright, everypony, don’t make me start stuttering up here. That’d be embarrassing.” she spoke, her amplified voice carrying through the noise to provoke a light round of laughter. “But thanks, either way. We’ve got one more Eternity melody lined up for you now, a personal favorite of mine that I think will keep all this energy in here flowing smoothly. So make sure you all got somepony to dance with out there on the floor!”

“I want to dance with Gracie! I call her!”

Right away, I found myself laughing the hardest I had all night at my baby brother’s claim, and when I faced him again, he was already standing before her, the red unicorn staring down at him with a cocked eyebrow and nearly shaking as she attempted to contain her own laughter. “Oh, I don’t know, Blake.” she replied, averting her gaze in thought even as a suppressed chuckle escaped her. “You should say please if you’re going to ask a lady to dance with you.”

“Yeah, where’s your manners?” I teased.

“Um… I mean, please?”

Again, Grace and I laughed. “Oh, don’t worry Blake, we’re just picking on you.” the medical pony assured, mussing up my brother’s mane as he smiled. “Let’s have a dance. I’ll pull through one more for you.”

Hm… oh, idea!

But when I turned, I found said idea sitting rather motionless on his haunches amongst the shifting crowd, smiling a small smile to the stage as the unicorn mare finished her speech. “Hey, Archer!” My voice caught his attention, the pegasus turning to me with curious eyes. “You should come dance with us.”

“Oh… no thanks. I hope you don’t mind, I’m just not much of a dancer. I like listening to the music more than moving to it.”

“Aw, come on, it’ll be fun.” I pressed, trotting up to him to jab at his shoulder. “After all that dancing we did together in Marefax dodging the bullets and knives of psychotic raiders and persistent legionnaires, I want to see you dance for real this time.”

The handsome flier chuckled, shaking his head at my persisting. “There’s a difference between those two things, I’m afraid.” he replied, looking away again. “You go ahead and have fun. You’ve earned it after what you’ve done over the past couple days.”

Well, somepony was being difficult.

“Alright, alright. But if you change your mind, you come right over with us.” He gave a nod at that, focusing to the stage as the next tune begun to pick up, and relenting… for now… I turned back to Blake and Grace and Shore, rejoining them as they one and all got back into their groove.

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Okay… over ten minutes of virtually nonstop dancing, and even I was starting to get a little tired. But Goddesses, I certainly wasn’t complaining.

Like the others before it, this latest score from the Eternity DJs slowly faded away into the noise of the crowd, which quickly intensified as each member of the group on stage stepped away from their instruments and equipment to bow and wave. Despite my pleasantly weakened limbs, I put all my strength into adding as much sound to the applauding as I could, my brother and friends doing the same with their own hooves.

“Wow, you guys are always an amazing crowd!” Flynt spoke up through the steady noise, again amplifying his voice with a spell. “It’s always great to show off some new stuff, and I’m glad you’ve all enjoyed our time up here on the stage!” Laughing through his amplification spell, the DJ was forced to wait as the approval of the crowd continued to bear down on him and his friends. “Goddesses, it feels so good being up on this stage, being with all of you and sharing this music we've got. It really is something special that we keep here, something that, personally, I’m damn proud to have in my life. That Old World corporation that built the Stable that belonged to our grandparents actually made a good choice in that regard.” By now, things were becoming quiet again amongst the audience, enough so that my ears perked at a noise coming from the stage; once more, the great elevator platform built into the ceiling was lowering towards the stage floor. “Again, myself and all my crew here – we’d like to thank you all for spending your night with us and having a good time, and now, the night’s going to keep moving on ahead by taking things down a few notches.” Pausing, he passed a glance up to the lowering platform, pointing a hoof up to the machine as it moved. “As everypony remembers, Ludwig was talking about Buckley’s first trip into the outside world. Now, we all know that there are a lot of us who were hesitant at that move, and even though it’s already gone and done, I’ve got a feeling that more than a few of us are still feeling the same way. However, these next pieces that are on the list for tonight are ones that are going to be played for you through one of the very instruments that was found out in that old city way to the north of our fences. As a personal request to you all, I’ve got to ask that you test out your opinions when you see the instrument coming down to the stage. It definitely got me thinking, and I think it’ll do the same for everypony in here, too.” Then, looking back to the audience and passing a snappy salute, he smirked once more behind his glasses. “Mares and gentlecolts, please welcome to the stage Buckley’s principle pianist – Glider, and please welcome Buckley’s newest piano that he’ll be playing on for you tonight!”

At the great wave of applause that followed, DJ Flynt and his team exited the stage, carrying all of their gear with them as the elevator continued to lower. In response to the next approaching song, the Buckley ponies around me begun to sit back down, the gesture swiftly spreading across the entire floor. My friends and I followed the example, with Grace and Shore sitting to my right while Blake took up his place between my forelegs, thereby allowing me to rest my chin atop his head. “It’ll be interesting to hear what that new piano sounds like.” To my left, Archer came to sit beside me, with Tracer, Amber, and little Oscar just nearby. “I’ll be honest, there’s a special place in my heart for piano music, at least some of it.”

“Oh?” Smiling to the pegasus as he sat, I asked, “What’s your favorite kind of music? I mean, your absolute favorite.”

“That’d be the stuff that they’re probably holding off until the last chunk of the concert.” he replied with a chuckle. “More times than not, the last segments of the concerts are home to small ensemble songs, which are Mother Shimmer’s personal favorites. You’ll see.”

My ears perked as a light gasp seemingly rippled along the onlookers, and upon drawing my attention to the stage, I saw with instant admiration the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre’s grand piano. The pearl-white instrument was fully assembled, lid opened up full and all legs standing strong on the platform, and the white paint coating that spanned its entire body seemingly sparkling in the light of the stage. And standing beside the keys, Glider looked out to the crowd with a small smile, giving a bow to the crowd as the applause once again faded away into nothing; this time, complete and total silence overtook the building. As Glider faced the piano, standing relaxed before the keys, I caught notice of an expanded setup on the platform. On either side of the piano, music stands were arranged into three long arches, split at the center to create an open aisle, and behind the setup of stands, a short line of different percussion instruments were sitting unattended. These consisted largely of a couple different types of drums and other percussive instruments, most… well, all of which, unfortunately, I could not identify by exact name. And finally, farther to the left, a tall boxlike podium sat farther away from the setup.

At the moment though, Glider was the only pony on stage as his horn came alight with magic.

“That piano is so beautiful.” Grace spoke up in a whisper, as if afraid that she would smash the tranquil silence like some windowpane.

“And perfectly preserved.” Shore added, nodding in approval. “It was certainly a miracle that it hadn’t been destroyed.”

“What kind of sound does that big piano thing make?” Blake questioned under my head; I smiled at that.

Up on the stage, the glow from Glider’s horn enveloped the piano’s keys, whereupon the buck sat down on his haunches. Then, balancing himself in his sitting position, he brought his front hooves up to the keys, gently touching the first keys in his memorized piece. And lifting my jaw off Blake’s head, I lowered my muzzle by his ear as I watched the stage. “Well, let yourself listen, Blake.” I encouraged. “It sounds a little bit like this.”

And Glider began.

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Beautiful.

Having never heard piano solos back in Stable 181, I was utterly speechless at the first solo that Glider had presented us. Even as Buckley’s ponies applauded the pianist as he took a professional bow, Shore, Grace, and I were looking between one another, equally amazed at what we had heard. Over the course of the concert thus far, I had been more than impressed with the music that I had heard up to this point. The youth ensemble had presented a very unique work, with instruments both exceptional and bizarre, giving that song a very otherworldly character. The choir had presented music that had taken on a very ethereal quality, music whose elegance, fluidity, and pure Goddess-like beauty made me shiver. The DJs brought out a new genre, one that had belonged to public parties and clubs back during the days of the Old World. That music had been lively and exciting, music that you just couldn’t not dance to. But Glider had shown me something that, in my own opinion, ranked up with the characteristic of the choir hymns. The way his hooves and his magic glided across the keys and worked them into creating the mystery and grace of that piece… it was like the choir was being expressed through the instrument itself, and it had ranked to be my favorite piece thus far outside the choir’s performance.

By now, the applause had settled at Glider’s silent command, the buck already down on his haunches before the keys as he lifted up his front hooves to his starting pitches. “So what’d you think of that, Blake?” I asked in a hushed voice, smiling as I lowered my head down by his.

“It was really cool.” Leaning back to look me full in the eyes, he smiled back. “I think a lot of ponies back home would like it too.”

I leaned over to nudge the side of his face, Blake adjusting his seat between my forelegs as we turned our attention back to the stage. “So do I, Blake. So do I.”

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Now I really wished I had some sort of background information on these songs.

As I applauded at the end of Glider’s second solo, I couldn’t help but reflect on some of the songs I had heard. It was clear that what they were presenting, at least up to this point, were songs that had been made in the Old World by pre-war and wartime musicians. However, I felt that this last piece, in particular, had been meant to tell a story, or perhaps express a scene. Though nopony made any remark on what the actual title of each of these songs had been, I felt that Glider’s second piece had been reminiscent of something in nature, back when that nature was green and blue and white, lush and vibrant and thriving… a meadow perhaps, or even the sky.

Goddesses, that piece would make excellent flying music… so long as I wasn’t dodging a hail of bullets of course.

Already, Glider was back at his position, with the crowd going silent as he readied himself for another song. As he did, I felt my little brother as he hugged my right foreleg, and I quickly responded by resting my jaw on the top of his head again. “How are you doing, Blake?”

“This is fun.” he replied, staying still to allow me the opportunity to use his head as a table. “This place is almost as nice as Hopeville.”

I chuckled, nodding at the opinion. “Yeah, I think so too. But only almost.”

“Almost.”

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

With Glider’s third piece complete, the unicorn stepped back and away from Buckley’s newest treasure, and at the hoof stomps that thundered to life again, he took a deep bow to his audience. However, unlike DJ Flynt, Glider remained perfectly silent as the cheers and stomping and clopping hooves continued, only bowing again as the noise sustained itself. A moment later, and the unicorn buck gave a third and final bow before exiting stage left. But right after him, movement came from the opposite end of the stage, and the applause of the audience reignited as new musicians emerged onto the stage. Trotting into view in a single-file line, unicorns and earth ponies garbed in dresses and tuxes of black and white carried with them string instruments of each shape and size. Violins and violas floated in telekinetic grips, and cellos and the larger double basses rested on the backs of earth ponies as Buckley’s symphony orchestra begun to file in. Pony after pony walked into view behind the stage’s divider panel, the dozens of string players eventually giving way to woodwinds. Flutes and clarinets glinted in the stage light, oboes and saxophones and the two bassoons from Moonrise within the mix, as well as the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre’s bass clarinet. Then came the brass players of the grand ensemble, two unicorn stallions with the preserved Moonrise horns emerging first, followed closely by a half dozen trumpet players. Then came the larger of the brass instruments, four trombones coming out behind the trumpets, whereupon two euphonium players emerged. The Moonrise Syphonic Theatre’s tuba followed at the tail end of the brass section, hovering in the telekinesis of a larger unicorn stallion, who was then followed by the final members of the settlement’s orchestra, the percussion players who trotted to the back of the elevator platform to take up their respective positions.

Goddesses, there was easily over a hundred ponies in this group!

The lasting applause, and the strength of the cheering voices, told me that this was perhaps Buckley’s main attraction, and even as the large host of musicians begun to ready themselves, sitting, standing, opening their music folders, the concert hall was still full with the audience’s approval. Then, a second later, and two final members of the orchestra emerged. Saharra, her violin and bow hovering by her side, stepped out with the tuxedo-toting Ludwig, the both of them trotting out to the center of the stage side-by-side, causing the already energetic applause to push to an even greater volume.

I put all my energy into coaxing as much sound from my own hooves as I could as the two took their bow together. But of course, much to the amusement of my friends and I, they had to stand and take yet another bow as the crowd continued to sound their praise. With another few seconds though, the concert hall eventually came back down to silence as Saharra wordlessly trotted to her own position, sitting on her haunches behind a music stand at the very right end of the violin row of the orchestra. And as the concertmaster prepared her instrument, Ludwig brought over to the center of the stage the waiting podium, levitating it to the very back of the elevator platform and setting it evenly to the floor before he took up his own place atop it, facing his ensemble. Now, the building was absolutely silent as the music director slowly swept his eyes across the stage, and I was motionless with focus as the director’s horn came aglow once again. From within his tuxedo, his telekinesis removed a thin white baton with a small wooden handle at its base, which came to float up in front of him.

At the sight of the baton, the entire ensemble, as one, came to attention, all instruments at the ready.

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

At once, the building seemingly exploded with applause as Ludwig lowered his baton; I was cheering right along with them.

The ensemble of a hundred plus ponies was an absolute powerhouse of symphonic music. The piece had featured every family of instruments both alone and together, and aside from the percussion setup (with only something that Archer had called a set of timpani drums being used in the percussion group), almost every single instrument within them had been utilized. Even those which had been deemed by Archer as ‘different’ in being in an orchestra had been used, instruments such as saxophones and trombones and the bass clarinet and tuba being used to support the movement’s primary voices. And with the energy of the music, I was able to discover Ludwig’s true self, the director stallion completely absorbed by the music he conducted. Up on that podium, with nothing but his baton, he was an entirely different pony – his baton was to him like Cross’s rifle was to me, and his passion for music was like my natural ability to fly. There was such strength behind Ludwig and his orchestra, such purity in the sounds they produced together as a family.

I was at a loss for words, and judging by the looks on Shore and Gracie’s faces, I was most definitely not the only one.

But thankfully, Ludwig was coming to my rescue, as after a quick bow to the audience from his place on the podium, he turned back around to the Buckley orchestra, bringing swift respectful silence back to the building. And with that, we moved right into the next gemstone of Buckley’s musical prowess.

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

At the close of the second tune, Ludwig once again took his bow as the audience voiced their ever-strong admiration for Buckley’s orchestra. However, as he turned back to face the ensemble he gave a quick nod, and within the group, the string players, one and all, set aside their instruments and stood. Then, with a voiceless command from Saharra, the concertmaster led her fellows to the right side exit of the stage.

The sight of the leaving orchestra members made me cock an eyebrow. “Hey, Archer… what are they doing? Are they done already?”

“Oh no. They transition like this from time to time.” the pegasus answered. “I guess they’ve got something for a wind ensemble coming up.”

“What’s the difference between the orchestra and a wind ensemble?” During the rehearsal, every participant of the concert had been present, with no group of ponies leaving or entering the stage when a song was rehearsed.

“Wind ensembles are groups that are made from brass and woodwind instruments only. The orchestra is the group that has the string players in it.” Archer replied, turning briefly to me to pass a small smile. “You probably already know the difference in sounds, but have a listen. You’ll probably like what you hear.”

The two of us faced forward again, Ludwig now bringing his partly reduced ensemble up to attention as the last of the string players left the stage at their backs. “Well, why wouldn’t I like what I hear?” I asked, smiling with the pegasus as Ludwig’s baton begun to move once again.

*** *** ***

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*** *** ***

Oh my.

With a powerful sustained final chord, the wind ensemble’s piece came to a close. Out of all three full ensemble pieces I had heard up to this point, this had definitely been my favorite, and the applause I gave with the rest of the audience exemplified that. This piece had been particularly deep, bold and even a little emotional, and contained within it a number of memorable melodies. One of them that had particularly struck me was a melodic phrase within the clarinet section, the ensemble’s twenty or so clarinet players dividing into three different sections to deliver a touching figure, one that I found myself replaying in my head even as the song had progressed further; sure, I had heard a section of it during the dress rehearsal, but hearing the whole thing like that…

“Goddesses, that was brilliant!”

I could just barely hear Archer chuckle at my remark over the thunder of the crowd. “It’s a good one.” he spoke up, leaning closer to me so I could hear him. “This one’s been played a little more frequently than some of the others. According to Ludwig, it’s actually an Old World military tribute, played to honor Equestrian veterans and serving soldiers during the war.”

“Oh… like Macon and Misty.”

The pegasus nodded in response, the concert hall beginning to quiet around us once again. “Exactly like them.” he agreed, turning his head to look at me… again noting the nostalgic touch in my words; my guess was that by now, he could pick that up like a gunshot… Goddesses, I needed to find a way to bottle up that melancholy nature of mine… or something.

I passed him a faint smile of assurance. “I guess that explains why it felt so deep. It was lovely.”

“Yes it was.” Archer agreed, once again giving me that small smile of his.

Then, from above, the familiar sound of the stage’s machinery turned both our attentions to the front once more. The elevator arms were coming down from the stage ceiling, and each of the now standing members of the ensemble stayed in their spots as the machinery ran through its process again. Without words, Ludwig stepped down from his podium and off of the elevator platform onto the stage, taking another bow for the crowd as the elevator arms latched onto their places. Only when those arms begun to lift the platform back up towards the ceiling did Ludwig move, and after a final bow and a quick vocalized thank you with his voice spell, he turned and exited the stage, carrying a collected smile with him; I had a hunch that, deep inside, he was dancing with the success of his wonderful ensemble.

Now, the stage was empty as the audience diminished to level, quiet idle chatter, to which my friends immediately took part. “What’s happening now?” Shore spoke up. “Is the concert over?”

Archer volunteered a reply. “No not yet. If this concert’s arranged like a lot of the other ones, then there’s still a couple more songs to go yet. And they usually save the best for last.”

“What’s the best ones?” Blake questioned the pegasus. “I liked that DJ guy. I think his songs were the best.”

I smiled a little as Archer chuckled at my baby brother. “Well, for Buckley, the best ones are usually comprised of the smaller ensembles, groups of friends or families who make their own groups.” he explained to the colt. “There’s larger groups too, but the thing about them is that they all sing and play music that was outside the pre-war and wartime norms. That’s to say that they perform the stuff that wasn’t as popular way back when. That’s generally Buckley’s favorite music, even though its ponies cherish all the music held here.”

“So, you know the music by ponies like DJ Flynt and the stuff that the orchestra played. That was what ponies in the Old World listened to more frequently.” I added to Archer’s description. “These groups coming up perform entirely new stuff. In a very limited sense, it’s a mesh between the two genres… kind of.”

He looked back up at me, cocking an eyebrow at my… partially helpful explanation. “What other music is there other than all of that?” he inquired, gesturing to the stage. “We’ve heard a bunch already.”

“A lot more than you might think.” I replied, looking back up to see the stage; the elevator had finished its cycle.

“Sometimes Club Eternity puts on jazz tunes for concerts.” Archer added, cocking his head in a shrug. “I guess not this time though.”

“Aw, that would’ve been fun to hear, too.” But then, a fresh wave of applause cut off the conversation as a familiar pony entered the stage. Loreena stepped out onto the stage with a graceful stride, garbed in a night-black dress with a pearl-encrusted chest piece etched into the silk which beautifully complimented her flowing golden mane; and behind her, her ensemble begun to emerge. Saharra was first in line, her pristine violin and bow hovering alongside her as she walked. Behind her was a unicorn stallion with a viola, followed after by an earth pony mare with a cello and its bow over her back, secured to her own dress with a silk harness like a rifle. After her came a familiar-looking stallion, a grey unicorn with an ashy red mane whom I had met the day before, back when Ludwig first brought me to the stage to hear my own voice. He carried with him a guitar of sorts, but not the acoustic one I had first seen him with; this was a little different, with a wider, stubbier body and a slightly thinner neck, and the instrument itself was carried along with its own compact speaker box.

At the same time, from the opposite end of the stage, two other familiar faces entered into the view of the audience. DJ Flynt, and the electric blue unicorn mare who had been with him before, both came carrying their own electronic keyboards, keyboard stands, and amps. Flynt himself had removed his orange-lensed glasses for this next tune, allowing me to see his amber eyes that had been formerly hidden away. And behind them, a big unicorn stallion with horn brightly lit came into view carrying a whole array of different drums, six in total of varying sizes and shapes, and all hovering behind him like a train.

Already, Loreena herself was at center stage as Saharra took up a position by her right side. The other two string players, as well as the guitar stallion, were already set in their own positions, the viola behind and to the left of Loreena, and with the cellist by his right side. Behind them, the four others begun setting up their equipment as Loreena gave a bow to the applauding audience, smiling at her positive reception to the stage. Much like the orchestra, Loreena was forced to take another bow as the applause and cheers sustained themselves, and upon her third bow, she gave an inaudible yet visible laugh. By then, the crowd finally relented and diminished into silence, allowing Loreena’s voice to cut through. “Thank you.” she spoke, dipping her head as her soft words reached my ears. “What a special night it is to be here in our great hall. And, indeed, it’s always a great privilege to be up here on our stage to perform for you all… For over fifteen years I’ve sung on this stage, but despite the experience that’s come from this, every time I come up here, I feel that I always enter something new, a continuation of a musical journey, and a journey of discovery. The two songs that my group will play for you in this last leg of the concert tonight are the result of long nights studying from the notes of performers from Buckley’s first generation, and even back from the ponies who lived in Stable One ninety-two. This first piece holds a connection to the time before even what we know as the pre-war era, and is a reference to seasonal plays that groups of actors would put on. These actors were called mummers, and their plays originated from Equestria’s northernmost lands in what were perhaps some of the nation’s earliest years. They were very open performances, purely for the entertainment of the populace, and were played in streets and local pubs. These plays also encompassed a tremendous array of subjects, both personal and public, and over time, these carnival customs spread to other regions of Equestria. Though I’ve made this piece in homage to that specific era, it still amazes me that even after the end times, the knowledge of these very ancient customs has survived all these years. And it’s particularly inspiring for me as a singer to know that our home protects not only music, but also the history behind that music. So, without further ado, here’s The Mummer’s Dance.” With a final bow, Loreena craned her head around to look to the back of the stage. Having been given the time because of the singer mare’s speech, DJ Flynt, his partner, the guitarist, and the drummer had fully set up their instruments and equipment. However, while Loreena received nods from three of the ponies, DJ Flynt instead motioned towards her with a hoof, smirking as Loreena shook her head. “And, as DJ Flynt likes to say,” she added, facing us with an amused smile. “please, feel free to find somepony, or a group of ponies, to dance with.”

Ooh, another dancing song… hmmm…

Flynt’s horn glowed just before a single droning pitch emerged into existence, rising from complete nothingness and slowly growing in volume. Then, beside him, his partner’s horn flashed with light, enveloping her own keyboard as a beautiful melody emerged atop the drone. At the same time, Saharra, the viola player, and the cellist, drew their bows across their strings in a sustained chord, which changed to another, and to another as the melody progressed. This got me to rise to all fours, to prepare myself to dance, and with me, my friends likewise stood. But as Shore and Grace faced each other, with Blake giving me some stepping room, I turned my eyes to Archer.

With two pickup notes from the drum set, the song’s beat was set, the entire ensemble of eight now playing, and I allowed myself to move in time with the rhythm. As I begun to gently stomp my hooves with the beat, moving from right to left, I slowly drew closer to Archer until the stallion looked me in the eyes. I put on my sweetest smile for him as I let the dance carry me, and I took small steps forward to make my way directly in front of him, putting some sway into my movements and executing a slow but full spin in time with the music; then we were face to face.

“Come on, Archer.” I urged, still letting my body sway with the music. “Dance with me.”

On the stage, Loreena’s voice carried out with long tones on the syllable ‘oh’, and the truly musical voice made me close my eyes as I let myself fall into another slow spin, showing off a little for Archer with stepping hooves and swaying body. I opened my eyes again as I came full circle, and I was pleased to find the handsome flier rising to all fours as I faced him. He looked amused at my probably-less-than-expert dancing, and yet he looked a little… shy perhaps? Still, with a chuckle and a shake of his head, Archer fully rose to face me, looking me in the eye. “Alright… as you wish, Nova.”

Loreena’s voice sung out once again just before Archer took his own first tentative steps, moving in a simple dance – left hooves out, right hooves connect, right hooves out, left hooves connect, left, right, right, left, left, right, right, left. After just a short moment of observation, I begun to copy his movements as encouragement, moving opposite of him to stay fully in front of him – right, left, left, right, right, left, left, right. It was an easy dance, but with Archer dancing with me, it was easily the best one, and as the melody repeated back to the beginning, the two of us settled into the rhythm together, with Shore and Gracie partnered up nearby, and Blake happily doing his own little dance, too.

This was, for me, the best part of the concert thus far, with everypony I knew, and with all of those on the hall’s floor with us, dancing together in more organized and graceful movements. But with this, I also knew what was coming up soon.

One more song after this one, and then I’d be the one up on the stage.

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

The sustained drone from the beginning of the piece was the last element of the music to fade away into nothingness, and before me, Archer kept his eyes on mine even as the audience heartily applauded Loreena’s amazing voice and the talent of her group. Now, I had a new favorite song out of the whole of the concert. With this tune, the new dance element that accompanied it provided a different experience. The dancing was not the wild and formless jumping and stomping that was the case for Club Eternity’s music. No, no matter how simple, the dancing that I myself, and everypony around me, had executed – there was a sort of pattern to it, a system of steps. For Archer and I, it was as easy as could be, and it was still uniform. Much to my amusement, it had taken Archer some time to actually get into the dancing like I had done. Though he started the movements to the tune, and I had come to copy him, the start of his dancing had been a little lethargic, slow as if he had just woken from a nap. Perhaps dancing wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, and it was what I had come to gather from him, but with a little help from some energetic encouragement and yes, the dreaded batting of the eyelashes… which I didn’t mind doing at all, especially with the advantage of the makeup I wore… I got him to dance like I wanted him to. When he put the effort into it, he was actually a really good dancer, and throughout Loreena’s first song, we found ourselves quite literally dancing ‘round in circles and in rows’ with each other, circling each other while stepping in time with the music, and pacing forward and backwards side by side. By the middle of the piece, we had come to achieve long moments of synchronized movements, which had, much to my embarrassment, attracted a small ring of spectating citizens who had added stepping hooves to our dance to give us the beat on their own, encouraging us to continue our dance together all the way up to the song’s conclusion.

Now, with the song ended and our small personal audience returning to their peers, Archer and I took a step back to give each other some room, and with a small… and bashful little laugh, I spoke first. “That was a lot of fun, Archer. Thanks for dancing with me.”

“Yeah, it was fun.” he replied, bowing his head to me with that small smile of his. “Sorry it took me a bit to get into it… but I’m glad I still took the opportunity. You dance very well.”

“Oh stop it.” I retorted, none-too-successfully hiding the light blush the sprung to life at the compliment. “You dance far better than I do.” But the stallion let out a note of laughter at that, shaking his head. “You do, I mean it. You dance as well as you dodge bullets.” Again, the pegasus silently retaliated against my attempted compliment, this time partly unfurling his left wing as his smile shifted to a smirk. “Um… I mean…” Wow… smooth, Nova, smooth. “Stop being so difficult!” I snapped, reaching over to punch the flier in the chest, blushing all the more at my expertly tactful choice of praising words. “That was a bad analogy there, but you know what I mean. I’m trying to compliment you.”

“I know, I know. I’ll stop.” he assured, raising a hoof to calm me just as Blake came trotting up to my left.

“Hey, you were right!” he energetically spoke up to Archer through the strong applause of the crowd. “That was good music!”

“It’s my favorite out of them all.” I replied, pulling my little sibling into a quick hug. “I’ve never heard anything like it.”

“Loreena’s very popular in Buckley. She’s highly regarded for her creativity and her love of musical history.” Archer then explained, pausing to look back to the stage. “Looks like there’s going to be a song or two before her second one though.” Around us, the applause faded out, and upon following Archer’s gaze back to the stage, I found that Loreena’s entire ensemble had already vacated the area, clearing out their instruments and equipment and leaving the stage empty once again. But already, the elevator was on the move once more, lowering slowly down as the noise of the audience fell to nothing but murmurs.

The silence caused a sudden icy bolt to race through my body, making me take in a short, sharp breath… that jolt of anxiety came from knowing what was coming up.

It was time for me to get to the stage.

“I wonder what this one’s going to be like.” Blake spoke up, looking thoughtfully up to me. “I hope it’s as cool as the last one.”

“I don’t think Buckley’s going to fail to deliver, not after everything we’ve heard up to this point.” I answered, briefly turning my eyes away from the stage to lower my head down by Blake’s. “If you liked the last song as much as you say, I’m sure you’ll like the next just as much, if not more so.” Bumping my muzzle against his cheek, I then stepped back, running a hoof along my chest to smooth out my dress. “But I’ve actually got to leave for a little bit. I have something I need to take care of.”

My little brother’s eyes immediately widened in surprise; for a brief moment, they reflected the eyes he’d look at me with when leaving him to go on an actual mission. “Huh? Why are you leaving? The concert’s not over yet…”

But I gave him an easy smile, reaching a hoof over to stroke his mane reassuringly. “It’s just part of my surprise, baby brother. I promise.” I replied. “When you see me again, you’ll understand.”

“Oh…” Understanding and easing at my response, he returned my smile with one of his own. “Okay. Will I like the surprise?”

“I hope so.” I answered him. “I’ve worked hard on it for you and for our friends.”

“Taking off, Nova?”

Past Blake, both Shore and Gracie were likewise looking my way, the latter of the two cocking a knowing eyebrow; I think it was safe to say that Grace knew what I was up to… oh well. “Yep. It’s almost time to show you all that surprise I’ve been working on.”

“Alright. I look forward to… seeing that surprise of yours.” The red unicorn passed me a wink before looking back to Shore, the egghead wearing a puzzled look behind his glasses.

“Where’s Nova going?”

All he received from Gracie was a punch to the chest, my cue to depart.

Turning around, I began across the floor back toward the side entrance of the stage, passing by Archer where he had taken a seat nearby. Passing him, we both remained silent, with the steel-blue flier dipping his head to me as I walked, and with a smile I returned the gesture before focusing ahead. Many of the friends and families in front of me willingly adjusted themselves to make me a path, though not fully evacuating their spots. Whether it was the positive growing of my reputation in Buckley, or if it was merely the very valuable dress that I wore, I found myself exchanging brief but friendly greetings with several of the groups I passed by, many of which were not a part of our company during The Mummer’s Dance. And this time around, there wasn’t a single bitter glare or hesitant glance that I had caught; it was a much better change of pace.

The plentiful three-word exchanges were an encouraging addition to my mental preparations as I emerged at the front of the stage access corridor. Much to my surprise, DJ Flynt was standing at the opposite end, the door held open in his telekinesis as he looked out at the back of the stage. His gaze, covered now by his orange-lensed glasses, swung to me right as I took my first step into the corridor, and the DJ nodded for me to join him, passing a quick wave with a foreleg as I picked up the pace to meet him. “What’s up, outsider?” he greeted from his place. “Welcome back to the stage.”

“Hey, Flynt. What’s going on?”

As I joined him, he stepped aside to let me enter the stage before he closed the door behind us. “The next group’s about ready to go. Most everypony here is going to be heading onto the stage within the next minute or so.” the wild-maned unicorn responded, trotting up by my right side as he nodded ahead.

Indeed, a small collection of ponies were gathered behind the divider screen, currently assembled in one large group as they passed along conversation in hushed words. There were five mares, all earth ponies, garbed in flowing white dresses with varying patterns woven into the fabric. With them was Saharra, her trusty violin and its bow hovering just over her head, wrapped in a dim cerulean glow. She was the one to spot us first, and with a quick word, departed from the other mares to join Flynt and I. “Ah, good. You made it.” she said, smiling to me. “Right on time, too. The next song’s coming up shortly, and once the audience gives us a round of applause, we’re going to start.”

“Are all of you going out there?” I asked curiously.

“I’m not.” Flynt answered. “I’ll be staying behind the divider with you until we go out there for your solo.”

“The rest of us are, and the rest of the ponies that’ll be joining you for your song are going to meet up with you when this piece is done.” Saharra added in explanation. “This song requires a big chunk of Buckley’s musicians to perform, and they’ve all got parts.”

I grimaced as my stomach turned once again, another jolt of nervousness passing through me at the mention of my upcoming solo. “So… what song is this exactly?” I asked, ignoring the tension best I could manage.

“Well, you already know the name.” Saharra replied, her violin drifting down by her head as she looked the instrument over. “But if it helps to jog your memory, this is the first song that you ever heard in Buckley. I remember seeing Mother Shimmer showing you the concert hall, and you walked in on a rehearsal. This is the song that we were rehearsing that day.”

Though it took me a moment, the music was something my mind quickly picked up on, shaping the memories for me. “Oh yeah, I remember. Oh, that song was so pretty… at least what I’ve heard of it anyway. Those mares are good singers.”

“That they are.” Saharra concurred, craning her head around to glance back at the group. “And now you get to hear the full tune, with them singing their solos and with me sawing away on my violin like a madmare.”

I raised an eyebrow at the chuckle that proceeded her remark. “Sawing away?...”

“Just an expression.” she replied, letting the violin drift back up above her as she looked my way. “This piece is difficult, and the solo I have is a little crazy. But it’s just so much fun to play, so energetic. This song’s my personal favorite.”

From the other end of the divider panel, Buckley’s ponies once again set a strong roar of stomping and clapping hooves and vocal cheers, and passing a glance between Flynt and I, Saharra gave us a smirk as she leveled her violin beside her. “I guess it’s time.” Behind her, the five singer mares were separating, with three moving to the far end of the divider screen while the other two walked one behind the other to the opposite end, all five remaining concealed behind the panel as they took up their positions.

“Good luck, Saharra.” Flynt replied, jabbing the violinist’s side as she turned to face the stage. “Rule that stage.”

“Do well.” I added with a small smile. “I look forward to hearing you out there.”

“I’ll do my best.” the concertmaster replied, looking back at me. “And Nova… relax.” she added with a smile of her own; the applause outside faded away. “When you’re turn comes up, you’ll do well, too.”

Though a hushed note of laughter escaped me at her optimism, I obliged the mare with a nod, to which she turned and faced forward again, taking in a breath and noiselessly letting the air out. And then, I watched as she took her first steps forward, moving elegantly past the nearby pair of waiting singers and stepping hoof onto the stage as a soft, haunting drone sounded from the ensemble at the opposite side of the divider.

And with that, I was one song away from my surprise.

*** *** ***

<-=======xxXVXxx=======->

*** *** ***

Damn.

Though I hadn’t seen the performance, I had definitely heard it, and now I knew just how well Saharra could play her instrument of choice. The song had been divided into two parts, the first a very lyrical section in which the five singer mares combined their voices into a beautiful song with flowing sounds and impactful lyrics. This section transitioned into Saharra’s feature, the second section, where she showed off a quick and sprightly melody that had gotten the entire audience to stomp their hooves in time with the beat she set. It had been a grand song to hear, and had been performed with the largest assembly of the concert, as it had contained the greater majority of Buckley’s orchestra members, as well as a number of its church choir singers; though it was so hard to decide between them, Loreena’s first song still ultimately remained at the top of my favorites list, even despite the power of the much larger ensemble.

From the empty space at the right side of the divider panel, Saharra trotted back into the backstage area, both Flynt and I meeting her halfway. “Saharra, that was awesome!” Flynt congratulated, his voice nearly concealed as the crowd continued to cheer. “Hell of a job out there!”

“I’ve never heard anything like that before.” I added, the concertmaster passing an appreciative smile between us. “You really know how to saw away on that violin of yours.”

“Thanks guys. Melodies like that are always a blast to play.” she responded, her violin and bow hovering in by her head. “That piece hadn’t been played for months prior to tonight. There’s a lot of other tunes in the same genre, of course, but I kind of miss this one in particular.” Outside, the applause of the audience was beginning to fade, and I could make out the churning of the elevator gears as the platform was once again moved, being lifted back up to the ceiling above. “Well, it’s about that time, Nova.” Saharra said, facing me as she nudged my chest with a hoof. “Are you ready?”

Oh boy…

“Yeah… I guess I’m as ready as I can be.” I replied, giving a weak laugh as another pang of nervous tension moved through my stomach. “Goddesses, I’ve never been this scared for something that didn’t directly threaten my life before.”

“Oh, don’t be scared, Nova.” Saharra encouraged. “And don’t let the audience get you worked up. When you go up there, you just sing and have a good time. You know the song pitch for pitch and word for word, and you’ve got a beautiful voice. You have absolutely nothing to fear.”

I took in a slightly shaky breath, slowly and quietly letting out the air. “I know… it’s just my first time and all that… I mean, there’s a lot of ponies here.”

“Eh, we all go through that.” Flynt spoke up in reply, trotting into my peripheral sight with electronic keyboard and stand in his telekinesis. “My first ever appearance on stage, I was stammering so many words when I talked that my chattering teeth could chew through metal. Of course, that’s an exaggeration, and granted that was years ago, but you get my point. We’ve all gotten nervous going on stage at some point, but it’s natural. And besides, Saharra’s right. When you’re up there, you let the music you play take you, wrap you up like a blanket. You focus on making your best sound and enjoy the time up on that stage, and your fears will slide right off of you.”

“Yeah?” After a moment, I gave those words a nod. “I’ll certainly try.”

“You’ll be great, Nova.” Saharra’s eyes flicked up to look behind me then, and I followed her as she waved to see a new unicorn mare emerge from the backstage doorway. This young mare, teal-coated with a bronze mane and tail, levitated a shiny flute beside her, the instrument made of polished silver with glinting golden keys, and giving us a wave, Saharra welcomed her. “Bree, good to see you. Are you ready?”

“Of course.” the flutist happily replied, joining us in our circle. “Now where are the others?”

“Right here, right here.” The hurried reply came from a stallion likewise emerging from the open backstage entrance, the very same pony who had played the guitar for The Mummer’s Dance. The gray unicorn with an ashy red mane and tail carried with him the same instrument he had used in Loreena’s song, except it was now alone, bereft of its amp. And right behind him, a new unicorn buck with a khaki coat and an orange mane and tail came holding a single drum, a frame drum with a two-headed wooden mallet. “Looks like we’re right on time.”

“We’re just about to head on out.” Saharra said, nodding as the two stallions joined our group. “The full ensemble’s here, and I think the stage should be set now.”

“And is our outsider friend here ready?” the drummer stallion asked, passing me an easy smile when I looked his way.

“I… think so…”

My bashful muttering elicited a chuckle from him. “Ah, come on. You should follow Bree’s example. She’s always eager to be up on that stage.”

“Yeah, your premier showing is one of the best times when you’re performing in music!” the flutist encouraged with soft energy, her eyes passing over the keys of her flute. “And your first song only happens once, so have fun.”

“She’s the only one that didn’t get nervous her first time.” Flynt whispered to me, chuckling. “I stand corrected.”

My uneasiness yielded enough for me to share the quiet laughter with him. “Lucky her.”

“Alright everypony, let’s line up.” Then looking back to Saharra, I saw the concertmaster depart from our circle, motioning for the rest of us to follow her towards the right end of the divider panel. “Nova, you get to be at the front of the line. Come on up.”

“Do the soloists always go first, I imagine?” I asked the violinist, taking in and letting out a breath as I moved to join her; Goddesses, the concert hall was almost entirely silent outside.

“In small groups such as ours, yes.” Saharra answered, stepping back around behind me as I came to a halt. “Now, when you start going onto the stage, try not to show that you’re nervous. Be confident and be graceful in your stride, and represent the characteristic of the song you’re singing. The Voice is a tribute to the Goddesses themselves, and is as beautiful as it is powerful, so represent that in your physical movements and your singing together, and make sure that when you get to the front and center of the stage that you take a bow. The soloist always bows…… you ready?”

I exhaled first, pursing my lips as the concertmaster’s words imprinted themselves into my thoughts, before giving her a slow nod. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“You’ll do great, outsider.” Bree’s voice assured behind me.

“Let’s do this.” the drummer buck spoke up confidently.

It was time.

“Alright. Remember, when we start the song, listen for the drone from Flynt. For the beginning, we’ll follow your lead, and after that, it should be straightforward.” Saharra added, then giving me the nod to move. “After you, Nova.”

At her command, I set my hooves firmly under me, held my head up, and with a final exhale, I set my eyes forward and moved. Upon stepping into the dimmed lighting on the stage, I was face to face with the great audience, the hundreds of citizens and guards on the balcony and the floor sitting in rows and clusters. Facing it from the stage, the performance hall suddenly appeared much bigger than it had before, and all the eyes spread across it were now on me. I felt the weight of the spectacle on mind and body alike, which pressed even harder as I was first met with a second of uncomfortable silence. But I kept myself moving in what I considered my most ladylike walk, keeping my head up and my eyes open as the other members of my group begun to file out behind me. The silence was mercifully short, and the concert hall filled up quickly with strong applause… no cheering, I noticed... except from Blake; oh Goddesses, I heard him over the clapping of the hooves!

My little brother’s carrying voice brought a warm smile to me, and I only barely kept myself from laughing, as I took up my space at the front and center of the stage. Coming to a stop there, I faced the applauding citizens and gave a deep bow, holding the pose until my ears picked up the slow fading of the noise. Then, craning my head back around, I looked upon the others as they set up. They were all close by, taking up positions on either side of me. To my right, Bree stood just beside me, flute lazily floating before her chest. The guitar stallion stood slightly behind her and to her right, instrument sitting upright on its base, and making the end of the diagonal, the drummer unicorn stood with drum and mallet likewise hovering in front of him in a resting position. Then, looking to my left, I saw Saharra where she stood close by, her violin and bow floating close, and finally, DJ Flynt created the second point of our loose ‘V’ formation, and was securing his keyboard to the stand.

A second later, with the audience going quiet once again, and Flynt passed me a nod that I returned. He was ready to go, and I to listen, and with Saharra giving me a quick smile, I turned and faced the audience. Then, from the silence, that familiar open drone chord drifted into being, and with a soft breath, I let my first note ring. On the word ‘I’, I sang out the original sustained note and added the fluctuations I remembered from rehearsal. Then, I carried through the phrase, singing, “hear your voice… on the wind.” I looked out into the crowd as I sung, passing my gaze slowly along the many faces as Flynt’s keyboard changed its chords with my words. The first chord then returned as I took another breath. “And I…… hear you call out… my name.” At the close of the last word, I heard the drum begin to sound, setting the tempo as I moved on with, “Listen my child, you say to me.” I began to sway with the music as the guitarist joined in. “I am the voice of your history.” The song was picking up, rising to an inevitable peak as I sang out, “Be not afraid come follow me. Answer my call and I’ll set… you… free!” I let out the last word and held it strong, Saharra responding as her violin bloomed out from the calm with a solo, Flynt setting the beat with unison changing notes, and the guitarist matching the pace with the quick rhythmic plucking of the strings.

Then, on Saharra’s last note, I carried on with, “I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain. I am the voice of your hunger and pain. I am the voice that always is calling you. I am the voice… I will remain.” I put more energy into my swaying, moving shoulders and hips as Bree responded to me with a short call on her flute. Then, I replied to her melody. “I am the voice in the fields when the summer´s gone, the dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow. N'er do I sleep throughout all the cold winter long, I am the force that in springtime will grow.”

I let out a silent breath at the release of my last note, letting my body fall still. Then, with guitar and keyboard lingering, Saharra entered with a solo, stepping up beside me as her bow moved quickly and fluidly over the strings. With her solo taking over, I looked out into the crowd as Saharra played. But it was after a second of searching that I finally found the faces of my friends in the audience. Blake had literally climbed up onto Shore’s back to see me, and he wore a big and open-mouthed smile as Shore simply gawked in amazement. Gracie leaned left and right in time with the song while Archer wore that small smile again; all four looked right at me.

With a smile of my own, I locked my gaze to those of my friends as Saharra’s feature wrapped up, and taking a breath, I sang accompanied only by Flynt and a feature from the drummer. “I am the voice of the past that will always be filled with my sorrows and blood in my fields. I am the voice of the future! Bring me your peace!” The last word I sustained, long enough for me to let my wings come unfurled. “Bring me your peace and my wounds – they will heal.” At my last word, the guitarist played a transitional phrase to which I resumed my swaying motions again. Then, directing my sound to my friends, I sang, “I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain. I am the voice of your hunger and pain. I am the voice that always is calling you. I am the voice!” At the last word, I prepared myself for the final phrase, summoning focus and strength. “I am the voice of the past that will always be! I am the voice of your hunger and pain! I am the voice of the future! I am the voice!” The song was at its grand moment, with Saharra and Bree exchanging an instrumental melody underneath my own, Flynt, the guitarist and the drummer playing powerfully beside them. “I am the voice!” I repeated, singing even stronger, the full power of our group wrapping me up. “I am the voice!” I sang a third time, taking in a full breath as I sang for the fourth and final time, “I am the voice!!” I held the final word as the group reached the peak of its crescendo, closing my eyes and lifting my head up to face the balcony as Bree and Saharra sounded together, Flynt and the guitarist and the drummer supporting us to the end. And with a final thundering roll from the drum, and then a stomp of my hoof, the final chord played, I cut off my voice, and our last notes echoed across the concert hall as all six of us fell silent.

To my alarm, that silence lingered even as I opened my eyes again, and for a frightening second, panic begun to set in. Had I done something wrong? Did I not sing well??

But it was then that the ponies before me erupting into applause, cheering voices strongly accompanying stomping and clapping hooves. Amidst them I could see all of my friends… Blake was literally bouncing on his hooves as he cheered. Gracie was beside him, clapping and laughing. Shore raised a hoof to me, sharing in Grace’s smile and speaking words that I couldn’t hear. And Archer’s small smile grew, just slightly, the flier nodding in approval as he stepped his left hoof to the floor in cooler applause; wow… my friends really liked my singing.

I was lost in their reactions, and I could only smile in appreciation of their approval. It was to the point where I had nearly missed when Saharra called my name, the mare having to jab my side to get my full attention. Looking to her, I saw the concertmaster smiling as she gestured to the cheering crowd. “Come on, Nova.” she urged with a chuckle. “Take a bow.”

“Oh, right.” At her command, I faced the audience to bow my head again, holding the pose in thanks to the praise my voice was given. Then, after a moment, I stood up straight, tucking my wings back against the silk covering my sides as I looked back around to Saharra. With my bow having been taken, she gave me a nod before gesturing to the other members of our group. One after another, with the drummer stallion taking the lead, they made their way off the stage, and I took up the end of the line behind Saharra as we left the hall at our backs; upon crossing back behind the divider panel, the applause lingered to mix with flowing chatter among the audience.

“Wow…”

“See, we told you you’d be good.” Saharra replied to me, immediately wheeling around to face me.

“You sounded great out there.” Bree added with a heartfelt smile.

“You’ve got a hell of a voice, friend.” Flynt remarked thirdly beside her, setting his keyboard aside. “Nice job.”

Goddesses, I was not used to this many compliments… “Thanks, everypony.” I spoke up over them, smiling as I shook my head. “I think it went well, too. But I’m not the best by any means… I just sang and… well, that’s it.”

“But you do have a clearly natural talent.” From back behind Flynt and Bree, I glanced over to see the familiar face of Loreena, the white unicorn mare approaching our group as the members of her own ensemble prepared their instruments behind her. “That was very well-done, Nova.” she continued with a small smile, both Bree and Flynt stepping back to give the singer some room. “You shouldn’t be so modest about your skill. You really have great potential in music, and you’d do well to remember that when you go back to your own home.”

But to her words, I gave a thin frown. “Well…”

“Hey. Remember, Nova, that this is Buckley’s principle singer that’s saying this.” Saharra voiced next to me. “That means something.”

“In all honesty, I’d welcome you to stay in Buckley, and I’d gladly take you in for vocal lessons.” Loreena continued. “I don’t teach nearly as often as I write and sing, but I would happily show you what I know if you had a couple of weeks to spare.”

Wow… a teacher to hone my singing, and nonetheless a teacher that was Buckley’s most renowned singer out of them all. Ludwig had made mention of lessons first, back when my piece had first been presented to me, but to actually hear somepony offer her time to become a vocal tutor for the betterment of my singing was… shocking. I hadn’t expected it, and despite my surprise, that musical part of me immediately leapt into action, prompting me to give her an affirmative answer. Even if just a couple of weeks, a short life here in Buckley, protected from the Black Blood and the Talons by their firepower and their skill, while learning how to truly sing like the musicians of the Old World under Loreena’s wing, was extremely enticing. Behind its fences and its canons, Buckley Air Force Base possessed its own culture which was ferociously and jealously guarded, and to become a more permanent part of that culture, and not just as an instrument of diplomacy, would’ve been a tremendous honor to attain in my life on the surface……

But that’s where the good parts of the arrangement ended, and at Loreena’s kind offer, I ultimately found myself shrinking away, ears slightly pinning back as I averted my eyes. It wasn’t because it was an uninviting offer, not in the slightest. In fact, I was surprised that she of all ponies in Buckley would extend such a proposal to me in the first place. But despite the fact that I was thoroughly enjoying this night, that I didn’t want it to end, tomorrow would see my return to the world outside, and within two days, I would be back in Hopeville… that little pre-war town with no fences, no howitzers, and no music. What had been intended as a couple of hours to help a settlement with its problems had turned into nearly two days of remaining on base, discovering Buckley’s history, its technology, and aiding the community in completing its most important objectives. And with how Mother Shimmer and Commander Tracer spoke in approval of mine and my friends’ efforts to aid the settlement and its citizens, I actually felt that I was a genuine part of this community.

This was magnified tenfold with my successful performance on Buckley’s concert stage, with the heartening applause that I received… but no matter how accepted or liked I was in Buckley, this base, with all the advantages it possessed over the settlements of the Equestrian southeast, was not my home. My home was out there, sitting in the dust and dead earth of the open fields of the southeast, protected by only a small force of Stable guardsponies… ponies who survived with me, who fought the same battles, carried the same goals. Hopeville, its survival, was still my mission… I had not forgotten… and Hopeville was still my home; no other place, no matter how big or small, no matter its history, would take that title.

“Nova?” Loreena asked, her gentle voice pushing its way into my thoughts to disperse them.

When I looked again, I found the singer curiously waiting for a response, any response at all. But with a sigh, I shook my head. “In truth, a part of me really does want to stay, even after I initially told myself that I wouldn’t. I mean, now that I’ve more or less earned the trust of the community, Buckley has so much to offer somepony like me.” I said. “But… outside Buckley’s fences is where my real home is. And while I’m honored that you’d offer to teach me, I still want to go back to my own ponies.” To that, Loreena slowly nodded, an understanding smile accompanying her. “I just can’t stay here any longer than tomorrow morning, because I’m still needed back where I come from. There’s a lot that I have to do to help keep my home settlement alive. Hell, I’ve already stayed far longer than I’d intended… not that it wasn’t worth it in the end. But you understand… I need to go home soon.”

“I do understand.” the white mare replied. “If nothing else, though, I would hope that you’d take to my advice about your singing. You really would do well to remember that you have that talent, and that it truly is a special thing about you.” Pausing, the singer’s smile grew. “Perhaps the ponies that share your home with you would take heart in hearing your voice someday. Keep it in your thoughts.”

Heartily, I nodded my agreement. “Thank you, Loreena. I will.”

“Hey, Loreena. We’d better get going.”

At Flynt’s suggestion, the white earth pony turned to face the entrance to the stage. “This is the last song of the concert that I’ll be singing, Nova.” she explained, craning her head around to pass me a wink. “I’ll talk to the crowd again to give you some time to settle back in with your friends.”

“Go on ahead, Nova.” Saharra encouraged nearby. “Enjoy this last song.”

That sounded terrific. “Alright. Thanks, everypony.”

With a smile and a parting wave, I left for the stage access corridor as Loreena and her ensemble gathered at the corner of the stage divider. As I opened up the door, Loreena trotted back out onto the stage, the crowd immediately applauding her entrance while I made my way down the corridor and back out onto the open floor. Despite the acknowledging of Loreena by the crowd, the ponies in front of me immediately gave me space to walk when I drew close, and I found myself giving warm thanks left and right at the fresh wave of approving remarks and smiles that washed over me. It was one thing to have received brief friendly comments and polite gestures on the way up to the stage, but seeing so many of Buckley’s ponies actually showing approval at how I had sang up on that stage, seeing the smiles and the waves and hearing the hearty congratulations… well, I was definitely a believer in Ludwig’s claim now; I had a feeling now that he had been right in saying that my time up on the stage would play an important role in attaining not only neutrality towards Buckley, but also a possible friendship between this base and my own home.

Within the next few seconds, I spotted my friends sitting together just beyond another Buckley family, and as I made my way around the last group in my path, I found that our own group had increased in size. Not only had Tracer, Amber Dawn, and little Oscar joined us, but also sitting close by was Ricochet, of all ponies, with the lime green, white-maned unicorn mare Hope from the Marefax expedition sitting at his side. And lastly, there was a trio of Buckley children, two earth pony colts and one unicorn filly, who were currently conversing with Shore. However, it was Gracie who first came to greet me, briskly trotting forward as a comical squeal of happiness escaped her throat. I was already prepared for the hug that quickly came, and we both found ourselves laughing over the lasting applause as we embraced each other. “Goddesses, Nova, you were fantastic!” she said, squeezing me tight. “I had no idea you could sing so well!”

“Neither did I.” I quipped, patting the red unicorn’s back as she released me. “So, you liked it?”

“Liked it? I loved it!” Grace answered, taking a step back as she gestured behind her. “We loved it!”

“I have the distinct feeling that Saber will be hearing about this when we return home.” Shore spoke up with a chuckle, giving me a hug of his own. “Well done, friend.”

His lower volume matched the decreasing noise of the crowd as applause once again faded. That was my cue to take a seat for Loreena’s next, and the concert’s final, song. When Shore and I let each other free, I quickly returned to my old spot between Grace and Archer, with Blake coming over to join me, taking a seat at my right side as I sat back down. “Did you like my surprise, Blake?” I asked as I situated myself.

Nodding ever-so-vigorously, the colt replied, “Yeah! You need to sing, like, all the time.”

By now, though, the concert hall had again returned to silence as the stage was set, and certain that we would be discussing this later, I instead leaned down to place a kiss on my young sibling’s head; he was happy with my singing, and so, my mission had been accomplished.

“Thank you.” Up on the stage, Loreena’s elegant voice addressed the audience, and I turned my attention to the platform where she stood front and center. Behind her, all of the same ponies that had performed in her first song were already set and waiting. But with Saharra, the violist and cellist (all three with instruments plugged into familiar-looking speaker boxes), the guitarist, the drummer, and Flynt with his DJ partner, there were new members in the group. A second drummer, a unicorn mare with a small set of smaller wooden drums, stood beside the big unicorn stallion at the helm of the drum set, now complete with cymbals. With her, a second guitarist had entered, another unicorn mare with an identical guitar to the stallion who had played during my own song. And finally, the stage elevator had come down to bring the Moonrise grand piano back onto the stage; Glider sat behind the keys of the pearly white relic. “Thank you.” Loreena continued, drawing all eyes to her. “Each concert that Buckley’s collective musical minds arrange and perform has its own great value. But tonight’s performance has been a particularly special one, because it is, in a sense, a musical interpretation of what Buckley’s future will entail. With the brave mares and stallions that ventured into the Old World today, the story of our home transitioned into a new chapter, one in which we all may very well enter the outside world ourselves and become part of a growing society beyond our fences. It’s both a fascinating and intimidating turn of events, and I’m quite certain that there are many that share my sentiments… but in truth, I feel that Mother Shimmer is really pulling us in the right direction, and that in the long run, Buckley will prosper because of her efforts.” Pausing briefly, Loreena looked back around at her expanded ensemble, getting nods all around before she faced the audience once more. “This last song of our concert tonight is one that I chose to commemorate these events. It is a piece that I was inspired to write after reading of desert life in the Old World. Specifically, I read of the life of traveling merchants and explorers in the great San Palomino desert in the Equestrian southwest. In the years before the wartime era, and even before the historic banishing of Nightmare Moon by Princess Celestia, there were several communities that existed within the desert itself, and ponies and caravans would often travel between them with goods from the lands beyond to trade. It was interesting to discover that there was a collaborative effort amongst these desert villages to sustain one another, and at times, there would be larger towns that would store away goods for future trade or even distribution amongst the smaller ones. With all of this, explorers from those lands beyond the desert borders would venture to these communities to discover the desert culture for themselves. From what limited information I’ve been given on life beyond our gate, it was quite fascinating to discover that the settlements out in the southeastern wasteland actually follow this lifestyle, where a larger town provides and trades with small ones. At first this piece was a culmination of my attained knowledge on the villages of the San Palomino desert, but after discovering the connection that the region that Buckley shares with outside settlements held to this history, I’d like not only to dedicate this work to Equestrian antiquity, but also to this newest chapter in Buckley’s life and the outsiders who came and helped to make it possible.” Though previously entranced by Loreena’s speech, attempting to absorb the wealth of knowledge she possessed on Equestrian history, my ears perked at the crescendo of muttering that briefly rolled through the concert hall; thankfully, it descended back to silence just as quickly. “Because of Mother Shimmer’s plans, and the time and effort that the outsiders she had asked for help from gave to us and to our home, we ourselves are drawing a connection to the history of the San Palomino traders in that we too will soon be traversing new lands and exploring new possibilities.” Then, with a small bow, casting a smile to the assembly, she said, “Thank you all for coming out tonight and for partaking in yet another successful concert. We will close the night with this newer piece of mine called Caravanserai. Again, thank you all for coming…” She paused to crane her head around, looking at DJ Flynt as he gave her a smirk, prompting her with a wave of his hoof. “And since Flynt would never fail to remind me,” she added with a light laugh. “I must say, please feel free to find somepony to dance with.”

At her last remark, chuckles rolled along the chamber before she and her ensemble took up their positions. Then came the gentle hum of a drone pitch, followed by a quick plucking of guitar strings and a ghostly echo of sound from Saharra’s modified violin. The ponies assembled on the floor took the cue instantly, and there came the moving of hooves as dancing partners were found and matched up while the gentle music continued. To my right, I saw as Shore held a hoof out for Grace, the red unicorn taking it with a smile. With them, Ricochet and Hope were likewise pairing up, and to my left, Dawn and Tracer, with Oscar cradled up in his mother’s left foreleg and tucked against her chest, were facing one another as the music progressed with a gentle and spaced melody from the guitarists on stage.

“Hey, Nova…”

Beside me, Blake poked my right foreleg, the colt looking to his right as I found him. “Yes? What is it?” Following his gaze, I found that he was looking towards the children who had come to join our little group; all three were waving at us. “I think they want you to go with them.” I observed with a small smile, giving a little wave back to them.

“To dance with them?” he asked, looking back between myself and the beckoning foals. “I think they were with us yesterday when we played hide and seek…”

“I think so, too.” I replied, nodding over at least one recognizable face from the trio. “Do you want to go with them?”

“Ooh, can I?” he asked back, craning his head up again to look to me.

“Of course you can.” I answered with a giggle, then giving his back a gentle nudge. “Go ahead and have fun. I’ll still be here.”

“Cool!” Right away, my eager little sibling ran off to meet the children, each welcoming him openly as they led him into the crowd, guiding him to their own group somewhere out on the floor.

When he disappeared from my sight, I faced the stage once again, taking in the continuation of the drone as the two guitarists continued to pluck away at their strings, carrying out the asymmetrical melody that sat atop the sustained strings. But as the guitars slowed over the drone, another voice spoke to me. “Nova…” When I turned, I found Archer’s hazel eyes waiting for me, the stallion flier giving a small smile as I looked to him.

I returned his smile with a bashful one of my own… I had a feeling of what was coming. “Yes… Archer?”

“May I have this dance?”

Oh absolutely!

But that’s not what I said, not when the perfect opportunity came up to poke fun at him. No, instead, I cocked my head to the side in suspicion, raising an eyebrow as I said, “Oh, so now you want to dance with me.”

At that, the pegasus slightly yet visibly cringed, nervously clearing his throat. But he remained silent, making the perfect reaction, and I made no attempt to hide the mischievous grin that spread along my face. Oh! Was that a blush on his face?... YES it was!

Top score!!

The pegasus didn’t even respond to my sly grin, instead only scuffing a hoof along the floor as he found himself in what was, to him, an awkward scenario. But with his priceless reaction, I quickly decided to show him mercy, and letting my grin fall into that bashful little smile he had likely begun to associate me with, I reached over to place an assuring hoof on his right leg. “I’d love to dance with you, Archer.”

For a moment, the steel-blue flier looked back into my eyes, whereupon he cracked a smile as he slowly shook his head; he knew he had been messed with, but he let me win. Instead, he raised his leg, my hoof tracing along his coat before he took it in his own and rose to his hooves, then helping me up to all fours with him.

Then, as we faced each other, Loreena's beautiful voice rippled out through the hall as she sang,, “This glancing life is like a morning star, a setting sun or rolling waves at sea.” Her words literally echoed through the chamber. “A gentle breeze or lightning in a storm, a dancing dream of all eternity…”

As her last word faded away, drums begun to sound to establish a moderate but dance-like tempo as the guitars and the drone continued to play. And together, Archer and I began to move with the music, stepping to one side and then to the other, and looking into each other’s eyes all the while.

“The sand was shimmering in the morning light, and dancing off the dunes so far away.” Loreena sang out with the drums. “The night held music, so sweet, so long. And there we lay until the break of day.” Saharra’s violin played out again to carry Loreena’s melody. As it did, I let myself break from our formation in a slide before I executed a slow twirl, keeping my hooves in time with the drums while my dress rustled with the sharper movement. Archer kept himself moving as I faced him again, smiling that small smile at me as I moved back to my spot directly before him. Then Loreena sang, “We woke that morning at the onward call, our camels bridled up, our howdahs full.” Glider entered at the start of her phrase with simple but powerful chords. “The sun was rising in the eastern sky, just as we set out to the desert’s cry.”

With a short transition from the piano, Loreena’s voice intensified. “Calling!” she sang, Saharra playing a short melody with her that the cello beautifully branched from. “Yearning!” Saharra and the cellist continued their combined melody over Loreena’s words. “Pulling!” The stunning melody repeated, making a springboard for the last line of the phrase. “Home to you!”

With a strike of the drum set, the two percussionists as well as the guitarists now set a stronger emphasis on the beat, with Flynt and his partner adding their keyboards to the mixture as the song transitioned into its next section. “The tents grew smaller as we rode away, on earth that tells of many passing days.” Loreena continued. “The months of peace and all the years of war, the lives of love and all the lives of fears.” With a brief entrance from the drum set, a previous verse returned. “Calling!” Loreena sang out, Archer and I now circling one another as we danced to the beat. “Yearning!” At an entrance from one of the keyboards, I let myself twirl again as Archer continued to pace. “Pulling!” The two of us met face to face again, returning to stepping from side to side in parallel. “Home to you!”

A cymbal in the drum set crashed to end the phrase as the powerful beat continued, and now, Archer and I swapped our direction, I with a graceful slide and him with a turn, to circle each other counter-clockwise. “We crossed the riverbeds all etched in stone, and up the mighty mountains ever known!” Loreena’s melody continued. “Beyond the valleys in the searing heat, until we reached the caravanserai!” With a rolling transition from the drum set, Loreena sang out, “Calling!” Completing a full circle, Archer and I drew up side by side, synchronizing our steps to move as one. “Yearning!” Right hooves out, left hooves close, left hooves out, right hooves close. “Pulling!” The two of us locked eyes again as we danced, confident in our movements. “Home to you!” I watched as Archer, still keeping in time, moved out of our formation, stepping ahead of me as the verse repeated even stronger. “Calling!” As I stayed with the same dance, Archer let himself spin, using both his hooves and wings to make the maneuver snappier. “Yearning!” He came about to face me before I moved back up towards him, keeping my hooves in time with the music. “Pulling!” Again we locked eyes as we continued to move, no longer in corresponding motion. “Home to you!”

The beat given by the drums then cut out, leaving the rest of the group to move ahead with their own intermezzo. At this point, Archer and I came to a gradual stop, but now, coming to our standstill, I couldn’t help but laugh. Goddesses, I was just so overjoyed! Between the powerful music, the dancing that I shared with Archer, and the fact that my friends and I were having fun together, this night was truly a special one!

And before me, Archer shared that laughter with me. For me, seeing that he was enjoying this time we spent together gave me strength, made me grateful for this time we shared… and seeing him as he was in that moment made me move toward him, drawing up face to face. And with a courageous push, I moved forward to drape my forelegs around his neck, pulling him into a tentative hug.

“What is this life that pulls me far away?” The song had now calmed as Loreena’s voice softly sang. “What is this home where we cannot reside? What is this life that pulls me onward?” I felt with a blush as Archer’s cheek brushed against my neck. “My heart is full when you are by my side!”

With a phrase from the drums, the ensemble returned full strength. “Calling!” Even as the powerful verse returned, Archer and I did not dance. “Yearning!” I felt the stallion’s foreleg come up around the back of my neck. “Pulling!” He drew me into a full embrace of his own as Loreena sang out. “Home to you!” I must’ve been blushing hotly… but I hugged him even tighter in response. “Calling!” He pulled me in against him, wrapping me up. “Yearning!” I closed my eyes now; I was lost in this moment. “Pulling!” His head came over the back of my neck, and I nuzzled into his mane. “Home to you!”

The song now begun to calm as Loreena’s ensemble played on from her final word. And through it all, Archer and I stayed locked together – I didn’t let go, he only hugged me closer, and we swayed to the music in a gentle rocking that put me in a state of peace. In his embrace, I felt strong, I felt safe, and with the music wrapping around us like a blanket, I felt that there wasn’t a single thing out there that could bring me harm.

It was like Cross… but it was stronger… I knew it was.

And all of this, our recognition as friends of Buckley, the music we beheld, my song on the concert stage, the embrace I shared with the only other pony of my kind that I had seen on the surface… all of it had come on this night, this night that was the culmination of our actions in Buckley, for the scars we had taken, for the road we had walked.

This night was Buckley’s gift to us… and this night was truly a night to remember.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: The Professional - If you can’t be seen, then you can’t be stopped. When sneaking, your critical hit damage with pistols and precision rifles do an additional 25% damage.

Quest Perk: The Might of Buckley - By helping Buckley in fighting through Marefax in the name of its traditions and its newest goals, you’ve won the full trust of the community and the benefits of fighting alongside their superior training. Your small guns and sneak skills are increased by +10, and you gain a permanent +1 bonus to agility.

Skill Notes:

Sneak (75)

Updated SPECIAL Attributes:

Strength: 4
Perception: 8 (+1 when Scout Flyer is active, +1 when Alertness is active, +2 when both are active)
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 6
Agility: 8 (+1 when Scout Flyer is active)
Luck: 7

Chapter 17: Monsters

“We’re not so different, you and I. Not anymore.”

“Hey… Blossom… time to wake up.”

I gave the sleeping mare a light nudge with a hoof, speaking as gently as I could in the otherwise dead silence of the early morning. However, the bright purple unicorn craned her head around to look at me with very awake but bloodshot eyes; she looked absolutely exhausted… sleep had not come easy for her.

For the sake of her safety, I had been more than grateful that, after leaving Nova and the others back in Buckley, Blossom and I had not encountered anything looking for a fight during the first half of our return trip to Hopeville. In fact, we had not come across a single traveler or patrol in the barren fields of the Equestrian southeast throughout the whole first day we had walked. Instead, we had traveled together largely in silence, neither of us attempting to strike up much conversation even when we broke our pace for water and food breaks. With Blossom still on her recovery effort from her ordeals over the past couple of days, her distance from me was wholly understandable… and after the Shamrock Farmstead, after Jenny, I wasn’t going to make any moves of my own to speak… outside of what was necessary to say, I was afraid to talk. Instead, upon leaving Buckley’s gates at our backs, I had made a silent vow to keep her safe on our two-day journey back to Hopeville, to be nothing more than a bodyguard until I successfully led her to the safety that my home provided.

Today would be that day.

I followed the exact same route we had taken going towards Buckley, using rocks and craters and debris to remember the way. Again, the two of us gave Plainwell a wide berth, diverting off the Old World highway to traverse open fields early within the first leg of the journey. Thankfully, my photographic memory served me well in guiding us back to yesterday’s destination – the Southeast Regional News Radio Station. When we had found the building on the horizon, I had cautiously asked my traveling partner as to whether or not she would have wanted to rest there, where the very misfortune she was trying to recuperate from had occurred, or if she would have rather kept moving to pass it by. But instead of the latter option, which I had expected, she chose the building itself as our camp, arguing that it was better to be indoors where we could not be attacked from any direction at any time. While I had agreed with her logic on the benefits of utilizing the station once again, I had been nervous about how she would take returning to the site where she had been raped. And yet, regardless of both her past and my concerns, the purple mare had braved through it, and we had sought shelter there for the night; I couldn’t help but admire that strength.

With only the two of us traveling together, we had ultimately decided that splitting the watch into only two halves would be the best option for our night in the old radio building. She had opted to take the first watch through the leading half of the night while I rested, whereupon I kept guard until color begun to show in the eastern sky. But looking at Blossom now, and I was beginning to feel that I should’ve given her a couple more hours to try and get a little more sleep. She had agreed with me when I proposed getting an early morning start, to move again before the cloud ceiling took on its routine grey… but still… “You don’t look like you slept very well.” I observed with a small frown.

“Sorry…” Blossom quietly replied, yawning afterwards. “I fell asleep a couple of times… but I always woke back up sooner or later.”

“Do you want a couple more hours?” I offered. “I’m fine with keeping watch to let you try and get a little more rest.”

“But… what about Hopeville?” she asked, hesitant.

“I wouldn’t really care when we got there so long as it was before midnight tonight.” I replied. “My goal’s just to get us both there safely, and if that means that you need some more sleep, then so be it.”

Though very faint, the unicorn mare cracked a smile. “That’s sweet of you… but I think I can manage.” With a couple of blinks, she begun to push herself up to all fours. “I’m already waking up as we speak, so I might as well go ahead and get moving around.”

I stepped back to give Blossom some room. “If you say so.”

“I do appreciate your concern though. Really, I do.” Now up on her hooves, Blossom reached a hoof up to brush a lock of her black mane from in front of her eyes, then taking a moment to rub the sleep from them. “I wonder if my armor’s dried overnight.”

“I left you some food by your gear.” I explained in response, turning back around to face the exit of the control room. “I’m afraid it’s just a can of preserved greens, but hopefully you’ll get your fill.”

“I see that. Thank you.” Blossom replied. “What about you?”

I craned my head around to see her looking my way. “I’ve already eaten.” I answered, then nodding towards the room’s exit. “I’m just going to head back out to the main entrance and keep a lookout while you get ready.”

“Oh… well, maybe if you don’t mind… I could come join you while I eat?”

I had been taking my first step toward the exit when she spoke again, her question making me pause to look back fully to her. “If that’s what you want.” I responded. “I just half expected that you’d like some privacy.”

At that, her faint smile returned. “You’ve already given me a shit ton of privacy over the course of the night… and through all day yesterday.” she replied. “I’d like to think that we could be capable of having at least one conversation over the course of this trip of ours that lasted longer than thirty seconds… unless you don’t want to deal with me, of course.”

Her words threw me off a little, especially at the question of whether or not I was the one who could or couldn’t deal with her; this had been the most I’d gotten out of her since Shamrock. “N-no, you’re uh… you’re more than welcome to join me. I’ll be out by the double doors.”

With a nod, she turned back to her gear stashed away in the far corner of the control room. “Alright. I’ll see you out there in a minute.”

I departed without another word, walking in silence to the open doorway of the station’s entrance. Between our last visit here and the present, the station had been left untouched. In the news room that sat at the fore of the building, all of the old derelict equipment had still remained piled up to one side of the chamber, and the balefire shelter at the structure’s opposite end had still been closed and locked up tight. All of the old radio terminals had remained unaltered in the control room, and the building kept only its old scars from what Lucky Hallion had once described to us as an ancient firefight, as well as the blood stains from when we had found and rescued Blossom from her Black Blood capturers.

As I stepped up to the doorframe, I took in the view of the outside where the sliver of color in the far east had grown only slightly, just barely illuminating the puffy cloud ceiling there to the point of visibility. Like normal, the dusty fields of dry earth were silent, not a single soul out and about to disturb it aside from me and my companion, and sitting down on my haunches just behind the doorframe, I gladly took in that morning tranquility as I lit up my horn and checked over my security armor’s pockets. There had been enough storage space to secure a few preserved food items for the journey back, but now there was only two more left as I emptied the designated pockets of their contents. “One box of preserved grains, a box of dandy colt apples… hm, not much of a lunch.” I observed. “But it’ll last.” Having insisted that Grace keep the majority of our group’s food and water with her back in Buckley, I had been given a total of eight food items plus two water bottles. Half of those items were used up in the first day, the two of us stretching our resources out to make them last for the entirety of the trip. But to both our relief, the Goddesses had been very kind in giving us rainwater to replenish our water supply. Yesterday’s rainstorm had kept the both of us company for hours, soaking armor and weapons and manes alike; good thing the former of the three (at least in my case) had been waterproof.

I returned the last of our food stock back to its designated pockets, the packages fitting snugly within, just as Blossom emerged into the news room. Nothing from her own collection of gear hovered along with her – only the food I had given for her morning rations. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“Just looking over the supplies we have left.” I answered, looking back ahead as she trotted up beside me. “I’m afraid to say that we’re going to be eating light for the rest of the way back.”

The unicorn took a seat beside me, sitting at the opposite side of the doorway. “Are we almost out?”

“We’ve got some grains and some apples. It’ll be enough, but we just need to make sure to space it out over the course of the day.” I explained, craning my head around to find where our water bottles were clipped into the armor of my left side; both were full. “Once we’re in Hopeville, you’ll be able to get a proper meal.”

“I’m sure we’ll manage.” When I looked, I saw as Blossom’s horn came alight long enough for her to pop open the lid of her tin can. But after, she only set the can down to the floor, looking my way as the light around her horn faded. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you look like a pack rat with all of that stuff.” she remarked with a small smile.

Well, four weapons, my ammunition, my savings in bottle caps, the food and water, and Grace’s stash of potions and radiation tonics all strapped to my security armor tended to make me a walking symphony of shifting gear. But in truth, I wouldn’t have it any other way, and upon replying to her with those words, she gave me a soft little note of laughter. “And what about you?” I asked after a pause, trying to keep the words flowing. “Your gear okay after all that rain yesterday?”

“I think my armor shrunk a little because of the rain. It’s harder, too.” she replied, then levitating out a portion of her preserved food to begin eating. “I’m not sure if I even want to bring it along anymore, especially since I don’t have any oil to treat it with.”

“Might be able to restore it… or trade it in if you want. I’m sure Saber wouldn’t mind letting you look around the Hopeville Armory.”

“Do you really think he’d be okay letting a stranger have access to the settlement’s gear?” Blossom asked.

At her question, I faced forward again, looking back outside. “Believe it or not, you’re not the first pony that’ll have entered Hopeville as a new face. Hell, you’re not even the first pony that Nova and the rest of us have brought in ourselves.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I answered with a nod. “I suppose that if nothing else, Saber will let you in to live as a part of the community, and at least that way you’ll be safe. In the end… I guess that’s what really matters.”

To this, she didn’t respond at first, and as the silence proceeded my words, I didn’t look back to her. But it was only a moment later when I heard as Blossom shifted in her place. “Thank you.”

Though my eyes flicked to the right where Blossom sat, I kept my gaze forward, frowning thinly in reply to her remark. “You don’t have to thank me for anything.” I replied after a breath.

“After everything that’s happened over the past couple of days… yes I do.” she persisted. “I’ve actually been meaning to say thank you for a while now… and I was hoping to ask you something as well… about you… about the recent past.”

I turned to look at her, meeting a pair of eyes that were both curious yet concerned; she had moved closer to me. “Are you sure you want to talk about all that?” I carefully asked. “I don’t want to drag you back to bad memories.”

“I know that we’ve been quiet while we’ve traveled, by and large.” she replied, slowly piecing her sentence together. “In all honesty, for a time, I was kind of… lost in the past… and I didn’t like it…” The mare swallowed hard, shaking her head as she looked away. “I had nightmares after my watch… I relived that night in this building… and I still feel the pain in my throat and my nethers as if it were only minutes ago that it happened… I remember the degradation, the insults, the feeling of helplessness…” I couldn’t keep myself from cringing in sympathy, feeling as my ears pinned slightly back. “But with all of that… I actually dreamt of something better last night.” she continued, once again looking at me. “I saw you, and I saw Nova and her little brother, and I saw all of your friends that saved me that night… and it put me at peace.” Again she paused, letting out a sigh as she bowed her head. “I guess that what I’m trying to say is that, in the end, I was just waiting for the right time… to get the strength to discuss what happened to me again. Because I’ve noticed something about you over the course of yesterday… and this morning… that’s making me worry a little.”

These last words caught me off-guard, making me raise an eyebrow. “Am I scaring you?” I asked, immediately anxious towards the subject. “I’m sorry if I am…”

“No, you’re not scaring me at all, I promise.” came her quick reassurance. “I’ve just… I’ve noticed how you’ve looked when you’re staring off into the distance. You’ve been doing it so much, and every time, you get this thin frown when you think to yourself, you narrow your eyes a bit… and I think I know what you’re thinking about. Believe it or not, I’ve seen you taking glances at me… troubled, apprehensive glances… I kept quiet, but after I’ve been seeing how hesitant you were, I’ve been wanting to address it… just at the right time.”

“I… what are you trying to get at?”

“You’ve been thinking about Jenny.” she stated firmly, sending a jolt through me. “Haven’t you?”

For a moment, I couldn’t even answer as we stared back to one another. This was definitely not something I had been wanting to discuss, much more for her sake than for my own. Even with her bringing up the topic herself, I had no desire to delve into the subject, to force her to relive that farm even as she continued to fight away the mental toll that her trauma had put her through. But the way that I had merely given my private thoughts away to her, how easily she had seen through my own silence… what choice did I have? Goddesses, it was probably the silence itself that had spoken my own feelings for me, spoken my guilt to her… because she had read me like a map.

With a sigh, I yielded. “How can I not?...... I was so close… and the way she looked at me, the way she felt safe again when she saw you… she thought she was being rescued.” I had to force myself to a stop to clear my throat; I was already feeling myself start to choke up. “Fuck, I might as well have been the one that killed her in the first place… because I wasn’t quick enough… wasn’t smart enough.”

“Hey…”

“That second cable…” I continued, shutting my eyes tight. “I could’ve cut it with a swing of my knife…… it wasn’t even hidden for Goddesses sake! It was just there against the wall… in plain sight!” I stomped a hoof to the floor, shaking my head, gritting my teeth; all the pent up regret came flooding out. “If I had been just another second quicker, your friend would still be alive! She’d be with us right now, and she’d have the same opportunity as you… but I slipped… I fucked up… I failed her, and I failed you, and I’m never going to forget that face.” As I let my eyes come back open, I felt the beginning of tears long unfallen as they slowly welled into existence. No… I wouldn’t be able to forget Jenny’s face, so full of hope and relief in one second, and then suspended in shock as she perished… the way her eyes reflected such thankful happiness before they rolled back up into her skull… and Blossom’s scream… that soul-ripping, heartbreaking cry of agony… “And now… and now I’m afraid.” I explained shakily. “What if what happened to Jenny happens to Nova or Shore or Gracie or you? What if one of you gets hurt out here and I fail to save you?… If anything happened to any of my friends like what happened out on that farm… I’d never forgive myself, especially if I failed again.” At last, I turned to look back to Blossom. The mare had been quiet, but she had risen to all four hooves, moving up next to me as she looked sadly back at me. “If you’re looking for an answer as to why I’ve been the way I have been over the past day… it’s because I’m afraid of failing you again… afraid of you getting hurt.” I explained after the pause. “I want to get you safely to Hopeville, to give you the chance to live in peace and safety… at least that way, I feel like I’ve done something right towards redeeming myself… to earning forgiveness… Nothing I do will replace the life of a pony… but I like to hope that this is a start to showing that I’m trying to do better…”

But in response to my words, I was jolted out of my own grief when my unicorn partner reached a hoof up to me, gently touching my right cheek. “Gunny… there is nothing to forgive.” she said, slowly shaking her head. “Jenny might be gone now, but what’s important now is that you’re letting me come with you, letting me move to Hopeville where I can start over again, pull myself together, meet new faces and make a new life for myself.” Her words, heartfelt as they sounded, didn’t seem to me like they were true. How could they be after my failure? How could she make for herself the strength to put her ordeals behind her so quickly? And yet, when I moved to look away, her other forehoof came up to touch my left cheek, holding my head in place to look her in the eyes as she sat herself down at my side. “You haven’t failed anypony. What happened to Jenny was something that none of us could have predicted. It was a cruel trick by that Talon griffin, not any fault of your own.” she continued, leaning close to keep her eyes firmly locked on mine. “I know that we’ve only known each other for three days, but you’ve already shown me that you’re a good stallion. When you met me, you didn’t just murder me and take my things, and after the farm, you didn’t just throw me away like I was some kind of lost cause. You’ve kept me with you this whole time, and you’ve followed me willingly through my hardships, given me more help than I would have dared to expect. And just like you said, you’re protecting me, trying to help me get myself back together again. That’s not something that a normal wastelander does, Gunny.”

“Getting the opportunity to live happier in Hopeville is no more than you deserve.” I lowly replied, letting my eyes drop down even as she held me there. “After all the shit you went through, shit that I contributed to, I have to get you there. I just have to.”

At that, Blossom smiled ever so slightly, running a hoof along my right cheek. “See? You’re already proving my point.” she replied. “You want to ensure my safety, and you want to ensure the safety of your friends. You’re showing me that that’s part of who you are. It’s your nature, and what you just said to me shows that you have a good heart, just like your friends. And that’s what ultimately saved me from death itself, what let me continue to live on in memory of my friend. You may not think it, but I owe you my life for that… and I’m not bothered by that at all.”

“You don’t owe me anything.” I retorted sternly. “You shouldn’t even be thanking me.”

“It’ll be hard,” Blossom pressed after a pause. “but I have a feeling that I’ll be able to make something good for myself where we’re going, and it’s you that’s giving me that opportunity. Jenny would’ve wanted me to move on to take this chance, and she would’ve been happy that I am… I’m happy that I am.” Somehow, she still kept that little smile. “So… thank you… for everything you’ve done to help me… thank you.” Looking into her eyes, I could see that my own arguments were going to get me nowhere. Though self-pity and doubt was perhaps less-than-honorable to feel given the situation, Jenny’s fate had dragged me down into a dark pit of guilt, a place where I was bound to keep myself so long as Blossom stayed close. It was hard to escape it when I still was, at least in some part, responsible. Yes, I could’ve been quicker, I could’ve seen that second wire… but yes, it was something that had taken me by surprise, a trap with a mechanism built with not just one trigger, but two. It had been a conniving contraption, devious, and that griffin, Blackhawk, had bested me then. But through Blossom’s persistence, I was beginning to see something else, the chance to learn and to be better, for my friends, for myself, and most importantly, for Blossom herself. This was something I had to live with, but I had a choice even now – let it run my life, or let it be a lesson, albeit a harsh one, for me to become better, to home in on my flaws and to fix them. Yes, there was a lesson in this, just like there had been with Marian, when Hallion’s sister had made me realize that I was more than just an expendable asset, and that so long as I held on to the values I cherished, I was important to my friends. The lesson here – I had to move on, to remember but to let go, and the way Blossom looked at me… I knew that this was what I had to do for her, and for everypony else. And though I remained silent after her words, I came to slowly nod in her hold, whereupon the violet unicorn’s smile faintly grew as she nodded with me. But still, she didn’t release me, even as silence lingered between us; she only begun to blush, a faint rosy color marking her cheeks. “And… just in case my words didn’t get my point across…” Then, before I could even make a move to reply, Blossom leaned even closer, hooves still holding my head before our muzzles pressed, her lips locking to mine in a full kiss.

My eyes popped round at the sudden move, my head and neck craning slightly back as Blossom pushed herself into the embrace. I didn’t kiss her back, but our mouths were linked together in a perfect fit. I could see her closed eyes as she held me there, could feel her breath as we stayed joined together. And as seconds passed us by, neither of us moved an inch, only our light combined breathing sounding as we stayed joined together. Then, after another moment, Blossom’s lips left my own with a soft, tender sound of release, and she leaned only far enough back to open her eyes and look at me again, her small smile arcing back up again on her muzzle and partnering up with her solid steadfast blushing. “I uh…” Softly, nervously, I cleared my throat… Goddesses, I think even I was blushing at this point. “I… don’t think I really deserved that.” I muttered.

But at that, the unicorn mare only giggled, leaning forward to place a quick delicate smooch on my nose. “I do.” she countered, letting her hooves fall away from my face and returning herself to all fours, backing up a step to give us some room. “Well…” she added after a moment. “Um… I think I’m ready to get going if you are. I can go ahead and eat the rest of my breakfast along the way.”

Following her example, I stood back up to all fours, clearing my throat again as I faced the outside once more; it was time to focus on the task ahead. “Alright then.” I replied with a nod. “Let’s get you home.”

*** *** ***

“I’m glad that you have discovered these things. From all that I’ve seen of your home, I feel that you more than deserved to know.”

“Oh, but it wasn’t easy to see, child. It kept me away from my youngers all day yesterday… I’ll have a full day of making up for my absence ahead of me today.”

“I’m certain that your ponies are looking forward to seeing you again.”

“And are you ready to go home, to see familiar faces again?”

“Hmm… It’s not my home… nor are the faces there familiar… but under the eyes of the Goddesses, it is a place of refuge for me……. Yes, I’m ready to return.”

“It might not be like Harmony, but perhaps there’s a reason why you found the others in your company, a reason why you found their home. The Goddesses might have a plan for you in that regard.”

“It’s hard to say… especially considering what I’ve had my sights set on. Like I said before, I didn’t find who I was looking for in Marefax, and so I have to keep searching… but if things turn out the way I hope they do, then I may very well find a place for myself in Hopeville to live out the rest of my years, however many they may be.”

“I hope that you do.”

The voices were faint, but even through the lingering haze of sleep, my ears picked up the conversation taking place outside the closed entrance of our shack that woke me from my rest. I shifted at the presence of the noise, uttering a light groan as I tried to open my eyes. But my eyelids felt like metal weights, only cracking just partly open before they fell closed once again; it was a testament to last night’s success.

The concert had gone well into the night, all of the songs being showcased having made almost an hour and a half of music. But even after the concert had come to a close, with my more intimate dance with Archer marking the end of my musical experience, all of the musicians had come to gather together for a great feast in the concert hall, assembling with family and friends on the performance floor. This was what had consumed the greater majority of time, as I had been pulled every which way to talk amongst Buckley’s citizens, receiving congratulations and constructive criticisms to my singing, telling the story of my life outside Buckley’s fences, and also having to describe a countless number of times the emotions I had felt when entering the concert hall, when I had gone up onto the stage, and when I had sung my song. According to many of my temporary admirers, The Voice had been a favorite song because of its character and its melodies, adored as the tribute it was to the Old World Goddesses. In one specific encounter, it had been a privilege for me to hear how an elderly couple had recounted hearing the song performed for the first time over thirty-five years ago, and how it revived memories of when they had first met each other during that very same concert; according to them, I had sounded just like the mare who had sung this song on its premier day.

Much to my own personal amusement, it was the socializing that had worn me out, as it had been drawn out well past midnight. On top of that, I had been one of the first to leave the makeshift banquet, having to dismiss myself when I had started yawning periodically during conversations. With me, Shore and Grace and Blake had all similarly excused themselves from the ongoing festivities, all of us opting to return to our shack together as a group where we one and all quickly drifted off to sleep. And while I didn’t know how long we had slept for up to this point, as my eyes once again came partly open I saw dim light painted over the dirt outside our shack’s entrance as the metal door silently swung open.

From outside, Raemor stepped in on quiet hooves, moving with soft steps as a courtesy to those of us who still slept. Both Shore and Grace were still at rest on two of our shelter’s three mattresses to my left, and Blake was nestled in his usual place under my right wing, snuggled up close to me to absorb the most heat from both myself and our shared blanket. But as for me, my body was beginning to cooperate with my efforts to wake up, especially when I caught sight of green haze outside our door as Mother Shimmer peered inside.

“Good morning, Nova.” From his place at our shack’s table, Raemor was setting down a small leather sack next to Shore’s reassembled multiplas rifle. “I’m sorry for waking you.” he quietly added, craning his head around to look me in my half-opened eyes.

To that, I yawned as I gave a shake of my head. “Oh, it’s fine.” I managed to reply. “What’s that bag you have there?”

“Mother Shimmer has given us a little extra food and some purified water for our upcoming journey into the southeast.” the old unicorn explained, still hushed. “She’s given it to us in hope of our safe return to Hopeville.”

As I blinked away some of the sleep in my eyes, Mother Shimmer likewise stepped inside, briefly looking left and then right at the arrangement of our setup before her eyes came upon me. “Good morning, child. Did you sleep well?” she asked with a smile, keeping her voice quiet.

“Oh yes.” I answered, returning her smile with a tired one of my own. “I think it was largely due to the concert though.”

“I heard that you were quite something on the stage.” the ghoul remarked in response. “Tracer came and visited me in my silo after he left the festivities, and he told me all about it.”

“I’m glad that everypony liked it.” Shifting myself, carefully to avoid waking my slumbering little brother, I lifted up my left wing to hold up our blanket before working my way out from underneath it. “I’ll be honest, I was just short of terrified going up in front of all those ponies.”

Shimmer chuckled at that. “But it sounds like Ludwig made a very wise choice in making you an additional voice in the concert.” she replied. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to see you myself, but it is good to hear that you did well.”

By now, I had scooted myself off the mattress Blake and I shared, and as I rose to my hooves, I carefully let the blanket slide off the wing propping it up and fall back onto the mattress, keeping the lightly snoring colt warm and cozy as he continued to sleep unbothered by my stirring. “And how are you feeling now, Mother Shimmer?” I asked, stepping over to gingerly nuzzle and paw the blanket up and around my baby brother, tucking it along his sides. “From what little I heard, you weren’t having a very easy time with the items Archer and I had brought back from the Shimmermist Farm… I’ve been a little worried.”

“No, it most certainly wasn’t easy, child.” the ghoul agreed after a weighty pause. “It was a gift all on its own to discover my true history… but it was also very taxing on me.”

After tucking the blanket around Blake, I backed away from my snoozing sibling to look back at Mother Shimmer. “I can’t lie and say that I understand what it’s like to go through what you did.” I replied with sympathy.

But at my concern, Shimmer merely smiled again. “Nonetheless, what you did, child – it’s taught even little old me a couple of new things, even after all my many years.” she said upliftingly, then nodding back behind her. “Would you care to step outside with me? That way we might talk without waking your young brother.”

Her positivity on the situation was contagious, making me pass a smile to meet hers as my worry for the Buckley leader’s emotional state eased. “Of course, Shimmer.” Leaving my brother alone to his sleep, I followed after the ghoul as she headed back for the doorway. To my left, Raemor’s attention held on the bag, the old unicorn having now removed a wrapped package of food from the sack. “Raemor, do you want to come out with us?”

“No thanks.” he replied, glancing back and politely dipping his head to me. “I’ll stay here and have some breakfast. Besides, she’s already told me what I think she’s about to tell you.” At the last bit, he turned his head around to Shimmer, passing her a wink which the ghoul mare chuckled to. And though I cocked an eyebrow at his words, I let him be with a smile and nod, then following Mother Shimmer out of the shack and outside. Things were largely quiet outside our walls, Buckley Air Force Base still sitting at peace as the night slowly faded away, being replaced with a gradual yet rather lovely curtain of pale blue as the morning light begun to sweep over the cloud ceiling high above. I could hear murmurings in the peace of the morning as voices echoed in the base’s northern residential quarter, signs that the early birds of the settlement were already up and about. The voices were soft to my ears as I came to a stop outside our shelter, as if they were speaking in whispers, aware that their home was still at blissful sleep, and cautious so as to not disturb it.

As the last one out, I reached over to shut the door behind us, the entrance closing with a gentle click. “It’s lovely out here this morning.” I spoke up, turning to face the west as Shimmer joined me.

“Yes it is.” she replied, following my eyes towards the silhouettes of the base’s hangers, almost pitch black against the dim early morning light; the nightlights on the base’s original buildings had already been shut off. “Many have a difficult time finding beauty in today’s world, at least if you have the great fortune to carry memories or gifts that give you the ability to compare it to the Old World. I know that it was hard for me to find sometimes… but you just have to learn to appreciate it for what it is. It is what we have after all.”

I cracked a half smile at her words, still admiring how the hangers sat against the backdrop of the wasteland sky. I hadn’t lied when I had spoken my mind on the scene, as I felt there was a presence of beauty in it, something I could admire, or at the very least, acknowledge it as something good. But then again… “I don’t know… I think I’m just a sap for scenery.” I stated after Shimmer, turning to her as I chuckled at my own personality. “Maybe it’s just some sort of subdivision of my overflowing nostalgia.”

“But it’s something that you look for on occasion, something that you’re happy to find when you do.” the ghoul observed, sharing my light chortling. “It’s something that you have to look forward to seeing when you return to your home out there, I imagine.” Well, with that there was no arguing with her. With all that Hopeville and my fellow Stable survivors had gone through, our new home had come to acquire its own unique beauty over time, something that I did indeed always look forward to seeing and cherishing again whenever I left the sanctuary behind.

“That’s true.” I agreed with a nod.

Shimmer smiled a little wider at my acknowledgement. “And what else do you have waiting for you back at your own home?” she asked curiously. “Anypony or anything in particular?”

“Oh… just friends… and my favorite custodial closet.” I replied, chuckling again at the last bit as Shimmer cocked an eyebrow. “Hopeville’s a pretty small place, made of only a few old houses, shops, and one big building which is the City Hall. My brother and I officially claimed our own room in the City Hall, used to be a janitor’s storeroom. It’ll be good to be back on… uh… my own floor, so to say.”

“I see.” Shimmer responded, keeping her smile.

“Other than that, all the ponies who live there are who’s waiting for me, really.” I continued. “Captain Saber’s there, making sure that the town remains safe and secure. He was the head of Stable Security back in One Eighty-One, and he’s taken up that role out here, too. He’s a good friend to everypony in town… There’s little Melody and all her friends… I’m their foalsitter from time to time… Shore’s parents are there too, and I’m one of their family friends since Shore is one of my closest. Then there’s Ivy, a unicorn around my age – she used to be a raider, has a history full of rough spots that got her tangled up with the wrong groups. We spared her life and now she lives with us, already making a good reputation for herself in Hopeville.” I paused to look back to Mother Shimmer, seeing her attentive eyes still on me as she listened with open curiosity. “And of course, there’s Gunny and Blossom… under Gunny’s protection, I have no doubt that she’ll make it there in one piece, but hopefully Saber’s allowed Blossom to move in and get herself back together without much of a fuss. After all she’s been through the past half week…”

Shimmer nodded. “Hopefully you and your friends will all find some peace upon your return home, especially after all of your exploits here. You’ve done a lot.”

“I think it’s all been worth it, Mother Shimmer.” I assured, gesturing a hoof to her as I added, “And hopefully, because of all that’s been done to fix things around Buckley, you and your people will have a better time of things as well.”

“Oh I think that’s something we can definitely look forward to, and soon actually.” the ghoul replied confidently. “Within the week, the air traffic control tower should be fully converted into a full-region broadcasting station, and DJ Flynt is going to take over the tower by broadcasting greeting messages and recordings of our music to the wasteland. It will be a significant step in reaching out to the settlements beyond our fences.”

My ears perked, my eyes popping round, at this explanation. “Wow, really?? Will I be able to hear that?”

“According to Tech Sergeant Lela, anypony in the southeast with any kind of radio or communications device would be able to detect the frequency and listen in.” Shimmer explained. “Depending on the strength of the salvaged equipment from Cirrus Communications, the broadcasts might reach even farther than that. We won’t really know for sure, but either way, it will announce our existence to the whole of the southeast.”

“Wow, I think that’s great.” I spoke with a smile.

“I do, too. But I know that many of my youngers wouldn’t agree, perhaps even some of them who had formerly encouraged the idea.” she countered, tone lower and slightly concerned.

“Well, it is kind of a frightening prospect considering your history, and your ponies have every right to be nervous about it.” I remarked, cocking my head in a shrug. “But if Challenger hears your broadcasts, the city’s leaders might try and reply to you, maybe negotiate and reach some sort of peaceful relationship. With how they encourage the growth and protection of the existing settlements in the southeast, as well as their own, I’m sure they’d come looking to you for help, and if not that, at least talk on integrating Buckley as an official cooperative settlement in the region. I’ve met and talked with one of those leaders before, not much of course, but enough to know that they’re really working hard to build and grow. Personally, I think you’re making a good choice in this, and I think Buckley’s more than ready to face that world, if not because of the training and organization of its citizens, then definitely because of the weapons and technology protecting it.”

“Yes, I am leading them onto a new road, and like any major change, I understand the fear that can come from that.” she said, nodding. “But I also know that we have become strong enough to face any threat, just as we have done for the past seventy years, and I know that we have become smart enough to understand what we’re coming into and how to deal with it.” As she spoke of her confidence in her flock, her smile returned with full loving warmth (much like, I thought with amusement, a proud mother speaking of the achievements of her children). “After all these years, we are prepared, and the fact that you, a wastelander yourself, believes the same, means a lot to me. Even if you have only had so much experience in the wastes, you still have seen a fair share of what happens here and to me, that gives me just as much of a reason to take inspiration from your opinion.”

“Don’t think of me as some kind of seasoned veteran.” I warned with a small smile. “But it doesn’t take a seasoned veteran to tell that Buckley can more than hold its own, especially with you at the helm.”

“Thank you, child.” she replied, dipping her head to me. “That means a lot to these old ears.”

I returned her gesture, the both of us slipping into a comfortable silence together as we stood outside the shack, taking in the morning as it progressed. As I took the time to look back up to the cloud ceiling, I could see where the sky had brightened, slightly lightening further in the east and illuminating in traces to the far west where the pitch darkness was starting to disperse. It was a sign that we had been outside for a few good minutes at least, basking in the comfortable morning air… and it was a few good minutes closer to our official departure, to not seeing the concert stage and hearing Buckley’s heavenly melodies, to not seeing any trace of Mother Shimmer, of not knowing how she was… and of Archer… not seeing him for days on end… Goddesses, I was going to miss this place. It’d never substitute for home, ever, but there was so much here that I had come to admire, to enjoy, and more than a few ponies who I had come to respect… and I was going to miss them.

But out of all these questions that would certainly surface over time, one of them was something that I could find answers for while I was still here, right here and now; I wanted to know.

“What about you, Mother Shimmer?”

At my question, she turned to me. “Hm?”

“How are you feeling?” I asked. “Going into all this… how are you? I know that I asked you before, but we kind of detoured around the subject.”

At first, silence was her response as the ghoul glanced back to me, lips curling into a gradual smile before she faced forward again, looking skyward. “I feel…” she began, her words coming out slowly. “better.” Then, as she faced me directly, she spoke with greater conviction as she added, “Yesterday, and the night before, I spent the whole time confined in my silo, locked away from my youngers and surrounding myself with the items you and Archer had brought from the farm… my farm… I watched those video logs countless times… to see how I lived in the Old World, what I did with my life, who I lived with and who my friends were… I eventually threw that flying disk around the silo…” At the ensuing pause she laughed, a soft series of notes that encouraged me to smile with her as she reflected on her recent experiences. “I knocked over some of my things… made a mess of my chamber throwing that thing around…” she continued. “But I felt like the child I was back then… I felt good…… And after that, I actually fell asleep for a few hours, snuggled up with that purple puppy… the dear thing made me feel like I was back on the farm… in my old bedroom… I saw that room and the rest of the house in those memory orbs, saw it for what it had been… beautiful…… but those were the most difficult things to see.”

“How so?” I asked carefully; her smile was slowly dropping away.

“The videos showed events… one when my mother was pregnant with me and was deciding on names for me with my father… and the other was a log from close to the Last Day. Those video files showed us separate from each other, and that was emotional enough to see… but the memory orbs were much more intimate, much more personal.” she explained, nodding to herself as she looked away again. “The thing is – I still haven’t watched all of them yet… I’ve only seen three of the six memory orbs you brought to me, but I’ve watched them several times throughout my absence… the better to understand every detail that they showed to me.”

Naturally, I was compelled to question that, watching something over and over again like she said she had done… but the truth of the matter… what she had done regarding her isolation was quite reasonable, given the uniqueness of the situation. “Those uh… memory orbs must’ve told you a hell of a story then, huh?” I instead asked.

But to that, she begun to smile again. “For the Old World’s standards, I imagine my family was a rather typical one – happy, sociable, hard-working. My parents made themselves a quiet and peaceful life after they had been honorably discharged from the Equestrian Army, and I learned that it was right after they had left the service that they decided to get married, and right along with that was when they decided to have me. The first of the three memories I’ve seen up to this point was from the perspective of my mother when she and my father brought me home from a hospital in Marefax… I couldn’t have been any older than two weeks at that point, just lying there burbling and babbling… and they brought me home in a little pink and white baby carriage.”

I smiled right along with her. “Aw, that’s adorable.”

“I was a foal with pudgy cheeks.” she remarked in response, chuckling at her new memory. “That, and I was a talking machine right from the start.”

“My mom said that I was always making little baby noises, always interrupting presentations and get-togethers when I was a foal.” I spoke back, shaking my head in amusement as I joined in her recollection. “My dad was particularly proud of me for that on more than a few occasions.”

“My father called me ‘a bundle of cuteness’ in that first memory orb.” Shimmer said, sitting down on her haunches. “I’m sure he came up with a quick nickname for me because of that. He had a thing for those… he called me ‘baby girl’ in the second memory orb when he and mother were reading me one of those Daring Do books one night in their bedroom. Apparently it was a childhood favorite of mine, so said my mother… and me myself, too.”

“The Sapphire Stone?” I asked with a smirk.

She nodded with a short laugh. “Yes, I believe that was the one.”

“And what about the third memory?” I inquired curiously. “What was that one about?”

“That one was one of my father’s memories from my foalhood.” she explained. “It was the first time he had taken me out into the fields to help him tend to the crops that my family grew. They raised all kinds of things, fruits and vegetables alike – watermelons, celery, wheat, carrots, we even had our own apple tree close to the house. He said that it was for family use only, and not part of the produce sold on the farmers’ markets in Marefax, and we picked apples from it together in the aftermath of a rainstorm while mother looked over the carrot crop.”

“Those are good memories… truly.” I encouraged with a nod.

“Yes they are.” she agreed, her smile returning to that full and motherly one that I had seen before. “And I have you and Archer to thank for bringing them to me. You understand now exactly why I’m so grateful, and you understand exactly how important those memories are to me.” I nodded as she spoke, knowing full well just how much she valued those memory orbs. But she continued still, then adding, “You gave me back my missing half, child, and you gave me the tools to see and understand that missing half… who I was all those years ago. Even now I still have more to see and more to discover about myself, and it’ll take me some time. But know that no matter what you do, I’m not going to forget about this favor. What you’ve done for me has changed me for the better… I am eternally grateful to you… and I wish you and your friends all the luck in the world.”

“I’m glad I was able to do my part before I left, Shimmer.” I replied after a pause, holding out a hoof to her. “You’re a good mare. Buckley’s lucky to have you, and I’m glad to have met you.” From her place nearby, she reached a hoof over to press it against mine, nodding in acceptance of my praises. Goddesses… seeing her now, the way she was this morning… I felt that she would’ve held a unique place in Hopeville… that was, if the security of an entire settlement, essentially a civilization in its own right, didn’t rest on her shoulders.

“Now then, how about some breakfast?” she spoke up again, rising quickly to all fours and trotting back up to our shack door. “All that talk of my parents’ old crop made me a little hungry.”

“Sure.” I answered her, gesturing to the door. “We’d love to have you join us.”

“Thank you, child. I think I will.” Shimmer replied, fitting her hoof into the door handle and giving it a twist. “I think I’ll have some watermelon… with an apple or two on the side.” Pulling the door back, she looked back around to me to pass a wink, coaxing another smile from me before I followed her back into the shack.

Yes… I was most definitely going to miss this place.

*** *** ***

“Wow… there sure are a lot of ponies that came out to see us.”

Matching my pace by my right side and carrying his own saddlebags, Blake was staring ahead at Buckley’s main gate, eyes upon the cluster of ponies that had assembled by the twin guard towers flanking the base’s closed chain-link entrance. Even from our place on the east runway, with the residential quarters at our backs, I could identify both citizens and guardsponies within the sizeable crowd. Except this time, unlike when we had been captured and brought to Buckley as prisoners, both citizens and guards were mixed together into a single group of onlookers, with no weapons drawn and with nopony on high alert.

“Yes, there most certainly is.” Gracie replied from just behind me, horn flickering with light as she adjusted the strap of her medical bags, situating them more comfortably over her flanks. “I guess some of them were hoping to say their own goodbyes.”

“And some are probably happy to watch us go.” I remarked, facing forward as our group walked in the early morning air.

Breakfast with Mother Shimmer had been a refreshing way to spend our last hour in Buckley, as my friends and I had been greeted to the new day with produce fresh from the base’s underground orchard, a final treat from Shimmer herself. All six of us thus enjoyed a delicious meal that gave us full bellies and plentiful energy for the road, and the simple and easygoing conversation that had flowed throughout that time had put everypony in my group in good spirits as we had collected our belongings and left our shack, returning it to Shimmer to allow citizens to occupy the building in our place. As for Mother Shimmer herself, she made her formal farewell to us then and there, as she was already beginning the task of getting back in touch with her ponies by visiting a guard training session headed by Amber Dawn to observe a batch of new recruits in a weapons maintenance class; she had left us with her gift of food and a big hug for each of us.

Now, the morning had progressed to the point where the whole of the sky was illuminated with the dawn’s pale light, the thick clouds no longer black but a solid sheet of grey and white. Grace, Shore, Raemor, and Blake were all geared up with their respective items, repeating what we had done on our earlier ventures into the southeast. My baby brother was carrying our food and water supplies, both the fresh product from Buckley and that from the Hopeville stores together. Grace was fully geared in her leather armor and reequipped with her revolver, her medical bags partially refilled with additional bandages, potions, and antibiotics that she had haggled from Doctor Preston. Shore had reassembled his multiplas rifle the previous night, the weapon on its last legs in regards to its ammo count, and had returned it and his modified laser rifle to its place on his own saddle, both his saddle and his Stable security armor having undergone their own cleaning. And finally, Raemor was also fully geared up for the trip, grenade rifle and sidearm cleaned and reloaded, fire axe polished, and combat armor and duster inspected and reequipped.

As for me, all of my weapons, my personal saddlebags, and my pipbuck were returned to their rightful place, that familiar weight now wrapped back around me. But in the case of my Manehattan Police Department riot gear, I would need to have it patched back up by somepony with more experience than me upon returning to Hopeville, as my morning in Marefax had resulted in a number of the protective pads earning their fair share of new holes; many of those holes still held the bullets that they had kept from hitting me… it was definitely a worthwhile sacrifice.

“Oh, be a little more optimistic, Nova.” Gracie chimed. “I’m willing to bet that your grand performance up on stage last night is still fresh in the minds of many. There’s probably a few that kind of wish you weren’t leaving.”

I looked back to find my unicorn friend smiling receptively, a gesture that made me sigh in response. “I don’t know.” I replied, looking back ahead. “With the way Mother Shimmer was talking about the various reactions towards her future plans that she’s come to observe, my guess is that there’s still mixed emotions about me… about all of us.”

“Perhaps.” Raemor spoke up from his place beside Grace. “But the involvement of outsiders in Buckley has made a great impact on their way of thinking, their way of life. We will walk out of this base knowing that we’ve done something good for it, and they will watch us leave knowing that we’ve helped them, shown to them that not all outlanders are devious and untrustworthy. That is what’s important here.”

“For me, the important thing is knowing that Nova, Blake, Grace, and I have all stuck with the principles we value in helping this place.” Shore added strongly behind me. “No matter what Buckley might do from here on out, we’ve at least proven to ourselves that we are still the same ponies we were three weeks ago. We’ve done our good deeds here, helped – it makes me feel good knowing that I’ve held on to that slice of my old life when the rest of it was sealed behind a Stable-Tec door.”

Hm… I hadn’t thought of that… not for a while, actually. Or at least, not as profoundly as I had when considering what my role would be in the fate of little Lucan and his family. After my stay in Challenger recovering under the care of Doc Miles, it had come down to pure survival back home, fighting off the Talon Legion, searching for additional resources. And after that came Buckley, whereupon I became most useful to the settlement through my inherent ability to fly and my experience in fighting on the ground and in the sky. Really, that span of events came down only to fighting and killing, all in the name of survival, all for necessity’s sake… was it bad that all of this had diverted my thoughts to the present? Was it bad that it made me forget the Stable and its modified purpose, that which the Golden Fire family had set in place of a corrupt corporate experiment?

It was something else to ponder on an uneventful day, but either way, Shore’s words made me crack a small smile; I was thinking of Stable 181 and its teachings now. “Yeah… I guess that, more or less, we’ve at least done right by these ponies.” I replied, nodding at my friend’s assertion. “Even though we didn’t owe it to them, we still helped them, because we understood that they were ultimately looking to understand things about the outside world, even if they had a funny way of showing it… if nothing else, I can go home and return to the others with a clear conscience about that.”

The five of us were coming close to the main gate now, and nearby, a half dozen late arrivals were trotting along towards the base entrance to our left and right to join up with the assembly. As we moved, I could now more clearly see just how many ponies had come to witness our departure, at least twenty or so beside either guard tower with even a couple of children in the mix, one of whom was standing upon his father’s back to get a good view. Even now, a multitude of eyes were already upon us as we approached, and chatting voices once previously audible to us from when we had been back on the runway were beginning to die down to whispers of their former selves, making them harder to hear despite how much closer they actually were to us.

“You’ve drawn a bit of a crowd it seems.” A familiar voice drew the attention of my group to the left, where from the trio of late arrivals there emerged Commander Tracer, garbed in his full combat rig complete with its medals and its beret. The stallion officer was wearing a small but pleasant smile of greeting as he trotted along to come and join us, dipping his head as Grace and Shore welcomed him. “Most everpony out here would still be asleep on a normal day.” he added as he fell in, looking out to the nearing cluster of citizens.

“Well, I hardly think the past couple of days have amounted to any kind of normality for any of them.” Gracie remarked with a light giggle.

“Nor will the coming days, either.” Tracer replied. “I’ll be honest, it’s kind of a shame to see you all go. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, much of which I’m sure each of you would be able to play a contributing role in completing. Pretty soon, we’ll be talking with the outside from the A.T.C., and sooner or later, we’re going to have to move on from talking to an audience that can’t talk back to establishing diplomatic relations. It’s going to make for a long couple of weeks.”

“It might be easier than you think, commander.” Raemor spoke up sagely. “You’ll soon come to find that the entirety of the southeast is dealing with more than a few different obstacles, some of which may require some extra help to surpass. Challenger leads the effort out there, but I think that its leaders are wise enough to know that it will need to find additional support, just as it had done ten years ago.”

“Like I said a couple days ago, Buckley’s not going to throw itself into a fight unless it absolutely has to.” Tracer retorted firmly. “Ultimately, we’re aiming only to make them see us as a peaceful and neutral group that might only come to eventually trade and interact. We’re not looking to do much more than that.”

“Challenger’s survived as long as it has because it’s sought the support of strangers.” Raemor explained with equal resolve. “If you seek to interact with that settlement, to share in what it has, it’ll come to you for help in times of crisis, and you’ll have to be ready to commit yourselves to that. Don’t forget that.”

“Perhaps.” the red unicorn buck replied, humming in thought as we walked on. “And what about you?” he asked us after the pause. “Is your home a part of the support that this city requests?”

Oh…

Well, that was a big question, one that I wasn’t so sure I could definitively answer. Challenger was the city that helped small towns like Hopeville grow, and right now, Hopeville’s ponies were focused on making sure that Hopeville remained on such a course that it could continue to survive. We had established ourselves solidly, that was certain, but we were still an equal match against the threats around us. The Talons, the Black Blood – both were equal to us in strength, and that made them both a threat that we could not afford to sniff at. As for Challenger, it was not a mere town, but a city of around four thousand, a good majority of which held varying levels of combat experience. At first glance, Challenger was not a place that appeared to be in dire need of aid from the other settlements of the region. Still, Raemor’s words stuck, and even though Hopeville was not directly involved with Challenger’s affairs, having only had one dealing with them in the past when they had brought supplies to us, it would be wise to be prepared to make our own contributions to Challenger’s survival as well. “No… not yet.” I replied for the others, turning to the commander. “But it’s like Raemor said – even though Hopeville’s focused on its own survival, we need to be ready to contribute all the same since Challenger keeps us safe. If it demands something of us, to fight or to scout or to help caravans, we need to be ready to do that.”

Tracer nodded slowly, visibly pondering Raemor’s advice and my voiced support of it as he faced forward again. “Hm. I guess we’ll just have to see where all this takes us then.”

At that, we collectively came to a halt, now standing amidst the cluster of Buckley ponies that surrounded us on both sides. Whispers still traversed the crowd, but many eyes were upon us as Tracer faced the rest of us, all belonging to silent faces. “Well… commander, this is where we go our separate ways.” I said with a small smile. “You um… you look out for yourself. And take care of Dawn and little Oscar. He’s still the cutest little colt I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks, Nova.” Tracer replied, chuckling as he held out a hoof to me. “You all take care of each other out there, and watch yourselves. And thank you,” he added, looking past me as I bumped my hoof against his and nodding to my companions. “all of you, for everything. You’ve given Buckley a new perspective on things… we won’t forget it.”

“This is a wonderful place you help lead here, commander.” Grace spoke, stepping forward to bump her hoof to Tracer’s after me. “Perhaps one day we might come back to visit.”

“The gate’s open for you.” Tracer replied with confidence, then turning to Shore and bumping his hoof. “In fact, I’d say that you can consider it your home away from home. If you’re out wandering the wastes and you’re nearby, you can come and rest here.”

“Thank you, commander.” Shore said, giving him a nod as Tracer and Raemor struck hooves. “And good luck on coming into the life of the southeast. I wish you the best.”

Finally bumping his forehoof to Blake’s, who smiled big at receiving that farewell gesture, Tracer bowed his head to Shore before his ears suddenly perked. “Hm…” As he looked up, gazing towards the A.T.C. tower, his face rose into a smirk. “Uh oh. Looks like we have a late arrival.” At the same time, my ears also twitched as I picked up a sound above us, like sheets in the breeze – the sound of flapping wings.

Sure enough, when I looked, I found Archer banking down towards us, angling in from the tower’s control room. “I think it’s for you, Nova.”

At Gracie’s mischievous sniggering that proceeded her teasing remark, I found myself blushing as I watched the pegasus stallion descend; she had definitely seen the two of us dancing at the tail end of last night’s concert. “Jealous.” I whispered with a shy smile.

“Maybe just a little.” she playfully murmured back to me, giggling again.

“Good, you’re all still here.” Archer spoke from above, pulling back and beating his wings to slow his propulsion as he hovered in to land. “I almost thought I’d have missed you heading out.”

I watched with a smile as the pegasus landed on his hooves, giving him a little wave as he tucked his wings back against his armored sides, the stallion likewise garbed in his full combat rig in preparation for another shift on sniper duty. “Nope.” I assured. “You got here just in time.”

“I just wanted to make sure I came to give you my own farewell.” he stated, dipping his head to us. “But sleeping up in that watchtower, you tend not to hear any of the voices on the ground.”

“I can understand that.” I replied with a nod. “But yeah, we… we need to get going. Our ponies back home need us to be back soon, and it’ll be a two day walk.”

The pegasus stallion nodded his understanding, giving me one last look with that signature small smile of his as he said, “Well, you all be safe out there. With any luck, we’ll end up seeing each other again outside these fences soon, and by then, Buckley should be well on its way to living in harmony with Challenger and the other settlements of the region.”

“I definitely hope so.” I replied, stepping forward to stand face to face with him. “Maybe… when Buckley does come out to see the region, we might see some of you out in Hopeville? You and everypony here would be more than welcome on our doorstep… and it’d be nice to see you again someday.”

“We’ve all got our own duties to see to, friend.” Archer straightforwardly replied. “They’re sure to keep all of us busy for a while yet, I’m afraid.” His direct tone was something that made me deflate inside, just a little. In truth, I was going to miss Archer just as much as I was Mother Shimmer and Commander Tracer… if not just a little more so. I had known him for all of two days, but what we had done together, flying together to the Shimmermist Farm in search of a pony’s memories, fighting together in Marefax and traversing its treacherous ruins for the betterment of eight hundred souls… dancing together wrapped in the sounds of Buckley’s music… wrapped in each other’s embrace… all of this was more than enough to make me feel like I had known him for much longer than a mere two days. It was something that had been forged both in the searing fires of battle and the gentle light of Old World musical treasures, both of which shaped a subtle yet ironclad kind of friendship. That was how I saw this steel-blue pegasus stallion, and I had high hopes that he felt the same way towards me… and yet despite his words, his small smile still held as he kept his eyes locked to mine, then adding, “But I’m sure that a few of us can make the journey.”

I could only reply to that with a timid smile, and I still felt myself blushing lightly as I leaned forward and reached to sling my left foreleg around his neck, pulling him into a strong hug which he returned in full. At his touch, I let myself close my eyes as I felt him briefly nuzzle along the left side of my neck, and I let out a sigh through my nose as we stayed locked together with almost complete silence surrounding us. It was an embrace that I truthfully did not want to let go of, because I knew that it was one that I was going to miss terribly… but like Archer said – a few could make the journey, and if he’d be one of those few, then I might very well feel this embrace again… hell, I could always hope.

“Here.”

I opened my eyes as Archer lifted his foreleg off my neck, releasing me and allowing me to take a step back as I did the same. “Hm?”

“I’ve got a little something for you. It’s not much, but it’s something to remember your time here.” Archer answered me, craning his head around to reach at his left side. Then, with a click, he freed an item that had been clipped to his armor and faced me to reveal said item. It was a patrol cap, much like the one I had worn on the Marefax expedition, colored with light and dark grey as well as splotches of black. It was a different model than the cap I had worn before however, unalike in that the cap itself was adorned with a black fabric strap which encircled it from just above the sun visor, around the sides and to the back like a ring. That, and along with the strap, a symbol had been stitched into the front of the cap, the emblem made of a white star with defined pegasus wings spread out full from either side of it. Archer was holding the cap with the brim of the visor between his teeth, and before I could make any kind of statement, he craned his neck up and leaned over me to set the cap down atop my head. For a moment, I stood still as he reached a hoof up to adjust it, and I felt as both my ears were tucked between the cap itself and the strap that ringed around it; I understood then that my ears were to fit between them in order to keep the cap from falling off, just like how the headset on Buckley’s cap had kept it from falling off in flight.

And as the stallion flier made his final adjustments, my pipbuck emitted a chirp, drawing my eyes to the computer as I raised my pipbuck leg off the ground; my inventory was displayed, expanded with a new item at the very top of the list – Archer’s Patrol Cap.

Returning himself to all fours, Archer took a step back to look over his work. “There.” he proclaimed with a nod. “How does it fit?”

“It fits perfectly.” I replied with a smile, rolling my eyes up to look upon the underside of the cap’s visor as I lowered my pipbuck leg. The cap did fit very comfortably, and with the strap resting overtop the middle of my ears to keep it supported on my head, the rest of the cap sitting right between my ears, it was fit not too snugly and not too loosely; it was just right.

“It’s a patrol cap from my previous life. The black and grey is urban camouflage, so it matches most of your colors.” the pegasus stallion explained, bringing me to look him in the eyes again. “Like I said, it’s not much, but hopefully you’ll remember Buckley when you wear it.”

“I think it’s wonderful. Thank you, Archer.” I replied with a heartfelt smile. “I just wish I had something to give you in return.”

The pegasus, however, shook his head. “Memories.” he replied with his small smile. “You’ve given me memories, Nova. I think that’s more than a fair gift.”

And so my effort to restrain my blushing went down the drain, my cheeks reheating instantly as I shyly looked away from him. “Aww… gosh, Archer…”

“That a boy.” An older-sounding buck from the crowd spoke encouragingly.

But touching response and hot blushing aside, there was still something about my new item that raised a curious question. “But um… what did you mean by your ‘previous life’… if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked, looking back to him.

But to that, Archer let out a single note of light laughter after a moment of silence, shaking his head. “Well, that’s a long story.” he answered, smile still sustained. “A story that’d take up a dinner or two in Hopeville.”

I cocked an eyebrow, letting my face rise into a smirk as I tilted my head to one side. “Are you asking me out on a date, Archer?” I questioned boldly.

His smile shifted into a smirk to match my own. “Maybe I am.”

“If you set one hoof in Hopeville, I’ll hold you to that.” I warned.

“I wouldn’t even think of going back on it.” he smartly replied, giving me a wink.

Oh sweet Luna, yes.

“Easy, tiger.” Tracer spoke up, punching Archer’s left leg as he came to stand beside him. To my amusement, several ponies in the crowd passed polite laughter; they had been privy to mine and Archer’s conversation… but I didn’t even mind; in fact, I welcomed it. “Don’t scare her out of here. Let her walk out in peace.” Again, a round of laughter passed through the assembled onlookers, laughter in which I and even my friends shared in. “Although, I do agree that the patrol cap looks good on you, Nova.” Tracer added with a smile.

“She looks like an army officer.” Raemor observed with a chuckle.

Craning my head around, I saw Grace and Shore giving me big smiles, even Raemor giving me his own smaller one which I gladly shared with him. At the same time, Blake pushed himself onto his hind legs to reach up and gently tap the rim of my cap’s visor before falling back to all fours. “You do look really cool with that hat.” my baby brother added.

At his remark, I leaned down to give him a quick nuzzling. “I’ll have to be careful that I don’t poke you in the eyes with this visor when I try and nuzzle on you now.” I replied with a giggle. Then, looking back up to Archer and Tracer, I gave them a final bow of my head. “Well, I think it’s time.”

“Alright then.” Giving me a nod, Tracer looked up towards the left-side watchtower. “Open the gate!”

Just a second later, and the pony up in the tower activated the gate mechanism, and the chain-link entrance rolled back to present the cracked pavement of the road to us. And then, with a final round of heartfelt farewells, Blake and I led our group past the base perimeter and out onto the road, heading southwest to follow the growing light of the morning.

We were finally going home.

*** *** ***

“That’s quite a story.”

“We never saw it coming.” I replied. “Eight hundred ponies, all living behind those fences and protected by an Old World artillery battery. The place is a fortress, almost as big as Challenger and just a strong, if not more so.”

“It seems that they’re quite cultural as well.”

To that, I nodded. “Oh yes. Once they warmed up to us, they let us see just what it was that they protected so ferociously. No super weapons, no secret Stables, just music… they have a church, a techno club, and a concert hall. It’s their defining aspect, that soft heart that sits in the center of an iron shell. Once they learn to trust you, they’re just as peaceful as we are.”

“They’re quite hospitable once you get to know them, too.” Gracie chimed in. “They have delicious food that they grow on their own, they have a wonderful spa, and they even let Nova wear a dress made by Rarity herself when she performed in their concert.”

“And they have fascinating technology – magical items, computer hardware, and advanced weaponry.” Shore added. “A water talisman, a fully functional underground orchard, a spark generator for electrical power, computerized anti-air turrets, howitzers, tactical Old World military equipment, and even a prototype tank developed by retired members of the Ministry of Wartime Technology during the late stages of the war.”

“The community that is Buckley Air Force Base has been around longer than even Challenger has, and from what we’ve learned from its leaders, it holds the same ancestry that you do, more or less.” Raemor said after. “They came from a Stable as well, there’s numbered One Ninety-Two. It was quite the interesting connection that they revealed.”

Reaching a hoof up to rub his forehead, Captain Saber let out a sigh. Upon our arrival to Hopeville, we had found our leader sitting beside the town’s stone welcome sign, looking out to the south like he had done many times before. After a hearty greeting, welcoming us home after our consecutive days of absence, he had demanded a full debrief on what we had encountered out there that had kept us away from home roughly a whole day beyond our expected time of return. He had listened to our summary with only calm and focused attention, even now as we told him of our encounters with Buckley’s many secrets. Perhaps the only thing that won any kind of outward reaction of shock had been during our recollection of Buckley’s history in which they had repaired the base’s unused balefire missile and used it to destroy the Equestrian Army’s Fort Volker ammo and ordnance dump to the north; learning that Buckley Air Force Base had been, during the war, one of Equestria’s ballistic defense sites, had hit him with quite the spell of surprise. Throughout the rest, he had taken in the information quite easily, which had at first made me fear that he had perhaps been upset at our prolonged absence… that maybe something had happened here in Hopeville while we had been away.

“I guess first and foremost, I should begin by apologizing.” Saber said, lowering his hoof to the ground as he looked me in the eyes. “I didn’t think that you’re little exploration mission would’ve taken a drastic turn like that. I feel that if I’d planned ahead and thought out as many possible consequences as I could, I would’ve managed to get you better equipped for the mission of diplomacy that your trip became… maybe send along a couple of the sergeants on my little council, maybe send Joker or another guard for some extra fire support…”

“Well, you clearly understand that it took a turn for the unexpected.” Shore spoke first. “None of us saw what was coming until they were launching howitzer shells at us.”

“Yes. I wouldn’t wish that on anypony I know.” the captain replied. “And all of you were there when those big guns of theirs opened up on you?”

“All of us.” Raemor confirmed.

I couldn’t help but wince as I saw Saber looking to my baby brother; if my patrol cap’s strap wasn’t holding my ears in place, they would’ve likely pinned back. “I see.” Saber said, Blake looking up to him to give a small smile. The Captain returned his smile with one of his own, but I still caught how his eyes flicked to me as he leaned back. “Either way, it seems like you got on their good side, earned their trust. And really, that means that as long as they’re true to the peaceful intentions they showed to you after your helping them, they’re likely to see Hopeville as a neutral, if not friendly party. And if nothing else, that’ll at least serve to keep their guns off our heads when they decide to visit the settlements outside their borders. You’ve saved Hopeville from what could’ve been a very serious threat, and that’s damn fine work you’ve all done in that case.”

“With any luck, nothing unexpected like that will come around for a while.” Grace responded. “I like it when it’s nice and quiet.”

“I hear you.” Captain Saber agreed with a small smile. “But more importantly than all of that, I’m glad that you’re all back safe and sound. Everypony’s been worried about the lot of you.”

“What about Gunny?” Blake piped up. “Is he back now?”

“He showed up just last night.” Saber answered the colt. “He brought a newcomer in along with him, purple unicorn with a black mane and tail. I’m reckoning that you all know that mare in one way or another since Gunny brought her back.”

“We found her as a group.” I explained. “She’d been captured by Black Blood and we freed her.”

Saber nodded at that, lowly replying, “Gunny told me she went through some difficult times. He didn’t go into details, but I didn’t press him to either. The poor mare was quite relieved to see Hopeville, which I feel would’ve been quite out-of-character for most normal strangers.”

“And how is she now?” Grace questioned.

“She seems to be doing rather well for herself here.” Saber answered encouragingly. “She’s had good meals, been introducing herself to some of the others, and has just all around been integrating herself into the life of the town. She’s definitely in better spirits than she was when she arrived.”

I nodded in approval, glad for the good news of both Gunny’s safe return and Blossom’s improving health. “Good, good.”

“Well, we’ve been sitting by this hunk of stone here for a while now.” Standing up to all fours, Saber reached his right forehoof over to pat Hopeville’s welcome sign. “How about we head on back, and you can all go ahead and get settled back in. Don’t worry about any assignments or patrols. Each of you has earned a good night’s rest tonight. That, and I’ve got plenty of extra help walking around now.”

“Extra help?” Shore questioned, the five of us following after the captain at his nod.

“Challenger came through with its promise for some extra support while you were away.” he answered, making my ears perk.

“Yeah?” Grace asked, likewise pleasantly surprised. “That’s great news.”

“Another group from the city showed up two days ago.” Saber explained, leading us onto Hopeville’s entry road. “They brought a wagon with some extra supplies as well as a dozen soldiers to help defend the perimeter. As a result, we’ve got some extra ammo and ammo crafting materials, lanterns and oil, and much to everypony’s instant approval, a shipment of pillows. There wasn’t enough to go around for everypony here, but we made sure that the foals and a good chunk of the civilians got one. And of course, couples share them.”

“Pillows!” Blake piped up happily. “So I have a pillow now?”

“There’s one for you in your room, Blake.” Saber answered him with a chuckle.

“Awesome!”

Well now, that would most certainly be a welcome addition to our room, and I had every bit of faith that my baby brother would be sleeping quite soundly tonight.

“Has anything else been happening around town?” Shore then inquired.

“There’s been a couple changes to the town infrastructure that our council decided to implement, what with the growing number of inhabitants and traders.” Saber explained in reply. “We converted what used to be our supply building in the northeast corner of town into the town trading post and caravan rest stop. Supplies get brought there and sorted before they’re sent to either the general storage or the armory, and whatever we have extra of we set up for sale for travelers on the lower floor. On the upper floor are rooms available for traveling merchants and traders to hole up for a night to rest and resupply. In turn, the site of the old trader and caravan outpost is now another residential shelter for our own ponies to sleep in. So now we have three houses and the City Hall devoted to sheltering our citizens.”

“Do we get enough visitors for the trading post to stay busy?” Shore questioned.

“No, nowhere close. Not yet anyway.” Saber responded with a light laugh. “But it just went up a couple days ago, and we’ve gotten the occasional passerby before then. Setting up the store now just means that we might be able to draw in more visitors, resources, and currency. Challenger might give us supplies, but having a bottle cap stash of our own would be useful. You never know when a trader might come by with some unique items for sale.”

I could understand that. It was a smart move on the captain’s part. “Has anything else changed?” I asked him.

“Everything else is still the same as when you left. Although, in your absence there was an attack.” Saber answered, though immediately adding to quell my spell of shock, “It was only a small Black Blood party that we repelled quickly, just over a dozen strong trying to chip away at our defenses. There was a couple injuries on our side but nothing too serious. The most it did was give our flak crew some combat experience behind the barrel of our new gun. The guards have taken to calling her The Overmare, because they remember how Crystal went down fighting back in the Stable. Some say that her spirit’s manifested itself into that weapon to carry on her fight, to keep protecting us.”

“She most definitely wasn’t the kind of leader to sit behind the guards and cower.” Shore remarked lowly, reminiscently.

“It shows how much everypony still misses her, misses our old way of life.” Gracie added with a sigh.

“We may have had to change a little to live out here, but there’s nothing wrong with remembering.” the captain replied. “In fact, I encourage it in the guard… but on a brighter note, things have been largely quiet here, and Hopeville’s got a few new citizens that came in while you were away. A married couple came down from the far north looking for a quiet place to rest and raise their filly. After them came a pair of unicorn brothers looking for a break from the adventurous life. Both of them are crack-shots with their bolt-actions, helped us out during the attack. And just hours after them, a unicorn mare showed up with her little sister looking for safe haven. They’re all here and seem to be getting along with the rest of us just fine, and with Blossom, that puts us up to a hundred and forty-nine ponies living here. If you count Clover’s unborn child, we’ve got a hundred and fifty… and technically, if you count the Challenger ponies that came in to help protect the town, we’ve got a hundred and sixty-two.”

Now that was a good number to hear! “Hopeville’s growing again. I’m glad to hear that.”

“A lot of those newcomers were among the ponies basking in the big old rainstorm that came blowing through a couple days back, the one you ran into flying around in that old city northeast of here.” he replied to me, craning his head around to pass me an amused smile.

“So you got some of that too, huh?”

“Yeah, lots and plenty of it. Helped us to find cracks in the rooftops that were letting water in and allowed us to put bottles and buckets under them.” Saber answered me. “We’re currently working with the leader of the Challenger squad here to figure out how to get some construction epoxy in to fill some of those cracks. Right now it’s sounding like for smaller and more specific supply shipments, ponies from the settlements head to Challenger on their own. They can either shop in the city market or wait for the next full delivery by the city caravans. But we can afford to wait. We’re just collecting rain for extra water in the meantime… better than having no water.”

“Well, it sounds like things are going quite well.” Gracie cheerily spoke behind us. “It’s good to be back home again.”

By now, the captain had led us up the road to the City Hall’s east wall, and we all now had a clear view of the courtyard. In the growing darkness of the mid-evening, on the day after the morning we had left Buckley Air Force Base, the Hopeville courtyard and the streets around it were full with activity. A number of foals played a lively and hectic game of tag in the courtyard itself, and there were both children that I recognized, including Flash, Melody, Candice, even Juniper and Chance, and others that were among the newcomers, including a dark brown unicorn colt with a smooth dark green mane and tail, and a bright pink earth pony filly with a bronze mane and tail. Parents and other grownups sat along the edges of the courtyard to watch and admire the game’s progress, and I saw both Ivy and Daisy among the spectators. On the roads themselves, various couples and other groups walked and otherwise shared the evening together, which had, much to my amusement, forced the guardsponies to expand their perimeter outside the town limits to conduct their border patrols. On the east side of town, the armory, repair shop, general storage, and the new trading post were the sight of additional activity, other guards and even a couple of the green-armored Challenger soldiers moving between the lantern-lit buildings carrying orders and items of interests, varying from new rifles to ammunition containers and tool boxes; a pair of unicorns worked together to lift a large yellow water barrel up the steps of the general storage building. And on the west side of town, the Hopeville Inn and the three residential buildings were glowing even brighter, and voices carried out from each of them to mix with the lively hubbub of the courtyard.

Hopeville looked more alive than it ever had before… and Goddesses did it make me smile.

“And we’re glad to have you back.” the captain warmly spoke back to Grace, stopping to turn around and face us as the rest of us likewise came to a halt. “Like I said before, none of you will need to worry about assignments for the rest of the day. If you’ve got things you want to check up on around town, I understand. But I won’t be assigning any work until sometime later tomorrow. I want all of you to get some food and rest tonight, and that’s all.”

“Thank you, sir.” Shore replied. “I’m sure we all will.”

But it was then the captain’s gaze swung to me, eyes set into a firm stare as he said, “You’re all free to go, except for Nova. I’d like a couple minutes to speak with you in private, if you wouldn’t mind.”

I didn’t like where this was going, especially with the subdued yet present severity that I could hear in his voice. But at his words, I swallowed and nodded. “Yes, captain.”

“What’s wrong?” Blake suddenly piped up. “Is Nova in trouble?”

“No, not at all, Blake.” Saber assured, bringing himself to a half-smile as he looked down to the colt by my right side. “I just need to have a word with your sister, that’s all.”

“Blake, would you go with Grace while I talk with the captain?” I asked my young sibling, likewise turning to look down to him. “I’ll come and find you when I’m done here.”

Thankfully, he nodded, complying without a fuss. “Okay… sure.”

“Thanks.” Reaching down, I gave him a quick but affectionate nuzzling along his forehead. “I won’t be long.”

“Come on, Blake.” Grace beckoned with a smile. “I think I see Gunny down the road. Let’s go say hi.”

With that, my baby brother followed her away, with Shore and Raemor trotting close behind her and leaving me with the captain. For a moment after, the older earth pony stallion didn’t speak, merely looking me in the eyes. That firmness in his stare remained, almost crushing, and it caused me to look back towards the town center just to catch a break; sure enough, Gunny was standing just outside the town repair shop, the second building down the east road, as the others joined him to say their hellos. “I um… I have a feeling I know what you’re wanting to talk to me about, captain.” I then spoke, careful, looking back his way as I cleared my throat.

“What am I going to talk about?” he politely asked.

To that, I let out a sigh, bowing my head and concealing his stare behind my patrol cap’s visor. “Blake…” I replied, keeping my eyes to the ground. “Right?”

The captain was silent, replying at first by jabbing my right foreleg with a forehoof; only when I looked back up at him did he answer. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know that I’m not upset.” he said. “There’s nothing for you to be punished for or anything like that, but after hearing your story, I need to get a warning across to you and I need you to hear it out and understand. You’re a very smart individual, Nova, so I have faith that this will be easygoing. But I still need to speak my mind.”

I gave him only a single nod. “Of course, captain.”

“Now, about Blake… after the evacuation, you two have become much closer than just siblings who lived a lazy life underground.” he began. “He’s followed you on virtually every assignment that you’ve been sent out on in order to remain at your side. But while this is amiable, you know the risks involved with it, and you know personally that his following you has put his life on the line time and time again. You do know this right?” I gave him another short nod… but inside, my thoughts were churning something fierce. I knew he was right… but every time, I had kept Blake with me at his request, let him come with me because he had wanted to help me complete my tasks, to help me because of what our father had told him – to look out for me and to be there for me on the surface. Oh no, I hadn’t forgotten about our dad’s final words to him, and I definitely hadn’t forgotten the fear that Blake had felt when he had seen me on Challenger’s hospital bed, matted in my own blood. But every time, despite his honorable intentions, I had been hesitant, nervous, and I had never let him out of my sights when we had been traveling together. I knew the risks, the dangers… yet still, hearing the stating of the ultimate risk to my dearest Blake directly from somepony else, especially our commanding leader, made me flinch as if I’d nearly been struck. “Yes, well, now your travels together have seen to it that you don’t forget what you know… the hard way. According to your story, Blake had to run for his life when howitzers were raining high explosive shells down on him. You know it already, but I’ll say it anyway – if one of those shells had been just a little closer, a little more accurate… your baby brother would be dead right now…… let that sink in, Nova.”

And I did…

For just a single moment, Blake was dead… I had lost him four days ago… buried what was left of him in the ruins of that old village that Buckley had demolished with the guns that had torn my baby brother apart limb from limb… and here and now, back home, I was alone, with the only memory of our last day together being that of the fear in his eyes before he was devoured by the flames of the artillery shells…

With a pained grunt, I shook my head, bowing and shutting my eyes tight as I took in a sharp breath and quickly let it out… I had never thought such painful thoughts before… it hurt like a dozen gunshot wounds…… “I… I know the risks.” I spoke, working to regulate my breathing as I recovered myself, stomping those terrible images into dust… and then stomping on the dust. “I know the dangers… but when we found Buckley and they fired on us… I’d nearly lost him. I let him come with me because he wanted to be there for me. He wanted to be there to do his part and help me… but that doesn’t change the fact that he’d almost died out there that day… and if he had… it would’ve been my fault.” I paused here, long enough to look back up at the captain, the older stallion listening with attentive ears… and looking with sympathetic eyes. “When he was with us… he was always closely guarded.” I explained to him. “I watched over him like a phoenix. When he’d ask to go somewhere with me, there were times when he wasn’t aware that he was asking that he follow me into a combat situation, and I’d find some other way that he could help me while staying where it was safe. He’s done his part, worked hard in his own way as he followed me across half the region… but no matter how closely I guarded him… I couldn’t protect him from every danger that was thrown at us… guarding him isn’t enough to protect him from an artillery salvo.” To that, Saber nodded in understanding, but still did not speak; I knew that he wanted me to tell him everything. “He went through some things that he shouldn’t have had to go through during his time with me.” I continued after a sigh. “The artillery barrage… the Black Blood Raiders’ Forward Post and the ponies they… that they gutted and butchered and put on display… Proudspire and the attacks that the Black Blood executed on the town time and time again… he’s seen stuff that he shouldn’t have seen… and all because I gave in to his persistence. You know, I’d try to persuade him to remain here in Hopeville with his friends, with Melody and Flash and the other children. But he’d just keep pressing… and he wouldn’t stop until I let him come along… and in part I wanted him to… to be able to keep him close… to let him feel like he was doing the right thing and fulfilling his promise to our father…”

And it was here that my argument fell away… I’d run out of things to say in my defense, and I feared that Saber was expecting more. But instead, he quickly stepped in to break the silence that had crept its way back between us, saying, “I don’t fault him for his reasons. He takes on from his father in his stubbornness, but also in his will to uphold words of promise. But out here, at his age, that’s something that could prove to be fatal, and it brings up what I wanted to warn to you, if you’d let me give you some advice.” I nodded right away, silent to let him continue uninterrupted. “When it comes to Blake, you’re going to have to learn how to be more assertive when dealing with his desire to help you. You’ll want to do what you think is right – it’s who you are and that’s very respectable. But sometimes doing the right thing is going to require some sacrifice on your part. You think it right to let your little brother follow you on your missions so that he can respect his father’s wish. But in this case, you may have to put aside what you think is right and deny Blake the chance to fulfill that promise in order to preserve his safety… I guess what I’m trying to say is that in order to do what’s right, you may have to do something that you don’t want to do.” he explained. “You’re the pony he looks up to now because you’re the only blood family he has left… and in essence, you’re his mother until he comes of an age where he can wisely make these kinds of decisions on his own. He’ll come to learn about how to deal with the dangers of the wastes here in Hopeville because he’ll be taught the necessary skills by you and the town guard and so on, but only when the time is right. Right now, he’s too young, and I’m telling you – taking him out into the wasteland is going to cause him more harm than good, and the same goes for all of our foals.” At this, I nodded again, focusing in at the sudden shift in his speech. “Our children are our most valuable ponies, and we protect them viciously. With you as their foalsitter, I need to warn you now – should any of them follow Blake’s example and come looking to follow you out of town to help you, you need to turn them away. I’m not saying that you need to report to me if they do, because they may not even ask to follow you. But I am saying that you need to enforce that they stay in Hopeville where they’ll be safe, same goes for your brother.”

“Of course, captain. I understand.” I assured instantly; I was confident enough in myself to say that I definitely knew better than to let other foals try to talk their way into joining me outside home borders… but I knew that in the case of my baby brother, I would indeed have to learn to be more forceful in my decisions.

To my answer, Saber cracked a faint smile, giving me a nod. “I had a feeling you would.” he replied. “And can I also trust that you’ll take my words under careful consideration?”

Again I nodded. “Yes, captain… I do have a lot to think over for the time being… but I understand that as well.”

“Good. I knew I could rely on you.” My words did seem to ease our leader, as his smile to me grew; that, in turn, made me feel just a little better about the subject. “That’s all I wanted to talk to you about.” he added, nodding back towards town. “I’ll leave you be now so you can catch up with your friends and get some rest. You’ve got the evening off, so please do enjoy it, and don’t let what I’ve said keep you from doing so.”

His new orders carried with them a comforting tone, one that got me to give him a smile in return; oh yes, this discussion had definitely been for the better. “Alright. Thank you, captain.”

“And thank you for hearing me out.” he replied, bowing his head before we headed our separate ways. But as our final farewells were passed, and him trotting away to City Hall as I headed down the road to join my friends, Saber once again called out. “And Nova…”

I halted midstride as he called my name, and I craned my head around to find him looking over his right shoulder to me. “Yes?” I asked curiously.

He cracked a small smirk. “Nice hat.”

Well… that caught me off-guard… but after my mind’s drawn blank passed, it made me giggle, too. That was something that I felt I could use after his little lesson… it made me feel better. “Thanks, captain.”

*** *** ***

BLAM!!!

From the blackness of peaceful sleep, I was ripped back into the land of the living by a violent thunderclap of sound that shook the floor, and even as my eyes snapped open, I felt as flakes and granules of concrete from the ceiling fell atop my back from the shock of the tremendous explosion. But right from that, my ears registered a whole chorus of gunfire, shouting voices, and a fast, thumping roar that proceeded it, coming from outside the City Hall where Blake and I slept.

Hopeville was under attack!!

“Nova?? Nova??!”

With my wings I threw our blanket off my back and scrambled to my hooves, Blake doing the same as he called out to me in fright. “Blake, stay put!!” I shouted back to him, putting a hoof to his chest and forcing him to move away; from just outside the entrance of our room, a wave of billowing dust rolled down the hallway from the right side.

“What’s going on?!” Blake demanded from behind me, backing up against the far wall as he looked on with wide eyes.

“Stay back!!” I warned again, facing back to the entrance and trotting into the hallway. Through the dust lingering within, I saw other Hopeville citizens looking out in shock from their rooms even as others rushed out with rifles and battle saddles in tow, booking it to the stairway farther down the left side of the hallway. But to the right, aside from an earth pony stallion and an earth pony mare likewise looking out from the neighboring room to ours, I saw myself staring out into the fields of the southeast, partly obscured by a screen of lingering concrete dust where a hole had been blasted into the City Hall; the entire northeast corner of the second story had been blown away!

“Nova!”

At Blake’s persistent and frightened calling, I backed out of the hall and into our room again, hurriedly turning and trotting to my terrified baby brother. “Blake, I need to go outside and help the guardsponies!” I explained quickly over the noise. “You need to stay here while I’m gone, okay? When this is over I’ll come and find you!”

But he immediately reached out to hug my left foreleg. “Wait, don’t leave me!”

“I need to help repel-”

From behind me, close gunshots stabbed at my ears as a barrage of assault rifle fire ripped through the hallway itself, and as Blake yelped in shock, I wheeled around, swiftly reaching down to rip Fire Rose from its holster on my left foreleg. As I situated my sidearm’s firing bit and aimed down the entrance, I heard a stallion cry out in pain from the lasting gunfire before retaliatory shots from both a carbine rifle and a small pistol struck out in response. Nopony emerged in my own line of sight as I kept my mother’s pistol trained on the entrance, keeping myself poised and ready to fight as Blake hid behind me. But no other shots fired as I tensely waited, my jaws squeezing down on the trigger… slowly I moved up to investigate, Blake remaining silent behind me. Then with a short leap, I emerged into the hallway and faced the hole in the City Hall. But I found no hostile targets, only the stallion and the mare from before, the latter helping the former who had taken two gunshot wounds to his right front leg.

“Nova!” the mare called, catching sight of me as I holstered my pistol. “Whoever’s attacking us has griffins with them! What are we going to do?!”

Griffins… Goddesses, the Talon Legion was here!

“If you can’t fight, stay in your room! You’ll be safe in the City Hall while the town guard drives them out of here!” I responded quickly, the mare quickly nodding in reply before helping her wounded companion back into their room. “Blake!” I barked, turning to find the colt staring back from his place by the back wall of our own room. “Stay there, and do not move until I come back! Do you understand?”

“You won’t stay?” he asked nervously.

“I have to help the others fight off the invaders!” I answered, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine, just stay put and wait for me! I’ll find you when this is over, okay?”

“What about your stuff?” he asked, pointing a hoof to his right; all of our gear was there in an unorganized pile.

“I don’t have time, I need to go!” And that was all I could say to him. Though I thankfully received a nod from my little brother, albeit a scared and tiny one, I needed to get outside and find Captain Saber or one of my friends, to find out what exactly we were dealing with. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get properly equipped, and even as I set myself to a gallop to close the distance to the gaping hole in the wall, I felt an almost painful pit of nervousness welling up within me. Later in the evening after our return to Hopeville, I had removed my M.P.D. armor, personal saddlebags, and my rifle saddle because of the lack of need to be wearing them in the safety of our perimeter. But now, I was thoroughly regretting that decision, as I slowed to a halt at the now open end of the hallway with only my pistol, its ammo belt, and my pipbuck still equipped in their proper places.

Through the hovering concrete dust surrounding the hole blown into the wall, I was now presented with a full view of Hopeville as I stood upon the lip of the floor. A full-scale battle raged in the northwest part of town, the Hopeville Inn’s windows no longer lit with lanterns but with muzzle flashes from a dozen assault and carbine rifles. The town eatery that neighbored it from the south was similarly fortified, as was the Hopeville Press on the north end of town, guards taking up positions not only inside these buildings but around them, using the walls for cover. Though they were hard to see under the darkness of midnight, I could still spy the location of the enemy, perhaps only around thirty yards outside of town, Talon soldiers having set up a fortified position out that way, likely with the deployable cover they had used in their first attack here. But it was then that my eyes were drawn to a particularly bright white light, twin beams of illumination that shined down on Hopeville’s defenses around the northeastern buildings…

And I nearly staggered upon trailing those beams to their source.

Something big hovered low over the ground, yet high enough above the Talon’s attacking force to be able to fully illuminate much of Hopeville’s defenses. Its silhouette resembled a sleek frame with a pointed nose and a twin tail… but on both sides of the body, at the end of a short wingtip, sat the thing’s twin propeller engines. The spinning propellers had been the cause of the thumping sound I had first heard when I had woken, and now that I saw it, I knew exactly what it was.

It was an aircraft… a vertibuck… the Talons had brought a vertibuck to Hopeville!

Even as I snapped out my wings, the ominous hovering aircraft turned to shine its twin searchlights onto the Hopeville Press, whereupon two miniguns mounted onto its second pair of short wings just behind its nose roared to life, pounding the structure mercilessly with a savage barrage. But the battle wasn’t just concentrated there. In the courtyard, another dozen guards galloped away to join up with the fighting in the northwest while others moved slower to take occasional shots at the sky, or rather the quartet of griffins that flew there. And mixed within the running guards, the gun crew of the town’s twenty millimeter flak gun had brought The Overmare to bear and opened fire; right away, sparks flew from the frontal armor of the vertibuck, and relief washed over me as the buzz of its devastating miniguns went silent, the aircraft’s engines shifting on their foundations to face front as the aircraft moved up higher and toward the courtyard to escape.

With a leap I launched myself skyward, facing the main battle and keeping myself low above the surface. Above me, the Talon vertibuck flew right by, its searchlights momentarily washing over me as I quickly crossed the courtyard. Now that I was close, I found that a number of improvised barriers had been set up outside of the town’s northeast corner, positioned in front of the press, the inn, and the eatery. Comprised of sandbags and metal scrap, the barricades made one of the extra fortification assemblies that the town had put up over the recent past, and this one held another line of around two dozen Stable guards, with four to six behind each barrier; and behind the one to the far right, just in front of the northwest corner of the press, I found a familiar face as he reloaded his light machinegun.

Keeping my momentum, I arced down in a dive, eagerly putting distance between myself and a higher altitude, the better to maintain the good fortunate of having passed unseen through the courtyard. But as I closed my distance to the ground, there was no avoiding the passing of bullets, shots striking the wall of the press and whizzing past me as the Talon attackers laid down heavy fire. As a result, I came to exchange flying for running, landing shakily but fully on my hooves before forcing myself into a final gallop towards the barricade as an alarmingly close shot zoomed right by my left ear, almost grazing it. The near hit stopped me short, guiding my focus enough for me to throw myself to the dirt, using the sandbag walls for cover as I instead crawled and wriggled the rest of the way there.

“Nova, are you crazy?!” From ahead, Gunny was looking back to me, momentarily pausing to take in the sight of my frantic clambering before he peered back up from cover, firing a long burst from the All-Equestrian. I made no reply as I scrambled over the last inches to the barricade, and as Gunny crouched back down behind cover, he stepped in closer to the neighboring guard buck to give me a space at the right end of the barrier. “What the hell are you doing out here without your armor?!”

“I had to get here and help!” I shouted back to him, leaning up against the stacked sandbags and crouching low. “And there was nopony there who could help me get it on quickly!”

“Well, I’m glad to see you alive either way!” Gunny responded, levitating his LMG over cover to fire a short burst blind. “I thought you might’ve been injured when that vertibuck hit the City Hall! The thing’s got its own rocket launchers!”

So that’s what did the damage… Goddesses, we needed a plan and quick! “Do we have some kind of battle plan for this mess?!”

“The flak gun can keep the vertibuck off of the infantry so long as it remains protected from the griffins! We’ve got about thirty or so hostile infantry in front of us and another twenty just to the southwest of us, all of which are engaged fully!” Gunny explained, securing the All-Equestrian to his security armor to trade it for his riot shotgun and a drum of shells. “We’re working on getting the forty millimeters up here so we can knock out some of those portable steel barriers of theirs! We just need to work to make sure that we keep them from spreading out and getting past us until the big guns arrive!”

“I hope they get here soon! That vertibuck’s coming back around!”

The warning from the unicorn stallion neighboring Gunny to the left made me look back over my shoulder, long enough to see that the vertibuck was now flying over the southeast corner of town, nearly completing its arc to come back to the fight even as the flak crew in the courtyard, protected by over a dozen others, struggled to bring the gun around. But against a flying machine like that, there was nothing I would be able to do to help them out. Instead, however, the warning drove me to move and shoot fast, to focus on contributing where I knew I was needed. Fire Rose might not have been an adequate weapon to battle a vehicle with, but I could still do my part here behind these sandbags. Wordless, I bit down on the firing bit of my pistol and freed it from its holster. At the same time, Gunny had loaded up his shotgun with the new drum, levitating the old one into its designated pocket on his security armor before passing me a glance. When I returned it, he gave me a nod as the shotgun hovered in by his head. “Ready…… now!” At his command, the two of us rose from cover together to aim our weapons towards the enemy barricade, and up came S.A.T.S.. Before us, a linked system of deployable steel plate shields faced our position directly with four enemy soldiers currently sticking out from cover to fire, and at least three others, judging by the empty spaces between the Talon legionnaires, hid with them. This group had committed themselves to keeping our position occupied, while other squads nearby engaged our allied defenders farther down the line; the fight had already locked itself into a neutral engagement, with both sides only taking quick shots at one another before dropping back to cover.

The four enemies before me were all unicorns, one mare and three stallions that were one and all aiming down the sights of pristine black assault rifles. Out of them, I dialed in two shots for the stallion on the far left side of their cover and executed the spell. Fire Rose struck out with hot words in unison with a shell from Gunny’s shotgun, and though my first bullet sparked off the plate protecting my target’s torso, the second was a grazing hit, the bullet leaving a burning red trail across the buck’s left cheek. He recoiled from the hit, ducking back down with a yelp of pain as I fell back to the dirt. Beside me, Gunny’s shotgun roared again as he fired off two additional shells, then dropping back down as return fire smashed into out sandbags with dull thumps. Before I could make another move, the familiar buzz of miniguns cut through the whole of the battle, drawing my eyes back to the air where the vertibuck made a strafing run, carving into the courtyard with its deadly twin weapons. And even before it reached the center of the yard, I heard a sudden blast of sound as a rocket suddenly raced out and down from the small wing on its right side behind the nose. The detonation was intense, violent as the aircraft cleared the courtyard and flew by directly overhead; I didn’t see anypony that might’ve been caught by the attack… but I anxiously feared the worst…

A fourth shell from Gunny’s shotgun once again brought me to the battle that I could fight. Beside me he once again ducked down, steady fire pounding away at our sandbags. But then, from the corner of my eye I caught sight of an object as it sailed over our cover to land into the dirt just ahead of us with a dull thump. The metal apple, missing its stem, was nightmare fuel as it prepared to detonate, but only until red magic enveloped it. With a cry, Gunny glared ahead, hurled the grenade around, and launched it with a telekinetic kick, sending it back from whence it came before it detonated with a powerful blast, sending dirt, fire, and dust skyward. Gunny’s quick action, in turn, gave me the time I needed to rise back up and line up another shot. With S.A.T.S. partially charged, I had enough juice to target one shot while taking in the sight of the field. The grenade had detonated just behind the Talon soldiers and their barricade, and though it knocked some of them off their hooves, there had been no kills because of the explosive. Still, only two of the stallions currently remained upright, the both of them dazed from the blast that had shaken them. Lining the shot for the soldier to the right, I programmed the attack and activated the spell; one shot, and the legionnaire went down from a clean headshot.

The fight was my fuel, giving me the strength to quickly avert my attention from the dead soldier as he toppled behind the enemy barrier, and I once again dropped down low to keep myself out of harm’s way. But just as I readied myself to fire again, I caught movement, a single pony galloping full speed towards our barricade. Blossom was running along the front of the Hopeville Press, garbed in leather armor with her lever-action rifle and her revolver secured to it; and just as I found her, so did the Talons, the violet unicorn nearly missing a step in her run as bullets suddenly hammered the wall just above her. I forced myself up and above the sandbag wall then, taking aim to cover the mare, and quickly finding one of her attackers, I fired two shots. Both struck the steel, near misses, but the unicorn soldier dropped back to cover from the bright sparks that lashed up in front of her. And as I fell back to cover, setting my now empty pistol to the ground, Blossom came upon us, leaping the rest of the way to slide on her belly to safety behind our barricade.

“Blossom, are you hit?!” Gunny called over the noise.

“My armor took one round, but I’m fine!” she called back, horn glowing as she unattached her lever-action and brought it forward. “Gunny, Nova, the Talons!”

“What??” Gunny called, the stallion quickly rearing up to fire off another shell before returning to cover again.

The mare quickly took in and let out a big breath, recovering from her sprint under fire as I pulled a fresh clip from my sidearm’s ammo belt around my left front leg. “What about them??” I asked after spitting the clip onto the ground next to my pistol.

“I saw a small group of them leaving town!” she spoke over the battle, scooting closer for me to hear her. “There’s a second flying machine about a hundred plus yards to the northeast, and I saw a team of four Talon soldiers heading that way! They were hauling off unarmed ponies!”

What??!

“What do you mean??” Gunny demanded, crouching low and crawling closer to us.

“I think they’re trying to take captives!” Blossom responded, desperately looking between us.

“They’re abducting citizens?!”

To my shock, she gave an affirmative nod, not what I was wanting to see. “I saw them forcing along two ponies at gunpoint!” she answered, pointing a hoof back behind her, to the east. “I don’t know why they’d do that, but they’re going to take them out of here to only Goddesses know where!”

“How the hell did they get in?!” I demanded aloud, ejecting the empty clip, pushing it aside, and aligning the new clip to the bottom of my pistol.

“It doesn’t matter!” Gunny instantly replied, holstering his shotgun to swap it for the All-Equestrian. “We’ve got to go after them!”

“We can’t let them take hostages!” I agreed, sliding the fresh clip into my pistol before it locked closed, ready for use. “You said there were four?!”

“I saw two griffins and four ponies in total, two of those ponies the ones being taken away!” Blossom answered, flinching as a round struck the dirt just behind her. “There’s bound to be a couple more enemies by that vehicle though!”

As I scooped up the empty pistol magazine and slid it back into its pocket on my ammo belt, Gunny craned his head around behind him and called back, catching the attention of the unicorn stallion next to him. “Hey! There’s activity to the northeast! We need help, come on!” Giving no time in between for discussion, he turned back to face Blossom and I. “Let’s go, we need to move! Head behind the press and we’ll head out to the east along that street! Go!”

Taking Fire Rose by the firing bit, I rose to all fours as Gunny laid down a long barrage of fire from his LMG, and I wheeled and galloped the short distance to new cover behind the south wall of the town press building. Blossom was right on my tail, with the guard buck Gunny had recruited following quickly behind with his assault carbine in tow. From my new position, I had a full view of the courtyard, and though the flak gun and its crew were still alive and intact, still firing on the vertibuck above as protective infantry kept the four circling and diving griffins at bay, there were half a dozen unmoving bodies on the ground as well, all wearing Stable security armor; there was no way that casualties were unavoidable in this fight…

“Come on, we’ve got to move!”

Gunny’s command snapped me out of my momentary trance, and as my friend raced by, I followed his lead and pushed myself to a full gallop with Blossom and the unnamed guard falling in beside me. But just when we had cleared the press, the four of us skidded to an abrupt halt as hostiles leapt from behind the clinic and onto the street. Three Talon earth ponies intercepted us, and our group scattered as the three of them armed and aimed their assault rifle saddles. Blossom and I dove to cover into the gap between the clinic and the press building as Gunny immediately opened fire with the All-Equestrian where he stood, our fourth guard turning and galloping into the courtyard to strafe the enemy with his assault rifle just as the Talons released their own volley. Backing myself into the wall with Blossom, I stepped out from cover and activated S.A.T.S., the spell slowing the gunfire to a crawl as I targeted the center hostile. When I executed the attack, time returning to normal, two shots from my pistol struck the enemy’s chest plate. In unison, the soldier to the left was felled by multiple headshots from Gunny’s LMG as I heard an abrupt cry farther to my right. With my attack then spent, I threw myself back behind the wall as the stone just in front of me exploded into chips and dust. But as I did, I saw with shock as Gunny staggered with a cry, a thin spray of blood erupting from the joint of his left front leg. His light machinegun dropped with a clatter, and the now wounded unicorn threw himself onto his left side to get behind the wall. Blossom was next to him in a split moment, using both her magic and her jaws to pull the stallion back to safety, and in the courtyard itself, the other member of our makeshift fire team was lying motionless on his side… it didn’t look like he had made it.

With a grunt through my firing bit, I wheeled back out of cover. Two of the three remained, both of them beginning to advance closer as they kept their assault rifles trained on our position. Without S.A.T.S., I fired two more shots at the Talon on the left, the second of the two rounds punching into his neck and felling him. But just as he did, I caught sight of an object that came rolling out onto the street from inside the clinic. Eyes going wide in comprehension, I reared back into cover as the final enemy soldier tried to run, the grenade detonating with a thunderous blast and flinging chunks of concrete and soil from the street past me as I flinched away. Then, with ears lightly ringing from the explosion, I stepped out from cover and took aim again, ready to fire… until I found Grace as she stepped out from within the clinic, looking this way and that with nervous but attentive eyes.

“There’s an exit wound!”

“Armor piercing round… AGH!”

Whirling back around, I found Blossom as she checked over Gunny’s wounded foreleg, the stallion forcing himself back to a stand while keeping the crippled limb poised above the ground. “Gunny we need to get you inside, now!”

Behind me, Grace was trotting hurriedly to us, leaving the bodies of the two soldiers she had killed with her grenade. But to her firm demand, Gunny countered outright, shaking his head. “No! You need to help Nova and Blossom!” he replied back as she joined us. “Blossom reported Talon soldiers abducting citizens and hauling them off to a waiting transport just northeast of here! If you hurry, you three can still catch up to them and stop them before they get away!”

“I need to get your leg patched up!” Grace insisted, moving forward to face him directly, trading glances between Gunny’s freely bleeding wound and his glaring eyes.

“Gracie go, damn it!” he shouted, making her withdraw from him with a frown. “We can’t let them take anypony from here! We might never see them again if they do!” I holstered my pistol as Gunny pressed his point. But even though Grace stomped a hoof, she quickly yielded to her better judgment, ending the debate then and there. Gunny was right – we needed to stop the Talons from taking anypony away from here. “Get moving!” the unicorn stallion commanded again, grimacing at the pain in his shot limb as he telekinetically reached for his light machinegun, hovering it back to his side. “I’m only going to slow you down!”

“There’s healing potions in the clinic!” Grace replied over the sounds of the battle. “Get one, and then you can meet up with us! I’ll look over that wound more thoroughly when this thing is over!”

“Fine!” Suddenly, with a flash of his horn, Gunny’s riot shotgun detached from his armor. “Take this!” Wrapped in red magic, the weapon hovered over to Gracie, who took it without question. “There’s slugs in that drum! You’ll need them! Now go! I’ll catch up!”

Giving only a nod, Grace let both the shotgun and her revolver hover close by her before wheeling to the east. “Nova, Blossom, come on!”

There was no time left – we needed to move now.

Gracie took the lead at a quick and determined sprint, keeping her dual-wielded weaponry close by, and side by side Blossom and I set off after her, leaving Gunny on his own. There was no further resistance on our way out of town, no fighting and no soldiers on either side in the northeast corner… on the contrary, it seemed almost eerily abandoned. Once out of town, kicking up thin trails of dust as our hooves struck the ground, I immediately set to searching for the Talons and their captives. Normally, I would’ve taken flight to move faster, to get an aerial view and spot them quicker. But if I went ahead and engaged them solo, without waiting for my companions, I would be the sole target of at least four enemy soldiers, including two griffins. Each one would be able to track me individually, and these Talons were far more skilled than simple Marefax raiders. I needed to stay with the others, the better to focus our firepower and hit the enemy with our collective force.

Up ahead, the terrain arched up a short height, and the three of us were quickly upon the shallow rise. But then, Grace abruptly slowed as a pair of moving silhouette quickly rose into sight over the top of the short hill. The black shapes rotated at a slow pace, spinning atop immobile foundations that pointed to the sky which were in turn connected to steel wings that attached them to a sleek plated body. And as we emerged to the top of the rise, Grace preparing her two weapons to fire, my eyes fell upon the vertibuck that sat there, the very same that Blossom said that she had spotted. It sat on three wheels, one at the front just under the cockpit, and two towards the rear of the craft. The back of the vertibuck was facing us, and a loading door that made the aircraft’s rear plating had been lowered to the ground to expose an empty and seemingly spacious compartment inside. But in front of the open door, a trio of Talon griffins stood staring back at us as we came to a stop at the top of the hill. They were lined one next to the other, blocking entry to the cargo hold of the vertibuck, protecting what… or who was inside; I couldn’t quite see inside the compartment… but the captives had to be inside!

But the griffins… I saw assault rifles and sniper rifles on their armor…… all of them holstered…

Beside me, Grace brought her two guns to bear, ready to free our citizens inside and get them back to safety. But as I reached for my pistol to enter the coming fight, I jolted as a sudden sharp and stinging crack of sound ripped into my ears from a close gunshot, and I caught Gracie reacting in the same fashion.

But then her shotgun and her revolver fell to the dirt, the glow of her horn’s magic flickering away.

I looked back up to her, and I found her eyes widened… her mouth hung open in surprise… and a short, weak grunt escaped her as she slowly raised her left forehoof to…

To the bullet hole in her chest where dark crimson welled up and snaked down her leather armor…

OH GODDESSES NO!!

“GRACIE!” I rushed to her, making to try and keep her supported. But it was right when I screamed her name that she lost her balance, and down the wounded mare fell, collapsing onto her left side as I ground to a halt in front of her. Her eyes were shut tight now, and her breathing was ragged and shaky before she coughed, blood flecking the ground in front of her mouth. Frantically looking her over, already working on a plan to get her off this hill and back into town, my eyes quickly found another flowing red trail on her armor, leading up to a second hole where a bullet had found its mark in her right side; the shot had punched clean through her. “Grace! Grace, just… oh no… just… BLOSSOM HELP ME!!”

But when I turned to my left, finding the mare just a few paces back, I froze in place, my racing mind ceasing but my heart pounding all the more at the sight I beheld. The violet mare’s lever-action rifle was raised to her eye level, a fading tendril of smoke trailing up and away from the end of the barrel as she looked back at me behind her iron sights, pointing the weapon right at me.

Her lips curled into a smirk.

I let out a short breath, a numbing pit of fear welling up inside me as I begun to shake. No… Goddesses no it… it just couldn’t be… this wasn’t possible… not after everything she went through with us…… and yet there she was, looking every bit triumphant as she kept me locked in her gun sights. Now, new pieces were coming together… the right pieces that created a single terrible conclusion – there were no captives here… there hadn’t been any abductions… Blossom… she lied…

A vice-like grip suddenly clamped around my neck, and I choked as I was suddenly yanked back and away from Grace. I didn’t even get the chance to retaliate before I was bodily thrown, tossed away before I fell to the ground, my momentum making me roll over an entire rotation before I came to a rough halt on my left side again. Quickly, I scrambled up to my hooves, fear driving me to move… to fight or to escape… until I saw a figure now standing between me and Gracie. It was one of the griffins from before, one of the three, and with only a short distance separating us, I could see this enemy flier clearly… and identify exactly who he was. Garbed in full Talon combat armor, the griffin wore a custom battle saddle with an assault carbine on his left side and a light machinegun on his right. On his back sat a sleek grey laser rifle… on his chest plate was a large, pearl-white, five-cylinder revolver secured in its own holster… and on his face, a wicked scar ran across his right eye that shifted as he glared at me.

Blackhawk…

“Good work, Blossom.” the griffin spoke, not even breaking eye contact with me as the purple unicorn mare stepped up beside him.

“Easy day, sergeant major.” she replied smugly, her rifle drifting along beside her head. “I’m afraid that we’ll need to leave soon. Others from the town are going to be coming within moments.”

“Give me a minute.” Blackhawk said, holding a clawed forepaw up to silence her as he kept his eyes on me. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.”

“I ought to kill you right now.” I growled, cutting through my fear to stand defiant.

Blackhawk only held his glare at my words. “I could say the same thing about you.” he spoke back, voice dark with hate. “Believe me, I want nothing more than to paint the dirt underneath you with your brains. And now that I’ve finally got you where I want you, I’m finding it very difficult to restrain myself from doing just that.” Briefly, he paused in order to glance to Blossom. “Bring that other mare here.” At his order, the violet unicorn turned back and trotted to where Grace still lay on her side, pulling her roughly to her hooves and ignoring the short yelp of pain that came from her. I took a step forward at seeing my friend forced to her hooves, glaring and ready to scream out all my hatred to the mare that had sprung this trap on us. But just as I made to, I jerked forward, nearly falling on my face as a rifle butt struck me hard on the back of the skull. When I recovered, I saw as one of the two griffins behind me closed his wings, landing back on the ground from his hover; now these two griffins were flanking me, ready to shoot if I made any other move…

Goddesses, I needed a plan… I needed backup…

With Blossom shoving a weakened Grace up with the barrel of her rifle, the two mares now stood at Blackhawk’s right side as he continued, “But luckily for you, there’s a number of reasons that keep me anchored, some of which are actually my own.” At his words, I matched his glare with mine, but I remained silent. What did he mean by that? He’d made me an enemy while I remained absolutely clueless to his intentions. He’d attacked my home, then ambushed my friends, executing an innocent wastelander in the process, all to find me, to get my attention! And even though he had my attention now, he still didn’t give an answer!

What the fuck did he mean?!

“You’re the pegasus that entered Plainwell and outmatched an entire outpost.” the griffin spoke, suddenly raising his right front paw up to grasp the stock of his laser rifle. “You escaped that town and assisted in the prison break there. You were severely wounded in the fighting, and yet you fought hard enough to kill four Talon soldiers, two of them ponies, and two of them griffins – one male, one female. And after that, you flew off to the east and escaped, and the rest of the soldiers in that town were too busy killing off the rest of the town’s citizens to pursue those that escaped, those that kept your hide alive. That’s what the reports that came to me said… and when I got word of what happened…” Here, the griffin paused to pull his laser rifle free of his armor, shaking his head as he lowered it to the ground in front of him; my eyes followed the energy weapon, my glare faltering as I suddenly shivered… the calm manner of his movements… I couldn’t tell what he was planning to do. “Because of your actions that day, you won my attention, Nova.” he said, his paw falling to the weapon as he situated his claws around the trigger; I quickly looked to Grace to see how she was… she was trembling on her hooves, on the verge of collapse again as her head was bowed low. “No…” Blackhawk corrected himself. “you demanded my attention. What you did not only hindered our operations in the area… but what you did changed me.” At that, as my eyes widened slightly in surprise, the griffin slowly brought his laser rifle to bear, raising it to my chest level with his right paw. “Before you interfered, I was a merely a soldier who followed orders, commanded other soldiers and led them into battle. Now, I’m the consequence of your actions in Plainwell, I’m the one who’s going to teach you the penalty of your interference,” I took a step back as his voice darkened to near murderous abhorrence, and I let out a short breath as my heart rate quickened; I braced myself best I could for a hideous wound. “And I am going to make you pay the price.”

But he didn’t shoot, as the barrel of the laser rifle then swiveled away from me… and fell upon Gracie…

And he pulled the trigger…

Grace’s head jerked sharply to the right as a red beam of energy smashed into her skull… yet she remained on her hooves as the sound of the shot rang in my ears, long after it had physically faded. For just a moment, she stood there, mouth hung open and eyes wide with shock… and then, her entire body begun to glow a shimmering red. The aura of light grew brighter and brighter, rapidly, until it grew so intense that my friend’s mouth, muzzle, horn, and lastly her eyes, disappeared… before her entire body collapsed upon itself, falling into a glowing pile of red dust.

I screamed, my ears stinging at the sound, my throat burning at the force, as what had once been my best friend was reduced to a pile of shimmering ash before my eyes. Caution and fear, elements of the hope that Grace and I would’ve gotten out of this together, were stomped into oblivion as I galloped for Blackhawk, my scream quickly mutating into one of blinding, burning hatred for my enemy! I was going to break him! I was going to rip him open with my bare hooves, show his heart to his dying eyes – I WAS GOING TO FUCKING BUTCHER HIM!!!

From his seemingly calm state of focus, he suddenly yelled out a cry to match my voice of explosive rage, and he swung forward with his laser rifle, the weapon a swift club in his paw. And just before I reached him to tear him to shreds, the weapon swung up and smashed into my lower jaw, utterly halting my momentum and knocking me off my hooves. I landed heavily on my back, and I had only gotten to open my eyes again before Blackhawk’s claws came down on me, his big right paw clamping wholly around my throat and cutting off the screams I wanted to cry. I gagged at his iron grip, snapping my forehooves up and shoving at his leg to get him to release me. But his limb would hardly budge, and his hold around my throat only pressed harder as he came to stand over me, eyes glaring down on me. I couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t scream again – I could only choke as his full weight came down on my throat, forcing me into submission as he lowered his head down to speak. “For taking my wife from me in Plainwell, because of the female griffin that you shot down in aerial combat,” he spoke, voice low and menacing. “you turned me into a monster. And now, I’m going to return the favor, and create in you what you created in me.”

The fury in me was diminishing, and if I could have, I would’ve reacted to his final revelation, his exposing of the truth, of the event that had made me his enemy. But it all just faded away, suffocating with me as I only struggled merely to breathe again. I shut my eyes tight as I tried once again, futilely, to force away his paw with my hooves. All I got from my effort was tears, tears that streaked down my cheeks as I fought against Blackhawk’s brute strength in vain… tears that came for Blossom’s betrayal… for my failure… for my friend who paid the ultimate cost for what I had done in Plainwell… But even these tears, my churning thoughts, didn’t last long, as suddenly, I jerked at a jolting pain that ripped into my belly, and my eyes snapped open to see a weapon pointed to my torso. It was held in Blackhawk’s free forepaw, a black break-action pistol with a short barrel… but no gunshot had come from it… only a dart whose needle-like nose was now plunged into my flesh.

Tired… what was once rage, turned to sadness, was now fatigue… I… I wanted to sleep now… my mind was black, clouded… it was too much to take in… I wanted it all to go away… I wanted to leave. Already, my eyelids felt heavy, beginning to close as my struggles ceased. I just barely felt claws grip my muzzle to force my eyes up to Blackhawk once again… and the griffin spoke one more time. “I assure you… that when you wake up, this will get much, much worse for you.”

His words… his threat… was the only thing that accompanied me into the black nightmare of unconsciousness as I drifted away from the world around me.

*** *** ***

Darkness.

The black curtain of sleep was congesting, a sensation that had escalated to an aching level of discomfort. I felt only a throbbing pain in my skull at first, the only feeling that reached me in the blackness as it pounded at my senses to make me wake. Only slowly did I become more aware, and the pounding in my skull begun to expand, spreading to a constant burning pain that I felt in my throat. Then I could feel my forelegs – there was discomfort in the limbs that was shared with my shoulders. The joints burned, and so did the hide around my knees… but both areas of pain came from something different… something I couldn’t recognize in the emptiness of my exhaustion. I begun to grow aware of the atmosphere though, and I felt colder air against my chest and belly, wrapping along my sides and covering my body like a blanket, making me shiver just ever so slightly, a twitch. I felt that air on my wings, too, and I felt both of them hanging limply along my back. Then I felt my hind legs, the limbs sharing the same pain as my forelegs, a constricting ring that wrapped around my flesh just above the hooves.

The similarity was enough to send a waking jolt through me.

With a weak grunt, I focused, forcing myself to gather strength despite the protests of my tired body. I attempted to open my eyes, still heavy from unconsciousness, and I caught only a glimpse of a sliver of dim light before they fell shut once more. I had to stop, my effort in merely attempting to open my eyes serving only to strengthen the headache that continued racking my skull. But still I persisted, and taking in a soft, shaky breath, letting the air out with a light expelling of air from my nose, I tried again. This time, my eyes opened roughly halfway, and they stayed open for seconds this time. I could make out the source of the light, a single fixture above me glowing a musty yellow-white hue which illuminated a grey wall directly in front of me… and a similarly grey floor below me. It was all I saw before my eyes begun to close again, and though I fought to keep them open, struggled to see more of my surroundings, they fell back closed as my headache continued to remind me of its presence. Then my head snapped violently to the right, a sharp sting ripping into my jaw that made my headache explode. My eyes came open as I grunted with pain, my vision hazy as I tried to focus. But right away, I felt as something clutched under my now aching muzzle, forcing my gaze to swing forward to where I met a pair of glaring eyes… Blackhawk’s avian eyes.

“Rise and shine.” he spoke darkly, shoving me away as he released me… letting me hear a heavy metallic jingling around me as I let out a short pained breath. My head bowed back down as the sting on my left cheek continued to assault me from Blackhawk’s wicked heavy-hitting punch. But now that my senses had returned in a lesser state, albeit the hard way, I found myself looking down upon my hind hooves, the only ones that stood upon the steel floor. Closed around both my hind legs, just above the hooves, were iron shackles, each clamped tightly down and secured into its own floor plate with heavy chains that held my legs in place. And with this, I found that both of my forelegs had been similarly bound. Except they were spread out wide and pulled upward, and the shackles that were secured firmly around my knees were instead tied to plates on the ceiling via lengthier chains that were just as heavy as the others. The chains were tightly assembled, providing very little slack and restricting the movement of my limbs to only a couple inches at best; I was in confinement, restrained standing upright on my hind legs and sprawled out, my belly facing forward and fully exposed.

“General,” Blackhawk spoke up, his voice emanating from the opposite end of, what I assumed to be, my prison cell. “she’s awake.”

I faced front at the sound of the griffin’s voice, and though a light blur hung in my vision, I could still see him by the front wall, standing just beside a closed steel door as his beak hovered by what looked to be some kind of communication module built into the metal. He was garbed in his familiar combat armor now, but his weapons, aside from his pearl-white revolver holstered onto his chest plate, were not on his person. In the lingering silence, he glanced my way with a hard glare, one that I returned as he remained silent, waiting for his reply. Then, “Good. Bring up the monitor in that room. It’s time to show her just what she’s dealing with.”

The voice that responded over the intercom belonged to a stallion, not deep and resonant, but lighter, a tenor in tone that still spoke with strength and conviction. At the given order, Blackhawk walked across the closed door to its opposite side, whereupon he reached his right forepaw up to the wall where a small control board rested. At the press of its single button, the wall just above it shifted, and with a light grating of steel, the panel slid back and away, revealing a blank terminal monitor surrounded by its own metal frame. Instantly, the screen flicked to life, and from the blackness grew a swiftly forming image. In just a moment, I found myself staring into a pair of intimidating brown eyes, which belonged to a jade-colored unicorn stallion with a dark green mane and tail. The unicorn was an average-sized pony, fit but not stocky, and he wore what appeared to be a lighter variant of the common Talon combat armor that I had seen the legionnaires wear into battle. It was made only of a black armored shirt that covered his chest, his sides, and his forelegs down to his hooves. Across the fabric, the trio of painted white gashes that made the Talon Legion’s symbol stretched from his right shoulder and down across his chest to his left side. Secured in its holster on his right front leg was a single black pistol, his personal military-grade sidearm, and atop his head, resting just behind his horn and between his ears, was a black beret with two shiny steel stars pinned into the fabric at the front.

The stallion looked to be in a room much like my own, and though it was more brightly illuminated, there was only a steel wall behind him, and a steel floor under his hooves where he stood. “So, you’re back amongst the land of the living.” he spoke through the monitor, his voice coming in loud and clear, filling up my prison cell. “I don’t have a lot of time to talk to you at the moment, so I’m going to be brief. You’ve been unconscious for three full days now, and you’ve been held here throughout that time. You’ve been captured and brought to this outpost at my orders, and now that you are awake, you will be escorted to our clinic for a quick checkup. Afterwards, you will be taken to my office, at which time I will have completed my task and will be able to discuss the reason why you are here and assign to you your mission.”

A mission? Oh he did not just ask me for my help! “I’m not helping you.” I growled, glaring coldly into his eyes. “I’d sooner die than help the faction that killed my friend!!”

But blatantly, the Talon General ignored my protest, injecting fresh anger into me. “And you’re going to start this mission by reconsidering what you just said.” he sternly responded. “Yes, I’m aware of what occurred at Hopeville that night, and I understand that, normally, I would not be able to gain your cooperation. But I’ve taken steps to prepare for that, and I will have your compliance.”

“Fuck you!” I spat at the monitor. “You can do whatever you want to me, but I’ll rot in this prison before I help you in your precious war against the southeast!”

“Oh, I believe you.” he replied, collected. “But I also believe that you don’t yet fully understand the gravity of the situation you now find yourself in.” Pausing, the General’s horn glowed to life, wrapping up his beret in green light to remove it and set it onto the floor by his left side. “Like I said before, I’ve taken steps to prepare for any kind of stubbornness that you might fight me with, and I’ve prepared to stamp that persistence out before it can become a problem.” he continued, my glare only intensifying at how confident he sounded. “Like it or no, Nova, you’re going to help me. You will follow my orders as a soldier of the Talon Legion until your mission objective is complete. You will do exactly as I say.” At that, he shifted, taking a step to his left and looking away from me. “Because if you refuse, if you try to escape or run, if you disobey me or deviate from the task that I will soon give to you…” Stepping forward, the unicorn’s voice trailed off as he walked out of the view of the camera… revealing…

Goddesses… oh Goddesses no… NO…

My blood ran cold, freezing as all of my rising anger was replaced with binding fear at the sight of an earth pony sitting on his haunches. He was bound to the floor with heavy steel shackles clamped around each of his forelegs, thick chains linking them to the floor, and his head was bowed low. Even as my eyes fell on him, he hitched with a sob, ears pinned back as he sniffled, and as the Talon unicorn stepped up beside him, the captive pony looked up to the monitor, showing me his tear-streaked face and his wide watery eyes.

They were the eyes of a colt… my baby brother… the Talons had captured Blake…

And yet, even the realization that he was here in this very same prison with me was not the worst part. Because coupled with the irons that bound him, a collar free of chains was closed around his neck – it was a thick steel choker, and around the band was an array of boxlike compartments and blinking red sensors… a device I had seen before… a device I had seen in Proudspire…

An explosive collar…

“N-Nova!...”

My name came out as a whimper on my terrified baby brother’s lips. The utter and overwhelming fear that cloaked his words, that tortured him, made me throw myself against my bonds. I pulled each restraint individually until my limbs threatened to break. I beat my wings frantically to bolster my strength, to thrash against the chains. But nothing I did could, or would, break them, and all the while, the fucker inside Blake’s cell with him only continued to stare at me, patiently watching my useless efforts as I pulled and tugged and jerked and screamed. In the end, I fell limp against my chains, only breathing heavily and staring with wide eyes at the monitor as Blake continued to sob. And it was only when I had accepted my defeat that the Talon General finally spoke to me again. “Because if you refuse to help me,” he warned. “that collar on your little brother’s neck will go off and take his head with it.”

Footnote: 50% to level up.

Chapter 17.5: Gatekeeper

“Within myself, I have preserved the memories of the dead here, and upon my wings, I carry the hopes of their spirits… and the fears of their hearts.”

Thirty-six hours earlier…

Storm.

All around me, chaotically churning sand and dust swirled and shifted and raged violently in the howling wind of the storm. It was constricting, thick, and it even gave the air itself a malevolent reddish ochre color that showed no signs of altering. Even through my full-body combat armor and the metal helmet covering my head, cheeks, and muzzle, I felt on my own hide as the sand pelted away at the protective plates, the wind smashing against them to try and make me stumble in my walk. And with this furious sandy tempest, tainted red-orange light shined down from a distorted and seemingly freckled sphere of pale illumination in the sky, the sand traveling on the powerful gusts working to conceal what should’ve been Celestia’s beautiful sun from the surface of this forsaken place… this place that was nothing whatsoever like the place I wanted to be in – my home. Merciful Luna… my home was nothing like this blasted ruin. Calm winds, pleasant temperatures, gentle rain showers, and thriving vegetation were just some of the many things about home that I missed as I pushed through the dust; here though… it was almost nightmarishly different. Perhaps what it had once been was something that I could’ve compared to my home, but even that seemed like a longshot, especially given what I had seen and how very little I knew about what this place actually was. No. All I knew was that it was a particularly blasted and violent landscape… some shadow of Equestria’s history… and in my humble opinion, it was no place for a Private of the Talon Legion.

For whatever reason, command had not bothered to provide me with any specific details as to my objective… they didn’t even provide me a name for this place. In fact, not the military bigwigs nor the Hayward City Council could have possibly made a more obnoxious situation for me. Freshly graduated from basic training, I had only been given four days with my parents, my little sister, and my marefriend before I had received my very first assignment from my superiors – a scouting mission. Once I had gotten word of this, I was immediately sent to the officers coordinating this assignment and then rushed off to where our forces outside the fighting in the Equestrian southeast were gathering. Company after company had been marching out of Hayward for days on end once the war with our old enemies in Challenger was back on, and with only a desolate wasteland between the mapped borders of Challenger’s territory and The Halo, with sparse population clusters scattered in between, our forces met no conflict en route to the Equestrian southeast. And while over half of the companies that had left Hayward behind marched south into the fighting, the one I had traveled with was one of those that were assigned to set up a staging area for some sort of operation outside the warzone; in their good grace, the brass left me out of the loop on this operation of theirs as well, all the while making me a part of the damn thing.

No. What I had come to find out about all of this on my own was very limited. I learned first that there was something in the southeast, something outside the war effort, which interested the Legion commanders and the Hayward Council. And having decided that the city had maintained a high enough population, they were more than willing to throw a couple new companies’ worth of ponies outside Challenger’s sphere of influence, and then some. I had then learned that this new area of interest, curiously, sat just outside the southeast’s mapped out perimeter. From Challenger’s sister settlement of Ashton, the western edge of this newly discovered area sat only about a nine to ten hours’ walk away, and from our staging ground that we had chosen, the distance to familiar territory was almost double that.

This was when I was finally able to acquire some concrete facts about this discovery that the Legion had made. It had been just over two weeks ago when a Talon griffin had stumbled across this uncharted region on a patrol flight, deciding to scout out the sandstorm anomaly beyond Ashton while the main force was concentrated in Marefax in preparation for Hayward’s Second Campaign. The initial reports said that the clouds of sand and dust had cloaked an unimaginably huge area, making a storm system that spanned for miles to the west and an unknown many more miles to the south. That alone was enough to draw concern, creating the possibility of ignoring the area outright and devoting all the Legion’s assets to the war in the southeast. But even before crossing into the sandstorm, the first and subsequent arrivals to the site had reported debris and scattered rubble, landmarks thinly layered on the surface, and within the dust itself, the black silhouette of a massive skyline of some Old World city that had sat almost fully concealed. That was when the leadership gave the order to move in, and within hours, the Legion had confirmed their observations, setting hoof into a large city called Harbinger… or rather, what was left of it.

Harbinger was the sight of a balefire detonation, the city having been leveled by a zebra missile on the Last Day like most major Equestrian cities. However, it was quickly discovered that there was something different about it… something rather ominous… that sole difference being that there had not been a single living thing within the rather vast expanse of its ruins. There was nothing that I had been warned of when my company had entered the city, no feral ghouls, no tribals, no raiders, and no mutated creatures… quite contrary to that of Marefax. In Harbinger, there had only been scattered radiation pockets, roads and buildings that were immediately avoided because of the necromantic pink cloud that had been found thickly concentrated closer to the city skyline, and of course, the roaring sandstorm. But this was all that I had encountered upon my own arrival to the city two days ago; before the Talons, nothing alive had lived among the ashes of the city.

Now, with an unfortunately minimal amount of rest between my arrival and the present, I was already on the move… except this time, I was on my own as one of the Talons’ advance scouts, and the environment had changed drastically. In my short debriefing before my departure from our command post in Harbinger, I had been given very little information to go on. All I had been issued was a pipbuck with both a local and general map as well as a set of programmed destination coordinates and a map marker to guide my way. And all that had been said to me was that between Harbinger and my objective was an open wasteland, a field of sand and dust like the southeast. But that was until the other scouts had brought in the reports of their initial observations, several of the teams telling of a pair of highway systems, two separate skyways built at least a hundred yards above the surface that had once carried wagon traffic from the city out to unknown destinations; one of these rolled out to the south, and the other to the southwest.

The latter of these skyways was the road I had taken up to this point. It was the only route that was available to use without leaving the region entirely and getting lost, as the scouts’ reports had also noted a lethal radiation wall between Harbinger’s southwestern border and the open wasteland, some of which lingered in the city itself. This immediately made the open fields beyond a hazard zone that everypony was forbidden to travel through. Even on this highway I had taken to pass it by – nicknamed Griffin’s Bridge by the other scouts – radiation was a constant problem to me, and I found myself going through the majority of the medical supplies I had been issued just to keep myself from absorbing a fatal dosage. However, curiously enough, I had been able to sustain myself along the way by scavenging. Griffin’s Bridge was the site, or rather the final resting place, of countless Old World vehicles, wrecked chariots and other wagons of various sizes and purposes that had clustered in periodic traffic clogs along the old highway. But along the way, I had also found other more curious things – medical wagons with faded blue symbols on their equipment, armored vehicles with delivery documentation for their weapon and munitions crates, and even multiple wrecked air units, both Equestrian vertibucks as well as aircraft of the zebra make, reconnaissance vessels and armed versions of them. There was never a moment on that highway where a vehicle was not in front of me, beside me, or behind me, and where chunks of the road had collapsed to the ground below sat even more wrecked wagons partly buried under the irradiated earth; Griffin’s Bridge was one massive graveyard for hundreds, if not thousands of vehicles.

But finally, after several hours, the highway begun to lower in a gradual downward slope back to the surface, and what had once been nothing but ash and dirt and radiation was replaced with the ruined hulks of buildings formerly hidden in the blowing dust. At first sight, this place already showed itself as a stark contrast from the city under Talon occupation, as I had immediately encountered structures that extended high up, the tops completely concealed within the dust like the buildings of the skyline in Harbinger. There were no suburban districts separating the new buildings from the wasteland beyond either, and what was more than this was that I had instantly found myself facing tremendous obstacles in the terrain. Griffin’s Bridge had ended on a wide street, and though two large buildings flanked it, both buildings that had once been their neighbors farther down the road had fully collapsed on themselves, burying the street under a mound of rubble and forcing me to climb over it to continue forward. Beyond that, I had found that another skyscraper had likewise fallen, but instead of collapsing entirely, had toppled over against the building parallel to it across the street, leaning against it and creating a deadly archway over the road. And then, beyond that, I had lost the street entirely, the whole thing concealed under a high layer of rubble, twisted metal, and wrecked vehicles, both land and air, that spread out in every direction. For several minutes, formerly standing structures made the terrain itself, which was spaced only with the decapitated husks of more buildings, those that had collapsed upon themselves and had lost most of their floors, but not enough to be completely leveled. Those dead structures were my landmarks, allowing me to follow where roads had used to sit, until I had finally found another street unburied by collapsed towers. That road, and the others I had walked upon up to this point, was the only thing that brought a similarity between this place and Harbinger. Harbinger was a ruined city, of course, and it was marked with plenty of wrecked buildings of its own that was the consequence of a balefire strike. However, this city I now found myself in showed far more excessive damage than Harbinger, with over three-fourths of what had formerly been a downtown sector (at least that of which I had walked through) being completely destroyed, leveled to the ground to make an almost impassible maze of demolished Old World architecture; the greater majority of Harbinger’s streets were at least still visible and traversable.

Now I was walking along one of this city’s unburied urban streets, moving on a westerly course as I finally neared my pipbuck’s waypoint. At this point, leaving that graveyard at my back, I was traversing a new portion of the city’s downtown sector whose structures had both shortened and spread out, creating a number of debris-littered yards and other clearings. Though these buildings still spaced out along either side of the street like before, they had amounted to only between ten to fifteen stories each. The tops of these structures were hard enough to see in the thick swirling dust, but the silhouettes were still visible, and they ended just above where I could physically see the details of each building. And yet with this, I couldn’t help but think to myself, as I had continuously done throughout the past several hours, as to how such a powerful sandstorm like this could exist, let alone span across the entire distance of at least six hours of walking. The sandstorm had accompanied me without pause, mercilessly churning around me and, on more than one occasion, threatening to make me lose my way. Hell, without my pipbuck, I would have likely gotten lost anyway, and would’ve almost certainly never found my way back. In Harbinger, the dust and wind had been bearable, the storm thinner, and our forces within had been able to move with relative ease, encountering fewer obstructions and only minor hindrances from the weather. But over the course of the past few hours, the sandstorm had seemed to amplify its strength at least threefold, the wind gradually intensifying as I had progressed along Griffin’s Bridge and into this unknown city while the sand itself darkened to this reddish color from its former yellow-brown state. By now it had to have been early to midafternoon, bringing up the very real threat of having to traverse this sandstorm during the dark of night… but then again, with how this storm spanned for miles and still remained strong throughout the entirety of the day… there was the possibility of having to find a place to hide out and sleep within this ruin tonight as well; I wasn’t overly fond of either option.

A particularly strong gust of wind revived my attention from my thoughts, and I brought my eyes forward once more. But right away I found myself jumping with a start as a metal post just ahead of me crashed down onto the concrete. The same blast of air had knocked down a bent streetlight, adding the clang of the blackened metal against the cracked concrete to the distant groans and rumbles that occasionally sounded through the symphony of wind and shifting sand. Taking the opportunity that stopping had presented, I raised my left foreleg to check over my pipbuck’s local map. On the display screen, I was very close to the waypoint now, with only a short distance on this street and then a quick walk through two more roads plus a large clearing separating my target location from me; perhaps just another few minutes of this would get me there.

But now that I was close, I needed to take a moment to rest, just long enough for me to ease away some of the burn in my hooves from my nonstop walking, to let myself recuperate and to get a drink of water. But more importantly, I needed to find out if I could get in touch with my superiors and inform them of where I was. With any luck, they would have some more information about this place that I’d be able to use. I was still very much in the dark about my objective; simply telling me to go somewhere and then kicking me out the door was not the most informative of mission directives.

Looking left and then right, I scanned along the street at the buildings I could see. The majority of these structures had become so deteriorated that portions of their walls had fallen out to liter the street and the surrounding yards. Even though they remained standing, they were full of structural holes and weaknesses, likely putting them into a state of near collapse. It seemed a miracle to me that any of them were still standing in this gale, and though perhaps a little more exploration would’ve warranted a better shelter from the blowing sand, I moved instead across the left lanes of the street to what looked to be the strongest of the buildings in the immediate vicinity. Being one of the few whose entrance hadn’t been entirely clogged off due to collapsed rubble, it was really the only option presented to me.

I took it greedily, trotting the rest of the way across the street and inside the building through the collapsed metal door that had once sealed it. Like the rest of the road I had walked up to this point, not a single living thing was present inside the wrecked remains of this building’s entrance chamber. At first sight, the room was rather sizeable, with the walls on both sides of me spread several yards apart and the ceiling at least three pony-length’s high. A tattered carpet of near colorless fabric was rolled out from the lip of the entrance to the front of what remained of a rectangular lobby counter. Behind the bulky wooden reception desk was another wall, at either side of which were entrances to another chamber further back. But despite my eagerness to get out of the direct path of the gale outside, I found myself pausing in my stride as I traced along the walls. Both the right and left walls were lined with windows, the glass having shattered long ago to litter the floor with shards of varying sizes, leaving only rectangular openings for the sand and the wind to whip and churn through the room. But on the far wall, somehow having remained attached despite the storm, were two picture frames facing me from their place above the desk. Both of them were rather portable, no larger than a newspaper, and both looked to be modified with a protective glass cover built to shelter the pictures inside. The frame on the left had not survived the years and years of weathering, the glass shield having also shattered and the picture inside no more than a dead sheet of wrinkled and colorless paper. However, the frame on the right was still intact, glass shield and all, and as I approached, I saw the picture inside…

The perfectly preserved picture, rich with color, that was inside.

Trotting towards the desk I focused on the item, my horn flaring up with light as I wrapped the frame in an orange telekinetic glow. With a quick tug the frame came loose and floated down towards me, the old screws once holding it there falling to the floor. As the picture hovered down to my visor, I came to a stop to let myself take in the rather out-of-place scene that was trapped within this violent and grim sandstorm. The picture was an aerial photograph that showed to me a city sitting at peace beneath a young golden sunrise, a large metropolis with a sprawling skyline whose buildings were glowing bright from their countless light sources both within and without. A large cluster of mighty skyscrapers made the heart of this city, with spaced shorter towers shaping an outer ring around them, together making the city’s downtown sector which sat as, considering its position relative to the rising sun, the city’s eastern side. And finally, sprawling outward to the west of these buildings and stretching down all the way to the base of the picture itself was a great expanse of houses, shops, and a myriad of other suburban and city structures – market centers, factories, warehouses, public transportation stations, city utility plants, and much more – all arranged into neat city blocks.

“So,” I mumbled, reaching up a hoof to trace along the picture frame’s right side. “maybe this was what this place once looked like?” Either that, or perhaps Harbinger… although, looking at the picture more closely, I spotted an interesting detail, an addition of the aerial image that had previously been hidden from me behind the city skyline. There were highways, two of them that branched out at an acute angle from the city’s east end, one stretching out to the northeast, and the second one to the southeast. Both of these highways were built on stone pillars that suspended them above the ground, a sprawling expanse of lush grassy meadowland that seemed to roll out into the sun itself. “Now I definitely know I’ve walked on one of those highways.” I observed aloud to myself.

Griffin’s Bridge.

Griffin’s Bridge had to have been one of those skyways in the portrait. Yes. Having traveled southwest, I could see the road I’d walked to get here, and I knew for certain that this picture was definitely a portrait preserving the spirit of this place. “I’ve got to say, it’s a far sight better in this picture than what it is now.” In fact, seeing this city as it had been made during Equestria’s wartime era, or pre-war era, made me think of my own home, the city of the canyon ring, city in The Halo… but thinking of home wouldn’t get me any closer to finishing my task. I had to stop dwelling now, prevent it from getting in the way of my focus, at least until I was done here and out of this wretched sandstorm.

With a grunt, I turned my head to look to my right-side saddlepack, opening the flap to set the picture inside before closing it back up. Right afterwards, there came a short chirp from my pipbuck, and raising the computer up to see, I found my inventory screen displayed with a new item added at the very bottom of the alphabetized list –Trinity Sunrise. But though I noted the addition, I moved on, looking toward the top of the far wall and reaching a hoof up to my helmet’s lower jaw plate. There was a single switch there at its base, small, but large enough to be felt at the pass of a hoof. And flipping it, the jaw plate fell free and swung down on its hinge built into the front of the helmet, and with the plate cleared, I fired up my horn again to lift the helmet up and off my head.

I was immediately assaulted by the blowing sand that passed through the room’s windows, the grains like dozens of tiny needles that stung at my right cheek. It forced me to turn away, putting my back to the airstream even as I let out an involuntary grunt of surprise, momentarily shielding my eyes with my right foreleg. Then, setting my helmet at my side on the floor, I sat myself down on my haunches and raised my pipbuck back up, using my horn to call up my communications screen. According to the display, my channel was still open and my pipbuck was actively broadcasting my signal. But the narrower waves of gold light crossing the screen showed me that it was a weak and unstable link, and that its strength had been deteriorating for at least the past few hours; it wasn’t promising, but I had to try to call somepony… I was tired of radio silence.

“Harbinger Base… this is Traveler Seven Seven…” Over the sounds of the storm, I could only barely hear the static that answered my call. And listening close, that static was all that responded to me for several seconds. “Harbinger Base, this is Traveler Seven Seven!” I repeated, speaking up to combat the weather. “Colonel, do you read me?”

“Traveler Seven Seven, this is Colonel Seras Silverwing.” Over the shaky coms signal came a firm authoritative female voice, the griffin commander of the Talon forces operating in Harbinger; her words were a welcome sound over the hours of silence that had preceded them. “Have you reached your waypoint yet, Tinderbox?”

Flinching as a sharp gust of sand brushed over my muzzle, nearly catching me in the eyes, I replied, “Ma’am… according to my pipbuck, I should only be a few minutes out now. But… Goddesses, I don’t know how it is back at base, but this sandstorm’s really picked up over here… And, well, frankly I don’t even know what I’m looking for. I’ve been out here for hours and all I have to go by is this map marker.”

“Yes, I know, and I’d like to apologize for the lack of proper intel at your debriefing.” the Colonel responded. “But I’m afraid that there’s a reason for that, and it’s because my fellow officers and I know just as much about this region as you or anyone else does. That’s to say, we know almost nothing about it.”

Well, at least she was being honest. “Have you possibly gathered any additional information on the region, ma’am?” I questioned hopefully.

“We actually have. You called at just the right time, because another scout recently brought back some new information about what exactly this region is on her last patrol.” the Colonel answered. “She found some preserved documentation in the ruins of a city administration site that describes both Harbinger itself and the region that it was built upon. It’s not much to go on, but it still gives us a better understanding of things.”

“Anything on where I’m at right now?”

“Yes.” Seras replied. “According to the records, Harbinger is just one part of a vastly larger region that the pre-war and wartime denizens here called Arcadia. This region actually contains three cities built roughly twenty miles apart from each other, all of them connected together by a system of highways. The one you took to get to your current location, Griffin’s Bridge, ties Harbinger to a city the records call Trinity, and both of these are similarly connected to the region’s third city – Haven. On the map that the scout returned to me, we discovered that the three cities and their bridging highways were built in such a way as to shape a perfect triangle, with each city making one of its points. And within the perimeter that the highways made was nothing but an uninhabited grassland that the ponies living here preserved. This was the composition of the region before the bombs fell, but we still have no idea how this sandstorm came to be or how long it’s been around. I’d already held the belief that this weather had covered a great majority of this region, but with you telling me that the storm is even worse down there than it is in Harbinger, I think we can safely say that this storm is one big weather anomaly that blankets all of Arcadia.”

“So I must be in the city of Trinity then.” I observed in reply, glancing back to my saddlebag where my newly acquired picture rested. “I found an undamaged picture of this city, Colonel, an aerial photo of what it looked like long ago. It’s not much, but at least it’s something until I find what I’m actually supposed to be looking for.”

“Regarding that, I have a little more intel for you, something that will make your assignment clear.” the Colonel said. “I initially held back some information before you left because it didn’t amount to a reliable source to follow. But with these new reports, I’ve managed to establish a couple facts. The first of these is that both Harbinger and Haven were built before the outbreak of the war, but Trinity was constructed during the wartime era as the third and final Arcadian installation, completing this network of coexisting cities. And secondly, Trinity was recorded to have been the city of the three that was built with the purpose of providing an efficient means for this region to fight effectively in the war with the zebras. This is where you come in, Private.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Military, ma’am?”

“Yes. One of the uncovered dossiers carried a pair of files on the city layout of Trinity itself.” she explained. “Trinity is, in fact, one large base, the region’s center for wartime operations. The city is home to several war production factories, military installations, and weaponized fortifications, all built within its array of skyscrapers and suburban districts. We don’t yet know names or specifics on these facilities, nor do we know any locations… except one.”

“My waypoint?” I asked, the pieces clicking together as I followed the Colonel along.

“That’s right. Your waypoint is set within the general area of a supposed command site in Trinity called the Vanguard High Command Base. But more specifically, you’re waypoint is set with the intent of locating the general area of a facility within this base called the Broadsword Bunker. The file we uncovered about this bunker included its location in the base as well as a supply order for weapon parts, salvage, and tools that was to be loaded onto a military transport and sent to Harbinger from there. This is what leads me to believe that the Broadsword Bunker is a storage depot of some kind, maybe even an armory. Your mission is to find this base, locate the bunker within, and explore it to discover what exactly it is and to assess if it’s important enough for me to encourage the use of a larger force to sweep through Arcadia and gather resources for the war in the southeast. I’ve already made a case to General Vance about deploying a full brigade here because of Trinity and its role during the wartime era, but if he’s hesitant, I want to have a good wealth of information to back up my position on the matter. It’s my belief that Trinity will be an excellent trove for additional resources that we can use to sustain our campaign against Challenger, but the decision is ultimately the General’s. I still answer to him.”

“I understand, ma’am.” I replied, nodding as I took in her plan of action. “I guess that if the entire city was devoted to serving as a military base, then there’s bound to be weapons and other resources that haven’t been claimed or destroyed, sandstorm aside. And considering that I haven’t seen a single living soul along Griffin’s Bridge and now in Trinity thus far, I’m willing to hold tight to that belief.”

“Exactly. And we’ll need whatever we can scavenge out of Arcadia to fight Challenger.” the Colonel said back. “The region’s gotten stronger since the Talons last stepped hoof onto its territory, and that’s made Challenger even more of a threat than it already was. But you remember Hayward’s history – this campaign isn’t about territorial expansion, not like the last one. This is about taking action and acquire the means to eliminate every threat to Hayward and its citizens, both those that have already risen at home and those that only need time to do so outside our walls, and I’m not going to make the same mistake the Talon leaders did ten years ago and leave this region unexplored. The General may have his eyes set on Guardian, but my gut instinct tells me that we’re going to need more than even that, and I see Trinity as having the greatest potential to provide us with the tools we need to achieve victory both out here and at home. It’s my hope that you and the other scouts I’ve been sending out to explore will soon allow me to prove that to General Vance.”

To that, I gave her another nod. “I’ll get it done, Colonel.”

“Good.” came her reply. “When you arrive at your destination and you find this bunker, enter the facility and then contact me again to report whatever you find inside. Afterwards, you can make your way back to Harbinger via Griffin’s Bridge and return to headquarters. I’ve sent another scout from the Traveler unit towards Trinity to rendezvous with you out on the highway when you’ve completed your mission. You should meet each other around the halfway point of that road.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“Good luck out there, Private.”

With that, my commanding officer closed the link, and I lowered away my pipbuck with a sigh as I looked around to my left-side saddlebag. “Well, at least I know what I’m looking for now.” Opening up my right-side saddlebag, I removed my issued canteen and levitated it to me, unscrewing the cap from the metal flask. “I just hope I can get out of here soon… even Harbinger’s better than this place.” I interrupted myself with my canteen, bringing the container to my lips to take a long drink from my water supply. Right after the first gulp came the familiar sound of my pipbuck’s geiger counter, a short series of clicks indicating the radiation levels within the water. Irradiated as it was, it was still the only water source I had after my purified supply ran out, coming directly from four water bottles I had scavenged from a wrecked cargo wagon on Griffin’s Bridge.

And now, I only had about a quarter of that supply left.

I floated the canteen away to keep myself from drinking too much in one sitting, screwing on the cap and tucking it away into its place in my saddlebag. “I’m going to have to scavenge around before I leave here.” I mumbled lowly, turning to my helmet and slowly lifting it back up off the floor. “Damn it…”

Then, a sudden gust of wind brought me away from my more apprehensive inner thoughts, making me flinch with a grunt as the sand tried once again to sting at my eyes. I brought my helmet back up above my head in response, quickly setting it back into place to give me relief from the sand. And then, lifting up the lower jaw plate and securing it to the collar of my combat armor, I stood back up to all fours and faced the entrance of my temporary shelter. “Time to move…” I muttered to myself, trotting forward as I telekinetically reached for the last addition of my gear. “Can’t turn back now… not when I’m so close.”

Exhaling, I stepped back out into the street, immediately reunited with the full force of the ongoing storm outside as I brought my weapon forward, letting it hover before my chest. The semi-automatic bullpup rifle I had been issued for this mission was a Talon hybrid weapon made in the homeland, constructed from a culmination of several wartime schematics that resulted in a compact, lightweight, yet powerful five-fifty-six caliber carbine that was swiftly working its way to becoming the Legion’s signature infantry weapon, one that would soon surpass its standard assault rifle ancestor stemming from the Old World Equestrian E91 rifle line. Everything with this rifle was set and ready, the thirty-round clip loaded in with another round in the chamber, the safety off. And while I hadn’t yet needed the rifle on this mission, or the combat knife that was sheathed and secured to my chest plate that made my fallback weapon, I found that looking it over again just to make sure it was ready for battle made me feel more confident as I moved down the street against the howling wind.

And with that, of course, looking up from my rifle and to the road ahead made me discover a formerly hidden sensation of edginess, something I hadn’t felt back in Harbinger or even on Griffin’s Bridge. Maybe it was because this was the first time I had really considered my situation, no longer needing to focus on keeping my hooves on solid ground to keep myself from falling into a radiation field like back on the highway. But the nervous spell hit me like a runaway train, a painful reminder that I was alone in uncharted territory, that I was twenty miles from headquarters and from any form of backup, that my communication link was weak and continuing to diminish, and that I was almost dangerously low on water and food… oh yeah, there was that deep pit in my belly, that lump in my throat… Goddesses it did not feel good.

Up ahead, the buildings on either side of me gave way to a clearing, street corners that preceded a four-way intersection. The street I was on came to an end here, with the road on the opposite side of the perpendicular street being choked off by a towering mass of rubble, both buildings on the far two street corners having respectively lost the wall that faced the path, as well as several floors, which contributed to the pile. But this was also where my pipbuck’s map had indicated my next turn, and while the road to the left disappeared into the dust, I turned right at the intersection and followed the road down. With the direction change came a welcomed break from the wind, and though it still swirled all around me, it was no longer fighting my every step, letting me move just a little easier. “Okay Tinderbox… you can do this.” I spoke aloud, picking up my pace to a slower trot with my newly acquired freedom as I let out a breath. “The Colonel’s counting on you…… You’re a soldier, right?” But as I continued through the street, passing by a quartet of wrecked passenger chariots, I found myself chuckling at my previous attempt at a self-motivating pep talk; given the situation and the place I found myself in, being a soldier didn’t feel like it held too much value. “Right… yeah, sure… It’s not like you’re just a week out of basic training or anything…” But still, there was a lot that being a soldier had given me – knowledge and power, strength and courage… all of which I needed to gather to me. “Oh come on, get it together Tinderbox. You’ve got nothing to worry about… but you do have plenty back home to fight for… now focus, come on.”

I guess for now, that would have to do for my attempt at instilling inspiration.

Ahead of me, more old vehicles emerged from the concealing dust curtain. Closest to me was one of the larger city transports, a public transportation shuttle of some kind, that had been turned over onto its left side. Behind that was a mess of smaller taxis, cargo wagons, and other chariots that had come together into a cluster of scattered wreckage. The pileup spread along the majority of the road, almost creating a full roadblock that would’ve made progress slow-going. The right side of the street, however, was still open for easy travel, and I followed the curve to keep moving at a solid pace. Drawing closer to the right side of the street, pulling up alongside the sidewalk, the buildings at the opposite side were almost fully concealed by the sand. To my right, I saw the finer details of what was left of other structures, each unnamed and, as far as I could tell, inaccessible. This stretch of buildings was characterized by entrances made from metal doors, with their walls in various states of decay, and on two of them, intact panels that held a series of white buttons as well as what looked to be an intercom; this street must’ve been home to a group of apartment buildings.

About a half minute later and I had passed by the wagon cluster. Now, only a pair of vehicles occupied the road ahead, one chariot having drawn up to the sidewalk on the street’s left side, and the second wagon lying completely overturned in the road’s center with only one intact wheel. But suddenly, just as I was about to move back towards the center of the street, two consecutive metal crashes brought me to a startled halt as my eyes snapped to the sidewalk just ahead. Only a couple of yards in front of me, the metal door of the next apartment building on the road had sharply swung open and struck the wall, and from behind it came a bloodcurdling scream of agony.

And immediately following it, a pony came stumbling through the entrance and out onto the street.

I found myself frozen at the sight of her, at her torn and bloody form. The earth pony’s body was ravaged by deep gaping wounds, entire chunks of her looking to have literally been ripped away, along with a fair portion of the patchwork scavenging vest that she wore. The crimson splotches and trails that stained her sides and flanks nearly concealed her natural color in its entirety; she was more red than white. But the worst injury of them all came from her neck, blood pouring freely to the concrete from where her throat had been torn open, and even as I watched in shock, the blood-soaked mare found me as she trembled on her hooves, wide hazel eyes with shrunken pupils coming up to meet my own. But only a moment later, taking only a single shaky step towards me, and the suffering mare collapsed onto her left side, only giving a twitch as her blood begun to pool around her.

But then a hoof pressed down on her side, and I snapped my eyes back up to…

Standing over the dying mare was another pony… or something that mirrored one’s body… but it was different, with what was left of its mane and tail nothing more than dry strands of dead gray. It somewhat resembled a feral ghoul at first glance, but instead of pale and dead flesh, the creature’s smoother hide was pitch black, almost like it’s entire body had been burned to a crisp. And instead of the near colorless eyes of a feral, I found myself as the target of a pair of ominously glowing red eyes that zeroed in on me with murderous focus. The creature looking back at me maintained the build of an average-sized earth pony, even resembling the slightly sleeker shape of a mare… but spattered on its muzzle and chest were fresh stains of crimson that gave it a glossy coating, glistening even in the pale sunlight as sand begun to accumulate rapidly over them; this thing was some kind of animal… a predator… something I had never seen before…

The creature then raised its hoof off its newest kill and took a slow step towards me, beginning to crouch as it stared, studying me. And as I begun to step back and away, slowly backtracking as I kept my eyes locked on the frightening creature, its bloody muzzle opened to reveal an alarming set of broad serrated fangs stained with gore that set into a wide chilling grin. And as it followed me, keeping pace with me as it stalked forward, it suddenly stamped down a hoof and opened its jaws wide to cry out, releasing a grating high-pitched scream.

And then it charged me!

With a cry, I dodged to the side, diving to my left just as the monster rushed straight through where I had once stood. But even before I could recover from my landing, the creature pivoted sharply and sprang again, pouncing right for me. I had only a second to respond, and with horn flaring bright, my rifle swung sharply up and around with a telekinetic kick, the weapon stock smashing into the left side of the beast’s head. It toppled to the ground, losing its traction on the concrete from the momentum of its lunge and giving me enough time to properly raise the weapon’s iron sights to my eye level. With another piercing shriek, the abomination scrambled up to its hooves, and the rifle rang in reply. I fired shot after shot, as fast as my telekinesis could pull on the trigger, and I saw as seven rounds punched into its chest one after another. I was spot on my mark with every bullet, easily so with how close my target was to me… but the creature didn’t even flinch as it sprang once again! Then it was right on me, and I only got my rifle up between us just in time to halt its charge. The rifle, floating horizontal before me, intercepted the creature by the chest, making a bar between us. But the thing was thrashing violently as it was momentarily held in place, hooves flailing to reach me and lethal fangs gnashing as it tried to chomp down on me. And even through the telekinesis that held it in place, the rifle was beginning to push towards me as the creature roared and screamed in my face, fighting harder to get to me! I struggled, I pushed and shoved and fought to keep my magic up! But it wouldn’t hold!

With a yelp of alarm, my telekinesis cancelled out, delivering a light but perceptible jolt of pain to my horn and skull as my rifle clattered to the street. Then the monster attacked, and I fought through the headache to rear up on my hind legs, catching the beast’s hooves in my own. Right away the creature shoved as we locked together in a grapple, throwing its weight against me and catching me off balance as it snapped its teeth at me. I managed to keep myself upright on my hind hooves, losing a step but bringing myself to face front as I was shoved again. I could tell already that I was outmatched in physical strength as my muscles tensed with the effort of holding the ravenous creature back, even as I was pushed into standing completely straight, the creature nearly on me as it continued to put more force into its effort; another shove and I’d be on my back! But my rifle was right under me, waiting for me to act, and with another flash of my horn, the rifle shifted as an idea sprung to life.

The weapon quickly rose up, the barrel turning to point straight up between us, then tilting to its target…

BLAM!!

The creature’s head jerked up and back as it went silent, its full weight finally thrown off of me as the killing shot punched through its jaw and into its skull, splattering my helmet’s visor with spots of mucky black. And with a mighty heave, I turned and threw the beast to the pavement, finally breaking free as it fell motionless to the street. The adrenaline was pumping through me, I was panting heavily, and I backed up and away from the limp body of my opponent, eagerly putting distance between us as I fought to catch my breath. “Mother Celestia, that thing was angry…… wh… what the??”

The creature moved! Only seconds later and the dead body moved!!... From its place on the street, the creature’s legs and head begun to twitch as thick black slime slowly oozed out around it. And with a low and murderous growl, the creature begun to rise, its head snapping right back to me for its fiery red eyes to meet mine once again. The shot had punched clean through its head, evident by the hole that was almost concealed by the front of its patchy gray mane. The same bullet had also displaced the creature’s lower jaw, which now disgustingly hung from one hinge as it faced me. But from both the hole on its forehead and the gruesome wound on its muzzle, a pink haze was drifting out and moving in the wind, encircling the injuries… the hole in the creature’s head was shrinking at its touch, its jaw beginning to rise back into place…

Oh Goddesses… this thing was regenerating!

The creature screamed once more as it continued to heal before my eyes, more pink haze continuing to emit from the wounds as they closed. At that point, I simply faced forward and bolted, galloping full-speed down the road and past the regenerating abomination. But no sooner had I begun to run, bypassing the overturned wagon, when another bellowing cry echoed on the street, cutting through the noise of the blowing wind with ease. This one was not behind me either, but just ahead of me, sounding farther down the road before a third cry came from my right, coming from an alleyway between two standing structures nearby. And when I looked forward again, I skidded to a startled halt as another of the creatures just like the first roared out and lunged for a tackle, springing from concealment in the curtain of churning dust.

Tucking my rifle up close to me, I threw myself into a roll to the left, letting myself drop to my side as my momentum threw me out of the way, the creature grabbing at the air where my head had been. I scrambled back up to all fours as the monster pivoted on its hind legs, and as it braced for another attack, I reared up tall and brought my rifle to bear before activating S.A.T.S., time now slowing to a merciful crawl. With the break I received, I dialed in three attacks to the monster’s left front leg, and prayed that it was enough to slow it down; if this one regenerated like its friend, then there was no conventional way that I could kill it… but I could still do something.

With a final command, I executed the spell, each of the attacks sending a burst of two rounds downrange. Each hit its mark on the upper part of the limb, and with a sickening crunch, the creature’s leg buckled under it as it fell with a screech to the ground. As I dropped back to all fours, I could see that my shots had almost completely severed the target extremity. But almost immediately came a plume of pink from the exposed flesh of the gaping wound that resulted from my countermove, the lower portion of the injured limb breaking completely free from the monster as the haze begun to regenerate the lost meat and bone. Even as the creature pulled itself toward me, I could hear over the wind a gentle hum of magic from the pink fog as it wove an entirely new leg to replace the lost one, its outline already visible as a dimly glowing pink outline while the haze swirled and churned around it like armoring; this thing, this haze that, I realized with shock, closely… no, exactly resembled the pink cloud megaspell, was definitely magic-based… this wasn’t something natural… and that was my cue to get the hell away from it!

As another pair of red eyes materialized in the blowing dust of the sandstorm, I turned and bolted farther down the street, following my objective waypoint as I poured on the speed to get away. But now, the screams of these creatures were growing more frequent, and they were calling one after another, first from behind me, then from closer by my right side, and then again from up ahead. My ears perked at the latter, the closest of the three, and focusing ahead, I spotted the silhouette of another vehicle emerging swiftly through the dust curtain. Though keeping myself alert, I kept my momentum going, diverting away to the left and running along the sidewalk to give the larger transport some space. But it was when I was focusing on the wagon, searching for more of the beasts, that another scream assaulted my ears, seemingly right in front of me. And I only had time to gasp before yet another one of the regenerators dashed in to attack.

The beast rammed me full force, completely halting my gallop as the wind rushed out of me all at once. Then I was slammed down onto my back, and I was face to face with a mouth full of saw-like teeth as the creature stood over me, a mouth that opened wide and lunged down. A violent grating of metal ripped into my ears before I could react, and I felt tremendous pressure on my helmet as the monster chomped down on the metal plating protecting my muzzle. I cried out as the metal begun to bend, the creature’s fangs threatening to puncture the plate as it jerked and thrashed, attempting to sink its teeth into the flesh inside the armor. With my head being jerked around every which way, I was nearly panicking as I fought to shove and kick the beast off me. And then I felt with a deep jolt of shock as the creature’s jaws crushed down even harder, the fangs piercing through the metal and digging into my muzzle! The taste of blood drove it onward, and I couldn’t even cry out the pain I felt as the creature suddenly pulled with a sharp jerk, its teeth then slashing down my skin, drawing blood and tearing away more metal before it finally released me. Finally I cried, but through the pain that stung harshly at my face, I found my rifle laying just nearby. And as the monster on top of me made for another attack, my horn fired up once more, and the weapon lifted up off the ground to point right for my carnivorous assailant. Shot after shot rang out as I fired desperately, and I thanked the Goddesses as the weight of the creature was finally lifted off me, the beast staggering from five hits and falling down by my right side.

Doing my best to ignore the burn on my muzzle, I forced myself to move, the creature already regenerating the chunk of its head that had been painted against the wall next to us as it twitched. For just a moment, pink mist hovered in front of me as it begun to swirl around the monster’s head and neck, brushing up along the torn metal of my muzzle plate with just a wisp of it passing over my visor before I scrambled back and away from the dangerous gas. A few hurried steps back, and I stopped only long enough to look over my pipbuck’s local map; the next road was my final turn towards my waypoint, and it’d be my way out of this nest of city wildlife I had walked into.

From farther down the road where I had come from, the other members of the regenerator pack came running, both of them that I had encountered galloping with shocking speed into my field of view from the dust screen. In response I once again activated S.A.T.S., the spell slowing the two monsters down enough for me to take aim. Two shots, both targeting for the head, and I activated the spell. Both bursts of fire from the programmed attack found their marks, and the headshots halted their charges as pink cloud puffed out from the wounds, healing them rapidly… but it appeared also to slow their movements… the creatures no longer galloping, but only hobbling forward with their crimson eyes still set on their prey.

It was easy to catch on, and that was something that I needed to remember – the healing process drained their energy, made them slower while they recovered from damage.

I used that precious time to run, the three abominations disappearing back into the dust screen as I bolted for my next turn. Within seconds my last corner came into view, the street hooking to the left at a ninety-degree bend while widening into six lanes. There was no intersection here, only another pair of larger buildings occupying the space beyond the hoofpaths that dictated the shape of the street. But in the same corner, I spotted another one of the regenerators early as it sprang from its hiding place behind a single wagon tucked up along the far sidewalk, screaming with bloodlust as it moved in to intercept me. I kept myself running as I leveled my rifle and turned the corner, and when it drew close I opened up, seven more shots lashing out until the trigger clicked on an empty chamber. I wasn’t sure if I had hit, but the monster nonetheless diverted from its collision course, retreating back into the dust to hide once again. But more screams took its place, and as I reached with my horn for another magazine to reload, I halted once again as two more of them emerged from just down the road, one coming from the far right lanes, and another stalking forward directly in front of me, both of them with their lethal jaws opened, teeth bared and slickened with drool.

CRACK!

From behind me, a tremendous clap of sound punched through the blowing winds, and was proceeded by a steady ominous rumbling that begun to rise in a swift crescendo. Right as I craned my head around to look, a square hunk of rebar smashed down onto the street nearby, followed immediately by a second block that landed less than a meter away from me, a chunk that was easily twice my size! Proceeding them came the steady shower of lighter debris, shards of stone and panels of wood raining down onto the street, and when I looked up… The building directly behind me, towering up into the sandstorm to disappear from sight, was deteriorating, cracks swiftly snaking up the face of the structure as entire sections of the wall fell free. And then I jerked with shock as another huge crack of noise sounded, my eyes going wide when the entire building begun to shift, groaning as it listed dangerously!

The tower was collapsing!

“Oh Goddesses!!” Wasting not another second, I turned and pushed myself forward even as the two regenerating monsters in front of me charged, completely oblivious to the tower that was coming down. But whether that was the case, or they simply didn’t care, I was forced to throw myself to the left when the closest of the pair sprung to catch me. It leaped right past me, gnashing its teeth at me as it tried to correct itself in midflight and latch onto me. But its partner was right on me to counter the first’s mistake, taking full advantage of the speed I had sacrificed for my maneuver. This time I wasn’t fast enough to dodge, and I only managed to bring my rifle up between us before the creature chomped down. With a crunch, powerful jaws plunged into the body of my rifle, immediately crushing it down as the regenerator fell to all four hooves. Then it greedily pulled at the weapon in my telekinetic grip, and with the adrenaline pumping, my mind screaming at me to bolt, I willingly canceled out my telekinesis, letting the creature drag my rifle down and onto the street before I ran for all my worth.

With the regenerators at my back, I now had the street to worry about, as already, more hunks of the failing building were smashing into the road ahead. Pouring on the speed as I ran down the final stretch towards my waypoint, two wrecked wagons came into view, both close together in the center of the street. Up above, all around, the rumbling of the falling tower was intensifying to overpower the noise of the sandstorm itself, driving me to push myself even faster, and I stuck to the left sidewalk to quickly bypass the chariots. Three other wagons emerged behind them as I desperately pressed forward, another bulky block of the tower’s wall crashing into the street just to my right, kicking up concrete dust into my visor to mix with the blowing sand. A second one then landed right in front of me, concrete spilling out in a wave that nearly caught my hooves as I hurriedly adjusted my course to bypass the obstacle. Right when I dug my hooves into the surface to spring to the right and gallop around, another crash sounded just to my right, wooden shards spilling out onto the road from the heavy dresser that had landed there. Galloping between both obstacles, hopping over a metal support beam that had jutted out from the former, I moved back to the center of the street to run past another of the wagons in the street just as a heavy refrigerator unit smashed into the street’s right-side walkway, bouncing from the impact to land again as yet another block of rebar smashed down behind it.

The roar of the collapsing structure was all I could hear now, sounding even over my hooves striking the pavement; it was nearly on top of me!

Ahead emerged another trio of old wagons, two of them larger public transportation shuttles that were sitting one behind the other on the right side of the street with the third a smaller taxi wagon in the center of the road. I was forced to divert again, hugging the street’s left sidewalk as another large metal container fell and dug into the street just in front of me. As soon as I drew upon the wagons, the lead vehicle of the two transports was flattened with a screeching metallic crunch by another concrete piece of the collapsing tower while two more large chunks crashed to the street, one in the road’s inner lanes, and the second right behind me, seeming to almost nick my tail. And as a sudden wave of debris showered the entire street, splashing over my armor and my helmet as I stampeded forward, the sandstorm in my line of sight was replaced entirely by the thick gray of concrete dust and debris as a deafening explosive roar filled my ears.

With a cry, I lost my pacing, and the momentum of my frantic gallop was halted entirely as the wave of rolling rubble connected with my hooves, sweeping me off the surface and carrying me head over tail.

Only for a moment did I see my world as it spun, my vision washed over in gray as I fought to grab something, anything to get me solidly back onto my hooves. Then there was a jolt, a heavy metal clang as something struck my helmet on the right side of my head, pain splitting through my skull. And like the fading of the evening, the gray dust and the thundering cacophony of sound all yielded to a tide of silent darkness, a black curtain that took me away from the sandstorm and the falling tower… took me away from this place…

Away from the world…

*** *** ***

With a cry, I ceased my movements and surrendered to the moment, and under me, crying out in chorus with me, my mare hugged me even tighter, all four legs wrapped around me as we shared our moment of unrestrained passion. In just a few seconds, the tremendous shockwave of ecstasy finished its course through me, and my senses begun to return. Beside me, my mare’s left cheek was pressed against mine, and I heard her heavy panting with my own as she clung to me – her breathing was the sweetest music to my ears. For a few more moments, the two of us remained locked together, our bodies joined, our minds and our hearts as one, and then I opened my eyes, craning my head back to see her, to see my lover.

Beautiful golden eyes looked up at mine as she lowered her head back down onto the plush pillow, her legs easing their hold around me. And when her head touched the soft cushion, she cast a tired smile as she squirmed happily underneath me. Still we remained silent, only looking into each other’s eyes while I returned her smile with one of my own, letting out another heavy breath as I recovered from my exertion. The silence was a comfortable silence, a powerful and meaningful silence, one that froze the wasteland itself as we stayed locked together. It was the silence that reminded me of my many blessings, that I was a soldier now, and that despite the fact that it had torn me out of my quiet former lifestyle that it was this road that gave me the chance at more than just subsistence. Soldiers were loved here, honored as Hayward’s heroes by those who lived the civilian life, and it was this that would now allow me to be better, to expand upon what I already had, and make it stronger. It would allow me to become strong enough to sustain not just myself anymore, but to support my greatest gift – the beautiful, royal blue unicorn mare that lay on her back under me, who’s beauty was amplified by the white backdrop made by the thick, heavily wrinkled sheets nestled around her… the mare that I shared this moment with… that I intended to share my future with. And it was the silence that spoke our words in this moment, only the ones that needed to be spoken – that we treasured this time together, this peaceful night we spent in each other’s company, that we loved each other so very much, and that we were proud of each other for our accomplishments that we had witnessed in our four years together, both those we had done alone and together.

This was a moment that I didn't want to end.

Lowering my head down, I gave my love another kiss, the two of us locking lips as her hooves, previously resting on my shoulders, traveled along my coat to run through my mane and to the back of my head before she hugged me closer once more, forbidding me from leaving the embrace we shared on our bed. It was only when we needed to breathe again that she and I broke the kiss, and as I shifted and pulled out, still remaining over her, it was then that the silence was broken, tenderly dispersed by the escape of a soft feminine giggle.

Her voice was beauty in its own right, sweet and pure like soft music, every word, every sound, a revitalizing angelic note that rejuvenated my spirit. And at hearing her, I met her eyes once more as she laid her head back down onto the pillow. “This was a good day… and an even better night.” she spoke, her left front hoof running along my neck to brush up against my cheek. “I’m so happy that I got to spend that time with you, Tinderbox.”

“Seeing you again was the best gift of all in these past four days.” I replied, raising a hoof to gently brush back a lock of her lavender-colored mane. “All those letters I sent were never enough for me… I still missed you so much when I was away in training.”

“The Legion tore you down and built you back up, transformed you from a simple merchant into a proud fighter. You came back to us a changed stallion, everything about you, mentally and… physically…” Even in the tenderness of the moment, I easily caught the playfully suggestive tone of her last word, and with a smirk to match the one touching her lips, I lowered my head down to take a quick nip at her neck, on the left side where it met her shoulder. Adorably, she squeaked at my attack on one of her several ticklish spots, and she gave my head a light shove as the both of us shared a round of light laughter. Quickly though, it subsided to yield to the original atmosphere, my mare’s loving smile returning to her as she picked up where she left off. “You’re stronger now, more confident in yourself. Everything changed with you… everything except your heart. Those letters you sent me were a symbol of that, a testament to the stallion you are…” Pausing, she once again lifted her head from the pillow, just long enough to place another kiss on my lips. “Only your blood family could be more proud of you than I am.”

I returned her kiss by nuzzling along her right cheek, taking just enough time to hear her let out a light happy sigh. “Hearing you say that means all the world to me.”

“You did a good thing for yourself, Tinderbox.” she replied, running a hoof along my mane. “And I know you’re only going to keep doing better while you’re in the southeast.”

Here, however, on the subject of the southeast, I felt just a pang of hesitation, even guilt. “Even though I’m a part of Hayward’s armies, part of me still doesn’t want to go.” I said back, leaning down to nuzzle along her right cheek again. “This assignment was so sudden… I just wish I had more time to spend here with my family… with you.”

“I know.” she replied softly, letting out a sigh as she likewise nuzzled up against me. “But with any luck, this campaign will finally let Hayward achieve its goals, to secure the safety it once had in its early years in the wasteland. That’s what the Talons fight for now, and it’s what everypony wishes for… no more basic impulses, no more pointless ambitions. Those are history’s scars and they belong to history. There’s a real goal now, and you’re a part of the solution to accomplishing that goal.”

I let out a light breath, lifting my head back up to look her in the eyes; they showed understanding sympathy for my desire to stay, but there was an insistence behind them as well, a strong quality that reminded me of the duty I had to take on. “I know you’d all expect it of me to do my part now that I’ve joined the Legion’s ranks. And the last thing I want is to disappoint you, you and my family both…”

“Oh, Tinderbox.” At my words, the blue unicorn guided my head down to give me another kiss, one that she quickly broke in order to look back to me. “You wouldn’t disappoint any of us even if you dismissed yourself from the Legion. You know that… but I think that deep inside, you also know that this is a step in life that you’ve really wanted to take for yourself, something that you want to follow for at least a little while.”

“Things in the canyon territories are getting worse.” I remarked lowly. “Now I’ve got the skills and the training to protect you… but the threat is big, and it requires the efforts of everypony to beat it… so if going on this scouting mission brings Hayward one step closer to beating down its enemies, then that’s what I need to do to keep you safe.” And that was the truth of the matter, as the threat to Hayward was more than just a couple of tribal raiders. If that was the threat, I would’ve gladly made a case to stay home with my loved ones. But this situation Hayward found itself in now needed a different kind of action outside simple home defense, sitting on the porch with a rifle hovering nearby to take out a robber should he find your house an appetizing target. The wars needed ponies to act together, to work towards the same objective as one unit, and my assertion made it clear, both to her and myself, that I knew what I had to do next.

My words won a smile from my beloved, and she once again draped her forelegs around my neck, this time hugging me close as I nuzzled along her right ear. “Just come back alive.” she whispered, her hold around me tightening just enough to emphasize her point.

I could hear the worry etched in her words, and the sense of guilt I felt for being the source of the nervousness that turned within her was painful. Her life in the city as an herbalist required her to remain behind Hayward’s walls, where her medicines and spices could flourish and be cared for. She had every right to be worried… but I also knew that she herself had great inner strength, and I knew that she believed in my own confidence on the matter, especially because of what we had to look forward to. It was something that I happily reminded her of as I replied, “I promise I will, Cheyanne. Besides,” Lifting my head up and away, I reached my muzzle over to bump Cheyanne’s horn, nudging the thin but shining silver band wrapped around it – the predecessor to a wedding ring. “when I come back, I’m marrying you.”

My reminder of the things to come put a smile back onto my lover’s face, and she giggled again as she pulled me back into a hug. “That’s right, Tinderbox…”

…

… “Tinderbox…”

…

… “Tinderbox…”

…

*** *** ***

“Tinderbox…”

Her voice…

Cheyanne…

Her voice traversed the darkness, bringing with it a soft roar of sound… faded… distorted… but still recognizable…

“Cheyanne…”

I felt the word as it left my lips… and I definitely remembered the word, the mare it belonged to… but the name only faintly reached my ears before it was quickly devoured by the roaring around it…

Roaring… the constant rumble of sound was growing louder in the blackness, and it grew quickly to a level that sparked recognition… ignited my memory…

Wind! Yes, the howling and blowing wind was the source of the sound, and with it came the cyclic hissing of churning sand as it grazed the earth and danced in the air. Yes, where I was, the sand and the wind were one entity, always moving, always roaring… but where was I… where?

As sound returned to my ears, so did feeling to the rest of my body… and I was attacked by a hard-hitting jolt of pain. It made me shudder, and I let out a weak grunt as I forced myself to try and move. My forelegs shifted together, both able to move freely, and I felt that my head was resting on my left leg as it moved away. When it was free, my head slid down to a hard surface, a jagged one which grated against something metal… the helmet I was wearing. The sound of the iron against the stone send a light shock through me, a motivational shove to get me to try and open my eyes. And just barely, they opened up, just enough for me to see out into a hazy but vast expanse of red-orange. I took that as a sign of encouragement, and though they fell closed once more, I forced my eyes to cooperate, and this time, got them to open properly. Though my vision was still fuzzy, I could now clearly see the colors of the area, recognize the swirling sand as it rushed past me and churned around me. But with that, I could see scattered debris layered out ahead, with only scant sections of what I remembered to be a street remaining unconcealed by chunks of concrete and wood and plastic… all of this rubble…

The tower!

I remembered now – I remembered the falling building… I remembered running for my life… and the… the ponies… no, the monsters!

I was becoming aware now, energy returning to me despite the pain that was circulating through my head, and as my vision begun to focus, settling into a clearer image, I begun to look around, turning my head left and right to see where I was. To my left I saw the corner of a nearby structure, in front of which was a sidewalk that rounded that corner and stretched away in that direction to disappear into the dust screen made by the continuing sandstorm. To my right, my vision of the surface was concealed entirely by a pile of rubble, jagged blocks of rebar and twisted protruding metal beams piling up just beside me, with what looked to be some kind of couch sitting broken and upside-down at the top of the mound. And with my vision returning, I also saw that my helmet’s visor had been cracked in two places on the right side, creating a winding split in the glass that crossed over my eye.

But there was no black-coated creatures nearby, no grinning jaws with jagged fangs.

Letting out a breath of relief, I relaxed slightly at that knowledge. But there was something else however, a weight that I felt pressing down against my back, something that had fallen over me. When I looked, I saw a heavy wooden beam as the culprit for the pressure, the rafter lying fully against me with its right end submerged within the rubble. Thankfully though, this looked to be the only large thing that had fallen on me, with only a layer of concrete dust coating my combat armor and another smaller and much lighter plank of wood laying across my flanks.

Now I just needed to move. Though I was conscious now, I felt dazed, light-headed, and I still had to find out what happened to me, as my headache was still as strong as before. Still, I pushed myself onward, focusing on the heavy beam as I begun to adjust myself. Without magic, I first pushed away the concrete chunk my head had fallen on before I tried to pull myself forward with my front hooves, pressing them down onto the street to use them as supports. The wooden board on my flanks tilted and slid down my left hind leg to fall onto the street, and a portion of the concrete dust on my armor cascaded along my sides and down to the ground. But the heavy beam didn’t yield, and I gained very little ground from its hold on me. “Magic it is then.” I remarked, swallowing to remedy the dryness in my throat. Then, focusing on the obstruction, my horn flickered to life and enveloped the beam in magic. Though it took effort on my part, and the use of magic painfully intensified my headache, the beam shifted on my first try, lifting up just slightly as a pair of small loose blocks of stone fell away from it. It was that small shift that was all I needed, and focusing my strength for a quick effort, I pulled myself forward and out from under the beam, falling onto my side as I gladly let my spell fade.

With a crash the beam fell back onto the street, and I let out a sigh of relief, then checking each of my legs individually; I spoke a silent but heartfelt thanks to the Goddesses at my luck as each limb moved normally. And with my torso likewise free of pain, I thanked them for the fact that I had been wearing a full rig of Talon combat armor, as I had the distinct feeling that without it, that beam would’ve caused some major damage. The only exception, however, was my head, as it was now ringing with a pounding headache that continued to leave me feeling woozy… and with the cracked visor still in my vision, I also had the feeling that I had still sustained a nasty injury; it definitely didn’t feel right.

Carefully, I rolled back onto my belly, and putting my front hooves under me once more, I slowly raised myself up to a shaky stand, taking just a moment afterwards to make sure that I had a solid purchase on the ground. Then, I reached a hoof up to my helmet’s lower jaw plate, and I froze at feeling the texture of the metal. There was damage here, tears in the armor that left a bumpy and jagged trail as I traced my hoof along its length. “That’s right…” I commented aloud, sighing; one of those creatures had gotten to me. However, the release latch for the plate was still intact despite the attack from those… things… and upon finding it, I flicked it to release the jaw plate, which swung down on its hinge and hung free from the helmet’s front. Then with a quick telekinetic shove, I gratefully pulled the helmet off of me, letting it fall to the ground at my hooves with a metallic thud.

Right away though, I found myself looking upon a worrying sight as the helmet rolled to show its interior. Blood stained the interior, spread in a sizeable dark splotch along the entire right side… and it looked rather fresh. With this was also another collection of blood, this one smeared along the muzzle of the helmet, spreading along the front and down onto the torn jaw plate. The sight of it made me wince, and though a part of me told me not to, the better just to not know, I raised a hoof up to delicately trace my chin. At the touch, the burn was instant, as was the moisture, the liquid texture of blood and the fresh coppery scent. But at the same time, I tilted my head to guide the same hoof up to the right side of my skull, where an even greater burn met my touch. There was a wound there, a nasty bump that was still bleeding freely, and with a sigh, I took my hoof away and pressed it to the chest plate of my combat armor, unceremoniously smearing the accumulated blood across the trio of white slashes designating my faction.

“Okay, so… head’s bleeding…” I remarked aloud, bitter as I craned my head around to look over my saddlebags. The right-side pack was still intact, minus only a single thin tear that stretched along the side. But the left pack had been considerably damaged, a much wider tear spanning right down its middle all the way to the bottom… where a wide purple stain had welled. “Oh no…” In a flash of light, my horn glowed as I telekinetically reached for the damaged pack and gave it a shake. I cringed in worry at the sound of shifting glass shards that met my ears, and opening the flap of the saddlebag, I hurriedly reached deeper and took hold of a cluster of the glass, raising it up for me to see. With a sigh, I tossed it away, then working to pull out the rest of the shards one load at a time, and with two more telekinetic scoops, my pack was completely emptied; my healing potions, both of them, had been lost.

“Ah shit…” I muttered in defeat, ending my spell and facing forward. Up ahead of me, aside from the layer of debris that coated the majority of the street, was a clearing that was, as far as I could tell, completely clear of buildings. The thick masking dust screen was still only a couple yards ahead because of the strength of the sandstorm, but there were still no structures that I could see close by. Now they were all behind me, and to either side of me, I could make out the silhouettes of other tall structures branching out in both directions, following the path of a new street that crossed perpendicular to the road I had taken to get here… here to my waypoint…

With a start I looked down to my left foreleg, raising the pipbuck still secured around it just above my hoof. Thankfully the terminal was functional, but it had also not escaped undamaged from the tower collapse, as aside from a series of shallow gashes and dents along the metal frame, the main screen had cracked both on its far left side and in its upper right corner. Despite these though, the medical screen that was shown was still clearly visible, as was the medical warning it revealed to me. The little cartoonish unicorn on the display wore a pained frown, a little teardrop below its closed left eye, as its head was outlined in a dotted red line. I grimaced as my body then saw fit to remind me of the truth behind the image, a pulse of pain coursing through my skull that came from the bump I had gotten there. Whatever happened, something had hit me hard when the tower collapsed, and upon looking down to my helmet, I could see where that something had struck the plate, carving a gash into the metal and caving a portion of the right side inward; the helmet had undoubtedly saved my life.

But now, I was still wounded, still a little unsteady, and I had no means to cure my aching head or my bleeding muzzle. And with my helmet now properly junked, the sandstorm was free to blow full-force into my wounds, currently stinging at them without remorse. Now I only had one mission, and that was getting into a secure building and finding medicine; whether it was a concussion or just a very jarring strike, I knew that I needed a healing potion sooner rather than later.

Silent, I used my horn to type away on my pipbuck, navigating the display away from the medical screen and pulling up my inventory list. Two magazines for my rifle, each with thirty rounds, remained in my right saddlebag. These were utterly useless to me now, as I remembered the fate of my primary weapon, the rifle having been taken from me by one of those creatures; now only my combat knife remained, the blade having survived in good condition according to my computer. With the rifle mags, my water canteen and my box of preserved oats had also survived, and lastly on the list of remaining items I possessed in my pack was the Trinity Sunrise, damaged, but certainly not destroyed like my healing potions had been. “Trinity…” Yes. That was the name of this place. I remembered now, and I remembered also that I was searching for something, following a waypoint. But what was it again?… With a quick series of button presses I changed the display once again, bringing up my computer’s local map to see just where I was. According to the map, I was close to the flashing map marker – very close.

“Just ahead…” I muttered, lowering my pipbuck away to stare into the clearing. At first, nothing was visible to me in the dust screen, not until a stronger gust of wind stirred the churning sand, forcing me to jerk away and protect the wounds on my head as the sand thrashed painfully against them. And as I squinted my eyes to look, I could see… I could see the silhouette of something, some kind of fence. “I’ve got to move…” I urged myself, taking a slow step forward. “Goddesses I hope I find something at… at wherever I’m supposed to be going…”

Slowly but surely, I begun to pick my way over the rubble, treading carefully over the jutting wooden boards and blocky rebar between me and my target location. The sandstorm was my only enemy as I walked, as it had immediately begun to pick up to an even stronger level, as if sensing that I was on the move. The whistling wind and the blowing sand made an annoyingly painful combination, forcing me to bow my head low and to turn away from the direction of the gale. But within only a minute, I found myself approaching the fence as it emerged clearly into sight, its finer details coming into focus.

The fence was chain-link, taller with worn coils of barbed wire mounting the top. Sections of the fence had been blown down entirely by the storm and now lay flat on the surface, while the rest of the fence in view leaned away from me and shifted back and forth on its weakened foundation as the storm continued to ravage it. But directly in front of me, the remains of a chain-link gate sat ajar from the fence, partially opened and held to its bent iron support beam with only one of its three hinge assemblies, the other two having deteriorated to uselessness. But it was the white metal sign on the gate itself that had drawn in my attention, because it was the name done up in red block writing on that signboard that I remembered hearing before, the name that the Colonel had given to my target location.

Vanguard High Command Base – Broadsword Bunker East Access Gate

I was here.

Beyond the gate, the front of a single-story rectangular building was visible through the dust, the whole structure looking to be more or less intact. It was an inspirational sight, not only because I had finally found my objective, but also because the building itself was not just standing, but looked to actually be stable. With any luck, it’d be a place I could hunker down in for a while, a place that I could make a shelter from, and hopefully it would be a place where I could heal. “Anything’s better than this damn storm.” I spoke sourly, pushing myself forward and up to the gate. The entrance was just wide enough for me to move through, and walking past, I emerged onto a wide wagon lane. From either side, another road branched off into the dust, perhaps to other buildings of the complex, while directly ahead the lane begun to narrow into a walkway. Off to the right, lying on its side in a dirt yard just beyond the lanes, was another wagon, cargo door and tailgate fully opened to reveal a trio of damaged shipping crates within its hold, similar to many I had seen early on while traversing Griffin’s Bridge. However, when I briefly detoured from my path to check over the wreck, each crate yielded no items that I could use; and all the while, the storm continued to throw sand against my wounds.

Forbidding any further delay, I set myself to a steady trot to close the distance between myself and my soon-to-be shelter. The walkway led straight to (what I guessed to be) the southeast corner of the structure, the rest branching off to the north to fade into the dust screen. I came upon a set of intact double doors, both of them windowless and made from sturdy iron, and with an eager tug of my telekinesis, the right-side door handle turned, and the door pushed open and swung into the building. “Finally some honest shelter.” With a grateful sigh I trotted into the entry lobby of the structure, then shutting the door behind me before I let the light of my horn fade out once again. Inside the first room, I was face to face with some kind of security booth, a small chamber built into the back wall that was surrounded by an iron plate foundation topped with cracked but intact glass panels that spanned up to the ceiling. Two of these panels faced me directly, showing a whole mess of cracks that spider-webbed along the entirety of the panes. But what was curious – on either side of the booth, two entryways led to another chamber behind the wall. The left entrance was sealed by a slotted security shutter, and the right side was only partially open, the shutter having only come down partway before the bottom had snagged onto the frame, denting the gate and preventing it from fully closing. But above each entrance was a sign labeling the location beyond the gates… glowing signs flickering with light.

“Electricity…” Even as realization struck, I looked along the ceiling to confirm my new discovery. Sure enough, a single light fixture was fastened into the tiling, a long narrow bulb casting a dim but steady white light into the entrance chamber. And to my right, where a short hallway branched off deeper into the building, I could see other similar light sources illuminating the remains of an office suite, casting its light over the scattered papers and toppled desks within. This building had a functioning power source, somehow remaining intact and keeping the structures undamaged lights active despite the sandstorm that continued to rage outside; even through the walls I could hear the howl of the wind.

However, my focus quickly turned back to the security booth, and the two electrical signposts fixed to the wall above the entrances that flanked it. Both were labeled with the same thing, the black letters against the flicking white light spelling out four words – Broadsword Bunker Elevator Access.

“Elevator…” I mumbled, narrowing my eyes in thought as I approached. “Don’t see those very often.”

Advancing at a slow walk, I moved along the security stall’s left side where a single door had been damaged, its hinges loosened and a large round dent plastered into the iron. Up ahead was a small room, the cracked floor of which was littered with debris from the ceiling tiles that had fallen loose over the years. And at the far wall was a single closed access point, another glowing sign designating it as the elevator door, while to the left of the entrance, a crooked but fully legible placard of metal displayed a short bulletin in black print.

NOTICE – RESTRICTED ACCESS

Elevator access is for cleared pilots and engineers only. All personnel must keep their identification badge visible at all times beyond this point.

“Pilots?” Now that caught my attention, that single word making me stop to look over the signboard once again. “What the hell kind of place is this?” Looking over the message, I was now beginning to appreciate the goal behind my mission in Trinity; this message was showing me potentially promising results. “Heh. Maybe there’ll be some medicine in there, too.” I mumbled, flicking my eyes over to the elevator door. Opposite of the message sign was the elevator’s control panel, a simple assembly consisting only of a single rectangular plate with one button that was built into the wall. And closing the distance to the door, I reached up and gave the button a press with a hoof.

Something within the wall shifted in response, a mechanism sliding upward with a heavy click. Then the elevator door moved, and I flinched at the grinding of metal against metal as the door gradually slid left and disappeared behind the wall. Behind it was the elevator itself, a spacious compartment made to hold about ten to fifteen ponies per load. The elevator opened from both sides, another door like the first having been built at the opposite wall with a similar single-button control panel next to it. Peeking into the elevator, I saw two rectangular ventilation covers on the ceiling, both of them containing lazily turning fans within their frames, all of which showed moderate wear.

Stepping into the elevator, I instinctively eased my steps as the carriage gave a short groan under my weight, reacting with just a light level of noise as each hoof stepped onto the elevator’s metal floor. Then, upon pressing the next button, the door behind me closed, once again grinding against its compartment before shutting with the locking of the door mechanisms. “This thing’s definitely worn down…” I observed with a flick of my ear, feeling as the entire elevator lightly jerked before, with the sound of whirring pulleys, the elevator begun to move. “It’s amazing this rickety thing still works.” Even as I reflected aloud, the elevator picked up speed to settle into a light rattle as it descended, the occasional clang sounding outside the walls as the worn-down assembly worked to push the elevator down the shaft.

The ride down was relatively short though, and within less than half a minute, I felt in my legs as the elevator begun to slow and come to an eventual stop. Then with a heavy click, the door in front of me slid open, this one smoothly retracting into the wall to reveal an access corridor. The hallway was laid out into a singular path with no turns, merely built as a straight shot to the other side, the door of which I could just make out at the other end of the abnormally lengthy passageway. Still I pushed myself forward, doing my best to ignore the headache that was beginning to return, cutting through my focus to get at me. As I crossed the first couple yards of the hall, my ears perked as the elevator door slid closed behind me, the lift assembly firing up once again as the elevator returned to the upper floor of the facility… or rather, I then realized with interest, the ground floor.

Yes. Having entered the Vanguard High Command Base from the city surface, it hit me that this access corridor, and likely the Broadsword Bunker itself, was all built underground. That brought up another curiosity about my target location, as the only underground structures I had come to learn about were the famous Stables built during the war. No structure back home had been built entirely under the surface, and applying that fact here to the present, I docked a point off from my initial doubt that I had brought into Trinity. If the ponies that lived here had the resources to build an underground facility of some kind, regardless if Stable-Tec had a hoof in it or not, then there had to be something left behind that the Talons could use.

Having traversed nearly half the hallway, my eyes flicked to an emerging signboard as I came across a new corridor, one that branched off and away to the right. At the corner where the two halls connected, the signboard held on it a number of labels, names with arrows pointing towards their respective positions. According to the board, this new hallway led to the Broadsword Flight Room, while the corridor I walked through led to multiple sites. Chief among them was the Broadsword Bunker itself, but there were two other locations that this hall apparently led to, including the access point to something called the Eclipse Chamber, as well as the Broadsword Runway Control Room…

Wait… runway??

Cocking an eyebrow, I froze midstride to double-check the list of locations on the sign… but sure enough, my eyes didn’t deceive me. I snapped my eyes to face front, my formerly subtle curiosity bump igniting, and set my pace to a steady trot, ignoring the protests of my aching head and muzzle as I pushed myself onward. “What the hell is this place?” That was the silent question echoing again in the confines of my thoughts as I begun to close the distance to the opposite end of the long corridor. Back on the surface, in that building, I had immediately been curious at the mentioning of ‘pilots’ listed in what was clearly a military-based notification board. Then came the indication of a ‘Flight Room’, and now this ‘Broadsword Runway’. Those three pieces were fitting together into a hypothesis, one that I didn’t outright believe but… one that, if true, might very well get the General’s approval to occupy this region.

With the corridor exit now only yards away, I pushed myself to a gallop as I passed by a second passageway that branched to the right of the main hall, the signboard indicating it as a path to a maintenance area. I hardly gave it a second glance as I closed the remaining distance between myself and the door, and as the letters of the glowing sign above the corridor exit became clear, I slowed myself to a walk before falling to a complete stop. “This is it.” I remarked after a breath, nodding at the glowing sign designating the doorway as the Broadsword Bunker’s entrance. “Alright… remember your training.” Though the urge to barge in was strong, I forced myself to take a step back so that I could focus. Right now, I still needed to find a healing potion, or at the very least some bandaging. And if at all possible, I needed to find a replacement rifle and some ammo to give me something to use to… well… at least increase my chances of getting back to headquarters. At the moment, however, all I had left was my combat knife, sheathed vertical by my right shoulder. “Well… better than nothing.” I thought aloud, lighting up my horn to pull the blade from its sheath. Glinting steel met me, the light from the sign above creating a tiny spark on the knife’s sharp tip, and giving a nod, I let the weapon hover off to the side as I raised up my pipbuck. For now, the E.F.S. compass was clean, detecting no enemy presence beyond the door or, when I turned around to check, in the maintenance corridor and the main hall. “Good. Last thing I need is to run into one of those creatures with just a knife…” I muttered, turning back around to the front and facing the door.

The mechanism was more complex, comprised of a wheel at the center to which multiple metal arms were attached, each connecting to a gear that opened the security door. Focusing on the wheel, I enveloped the component in my telekinesis and gave it a tug to the right… nothing budged. With a grunt I forced the wheel back the other way, at which point the parts begun to move in concert. The wheel spun a full rotation, pushing the arms over and towards the edges of the door before the gears begun to click one after another. Then the door tilted, and with a gasp and a hurried step back, I dropped my spell before the entire thing fell backwards, landing with a jarring crash onto the stone floor. The thunderous impact left a ringing echo, and as it faded away I remained still, grimacing at the painful volume of the door’s collapse; it certainly didn’t help my headache any.

“Oops…” Gradually, I let myself stand up straight as the echo of the impact mercifully fell away into nothing. But as I flared up my horn to scoop up my knife again, my daze from the unexpected door malfunction followed the echo into oblivion as my eyes fell upon what lay beyond the main corridor. Keeping my blade hovering close and at the ready, I moved on through the entrance, whereupon my eyes were immediately drawn upward… up to the roof that sat suspended high above me… the massive ceiling that sprawled out farther and farther away, stretching almost endlessly to the north for what had to easily be at least a whole mile! The ceiling was aglow in a virtual army of service lights that combining together to reflect against the array of iron support beams that followed the monstrous ceiling down its entire length, spanning horizontally from wall to wall to support it. Each connected to both walls, which spanned maybe even seventy full meters apart! And each large beam was welded into a number of smaller bars that connected it to the ceiling itself, reinforcing the array and adding additional structural support. But as my eyes backtracked along the ceiling, I followed the tall right-side wall connected to it and traced it down to the surface… and I froze at the sight I beheld on the floor of the colossal chamber…

Vehicles…

The aircraft clad in grey-white plating were divided into two separate rows, one line against each wall. Each of them was fully intact, perfectly preserved down to the cockpit windshields that glinted in the dim orange light of the bunker, and each was parked in its own designated space sitting only a couple yards apart from its neighboring aircraft. They bore a startlingly close resemblance to the vertibucks in Hayward’s Altus Air Force Base, possessing the same overall design as those that my home city had preserved – the same tail assembly, the same twin engines, and the same landing mechanics. However, it was easy for me to discover a key difference that separated these vehicles from the ones I knew of, and that was their size. These aircraft were larger all around, just enough so to make a notable difference. The fuselage was broader, the body longer, and the nose rounder, the craft as a whole still sleek but still heavier. The wingspan was wider too, separating the aircraft’s twin propeller engines farther away from the body, and each one was armed with a weapon system that Hayward’s vertibucks did not possess – there was a minigun mounted under the nose of each vessel, a larger gatling-style cannon with five barrels, and on each of the two stub-wings mounted in a middle position on the hull just behind the cockpit were two rocket pods, cylindrical weapon units with multiple projectiles in each, as well as a missile pack with four warheads attached. Perhaps these aircraft were some kind of new model, or maybe an older one… I had never seen this type before. But with so many resemblances to Hayward’s own aircraft, I had no doubt that what I was looking at was a massive assembly of vertibucks. And judging by the heavy firepower attached to each one, I felt it safe to assume that these craft weren’t just attack units, but full-on assault units.

But best of all, the two rows of aircraft stretched down the full length of the Broadsword Bunker. This place housed dozens of these aircraft! And yet, when I managed to tear myself away from the vast line of pristine fighting craft, looking back to the left to the opposite end of the bunker, my eyes fell upon something else, the final vehicle stored here.

My jaw fell open.

A monstrous behemoth of an aircraft took up my vision, facing towards me from its place in the back left corner of the great chamber. The beast sat on three pairs of smooth tires, making a modified tricycle-type landing gear that partly resembled a standard vertibuck landing assembly. On this craft, two smaller tires were built parallel on the nose gear, and the other two pairs of larger tires were built in tandem on the main landing gears placed on either side of the main body right under the wings, built within what looked to be rounded extensions of the already tubby fuselage. The aircraft itself was absolutely huge, with a round nose at the top of which sat a whole line of cockpit windows, all standing at least three pony-lengths’ taller than me. Over the top of the aircraft’s fuselage, I could see the vertical fin on the vehicle’s fuselage-mounted tail assembly, the upright stabilizer stretching up even higher to max out the aircraft’s tallness. This was accompanied by the great length of the fuselage itself as well as its enormous wings mounted center at the very top of the body, spanning to well over three times the aircraft’s height and stretching out even longer than the fuselage from wingtip to wingtip. On each of the lengthy wings was not one, but two large four-propeller engines, facing front and seemingly fused into the wings themselves. But on top of all that, this massive aircraft was armed, containing within it an arsenal of weaponry whose firepower complemented the machine’s staggering size. On the port side of the aircraft, five different weapon barrels jutted out from open slots in the fuselage. Closest to the nose, just in front of the aircraft’s engines, were two miniguns with six barrels set side-by-side. On the opposite side of the extended main landing gear compartment were the longer and narrower barrels of two repeating guns, looking like that of a twenty millimeter. But the last weapon jutting out from the fuselage, sitting just in front of a lowered cargo ramp at the rear of the aircraft, was the much larger and even longer barrel of a cannon, some kind of heavy artillery piece.

And tracing the whole thing back to the front, taking in the sight of the whole craft once more, I found a single word done up in cursive blue and black paint positioned on the left side of the nose, giving the aircraft a name to complete it.

Sapphire

This… thing… was something that I had never seen before, something that I never imagined could have existed. Back home, Hayward vertibucks were mechanical marvels all on their own, from their ability to take off vertically and hover, to attack from the air without pegasi soldiers, to their whole ability to function being based on gem-powered engine assemblies. There were many models of vertibuck, both civilian and military, armed and unarmed, that had been covered in the history books back home, and each and every one of them was a significant step forward from the pegasi-pulled chariots of the pre-war world. The vertibuck, and their aerial brethren under the command of the mysterious Pegasi Enclave, was among the crown jewels of the Equestrian effort to rise to the challenge that the zebras gave to them in the war, and Hayward prized the aircraft that it possessed. But this vessel, Sapphire, was something else, something that, in all honesty, I felt belonged to the Enclave itself. It was a fortress in its own right, an aerial powerhouse, and it was here amidst an entire fleet of unique vertibucks.

Looking away from Sapphire and out into the vast expanse of the Broadsword Bunker, I recalled the signboard in the access corridor, the board that pointed me in the direction of the Broadsword Runway Control Room. The hypothesis I had formed previously was beginning to shine as truth as I fit the facts together. Between both rows of vertibucks was a wide open lane of smooth concrete, stretching further and further away down the expanse of the Broadsword Bunker. Having seen Sapphire, I knew now what the purpose behind it was. That lane was the Broadsword Runway, a route designed for the giant aircraft behind me to take off. And though I would’ve dubbed that impossible upon my arrival to this installation, I now knew something else about this facility as my eyes traced up along the walls. This installation was underground, which therefore would make me question the logic behind storing air units below the surface. However, carved into both walls was an expanse of dozens of wide steel tracks, each pair of steel bars containing between them closely-spaced indents for a corresponding notched wheel, the closest one to me sticking partly out from the floor nearby like the rest of them, to travel vertical up the wall. It was mind-blowing, but with the fact that the ceiling was lined with what looked to be giant hinge assemblies, spaced between each set of wall tracks, the conclusion was ultimately sound.

The Broadsword Bunker wasn’t a parts warehouse, nor was it just a simple armory like the Colonel had first predicted. No. The Broadsword Bunker was an underground airfield, a single massive elevator platform that could rise up to the surface to deploy an entire fleet of air units.

I let out a sigh, cracking a small smile at my discovery. Goddesses, I had just stepped into a veritable goldmine! These vertibucks, Sapphire, if we had all of these units in our ranks, the Talon Legion would secure the southeast and restore safety and order to its home turf in mere weeks, days even! These could tip the scale and bring an end to the consequences of eleven years of stupid mistakes and reckless decisions!

“The Colonel’s going to want to hear about this.” I remarked aloud, letting out a single light note of laughter as I raised my pipbuck to eye level, finding myself in much better spirits despite my current position. Hurt and tired as I was, I felt a rather comforting sense of accomplishment as I pulled up my computer’s communication screen. This place and the vehicular arsenal stored within was a relic of the Old World, a treasure of the most powerful military force on the planet, a true model of the strength and knowledge that Equestria held in its days of glory, and it had all been spared the destruction on the surface, just waiting to be revived; and the time for that was close.

Now I just had to hope that my weak signal was enough for me to reach the Colonel and give her the good news. On the communication screen, the waves made by the line of golden light that showed the strength of my pipbuck’s signal were very narrow, dangerously close to reaching the base of the screen. While the last thing I needed was an inoperative com-link, I didn’t want to throw myself back out onto the surface right away either. In fact, a very persistent part of me felt that I needed to remain here in this bunker, to keep watch over the site, maybe set up a little camp by Sapphire and wait for reinforcements that the Colonel would surely send to secure this place. That, and I really needed to find some medicine and clean myself up, which I felt I had a better chance of accomplishing in this facility, especially because it had not been leveled like the entire city above it. “And I should explore the rest of this place, too.” I mumbled aloud, nodding in agreement with my own thoughts as I thought back to the signboards in the main corridor. While I had come across this airfield already, there was the chance that the Broadsword Runway Control Room and this Eclipse Chamber might also yield something important, something else that the Talons could use; whether or not it was as significant as this airfield… well, I had my doubts on that one.

“Harbinger Base…” I spoke to my pipbuck. “This is Traveler Seven Seven.” Unsurprisingly, there was a curtain of static that met my voice, buzzing soft as I let a few seconds pass. But when there was no reply, I continued without waiting for acknowledgement, “Harbinger Base, this is Traveler Seven Seven… I’ve found something big in Trinity. This Broadsword Bunker – it’s a-”

BOOM!!

An explosion of sound tore into my ears, a deep echoing boom that filled the chamber just as white-hot agony ripped through my torso! Screaming, I was knocked clean off my hooves from the blow, and I landed hard on my left side as my combat knife broke from my telekinesis and clattered to the floor nearby. The searing pain immediately begun to constrict itself around me, clamping down and crushing me without mercy. It was literally blinding, my vision going dark as I screamed again.

“Traveler Seven Seven report!!”

The Colonel’s voice suddenly punched through the fog of the horrible pain. Desperately I opened my eyes in response, snapping my gaze to my right side to look upon the single gunshot wound – the shockingly large hole that had been torn into my combat armor was already spilling a snaking trail blood that flowed to the floor; I couldn’t see the actual wound under the thick plate protecting my right side, but I felt as the bullet that had made it shifted inside me.

“Traveler Seven Seven COME IN!!” Silverwing shouted through the static, her words confused and tense.

With a grunt I put my forehooves under me, breathing heavily as I fought to push myself up to a stand. But just as I got my front hooves under me, the burn in my side exploded to its original level as something else smashed into me. I only barely kept myself from screaming out again, the hit drawing a pained yelp from me at having landed right on my wound, and I lost my fragile balance on the floor and toppled back onto my side. But then, I felt a weight press on my left foreleg, stepping down firmly on my pipbuck and pinning it to the floor.

A hoof… a foreleg… clad in armor and adorned with a silver pistol in its holster… and it shifted over my pipbuck to tap a single key, navigating back to my map screen to terminate my communication link.

“Black and white…” A voice spoke, the words carried on a firm tenor voice that reached my ears from just above me. And as my pained heavy breathing fell to short sharp breaths, I managed to raise my head up, my eyes traveling along the armored foreleg and chest to eventually fall upon another face… another living pony.

Looking down at me with a cautious stare, blue eyes slightly narrowed and face set into a small frown, was a dark-brown stallion with a short black mane that spanned from his head to the base of his neck, edges touched with grey to show the beginnings of age. Atop the stallion’s head was a plain black patrol cap tucked between his ears, and with it he wore a light armored overcoat made of thick black and blue fabric, underneath which was what looked to be a combat vest. Secured around his middle was a battle saddle with a different weapon on both sides, the right-side weapon what I recognized to be a heavy .50 caliber rifle, and the left-side weapon a stockless submachine gun of blue-grey metal. His overcoat covered the whole of his body up to the base of his neck, leaving only his head, throat, and black tail exposed… and a pair of brown-feathered wings folded against his sides just above his saddle weapons…

My attacker was a pegasus pony…

With a pained grunt, I tried to move, pushing with my hind hooves and my free foreleg to try and put some distance between myself and this newcomer; he didn’t even retaliate, letting his hoof slide off my computer as I pushed myself away on the floor. “I know those colors.” the stallion said, lowering his hoof to the floor as his stare continued to follow me. “Should’ve known too that they would’ve returned to the southeast… but I didn’t think that they’d come here. They didn’t when they first came to Challenger’s land.” I hissed at the lasting burn in my side, forcing myself to stop as my eyes shut tight; I tried to respond… but the stabbing pain that lingered from my gunshot wound didn’t ease to let me speak. “I saw you on the streets of Trinity as you marched through the dust.” the pegasus stallion continued; through my closed eyes, I heard as his hooves moved along the floor. “The city almost claimed you when its inhabitants found you, and then again when that tower fell. But you survived.” Finally, I got the strength to surpass the sting in my side, opening my eyes and finding the stallion a few paces away, looking out into the Broadsword Runway. “I took that as inspiration for a time… but only until I saw the symbol you follow.” he said, craning his head around to look back at me where I lay.

With a pant, I forced a foreleg under me to prop myself. “I follow… I follow orders…” I managed to croak in reply, saying the first thing that came to my mind.

“Orders…” the pegasus repeated. “What you say still shows where your allegiance lies.” When I managed to look up again, I found the pegasus as he turned fully around to face me, his eyes still set into that cautious stare. “But the insignia of the Talons is a herald of great danger, always has been… but especially when it is present here.”

Though it took effort, I finally got myself to stand on all fours, and as my legs trembled under me, I managed to keep my eyes on his. “What are you… what are you talking about?” I questioned. “What is this place?”

“Once… it was the home of another symbol and the ponies following it, different from the Talons.” the pegasus replied. “Those that once lived here – they believed in a nation. In the Old World, they fought for a place they believed was going to be a beacon of hope, an idea that would carry the strength of the past to restore the peace and prosperity that ponykind had basked in for a thousand years before the Great War. They cherished it so much that they devoted themselves to protecting it and its pre-war virtues, to putting themselves before the eyes and the guns of the zebras so that others from that nation didn’t have to. They bled for it, sacrificed themselves so that it could live on, so that it could carry the code of honor that the ponies here had built and preserved as the war tainted the world around them. But it was the very symbol that they had put their faith in that eventually committed itself to a course of action, an act that eventually destroyed this place. And all the while, it was the ponies here who failed to realize that it was they themselves, all that they had built and cherished, that was becoming the beacon of hope they saw in the Sun and the Moon, that was becoming the idea of the Old World that would bring the peace that they wished to see returned.” Here, the stallion paused, only long enough to look past me, eyes coming upon the aircraft behind me. “This place is the heart of it, a place that houses the legacy of the dead here,” Then he looked back to me, his eyes slightly narrowing. “a place that you’ve trespassed upon… threatened…” At the stallion’s… ominous last words, I only remained silent as my wound forced my focus to my injured body. But now, I was feeling even weaker… whether it was blood loss or… if the bullet had hit something vital… I didn’t know… but even though I fought to remain upright, my body just wasn’t going to allow it, and with an agonized grunt, I crumpled back down to the floor, falling onto my uninjured side once again.

“Whether you know it or not,” the pegasus spoke up, completely ignoring the pitiful state that his anti-material rifle had put me in. “Hayward follows in Equestria’s steps by its actions here. Its decision to return to the southeast, to restart the war it had waged ten years ago, speaks of its spirit, of its recklessness that guides itself and all it sees as its enemies to destruction.” A hoof then crossed in front of my darkening vision, drawing my fading attention back up to see the stallion’s blue eyes upon me. “Your presence here shows me that that threat is closer now than it was ten years ago.” he said. “And now I have to ensure that Hayward can’t finish history’s work.”

As he continued, I once again tried to force myself to move. This time though, I was searching desperately for a weapon, my knife… the blade that was sitting only a short distance from me. “You and those who stand with you mustn’t come here. It is for those who follow the virtue that was forged here, my family, and for them alone.” the pegasus’ said beside me as my horn begun to weakly flicker, the knife shifting in its place and slowly rising. “I can’t allow you to bring the Talons here.”

…*click

At the sound proceeding his words, I felt a cold chill pass through me, rippling from muzzle to tail as my eyes flicked up to the pegasus… and the 9mm pistol he held by the firing bit in his jaws, the weapon barrel looking me in the eye…

Then a flash of light…

A blast of sound…

Dark…

Nothingness…

Chapter 18: Lock and Key

“Please… please forgive me…”

Present Day

Teachings.

Having been born and raised in a Stable that had been stolen from its corporate owners, repurposed in order to be spared from a horrible experiment, I had been a part of a uniquely created community. That is to say, unique in the sense that it was perhaps the only Stable out of them all that had been forcefully wrenched from the grasp of Stable-Tec before the bombs. But with this same Stable being used as a means to remember, to preserve, and to teach the virtues that were embodied by the legendary Elements of Harmony, I had been shown many lessons and had been told many stories in order to do my part in the honoring of those great pre-war qualities. Both from classes and from my parents, I had come to develop a moral framework that I followed day by day, hour by hour, throughout the whole of my life under the scorched surface world. But golden rules in One Eighty-one such as honoring your past, helping others, and following your heart only scratched the surface of what the Elements of Harmony stood for. There were deeper and more personal subjects with these that were more heavily emphasized in the Stable, subjects that applied to everypony individually – understanding that trust is something that is earned, that there is great moral value to a promise, that every action has a consequence. All of these held their own place in my heart, all of these things some of the deeper lessons that I remembered and guarded with me.

But it was the latter of these that sat at the forefront of my thoughts.

Action and consequence. The principle behind this is among the simplest, but that doesn’t diminish its level of importance. No matter what you do, there is always a consequence that will surface. Each choice that is made always comes with others that one can choose, and though you can only make one out of all of them at one given moment, each carries its own array of outcomes that will leave its imprint on your future, and sometimes even on the future of others around you. And though we can never really know how far the ripples of our decision will travel, the guarantee is that each choice will be another stepping stone to a new point in your future. It’s an everyday thing, making choices, and it seems so simple that we sometimes hardly even acknowledge the deeper meaning of the concept as we go about our lives. But at the same time, it’s so substantial because it’s the choices you make – not devout faith to the Goddesses, not the material power you hold – that ultimately makes you who you are. Your actions lay out your road that you will eventually walk, and because of that connection, you are always held accountable for any and all actions you take, and you must be prepared to face and accept the outcome that forms from them.

But now, I was finding that I was questioning the very teachings I had kept close to me.

Only a short time ago, I had been shown my baby brother’s face behind a computer monitor as he sat wrapped in chains, bound by overwhelming fear. Now, because of the crushing grip of an explosive collar, his very life rested upon the edge of a knife. And it was because of this fate that had befallen him, a fate that he in no way whatsoever deserved, that I reflected upon my history, a black cloud of defeat and anxiety cloaking my thoughts in a deep shadow of doubt.

As a filly, my parents had spoken to me of actions as something that you controlled, something that you executed through your own will, something in which you always had the power of choice. But… what happened when that power of choice was stripped from you? Sure, things such as doing chores when you didn’t want to or going to bed early for school when you wanted to stay in the orchard were things that you had to comply with, something that you didn’t get to choose. But in those cases, the option always existed to disobey your parents, to sneak off or to ‘accidentally’ remain focused on a good book. No. Here, the question remained – what happens when the power of choice is stripped from you? What happens when those actions you take are not of your own desire, when they are forced upon you to reach a point that you want no part of?

As a prisoner of the Legion, locked away inside a small dimly lit room in an unknown facility, the Talon General had made my new situation very simple – I was to help the Legion, or Blake would be executed. In any other situation, if they hadn’t gotten their hooves on my little brother, I would’ve never partaken in their ‘mission’. They could’ve tortured me, shot me, beaten me to near death, and I would have only continued to resist. I was more than confident in myself to believe that I would have died before helping the enemies of the southeast, of Hopeville and Proudspire and Buckley and Challenger. But this – this was a situation in which I was utterly powerless to resist, because at the mere flick of a switch, my baby brother would die. And so, I would soon be undertaking an assignment from the Legion itself, helping them in working towards their latest goals… whatever they were. And whatever they would make me do, it was something that, I was sure, would be part of an operation toward gaining ground in the region against Challenger… a settlement that I had had dealings with before, a settlement that Hopeville depended on for its survival, a settlement that was the home of ponies I knew – Duke, General Silverlight, Bella and Shotshell and… and little Lucan…

Knowing that I would soon be forced into fighting against them served to drape a second layer of cold dread over the already festering cloak of fear that came from my worry for Blake’s life. And that was the worst part, as the whole time I had been locked up, ever since the monitor showing me Blake’s face had flicked away and I had been left alone in my cell, I knew that he was somewhere close by. Whatever this place was, wherever we were being held, he was near… and yet I couldn’t even go and see him. And Goddesses, I wanted so desperately to be with him, to hug him tight and to tell him that everything was going to be okay, to let him know that I was going to do whatever it took to make sure he was safe. Instead, he was locked up in a cell just like me, sitting there, alone and scared to death… an innocent child – the bargaining chip to an army of cold and heartless monsters…

And yet, when that thought passed by… I found myself reluctantly backtracking, returning to the lesson of action and consequence, to which my new situation had added a very important detail, a harsh reminder of things. Actions lead to consequences… that’s the key phrase, and it was something I knew already. But no matter how much you try to make yourself aware of the action you commit and the consequences that it can lead to, there is always the risk of committing an act with outcomes that you cannot foresee, especially with the turbulent occurrences that surface life can bring. In Plainwell, I searched for a missing stallion, a father that I promised to look for and, if at all possible, bring back to his wife and son. Then I found the Talons, the faction responsible for slaughtering an entire settlement, and I battled with them, hearing from a dying mare that had been one of the their victims that the missing pony I was hoping to find had been taken prisoner. I searched for him, looked to make sure that he was alive, and in the process, killed two griffin fliers, Talon sharpshooters pursuing me in the air. The first kill was a female, a clean headshot programmed from S.A.T.S., and the second kill was a male, the griffin having followed me into a trap… and it was the former that had been the wife of Blackhawk himself. I hadn’t known… I would’ve never known… but I had committed the act either way, scored the kill, taken away the loved one of a Talon officer in the heat of battle. That was the action… and now I was suffering the consequence… just as Blackhawk himself had said when we had first battled over Hopeville.

“I’m the consequence of your decision at Plainwell.”

In that moment in Plainwell, when I had taken down that griffin female in aerial combat, I hadn’t thought of what her death might bring in the future. But there was no reason to have even bothered to do so – the Talons engaged me, she engaged me, and in the ensuing battle, it was either going to be me or her, me or the Talon soldiers who aimed to take me out. On that field, they were my enemies and I was theirs… and so there was absolutely no way that I could’ve been prepared myself for what came next, no way that I could’ve seen that someone would come looking for revenge for the life I had claimed, a husband whose wife had died by my guns.

So… did all of this really make the Talons heartless monsters like I wanted to believe? Did the history that Blackhawk and I now shared really make him a cruel and cold-blooded killer that merely possessed the body of a griffin?

… Maybe… maybe not… some Talons were, that I definitely knew… but surely not all of them were…

…

But… was I responsible for what followed me from Plainwell? Was I responsible for Blackhawk’s retaliation?

…

Yes…

…

Adding to the grim emotional state I was already drowning in was the crushing weight of that guilt, the knowing that I had, ultimately, allowed all of this to come to pass – Blackhawk’s desire for justice, mine and Blake’s imprisonment… Gracie’s death…

Goddesses… Grace…

Despite the silence of my prison cell, the solitude of my confinement… for some reason, I just hadn’t been able to weep for my best friend, even as the sorrow from her passing stabbed into me like a white-hot blade. In my time alone up to this point, I had wanted to cry, to grieve for her and for how she had met an underserved end. But my body and my mind were so racked with fear for Blake that I couldn’t get the tears to come out. I had even physically tried once, shutting my eyes tight even as the occasional half-sob half-cough had escaped my throat. But even that warranted no effect, and all that had come from then on had been shaky breathing, even now as my body lightly trembled in its shackles, my thoughts always coming back to the fate of my baby brother.

The consequence.

I knew that I was responsible… responsible for everything. There were plenty of excuses I could make to defend myself, but none of them would prove the situation otherwise – I had committed the act, and Blackhawk struck back. But atop all of this was the terrible understanding of something else, yet one more wound carved into my already crippled spirit. Having come back from Buckley in one piece, gratefully returning to our own home, I had finally brought Blake back to true safety, back to his friends and back to our home territory. And after Captain Saber’s gentle nudge, getting it through my head that Blake needed to remain in Hopeville to ensure his safety, I was more than ready to make sure my baby brother stayed with his friends, to let him live as close to a normal foalhood as possible without risking himself by coming out into the wasteland with me.

And then this happened…… knowing that served to add a dose of anger to my emotional mixture, anger that was building up within me and lying in wait, subdued only by the knowing that if it came out, if it acted, then it would be my little brother’s blood on my hooves.

All I could do was dwell on the facts… that, and await the future… fear it. With everything that had come to pass, the consequences of my choices, there were moments where my thoughts churned around another area of concern, focusing in on a single ominous question – actions of your own will yield consequences that are easier to anticipate, usually desirable… but when those actions you take are not your own, how do you prepare yourself for the consequences that will follow? Could you even do that?...... If there was a way, any at all, then I couldn’t see it. Whatever the Talon General would throw my way, I just had to go with it… I had to obey his commands, because I had to keep Blake alive…

I would not let him die like this – as a hostage of the Talon Legion used to leash me to their General’s hoof.

My latest bout of thought drew a shaky sigh from me as I once again raised my head up, scanning slowly along my prison cell. Surrounding me with dimly lit grey walls, my box of a room was completely empty aside from the four plate foundations, two on the ceiling and two on the floor, holding my shackles and chains in place, leaving me standing upright and locked spread-eagled as I waited for the Talon General to summon me. The dim source of light came from directly above me, a single rod of light that shined down on me surrounded by a metal cage to protect it from thrown objects… imprisoned like I was. Already, the irons holding up my forelegs were digging into my hide, pressing in as my full body weight continued to pull down on them. And standing on my hind hooves only partially helped to remedy the problem, as no matter where or how I moved, the bonds themselves were continually applying pressure due to their tight fit. It was to the point now where the shackles were becoming a moderately painful pressure that created a consistent stinging ache in my legs; I couldn’t even find a comfortable position to grant myself some temporary relief from the burn.

Again I sighed, once more letting my eyes fall to the floor and bowing my head down, giving up the effort entirely. But it was in that moment that from just in front of me came the deep click of a heavy deadbolt, my prison cell’s door lock. My head still bowed, my eyes flicked up to where I could see past the strands of my mane as the square-shaped slab of steel detached from the floor and rose upward, sliding into its slot within the wall… revealing a single mare…

The black mane… the violet coat that was only partly concealed by a set of black uniform barding…

All belonging to a traitor…

“Hello, Nova.” Blossom said as she walked casually into my cell, stopping just in front of the doorframe.

I gave her no response… I didn’t want to… In fact, I wanted anything but this. I wanted something to happen, something to happen to her. In my mind, I could picture my cell door slipping free of its supports and crushing her, granting her a brutal, messy end. But all I could do was dream, as time ticked on in the real world, and now she only stood looking upon me with an easygoing expressing, calm and untroubled.

I wanted my mother’s pistol back so that I could blast that look off of her, paint it across the floor; at least her corpse wouldn’t clash with the drapes.

Craning her head around, Blossom’s horn briefly flickered as she pressed the button on the door’s control panel, and behind her, the cell door once again fell closed, remaining unlocked. “The General’s almost ready for you.” she continued, facing forward once more to look me in the eye, gazing upon what I sincerely hoped was my darkest and most fear-inducing glare. “He’s meeting with someone at the moment though, so I thought I’d stop by and keep you company for the next couple of minutes until it’s your turn.”

At her words, the tone of her voice, my left eye gave a single twitch, the herald of my simmering anger. Her blatant ignorance of the hatred that was spilling from me was pushing me, making my blood boil as the formerly subdued fury in me wanted to lash out and smite the bitch that stood in my cell with me… “I never would’ve taken you for a traitor…” I said lowly, continuing to hold my glare as the unicorn walked.

She stopped at that, my words bringing her to pause midstride by my right side. “Oh.” she responded, momentarily looking ahead at my cell’s back wall before turning to meet my eyes again, a tiny smirk touching her lips. “Traitor… that’s such a harsh word. And really, in this case, it’s a misused one, too.” Turning about, she reversed her course and instead moved in front of me, then turning and facing me less than a pony’s length away. “Because I never worked for you.” she said matter-of-factly. “I never worked for Hopeville or Challenger. I’m not committed to anypony in this region.”

“We saved your life!!” I shouted furiously, my chains rattling noisily as I shoved against my restraints. “You were being raped for Goddesses sake, and we took you in and cared for you!!”

“Oh I know, dear.” the unicorn remarked back, her voice touched with infuriatingly false sympathy! “I guess you should’ve just kept walking, huh?”

“Yeah. You would’ve liked that, wouldn’t you?” I spat.

“Ooh, feisty.” Blossom replied, her smirk slightly widening. “No. I’ll admit, I hadn’t been planning on running into that Black Blood patrol when I was by the old news radio building. But those raiders you saved me from that night were those that had survived that battle with the Talons by the station. I’m sure you remember it since you walked by it on your way there.” After a short pause, she added, “Anyway, it truly wasn’t part of my plan to encounter them, and it caught me completely by surprise when they ambushed us, took me as a trophy and killed off the other ponies who’d joined me. But in the end, it served to bring me all the closer to completing my mission, and that was the only thing that mattered.”

I shook my head… unable to believe what I was hearing from this mare; the way she spoke of what I had perceived as a massively traumatizing experience was rolling off her tongue like it was a simple, casual lunch chat. “How can speak like that after everything you went through??” I demanded. “You lost two friends to those raiders, and you lost Jenny to the same damned faction you’ve sided with!!”

But Blossom let out a note of laughter at my words. “Right. ‘Friends’.” she replied. “Nova, I was born in Hayward. My loyalty’s always been to the Talons, and I’ve been working as one of their scouts ever since our return to the southeast. Normally, being an advance scout means working alone, moving quickly from place to place and gathering information to give to Talon officers. But sometimes, being a scout means that you have to use your resources, think outside the box in order to acquire the things that really matter. And so that’s what I did.” Pausing, the mare turned away from me and begun to move, walking slowly towards the wall to my left. “Those two bucks with me were brothers, mercenaries making their living on escorting ponies and caravans to and from settlements. Seeing them sitting open for business in Challenger’s saloon allowed me to make myself a decent disguise, something unique that would keep me from raising unnecessary attention when exploring the smaller villages outside Challenger. I played the part of a nervous wastelander mare from Proudspire who was taking her first steps outside the village gate, looking for protection on her travels throughout the rest of the region. The two of them came right to my rescue for the right price in caps.” I followed the sinister unicorn as she walked in a slow circle, moving up beside the front wall of the cell. “Jenny stumbled on us just before we were making to leave, talked about how she wanted to get out and visit the other settlements just like me. She made the final addition to our group, and that helped to keep me from raising extra attention by traveling solo through the southeast. They did a good job helping to maintain my disguise.” she continued, passing by the cell door. “We got into Searchlight first and were welcomed openly and without questions, same with Plainwell, too… before its takeover, that is. And of course, we can’t forget about lovely Hopeville, because that’s where we saw you flying in to.” Turning, the unicorn faced me again, moving slowly towards me. “We saw the place on the western horizon about a day before you came back from… somewhere… probably Challenger, I would imagine. And of course, having found you after a few days of searching, I immediately contacted Blackhawk, my commanding officer at the time. And after that, what with what you did to him at Plainwell, he came running.”

So that was how the Talons discovered us… how they had found us the day of their first attack on Hopeville…

“Right before he moved in on Hopeville, I persuaded my group to avoid the town, and we instead started making our way back towards Challenger. After a couple more days of wandering, we found ourselves at the news radio station, and that’s when those raiders caught us before you showed up.” Now, Blossom was right in front of me again, standing close as she looked up into my eyes. “And the rest, as they say, is history.” she added, cocking her head to the side in a shrug. “But those two bucks in the station, my ‘best friend’ Jenny – all expendable assets that aided me in the completion of my mission, my mission to find you. I’d say they were anything but friends, Nova.”

Goddesses, I just wanted to break her jaw!

“I’ll admit,” she continued. “it was a shame to see Jenny go. She was a real sweetheart, always helping the rest of us out around camp, always making friendly conversation… good kisser, too. Unfortunately, Blackhawk didn’t see her the way I did, and so to that end, he used her as the means for me to win the full trust of your group, to cover up any possible point of suspicion. In the end, she died for the preservation of Hayward, and I’ve already thanked her for that.”

“Because you tricked her into it.” I shot back. “You lied to her, threw away her life and the lives of two other innocents in your Goddess-damned quest to get to me. How can you live with something like that?”

“Given the choice between Hayward or a few wastelanders from a foreign region, I think it’s very easy to live with.” Blossom answered simply. “And though you might not think so, I personally think that you or any of your friends would feel just the same way. In fact, I’m willing to bet that, given how loyal you are to your own home, you would have made the same choices that I did had you only been on the Talons’ side.”

Her confidence in those thoughts was something I could hear on every word, something that angered me even further as I denied her declaration outright. “No I wouldn’t! I-”

But my words came to an abrupt halt as Blossom suddenly barked a short laugh, startling me from my thoughts as she looked up to me with a full grin. “Oh, I think you’re mistaken.” she asserted with a sickeningly sweet tone. “Or have you already forgotten about dear little Blake?” Despite my anger, the mentioning of Blake, especially within the current subject, brought all my possible responses to a sharp halt; Blossom jumped right on that. “The poor child – he’s here in this facility with you, you know, and now he’s depending on you for his life. I know that you’re no fool, that you understand what you’ve gotten yourself into. So I guess we’ll both find out soon enough just how far you’d go to save your baby brother’s life. I’m rather curious myself.”

“Don’t talk about my little brother…” I growled warningly, wincing again at the hold of my bonds around my legs.

But once again, I was blatantly ignored. “I’m serious, Nova.” she instead spoke. “How far would you push yourself to save him?”

“I’d kill you in a heartbeat.” I answered venomously.

At that, Blossom rolled her eyes, dismissing my threat with a toss of her mane. “Of course. But what about a couple of simple wastelanders like I did? What about Archer or Gunny, hm?” That question… it made me freeze once again, only this time, it was because of a deep pit that quickly swelled in my belly, rising to a painful level at the mere thought of her words coming to fruition. “Yeah, Gunny.” she repeated with that same grin, catching how the question had hit me. “One of your best friends, the really protective one. He’s big and tough to be sure. But as I came to find, you tug hard enough at his heartstrings, and he’s putty in your hooves.”

“What… what are you talking about?” My eyes narrowed as I shifted in my restraints, the chains rattling in reply. “What the hell are you talking about??” I demanded sharply. “What did you do to him?!”

“Oh nothing, really… other than that we ended up kissing.” she replied, cocking her head to the side slyly; I only stared… I couldn’t even find any words… “Oh yes.” she continued for me. “The poor fool was feeling so guilty about Jenny that he gave me the perfect opportunity to keep him in the dark, to make sure he still believed me to be some helpless mare that wanted his protection on our trip back to Hopeville. He said he just wanted me to be safe, and that he didn’t deserve the kiss I gave him. I told him that he did… didn’t tell him why back at the radio station though. Only told him when he found us dragging you and your brother away.” An evil little giggle escaped her mouth, making my ear twitch. “Oh, he got really pissed when I told him that he deserved it because he led me right to where I needed to be to spring my trap, let me blend right into Hopeville society to coordinate your capture.” She shook her head at her recollection, smiling ever-so-proudly at herself. “The thing about your friend, Nova – there’s a beast inside that one, a killer, especially after Jenny. I’ve no doubt that he would’ve come after us if Blackhawk didn’t have his revolver against your skull.”

Red…

Red was what I was seeing now. Her revelations, her showing of her true colors to me… and how smug she was about it all… it all fueled an already raging fire, a fire that swelled into a roaring inferno that smashed against its cage again and again, pitilessly melting away the walls that had formerly subdued my anger, the anger that this internal firestorm embodied. And now, it all came out at once, seeking revenge, justice, something to blast away and send into the pits of oblivion; I welcomed it with open arms.

Futile as it was, I threw myself against my chains, reaching to get my hooves on her so I could pulverize her! “YOU CALLOUS BITCH!!” I screamed, stomping down the wave of dull pain that passed through my legs as I threw my full weight against my shackles. “HOW DARE YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIM LIKE THAT!! I’LL KILL YOU!! YOU HEAR ME?!!”

My throat was already tingling at the sheer volume of my words, but I took that as encouragement and saw with approval as Blossom’s grin promptly faded away, the mare raising a foreleg and recoiling with a start at my sudden explosive outburst. But quickly she recomposed herself, letting her hoof back down to the floor as her tiny grin reset itself onto her muzzle. “No…” she began calmly. “You obviously don’t see it, but there’s a difference between being heartless and doing what it takes to get a mission done. You see, if I was really heartless, truly heartless, I wouldn’t have been anywhere near as civil with you as I am right now. In fact, maybe I could’ve let my little session with that Black Blood patrol completely strip away my sense of reason, my sanity and my sense of purpose. Maybe I could’ve just gone ahead and shown you what I had went through that night… shown you what it was like to have your own body betray you.”

…W-what?... What??

Goddesses… nothing, not even my hatred for this mare, could have prepared me for the words that had just come from her mouth… and she had really said them, too… I wasn’t imagining things. Instantly, all of that bold angry fire that had allowed me to stand defiant before her was doused by a painful tidal wave of ice water that was her malicious claim, making my whole body begin to tremble in its restraints at the drastic turn of events. Blossom’s tiny smirk remained, now in triumph at her comeback as the purple unicorn looked me over to observe the shaking that I was absolutely powerless to hide. “You… y-you wouldn’t dare…” I responded, an attempt at a confident voice failing entirely, leaving the words to come out as a weak and pathetic whimper of an assertion.

But at that, she shook her head, mercifully backing down on her threat. “You’re right, I wouldn’t.” she replied. “But that little bluff proves my point, Nova. If I was truly heartless, then what would’ve stopped me from making your confinement here a living fucking nightmare?” Pausing, she looked upward, her eyes tracing me up to my suspended forelegs. “You want heartless, then look at those Black Blood Raiders. They do things that I would never do… they did things to me that showed me what heartless really was… and now that I know what it is, I know that I’d never do what they did to anypony. Now you can believe me, or you can choose not to, but unlike them, everything that I did had a purpose, a reason. I followed orders, lied and manipulated others to capture you and bring you into Talon custody, and I’d do it all over again if the need arose.” As she continued, her horn begun to glow. “Because you’re going to be the springboard for Hayward’s first steps in securing its new future.” Then falling silent, Blossom craned her head around to look to her right side, her telekinesis opening a pocket on the flank of her barding. And at her silence, I was left staring, my mind churning.

This mare… I just didn’t understand her. When my friends and I had found her, she had been the victim of raiders who had been using her as their trophy, the prize of their victory over the Talons out by the news radio building. She had suffered because of what they had done to her, and it was clear to us when we took her in that what had been done to her was a devastating event. She hadn’t just brushed it off like it was nothing, made no indication to us that that was the case… she just couldn’t have ignored it. Later, she had shown genuine gratefulness at our offer to search for Jenny, traveled with us in the hopes that we would come across her and find where she had hidden after escaping the radio station. And when the mare had died, Blossom had cried real tears, showed all of us a brutal level of emotional pain that told us that she had lost one of the only friends she had ever had in the southeast.

And yet, in the end, she turned out to be nothing more than a Talon spy. Her actions, everything that she had done since joining up with us, were all part of a plan that I just couldn’t fit my head around. I simply couldn’t see what kind of strength had allowed her to promptly discard what had happened to her, all the while letting her use her ordeal as a means to get close to me, to follow me back home and then strike, to kidnap me and use my baby brother as a hostage, all the while killing Gracie in the process, a mare who had taken her in and healed her, cared for her after she had been mercilessly violated. And somehow, despite all of that, something in that messed up little mind of hers told her that she was an innocent, a mare who wasn’t some cold, hard deceiver, but was only a soldier that was following orders to complete a mission.

Perhaps it really was just a matter of perspective. The Talons were my enemy, and everypony in the southeast that sought help from Challenger was theirs. In that regard, Blossom was my enemy, and I was hers, and so she saw all of us as a means towards her goals. Maybe she really was a mare out to finish her task, fighting for her own homeland in her own way as I fought for mine. But whether that was the case or not, however, was something that I didn’t care to dwell on, as those were her thoughts alone, her perspective that I didn’t share… not after what she did to me. Never in any kind of task appointed to me by Captain Saber would I build up somepony’s trust in me only to destroy it so ruthlessly. Had I been in her position, I would have abandoned my mission as soon as that Black Blood patrol had gotten their hooves on me, left the group that had saved me at the first chance I had and returned back home to recover on my own, orders be damned. Not even if Blake…… unless… he…… with his life on the line, I would’ve done anything to keep him safe. At least, that’s what I thought as the chilling reminder of my baby brother’s own imprisonment passed me by… and Blossom’s question.

Thinking about it now… I really couldn’t come up with an answer, because I feared both the only possible paths. How far could I go to save Blake? Would I be able to kill anypony the Talon General selected if it meant saving him? Would I be able to kill a friend of mine if he told me to – Gunny or Archer or Shore? If I could… then they…… and if not… then Blake…… It was such a terrifying thought, and yet it was so very close to me now, a true possibility that was impossible to ignore……

If there was ever a time for Celestia and Luna to grant me their mercy… this was it…

The hum of telekinesis drew my attention from my thoughts, and with a short, sharp gasp I snapped my eyes up to the ceiling. On either side of me, I saw two hovering keys cloaked in a dim violet glow as each was fitted into their respective keyholes on the shackles holding my forelegs. In unison, both keys turned, and with a click, the bonds snapped open and released me. In an instant my whole body was falling, and with a pained grunt I landed hard on my front hooves, my aching forelegs barely keeping me from hitting the floor. And only a second afterward, I heard two more clicks before the pressure around my hind legs released, the other two clasps opening as their designated keys turned.

Finally, I was free.

But as each of the keys drifted by me, returning to Blossom and sliding into her pocket one by one, I immediately put several steps between us, almost stumbling in my walk from the lingering irritation on my legs where the shackles had left their prints on my hide. Because as much as I wanted to shake out my legs to try and ease the sting, my eyes stayed locked to Blossom as she closed up her barding pocket, both my own thoughts on her, and her own words to me… her ‘bluff’… still fresh on my mind; I didn’t trust her.

Her eyes swung back to me, and for a moment, we looked between each other in silence, me with a reduced version of my former glare, and her with a collected stare. Then she nodded behind her, gesturing for me to follow. “Let’s go.” she said, turning about as she used her horn to open my cell door. “We’re going to stop by the clinic, and then it’ll be time for you to get your assignment.”

*** *** ***

Past a single hallway and a short flight of stairs, Blossom and an escort of two armed unicorn guards had led me into what I assumed to be the facility’s upper floor. But only seconds into the trip after my short visit to the clinic, where I had received a small meal consisting of three celery sticks with a cup of slightly irradiated water and a health potion, I was finding myself curious about the facility layout. Everything outside my prison cell had been well-lit, the plain steel walls lined with bright white lights that thoroughly illuminated the corridors and chambers we had moved through. Along the way, passing by several Talon ponies and even a couple of griffins as they went about their various tasks, we had crossed into a sort of lounge housing the facility’s main staircase at its very center. The stairs were built in a spiral, with wide rectangular steps for multiple ponies to move to the lower or even higher floors side by side. A signboard welded into the floor nearby designated the lower tier as being the home of the facility’s command room and systems chambers, while the upper floor was home to its offices, barracks, and maintenance wing. Upon reaching the upper story, I found that it held a number of similarities to the level below, both in regards to its layout and its construction.

The constant grey steel and the steady white lights were looking very familiar.

Now, after taking a final turn into the facility’s office sector, Blossom and I were coming up to the Talon General’s room. The office complex only encompassed a short hallway, from either side of which branched five rooms, all sealed by heavy steel doors. The General’s room was at the very back of the hall and, after tracing where Blossom had been looking as she walked in front of me, on the left side. But just as we passed by the fourth pair of doors, nearing the closed door of the General’s office, Blossom abruptly stopped and held a hoof up, signaling for me to do the same. “Hold up.” she said, lowering her hoof back to the metal floor. “Sounds like they aren’t quite done.” I stopped midstride at her words, almost bumping into her. But in the silence that took over my ears suddenly perked at a sound, picking up a diminished but still audible tenor voice on the other side of the wall.

“-hadn’t been for your discovery of Harbinger and finding out how to unlock Guardian, I would’ve had you disavowed from the Talons and exiled from The Halo altogether.” Despite the steel walls, I still noted clear agitation from within the room, each word smooth and connected from a serious and warning voice that I recognized from before – the Talon General. “I’ve seen your service record, Blackhawk.” he continued, the mentioned name making my eyes slightly widen. “You’re a soldier, a leader, and you have skills. Your unit served in the First Campaign and in other operations back home, and you led them through thick and thin with strength and dignity. You’ve built a reputation amongst our military, become respected because of that service to Hayward. But a week ago you heedlessly sacrificed other soldiers in pursuit of your Goddess-damned vengeance, and you’ve tarnished that record because of your actions.” There was a pause here, the General letting his words sink in, letting their meaning come out; Blackhawk made no response to him. “I commissioned you and your unit from General Winter because he assured me that you were the best, his insurance policy that this campaign would go smoothly. But what you’ve done has shown me only a reckless soldier that does not deserve the respect he’s been given, and I’m not even remotely convinced of Winter’s words at this point. You delivered false orders to that squad and led them to the Shamrock Farmstead to ambush those wastelanders, and because of you, all seven of them were killed in action.” So… Blackhawk wasn’t even under orders to move to the Shamrock Farm… he did it all by himself… became a rogue element… all because of Plainwell? Hearing it from the General himself made me frown, a familiar angry heat boiling up in me as he added, “It doesn’t matter that it ultimately helped Corporal Blossom in her own mission. You’ve stepped out of your bounds, and I can’t allow behavior like that to go unanswered.”

But this time, a second voice finally responded to the General, another that I instantly remembered. “Under General Winter, I was taught that action is the key to victory,” Blackhawk replied. “not biding time and waiting for the enemy to cripple themselves like what you’re doing with Challenger and the Black Blood, sir.”

“General Winter isn’t running this campaign, I am.” the General shot back sternly. “It doesn’t matter if you agree with my methods or not. You still follow orders. You don’t act on your own.”

“What I’ve done has paved the way for-”

“I don’t care what you’ve accomplished in the past, and I don’t care that your wife died in Plainwell.” the General interrupted, making my ears perk at the particular harshness in his words; even with them directed to an enemy, they made me wince. “You’re playing a dangerous game Sergeant Major,” the General warned, having won silence from his subordinate. “and in the southeast, with Hayward itself on the line, you play by my rules. Is that understood?”

Silence, only a moment, a long enough stretch of time to show that the General’s words had made for a wicked hit to the griffin. Then, “Yes, General.”

“As of now, I’m commandeering your Sixty-Third Striker Unit. They’ll take orders from me from here on out.” the General explained. “Tomorrow, upon the completion of your next task, I’ll be sending you to the Harbinger base to aid Colonel Silverwing in her efforts there. Pending on the results we achieve from our next stage, you might be recalled to Ashton later to rejoin the fighting there.” At the ensuing pause, my ears perked once more at the sound of a mechanical click, a door lock releasing just in front of me. “Consider yourself lucky that this is the only punishment you’re receiving for now, that Hayward needs every soldier it can spare out here in the southeast and that your actions didn’t cost us any ground. I’ll say it now, however… I suggest you serve with your former fire from here on out, Sergeant Major… because this campaign is likely to be your last.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

With a low whine, the door to the General’s office slid up and away into its slot in the wall, and Blossom took a step back as we waited. Immediately, though, I lowered my eyes, doing so just as claws clicked onto the floor close by as Blackhawk emerged from the office. In that moment, my entire body tensed up, a cold chill passing along my spine as the steps promptly slowed in their pace. I didn’t dare move my eyes from the floor beneath my hooves, but I felt a sudden weight pressing down on me… his eyes were definitely on me, and it didn’t take much to guess just how they were taking in the sight of me. Still, the griffin continued to move, and for a brief and painful moment, his steps drew up by my right side. The sound of his claws on the floor amplified itself then, and I almost turned and pounced… in fear of an attack… and because I wanted a fight… both acting in unison – the voices of my pity toward him for the loss of his wife at my hooves, and my hatred toward him for the loss of Gracie at his claws. But I stayed locked to where I was, held myself back, and he too held himself away from the urge that I felt we shared… that I was certain that we shared. I could sense that very thin wire tying us together, one that, if it were broken, would send us violently at each other’s throats. And when he was next to me, I felt that wire as it drew taut, ready to snap… and then it begun to slacken, Blackhawk’s steps dimming as he left down the hallway, fading to silence as he turned the corner and headed away deeper into the facility.

Then, finally, it was all over, and I let out a light breath as I begun to ease. “Yes, sir. She’s just outside.”

My attention came to as Blossom’s voice reached me, and I slowly looked back up to see her standing at attention before the office doorway. “Send her in.” the Talon General ordered from within the room. “And Blossom, consider yourself dismissed for the day. I want you to take some more time off.”

“Are you sure, sir?” she asked, voice betraying hesitation.

“Unless you’ve reconsidered taking that free ticket home.”

“No sir, not until this campaign is finished.” she responded immediately, shaking her head. “I’ve seen other ponies make greater sacrifices to complete a mission. I can take what happened to me out there to see this fight finished.”

“So be it, but take this day off.” the General repeated after a pause. “While I admire your commitment, I know that after what you went through, you need the extra time to recover. Consider this an order, Corporal.”

With a small, tentative nod, Blossom snapped her right foreleg up to her brow in a salute. “Yes, General.”

Suddenly came the touch of cold metal against my flank, eliciting a hushed gasp from me before I craned my head around to look over my shoulder. Silent, the unicorn stallion soldier responsible gave a nod toward the General’s door, returning his assault rifle to its hovering place before his chest. At the command, I faced front once more as Blossom took her leave, passing me by in Blackhawk’s steps as she left to her future rest. With a soft sigh I beheld the open door of the General’s office as it lay open in wait, and with a final mustering of my wits, I moved forward and entered the room.

Immediately, I felt a soft fabric underhoof, and I paused to see myself standing over a smooth carpet, one of dark red and gold that stretched along the entirety of the tidy office’s floor space. At the back of the room, parallel to the door, was a large steel desk, a basic but polished rectangular counter atop which sat two short stacks of file folders. Between the pair of organized piles of paperwork was the familiar sight of a computer terminal, the grey box projecting a monochrome green light to the bookcase (adorned with a number of what looked to be fully intact hardcover books) that sat against the far wall behind the desk. And directly in front of the terminal, facing me, was the final accessory of the desk – a black rectangular plate situated on the front edge of the table, with two abbreviations and a single name spelled out.

Maj. Gen. Vance

At each of the back corners of the room was a smaller wooden table, each one carrying a preserved ornamental vase made from shining bronze. And close by each table, one on each side of the office, was a set of filing cabinets, all perfectly intact and complete with all their compartments. The office as a whole was basic, but in stark contrast with the rest of the facility, was also illuminated more dimly, the pair of lights fixed side by side in the center of the ceiling casting white light that was laced with orange, creating a darker and hazier atmosphere. The dimmer lighting slightly concealed the Major General himself, the recognizable jade-colored unicorn stallion with the dark green mane and tail standing just to the left side of his desk, still garbed in his armored uniform shirt and black beret. He was facing away from the entrance to his office when I entered, his back to me as he looked at a reflection of himself on the bronze vase to his left. But a few more steps in, and his intense brown eyes swiveled over to me from over his shoulder, settling into a state of steely focus as his prisoner joined him. “You two wait outside. Leave the wastelander and I to our discussion.” At Vance’s order, I craned my head around to look over my shoulder in curiosity, catching sight of my Talon escorts as they both executed a snappy salute to their superior officer. And wordless, the two unicorn soldiers about-faced and trotted back out into the hall, whereupon the office door slid back down from the wall and closed, sealing the room and leaving me alone with the Talon leader.

“Are you a traveling pony, Nova?” Vance’s voice pulled my attention back to the front of the office, where the commander was now walking slowly back behind his desk, eyes still not on me as he waited for a response. But the question itself caught me off guard, the casual nature of it despite the reason he had brought me to his office, which was quickly punched aside by my focus on doing what this Talon pony wanted, resulting in a mixture that left me in silence as I merely watched the Major General’s movements. “Up there,” he spoke again, taking the uncomfortable quiet filling his room as his cue and nodding to the ceiling. “out on the surface, despite things like the sand hornets and those Black Blood ponies, despite the war that’s building up. Do you travel a lot?”

I let out a quiet breath through my nose, swallowing as I tried to keep my irritation at his blatant diversion from the objective suppressed. “I’ve… been places.”

Staring ahead at the wall to my left, he gave a single short nod. “Plainwell, Buckley… Challenger as well, I would imagine.” he replied in thought. “You have a definite advantage when it comes to that after all – those wings of yours. They’re something that sets you apart from the rest of ponykind, like how the horn sets me and other unicorns apart from the rest. They’re both unique parts of us.”

“I don’t think my wings have anything to do with the current situation.” I remarked with a scowl. “What are you getting at here?”

“You, Nova.” came Vance’s answer, the General finally turning to look me full in the eyes. “You, as a pegasus, are rare. And this is especially the case now in the times we live in, where unicorns and earth ponies make up the greater majority of the modern populace. I’m sure that you know at least the basic history of the pegasi, how they disappeared into the sky after the Last Day and created the cloud curtain you see over the surface every day? How they came to form an Enclave after the surface world was burned away underneath them? I’m willing to believe that you’ve heard the stories.”

“Some of them.” I curtly responded.

“Then seeing as how you are a surface-born pegasus yourself, you should be inclined to imagine that while the order went about for every pegasus pony to retreat to the safety of the clouds when the bombs fell, not all of them remained there, and that perhaps some didn’t even follow the order.” he explained, moving out from behind his desk. “Under normal circumstances, pegasus ponies are a curious sight to behold, and I’m sure that you’ve understood that when you’ve visited other settlements and taken in the reactions of the citizens to your presence. They act that way because you hardly ever see a pegasus in most regions, as more times than not, they only come from the skies above and down to the surface as outcasts from the society the pegasi have built up above us. Exiles such as these are rare enough as is, but it’s rarer still to see a pegasus who wasn’t born up in the clouds, but was instead born on the surface… or underground in your case, at least according to Blossom’s reports.” I took in a short, hushed breath, eyes slightly widening; I hadn’t expected him to know anything about me, let alone where I had been born… though, perhaps I should have expected it with Blossom in the equation. “But as rare as they are here and elsewhere, that’s not the case in Hayward.”

Wait… what?

My ears perked at Vance’s claim, in unison with the General as he stopped directly between me and the desk, eyes still on me. “What do you mean?” I asked, finding myself… regretfully curious.

“Let me give you a little bit of a history lesson, a history of the region where I come from, where the Talons come from.” Vance answered, now standing face to face with me. “The city of Hayward, long ago, was established within a rather curious landmark called The Halo, a place in Equestria that was regarded as one of the natural wonders of the nation. The region’s uniqueness came solely from its great circular canyon after which it was named, a single depression over a mile deep that completely encircles a great sprawl of what used to be grasslands and forests and mountains. The canyon itself is not only deep, but is also wide enough to contain its own ecosystem of rivers and forests and rocky badlands. When the bombs fell, Hayward and The Halo were not destroyed by a balefire blast like most every other Equestrian city and major location, but instead were attacked only with cruise missiles, destructive spells, and other non-megaspell weapons. This left the region free of the initial radiation levels that blanketed the rest of the nation. Over time, of course, the radiation from the balefire missiles came to affect the area, resulting in the destruction of much of the natural vegetation. But some of it survived, especially within the canyon, and though much of the valley and parts of the canyon are dead like the rest of the wasteland, there are sections that still flourish with green plant life, holding intact forests, living meadows, and pure rivers. Today, Hayward occupies the largest patch of that living landscape that remains in the valley surrounded by The Halo.”

“So what does all that have to do with pegasus ponies?” I questioned, focusing and taking in the information the General was revealing to me.

“As you may have heard in your travels, Hayward is a city in which ponies and griffins co-exist, just as they had done in the Old World.” Vance answered. “Hayward, in turn, shares The Halo with a number of tribes that have grown and developed over the years, ponies living within the canyon itself. And within those tribes are a number of pegasus ponies. Some say that they’re all refugees from the Pegasi Enclave, branded traitors or deserters from the civilization in the clouds. Others say that there’s something more complex behind their concentrated presence there, that perhaps there was a group of pegasi who were stranded within the canyon or refused to leave. And most everypony together says that the preserved plant life is what draws those pegasi in to the tribes that occupy the great majority of the canyon, keeps them away from Hayward. But no matter what the case is, it’s a common sight to see a pegasus flying out over the canyon and close to Hayward’s borders.”

“Really?” But despite Vance being a native to this place, to The Halo, this all seemed… unlikely; these tribes he mentioned living within the canyon, one or several of which holding a number of pegasus ponies, just didn’t fit with the picture of the wasteland, or at least what I had seen of it… but then again, neither did green plant life…

It raised questions, questions that I found myself quickly swatting aside as I mentally cursed myself for being led off-track. “Yes. And it’s what leads me to my main point – to you and your mission.” Vance replied to me, turning to his left and resuming his slow walk. “This region is very different from Hayward in that factor of the presence of pegasus ponies. In the time between our arrival to the southeast and now, our scouts have identified only four pegasi. One, of course, is you, and the second – your friend living in Buckley… Archer, I believe was the name that Blossom reported. The other two we’ve only ever seen from a distance, just glimpses of them in flight over the region. This low number was trivial at first, because our sights were set elsewhere. But when we began learning things about the southeast, learning what the region’s role in the Old World was, we found that we needed a pegasus pony with us, which is why you are here.”

Even though he had circled back to me, back to the matter at hoof, I picked up on the brevity of his explanation, on the lack of specifics regarding my purpose here, and on why the hell they were threatening my baby brother with death to gain my cooperation; what could possibly be so important as to go to such drastic measures to make sure than I would help them? “So what exactly do you need a pegasus pony for?” I asked, letting a trickle of my formerly suppressed annoyance decorate the question. “Why do you need me?”

Once more, Vance was behind his desk, sitting down on his haunches as my enquiry reached his ears. “You’ll know what you need to know in time.” came his response. “For now, all you’ll need is your pipbuck and the map marker programmed into it.”

“You’re holding my baby brother hostage.” I retorted lowly, unable to keep myself from glaring. “I think that’s more than enough of a reason for you to trust me with some better information, General.”

At my bolder move, at the distasteful character that adorned his title as it passed from my lips to his ears, silence reigned, and the stallion quickly locked eyes with me, settling into a hard stare that I matched as best I could; if he was trying to keep me docile with those brown eyes, silence me like I was one of his soldiers, I wasn’t having any of it. “Let’s just say that we’ve run into a very sophisticated obstacle in this region.” Vance replied, looking away to the left-side stack of file folders as his horn begun to glow with green light, enveloping a pair of dossiers within. “And we need a pegasus, you, to help us pass it.”

Wonderful…

I let out a hushed sigh of defeat, shutting my eyes while Vance was distracted with his files; for now, I guess that was all I was going to get from him in terms of my objective. “Fine. Then what do I need to do?” I instead asked, looking once again to the Major General.

“Once you leave this office, you’ll be heading back up to the surface and joining a flight of four griffins.” he answered. “Don’t worry, Blackhawk’s not among them. Though he’ll be playing a part in the same mission, I know better than to have the two of you flying or working closely together. Instead of going with him directly to this operation’s staging ground out to the east, you’ll be taking a detour with these griffins to our outpost on one of the region’s intact Old World farms to pick up some additional personnel and equipment. This will only be a temporary stop on your flight to the objective.”

“And when I get to this objective?” I questioned… more than a little hesitantly.

“Then I’ll give you the full briefing on your mission, an infiltration assignment more suitable for a nimble pegasus.” he explained; I flinched at that, feeling as a pit begun to open in my gut. “I’ve programmed a communication channel into your pipbuck along with the waypoint I’ve provided. When you arrive, contact me through your device, and don’t worry about reporting to the force’s commanding officers. You’ll receive all of your instructions from me.”

I took in a breath and exhaled slowly, letting the information sink in. “And… when I do this, then that’s it?” I asked cautiously, nervously. “That’s all I have to do, and then my brother goes free?”

“You succeed in this mission, and I’ll let him go. I’ll let the both of you go. You have my word as an officer.”

As little as the word of a Talon pony meant to me, officer or no, Blake was all I cared about. And Vance’s promise was the closest assurance I was going to get that my baby brother would be okay, that he would survive through this mess and return home to his friends… and that I would commit myself to Vance’s mission to make that happen. “Okay.” I said, finally sealing the deal.

“Good.”

Even standing there, facing the General as he sat at his desk, I was feeling that pit in my stomach, which had never fully gone away since its surfacing, as it expanded and churned even more forcefully than it had before. Now, there was no going back, and there was no hiding from what I needed to do. Whatever this place was that I was infiltrating, it was the means to ensure Blake’s survival. Therefore, it was my destination. And whoever occupied that facility, no matter their history, their virtues, or their intentions, was the opposing force to my goal, the threat that stood between me and preserving Blake’s very right to live. Therefore, they were my enemies. Whatever it was that was to transpire next, I would be fighting not for Proudspire, not for Bella and Shotshell and Lucan, nor for Buckley or Hopeville or even for my friends. No… something greater than all of that was on the line now – the one I loved more than any other in this world, the last of my blood family. No matter who or what awaited me in the hours to come, I would stand my ground, I would follow orders, and I would bleed and spill blood. Major General Vance was pointing, showing me the direction I needed to go, and with hoof and wing and bullet I would be his instrument, his solution, the means to bring him victory in this mission he sought to complete. Because if it meant saving my little brother, then the General’s mission, the Talons’ mission, was my own; and I would see that through to the end.

And all the while, it was these adamant assertions setting their roots into my mind that were making me all the more scared… and not of my new mission that I was to complete for my true enemies… or even for Blake’s life…

But scared of myself…

“Both your pipbuck and your pistol that you were wearing when you were captured will be waiting for you at the facility exit.” Vance spoke up from his seat at his desk. “You’ll find your ammo fully replenished as well as a couple of modifications that have been installed to your equipment to make them more suitable for your task.” Behind me, I heard the releasing of a door mechanism, my ears perking as the office door shifted and slid open. “For now, I have nothing else to brief you on. Follow the griffins who will be escorting you, wait at the outpost while final preparations are made, and then contact me when you join up with the rest of the platoon taking part in this mission.”

His last words were all that needed to be said, the cue for me to head out and retrieve my pipbuck and my mother’s pistol, and without a word or even a nod, I turned around and faced the open door, seeing my two unicorn escorts waiting for me outside in the hall. After a light sigh I walked, rejoining the guards who proceeded to take up positioned at my flanks as I reentered the hallway, rifles at rest before their chests. And then, with a nudge from one of the guard’s hooves, I was marched away from the General’s office and back down the corridor, retracing the route Blossom had taken leading me here until we came once again upon the facility’s central staircase. From there, however, I was diverted to a new sector of the Talon base, an open hallway within the main lobby which revealed a short path. Waiting at the end of this hall was another flight of stairs, a signboard suspended from the ceiling labeling them as leading to the facility’s entrance chamber.

“Jessup, this is Otto.”

My ears twitched when the buck by my right flank suddenly spoke up, and I craned my head to the right to see him in my peripheral vision as he levitated a portable communicator by his muzzle, from within which came a reply. “Jessup here. What’s going on?”

“Open up the gear.” Otto ordered. “The wastelander’s heading out.”

“Roger that.”

Before I could look away, Otto’s eyes flicked to me, catching me as I observed him. “Alright, wastelander.” he said, both he and his partner stopping behind me. “Head up the stairs and through the entrance. You’ll end up in an old warehouse, which is where you’ll find the griffin flight you’re meeting up with.” I swung my eyes forward again at his explanation, finding myself at the base of the short staircase, which rose up to an open doorway within which the ceiling of the entrance chamber was visible. But as I set a hoof on the first step, the same guard spoke up once more to halt me. “By the way, I suggest not flying off when you get to the surface. Just a reminder of what’s on the line for you here. It’d be a shame to see that kid go.”

Thanks, asshole.

“I might not be from Hayward,” I said back, low as I kept my eyes on the stairs. “but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.” No response came from the unicorn at that. But whether he intended to reply to me or not, I forced myself to move on, ascending the stairs at a solid trot to avoid saying… or doing something I’d regret; the sooner I got this mission done, the sooner Blake would be free from that explosive collar, and I didn’t need distractions.

But just as I made it to the middle of the staircase, an alarm suddenly begun to blare up ahead, a loud buzzing siren that accompanied the appearance of a slowly flashing orange light that flared into existence. And just when I made it to the top of the stairs, I heard a hiss of air and a creak of metal from within the entrance chamber…

…before I found myself freezing in place at the sight of a mechanical hinge arm, swinging forward on four legs from the ceiling to attach itself to a massive gear-shaped door. With an ear-piercing screech of metal, the hinge-arm pulled the great door out from the wall and back along the floor, where fifteen ponies lay shredded and broken in their own blood from the twin miniguns that had torn them apart…

Gasping, I shook my head sharply, beating down the memory as my eyes fell back onto the gear-shaped door… a Stable door. Releasing it, the hinge-arm shifted back to its original position on the ceiling as the door rolled away from the entrance, the alarm going silent as it fell into place along the entrance chamber’s far wall to reveal a concrete driveway that rose in a gentle upward slant to the surface; at the end of the visible stretch of that driveway, I could see the familiar sight of dim light, of the wasteland morning as it shown faintly on the pavement.

“What are you waiting for?” To my right came the impatient voice of another stallion as I quickly brought my breathing back to regularity, and looking over I saw a rust-colored earth pony with a dark copper mane as he stood by the activation switch for the Stable door. “There’s some griffins outside said they’re expecting you. Best get moving.”

I made no effort to respond as I stared ahead at the open entrance, though his words gave me the nudge I needed to move. Still, I couldn’t help but move a little slower than normal as I took in the sight of the Stable’s entrance. Now I understood why everything down below had looked so familiar, everything from the hallways and corridors, to the clinic and the General’s office, and even my own prison cell; the lighting, the walls, the doors… it all clicked together. Whatever Stable this was, it had been a three-story facility housing at least a couple hundred, if not more. It certainly wasn’t my own, that I knew, but what was curious about it was just how intact it was, how clean and preserved the walls and floors and ceilings had been, how bright and steady the lighting had been. There was no way that the Talons could have been the original inhabitants, what with their city of origin sitting far to the north of here. But how was it that they had kept this Stable so pristine when the original inhabitants had left long ago… or whenever they left? Perhaps they possessed the technology needed to restore it to working condition back where they had come from? Or… maybe the Talons invaded this Stable like the Black Blood did mine?

As soon as that chilling thought entered my mind, there was no making it leave as I made my way to the open entrance, and it brought with it the ghost of 181, of me rushing through its entrance in the heat of battle as I walked past the door to this new Stable. And as I did, the alarm once again picked up, making me jump as I craned my head around to face the entrance. The spinning orange light, for a brief second, shined directly into my face… and at the passing of the bright beam, I found my father, the grey pegasus looking back at me with a proud smile on his face before he was shot in the left shoulder, toppling to the floor from the force of the harsh impact before the door blocked the entrance from my view as it rolled into place, preparing to close. I felt my body begin to shake as I fully faced the door, backing away slowly as my breathing quickened. And as the door settled into place, my body was wrapped in a blanket of magic, and I flailed and screamed as I tried desperately to reach my daddy, to smash and claw through the door and save him. And with a splitting screech of steel, the Stable door slid closed, locking my doomed father inside and leaving me only with the sight of the 181 done up in big yellow numbers on the center of the door.

With a short pained cry I shut my eyes tight and bowed my head, stomping the ground as I punched through the nightmare that was my memories of three weeks’ past. Once again, I found myself fighting to get my breathing under control, paired this time with my shaking legs as I reopened and guided my eyes back up to the now closed Stable door. I almost breathed a sigh of relief at seeing it, seeing the gear-shaped door but with a different number plastered to its center in yellow paint. This one was Stable 184… not 181… not mine… but even so, I forced myself to turn around and to move quickly along the concrete driveway, to keep the door at my back and prevent my memories from haunting me a third time… or fourth if my quick visit to Lucky Hallion’s weapon storage in Stable 203 all those days ago counted. Goddesses, whatever it was about the southeast’s other Stables, it was more than a little unnerving to know that stepping hoof in both of them had caused these memories to spring up so suddenly, caused me to almost literally see the events of the past play out in front of me again just as they had actually occurred on that day. That, and it was hard not to note how the surprise that the Talons had imprisoned me in a Stable that was, at the very least, an outpost, had caused these memories to return more forcefully……

I needed air…

Up ahead, I found that the light was coming from beyond open rectangular steel shutters at the end of the Stable’s entry tunnel, and following the dim rays of light upward, I saw a ceiling, or what was left of one. The mostly black roof took up the left half of my view of what lie beyond the open shutters, and was made from metal with old iron bars providing structural support. The other half of the scene beyond the shutters was that of the sky, of the grey cloud curtain of the wasteland that was pierced by jutting metal bars and slabs of the ceiling, the edge that had been torn but not completely ripped off from the old structure. But as I neared the exit to the surface, I came to not only see what lie ahead, but also hear it, and my ears swiftly picked up a number of voices, some chatting idly, others shouting back and forth to one another.

And when I stepped out from the tunnel, emerging onto the surface, I found out why.

I stepped hoof onto what had once been the smooth concrete floor of the Talons’ once-mentioned warehouse. First scanning to my left, I found that the majority of the Old World structure was still standing, stretching a fair distance with only a couple of holes in the ceiling and the far wall, thus providing adequate protection from the elements to the large number of supply crates that were stacked up and stored within; all of them were marked with a trio of slashes painted against the grey steel in white paint. But looking right, however, I found that the warehouse was indeed rather damaged. The wall ahead of me, standing its full height before, quickly dropped in stature until it reached the ground, its elevation curving down in a quick slope to show where the wall had completely fallen away. Only the floor itself gave me any indication as to how much of this warehouse was missing, and it looked to be a considerable amount, perhaps at least a third of it, if not half. But it was this great missing chunk of the building that gave me a view of the source of the voices… and of where I really was.

On the ground, I saw ponies, dozens of them, all garbed in Talon combat armor and lighter uniform shirts as they went about their various errands. Many of them moved between an expansive array of dark green tents and rusty metal shacks, carrying folders, books, weapons, and small boxes. Another group, positioned away from the camp, was undergoing physical training led by a drill instructor, the small earth pony mare garbed in an armored uniform shirt and patrol cap sharply barking orders to her subordinates as they executed pushups in perfect unison. From within the camp, a quintet of unicorn ponies were rolling along one of the Talon twenty millimeter flak guns, with three other unicorns behind them levitating strange heavy metal tubes with tripods folded up against them. Even in the sky, a pair of griffins flew by side by side over the outpost, both carrying fifty caliber sniper rifles along with them in their flight. And all of this, the Talon camp and its soldiers, was set against a backdrop made of lofty skyscrapers, crumbling Old World towers shrouded with an ashy black coating and surrounded by shorter buildings, all reaching for the gloomy clouds above as they stood over a huge sprawl of metropolitan wreckage.

“Hello Marefax…” I muttered, letting out a dismal sigh as I lowered my head… the realization of just how far away Blake and I were from Hopeville and our friends hitting me hard.

“Wastelander, over here!”

To my right, a male voice punched through the noise of the bustling Talon outpost, making me shudder at what it heralded. I didn’t look to where the words had come from – there was no need to, because only the griffins that were waiting for me would have spoken them to me. No. Instead, I closed my eyes and took in a long breath… holding it… then slowly letting it out through my nose. It was time to move now, no more talking, no more waiting… it was time to act, to serve the Talons. And as I let my breath go free, I sent out a silent prayer to the Goddesses, a prayer that they would give me strength, a prayer that they would give Blake courage, that Gunny and Shore and Raemor, wherever they were, were safe… and a prayer that I would be forgiven… forgiven for whatever action I was about to take in the name of General Vance and the Talons of Hayward.

*** *** ***

In my time on the surface, it had always been a curious and unique experience journeying into uncharted territory. Every time my friends and I, or anypony else from Hopeville, had left the harbor of home to explore, we learned more about the new world we lived in – what it was now, what it used to be – and we always brought back a treasure-trove of useful information for everypony else to use as we continued to adapt from Stable life. It was a repetitive process if you looked only at the fundamentals, but it was an unquestionably invaluable one, as it was ultimately what allowed us to get this far, what allowed Hopeville to grow into what it had become three weeks plus into our inhabiting the formerly abandoned Old World town. Yet even now, we had not seen everything within this region, places that we had only heard stories and mere mentions of, such as Challenger’s sister settlement of Ashton or the Roseluck Greenhouses and the Wheaton Armory that Lucky Hallion had once spoken of when my friends and I had traveled with him. And though perhaps some locations such as these greenhouses were unimportant in comparison with places such as Proudspire and Buckley, these names that only came to us as words showed that the southeast was large and that it had much more for us to discover.

Now, I was once again learning just how far the Equestrian southeast stretched. The only difference this time – I was an honorary member of the Talon Legion’s 63rd Striker Unit… or at least a portion of it.

The four Legion griffins I now shared the sky with were one and all members of this special unit from Hayward, at least according to one of the four fliers, a cocky and energetic young male who had (to my surprise and suspicion) heartily introduced himself to me as Helix. But after welcoming me to the unit, ‘the best in The Halo’ as he had so boldly claimed… and frustratingly reminding me of Cross all the while… his commanding officer, a larger and more burly griffin male, had harshly silenced him for his friendly greeting, skipping his own self-introduction to warn me only to keep my mouth shut, my eyes open, and my wings flapping. And after the rather awkward assimilation into the Strikers, the commanding griffin had been the one to return my equipment to me, complete with General Vance’s promised modifications.

I had been none too pleased to see that my mother’s pistol had been tampered with by Talon hooves, and upon receiving it once more, I had found that it had been outfitted with a black suppressor and placed within a new holster that accommodated the added length of the weapon. With this came additional magazines on a belt secured around my left foreleg just above the pistol holster, totaling to thirty-five rounds plus the seven in the current clip. And lastly, I had been given back my pipbuck, still fully intact and functional, but likewise modified. To the top of the frame, above the display screen and just to the right of the cuff control button, had been attached a small grey box. Slim and lightweight, the pipbuck-specific module held a total of four buttons within its control panel on the top, one to power on the device and one to activate, one to deactivate, and one to recharge the spell that the device was supposed to be able to cast; as the commanding griffin had briefly explained to me while I had been reequipping my pipbuck, the device was called a stealthbuck, and was somehow, someway, supposed to allow me to become almost completely invisible to the naked eye.

As strange a revelation this was, it immediately gave me a better albeit more unsettling understanding of General Vance’s vague explanation of what would soon be my new mission.

Upon gearing up with my modified gear, we had set out right away, the big commanding griffin taking the lead of our formation while Helix fell into position behind me, the two other griffins, two females who had spoken nothing to me whatsoever, flying in by my sides to completely encircle me. In this formation we had flown without break for roughly two hours, heading eastward across another great stretch of empty, wide-open fields of dry and dusty earth. Like much of the southeast that sat between the region’s settlements and Old World ruins, there had been no landmarks, or at least none left behind from the wartime era, to break the endless expanse of brown on the way to the Talon outpost. And like other stretches of barren wasteland between the region’s various locales, my lengthy flight with the Talon Strikers had thrown me into another bout of meditation, where I allowed myself to retreat into my deepest thoughts. But this time, there was no nostalgic thinking about how the wasteland carried another face when looked upon and studied from the clouds, and there was no deep reflection on how I’d come to handle my time on the surface. No… all there was now was the faces of my friends and the image of Hopeville… and I was terrified…

Throughout the past three weeks, I had entered many battles and fought many enemies to do my part to see to Hopeville’s survival, and certainly, each battle carried with it its own sense of urgency, urgency to kill the bad ponies to protect the good ones. But in most of those fights, I couldn’t really say that I had been truly scared… or at least nowhere near as much as I was now. Because now, a dark cloud of crippling fear was churning and rumbling within me like a rainstorm of the wasteland, something hidden from my enemies only by the curtain made by my neutral face and focused eyes as I flew amongst their ranks. And at the core of this cloud, the heart of the storm, was the three day gap in time that I had been unconscious, under the influence of whatever tranquilizer Blackhawk had used to knock me out and place me in Talon custody. Three whole days… and the last things I remembered was a vertibuck wreaking havoc on the City Hall and the town courtyard… and Gunny, the stallion remaining behind in Hopeville’s perimeter after being shot clean through the leg… and Grace… After three days in literal darkness, I could only list out the possibilities, ranging from only the hole in the City Hall to all of Hopeville burni…… no… no, Saber just wouldn’t have let Hopeville fall, not after everything we had done to build it… That I had to have faith in… I couldn’t accept otherwise, and I wouldn’t.

Nonetheless, I desperately wanted my friends back, to see their faces and hear their voices, to know that they were alive and well, and to know that Hopeville still stood strong. I wanted answers to so many questions… was Gunny okay after his injury… after discovering the truth about Blossom? What about Shore… Goddesses, poor Shore… after everything he told me about what was beginning to bloom between himself and Gracie? And what about Raemor? Where had he been during the fight? And Captain Saber? What about Ivy? Melody and the other children?

It was these answerless questions that haunted me throughout the journey eastward into unfamiliar territory, all the way until we reached the Talon outpost, our first of two destinations.

True to Vance’s word, the outpost established by the Talon Legion had been built around an almost fully intact Old World farm, the old site made of a single two-story house, three large barns complete with their own spacious penned-in yards, and a tall grain silo twice the height of the farmhouse. The Talons had built their camp within the site’s perimeter, setting up three separate blocks of tightly-packed dark green tents in each of the barns’ yards, with even more completely encircling the farmhouse in two rings. The camp was also the home of two Talon vertibucks, and even an armored cargo carrier like Buckley’s wagons had been parked on the camp’s south side. The whole setup had been occupied by around sixty soldiers, and despite its distance from the rest of the southeast, it had been heavily fortified and well-protected. The outpost was surrounded with an array of sandbag barricades that housed tripod-mounted machineguns of both the thirty and fifty calibers, and it was always under the watchful eyes of a quartet of snipers having taken positions on the grain silo balcony that completely circled around the top of the structure.

Upon landing within the camp, my pipbuck had called my attention to my larger map with its chirping voice, and it had shown me the name it had designated to the site. The White Mane Dairy Farm had been the name of the place way back when, a name that I found myself remembering from the computer records Archer and I had found in Mother Shimmer’s home. It had only been briefly mentioned as Shimmer’s father pressed his pregnant wife to allow him to choose a name for their slice of heaven that paid tribute to his two greatest treasures, to his wife and future child.

In any other situation, the nostalgia of that computer log would’ve given me a greater appreciation for how well-preserved the White Mane farm was, and my curiosity of Old World landmarks would have surfaced and come out to play. But as it was, our stay had lasted only minutes, during which I had been kept under watch while the commanding griffin of our flight headed into the farmhouse. And quickly, he had returned from within with two new griffins following after him, one of which revealed himself with a rather ominous weapon slung across his back. What appeared at first glance as some sort of missile launcher showed itself to be much more intricate than that, as despite being made of a single tube, the body of the weapon glowed a bright red-orange from what looked to be several slim ventilation holes in its exterior shell, a metal plate shield that protected some kind of magical energy core, almost like the glowing compartments of Shore’s multiplas rifle. Whatever it was, it had been the last piece of equipment that the Talons needed for their next strategic move, and with two other members of the 63rd joining us, we had left the White Mane farm behind us as quickly as we had found it, moving onward to the primary objective while the farm remained only as the second of the two new map markers on my pipbuck I had collected through the day, the first having been the Talon base of Stable 184.

And then, after another two hours or so of strong constant flight, we had reached our destination by midday.

The flat, dusty fields that had been most common in my travels through the southeast gradually morphed into more hilly terrain through the latter half of our journey, a rather clear indicator that we were approaching what had to be the farthest reaches of the southeast… or perhaps land even beyond that. And amongst those low but rolling knolls of brown dirt, we had come to find a single collection of Old World buildings, silent and lonely in the distance. From farther away, it’d almost looked to be some kind of pre-war town, with a total of only seven structures nestled together in a loose cluster, all in various states of decay. Five of them were actual buildings, one of them built in a curious ‘L’ shape, while the sixth was some kind of radio tower like the one I had seen on the Shimmermist Farmstead; the last was a larger and taller tower, with some kind of rounded metal container held atop its iron legs.

But before I had the chance to get a longer and more studious look over our target destination, the leading griffin of our formation had ordered us to quickly drop our altitude before we drew too close. We’d executed a sharp dive as a result, plummeting to the surface like rocks until we drew level just above the surface, taking the unnamed collection of buildings out of our sight as one of the area’s hills rose up between us. Then, for a short final stretch to the southeast we had stayed low over the ground, nearly skimming the dirt with our respective hooves and claws as we kept the hilly terrain between us and our target. And that was when we had finally found it – the Talon outpost that was heading the upcoming operation. It wasn’t so much a base as it was a portable, mobile camp, as it was comprised only of three box-like tents set into a loose triangle formation, around which swarmed a whole platoon of black-armored ponies numbering at least forty strong – the General’s promised task force that I was to be joining. Aside from this, there were, surprisingly, no other facilities, no other tents or metal shacks. But there was heavy equipment in the mix, totaling to a trio of twenty millimeter flak guns spaced within the camp, each gun under the supervision of their crews. But other than this, only the soldiers surrounded the tents, gathered up into a number of small groups sitting in circles or clusters, cleaning rifles, checking armor, and otherwise waiting for new orders.

A battle-group was stationed here… an assault force.

Once we’d closed the rest of the distance between us and the camp, I had been ordered to land a distance away from the site, and under escort from Helix I had been led out of the formation, which had proceeded ahead to the camp, and was guided to ground. Now, I was looking out to the north, facing the hill that rose gently upward directly ahead of me, its rounded peak well over several yards higher than the surface. Even after only a couple minutes of observation, it was easy to put some of the pieces together about what exactly the Talons were doing here… or at least to begin to hash out some of the more likely possibilities. Almost right away, I was beginning to believe that the Talons had intentionally placed their camp where they did, keeping it out of visible range of the Old World buildings to the north by using the natural terrain as a wall to conceal them. Of course, if the General was making an operation that centered around these lonesome ruins, then he and his subordinates had to have known something about them. But still, my solidifying opinion on the reasoning behind the placement of the Talon platoon ultimately raised the question of why. If they were intentionally concealing themselves from sight, making sure to use the hills to keep them hidden from a derelict Old World site… then what was the purpose? Why did they hide?

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to contact the General?” I flinched at the touch of a claw on my right foreleg as Helix spoke up, and I passed a side-long glance to the male griffin as he retracted his paw, looking fully to me with open curiosity even as I barely kept myself from striking him on instinct. “If you are, I’d say you should do it soon. Once the commander gets back he’ll be kicking this thing off.”

I looked back to the hill, easing with a light exhale and thus preventing myself from clocking the newest member of the 63rd across the beak for his gesture… and his apparent obliviousness to my situation. With a sigh, I sat myself down onto the dirt and raised my pipbuck to eye-level, looking upon the computer’s larger map; nothing had been labeled to designate the Talon camp or the assembly of buildings to the north, only Stable 184 and the White Mane Dairy Farm, the latter of which my pipbuck had designated as Talon Station Bravo, making the map’s newest markers. I then switched over to the radio screen, the communication signal strength display dormant as I looked to the upper left corner of the screen, scanning down the list of channels. In black letters, showing inactive radio frequencies, was Hopeville’s security channel with the relay tower signal from Shimmer’s farm likewise dark below it. But sure enough, as Vance had promised, there was a third item in the list whose name was glowing white, showing an open active channel – Castle CF01. The strangely-named radio frequency was the only one that was within range of my location, the only channel that was actively broadcasting, and with the push of a button my pipbuck speaker then emitted the buzzing drone of light static, soft to show that the signal was stable and projecting steadily.

And only seconds later, a voice replaced the static.

“You’ve surfaced on the airwaves.” Vance said through my pipbuck speaker. “So you must have met up with the rest of the force, yes?”

I looked away from my pipbuck and back to the camp. “Yes.”

“Then you’ve no doubt seen the objective. And so, I’ll get right to your briefing, Nova, because we have no time to waste.” he replied as I faced the hill once more. Then, “What you saw out there as a simple scattering of crumbling buildings is actually the site of a place called the Southeast National Guard Bunkers.” he explained, my ears perking at the name. “This place was once the region’s most important military installation, and it played a vital role in the southeast long ago. During the time it was in planning, during the later stages of the Great War, there had just recently come about a new and much more potent threat from Equestria’s enemies, which was the zebra nation’s acquisition of megaspell technology, technology that had, until then, only belonged to Equestria itself. When it was discovered that the zebras possessed megaspells, the war escalated to a new height. The fighting was fiercer, paranoia began to spread, and while many ponies focused their attention to the frontline fighting between the two factions, seeking to eliminate the threat wholesale, others started looking for ways to meet the threat should it become a reality, and to counter it. They looked to prepare for the worst, but also to fight back against it at the same time, and the Southeast National Guard Bunkers ultimately became the reality of this effort.”

That name…

“I’ve… heard that name before.” I spoke up in thought, glancing back down to my pipbuck screen with a frown as I soaked in the General’s new history lesson. Yes, I had definitely heard the name before… and repeating it silently to myself, letting it echo amongst my thoughts, I remembered with a start the streets of Marefax, walking amongst the ruins with Buckley’s convoy until we had come across an intact outlet store… yes, an electronics store… and inside had been a terminal with a message, a video recording. I’d heard the name from there, heard it from the lips of a pegasus stallion who had lived in the wartime era, who had ultimately obeyed an order for him to abandon the surface to its fate, to leave Marefax and retreat to the safety of the clouds. It was that pony who had mentioned it… and though I couldn’t remember exactly the context in which it was described, I most certainly knew that the name had surfaced. “I heard it once in some old video log… from a pegasus who lived on the day the bombs fell.”

“I see.” Vance replied to me. “That makes sense, especially considering that the bunkers began as a pegasus-led project. According to the records we’ve uncovered about it, those project leaders who later became the bunker commanders were all high-ranking pegasus officers of the Equestrian armed forces. And it was these officers that were largely responsible for how the facility was built, what went into the military project housed here, and for acquiring some of the most advanced military hardware and arcane spells that ponykind had developed up to that point in the war.”

Military project…… the more the General was revealing to me about these Old World bunkers, the more that pit in my stomach was beginning to churn, such as it had done in his office; I wasn’t liking where he was taking this.

“Throughout the course of the war, Equestria and its ministries each undertook their own various special projects, and though it wasn’t started by one of Equestria’s own ministries, the Southeast National Guard Bunkers contains within them one of those wartime projects. This one was one that was to serve as a shield against the greatest threat to Equestria and its citizens. And the final result of this effort was named the Guardian Project.”

Yes… that was the name I had heard from that video log, the name that came from the lips of Staff Sergeant Lightning Strike before the destruction of Marefax. “So that’s what you’re looking for…”

“Yes.” came Vance’s answer. “And it’s something that we can’t get to without you.”

I let out a light breath. “And why’s that?” I dared to ask.

“Though it may not have seemed like it on your way in, the Southeast National Guard Bunkers are heavily guarded, protected by a three-pronged defense system utilizing both military and arcane elements which has to be passed in order to get to Guardian.” the General explained. “The first of these is a network of magic-based defense turrets that covers the entire compound to protect it from any and all intruders, a system that could easily repel a reckless charge of any considerable size. The second branch is a surveillance system that will sound an alarm if it detects anyone that isn’t registered into the base’s computer systems, whereupon the base will go into a full lockdown and bar off any access to all its facilities. The third and final piece of this system is the access points to the base’s underground sectors, doors that will only open from the inside through the use of specialized cardkeys.”

Underground sectors…

“This first hurdle is something that we can get through on our own, and a plan has already been made as to just how to do so.” the General added. “But there’s a second hurdle underground, the final door that we need to pass, and it’s a door that will only open for you. Or, more specifically, a door that will only open in the presence of a pegasus pony.”

“I find that… very hard to believe.” I said, trying my best to conceal my unease as I processed this new… disconcerting information.

“When I first found out that the door sealing away the Guardian Project’s chamber would only open for a pegasus, so did I.” Vance replied. “You’ll see what I’m talking about soon enough. Right now, though, I want you to focus on getting inside and clearing out the facility to put it under my control, as the bunkers are, unfortunately… occupied.” he continued. “For this, you will be teaming up with three others, and together, you will make the advance team that will infiltrate the bunker system for the first phase of the operation. You’ll have a straight shot for the bunkers once the weapon that your escorts picked up at Station Bravo has been deployed. It’ll get you past the automated defenses and doors and allow your team to get inside before they reactivate and lock the base down.”

“And when I’m inside?” I ventured.

“When you’re in, you and your team will be working to reach the facility’s computer core where you’ll be able to permanently deactivate the base’s defense grid, allowing the rest of the platoon to move in and enter the facility.” Vance replied. “And then, all that’ll need to be done is to clear out the hostiles inside and secure the Guardian Project. After that, Nova, you and your little brother will be free to leave.”

So that was it then.

As he spoke his last word, my thoughts caught back up to the present and fell into place to imprint in me the big picture. With a team, I was to infiltrate the Southeast National Guard Bunkers, passing through its complex and lethal security measures with the aid of this special weapon, whereupon I was to shut down the base’s defenses permanently to allow the rest of the platoon to come in and secure the whole facility, thereby taking the Guardian Project. Now I knew my mission, all the way down to the finer details… even despite the wave of anxiety that came with them. Goddesses, if it had been any other circumstance, had it been Captain Saber or General Silverlight giving me the order to infiltrate a raider hideout or to secure a valuable asset, I would’ve been on the job in a heartbeat, with no fear and no hesitation.

But as it was now… I was almost shaking as the final moments before the mission begun to tick away. Even with Vance’s second assurance that my baby brother would go free once I helped the Talons complete a successful mission here, his briefing brought about the revelation of crucial details, all of them fitting together into a picture that created a threatening mural for the southeast… and for my home. This installation, the Southeast National Guard Bunkers, was not just a collection of surface structures as I had initially seen, but was, according to Vance, comprised of underground facilities as well. Knowing that now, I had no doubt that this Guardian Project was a part of that underground array, buried beneath the surface and hidden behind what had to be one of the most sophisticated arcane door locks ever made during the war.

And whatever this project was, I knew that it was something that didn’t belong in the possession of the Talon Legion… and it was something that never would have either… had I not been the very key they had needed to unlock it…

“I’ll be keeping up with the mission’s progress from here.” Vance’s voice resurfaced, breaking through my nervous thoughts. “My advice to you, Nova, is that you treat my soldiers as your comrades-in-arms for this mission. Work with them as a part of the unit, coordinate your maneuvers with them, and protect them from hostile threats just as you’d do for Hopeville… because they’ll do the same for you.” From the corner of my eye, to my right, I saw as a Talon unicorn came to stand beside Helix, leaning over to whisper into his ear. “Now go. I’ll contact you again when you’ve reached your objective.”

And without another word, the General’s end of the channel closed, soft static reaching my ears in his place.

“Time to move, wastelander.” Turning to my right, I found the unicorn stallion beside Helix as he gave a nod behind him toward the camp. “We’re ready.”

Wordless, I looked back to my pipbuck, long enough to deactivate my radio and silence the static. Then, lowering my hoof back to the dirt with a hushed sigh, I slowly rose back up to all fours and faced the two soldiers, taking my first impassive steps as they both turned to head towards the camp. Within, the formerly segregated clusters of Talon ponies begun to form up into ranks at the shouted calls of their commanding officers. In their midst, the twenty millimeters were beginning to move as well, their strictly unicorn gun crews combining their telekinetic strength to roll the guns forward towards the hill. And on the hill itself, I counted ten soldiers advancing up towards its peak, two of them griffins from the 63rd, and in tow within the pack was the missile-launcher-like weapon from the dairy farm, slung across the back of a unicorn stallion trailing at the rear of the company.

“Go ahead and head on up the hill, wastelander.” From just ahead of me came the voice of the same unicorn stallion from before. “That group up there is who you’re going to be with for this first stage.”

I heard and obeyed, slowing myself to a stop and keeping my eyes on the small group of soldiers as they made their way to the top of the hill. And without giving a response, I adjusted my course and turned for the hill. But then, “Good luck in there, Nova! Give those traitors hell!”

The wish belonged to the voice of the cocky newest member of the Strikers unit, and they brought me to a surprised halt as I looked back behind me. Helix met my eyes with a single nod, wearing a confident smirk as he raised his front right paw to his forehead in a salute before turning away and continuing on to the camp… leaving me staring after him in bewilderment. Given that he was a new recruit, I could somewhat understand his energy… perhaps there existed within him an eagerness to experience the soldier’s life, an eagerness that perhaps he thought everypony shared with him – even outsiders like me. And yet, he surely knew just who I was, especially with how the commander of our formation had called him out for speaking so freely to somepony who was an enemy. So… why the hell was he so damned friendly?? And why did I have to be reminded of Cross every time he spoke?!

As I looked away, I was left in an internal conflict… feeling… at least a little more at ease knowing that someone out here, even amidst the ranks of Hayward’s legionnaires, was speaking in a manner like somepony I knew, like somepony from Hopeville might have done if we had passed each other on the street. It was a reminder of home, a source of hope… even if just a tiny and perhaps out-of-place one… that I’d be going back there soon by General Vance’s promise. Yet, at the same time, I was left simmering inside, because… well, because of just how stupidly oblivious the young griffin seemed to be. It was either that, or he was mocking me whenever he threw me that smirk of his, aiming to remind me of everything that had led up to this point, to this forced collaboration with Hopeville’s foes; if that was the case, then my desire to crack his beak with a single well-placed buck was justified for being the ultimate prevailing emotion in a clash between several.

By now, the group that had been traversing the hill had stopped just shy of the peak, and the ten soldiers had rallied up into their own group. With no more time for me to waste with my tumultuous thoughts, I finally moved uninterrupted and made my own trek up the dusty hill at a solid trot. “… nothing to scoff at. You all know who we’re dealing with here.” Almost immediately I begun to pick up voices from farther up, or rather one, coming from an earth pony who stood further up the hill than the rest, granting him a position to overlook his fellow soldiers; the uniform shirt he wore, like those on the General and the Stable 184 drill instructor, showed to me his superior rank. “Four months ago these ponies sought to plunge Hayward into chaos, a city that’s braved the wasteland ever since the bombs fell. They wanted nothing more than to destroy everything it’s achieved, everything it’s built. And ever since those traitors that survived the Battle of the Inner Circle fled the city, the remnants of their ranks have hidden themselves in the shadows to escape justice.”

Traitors… Helix had used that word…

As I closed the remaining distance between myself and this rallied group of legionnaires, I listened in close to the officer as he continued. “But two months after their plan failed, we finally found where they’d slinked off to, where they thought they’d be safe hiding behind the doors of Old World technology. And as fate would have it, they’ve hidden themselves in the place that we now know holds the key to moving Hayward’s Second Campaign forward.” I stopped a few paces away from the assembly, catching the eyes of an ashen unicorn mare with a light blue mane and tail as she briefly glanced back to me over the three-o-eight sniper rifle slung over her back, presenting me a cautious glare before facing forward once more. “Today, with this one maneuver, we’ll not only have acquired the advantage we need in this operation, but we’ll have stamped out the final remnants of the treasonous element that still threatens the safety of our leaders and the security of our cherished Hayward. A victory here will allow us to restore the security and the peace that our city once knew, and it will give us the technological edge we need to do it.” At that, the earth pony officer gave a nod over his shoulder. “And all that stands between us and the completion of our goals are the traitors.”

I closed my eyes. This enemy, according to the earth pony officer, was a faction of rebels fighting against the Talons, who had apparently put up a strong enough fight to threaten the stability of all Hayward. And whatever had happened in the Talons’ homeland four months ago, this Battle of the Inner Circle and the events that followed over the subsequent months, had made those now residing within the Southeast National Guard Bunkers the Talons’ primary targets… made them my primary targets.

As vile as the thought felt as it emerged to life in my mind, I couldn’t deny that I was genuinely grateful for this information; at least I knew now that I wasn’t fighting Challenger’s soldiers.

“Wastelander! Get up here.”

My eyes snapped back open as I faced ahead, tracing up the hill to look upon the earth pony commander as he motioned a hoof for me to join him. And as I obeyed, others split themselves off from the cluster, coming forward to stand beside him. One of these soldiers was a stocky light brown unicorn stallion with an ashy mane and tail, fully armored and carrying over his back a heavily modified semiautomatic battle rifle, built with a suppressor and an optical scope. The second soldier was a griffin female with darker feathers who was sleek yet sturdily built, only slightly larger than the unicorn she stood beside and wearing a lighter armor rig with no rifles on her person; she had been one of my escorts from Stable 184. The third was a golden earth pony mare, mane and tail silver, who was equipped with full Talon combat armor and a pair of suppressed assault rifles hooked into a battle saddle. And the final soldier stepping up and taking a position just before the peak of the hill was another unicorn stallion, hazy blue, who was floating down by his side the glowing weapon we had acquired from the dairy farm.

“Welcome.” spoke the earth pony commander as I approached from the left side of the group, all the while ignoring the stares I received from them. “You’ll be teaming up with those three there. That’s Sergeant Trigger, Corporal Aeryn, and Corporal Quicksilver.” he explained, sweeping a foreleg adorned with a pipbuck across the battle rifle unicorn, the griffin, and the earth pony as he spoke those names; all three of them wore with their equipment their own pipbuck as well. “The four of you are the advance team, and when the M.I.C. fires, you’ll be infiltrating the bunker system while its defenses are disabled. Now, I’ll say again, don’t think that you can take on the whole facility by yourselves. This first step is all about speed and stealth, which is why each of you has been chosen for this. Once you permanently take out the defenses from inside the base, then the rest of the platoon will move in to keep attention off your team while you get the wastelander to where she needs to go.”

“Yes sir.” spoke the battle rifle unicorn, the griffin and earth pony close by nodding their own acknowledgement.

“Remember, the ponies in those bunkers are going to be well aware of your presence as soon as the M.I.C. fires a charge.” the earth pony commander added firmly. “They’ll know that we’re coming for them, and they’ll likely have prepared some defenses of their own in the months that they’ve been holed up here, so keep each other covered down there – watch each other’s backs. And wastelander,” Again, his eyes fell upon me. “you make sure to stay alive until we secure Guardian. You’re no use to us if you’re dead. Understand?”

I turned away from him at his question, letting silence answer at first as I looked away to the peak of the hill; I could just see the tip of the base’s radio tower from where I stood, just a glimpse of the facility that the Talons would soon be assaulting. “Yes.” I responded after the pause.

“Alright then. The four of you, form up and get ready to run.”

Time to go.

Facing back to the commander, I saw my three new temporary companions as they took up places side by side just below the top of the hill, still keeping themselves from forming a direct line-of-sight to the target. “We’re just under two hundred yards from the base. When I give the signal, the M.I.C. will take down the base defenses and provide an opening for the four of you to infiltrate the underground bunkers. But as the array is designed to reboot itself, you’ll only have a window of a few minutes to get to your target entrance, force the door open, and get inside before the M.I.C. screen dissipates and the base locks itself down.” As he explained to us the last crucial details, I walked around behind him to join the others, all three of which were preparing themselves to move, to sprint. “As you move, you’ll have sniper support, just in case opposition comes at you from the surface. But don’t let that make you comfy… keep your guard up, and be on the lookout for anything.” Now, I took up my own position, easing myself down into a state of focus, that familiar sensation of calm attention beginning to push its way into existence. With my peripheral vision, I saw the earth pony mare with the dual suppressed assault rifle saddle – Quicksilver – to my right as she glanced my way, making no attempt to snappily divert her eyes away when I found her looking to me; she gave me only a small nod before facing forward, digging her front hooves into the dusty earth beneath them. “Good luck. May the Goddesses smile on us all today.”

And may they keep my brother safe…

“M.I.C. is primed and ready to fire, Captain. I’ve got the target locked… waiting for your go.” came a stallion’s voice from behind me and to my right, the unicorn wielding this M.I.C.… whatever that stood for.

“My sniper teams are in position on the east and west sides, ready to set up shop at your command, Captain.” a mare spoke next. “I’ll settle down here when the M.I.C. fires.”

“Good…… ready…” came the captain’s response; I crouched myself down, planting my hooves solidly into the dirt, bracing myself for a leaping start. “All teams, mission is a go! Move now! Move!”

At once, the soldiers jumped into action even before their commanding officer finished, and as one, Trigger, Aeryn, and Quicksilver sprang forward and crested the hill. And as I leapt and planted my first steps into the soil, quickly building up to a gallop, my ears picked up a quick series of consecutive high-pitched beeping sounds. And then came a brilliant flash of light, almost blinding even as it swelled to life behind me, before a roaring ball of bright white luminescence sailed by overhead, racing out over the dusty fields and arcing through the air before curving back down, falling directly for the now fully visible surface structures of the Southeast National Guard Bunkers like a howitzer shell. And as the four of us begun to descend the hill on its northern face, the projectile erupted with a nearly soundless explosion, the sun-like ball seemingly morphing into a great disk of light that begun to expand over the buildings, painting each with a shimmering, crackling coat of gray-white like a radiant blanket.

Now we were past the hill and treading on flat ground, making a beeline for the bunkers and closing in fast. Despite how far away we had been in the air upon our initial spotting of the site, the hill that the Talons had concealed their camp behind was much closer to it, and upon establishing a line-of-sight to the base, I could make out the finer details of the place almost immediately. From the look of things, it had once been fully enclosed with stretches of simple chain-link fencing, most of which was now decayed into uselessness. What was curious about it though was that the fences spanned even farther outward to the east, sprawling far beyond the buildings to encompass a wide-open field that looked large enough to house a whole other base all on its own. But as we drew closer to the target, the aura of light from the M.I.C. blast just faintly shining down on us, I could see the structural hole that we were running for, a gap in the fencing that was directly aligned with one of the main buildings.

“Our target building is that one right in front of us!” From up ahead, the gruff voice of Trigger cut through the sound of our combined gallop, reaching me from his place at the head of our fire team as he craned his head back around to look us over. “Pick up the pace! That charge will start fading any second now!”

One hundred yards. I didn’t have the time to look to my pipbuck’s compass, but I begun to scan along the south side of the base for any of these hostiles, any signs of activity on the surface from the Talon deserters. From this distance, the base looked wholly abandoned, just another empty ruin in the wastes. But aside from the rusted husk of some old military wagon sitting by the southwest corner building, I caught sight of something else, something flickering in the strong lingering glow of the M.I.C. detonation. It was a flashing light seemingly fused into the upper left corner of the structure dead ahead, blinking spontaneously and spitting out the occasional burst of yellow sparks. It was accompanied by another that was likewise flickering, sputtering with sparks from its place on the opposite side of the first. And as we pressed forward, each of us putting in an extra boost of speed as we neared the base’s southern perimeter, I could see the outlines of something within those flickering lights. There was some kind of machine within both, the two of them comprised of a heavy iron chassis and an aligned pair of long gun barrels, making simple but rather lethal-looking gun turrets built underneath extended boxlike compartments jutting out from the rooftop.

Fifty yards. We were close now, all four of us completely coated in the light from the hovering energy disk above the base. Coming into the final stretch, my ears perked at the sound of gunshots echoing through the air, the greater majority of which sounding like the familiar report of a three-o-eight rifle, the sharp cracks of sound dimmed but still prominent. Even as we ate up the rest of the distance between us and the base, one of the two sparking turrets, the one closest to us suddenly exploded with a sharp pop, metal bits launching in all directions to bury themselves into the dirt. Quickly, the sniper shots settled into a steady rhythm, one shot every two to three seconds, every few rounds accompanied by another short, sharp detonation as another turret was removed from the base’s sabotaged defense network.

“Through here! Move it, move it!”

At Trigger’s order, both Quicksilver and Aeryn adjusted their pace long enough to draw up behind him in a loose line, leaving me at the rear of the group and galloping behind Aeryn as we approached the fence. One by one we hopped over a fallen section of the chain-link barrier, Trigger maintaining his momentum afterwards to gallop to the right towards the southeast corner of our target building. Quicksilver followed right on his tail, Aeryn using a flap of her wings to help her keep up. But just as I crossed over the fence and landed, my hooves kicking up dirt as I momentarily skidded from so quickly halting my galloping momentum, a space in what looked to be a small parking lot just in front of us opened up with the rapid turning of its gears, the concrete disappearing to be replaced with a square open chasm. And out of the sudden opening emerged a tall metal chassis unit from its underground hiding place, attached to which was a pair of connected gun barrels that snapped down and locked on to us, the turret falling into place with a threatening cocking of its firing mechanism and a flash of light from glowing ports in its frame. In quick succession the four of us ground ourselves to a halt, but just as a barrage of red energy beams lashed from the double-barreled gun, a flash of light erupted from in front of me, from Trigger’s horn. And in response, the very air before him rippled violently as the turret fired on us… or rather, fired upon a transparent golden-white wall of magical energy that rose to life between us and the hidden weapon. With Trigger’s horn flaring bright, both Quicksilver and Aeryn took action, stepping to either side of their leader and taking aim, Quicksilver with her saddle, Aeryn with a suppressed revolver magnum held in her right paw. As one, the two of them fired at the roaring autogun, their silent bullets passing through Trigger’s shield to smash into the gun’s housing. And after a shower of sparks, a component in the back of the weapon blew out with a pop, black smoke wafting upward as the energy turret fell silent.

With a grunt Trigger canceled out his magical shield, the rest of us easing from the surprise of the hidden autogun as it slid back into its underground hiding place; two spots on Trigger’s chest plate were smoking. “The M.I.C. must be starting to wear off.” the unicorn said with a frown, looking upward and squinting his eyes at the disk of light blanketing the base, a gesture I couldn’t help but copy; the light did look to be a little dimmer. “We need to get inside, and quick!”

“Come on wastelander, let’s go!” Quicksilver urged me, gesturing with an urgent wave for me to follow.

I picked up the pace once more, settling back into a solid run as I trailed after the three Talons. Together we circled around the southeast corner of the structure and emerged into the parking lot, the home to three other wrecked military cargo carriers. And from here, I could see the building’s main entrance, made from a quintet of stone steps leading up to a closed metal door surrounded by a spacious stone deck, to either side of which was another malfunctioning turret fastened to the wall, both guns sparking in their casings. Apart from these, there was no other visible threat in the immediate area, mechanical or otherwise, with only another disabled turret built into the south wall of another building farther into the base that promptly detonated in its frame by another sniper round.

“Quicksilver, Aeryn, I’ll take the door, you sweep and clear. Wastelander, you stay outside with me until they give the okay.”

Just in front of me and to the left, Trigger was already ascending the stairs to our target building’s entrance, his horn flickering back to life to float up his modified battle rifle as Quicksilver stopped behind him on the steps, biting down on her saddle’s firing bit in readiness. Wasting no time, the unicorn squad leader braced himself on the top of the stairs, and with one swift move, whirled about on his front hooves to plant a heavy buck against the door. The metal caved slightly inward with the force of the impact, and with a short screech the door broke free of the frame, swinging back to crash against the wall as its aged locking bolt clattered metallically to the floor. Then Trigger stepped aside and back against the wall as Quicksilver moved up and swiftly disappeared into the building, Aeryn following close behind her while I lingered by the bottom of the stairs; up above, the left-side turret was clicking, shifting bumpily in its place as its internal components clicked and whirred in struggle, trying to fight through the effects of the M.I.C. blast and come down to target me.

“Clear!” came Quicksilver’s voice from within.

“Alright, move wastelander.”

On the deck, Trigger nodded to the entrance before turning and stepping hoof into the building, and at his command I quickly made my way up the stairs and followed him inside. We stepped together into a chamber, one that was vast enough to likely be the only room within the entirety of the building. Spaced in rows amongst the concrete floor, immediately greeting us, were tall shelving assemblies of blue iron, making industrial storage racks within which were rows upon rows of deteriorating wooden crates, floor skids, and iron industrial-grade cargo containers. Amongst them were even more old storage crates stacked up alongside the north and south walls, hugging the shape of the building despite several of them having smashed onto the floor over time, leaving nothing but flimsy tinder and useless cargo.

“This is the base’s storehouse.” Trigger explained, his voice now hushed as the intact walls of the warehouse diminished the sounds of the cracking rifles of the Talon sniper teams outside. “If the recovered floor plan is accurate, then the bunker access point built here should be on the north side of the building.”

“Sergeant, right here.”

Aeryn’s gravellier alto tone responded to the unicorn from farther into the facility, and I turned to find her standing beside a larger rectangular steel container, in front of which was an oblong hole cut into the warehouse floor. In silence, Trigger trotted over, a silent signal for myself and Quicksilver to follow after him. “Yeah, this is definitely it.” the sergeant observed as he joined the griffin, peering down the hole and tracing it back up to its top. “Everyone keep a lookout. I’ve got to force the door open while the M.I.C. is still active.” Immediately he moved, both him and his rifle seeming to disappear down into the floor… that was, until I saw that he had actually descended a flight of intact metal stairs, leading downward to a short hallway which stopped at a small entrance lobby. Aeryn followed right behind the sergeant to the metal chamber, her claws clacking softly against the iron steps, and with a nod from Quicksilver I trailed after the griffin while the earth pony took up the rear.

At the far end of the tunnel, Trigger was standing face to face with a heavy blast door. And though it was narrow, it was comprised of untarnished steel and a complex array of thin mechanical arms and cogwheels through which it would open. As the rest of us entered the lobby, surrounding ourselves with metal walls and a similar floor and ceiling, Trigger set aside his battle rifle and focused ahead on the door, his horn coming to life once more as the larger wheel at the door’s center begun to glow. With a grunt of exertion, the light from Trigger’s horn pulsed before the wheel shifted with a light grating of metal.

“It’s working.” Quicksilver whispered in observation, words outlined with suppressed but noticeable relief. “Looks like the blast did the trick.”

“Hayward’s nerd division really outdid themselves this time.” Aeryn put in, equally low as she replaced the three empty casings in her revolver with fresh rounds, reloading the weapon full. “No more of those obnoxious little cubes.”

Under the force of Trigger’s telekinesis, the center wheel of the door turned again, the locking arms covering the center of the door moving in their places and beginning to retract. “Any of your pipbucks working?” Quicksilver ventured as she watched the sergeant’s efforts, then bowing her head to look over her own computer. “All I have is static still.”

“Same here. I’ve got nothing.” Aeryn responded, then turning my way. “Wastelander?”

Blinking, I raised my pipbuck leg to bring the computer up to eye level, tracing over the display screen. It was hazy with a curtain of static, yet even through the barrier, I could distinguish shades of green trapped within it. And I could see enough of it to spot letters materializing and fading within the disruption, showing me that my inventory screen was what my pipbuck was attempting to show me. “I see static…” I replied, shaking my head. “But I can make out parts of the actual display.”

“Anything on your E.F.S.?” Quicksilver ventured; behind her, Trigger’s telekinesis gained more headway on the door, the center wheel turning more smoothly as the locking arms shifted, activating several door bolts hidden in the walls.

Like the main display, even the slimmer screen that was my Eyes Forward Sparkle was coated with a layer of static despite its separation from the main screen. And try as I might to find a green or red marker within the display, I couldn’t see anything through the technological fog. “No, not that I can tell.” I answered the mare. “It’s still too hazy.”

From the door came another shifting of metal, and my eyes snapped back to Trigger as he took a step back from the entrance. His telekinesis had opened two flaps on the left and right edges of the door, and as they folded back, the center piece fell away and disappeared into a slot in the floor with a heavy crash. “Then let’s get inside before something does show up.” the unicorn said, pushing aside the two remaining slabs of the segmented security door into their respective ports with a final shove of his telekinesis. “Quicksilver, you’re on point. Hallway’s empty for now, but we’re stuck without stealthbucks for the moment, so stay alert.”

“Roger.” At Trigger’s command, the golden mare passed through the now open bunker entryway, mouth holding loosely onto her saddle’s firing bit as she cautiously advanced into the dimly lit hall beyond.

“Wastelander, you stay behind me.” Trigger added firmly, looking my way as Aeryn followed in after Quicksilver. “Keep close and don’t wander off. Come on.”

Wordless, I lowered my pipbuck leg back to the floor and trotted across the chamber to the door, following the sergeant into the new hallway that marked our official entrance into the Southeast National Guard Bunkers’ underground sectors. This hall, like the entrance hall at our backs, was all metal, much like a Stable’s, but with a more basic and weathered look. Ahead, the corridor branched into a T-intersection, and before it was a closed door to the right side, a lookalike to the first we had passed through. But as we moved, I was caught off-guard with just how quiet it was within the facility. Though perhaps it was just an effect of the interference from the M.I.C. detonation, like the weakened gray glow coming from what I assumed to be normally functioning ceiling lights, it raised both caution and suspicion as I followed close behind Trigger; with all their talk of traitors… I wasn’t seeing any signs of occupation.

Further on, Quicksilver came to draw up to the end of the hall, glancing left, right, and then left again before giving us a nod to move up. In response, Trigger gestured with his right foreleg, motioning for her to take a right turn at the intersection, and as she did, Aeryn faced the opposite way, keeping the path covered as Quicksilver advanced. The griffin stayed there until I passed her by, whereupon she took up the rear position in our single-file line. Now we moved through a hallway lined with four doors, two on each side parallel to one another, before the path hooked left in a smooth curve. All four doors were already opened, but as we pressed on, the hallway lighting begun to click and flicker, flashing quickly for a second before it would stop, and then go again as the facility’s systems struggled to restore themselves. But after a particularly bright flash from the recuperating lights, a stronger light source remained from further down the hallway, illuminating the whole far wall and swelling swiftly; that was definitely no ceiling light.

“Contact!” Quicksilver whispered sharply, stopping herself and targeting the end of the hall with her saddle.

“These rooms – hide!” Trigger ordered, equally low as he quickly stepped aside to disappear into the right-side chamber closest to us. And as Quicksilver scurried ahead to take shelter in the far left room, I was roughly shoved forward, ushered hurriedly into the room parallel to Trigger’s hiding spot by Aeryn. Together, the griffin and I stepped into a small square maintenance room that was the home of four tall steel-blue cabinets lining the far wall, beside which were several brown tool boxes.

“Hide in that corner.” Aeryn whispered, and as I turned about, I saw her raised claw pointing to the farther corner of the room away from the door. “And get your weapon ready, just in case.”

I nodded in silent confirmation, a gesture that she returned before she moved back to the entrance. As she did, I receded away into the corner, and as I drew Fire Rose and held it at the ready in my jaws, the griffin slowly hunkered down close to the entrance, eyes narrowing with focus as she rolled her shoulders in preparation to spring, to attack. Now I could hear the sound of hooves growing closer, stepping over the floor with only just enough volume to register to my ears. But there were multiple sets of steps that I picked up, belonging to at least two ponies as they rounded the corner, closing in to our position. I crouched myself down, my eyes darting between the griffin and the entrance she stood before as I kept quiet and still. Seconds passed where she merely stared, unmoving from her position as she lie in wait. On the floor just in front of her clawed forepaws, I saw light moving amongst the flickering of the base’s own ceiling lights, growing slowly brighter and brighter as they approached us.

Then Aeryn gave a nod out into the hallway, communicating in silence to Trigger from his place across from us before she tensed up for the pounce. Silence met us again as the ponies hooves outside were seemingly right on top of us, and with adrenaline trickling in, I kept myself as still as possible, even shortening my breathing to soft, shallow breaths through my nose. And then the griffin leapt, and in the blink of an eye she disappeared from the room, colliding with the unknown pony outside. I didn’t even budge as the struggle outside ensued, the sound of a body striking one of the walls proceeded by a weapon clattering to the floor. Then came the sound of choking and the scuffing of hoofs as they slid and kicked against the floor, and only a second later, my eyes widened at a pained and muffled grunt as the sound of a knife stabbing into flesh reached my ears. A louder grunt sounded by the entrance, and I jumped with a start as Aeryn suddenly returned, stumbling backwards into the room, but this time with a pony in tow. The pale blue earth pony stallion with a turquoise-colored mane and tail was held by the griffin in a strong headlock, and he was kicking and thrashing in his struggle to break free as Aeryn slowly choked the life out of him. Still, the suffocating stallion resisted, jamming his hooves into the griffin’s forelegs to get her to break her hold. In retaliation, Aeryn threw her full weight down on her captive, trying to bring him to the floor. But as she did, the stallion managed to keep himself upright despite the pressure against him, and craning his head back, he got hold of one of Aeryn’s talons in his jaws and clamped down hard. I nearly acted then as I kept watching, gradually and very hesitantly bringing my iron sights to line up with the struggling duo to try and line up a shot; but there were forces in my head keeping me from pulling the trigger… keeping me from shooting not only the stallion, but from shooting Aeryn herself… I wanted to fire on both of them, each for a different set of reasons… I just couldn’t choose a target. But even without my help, the griffin suppressed a cry of pain as the scuffle continued, unyielding despite the desperate stallion’s best efforts. And though her grip briefly loosened, she cocked her head back and brought it forward in a savage head-butt just as her enemy made to cry out, their skulls knocking solidly together and jarring the earth pony long enough for Aeryn to relock her forelegs around his throat and squeeze tight. Then, as the stallion tried to recover once more, the griffin shot her right paw up and clamped it over his muzzle as her left slid through his mane to the back of his head, and with a sharp twist, a sickening snap filled the room… after which the former silence of the bunkers returned.

Glaring as she caught her breath, Aeryn slowly lowered her now deceased opponent to the floor, and my ears partly pinned themselves down as the dead stallion’s head lolled to one side from his broken neck. Upon setting him down, the griffin who had emerged victorious let out a hushed sigh as she bowed her head and took in a couple of soft but deep breaths. But then her eyes came up and met my own, directing that fiery glare right to me. “You know, next time… next time I could use a little help.” she said between breaths, voice dark with annoyance at my inaction. Of any response I could’ve made, anything from an apology to a heartfelt ‘fuck off’, I made none, staying in silence because of my own conflicting thoughts. I merely looked away to holster my mother’s pistol, unsure of how to make any kind of civil reply to an enemy, much less an enemy who didn’t even care that my baby brother was on the line… and yet, as much as I hated to admit it, the fight I had beheld served as a reminder of things. Despite my having charged into this Old World base with my sights set on doing whatever it took to reunite with Blake and get him home safely, my hesitation had been undeniably noted and stored away in Aeryn’s head. I was coming to believe that the Talons generally held little to no patience with wastelanders no matter the situation, no sympathy and no mercy. It was something that I had first discovered in Plainwell, back when I had beheld the slaughter they had committed in which not even a young colt was spared from taking a bullet between the eyes. Now I knew that I had to understand that this was something that would be the case here just as much as it had been in Plainwell… and more importantly, I had to understand that my hesitation itself was yet another threat to Blake’s life.

If I kept seeing these unknown ponies for what they really were, hidden allies to the southeast for their opposition to the Talons, I would keep hesitating, and if I kept hesitating…

“You two good?”

“We’re clear here, sergeant.” Aeryn spoke up softly, turning to the entrance of our room where Trigger looked in on us; the stallion’s horn was aglow, floating a combat knife whose blade was wet and slickened with blood back into its sheath hidden in his armor. “We should keep moving.”

“Right then. Let’s go.” Trigger replied in a whisper, motioning for us to follow him back out into the hall. “According to the schematics, the entrance we passed through was the closest to the base’s computer core, one of the five primary underground bunkers in the base connected by these hallways. If we follow this one up to the first four-way intersection, we should find the lobby to-”

Suddenly, the hallway lights flickered more violently, the light returning like a muzzle flash. This time it didn’t fade again, remaining strong as the base’s lighting system finally restored itself to full working condition. The M.I.C. charge had faded completely, or at least to a point where its interference was limited, and sure enough, when I looked to check, I found that my pipbuck was now in working order, my inventory display now fully legible. But our new brightly lit hallway was the herald of an alarm that blared full force into my ears, a grating repeating buzz that echoed throughout the corridors and flowed around us.

“Facility-wide lockdown initiated. Multiple breaches detected in installation perimeter.” My ears perked at the sound of an echoing voice, masculine but rather… strange. “Defense array integrity at sixty-two percent. All Guardian personnel must report to their stations for security assignments immediately.” The voice laced with an electronic tone cut out as spinning lights came to life to accompany the steady buzzing alarm, replacing the original lighting with a shade of dark orange.

“If they didn’t know we were here before, they do now.” Quicksilver observed over the alarms.

“All the more reason to move.” Trigger replied, raising his pipbuck to eye level as his horn came to life. “Everyone activate your stealth modules. When we cloak, we won’t be able to physically see each other unless we’re close, so keep it tight and check your E.F.S. compass from time to time. I’ll get us to the base’s computer core, just don’t stray away from the group.” With a dim flicker from his horn, silver light enveloped his computer long enough for the attached stealth module to chirp. And then the unicorn vanished with a magical hum of energy; he had been standing there one moment, and then he was just… gone! “We’re bound to run across more of them on our way there.” the now invisible stallion added. “But remember to only engage if you need to, and if you do, make sure to use S.A.T.S.. That’ll guarantee the most accuracy while you’re cloaked.” Nodding her understanding, Aeryn then vanished from sight next to me, and from just in front of her, Quicksilver followed suit with a chirp from her own stealthbuck. For a moment, I was utterly alone in the hallway, a strange sensation as I sat back on my haunches and brought my stealthbuck up into view. Then, with a tap of the module’s power button with my free hoof, the device gave a healthy cheep of its own, and my whole body tingled as the device’s magical energy swiftly washed over me, blanketing every inch of me to conceal me from the eyes of the world. I couldn’t help but blink as my foreleg, and even my pipbuck itself, was replaced by the metal wall of the hallway… or at least a distorted version of it. It was almost like looking at the wall through a floating, shifting pool of water, a pool of water that was actually my foreleg. In fact, now that I looked more closely, I could just barely make out the shapes of the others as Trigger begun to move swift and silent down the hallway. The wavering, barely visible shape of Aeryn followed after him, passing by Quicksilver whose shape shifted more sharply as she gestured for me to move up; I could only just see her foreleg as it waved to me.

At the earth pony’s prompt, I moved on up and passed her by, pausing long enough to take a glimpse at my compass before moving ahead on light hooves, closing the distance on Aeryn and drawing up right behind her. Now the four of us were on the move again, following Trigger’s lead as he guided us down the hall. All around us, the orange warning lights continued to spin, the buzzing alarm, still just as harsh on the ears, maintaining its warning note as it blared to the Talons’ traitors. But now, despite the strength of the siren, I could pick up voices, at least two as they called back and forth to one another. They were close by, and as we rounded the corner of the hall, hooking left to come onto a long straightaway, I could see past Trigger and Aeryn… or rather, through them… two new contacts. One mare and one stallion, the two unicorns had come from a branching hallway that was part of another T-intersection farther down. Both were armed with basic rifles, matching lever-action repeaters that hovered in close to them as they frantically scanned left and right, and both were geared up in light leather barding. Their presence brought Trigger to a stop, the rest of us snappily following his move as the mare’s wide nervous eyes fell upon us… with no reaction following. Even looking right at us, the young pony did nothing, only scanning the walls again and again, passing over us once… twice… three times as she waited for a visible hostile to come charging through the corridor.

“They haven’t come back yet.” the buck behind her spoke up, his words just barely reaching me through the buzzing alarm. “Do you think they might’ve come in from the west?”

“I don’t know.” the mare responded, looking back over her shoulder to her companion. “If they did, then that’s where Volley and Gyro would’ve gone.”

“We should check the production bunker, maybe meet up with them there.” the male asserted, trotting around in front of the mare and moving towards us. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

Wordless the mare followed him, floating her rifle parallel to her right side, keeping it close and ready to fire. With a suddenly quickening and more prominent heartbeat, I instinctively tucked myself as tightly as I could manage against the closest wall, taking a nervous step back as they begun to quickly close the distance between our two groups. Behind me, Quicksilver’s hoof promptly pressed down on my left flank, a silent warning to keep still, one that I only barely managed to force myself to obey. But in front of me, I then saw the wavering outline of Aeryn as it slowly shifted, a foreleg rising up with her nearly invisible revolver pointing forward as the griffin took aim at the approaching duo of unsuspecting unicorns. They couldn’t have been any more than a couple yards away now, and they were pushing themselves forward at a slow but steady trot.

Oh Goddesses, they’d see us in seconds!

Pffatt. Pffatt.

At the blaring of the alarm, Aeryn’s modified magnum spit out two rounds, fully concealed thanks to the siren, and a quiet gasp escaped my lips as both unicorns dropped to the floor one after another. There was no mess, no splotches of red to paint the wall behind them, only the thuds of their bodies and the clattering of their weapons as the two guards were put down swiftly and silently with two clean headshots. We were in the clear once more, but just as I made to take a breath of relief, I froze again at the sight of yet another guard as he stepped into the hallway, coming from the same branching corridor as his two formerly living companions. This one was an earth pony stallion, bright orange with a light red mane and tail, who was armed with a rather ominous dual semiautomatic shotgun saddle and equipped with a solid suit of black combat armor. This guard, however, was moving at a quick pace, and luckily, he turned immediately into the hallway and headed away from us on his own patrol route, completely missing the sight of his now dead partners.

At seeing this, Trigger begun to move once more in larger steps, the rest of us quickly copying his example. “No time to hide the bodies. Come on. It’s not going to be long before somepony finds them, and we need to be out of this hall when they do.” Even with his warning, I was already more than eager to put distance between us and Aeryn’s latest kills, and treading lightly, I kept myself close to the griffin’s barely visible shape as Trigger led our team further into the hallway, following after the shotgun pony as he continued his own search for us. Only a few moments later, and the patrolling guard stopped as another pony, a teal earth pony mare with a maroon-colored mane, joined him from another branching hall several yards beyond the first. Despite the new arrival Trigger kept us moving, drawing up to the first T-intersection and carefully peering around the corner as the two guards spoke inaudible words. “Clear.”

At that he moved again, crossing the branching corridor with the rest of us trailing behind. As the branch came into view, I saw that it too was occupied by another pony, a bright crimson unicorn buck with his back to us, a three-o-eight sniper rifle floating beside him. Safely passing the intersection, I looked ahead again only to find that the other two guards had moved on, vacating our hallway entirely to give us a clear avenue of travel. But even from here, I found that the two enemies had formerly stood where another hallway branched off from the main line. This one hooked left, coming into view as Trigger brought us up to the intersection. “Here we are.” Trigger said, slowing to a stop as we drew up to the crossing. “The atrium should be just down this next turn… there. This way.”

Glancing back down to my E.F.S., I saw as Trigger and Aeryn’s markers begun to move to the right along the display, stepping into the formerly hidden portion of this new hallway. I followed close, rounding the bend to step hoof into another lane free of occupants, a slightly wider but much shorter passage at the end of which was the beginnings of an open room, Trigger’s target lobby. At the sight, our leader picked up his pace to a quicker walk, forcing us to match him as we zeroed in on the next target location. But as we crossed over the halfway point, passing under the only spinning light within the hall, there came the sharp echo of a new voice that instantly surrounded us. “Attention. This is Lieutenant Chet.” the voice of a stallion spoke throughout the hall. “Talon soldiers have infiltrated the base, and there have been two identified casualties. Whatever weapon they developed knocked out the base’s automated doors, disabling them long enough for a team to gain access to the facility. But the intruders have not been located, which means there’s the strong possibility that they’re using stealth technology. Everypony remain on high alert. Make sure that the defenses are in place, and that a pipbuck is patrolling near each of the main bunkers. When found, the enemy is to be engaged on sight and eliminated.”

“Guess you were right, sergeant.” Quicksilver spoke calmly from behind me. “We got to hurry.”

“We’re close to the computer core. It’s just through this room and down another hall.” Trigger responded ahead, picking up his pace to a trot with the inspiration from the new threatening message fueling him. “Quicksilver, keep an eye out behind us, make sure none of them start following us.”

“Got it.”

Swiftly traversing the rest of the passageway, Trigger slowed himself back to a cautious walk as he stepped hoof into the lobby chamber. Peering in over Aeryn’s transparent back, I found a room looking loosely familiar to that of a Stable atrium… only this one was more complex in its design. Sturdy support beams crisscrossed along the entire expanse of the room just under its metal ceiling, and the chamber was further reinforced by four steel pillars placed at even intervals in two-by-two formation, carrying the weight of the earth above them equally. And instead of a perfect boxlike shape, the edges of the ceiling and walls were rounded, a strange but unique structure. But amidst the architecture, my eyes fell upon a new guard in the far left corner of the room, the unarmored unicorn stallion positioned between the entrances of two different hallways. At hearing the message, the stallion was glued to his post, only slowly scanning right, left, and then right again like a machine as he kept not one, but two ten millimeter SMGs hovering close by, one to either side of him. This pony was not alone either, and as Trigger stopped a few paces into the room to plan out his route, I found two additional hostile markers on my compass display, both of them grouped close together between the two spires to our right.

Then Trigger and Aeryn’s friendly markers begun to stir again, crawling along the compass and to the left, and lowering my hoof ever so delicately back to the floor, I moved cautiously onward to follow. “They’ve got new tech. We should’ve seen that coming.” one of the guards by the pillars suddenly grumbled nervously, continuing his search.

“Are you kidding?” came a deeper voice from the guard in the corner. “Whatever the hell they hit this place with was something Hayward didn’t have back when we were still there. We couldn’t have prepared for them to use that kind of weapon against us.”

“Ever since the council found that Stable in The Halo, they’ve been in there day and night studying the information stored there, using it for new applications.” the first guard replied, dismal as we slunk around them and towards the closest doorway. “If only we could’ve found it first instead of hiding around…”

“Wouldn’t have made much of a difference without the numbers to operate the damn place.” the second guard replied. “Thing’s a damn fortress.”

“I’m just saying,” the first stallion continued. “Chet’s always been hiding us away instead of-”

“Hey, eyes open and mouths shut!” barked the third guard, curt and angry as he swung an assault rifle toward the door we had just come in from, scanning down that hallway as he stepped slowly to the center of the atrium.

A quick glance at my compass showed Trigger was already passing undetected through the door, his marker shifting more sharply to the left as he passed out of the lobby chamber. Behind him, Aeryn’s barely visible form hugged the corner as she eagerly followed the sergeant into the next hall, the final stretch to the bunker systems’ computer core room. And as I approached the entrance, I felt just a sliver of relief at passing unnoticed by the atrium guards… until our final corridor came into my view. Instead of armed guards, I found a hall whose floor was speckled with bronze metal disks, atop each of which was a steadily glowing red light. Each was set apart from the other at a moderate interval, large enough to leave considerable gaps, but large enough also to show the blast radius of each one.

The floor was guarded with fragmentation mines.

Even as we came to another nerve-wracking stop at the presence of the lethal traps, an earth pony guard stepped into our field of view long enough to push another mine into the center of the cross-section he patrolled, pressing the switch at the top to arm the explosive before disappearing back behind the corner from which he’d appeared. With his generous donation, there were easily over a dozen mines sprawled across the lengthy hall, sprawling to where it connected with another hall at a four-way intersection and continuing farther down to finally end where the corridor met another path perpendicular to it. But this time, Trigger wasn’t making a move, Aeryn remaining perfectly still in front of me as she waited for a direction. Goddesses, now of all times was the worst to stop, with guards behind us, at least one in front of us… perhaps more… we had to have been surrounded…

“Damn, they’re going to find us no matter what we do.” I could just barely make out Trigger’s voice over the base’s cyclically blaring intrusion siren, his whispers barely reaching me over the noise.

“Stealthbucks won’t get us over those mines undetected.” Aeryn’s closer voice replied softly. “We’ve got to disarm them… but one look into this hall and they’ll see that.” The griffin paused here, here transparent body shifting as she leaned just slightly forward as Trigger’s own form moved. Looking back over my shoulder as I waited anxiously for a new plan, I could see Quicksilver who had only just stepped into the hallway from around the corner, not even a single pony-length apart from the atrium we had just escaped. But whether or not the earth pony mare was growing as nervous as I was, I couldn’t tell; at least none of the guards from the atrium had moved from their posts.

With a small start I felt the tap of a claw on my chest, and I swung my head forward to face Aeryn where she stood. “Hey, listen up.” she warned softly. “We’re going to make a run for the computer core and take out whoever’s after us to get Trigger to the controls. After that, we’re splitting up, and Trigger’ll tell me where I need to go so that I can take you to the Guardian Project access door. So get ready to run, because we’ll be announcing ourselves in the next few seconds.”

It was right then that Trigger moved once more, and before I could even nod my understanding, my attention immediately fell to the closest frag mine. From the device came a sharp tinny beep, sounding once, twice, before the red light on the explosive went dark at the click of a switch, Trigger pressing his hoof down on the button to disarm the weapon. Without delay they were moving again, forcing me to keep up as Aeryn stuck close to our team leader. Another few steps heralded another pair of beeps, subdued by the warning siren… but still seeming oh so very loud before Trigger silenced the explosive with a simple step of his hoof, the red light now dark. One press of the button and the mine was silent, then ignored as Trigger stepped right on by, the rest of us tightening up closer to one another as we approached the third. A trio of beeps sprouted to life before the bomb was subdued by Trigger’s hoof, the sergeant moving steadily closer to our next intersection between us and which were five more mines. We were making solid progress, with no guards coming from behind us and no others emerging from what I assumed to be our target intersection or the turn at the far end of the hall. Ears perking, I heard another beep ahead of me, a single note before Trigger snappily hushed the fourth mine in our path. Now, the adrenaline moving slowly through me was coaxing me into preparing, its message finally getting through to me to take my eyes away from the deadly hallway and to get ready as Aeryn had advised. Reaching down to my pistol holster, finding the shape of Fire Rose’s firing bit through its magical cloak, I pulled my mother’s sidearm free and held it at the ready in my jaws, facing ahead just in time to see as Trigger disarmed a fifth mine. But no sooner had he done so than another pony had emerged from the very intersection we needed to get through, stepping out from behind the corner just as the sergeant passed over the dormant trap.

And checking over the mines for herself, the cyan-colored unicorn’s eyes stopped right on top of us.

“What the… what the hell??”

As one, both her horn and Trigger’s flared to life as they yanked their weapons free from their holsters, a black nine millimeter SMG whipping into view from behind the mare. But as the stockless weapon aimed down from over her back, she suddenly staggered back as her eyes went wide, and with a gruesome gurgle being all that the freely bleeding hole in her neck from Trigger’s rifle would allow her to cry, she collapsed to her knees, fighting with all her might to keep herself standing. But her weapon, still wrapped in telekinesis, suddenly discharged a violently loud stream of bullets, and all of us dropped to the ground as the reckless torrent of rounds carved up along the wall and to the ceiling, leaving a trail of indents all along the steel before the gun ran dry, its owner finally succumbing to her fatal wound and falling to her side to bleed out.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Hey!! Down there!!”

From behind us came the alerted voices of the atrium guards, and spinning about in response, I pointed Fire Rose for the hallway entrance. Only a second later, and the unicorn wielding the twin SMGs stepped into the open, both weapons snapping down to us as he took aim. But Quicksilver spoke first, and twin plumes of light haze wafted up from her transparent body as her suppressed assault rifles opened fire. Like his comrade, the guard was not prepared for the attack, and the stallion went down under the heavy barrage, crimson splattering out behind him as he crumpled to the floor unmoving.

“Go, go!”

The other two lobby guards were not making the same mistake as their fallen friend, both remaining behind cover as Quicksilver and I kept our guns on the entrance. But at Trigger’s order, both she and I begun to fall back, and I whirled back around to see the sergeant as he lifted the remaining three mines between us and the next corridor before he, with a telekinetic push, launched them to the far end of the hall where they clattered harmlessly to the floor. With the obstacle thus removed, we had a clear path to what I assumed was our last turn before our destination. One by one we slipped into the passageway, stepping over the dead cyan unicorn and into a shorter hall which ended as it hooked to the left. The whole stretch was clear of both mines and personnel, but from behind me, another buzz of sound erupted from Quicksilver’s saddle before a powerful rifle shot ripped through the corridor, a bullet sparking off the floor seemingly right next to me. I spun back around in response, jumping from the potency of the noise within the enclosed space, and found one of the guards from before, the earth pony stallion who had been dropping the mines, as he adjusted his position to train his single rifle battle saddle on us. Before he could, Quicksilver retaliated again with another burst from her own rifles, but the heavier armor the stallion wore kept the shots from making wounds, and he only stumbled as he fought to move forward and get out of the open.

“Inside, now! Come on!”

Trigger’s voice shouted out over the alarm, now meshed with the calls for reinforcements coming from nearby. Even as he spoke, a shotgun blast responded to him before both he and Aeryn retaliated with suppressed shots. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the sergeant against the wall, taking cover as Aeryn unloaded the rest of her revolver into a target within the computer control room. With her weapon spent, she hurriedly stepped back and away before Trigger took her place, firing two more shots from his floating carbine before moving into the room. Then came another rifle round from the enemy engaging Quicksilver, and I heard a startled yelp from the mare as the shot scored a hit, enough to knock the wind out of her as her armor took it full force. At that sound, I snapped forward once more to take aim at the rifle guard, Quicksilver’s sign of daze kicking me into action. Up came S.A.T.S., slowing time to a crawl just as a second guard’s head emerged from the left side of the intersection, another one of the ponies from the lobby room. But first I targeted the guard in the heaviest armor, one shot for the head before my attention shifted to the new arrival – one shot for his head too… and this time I couldn’t hold back.

In another world they would’ve been allies, but now they were coming for us… they were red.

Executing the spell, a light puff of sound emitted from my pistol’s suppressor as I took the first shot. The round scored a perfect hit on the rifle guard, whose head jerked back from the impact before he promptly slumped against the wall and to the floor. The second shot went too low, the bullet passing just under the other guard’s head and ricocheting off the floor to burrow into the wall. Time then returned to normal then, and I kept my pistol aimed ahead as Quicksilver and I begun to back up towards the others. The pony who had been spared an end at the magic of S.A.T.S. pulled himself to a frantic stop and disappeared behind the wall once more, removing himself from the open just as Quicksilver fired another barrage from her rifles that pounded the corner the enemy hid behind. Then in the corner of my eye formed the next doorway to cross, and wheeling to my right I hurried inside with Quicksilver following my example behind me.

“Talon infiltrators have been spotted near the computer core bunker!” spoke a voice through the base’s PA system, the voice of Lieutenant Chet. “All patrols report to the computer core at once! All other teams remain at your designated posts!”

Only now, we were inside the computer core.

Coming back around, checking ahead for any other guards that might’ve been coming for us, I found myself standing in a large circular chamber whose round shape was only broken by the two doorways leading into and out of the room, the second parallel to me at the far end. And hugging the two walls in between them was a massive array of bulky computer mainframes and smaller terminals connected to them. Specifically, there were three bigger terminals, one to the left and two to the right, built with massive control panels with dozens of buttons, dials, and switches. From each one of the mainframes were several cables secured to the wall to avoid tangling the cords, and each led to smaller computer, all of them the same as the very familiar family of terminals that were scattered all over the wasteland. Trigger was already making his way to the mainframe on the room’s left side, jumping over the body of a dead unicorn and his pump-action shotgun before stepping up to the terminal’s intricate control board. “Quicksilver, cover that doorway!”

“Got it!”

“Listen up everyone. I’m going to kill the defenses and then blow the mainframe to keep them from being reactivated.” Trigger added, rearing up to set his forehooves down on the console. “Aeryn, you need to get the wastelander to that door.”

“Yes sir. Just tell me where I need to go.” the griffin replied with confidence.

“Out that door on the far side, you’re going to follow that hallway to a T. It’ll turn right on its own before you come to the intersection. Hook a left when you get there, then take that all the way to another lobby.” Trigger explained. “That’ll be the access point to the Guardian chamber. Get her there, and then she can open the door. Hopefully by then the platoon will be sweeping through the bunkers, so if you meet other hostiles, just do what you have to do to hold out until backup arrives. Quicksilver and I will meet up with you as soon as we can.”

“Understood.” Aeryn replied, giving a snappy salute as the sergeant set his attention on the console. “Come on, wastelander!” But suddenly, a barrage of fire filled the computer control core with roaring sound, and on instinct I threw myself down to the floor, landing full on my belly just as a stream of assault rifle rounds sparked along the floor to my right. Quicksilver met the attack with her saddle, a short burst of rounds pounding into metal as she kept the attacker back. “Move your ass, wastelander! Move!!”

Looking up, I found as the shimmery outline of Aeryn sprang over to the other end of the control core, stopping by the exit as she checked the hallway for hostiles. Scrambling, I pulled myself up to my hooves, keeping Fire Rose locked tightly in my jaws as I hurriedly joined her. Without delay she slipped into the next hallway, moving slower as she kept her own pistol gripped in her claws, and I kept right behind her. The passage was short leading to the first turn Trigger had described, and in seconds we were rounding the corner as Quicksilver’s saddle announced itself again, keeping hostiles from coming in behind us.

But just as we emerged into the new stretch of hallway, we were met head-on by new contacts, two unicorn guards galloping right for us. Aeryn drew immediately, snapping her pistol up with surprising speed and immediately dropping the guard on the right with a headshot. The second, a mare, screamed with alarm as her companion dropped dead beside her. And then the black assault rifle floating to her right snapped up as she blindly opened fire. She swept the rifle quickly from right to left and back again, and I screamed as I felt a bullet tear clean through my upper left foreleg, another striking my pipbuck and kicking up sparks. But only a second later, and the panicked mare jolted back as another round from Aeryn’s revolver smashed into her skull, both she and her rifle falling to the floor.

“Shit! You alright, wastelander?” Staggering, I let out a pained pant in response as I raised up my wounded… and now visible… limb to check the hit, spreading myself out on my hooves to keep me upright. The bullet hole immediately greeted me, a thin trail of blood already snaking its way down my coat, over my ammo belt, and down to my pistol’s holster. “Okay. You’re okay.” the griffin said, her clear claws reaching over to gently pull my leg toward her even as I choked back a short cry. “I’ve got a healing potion in one of my pockets. Pick up your weapon and cover me while I get it for you.”

Keeping my foreleg suspended, I found my pistol and quickly scooped it back up before looking down to my pipbuck. Thankfully, the computer itself was still functioning properly, but only a shattered wreck of what once was my provided stealthbuck remained; the mare guard, in her panic, had gotten a lucky hit on the arcane device, completely destroying it. But as I checked for damage to the rest of my pipbuck, my ears perked at the return of the electronic voice on the intercom, swelling to life and echoing across the halls. “Facility defenses deactivated. Initiating repair sequence.”

“Here, take this and chug it down.” Aeryn called, lifting a small cloaked glass bottle up to my view. “It’s just a small one, but it’ll help that leg.” Grateful, I spit out my pistol and reached for the bottle, Aeryn guiding it to me so that I could take it in my teeth. Then, as I tilted my head back to drink down the potion, I flinched at the particularly loud report of another assault rifle behind us in the computer room, the softer buzz of Quicksilver’s saddle once again responding to the attack before a trio of shotgun blasts sounded one after another, accompanied with the lighter report of an SMG.

After four big swallows, the small potion bottle was drained, and with a relieved breath I threw it to the side and picked up my sidearm, already feeling the healing brew as it eased the terrible sting of my fresh wound. “Good. Now come on. The platoon should be moving in now, but we need to get away from here before we get swarmed.”

Satisfied, the griffin turned away and moved quickly, stepping over the bodies of her two latest kills as she trotted ahead. Already, even from the far end of the hall, I could see the T-intersection that we needed to find sitting only a short distance away. Despite the potion swiftly getting to work on the mend, it still hurt to move as I limped after Aeryn. I would’ve done anything for a minute just to stand and wait, to let the wound heal fully on its own without interference. But as Aeryn approached the T, checking left for any other surprises, another pony suddenly sprang from the opposite side, diving forward and plowing into the griffin in a tackle. Together they hit the wall, and Aeryn’s pistol rematerialized into sight as it clattered to the floor, both the griffin and the male earth pony attacking her letting out different cries as they connected and collapsed together onto the floor. Right away my S.A.T.S. spell slowed them to a crawl, just as the earth pony had raised a foreleg up to take a swing at the transparent griffin on her side below him, his hoof adored with some kind of steel pony shoe. Three shots for the head… dialing up the attack, I executed the spell, Fire Rose’s first shot missing, the second catching him in the lower back, and the third finally hitting home to kill the bold and stupid guard. But just as he fell, Aeryn scooped back up her momentarily visible pistol, and as it disappeared again, four more suppressed rounds fired out from the weapon down the hall before she pushed herself back away from the intersection and onto her paws; she did so just before a hail of sparks erupted from the floor from another automatic weapon.

“Two more on the right side, left is clear!” Aeryn shouted back to me, loading new rounds into her revolver as I stopped behind her, hugging the wall on my right side. “You get ready to run. I’ll cover you while you make your way to the target.” In response, a short burst of rounds clanged and bounced violently off the metal wall making our cover, and as I situated myself for a gallop, ignoring the weakened yet persistent burn in my healing leg, I gave the griffin a shove on the flank to answer her. And as the gunfire from around the corner fell silent, the griffin swung herself out into the open and fired two more rounds.

That was my cue, and with a lunge I threw myself out into the hall and ran as fast as my body would let me. Sure enough, the left side was all clear, not a single guard or trap from here all the way to the just visible chamber to which the corridor ended. It was a long stretch, and even as I put Aeryn and the guards at my back, I could hear return fire answering back at the griffin from both an assault rifle and another repeating rifle, some of which slashed right by me. Two shots streaked against the right wall as two more stray rounds punched into the floor just behind me. I ducked low and forced myself to into a furious gallop, another round sparking to my left as I pushed myself to my target location. The lobby chamber entrance approached quickly, and at just a few yards distant, I pulled myself back to slow myself to a trot, and then to a walk before coming to a halt.

Catching my breath, I looked down to raise my pipbuck, checking over the E.F.S. compass for hostile targets. Two red markers were on the display, one just to my left, the second farther down the same side of the screen, both of them moving. With a gasp through my firing bit I aimed into the lobby just as a floating bolt-action rifle emerged from within to point right at me. Planting my hooves down I threw myself against the far wall just as a single powerful round fired, setting my ears to ring as the bullet punched deep into the floor with near effortless ease. Then as the bolt pulled back to chamber another round, I sprang forward, leaping over the rest of the distance to the lobby and landing inside the room as S.A.T.S. came to life. Sure enough, as I came about to face the enemy contact, I found a light green unicorn mare as the culprit, her mouth open and eyes wide with shock at my sudden presence next to her. Behind her at the far left side of the lobby, a young red unicorn buck, looking around my age if not even a little younger, was training a lever-action shotgun on me from behind a steel security desk. With two shots remaining, I set the first against the riflepony and the second for her young comrade. At such a close range, it was impossible to miss, and the mare went down hard from a headshot; the second shot for the buck struck the desk with a sharp metal pang. But as I left S.A.T.S., my pistol going empty, the young unicorn stallion suddenly leapt out from his cover to take a shot at me… but no shot came as I hurriedly scrambled back to the safety of the corridor.

He’d had a clear chance to shoot and he missed it.

His shotgun clattered to the floor…

“NOOO!!”

…W-what??…

“MOM!! NOOO!!!”

Oh my… oh no… oh Goddesses no…

I heard the young buck as he skidded to a stop right around the corner. “MOM?! Mom… no… no, no… mom, please no…”

No… I…this just… this wasn’t happening…

But then the sobs came… shaky and agonized as the young pony broke down. And then I cringed, jerked sharply as a tortured cry suddenly ripped into me without mercy… more painful than any gunshot wound…

…what had I done?

Not even a leap away from me, the young stallion wept, making no effort whatsoever to come after me. In that moment, I could’ve finished the job, taken out this final guard so that I could secure Guardian and thus my brother’s life… and yet that was just the thing. Guards… guards were all that I had seen these ponies for once I had gotten myself focused on getting to the Guardian Project… and yet even before then, all I had seen them for was for the potential allies they would’ve been to me had I not been forced into a partnership with the Talon Legion. Never once, not now or even before my capture, had I thought of something like this… and yet it was so basic, so simple and so likely… Traitors was the Talon label… guards and allies had been my own… and yet never once had I even thought of this rebel group as having families within their ranks. I was used to fighting against raiders and soldiers… I was used to killing them to protect those I loved… and in all that time… I never believed them to even have loved ones. The raiders… they were raiders… they were murderers and rapists. And the Talons… they were just soldiers throwing themselves into battle to wipe us out. And these ponies… they were just guards… just obstacles between me and my goals… just things. That was always what I had thought… what I had always seen them as – just figures… statistics. Only a short time ago did I find out that Blackhawk had a wife, a wife that I had killed in the heat of battle. But even that was different, because he had returned the favor in killing Gracie. We were at war… we were true enemies… and I could give him little sympathy after what he had done in his lust for vengeance.

But this time… I’d killed the mother of a young stallion… I’d killed her right in front of him, fighting with the mindset that they were just two more obstacles that needed to be put down, two more obstacles between me and securing Blake’s safety.

When I’d killed Blackhawk’s wife… I hadn’t known.

But this time… I’d taken away somepony’s mother… me – a mare who had lost her mother to the gun of another, and her best friend after that… had just killed the mother of somepony else…

And he had witnessed the whole thing… watched me do it…

I couldn’t focus… couldn’t think… I couldn’t even see as tears begun to well in my eyes, blurring my vision as they were ushered on by the buck’s cries. My breathing was picking up, growing so heavy that my instrument of the execution fell to the floor with a light clatter. But as the first tear slid down my right cheek, a sob escaping my lips as I begun to shake, I heard another scream from within the lobby, not like the cry of soul-rending agony before… but that of black fiery hatred.

I snapped my eyes to the entrance with a gasp of surprise just as the red unicorn came barreling out, eyes and face burning murderous rage. I couldn’t even move as the stallion sprang, and the vengeful young buck plowed into me with the force of a shotgun shell. I was tackled to the ground, landing hard on my back as a yelp of pain escaped me. The buck was on top of me, large enough to stand fully over me, and I only got my eyes open to look up before, with a bloodthirsty bellow, his right hoof came down. My head snapped to the right, my jaw lighting on fire as he threw his first punch. The force of the impact alone rebounded me to face front again, only to have my head knocked to the side again by another vicious hit. The third came before I could get my scrambled wits back to me, and I tasted copper as the buck prepared for his fourth swing of many in his quest to stomp me into red paste. This time, I met his punch, shielding my face with a foreleg to intercept the blow. But he didn’t let up even an inch, and instead of my face or my foreleg, his merciless hoof landed elsewhere when he pulled back and swung once more, punching down straight onto my throat. Pain erupted around my neck, and I choked violently from the heavy hit. Then my head jerked to the right again, another powerful hit stinging my jaw as the taste of blood coated my tongue, simultaneous with the crimson that speckled the floor. But my body pushed through the pulsing pain in my jaw, the adrenaline giving it strength, and keeping my muzzle to the side, I once again hid behind my forelegs, just in time to catch another punch. And then I retaliated, pulling back my hind legs before bucking, planting my hooves square into the stallion’s gut hard as I could, desperate to free myself.

I won a break, the stallion uttering a sharp cry of pain as he stumbled, his raised hoof coming back down to the floor to keep himself balanced. Pulling back again, I planted another kick into the same spot, and he only barely caught himself from falling over onto his left side. Then, gathering my strength, I reached up with my left forehoof to his upper right side and shoved before he could right himself. And together we rolled, the unicorn falling over and off of me before I used the momentum to throw myself over him. Now I was on top, and just as the rampant buck’s eyes looked up to mine, I drew my right hoof back with a cry and threw my own punch. My hoof connected solidly with his jaw, knocking his head to one side as he tried to recover. Quickly I pulled my hoof back, keeping myself balanced to swing again, and again his head jerked to the side. But he immediately came back, looking me right in the eyes as I tried to situate myself for a third blow, and suddenly his head came forward, our skulls clacking sharply together in a jarring impact. For just a moment I was seeing a blur, and before I knew it I was being pushed, the stallion shoving against me with such force as to throw me against the closest wall. I only barely managed to catch myself from completely falling to the floor, using the wall to support me as I kept my hooves under me.

Even as I recuperated from the shock of the stallion’s surprise attack, he had already returned to his own hooves, turning to face me as I struggled to get back to a proper stand. But just as the rampaging unicorn crouched to lunge, he was stopped in his tracks as a bullet smashed into his upper left flank with a dull thump, eliciting a shocked cry as he staggered back and away toward the lobby. I forsook standing and let myself collapsed onto my belly at the presence of the gunfire, only catching a glimpse of the unicorn buck stumbling back to cover as two more suppressed rounds sounded off, my Talon savior driving him back as I shielded my head with my forelegs. Then came a gap of silence, brief before the sound of running hooves reached my ears from behind me, coming from within the lobby as the unicorn moved once again, and one after another, three rounds fired off in response, chasing the buck as his hoofsteps begun to dim. For just a moment, there was no other activity, no return fire as those hoofsteps faded away into nothingness, and then I felt claws on the back of my neck, giving me a firm nudge as someone tried to get my attention. “You okay, wastelander?” the rougher voice of Aeryn asked, her familiar tone bringing me to let my forelegs ease over my head. “That buck’s run off deeper into the facility, but he might try and come back for us.”

So he got away…

“On your hooves, we don’t have any time to waste.” Aeryn continued as I looked up, finding the now uncloaked body of my griffin companion standing to my right as she reloaded her revolver, looking ahead into the lobby. “The platoon’s sweeping through the bunkers now, so they’ll keep the worst of the heat off of us while we secure the Guardian Project. All that’s left now is to open the door. Come on, I’ll keep you covered.”

Letting out a breath, a pair of coughs following it in which I found myself spitting out a sticky clump of red onto the floor, I dragged my hooves under me and forced myself to a stand. And as I did, the image of the young red unicorn swelled to prominence in my thoughts, giving me the strength to overlook the pain that the unicorn’s beating had left me with… only to replace it with new tears as they tried to well back up. But I caught them quickly, forcing it all to the side to try and get some breathing room, and with only a sniff I quickly moved past Aeryn, picking up my empty pistol in my jaws and returning to the lobby… avoiding a glance at the dead mother lying just outside the open doorway.

The lobby space itself was a simple square chamber with three sets of filing cabinets lining the far left wall, sitting just behind the intact steel security desk. Across the room was the entrance to another hallway parallel to the one at my back, this one hooking to the left and serving as the unicorn stallion’s escape route. But to the right side of the atrium, a heavy blast door took up roughly half of the wall, illuminated by a glowing sapphire signboard above it within which black letters labeled the entrance – Guardian. In my peripheral vision Aeryn moved on by me on the left and approached the great door, scanning quickly over the steel slab before her eyes fell to its far left side, looking upon a single control panel built into the wall there. It was a simple yellow box, with two small light bulbs fixed into the top and a single rectangular button at the bottom; the bulb on the left was dimly glowing, a gentle red light emitting from the glass. “Yeah, this is it.” Aeryn remarked, leaving her revolver by her right claws. “E.F.S. is clean, let’s get in there.”

At her word, I holstered my own pistol, making no effort to give any kind of reply as I moved emotionlessly toward the door and joined her. From behind me, gunfire was picking up and echoing along the hallway and into the lobby, louder and more frequent from both the path I’d come in from and from the opposite corridor that the red unicorn had fled into, both signs of the Talon platoon’s entry into the bunker system. With them here, the attention of the bunkers’ inhabitants was drawn to them… to that poor buck on the run, wounded and maybe weaponless…

But I could finally get this over with…

I just wanted so terribly to leave this place… much more so now than before… I wanted out…

With a click, Aeryn’s claw pressed down on the box’s switch, and as the red light went dark, the bulb to the right lighting up green in its place, gears begun to turn within the blast door. With the grinding of metal against metal, hidden steel bars slid free from their slots before the door split vertically in half, the two panels pulling apart, folding back and compacting into three narrower plates, and then sliding away to disappear within the walls with a short hiss of air. Now, I found myself looking into a wide hall, more like another more compressed atrium chamber. The short rectangular room was entirely empty save for two double-barreled energy turrets fixed into the ceiling at each of the far corners, their internal components glowing within their armored hulls but the weapons unmoving at our presence, dormant thanks to Trigger’s efforts; the two silent guns were taking up flanking positions on either side of a new door, the same reinforced model as the first.

“This is the one.” Aeryn spoke up from behind me. “Behind this door is the chamber you need to get into to disengage the lock to Guardian. Go on. I’ll keep an eye out for trouble while your inside.”

Like the first door, a yellow electrical box sat to the far left side, the red light indicating the door’s locked position. Wordless, I made my way over to the panel, casting one last look to the final door before reaching a hoof up and tapping the button. Light swapping from red to green, metal grated against metal as the locking bars slid back and away from their places, freeing the door which split apart into two panels that folded back and slid away and into the wall. A dark nothingness was the sight that met me as the door gave way, a darkness that was hardly broken from the light within the room until a quartet of new lights flickered to life within the dark itself. With a mechanical click, they together revealed a circular chamber encompassed in a shell of smooth dark gray metal, the walls, ceiling, and floor all sharing the near-black color. At the far end of the chamber was a smaller but more complex door, complete with its own array of locking arms but also reinforced with four thick steel bars set horizontally across its face, each one encasing its own locking cog within. And on the ceiling, the only thing within the otherwise empty room, was a shiny silver hoop that hugged the edges of the ceiling’s span, hovering less than a hoof away from the walls at every angle and held to the top of the chamber with four thin legs made from equally polished metal.

Slow of step I made my way inside, tracing along the walls and up to the ceiling and back again as I looked for anything resembling any kind of panel with a button or switch or lever, something to tell me what I needed to do. But as I crossed over the entrance and into the center of the room, I jumped with a start at the sudden heavy shifting of metal, and I looked over my shoulder just as the security door’s panels slid back out from their compartments and unfolded, reconnecting before the locking bars slid back into their places and sealed the chamber, trapping me inside. And immediately afterwards, the white lights in the chamber flickered away to be replaced with that of a soft pure blue, drawing my eyes up to the ceiling; the glassy ring itself was the source of this strange new sapphire light, the normal lights having shut down entirely.

“Initiating recognition scan.” a voice suddenly spoke up, the same electronic masculine tone from before. “Please hold still.”

On cue, the blue light shimmering out from the ring begun to intensify as a hum of magic begun to swell, glowing only slightly brighter before the mechanical whirring of hidden machinery accompanied the drone of energy. Then the ring begun to move, the legs holding it to the ceiling beginning to lengthen as they lowered the ring down. It fell all the way to the floor, bathing me in its gentle light as it came to a halt, lingering around my hooves as I watched the curious machine work. Shifting again, the ring then begun to rise back up, passing over me and stopping just above my eye level. After the pause, it once more reversed course, falling back down to my hooves where it lingered a few seconds longer. And then, rising back up, it passed over me one last time before continuing upward to the ceiling, whereupon it locked back into its original position and remained there as the blue light faded away to be replaced with the room’s normal lighting. “Authorized personnel identified. Unlocking security door.” announced the voice. “Welcome back, General Firelight.”

…General Firelight?

I couldn’t keep myself from cocking an eyebrow at the name that the voice had given me as the formerly inaccessible door begun to open, the heavy bars set across it beginning to pull back and away to the left as their cogs turned. But my attention on the strange announcement was diverted as my pipbuck suddenly begun to buzz, the hiss of static picking up. Then, “You’ve made it through. Good.” As the steel bars disappeared, the mechanical arms pulling back with a metallic squeak to release the door lock, I looked down to my pipbuck and brought it up to see the display; Castle CF01, the Talon frequency, was alight to show the active signal on my computer’s radio screen. “Welcome to the Guardian Project.” Major General Vance spoke through my speaker as the door swung open, coming to a rest against the far wall.

Before me now was a new room, another smaller space lit only by one single circular light. It was enough to show me the entire area, a compact metal box of a room with a low ceiling and short walls, looking only to be able to accommodate maybe a half dozen ponies at the most. I could already see the far wall, this one not of metal like the others, but made from one great rectangular pane of glass built at an angle so that the upper half leaned outward into a great screen of blackness. And below the big window sat a single computer mainframe, a massive workstation just slightly taller than me and wide enough to nearly span from wall to wall. There was a blank monitor built atop of it, and underneath it I could see the tops of numerous keys and switches that lined across the top of the mainframe, making the computer’s control panel.

“What is…” I began raspingly, stopping to clear my throat… much to the protest of my aching neck. “What is this room?”

“Before you is the control room for the Guardian Project.” the general answered as I lowered my pipbuck leg back down, moving into this new chamber. “According to recovered schematics, the control room overlooks the chamber in which Guardian resides, and the mainframe within activates the project. Now that you’re inside, I need you to go to the console and activate the project so that my soldiers can begin preparing the project for use.”

“Someone else can’t come into the control room and do it?” I asked, pausing midstride to look back down to my pipbuck.

“The chamber you passed through only allows pegasus ponies into and out of the control room. When one door opens, the other locks to keep everyone else out.” Vance explained. “When this base was functioning during the war, it held only four senior officers, all pegasus ponies of the Equestrian high command. The first was the project’s funder and designer. There was the base commander that was selected by the project lead himself, then the appointed head of security, and finally the senior maintenance officer. The project leader gave only the other three pegasi the knowledge to operate the project and the means to access the control room – an arcane scanner that would detect the physical structure of a pony and open the door based on the very structure of that pony. According to the documentation we have on the bunkers, the majority of the personnel within the facility were actually unicorns and earth ponies, with only those four pegasi commanding it. And since these ponies were not allowed to leave the facility during their assigned time there, and the base’s defenses automatically attacked any foreign presence, this was what the facility’s builders devised as the most effective way to protect Guardian and to keep it out of zebra hooves. It’s a clever way of doing things, really.”

A scanning device that only let pegasus ponies through… that was definitely not something I had ever read about before.

“Even in the Guardian’s chamber there are doors that can open to allow maintenance crews access to the project.” the general continued. “But even those can only open from within the control room. The control room is the only place where the project can be physically activated and operated, and it can only be done by the base’s commanding officers.”

“So… I need to turn this thing on?” I asked after a soft exhale, moving forward again to approach the console.

“Yes. Are you at the terminal?”

“I am… but the computer doesn’t look to be powered on.” I answered, rearing up on my hind legs and planting my forehooves onto the mainframe to look over the control panel.

“The mainframe never shuts down, but when not in use, it places itself into standby mode.” Vance explained. “Press the green power button on the upper left corner of the control pad, and the mainframe should power up.”

Looking over at his guidance, I found the button in question, and leaning over, I pressed a hoof down on the rounded key. With a chirp, the mainframe clicked and hummed to life, the monitor immediately lighting up with a moderate blue glow, and I saw a flickering rectangular cursor blinking in the center of the screen. “Okay.”

“With the terminal on, you’ll need a passcode to unlock its primary functions, and you’ll use a number keypad near the center of the console to type it in.” Vance said. “I have the code for you here. Ready?” After a quick search, I found the keypad, made from square buttons numbered one through nine place in a three-by-three block. And giving my affirmative, the general said, “The passcode is… one, three… two, nine, eight… seven, eight, one… zero, zero, two… five, one, six… four, four, eight… zero, three, one.” One by one the numbers appeared on the monitor, lining up side by side as I typed them in at Vance’s instruction. And as the last number fell into place, the code disappeared as new text took shape in the upper left portion of the screen.

Code accepted. Guardian operator identified. Welcome brother……

Warning: Communication uplink to VHC disrupted. High Command and Eclipse Control not responding. Eclipse platform safety compromised. Level 5 emergency protocol engaged……

Guardian status: active. Array primed for assault interception. Clear to initiate defensive operations. Proceed with caution……

Initializing command options……

Underneath the new script of text, more lines begun to appear one after another, stacking up one atop the next before they begun to spread out, creating a list very similar to a pipbuck inventory display.

[] Guardian Bunker Maintenance Reports

[] Guardian Project Operational Procedures

[] Access Strategic Map Display

[] Initiate Facility Lockdown

[] Open Bunker Maintenance Doors

[] Open Bunker Blast Doors

But four more items immediately followed after the first, and as they were laid out on the opening menu, I very suddenly found myself going cold as they revealed themselves to me.

[] Guardian Project Emergency Launch Protocol

[] Access Guardian Missile Array Targeting System

[] Access Launch Keypad

[] Initiate Launch Sequence

I stared… starting to shake… the pit in my stomach returning in force… “When the command list appears, use the gray lever on the left side of the keypad to scroll along the list, and use the black button next to select two commands – to open the Guardian bunker maintenance doors and the blast doors.”

I swallowed hard as I tore my eyes away from the monitor, leaning to the side to look out into the darkness of the Guardian chamber… I couldn’t see anything inside… “W-what is this?” I questioned shakily. “This place has m-”

“Do as you’re told.” the general replied with startling ominousness.

I took in a sharp breath as a sudden jolt of anxiety struck me. “Okay!” I spoke up in quick apology. “Okay…”

No response came from the general as I turned back down to the mainframe, the threat in his tone silencing me. Beside the main console on the left was the switch, and reaching over, I placed my right hoof over the top of the small lever and pulled it back and toward me. The blinking cursor lingering over the maintenance report command moved down along the list in response, and when it stopped over the command to open the maintenance doors, I released the lever before pressing my hoof to the black button neighboring it.

Unlocking Maintenance Doors.

Without pause I moved on, placing my hoof back over the lever and pulling it back once more until it reached the next command, to open the blast doors. And with a press of the button, the computer confirmed the command.

Opening Bunker Blast Doors.

From within the darkness behind the control room window, a deep reverberating clang sounded before suddenly, orange lights flashed to life. The lights begun to spin just as a blaring siren sounded from within, and then, from above me, a long white line appeared as the darkness itself begun to split open. Slowly the line widened as the siren wailed its repeating buzzing pattern, and I recognized the gray blanket of the wasteland’s cloudy sky as the blast doors drew slowly apart. The light from outside spilled in as the two doors pulled farther and farther back, the internal components humming deeply as the great machinery executed the mainframe’s command. And when I looked back down, away from the massive doors above…

“We’ve had our eyes set on this place for a long time, ever since we discovered of its whereabouts from a secret base near Canterlot in the Equestrian heartland a few months back. We saw it only for its technological value back then, of salvaging it for its repair and water talismans, its advanced defense array, its production units and weapon schematics. But only recently did we see it as valuable on the basis of strategic value.” General Vance said. “The Guardian Project was perhaps the height of magical countermeasure technology during the war. When the zebras acquired megaspells, a group of ponies raced to create a way to intercept megaspell strikes, and after years of research, they found out how to create a spell matrix that would completely negate a megaspell, absorb it and render it harmless.”

The outside light was slowly bathing the whole chamber that had been concealed in blackness, and as it did, an array of black towers came into view.

“When they created this array of spells, the same group devised with it a delivery system, incorporating magical and computerized components to be able to detect the launch of a megaspell from the zebras, track its trajectory, and then find it and destroy it before the megaspell could activate and annihilate its intended target.”

The towers were lined in rows, first only one row visible, then three, and they continued to grow more numerous as the blast doors pulled farther apart. Then, those in the center begun to take color, white metal beginning to glint in the light of the wasteland.

“The zebras’ most common megaspell delivery system was that of missiles, to which they’d attach warheads containing the spell so that the missile would carry it to its destination. They did this for both balefire and pink cloud, and knowing this, the ponies in charge of the Guardian Project created a similar delivery system for their counterspell.”

Two more rows of the columns came to light before the huge blast doors went still, locking into place as they finished opening. And now with the light from outside illuminating the whole chamber, I could see everything in perfect clarity. Each column was completely identical. They were circular, thinner, each made from metal painted white, and each tipped with a rounded nose colored dark red. They all stood the same height, perhaps three stories tall, and each was held by a pair of claw arms clamped around their middles, the arms in turn part of a raised circular platform that completely surrounded the bottoms of each tower.

“With the right design, the ponies building Guardian created their own cruise missiles that packed enough speed to outrace zebra megaspell missiles and intercept them in flight.”

Missiles… within the massive Guardian bunker was five rows of ten cruise missiles… all perfectly undamaged and held in place in their chambers, reaching up to the open silo doors as if welcoming the light of the outside world for the first time.

“The creators of the Guardian Project intended this facility to be Equestria’s shield, with this just being the prototype of what they intended to become a network of sister facilities that would dot every corner of Equestria.” Vance continued. “This was the only facility that reached completion, and even then it didn’t fulfill its purpose… the facility’s missiles never launched the day that the bombs fell.” Here, the General let out a small sigh, not so much pleased as it was… relieved… “But now, the Talons are going to give these missiles a new purpose, put them to use as Hayward’s shield. And with the proper tools, the targeting system in the mainframe and the spell matrices in the Guardian missiles’ warheads will be altered for a new mission, for our mission in the southeast.”

Every part of me was beginning to feel heavy as the General revealed the scope of his plan, the purpose that acquiring the Guardian Project served… and I just couldn’t believe what was happening. I was trembling over the Guardian mainframe as I bowed my head over the console, closing my eyes as I realized just what they were intending to do. It was hinted at even before the Talons invaded the bunkers, back when the Talon captain had been giving his motivational speech to his troops. He’d called it a maneuver to restore the peace that Hayward once knew, and he’d called a victory here as the herald to receiving a technological edge over their enemies, over whatever group they were fighting at home… and over the southeast. Now I knew the history of the Guardian Project, knew what exactly that technological edge was… and now it was officially under Talon control. Fifty cruise missiles under their command, and they were going to be used as weapons against the very land that I called home …

And I had been the key to it all, the one who delivered Guardian into Talon hooves…

I had passed the scanner… I had activated the mainframe… I had opened the bunker…

“With the right modifications,” Vance said. “we can reshape these defensive missiles into massively aggressive ones. And with them, we’ll turn the tide of the war against Challenger and the southeast to our favor.”

My eyes shut even tighter as I felt tears begin to form up once more, and I barely choked back a sob as the General’s last words stabbed into me like so many hot blades.

The Talons were preparing a massive offensive… and I had… I had just cleared the way…

I had just brought Old World death to the southeast.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Concentrated Fire - In combat, you don’t even let the thick of the fight shake your focus from your target. When using S.A.T.S., your chance to hit any body part increases with each subsequent hit on that target.

Chapter 19: Virtue's Downfall (Part 1)

Chapter 19: Virtue’s Downfall

“You came… you inspired… you destroyed…”

“Did you hear the news? The boys and girls out in Harbinger found something in the sandstorms yesterday.”

…

Voices… voices in the dark…

…

“Your mission is complete, Nova.” Vance spoke as I finally let my eyes open, blinking back the tears that wanted to fall for a second time. “You’ve followed your orders, unlocked Guardian… you’ve upheld your part of the bargain. Now, as promised, your little brother will have his collar removed, and he’ll be safe when you come back.”

I’d done it…… Blake was going to be okay…

With Guardian revealed before me… with the Talons all around me, locking down the bunker, wiping it clean of the Hayward insurgents that had called it home, with other teams already entering the array chamber to gaze upon the missiles – their prize… despite it all, I found myself relaxing as I lowered myself down to all fours, a great weight lifting off of my back at the Major General’s words, to which I let out a weary but relieved sigh; it was response enough to him.

“They actually found something? What was it?”

…

I could just… just barely hear them…

…

“I was one of the first to see the new reports from that sector. The scouts detailed an Old World base past Griffin’s Bridge……”

…

Heavy… whatever force was trying to wake me up was pushed back down by the great weight of the dark… The voices were fading back… a thick congesting fog taking their place…

…

“I’ve ordered the Strikers to escort you back here. Now, if you would, please leave the control room and return to Trigger and the others.” Vance added. “I’ll be waiting at Stable One Eighty-four for your return.”

Gladly, oh so gladly, I put the Guardian mainframe and the missiles beyond the window behind me, returning to the scanner chamber with a slow, heavy stride. I was tired… so very tired… but soon I would be going home. Soon Blake would be free, soon we’d be together again, and then we’d go home together… yes… we’d go home…

Finally we’d go home…

“You’re kidding? Really? Is that why the whole Stable’s been so worked up the past twenty-four hours?” the second voice, a mare’s, asked with surprise, resurfacing through the darkness.

“Yeah. Since the brass doesn’t want to spare anypony from the Ashton brigade, half the outpost is emptying out to move into Trinity.” the first responded with energy, a stallion. “Colonel Seras says there’s something there that drove away the squads that discovered the place after contact with one of her advance scouts was lost. Some old defense system or something. That being the case, the General’s ordered a batch of reinforcements to move out in the next hour, and a new company’s coming in from Hayward to take their place. Should be here by tonight.”

The Talons…… moving?

“I hope it’s worth it – bringing more soldiers down here, I mean.” came the mare’s voice again, more somber now. “Seems like the council’s already poured a third of the city into this campaign… if not more.”

“Hey, it’s more than worth it, especially after yesterday.” the stallion replied encouragingly. “Remember Guardian? The force that took the place spent all day yesterday and all last night working on the thing. Now…”

A moment of clarity… then the weight was pushing back down on me once again, restraining me. I felt my eyelids move… just a twitch… but try as I might, I couldn’t get my eyes open.

Behind me, the door sealing the control room locked back up, only my ears paying it mind as the various locking mechanisms closed to seal away the chamber for the next pegasus to pass through. At the closing of the control room door, the scanner remained silent, the white lights staying lit. And then, I heard the gears of the next door beginning to turn, and finally looking up from the floor, I watched in thankfulness as the locking mechanisms gave way, the door splitting open and sliding away to let me go, to let me leave this place and everything that I had done here behind.

The room was empty… the hall beyond was silent, only dim voices calling back and forth as Talon soldiers finished securing the National Guard Bunkers. But suddenly something came into view, flying quickly from within the hall and sailing into the chamber. The round black container bounced off the right wall from the speed of its flight, then falling with a thud to the floor before rolling toward me.

And then the canister emitted a single beep of sound before, with a blast of sound, my vision was consumed with a blinding flash of white.

“-about her?”

The mare’s voice breached the haze subduing my senses once again… only barely…

“The prisoner?” the stallion asked. “Well, I guess the General needs her for something… probably something to do with this new allocation of personnel.”

“I feel sorry for her…” the mare replied. “If I was being held captive… or my son was being held captive… Goddesses, I wouldn’t make it… Do you think the General…”

I cried out in alarm, staggering back as my eyes stung painfully from the flash, my ears ringing with a thin grating whine that stabbed into my skull without mercy. My head was pounding… I could feel my heart beating rapidly… I could hear my breath as a muffled roar like wind against my ear…

I stumbled from the shock, barely catching myself as my front right leg abruptly gave out. With a gasp, I caught myself on my other foreleg, quickly spreading myself out to keep me balanced. But then, as I tried to push myself back up to a full stand, all of my legs begun to feel… I… oh Goddesses, I… I couldn’t feel my legs…

I couldn’t keep myself up.

With my limbs giving out I crumpled to the floor, landing hard on my right side as a heavy fatigue begun to settle, pressing down on me from all around. As my head came to rest, my eyes facing out to the hall, a pony finally emerged. Trigger… his rifle held off to the right side as he approached me. Behind him, Quicksilver emerged, following the same route as her superior as Aeryn came into view next, stepping around and lingering out in the hallway. All their eyes were on me as I lay there, head still pounding, heart rate quick… body relaxing… eyelids growing heavy…

And from behind Aeryn, another griffin emerged, meeting my eyes with a cold glare…

“going to keep her safe either way. She’s a high-value asset now, especially after Guardian and realizing that similar arcane tech might exist out there. You know what the General found out about her. That kind of a connection can’t be a coincidence…”

The weight… fading in and out… more rapidly…… a pulse…

“I know…” the mare spoke in reply. “But that poor colt is so scared right now.”

“The General’s no child killer.” the stallion assured. “They’ll both be fine so long as she…”

“She’s not going anywhere, General.” Blackhawk spoke in a stifled voice, his big clawed forepaw stepping down just inches away from my muzzle.

The General… what was he doing?? What was-

“Good. Bring her back, and we’ll put her back in her cell.” Vance replied over a radio speaker attached to his armor. “Nova. You shouldn’t pass out for another few seconds yet, so listen carefully. I want to assure you that no harm is going to come to you or your brother. Like I said before, you followed orders and you unlocked Guardian for us, so his life is no longer on the line. However, while you were in the National Guard Bunkers, I received new intel regarding updates in a different sector of the region… and we’ve found a rather shocking connection between it… and you yourself. When you wake up again, I’ll show you what I’m talking about, because I think it’s something that even you are going to want to see. But for now, I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to leave our custody.”

No… no, this wasn’t happening…

I felt Blackhawk’s claws, a single paw moving under my side as the griffin prepared to pick me up… and I could hardly move any part of me to even try and fight back, to escape despite how desperately I desired it. Only my eyelids moved now, slowly drooping down as the ringing in my ears dissolved, my heartbeat slowing as my body relaxed, the sting in my eyes lifting away to let me be.

And in the dark, Vance’s fading voice spoke again. “Because I’m going to need you now even more than I needed you for Guardian.”

Betrayed… betrayed again…

I surrendered to the effects of the crippling device, my eyes fully closing as fatigue overtook me, blanketing me in the darkness of sleep.

…

“What are we going to do?” the mare asked through the dark, her words only a whisper now.

“First, we need to finish packing up. We’ll leave her be for right now.” the stallion replied, his words equally concealed. “When we’re about ready to move out, then I’ll wake her up and we’ll…”

One more time the darkness pressed, a gentle ethereal hoof urging me to sleep once more as it pushed away all sound from the world.

And sleep once more I did.

*** *** ***

Touch…

A nudge on my shoulder…

“Come on, wastelander. Get up.” The familiar heaviness that had kept me sleeping was gone as I woke, allowing for the sound of a male voice to reach me clearly amidst the gentle mechanical humming of some kind of power generator. My senses were… clearer again… and at the words that reached me, my eyes fluttered open with ease. I could see even through the thin blur the legs and hooves of another pony, standing just in front of me. I was laying on my right side on a metal floor, warm until I begun to stir, slowly shifting my legs for the sake of moving them again.

“That’s it. Come on.” the stallion urged patiently. “We need to get you moving.”

The stallion stepped over to the side then, his left foreleg lifting away, and I flinched at the touch of his hoof on the back of my neck as he gave me another nudge, further pressing me to get back up to a stand. With a tired grunt I forced myself to move, pulling my right foreleg back to plant a hoof onto the floor, my left following suit. Then, with a shove, I pushed myself up to get my hind legs under me again, rising slowly.

“Good.” the stallion spoke in approval. “Whoa, careful…” As I tried to stand up full height, I stumbled from a misplacement of weight and landed full against the stallion’s side before I caught and resituated myself. “Take it slow, now. Those spark grenades pack a punch.” With his help, I stood solidly on the floor, blinking away the last of the blur from my eyes to behold the sight of a small boxlike metal room, with only the door just ahead to break the smooth surface of the far wall; it was a familiar sight… one from the recent past.

“Here. Drink some water.” Beside me came a gentle hum of magic, drawing my eyes over to see a small glass tonic as it floated over before my muzzle, filled to the top with clear clean water. Gently the stallion guided the bottle to my lips, pressing it against them, and without hesitation I took it and titled it back to drink. Though a little warm, the water soothed my dry throat immediately, all the better as the stallion let me down the bottle to the last drops. Only when I pulled my head back from the bottle did he float it back to him, and with a sigh I closed my eyes, long enough to take in another breath before opening them again. “Feel a little better now?”

My eyes flicked back up to the closed door of my plain room, and after a moment’s pause I glanced to my right to find him, seeing a beige unicorn with a steel-grey mane securing the bottle to a clip on the side of his black uniform barding. I recognized the color, saw the three ends of white on the left side of the chest piece – the ends of the trio of gashes that made a Talon mark; and that was what sparked remembering, a recognition of my surroundings… of this place.

I knew where I was now – in a cell… my cell in Stable 184.

“It’s going to be a long day today.” the unicorn added, the light of his horn fading. “I’ve been asked to take you to the General’s office when you’ve woken up. He’ll tell you why, and then he’ll let you see your little brother. I’m sure you’d like to know how he’s doing.”

Blake…

“Where… where is he?” I questioned, swallowing.

“He’s fine.” he answered easily. “He’s in his cell, same as before, except not wrapped up in chains. He doesn’t have that collar on anymore either.”

“I want to see him… please…”

But the Talon soldier shook his head. “I’ve got to take you to Vance first.” he replied. “Don’t worry, we’ve been taking care of your brother and he’s perfectly safe. You’ll see him again soon enough, but right now the General needs your help again, and he wants to talk to you about it soon as you’re awake and on your hooves.”

The General… he wanted my help again… again…… even after I had delivered what might have been the most powerful intact weapon remaining from the Old World into his hooves… and he still wanted my help…

Of course he did… it was why he had brought me back wasn’t it? It was why he had deceived me… captured me once again…

It was why I wasn’t with Blake…

“Help… help with what?” I dared to ask, turning away to look upon my cell door.

“I don’t know.” came the Talon’s response. “He didn’t go into any specifics, but he did say that the connection he found between you and our newest discovery in this region was… well, shocking. Said he thought he was hallucinating the first time he saw whatever it was he saw, but I’m sure he’s more than ready to tell you everything he knows.”

…

No…

No, I just… Vance had given me his word that he would let us free. Once I’d unlocked the Guardian Project, once I’d handed him the keys to that lethal Old World secret, he’d promised that Blake and I would be reunited and that we would be able to go home together.

He’d given me his word…

“Why can’t I see my brother right now?” I demanded, words hushed. “I just want to see him again, to see for myself that he’s okay.”

“I’m sorry, but the General’s instructions were clear.” the stallion persisted, my eyes beginning to narrow. “What he needs you for is urgent, and he needs to talk to you now before we begin our relocation, which both you and your little brother will be participating in.”

My body was on the verge of shaking… I could feel that same cold dread that I had felt back in the bunkers as it wormed its way back to me, bearing a sinister toothy grin wrapped in a frightening twisted face……

No… no, I couldn’t go through this again… not after Guardian… I just couldn’t…

General Vance had gotten me to do his bidding in the National Guard Bunkers, gotten me to cooperate by using my baby brother’s life as leverage, using Blake as the collar that closed around my neck to make me obey, as the leash that tied me to the General’s hoof. I’d done what he’d asked me to do. I’d given him that Old World project, opened the way for him because I was the only one who could, because I was the only pegasus around for miles, the only type of pony that the strange technology guarding the project would allow to pass through the door. And now, through me, General Vance had a whole arsenal of missiles at his disposal, missiles that he was going to repurpose and then launch in a massive offensive maneuver in the Talons’ war against Challenger.

And yet, even after all that I’d given him, all that I’d betrayed the moment I passed the scan and activated Guardian… he still aimed to keep me leashed to him.

“What more could I possibly give him?” I asked lowly, bowing my head to stare at the floor. “I’ve already given him more power than he should have by unlocking Guardian… so what else could he possibly need me for now, especially after that?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” the stallion responded in thought, magic humming to life once again. “Like I said, he didn’t really detail anything to the rest of us. That’s why you need to come with me to his office – he’ll explain everything to you, and I promise, after that, you’ll see your brother again.” Immediately after, I heard a light jingling sound, the unraveling of a chain before it was pulled taught, and when I looked back up and turned, I saw a set of shackles floating toward my front legs. Wordless, the guard brought them forward, the clamps opening before he set the steel against my coat, right below my knees. For just a moment I felt the sudden swelling of an urge to pull myself away at the cold touch of the metal, to dodge the shackles and to keep myself away from this buck. The feeling emerged outwardly as only a twitch in my right foreleg… but it subsided just as fast, and I remained still as the clamps closed around me like two pipbucks. Even as he locked the bonds in place, letting the chain flop down with a jingling of the links as he released the restraints with his magic, the metal pressed all around, digging into me to serve as a reminder of my capture… of both of them…

“But if I might say…” the guard with me suddenly spoke up, another chain rattling as a second set of shackles floated out of another pocket; I looked to him. “If you were a Talon… or at least if you were allied with Hayward, the ponies back in that city would welcome you as a hero for what you did out there yesterday.”

“Well I’m not a Talon.” I snapped with hate, casting a dark glare to him; a hero… I was stopping this conversation right there. “And I had to betray everypony I care about just to give Vance his precious weapon! So don’t you dare call me a hero!”

He at least had the decency to hesitate in his next remark, flinching back just an inch from me to stare in silence “Look… all I’m saying is that whether you believe it or not, you’ve saved lives by getting Guardian open for the General, and I’m going to thank you for what you did whether you want me to or not.” he persisted after the pause. “Hayward’s facing its own dangers both on home turf and across the wasteland, and thanks to you we can finally gain the high ground against them.”

“By waging war with neutral settlements??” I angrily spat.

“By destroying the threats to Hayward’s security before they get the chance to act.” the guard corrected firmly. “Challenger and Ashton and the communities that survive off of them together makes one of the few groups in the whole wasteland that has the potential to cause Hayward serious harm. Ten years ago they beat us back, and back then, just like now, we had them outnumbered and outgunned, even with the help they got from all over the wastes. Couple that with the way they’re growing nowadays, and the Hayward Council sees it as only a matter of time before Challenger begins to expand outward beyond the southeast, thus bringing their own war to our doorstep. Whether it take months or years, we don’t know and we don’t care. We’re just making the first move before they have the chance to.”

I snorted in disbelief, turning away before I felt the touch of metal on my hind legs. “And not one of your so-called leaders ever thought of a peaceful solution?” I asked bitterly, forcing myself to ignore the second pair of shackles. “They just invited open warfare?”

“I imagine they did look for peace before all this started.” the stallion answered, the shackles lifting away as a single note of mirthless laughter escaped him. “But considering the bad history between Hayward and Challenger… well, that isn’t really an option anymore.” I could only shake my head at that, turning away from the Talon soldier with a frustrated sigh… feeling a familiar angry flame beginning to flicker within me as I scowled to the floor.

“Now, let’s get these shackles on, and then we’ll-”

A grating wail of sound suddenly pierced my ears, playing out in one continuous note before falling silent, then picking up again. And as the sound played again, a white light within my cell begun to flash in a rhythmic pulse, twice for every blaring of the sound… sound that was Stable 184’s warning alarm.

“What the hell?” the beige stallion spoke in surprise through the blaring siren, the unicorn looking toward the door of my cell as I turned to him. “Something’s up…… might be Marefax raiders.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Raiders are attacking here?”

“I don’t know. They usually stick to the ruins further west.” he answered, taking a step forward. “But something is…”

Something… or somepony… was attacking the Talons?

Goddesses…

I didn’t want to believe it… I didn’t want to assume that… but… I shivered with the thought… my fear suddenly entering brutal combat with a surprise first strike from a spark of hopeful anticipation…

Could it… could Gunny… Shore… did they come looking for me?

“You need to stay put, wastelander.” The Talon unicorn’s voice punched through my train of thought, and I looked back to him just as he begun to trot for the door. “You and your brother will be safe here on the Stable’s lower floor until whatever this is passes. I need to see what’s going on and assist.” But that spark was already swelling as he spoke, creating a volatile mixture in me that pushed me to act, pushed me to move… to attack. Even as the guard approached my cell’s door, already seeing me as nothing more than an obedient prisoner behind him, I was feeling myself beginning to tense as the spark grew stronger, raging into a more violent form that stimulated me, powered me – the thought of what this attack might be, what opportunity it could give me…

It could very well be my only chance to see Blake again… to see my friends again… at least as a free mare…

I couldn’t stand idly by this time… I couldn’t let the General use me again…

I wouldn’t let him…

And I lunged.

One moment I was still, watching the guard’s back as he reached a hoof up to my cell door’s control panel. Then, with a fierce cry, I was rushing forward, a flap of my wings combining with my springing jump to propel me swiftly to my target. And just as I did he whirled around to face me, and only his eyes had time to react, going round before we collided. The force behind my dive carried us both into the wall, and together we hit it hard, him crying in surprise in unison with my head rebounding harshly off the steel. Dazed on the floor, I fought for leverage, just as one of the guard’s forelegs wrapped around my left side and shoved. I lost my ground, tripping over myself and nearly falling over onto my side. Still I kept myself standing, even despite the shackles around my forelegs, but the guard was already scrambling back up to all fours, his horn beginning to glow brightly as he reached for a hidden weapon. I sprang again, throwing myself forward at the new threat, and with my leap I crashed into him again in a solid tackle. It was just enough to knock him off his hooves, and I carried him to the ground with me, my momentum sending me over his back before the two of us skidded along the floor to come to a halt in the corner of the room. Both of us had landed on our left side, and with us came the clattering of steel, the sound of the combat knife that fell from the guard’s telekinetic grasp. Immediately the stallion tried to clamber back up to counter, but I was faster to rise, and swiftly I threw myself back over him with another cry.

“Attention all personnel! An intruder has been identified near Castle’s northwest corner! Target was spotted coming in from the Marefax skyline, and pipbuck scans show the target is utilizing stealth technology to avoid detection! All shift one combat teams report to your assigned posts at once! All shift three personnel report to your superior officers for new orders!”

Once again, the sudden pressing of my full weight against him brought him back down to the floor. With him downed again, I brought my forelegs forward, extending them full and planting my hooves to the floor before drawing them sharply back, and with a loud rattle the chain of my shackles dragged along the metal plate before they hooked around the guard’s neck. But as I attempted to pull the chain up, the guard’s head suddenly lurched back, and with a yelp of pain I jerked away from the back of his head connecting with my muzzle. Before I knew it I was then pulled bodily forward, the guard having gotten his forehooves on the chain and then tugged. Two thick drops of red fell from my muzzle at the sudden change of direction, splashing onto the back of the unicorn’s head before I was struck with his skull again, a lighter hit, but still enough to draw more blood from my nose that speckled the coat of his neck. But just as he was about to get the chain out from under his muzzle, his horn flaring to life simultaneously to reach for his bowie knife, I turned in desperation to one more move, and leaning forward, I opened my mouth wide and chomped down hard on his right ear. That got him to scream, and I immediately felt and tasted blood on my tongue as I mercilessly drove my teeth into the sensitive organ. He released the chain, the knife dropping again with it, as he thrashed his head to the side, trying to bring himself back up to his hooves to shake me off of him. At that he released himself, my teeth grinding harshly against the stallion’s hide as he broke free, and I caught a glimpse of his now hideously mauled and bleeding ear before I focused on my shackles, now free from the stallion’s hooves. And with an enraged scream I yanked up with all my might, finally closing the chain over the guard’s neck and pulling hard.

Immediately he choked, getting to his hooves before he lunged back to throw himself against the wall. Together we hit it in his effort to shake me, but I held the chain tight, the shackles digging almost painfully into my forelegs with the effort. He staggered away from the wall then, only to turn back and slam into it again, my hold on him only strengthening as I clung to him. Once more he tried, this time putting the wall to our back before he reared up onto his hind legs. This time I hit the wall in full, both my back and my head hitting hard, and he coupled it by snapping his head back once again, crimson splattering thickly onto the beige coat of the back of his neck from my already openly bleeding muzzle. Again I cried, a shockingly potent sting ripping through my injury from the third hit, but in retaliation I threw my weight to one side, and with him only on his hind legs, the both of us toppled over onto our left sides; and still I didn’t let up.

“Attention all personnel! Shots fired near the Stable Warehouse! Target is reported to be wearing power armor and is heavily armed and dangerous. All teams – shift three and shift one – converge on Stable One Eighty-four!”

Now, I felt as the stallion’s struggles were finally becoming weaker, his thrashing more sluggish… he was beginning to fail; I had him where I wanted him.

With a sharp tug on the chain, I growled into his bleeding ear. “Spill your guts before I do!” I threatened menacingly, forcing myself to ignore the steady streamer of blood that was trailing down my lips and to my chin. “Where’s my brother’s cell?!”

I won a pained gag from the unicorn as he struggled, squirming for any way to try and free himself from me. “This floor… left out of here…” he wheezed. “Last cell on the right side… of the hall…”

“Is it locked?” I demanded, giving another hard jerk on the chain as encouragement for his cooperation. But he only grunted as his horn begun to glow with light in response; it was dimmer and flickering unevenly, but on the floor, the unicorn’s bowie knife begun to lift up. “Don’t fucking try it!” I warned darkly, pulling harder on the chain to draw out another ragged gag from the buck before the knife clattered back to where it belonged. “You tell me what I need to know, and I let you walk away from this. Got it?” I didn’t wait for his acknowledgement. “Is… his cell door… locked?” I repeated.

“Security keypad…” he managed to choke out, a short cough following his words.

“What’s the passcode?” I growled, only slightly slackening the hold of my shackles, the better to hear him speak.

“Three… eight, one… four, five…”

“Are you lying to me?” I questioned, pulling back on the chain, feeling the suffocating guard squirm against me in response.

“No… no…” he repeated; I could hear the desperation in his weakening voice… he definitely wasn’t lying to me.

No… he just wanted to breathe. He just wanted to escape… to live.

I nodded my approval. “Good.” And with a grunt I yanked hard on the chain, pulling with all my strength. The guard choked as the chain dug into him, and again he thrashed, kicking out in vain, even trying to snap his head back to hit me in the muzzle again. His horn flickered in his struggle, but not even the knife would lift more than a hoof above the floor now. For a few more seconds the guard fought me, weakened, but a moment after and his body begun to shut down, one last twitch… falling still… and finally… nothing more…

He was dead.

With a heavy sigh I released my hold on him, holding my forelegs out straight to pull the chain of my shackles from under the dead Talon’s head, and with a grunt I hoisted myself up to all fours as I fought to get my quickened breathing back to normal. Straightaway fresh blood dripped off the end of my muzzle and onto the floor, and with it came a clump of murky red that I spit out as, trying feebly to rid myself of the taste of blood.

“Explosions and heavy weapons fire reported at the Stable One Eighty-four entrance! I say again, explosions and heavy weapons fire reported at the Stable One Eighty-four entrance! All combat teams respond immediately!”

Looking up, I spotted the speaker box from which the anxious mare’s voice came from in the far right corner of my cell. Still the Stable’s alarms were blaring their dissonant warning note, the loud grating sound likely being the sole reason why other guards hadn’t come rushing into my cell. And with it, the light in my cell was still flashing without pause, maintaining its pattern… but through it all, I couldn’t hear any of this heavy weapon fire that the mare had reported…

I shook my head, bringing myself to focus.

“I’ve got to get Blake.” I spoke aloud, my breathing beginning to level out. “I’ve got to get him out of here.”

Looking down, I gave my right foreleg a brief shake, my bonds jingling in response to the quick motion. After a moment’s pause, I gazed back around over my shoulder to the dead unicorn, to his uniform barding and its array of pockets. “This chain’s going to slow me down…” I muttered, turning and making my way over to him. “He has to have a key…” Because once I got Blake, it was going to be a straight run to the surface, and I needed to be able to move unrestricted… especially to protect him.

Immediately I set my attention on the first of three pockets on the stallion’s right side, quickly patting them down one after the next. All three were flat when I pressed my hoof to them, all of them empty, and the pair of pockets on his chest were the same. With a huff I planted my forehooves on his belly, freezing with a light gasp to snap my eyes to the door… still closed…… I turned back to the dead guard, and with a hard shove, I managed to roll him onto his back, and then over onto his opposite side. There I could see the small bulge of the second pair of restraints he had intended to put on me in the center of the three pockets, and sure enough, when I patted him down, I felt something small in the rightmost pocket, something thin but solid – the key I needed.

But just as I begun to pull the guard’s body back to reach it, a deep boom suddenly echoed, dim, but still reaching my ears even through the thick Stable walls. I even felt vibrations in the floor which drew my eyes to the ceiling, as if somepony would come tearing through it to land in my cell. And just after, a second boom traversed through the Stable, an even stronger vibration coursing through the floor to reach my hooves as the sound of the detonation lingered. I took that as new incentive to move, turning back to the guard and rolling him toward me to tilt his pockets down toward the floor, and smooth and easy, a slender iron key slipped out and hit the floor with a pair of light clinks. Letting its former owner free to fall over onto his side again, I pawed the key away from the corpse before reaching down and scooping it up. And after a brief taste of the floor, I situated the key in between my front teeth before getting to work.

“Alert! Alert!” the speaker suddenly blared, the mare behind it sounding nearly panicked now. “Long-range artillery has targeted the compound! All flak gun crews report to the garage! All sharpshooter and heavy-weapon wings report to the armory!”

Artillery…

With a grunt, I sat down on my haunches and raised up my shackled forelegs, leaning forward to check over the clasps with newfound haste. Lowering my head down, I found the keyholes for both clamps built into the metal, facing in towards each other. Keeping the key flat between my teeth, I ducked in and reached out for the lock on the left clamp. It was positioned so that I couldn’t directly reach it, not until I turned my forelegs toward me. With a small twist, I cocked my head to the right as the keyhole faced me, and carefully, I leaned forward further, nearly crossing my eyes as I fought to align the key to its hole. But after two tries, the key fell right into place, and with a grateful twist to the right, the lock clicked in submission and the clamp fell away from my leg as I removed the key. With the first shackle gone, the second was much easier to reach, and like the first it fell away, the bonds clattering to the floor, chain, key and all.

A third boom rippled through the Stable with a sound like distant thunder as I returned myself to a full stand, and as a fourth followed suit, I trotted briskly to my cell door and jabbed the console beside it. At my command, the door disappeared into its slot in the wall to reveal the prison hallway, and pressing my side up against the wall, I immediately picked up voices in the air. They were coming from the right side, and as I focused my hearing, I heard nothing from the left. The cells seemed unattended because of the attack, especially now because of the sudden drastic increase in the severity of the Talons’ situation. And sure enough, when I poked my head out to look, I found the hallway to the left completely empty.

Back to the right, a single Talon soldier galloped by as he fumbled with his levitating rifle, running and loading it at the same time. But after a second of no other activity, I looked back the other way and crept out into the hallway, stepping out into the illumination of another orange warning light, flashing in time with the Stable’s siren. At first I moved slow, crouched down and looking back over my right shoulder to keep an eye on the passage. But as the alarm continued to blare, the soldiers answering their call to arms to defend their outpost, I picked up the pace to a cautious walk, then a silent trot, and then to a run, facing the hall and immediately finding my target door. Just in front of where the prison hall dead-ended, the door on the right was closed up tight, and a panel nearby it was glowing with green light like a standard terminal, sharing the same flickering light as the same single panel that accompanied the other doors in the hall.

Slowing myself to a trot as I approached, I could make out the keypad on the door control, sitting underneath the glowing glass screen. When I faced the pad, I reared up onto my hind legs and planted my forehooves on the wall to either side of it, balancing myself before reaching down and jabbing at the square keys. “Three, eight… one, four, five.” At a tap of the final key, I looked to the screen, a moment of anticipation passing by, before my ears perked at a single chirp from the console. Then, to my left, a locking bolt clicked from its place inside the wall, and with a short hiss, the door to the cell slid away into its port in the wall, opening the chamber. I lowered myself down to all fours as it opened, checking the opposite end of the hallway once more. Again it was empty, but again, another dampened boom echoed from above, from the surface, with another consecutive explosion following shortly after, both of them driving me forward.

“Alert! Enemy artillery units located to the east! All combat wings respond! Enemy power-armor unit still at large inside the Stable! All security teams continue pursuit!”

Turning to the opening, I trotted ahead to face the cell, only to find that the room inside, looking exactly like my own, was empty. The same was the case for the far corner of the chamber when it emerged from behind the doorframe, completely void of any occupants, let alone my little brother. But then, as I peered along the cell’s front wall, my eyes fell upon something… or rather somepony… the room’s single occupant.

The wave of relief was nearly staggering.

Huddled up tightly in the room’s front corner farthest from the door was a single small gray pony with a blue and white mane and tail, the colt facing away from the entrance where he lay. True to the General’s words, Blake was no longer garbed with heavy chains and shackles, and even better, he was free from the explosive collar that Vance had threatened to use on him. He lay atop a single white blanket, torn in multiple places and heavily blemished with dirt, and close by was an empty metal tray with an accompanying cup, squat and tarnished. But most important, he looked uninjured and physically healthy, and aside from a slightly more disheveled mane, he looked exactly as he had when I last saw him.

To that end, the General looked to have actually kept his word.

Just as I stepped into his cell, the colt’s ears twitched even at the lightness in my step, and his head snapped around from its resting place on the blanket for his wide eyes to look upon me. For a moment the two of us stared, and in him, I saw the terrible uncertainty that swirled within his thoughts, the hesitation towards believing just who it was that he was now seeing… the doubt that I was who I really was. But then he spoke, only a single word reaching me… my name… a question… suspicious but, more than that, so hopeful.

And my name on his lips was all it took for me to rush him.

The colt shot up to all fours just as I lunged into a gallop, and he didn’t even get to fully turn and face me before I skidded to a halt and pulled him into a crushing hug, one that he returned in full as he begun to openly weep. My baby brother held on to me for dear life, and his sobs only got me to pull him even more tightly against me, the world around us, mercifully, waiting for us in the moment of our reunion. And as he begun to audibly fight to suppress his sobs, I begun to shed my own tears, one that was immediately followed by a second, and I shut my eyes tight as the both of them trailed down my cheeks, only reaching a hoof up to stroke the back of my dear brother’s neck.

“I thought… I thought I would never see you again… Nova…” Blake spoke, his words split again and again with his crying.

I took in a breath from the pain in his voice, letting it out as I mustered my first words, the first I’d spoken to him in days. “Oh Blake… I’m here, now.” I replied, turning to nuzzle him along the side of his neck. “I’m here…”

He pulled harder around the back of my neck at my efforts to console him, refusing to ease the strength of his hold on me even a little. And in our silence, the same scared mare on the PA once again filled the Stable with her warning voice. “Contact with enemy power-armored unit reported at the Stable’s main staircase! All units inside the Stable converge on the staircase and shoot on sight!” The artillery from outside replied to her warning, two more explosions that sounded nearly in unison sending stronger vibrations through the Stable floor. And following it, I picked up a new sound from outside Blake’s cell, also dim, but something I could identify as a third explosion, one of a smaller but still potent yield.

And it sounded close.

“Blake…” Opening my eyes again, I drew a hoof back to press against Blake’s left leg, gently trying to get him to ease away from me. “Blake, look at me.”

Though hesitant, the colt complied, his forelegs sliding free from around my neck as he leaned back to look up at me with watery eyes. But before I could speak again, he suddenly leaned up toward me, studying my face as he reached a hoof up to touch my left cheek “Are you okay, Nova?” he asked with instant concern. “You’re hurt…” Yes… even now I was still bleeding… and in the moment of our reunion, I’d smeared Blake’s hair along where I’d nuzzled him with my own blood, something I instantly regretted. “What happened to you?”

But what made me wince was that question, that question of what I’d done to reach him… and I didn’t want to tell him the answer, that I’d killed a Talon guard the way I did; he didn’t need to know that…… not right now. “Don’t worry about me, Blake.” I answered firmly, locking eyes with him. “Right now, we need to get out of here.”

“What do you mean?” he questioned, lowering his hoof away from me. “Did they let us go now? Can we go home?”

I shook my head, my baby brother leaning back as his eyes slightly widened at the answer he didn’t want to receive. “No they didn’t. But we’re leaving now whether they want us to or not.”

“W-why didn’t they let us go?” he asked shakily. “You did what they wanted, right?”

“Yes I did… I did what they wanted… but they lied to us.” I explained, lowering my head down to match his eye-level. “The General wanted to keep us here for something else.”

“For what?” Blake asked anxiously. “Why?”

“I don’t know, baby brother.” I replied, shaking my head. “He didn’t tell me, but I don’t care what he wants. I’m not going to let them keep us here another day to send us to Celestia knows where. I’m going to get us back home.”

“W-what are we going to do?”

I could feel him trembling before I released him, then taking a step back and glancing back to the open door of the room – clear for now. “We’re going to escape this place. And when we get back outside again, we’re going to make a straight nonstop flight back to Hopeville.” I responded, turning back to him. “That’s why I need you to relax, okay? I need you to be calm and I need you to focus. Can you do that for me, Blake?” Though it took him a moment, Blake eventually nodded, even if the motion was a little quicker and erratic. “I know you can.” I encouraged, putting on my best comforting, albeit bloodied, smile. “Okay.” Looking back to the door, I turned to face the entrance, approaching the opening. “When we get out there, you stay close to me at all times, and you move only when I tell you to. Some of the guards are still here, and we can’t let them spot us.”

“O-okay.” he replied, stepping up beside me as I leaned up against the wall, listening for activity in the hallway. “What if they find us?”

“Then you stay behind me and let me deal with it.” I replied lowly.

A shaky sigh replied to that, drawing my eyes back to Blake where he stood. “Nova… I-I’m scared…”

“Hey.” I immediately lowered myself down to his height, the frightened colt’s eyes following me all the way. “You can do this, Blake. I’ll be right with you the whole way through, okay?” Again, hesitantly, he nodded, turning to look away as he took in a breath and let it out. “Hey…” Once more he turned to me. “I love you.” I said, smiling again for him. “We’ll make it, together.”

This time, he nodded more confidently… and bless his brave heart, he even smiled a little in return.

“Okay.” With greater sureness I looked away and back to the hallway, still empty, and cautiously I took my first steps back into the open. Thankfully, the hall in its entirety was still unattended, and the reason behind it announced itself once again, two more diminished detonations above sounding off to remind me of the battle outside. “The hallway’s safe, Blake. Come on out, and stay close to me.” I said over the Stable’s alarm, moving out into the hall.

“What were those noises?” the colt asked from just behind me as he followed.

“Artillery… I think.” I replied, keeping my eyes ahead to where the hall ended at an intersection chamber, a chamber to which the stairway leading to the second floor was attached. “I think somepony’s looking for us.”

“Really?” Blake asked hopefully. “Is Gunny and Shore and Gracie looking for us?”

I flinched, shutting my eyes a brief second before saying quickly, “Maybe. Maybe they are…” But after a moment, I added more collectedly, “I think it might be Buckley though.”

“You mean Archer?” Blake asked.

Archer…

Goddesses, he’d be a sight for sore eyes.

But just then, a new sound reached me over the Stable’s sirens, the sound of galloping hooves on the floor. To my right though was the open door to my cell… and as much as I didn’t want to… “Blake, get in that room!”

Quickly, I made my way over to the open doorway, turning to find Blake running to me before dashing by and entering my old cell. And just as I backed into the room after him, I paused as I caught sight of two black-armored unicorn stallions, both emerging into the intersection one by one from the right-side hall parallel to the stairs. “Patrol four here – we’ve searched the entire northeast quadrant of the lower level, still no signs of the intruder.” one of the bucks said as I ducked back into the room. “He must’ve hung back on the second floor and used his stealthbuck again.”

“We should get back up to the others then.” the second replied. “We can make one more lap around before we come back d-”

BLAM!!

Without warning a tremendous blast of sound assaulted my ears, an explosion that lessened into a crackling roar before fading away. Wide-eyed, I poked my head out into the hallway, looking back out into the intersection… the walls and floor of which were now heavily blackened, with absolutely no trace of the two Talon guards I’d seen just a second ago. But only a second later, and a new contact suddenly emerged from the stairway, moving on quick hooves into the intersection amidst the explosive residue that coated the floor. But though I flinched away, my gut telling me to hide before I was spotted, my eyes stayed locked to the new arrival… because the pony who had entered the corridor wasn’t garbed in another Talon uniform… but was clad in steel. In fact, the pony was all steel, a literal shell of solid gray plate covering the wearer from tail to muzzle. Built into the right side of the rig, facing me, was a weapon housing holding a compacted five-barreled minigun that was part of a heavy steel saddle welded into the armoring…

But above the weapon… plated like the rest of the pony… was a wing tucked against the pony’s side…

I couldn’t look away, even as the steel pegasus swung its head to the left to scan the hall for hostiles… and with the artillery sounding off above once more… only one thought crossed my mind, a thought I dared to speak aloud as I stepped out into the hallway, calling to the new arrival. “… Archer?” I asked, even the Stable’s alarm fading away. “Archer, is that you?” I risked a hopeful wish as the pegasus swung around to face me, a shiny black visor meeting my eyes as I stared, waiting for his voice to confirm my question. Indeed the pony was very much a pegasus, as the plated wing on the right side was accompanied by another on the left, tucked against the pegasus’ armored side just above the rig’s second weapon – a box-like assembly with four rounded ports built two-by-two, currently closed, making some kind of launcher weapon.

Then, with the pegasus’ eyes still on me from behind the helmet visor, “No… I’m sorry, but I’m not this… Archer.”

A mare…

A mare’s voice replied to me from within the helmet, the Stable siren returning in full as my hope at seeing a familiar face was dashed. Of course, I should’ve gotten the hint that it wasn’t Archer from the shape of the armor, sleeker all around to undoubtedly accompany a more feminine body… disappointing… “But I’m here to help you get out of this place.” the steel pegasus mare then spoke, trotting forward to approach as she pulled my startled attention to her. As she did, new steps sounded behind me, drawing my eyes over my shoulder to see Blake as he slowly emerged from our hiding place, only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of the armored newcomer. “You have a child with you…” Blake immediately scampered away behind me, and I snapped my eyes back to the pegasus, instinctively taking a step back at finding that she had stopped midstride only a couple paces ahead, a foreleg poised above the floor as her visor stared back at us. “Is he your son?”

Her question was gentle, even concerned… but without my pipbuck’s E.F.S., I had no idea where this steel pony’s intentions rested, and steel or no, I was making ready to pounce. “Who are you?” I asked back in suspicion, keeping myself steady in front of Blake as he hid.

“I’m not an enemy, I promise.” she replied, looking back over her shoulder towards the intersection. “I found you when Talons brought you into the Stable last sunset, and I’m here to help you escape. But if I’m to do that, then I need the both of you to follow me now. I’m the one that’s been causing all the fuss the PA’s been screaming about, and Talon soldiers are right behind me.”

“Why do you want to help us?” I pressed. “Are you with Challenger?”

“There’s no time for more questions.” she replied sternly, looking my way as her head bowed slightly; I had no doubt she was fixing me with a glare behind her visor. “I’ll explain anything you want to know about me once we leave Marefax. But for now, if you want your child to live to see the outside again, then you need to trust me.” I exhaled at her assertion, unable to ease away my distrust. Behind me, Blake shifted, brushing against my back legs as he stepped out to look over our steel-clad endeavoring-to-be liberator. “Look, if I wanted to kill you two, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now?” she question, turning to her left to flash us her armor’s dormant minigun.

Her question didn’t win any favor from me, especially with her mention of attacking Blake… but with no Talon markings on her that I could see, and with the PA having gone off again and again about an intruder… there was truth in her words…

“Fine.” Turning about, I lowered my head down to look Blake in the eye again. “Blake, stay right behind me. This pony’s going to help us out of here, okay?”

“Are you sure?” he asked, looking away to peek over at the new pegasus.

“We don’t have much of a choice, Blake.” I answer, reaching over to nudge him on the side, urging him to move. “Come on. We need to move.”

“We can’t take these stairs.” the armored pegasus spoke up as I turned around; she was already trotting past them. “I saw the exit of another stairwell before I got to the Stable’s main staircase. This way.”

With silent compliance I picked up my pace to a trot, moving just slow enough for Blake to be able to keep up. Together we passed the intersection, and though the stairs were empty, I was hearing hoofsteps directly above me, the steps of another Talon patrol. Ahead, our new companion was already waiting at where the lengthier hallway hooked left, farther into the Stable. “Clear up here.” she said as Blake and I caught up. “Stay close to me.” When we joined her, the hall continued along in a long straightaway, this one divided at its center with three crossways leading into different sectors of the facility; my guess was that we were in some sort of maintenance area, perhaps near the Stable reactor.

“Judging by the layout of this hall, I’d say the center entrance on the left is the stairwell we’re looking for.” Our escort picked up her pace to a faster trot, guided by her own hypothesis. “Each of the others would likely lead to other rooms in this wing.”

“You might be right.” I piped up, checking over my shoulder to find Blake staying right on my tail.

“I don’t see anything on my compass.” she spoke a moment later as we drew up to the first of the three doors on the left side. “These doors should all be safe to open.”

“You have E.F.S.?”

“All power armor does.” the pegasus answered quickly, raising a hoof up to the door control pad. “Now keep an eye out while I check these entrances.”

Above, another pair of artillery shells struck the compound, the Stable floor vibrating as I turned about to trace our steps, looking for any Talons coming up behind us. The hallway was clean, and behind me, the door our companion was checking opened up. “Clear.” she said, already trotting ahead as she resealed the door. “I’ll check the next one.”

“Follow me, Blake.” I said over the note of the Stable siren, backing up and past the first door, Blake following my move and sticking close to my left side.

With the push of a button, the second door opened up behind us, this one remaining open. “Right here.” the steel pegasus said. “Let’s go.” But from the corner of the hallway suddenly emerged a pair of black assault rifles, with two unicorn stallions following suit as they swung their weapons about to face us. In that moment, the Talon soldiers had us in their sights, frozen only with the surprise of finding their target in the company of two others, two former prisoners.

“DOWN!”

Just as our pegasus companion shouted that command, I threw myself to the side, driving Blake to the floor and falling over him, using my own body to shield him. Then the bullets flew, the pair of Talons opening up together before an even stronger roar filled my ears, deafening as it traversed the hallway before exploding with a violent crack of sound. The assault rifles were silenced as the explosion rang in my ears, and before I could even look to get a sense of what had just happened, a steel foreleg hooked around my right side and pulled, a hard nudge to get me up on my hooves again. “There’s more of them just down the hall! We need to move!”

The ringing in my ears fading quickly away, I could hear the shouting as I collected my wits to push myself back up to all fours. Under me, Blake likewise forced himself up, immediately looking back the way we came as he hurriedly put me between himself and danger. But where two Talon soldiers had once stood were only two unmoving bodies, lying amidst a mess of blood and blackened residue… with three different limbs laying separate from their bodies…

“Blake, are you hurt?” I asked, tearing my eyes from the carnage to face my little brother, making sure to put myself between him and the gruesome sight.

“N-no…” came his shaky answer.

“Okay. Come on, Blake.” I urged, nudging him to turn around, facing him to where the power-armored mare was waiting by the second open door. “Come on.”

Thankfully he got moving quickly, hurrying over to the pegasus just as she wheeled to plant a solid buck into the door console, caving it into the wall with a heavy metal crunch. “Get in here!” she ordered.

Blake moved in first, clearing the entrance as I followed after him. Just as I crossed into the next hall, shouting voices reached my ears from the corner, and though I didn’t see, gunfire struck out again from both an assault rifle and some sort of shotgun. I wheeled around to find our steel comrade jerking back as bullets sparked off her armor’s chest plate and helmet, and in reply, her compact minigun whirred to life before spraying a virtual storm of bullets to return fire, speaking its hot words in a loud deep buzz of sound. Easily pushing the enemy back, she let the gun fall silent before leaping to us, crossing into the hallway before reaching up and pressing a hoof to the door control panel against the wall. With the grating of metal, the door slid back into its place and closed. “There. That should slow them-”

“All personnel! Enemy power armor unit reacquired near the reactor chamber with the prisoners from Hopeville! New incoming hostile infantry spotted engaging south and east perimeter sentries! All Stable teams move to secure prisoners! All surface ground teams move to intercept new incoming hostiles!”

The mare on the PA was clear even in this hall outside the main stretches, nothing more than a short approach that led to a set of straight stairs heading up to the next floor. “Damn… we need to keep going.” our pegasus friend spoke, moving past me to take the lead once more. “When they figure out that they can’t open this door they’re going to try and cut us off upstairs. Go.” At her word, I nudged Blake along once again, the trembling colt picking up his pace. And instead of keeping him behind me, I stayed by his side as we ascended the stairway.

At the top of the stairs was another closed door, unguarded from this side. But as we approached, the steel mare slowed her ascent, craning her head around to look back to me over her shoulder. “Whoever’s attacking this place might end up being our way out of here, so we need to hurry.” she said. “Hit the button to open the door, and I’ll cover the passage.”

With a nod I obeyed, hopping up the rest of the stairs and moving past her to reach the door. Looking back, she was already waiting for me to open the door, her two heavy weapons at the ready, and after a nod from her helmet, I reached up to the panel and hit the button. The door slid open with a gentle grating, and I quickly backed away as she rushed in, turning left to quickly scan the hall before swinging around to the right. One after another, three carbine rifle round sparked off her chest plate, only drawing a flinch from the mare before her minigun roared in response. But more rounds struck her from the front as her minigun briefly went silent, quick consecutive rounds from a pistol coupled with a steady stream of SMG fire creating a shower of sparks. Then her minigun buzzed again, a hail of bullets coupling with her second weapon as it launched another missile, the projectile screaming down the hall to connect with its intended target in a fierce blast.

“Follow me!” the pegasus called, crouching as a line of rifle fire sparked along the wall to her left. “The main staircase is just ahead!”

As her minigun spit lead again, I turned to Blake where he was hunkered down just behind me, staring fearfully toward our path. “Come on, Blake! We’re almost out of here!”

Despite his fear the colt complied, making his way up the rest of the stairs as I turned to face the perpendicular hallway. Our escort had already disappeared from sight, and when I poked my head out to see, I found the steel pony entering a familiar lounge chamber within which was the Stable’s main spiral staircase. She had carved a path to make her way there, three other ponies already laying shot full of holes at her hooves as she turned to her left, firing another minigun barrage into the hall. But as I stepped out into the open, making my way over to meet up with her, she jerked forward as more rounds struck her flank plates. And this time I heard her scream!

Lunging, the power-armored pegasus stumbled back into the hall, putting her back to us as I drew to a halt just behind her. On her armored flanks I could see the scuff marks where weaker-caliber rounds had been deflected by the steel, but mixed with them was a quartet of holes where armor-piercing rounds had punched through to score hits, blood already forming around the edges and dribbling down the metal in thin trails. “Pick up a weapon… agh!” she yelled to me, keeping her eyes ahead as she fought to remain on all fours. “I need you to cover me while I heal! Take that pistol!” Her right foreleg was raised, pointing a hoof to one of the dead Talon soldiers a pony-length away, and I immediately spotted the sidearm – a different model of a nine millimeter pistol with an extended magazine – still in its holster on the earth pony’s body.

Leaping over, I skidded to a stop by the weapon’s former owner and reached for the holster. “Down here!!” With a hard yank I ripped the weapon free as the frantic voice called to her companions, and spinning around I spotted a Talon unicorn as she brought a carbine rifle to bear. She got off one round, the shot deflecting off my companion’s armor to bury itself into the floor before I pulled hard on the firing bit. I fired round after round, the first three shots sparking off the floor right at her hooves causing her to spring back in surprise. I followed her with the fourth, the shot hitting the wall behind her, but the fifth hit home, striking her armored foreleg and staggering her before she managed to leap back to cover.

“Nova!!”

Blake’s voice called out in alarm, and my focus zeroed on him in a heartbeat. I reared up and spun around, finding Blake just as he threw himself to the floor. And as I landed I spotted the new threat he had seen, another Talon unicorn emerging from a corridor just behind us, a black assault rifle raised to fire. We shot in unison, and a trail of four more rounds sparked off of my companion’s armoring as five quick shots from me struck his chest plate one after the next. He took the hint, ducking away into the hall from which he’d come to take cover just as an explosion sounded behind me, our companion’s missile launcher firing before the projectile detonated in the lounge.

“The stairwell! Come on!”

“Alert! Additional contacts sighted in the Stable entry hall! All shift two teams move to support Stable security! Alert!”

Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the armored flier already pushing ahead again, moving a little awkwardly but still standing steadily on all fours with the holes in her armor having completely disappeared. With no time for questions and my mouth full of firing bit, I reached out and hooked a foreleg around Blake’s chest, pulling him along to get him to stay with me as I begun to follow our escort, keeping my back to hers to cover our trail as we begun to draw up to the lounge. Only a few steps in and the gunfire picked up again, the compact minigun buzzing to life again to respond to a blast from a shotgun, mixed with a short burst of lighter sub-machinegun fire, the fire from the latter sparking along the wall to my right. Then the same guard from before stepped back into the hall, swinging his assault rifle around to bring it to bear. But this time I was right on him, firing just as he lined us up in his sights, and he ducked back into cover as three more rounds from my pistol struck the wall just in front of him, nearly scoring hits. With a moment’s break presenting itself, I looked back over my shoulder to see our escape artist already pushing back into the lounge, recovering her lost ground as she put another barrage of rounds into the hallway to her left, driving back two Talons who sought to emerge from cover. She then switched directions, whirling around to face the right-side hallway before sparks erupted from her chest plate, two different weapons opening up on her. But the plate held this time, and she stood her ground under the fire as her missile launcher fired again with a blast of sound, the warhead disappearing behind the wall before its prompt detonation.

Just to my right side, metal struck metal with a sharp impact, startling my attention forward to see a new Talon with the assault rifle unicorn I’d kept at bay. Racking another shell into his weapon’s chamber, the second unicorn buck leveled the shotgun with me once again as I fired back, two rounds sparking at his hooves before the third caught him in the neck. His shotgun immediately dropped as he staggered, and his companion shoved him back into their position of cover before I targeted him once more, four rounds driving him back into hiding with his wounded squad-mate before my pistol clicked on an empty chamber. “Up the stairs, pegasus! Move!”

With a toss of my head I threw the now useless nine millimeter aside, and at our companion’s command I spun to face the stairwell. “Go Blake! Up the stairs!” But already he was turning with me, nearly slipping as he reared about in his eagerness to reach the safety of the surface, and as he got himself balanced and moving, I gave him a hard shove to get him going, keeping myself right on his tail as he made a break for the stairwell. Already the power-armored pegasus was at the base of the stairs, reared up on her back hooves as she opened fire on the top of the spiral staircase, driving back however many Talon soldiers were waiting for us on the first floor. But just beyond her, from the fourth hall leading to the lounge, four additional contacts were coming in, another fireteam galloping toward us side-by-side with assault rifle battle saddles primed. And with them, more voices were shouting from both the left and right, more soldiers already moving to box us in as Blake and I stepped up to the staircase.

“Nova! She’s here!”

“Get her up here! We need to get the hell out of this Stable!”

“Amber says they’re regaining ground at the warehouse! We need to scoot!”

With the Stable’s grating sirens continuing their unending blaring, I almost missed my name on the voice of a hidden stallion. But I heard it… oh I heard it… and though I didn’t find anypony at the top of the stairs when I looked, I swore that I recognized the voice that had spoken my name.

“Up the stairs! I’ll cover you!”

The power-armored pegasus stepped aside and toward the front hall to allow me through, minigun spinning up again before another storm of bullets hammered the team approaching from there. Shoving him forward, I forced Blake to move and ascend the staircase ahead of me, and half jumping I followed him up. The stairs coiled around twice before reaching the Stable’s top floor, and as Blake and I passed the first complete circle, hostile fire swelled to life below us, concentrating where our steel companion had just begun to move up the stairs behind us. But just as I turned back to Blake, seeing as he disappeared from the staircase into the first floor, I lost my balance on the stairs as I was suddenly thrown against the left-side railing, crying out as a sharp blast of white-hot agony ripped into my right flank.

“I got you, Nova! Come on!”

Through the shock of the sudden burn, I felt as a foreleg hooked around my own to pull sharply, and I was partly dragged up the rest of the stairs from the strength in the limb as I forced myself to move with the helping hoof. After four more steps, I stumbled onto level ground before I was released, and the sting in my flank immediately drew my attention to my new wound. A grotesquely sizeable hole had been put in me just above my cutie mark, and already it was dribbling crimson, a wound made by what had to at least be a three-o-eight round.

“Amber, this is team three! We’ve got Nova and Blake with us and we’re heading back up to the surface now!”

“I copy. We’re on our way to assist.”

Again came that voice as I forced myself to look away from my wound, facing forward as the same stallion called to me in question, “Nova, can you walk? We need to leave before we get cut off!”

And I found myself looking upon a pair of hazel eyes, eyes that belonged to a steel-blue stallion with a black mane and tail, with feathered wings… with a familiar face…

“Archer…” Goddesses… it was him… it was really him… “You came for me…”

The air force base sniper pony, fully geared with his rifle saddle, Longbow, and his light Buckley combat armor, glanced past me to my fresh wound, expression immediately wrought with concern as he made to speak again. But from behind him came a second pony that I recognized, a lime-green, white-maned unicorn mare similarly garbed in one of Buckley’s combat rigs. “Hey, we need to move!” Hope called over the combined gunfire and Stable sirens, giving Archer a solid shove. “Ricochet’s about to bring hell to this place, and that’s going to be your ticket out of here!”

“They’re right behind me!” a muffled voice warned from behind me, the sound of metal hooves on the floor drawing up beside me as my power-armored companion joined us.

“What the… who the hell’s that supposed to be??” another pony called, a gray unicorn stallion with an orange mane that I recognized as Bolt.

“Doesn’t matter!” Archer responded, stepping up beside me as he looked to the armored pegasus. “You! Help us out!”

“Go ahead! I’ll cover our exit!” the pegasus mare replied to him, all the answer he needed before he gave me a shove forward.

“Come on, Nova! Let’s get you and Blake out of here!”

Blake himself was right in front of me, trembling on his hooves as he kept close by, and as Archer moved me ahead, I did the same for him. “Stay right next to us, Blake!” I ordered to him, nudging him over to my right side to put him between myself and Archer.

A vigorous nod was all I drew from him for acknowledgement before I faced ahead and moved at a solid trot. In front of us, I found that Archer was accompanied not just by Bolt and Hope, but by an entire unit of Buckley guardsponies. Three guards each were covering both the hall to my left and my right that branched from the first floor lounge holding the spiral staircase, putting steady fire downrange to keep the Talon guards from gaining ground and taking back the area; already, both halls were marked with several fallen foes. With them, five more Buckley ponies were spaced out between us and a new staircase, one that I recognized from the first time I had left Stable 184, labeled as the facility’s entrance chamber access from the glowing signboard above the doorway; like the other halls, this one showed further evidence of the Talon casualties of the firefight.

One after another, the five advance guards entered the new hallway ahead of us, traveling single file and keeping their rifles close. Behind us, minigun fire alerted me to pursuers, and two stray shots suddenly sparked off the wall to my left, both Archer and I ducking down low as we crossed the short hall to the Stable entrance stairs. “Keep going, Nova! Once we get to the surface we’re going to fly you out of here! It’s a warzone outside, so don’t go flying off on your own!

I glanced over to the stallion as I struggled my way up the stairs, my wounded flank burning with every step. “How many ponies are here?” I questioned over the continuing fire.

“We’ve got a force of ninety here!” came his response. “Separate from us is a couple howitzer teams who’ve softened the place up for us so we don’t get overrun, but we need to get out before the Talons become too much to handle!”

Ninety??

I nearly stopped in place from Archer’s revelation. “You brought ninety ponies here?!”

“Look, it’s a long story!” Archer said back as we neared the peak of the stairway. “But your friends were the ones who galloped up to our doorstep and told us about your capture a couple days ago, and when they did Mother Shimmer immediately mounted a search! Gunny and Shore and Raemor are all mixed in with the fighting out there, along with a unicorn mare from your home – calls herself Ivy! We’re all here to get you and Blake out of this Talon station and back to Buckley where you’ll be safe! You can call it Buckley paying you back!”

Ninety…

Between knowing that Mother Shimmer had organized a party of nearly a hundred of her own ponies to come and rescue me, and hearing that my friends were a part of this effort, I was torn between a feeling of tremendous relief toward being rescued, and a sense of deep dread for just how many Buckley ponies were putting their lives on the line for Blake and I, fighting right outside against an entire outpost just to get us out. But above them both, pushing its way to prominence in my frantic train of thought, was the fear that was brought to life by Archer’s final sentence, his stating of the intent to free me from this place and bring me back to Buckley. It was a reminder, bringing me to retrace my steps back to the Southeast National Guard Bunkers and… and the Guardian Project… the cruise missiles there, and what Major General Vance had revealed to me when I’d completed his mission.

Archer, Blake, and I crossed over the last step and emerged into the familiar sight of Stable 184’s entrance chamber, the great gear-shaped door opened and the orange caution light flashing. Here, there was evidence of a much larger firefight that took the shape of well over a dozen black-armored corpses, all Talon soldiers who had been the first to engage Archer’s infiltration team. And among them, true to Archer’s word, was a group of ponies likewise garbed in the modified Stable security armor signature to Buckley. There were four of them, just a small team of two unicorn mares and two earth pony stallions, all gathered by the Stable door looking out over the concrete driveway that led to the surface.

“Hey! I need a healing potion over here!”

As one the team guarding the entryway snapped their eyes to us as we filed in, and one of the unicorn mares immediately focused on her saddlebags, setting her assault rifle aside to open up one of the packs. “Archer!” one of the earth ponies from the new team suddenly called back. “Just got a report from the captain – says his artillery crews are bugging out! He’s reported seven casualties and even more injuries, and he says they’ve got to retreat to keep it from getting worse! The wagons can only hold out so long against so many griffins!”

Casualties… oh Goddesses…

Beside me, I heard Archer swear to himself at the bad news as the three of us drew to a stop, the rest of his team trotting past us and towards the Stable door. “Alright, get ready to move! Ricochet’s coming in, so we’ll still have the cover we need to get back outside and rally up with the rest of the force!”

“Archer, here’s a potion!”

Trotting into my line of sight came the unicorn mare from before, a small healing potion floating in her telekinetic grip. “Nova needs it.” Archer explained, giving a nod to me when I looked his way. “She took a hit back in the lounge, and we need to reduce the bleeding long enough for her to get out of here and get proper medical help.” Indeed, a quick glance back around to my wound revealed that it had bled considerably while I was on the move, crimson completely coating my cutie mark and continuing down all the way to the bottom of the leg.

“Here, take it, outsider.” With a tiny pulse of light from her horn, the unicorn floated the smaller potion over to me as she opened up the bottle, and with her help I took the bottle in my mouth and tilted my head back to chug it down. To either side of me, the remainder of Archer’s team passed us by and made to join the others by the exit, and to my left, stepping up beside Blake and turning to face the way we’d come from, was our unnamed pegasus friend, her armor still scuffed and dented from the bullets that had hit but not penetrated.

By then the whole healing potion was finished and already working its magic within me, and with a toss of my head I threw the bottle away to the side. “Okay, now let-”

But as Archer made to give his next order, I quickly reached out a hoof to place it against his armored side, stopping him to get his attention. “Archer… hold up.”

“What’s the matter?” he inquired as I looked him in the eye. “Nova, we’ve got to move. Those soldiers are right behind us and-”

“Archer!” I snapped, the sharpness in my voice silencing him. “You’ve got to listen to me.” I asserted, looking back over my shoulder to the entry hall, clear for the moment. “During my time here, I… I’ve gotten to see for myself the Talon operations in the region…” I began as I turned back to him, fighting to piece my words into… more neutral and less revealing sentences. “Archer, something big is going to happen, and soon.”

“What do you mean?” Archer questioned, cocking an eyebrow. “You mean they’re making a move?”

“And I know what they’re planning to do.” I said with a quick nod; I definitely had his attention, his expression turning to one of attentive apprehension.

“Archer, we’ve got to get going!”

But the warning from one of the Buckley guards by the entrance went unnoticed as the pegasus kept his eyes on mine. “The Talon Legion is gearing up for a major offensive maneuver, and it’s not concentrated on just Ashton anymore.” I explained to him. “They’re preparing an attack that’s targeting the whole Equestrian southeast, and I think Buckley’s going to end up in their crosshairs just like Challenger and all its allied settlements.”

“They’re launching an assault on the whole region? All at once?”

Again I nodded. “Yes. And they’ve acquired a new weapon that’s going to spearhead the attack – Old World tech that they’ve secured and woken up.”

“Weapon… what kind of weapon?” Archer questioned slowly, moving a step closer… drawing a flinch from me.

“When I was here… I was part of a Talon task force that invaded and took over an old military installation.” I answered, doing all I could to keep my eyes on his as I begun revealing the history of my forced service as a legionnaire. “It was the Southeast National Guard Bunkers that they-”

“What weapon??” Archer demanded again, stepping right up to my face now as I flicked my eyes nervously away.

“The facility was a launch complex!” I replied quickly, making eye contact again. “We found a cruise missile platform in there… with fifty intact and fully functional missiles making up the array. And when we were there, the leader of the Talon forces himself told me that they were going to repurpose them to swap their defensive functions for offensive capabilities.” Now, Archer’s eyes were widening at my revelation of this new and very sinister threat … and all the while, the scar that was carved into me by the part I had played in the Talons’ acquisition of the Guardian missiles was burning. “Archer… that’s what they’re going to use. Whether in an hour or a day, they’re going to launch those missiles, and I think Buckley could be one of their targets.”

For a moment he stared back at me, and despite his more collected state, I could see the fear in his eyes… there was nothing that could hide it.

Suddenly, rifle fire erupted up behind us, and lunging I tackled a startled Blake to the side and away from the door, bowling him over behind cover as minigun fire met the attack. Quickly I pulled myself back up, my healing wound mercilessly protesting the quick movements, and I turned in time to see Archer as he reared around and brought his twin rifle saddle to bear, both rifles firing with a familiar crack of sound to add to the roar of our power-armored ally. Together the two pegasus’ weapons went silent, the armored mare keeping her heavy saddle on the passage as Archer wheeled back around, looking immediately to his team. “Everypony double time it! Move!” he ordered, pausing in his trot long enough to look back to me. “Nova, let’s go!”

Looking back to my baby brother as he pushed himself back to his hooves, I guided him towards the others as he fought to get his wits about him. “Come on, Blake! We’re almost out!”

Now the entire team was on the move, the first bunch already galloping past the Stable door. And as Blake and I drew up to a steady run, we came up quick on Archer, who was moving slow as he fumbled with the communicator on his combat rig’s chest plate. “Amber, come in! This is Archer, can you hear me?”

“I hear you, Archer.” came a mare’s voice over his radio, one I recognized immediately with the help of Archer’s hint – Amber Dawn, one of Buckley’s commanding officers, was here as well. “We’ve got the camp’s south gate in sight and we’re about to come in. Are you in the air yet?”

“Amber, you need to get on Lily’s broadcaster and tell everypony to fall back to the rally point outside the city, now!” Right overhead, three more quick shots flashed by, forcing the three of us to duck again as Archer fell in beside me. “The artillery teams are already pulling back, but the rest of the force needs to evacuate and get back to Buckley immediately! Nova reports the Talons have acquired a missile platform and are going to be launching cruise missiles at every settlement in the southeast, possibly within the hour! She thinks that Buckley could be one of their targets!”

Behind us, the power-armored mare continued to put fire into the entrance stairway as Archer, Blake, and I fell into a unified running pace, now quickly approaching the Stable’s door. “Come again, Archer? Did you say cruise missiles??”

“Affirmative! Cruise missiles!” he repeated to Dawn. “We need to get back home, warn the others and make sure we’re prepared in case the Talons launch an attack on us!”

“Merciful Celestia… Alright, I’ll give the order to retreat. But Archer, we’ve got eyes on a lot of griffins over here, all of them coming back from the east. There’s got to be over a dozen up there.” Amber warned. “I don’t think you’ll be able to outfly them all.”

Together we stepped hoof onto the Stable’s concrete driveway, the floor of the entry tunnel that connected the Stable to the surface. And up ahead was the divine sight of the surface world’s gray cloudy sky dimmed with the light of another wasteland morning, partly concealed by the jagged rooftop of the Talons’ warehouse. “Then we’ll need an escort out of here!” Archer replied to her as we made our way up the pavement. “We’re just getting out of the Stable now, and when we reach the surface, I’ll take Nova into the air and we’ll come to you! Just keep the Talons occupied, and when we come in for a landing you make sure to cover our approach! Copy?”

“I hear you.” came Dawn’s response after a moment of silence. “We’ll keep their ground forces scrambled so you can get to us. The air is up to you.”

“We picked up another pegasus down here too!” Archer said back. “She was here even before we were, trying to help Nova escape just like us! The two of us can cover Nova and get her to you, and then we’ll see you at the rally point!”

“Move your ass then, because we need to leave.”

“Roger that!”

As Amber Dawn closed their link, we ran out from the Stable’s entry tunnel and onto the aged concrete floor of the Talon warehouse. Ahead, Archer’s team was scattering to the left, disappearing amongst the storage crates held in the facility to take up defensible positions on that side. And mixed in among the outermost crates already was a whole new team of Buckley ponies, putting steady fire toward the northwest where at least a dozen Talon rifleponies were engaging from behind their black steel deployable barriers. Even as I looked, coming to a brief stop with Archer, I found reinforcements coming to the Talon line, a twenty-millimeter crew having rolled in from the camp with additional infantry support moving ahead on either side of it; and already, they were bringing their mobile gun into position, the long barrel swinging around to face us!

“Twenty millimeter t-!!” The shouted warning from one of the Buckley guards was replaced with the signature consecutive ringing cracks of gunfire of the twenty millimeter flak gun, the sound making me hunker down with a jolt as Blake yelped in fright beside me. Sparks shot out in violent bursts of light from the metal crates farthest from me as the flak gun targeted them, and as the Buckley ponies one and all retreated back to safety behind cover, the sparks begun to strafe along the crates, moving toward us!

I was pulled to my left as Archer galloped across my field of view, and ducking down I shoved Blake ahead of me just as the floor to my right exploded from the impact of the flak gun’s heavy rounds. Concrete chips pelted my side as I ran for my life, trailing right behind Archer as he bolted for a nearby crate, behind which the lime-green unicorn Hope hid as she motioned frantically for us to run. Archer dived in behind the crate first, and as the twenty millimeter’s stream of rounds clanged off the storage crates farther into the warehouse, Blake and I took cover behind the crate with them.

“You two alright?!” Archer called over the flak gun’s fire, shoving himself back to all fours to look our way.

“Blake??” When I looked, part of me already assuming a grim possibility, I found the terrified colt breathing heavily, but otherwise uninjured; still, he gave me no reply as his gaze lingered on the floor at his hooves. “We’re fine!” I answered the pegasus stallion. “Archer, what are we going to do?? That flak gun’s going to keep us from getting out of this warehouse!”

From behind me, metal abruptly ground against the stone floor, and the steel shell of the power-armored pegasus skidded to a halt in my peripheral vision just as the floor behind her erupted into a thick plume of concrete dust from the Talon flak gun. “I was worried one of their storm drums would find us…” the mare’s voice sounded concernedly through her helmet.

“Archer!” Hope shouted, suddenly stepping up close to us. “Butch is already moving up with the heavy weapon! He should be able to draw that flak gun’s attention with the thirty cal so we can get back to the others!”

“When we get an opening I’m taking Nova into the air!” Archer responded, moving in close so Hope could hear him. “Everypony else needs to retreat to the rally point!”

“Is it true what Amber said?! Please tell me it’s not true!”

“It’s true!” I answered for the green unicorn, her wide eyes turning to me at the answer she didn’t want to hear; I nearly cringed at the sheer terror in that stare.

“Just get ready to run!” Archer ordered, reaching over and turning her head back to look at him. “Join up with the others and make sure they’re ready to book it out of here!”

“Yeah…” Only slowly did she nod in confirmation. “Yeah, okay…”

Without further delay she wheeled around and promptly disappeared around the corner of the crate. “You!” Archer spoke up, looking now to our power-armored ally. “I need your wings and your firepower to help me get Nova and her brother to safety! You helped her to get out, so-”

“I came to help a fellow pegasus!” she replied, turning about to face the collapsed section of the warehouse. “And that’s what I will do!”

“Nova, get Blake and get ready to fly!” With his rapid-fire orders, I knew we were getting ready to make a break for it. Past our cover, I could still hear the twenty millimeter as it continued to suppress our position. And amidst the heavy cracks of sound was a heavier machinegun mixed in with steady rifle and carbine fire; the Buckley team was giving it their all to keep from being overwhelmed.

“Blake, we’re going to go flying in a little bit!” I called over the fight, crouching down by the frightened colt as I tried to look him in the eyes. “I need you to get on my back and then hold on tight, okay?!”

“NOVA!”

I immediately reached over and pulled him close as his terrified cry pierced my ears, clutching his head with a forehoof and forcing him to look my way. “I’m going to get you out of here, Blake! We’re almost out now! I just need you to listen to me and do as I say! I need you to do that, and then we’ll be back home again before you know it, okay?!”

“I WANT TO GO HOME!!” he wailed, reaching up to try and hug me again, to hide himself away from the raging battle.

“We will! WE… WILL!” I shouted back, once more forcing him to look me in the eye. “Blake…” But he wasn’t having any of it. Blake was in a panic now, his racing mind only telling him to get away from it all, just to get away from the Talons and get back home. And in this state, it was going to be hard to get him to listen, let alone to do much anything on his own. “Blake hold on to me!” So I took the initiative for him, and as I gave him my command, I forced my way underneath him so that he had no choice but to step over me. And after turning myself to draw parallel with him again, he was now laying over my back, forelegs right over my neck and his head right atop the back of my own. “Hold me around my neck!” Rising up to all fours, a little sharply to give him encouragement, Blake’s forelegs swiftly hooked around me, pulling tight as he buried his muzzle into my mane to hide himself; he was in a good position on my back and he had a solid and nearly constricting hold around my neck, and a quick test flap of my wings confirmed that he was ready to fly with me.

It was time to leave.

“Good job, Blake!” I called to him, looking to Archer just as he stepped back into cover from peeking out into the battlefield.

“The others are already moving, and the flak gun’s still distracted!” he called, both myself and the steel pegasus moving up to join him. “You two ready?!”

“Ready!”

Snapping his wings out wide, Archer then faced our exit. “Follow me!”

“Hold on tight, Blake!”

With a short running start, Archer was beating into the air, and side by side I ran with our wingpony to build up our momentum before we were following off after him. In just a short moment we were winging our way out of the warehouse and climbing fast. Now, with my place back high in the air, I had a full view of the south half of the Talon base; the whole station had come under siege. To the south was a whole thick line of constant muzzle flashes, the outer line of Buckley soldiers having been stopped from advancing further by determined fighting from the Talon line not even thirty yards in front of them. The east side of the base was the same, a stalemate between the two fighting factions leading only to quick potshots being taken from both sides. And all over the rest of the base were the deep round blast craters shaped from Buckley’s artillery, the howitzers having wreaked proper havoc on the Talon command post. Fires had sprung to life in multiple areas from the guns’ heavy shelling, four separate fires alone burning from the base’s array of dark green tents, two more from a pair of destroyed twenty millimeters, and another from a larger pre-war building to the west. From my place above, I could see Talon ponies scrambling to remove crates from the burning structure, one of three identical storehouses remaining there.

“Griffins coming in from the east!” Archer’s voice brought my focus back to my escape attempt, and craning my head around, feeling as Blake only squeezed tighter from his place on my back, I could see a whole flock of griffins, easily numbering over a dozen, and half of them leveling out at our altitude; they were definitely coming to take me back… “Amber’s right, we’re not going to bolt past all of them! You’ll need protection to get out of here!”

“What are we going to do?!” I shouted back, facing front again as we pushed ahead.

“Amber and Ricochet are coming in with Lily!” Archer called back from his place in the lead. “When the tank rolls in we’re going to get you and Blake inside so they can drive you out!”

Buckley brought their tank?!

“But what about you?? What about the rest of Buckley’s ponies down there??”

“We’re the ones that have guns!” Archer answered. “We’re all going to fall back to a rally point outside the city, so don’t worry about us! You just-”

PANG!

I jerked with a start to the left, Blake belting out an alarmed yelp, as a rifle round bounced harshly off our armored escort. Quickly I righted myself from the jolt, leveling out as Blake momentarily slid, shifting dangerously to one side and nearly clipping my left wing. “Hang on, Blake!!” I screamed, the colt thankfully shuffling back to his former place.

“Keep moving south, Nova!” Archer called, the armored pegasus passing by directly above me as Archer begun to arc to the left. “We’ll engage and try and keep some of these griffins off of you! When you see the tank, land right on it and get inside!”

Tucking in his wings, Archer abruptly dropped as he continued his turn, leaving me with no room to delay our plan of action. But just as he left me alone in the air, a shockingly loud blast of sound reaching me from the surface, and from the ground, a billowing plume of dust rolled into the lower right corner of my sight. My focus was drawn to the cloud as the sound of the detonation faded away, the rumbling of the blast only being replaced with a great swelling roar that reached me even from my place above. And then, the churning dust begun to swirl near the surface, and from behind a standing pre-war house emerged a hulk of dark gray steel. It’s great engine roaring its battle cry, a massive metal monster lumbered out into the open on grinding treads, its array of three cannons and two machineguns emerging from the dust first, then followed by the rest of its elongated body, with the wartime flag of the Old World Equestria coming in last waving proudly from its place at the back of Buckley’s heavy tank.

Lily had entered the field.

All at once the whole Talon line begun to pull back with all the haste they could muster, the opposing Buckley force already continuing their retreat to the east as Lily pushed straight into the base to take over the effort. With a tremendous thunderclap, the tank’s main gun fired its first round, belching white smoke before the round smashed into its target, obliterating an unfortunate twenty-millimeter crew and their flak gun. Then Lily’s minigun blazed to life, strafing the retreating Talons with a storm of lead as the main gun begun to rotate to the left. In unison, the smaller cannon in the tank’s right-side gun sponson fired, the smaller round kicking dirt and dust into the air where it struck before the main gun thundered again, the shot seeming to echo through the whole of Marefax.

Lily was moving deeper into the base as I continued south, the tank’s treads carrying her at a pony’s gallop as she rained hell onto the fleeing Talons, and quickly running through Archer’s plan once again, I could already see where I was going to land on the steel colossus; the sloped back of the vehicle covering the engine block was a flat surface, a perfect platform to set down on.

“Nova, they’re chasing us!!”

On my back, I felt as Blake nervously shifted, adjusting his hold around my neck and further tightening his grip. And just as I looked behind me to spot a trio of enemy fliers closing in on me from just above and to the left, twin muzzle flashes sprouted from the right-side griffin’s dual-carbine saddle, two rounds flashing by just to my left. With a yelp I ducked to the right as I snapped my eyes forward again, my wings nearly snapping shut from the shock of the near miss. But with a shove I got my wings pumping, scooping at the air to eat up the rest of the distance between me and the base’s southern border.

The griffin flight was right on my tail, and as I settled into a straight path, a burst of assault rifle fire, four rounds, slashed by to my left before the griffin controlling it pulled the trigger and held it. A stream of lead passed to the left before sweeping in towards me, and tucking in my wings I let myself drop through the air before fanning out my wings again and arcing sharply to the left. Atop me Blake slipped on my back from the quick maneuver, but still he managed to hold on as I tilted right and hooked again, another pair of carbine round slicing the air just under my belly. Then, from just behind me, a sudden roaring sound rushed into existence before red-orange light flared to life in my peripherals. The explosion sent a blast of hot air washing over us as I begun to bank to the west, and to my right I could see a lingering fireball as what was left of one of my pursuers tumbled out of the air, leaving multiple trails of smoke as he… and pieces of him… plummeted lifeless to the ground. Just under the lingering fire and smoke from the midair explosion, my other pursuers broke off, scrambling back just as the power-armored pegasus sped off to the west, completing her run and now taking evasive action as two griffins opened up on her with their own assault rifles.

The unnamed mare’s intervention gave me the time I needed, as below me, I was now nearly passing over the southern border of the base. “Hang on up there, Blake! I’m going to take us to the ground to land!”

“We aren’t leaving??” he demanded with shock. “Why?!”

“If we stay out in the open like this those griffins are going to keep chasing us!” I hastily explained, already beginning to dip and arc away to my right, adjusting my course to the northwest as I begun to settle into a gentle dive. “We’re going to get to Buckley’s tank, and that’ll protect us and get us out of here! Just trust me, and hold on tight!”

With Blake’s hold around my neck still strong, I took his silence as understanding, and angling down further, I began my descent in a steeper dive. On the ground, my target landing platform was still on the move, the main gun firing once again as a mechanical shriek of Lily’s treads turned her to the northeast where she continued to press further into the camp. Even as the steel beast continued to move, the tank was under heavy fire from both the front and left side. While the initial infantry force had made their retreat in the face of Buckley’s monster, heavy weapons had entered the field to take their place. There were three flak guns that I could see as I descended, all of them firing together as each was promptly surrounded with their own shimmering bubble of what had to be unicorn shield magic. One of the shields, belonging to one of the two guns attacking from the tank’s left, immediately flickered rapidly as a shell from Lily’s portside cannon punched into it. A brief struggle later, and the shield blinked away into nothingness from the force of the shell, the flak gun and its crew, though ceasing firing, still remaining intact.

The surface was no more than a few yards under me now as I begun ease up on my dive, making my final approach to Lily. The tank was lighting up with brilliant bursts of yellow sparks under the fire of the flak guns, and even as I leveled out, a missile suddenly rushed in from the left, striking the smaller cannon dead on as it turned in its housing. I couldn’t keep myself from gasping as smoke suddenly begun to drift up from the impact, the fireball from the missile dissolving away to reveal only a mangled wreck of what had once been the cannon’s short barrel and outermost hull. Lily was still fully mobile, and the missile had only disabled the gun, but if she took too many hits like that, then my escape would go down with her!

But as I focused on lining myself up for the landing, rifle fire erupted from above and to the right, and before I could even flinch, a blast of pain stabbed into my right side! I screamed, jerking sharply as my wings skipped a beat. But another voice screamed with me as I fought to stay aloft, Blake’s voice, and even through the scalding burn ripping into my side, I felt as the colt lost his place on my back! His forelegs still around my neck, Blake’s body slipped over my left side, falling onto my wing and sending us both into a reckless spiral. Together we rolled, tumbling over each other twice until my wings mercifully caught the air again, barely canceling out a third roll. But immediately I was pulled down, and right under me, Blake desperately cried for me from where he dangled from my neck as we abruptly dropped once again. Frantically I reached out for him as I tried to blink away the haze in my eyes, and I felt as my hooves landed on the colt’s sides. And clutching down and tugging, I pulled him up far enough to get my forelegs around his back, finally able to bring him against my chest in a solid bear hug; I had him!

“Ugh… just… just hold on, Blake!” I called, forcing my wings to keep working as the shock of the gunshot wound settled.

“Nova, you’re hurt!!” Blake shouted back as I finally got my eyes to face forward again.

“Just hold on!” I repeated stern as I could, wincing as a wave of deep pain rippled through the wound; the bullet had hit something important… I could tell from the sting I felt inside, cramping up… maybe the shot took a rib…

Though I didn’t see, I could hear wings above as someone, likely the griffin who had scored the hit, overtook us and arced away and to our right. Behind, another rifle fired off, another shot whizzing by just above me. But from up ahead, from Lily, the hatch on the main gun suddenly opened, the plate lifting up and away before a blue unicorn’s head poked out. A second later and the buck’s horn flared up, magic light shimmering to life around the mounted heavy machinegun at the rear of the main gun as the long-barreled weapon swiveled on its tripod, coming around… to face me?!

No… just to my right… he was covering our approach!

And with a pulse of light, the guard’s telekinesis clamped down on the trigger, the fifty caliber machinegun slinging a barrage of lead past me and into the airspace at my back. Over the heavy fire I heard a cry behind me, one of my pursuers going down immediately under the attack. A second agonized scream, and even a third, followed quickly after, and with the new breathing room I’d won, I mustered all my strength into a final drive to reach Lily, now no more than fifty yards ahead. The gunner on the mounted turret kept rounds going past me, firing in short controlled bursts towards the airspace at my back. Under him, Lily continued to put up her own fight, her primary cannon and the attached minigun firing again to punch through one of the shielded flak guns, this time taking out the gun with it; the starboard cannon was still dormant in the fight, but the damaged port gun, strangely enough, was glowing with a brilliant pink light as Lily continued to rumble onward.

A few struggling wing beats later, and Lily’s sloped back was almost right under my hooves, and as I drew up over the tank’s banner, the unicorn gunner ceased fire to give me safe passage to board, ducking back down below the hatch as a twenty-millimeter round sparked off the hull of the main gun. “Keep hold of me Blake!” I called over the roaring engine, wincing away as another missile exploded against the left-side hull near the front. “I need to roll us over!”

“What??”

I didn’t repeat myself to him. My landing pad was right under me now, and wasting no time, I threw myself into a roll before snapping my wings shut. One more drop through the air and one more startled cry from Blake, and with a painful thud, I landed hard on my back against Lily’s armoring, my baby brother in turn having my own body as a cushion to make a safe and painless landing for him. Right as we finally came to rest, Lily’s fifty caliber roared to life once more as the gunner reemerged, keeping the griffins from following me in. Hurriedly, Blake pulled himself off of me and stepped away to the side to let me up. Careful to avoid distressing my wounded side, I rolled to my left and pushed myself up to all fours, staying low to make double sure that I wasn’t in the line of fire of the fifty. And once again, my body protested my quick movements with a nasty bolt of pain, one that got me to hiss despite my efforts to resist.

“Nova??” I felt Blake as he promptly leaned up against my left foreleg, staying low and keeping close to help me stay on my hooves. “Are you okay??”

“Don’t worry about me…” I replied with a grunt, swallowing hard as I stomped the pain down. “Blake, get inside the tank! That hatch right there, go!”

“What about you??”

“I’m right behind you, now go!”

Reaching down I gave Blake a hard shove with my muzzle to get him moving, the colt stumbling under the sudden push before making a beeline for the hatch. “Come on, outsiders!” the gunner buck shouted, his turret going silent as he pulled himself out of the entrance and stepped aside, ducking down behind the main gun as another heavy twenty millimeter round sparked brightly against the tank’s armor. “Get in there so we can get the hell out of this place!”

Blake reached the main cannon just ahead of me, placing his front hooves on the top of the gun and working to pull himself up. Under us, Lily gave a lurch as her treads screeched once more, the vehicle turning in place to face the east before the great engine revved up and carried her forward again. “Come on, Blake! Get up there!” I urged the colt, stepping up behind him and giving him a leg up to help him onto the cannon. “There you go!”

Now he was up, and without looking back to check on me, he descended down the hatch with another nudge from the gunner buck. Then, placing my front hooves onto the cannon to hoist myself up to-

“LOOK OUT!!”

Before I could even process the frantic warning coming from the gunner, my wounded side exploded with molten agony as something abruptly smashed into me. I was thrown from my place by the cannon, and through my scream I could feel myself tumbling out of control, held tightly in the embrace of a surprise assailant. And before I could recover to see, I was harshly jolted again as the both of us plowed into the dirt, our momentum bouncing us once off the surface before our second impact saw us separate. I was thrown, and for a third time I hit the ground, this time unable to skip again, instead toppling head over tail once, twice, thrice before finally coming to a skidding halt on my belly.

Coughing up dust from the tumble, the adrenaline charge rushing through me got me to plant my forehooves into the dirt to push myself back up. The burning in my side was staggering, nearly making me fall again as I rose up to all fours again, and this time, I knew that something in me had broken… it definitely felt like a rib. But as I turned around to search for my attacker, even my busted side yielded enough for me to regain some focus when I found the culprit, found the ragged scar that cut across his face, saw the pearl-white revolver secured to his armored chest.

He was already standing when my eyes fell onto his glare, and only a second later, wordless, Blackhawk came charging towards me.

Tunnel vision returned to me like an old friend, Blackhawk’s mere presence instantly igniting the collective hatred that had festered in me throughout my imprisonment. As he came running, I crouched as I snapped my wings out wide, and with a single powerful beat I lifted myself up off the ground to evade his rush. But Blackhawk was right on me even then, anticipating my maneuver to get out of his path, and before I could climb, the griffin sprang from the ground on an intercept course. And once more we collided, the griffin’s brute strength easily overtaking me, and once more his momentum drove us into the dirt.

Blackhawk had put me on my back, and as I came to from the jarring impact I felt as he already shifted, rising back up to make his next move. But this time I was unfazed, and immediately I snapped my right hoof forward, connecting right with his beak in a vengeful punch. I spotted him just as he jerked to the right from the hit, and as he came back to look down on me, I snapped my hoof back in time to throw another hook. Again I connected right with his beak, and again, caught off guard, his head jerked away to the right. But his fiery glare came right back to face me, and suddenly, with an angry roar, his big right paw came down hard on my gut. I choked and buckled under the shockingly brutal punch, nearly folding around his clenched paw like paper as a deep tremor of pain ripped through my torso, and before I could even think of recovering, the same claws came down on me again and clamped around my neck.

I shot my forehooves up to his leg and shoved as a familiar pressure constricted around my throat, completely cutting off my breathing. And in that moment, panic begun to set in as the memories of that night in Hopeville came rushing back. Just like before, right after he’d killed Gracie right in front of me, Blackhawk’s limb was barely budging under my increasingly frantic effort to get myself free of his grip. And as I kicked out wildly and shoved hard as I could, the griffin closed his claws around tighter as he came to stand fully over me, glaring into my eyes just like he had on that terrible night. “You’re not going anywhere.” he growled with malice, his left paw reaching up to his chest plate, to his sidearm… no, not to his revolver…

To a black, short-barreled, break-action pistol… GODDESSES, THE TRANQUILIZER!

I went cold with dread at the sight of the terrible weapon, every fabric of my mind screaming their warning to me as I once again beheld the very tool that had been responsible for my capture and forced servitude to the Talons. And as Blackhawk yanked the tranquilizer out from its holster, I released his leg to lash out in desperation, reaching for the sinister pistol to keep it back. Though my right hoof connected with Blackhawk’s foreleg in my first swing, smacking the weapon back and away from me, it wasn’t enough to knock the tranquilizer free. And shoving my hoof aside, Blackhawk only pressed down even tighter on my throat, his full weight crushing me steadily into submission as my struggle against his brute strength was swiftly reduced only to a fight to breathe again.

“Sergeant Major!!” From above, a sudden frantic female voice punched through the blur forming up in my senses under Blackhawk’s paw. “Sergeant Major, we’ve been ordered to pull back and regroup! Their damn tank’s regenerat-”

BLAM!

From my right came the sudden report of a single rifle shot, not the ringing crack of sound that belonged to a three-o-eight… something hollow and more resonant, and the female cried out in alarm as she took a hit. Blackhawk’s grip suddenly slackened around me, and I saw as the griffin snapped his head to the south, his eyes going round just as a new male voice bellowed a ferocious war cry. Blackhawk crouched, making to dive as his claws mercifully continued to ease off my throat, but then he buckled as something came down hard on his back. The overhead smash got even him to cry out with pain, and I saw with shock the armored legs of a new pony as they ground to a halt just out of my reach. But Blackhawk turned over me in immediate retaliation, his paw finally stepping off of me before throwing a fast wicked right hook to the attacker that sent him staggering to the side, his weapon falling to the dirt as it was dropped from its telekinetic hold.

It was a fire axe…

Then came another masculine cry, a bloodthirsty and hateful roar, rushing toward me until Blackhawk was bowled off of me entirely, yet another stallion entering the fight. Thus freed I immediately fell into a coughing fit from the burning in my throat, and oh so gratefully I took in a deep greedy gulp of air as I rolled onto my left side. And just as I got onto my stomach I felt a new touch, a foreleg draping itself over my left side and hoisting me up to help me get my hooves solidly on the ground. “Come on, Nova! On your hooves!”

An aged voice… I recognized the tone, the roughness in the words, and that familiar voice matched a familiar face when I looked into the green eyes of a copper unicorn stallion, his green mane grayed with age, his body armored with polymer Equestrian Army combat armor.

“Raemor??”

One after the next, two bullets kicked up dirt just ahead of us as a third slashed by right above us, the both of us ducking as I faced front. On the ground and in the air, a griffin squad was moving in to engage, numbering eight in total. From behind me return fire swiftly responded, another rifle shot and a pair of automatic rifles lighting up the air to scramble the three griffins on hot approach from above. “Come on, Nova!” Raemor repeated, lifting his foreleg off of me only to butt his head against my shoulder, forcing me to head away from the skirmish. “Get back!”

Under his urgent shoving I was turned to the south, finding a pair of Buckley stallions just as they galloped past me to either side, opening fire with their assault rifles to keep us covered as Raemor forced me back. “Nova!” And just ahead of us, two more ponies came galloping for us, a Buckley earth pony mare running alongside a black earth pony stallion with a red and white mane, an energy rifle battle saddle strapped to his Stable 181 security armor.

“Shore!!” I cried over the fire, a nearly staggering wave of relief washing over me at the sight of my dear friend.

“Hang on, Nova!” he called, skidding to a halt in front of me as the Buckley mare continued past to lend support. “That tank is coming back! Just stay behind us!” Even as he gave me his command, Raemor was pushing me farther back, Shore stepping aside and likewise moving on to put himself between me and the fight. But as he ran to assist the others, I pivoted on my back hooves and nervously followed his path, catching sight of him again as he whipped his laser pistol sidearm from its holster and opened up, firing at one of the griffins on the ground and forcing him to dodge aside.

“Stay with me, Nova!” Raemor shouted, keeping close as he secured his axe back into its place by his grenade APW. “Don’t wander off!”

BOOM!

From the east, Lily’s primary cannon fired another thundering round, both Raemor and I shielding our faces as the ground just behind the Talon squad erupted in a violent blast, dirt kicking up high and showering friend and foe alike. The shot drew my eyes over to Buckley’s beast where she was on approach to come to our rescue. Atop the main turret, the mounted fifty caliber was firing skyward, the gunner stallion’s head poking out from the open hatch to spot his targets. In unison the starboard cannon fired, punching into the shield of a now retreating flak gun crew; the portside gun was silent… but was now fully formed, like it hadn’t even been hit at all.

Facing forward, I saw the griffin team already on the retreat, now only three of the seven of them on the ground as the rest kept fire on us from above. Two of the griffins remaining surface-bound had just pulled a struggling and resisting Blackhawk back up to a stand, all of them now stretching out their wings to retreat back into the air. And with them, I spotted the final two members of my second rescue party as they scrambled back to separate from the enemy fliers. Gunny was there, laying on his right side with both his magnum revolver and riot shotgun pointed to the air in his telekinetic grasp, firing shot after shot to drive the enemy away. And with him, standing protectively by his side, was a mare I recognized as Ivy, the steel-gray unicorn with a forest green mane, garbed in a suit of leather armor and holding a larger SMG in her telekinesis, her automatic fire along with that coming from the Buckley guards helping to keep the griffins in the air from making a pass at them; both she and Gunny had taken one wound that I could see…

But now the griffin team, having retrieved Blackhawk and pulled him out of the fight despite his resistance, was now winging back toward Stable 184, joining up with the rest of the base’s remaining defenders where they were setting up a new, albeit thinner firing line perhaps forty strong. Now, the enemy was occupied with repelling a platoon of Buckley’s guards, a group that must’ve diverted from the initial line and moved to the east edge of the camp to harass the enemy there, covering out exit. And with our own position now clear, my ears were filled with a great mechanical roaring as Lily rolled into my peripheral vision, drawing up a short distance away before her treads shrieked again, the left track snapping to a stop as the right continued to move, slowly turning the vehicle around. “Everypony move it!” one of the Buckley stallions of our team called over the tank’s thundering engine. “Get on board! We’re leaving!”

“Archer’s spotted a whole company of hostile reinforcements coming in from the southeast!” the second buck called, Raemor shoving me around and towards Lily as she came to a full stop. “He says they’re only a couple minutes out! We need to move now and tell that team to do the same or they’ll swarm us for sure!”

“Move, Nova! Move!”

But I was already ahead of Raemor on the urge, keeping pace with him as much as my wounds would allow as we made for our ticket out of Marefax. Lily’s main cannon and portside gun were turning together as we approached, drawing to a stop as they came to bear against the Talons’ new firing line. But though my ears braced for it, the guns remained silent as the two Buckley stallions leapt aboard. “Come on, outsiders! Move, move!”

The Buckley earth pony mare, stopping right by the back of the tank’s left tread, was waving us over with a foreleg. Shore, the first to approach, sprang up to Lily’s slanted back, helped the rest of the way aboard by the two stallions. Then Raemor and I were next, and as he stepped away from me to likewise jump for the platform, I snapped out my wings to fly myself up, three quick wing beats returning me to Lily’s back before I gratefully lowered myself down to land. I touched down with an unexpected roughness, my side abruptly bringing its condition to prominence while nearly sending me crumpling to the floor. But as I bent on my right legs, barely catching myself, a hoof came up to press against my right shoulder, keeping me steady. Shore met my eyes, looking concernedly to me behind his reading glasses as the two Buckley stallions helped up the last members of our party. Looking into those eyes, I wanted to just break down and cry, both in the brightest of joy… and in the darkest of pain. Joy because I was finally, finally looking into the eyes of one of my dearest friends… and yet, the pain fought its way to the top as I looked upon that familiar face, a reminder of what had happened on that terrible night of my capture, all the while seeing the repressed grief in his eyes that was only barely contained behind the heat of the fight and his own concern for me; the both of us, seeing each other for the first time in days, were reminded of that night… and who had been taken from us…

I could tell that Grace was on his mind… A pony’s eyes never lied…

“Amber, we’re all onboard and accounted for! Get us out of here!” Together we snapped out of our stare to look to the others, finding one of the Buckley stallions just as he turned my way, his companion over by the rear of the tank helping Ivy to climb aboard. “Hey! You need to get inside, Nova! You’re unarmed and you’re wounded!” he ordered. “There’s a first aid kit the tank crew keeps for emergencies, and Neera’s got enough medical training to remove a bullet and wrap up those wounds for you!”

“Well what about the rest of you?!” I demanded, Lily’s engine revving back up underneath us before the tank lurched forward, now on the move again.

“The rest of us are falling back now, and that Talon line doesn’t look like it’s in the mood to follow us!” the stallion answered me, looking back to the north side of the wrecked base. “I’d say between the artillery barrage and Lily here, they got the message to back down before they took even more losses!”

“I say we should’ve burned the whole place to the ground!” the other Buckley stallion spoke out, turning about as Ivy made her way to where Gunny stood… the big unicorn likewise staring at me. “Lily could’ve pulled it off!”

“No, not with those Talon reinforcements coming in! And especially not with how urgent Amber sounded over the coms!” the first buck replied, turning away to present me the opportunity to look upon Gunny once again. Goddesses, how I’d missed him…… but… like Shore… his eyes spoke his thoughts, his emotions, the same as Shore’s as he took in the sight of me – a free mare again. “You heard the Master Sergeant! Buckley might be facing an imminent threat, and we need to be there to repel it, not blasting apart the Marefax ruins!”

“We gave them hell enough to get our friends back!” the Buckley mare then chimed in from her place by Lily’s flagpole. “Let them hang back and lick their wounds so we can get home!” Indeed it was, when I looked back out into the camp, the Talon line was holding its position where they had regrouped from the initial attack. The muzzle flashes and gunfire echoes were far fewer now, and none were making an attempt to advance and overtake Buckley’s ponies… further evidence that Buckley’s assault had taken a heavy toll on the base.

And I would’ve smiled at the fires that continued to burn within my former prison… if only the sight of the Talons holding back from pursuit didn’t give me the terrible feeling that they were letting us walk away…

Chapter 19: Virtue's Downfall (Part 2)

“The last team’s just checked in. Our amigos are out of the city, free of pursuit, and adjusting their course south to move to Buckley. Archer’s already gone ahead to warn Mother Shimmer of the new threat.”

“Get back on the horn with the other teams and get me casualty reports. We may’ve caught the Talons by surprise, but they still put up more than a solid fight…”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Through the dimmed but steady mechanical roar that filled our new sanctuary, I could hear Ricochet and Amber Dawn as they conversed at the driver’s seat of Buckley’s tank. With Blake and I now secure inside Lily’s belly, Amber had been working with Ricochet to monitor the rest of the task force that had accompanied them on the mission to rescue me, receiving frequent reports as the rest of Buckley’s company pulled out of the city. With us, the other members of the tank crew were staying vigilant at their assigned stations. Only a white-coated, purple-maned unicorn mare – Neera – formerly assigned as one of the gun loaders of Lily’s crew, was away from her post, her horn alight as she carefully maneuvered a pair of tweezers into the wound in my flank to extract the bullet within. “I’m afraid you’re going to be moving around with a busted rib until we get you to Doc Preston.” she explained, eyes narrowing with focus as she worked. “Thankfully neither of the bullets you took out there were hollow point rounds, otherwise that would’ve turned into a pretty big problem. Still, I’m going to advise that you not move around too much once I’m done. Best not bother that rib if you don’t have to.”

In the time between my rescue and the present, Neera had done a quick inspection of both the wounds I had sustained, determining that she could indeed remove the bullets and dress the injuries. Still, despite being told to lay on my side on the steel floor, I was only paying her half a mind as she patched me up… less even. Because huddled up in the back of the tank with me, gathered together outside the engine compartment hatch, were all the faces that I had yearned to see during every second under Talon captivity. They were all alive and intact, and out of them, only Gunny and Ivy had sustained wounds. Gunny had taken a round to the right shoulder and another to the upper left leg, and Ivy had taken a single hit to her left side, thankfully not damaging anything vital. Neera had already patched them both up from the supplies in Lily’s medical stash, but now each of them was looking back at me with their own degree of anxiety, giving me their undivided focus at my request that they listen to me and the ominous news I had to give to them.

“What’s going on, Nova? What threat is he talking about?” Ivy ventured first, sitting up straight on her haunches at her place by Gunny’s right side. “You look nervous… Nova?”

“I am nervous… I’m terrified…” I replied lowly, wincing and barely choking back a pained grunt as Neera maneuvered the tweezers in my flank wound.

“What happened in there, Nova?” Gunny asked, his tone darkened with protective concern. “What did they do to you?”

They made me open an Old World military bunker… the Guardian Project.

They made me give them a cruise missile platform that they’re going to turn against the southeast… and all of its settlements…

They made me… betray… everypony I know and love…

“They didn’t do anything to me, Gunny… but they found something when I was imprisoned there.” I explained after a sigh, looking to the floor. “They found an Old World facility, a military site buried when the bombs fell all those years ago, one that remained operational to this day… And they found a weapon system inside, one that was used during the war to intercept and destroy balefire missiles and other zebra megaspells… They’re cruise missiles, and… and the Talons are repurposing their defensive functions to make them into offensive weapons that they can launch anywhere… at any time…”

As I’d expected, everypony gave me only their silence, their shocked silence… and stared. Even Blake, laying just out of wing’s reach from me, was looking to me with eyes that showed me that even he was understanding just what kind of a danger the Talons were posing to us now… and more important, to Hopeville.

Everypony realized it together.

“Cruise missiles…” Shore whispered, bowing his head. Beside him, Ivy raised a hoof over her muzzle, eyes wide, and Raemor too looked away with a soft sigh, pursing his lips.

“Your joking… you’ve got to be joking, right?”

But to Gunny’s statement, laced with hope, I slowly shook my head, apologizing a thousand-fold with the sympathetic look I gave him; even him, with all his toughness and courage, was shrinking under the threat. “The Talon General that was stationed in that base told me everything, confident that I wouldn’t escape to warn anypony else.” I answered. “His soldiers worked in that facility all last night after its capture. He’ll launch those missiles today… With everything he talked about, I… I just know he will…”

“But how did he find something like that?” Shore asked, looking back up from the floor. “Surely an installation of such importance during the war would have been heavily fortified with defenses and countermeasures to protect it from invasion.”

Again, I shook my head. “He’d been planning the capture of those bunkers for months, and he knew about the installation for an even longer time. He studied the schematics, found all the weaknesses… acquired all the keys he needed to crack it open…”

Including me…

“That’s the last team…” My ears perked as Ricochet’s voice entered through the break in our own conversation. “That puts us at thirty-one losses total, Amber…”

And that’s when I froze up…

Together my friends looked to the driver seat, a place where I dared only to make a sideways glance to. Amber Dawn was hunched over by Ricochet’s right side, unresponsive to the tank operator’s report. And the other Buckley ponies that I could see from the corner of my eye – I could see them all as they became lost in the number that they’d been given, each of them slumping just slightly… but enough. It was yet another testament to the unity of Buckley’s ponies… but the way that Neera froze in her operation on my wounds… that made the final blow against me, my heart breaking in two at the collective reactions of the tank crew. Sympathy, sorrow… blame – they all rose from nothingness as a single unit, only to come out and say with a voice of fiery severity just what it was that those thirty-one ponies had died for… those thirty-one ponies who belonged to families, had lifelong friends, who likely knew me only as the outsider who stepped before Buckley’s eyes and changed the views of its residents, inspired them to take a daring move that diverted from a legacy of isolationism.

And now they were gone… just like that. Thirty-one souls – the price for my freedom and the freedom of my little brother.

“Look, we have to do something.”

Breaking the silence in but a whisper, cautious and respectful to the mourning tank crew, Gunny looked between me and the others, drawing my eyes back to his worried face. “What?” I asked, swallowing in an effort to clear up the roughness in my voice.

“We have to do something about those missiles.” Gunny reiterated, tapping a hoof against the floor. “We’ve got to get back home and warn Captain Saber. We’ve got to prepare for what’s next best we can.”

But I found myself shaking my head at him. “Gunny, I already told you… the Talons are going to launch those missiles today. We’d never make it home to warn them in time.”

“But with Hopeville being so small, then surely they wouldn’t make it a priority target, right?” he argued. “They might wait… or they might not even attack it at all.”

“You know, that is a possibility.” Shore agreed. “With the Talons so busy with Challenger, they might not use their missiles against the smaller settlements.”

“I hope you’re right… I really hope you’re right.” I replied to them, with no small lack of confidence in their theory. “But my point still stands, and that point is that we need to help a group that we can help to repel a Talon assault, not go to a group far away only to get to them when it’s too late…”

But at the revelation of my true feelings on the matter, Gunny’s eyes partly widened; even Shore seemed a little surprised. “What… you mean you’re not even going to try?” Gunny asked, leaning forward with a puzzled stare. “You could make it back home in hours if you flew there now. You’d be there long before any of us would be.”

A bolt of pain abruptly stabbed into my flank, making me hiss just before I felt as something was pulled out from my wound, a metallic clinking then sounding at Neera’s successful extraction of the first bullet. Letting out a held in breath, I looked back down to the floor, saying, “It’s a two day journey to reach Hopeville on hoof, and even at my best flight speed I wouldn’t make it back home until the evening, maybe even later than that with this broken rib.”

“But it’s our home that’s at stake out there, Nova!” Gunny pressed, voice raised to press his argument. “It’s our job to make sure we do our part to keep Hopeville safe! You can’t tell me that you’re just going to lea-”

But I was stopping him right there. “Did you not just hear Ricochet?!” I interrupted, raising my own voice to a near yell to get his attention. “Thirty-one ponies died back there to make me a free mare again! And none of them hardly knew me as more than a wastelander who changed Buckley’s outlook on life. And yet, for whatever reason, they all were chosen for a mission to rescue me. Now they’ll never see their home again… all because of me…”

“Easy now, senorita.” Ricochet spoke up from his place at the driver seat; he was looking ahead… not at me… “They didn’t die because of you. You didn’t fire the shots that ended them.”

“I was captured by the enemy, and then they came to rescue me only to die in the effort. That makes me the one to blame just as much as pulling the trigger would.” I countered, quickly adding to my companions, “And before any of you try, I’m not going to fight you on this. I know that we should put our home first. That was the attitude we left One Eighty-one with. But after what Buckley just sacrificed for me, I owe it to these ponies to help them fight back against whatever the Talons might throw at them. My capture cost them thirty-one lives, and I’m going to do whatever I can to help them through all this.” I looked among each of my friends individually. “I don’t expect any of you to share the same sentiments. In fact, I’m glad that you’re wanting to get back home quick as you can… and really, I think you should go. I think all of you should go. But I’m going back to Buckley, and if the Talons attack and launch some of those missiles at the base, then I’m going to aid in its defense.”

“Well, what if they don’t?” Ivy asked. “What if those missiles they supposedly have are going to be sent off somewhere else or something?”

“Then I’ll see you all back in Hopeville tomorrow.” I answered her simply.

“… If you won’t go, then somepony else has to.” Gunny replied after an uncomfortable pause, looking away for his eyes to fall upon the circular flight of metal stairs leading to the open exit hatch at the top of Lily’s main cannon. “Even though you’d get there the quickest, I’ll run over there instead and tell Saber everything I’ve heard from you. And hopefully after that, we’ll still have time to figure out how we’re going to defend ourselves from this weapon.”

“Hold on, Gunny.” Reaching a hoof out to block his path to the exit, Shore leaned forward to look him in the eyes. “If Nova is this persistent about going to Buckley’s aid, then she will need good fighters by her side if the Talons launch an attack on the scale that she’s saying they will. I could go back. That way you can stay and help her.”

Turning, Gunny pointed a hoof to the black earth pony. “No. You’re coming with me.” he declared firmly. “I’m going to need a wingpony in case I come across anything on the way home. You remember what we ran into on the way to Buckley. Squads from both the Talons and the Black Blood are appearing more frequently in the region, which means Challenger’s soldiers are occupied elsewhere. It’s becoming a lot more dangerous to travel out there.”

“The point, Gunny, is that at least one of us should stay with Nova and help her.” Raemor suddenly voiced, likewise leaning forward to look him in the eye. “And remember – we were the ones who asked it of Buckley to help us track Nova down. Putting it in Nova’s perspective, we do owe them the help for her rescue and safe return to us.” At his sagely input, I looked to the old unicorn to meet his eyes, giving him only a thin smile despite the appreciation I held for his words.

As for Gunny, he looked a little on the surprised side, as if he had forgotten that what Raemor had reminded him of was indeed the truth. But that surprise turned into resignation as he bowed his head and sighed. “Yeah…” he muttered back. “Yeah, we did…”

“If I might have a word on this…” To my right emerged Amber Dawn, maneuvering past Lily’s starboard gunner and stepping up beside me where I lay.

“Don’t tell me to leave.” I warned lowly. “Buckley has been good to me and my friends… now more than ever. I’m not going while the Talons are making their big move.”

“I’m not going to tell you to leave. In fact, I’m rather touched that you care so much… but I’m going to suggest that you go anyway.” Amber responded. “If the Talons are planning something, then I promise we’ll be ready. You’ve seen us, Nova. You know what we’re capable of, what we have protecting us. And I know you remember being told that we had beat the Talons back once before, ten years ago when they first arrived in the region. We can win again just like we did before, and if every settlement out there is in danger of these cruise missiles, then you should warn your ponies too, and others if you can.”

But at that I shook my head again. “I know Buckley is strong. I know you’ve got powerful tech and skilled fighters, I get that. But like I already said, Hopeville is a day’s flight away from here, more with a broken rib that would force me to stop and catch my breath several times… and I’m scared, Amber… I’m scared that I’ll get there only to find that I was too late to do anything at all… and I can’t take that. I want to go where I know that I can help.”

Amber was silent at that, her mouth opening only to close again as she fought to carry on in her own argument. But after a long pause, with only Lily’s engine breaking what would’ve been another spell of uncomfortable silence, she looked away with a short sigh and gave a single nod. “If that’s what you really want… well… I definitely know some ponies back on base are going to want to know that you’re okay.”

“Pegasus…” From the exit hatch a muffled female voice called, drawing my eyes up to see a steel pony head peering inside, its black visor facing me. “If you really want to go back to where these ponies are going… then if you wish, I could fly to this Hopeville in your place and warn the town myself.”

“… What?” I found myself flinching back in surprise from the sudden and unexpected proposal from my power-armored guardian, who had stuck around to ride atop the tank the whole way after leaving the Talon base. But despite my shock, a much-needed dose of relief quickly replaced it to course through me like a healing potion. “You’d… you’d really do that?” I asked, glancing back to my friends to see their own reactions; both Gunny and Shore were wearing the same surprised face that I was.

“Yes, I would.” came the mare’s answer as she gave a single nod. “I may not have seen what you’ve seen, but a threat like the one you describe can’t just be brushed aside.”

“But you hardly know me… or any of us…” I argued, wincing as another painful jolt rippled in my side; Neera was getting to work on the wound in my side.

But at my case, the mare only shook her head, discarding it immediately. “Like I said before in that base, I came to help another pegasus.” she said. “All I’ll need from you is directions.”

“I guess that settles it then.” Gunny spoke up, uplifted as he rose up to all fours. “I’ll show her the way back to Hopeville… and seeing as how she’ll make it there far faster than Shore and I would, we can stay with Nova along with the rest of us, and Saber will still have a shot at getting a warning.” Turning, he gave me a stern look as he raised a hoof to point at me. “But just so we’re clear, Nova – we make this visit quick, no more than a couple hours. And after we’re done, then we get ourselves home. Got it?”

A plan of action was finally coming together… one that I was more than happy to accept. “Yes.” I replied with a nod, cracking just the faintest of smiles at my friend’s change of heart. “Thank you, Gunny.”

He didn’t smile back.

“So all of you are going to come back to Buckley?” Amber asked, following Gunny as he made his way to the stairs. “Even the little one, there?”

Blake…

My baby brother, already listening intently to each of us, jolted to alertness at Dawn’s question, and immediately he sprung for me, coming to a stop by my head and hugging me around my neck in a quick and startling move. “I’m not leaving my big sister again!” he declared hotly, putting on a bold glare as he pulled me in to a protective embrace. “Not after we got taken from home! I’m staying!”

“Blake. I don’t think you should come with us.” Gunny spoke up, softer to try and calm the sudden defensiveness in the colt’s tone. “You should go with that pegasus up there, climb up onto her back and stay airborne where it’s at least a little safer until you get back to Hopeville.”

But Blake shook his head with vigor; he wasn’t having any of it. “No! No, no, no! I’m not leaving my big sister! I don’t want to be taken from her again! Not again! Not again!!”

“Blake, hush…” I reached out to him as his words became more frantic… more frightened… and I pulled him in close, hugging him tight against me and running a hoof through his mane as his breath quickened. “Hush…” I encouraged, wincing as a whimper escape my little brother’s mouth in reply.

“Not again…” he repeated weakly, his words choked as he struggled to keep himself composed. “Not… not again…”

“Nova…”

Gunny, and the others as well, were all looking to me, looking to where Blake buried his head into my neck to keep me from being taken away again. “I’ll keep him close.” I assured. “And if something does happen, I’ll make sure he stays out of harm’s way.”

Thankfully, the big unicorn didn’t press, standing down with a single nod and instead trotting to the stairs to head up to the exit hatch. “So… I guess that means we’re all going then?” Ivy spoke up in question, timid as she watched Blake.

“Yeah.” I answered the gray mare, looking to her as Gunny disappeared through the hatch to join our companion outside. “We’re all going.”

“Then make sure each of you has your weapons and gear ready to go.” Amber warned, returning to the front of the crew compartment. “We’ve got an extra battle saddle that we can spare for you, Nova. It’s got two semi-automatics on it, precision seven six two millimeter battle rifles.”

“When I get done with this rib and bandage her, then I’ll help her get into that saddle.” Neera piped up to the commander. “I’ll need to modify it with some padding so that the wound won’t bother her too much in flight. Doc Preston’s going to be the only one who can fix this properly.”

“That’s fine.” Amber replied with a toss of her mane. “But since she’s coming with us, I don’t want her coming in weaponless. We don’t know what we’re going to find when we get back to Buckley…” Then, she looked back to me… eyes showing the anxiety that her face was hiding. “But just in case you are right, Nova, I’m going to order all our teams to be combat-ready and to assume that they’ll be entering another battlefield.”

I gave her a slow nod, flinching at another jab of pain in my side. “That’s a good idea.”

“I just hope to the Goddesses that you’re wrong.” Turning away, Amber stepped up by Ricochet, following the driver’s eyes out through the viewing port to trace the route back to Buckley. “I really hope you’re wrong…”

“Believe me, Amber…” I responded, equally low as I looked down to Blake, meeting him eye to eye and running my hoof through his mane again. “So do I…”

*** *** ***

“Buckley ATC, this is Amber Dawn aboard Lily, come in…”

Though Amber Dawn spoke right into the radio by the driver’s seat, I could barely hear her voice over the resonant thunder of Lily’s engine. Ricochet was pushing the tank to its top speed, and had been doing so for what must’ve been almost two hours by now. The grinding treads sounded clearly through the open hatch atop the main cannon, and even the engine compartment, designed to lessen the noise of the engine, couldn’t keep us from having to speak up when we talked.

Now, with my bloodied muzzle cleaned and the back half of my torso completely mummified with bandages, I was up and preparing with everypony else aboard Lily. With Neera’s help, I was rigged out with a completely new battle saddle that had been stored away in an emergency weapons locker in the back right corner of the crew compartment. Comprised of the promised twin seven six two millimeter rifles, with plentiful ammo for each stored away in a pair of accompanying auto loaders, the rig as a whole felt a little more on the heavier side, or at least more so than my own saddle. This wasn’t helped by the bulkier protective padding that had been added to the saddle’s two torso straps by Neera, her failsafe to prevent my bandaged and still broken rib from worsening further during flight; the heavier weight of my new rig along with the lack of body armor created an imbalance that made me privately miss my old but familiar gear, which was, according to Raemor, waiting for me back at Buckley in Mother Shimmer’s silo.

“Are you sure we’re close enough, Ricochet?”

“I’m positive, ma’am. We should definitely be in signal range of the control tower by now.” Ricochet answered the commander. “I followed our original tracks back, and I recognize the terrain.”

“We’re not seeing or hearing anything up here, sergeant.” From above, the guardsmare with us, Brooke, poked her head in through the hatch. “There’s no smoke, no lights, no gunfire. Buckley looks quiet.”

“Keep trying, Amber.” Gunny encouraged, already trotting towards the stairs and ascending them to the hatch to take a look outside for himself. “They’ve got to be there.”

“Buckley ATC, this is Master Sergeant Amber Dawn aboard Lily.” Dawn called into the communicator mic once again, speaking slower and with more volume. “Buckley ATC, come in. I need a situation report…”

But again, nothing came through the radio to respond, leaving the tank crew in tense silence as each looked towards the radio, anticipating an answer… any answer. “I don’t get it…” Ivy chimed in, leaning in next to me as she set her dark green SMG at her front hooves. “Why aren’t they picking up if nothing’s going on outside? If it’s quiet, then they must be okay.”

“I don’t know.” I replied to her, reaching a hoof up to situate the firing bit of my new saddle. “I don’t get it either.”

“Do you think they got hit with that new Talon weapon you told us about, Nova?” Amber called from the front, looking over her shoulder to me. “You said they’ve got a weapon that knocks out all electrical and magic-based systems, right?”

But I shook my head at her. “No. The weapon creates a disk of light that stays in the air for a few minutes. We’d see it if they’d actually used the thing.”

With a sigh, Amber turned away and back to the radio, leaning in to the mic to speak once more. “Buckley ATC, this is Master Sergeant Amber Dawn! Does anypony read us out there?”

“Sergeant!”

A response!

“Sergeant, this is ATC, Private Irons.” came the voice of a stallion. “Damn good to hear your voice again, ma’am.”

The buck on the other end of the com link, Irons, sounded tired, out-of-breath, and everypony on the tank crew picked up on it as they stared to Amber from their stations. “What took you so long to respond, Private?” Dawn questioned. “What’s the situation?”

“Commander Tracer was giving out new orders, ma’am.” Irons replied. “The tower just spotted possible enemy movement out to the east, but the terrain’s too hilly over there, so Archer’s heading out to take a closer look. He came back a while ago, told us what you ran into out there and told us about what Nova discovered. Mother Shimmer and Tracer are already organizing the guard, and the base is on high alert.”

“What about the defenses?”

“The anti-air battery’s hot, and all howitzer crews are repositioning their guns as we speak, ma’am.” the stallion explained between breaths. “Still, I’m sure everypony’s going to feel a whole lot better when you bring Lily back.”

“We’re no more than five minutes out now. We’re coming in from the north and we already have a visual on the base. If hostiles are coming, we’ll get there before they do.” Dawn assured him, leaning up closer to the mic as she quickly added, “But now that I’ve got you on the horn, listen up. On the way back, Nova informed us of something else the Talons have, some sort of new weapon they didn’t pack ten years ago.”

“Another weapon? You’ve got to be kidding…”

“No, I’m not. It’s something the Talons call an M.I.C.. It’s an area-effect weapon that knocks out electric and magic-powered systems for a time.” Amber explained. “When Nova saw this weapon in action, the Talons used it to infiltrate an Old World military bunker that was equipped with a big enough automated turret grid to hold back an entire company of ponies. When they used it, the weapon fried the whole grid long enough for a team to infiltrate the facility and shut down the defenses from the inside. Nova didn’t get time to tell Archer during the escape, so I need you to tell Mother Shimmer, Tracer, and Tech Sergeant Lela about this and try and see if they can come up with any way at all to counter that new weapon.”

“As if cruise missiles weren’t bad enough…” Irons huffed.

“The Legion’s definitely been busy since the last time they showed up.” Amber agreed, leaning back from the mic. “But we still need to be ready just like last time. Get moving, Irons. Tell the others what to look out for and make sure to spread the word. There’s a chance that all this could just blow right over us, but I’m not going to risk Buckley’s safety on hopeful thinking.”

“I hear you there, ma’am.” the stallion wholeheartedly agreed. “I’ll let the others know you’re almost back, and we’ll have the gate open for you when you arrive.”

“Thank you.”

With that, Amber stepped away from the radio, coming around to show us all a much-relieved smile. “Looks like we made it in time, everypony.” she announced to the crew, each of them beginning to relax. “We’ll be back home shortly. When we arrive, each of you is to stay at your post, and Lily will remain online and battle ready. Once through the gate, you’ll be on patrol around the base through the rest of the day to help the artillery spotters identify anything hostile trying to breach the fences. We’re not going to relax until we’re sure the Talons won’t try and come after us again.”

“Amber, this is Tracer calling from ATC. Can you hear me?”

Another voice came over the radio, a familiar masculine tone that belonged to Buckley’s second-in-command, a voice that snappily drew Dawn’s attention. The amber mare hastily spun back around and returned to the radio, quickly calling back, “Tracer, I hear you. Are things okay over there?”

“Things are a little hectic right now, but we’re fine.” the commander answered. “What about you and the task force? Did everypony make it out of Marefax?”

“No… not all of us.” Amber responded after a short pause; I looked away from her. “Thirty-one were killed before we got out.”

A sigh came through the other end of the com link. “I guess Archer was just waiting to tell me when I didn’t have so much to organize here.” Tracer lowly remarked. “Alright. Private Irons said you’re less than five minutes out. Is that right?”

“Yes, we’re almost back. And the rest of the task force should be returning within the next couple hours. Our retreat wasn’t as organized as I would’ve liked.”

“That’s fine. I’ll see you in a little-”

KZZZZZZT!!

Together, both Amber and Ricochet jerked away from the radio, the rest of the tank crew snapping startled eyes to the front as the radio exploded with loud grating static. And simultaneously, from up above, I saw at the upper edge of my vision a swelling light outside the open hatch, reaching a peak level of intensity in a mere second before settling into a lingering bright white.

“Tracer?? Tracer come in!”

My ears pinned back against my head as I shot up to all four hooves, my eyes locked to the hatch just as Brooke poked her head in. “Sergeant! An explosive just went off over Buckley airspace!”

“Tracer?! Tracer?!” With a growl, Amber leaned in by Ricochet to look out the front viewing hole. “I lost him! Ricochet, get us there now!”

“I’ve already got her at max speed!” the yellow earth pony responded, hooking his forelegs tightly around his twin driving control sticks. “We’ll be there shortly!”

“Nova, Shore, get up here!” From beyond the hatch, Gunny urgently shouted for us, and at his word, Shore was the first to run for the exit stairs, already racing up to the hatch as Ivy followed close behind.

“Nova, what’s going on??” Blake piped up behind me, catching my leg as I trotted by.

But there was no time for explanation. “You stay put, Blake! Stay right there!” I ordered, sidestepping him and moving to the stairs, pausing only long enough to catch a glimpse of my brother’s anxious eyes as I looked to Raemor. “Raemor, would you take care of Blake for me?”

Thankfully, despite the suddenness of my request, the old unicorn waved a hoof to urge me ahead. “Of course, Nova. Go.”

“But Nova, I-”

“STAY THERE, BLAKE!!” Tearing myself away, forcing down the twinge of guilt brought by my sharply raised voice, I scrambled up the stairs and through the exit to emerge into the open air. A strong breeze immediately flowed through my mane at the speed of Lily’s passage, her treads grinding and creaking and her engine growling as I pulled myself back outside. But it was right when I got all four hooves back onto flat steel that my ears perked at a new sound, an ominous and frighteningly familiar noise that brought my eyes to the light that had swelled to life. Buckley Air Force Base – its structures were nearly pitch black under the literal screen of sparkling white light that now hovered over the base. And from within its perimeter came the wailing cry of an air raid siren, its echo washing over us as I came to a stop by Gunny and Shore. “Buckley’s about to get hit…” Gunny spoke up, raising a foreleg to point off to our left.

But I had already seen what he had just now recognized. Just outside the M.I.C. blast, rising up over a shallow hill to the east of the base, was a whole mess of black blobs against the cloudy sky that numbered over a dozen strong. And each of them was moving together, shifting and making room for one another to form up in a staggered line. “Those are vertibucks…” Even from here I could distinguish the twin rotary engines of the Talons’ aerial vehicles, see the wings that attached them to the bodies of their aircrafts, see the whirling propellers.

The Talons were preparing an all-out assault…

“Mother Celestia… we need to get Lily in there now!”

Looking over my shoulder, one of the two guard bucks standing at the rear of the tank turned for the hatch and approached, the second continuing to stare out with wide eyes. “Yeah, and screw going through the gate!” he replied. “We just need to plow through the fence!”

“No!” I came about to face them both, startling them to a halt. “No, those vertibucks are staying outside that light screen for a reason. They won’t function if they go into that light, and Lily’s going to shut down too if she goes in there. Amber has to wait until that light screen goes away before she can bring the tank back to Buckley.”

“We don’t have time to wait!” Brooke argued, stepping up between her companions. “What if there’s a ground force coming in, too? We need to be there!”

“Didn’t you hear Nova?” Gunny demanded, coming up by my right side. “That thing they’ve got takes out all automated systems, electrical and magical! If you go into Buckley, then this tank’s going to be vulnerable!”

“But you could still attack from long range.” Shore suddenly offered, Ivy trotting over to join us. “If there’s any place where you might be able to dig in and possibly hide, you could surprise those vertibucks while they wait. It would be tricky, but until that light goes away, you won’t be able to do much more than that if you engage now.”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s better than just waiting. And I’m sure Cobalt could pull it off…” Brooke replied, looking nervously between her holstered revolver and Buckley; only the raid siren continued to wail from within. “Okay, we’ll tell the Sergeant. But what about all of you?”

“Lily might need the infantry support if any of those vertibucks divert from their formation and come after us.” one of the stallions chimed in, trotting back to the hatch and stepping inside. “We’ve got a pair of anti-air launchers stowed away in the port locker down there that we can use.”

“Maybe we should stay here, then?” Ivy asked.

“Yeah. We can stay put and come in on Lily once it’s safe, keep the tank covered while we wait.” Gunny said, moving for the hatch.

“You stay. I’m going to fly ahead to Buckley and help there.” I declared in reply, snapping out my wings and giving them a quick test flap. “I want to see what’s going on.”

“Are you sure about that?” Gunny asked, stopped midstride as I looked over my shoulder to him. “You’d be safer out here, and you’d have more cover with the rest of us watching your back.”

“I know. But I’ll be more helpful over there.” I argued. “They’ll need everypony they can get, and they’ll need them now.”

But my unicorn friend pursed his lips, swallowing back what was undoubtedly a quickly-formed counter to persuade me otherwise. Instead, he replied with a throaty sigh, shaking his head as he planted his forehooves on the main gun. “Fine… but you better damn well make sure you watch yourself out there until we meet up with you again.” At his words, I found myself fighting the urge to shrink at the glare he gave me, one that he held steadfastly through a short moment of silence to let his words sink in. But as quick as it had come, it softened away when he more somberly added, “We don’t need to lose both you and Grace… I know Shore couldn’t handle that… and I don’t think I’d be able to either.”

For just a split moment my breath caught itself in my throat, forcing me to swallow as the two of us stared. It was a harsh reminder of what we were all putting at the back of our minds right now, despite how much we didn’t want to do so… despite how much we just wanted to sit down and mourn together. But with a single sad nod, I gave Gunny my promise to do as he wished… fuel for a determined fire coming to life in me.

“I’d suggest you go to one of the two surface access points between the runways, those two little buildings on the median. You’ll probably find Commander Tracer directing the effort to get all non-combatants into the maintenance tunnels.” Brooke called up from my other side. “That air raid siren is the order for all the civilians to get underground.”

Giving her a quick nod, I faced front and crouched, preparing to spring. “That’s exactly who I need to find.”

“Alright. Then we’ll see you over there, Nova. Good luck.”

And that was my cue.

Backing up a step for a running start, I threw myself forward and leapt off the side of Lily, pumping my wings with steady strokes to pull myself aloft. Quickly achieving a steady pace despite the throbbing ache of my rib, I leveled myself out low over the surface and hooked right to face the Buckley, that familiar tunnel vision setting in as my eyes landed on the base. The whole place was a mirror version of the National Guard Bunkers, glowing like its own miniature sun from the sheet of light hovering above; the M.I.C. charge itself looked to have detonated over the center of the base. As I ate up the remaining distance between me and Buckley, I could see that the base’s sheer size had prevented it from being fully covered by the screen, with the northwest and southwest corners illuminated only dimly. But from within the base suddenly erupted a tremendous blast, a concussive thunderclap followed in short succession by a second, third, fourth, and after a short pause, even a fifth. And from within the light I caught a glimpse of lingering smoke trails from a volley of heavy rounds, coming from behind Buckley’s three great hangars.

With Buckley firing the first shots, I pulled up upon spotting the fences of the base’s northwest corner, climbing to the rooftop level of the hangars as I entered the base’s airspace. From here I immediately found three of the giant turrets that made up Buckley’s anti-air battery. And like the National Guard Bunkers, all three of them were spitting up sheets of sparks from their pedestals, their automated components locked up by the Talons’ spell. And beyond them, coming into perfect view as I winged over the rooftop of the leftmost hangar, was the bases twin runways, with a whole mass of ponies running frantically to and fro about them. What once was just a flat plot of land was now being turned into its own massive staging area. All along the east airstrip, a massive firing line bristling with gun barrels was being set up through the use of steel barricades and sandbag walls. Fifty and thirty caliber HMGs, grenade machineguns, and even tripod-mounted miniguns made up an array of over two dozen fortified heavy weapon nests, each of which in turn was guarded by its own squad of infantry that was setting up their own barricades for cover. Just behind them, occupying a stretch of the dirt median between the two runways, was a company of over a hundred soldiers that were scattering to their assigned positions. And mixed within the second line was two of the base’s Old World military transport wagons, situated parallel to the runways and dug in tight within a wall of their own sandbags. And behind them, making the third and final line, was eight of Buckley’s mighty howitzers spaced at wide intervals along the whole length of the west runway; three were still being locked down by their crews, the others undergoing hasty reloading.

At the heart of the frantic activity were the two squat square buildings nestled between the runways, one just outside the base’s center, and the second at its north end. A thick and congested crowd had formed outside each structure, and from the two residential sectors on the base’s east side came even more ponies, galloping out from their homes to where additional soldiers were herding those who couldn’t fight to the base’s underground access points. Even as I angled in for the building at the base’s center, the balefire missile silo access, I could see that things were moving rather smoothly, with the crowd already shrinking down as noncombatants filed inside in a tight yet organized pack. And as I came around, slowing myself in the air to circle back to my target structure, I could see five guards stationed to either side of the entrance, formed up side by side along the front wall as each shouted their encouragement for the evacuees to hightail it to their underground shelter; and among them, standing apart from his subordinates while still aiding the evacuation, was the familiar pale red earth pony that was Buckley’s second-in-command.

Thump…

But just as I found Commander Tracer within the mob, a soft thump of deep sound rippled its way through the frenzy below, with a flash of light like slow lightning further brightening the light screen above.

Thump…

A second light pulse followed right after it, drawing me to a hover as I scanned the east horizon for the source.

Thump…

But when a third flash came next, I understood only then that the light was coming not from the ground… but from above. My blood went cold, my ears pinning back flat against my head as realization hit me like a bullet. When I dared to crane my head back to look, I could just make out through the light screen, which was already beginning to dim, a wide circular patch of pure blue in place of the natural cloud cover, the very sky split apart by a trio of bright rippling shockwaves as three blazing white fireballs plummeted down toward Buckley like meteors…

The missiles…

The thunder of the three Guardian missiles’ thruster engines begun to swell as they screamed towards their targets, and with a cry I flew back the way I’d come to get clear. But I had only just righted myself in the air when my whole world seemed to explode around me, engulfing me in a deafening and merciless roar. The very air convulsed from the tremendous blast, the successive shockwave from the missile’s impact smashing into me to throw me violently from the air as a second explosion meshed with the first. I could only feel myself screaming as I tumbled head over tail, a wave of heat from the first detonation splashing over me as I flailed for any kind of purchase, desperately fighting to keep my wings open to catch the air again. But the wind only buffeted my wings as I tumbled, a third explosion coming to life, and I couldn’t get myself realigned before my efforts ground to a halt all at once. I slammed back-first onto a concrete surface, my injured rib sending a blast of crushing agony through my whole body as I bounced from the impact, skipping against the same surface once more before I went tumbling down in yet another fall. Sight then returned to me from the initial shock, only long enough for me to see the dirt before I struck the ground a final time, landing square on my stomach.

Finally the spinning came to a stop, the only silver lining as I lay in the dirt. Immediately I broke out in a coughing fit, which served only to further torment my broken rib as I pulled my right foreleg back to plant a hoof on the ground. My coughs came as ragged thuds of sound to my ringing ears, accompanied by a chain of five sharp claps, another volley from Buckley’s howitzers that combined with the continuing rise and fall of the raid siren. Pulling back my other front leg back to get another hoof under me, I forced myself up off the dirt, finally orienting myself enough to look around. To my left, Buckley’s northern residential sector had taken a direct hit, and the impact had obliterated well over half of the shacks, tents, and old barracks buildings that had made the homes of many of Buckley’s civilians. The subsequent shockwave had leveled even more of them beyond the impact point, and now, only a great gaping crater remained in their place, over which hung an ominous pillar of rolling black smoke. Just outside the wreckage, civilians were running for their lives, their panicked screaming reaching me even through the shellshock that suppressed my hearing. Past Buckley’s front firing line and amidst the panicked crowd, most of which was running for the underground access point to the north, I counted up four pairs of soldiers as they dragged injured civilians behind cover, a dozen more leaping from their posts to go to the aid of others. Among the first to be dragged back was an unconscious older unicorn stallion, half of his left foreleg completely severed from the rest of him. Another was a heavily burned earth pony stallion, likewise unmoving. And another victim still was a screaming young mare, her torso ripped open at the center from the blast, the wide gash gushing blood as she thrashed in the hold of the soldiers bringing her back to safety.

I didn’t dare to think how many bodies were beyond the east runway.

Breathing heavily, each breath stabbing mercilessly at my broken rib as I got myself to all fours, I looked ahead to find myself facing the silo entrance building, having bounced off its rooftop to crash land just behind it. Above its ceiling was the top of a second pillar of thick smoke, ominously close to me as it towered high above the surface; the second missile looked to have impacted the runway median close by. And looking to my right, I found the third smoke pillar a short distance away billowing up to the left of the ATC tower’s top level, the only part of it visible over the roof; a building had been destroyed, evident by the stone and metal chunks that had been flung skyward, now coming back down.

But just as I got myself to a steady stand, I immediately felt a foreleg as it draped itself over my back. With a sharp tug I was pulled stumbling back away from the building, spinning around to find the wide eyes of an armored mare, an orange earth pony with a short red mane. “Nova, are you okay?!”

The shellshock from the missile was only slowly clearing out from my senses, but still I could hear the question from the mare I recognized as Kenzie, one of the wagon gunners from the Marefax expedition. “Kenzie…” Coughing again to try and clear my throat, I kept close to the earth pony as she led me parallel to the west runway, the two of us passing by one of the howitzers as its crew reloaded the massive cannon. “Kenzie, I’ve got to find… I’ve got to find Tracer!”

Amidst a fresh wave of painful coughing, I managed to spit out an answer explaining myself to her. But as I staggered my way along, leaning up against the mare for support, she promptly shook her head. “Tracer’s getting the rest of the civilians underground!” she replied, looking ahead. “You’re not going to get to him in this panic!”

Indeed, the screams of Buckley’s non-combatants that had yet to be evacuated from the surface was a reminder of that truth. And looking back over my shoulder as I moved, I saw that the once organized evacuation of a once compliant crowd into the silo access had disintegrated into utter chaos. Many of the ponies remaining in the mob were now shoving their way up to safety, clogging the entrance and hindering their progress all the more; the missiles had completely shattered any hope of a calm and quick evacuation, instilling only a deep and crippling fear of the next impending strike.

With a final rough nudge of encouragement, Kenzie guided me through the final stretch to her destination, and as I looked to the front again, I found that she had led me behind one of the two stationary cargo carriers in Buckley’s second firing line, likely her own place of deployment; close by was a quartet of unicorn guards, all four working to finish stacking up the final sandbags of the improvised barrier. “Kenzie!” As we came to a stop, the orange mare trotted back around in front of me. “If I can’t get to Tracer, then maybe you could tell me what’s going on, and then tell me where I might be needed!”

But once more she shook her head, raising a hoof to point to my chest. “I’m not sure if you’re in any condition to be doing much, especially after that fall!” she retorted, her voice becoming a little less distorted for me to pick up on the concerned note in her tone. “I saw you go down, and you’re damn lucky! But whatever injury you bandaged up there is starting to bleed again!”

“I’ll be fine!” I shouted back, forcing myself to stand normally despite the protests of my rib; the fall had definitely set back Neera’s treatment… and considerably, too. “Just tell me what’s happening!”

Both of us jerked as the howitzers let off another volley, this time all eight guns firing one after the next in rapid succession. “This lightshow the Talons put on jammed all our coms!” Kenzie explained, leaning in close. “Archer’s flying back and forth to report enemy movements to us until we can use our radios again! Last time he checked in, the enemy was mobilizing a whole infantry battalion of at least six hundred to the east! They’re supported by twenty vertibucks, a dozen griffins, and ten armored wagons! The howitzers are putting fire on them while they mobilize, but I think-”

Thump…

Oh Goddesses…

Thump…

“MISSILES!!”

“INCOMING!! INCOMING!!”

Together Kenzie and I scrambled for cover, throwing ourselves against the wagon as the same horrifying thunder grew into a deafening scream. And again, no resistance met the incoming missiles. One after the next they struck, one on the other side of the wagon and the second behind me and to the south. Despite my ringing ears, buzzing louder from the fresh detonations, I immediately spun back around and stepped from the wagon to look for the impacts. One had hit at the end of the west runway, and my ears pinned back at the sight of a howitzer barrel jutting up from the missile’s blast crater, shrouded in smoke. And to my left, I found that the second missile had been even more devastating, having made a direct hit on Buckley’s spark generator building neighboring the church; the building was almost entirely flattened, only the north wall standing amidst the raining debris.

“We’ve got to do something about those missiles!!” Whirling back around, I found Kenzie as she and the four guards with us got back up to their hooves. “Kenzie, when are those turrets coming back online?! They should be recovering from the interference!” Looking up, I could see that the M.I.C. screen had dissolved away to a thinner veil now, giving us all a full view of the blue sky that had come from where the missiles had parted the clouds. “This screen’s weakened, so those turrets should be reactivating any moment now!”

“I don’t know when they’ll be back up!” Kenzie shouted back from her place by the wagon. “Lela’s probably got to restart the whole damn system or something!”

“It looks like that missile didn’t punch through to the underground level of the generator building!” One of the unicorns called, likewise scoping out the damage. “We should just be glad the generators didn’t get hit!”

“HEY!!”

Suddenly, a voice called from above us, the stallion taking up the call again as he approached us quickly from the north. Archer was winging in toward us, slowing in the air to draw himself to a hover over the wagon; though he appeared unscathed, the steel blue stallion was breathing heavily. “Archer! Are you okay?!”

“Kenzie, get ready!” he spoke instead, dodging me to look to the orange mare. “The Talons are moving their whole battalion in all at once, and their vertibucks are forming up behind them! Once this screen’s gone, we’ll be engaging enemy vehicles!”

“Roger that!”

Right away Kenzie made her way to the support steps on the wagon’s front left corner, climbing up to the grenade machinegun mounted up top. “Nova!” Now Archer was facing me as he hovered. “If you can fly, then I need your help!”

I gave him a nod, snapping my wings out wide. “I’m fine, Archer! What do you need me to do?!”

“I’ve got to warn our guards that the Talons are coming in!” he explained. “I need you to get to a couple of the howitzer teams and tell them to redirect their fire from five hundred meters to two hundred! That’ll keep them on target so they can land more shells on the enemy before they arrive! Once you get two or three of them to adjust, the other teams should see it and follow their lead!”

“Got it!”

“And when you’re done with that, get up to the sniper nest at the top of the ATC tower!” he quickly added, already flying past. “I want you sniping, and our snipers up there have an extra rifle that you can use!”

And with that he was already speeding away towards the far end of the runway. As sudden as the orders were, I was brought back to focus now that I had an order to follow, and with a grunt I jumped skyward and pumped my wings to catch the air. But as I got off the ground, I already found a guard flagging me down, waving for me to catch my attention. He was part of the nearest howitzer team, two of his five crew mates using their combined telekinesis to lift one of the heavy shells from its place in a barricaded pile of ammo and float it over to their gun’s open receiver.

“Outsider! Over here!” came the unicorn’s call as I made my way over. “Did Archer tell you what’s going on?!”

“He told me that the Talons are moving their force in to engage!” I answered, coming to a hover in front of him. “You need to adjust your fire from five hundred meters to two hundred so that you can stay on target! I’ve got to tell the other teams to do the same!”

“Shit… alright, you’ve got it! I’ll tell the others here! You get moving!”

Banking right I lined myself up with the runway and poured on the speed, as much as my damaged rib would allow. The howitzer that was the farthest down the line was positioned in front of the northernmost hangar, a residential hangar if I remembered right. This crew of four unicorns and two earth ponies had already loaded their gun fresh, and one of them was already at the firing lever. “HEY! WAIT UP! HEY!” Thankfully, the crew one and all heard me out over the raid siren as I drew up to their position. “The Talons are almost here! Archer spotted them closing in on the base, so he needs you to adjust your fire from five hundred meters to two hundred to keep putting shells on them while they’re still on the move!”

“Understood! We’ll adjust!”

And that was all I paid mind to before I spun in the air and moved on to the next team, retracing my flight path to catch the other guns I had passed by. But the next team, stationed just past the first perpendicular lane connecting the runways, was already locked and loaded, its crew in position to fire. With a jarring clap, the howitzer barrel recoiled sharply as it slung the round into the air; farther down the runway, at the opposite end, two more guns followed suit.

As I angled in for the gun crew, one of the loaders paused as she caught me in her peripheral sight. “Hey, we saw you go down! Are you okay, outsider?!”

“I’m fine!” I assured quickly, snapping a hoof up to point eastward. “Listen! Archer spotted the Talons moving their force in! They’re coming and they’re bringing in everything they’ve got, so he needs all the howitzer teams to adjust their fire from five hundred meters to two hundred!” The unicorn mare, eyes briefly going wide, gave me a quick wave in reply as one of her crew mates joined her, to whom she promptly relayed my instructions.

And with that I was off again for the fourth team. However, I found that this team, as well as the three others farther down, were beginning to alter the angle of their guns, just as Archer had said. The howitzer barrels were beginning to lower as they were adjusted, dropping down until they were positioned at only a slight incline from the ground to mimic the position of those whose crews I’d already warned. Now the field was changing as I made my way down the runway and towards the ATC tower. Thankfully, the area was cleared of a majority of the non-combatants, with only a couple guard squads helping the remaining injured reach the safety of the underground. The howitzers had reached a unified angle once again, and already two more fired their next shots with the new corrections complete. And with them, the front line was coming together as the infantry finished up their last minute checkups on the fortifications that now thickly dotted the terrain.

Thump…

Two pulses of light augmented the dying M.I.C. screen, and with a gasp I snapped my eyes back up to the sky as I ground to a stop. Two more Guardian missiles were on their way, engines blazing white as the warheads plummeted down. But suddenly, from the southeast corner, a piercing buzz of gunfire erupted over the base, and before I could look, one of the two missiles detonated in the air, a ring of fire rippling out as the second missile blazed by. And only a second later, a smaller rocket raced in from the south on an intercept course for the second missile, smashing straight into it and likewise detonating the second missile. The missile exploded right over the church, the resulting fireball bathing it in red-orange light as its windows shattered from the explosive force. But though the anti-air turret on the church continued to spark, still unable to recuperate from the interference, I saw from my place the turret atop the concert hall, the great weapon pointed to the airspace above the church with its heavy multi-barreled chain gun spinning.

It was no longer suppressed by the M.I.C.!

With that spark of assurance I pushed myself forward and double-timed it toward the ATC tower. As I rose, lining up to the sniper nest, two more howitzers sounded off together, two more trails of smoke materializing as their shells streaked low over Buckley and out to the east. And as I followed their path, I could see for the first time the Talons on the march. The Legion had assembled what looked like a small invading army to attack Buckley, with whole blocks of black-armored infantry, easily with a hundred soldiers each, stretching across the full length of Buckley’s eastern perimeter. At the very front of their battalion, true to Archer’s intel, ten bulky armored wagons, looking to be larger all around than Buckley’s, were rolling up as a line and already nearly upon the fence. And above them, the Talons’ air force of twenty vertibucks remained waiting for the last light of the near fully dissolved M.I.C. charge to fade. Behind them, I could spot the fresh craters from the howitzer shells; a good number of them looked to have found their marks, judging by the unmoving black spots I could see against the otherwise brown earth.

But from the front of the force suddenly emerged multiple bright flashes, and I could see with a start a whole volley of missiles just before they struck the fence, all ten punching wide holes into the barrier. And right after, the air over the Talon force flashed like a strobe light as their vertibucks opened fire all together. By the dozens, rockets streaked out from the aerial vehicles’ stub wings, combining into a terrible barrage that rained down on Buckley’s troops like so many spears. I screamed as the base was strafed from east to west, the unguided rockets cruelly carpet-bombing a great swath of the runways, some reaching even farther back and blasting holes in the hangars behind me, and others still falling short of the firing lines to chip away at the residential sectors.

As fast as it had come, the devastating volley was over. But the Talons’ sudden display of their own startling brute force had thrown most of Buckley’s defenders into total disarray. Over a third of the entire base was now pockmarked with small smoldering blast craters, and the casualties from the surprise barrage… I could see scattered wreckage where multiple machinegun nests had once been set up, and even from my place in the air, I could see unmoving bodies amidst the scrambling guardsponies.

Thump…

No… no, not again!

Thump…

As the guards miraculously unharmed by the rocket barrage scrambled to get into whatever cover they could find, the familiar pulses of light flashed over the base, another two Guardian missiles coming in fast. But once more, a violent continuous buzz of gunfire made its angry reply, the concert hall turret responding to the threat. And yet neither of the missiles detonated from the attack, and with alarm I saw that the now functional turret was engaging a pair of vertibucks that had broken off from their formation to enter the weapon’s sensor range.

They were distracting the turret from the incoming missiles!

But with a shocked jolt, I snapped my gaze left as a second turret erupted with a thunderous voice. The AA turret on the nearby munitions hangar had recovered enough from the Talons’ spell to operate once more, and having snapped up in its housing to point skyward, the heavy chain gun was burning hot orange as it roared. But at that, I forced myself to turn away, despite how much I wanted to see for myself if the revived turret hit its targets. As I threw myself back into flight, climbing up the final stretch toward the sniper nest, I heard as one missile detonated above the base, close by but still a fair distance above. But at the same time, the second missile had exploded… only at ground level. It had made impact farther behind me, but even then I could still feel the shockwave of air from the powerful warhead.

Undoubtedly modified, just like Vance had promised…

“Damn it, how many more are they going to send?!” That was the question I asked myself as I drew up to the glassless windows of the ATC’s sniper nest, my teeth clamped together behind closed lips as I growled at my own silent words; now I had a real urge to kill… to see blood behind a rifle scope.

Inside the sniper den were two stallions, one ash-colored earth pony and one medium-green unicorn each by the two open eastern windows as they reloaded their rifles, mounted atop the window ledges with their own bipods and modified with suppressors. The tower itself had been cleared of everything that was non-essential, with only the old bolted-down terminals and monitoring stations remaining in their original places; the far wall was occupied by a quartet of large duffle bags, extra ammo and equipment spilled out from their open mouths.

“Nova!! Get in there and get ready!!” From behind me, I recognized Archer’s voice as he shouted my way, and looking over my shoulder, I found him racing in from the runways. “We’re going to be in the thick of it in a matter of seconds now!!” Facing front as he flew by, I followed him in the rest of the way, the two of us slowing to a hover by the open windows. “You’re rifle is in here!” he added, giving a sharp flap of his wings to zip right through one of the windows. “Come on, let’s get you geared up!”

Already, the sharp cracks of long rifles combining with sustained bursts of machinegun fire alerted me to the first skirmishes on the ground, and copying Archer’s move, I hastily threw myself through the open window to come to a landing inside the tower. “Am I sticking with you?” I asked, tucking my wings against my sides as he trotted over to the far end of the chamber.

“Coms are still down. Until they’re back up and Mother Shimmer and Tracer can speak to everypony again, I’m one of the base’s acting commanders, just like Ricochet, Bolt, and a couple others.” he explained, looking back to me. “Since we can’t attack from the air with so many vertibucks out there, I want you with me so your sharper eyes can be behind a rifle scope. And aside from that, you need to be somewhere that isn’t as physically taxing. That broken rib of yours is going to slow you down in a dogfight, so that’s the last thing I want you doing.”

As if on cue, my rib provoked me to wince at the realization that Archer had discovered my injury. But I said nothing as he about-faced, reaching to bite down on the stock of a rifle suspended over an open duffle bag on its assembled bipod. And lifting it up quickly, he turned about and came back to lay it at my hooves. “This isn’t like your three-o-eight. It fires assault rifle cartridges, five fifty-six, but it’ll still put a hole in a pony’s skull at half a mile.” Though it definitely wasn’t like Blue Fire’s Torch, the new rifle looked potent enough. Black and gray, it loosely resembled a markspony carbine, but was a little bigger all around, with a greater clip size, a larger scope, and even its own suppressor. “And take this, too.” When I found the pegasus again, he was already bringing something from the duffle bag over to me – an ammo sash with a half dozen pockets, each holding a full magazine for my new weapon. And stepping close, he craned his head forward over my shoulder and slung the sash over my neck. “There. Now get back outside and set up on the roof of this building.” he ordered. “I’ll be right behind you, now go.”

There was no time left to ask questions. Wordless, I scooped up the rifle with a foreleg and held it tight against my chest before leaping back out through the open window and into the air. By now, the light screen was only a ghost of its former self. And down below, the Talons had taken that as their cue to engage. The skirmishing had rapidly turned into the full-scale battle that we’d been waiting for, as the first platoons of Talon soldiers had entered the base, already fully occupying the residential sectors to use the sprawl of houses as a staging area. Just behind them, I could see their armored wagons through the smoke, already having passed through the breaches in the fence; the rest of the enemy force that I could see looked to be moving at the wagons’ speed, coming in at a cautious but calculated pace.

Arcing right to follow the curve of the ATC tower, I angled in for the open rooftop and landed smoothly by its lip. Carefully I set the rifle down, measuring a hoof between its bipod and the roof’s edge, and coming around, I lowered myself gingerly onto my belly, slow to avoid distressing my rib any further. Though it still didn’t pass up the opportunity to remind me of its broken state, giving me an extra kick of pain for good measure, I forced myself into a proper prone position and pulled my rifle back against my shoulder before clamping onto the firing bit and sighting down the scope.

Through thin black crosshairs I finally got a detailed look at the battlefield. The battle had started in full now, spreading out from the residential sectors as the Talons begun to dig in. The enemy front had been set up past the residences, with several squads already setting up their familiar deployable barricades and just as many enemy troops putting fire downrange. The vertibucks’ rockets had distracted Buckley’s guards long enough for the Talons to execute the first offensive maneuver, and already I could see several of Buckley’s ponies just as they were gunned down, taken by surprise before they could get to cover. To the right of the epicenter, I found one of the Talons’ wagons as it made its way towards the front. Now I could see that, instead of being pulled like Buckley’s, this wagon was being pushed, a team of five hooked up to a heavy steel bar while additional troops kept them covered, others still using the wagon itself as protection from hostile fire; the wagon looked wholly unarmed, only a bulky steel box moving on shielded wheels… but I knew better.

And it would be my first target.

At this angle, I got a bead on the team pushing the wagon as well as their infantry escort, providing dozens of easy targets. Guiding the scope down and to the left, I brought the crosshairs onto the front of the moving group, finding a unicorn stallion holding down the trigger on a light machinegun. Chomping down on the firing bit, a single suppressed round fired, smashing into the guard’s armored shoulder. The hit staggered him, the shock of the impact getting him to drop his weapon as he stumbled. With only a slight adjustment I brought the crosshairs onto a new target, another Talon unicorn with an assault rifle floating at his side as he reloaded. I didn’t give him the chance to finish, and with a single shot, I sent him to the ground as I put a round through his unarmored neck.

To my left, I picked up the sound of hooves as they landed roughly on the stone beside me. A quick glance revealed Archer, landing with his .50 caliber Longbow, likewise suppressed and situated on its bipod, and a small saddlebag with ammo in tow. “I’m starting to pick up faint chatter on the radio!” he called, laying down flat and situating himself by my side. “It’s not back to normal, but it should get there in a couple more minutes at the most! When Tracer or Shimmer calls in, they’ll give us fresh orders of engagement!”

“Are they both down there?!” I asked, bringing my eye back up to my scope and taking aim again.

“They’re probably back in one of the hangars!” came his answer. “For now just soften up the enemy where they’re hitting our ponies the hardest! We need to keep them from gaining too much ground while we form up a counterattack!”

Already I found a third target, an earth-pony mare with a combo saddle consisting of an assault rifle and shotgun. With a short ‘paff’ of sound, my third shot dropped the mare where she stood with a clean headshot. But now, after three consecutive hits coupled with the casualties from the retaliatory fire of Buckley’s swiftly regrouping defenses, the other soldiers nearby were getting smart, and though still keeping up with the wagon, they begun to spread themselves out, many moving to the deployable barriers that had been going up at the front, while others fell back to take cover by the wagon itself. Still, not all of them were protected from the angle of fire my position gave to me, and there were still plenty of targets to choose from.

But before I could get my crosshairs centered over a fourth target, my scope was blocked up as a wall of fire and dust exploded into view, a sharp blast that had followed a long burst of fire from one of Buckley’s anti-air turrets. I flinched away from the scope, spotting the wreck of one of the Talons’ vertibucks as it tumbled once over the dirt, crumpling in on itself before coming to a halt just outside the east runway. But above it, traveling in low through the air, four more took its place in a loose V formation to support their allies on the ground, with five others moving in farther down the runway to approach the northern hangar. And sure enough, looking the other way, I found that five additional aircraft were coming in towards us and spreading out to occupy the Talons’ left flank, with three more angling in towards the church at the base’s far corner. Right away the familiar report of Buckley’s AA gun atop the munitions hangar, along with the turret guarding the concert hall, were met by the vertibucks’ own miniguns. Spotting the former, I saw the lead aerial quartet taking evasive action as the gun locked on, slinging a torrent of lead at one only to snappily rotate on its platform to target another, one of its rockets racing out from its pod with a resounding hiss. At the same time, one of the vertibucks from the farthest wing detonated in a seemingly spontaneous explosion. The other four sharply dipped away to either direction of the flaming wreck that was all that remained, executing evasive action as each spit out what looked to be a dozen small fireballs from their bellies. And at the same time, two rockets suddenly raced into view and struck the lazily floating flares one after the next, barely missing what had to be their target aircraft; between the rocket trails, I could just barely see the thin white line left behind from the flight of the high-velocity shell that had brought the formation’s lead vertibuck down, both the hovering stripe and the twin smoke trails from the rockets coming from behind the hangars.

“Nova! Eyes to your right!” Reaching me just before another thundering volley from the seven remaining howitzers, Archer’s call brought me back to return my eye to my rifle scope. And as I swiveled my rifle over, he added, “We’ve got some soldiers trying to establish cover on our flank, by the crater!”

Just past the southernmost crater, where one of Buckley’s howitzers had been destroyed, a small group of enemy infantry was making a break for the west runway. The defense was thinner here, with perhaps only twenty or so allied guards close by, the Guardian missile having left a wide open area for the Talons to utilize. And though allied reinforcements had been pouring out of the hangars, they wouldn’t arrive here for a good few minutes yet. Bringing my crosshairs down on the moving team, I counted their number to fifteen, with additional squads moving more slowly farther behind them. A suppressed round from Archer’s fifty cal brought down one of them as I selected my own target at the center of the team and took a shot, clipping the right hind leg of an earth pony stallion carrying a folded up tripod on his back – a component of an unassembled HMG. Immediately after, an escort unicorn with a single assault rifle floating by her came into my line of fire from her place at the rear. And before she could pass by, I fired again, the round striking her armor’s flank plate and making her stagger in her gallop to tumble to the ground.

From the bottom of my scope came muzzle flashes, and the bold Talon team was forced to halt as they were spotted. Two of them, both unicorns, slammed down the deployable shields they were carrying, wrapping them up in telekinesis to unfold the plates into two wide plate barriers for the rest of them to take cover behind. With Archer taking another shot, knocking out an assault rifle that another unicorn was blind-firing over the barrier, I turned my scope back up and to the left, finding additional contacts that were making their way over to back up their advance team. Here I found another of the Talons’ heavy wagons, this one making the southern tip of the enemy’s line or armor. Like the others, it was under heavy escort, with a line of infantry putting fire downrange in front of it to protect it from heavy weapons. I aligned my scope with that front line, finding a unicorn mare just as she reloaded her ten millimeter SMG. With one shot, she staggered from the impact of the round against her armor’s chest plate. And with one more, I caught her at the top of the head as she tried to get herself back up.

A third round from Archer’s rifle dropped an earth pony close to my latest kill with a chest wound, the heavier round punching through his thick armoring. With the body count stacking up, the boldness of the advance team faltered as they likewise came to a stop, four of them hastily unhooking their deployable cover to set up some protection. One was a white unicorn mare, her face written with nervous tension as she struggled to get her barrier off the clamps holding it to her back. And before she could get it free, I took a shot, dropping her with a headshot for both her and her barrier to fall unmoving to the dirt. The other three barricades were already set up when I situated my scope on a new target, sparks flying from the black steel as Buckley’s guards below us kept the Talons pinned. Still, the enemy soldiers managed to keep up their own fire, popping in and out of cover to take a potshot at the first guard they spotted. I leveled out at the top of the lead barricade just as an earth pony stallion with a mouth-held SMG ducked back into cover. And just a second later, he reemerged to fire again, and I shot. The round sparked off the barrier right under him, startling him back into cover just as a neighboring earth pony buck popped up to level out his markspony carbine. I snapped my scope over just as he fired two quick shots, and like before, my shot clipped the barrier just off to his left. But a second later, and his head snapped back as a spray of crimson shot out behind him, Archer scoring a headshot on him.

As I kept my scope leveled at the barrier, the Talon’s wagon emerged into the top of my crosshairs, drawing my eye to it. With Buckley keeping the escort at bay, the fire picking up as a small batch of much-needed reinforcements came in to assist them, I adjusted my scope to level out by the wagon. It was on approach to the front line and on course to pass by its leading guards. And grimly, I suspected that the others were too. The pulling team was still in view from my position, driving the heavy wagon forward, and I brought my crosshairs over a stallion hooked to the right side of the vehicle’s boom. Quick and clean, I dropped the slow-moving earth pony, and noticed quickly how the wagon abruptly slowed. And as the dead pony slumped in his harness, an escort galloping by beside him flipped over himself as Archer brought him down, the fifty caliber round severing the unfortunate Talons’ lower left foreleg.

BOOM!

From ahead and just above, a distinguishable explosive pop sounded over the constant roar of the base’s active AA guns, and was followed by a violent metal rattle. And just as I looked up from my scope, a foreleg hooked around my throat and pulled me back. “Back up, back up!!” Archer pulled me up to my hooves as he shouted his warning, the surprise action making me drop my rifle as I was tugged away. But just a split moment later, and I gasped as I saw why. The wing of vertibucks closest to us was scattering as a barrage of fire chased them from the roof of the building neighboring us – Club Eternity. The turret there had come back online to engage them, and it had strafed one of them before it could evade. The hit aircraft was spinning out of control, its port engine ablaze, and it was barreling straight for our position! Archer and I turned to flee from the falling vehicle, the two of us stopping only when the very stone under our hooves shook as the vertibuck smashed into the building. Wheeling around, I saw that it had just missed the lip of the roof. But the screeching metal and crumbling stone told me that the vehicle was carving down along the wall, finally coming to a jarring halt on the surface with one final crunch.

“The turrets are coming back online! But we’re not out of this yet! We need to help them keep the pressure off our guys down there!” Over the roar of the Club Eternity turret, Archer shouted his order as he galloped by me to make his way back to his rifle. Indeed the four vertibucks that remained close by us were fully engaged with the revived turret that had downed their formation leader, a wild and lethal aerial dance as they turned, banked, and weaved to avoid the turret’s twenty-five millimeter storm of lead. Even together, the four of them could hardly get a shot on the heavy gun as it snapped from target to target, and the short bursts of minigun fire that they did manage to fire off only seemed to agitate the formidable weapon. And with a quick glance as I galloped back to my post, I found a similar scene at the concert hall, munitions hangar, and the church all together, each of the guns keeping the majority the enemy aerial force occupied; the formation of four by the hangars now only numbered three, with the fourth having disappeared outside the base.

Rejoining my rifle again as Archer reloaded the Longbow, I fell back onto my belly and hurried to get my rifle back into place, the weapon having been jarred from its place by the crashed vertibuck now smoldering below us. Now, joining the vertibucks as they tried to get the upper hoof on Buckley’s anti-air defenses, I could see the reported dozen griffins as they dispersed among the battlefield, all of them going for the infantry line which was already looking to have been pushed back to the runway median. Bringing my rifle back to its proper place against my shoulder, I turned away from the raging conflict to focus back onto my sector. The wagon was the first thing to come back into my crosshairs. In the time it took us to get back to our posts, the dead member of the pushing team had been removed from the harness and replaced by another to keep the vehicle moving at a solid pace. But now, it was just passing the front line of enemy infantry, which had nearly doubled in size.

With the wagon taking the lead of the enemy advance, and with it remaining under heavy guard, I had a feeling that the otherwise unarmed transport had another purpose. And with that in mind, I picked up right where I left off. Bringing my scope up and easing the crosshairs into position, I found the team pushing the wagon just as they begun to alter their course, hooking it right to face the Buckley line head-on. Before they all disappeared behind the wagon from their change of direction, I got one shot on the earth pony at the back of the team, and just before the wagon concealed them, I saw him crumple to the ground as his right hind leg gave out, my round punching through his armor there.

Beside me, Archer’s rifle sounded off once more as I swung my scope back to the escorts. The enemy line had indeed grown significantly, but through my scope I could see that our allies on the ground were beginning to change up their tactics. In that moment I caught sight of the howitzer crew that was just off to our left, the second to last in the artillery line. But instead of just its own crew, over a dozen unicorns had stacked up behind the great cannon, and each of them was using their own telekinesis. Fourteen horns glowed brightly as the entire gun was wrapped up in a literal rainbow of light. Bullets sparked wildly off the gun’s built-in blast shield, the Talons catching on to what they were up to, but the pack of Buckley unicorns had already lifted the gun off the two steel bars that kept it firmly on the ground. Now it only sat on its wheels, the barrel coming down to ground level as it was guided to its target, and with a clap the gun roared. With the gun no longer on its supports, the firing of the shell caused the howitzer to snap back, alarmingly bouncing on its tires and nearly bowling over its crew before falling back onto its supports. The gun hadn’t been designed to be used like that, but to my surprise, the improvised plan had worked. Looking back through my scope, I found that the Talons’ wagon had fallen over onto its right side, now laying useless just outside the crater where the howitzer shell had impacted the ground.

With the shell having gone off so close, over half of the Talon position had become disoriented, enough for us to make a full counter attack. And the bullets flew, Buckley’s guards cutting down several enemies who had been jolted out from their cover before they could retreat back to safety. One after the next, the other six howitzers fired off another thundering volley as I brought my scope down onto a new target. The unicorn stallion in my sights had likewise been thrown from his cover, and was now making a brave effort of keeping the trigger down on his assault rifle, still shooting despite being under heavy fire. Two shots, one to the chest and the second to the head, put an end to him before I sighted in for his neighbor, an earth pony mare who had already been wounded from the close proximity of the howitzer round; one more pull of the firing bit, and I tacked on another kill to my count.

Thump…

I paused at the resonant boom that just barely reached me through the battlefield, my ears twitching back as a familiar pit opened up in my gut.

Thump…

More Guardian missiles were coming!!

Thump…

Looking skyward, I shouted the warning to Archer, and where the blue of the open sky had almost been completely resealed, the thick clouds were parted once again as three more of Guardian’s missiles careened down towards the base one after the next. They arced in from above the clouds to the east and hooked down towards the base’s north side. And as I watched, the lead warhead detonated in the air as one of the hangar turrets locked on and fired. The remaining two slashed through the wreckage and remained on course as the turret’s chaingun continued to buzz. The second was clipped just a second later, one of the turret’s rockets intercepting it to knock it out of the sky. But the third missile blazed right through it, and the turret couldn’t adjust itself in time to keep up. The missile smashed right through the ceiling of the residential hangar, and after a split second pause, the whole building detonated in a cataclysmic fireball. The ceiling went up first, the force of the blast tearing through it like paper before a wall of fire erupted from the open hangar doors. Then the whole building, walls and all, came tumbling down with a terrible screeching of metal, its frame groaning as the old structure gave out; its AA turret was the last thing to disappear into the fireball left behind by the missile’s impact.

And just like that, one of Buckley’s three great hangars had been utterly destroyed, leaving only a flaming wreck in its place.

But even then the battle continued to rage, even with the new devastation that decorated the field as a black and orange pillar of smoke, and the sounding of sharp repeating cracks of gunfire drew my eyes from the terrible sight and back to the frontline. From my elevated position I could see that, like Buckley’s ponies, the Talons had altered their own tactics. The wagons had executed a new step in the enemy battle plan, and while the howitzer teams had managed to take out a second wagon, the eight remaining transports had now come to a stop together. And now, the front panel of each one had opened, unlatching from the rest of the vehicle from the top and slamming to the ground to create a ramp. And from each ramp, a twenty millimeter flak gun had rolled out onto the field, each of the signature mobile guns protected by a heavy machinegun turret that had emerged on the rear half of the wagons. The turrets coupled with the flaks to create another deadly hail of lead that sent Buckley’s ponies scrambling behind cover; some of the guards were too late to do so, the flak fire catching them just a second too soon…

Now the Talons were on the offensive again, their troops heartened by the eight flak guns that now took the lead of their advance, and glaring hatefully to the battlefield, I brought my eye back up against my scope. But just as I took aim farther to the south, intent on targeting the closest flak gun, a hoof shoved against my uninjured side just before Archer’s voice called, “Nova, we need to move! We’ve been spotted by griffins!”

His warning carried a desperate tone, a sentiment that I quickly shared as I forced myself up to all fours and backed away from my rifle. Snapping my eyes skyward, it only took me two seconds to find the hostiles that Archer had identified. Directly ahead, coming in fast from slightly higher up in the air, were three griffins winging straight towards us in a tight V formation. And even from my place on the roof, I could see a recognizable face that was leading the strike wing to us, a griffin male fully armored and armed to the teeth. And at the sight of him, tunnel vision came back for yet another visit, stopping by to give a fine hello to the fiery hatred that had been forced to simmer within me since the last time he and I had met. And the urge to flee that I had just started to feel at Archer’s warning was immediately squashed down as I let my wings come open. “Are we engaging them, Archer?”

Standing close beside me, I heard the pegasus stallions’ saddle rifles as they clicked together, locked and ready to fire. “I don’t think we have a choice, Nova.” came his low reply. “They’re coming for us.”

That was the only answer I needed… and it was the only one that I would’ve accepted.

Because Blackhawk had come to this fight, and he was coming to face me once again. Only now, I was armed and able to properly fight back, and as I rose into the air with Archer to meet the enemy’s challenge, I had the distinct feeling that I was just as eager to square off as Blackhawk himself was.

The both of us wanted the blood of the other. The both of us wanted vengeance… but only one of us would get it.

*** *** ***

“You’re loaded! Let ‘em have it!”

With a piercing screech, another rocket roared out into the air from the anti-air launcher held in my telekinesis, arcing upward and adjusting course for the vertibuck that had forced Lily to stop while keeping us pinned behind her. I only caught a glimpse of the projectile as it locked onto its target before I scrambled back to safety with both Brooke and Shore, the aircraft’s minigun buzzing to life once again to tear up the dirt right in front of our noses. A second later, and the minigun went silent as the sizzling pops of the vertibuck’s flares replaced it, marking another successful evasion. But just as it did so, the second launcher fired off behind me, and just as the vehicle righted itself from its maneuver, the second rocket streaked up to strike the wing holding the starboard engine to the fuselage; the engine completely severed from the rest of the craft, and the imbalance sent both parts plummeting to the ground.

Finally, after six rockets, we had an open lane to move again, and Amber was already taking advantage of that opening from her place at Lily’s command seat. Rippling back to its full volume, the tank’s massive engine revved up just before her treads screeched, and with a lurch, the steel beast was on the move again. Together, Shore, Ivy, and I followed, joining back up with Brooke and the two stallions that made up the rest of our makeshift squad. Now, with the light screen gone at last, we were finally heading into the fight… and with Buckley burning before us, I knew that their tank was needed now more than ever.

“Hey! Listen up outsiders!” From her place by my left side, Brooke shouted to get our attention as we upped our pace to a trot, adjusting as Lily picked up speed. “As soon as Lily busts down the gate, Ricochet’s going to be throwing her right into the thick of it, and we’re going to be following her in!”

“Coms came back online just a little bit ago, and Tracer’s reported that the Talons pushed us off the east runway and past the median!” one of the stallions, a tan earth pony with an orange mane, spoke up. “They apparently came in with around six to seven hundred, and though they’ve taken some losses already, they’re still gaining ground, and they’re gaining it quickly!”

“So we need to keep them from going too far!” Brooke replied, looking me in the eye as she added, “When we get in there, we’re going to keep as much fire off Lily as possible while she takes out the stuff that the infantry can’t! We’ll make sure to get others to help us out along the way, but if you find anti-armor or heavy weapons in the Talon line, take them out quick as you can!”

“What about those other vertibucks?!” I asked, pulling the launcher closer to us. “They’ll come after us once we get in there!”

“The turrets are keeping them dancing, for now!” she answered. “Just keep your eyes open!”

“I’ll take the launcher, outsider! You help make sure Lily stays safe from ground threats, and we’ll keep the sky secured!”

The light green unicorn stallion that made our sixth squad mate, who had been running back and forth between myself and the tan earth pony while driving back the vertibuck, pulled the anti-air weapon from me with a nod before trotting back to his companion to reload it. And with the order given, I turned my attention to my own weapons, unhooking the All-Equestrian from its place on my back and bringing it forward.

“We’re almost to the fence now! Get ready down there!”

From up top, taking his position by the mounted fifty caliber machinegun, the gunner unicorn shouted down his warning to us as we fell into a gallop to match Lily’s pace. And one final time, I checked over my LMG – safety off, round in the chamber. I was on my second to last clip, with the current clip at least half emptied. The rescue mission at the Talons’ prison had forced me to burn through a good chunk of my ammo, including all of my buckshot shells and all but six of my revolver rounds. This time, I knew that I needed to be more conservative with my shooting, and I knew that Ivy and Shore would both be doing the same.

“You two ready over there?!”

Looking to my right, I looked upon where Ivy and Shore were keeping close. Shore carried a focused look on his face as he passed me only a single nod. But Ivy herself looked more than a little shook up as she kept her twelve-point-seven millimeter SMG hovering close to her chest. “As ready as I can be… considering I’ve never been in a battle like this!” came her answer, glancing to me as she spoke.

I faced front as I brought the All-Equestrian close to me. “Just move where we move and keep close! We’ll have your back in there!”

“Here we go!!”

The time for talk had passed.

At Brooke’s call, I found in the corner of my eye Buckley’s west perimeter fence as it stretched away to the south. We were coming right in for the northwest corner of the base, lined right up with the leveled hangar that had just taken a direct hit from one of the Talons’ cruise missiles. And then came a violent rattle of metal as the fence in front of us buckled and caved inward, Lily driving right into the barrier and passing over it with effortless ease. Not slowing even in the slightest, the tank rolled right over the now flattened fence, and one after the next, the six of us galloped right over top it, finally crossing into Buckley itself.

We immediately came under fire, multiple rounds bouncing off Lily’s hull as she drove forward. Then the ground pulsed under hoof as the tank’s main gun responded with a violent clap, the mounted minigun and fifty caliber firing together right after. With no target in sight yet, we kept right up behind the tank to keep out of the way of the fire the vehicle was drawing. Up above, the engines of a vertibuck swelled to life as one of the aerial vessels passed over us, flying low in the air and moving full speed as the AA turret on the center hangar swept across the sky with its chaingun; three vertibucks were occupied with the turret and its partner gun on the other remaining hangar.

From the front, a thick curtain of dirt exploded skyward to come back down and shower Lily just before a violent cloud of sparks erupted from the right side of the tank’s main gun, a rocket unable to punch through the armor only to bounce uselessly off the plating. Then the main cannon fired again, with the two machineguns picking back up as the secondary cannon on the right side fired a shell. “We’re almost past the hangar now!” Brooke adjusted herself to come back around to my left side from her place behind me. “When we pass it, we join up with the infantry and we traverse the line to follow Lily as she makes her way through! Amber wants to carve a path right between the runways!”

“Got it!”

At my confirmation, she repeated her instructions to her two companions, both of them prepping their assault rifles for the gallop we’d have to make from cover to cover. “I can see one of the howitzer teams, Gunny!” Shore shouted. “There’s plenty of cover where the infantry set up in front of it!”

Taking a peek out towards the approaching warzone, I spotted the crew just as they fired off their gun once again. With it only standing on its two wheels the cannon lurched violently back, the kickback nearly causing the gun to bulldoze its crew of a dozen unicorns. With the large team thus occupied, there were over three dozen guards scattered between five different barricades that were putting up steady fire to keep the enemy’s attention off the gun, all of who had set themselves in front of the howitzer to establish a protective wall. And upon relaying this to Brooke, she gave us her approval at making that our first destination.

Now we were at the opposite end of the burning hangar, having moved in closer to where the wall had once stood. The flaming wreckage bathed us in heat as we galloped past, emerging out into open terrain before Brooke shouted the order to run. With Shore and Ivy moving in front of me, I booked it across the dirt and onto the wide lane connecting the burning hangar to the runway. The lane was spaced with wounded guards and those that were trying to heal them under fire, many of the disabled ponies having been severely burned or maimed; there were over fifty wounded out here alone, with even more farther out… I didn’t want to think of how many might’ve been in that hangar when it went up in flames.

Flecks of dirt pelting my face brought my focus back to the fight, a grenade having detonated just to the left of the howitzer as we drew near. To our left came another report from Lily’s main gun, followed close behind by the smaller starboard gun. The tank was rolling onward at full speed, and up ahead, the Talon infantry that had dug in at the front of the occupied east runway was beginning to fall back. At the same time, a new group was coming forward to take their place, this squad of seven carrying with them two missile launchers with a twenty millimeter rolling into position behind them. As we galloped by the howitzer on our final approach to our position, the flak gun opened up, its heavy rounds kicking up a blast of sparks after every hit. And with it another missile raced out from the Talons’ place behind their barrier, this one detonating against the tank’s frontal armor. But Lily pushed right through the smoke as her main gun came around to target the new threat, the minigun raging and driving the new squad back into cover; the fifty caliber was now silent, the gunner buck forced to hide inside the tank from the fire the vehicle was drawing.

Ahead, Shore and Ivy skidded to a halt and ducked down behind the closest sandbag wall, and I followed their move just as the barrier was peppered with assault rifle fire. Brooke and the others crouched in with us as the three guards already here made room. “Lily’s in position! Time to go to work, outsiders!”

The clap of the main cannon sounded once again at her command, and with that I swung the All-Equestrian up onto the sandbags and rose up to take aim for the flak gun. The gun crew and their support had nearly taken the brunt of the tank’s shot, the round falling just short only to blanket them with dirt and dust as they struggled back up from their daze. With that opening I lit up the flak gun as its crew tried to return to their places, sparks flying. I clipped one of the unicorns on the team before the rest threw themselves back to the ground, and Ivy and Shore hit the escorts together, Ivy with her SMG and Shore with his sidearm. A second later, and the flak gun went up in smoke, a shell from Lily’s secondary cannon flattening it with a direct hit.

With a mechanical shriek, the tank begun to move, crossing into the unoccupied median and adjusting to a northward course to put itself right between the two fronts; already, the frontal armor of the vehicle was shimmering a dim pink, just like before at the Talon headquarters. Swiveling the All-Equestrian right, I brought the iron sights upon the closest group. But before I could fire again, I caught sight of the larger muzzle flash of a heavy machinegun, and I ducked back down just after its first shot struck the sandbags just below me. “The machinegun on that wagon’s been strafing us from here all the way to the second howitzer!” From Shore’s right, a Buckley unicorn guard called over the noise as he slammed a fresh magazine into his automatic rifle. “All our reinforcements from the hangars are out on the field, but the wagons are keeping us from getting anywhere!”

“We’re fucking stuck is what we are!”

“Let Lily handle the wagons!” Brooke responded from her place beside me, ignoring the remark from another stallion farther down the sandbag wall. “Just keep putting rounds on the infantry! Blind fire if you have to!”

“We need to head farther down the line!” Lifting the All-Equestrian up over the barrier, I kept myself low as I fired two short bursts, then pulling it back down as I looked to Ivy and Shore. “I want to find out where Nova’s gone to!”

“I think I already see her! Up there!” My eyes snapped over to meet Ivy’s before she pointed with her SMG to the sky. And there I could see what she had found – there was a dogfight up there, five combatants diving and arcing as they battled for aerial dominance in the base’s southern sector; and two of them were pegasus ponies.

I glared at the sight; Nova was already wounded… she wouldn’t last forever up there no matter how determined she was. “We need to get to her!”

BOOM!

From behind us and to the right, the continual buzz from the closest anti-air gun that had been accompanying us went silent, a drastic change in the sound of the fighting that everypony caught. And just when I looked, I found a smoldering hunk of iron as it fell down the front face of the center hangar, the mangled remains of a chaingun barrel. “Sweet Luna they got another turret!” Two vertibucks were still engaged with the turret atop the neighboring hangar. But now it was the only turret left in this corner… and the third vertibuck…

“INCOMING!!”

And before I could react, minigun fire showered the space just behind us, and I heard bullets bouncing off metal as the howitzer team was pounded in a strafing pass by the third vertibuck, the craft having circled back to come to a hover behind us. The unicorns on the howitzer team dropped like flies, only two having sprang away fast enough to avoid painting the concrete crimson. But just as the twin miniguns adjusted to sweep across the ground towards our cover, carving up the pavement along the way, one of our squad mates got an opening to launch another anti-air rocket. The vertibuck’s miniguns went quiet as the aircraft dipped to the right to evade, dropping yet another batch of flares to lure the missile under its belly where it detonated harmlessly. But then, another rocket raced in from the remaining hangar turret, forcing the vertibuck to break off of its pursuit of us as it fell back into the last turret’s field of fire.

But the damage was already done, and ten of the twelve members of the gun team were motionless on the ground as red seeped out around each of them. “You two, gather weapons and ammo and follow us!” Brooke was the first to break from the trance of the sudden loss, and another blast from Lily’s main gun drew us all back together to continue on. Picking two carbines from the mess of spare weapons, the two remaining howitzer unicorns, both stallions, joined up with us as Brooke took the lead, peeking out from the edge of our barrier. The machinegun from the wagon had gone silent, and after a quick look, I found that the wagon itself had been torn wide open, a gaping hole now in place of what was once one of the armored sides. With this small but vital space of the median now cleared up as Lily moved onward, the remaining infantry squads here begun to move forward at the order of their leading officers, keeping their interval tight as they trotted out onto the median; rifle fire met them, but they were fast to retaliate against the Talons, taking out multiple consecutive contacts as they struggled to reestablish themselves after Lily’s passing.

“They’re falling back! Keep your heads down and stay right on me! Let’s move!”

Galloping out into the open, Brooke led us farther down the runway, keeping us well behind the barriers that made Buckley’s forward positions. Like the Talon line, Buckley’s guards had crowded up behind the sandbag and plate walls, taking turns at firing quick shots to try and soften up the enemy’s positions, prying for weaknesses. And looking along the line as I ran, I saw that this was the case along the full length of the runway; there were hundreds out here, hundreds on both sides!

A moment later and we were coming up to the next howitzer team, their gun snapping back as it let loose another shell. Looking out to the east, I followed the shell up to where it impacted, obliterating a group of Talon soldiers and blowing three others off their hooves and into the air. While we had heard organized volleys coming from the artillery before we had arrived, the howitzers were now firing at their own pace, at the will of their crews. Past the billowing dust cloud, I could see where the rest of the Talons’ vertibucks were engaging the two turrets occupying the base’s eastern corners. There were three remaining airborne, with two smoke trails showing where two more had been brought down by the potent turret grid. From the quartet of vertibucks to the south, one of them had broken away to fly back and reinforce its wingmates behind the enemy line; the vertibuck threat was starting to thin out, slowly but surely.

But as Brooke got us to our next position, our team finding cover to hunker down behind, I found that we were coming up onto a new problem. Just beyond this point was a gap in the defenses, with the building wedged in the median serving as an improvised wall all on its own. But past that was the center of Buckley’s line, which was the sector that was under the heaviest attack as four vertibucks backed by a wing of griffins continued to lay down suppressing fire. As such, a good chunk of the defense was pinned down tight, and it was here that the Talon soldiers were getting bold by moving into the median itself, strengthened by the combined support of the vertibucks and the twenty millimeters that focused their efforts on the center. It was this observation that an earth pony mare relayed to Brooke as we settled down. “We’ve got to hold that stretch of the runway long enough for Lily to break through!” Brooke responded to the nervous guardsmare. “If the Talons knock out the center, they’ll cut our line right in half! We can’t afford to get separated like that!”

Together, Lily’s main gun and portside gun fired, marking our cue to pick a target and engage. Together, Shore and Ivy and I rose out to scan over the field to the north. The enemy infantry presence was thicker here, even more so the farther down I looked, and already we were coming up on another one of the Talons’ armor positions, both a wagon and flak gun keeping close together from their places in the median. Out of the closest targets that were just past the building, I brought my crosshairs onto a Talon unicorn with a long-barreled rifle in his telekinesis. But before I could fire both he and his neighbors retreated behind their plate barrier as a machinegun burst sparked violently off the steel; thankfully, our new position was reinforced with heavy weapons of our own, including one of Buckley’s military wagons with a mounted fifty caliber MG, that were doing their part in keeping the Talons occupied.

With a precious couple of seconds to aim, I found a new target as he brought his assault rifle to bear, and yanking the trigger down I strafed his cover back and forth, felling both him and one other buck before I finally emptied my clip. I ducked back down as return fire peppered our own cover, removing the large empty box clip and securing it back onto my armor in exchange for my last one. “I can’t hit anything with this SMG!” In front of me, Ivy hastily lowered herself to a crouch, facing me as she floated the weapon in question back to its place on her leather armor. “It kicks too much!”

“Your lever-action would give you greater precision when shooting, especially at this distance! Use that!” Both of her weapons had been supplied to her in Hopeville before we had left, and with the SMG being a 12.7mm model, the rifle was the weapon that balanced Ivy’s arsenal with her current skill around firearms. With a nod, she floated the thirty-thirty lever-action by her left side. “Are you okay?!” she called. “You’re not hit right?”

“I’m fine! Just make sure you keep your head in the game!” I responded, fitting the last box clip into the All-Equestrian and loading a round into the chamber. “I want to keep us moving towards Nova so we can help her! She’s vulnerable with that broken rib!”

“Right!”

Giving me a nod, Ivy and I rose back up together and took aim. Together we found a fireteam keeping their focus on a position farther down our line. A shot from Ivy’s rifle sent one of them falling back to cover with a shoulder hit before I opened up, strafing the position and sending the rest back into hiding, giving some breathing room to their former targets. Across my vision, shot after shot raced from Shore’s energy pistol to where he aimed for the flak gun crew. With additional rounds striking the frontal plating of the gun, the crew was wheeling the weapon about, bringing the long barrel over to point just to our left. The weapon opened up with its sharp repeating cracks of fire, tearing clean through an already weakened barrier and forcing a squad to displace. As I put fire down on the twenty millimeter, I heard the familiar screech of the anti-air launcher to my left, the rocket racing right over my head and up to one of the vertibucks at the center; from the corner of my eye I saw the light from the flares that the vehicle deployed.

At the front, Lily put two more cannon rounds onto the enemy as the tank cleaved its way through their ranks. With the flak crew momentarily stalled, I swiveled my LMG around to the left to put the tank in my sight. Lily was now crossing over the lane connecting the two runways together, and picking up speed, she was drawing up parallel to us as she approached the nearby building. With a shriek of the treads, the tank turned left in its place to circle around the east side of the structure, adjusting once again and heading straight to disappear behind it. I felt a tap on my neck before Brooke galloped behind us with the others of our team. Passing the gesture along, I pulled away from cover and kept low as I followed after them, Ivy and Shore both doing the same and falling in behind me. With Lily now moving out of our line of sight, Brooke was keeping her eyes toward the median to match the vehicle’s pace as it lumbered along

“UP HIGH! LOOK OUT!”

The cry was carried from up ahead to swiftly ripple its way back to us, and having stuck close to the forward barricades, our squad came to a halt together to hit the ground. And just as I leapt into cover, I could hear as the propellers of another vertibuck grew into the dominant sound over the battle, coming in low and fast from the left. Then, at the top of my vision, I saw a quick series of consecutive pulses of light that flashed in time with the whining hiss of the unguided rockets I had seen before. They were fired off in rapid sequence, over a dozen impacting just to our left, and from within the roar of the barrage I heard the screeching of metal as it was blasted open. The steady grinding of Lily’s treads went silent, as did the engine, as not one but two vertibucks shot by overhead and arced away behind the enemy front. And when I looked back to ground level, rising up over cover, I found Lily where the great tank was now still on the ground where she had just passed the building. The main gun had been blasted apart by the vertibucks’ surprise attack, leaving a smoldering and mangled wreck of twisted steel in its place with both the attached minigun and fifty caliber now completely destroyed. And with that, smoke was rising from the engine block at the rear.

But the significant damage was the last place my thoughts went to as I stared wide-eyed at the wreck of the main gun.

“Oh Goddesses, Blake’s still in there!!”

Ivy spoke with horror the very same thought that plowed right into me. But from the southeast came the sharp cracks of the nearby twenty millimeter, and with a start I threw myself back to the ground just as the top of the sandbag wall exploded from the impact of the gun’s heavy rounds, everypony nearby ducking down with us as the mobile gun targeted our position. Return fire popped up immediately, guards farther down our line gaining a break from the fighting to put rounds on the gun crew. Just in front of us, as the flak gun’s fire strafed down the line and away from us, Brooke poked her head up over cover again to get a look at the enemy, only for her eyes to go wide with shock.

“What’s going on?!” I called, tucking the All-Equestrian in close and preparing to move out of cover again.

“The enemy’s making a run for Lily!” she cried, winning the startled attention of the closest guards. “She too damaged to move, and they’re going to try and take her! We need to get in there now!”

Without even waiting for a response, Brooke sprang right over the sandbags and out into the open, ignoring the stray fire that struck our damaged cover. But one after the next, both her team and four additional guards hopped over the wall, with those father down the line turning their focus to providing cover fire for their advance. With a grunt I sprang over the barricade, following Brooke’s lead and landing onto the dirt of the runway median. Just as I set hoof on the ground, two shots plunged into the dirt right in front of my hooves as a third drove right into my chest plate, the armor absorbing the round as a nearby unicorn guard buck was gunned down. With Shore and Ivy joining me, the latter taking a quick shot with her rifle, I recovered from the hard impact of the bullet before lunging ahead to follow after Brooke and her team. Up ahead, a group of Talons had been advancing towards where Lily lay immobile and were now the closest enemy presence to the vehicle. Three of them lay dead already as the squads from both sides laid down fire on one another, and with no cover, two more allied guards fell along with two more Talons. Quickly settling into a gallop, I snapped my LMG up and swung the barrel to the right to put my own fire down on the enemy. What progress they had made was halted as I held the trigger down, the black-armored soldiers scattering back for their line as Shore and Ivy added to the defense.

Looking forward, I found Brooke already positioned against the tank’s right side with her remaining squad mates, her revolver held tight in her jaws. A second later and the three of us stacked up with her, just in time to meet three hostiles as they darted in for a quick look at our position. Brooke and the two unicorn bucks from our original team put down fire on them, one shot catching one of the three in the left foreleg before they could fall back again. Return fire smashed into Lily’s crippled front armor, and I jerked back as Brooke’s head snapped violently to the right, crimson spattering the ground before she crumpled to the dirt with a hole in the side of her skull. Swearing, one of the two unicorns behind her took her place and kept out of the line of fire, swinging his assault rifle around to fire blind.

From behind me came a sudden frightened scream, Ivy’s voice carrying it. I spun about, finding her just as she was bowled down to the ground, a Talon earth pony having come up from behind to knock her down. Shore responded first, a shot from his energy pistol hitting the stallion square in the neck. But just as the enemy stallion begun to glow ruby red, the shot dissolving him into ashes, another earth pony and a unicorn followed in, the former with a ten millimeter SMG held in his jaws as the unicorn brought a pump-action shotgun around to bear. Before the shotgun buck could get a target I lunged for him, swinging the All-Equestrian and knocking the weapon away just before it roared, the shell firing into the air. But then, the telekinesis surrounding the shotgun dropped altogether, and before I could recover the unicorn charged me. He hit me head first, his horn driving painfully into my armor and forcing me back two steps. I instantly let my LMG fall away to center my focus, and rearing back I slammed my forehooves into his shoulders, halting his momentum as he copied my move. For a moment we were locked together, both of us shoving and twisting to try and throw the other off balance. But then, the glaring soldier’s horn came alight once again, and I felt his strength slacken as he focused his telekinesis. I didn’t give him a chance to show what he was picking up, as with a hard shove I finally got him to yield, and the unicorn tripped over himself for me to slam him up against the side of the tank. The telekinesis spell died away from the jarring impact, and with the unicorn dazed, I pulled up my right hoof and brought it down on the top of his muzzle. Then I shoved again, throwing him to the side and onto his back. Once more his horn came to life as he tried to recover, just in time with my own as I reached back for my sidearm. But just as I pulled it from its place and snapped it forward, the unicorn having done the same with the nine millimeter he carried, his head jerked back as a shot from above pierced through the noise of the fighting. To my left, the third pony who had flanked us had been taken care of, having been knocked out by fire from the front line. And from that front, additional support had joined us, over a dozen more guards having formed around Lily to see to the vehicle’s rescue, digging in both in front of and behind me.

“Gunny!” Looking up, I found three ponies already on top of Lily, each laying low behind the main gun that was now glowing a bright, brilliant pink, the plating beginning to smooth out from the vehicle’s regeneration spell. And looking over the tread and down to me was Raemor, his .45 pistol hovering close. “Another vertibuck’s trying to make a pass at us again! We need to get Blake out of this fight and into a shelter!”

He was pointing a hoof to the south, towards the heaviest of the fighting. A quick glance revealed one vertibuck that had deviated from the center, where two of the aerial vehicles continued to suppress the infantry there. Just a short ways father back was the fourth vehicle of the center formation, having been shot down during the latest skirmish. And behind us, the last hangar turret continued to keep the three vertibucks of the northern wing at bay. “Is the hatch open?!” Trotting along the side, recovering the All-Equestrian and securing it back into its place on my armor, I approached the still smoking engine block and sprang up to catch the ledge with my forelegs, quickly pulling myself up and aboard; like the main gun, wispy tendrils of pink energy swirled around the armored engine block.

“I barely squeezed through, but Blake will fit!” the old unicorn answered me, holstering his sidearm and turning around as I approached.

From the ground came another rocket from one of our anti-air launchers, sounding off in time with a pair of echoing howitzer shots, to catch the vertibuck in time to force it off its attack vector. Looking ahead as I came up to the gun, I immediately noted a shift in Buckley’s defense. Though keeping to the sandbags on the west runway, a whole platoon had come from the center to reinforce our own position, coming in to help secure Lily, and their combined fire had silenced the closest twenty millimeter, the flak gun having taken a direct rocket hit. But the enemy was just as persistent in their drive to overtake Buckley’s battlefield advantage, and the Talons had established a new defensible point not even twenty yards away from us to the southeast. And between their new firing line and the soldiers that were still coming around to approach Lily from behind, our position was in just as much danger as before.

A bullet punched off the main gun just to my left, jolting me down onto my belly and forcing me to crawl the rest of the way over to Raemor. The right side of the regenerating cannon was the only available cover aboard the tank, and even then, enemy fire was still close; the Talons were definitely gunning for us. “Is Blake alright?!”

“He’s not injured! He’s only shaken up from the attack!” Raemor replied, nodding for the gun to get the colt out.

Together we looked over cover and down the misshapen hatch. A thin black haze had completely filled the crew compartment, and inside I could hear the voices of the crew as they frantically worked to get Lily back online. “Ricochet, how are we looking?!” the voice of Amber called from within.

“Nothing’s responding!” came the accented reply of the tank’s driver. “The regeneration spell hasn’t fully repaired the engine yet!”

“Keep trying!” Amber ordered. “Cobalt! Put that fire out!”

“Blake!” Calling into the hatch, I saw as a unicorn made her way to the stairwell to find me a second later, her horn alight to combine with the pink glow of the tank’s regeneration spell. “Hey! Where’s Blake?!”

“Right here!” Looking frantically to her right, Neera briefly moved out of view. But before I could pick up anything else, the metal in front of us sparked up once again, a line of assault rifle rounds peppering our cover to force the both of us back from the hatch.

“On your left!!”

“Don’t let them up here!!”

At the rear of the tank spoke frantic voices as three Buckley unicorn stallions joined us up top. Together they approached the left edge of the tank, using the inactive tread for balance as they fired straight down to the ground along Lily’s left side; it didn’t take much to realize that the Talons were trying to stack up right against the tank. “Gunny!” Once more, Raemor called out, giving me a shove to get my attention. “I’ll get Blake! Help them keep the enemy from boarding while we get him out of there!”

Without reply, I reached out for my riot shotgun, bringing it forward as I shifted on my belly. I kept low and approached the edge of the main gun, tucking the weapon close as I crawled along. Of the three friendlies that had come aboard, one had already been killed, and the other two threw themselves onto their stomachs, backing away from the edge. “Five along the left side, holding their ground! They’re heavily guarded!”

“Not for long!” As I crawled towards the two bucks, the second threw aside his rifle to pull a whole belt of grenades from his armor. Six metal apples were attached, four frags and two of them with red stripes around their centers – two incendiaries. “Fire in the hole!” And with a grunt his horn flashed to rip the pins out of all six of them before the floating belt was launched, flipping over and over through the air to disappear behind the tank. I froze, dropping my shotgun to fling my forelegs over my head, until a second later when the six grenades went off together. The explosion ripped into my ears, setting them ringing as dirt peppered my back. Looking back up, I saw both the unicorns bringing their rifles around as they begun to move back towards the ledge. But just as I did the same, sparks erupted just to my right and traveled along Lily’s back, and one after the next, both of the stallions went down as red spattered the metal beneath them.

I recovered from the shock just in time to see a griffin as he shot past, flying low and arcing away to the right to get out of harm’s way at his successful pass. But my eyes swiftly darted to the rear of the tank, where I caught sight of new contacts that sprung up from below. Two black-armored earth ponies pulled themselves aboard, each with SMGs clamped in their jaws. Just as they spotted me I swung my shotgun forward, and one trigger pull later, the stallion on the left lost half his skull to topple overboard and back to the ground. In that time, the second had gotten the time to take aim with his SMG, and four ten millimeter rounds punched into my armor’s chest plate before I could fire again. The slug caught him in the shoulder, not enough to get through his armoring, but enough for him to stagger back and present another shot; one more slug sent his brains out over the dirt.

Right away, despite how I was virtually surrounded by the fighting to secure Lily, three more hostile contacts came into my field of fire, climbing up the side of the tank to my right together. But before I could get my sights lined up on the closest enemy, a single shot ripped through the constant noise, firing in unison with the blast of agony that tore into my right side. I was sent staggering to the left from the rifle round that had torn right through my armor, and crying out I lost my balance, falling on my left side from the force of the hit. The shock put me in the dark, a single moment of blindness from the wicked burn of the armor-piercing round, and through the fog came the report of an automatic weapon, a second shot from the rifle that had knocked me down mixing with both it and rapid fire from two different pistols. At that I went scrambling for my shotgun, prying my eyes back open and searching left and right. The weapon had fallen right by me, my telekinesis having dropped it close, and with a flash of light my horn reignited, red light wrapping around the shotgun to yank it back by me. But as I did, I found that all three boarders had been repelled, the tank now cleared just before hooves stepped into my field of view. “Gunny!”

“Ivy! I’m hit!”

The bullets continued to fly, whizzing by overhead to scare the steel-gray unicorn down into a low crouch beside me as she floated her lever-action over. “Oh no! Are you alright?! Can you move?!”

“I can move! We need to get Blake!” My side erupted with fresh burning as I forced my hooves under me, drawing a pained pant from me. “We need to get Blake and go!”

“Over there!”

One after the next came four hollow thumps, reports from a grenade launcher, and I snapped my eyes over to the tank’s main gun. The pink glow swirling around the metal was fading, the main cannon and both the minigun and fifty cal looking to be almost fully reformed. Atop it, Raemor fired off two more grenades, ducking back down as rifle rounds sparked harshly against his cover in retaliation. But by his hooves, hunkered down low and huddled up against the side of the cannon, was Blake, shaking but otherwise unharmed.

Raemor had gotten him out!

“Come on, Gunny! Get up!” Giving me a shove under my gut, Ivy helped me up to a stand, the both of us stumbling our way over to cover with the others. Behind us came fresh gunfire, coming from up top with us. Ivy spun back around at the volley of automatic fire as I stumbled ahead, a single shot from her rifle mixing with the great noise. After another three steps I came back around, seeing where two more Buckley guards had boarded. One unicorn guard wielding an assault rifle was immediately shot, two rounds punching through his chest plate to knock him back off the tank. The second turned his light machinegun to the opposite side, opening up against four more Talon boarders, felling the one farthest down the hull immediately. I took aim to the closest, firing one slug that drilled into his torso, sending him wounded over the side. But the enemy behind him was charging towards us, with his companion doing the same as two more Talons climbed aboard behind them. I just intercepted the first charger as he brandished a wide machete in his telekinesis, and one slug drilled into his chest. I fired again before he had a chance to recover, Ivy doing the same with her rifle for the both of us to drop the Talon unicorn together.

But from the right came a sudden cry, a battle cry that was carried on the voice of yet another boarder. And before I could even turn to see him, a Talon stallion galloped past right in front of me to swing his own machete for Ivy. But she had seen him just in time to hastily back-step from the downward swipe of the bladed weapon, which instead sliced against the steel floor with a resounding metal screech. I got a window of attack from his move, lunging forward and swinging my riot shotgun like a club to clock the bold stallion on the left side of the head. He staggered away, tripping over himself and nearly collapsing from the hit as his machete clattered to the floor. Behind him, the tank had become the sight of a wild and chaotic brawl, three Buckley guards squaring off against four Talon soldiers, all up close and personal. But as I leveled my shotgun to take out Ivy’s attacker, who was ripping his nine millimeter pistol from its holster to fight back, the very floor beneath my hooves shifted as Lily abruptly lurched. And from behind me came the labored mechanical whirring of gears.

The main gun was moving!

As the turret begun to rotate, the tank’s engine rumbled to life once again, a deep and nearly vengeful sound. Together both me and Ivy’s attacker recovered from the sudden disruption, and together the two of us lunged for each other. The unicorn had both his machete and his sidearm out in the open as we locked ourselves together in a grapple, and the former came down first, swinging to strike for my left shoulder. I snapped my shotgun over to block the attack, the blade slicing off the back of the weapon and floating off to the side from the force of the hit. Before I could draw the shotgun back, a sharp sting swelled against my opposite shoulder at the report of a nine millimeter round. But then came another crack of a rifle, and the unicorn stumbled to my right as a round drilled into the armor protecting his right side. I pounced on the opening Ivy had created, swinging my shotgun back to connect with the Talon’s jaw, sending him a few steps back as I used the swing’s momentum to level the shotgun and take aim; the last slug in the drum painted the silver steel red.

Just as I watched the unicorn go down, his weapons clattering to the floor, my wounded side exploded with red-hot agony as I was suddenly bowled off my hooves. One moment I felt a surface beneath me, and the next, I was falling through open air to come down hard on dry earth. As soon as I hit, I felt a weight come crashing down on me, the body of my attacker landing full on mine before toppling over me. But through the pain I forced myself back to focus, finding a second unicorn stallion as he fought to get himself steadily back on his own hooves. With a grunt I zeroed in on my revolver, my horn lighting back up to yank it from its holster and thrust it forward. I fired one shot as the gun came into the corner of my vision, the round almost grazing the smaller stallion’s neck only to bounce off Lily’s side with a heavy metal clang. Before I could get another shot, the opposing pony swung his hoof and caught the revolver where it floated to knock it free of my telekinetic hold, and with a second quick swing, his hoof smacked across my jaw in a solid hit. But through his hit I moved to counter, and planting my hind hooves against his chest I kicked out and bucked him back before he could score another, sending him stumbling all the way and against Lily’s hull. With him momentarily out of the way I rolled myself back onto my hooves, stamping down the burn in my side to spin around. But just as I tried reaching for my bowie knife, the enemy lunged again. He rammed me head-on, driving me back three steps before I threw my weight forward to meet his push. We came to a standstill, the smaller stallion growling as he tried to get me back on the ground. But with a heavy swing, I rammed my hoof into his side, the hit alone knocking him off balance and sending him down.

But as he fell, I felt a sudden sharp pull against my side. And before I could react, I was tugged into the same fall by the unicorns’ weight, unable to catch myself before I lost my balance and was yanked down with him. I landed atop the stallion before my momentum carried me over him, and I came to land on my back. In the corner of my vision the stallion moved again, the quicker of us to get himself back onto his hooves as my wounded side kept me grounded. Instead I took the movement as the initiative to go for my knife, and with a flash of light, Honor slid free of its sheath with a brisk hiss. As it floated into the air before me, I pointed the blade tip for my target and launched it, sending it to my right to intercept the stallion before he could make another move. But as it sliced through the air toward him, his own horn came to life for the knife to grind to a halt just shy of stabbing him in the shoulder. I immediately felt as his telekinesis combated my own, the knife beginning to rotate in the air, turning away from the Talon unicorn and coming slowly to point for me.

The stallion’s telekinesis was strong, to the point where the knife begun to move closer to me despite my own struggle to best his magic. It came forward another few inches before our struggle came to a second standstill, and it was then that I rolled, cancelling my telekinesis altogether. I heard as the knife stabbed into the dirt just behind my back as I got my hooves back under me. When I came around to face him, his horn was still glowing as he retrieved the knife from its place, pulling it up close to him and leveling it out in the air as he crouched. Then he rushed me, catching me before I could reach for the All-Equestrian, and I was forced to jerk back as he slashed for me. I reared all the way back onto my hind hooves, seeing Honor’s blade as it crossed right in front of my face. I fell back to all fours, following the knife as the Talon reversed its course, sending it right back for me. But I couldn’t back away fast enough from his second attack, and I felt the tip of the knife against the right side of my neck, cutting upward and leaving a thin and shallow gash that bled instantly. Then he swung a third time, adjusting the blade to point down before he stabbed. Instead of trying to evade it, I reached for the knife once more as it came down to try and take it back, and with a flash of my horn, Honor ground to a halt once again. I had caught it just in time, wincing back at the sight of the knife tip that was no more than a couple inches away from my right eye as red and green magic fought for control.

BLAM!

A single shot echoed out to reach my ears over the continuing battle, and all at once I had full control of Honor again, the opposing green magic vaporizing instantly. That’s when I heard the stallion go down, his body toppling to the dirt with a light thud. And when I saw him, I spotted the headshot that had taken him down, one clean hit to the top right side of the skull just behind the ear. It had come from an elevated position… from Lily. But when I looked, searching for Raemor, or Ivy, or even Shore…

I found only Blake… staring at me… wide-eyed and trembling behind the iron sights of the nine millimeter pistol clenched in his jaws.

That was all I saw of him before both Raemor and Ivy skidded to a halt at either side of him, together shocking him into dropping the weapon at his hooves. Wordless, Raemor’s horn flared to life to lift the colt bodily off the tank before both he and Ivy jumped off the side, the former carrying Blake close behind him through the air. And just as they landed, Lily jerked as her main gun roared out her words of vengeance, the tremendous clap of sound putting a painful grating ring through my ears as the very ground pulsed underhoof. I called out to the others, hearing my voice as a dull, suppressed version of its former self even as the earth pulsed again, the lighter cannon on the tank’s left side firing right after.

“Gunny, take him!” Though his voice came dimly to me, I saw Raemor as he approached with Ivy and Blake, sidestepping towards me as he faced the south to keep watch on the nearby fighting. “Get yourself and Blake underground!”

Again he called, looking between me and the direction of the Talon frontline. And though I wanted to protest the old unicorn’s order, I galloped to close the rest of the distance between us, scooping up my knife and revolver on the way before Raemor lowered Blake back onto his hooves. As soon as the colt touched down, he stumbled to the side, nearly collapsing as he looked in a panic from left and right for any danger; though I didn’t study the battlefield, the lack of fire being thrown in our direction told me that Buckley’s forces had won us a break, even if just a brief one. “Blake!” Quickly I came beside him, whirling back around to put myself between him and the enemy. “Follow me, Blake! I need to get you inside!”

Looking down to him, I found to my dismay that he had paid me little to no mind. His fear was gluing him to inaction, something that was easy to spot even amidst the fight. With no time to waste I focused on the colt and wrapped him up in telekinesis, and with a little effort I got him off the ground to float low in the air beside me, eliciting a startled yelp from him as I pulled him over. Then I was booking it to the nearby entrance of the building that had been just behind us. As soon as I settled into as fast a gallop that I could, the familiar rippling roar of Lily’s engine rose to life with a hateful tone, and the grinding of her treads picked up right after. Buckley’s tank was finally moving again, and though I didn’t turn to see, I knew the infantry was holding their own out on the field.

A quick moment later and I was at the door, setting Blake back onto the ground as I put myself against the wall beside the door. The entrance was closed, and testing the handle with my telekinesis showed that the door was locked up tight. With a growl I thumped my hoof against the heavy metal. “Hey! Hey! I’ve got a civilian out here, open this damn door!” With the ring in my ears fading, I listened in for any signs of response, restating my call to try and get the attention of anypony that might’ve been guarding the entryway.

“Gunny, why isn’t the door open?!”

“Stay behind me, Blake!” At the colt’s frightened question, I turned to him and ushered him along to stand by the door before I spun around to face the battlefield. Now, I beheld a vastly different battle than the one I had seen before boarding Lily to fetch Blake. What had once been two distinguishable lines, one Buckley’s and one the Talons’, had disintegrated in several sectors to nothing more than a chaotic brawl. While the battle had continued around me, the strength of each side had changed. Both had taken new losses, plenty of new losses, and the bodies were piling up. On the Buckley line, a third howitzer had gone down, now reduced to a smoking shell of its former self at the center of the line. It had been the focus of a heavy attack, judging by the number of dead and wounded that were surrounding the disabled artillery piece; but apart from that, even worse, I couldn’t look to a single spot of friendly territory without finding a fallen guard.

But despite the losses, the Talon force had paid an equally heavy toll, more so even. In the time I had been occupied on Lily, the enemy’s vertibucks had lost their hold in the air, with three of them having been shot down in the north and center sectors alone. The anti-air grid, what was left of it, had held its own against them, and while all their griffins had remained airborne, the enemy air force had been reduced to just under half its former strength, with a fourth vertibuck having been clipped at the opposite end of the base. And on the ground, the Talons had and still were being pounded by a whole array of heavy weaponry that Buckley’s guards had come to assemble at the center. Concentrating their firepower for a massive counterattack, Buckley’s line had compressed to perhaps two-thirds of its former size to focus its strength, all the remaining force converging on the center and pushing in closer to Lily to help the heavy tank in her charge. And with the Talons more scattered than before with the loss of additional flak guns and heavy wagons, at least three of each, their fortified positions were becoming more vulnerable targets. They were beginning to pull back, with the center of the Talons’ battered line already falling back off the east runway entirely.

We were gaining the upper hoof.

My ears perked at the sound of a heavy click behind me, and looking back over my shoulder, I found the door as it swung open. A pale blue unicorn mare with a silvery mane met me, an assault rifle floating close by, and right away she backed from the entrance to make room for Blake. “Get in here!”

I didn’t wait for a second invite, turning to Blake and forcing him through the door before I followed him in. Together the two of us stumbled into what had once been a lobby, which had now been converted into its own little kill-zone. Three entrances led to different rooms, two directly ahead, and the third leading to a tunnel stretching down and under the surface. Each of them was fully blocked by sandbags, and each was guarded with two heavy machineguns, one thirty and fifty caliber each. “You two are damn lucky, I hope you know that!” said the mare who had led us in.

But before she could continue, “Lieutenant! The Commander just got back on the horn!” From the underground tunnel entrance, one of the unicorn stallions behind the heavy weapon emplacements called to grab the blue mare’s attention. “He says the Talons are bugging out! They’re retreating from Buckley!”

“Is he serious?” the lieutenant asked, taken by surprise at her subordinate’s claim.

“Lily’s back online, and they’ve lost a big chunk of their vehicle support.” the buck answered, his voice laced with hopeful energy. “They must be falling back to keep their losses down or something.”

“D-does that mean we’re safe, Gunny?”

As the guards’ continued their talk, I felt Blake’s hoof as he jabbed at my left foreleg. Looking down to him, I found the young pony with wide eyes and pinned back ears, his hooves barely keeping him upright as he shook with fright; he was scared far beyond what he deserved. “We’ll be safe now, Blake.” I assured, stepping back to fully face him. “You just stay here with me and this’ll be over with soon.”

“I want Nova…” he responded, his whole body sagging with fatigue. “We need to find her… We need to find her, Gunny.”

“She’ll be alright, Blake. I promise she’ll be fine.” But my words were falling on inattentive ears, Blake only looking back to the open entrance as if expecting Nova to come galloping through the door right then and there. I was quick to step in close to him, just in case he tried heading back outside on his own. But looking with him through the open entrance, my ears quickly picked up how the battle was moving, the rifle and machinegun fire still strong, but definitely diminishing as Buckley’s guards pursued the retreating Talons. From the sound of things outside our new shelter, they had already gone past the east runway and were now bringing the fight into the base’s east perimeter. “This thing’s almost over, Blake.” I quickly added, looking back to the colt to watch for his next move. “Nova’s going to come back soon. But right now, you need to wait here where it’s safe. Do you understand?”

“But what if she’s hurt??” came his immediate argument, carried on terrified words. “What if she needs help?? We need to find her!”

He was becoming restless, and already he was beginning to slowly make his way for the door as he spoke. But I moved in to hook a foreleg across his chest, halting him just as he begun to pick up his pace to leave. “No, Blake!” The colt immediately put up a struggle, planting his hooves on my obstructing foreleg with a grunt to try and shove it aside. “You can’t go out there, Blake! You came out of there unscathed, and I won’t give you another chance to get yourself shot!”

“But Nova-”

“I’ll go out there and bring her back to you!” I interrupted quickly, this time, thankfully, silencing both his words and his struggle to push me away. “I’ll find her, but you have to promise me that you’ll stay here until it’s safe to come back out. Alright?”

Finally, he looked me in the eye again, measuring up my offer. And after a pause, “You promise you’ll find her? You promise?”

“I promise.” I answered, giving him a single pat on the shoulder before nudging him back towards the barricades. “Now stay with these ponies until it’s safe to come outside. I’ll be back s…” But as Blake stepped back, looking between me and the entrance to show his lingering hesitation, I spotted something on Blake’s coat… something that broke the consistent light gray color and stood out to draw my attention – on his right flank was a sliver of blue against the gray, a sliver that grew… and took on a distinguished shape… one that I immediately recognized. “Blake… your flank…”

A moment of confusion, and then the colt turned, craning his head around to see what I was seeing.

And even he froze as he beheld the mark that had formed upon him…

*** *** ***

Pain…

It was… everywhere… everywhere at once…

By claw and bullet, my blood was painting my body with thick spots, jagged stripes, and messy splatters of crimson. But still, with struggling wings I remained in the sky high over Buckley, my eyes locked to the east where the twelve Talon griffins of the invasion force were settling into a loose V formation to quit the field. And among them, I knew that Blackhawk was the one that was rallying the griffin wing together to get them safely out of the base. He was in the middle of their formation, the very center of his subordinates that were the members of the Talons’ 63rd Strikers… I had been watching him, following him ever since he left me bloodied and maimed at his back. He was already past Buckley’s east fence now, having flown far enough away to be just a winged dot against the cloudy sky.

I could only just barely see him through the tears that had risen to life in my eyes, the tears that heavily blurring my vision.

I had been following his every move ever since he had turned tail and fled to oblige the Talons’ order to retreat. And the farther away he flew, the greater my urge was to give chase, to catch up and end him. And yet it was the very tears I cried that stayed my hatred, kept me locked in a hover above the place that I wept for. Only a week ago, I had seen Buckley as a monument of a settlement, a true testament to the will of ponykind to not just survive, but to build and thrive even with the safety and serenity of the Old World having long since vanished. It was an equal match to Challenger in every way, and together, they showed me that building a life on the surface was not only possible, but was also a way to revitalize ourselves and to restore what we once had in Stable 181, to carry that peace, that unity, that strength out onto the surface. Buckley showed me that what we had thought we had lost back in 181 was actually not lost at all. But now, that inspirational symbol was burning before my very eyes… thrown into chaos in the wake of the short but deadly battle.

The sight of Buckley, of the smoke and the flames… of the bodies… I couldn’t stop the sobs that came from the horrible scene. Because below me… below me was a post-battle combat zone that had been branded into the earth, a great gaping scar brought by a piece of the Old World, one that was made to protect ponies, no less, that fell into the hooves of a terrible New World enemy… an enemy that I had been forced to help. It was this knowing that put a familiar dreadful pit into me… only deeper and darker and more painful that it had ever been before in my time on the surface. And it was this knowing, and this outcome, that broke me apart… tore me open and left me dead inside. And now, with the adrenaline of mine and Blackhawk’s dogfight fading… all I did was sob.

I wept because it was all my fault. The destruction I now beheld… it was something that I had burned into the earth. It was all… my… fault…

And yet, the burning base was not the only thing I cried for. No. Mixed with all the sadness, the anger, the regret that tormented me, was a fear that greedily cut into me when I was already down and bleeding out. It was a fear that hadn’t come from my second aerial duel with Blackhawk, or even from worry about how my friends and my baby brother had fared on the surface. It swirled in my mind from only once source – from Blackhawk himself. It had been his voice, the words he called to me, the promises he swore to uphold through the battle that had raged below us like the Armageddon’s fires. Whatever it was that had changed in the Talons’ mission just before my escape from Stable 184, whatever it was that they had wanted to keep me imprisoned for, it had made Blackhawk swear more than just vengeance for the loss of his wife at Plainwell. He had sworn instead that he would take me back into custody, back to General Vance and back to enslavement, even if it wasn’t here and now. And he swore to do so because of Guardian, because of the possibility that there were other systems like Guardian out there, other tools that the Talons could find because of me which should’ve otherwise remained buried and out of sight and mind.

He said that my role in aiding the Talon Legion was not yet over…

He said that there was power in me… in both me and my cutie mark. And he said it was power that he wanted… power that he needed… that the Talons needed…

And I was too terrified to even try and think of what he meant by that.

“Nova! Nova, listen to me, damn it!” A shock rippled through my left shoulder as a hoof jabbed me there, the light but sudden jolt of pain coming from the wound throwing me back into the real world. Right away I came to find the familiar face of Archer, the pegasus stallion having managed much better than me in our aerial battle with Blackhawk and his two Strikers. It was the first time I had gotten close to him since we had left the ATC’s rooftop to engage Blackhawk. And this time, he was glaring at me, giving me the impression that he had been trying to yank me from my darker thoughts for more than just a couple seconds. But with that, I could see a great deal of worry, taking physical form as he said, “Nova, Lily’s back online and she’s chasing the Talons out! The battle’s over, so you need to land and get medical help, now!”

With his voice bringing me to my senses, I was reminded harshly of just how much pain my body was going through. In our duel, Blackhawk had resorted to non-lethal attacks, aiming to weaken me enough to drag me away when I became too injured to fight back. As such, he had shown a side of him I hadn’t seen the first time we had faced off back above Hopeville, a shocking aerial proficiency that I had not nearly been able to rival. His claws, sharp as knives and able to cut through flesh like it was wet paper, had scored multiple hits on me. Despite what I felt had been my best flying, I couldn’t keep up with both him and the two Striker griffins that had made up his team. And the two of them, even while simultaneously dodging Archer’s attacks and keeping him occupied in the sky, had harried me with gunfire so that Blackhawk could move in for a quick slash at me when my attention wasn’t on him. He had gotten me three times, once vertically across my right side, once at a diagonal along my left which had gone from the middle of my belly all the way up to my shoulder, and once across my back, the trio of gashes stretching from the middle of my back to the base of my neck… which was the deepest and most agonizing of them. And to top it all off, apart from my broken rib, Blackhawk had even gotten a hit in with his revolver, the large pistol round practically overkill as it crippled my right front leg where it had struck just below the shoulder. And like before, Blackhawk had gotten away virtually unscathed, his armor once again protecting him from the hits that I did manage to get on him; even the battle rifles I had been given hadn’t been enough to penetrate his rig.

But still, despite his effort to take me back into custody, I had held on. Despite his great effort… he didn’t get me…

He didn’t get me…

Once again, Archer reached out to gently nudge me with a hoof, doing so on the neck so as to avoid a sensitive spot and provoke another painful jolt. This time he didn’t speak, only hovering in close to me and waiting as I tried to pull myself together. But try as I might, I couldn’t get a single word to come out. Instead, my effort to speak only yielded another painful sob, my whole body hitching as two more tears trailed down my cheeks. That was when Archer took the matter into his own hooves, gliding ahead to hover farther to the left and below me. “Let’s go, Nova. You can’t be up here flying anymore.” he called. “We need to get you on solid ground and get you some help. I’ll stay close by to help you land if you need it. Come on.”

I was in absolutely no mood… or even physical shape, for that matter, to be arguing with anypony. Though sluggishly, my body begun to move as I complied with his order. And without any form of reply, I tilted myself in the air and lined myself up with Archer to follow him in as he begun to descend toward Buckley’s west runway. We settled smoothly into our course, the both of us falling into a slow and easy glide down. As we got going, Archer slowed himself in the air to draw up close, eventually falling in right beside me. Though I didn’t look, I could feel his watchful and concerned eyes on me as I focused on finding a place to land. Down below, the east runway that had served as the fallback point for when Buckley had been temporarily driven back by the Talon advance was now mostly clear of personnel. With Buckley’s forces in pursuit of the retreating enemy, all that remained there was a scattered collection of guards that were tending to the wounded… searching over the bodies to designate the living from the dead. And with them, Buckley’s five remaining artillery crews were holding their positions by their guns, though they were no longer firing. But as I drew lower and lower over the surface, I spotted a thicker concentration of activity coming from the munitions hangar. With the Talons clear of the base all the way to its east perimeter, the doors to the armory were slowing sliding opening, and a group of ponies that had been hiding within were coming out and moving along the hangar driveway; a number of guards close by were congregating to them.

With a painful flap of my wings I angled in toward the munitions hangar, Archer staying right next to me as he easily copied my move. “See that group there? I think that’s where Mother Shimmer should be.” Archer stated. “They had set up in one of the hangars, though I never had the time to find out which one… At least it wasn’t residential…”

With a somber sigh, I agreed with that sentiment.

On final approach to the hangar, I begun to distinguish some of the ponies within the slowly growing group. Indeed, some of Buckley’s leadership was mixed within, as the first pony I saw was none other than Commander Tracer. Three different ponies galloped in from different directions of the runway median to meet him as he trotted outside with two others, likely other ponies of a higher rank. Four others were already gathered close by, forming up by the commander to begin to guide him down the runway. As I begun to slow to adjust myself for a landing, I followed their path and traced it ahead, looking farther south as they moved. And there, past two more ponies moving on the pavement, I found a second larger group of at least ten, all gathered together in a tight cluster.

And through the lingering blur in my vision I saw, to my surprise, three Buckley unicorns telekinetically dragging two Talons across the ground and toward that second group.

Slowly I came to a stop, hovering in low over the ground before I begun to descend. With my full weight pulling on my wings, my movements were unstable as I tried to even out my wing beats and lower myself down slowly. Archer came around to hover right in front of me, moving in close and reaching out to set his forelegs against my lower chest. “I’ve got you, Nova. Go ahead and land.”

Wordless I followed his instructions. With the ground just inches below now, I flapped my aching wings one last time before planting myself on the ground. I landed roughly on my hind hooves first, feeling as Archer kept the rest of me up long enough to halt my momentum. And then he lowered me the rest of the way down on his own, letting my front hooves onto the stone. As quick as it touched, I pulled my front right hoof off the ground to keep my weight off it, unable to keep off a sharp hiss as my gunshot wound exploded at the touch. “Come on, Nova.” Archer landed right after me, touching down just to my right as he looked over me with a worried grimace. “Let’s get you to a medic.”

But behind him, I found a familiar face just as he called my name, not so much a call as it was a shocked question. Archer saw where my eyes had focused to as I took a single rough step to the left, to walk around the pegasus, before he turned and followed my line of sight. Together we saw Gunny, frozen when we found him, but then trotting towards us with his eyes widened with shock, locked on me and all my wounds. The sight of him, despite the fact that he was mostly unharmed, barring a single gunshot wound on his right side and a shallow but bleeding gash along the right side of his neck, brought a fresh set of tears that promptly slid down my cheeks. And limping forward, bypassing Archer, I hitched with a heavy sob as I moved quick as I could, to close the distance between us myself.

It was Gunny that reached me first, galloping the rest of the way to me to swiftly wrap me up in a hug. And at being held by my dear friend, I let myself fall apart, letting more tears come freely out which quickly begun to soak into Gunny’s armor. Right away, there were things that I wanted to tell him, now that we were reunited after the battle. I wanted to tell him the things that he should know… about what… and who… had been the cause of this terrible moment; he needed to know. But once more he beat me to it, and despite my weeping, I heard his voice as he promptly asked, “Who did this to you?” And after a short pause, “Did you find Blackhawk up there? Was he…” I gritted my teeth, shutting my eyes even tighter as I returned to my fight to stomp down my crying. And after a short bout of struggle, I managed to nod where my head lay against his armored chest. I heard Gunny sigh as he rested his head over my neck, my silent confirmation clearly not what he was hoping to get; I winced at the disheartened pitch in his voice. “I’m sorry, Nova.” he said. “I should’ve been there to help you like I said… close by to back you up.” He held me just a little tighter, careful in the application of his strength around my wounded body. “I could’ve done… something…”

But to that, I managed to shake my head, moving enough to get his attention. And after one final sob, I choked out a response. “No… he… he didn’t get me, Gunny.” Blackhawk didn’t get me. He got Gracie… he got our friend… but not me… “He didn’t get me…” With a grunt, I leaned back and away from my friend, the unicorn similarly letting me out of his hold as he took a step back. And as I came to look him in the eye, one question came to the forefront of my thoughts as I swallowed down another sob that wanted to come. “Blake…” I choked out, the word forcing me to clear my throat. “Gunny, wh… where is he?”

“He’s safe.” he replied, instant and sure. “He was in the tank when the battle was on, and we got him out and to a shelter just before the Talons retreated.” As he explained, he looked back over his left shoulder, towards the squat building sitting in the median. “He’s back in…”

But as soon as he looked back, he fell silent. And I saw, at the same time, the reason why. Wherever Blake had been, he had left to come outside, and had followed Gunny in order to find me. My baby brother was staring wide-eyed at the bloody sight that I amounted to, only to come running as soon as we locked eyes. A moment later and he threw himself against me, and painful as it was, I didn’t even flinch as I pulled him in and held him tight with my injured leg. “Oh, Blake! Thank Celestia you’re alright…” I muttered, instantly bombarding his forehead with grateful kisses as he clung to me. “Goddesses, I was so worried…”

Through my words, I heard Blake as he too begun to sob, and I felt as what had been light shaking turned into far rougher hitches. It was a quick and surprising change, to the point where I leaned back to try and look him in the eye again. Eventually I had to force him to look up, taking my leg off his back to reach under his jaw and lift his head up. Tears met me as he reluctantly looked at me, and I narrowed my eyes in puzzlement as he continued to remain silent. “Blake… Blake, what’s wrong?”

“I…” My little brother swallowed as I nervously stared, waiting. “I… I-I sh… s-shot somepony…” He looked away again, closing his eyes as he swallowed back another sob. At his revelation, I slowly lowered my foreleg away from his chin to reach back over and pull him against me again, only staring ahead as I let his words sink in. “I killed… I killed a pony…”

“It was a solider.” Speaking lowly, Gunny walked into my peripheral vision, looking out towards the east as the gunfire continued to lessen and lessen. “He tackled me off the tank when it had been disabled… when we were getting Blake out of there. He managed to get my knife from me, and we fought for it with our horns. When we came to a standstill trying to take the knife, that’s when Blake put him down. I thought it was Ivy or Raemor… but Blake was the one that saved my hide there… And he…”

“And he what?” I slowly asked, running my hoof through Blake’s mane to try and comfort him, a sad little whimper escaping him.

“Nova… he’s got his cutie mark.”

My eyes popped round, my hoof stopping in my little brother’s mane mid-stroke, and I felt as Blake nodded against my chest, confirming Gunny’s words for me. For a long moment I was still, unable to respond, only turning to my unicorn friend where he looked between me and my brother with sympathetic eyes. He came to stare back at me, another pause lingering before he eventually gave me a nod of his own, further proving his story for himself; it was the last signal I needed to fully, truly believe his words. “Let me see, Blake.” At his gesture, I recovered enough from the shocking news to release my brother again. Together the two of us took a single step back, putting just enough distance between us to look into each other’s eyes. “Let me see it…” I gently repeated, watching as Blake craned his head around to look back to his new cutie mark once more for himself. Then, facing front, he slowly turned in place to present a clear view of his left flank to me.

And sure enough… there it was…

A mark of deep blue was etched onto him now, sitting proud and new against his light gray coat. But looking the mark up and down, following its shape, my sense of curiosity morphed into one of rapidly rising shock. Because while blue was the color, the mark’s shape took on that of a flame, a fireball that could be seen as floating in the air, still and calm yet resonating with strength, with gentle tongues of blue-white fire licking out from the top as it burned.

Blake’s cutie mark was a blue flame…

Like my blue flame…

Like our father’s…

It was the exact same thing…

“Nova!”

The only thing that could’ve pulled me from the shocking sight did so – Shore’s voice calling with immediate fright. He came from the right, his galloping hooves coming in clearly over the near non-existent gunfire, and I turned to find the black stallion just before he skidded to a halt in front of me. This time, I beat my friend to the embrace I knew was coming, and I reached out my wounded foreleg to him, whereupon he fell right into the best hold I could give him. Unlike Gunny, Shore said no immediate words, and his silence provoked new tears to fall, two more trailing down my cheeks. But this time I forced myself back to focus before I could fall into a second bout of weeping, leaning back to look over Shore’s Stable 181 security armor; thankfully, I couldn’t see any blood. “Are you okay, Shore?” I managed to ask, swallowing as I fought for my composure.

“I’m alright, I’m alright.” came his easy response. “But Nova, your wounds are… your wounds are ugly. You need to get help…”

“Hey! Over here!”

From the right, Gunny called loud and clear out towards the east as Shore and I let each other go. And though I didn’t look, I heard as yet another familiar voice answered him. “Gunny! Is everypony okay?!”

“Nova’s hurt!” Gunny answered Ivy, additional hoof steps coming within my hearing range as she approached. “And I’ve just got the one hit! Are you two good?”

“We’re not hurt. We both made it.” Then came Raemor’s words, both he and Ivy halting their trot to a walk as they joined us. “And I’m glad to see that the rest of us did as well.”

But then, just as I begun to finally turn to look over the rest of my companions for myself…

“Nova!”

One more voice… one more call. Tracer. I knew his voice too, and I heard it from behind me as it reached me with an urgent tone. I turned as fast as my crippled leg would allow, coming around to see the dark red, green-maned earth pony as he came to a halt a few yards away, two Buckley guards flanking him as he looked my way. “Commander… is something wrong?” I asked, wincing as both my leg and my back gave me an extra kick of pain.

“Come with me, Nova.” came his brisk reply. “Can you move?”

“Are you serious?” Right away, Gunny came to stand by me, stopping by my left as Blake leaned up against my right hind leg. “She needs a medic, and she needs one now!”

But alarmingly, Tracer paid Gunny’s concern no heed, instead trotting the rest of the way to us and stopping right in front of me. “Nova, come with me.” he said, his lower tone accompanying a slowly forming glare… one that made me lean back in worry. “We captured two Talon soldiers back there. And one of them identified you by name.”

My breath caught in my throat… and my dead silence was copied by everypony around me.

Tracer’s suspicion had been immediately apparent in his voice… and I felt a cold fear coming to life in me.

The commander about-faced, his two guards copying him before they made their way back down the runway. As soon as they moved a few paces down I could see where the larger congregation of ponies had formed. The same group just past the munitions hangar had grown to well over twice its size, with two dozen Buckley guards having formed a congested ring around what had to have been Tracer’s aforementioned prisoners. “Nova?”

Gunny was the first to break the spell of silence that had come crashing down on us from Tracer’s revelation. His one word question was… uncertain. He was unsure what to think… what to do. And so was I. Only minutes ago I had wanted to tell Gunny what had really happened during my imprisonment. The sight of the destruction that had been carved into Buckley had stabbed me so deeply… and telling the truth would be the only way to rip that knife back out so that I could heal… maybe. And yet now, with what Tracer had said… I was glued to where I was, frozen with fear… fear of telling that truth that I had wanted to speak before. Because surely, if what Tracer had said was true… then one or both of the captured Talons had surely seen me back at the National Guard Bunkers. Or at the very least, they had been told of my role in unlocking the Guardian Project.

They definitely knew of me… they had to…

And I needed to see…

“Nova?”

Again Gunny asked for me, this time leaning forward and bowing his head to try and look me in the eyes. And I met his stare, albeit with uncertainty, as I replied, “Help me over there… I need to see those prisoners…”

“But Nova…” Stepping past him on the left was Ivy, looking equally worried as she too looked me eye-to-eye. But I shook my head to her before looking forward, only restating to her my wish to see the captured enemy soldiers.

And thankfully, despite the uncomfortable silence from Shore and Raemor… and my baby brother… nopony else fought me on it. Gunny only crossed in front of me before stepping up by my right side, whereupon I took the presented opportunity to lean against him for support. And together we begun to make our way over to where Tracer was already waiting for us, looking back to us over his shoulder as we took our first steps. Despite the commander’s presence, hardly any of the guards in the group of over two dozen were paying him any attention. While they were largely silent, their focus was placed solely in the center of the ring, where I could hear grunts and the sounds of punches being thrown.

“You’re lying!” From within the ring came the first voice, loud and angry. And again, another punch was thrown. “I know you’re fucking lying, scumbag! Now tell the truth so I can ease your passing!”

“MAKE ROOM! MOVE!”

Tracer’s voice cut into the crowd with ease, halting them all where they stood. And all at once, over a dozen pairs of eyes swung back to look upon me as we approached. I nearly froze again at the sudden attention, a mix of angry and worried stares meeting me as the Buckley earth ponies and unicorns begun to step aside to make way for me. As soon as the ring parted at its center, I saw the black armor of a Talon uniform. As I limped closer, the armor shifted slowly where it lay on the pavement, a pony rolling onto his left side. And when Gunny and I drew up to the ring with the others, I saw the armor’s owner. A Talon earth pony buck lay panting on his side, fighting to regain his breath as he wiped a foreleg over the dark orange fur of his muzzle; blood streaked across the armor along his leg, painting a dark glistening trail along the black plating. And just behind the earth pony was a unicorn, another stallion who had likewise been sent to the ground. He was on his belly and facing away from me, his ash-colored mane disheveled, and his body likewise heaving as he sought to get his breath back; a Buckley unicorn stallion was within the ring, just a couple paces back from the gray-maned enemy with a combat knife hovering menacingly beside him. Together Gunny and I came to a halt, stopping just inside the ring of guards. The orange earth pony immediately looked to me, his eyes slightly widening at my presence as he beheld the mare who had, not long ago, been on his side. And at the silence that took over the entirety of the group, the second stallion slowly shifted, likewise turning to look upon me. Unlike his companion, the unicorn remained as composed as being beaten could allow as he looked upon me… but I did not.

The unicorn was light-brown in color, and after a quick glance over his armored form, I recognized the stocky build that matched the familiar mane and coat colors.

Sergeant Trigger… from the Guardian expedition…

“This one identified you by name, outsider.” From just to the left of where Trigger lay, the unicorn with the knife pointed the weapon’s tip to the captive sergeant. “I asked him how the Talons had gotten their hooves on those missiles they used, and he spoke up about you right away. He said that you were… he said that you were the reason that they had gotten those missiles.”

“But that’s not right!” came a mare’s voice from amongst the crowd. “That can’t be right!”

“It is right.” Trigger spoke up, not even breaking our eye contact. “I’ve told you the truth about those missiles, two times now. She was the one to get them for us, whether she or any of you like it or not.” There was a dreadful silence among us all, one in which I begun to go numb at his words. And yet, in the quiet, Trigger’s tired face gradually formed up in a tiny smile as he looked me over. “So… I guess you outmaneuvered Blackhawk yet again.” he observed, now speaking to me directly. “You got away… barely though.” I heard him… but I didn’t speak. I only listened to him… it was all I could do. “It’s a funny thing really, what a lust for revenge will do to someone.” Letting out a single cough, clearing his throat, he added, “Revenge makes you stronger for leaving you with only one objective, and no regrets or hesitation to go with it. And yet it makes you weaker… blind sometimes, maybe… especially when all you can think of is the ones you’ve lost and the one you want to kill for it, the one who’s responsible for it…”

“Hey!” Just behind me came Commander Tracer’s booming voice again, blocking off the rest of Trigger’s thoughts and forcing him into silence. “Tell us how!” Tracer ordered him. “You say Nova gave you those missiles, but I don’t believe you. Tell us how…”

With a defeated huff, Trigger finally looked away from me to find Tracer within the group. “Why ask me?” he replied, then nodding over to me. “Nova can tell you anything you want to know just as well as I can… After all, she was there…”

Even without looking, I felt as the eyes of every nearby pony fell upon me… and I knew that every single one of them noticed me as I begun to shake. My breathing quickened to accompany the trembling in my limbs, and my head bowed down from a terrible weight that hung itself over me. And try as I might, the tears from before that I had just recently managed to stave away begun to reform, my eyes watering up before I let them close. Through all of this, nopony spoke, friend or otherwise, and yet the tension steadily swelled, coming to a boil that made me all the more hesitant to speak. But… now, there really was no way to hide from the truth. Now… now I had to speak.

“Nova… what is he talking about?”

Archer…

The pegasus stallion had likewise entered the ring, pushing through the crowd to stop over to my left. Anxious disbelief was written on his face like a book. Oh no, he didn’t take Trigger’s words as truth, and I knew exactly what is was that he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that I played no part in the Talons’ acquisition of the most powerful Old World weapon buried in the southeast. He wanted to hear of my innocence so as to be able to place me on the same side of the spectrum of good and evil that he himself was on. He wanted to hear that I was good, the same mare that I was when we had first met… when I had first come to Buckley and inspired them…

He didn’t want to hear that I played the biggest part in giving Buckley the destruction that scarred it now. And I knew that behind me, all of my friends were looking to me with the same face, with the desire to hear the same things that Archer wanted to hear. But seeing the stallion flier’s face, the worry in his eyes… I couldn’t stand it anymore…

“I’m so sorry, Archer… I’m so, so sorry…”

It was the last thing I said to myself… before I spoke the truth…

“When the Talons captured me… they brought me to their base in Marefax and held me there for three days.” I explained, clearing my throat of the roughness that had formed during the pregnant pause. “On the third day, I woke up from the tranquilizer that they’d used on me, only to find that they’d captured my brother too. They… they strapped him with explosives… threatened to kill him. They used him as a leash to tie me to their Major General’s hoof so that they could use me how they wanted.” I dared to look up, to look upon the faces of the guards whose full attention I now had; shocked attention met me in well over half of them… some were already beginning to glare… the quickest to put the pieces together. “And so they took me out to the far northeast corner of the region.” I continued. “There was a facility out there, Old World military, known in the old days as the Southeast National Guard Bunkers. The Talons had their sights set on it for a long time, long enough for rebels from their own homeland to take shelter inside.” After a breath, “And in that facility… there was a door that they couldn’t open… the only one that they needed to open. They brought me there to open that door for them…” As I spoke, the task itself becoming more and more difficult as I went on, I found myself turning to where Gunny remained by my right side; his wide eyes… Goddesses… his eyes… “It had been closed for a long time, probably even before the world ended. And it was locked by some sort of advanced technology… something that they called a biometric scanner. It was a lock that was designed to only release in the presence of a pegasus pony, and no others.” I let my shoulders rise in a weak shrug. “Turns out that they were hunting for pegasi in this region once they found out that they were the key to opening that one door. According to the General, there had only been four pegasus ponies spotted in the region… They just… they just found me first…”

“And behind that door were those missiles…” Tracer, from his place behind me, spoke with a tone that showed his understanding, his realization of the very truth I feared to speak; his voice was low with that recognition.

“The missiles made up one of the Old World’s several military projects, this one called Guardian.” I replied. “It was a defensive system designed and built by pegasus ponies to combat megaspells – both balefire missiles and actual launched spells. When I got that door open… the Talons repurposed them to give them the offensive capabilities that you saw today-”

BLAM! BLAM!

With a gasp, I jumped in place at the two shocking reports of a rifle, its short distance from me putting a thin ringing in my ears as I looked back to the left. There, close by where he stood a step away from Archer, a Buckley unicorn stallion glared down the sights of a precision carbine, on the other side of which lay Trigger and his companion, both bleeding out onto the concrete from the holes that had been put through their skulls. And suddenly, the same stallion swung his eyes to me, glaring hateful fire that froze me in place. “So you’re telling us that you went into that facility and opened up the door to give these fuckers those missiles yourself?! You’re saying that you helped them get those missiles so they could bomb us, hell, bomb the whole Goddess-damned region?! Do you have any idea what this attack has just cost us??!”

“I didn’t open that door on my own free will!” Despite the stallion’s display of rage, I matched his volume with mine… only in desperation… “They put an explosive collar on my brother, and they were going to murder him like an animal if I didn’t do what they wanted! Opening that door was the only way I was going to be able to save him!”

“SO YOU FUCKING SACRIFICED LUNA KNOWS HOW MANY LIVES ALL FOR YOUR LITTLE BROTHER?!!” Another stallion, the unicorn with the blade from before, immediately backed up his comrade, his own voice even more frightening and angry than the former.

“THEY GAVE ME NO CHOICE!!” I screamed to him, yet another pair of tears beginning to slide down my cheeks as I whipped my head around to face him. “If my brother hadn’t been at risk I would’ve never helped them!! You need to believe me when I say that!!”

“LOOK AROUND YOU!! LOOK AT HOW MANY BODIES ARE ON THIS RUNWAY!! WE’VE LOST FUCKING DOZENS, MAYBE HUNDREDS!!” the second unicorn roared.

“Buckley is burning, outsider!!” Before I could try and respond, a mare from the ring stepped in; I found her on the opposite side. “Look at what those missiles did to us!! Look at what you did to us!!”

“Do you think I wanted this?!” I demanded hotly, locking eyes with the mare where she stood glaring, teeth bared in seething anger. “The Talons made me go into those bunkers! They made me kill ponies who opposed their government, including a mother who I killed right in front of her child!! THEY… MADE… ME!!” I was screaming just the same as the others now… my voice cracked with the intensity, and my shaking threatened to bring me to the ground. “Do you really think I would’ve chosen to do any of this willingly, even after everything my friends and I did for Buckley?!”

“You’re an outsider!” the same mare shot back, stamping a hoof down. “I wouldn’t put anything past you!”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing from you, outsider!” A second mare, three ponies away from the first, was looking to me not with anger… but with a pained expression; it was the face of a pony who now knew that she had misplaced her trust. “You sided with the most dangerous monstrosity that the southeast’s ever seen, and you aided them in the deaths of Goddesses know how many! How can you live with that?!”

“I have to live with it!” I said, my voice hitching as a sob broke through my sentence. “Don’t you understand?! I have to live with the fact that I killed innocents in the National Guard Bunkers! I have to live with the fact that I betrayed everypony I’ve ever cared about to help the Talons in their damned mission! And I have to live with the blood of dozens on my hooves, maybe even hundreds if they use the other missiles elsewhere!”

“Not for long you don’t!!”

What??!

One of the unicorn stallions from before had shouted those words, drawing a gasp from me at the very sudden and ominous turn from a screaming match that was already becoming too unbearable. But that was all I was able to do before something slammed down on my back, and slammed down hard. Both the wound on my back and my broken rib exploded with agony, the force of the hit like a bullet all on its own, and I screamed as the impact sent me easily to the ground. I hit the pavement belly first, my jaw striking the concrete after and knocking me into a daze. A whole mess of shouting voices quickly swelled to life, with hardly a single distinguishable word between them. But among the closest to me, I heard Blake cry in shock at the sudden attack I’d just taken.

But then came the cocking of weapons. One at first… then another… and another… one after the next ponies were arming their weapons…

“DROP YOUR RIFLE! DROP IT, FUCKER!”

The readying of rifles had quenched every voice almost simultaneously. But Gunny was quick to break the silence with his sharp order. His voice drew my eyes back up, and looking over my right shoulder, I found the brick-red unicorn with his horn flaring bright. The All-Equestrian hovered horizontally above me, and I followed the direction of the LMG’s barrel to find the unicorn with the carbine rifle as Gunny’s target. “Back off!” the Buckley unicorn snapped back, his own weapon floating just shy of pointing right at me. “I’m taking this traitor out, and then I’m going to kill each and every one of you outsiders that tries to protect her! I knew all along that we couldn’t trust you-”

But Gunny only pressed on, fearless and without hesitation, stepping forward to stand protectively over me. “You drop that rifle, or I’ll drop you right where you stand!” he warned, crouching threateningly. “I dare you to make a move!”

But while Gunny was more than ready to kill the guard, and the unicorn’s rifle was not yet aligned with a target, there was over a dozen other weapons that were all leveled for Gunny, almost all the other guards within the circle more than ready to act at my friend’s first move. With Gunny, I could see Shore where he stood just behind him. He was facing the opposite direction, his laser pistol held firmly in his jaws as he faced down the guards on our right, most of which had likewise brought their weapons to bear. And looking to the left again, I found another pony blocking my view where he stood right in front of me – Blake, facing away from me as he stared with fright at the unicorn who sought to be my executioner; with my view blocked by both Gunny and my brother, I couldn’t find Raemor or Ivy.

“Get the hell out of the way, outsider!”

“You’d better drop it!”

“Last chance, outsider!!”

“I will fucking end you!!”

“FUCK YOU!!”

And with a flash of light, the carbine unicorn brought his rifle to bear, the barrel coming up to point for me and Blake together.

BOOM!

One shot, a single clap of thunder whose echo silenced everypony… everypony and everything in our chaotic circle. I jumped at the shot, my eyes snapping shut in fear for the worst… and yet nothing came… no pain… no screaming… no gunfire that followed after. I had expected a battle to come to life, one that would’ve inevitably cost Gunny his very life. Yet for a moment, the only noise was that of the burning hangar nearby, the crackling of the fires that licked away at the rubble. But then came the sound of hooves against the stone, all at once as the right side of the ring begun to move. And when I looked, I saw as the guards there parted away to form a wide lane of travel, a path through which a single unaccompanied pony walked.

Mother Shimmer…

Moving slowly, her nearly glowing green eyes settled on me as soon as she could see me past her youngers. In the ghoul’s mouth was a pistol, a much larger model that sported an equally larger caliber bullet, which was made of shimmering blue metal… a beautiful weapon. A few more steps in and Shimmer came to a smooth stop, turning and bowing her head to where her weapon holster was secured around her left front leg. And with one easy motion, she holstered her personal sidearm before looking back to me where I lay; thankfully, Shimmer herself looked unharmed... or as unharmed as her decayed body could appear.

At least I had that on my side…

“Enough.” she said, her raspy voice surprisingly… calm. “Enough of this, my children.”

As if it were a command, the guards surrounding us one and all begun to lower their weapons, all of them besides the carbine unicorn, who only stared back at his leader with disbelief. “Mother Shimmer, this outsider betrayed us!” he argued, his former anger suddenly reduced to a more desperate version of its former self. “We can’t let this go! We have to make her pay for this!”

“I said, enough, child.” Shimmer replied after a short huff, patient as she swung her eyes to the stallion. “There has been too much bloodshed today already. I want no more.”

“You can’t say that this traitor doesn’t-”

The carbine stallion persisted… or tried to. But in a shocking change of composure, Shimmer’s calm eyes instantly warped into a fiery glare, and the lazy green haze that had been floating around her body abruptly pulsed in a startling display as she yelled, “I SAID NO MORE!”

That put the stallion into silence… now only leaving me as I looked to Buckley’s leader… waiting for her to speak to me…

“Commander Tracer.” she began, letting out a disheartened sigh as she looked past me; I followed her gaze only to find Gunny, the All-Equestrian now lowered away. “Gather everypony here and get them to aid the wounded. Doctor Preston lost his clinic in the residential hangar, but he’s setting up a station in the church to try and tend to some of those who have been wounded with what supplies he has left.”

“Yes… of course.”

“And make sure that everypony is assigned a task.” she added, the crowd already beginning to thin. “There’ll be much to do.”

“Yes, mother.” Tracer replied.

“And as for you…” I flinched back, hearing her first before I looked; now her eyes were on us with a purpose. “Each of you will gather yourselves up and proceed to my silo. The doors are open, and there’s a medical box inside with some potions and bandages. Tend to your own wounds as best you can while we work up here. Tonight I’ll have a nurse tend to you properly. Go to my room now, and do not come out. I’ll speak to each of you together when I am able.”

The earth pony ghoul immediately turned away, stopping to scan along the guards as they begun to disperse, Tracer and the other superior officers calling out their orders to move. And frozen in place, I only watched where Buckley’s leader looked to, following her gaze along the base’s west side… passing the pile of rubble that was all that remained of the base’s repair shop. Then she turned to the left, to where the guards that had chased the Talons out of the base were now coming back… to the remains of the northern housing sector.

The leader… taking in her losses…

The sight of her, so calm as she looked out over her home and the post-battle carnage that blanketed it… for some reason, it was a sight that gave me the greatest sting of guilt out of all the others… I was looking at Buckley’s founding mare, who had built the base up from a ruin in the wasteland to its proud self… who was now just… just stuck… taking the measure of everything she had lost in the Talons’ quick and savage attack. And as Gunny followed Mother Shimmer’s order for me, leaning down to gently nudge my side and persuade me to move, I let myself fall into tears once more as Shimmer moved on to tend to her people.

And this time, those tears fell without any obstacle whatsoever to bar them… as the full and merciless weight of what I had done came crashing down on me.

Footnote: 50% to level up

Bonus Perk: The Fire We Share – He’s got his cutie mark! Through the fires of battle, the bond between you and your brother has become even stronger. Each of your tag skills are now permanently raised by +5.

Chapter 20: Blue Fire's Voice

Chapter 20: Blue Fire’s Voice

“I’ll always be there…”

“Do you have everything?”

With a heavy clang of steel, the silo door fell closed and sealed itself up again, the locking arms sliding back into their places. And blinking away the haze from my eyes, I saw Mother Shimmer as she slowly made her way along the balcony, heading to the stairs that descended into her room; it had been hours since her last visit.

“How are things up there?”

Gunny was the one that dared that question, looking up from his place at my bedside to find her. “Things are calming down now, child.” Shimmer answered… not making eye contact. “And it’s good that they are. The sun is almost fully set.” Wisely, Gunny didn’t ask for any specifics, accepting the ghoul’s answer and leaving her be as she approached the balcony stairs. “Is Nova awake?”

“She just woke up a little bit ago, not even two minutes.” Gunny answered her, sighing lightly.

“She needs to keep resting.”

While woozy from the slumber I’d just woken from, I could still clearly hear the ensuing dialogue. Once Mother Shimmer had seen us relocated to her chamber in the balefire missile silo, she had managed to bring back one of Doctor Preston’s nurses to tend to me, specifically Nurse Sophie from the Marefax expedition. Thankfully, she had not been privy to the standoff in which I’d revealed my role in the terrible attack, and so was more than happy to fix me up proper. It had been a difficult process, for while the gashes had healed normally under the spell of two full healing potions, the bullet from Blackhawk’s revolver had broken off into multiple fragments. As such, Sophie had chosen to put me under in order to extract the bullet pieces, and then reset my rib. She had recommended the out-patient option due to the fact that she needed to use a controlled dose of a medical chem called Hydra, a drug that would increase cell growth and reset my rib to its proper place. It was an advanced form of super healing potion, and one that was potentially dangerous to the user. However, Sophie had assured us that the controlled dose she would use would be just enough to mend my rib and counter the blood loss that would result from extracting a hollow point bullet.

“So long as you’re cautious and use it sparingly, Hydra does its job and puts no danger onto the user. This isn’t the first time I’ve used it on a patient.”

Those were Sophie’s words to put me and my friends at ease.

Grace probably would’ve kept arguing… but Sophie was no Grace…

Now, with a sedative and a small dose of Hydra beginning to wear off within me, I was awake and feeling… well, a little better, at least…

“Do you think you can get back to sleep, Nova?” With a light grunt, I shifted lightly, just enough to glance over my shoulder and find where Gunny was sitting on the floor beside where I lay. But then, against my other side, I felt where a pony shifted, catching the small disturbance I’d made and trying to snuggle back up against my side.

Blake… sound asleep under my right wing.

While I was mostly unconscious, it didn’t take a fully alert mind to know that he’d come up onto my bed as soon as Sophie had finished her work. Thankfully, Shimmer had lent me her very own bed to recover on, and there was more than enough room for both me and my baby brother. I was very grateful for her generosity, and despite everything, there was no ignoring how comfortable I was here… so much so that I was reminded of my own bed back in Stable 181.

“Yeah…” I gave my best nod, feeling the light tingling of a headache that wanted to come to life at the movement. And in reply, Gunny leaned in and brushed his muzzle against my cheek, a gesture that I gladly welcomed before lowering myself fully back down onto the soft bed. And laying my head right by Blake’s, I closed my already half-lidded eyes, already feeling as sleep came rushing back to take me again.

One more time I checked over my equipment. Everything was back in place and ready to go. My Manehattan Police Department armor, fully repaired in my absence, was strapped together, putting a familiar and comfortable weight on me. And Cross’s battle rifle and my Stable 181 markspony carbine were back against my sides on their saddle, settled just under my wings where they usually were. My friends had brought back my saddlebags too, still packed up with all the items I had collected over the weeks – they were back in their place over my flanks. And they’d even brought me back Blue Fire’s Torch, a welcome sight that was now back in its proper place over my back. Everything was back to normal… barring three exceptions.

My pipbuck had been lost back at Stable 184… and with it my mother’s pistol… and it pained me deeply to know that the last material memory of my own mother was in the clutches of the Talons…

And finally there was Archer’s patrol cap. My friends had brought his own personal gift to me back as well…… but this time, I couldn’t bring myself to wear it… much less to even look at it…

“I have everything.” Tentatively, I looked over to my right, finding where Mother Shimmer herself stood waiting close by. There were no escorts, no guards… only her, with her near-glowing green eyes looking upon me with that same caring gleam I’d always seen in her… now touched with concern… hesitation… Goddesses, there wasn’t an evil bone in her body…

“And the rest of you?” she asked, looking past me and to the others.

“You’ve all tended to your wounds by now, I hope?”

Despite Mother Shimmer’s effort to keep herself quiet, her hushed voice provoked a twitch from me as sleep was forced to take a step back. Behind me, I heard the ghoul’s hooves as she stepped around the back of the bed, moving over to where my friends were likewise resting. “Yeah.” In a whisper, Gunny answered her. “We’re good. Thanks for bringing us down here and letting us get ourselves back together.”

“I wish I could let you stay longer, child.” came Shimmer’s low reply. “But I’m afraid that all of you are now in hostile territory. Were it not for the aftermath of this fight keeping them occupied, you would all be in very real danger from my youngers. Even with my lockdown order, Tracer, Amber, and I are barely keeping them docile… and word of Nova’s confession has already traveled around the whole base.”

I kept my eyes closed…

“I know.” Gunny replied, sounding more than a little on edge at Shimmer’s news. “Why don’t they realize Nova’s not the one at fault for this whole Goddess-damned mess?”

“Yeah.” Ivy chimed in. “They know that the Talons forced her to do what she did. She told them that… and they saw how she near broke down in front of them. You can’t get more truthful than that…”

“And they know by Nova’s previous actions in helping Buckley that she’d never bring this down on them intentionally.” Shore added.

“You have to give my ponies time.” Shimmer answered. “We lost two hundred and sixty souls today, and Lily was the only thing that saved us from certain annihilation. They are tired and scared.”

“Yeah…”

“Some of us will recover faster than others. This I know.” Shimmer explained. “And some still might even realize the reality of what happened here today, and truly understand that Nova is not the one to hold accountable for the Talons’ atrocities. But I fear that in the end… many of us will never let this go.”

I just kept my eyes closed… even as I felt a new pair of tears beginning to form…

“Can’t you talk to them?” Gunny asked, a long and uncomfortable pause preceding his downhearted question. “Can’t you convince them? You obviously know Nova’s innocent and believe it like we do.”

A pause followed the ghoul as she begun to move, crossing slowly along my left side. “The Talons came here to destroy us, or to cripple us.” she replied. “Through Archer, I know what’s happening outside our fences, child… War is happening… and it doesn’t take much to piece together why the Talons came back for us. Whether they knew of your previous exploits here or not, they didn’t want to take the chance of us joining the fight outside and providing aid to Challenger. Lily is the sole advantage we have over the Talon Legion, and she always has been. If we sent her to aid Challenger, that city would become a far more formidable threat to them and their mission then they ever have.”

“That makes sense…” Raemor agreed.

“And so, in that case, the Talon Legion succeeded in its mission against us.” Shimmer concluded. “We may have beaten back their attack once again, but we’ve become much weaker now. We are vulnerable, and far more so should Lily leave the base.” At that, she fell silent once more before letting out a sad, throaty sigh. “So to answer your question, child… I will try and convince my youngers to accept Nova’s innocence as we do.” Shimmer answered. “But after everything that was lost here… I believe that many will refuse to listen, even with me being the one to speak to them. Tensions will be high here for a long time following today… and things will be… very difficult to manage. We’ll return to our old ways, seclude ourselves and keep all outsiders out… kill them before they have a chance to get close to our walls.” Again, another pause came… and still, I kept myself still, feigning sleep. “And that’s why… that’s why I need to ask you all to leave, and to not return.”

Silence…

“As I mentioned once before, I ordered a lockdown for the base.” Shimmer explained. “Apart from our artillery teams and Lily’s crew, in which I’ve personally selected the ponies to take up the positions, everypony has been ordered to remain indoors until midmorning tomorrow. I want all of you to take the night to rest and recover as best you can. And tomorrow morning, I’ll escort all of you out of the base myself. But after that, you have to leave and stay away. The situation here is far too delicate for you to remain here any longer than that…… I know you understand.”

“We do…” Gunny answered her. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning, as you say.”

It was time to leave Buckley behind.

“Yeah, we’re all ready, Mother Shimmer.” Stepping up by my side, Gunny strapped the All-Equestrian back to his armor with one final click, the last of his gear to be secured. Together, the both of us looked back to the others, and one after the next, Shore, Ivy, and Raemor gave us their nods of confirmation; among them, only Blake carried nothing, and only he stared to me without making any gesture at all.

“Let’s go then.” Shimmer replied, already walking ahead toward the silo’s balcony stairway. “I’ll walk you to the gate.”

One by one, my friends followed after her, passing me by as I made my way over to Blake. He watched me as I approached him, meeting me gladly as I bowed my head down and nuzzled him along his neck. “Let’s go, Blake.” I urged gently, giving him a light nudge along his back to get him moving. “It’s time to go.”

“Okay…”

“Come on.” Flashing him my best encouraging smile, I turned about and fell in beside him as he begun to move. Together the two of us followed after the others at the rear of our line, Shimmer, Gunny, and Ivy already ascending the stairway when we matched our pace with theirs. We moved on in absolute silence, with only the thin hum and moderate glow of the silo lights accompanying us along the way. It was the same sound both in and out of the silo, the same noise surrounding us even as we moved into the service tunnel connecting the silo to the surface. And it was the noise that served as a reminder, even if trivial, of the very first day we had come across Buckley, when we’d discovered that what we had assumed was an abandoned Old World military base was actually a living and thriving society. The humming of the electricity came from each and every one of the spaced light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling on their cables. And though small, it was still a relief to see that the spark generators powering the base had remained undamaged, even with the facility housing them having been flattened by one of the Guardian missiles.

Farther into the tunnel, the walkway rose upward at a gentle angle, and as I stepped hoof onto the incline, I could see where the tunnel exited into the lobby of the silo’s control building. The reinforced door that I remembered from before was already opened, revealing the building’s ceiling, likewise illuminated with a moderate glow of both the regular lighting and the green monochrome of the door’s active terminal. But when we emerged from the service tunnel, we found the lobby wholly unoccupied, not a single peep or trace that anypony was stationed within, or had been for a while. “Come along, outsiders.” Mother Shimmer spoke up, already at the building’s open double-doors. “I would like to see you on your way well before the lockdown ends.”

From outside, I could already see that the sun was beginning to rise, the ground dimly illuminated with a pale bluish gray. And when we moved into the open, I was greeted once again by a familiar wasteland morning. This time though, the wind had picked up to a strong breeze, the herald of a new weather system on approach for the region. Through the strands of my mane brushing against my eyes, I could see the thick unaltered cloud cover, now shaded with dreary blues and greens that were mixed in with the normal blacks and silvers. Following them across the sky, I had a clear line-of-sight to see the sun where it was making its ascent over the eastern horizon, lighting up the clouds there with its first rays… something that I gradually forced myself to focus on as Shimmer led us to the west runway. Because while I didn’t look back to find them, I remembered where missiles had made impact near our path. And though most of the damage, thankfully, was at my back, there had been two impacts in the base’s south side, one of which had claimed one of the howitzers.

They were sights, now, that I altogether wanted to avoid looking at again… ever…

In silence, broken only by the continuing wind, we traversed the runway before arcing back to the right and heading down the final stretch of the base. Now, the main entrance was in our sights, and like the silo’s control station, it too looked deserted. Normally, I would’ve been able to see the heads of the guards stationed up in the twin watchtowers that flanked the chain-link gate. There might’ve even been a patrol or two pacing the south wall, and at this hour, there might’ve also been spotlights, or any kind of lighting. There was none of that…

But there was something there… somepony.

There was indeed one pony standing alone at the gate, and looking up the line, I could see that I hadn’t been the only one to spot the figure. Mother Shimmer, too, had locked her eyes onto the lone pony, and one after the next, the others found the figure. But it was then that a voice called out to reach us. “Are they good to go?”

“The wounded among them were treated and have made a good recovery over the course of the night, Archer.” Mother Shimmer spoke back, making my eyes pop rounder in surprise; she didn’t seem at all bothered that he was outside during the base’s lockdown. “They have been fed and have been able to rest, as I said they would. I do not intend to just throw them to the wolves, child.”

Archer… the pony was indeed Archer, revealed when he abruptly ruffled out a pair of formerly hidden wings as his steel blue color begun to show itself. “Good… That’s good.”

“And did you bring what I asked you to?” Shimmer then asked, trotting ahead of us to meet the stallion flier where he waited as the rest of us fell back together into a group.

“Right here.” he answered, backing up a step to reveal a single saddlebag set at his hooves. “As promised.”

“Thank you.” Turning, Mother Shimmer watched us as we formed up before her, Blake and I stepping up to the center of us as the others fanned out. “Outsiders… in your time within our walls, you’ve left a very long passage in our history book, one that speaks a story of both victory and defeat. In my experience, you don’t find stories like that as often as you find those that lean only to one side or the other. Buckley is changed now because of your actions,” And as she spoke, her eyes came to me when she added, “and whether or not you want to hear so, Buckley is changed especially because of yours, Nova.” Immediately I winced away, sparked at the words she spoke. And yet, even with those strong eyes upon me, I couldn’t distinguish any kind of specific tone in her voice. For while she locked me in place with that mighty stare, just as she had done the very first time she had laid her eyes on me, there was no hesitation, no severity… no anger… in what she was saying. In fact, she spoke very straightforwardly, not without emotion, but with strength and honesty. “In the coming days, as we rebuild ourselves, we will be confronted with many new challenges as a community. And while that struggle to recover will be burdened with the hatred that has grown from the loss of our friends, it will be aided in turn with the sincerity and compassion that was shown to us by ponies who we once thought to be no more than mere savages.”

And I listened… bowing my head down low as I relived my very first day in Buckley… when she first looked upon me with that stare that seemed to weigh my very soul. To me, it felt like she was doing exactly that for the second time… only now… she was taking into account everything that I had been through and done, everything between my arrival to this beautiful place and this very moment.

“Make no mistake – I am deeply pained at the loss of so many of my youngers… my dear children.” she continued, this time with her words laced with exhausted sadness that had once been hidden; even she, with all her strength, couldn’t conceal how the terrible attack yesterday had wounded her… and I shut my eyes tight, my ears beginning to pin back against my head. “It’s a scar that will be with me for years to come… and there’s no hiding or denying that fact. But yet… despite everything that’s happened, outsiders, I know that the lessons my youngers and I have learned from each of you, both the good and the bad, will culminate into an entity that will make us even stronger in the end, when this storm passes us by. It is my vow that Buckley will rise from the tragedy that struck us, and that we will, all of us, become better.”

Here, Mother Shimmer let herself stop, giving me all the time in the world to let her words sink in. To me, what she was saying was… in great part, very surprising. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Shimmer had been forced to tally her losses and sum up the damage that had been done. In that time, my friends and I had been literally sealed within her silo, making a cell to keep us out of the sight of the hundreds of shocked, weary, and angry souls that had to clean up. But despite this, it took no effort of thought to understand that Shimmer had been forced to see terrible things – the destruction… three buildings lost, the others damaged to varying degrees…… and the casualties… two hundred and sixty ponies killed… over a quarter of the total population of the settlement. And the situation had forced her to behold all of it, to see each of those who’d lost their lives where they had fallen in battle, to see how they had died, and to see the loved ones whom they had left behind as they mourned. In my time here, I had come to quickly understand just how deep Shimmer’s bond was with those she led. And before I had left Buckley for the first time, I had come to see her as a leader with such compassion for her ponies that each citizen of the base made a small part of who she was. Buckley’s ponies were indeed Shimmer’s children, and not so by blood, but by the nearly seventy years of history they had shared.

The first time I had left, I had seen a bond that was unbreakable, a community that was unshakeable, and a leader who was filled with pride at all she and her youngers had achieved. And now, as I left Buckley behind for the second and final time, I saw a bond that had been crippled, a community that had been ravaged, and a leader who was showing mercy to a mare who didn’t deserve it.

And the depression that had drove me into darkened silence ever since my confession on that day… was becoming numb under a creeping sense of frustration.

“Now, as we part ways, I find it within myself to understand the truth and to know that there is nothing to forgive.” she continued, her voice drawing only my eyes up to where she stood with Archer. “We have lost a great deal. But in time, we will gain much more. It is because of this, and because of what we see in you, that we want you to know these things Nova, to know that we understand your innocence, and to know that we will hope that you come to understand it too.”

But looking down, I only shook my head at them, a slight movement… all I could manage…

“And it’s why Mother Shimmer and I wanted you to have these.” At his place at Shimmer’s left side, Archer bowed his head down and to the leather sack he had brought. And taking hold of it, biting down on the very top of the bag, he picked it up and came around to walk towards me. In that moment, a sudden mental impulse urged me sharply to back away, to step aside and refuse… whatever it was he intended to present to me. But I stayed in place, finding his eyes on mine as he came to a stop. And gently he set the bag down, my ears picking up a light, delicate clinking sound as whatever was inside touched the stone. “In this bag you’re going to find four different items, a couple of which might look familiar to you.” he explained, now backing up a step as he stood back up to his full height. “You’ve seen three of them before. You found them, actually, back when you and I flew to Shimmer’s old farm.”

Despite my efforts to remain unresponsive, I couldn’t help but raise a puzzled stare to him at his recollection of one of our past exploits; I remembered the trip… but not what it was that we found. “The fourth is something that I want you to have for… well, a different reason. But each item I’ve left in that bag is something that I hope will help you on whatever path you take once you leave.” Then Mother Shimmer added to Archer’s words, remaining at her place farther back. “And now, if you would do me one final favor, child – see for yourself what’s inside. I would like to see what you think of what I’ve left you.”

But to that… to that, I just had to hesitate. “Why are you giving me this?” I asked lowly. “Why are you giving me anything at all?”

Shimmer, however, shook her head. “Child,” she said, tender and careful. “I’ve given you my reasons. Please… open it.”

I shut my eyes as a quiet sigh escaped me, and bowing my head, I looked upon the bag. The leather was crumpled up on itself, leaving an indistinguishable shape that prevented me from getting any hint as to what Shimmer wanted me to have. But with one final exhale, I approached the sack and reached out a hoof to it. Right away I felt something hard within, a smooth and solid texture as I pawed the bag open. It slid apart without much resistance, parting away for a faint twinkle to catch my eye. I recognized the glint of the crystal, sparked even in the pale light of the early morning. And as I opened the bag further, a second glint of light accompanied the first, coming from a second item that was the very same as the first. And reaching a hoof in, I touched over the crystal, recognizing what the two items were. I was looking at a pair of memory orbs, both of which were sitting just in front of the third of the four items within. This time I felt metal as I traced my hoof over the sack’s contents, and I knew right away from my mission to the Shimmermist Farm that where there were memory orbs, there was also a recollector. Yes. That was definitely the third item… but the fourth… Last, I felt the recognizable shape of a trigger guard, next to which a small metal pipe folded back behind it. And following it with the edge of my hoof, I felt smooth metal, new and unblemished, all the way to where it ended… where I felt a hammer… a pistol hammer.

That got me to look deeper into the bag, squinting my eyes while reaching to the bottom and lifting the pistol up and out. Even with the little light there was, I could see the blue color, the same sapphire that adorned every inch of Mother Shimmer’s personal sidearm, the pistol I had seen her with when she had broken up the mob that had wanted me dead. The fact that this weapon had been Mother Shimmer’s would have been more than enough for me to outright refuse what she was giving me… were it not for the final detail that I saw upon the weapon, freezing mind and body alike.

It was a symbol, stamped on the back of the pistol’s slide just under the rear iron sights and in front of the hammer. It was a lighter color of blue, only slightly so, but enough to distinguish it from the darker near-black shade of sapphire that was all around it, enough for me to clearly see what it was – a fireball… a blue flame just like mine… the second perfect replica that I had seen on yet another weapon that I had never wielded before…

First was Blue Fire’s Torch…

Now… this…

Even with my having seen it once before… I was stuck in place from the startling reveal; once had seemed impossible enough… but twice…

“Now you know why I want you to have it.”

Mother Shimmer’s voice yanked my eyes away from the startling sight, taking me back before I could become further trapped in it. And yet at seeing her, I found myself quickly slipping back into my former state, that urge to step away coming back as I returned to the real world. Still… “This weapon…” A quick glance back to the bag… there the flame was, just the same as before. “My rifle…” I continued, nodding back to the Torch, still holding eye contact with the ghoul. “Me…”

“All have the same markings.” Shimmer finished for me, giving me a single sagely nod.

“How’s that possible?” I asked her. “And how did you get this?”

A faint smile grew on her lips, apologetic as she slowly shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand that myself – how that is possible.” she answered. “As for where I found it – I’ve had that weapon for many, many years, Nova. I found it back during my days of exploration, way back dozens of years ago in a ruined grocery mart, laying by the skull of an old skeleton. I never knew who its original owner was, or what the history of the weapon was. But the mark I found on it, the mark I saw you carrying, both etched on your rifle and as your very own cutie mark… it showed me that this symbol, this blue flame, is very different… even if I haven’t the faintest idea as to how.”

“Different?” I ventured.

She raised a hoof, gesturing promptly to the bag. “Look at what’s before you. Look at your little brother, and what you yourself have carried with you. Look back to your history, even.” she said. “This blue flame is much more common than either of us may have originally thought, child. You’ve seen it multiple times now, and I too have seen it time and time again, more than just when you came to us. And it’s what I’ve given you that pistol for, and those memory orbs. In each of them, I’ve seen that symbol, and with the tie you have to it, I feel that these are the most appropriate gifts to leave to you. That way, perhaps you might figure out what it means in time.”

One more time, silence took us over, prompting me to look back to the bag as Shimmer’s explanation echoed in my head. In all my time in the wasteland, or even my whole life, for that matter, I had never even dreamed that I would come across anything as baffling as Blue Fire’s Torch. And in all its lethal beauty, that weapon’s permanent etching that it carried, a perfect replica of my cutie mark, was something that continuously teased my thoughts, putting me into one of my thought spells at the times where I could’ve been resting. Every time, it would remind me of Stable 181, and specifically, of where the blue flame had taken shape within it. And there, it had only shown itself twice in all those years – just my father and I had carried it. My father had found his mark well before I had even been thought of by my parents, and I had seen it on him ever since I was a foal. But then came me, the timid little mare that became the oddity of the Stable, who had somehow, someway, come to have a cutie mark that copied her father’s down to the finest details. It had been talked about in whispers and confused mutterings when it had come, and with its peculiarity aside, it had been the second and last time it had appeared in my old home.

But out here on the surface, in all my days of wandering the southeast… my mark, my history, had returned to me in that weapon. And even with the tremendous gap in time between the discovery of Blue Fire’s Torch and the attaining of my cutie mark, that rifle had tied the surface to my life underground. And now, I had been presented with what was unquestionably a sibling weapon to the Torch. Their color, their marks… coincidence was out of the question, both when I’d found the Torch… and now upon seeing… this… But what would have been a tremendous gale of questions and extended reflection was hastily brushed aside by the mental fog that had come from yesterday’s terrible battle. As if in a fit of jealousy, the printed images of all that I had witnessed that day came rushing back, leaving not an inch of room for what could have warranted a distraction from the crushing guilt that I was now left with.

And that guilt shackled itself to me… and I looked away from the bag.

“I can’t take these.” Shaking my head in refusal, I took a step back from the bag and let it be. “These belong to you, and it’s not my place to take them… not after what happened…”

“I have made this choice willingly, Nova.” But as I expected, Shimmer leapt onto the chance to stop me. “If I blamed you for yesterday’s battle, then we wouldn’t even be talking. You have known me long enough now that you must feel my words hold weight to them. You must believe by now that I never lie to those who have shown me just intentions and moral hearts, and you and your friends each have shown me those things, that and much more.”

Oh good…

I showed her a moral heart…

“So believe me now when I say that I still carry a great deal of faith in you, child, even with the Talons’ attack having come and gone.” she said. “I want you and your friends to know that when you’re out there in the wastes. I want you to know that I still believe in you, and I want you to know that I always will.”

Listening to Mother Shimmer… I knew that there was tremendous meaning in her words, just like there had always been. Her wisdom, her age, her personality, her angelic and virtuous compassion and love… there was a significance in her voice that I felt would never truly die. But listening to her had become harder and harder to manage, for those reasons exactly… And hearing how… forgiving… her tone was… I just couldn’t understand how a good mare like her could forgive a decision that had been so destructive.

I couldn’t see the why of it…

“As will I.”

Archer…

After what seemed to be hours, after so long just listening… Archer spoke. Only after a small pause of uncertainty, I found myself drawn to him, my eyes flicking up to where he remained close by. And when he finally had my eyes on his, the handsome flier gave me a small smile… just like all those times before – Marefax, Buckley… the dance floor in the concert hall… It was a smile that, for just a moment, squeezed through the iron wall I had thrown up in front of my emotions… giving me just a bit of warmth in the cold of my thoughts. And in my inability to find a response, he took my eyes on his as a cue to move, and with a slow walk, he approached me. “I’ve only known you for… roughly ten days now.” he said. “But in this world, a day might as well be a whole week. And in the time I’ve known you, I’ve see a pony of far greater quality than nearly every other I’ve ever met or known my whole life.”

I watched him all the way to where he stopped before me, just past arm’s reach, right behind the bag.

“And after everything I’ve seen you go through, everything I’ve heard you say, all the good that I’ve seen you do… I can’t find a single reason as to why I should turn my back on you. And nothing you say is going to change that.” Goddesses… Archer… how could you really feel that way about me? “Mother Shimmer’s right Nova – there’s a tremendous amount of good in you, and it hasn’t been just your intentions that have proven that. Your actions, your emotions, your feelings towards Buckley, and hell, the rest of the southeast – all of those have proven that, too.” He paused, reacting to how I lowered my eyes away in shameful disbelief. But he followed me, bowing his head down to my level until I looked to him again with a timid sideways glance. “I know it. Shimmer knows it. Your friends know it. And I think you do too, even if you don’t believe it yet.” And once again, he gave me that same smile. “So take Shimmer’s gifts, Nova, for her and for me. Take them to remember our words and our hopes, and to remind you that we still believe in you.”

Suddenly, my body hitched, my lips parting to let a surprise sob escape me. But I snapped myself still in retaliation, barely keeping back a pair of tears that wanted to fall, to reveal the gratitude that existed only as a timid spark within me. Because despite Archer’s words, despite the sincerity I heard in them… I just couldn’t shake that nagging question of why. In his little speech, Archer seemed like he was wholly unbothered by what had occurred yesterday. Like Shimmer, he was, at least on the outside, wholly the same in regards to his emotions towards the damage and the losses that Buckley had suffered. In fact, in all of this, Archer sounded like he had when we had first parted ways… just a stallion giving his best wishes to somepony he held in high regards. That was something I just couldn’t understand, even after he had spoken what had to have been his most carefully selected words to form the encouragement he tried to give me now, to make me feel better before my second and final departure from his home. And as touching as his words were, there was a rising irritation at the indifference that I perceived from him. It didn’t seem like him… and yet that smile was unfading on his face to speak otherwise.

Even my demolished self-confidence and the misery that stood high above it couldn’t keep back the truth that… that Archer really was speaking with his heart, with truth… And still… I believed his heart, and the words woven from it, was misplaced…

“Will you take them, Nova?” Archer had given me a little time do dwell in my own silence, only tentatively calling me back to him to try and get a verbal answer. Patiently he waited, his head still bowed to meet me at my eye level. And looking back to those eyes, his hope for an affirmative answer was the most prominent emotion written in them, his hope that I would oblige him and Shimmer and take what they wished me to have. And really… after everything he’d said to me… a part of me did feel that it just wouldn’t be right to turn his request down… not after I heard in him just how highly he thought of me.

He, the one who had caught my eye so suddenly when I had first seen him, and who had later shown himself as strong, caring, noble… honorable… in every way that mattered. And now, with this support and understanding that he was giving me, without doubt or deceit… that option of taking what he was giving me made a tremendous push to claim the high ground… to be my ultimate path over my initial refusal that fought just as hard to become the same.

…

But… in the end…

…

“No…” With a slow shake of my head, I gave him the answer he didn’t want to hear, the both of us rising back up to our full heights as a frown begun to spread across his face.

“Nova, please.” he pressed, sliding the bag back closer to me with a forehoof. “We’re telling you the truth when we say how we feel on this. You have to believe me when I say that… please, believe me.”

But that, to my ears, was another repetition of something that I already denied as truth, even if it wasn’t reiterated word for word… and it served only to knock down the resistance I’d put up to restrain myself from speaking the feelings that ultimately prevailed in my tornado of thought. “Archer…” I said, sighing. “I appreciate what you said, I really do… But I… don’t… feel worthy of this. It doesn’t feel right to me to take anything from either of you… and I think that these things you’re saying… everything about me… I can’t bring myself to believe it.”

With a frustrated huff, Archer retaliated. “Nova, listen to yourself. Do you think Shimmer and I are so stubborn that we’d hold a high opinion of you simply because we can? We’re not hiding in blissful ignorance from all this, and you need to understand-”

“Archer, just stop!”

But the frustration I had kept contained, the confusion and disbelief… it was emerging all at once.

Now… the only thing on my mind – I had to know why.

In a blink he went quiet, jolted into silence from my command as I fixed him with a firm stare. “Do you want to know why I can’t take that stuff?” I queried. “Because I can’t figure you out, Archer, you or Shimmer. I just can’t figure out how you seem to be so indifferent about all this. I mean, look around you. Look at what was done, what I brought to your home. Why is it that after all of that, you’re simply wishing me luck and sending me on my way like the last time I left??”

“Nova, calm down…”

But I ignored Ivy’s plea. “I don’t get it, Archer…” I continued, narrowing my eyes. “Me leaving this time – it’s not the same as before! The first time, I actually did good things for Buckley! I helped this community achieve its goals, and I helped it gain a new good perspective on the outside world! And now I’ve destroyed years of growth and progress with the push of a button!” Pointing to him, I caught a glimpse of Shimmer where she remained behind him; even she looked a little taken aback at my outburst. “So tell me why! Tell me why it looks to me like you’re just brushing this whole thing off like it’s nothing at all!”

“Stop, Nova.” the pegasus answered, lower as his own eyes slightly narrowed. “I’m not brushing this off-.”

But I pushed ahead. “Then tell me why it seems that way!!”

And he did… his own voice raising to overpower mine when he responded, “Because I’m seeing this for how it really is, that’s why!!”

Oh, good.

“And how is it really, Archer?!” I challenged, taking a step closer to him as we now glared back at one another. “Tell me how it is!!”

“Nova!”

“The Talons are responsible for this! Not you!” he answered angrily, closing the rest of the space between us, putting us nearly muzzle to muzzle. “Goddesses, you said that yourself when you told us what happened, and now you’re denying your own damn words! You need to see that and you need to stop!”

“And you need to quit pretending that I’m not to blame for this!!” I shot back, refusing to back down under his agitated glower. “You have no reason to side with me, Archer! You’re too smart and you’re too good for that!”

“NOVA!”

“I have every reason to side with you!” Archer persistently replied, stomping a hoof down on the pavement. “If I thought you were at fault, do you think you’d even be here right now? Do you really believe that I would’ve let you live??” His tone matched with mine, he threw that dark question onto the table; I didn’t back down even an inch from him, not even then. “We may have worked together, Nova, but you don’t know half of who I am or what I’ve gone through! But if you did, then you’d understand that if this was your fault, I wouldn’t care about you the way-”

SMACK!

One move… one quick swing… and my hoof connected solidly with his jaw to shut the stubborn pegasus up. And right after him, everypony went quiet… and Archer… he remained frozen with the surprise of my sneak attack, his mouth slightly open and his head tilted to the right from the sufficient force of my hit. Only after a long pause, in which my breathing had become heavier, did he glance back to me, closing his mouth… but staying quiet. “You’re wrong, Archer… You’re wrong about me…” I made extra sure to keep my eyes on him when I finally spoke up again… I made sure he got the message. “You’re wrong…”

He didn’t speak… he didn’t finish the sentence that I had broken… and nopony else spoke either… not even Blake. And I didn’t stay to see what kind of reactions were waiting to take up my attention. Instead, I only turned away, putting all of them at my back and bringing the gate into my sight.

And passing Archer by, my farewell already spoken, I walked on towards Buckley’s closed entrance.

And when I came to the chain link fence… I sat down on the stone… and I waited.

Alone…

And in the gloomy light, I stared out toward the south, watching the wasteland morning creep over the familiar road that would lead us one final time from Buckley back to our home.

Gunny was right – we needed to be home, back in Hopeville where we… where I… belonged…

*** *** ***

Thunder.

Another gentle rumble echoed through the air, coming from the east to glide past us as a smooth and… rather soothing wave of sound. There was a new storm system on the way, with the thunder having joined our company only a short time before now. It was middle-evening, with the light of the day alive and full, but approaching the start of its cyclic diminishing. And that was my indicator that we were right on time, making good progress towards getting back to Hopeville.

Once more, as had become our routine, we’d be making camp in the old news radio building to get some solid sleep and be as well-rested as possible for the next day. But this time, more than the others, I welcomed that break in our journey home. And I intended to take full advantage of it in order to clear my head, to get away from the world for a few hours and recover; it would give me the time I needed to focus on doing whatever it took to prepare ourselves for what had undoubtedly escalated into the war that had only recently been nothing more than words on tense, hushed whispers.

During our march through the dust, which had tinted the very air a light brown ochre at the strengthened winds, I had been silent and completely unresponsive, lost in the mental turmoil that my guilt had won me. Only during the morning did my friends try getting me to talk, to explain to them what it was that had come over me back at Buckley. All of them had been worried at my little… outburst… and that was especially the case with Gunny and Blake. My little brother himself had seen how I had become more open to Archer over our first stay there, and he had even seen us when we had danced together… on that one glorious night. And so, my last moments together with the pegasus stallion had both confused him and made him a little anxious at my actions. He had been the only one to at least get some kind of reaction out of me in the first leg of our journey home, when he’d voiced again and again his bewilderment as to how I had so suddenly raised my voice, and struck, for that matter, the stallion who had been nothing but respectable… nothing but good to me. And indeed, the more Blake pushed the subject, the more I found myself asking the same questions… and regretting the way I’d said goodbye. But in the end, he too had let me be, as had been requested by Gunny, who eventually thought it best to let me sort things through on my own…

At least… until the time came where I called upon my friends for support.

And now, as we approached our stop for the night… I was close to that point.

No more than a couple hundred yards away, the southeast’s radio station was now in sight, a familiar little building sitting as a small stone box against the flat expanse of the dusty earth, with the three standing radio towers, as well as the collapsed fourth and the broken dish, all as I’d seen them before. I was at the lead of our group, a short distance ahead of the others so as to keep myself in my own personal bubble, as I had done for the whole of the trip. Thankfully, for the time being, the past finally put itself to rest, giving me the opportunity to hear the voices of my friends as they continued a conversation on the subject of dinner, something I felt most if not all of them were looking forward to. It had been nonstop walking for us since leaving Buckley behind for good, and even I was feeling a little hungry. It was another bit of motivation to keep me walking, to get me across the rest of the short distance sitting between us and a night of good rest.

“Nova!”

My ears twitched together as the formerly quiet hoofsteps of my companions begun to pick up… or at least the steps of one of them. Galloping towards me, I picked up the lighter weight of Blake’s hooves before I craned my head around to find him over my shoulder. And I immediately noted his wide eyes, worry written in them as he tried to get my attention. “What’s the matter, Blake?” I asked, coming to a stop.

But just as I did, so he followed me, grinding to a halt to point up with a hoof, the same direction that the others behind him were beginning to look. “Nova, look!”

“Up high!” Gunny too had found what Blake had, horn lighting up in preparation for an attack.

Then I followed, facing front and looking skyward. And right away I found something out of place against the cloud ceiling. Even in the darkening grey, the similarly silver figure in the sky was easy to find as it dived down toward us. But it was that silver color that got me to stay what would have been a snap move for my battle saddle’s firing bit. The figure was too small for a griffin, and it didn’t sport any of the Talons’ colors. No. I kept myself still because that silver color enveloped a winged pony, and when it begun to slow in the air, dropping its speed to a hover as it came in for a landing, I could see a full body suit of steel armor, the black visor of which was looking down upon us as the pegasus descended.

“Wait, wait!” Calling back, I looked to my friends as I shouted my command, glad to see that Gunny was already standing down as the others looked on. Then a heavy thud on the dirt drew my eyes to the front, where the steel-clad pony had landed in a hasty maneuver, wings folding back against armored sides with a light clack of metal. And staring eye to eye with the fellow pegasus, a light jolt of realization shook me to remind me that I was standing before a familiar presence. Yes… the compact minigun and the four-shot rocket launcher that made the steel rig’s heavy battle saddle, the armor that made a nearly impenetrable shell, the visor I had looked into several times just yesterday… yes, this was definitely a familiar pony… or rather, a familiar mare. “It’s you… It’s you isn’t it?”

“Nova.”

It was her – the one that had helped me escape Stable 184.

“You’re finally back.” she said, leaning just slightly to her left to catch a glimpse of the others behind me. “I was beginning to worry that something might have happened to you in Buckley.”

“What are you doing out here?” I asked her, bypassing her remark to get straight to the point as my friends came to a stop at my left and right to listen in; knowing now who this pony was, a whole barrage of questions came to the forefront of my concern. “Did Captain Saber send you here? Are you waiting for us?”

“Did you make it to Hopeville yesterday?” Gunny chimed in where he stood next to me on my right. “Is everything alright over there?”

But to my surprise, the steel pegasus only about-faced. “You all need to come with me.” she said instead, leaving me staring as she begun to walk. “The radio building. Come on.”

“Hey!” Gunny called, moving past me as the pegasus continued toward the station. “Hey, answer us! Did you get there or not?”

“Gunny! Aren’t those Stable uniforms?”

From my left, Ivy called for Gunny to stop with her startled question. That note of surprise sent a ripple of anxiousness through my gut when I looked past the armored pegasus and to the station, Gunny copying me in an instant. And instead of seeing the station’s closed double doors like before, I found a half dozen ponies all trotting out onto the dirt, the doors now wide opened. And on each of them, true to Ivy’s observation, was the black and blue security armor that had been our Stable’s standard issue security rig. Even as I watched, another two followed the others out as they came to a standstill one after the next, looking back towards us to try and recognize our faces. There were two others up top, two unicorns standing at the lip of the roof, both with rifles floating at their sides as they looked on; and with them, I could barely make out yet other ponies, looking outside from behind the station’s entrance.

“Yeah… why the hell are all of them way out here?”

Though Gunny ventured the question to himself more so than us, it echoed my own anxiety as we begun to move again, following at the beckoning of our steel companion. And it was her that called out to the guards first. “Captain Saber! Nova and her friends are here!”

Just as soon as she had said that all-too-familiar name, I spotted where two new ponies moved at a brisk trot past the others, hurrying out to meet us. And as they drew close, I immediately recognized one of them, his colors and his face. Captain Saber was ahead of his companion, the dusty blue stallion with the light brown mane fully garbed in his own security rig. And the pony with him was a mare, a unicorn with a white coat and light blue mane, equally equipped and equally weathered. Together we slowed, the both of them looking amongst each of us individually as they drew to a stop… the both of them carrying looks of genuine disbelief… and even greater worry…

“You’re alive…” The Captain was the first to speak up, turning his wide… very tired eyes to me.

Goddesses… he looked exhausted…

“Are you two alright?” he asked me, looking down to my right just as Blake brushed up against my legs. “Neither of you look injured…”

“We’re fine, Captain.” I responded with a small nod, as assuring as I could manage; he wasn’t having any of it. “We’re both fine.”

Saber’s eyes fell shut at my words, our leader letting out a long sigh as he shook his head. “I’d feared the worst, Nova… for you and your brother…” he said, eyes coming open once again. “When I found out that you two were taken… found out that Gracie was among the casualties… that Blossom…… Goddesses, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you both alive and intact.”

“I told you we’d bring them back, Captain.” Gunny voiced. “I knew we would.”

“It’s damn good to see you again, Nova.”

And I shared that sentiment wholeheartedly… so very thankful to be back among friends.

These faces, strange as it was to find them out here in the wastes, belonged to the ponies that I had yearned to see since my banishment from Buckley. On the whole trip back, I had thought only of them, only of the ones who shared my history and my hardships, and how I had so desperately longed to step into home territory. And finding some of those ponies again, after what seemed like a year being shackled and forced into loyal service to our enemy, made a force of consolation for me. But despite the relief that I shared with dear Saber, that question of why pushed its way back into my thoughts to put a stop to our brief reunion, to occupy my full attention. Now, I was asking the same question as Gunny had with far more mental clarity, and the exhaustion that I could now plainly see on both Saber and his companion’s faces was a rather ominous provoker of that one-word question. Both of them look battered, tired… weak… on a level that I had never seen in either of them before… and I was hesitant to ask the question myself…

“Captain, I didn’t expect to see you out here.” Gunny said, slow as he gave him a quick salute. “I thought you said you’d be keeping things together at home while we went out to look for Nova.”

The Captain flinched… hitched as if struck…

Nopony could have missed that… and the whole atmosphere changed in a blink, from mere surprise to a terrible constricting fear. I felt it all around me, even as Captain Saber slightly sagged, realizing how obvious his motion had been, and I knew the others felt it too… That pit in my stomach opened up wide, paralyzing… just like in the National Guard Bunkers… “Saber?” The Captain was pulled from his daze at my voice, his eyes flicking back to me. But a pony’s eyes… they never lied… and I saw defeat in them, that feeling manifesting as the core of his fatigue. And with all of that… I could see the truth… and…… “Saber… don’t tell me that…”

And he looked away…

With cold dread, I leaned back, taking one step away. “No… no, no, no…”

“Captain what happened??” Gunny demanded sharply.

“I’m sorry.” Saber said, low and weak as he begun to shake his head. “The Talons…”

They’d attacked Hopeville…

“They attacked again.” the white mare confessed, picking up for Saber. “Happened just yesterday around midday. We saw them first when they were assembling a battalion off to the east, herded our non-combatants into shelters and got our defenses up… but they didn’t come after us first.”

“They used missiles… didn’t they?”

To Ivy’s question, which her tone of voice spoke that she already knew the answer, the unicorn gave her a single crestfallen nod; I felt myself beginning to tremble. “Five of them, one right after the next.” he replied. “We were ready to repel a ground attack, not what they threw at us. Believe me, if we had any idea that the Talons packed that kind of weaponry we would’ve called on Challenger for more support, and we would’ve done it days ago. But they took us wholly by surprise using those things.”

“How many hit?” Raemor asked him; though silent, my breathing begun to quicken… provoked as images of the Guardian bunkers flashed before me.

“Three of the five.” the mare answered him. “We had a batch of outsiders that had stopped in for a couple nights to rest up and resupply, and they packed some serious tech, a vehicle of some kind, something Old World. But even with two knocked out of the air, Hopeville took a lot of damage. And when the missiles hit, we became scrambled. Some of us stayed at our posts, others went to help the wounded that survived the missile hits. That gave the Talons all the time they needed to storm in and scatter us further. Their attack was quick and decisive… and hell, Captain Saber barely managed to regroup everypony to get an organized counterattack going. But in the end… we had to abandon the town.”

“And so we’ve come here.” Saber finally said, nodding behind him to the radio station. “We managed to get out in a couple larger groups that eventually found their way back to each other, and then we used our pipbucks to get us here. Now, we’ve got a hundred and twenty souls packed in that station.” With a sad sigh, he once again bowed his head. “I’m afraid it’s the best we have now… Hopeville belongs to the Talons.”

And that was it…

Even if I had tried to steel myself, any resistance I might’ve thrown up to prevent an absolute breakdown would’ve been swept away like an insignificant pebble. I hitched once before my whole body bowed under a crushing weight, and with head lowered and eyes shut tight I begun to sob openly. It was the only thing I heard, the only thing I felt – my weeping. In just that moment, learning that Hopeville had been overrun, I was thrown for a second time into the terrible defeat of yesterday. Buckley Air Force Base had been bad enough. Watching the destruction unfold as the Talons made their move against Mother Shimmer and her ponies, witnessing the savage and unprovoked desecration of a settlement that guarded the most beautiful of treasures in the wastes… knowing that I had given a merciless enemy the tools to bring that destruction to the southeast – all of it had wounded me, beaten me down, and thrown me broken into a dark corner of my inner self that I never once had contemplated to exist. And when I had been forced to walk side by side with those wounds, those images and tormenting memories of what I had carved into Buckley through my choices, my time in silence walking through the dust had me reaching out with hope that home would be the one thing that would bring me away from that darkness. I had hoped. I had tried to escape the past, to reach for that one light that would save me. But now, I knew an even worse truth… and it was more than I could bear – I had brought death to Buckley… but I had brought it to Hopeville too… I had…

I had cost my ponies, the only others to have survived Stable 181 and live to this moment, their home… our home…

We had lost two homes now…

And I was responsible for it…

“Nova… I’m sorry…”

I could hear Captain Saber despite my tears… I could hear his sympathy at how his news had put me to weeping. “Nova…” But then my name reached me, carried on Gunny’s voice.

And I felt a hoof touch my side.

I jumped away, reaching up and punching the hoof back with a pained half-angry, half-sad grunt. Gunny met my eyes, staring startled at my move as I fixed him with a tear-streaked glare. “This is my fault…” I whimpered, my sobs continuing to come freely to rattle my speech.

“This isn’t your fault, Nova.” Gunny retorted concernedly, taking a slow step toward me. “You know that.”

But I shook my head; I refused to believe that… I had tried to once… and in any other circumstance, I might have believed him. But I couldn’t believe that now… I couldn’t! “It’s all my fault!!” I cried, backing further away from him and the others.

“Nova!” Blake shouted, wide-eyed with worry as he trotted up by Gunny.

“What the hell are you talking about, Nova??” the white unicorn demanded, lost.

“Nova, you need to calm down.” Gunny urged, taking one more step closer before he reached a hoof out to me. “Alright? We just need to get you inside so you can rest, and then we-”

“GET AWAY!!”

With a sharp snap of sound my wings fanned out wide, and in a single lunge I threw myself skyward, pumping frantically at the air to leave the ground behind. “NOVA!!” Gunny called loudly up after me, the voices of the others promptly joining in chorus with his to get me to stop. But I didn’t, only putting the clouds in my blurred vision as I climbed into the air. Never missing a wing beat, I quickly pushed myself to my top flight speed, the rush of the wind chilling my cheeks where the tears had trailed along them. And up I went, higher and higher, keeping my sights only on the cloud ceiling… which had a shockingly sudden allure to it as I put the surface world at my back…

As if the surface was some kind of… hideous monster… and the sky was the one place I could hide from it…

In fact… it was just like that…

Already my wings were beginning to ache, only dull and slight, but still enough for me to feel it. And still I kept pushing, still I kept my eyes forward… and I became lost in my flight. Mere seconds… minutes… I didn’t know how long I had been moving… but I didn’t look back to check. No. The open air was the only thing around me as I climbed straight vertical, and ahead, the clouds were much, much closer to me now, more so than they ever had been before. Their features were becoming distinguishable, the more miniscule details beginning to reveal themselves as I climbed higher still. Amidst their regular fluff, I could see tendrils and wisps of cloud as they moved among the puffy bodies, looking to almost be hanging from them like so many decorative ornaments even as they continued to slowly twirl, twist, and contort in the wind. It was something that had been nearly impossible to see from all the way back down on the ground, something that had blended in with what was always perceived as the smooth clumps of cloud that always maintained an unblemished surface. And as I continued on up, the longest of those little tendrils begun to pass me, and the air abruptly begun to grow hazier as it did cooler… as I… as I entered the clouds themselves.

Just a moment later, and I was literally inside a cloud… and I still pressed on…

Now there was nothing but grey and white, even when I finally dared a look back to the ground; left and right, up and down, the clouds were all around me, concealing even the wasteland itself. I had flown into the ceiling… and it was the clouds that finally got me to ease my frantic pace, to slow my wings and take the time to observe. Despite the return of the emotional whirlwind that had first come at Buckley, I felt it giving just a few precious inches of ground, letting me take in what I was seeing… and immediately, I was making a connection. With the surface out of sight, and the clouds all around, I felt… I felt like I was leaving Stable 181 all over again. Now, like then, I was crossing a barrier that I’d never passed, one that separated two worlds, just as that great gear-shaped door had once done. But unlike the Stable, this was a barrier that I could traverse at will, one that was not impenetrable as the door had been. Indeed, it was one that trapped all surface dwellers, making for them the roof of a cage. But for me, and others like me, with our defining physical trait that gave us the sole advantage we had over the other ponies of the wastes, it was something that could actually be reached and surpassed, something that could be touched, and even admired for the right reasons – for the Old World reasons.

It wasn’t repressing me, but rather, it was welcoming me… just as it had welcomed all pegasi before me.

And as the clouds ahead begun to glow, dimly at first, but growing rapidly brighter, the fear, the anger, the sadness… the guilt… all that I had felt in that dreadful moment when Saber had revealed Hopeville’s fate served not to crush me back down, but to drive me forward through the last few meters… before…

Brighter and brighter they glowed, the rays of yellow-orange sunlight finally reaching me where they managed to punch through the cover, only getting so far until they became trapped by the clouds. Then they began to take shape, forming up into wide pillars of light around which the clouds had begun to disintegrate, thinning out the higher I went. The light was replacing them, pure yellow-orange color becoming just as prominent as the hazy grey and white until the light itself begun to make a wall of its own ahead of me. And then it fused with the clouds altogether, making a single entity of nature that was bathed in evening color, far more beautiful than the murky grey that was all that could be seen from the wasteland.

Until altogether… the whole thing split apart before me… as I finally broke through the cloud ceiling…

Blue…

I saw blue… everywhere… a pure and unblemished canvas tinted only with the shades of the early evening. Everything stopped… everything… Just a couple yards above the top of the clouds, and I fell into a hover, righting myself in the air to level out with the flat surface of the ceiling. And in every direction, as far as I could see, the clouds stretched. It was smooth around me, all around for what must have been at the very least a half mile in every direction. But the farther out I looked, slack-jawed, the clouds begun to rise into rolling hills, dip into craters, and churn into slowly moving waves. Miles ahead in the north, they grew even puffier and climbed even higher up than the ceiling, like the ruined towers of Marefax reincarnated in the sky. To the south, behind me, the clouds remained generally flat, only rising in sections, and to only a slightly greater height even as the clouds surrounding them took on the shape of the waves I had seen closer to me, giving the whole area the look of several islands in the middle of a cloudy ocean. Then I turned to the east, where the clouds were darkening, rising up high like the great wall of a canyon in front of a backdrop of purple-grey sky; the white of the clouds there was in mid-transformation towards the darker purple of the incoming storm system.

And finally, I turned to the west, where the clouds lay flat to caress the sun.

The sun… Celestia’s beloved sun…

There it was, no longer dimmed by the clouds as it had always been from the wasteland below. Here, it hovered picture perfect in the open blue, a radiating orb of gentle heat and soothing light whose bottom just barely touched the horizon where the clouds met the sky. Here, I beheld the sun and the sky and the clouds as they had been seen by my ancestors in an era of peace. Here, the overwhelming beauty of all that I saw came charging in to meet what happened below. And though even the scene’s tremendous power could not push it away, it still created a numbing effect in me. Though aware of all that had just happened, how I felt… how I had fled to get away… the sight all around me begun to heal me; at the very least, it kept any more fresh tears from falling… and that was a blessing all on its own. Because all around me was something that I had never pictured existing in the wastes, something that I never imagined I would see… something that was in itself a whole new world, something that didn’t belong… so it felt. Instead of dust, gentle cloud wisps churned. Instead of dirt, the surface was the cloud itself. And instead of murky grey and purple… the sky was nothing but pure blue… one of the very few things in our world that the battles and the megaspells had not been able to kill on that fateful day. This… all of this… it was the Old World, a slice of it that existed out of sight and mind of the carcass that was all that remained of a once great land ruled by a once great civilization. And this was a place that held a powerful force within it – a calming wing that draped over me in welcome.

Finally closing my mouth, pursing my lips as I finally begun to move freely again, my eyes fell back upon the clouds just a short distance beneath me, where a new line of thought suddenly sparked to life. Back home… in my oldest home… I had come to learn that the different types of ponies possessed a different set of unique abilities, natural traits that set them apart from the others. While unicorns possessed a physical manifestation of magic in their ability to learn spellcraft, and earth ponies were typically stronger and had a natural talent for tending to the earth, pegasi could… well… become one with the sky and all its forces. There had been many times in 181 when I thought about a pegasi’s natural ability to stand and walk atop the clouds, to move them and shape them, and only once when in the wasteland, weeks ago. But seeing it here, so close… it was an instant curiosity, a distraction from everything else.

And it was one that I wanted.

With a stronger beat of my wings, I pulled out of my hover and rose a little higher, enough to set my attention on landing. But when I began to lower down, ready to test that ‘natural trait’ in me for the first time, I picked up a sound that pierced the light, steady passing of the wind. It was a snapping sound, like a bed sheet, but with a greater weight on it… and when it snapped again, my ears twitched at the sound of metal plates, clicking together as they shifted. And that’s when I saw the clouds as they exploded in my peripheral sight, parting as a figure shot through the top of the ceiling. I spun in the air to face it, watching as it came to a stop a few yards above to settle into a hover of its own… whereupon the sun reflected off steel plate armor.

And her head came down to look upon me, the sun glinting along the top of the shiny black visor.

“You again…” I quickly eased from my surprise at the sight of the familiar mare, only to let out a sigh as I turned away. “I should’ve figured that you’d follow me… seeing as how you’re the only one around here who can.” I couldn’t help close my eyes at that little… obvious remark. “Did Saber send you?”

“Everypony did.” the steel-clad pegasus elaborated in reply, gentle and sympathetic behind her helmet. “You might be able to avoid everypony on the ground by coming up here, Nova. But you can’t run from another pegasus.” I turned back to look into her visor, just as she gave a little shake of her head. “Sorry…”

“So… are you going to drag me back down to the surface, kicking and screaming?” I asked, an intentional edge in my voice. “Are you going to make me confront Saber and everypony else that’s crammed into that little building… make me pay for what I did?…… After all, I’m sure my friends told you why I left…”

“They did… or at least a shorter version of the full story, anyway.” she confirmed. “Gunny explained most of it when you were heading to the cloud ceiling. That way I could get some understanding of what happened before I tried to bring you back.”

“How thoughtful…”

“You know… I can sympathize with you. I saw the panic set in when you realized what happened to your group. And as little as it means coming from a stranger, I know what it’s like to be afraid to confront something. But… you still shouldn’t have flown off.” the steel mare pressed, calm as before despite my quickly souring mood. “Do you know how many times the others called for you to stop and come back? Didn’t you hear them?”

“I tried not to.” I answered, blunt as I turned away and looked down to the clouds just inches below me.

“The little colt, your brother – he’s probably scared to death down there right now, what with the way you snapped. He called after you the most out of all of them.” she explained. “But when you had gone out of earshot, Ivy had to try and comfort him… Nova, you need to get back to the surface, both for your sake and his.”

But I snapped my eyes back to her visor in defiance. “Did you not hear me down there?!” I demanded.

“Nova, I heard you!” she snapped back, not in anger, but only quickly to keep me from pressing ahead. “But you didn’t hear your friends.” In my head, I wanted to remind her what I had said back on the ground. I wanted to tell her again and again the real truth of the matter – that in the end, no matter how many times my friends tried to mask it, no matter how much they tried to pretend it wasn’t truth, I was the one who had just cost them their second home, a loss that had unquestionably shattered the hope that we had dared to nurture as we fought the wasteland to build Hopeville up from its ruined state. All that progress… all that effort… I had dashed it all with the push of a button.

And I wanted to nail that into this mare’s head, especially since it was her that had come up to find me… a total stranger trying to speak assurances…

But though my mouth came open to reply… those thoughts hung on the tip of my tongue… and stayed there…

“I can’t go back down there…” I said instead, finally ending the other mare’s wait. “I just can’t…”

“Nova, please-”

“I said I can’t!” I interrupted, grabbing her attention in a chokehold. “You said it yourself that the others told you what happened. And so you know that I was banished from Buckley, and even though Mother Shimmer never said it directly, I know for a fact that I’d be shot on sight if I even stepped close to the base again.” And with a sad shake of my head… I spoke the fear that hid itself in me… “I brought a fate on them that they never deserved… the same fate that I put on my own people… a-and… I can’t… face being cast away by the ponies I fought and struggled alongside in this fucked up world. I faced everything they faced and more… and…”

And having to hear them as they decided my fate, just as I had decided theirs… I didn’t want to go through that… I didn’t want to hear them say their verdict to cast me out into the wastes, to face whatever end I might meet… alone…

I didn’t want to lose them… Saber, my friends, all the others… my brother…

I’d lose everything… I’d actually… lose… everything…

“They’re all I have left…” I said, unable to suppress a sad sniffle. “I don’t want to be banished by the ones that mean the most to me…”

Thankfully, the mare let a moment of silence proceed my reveal, a sign that showed to me that she had indeed listened. Stranger aside… with the both of us being up here as the only two souls above the clouds… and with everything she had done for me from her own free will… I had to admit that her presence, still mysterious as it had always been since our first meeting in Stable 184, was assuring. But when I brought my eyes back up to where she continued to hover, I found myself taken by surprise as she brought a steel hoof up to the right side of her armored neck. Then came a heavy click, an internal lock sliding free from its slot before the entire chin plate of her helmet fell free, swinging back and forth on a hinge connecting it to the end of the muzzle. And dipping her head, she reached the helmet with both her forehooves and removed it from its place.

When it came off, long hair fell free, cascading all at once along her now exposed neck and the back of her armor. A head of pale brown was revealed, her coat nearly sandy in color with just a gentle tint of gray mixed in, and her mane was night black that was mixed with stripes of clean light silver. On her face, however, was a rather surprising array of what looked to be markings. Done up in some sort of sapphire-blue paint, there was a number of different lines and slashes that I could see as she tossed her head to get her mane out of her eyes. Two slashes were drawn across her right eye, from the upper right to the lower left like a pair of scars. With them was a single gentle concave arch across her forehead, and finally, there were four smooth lines that began at her lower right cheek, passing under her chin, and ending at her left.

And clearing the hair from before her sight, brown eyes settled on me as the pegasus cradled her helmet against her chest. “That’s not how it’s going to happen.” she said, giving me the slightest of smiles as she looked me eye to eye for the first time.

“Ever since you rescued me and my brother from that prison, you’ve kept yourself hidden under that helmet.” I remarked after a pause. “Who are you… and why are you so intent on bringing me back down to the surface?”

“My name is Sierra.” the pegasus answered. “And I came here to help another pegasus.”

“But why?” I restated, more curious now than ever.

“For many reasons.” she said. “The Talons have waged war on my people for many months, just as they’ve reengaged your loved ones. They’ve sought to drive us to extinction in their quest to eliminate any possible threat to their city, and we’ve been fighting them back in a stalemate conflict for a long time. But apart from us sharing common enemies… in my home, we’re taught to fight for and alongside any and all who we see as peace seekers. There are factions who seek technology, like the Steel Rangers. There are others that seek land and resources and power over others, like the Black Blood Raiders and the First Anarchists. Then there are those who act when they see something that they feel might become a threat to them, like the Enclave and the Talon Legion. But my tribe – we see the southeast as something that’s far different from the rest. Challenger and the smaller settlements it nourishes are well known for their goals where I come from, for their aim to build and grow and seek out a lifestyle that is as close to the pre-war world’s ways as possible. They’ve demonstrated their intentions with their expansion, encouraging the development of villages, bringing in settlers from a multitude of backgrounds, all while respecting those different customs and giving them an equal opportunity to live away from danger. Heartland settlers, tribals from the north, Hoofington scavengers, any and all who can make the journey. They’re creating a cooperative network, a region where civilization can be reborn, a sanctuary to rebuild not just the lives of its inhabitants, but the foundations of the Old World itself. They’re making a nation.”

I gave a slow nod… the only thing I could give as I took in her words; there was truth in what she said.

“While my tribe has a wholly different lifestyle with wholly different roots, we’re still one of Challenger’s oldest allies, and we have been ever since the Talons’ first campaign against them ten years ago.” she continued. “Challenger is the first outside settlement we became tied with, and we helped them in their first war when they drove Hayward’s forces away. It’s the only place we know of so far to be working toward goals like these, but if and when we find others, we’re ready to provide whatever help we can to them without changing how we ourselves live.” With that, she gestured toward me with a nod. “And so, putting those things together, you know my intention when I found you. On the day I first saw you, I’d been in the southeast for six days tracking Talon outposts, monitoring their troop movements, killing off scouting parties, all that amongst a couple other things.” she continued. “I’d found you when you were brought to their Stable from out east. You were knocked out, carried in on the back of a griffin. In short, I waited for a day for the guards to change shifts, blasted my way in, and found you.”

“So…” Amidst my lingering darker thoughts, the curiosity brought by Sierra’s introducing herself was beginning to suppress the constriction of my anxiety… something I began to appreciate. “You say that you and your… tribe… you help ponies who you see as ‘peace seekers’.” She gave me a single nod as she listened. “But even with you being an ally to Challenger and sharing the same enemy, you had never seen me before. You never knew who I was or what my history was… so why take the risk to fight your way through a Stable just to find me and get me out of there?”

“You’re right.” Sierra replied. “I know virtually nothing about you. For all I knew, you could have been from the Enclave, fallen from the sky like more than a few wasteland pegasus ponies out there.” But then she looked to the clouds below us, as if seeing through them to study the surface world far below. “But then I saw your brother, Archer, then your friends out on that battlefield. Seeing all of that put the habitual suspicion I had behind me and replaced it with motivation to get you two out of there, to whatever safety we could find. Because I knew through all of that, that you were far better than anypony in the Enclave’s ranks could be. Nopony in the Enclave would have so many others risking their own lives to save them.”

I looked away, off to the north. “Oh…”

“And that brings me back to what I said before, Nova.” And I continued to listen, with a new inspirational spark coming alight in me as she continued to support me. “After everything that happened back there at that Stable, do you really, honestly believe that your friends would just stand idly by and have you cast out for something that the enemy strong-armed you into doing? I can see simply from how your friends are around you that you are far better than a mare who’d seek the means to end life simply because she wanted to.” She spoke with a new tone of encouragement now, and with just a smidge of amusement, I felt it brought about by her knowing that she now had my full attention. “Yes, I know that that doesn’t change anything. Yes, you did unlock those missiles. And yes, the Talons used them after you did. But when you’re left without a choice, because somepony else took that choice away from you, that makes you the prey, not the predator. And that means that nothing has changed about you. You’re still a good pony after all this. Your friends all know that, Captain Saber already knows that, and in minutes, everypony else in that radio station is going to know it. And deep down, I think you know it too. You just don’t want to believe it yet.”

“Yeah…” Goddesses… Archer had said something like that too…

“I can’t blame you for that.” Sierra replied, her voice strengthening; at the top of my vision, I could see her hovering in closer. “It was a terrible ordeal, one I would dread to go through myself. But you need to understand what I just said, and what your friends have been telling you from the beginning. Take that to heart, believe it yourself, and then show your friends and everypony else down there that you believe it.” By the time she had finished, she had brought herself down to hover right alongside me, matching my altitude to look me straight in the eye. “Do you think you can do that, pegasus?”

She pressed the question on me… making me utter a light sigh as I let my eyes fall closed. “I don’t know…” I answered, hesitant… uncertain. “There’s a lot of weight on me from all this… a lot that I just need to sit down and think over on my own.” Looking back to Sierra, I found a silent question in her eyes, one that I answered with, “It may be that… I just need to find my own way to believe what you’ve said. Maybe my friends believe that I’m the victim, and maybe all the others will… and… well, that would help put me at ease… But as for me believing your words… I don’t… not just yet…… I just need some time to think through it, with a clearer head and some more rational thought.”

From the way her mouth curled down in a slight frown, barely noticeable, but still there, I knew that that hadn’t been something she had hoped to hear. But to my appreciation, she let herself take a breath instead of leaping into retaliation, instead putting words that would’ve pressed the discussion onward behind her. “I understand. And I’m sure the others will too.” Sierra replied instead, giving a single nod of encouragement. “Now come on, Nova. As beautiful as it is up here, you can’t appreciate it properly with you being rattled by all of this.” With a single practiced motion, Sierra brought her helmet back over her head, sliding the edge along the back of her neck after a quick toss of her mane to collect her hair and stow it all back into its protective shell. And after a second of situating it to a comfortable fit, she brought a hoof up to the dangling chin plate and returned it to its proper place, locking it back into position to complete the helmet and returning her to the armored mare I knew from before. “Let’s get back down there and see the others. They’ll want to make sure you’re okay.”

Slow… but with a touch of fresh courage, I gave her an affirmative nod as her visor came back to look to me. And with just a faint smile, I begun to move again. “Alright.”

*** *** ***

Forgiveness.

Absolution.

Freedom from sin, from a mistake that had harmed others in any form, no matter the severity, no matter the intent… bestowed either by the affection of friends or the mercy of strangers.

It was a pardon, setting one free from guilt, from the weight of a choice that had wronged innocents… and just a few hours ago, I would have never believed that I would receive such a gift from the ponies now hunkered down in the old regional radio station. But from Saber, who had revealed my confession to the others, all while making me sit through the whole of his announcement… I had been forgiven.

The captain had been the first after my friends and my brother… and then others said the same. They had spoken out from the assembled crowd, a few voices amidst the general nodding and gentle whispering. There was Sergeant Madeline – Saber’s newest sergeant after the attack had claimed Dusty and one of the three others. Then there was Shore’s parents, and one of Gracie’s nursing assistants – the white and silver unicorn mare I had seen before… then little Melody and her parents… and all the foals I had cared for in my days as a simple foalsitter. Flash and Candice, and even little Chase and Juniper, the latter two of whom had both lost their fathers out here… even they had taken a moment to see me, joined by their widowed mothers. And all of them told me not to worry like I had done, but only to remember who the real enemies were, and to draw strength from my friends to surpass this heavy ordeal.

Draw strength from your friends… one of the Stable’s lessons… something I hadn’t thought about in a long time…

Despite all that had been said, despite the assurances and the sympathy I had received, I still remained a separate mind from their verdict in the end. Something in me just wouldn’t let it go… but the sincerity shown by each of them, in the way they spoke, in the way they made sure that I looked them in the eyes when they did… there was enough there to allow me to finally overcome that terrible fear, to allow me to join the others with a stable level of confidence and comfort. And with the demon that was my inner turmoil now at the very least…… appeased… I was able to think back on things with newfound clarity, and I was able to do so of my own free will.

But when that had finally settled, I was forced to push just a few extra steps, just a little bit further to complete one final task.

Though he had been surprisingly collected at the revelation of Hopeville’s fate, Blake had not fared well at all when I’d finally told him of Gracie’s death. Back in Stable 184, and even in Buckley, he had been eager to reunite with Grace again after seeing that she hadn’t been with the rest of us during our rescue. But my friends and I had kept our mouths shut at my request to keep silent… and to wait for an appropriate time. When I’d tried to break the news to him gently… evasively… he didn’t understand, puzzled at where she might be if not with us, in Hopeville, or with the survivors in the station; it was a feeble effort all on its own. But when I finally got the courage to say it straight, to say those two words as they were without restriction…

"She’s dead…"

On that night when we had been captured, Blake had not been outside to see what had happened. Far as I knew, he had remained in our custodial closet in the City Hall just like I’d told him, and so didn’t see the end. But when I told him, he wept like he had just seen her die for himself. I didn’t know how long he cried, but I remained outside with him through it all, even as the guards returned to their duties and the civilians to their families inside. I was grateful, however, that Gunny, Shore, Ivy, Raemor, and even Sierra remained outside while Blake let his belated tears fall freely against my chest. And it didn’t take long for some of us to join him. Shore… poor Shore… he cried first, only roughly swiping aside his reading glasses and letting them fall to the dirt before new tears came. Gunny was the one to comfort him, patting his back while he mourned once again. Then it had been my turn to let a couple more fall, provoked harshly by the crystal-clear recollection of Gracie’s end… an image that wouldn’t leave me for a long while yet. And through it all, even Ivy let herself shed a pair of her own tears where she had stayed close by Gunny and Shore. Outside of us, Raemor and Sierra maintained a respectful silence, staying nearby, but otherwise giving us our space to grieve together as we were – as close friends who had lost one of their own. In the end, by the time each of us recovered enough to speak and move again… I honestly felt that we hadn’t cried enough… or that at least I hadn’t. But altogether we grew tired of it, and one by one we went our own ways in our new home.

After our recovery, I had been given solitude by my friends at my request, and each of them had gone to help around the station, or simply rest. Gunny, along with Sierra, who had finally introduced herself to the others when we had finished, headed for the rooftop to participate in the watch detail. Shore had gone to reunite with his parents, to which I had been eternally grateful that the both of them had survived the Talons’ takeover of Hopeville. Ivy and Raemor both had headed into the station to rest on their own. And Blake, with an unfortunately great deal of persuading on my end, had joined up with his friends, every one of which immediately saw to comforting him through the grief that had been thrown onto his shoulders. Thus having the evening alone, I had soon found myself again traveling through my most recent timeline of events, looking at them instead in the perspectives of my friends and fellow survivors rather than my own. I had begun to mentally repeat what had been told to me, especially some of Sierra’s words that she had spoken above the cloud ceiling. And the more I reflected on them, the more I begun to set them like bricks into my thoughts, storing them and holding them close, the better to think deeper about why they really were truth… about why I really was the victim.

And even though I was still wounded by what I’d been put through, and I still couldn’t fully let that guilt go… the time I had gotten for myself had served me well.

Now night was beginning to fall, with steady, gentler flashes of lightning replacing the lost daylight and the first raindrops beginning to fall against my back. With all my equipment having been stashed inside the radio station to mark mine and Blake’s sleeping space in the crowded quarters, I laid alone and in relative comfort on the dirt close to the building’s south wall, watching as nighttime slowly took the wasteland over. Now, with nothing but the faded horizon before me, and only the softer voices of the guards on the rooftop to break the sound of the moderate breeze and soft steady thunder, I was beginning to move into a stage of relaxation that I hadn’t been able to reach before… not since before my capture. I was finally feeling better. I was alive, Blake was alive, Gunny and Shore and Ivy and Raemor… Sierra had been a saving grace and was now with us… and Captain Saber had managed to evacuate most everypony from Hopeville. Despite it all, we were still a group, still moving, still fighting… still struggling… but we were together.

Only one pony could have made this very moment more bearable…

Having all that time to think… it harshly reminded me just how much I missed Gracie… and I knew that even though Gunny and Shore had been spared some of what I’d seen and done… they felt the same either way…

“Nova.”

With just the slightest jolt I was pulled back into the physical world, called by the voice of one of the ponies I had just been thinking of. Gunny, armor and weapons and all, stood looking my way just a few paces to my left, by the corner of the station. “Hey, Gunny.” I greeted him, flashing him a small smile as I shifted on the dirt. “I thought you’d be staying on the roof.”

The big unicorn looked well enough, relaxed and focused; it seemed to me that his time on watch had seen similar use as my time on the ground. “I’m on break for a few minutes.” came his reply. “Sergeant Madeline and Sergeant Mobley gave me the time to check up on everypony, see how they’re all doing. You’re the last one before I head back up there.”

“I see.”

“You doing alright, Nova?” he asked.

“I’m doing better.” I replied, letting my smile slightly widen with an assuring touch as he made his way to my side. “This time I’ve had to myself has helped me out.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” my friend remarked back, likewise passing me a brief smile as he stopped beside me. “And you’re not… well, you know… anymore?”

Blaming myself… seeing myself as the villain…

No… and yes…

“I’m alright, Gunny, really.” I assured, passing the white lie onto him with ease, concealing it behind my smile and nod. “You know I wasn’t expecting understanding from anypony here… and you saw it on my face when they were proving me wrong. But hearing that I was forgiven from Saber, from you and the others, from the children… there was just something more comforting about it.” With a shrug, I added with just a slightly slowed pace, “Back in Buckley… everything was just so… muddled. Archer and Mother Shimmer… I just couldn’t get myself to accept forgiveness from ponies who had built up so much and… and guarded such precious treasures. What they preserved was so beautiful… it was more than just a material thing… and I just… exposed something untouched by the wasteland to what Buckley swore to protect it from.” A quick glance to my friend, and I saw him looking to me, ears perked up as he listened. “But here… we’re the same in everything we’ve done. Here, I’m a part of the group, and I always have been. That’s why it was far more reassuring, and I believe I’m forgiven now… at least by the ones that matter most to me.”

Well… at least it wasn’t all a lie…

“You’re right.” Gunny said, now looking ahead to the horizon. “You are a part of this group, and we all know how you always intend to do the right thing, and how you’ve done the right things in the past. Everypony here knows you far too well to believe you would’ve done anything the Talons had put you through willingly. And I’m glad you see that.” And then I felt a nudge against my neck, Gunny bumping his muzzle against me in a gentle assuring nudge, one that got me to restore my former smile. “You’re always going to be a part of this group.” he added, his own smile sustained. “You’ll always be one of us, just like I will, just like Shore will, just like Gra-”

His smile vanished in a blink, just as mine did when he caught himself midsentence, his eyes going wide in shock at his slip. But that fell away too, just as quickly, and my friend shut his eyes with a startlingly rough sigh. Quickly, I pulled myself up to my hooves, unable to keep my ears from pinning back as he bowed his head. And without second thought I hooked a foreleg over his neck to pull him into a hug, bringing his head against me and setting my chin over his mane in one quick move. But he only kept himself still for a quick moment before, with another huff, he backed away, forcing his way out of my hold and dragging me with him a short ways, nearly making me trip before I released him on my own to catch my balance.

With a hushed swear, Gunny headed back in the direction he had come, leaving me staring after him as I got my hooves solidly back on the ground. But just as I made to call for him, to get him to come back, he stopped himself, slowing down to a couple hesitant last steps before he finally came to a halt at the station’s corner. And there he remained, the sparse raindrops now growing in number as they fell around him, the breeze stirring his ashy mane with a stronger push, and the thunder continuing on in its resonant voice.

“Gunny…”

At my low call, he turned, looking over his shoulder to me; there was a tear making its way down his right cheek, barely visible, but glinting just enough to catch my eye.

“I’m going to kill her, Nova…”

Blossom…

“When I find her…”

To my growing dismay, he couldn’t even finish his thought… much as he didn’t need to. He only looked away again, giving a little shake of his head, but remaining in his place. Right away, I knew that while he hadn’t said it outright, he was waiting for my own input. Having brought up our dear friend’s unjust end, showing that it hadn’t left his thoughts either… I knew he wanted to hear me… how I felt; and we were of similar mind. “We'll find her, Gunny.” I corrected gently. “We are going to find her. And we’re going to make her pay for what happened.

The single eye that looked to me narrowed, slight as he took in my words. Whether in approval of my own claim… or in jealous guarding of his vow to personally hunt down a mare who he must have now considered his quarry… I saw a darkened glint in that eye, one that sent a ripple of worry through me. But that silent answer was all he gave me, that single gesture leaving me a response I couldn’t decipher as he turned away. “Shore broke down again as soon as he got inside the station… I saw him with his parents while they were trying to calm him down.” he finally spoke. “When you’d been captured, we had stayed long enough to see Gracie’s grave put up and her ashes buried. It took a lot of effort to get him away from there… and now that’s gone too.”

Goddesses… Shore…

“Seeing him just breaking down like that, not just once or even twice… but three times now… Blossom killed one of our friends and destroyed another… I’m not going to let her do the same to you or Ivy or Raemor…” He took one more tentative step forward. “So don’t deny me that, Nova…”

“Gunny.” And when he moved, I followed him, matching his second step for one of my own as I gently replied, “You don’t have to face her alone… We share the loss, so let’s find that justice together, too.”

But my friend only sighed… a sound that stabbed into me and left me looking after him in heartache. “I’m going to head back up to the roof.” he replied, dropping the unintended subject wholesale. “Blake sent me to find you, by the way. He wants you to come see him in the station when you’re done out here, something about wanting you to sing him to sleep like you did back in the Stable. Might be good for the both of you to revisit some of those old traditions of yours… considering what you two just went through.” One more time, he looked over his shoulder to me… this time with just a very faint smile touching his lips. “With what I’ve heard about your singing voice, I imagine it’d do you both a world of good.”

And without waiting for me, he faced front and headed back the way he came, disappearing around the building’s corner and once again leaving me alone… But really… with Gunny’s reminder… more like an encouragement… it was hard not to drop my initial urge to follow him, to force him to linger on the former subject just to make certain that I got him to understand me, to understand that Blossom’s betrayal had wounded all of us equally… equally because out here, Gunny and Shore and I were just as much a family as were real blood siblings.

And after the past few days… that was far truer now than it ever had been before. And I would make sure that the both of them understood that.

But for now… with the rain beginning to pick up as the incoming weather system begun to pass over us … and with myself more than exhausted… Gunny’s recommendation sounded like a very good plan…

And it was something that I’d mentioned to Blake at least once before, that I knew…

…

And so I would. Tonight, I would sing for him… just like I had done back home.

*** *** ***

“Go ahead, Nova.”

Dipping his head, the earth pony guard stepped away from the open double doors to let me pass through first, and with a small smile I accepted his gentlecoltly offer. In the lobby room, the survivors that were crammed in with each other were by and large asleep, with only a few shifting in their places as they sorted through their rations and equipment. To keep things organized, everypony here had been arranged in such a way as to make three total rows in which they were laying facing the same direction, thus making two thin but usable lanes connecting the exit to both doors leading further into the station. In this room, the table that I had seen before had been completely removed, broken down and pulled away to clear out the space for others to use. Similarly, the debris from what had been left from the old recording equipment had also been thrown out, all in all making a clean floor that was perfect for the present situation. In total, there was perhaps forty ponies sleeping here, and likely a few more in the smaller room divided by the door on the right side.

Heading instead to the left, where the wreck of a blasted out door had once rested before likewise being pitched, I proceeded into the next room to find a similar sight. Another three dozen or so lay in the same pattern as those in the room before, and like before, the broken down equipment and the rubble from the collapsed west wall of the room had been cleared out in its entirety. Again most everypony here was asleep, many of them families, couples, relatives, and friends, each of whom had taken a big enough section of the floor space to rest together as their own groups. Only a couple were awake, speaking in whispers back and forth to one another at the far end of the room to avoid waking anypony else. And straight ahead, in the station’s electrical room, were four others, two mares and two stallions only slightly chattier than the others.

Moving easily through the room, I passed the intact door on the right side and into the next. Being the most worn down of the station’s chambers, there were fewer ponies resting here, only around a dozen, and there was no pattern to their resting places. They had only sought to avoid being around the holes in the ceiling, especially now with the coming rain. And already, raindrops were falling through them to further dampen the heavily decayed floor below, a few even striking my back on my way past to the final door and the last room of the station. The control room, previously home to four terminals and an old tool cabinet, was also fully cleared out, minus the terminal linked to the station’s fallout shelter door. Here was the last of our survivors, another dozen and a half ponies laying in a disorganized cluster, most asleep like the others. But the pony I was looking for was not asleep, not yet. Laying close to the west wall, tucked in the corner between it and the stairway leading to the bomb shelter, was Blake; even from the other side of the room, I could see that he was growing tired. And close by him, likewise quiet, Ivy lay giving him a little more space, using her own weapons and armor as a divider between them. Despite their silence, they looked to be resting without any awkwardness between them… due largely in part to Blake’s fatigue. As soon as I found him, he let out a rather powerful yawn, then proceeding to shake his head in an attempt to stay awake long enough to hold out until my arrival.

Getting Blake to fall asleep with a song was going to be fairly easy tonight.

Moving into the room and working my way around the sleeping ponies, that opinion was reinforced when Blake let himself lay his head down on the floor to face the west wall, not even noticing me. Ivy however, found me with a curious glance to the door, giving me a small cautious smile as she gave a wave of a hoof to beckon me the rest of the way over. And at her prompting, a quick light jab with a hoof on his side, Blake raised his head back up, this time finding me just as I closed the rest of the distance between us. “Hi Nova.” he greeted, exhausted.

“Hey you.” Coming to a stop before him, I promptly lowered my head down to nuzzle along his cheek, a gesture he returned in kind despite his weariness. “You look like you’re getting tired.”

He gave only a little nod.

“How are you feeling, Nova?”

To my right, Ivy shifted in her place as she spoke to get my attention, keeping her small smile on when I looked her in the eye. And best I could, I matched it for one of my own when I replied, “Better. Now that I’m back among friends and allies… I feel a little better.”

“I hear you.” Ivy concurred. “Though Hopeville might be gone… we’re still together. Saber got a lot of ponies out of town alive, and we’re still a group, losses aside. And well… that has to count for a little something in this mess, right?”

It seemed my friends were all of the same mind.

“Everypony here, everypony we have left – each and every one of them makes a reason for us to come back from this and keep fighting.” I answered. “We’ve weathered this once before… and while we don’t deserve to, I know that we can do it again. And we will.”

Slowly, Ivy nodded her approval at my words, letting her smile widen slightly when she replied back, “I like that attitude. It’s good to see you in at least slightly better spirits.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, too.” Blake chimed in, putting in effort to give me a little smile when I turned to him; bless his brave soul.

“So am I, little brother.” I replied, leaning in to give him a light peck on the forehead. “Now, I heard from Gunny that you wanted me to sing you a song tonight.”

And right away he nodded. “Can you? I would really like you to sing.”

“You don’t have to ask me, Blake.” I assured him, stepping around in front of him and to my designated spot between him and the wall. “I’ll sing for you whenever you want me to.” Goddesses, seeing my baby brother brighten… just a little despite the ordeals he’d been put through… “Now come on. Let’s get you tucked in, and then I’ll sing something for you.”

With Ivy’s gear being used as a divider between us and her, my own equipment had simply been tucked against the wall, just in front of me so that I could reach it at will if and when I needed to. My police armor made a blanket for my saddle and the Torch to sit on, and atop the trio of rifles were my saddlebags, light enough so as to be able to sit at the top of the pile without weighing down on my weaponry. And off the stack, leaning against my armor, was the single saddlebag containing Mother Shimmer's gifts… picked up by Gunny because of my unwillingness to do so myself… brought home anyway despite my lack of desire to bring them back; I hadn’t touched that bag again since after that final morning in Buckley.

After situating myself in my sleeping space, I reached for the bags and nudged open the left-side pack to find Blake and I’s blanket, and taking the corner between my teeth, I pulled with a quick tug for it to slide easily from the bag and out onto the floor. Thankfully, despite the long period without use, during which it had only been folded up to collect dust, the white blanket was largely clean. The saddlebag had done its part in keeping the majority of the outside’s dirt from getting to it, with only a couple thin sections having accumulated just a little bit of it to make light stains; either way, I didn’t really care how clean it was.

Stepping back into my space, I threw the blanket over Blake with a single practiced toss of my head. It settled over his back on the first try… briefly leaving his newly acquired cutie mark for me to see until I pulled back the end of the blanket to cover it… and with a few quick adjustments, I had my little brother tucked in and ready for a night of catching up on sleep. “What about you, Nova?” he piped up, craning his head around as I finished smoothing the blanket out over his shoulders. “Don’t you want to be under the blanket too?”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, Blake.” I assured, giving him a little smile. “I’m going to fall asleep just fine tonight. I’m sure of it.” And with one final check, I declared my baby brother fully situated and finally let myself lay down, lowering slowly down onto my belly and falling easily into a comfortable position. “Are you comfy?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” And finally settling on the floor, I stretched out my left wing and let it fall gently over my baby brother’s back, making the second and final blanket that would be resting over him. “Now, how about that song?” And sliding over, Blake showed me his readiness as he snuggled up against my side, looking hopefully into my eyes; seeing those eyes… I knew that this was definitely something he not only wanted, but needed as well… especially now that he had come to sanctuary, to finally be back among his friends and allies.

And now it was thinking time… and Goddesses, did I need to think.

I needed to think back to the past, the far past, back to when I was but a filly in my early Stable days… back all the way to when Blake was but a newborn. And the first thing I remembered was how excited I was as a child to know that I was going to be a sister, and not just that, but a big sister. When mother’s belly had grown to a certain roundness, I had eventually raised the question myself, to which my father, having kept it a surprise, answered with the revelation. Mom was going to have a second baby, and dad finally let his anticipation be known to me, a contagious force as he prepared our family for its fourth member. With some time passing by, there eventually came a point where most every night, I would lay with mom in our living room and rest my head against her belly to listen, to feel for a little kick, and to smile whenever I did. Time and time again we did this together, mother and daughter, and the closer the due date, the more active Blake would become, and I would feel a nudge almost every day. Mother always said that it was because he recognized me when I listened for him, because it was mother that had told him who I was, and also who I would be to him when he emerged into the Stable. Blake knew even before birth who I was, who all of us were, and who we would be – who would be the mother, the father, and the sister. And there were those times when I would speak to him, when I would tell him how excited I was for the day when I’d finally see him, when I would tell him that I would be the best sister in the whole world. Day by day I would tell Blake what was going on in the world around him, what was happening to me – when I would get a good grade in a class or get a new book to read, or when I’d hurt myself during flying practice. I’d tell him when the Stable saw an improvement or modification in its facilities, or when somepony told an interesting story from a journey on the surface… or even when One Eighty-one lost another member to natural causes, a friend passing away from old age.

I’d tell him everything. And it was in those times, those sacred moments when we were together, that mother would sing to us.

Though she was no professional, mother’s voice was a thing of beauty, of comfort, a vessel of the unbreakable love for us that she always carried. No matter the time, good or bad, and no matter the song – when she sang, she brought me into a place that could truly never be touched by the dark forces of the world, no matter how strong they might have been. It was her way of shielding me without magic, her way of enveloping me without wings. Her voice was her soul that I loved as her daughter, and it was her heart that loved me equally in return. Her voice brought us together… and despite the weeks gone by… I remembered that voice even now, its healing tone and guiding light.

And here and now, with Blake by my side… I had to make that voice my own… I had to have mother’s voice for him… and I had to sing one of mother’s songs for him…

And I knew which one to sing this night.

As soon as I recalled its name, it came together in my head like clockwork. I remembered it right down to its melody, its phrases, the instrumentation and the voices, and how mother had sung it to us. From its original form as a recorded song stored away in the Stable’s Hall of Records it came to my ears on my mother’s lips, and with a starting inhale I zeroed in on the first pitch, letting myself hum it as quietly but as clearly as I could to prepare myself for the song. With private satisfaction, I brought out the first pitch with clarity, and I sustained it as I adjusted myself in my place at Blake’s side. He watched me still, now listening as I held the first drone, and with myself now feeling confident enough to begin, I let the drone fall away to take another breath. And then I joined with my memory of the song, bringing the past to the present..

Though the opening phrase was sung, both by the female soloist as well as the male backups all in unison, I hummed the solo line instead, playing the lyrics only in my head while maintaining the soft but clear tone of voice that I’d began with. The opening phrase then repeated itself once, different lyrics but same music. And at the repeat I focused on the memory of the instruments to guide my recreation of the song, letting it shape the melody in my hum until it came to a close. Then I was humming an instrumental bridge, the arpeggios in the keyboard that played a haunting phrase of their own to compliment the vocal introduction before it. And like the opening, it repeated itself once, stating itself again to emphasize the calm nature of the piece. As it progressed, I changed the voice that I copied, humming instead the melody of the flute that I remembered coming in over the constant broken chords, providing a simple but elegant figure of equal importance. Together the two of them created the atmosphere I needed, and even though I could only hum one voice at a time, it provided the springboard for the return of the soloist.

And then I sang my first words.

“Hush.” I whispered to Blake, leaning in. “Lay down your troubled mind.” And closing my eyes, I let myself fall into the music, focusing on the memories… painting the picture. “The day,” I gently sang. “has vanished and left us behind.” And in the break, I hummed the continuous accompaniment of the keyboard. “And the wind,” I continued. “whispering soft lullabies,” Leaning down further, I let myself nuzzle along the back of Blake’s neck, a delicate touch. “will soothe, so close your weary eyes.” And already, I could feel Blake as he begun to relax under my protective wing, already slipping away under the hold of my voice. “Let your arms enfold us,” I let my voice strengthen just slightly as the music intensified. “through the dark of night. Will your angels hold us, till we see the light?”

Now the vocal line went silent, and the instruments from before took over once again, likewise strengthening as they played out their melody. Here, as I resumed my humming, I was beginning to picture more than the song itself. I could see a room now, a stage, one that I stood upon as I sang to my audience of one. And that one dear soul – he was entering a state of peace, a place that sheltered him, warmed him, kept him close. It was a place that mother had built so many times before me… and I was building that here… I was actually building that here.

“Sleep.” I whispered to Blake, leaning back. “Angels will watch over you.” Now Blake’s breathing was lessened to its gentlest state, his body now moving only in a slow rise and fall underwing. “And soon,” Softer, I sang the next line. “beautiful dreams will come true.” And again, I picked up the accompaniment in the brief pause. “Can you feel, spirits embracing your soul?” I continued, copying the vocal embellishments of the solo. “So dream, while secrets of darkness unfold.” And trapped in the song as I was, I knew already that Blake had slipped away into slumber. “Let your arms enfold us,” Again I let my voice grow stronger. “through the dark of night. Will your angels hold us, till we see the light?” And soft but strong, I let myself sing out. “Let your arms enfold us,” I repeated. “through the dark of night. Will your angels hold us, till we see the light?” And with that, the instruments returned for a final time, brought to life as I closed my lips to hum their last phrase. I picked up the violin that I remembered from long ago, and though its melody repeated, I let it carry out each time. It was simple but flowing, and sharing in Blake’s comfort I hummed out each note belonging to that instrument, giving them equal importance and beauty just as the song did, just as mother did. Until at last it repeated one final time, the rest of the instruments playing their final notes and holding them before the violin did the same, before I did the same.

And after a couple seconds, I let my last pitch fade away, falling into silence once more.

With a soft, satisfied exhale, I opened my eyes as I returned to the real world from my memory. And sure enough, when I looked down to see him, there Blake was, fast asleep. And with just a small tired smile I spoke a silent thank you, leaning down to give my baby brother a final kiss goodnight. “Sleep well, baby brother.” I whispered, brushing my muzzle along his mane. “I love you.”

Despite everything that had happened to me, despite all my own fears and doubts… Blake had been hit much harder than me. Ordeal after ordeal, he had been subjected to what was simultaneously the most horrifying and crushing four days of his life, falling right in with our very first day on the surface. With the loss of our parents on his shoulders still, his abduction and imprisonment had seen him alone and terrified in unknown territory. And through those three days he had never been able to know whether he would live or die. Each approaching second had been another chance that the Talons would… pull the plug… and crammed in a small room, surrounded by the members of a hostile and merciless faction, he waited those three days with that constant fear in him, the fear of his death and mine as well. For three days, he couldn’t see if I had survived the Talons attack on our now lost home. And for all he knew, he had been the only one to survive it… for all he knew, I could’ve died just like mom and dad… and he could’ve truly been alone…

And that was something that I felt was Blake’s greatest fear, whether he showed it outwardly or not.

And then he saw me when I had finally woken up, likewise shackled and chained. But something that would have been a cause for relief had been brutally twisted when the Talons strapped him with their explosive collar. Relief instead became the real true fear of death, brought by the knowing that at one fatal slip from me, he would actually die… and the Talons didn’t care. Even after, when I’d become a legionnaire to save him, Blake was forced to watch the chaotic battle that followed, the battle that had been focused solely on me. And I knew that he had seen all that I had seen then – the bodies of the fallen enemies… some of them my own kills. He had seen me kill, seen others kill, all in rapid succession. One after the next the body count rose up, and between Sierra and I… we had killed many to get Blake out alive.

And finally came Buckley. Short on time and preparations, he had been forced to remain inside the armored shell of Lily, and as such, he rode into battle with her crew. He shared the battlefield with them, shared the fight, and had nearly died when Lily had been attacked. But then came the worst of it all… Blake’s first kill, just one shot, and one life that he had taken. His first kill, and still he was just a child… and he had been rewarded for it. His blue flame, like my own and like our father’s before us, the representation of his special talent, his identity… what made him who he was. And it had been discovered by taking a life.

And with Gracie’s death making the final weight that was set upon him…… he had been through far too much… and though there was nothing about it that I could change… it weighed heavily on me all the same.

My smile had faded through the passing of those thoughts, and blinking, I looked back down to take another glance at Blake… still sleeping soundly. And seeing him there at rest, at peace, and knowing that despite his trials, I had helped him reach this moment… it gave me just a little bit of hope, and fresh determination. In the end, he and I were still together, still alive through it all, just like Ivy had said… just like I had said. Though battered and worn, scarred and exhausted, we had made it together… and that was enough for me take heart, to close my eyes and make a promise, here and now.

For Blake, I would make things better. For him, I would recover and I would rise. And for him, I would find a way to give him back the life of peace that he once had. I would do this, no matter what enemies sought our end, no matter the walls that barred us, no matter how the wasteland would speak… no matter what. And though nothing in our lives was assured, especially now… my promise was the one thing that would be.

And like that foalhood promise that my friends and I had made all those years ago, I silently spoke that ironclad vow.

“I’ll always be there, Blake… to protect, to nurture, to teach and inspire… I’ll always be there. And if nothing else in life is assured, then this promise can be the one thing that is.”

…

“I’ll always be there.”

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: The Last Thing You Never See - Different situations call for different tactics, and the battles you have fought thus far have honed your precision behind a firearm. Your chance to hit an opponent’s head, both in and out of S.A.T.S., is increased by 25% when using any weapon equipped with a scope.

Skill Notes:

Speech (75)
Small Guns (100)

Chapter 21: Laid to Rest (Part 2)

Nightmare...

It was the only word that I could think of…

The entry chamber of the Stable still bore all the scars of that terrible fight all those weeks ago. Right outside the door, off to the right and away from the short stairway leading to the main level, was a literal pile of rotting corpses. There were easily a dozen ponies stacked up there, perhaps more, all of them four weeks dead… all wearing tattered bloody remains of Stable 181 barding… and I remembered them…… the victims of two miniguns wielded on a saddle by an earth pony raider… his laughter… the roar of the guns… the screams…… Their blood caked the floor in a wide solid stripe from where they’d been thrown to the base of the stairs, where the majority of them had fallen. And there, on the main level were three more bodies, each one cut wide open with their innards on display for anypony who entered, and tied side-by-side to the railing that separated the main level from the lowered entrance floor with thick rope. Those three wore security armor, the normal blue color barely recognizable anymore through the blood that had fused into the fabric. Past them, I could see what was left of the housing that had once held the turret that had aided in our evacuation. There was a single splash of blood on the side that faced us, but the weapon as a whole was long gone, disassembled and taken by the Black Blood.

And yet, while I couldn’t see more…… there just had to be more in this room……

Oh Goddesses……. dad…

“DADDY!!!”

I heard my own scream again… piercing my ears mercilessly, then fading away in a chilling echo…

“Let’s go.” Once more Saber rallied our attention with collected focus; if he was daunted by the atrocity that we beheld… he wasn’t showing it now.

“Goddesses… they did this…”

Ivy was the one who spoke then, her own voice hushed to but a terrified whisper. And for a long moment, nopony replied as Saber stepped inside, our leader ignoring the mound of bodies he had to pass to reach the stairs to his left. Joker followed after him, taking Sierra’s place as second in line. Both he and Daisy bowed their heads to avert their eyes from the terrible sight. But the rest of us, for a moment longer, were too paralyzed to move on.

“I told you.” Gunny finally replied to the grey unicorn, stepping up beside her as Sierra, staying quiet under her helmet, finally got the courage to follow after the others.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Gunny.” Ivy muttered back to him, looking him in the eye; Gunny only gave a little shake of his head.

“In my many years… only once have I seen barbarism on such a scale as this.” Raemor spoke up, moving forward and likewise heading for the stairs. “This is……. this is what is left behind only by the hoof of true evil…”

“Can you do this, Ivy?” Up ahead and to my left, diverting my attention from Raemor, Gunny was bowing his head to try and meet Ivy at eye level. “You can turn around if you want.”

But right away, the unicorn mare shook her head, sniffling as she wiped a foreleg across her eyes. “No.” she answered, her floating rifle drifting back up to shoulder level where it had formerly drooped from. “No, I can do this. Come on.”

“Alright then.”

And together they moved into Stable 181.

“We’d best go too, Nova.” And just off to my right, Shore spoke… finally spoke, looking past his left shoulder to me as he adjusted his reading glasses. “There’s no sense in standing here when we know that we will see more of this.”

“I know…” On impulse at hearing Shore’s own thought on our arrival, I did take a step forward… only to stop again. “But… Shore, my dad… died in this room……” He died… in this… room… “What if he’s still in there?”

“You shouldn’t look for him, Nova.” Shore replied gently, taking his own step forward to encourage me onward. “Just keep your mind set on the task at hoof as best you can.” Though hesitantly, I gave him a small nod, taking another couple of steps… and making sure to keep my eyes focused on Shore, and not the bodies beyond him. “I can’t say I know how hard it is losing a parent.” he said, drawing in closer to me as we approached the entrance together. “But that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of understanding the toll it takes on somepony. And to put it simply, I do not wish to find out how you would fare if… well, you know.”

“Yeah…”

“Come on, Nova.” he gently urged. “We’re here to find something good to bring back to the others. And we need your help to do that.”

“Yeah… yeah, okay.”

And by then, we had passed into the Stable, turning to the stairs… unable to avoid treading on the dried blood of the victims behind us. And as soon as I climbed up the steps and came around the railing, the timid bravery that I had managed to scrounge up was immediately put to the test, as once more, I stopped at an even grizzlier sight. The battle that had ensued as we evacuated One Eighty-one had been focused solely on this room. After four weeks, the barriers that had shielded the guards and held back the enemy advance were still in their place, both them and the floor behind them spattered and smeared with dried blood, marked with the explosives residue of grenades, littered with bullet casings. But beyond that, tucked into the far corner of the room just to the right of the entrance toward the reactor chamber, was a second pile of bodies… over twice as big as the first, and undoubtedly the prime contributor to the near unbearable odor of decay. The bodies in this pile, however, were largely the raiders that we had killed in the reactor hall, those who had been slaughtered in their reckless attempt to break through our line, with just a couple of Stable guards mixed in. It seemed that, after their victory, the raiders had merely stripped their fallen comrades of their weapons and essential gear, and then stuffed their bodies into the corner, thus clearing the reactor hall to make it useable for travel. Still, there were other bodies that had been left here, separate from the piles. They belonged to the guards who had been killed in the firefight, defiled and mutilated like the others, then thrown into the opposite corner and left to decay… perhaps as some evil act of vengeance.

But no matter how hard I tried, I found myself looking off to my left, back to where a half-ring of sandbags yet remained, positioned just outside the demolished door control console… the one my dad had destroyed to save us from pursuit.

“Nova.” Though softened to help the group keep a low profile, I could still hear Gunny’s call as he tried to get my attention. “Nova, Saber’s getting us together in the atrium, come on.”

“I just…” And I turned toward the sandbags; my eyes were locked on them. “I just need a… I just need a second.”

“Nova, this is not wise.” Shore piped up concernedly.

But I moved ahead anyway, gathering up my courage with one push. And I stepped around the right side of the barrier in one hurried move, finding the very place where my parents and I had fought together in the evacuation.

Blood lightly spattered the floor here…… but…

“He’s gone…”

“Gone?”

My dad… wasn’t here…

Gunny was at my side, eliciting a slight jump from me as he peered over the sandbags with me to behold the empty space. “He was shot here…… but he’s not here…” But when I repeated myself… my mind drew up a dreadful conclusion… “Do you think they… moved him somewhere else?”

“I don’t know…” Gunny replied after a longer pause, looking to me with sympathetic eyes.

“Or… or what if he-”

“Hey.” A sharper voice called then, drawing my eyes over to the entrance to the atrium, where Captain Saber was the one waiting for us, with Shore standing beside him; at seeing me, however, his stern look eased up. “Come on you two.” he said, careful and with a level of respect that I appreciated. “We need to go over a strategy so we can get out of here quick as we can.”

Though my mind was dead set on that one question of where, I got myself to back away from the sandbags and comply with Saber’s order… with a new motivation guiding my steps for me. Together, Gunny and I made our way to the atrium entrance as Saber stepped inside. “There are more bodies in here.” Shore warned as we drew up to him. “I’m afraid it’s unavoidable to be among them.”

Into the atrium we went, together, and right away, I discovered what Shore had meant. The atrium was a sight of equal carnage to the entrance room. What had once been a place for our weekly dinner gatherings, for food and drink and laughter, was now the resting place of dozens. Like the entrance, dead raiders littered the floor, almost all of them having lost limbs when they stumbled across the mines that had delayed the enemy advance. These corpses were likewise discarded along the edges of the room, thrown against the walls to leave the center of the atrium clear. But up above… up above, over two dozen corpses were hung by the neck from heavy chains hammered into the ceiling… and only two of them were Stable guards. The rest…… the raiders had taken joy in defiling the dead that they had murdered while they slept… or cowered. The rest of the ponies up there – they were civilians, non-combatants… those poor souls who hadn’t made it to us in time to be evacuated…

I turned to the floor as I moved toward the others, growling as I fought to keep myself composed in the face of such savagery. Up ahead, the others had gathered at the atrium’s center, careful to avoid standing directly beneath one of the suspended corpses… for obvious reasons. “Are we still good, Sierra?”

From behind us, Saber came trotting in and passed us by to join the group. And after a brief pause, where Sierra turned her attention to the hall leading to the Stable’s living quarters, she gave the Captain a nod. “E.F.S. is still clean.”

“It might be that the Stable has been completely abandoned.” Raemor voiced.

“Whether it has or not, I’m going to be making this venture as short as possible.” Saber replied as Gunny and I joined the circle. “I’ve already seen more than I’d like.”

“What do you want to do then, Captain?” Gunny asked.

“I’ve been thinking this up as I go… but I’ve got an idea.” he began. “For safety’s sake, we’re going to be staying out of the living quarters, or at least until everypony is in the Stable and we know the rest of it is safe… and those of us who know why are the only ones who need to know. Outside of that, we’ll be searching through the rest of the Stable in a quick but thorough sweep, and we’ll be doing this through two stages. The first – we’re going to split off into three groups of three. I want Joker and Daisy with me, and together the three of us are going to clear the reactor room and the maintenance wing. Next, I want Sierra, Ivy, and Gunny to make their way to the orchard and then move on to the mess hall and the kitchen back here, making sure that each of these rooms closest to the atrium are raider-free and see if there’s anything salvageable in each. And lastly, Nova, Shore, and Raemor – the three of you are going to look through the armory and the research lab. If the Stable has truly been deserted, then this should take us no more than ten to fifteen minutes, tops. After that, there’ll be two final areas I’ll want to look through as a collective group.”

“Which are?” Joker ventured.

“For now, let’s get through this first part.” Saber replied with a shake of his head. “Clear out any remaining hostile presence in these rooms so that we can secure the atrium for the other team and get to scavenging. When you’ve cleared your assigned chambers, meet back here. Understood?” After a round of confirmation, he nodded his approval. “Be careful in here, everypony, especially you three.” he added, pointing to me and then Shore, looking to Raemor at the same time. “You’ll be at a disadvantage without a pipbuck. After Hopeville, we ended up with seven of them. But now we’ve only got four, so we’re one short for this trip.”

“We’ll be okay, Captain.” I assured best I could… despite how his warning reminded me of my own lost pipbuck.

“And Gunny,” he added, turning then to the brick red unicorn. “you’ve got two new ponies to the Stable with you, and the orchard is a big room. Take care of them while you’re down there.”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright then, disperse.” Saber ordered. “Be back here soon as you can.”

“Ladies, follow me.” The first to depart, Gunny led Ivy and Sierra away through the rest of the atrium, moving past me and towards an already open door placed at the far wall, the flickering electronic placard reading, Orchard.

“Joker, Daisy, let’s get going.” And next, Saber led his followers back the way we had come in, passing back through the atrium entrance and heading right toward the maintenance wing.

“If you don’t mind, Nova, I would like to lead us through the lab.” Turning back around, Shore met my eyes with a firm stare, assertive despite his wording… but rightly so. When Stable 181 had been alive, the research lab had been Shore’s domain, and his alone. Shore had grown up around that lab and gained his great wealth of scientific knowledge between his workings there, within the maintenance wing, and around the Stable’s reactor altogether. But though he did help tend to the Stable’s reactor and the maintenance of its other systems, and did so with distinction, the lab was where he had forged his greatest contributions to our community. It was, in that sense, his home inside his home, and so I knew better than to do anything but agree to Shore’s request, not that I would have done anything other than that to begin with.

“Of course not.” I responded, passing a timid but what I hoped to be encouraging little smile to him. “Go ahead. I’ve got your back.”

“And I will go ahead and keep watch behind us as we move.” Raemor spoke up, turning his fire axe in the air with his telekinesis. “Without a pipbuck with us, we will need to be especially careful.”

“Then let’s get going.” And without further delay, Shore turned for the main hall at the far end of the atrium and advanced. With a short leap I caught up with him, settling into a brisk trot as he pushed his way through the atrium with a tenacious eagerness. But upon reaching the main hall, Shore caught himself, slowing down to a better more cautious pace as he stepped onto the collapsed security door, watching where he stepped to avoid the grooves that had been warped into the metal from the raider’s arc welders and flamethrowers. Past the door, I found nothing but an empty hallway, clear of enemies all the way to the turn we were to take. Like the one in the atrium, the electric signpost here was still active, showing that the branching hall a few yards into the main corridor did indeed lead to both the armory and the lab. Ominously, though, there was a solid stripe of black that stretched from the end of the main hall, from the living quarters, to turn down the same path we were headed. And around it, against the walls, there were other splotches of hardened blood. Each of us kept our eyes on the end of the main hall as we rounded that corner, both Shore and I wary of what lay in that direction… the sector where the greatest number of the casualties we had taken had come from.

But we remained in the clear as we pressed ahead, set on our task despite the blood trail that continued towards our target rooms. And a short distance later, we came to a fork, where continuing straight ahead led to the lab, and turning left led to the armory. Down the latter hall a collection of assorted trash lay strewn about the floor, the only evidence of the raiders who once lived here, but Shore kept us moving straight, focused on his laboratory above all else. The dried blood trail continued in this direction, but apart from that, and the occasional tin can, wrapper, or empty bottle littering the floor, this hallway was clear as far as I could see. The collection of trash that began halfway down slowly increased the further along the hall we went, until we came to a stop at a flight of stairs, a longer set made of twelve steps, at the end of which was another open door; the electronic signpost above designated it as the research lab itself.

For a short moment, we stood in our place, Raemor and I waiting for Shore to begin down the stairs. Only after a few seconds of silent observation did my earth pony friend finally move, lowering his mouth to his firing bit before heading down. With light quiet steps I followed after him, careful not to bump my hoof against the assorted tin cans and glass bottles that were scattered among the stairway. As I drew closer, passing over the bottom steps as Shore slowed by the lab entrance, I let my lips hover close to my own firing bit, keeping my eyes on my friend as he prepared to clear the room. And he gave no warning to us before he moved in, taking hold of his firing bit in his teeth and snapping to the left to sweep that side of the lab, then just a second later, turning right to do the same with the other side. His haste prompted me to follow after him, and I likewise took hold of my firing bit as I rushed in behind him, looking along the left side of the lab to check for hostiles as Raemor stepped in behind me. But after scanning through the room, turning right to check over the other side as Shore had done, I was grateful to see that the lab was likewise a deserted room.

Together, Shore and I released our firing bits, and the both of us took a good look around… for different reasons. For me, this was, unfortunately, the first time I had been inside Shore’s laboratory, and not just in the four weeks that had come and gone on the surface, but for months before that too. The last time I had visited the lab was when Shore had invited me to view one of his projects at the time. Being the tinkerer that he was, he had often times invited either myself, Gunny, or Grace to the lab to get opinions on his works. Back then, the lab had been an organized and peaceful area of study, and despite its small size and the natural clutter that had come with Shore’s work, it had been a rather cozy place, one where the mind could run free and explore and grow. But now, nothing like that remained here. Instead, the raiders had been a literal hurricane of greed as they demolished the place looking for useful items. The metal floor was buried with what was nearly a carpet of scattered papers, old files and schematics and notes from an assortment of file cabinets, which had been toppled over and stuffed into the corner upon being emptied. At the far left side of the room, a number of storage shelves which had formerly made two rows in the center of the room there were likewise knocked over, and all the scrap and mechanical components that had once been stored there were gone. Against the back wall, three separate desks remained side-by-side. Each had been emptied, and their drawers thrown every which way. Atop them, each was paired with its own computer terminal; all three of them had been demolished, their screens blown out and their frames deformed and charred. Next to the desks was the remains of what had been a smaller mainframe, the main terminal for the lab. This too had been destroyed, and even though it remained standing against the wall, the body had been caved in by blunt force. Against the opposite wall, two large workbenches remained standing, their function to allow Shore to tinker with energy weapon ammunition, whether it be various energy cells or gem cartridges. Though bereft of their respective tools, they still remained standing and ready for use. Directly ahead and to the right, one large table still remained standing on its iron legs, once home to energy weapons that were either disassembled or on their way to being fully restored. Now it was the resting place of a fallen Stable guard, her corpse having been tied to the table belly down. And throughout the rest of the wrecked lab I found three other bodies, two stallion guards, both unicorns, one lying in the center of the room and the second against the far wall where they had made their final stand. The last was an earth pony mare, not a guard, having been dragged behind the workbenches… likely having already been dead when she had been, judging by the realization that the long streak of blood that I had seen smeared across the floor led to her final resting place; no matter where we went in the Stable, even in the halls clear of the dead… that same foul smell stuck… a plague all on its own.

In front of me, Shore let out a defeated sigh, a wounding sound. In response, I moved up alongside him, leaning forward as I did to try and see his face. In the crimson of the Stable’s emergency lighting, I could see a single tear coming from my friend’s closed left eye, trailing down his cheek as it passed by the frame of his reading glasses. And he made no effort to wipe it away, merely letting it fall freely as he let the image of what became of his life’s work set in. “Goddesses… I wish things could be like they had been a month ago.” And for the first time since Buckley, he spoke on his own, without a mission drawing in his attention to force him to talk. He spoke as himself… the voice I wanted to hear… in a moment that pierced me to the heart… “If they were, this lab would have been full of new technology for us… Who knows what we could have accomplished in One Eighty-one…”

“I wish things were like they’d been too.” Reaching over, I hooked my right foreleg around the back of his neck and pulled him into a hug, bumping my muzzle against his cheek as I closed my eyes with him. “I know you had great things in mind for the Stable.”

I was glad when Shore let me hold my embrace around him, my friend even leaning into it as he openly welcomed my support. “When I came to inherit this lab, I told myself that I would use it to improve the lives of everypony under our roof. In my efforts, I never made any miracles… I never created an engine or a reactor, or discovered how to replicate power armor, or designed a cure for radiation… but the things I had learned and created in this room… they did matter… they did help, just like I wanted them to. But out there on the surface, I can’t apply what I did in here because I don’t have the means to do so… and that’s the frustrating thing… knowing that the information and the technology I had here could have let me take my knowledge to the surface and help ponies… except now, what wasn’t destroyed is all in the hooves of a group of degenerate savages who will stop at nothing to use it to harm others…” At this point, all I could do was listen as I kept my muzzle against his cheek. “At the very least, it could have kept me from being involved in all the violence up there. I would have been able to stay in Hopeville, continue my work to try and improve how we lived, how secure we were. If I had even one terminal from here, I could have picked up where I left off and kept my old self alive out on the surface… but without it, I’ve had to focus solely on survival, on killing to live… on becoming harder… tougher… and it’s changed me so much that… that the pony I was in here…… I’ve felt more and more like that stallion died when the Stable did…”

With a gentle tug, I hugged Shore a little tighter. “You’ve only changed because you’ve had to.” I remarked back. “Like you said, you’ve been forced to adapt, just like we all have. But the real you hasn’t changed. You’re still every bit the pony you were in here… just without the material things you once had.”

“But just seeing this place again, reminding myself of what could have been up there… about how much I’ve changed without my work to keep me occupied…” But what was beginning to sound like a steady train of thought fell into silence when Shore tried to respond, and in the end he only shook his head against me. “I suppose it doesn’t even really matter.” he said instead. “I’ve lost more important things than my laboratory…”

To that, I couldn’t keep myself from sighing as I slowly let my foreleg fall away from his neck. “I understand you and Grace started getting pretty close.” I gently pried, nuzzling him across his cheek to try and comfort him.

He made no effort to deny it, giving me a nod.

“Yes… yes we were. With how things were going back then, we found ourselves working together and sharing the duties we had. I would assist her in the clinic, fetching whatever she needed, even helping her patients from time to time. In turn she would join me whenever I was assigned guard duty, patrol the streets with me. And we would always find a time to talk, just about whatever was on our minds.” With a sluggish stride, Shore finally stepped away from me and begun to move deeper into the lab, his thoughts driving him into motion, leaving me staring after him with saddened eyes. “The surface… it changed us, to be sure. It hardened us, more and more. But the important thing was that we changed together, and we both knew how we changed. And if one of us had worries or doubts about what we were becoming, or what we might have become later on, or how our friendship would be affected… we would be there to comfort one another… just sit there together, quiet…” Here, he stopped, bowing his head as he looked sidelong to me. “I suppose that, in the end, you could say we developed a bond together, and that we did indeed become more than friends. Perhaps it was an influence of the surface… perhaps an instinct it gave us with the threat always present that we would live a short life, and that with whatever time we had left between then and whenever some raider would do us in, we should find somepony that we could get close to, somepony that we could open our hearts to, love as more than friends. And while we never grew intimate or revealed what we felt for each other to anypony else… we really did love each other… as lovers love…” And when he turned away again… I closed my eyes; simply saying sorry was nowhere near adequate. “One night…” My ears perked as Shore picked up where he left off; slowly, I let my eyes open again… only when I was sure a tear wouldn’t make its way out. “We were in Proudspire’s clinic just as she was getting ready to pack up her medical gear and go to sleep. It was right after we returned to town after we wiped out those camps the Black Blood had set up.” Though staying clear of the bodies in the lab, Shore begun to scuff a hoof along some of the old papers on the floor… not really paying them much mind other than to move them about. “Our time in that town gave me my first real taste of battle.” he continued. “Back in the evacuation of the Stable, I ended up being one of the escorts, and so didn’t partake in the fighting. And even when we found that raider outpost, where I got my first kills – that was still just a skirmish. After Proudspire though, I returned with over at least a half dozen kills to my name… and I was actually beginning to worry about myself. Between the camp and the enemy post, I had killed quite a few raiders… monsters… but ponies, either way. But when I brought that to Gracie’s attention… she reminded me that we were living in a very different world. She reminded me that with how naturally glued we were to the past, we were still emerging onto the surface as ponies who were, by and large, wholly unaware of what occurred out here, despite everything we had learned in the Stable. And what stuck with me the most… she said that this world, the wasteland… she said that it takes, just as we all already knew, but she said that it also gives in return, no matter how much ponies try to think otherwise. She said that, in my case, I had had my home taken from me, my lab, all my work, my ideas, and all my progress. But at the same time, what I was being exposed to was making me stronger, even if at first I did not want to believe it.” Taking a couple more steps into the lab, Shore ran his hoof over another sheet of paper, briefly eyeing some of the writing before turning away. “But she was right, you know. Even if I didn’t want it, I was being given the experiences that would provide the tools I needed to survive, to live. Through everything I experienced I was becoming stronger and faster, more alert and cautious and focused. It was steeling me, shaping me into a pony who would actually be able to live out there… and the last thing Grace said about it was that everything the wasteland was giving to me, it was going to fuse with everything I had pulled out of the Stable with me, all the things I had been taught, all the things I valued. She said that it was giving me the means to protect those values in this new world so that I would be able to help others. She said it was going to make me into the kind of pony that the wasteland needed to rebuild… just so long as I didn’t give up on myself.” And now, he turned back to me, reaching a hoof up to adjust his reading glasses again. “She had that kind of faith in all of us, that all of us had a part to play in helping the wasteland become something better. But the way she said it to me… it gave me… so much determination. And over the past couple of days, that was really all that I could think about… Now I’m trying to put all the pieces back together in my head so that I’ll believe what she said like I once did… Without Grace… it’s been very difficult… but I am trying.”

“You know she would’ve been very proud of you, Shore.” I said with instant confidence, taking a step toward him.

“For what?”

And to that, I let myself crack a faint smile to him, one I had wanted to give him ever since he had told of what Grace had said; I had actually been kind of hoping he would have asked that question. “For exactly what you just said. For not giving up… for taking her words to heart, and for fighting against your grief to try and move forward, to believe her words again. She would have been proud to hear you say what you did.”

“Perhaps…” But despite his rather modest response, he wasn’t able to hide from me the sliver of a smile that formed up on his face before he turned away again, letting out a short sigh… but one with a subdued yet audible tone of relief… or at the very least, content. “You know, Nova,” he said. “if you eventually find a special somepony out there, whoever he might be, I hope that you will be able to tell him what Grace told me. And I pray that if and when he might hear those words, that he would take them with him and learn by them.”

And despite everything… for the first time in days, if not weeks, I actually found myself blushing just a little, smiling a little wider at my friend’s words. “Well… there’s no telling when that might happen… or if it will at all. If I do, it might not be until I start getting grey hairs in my mane and wrinkles on my face.” I replied, unable to hold back a little giggle. “But if I do happen to find that special somepony while I’m still young and pretty… I have a feeling that they’ll take those words to heart just like you have.”

*clink

From back in the hallway came two sudden light notes one after the next. Together Shore and I spun to look upon the entrance, facing the stairs again just as the same sound reached us for a third time, then a fourth. And from within the crimson light, we both spotted the glass bottle as it tumbled down the stairs, landing with one final ring against the floor at the base of the steps, where it rolled forward to stop by the door.

“Hide!” From off farther into the lab came the sharp whisper, startling my attention over to the front wall as Raemor came to a stop a few paces short of the door, his weapons hovering close to him; though having stood away from us during our talk, he had heard the bottle just as clearly as we had.

Together, Shore and I moved as quick and quiet as we could to stack up behind the old unicorn, keeping the open entrance ahead of us to watch for anything hostile. All of a sudden, I found myself dearly missing my pipbuck, much more than I had before, especially since the three of us made the one team of Saber’s three that didn’t have the advantage of E.F.S.. Without it, we had to resort to listening… and waiting… both of which began to let the adrenaline circulate.

I desperately wanted to call out, to speak a familiar name and have that pony respond…

“I heard you in there…”

But the voice that came… a dark, sinister… chilling voice… it didn’t belong to any of the others, and I knew Shore and Raemor caught it too.

“Why don’t you come on out so I can get a good look at ya?” The same stallion from outside spoke again, and past his words, I could hear his hooves on the floor as he slowly descended the stairs. “I sure hope you all belong with me,” he added, a treacherous little snicker coming from the Black Blood buck. “otherwise there’s going to be quite a mess left behind when we’re done with you.”

There were more… yes, there were definitely more; I could hear two other ponies moving, farther behind, but still coming closer.

From behind me, I felt a tap on my back. Craning my head around, Shore was looking me in the eye, promptly gesturing toward the back of the lab when he had my attention. And though he didn’t speak, I quickly caught on to what he was trying to convey as he begun backing up, separating himself from the wall and heading towards the computer desks at the opposite side. It was a move I needed to follow, simply for the sake of spreading out. Reaching over, I similarly tapped Raemor’s back to make my next move known to him. Though he didn’t look back, he gave just a slight nod as he focused on the entrance, his automatic pistol already floating into place before him to take aim. But from just outside, the enemy was getting ready too, as was announced by the ominous pulling and pushing of a rifle’s cocking arm, chambering the first round of a clip.

“Silent eh?” A mare’s voice was the one that took up the question, followed by the racking of a shotgun shell; a soft wave of eager cackling followed her statement.

“Too bad for them, I guess.” came a third voice, another smug stallion.

“Times up.” the first stallion called tauntingly.

I didn’t know where Shore was when I had begun backing away from the wall. But just as I had made it nearly halfway across the lab, I gasped as the front half of an assault rifle swung around the entrance, wrapped in telekinesis and coming down to point right for us. And then the room was filled with a terrible roar, the confined space amplifying the intensity of each shot, as the raider behind the weapon blind fired into the room. One round struck the left side of my chestplate before I could throw myself back toward the wall I had come from, sending a frightened jolt through me… but still I felt no wound as I skidded along the floor. Just as I came to a halt, the weapon went silent, the clip spent. But as it pulled away, a new threat emerged, a unicorn raider springing into the open with a wild cry, bringing a ten millimeter SMG to bear. But as soon as she emerged, her head snapped violently black as a splash of crimson painted the wall behind her. Raemor had kept his pistol on the entrance, the first raider’s barrage missing him entirely. But he promptly discarded the pistol as the unicorn mare fell, launching it away as he brought his fire axe before him. And as he did the third raider, the owner of the assault rifle from before. He met Raemor with a hateful glare, trying to bring his weapon around again. But Raemor’s axe was quicker, swinging upward to smack the weapon back out the door and onto the stairs as he collided with the enemy. Raemor’s momentum alone carried them both into the wall, the two of them stumbling over the fresh corpse of the first Black Blood pony to enter the room. The two of them locked together in an instant grapple, and with a mighty heave Raemor pulled them both back and away from the entrance, only a second before a shotgun blast erupted through the room, the floor sparking violently as the buckshot struck where they had just stood.

Raemor was tangled up with the stallion now, wrestling for leverage against a now unarmed opponent. I made to help him, seeing as how the black and red armored raider was trying to roll himself over to put himself on top. But just before I moved, another enemy emerged, and in his telekinesis was a black tactical pump-action shotgun. I adjusted myself to face him as I raced for my firing bit, clamping down on it as I put a line-of-sight on him. And without waiting, I pulled the trigger. One shot, the pair of bullets sparked sharply on the floor at the raider’s hooves, a second, and the stallion stumbled back as both rounds punched into the armor protecting his left side. And then, from behind me, a pair of bright red lasers lashed out for him, the both of them punching clean through his armor to hit their mark, and in a brilliant flash of light, he collapsed into a pile of smoldering ash.

But just as Shore made the kill, and I lay off my firing bit to turn back for Raemor, a fourth raider came racing in, an earth pony stallion equipped with a dual shotgun saddle. And in one move, he both leapt into the open and came to face us, the two combat shotguns lighting up as soon as he landed on all fours, catching me unaware. I took a solid hit from his shot, the blast nearly blowing me off my hooves. It knocked the wind clean out of me, my chest lighting aflame with a crushing wave of pain as I barely caught myself from my staggered step. But through the ringing in my ears and the burning in my torso, I could still hear the firefight around me. Shore caught the raider before he could get off another shot with his saddle, firing three times to push the raider back to the door. Following quickly after was a pistol round, followed by a second, Raemor having picked up his sidearm again, winning the wrestling match between the first raider. The shotgun saddle pony managed to fire again, and as I finally got myself aligned to face the enemy again, I saw as Raemor was blown back, having taken a near point-blank shot to his right side, and was sent sprawling to the ground. But Shore stayed on him, another pair of lasers striking the far wall just above the raider’s head, forcing him back yet another step as I took hold of my firing bit again. Without trying to sight in, I took another shot to keep the enemy busy, one of the two bullets catching his left foreleg to get him to stumble in his step. And just a second later, and his head jerked back as one of Shore’s lasers struck him there, and like the mare before him, his body glowed a bright red before dissolving away, leaving only a pile of ash where he had once stood.

And finally, silence returned. The skirmish was over.

“Stay out of my lab…” To my left, Shore kept his glaring eyes on the entrance as he growled his warning, watching, waiting for any signs of others who might have also been hidden among the group of, what we had first thought to be, three.

But with him focused on the entrance, having escaped the surprise attack with no injury, or at least none that I could see, I took the opportunity to check myself over. And I promptly stumbled again, unable to keep back a pained grunt as I felt the terrible stinging in my chest. When I dared to look, I saw that my chest plate had been ravaged by the shotguns that had targeted it. The pad itself had held, thankfully, but not without a whole mess of new indents and tears. I could see some of the material that made the inner layer of the armor, blasted open by the force of what had to have been Stable-issue shotguns.

It was torn up pretty good… but what was worse was trying to catch my breath, that terrible ache pulsing with every inhalation; though I suffered no open wounds, I knew I was going to be feeling this one for a while.

Suddenly, another energy blast sounded through the room, two more lasers lashing out through the door to strike the wall behind it, startling me to duck my head down. And it was then that I heard hooves against the steel, moving swiftly away. “Shit, you’re crazy!”

Another raider!

“Get back here!”

“Shore, wait!” But I was too late, and I looked only in time to see the black stallion as he galloped back through the door and out onto the stairway.

“Raemor, are you okay?” I called quickly, making my way across the lab and to the door. “Can you run?

“I’m fine.” The old stallion, thank Celestia, was pulling himself back up to his hooves; he was moving with some difficulty… but so far as I could tell, he hadn’t been wounded. “But you head after Shore. I’ll catch up with you when I put myself back together.”

From within the hallway, Shore’s energy rifle and pistol reported together, two shots; I didn’t have time to argue.

Best I could I pushed aside the pain in my chest and ran, passing the stairs three at a time to swiftly return to the hallway. Making my way down, I heard one more shot from Shore’s energy saddle, coming from the right as I approached where the hallway split into two directions. I knew right away that he had chased the runaway towards the armory, and as I came across the turn, I skidded around the corner and down into the armory access hall. But soon as I did, sparks suddenly erupted from the wall where the new hall turned to the right, a semi-auto rifle returning fire from farther ahead. And when I came to a stop, leaning up against the wall, Shore came running back… or rather staggering…

And I saw the blood that snaked its way down his left side.

“I got the runaway. But there was one more in the armory.” With a pained grunt, Shore hobbled his way over to draw up beside me. “That must be where the others had come from.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” I hissed lowly, promptly forcing my way in front of him to take the lead. “How many times were you hit??”

“Only once…” Shore answered as solidly as he could. “I think she has armor-piercing rounds.”

“Those were my friends you killed, asshole!” Down the hall, a mare called out for us, her rifle reloading with two heavy clicks. “Come out! Or do we need to do this the hard way?!”

I kept my mouth shut as I made my way up to the corner, focusing around the wall to listen. The mare’s steps were faint, but I could still hear the slow, cautious pace she had set for herself. She was close already, her weapon likely trained on the corner… but only at ground level. Looking up, I took note of the ceiling, low, but still holding enough room for me to maneuver; the hum of magic coming from around the bend told me who I was facing… being in the air would be the one way to get the jump on her.

“Back up.” Whispering soft as I could, I looked over my shoulder as I took a couple paces back. Shore was close behind me, breathing heavily but otherwise standing, and upon bumping into him, he followed my move, wearing only a questioning look as he recovered his breath; a quick nod up to the ceiling, and he began to focus, following my lead.

Leaning down, I scooped up my sidearm, Shimmer’s pistol, and held it tight in my jaws as I let my wings come unfurled. And crouching, I prepared myself to launch. I had limited room here, but all I needed was to confront the raider from the ceiling, the far upper corner of the hallway, and then shoot at the same time… and hit. I set my sights on it, bracing myself, and with a leap and a beat of my wings, I threw myself forward and up, turning mid-pounce as I caught the air. That’s when I saw her, a dark-colored unicorn with a full black mane, a markspony carbine, Stable hardware, floating close by. She fired once on instinct, her round striking the wall below me just as I predicted. And as I fell into position, her eyes came up to meet me with alarm as I returned fire. With a mighty blast of sound, the pistol sent a startling bolt of pain through my jaw as it fired its teeth-chattering shot, and the raider screamed as the fifty caliber bullet found home in her right front leg. But at the same time, my left wing clipped the wall, my momentum carrying me farther than I meant to, and though I stumbled in the air, losing my pace, I just managed to put my hooves back under me as I fell. I landed roughly, but still kept myself from falling, and quickly I got my iron sights back onto my target. But the raider mare was not on her hooves… especially considering that one hoof was now severed from the rest of her. Now she only writhed and groaned in agony, unable to focus on anything but the catastrophic damage that one round from Shimmer’s pistol had done… shocking even to me.

But in her tormented squirming, the mare’s closed eyes passed over me just before they opened… and met me.

And to my alarm… she actually stopped moving… “Oh… oh no way…” And then she begun to chuckle… she… she actually started laughing!! “Oh, this is just too good!” she yelled, hissing back her pain as she fought with all her might to keep from looking at her ruined foreleg. “I knew that one day you Stable ponies would come back to your precious home! I knew you’d never be able to leave it alone forever! But I never actually thought I’d be seeing you again!”

And again she laughed, a near maniacal cackling that more suited the psychos of Marefax than an organized raider band. And unable to resist, I slammed Shimmer’s pistol back into its holster. “What’s so funny?!” I demanded hotly, pushing back my bafflement at the raider’s reaction to seeing me.

An agonized grunt escaped the raider despite her best efforts, and she briefly turned away to look upon her wound, uselessly trying to clutch at it. “Ugh, that’s the thing! There’s actually a couple things that are pretty damn funny!” she eventually replied, both laughter and pained hissing interrupting her sentences. “But I don’t know which one I find funnier – the fact that you came back like I knew you would, or that you of all those wimpy Stable ponies would be the one to do me in, or that I got to personally know your father before he died!!”

Her laughter followed again as she looked back to the bloody stump at the end of her shattered foreleg… but in that moment, everything around me went black. It was tunnel vision yet again… it was just me and her… and she had spoken about my father… her venomous voice had spoken about my father…

“I mean, he was the only pegasus in this place except you, so that must mean he was your daddy, right?!”

She spoke… about my father…

“You better talk fast…” I growled darkly.

But the hatred that had, in a blink, exploded inside me only seemed to amuse her more. “Oh Goddesses… Yeah I haven’t forgotten that pegasus ever since I met him.” she said; she was beginning to shake… her blood loss was adding up rapidly. “You see, I got to watch you as you left the Stable. It was so adorable that you helped that poor little filly get out and everything. And then after you got out, I got to hear you scream when your precious father blew the door console, kept up from chasing you. So after everything went quiet, after we managed to shut down that damned turret of yours, there was your father, just lying there, bleeding, glaring at us waiting for us to finish the job. But you see, our boss Bruiser didn’t like what he did. He didn’t like that the rest of you got away because of him. So you know what he did?”

No matter how hard I tried to block it out, I couldn’t keep myself from feeling the trembling in my legs…

“He turned to me and he said, ‘Since you were the first mare to come through that door and live, you get yourself a prize.’” And with another cackle, she closed her eyes. “So I got all nice and cozy with dear old dad, and I told him how I’d never rode a pegasus before.”

No… no, she didn’t!

“So I made him an offer.” she said. “I told him that if he’d fuck my brains out, then we’d let him go. Of course, being the goodie-goodie pony that he was, he didn’t want any part of that. But I didn’t give him a choice. So he busted a couple muzzles, pissed a bunch of ponies off, put on a real show. But once I got a few volunteers to hold him down… oh Goddesses, kid, I bet your mommy loved him very much, because he was the best lay I’d ever had in my life.”

SHE DID!!

“And once he got his load off, down he we-”

BLAM!!!

The same jolt from the kick of Shimmer’s pistol punched through my jaws again. I didn’t even feel it, only witnessing as the first shot blew the grin right off her.

BLAM!!!

My jaws began to burn from the massive kick of Shimmer’s pistol. But my attention was only on the raider as the second shot punched a gaping crater into the already dead mare’s skull.

BLAM!!!

And through it all, I screamed through the firing bit as Shimmer’s pistol turned the raider’s head into jelly.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!! *click *click *click

“Nova, stop! STOP!!”

As soon as I felt Shore’s hoof on me, I spat out my spent pistol to scream at the top of my lungs. “DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!!!” And with a desperate shove, I ripped myself out of his hold before the stallion could get his foreleg around my chest to pull me back. I stumbled forward from the force of my push, coming face to face with the mangled head of the raider… the one who had, for ten seconds, instantly been my archenemy. I stood over her, head bowed, glaring over the lumpy paste that was all that remained of her head, breathing heavily, quickly. Her blood was pooling up fast, and already, it touched my front hooves, slowly flowing around them. But I didn’t even flinch from it, only staring, panting… at the one who claimed responsibility for killing my father.

After I had gotten out of the Stable, there had only been one thing I had seen of my father. I had only been able to see him as he was shot in the shoulder, as he tumbled over the sandbag barrier from the force of the high-caliber round that had taken him down. After that, there was only the obvious outcome that had traveled in my thoughts. I knew that there was no way he could have survived in there, surrounded by enemies, and with no way out of the Stable after he had destroyed the only reachable exit. That was all I knew… it was all I had thought… until I returned home. When I saw where we had fought together, my father and I, when I saw no body to truly confirm his demise… there was a small part of me… I dared to hope that somehow… someway… he had escaped. Even when I knew that it was… near impossible… that thought just wouldn’t leave me. But to speak to one of the very raiders that partook in the assault on Stable 181, and to hear her tell of what really happened after it all ended… there was no way that she was lying… How could she have been lying? With that smug and sickeningly reminiscent grin… and her evil cackling… how could she have possibly been lying?

To hear that that was how my dad had died… held down, raped, and humiliated in his final moments… to hear the story from the lips of the very mare who had committed those vile acts…

And I could only kill her once…

The message this raider had given me… it inspired a terrible darkness in me, as a great part of me now wanted nothing more than wholesale slaughter. I wanted the raiders to die in swaths before me, and I could picture such a scenario, entertain the thought with a pure, fiery hatred the likes of which I never felt before, not even for Blackhawk. And yet, rising to existence in a much gentler manner, a surprising force – the desire to put the raider’s words at my back… and find my father’s body, wherever he was… And more and more, that desire actually begun to push away those horrible thoughts, whittling them down to nothingness and taking hold of me as a silent voice of reason, warning me to stay my course and to keep away from that darkness that I found in myself… for the sake of those I loved that remained… And as my breathing begun to even out again, I closed my eyes as a pair of tears came to life, forcing their way out through the corner of my eyes to trail down my cheeks.

“Nova.”

Though I didn’t open my eyes to see, I heard Raemor as he stepped up beside me on the left. And with him, Shore stopped by my right side, and I felt as he bumped his muzzle against my cheek, brushing aside the tear that had come; this time, I didn’t move away. “I want to find him…” I said, hushed… but with the same level of assertiveness. “I want to find my father… I need to find him.”

“You don’t even have to ask, Nova.” Raemor replied softly, his voice gentle as I finally opened my eyes again.

“We'll find him.” I turned to look to Shore

Looking left, then right, I took in the expressions of both stallions, seeing the sympathy in their eyes, which in turn created their resolve; only the weight of the raider’s reveal kept me from smiling, from showing the gratitude I really felt. “Thank you…”

With that Raemor advanced past the dead raider, and the ash pile that had been sizzling behind her, towards the armory as Shore nudged me away from it. “I’ll look over the armory.” Raemor said, his pistol and his axe readied beside him. “Then we can get back to the others and tell them what we found out here.”

*** *** ***

“I see…”

I partook very little in the explanation of our encounter in the lab and the armory. But as Shore told Captain Saber everything we had found in those areas, I kept my eyes on our mission leader as he listened and took in the details, waiting to hear what his next move would be, and whether or not it would encompass my own plan.

We had, one and all, returned to the atrium as planned after clearing our designated wings. But while we were all still kicking, there were a couple of us that needed medical attention. Shore’s wound wasn’t serious, but it still greatly hindered his mobility and his concentration. In his case, we were simply glad that the bullet hadn’t hit anything vital. But apart from him, Raemor, and myself, both the other teams had found an enemy presence, similarly lying in wait after the opening of the Stable door. Joker had also taken a round, getting through a weak spot on the armor around his left flank. Non-lethal as the wound was, it had been a high-caliber round that had done the damage, a three-o-eight from a high-powered rifle; it had torn up the padding and dug into him pretty good. And then there was Ivy, whose leather armor had stood no chance against an armor-piercing round that had struck her right shoulder. Her wound was the worst of the collective injuries, as it left her walking with a painful limp, and whenever she was moving, she required help from another to keep herself upright.

Our efforts had, however, yielded some useful supplies to us. It turned out that those few raiders that had remained here had either been given, or had stolen, some good quality items, from weapons and ammo, to food and even clean water. Each of our three groups had made certain to salvage the ammo that our fallen enemies had been carrying, and Saber made double sure to come back for the weapons once the Stable was clear. But each group had found their own unique items as well. While it hadn’t been much, Gunny, Sierra, and Ivy had found a box of two dozen water bottles in the apple orchard, all filled with clean water from the Stable’s talisman. With them had been a small stash of apples in the kitchen that had been saved from the orchard’s trees, which had been reported burned to the ground; these precious fruits were stored in a leather sack for safe keeping by the Black Blood. On Saber, Joker, and Daisy’s end, they had brought back two tool boxes, each with an assortment of basic tools and parts. While those wouldn’t have been as useful outside as they once were here, Saber brought them back anyway at the possibility that they may find new use, even if it was for trade. But on top of the salvaged tools, Saber had also found something rather alarming, that being four bricks of military-grade plastic explosives, C4, having been found alongside a corresponding remote detonator. And finally, upon looking through the armory, Raemor had discovered a locked gun case that the Black Blood ponies hadn’t been able to crack. Upon bringing it back, Gunny had set about to opening it up, and after a minute or so of tinkering, he got the heavy lock open to find one of Shore’s crafted weapons inside. Upon looking it over, Shore designated it as the second completed weapon of what he had intended to be his line of remodeled laser rifles that could regenerate their ammo. The weapon Raemor had found was indeed an exact replica of the one Shore had carried with him throughout our time on the surface. Now, everything we found was stashed away in the cleanest part of the atrium, all except Shore’s rifle; that was now secured snugly to Shore’s back, reunited with its creator where it truly belonged.

“I can’t express how sorry I am to hear that, Nova.” Looking out towards the main hall, towards the living quarters, Saber began to nod to himself as he worked out his next move. “I can’t promise that we’ll find anything. But if we do find him, we’ll take him out of here. That, at least, I can promise.”

“That’s really all I can ask at this point.” I replied, nodding with him. “Thank you, captain.”

“Certainly. I just want you to do me one favor, Nova, and keep your head in the game. I still need you for this mission, so keep in mind what we’re really doing here.” he added, a gentle reminder. “If we finish our tasks and don’t find his body… well, we can’t stay here for hours upon hours looking. Though I hate to put it this way… we all lost somepony here, friend or family or both…”

Though he stopped here… he could have said more. And really, I already knew what he could have said. In the harshest possible terms, my case wasn’t unique, because Saber was right – we all lost ponies we cared about here. But with everything that I’d already seen here, with how tired I was becoming despite how much I tried to steel myself… I really had no problem agreeing to that condition. Really, in the end, I was just grateful for the sympathy that he gave me. “Don’t worry.” I assured. “I understand.”

Even though I prayed that we would find him.

“Alright. Then let’s move on.” Coming back around to face us again, Saber spoke his next order. “We’ve secured most of the Stable now. All that’s left now is the old science wing. For those of you that weren’t residents, the science wing was the home of our clinic, our classrooms, a room we called the Memory Room, and then the Hall of Records where we stored a great deal of pre-war writings.”

“Anything from novels, college textbooks, and document folders, to personal journals, old newspapers, and equipment manuals.” Gunny explained. “We had it all in there.”

“With all of that,” Saber picked up after. “a couple of us are going to stay here and look through the Overmare’s office. Specifically, I want Ivy, Shore, and Joker to hang back and search that office. I won’t count on finding any medical supplies in the clinic, but at the very least, staying here will keep some pressure off those wounds until we can get you treated.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Joker interrupted. “I don’t think you should keep all three of us here. At least take one of us with you into the science wing. I don’t want to feel like I’m not doing my part.”

“Joker,” But raising a hoof, Saber silenced him. “I don’t doubt that you could keep going. But I’m not doing this to keep you from being useful. If anything, you’ve already done what you’ve needed to do. So don’t worry too much.” Though the platinum unicorn buck looked a little disgruntled even after his superior’s assurances, he let himself end his argument there, with Daisy encouraging the same with a gentle nuzzling along his neck. “With the three of them, I want Sierra to stay in the atrium and keep an eye out for any other raiders that we didn’t sweep up before.” Turning to the armored pegasus, he added, “You can see the passage into and out of every wing of the Stable from the atrium, so you’re going to make sure that the area’s we’ve cleared stay that way.”

“Of course.” she said with a nod of confirmation.

“The rest of you are going to be with me.” Saber concluded. “We’re going to get in, clear each room, then get out so we can finish things up here.” With that, everypony begun to disperse, checking over their equipment for one final delve into the Stable’s halls. “Everypony with me, we’re going to still keep our eyes open for anything we can salvage. So stay focused when we’re in there.”

There were no words of parting as our circle dispersed. Shore provided the supporting shoulder for Ivy as he begun to lead her with Joker to the hall in the southwest corner of the atrium, the hall leading to Crystal Sunset’s office. I passed Sierra by as she moved herself out of the way of the others, her compact minigun beginning to spin with a whine as she checked the heavy weapon over. And facing front, I set my sights back onto the Stable’s main corridor and moved, following after Saber. Being the one with the pipbuck, our leader took the front, already entering the hall. Gunny fell in behind him, his riot shotgun hovering in beside him as he moved, and Daisy moved in front of me to settle in the middle, her assault rifle tucked in close to her. A look over my shoulder let me see Raemor as he once again took the rear, giving me a single nod as he secured his fire axe back to its place next to his grenade rifle, leaving only his pistol hovering next to him.

Facing front, I passed again out of the atrium and back into the main hall. This time, when we came across the four-way intersection, Saber turned us left, leading us into the access hall of the science wing. And as soon as I stepped hoof into the hall, I saw ponies, happy, talking, laughing ponies under the living white light of Stable 181. Unicorns held books in their telekinesis, and the earth ponies that were mixed in carried saddlebags with their needed school supplies. And instead of a rifle saddle, I had only a pair of my own saddlebags slung over my flanks, both heavy with the books for the day’s courses. And all around, I heard nothing but both the bored and the eager conversations that revolved around another day in school.

With a bump, the red of the emergency lights returned, and I found myself looking Daisy in the eye as she eyed me over her shoulder. Having momentarily lost myself, I had bumped into Daisy’s flank just as we were about to round the first turn in the hall that hooked right. But instead of telling me to pay attention, as I had expected her to do, she passed me a small sad frown. “I remember too.” came her whisper.

Daisy was definitely older than me, at least by a couple years. But just because she had finished her classes well before me didn’t mean that she was oblivious to her own time in the schoolroom. “Goddesses… this hallway’s going to bring me back.” I whispered back, following her around the corner.

“Yeah…”

Up ahead the hall turned once more, this time to the left. Now, like we had encountered at the lab and the armory, we were passing over a small scattering of old food cartons, wrappers, and the occasional empty bottle. This time, there were torn papers mixed in, and there was even a pair of ruined books laying against the wall. But as we neared the next corner, I noted grimly as the familiar stink of decay quickly became more pungent. We one and all smelled it together… and I felt that we one and all prepared for yet another grizzly… and infuriating scene.

And that’s when I heard a sigh from up ahead, where Saber had turned the next corner. “It’s messy in here, everypony.”

I couldn’t keep myself from shaking my head as we forced ourselves onward, Gunny disappearing next around the bend. With a light shudder, I braced myself as Daisy turned next, and then I was up, emerging into the science wing’s main hall. Here… here, I beheld a scene that was fit to rival the Stable’s entrance. Amidst a floor that was blanketed with scattered papers, bodies lined the hall, one and all laying on their sides where they had fallen. There were seven altogether, and around each of them, dried blood caked the floor and even the walls where they had been savagely beaten to death. At the farthest point of the hallway, where the seventh mangled body lay, the emergency light on the ceiling had somehow been damaged. As a result, the light rapidly flickered on and off, ominously illuminating the body beneath it. Even after just stepping hoof into the main hall, I could see the window frames and the accompanying doors built into the steel of the walls that marked the position of each of the wing’s six classrooms. There were three windows with their partner doors on each side, built at wide intervals to show the larger size of each room.

And after just a few paces, stepping around the closest body, I could see the first two windows. On the right, the window was intact. But the emergency lighting showed where blood had splashed against the pane, surrounding a single hole in the glass itself, and inside the room, the students’ desks had been gathered up and stuffed against the far wall, blocking the chalkboard. On the left, the window was likewise adorned with blood, a single stripe of it painted at a diagonal from the top left to bottom right. Inside that room, the desks had not been stacked or pushed away, but had been thrown in every which direction, leaving nothing but a chaotic mess inside; I was grateful that I couldn’t see the victims inside, whoever they might have been.

“Just ignore the classrooms.” Saber spoke up, continuing ahead at a slower pace. “If there aren’t raiders inside, then we have nothing more to do with those rooms.”

A few seconds later, and I was passing by the second of the three pairs of windows, with three corpses behind me already. The one on the right had been shattered entirely, leaving only an empty frame. And out in the hall, we had to walk around a smashed up desk that was laying on its side, the item responsible for breaking through the glass. On the left, the window was clean and whole, but there were two bodies that I could see inside, both having died laying atop a desk within; one of them was missing a head.

In silence we continued, approaching the damaged light that marked the beginning of the back half of the hallway as we put the sixth body in the hall behind us. The last two windows came into view then, the damaged light still illuminating what was left within the final two classrooms. On the left, the room was a disaster area equal to the second room I had seen, with the desks demolished and scattered about the room. But on the right, I found myself gasping as the flashing light revealed a horrible scene. Past the window frame, I could see a dead earth pony mare, a light purple mare with a darker violet mane that was lying on her belly atop the teacher’s desk in the back left corner of the room. Each of her legs had been straightened out and stapled to it with iron spikes, and with the way she was positioned… it didn’t take a genius to understand that she had been raped before she died… perhaps more than once. And against the far wall of the classroom, the chalkboard had been spared from destruction, used instead to hold a message from the raiders who had killed her.

Nerdy BITCH!!!

The worst part of it all… I knew the mare on that table. She had been one of the Stable’s teachers… my teacher, whose subject of expertise was the history of the pre-war era. And that room had been my most frequently used classroom… and I could remember everything… her smile as she greeted me to a new day of learning, and my smile that I gave her in return as I eagerly made my way to my assigned seat, second to last row, farthest desk on the right side; I was more than ready to get started…

An image flashed through my head about what had been done to her… I promptly stomped it down, shivering in the process.

“Was she your teacher too?”

Once again, Daisy was looking over her shoulder at me as we put the last two classrooms behind us. And in reply, I could only give a little nod; I simply couldn’t find any words to speak at having seen the fate of one of my instructors…

“Daisy.” Suddenly, Saber’s voice called out to us, jolting both of us out of our shared trance. “Daisy come up here.” Quick to comply, the pink unicorn pushed her way forward, Gunny stepping away to the side to give her room. “We’re coming up on the clinic now.” Saber spoke up just before she joined him. Indeed, there was a single door farther along the right side of the hall, sitting at the center of the rear half of the science wing. “I’ve got nothing on E.F.S., so I want you to sweep through it and look around for any meds that might be left. It’ll be a long shot, but I still want you to try.”

“Yes, captain.” she replied, slowing as they drew up to the door. “Do you want me to meet back up with you when I’m done?”

“If you come across any remaining medicine, get back to the others and distribute what you find.” Saber answered her. “Be thorough. Even if the clinic was looted, there might still be something that the raiders missed. But most importantly, keep on your guard. Just because there aren’t raiders around doesn’t mean that this place isn’t dangerous.”

Daisy gave a nod. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” The pink mare came to a stop by the clinic door, closed up tight with the control panel placed at its right side still intact and active, the light glowing its own shade of red. And as I passed her by, she used the barrel of her assault rifle to press the panel’s one button before taking aim. With a short release of air, the door slid open with a single smooth motion, revealing a room that was… ominously bereft of light, even from the emergency system; the last thing I saw out of the corner of my eye was Daisy as her horn begun to glow before she moved into the clinic, undaunted by the darkness.

“As for the rest of you, I think we’re just about done here.” In front of me, I caught a glimpse of Saber just as he faced front from looking over his shoulder to us. Past him, we were coming upon a wall in the path, marking the end of the wing’s main passage. But it was there that two new pathways branched off in either direction, making a t-intersection. And bolted into the wall between where the two new paths began was another directory. According to the two glowing red signs, the hall that branched left led to the Stable’s Memory Room, where all our photographs were taken with our salvaged camera. And to the right was our beloved Hall of Records, One Eighty-one’s great library that was the home to every pre-war and wartime era document that our founding family had been able to save from the bombs…… the place where I spent the greater part of my time when I had been in school. “E.F.S. still isn’t picking up any hostile presence here, towards the Memory Room or the Hall of Records. So I’m beginning to think that we wiped out the remaining invaders when we were engaged before.”

“If there were any in here, they would’ve revealed themselves by now.” Gunny agreed. “It’s not like them to keep quiet.”

After a few more steps, Saber came to a stop as he reached the end of the hall. And one after the next we followed his move, gathering up closer as he looked over the directory. “Alright. I’m going to need somepony to head left and check out the Memory Room. I’ve already looked the place over with E.F.S., but having visual confirmation that it’s clear still wouldn’t hurt.”

“I can check the room over for you, if you wish.”

On my left, Raemor drew up beside me as he caught our leader’s attention. “Good. Then while you’re doing that, I’ll take Nova and Gunny, and we’ll look over the Hall of Records.” And already, he was beginning to move forward, slowly turning right towards his destination. “This is the part where we’ll be looking for anything with a more sentimental value to it.” he added, watching as the old unicorn passed Gunny by to step up to the front. “A lot of good memories came from here… so if there’s anything left in the Stable that could really give our ponies some reason to keep fighting out there, it’d come from here.”

“This place must have truly been wonderful when you lived here.” Raemor remarked, stopping just as he turned down the left hall to look back at us.

“From one pony who’s lived a long time to another, I imagine that in all your years you should know what a truly beautiful home is like, even up there.” Saber responded, likewise stopping again to meet Raemor’s gaze. “Out in the wastes, there must have been a place that you called home, a place that not only sheltered you, but brought you true happiness, that despite the nature of our world gave you the chance to live just like one would have lived in ponykind’s era of peace. And down here in these steel corridors and chambers, we knew joys that even Celestia and Luna themselves would have been envious of.”

“Yes… I’ve lived in such a place in my time.” Raemor replied back, a very slight chuckle escaping him. “So I know exactly what you mean, and I pray to the Goddesses that upon our departure, this place might be at peace in the form of its inhabitants’ joyful memories.”

And when I looked back… Saber – a smile actually begun to tug at the corner of his mouth. In that moment, the two of them were of one mind… a moment that, for a brief time, removed me from the gloom to draw out my own little smile; even Gunny looked touched by our old friend’s words when we exchanged a glance. “So do I, Raemor.” Saber said, carrying that small smile with him as he faced front. “I hope so, too.”

With a wave of a hoof, Saber drew our focus back onto the Hall of Records as he pushed onward, and Gunny and I followed after him, my friend keeping parallel to me on my left. And as soon as we got moving, as soon as my eyes fell on Saber’s back, there was something about him that made itself known to me. There was a certain energy in his stride, an eagerness in the pace he set, something he didn’t have before. But just as I started to privately inquire to myself, I caught a glimpse of something ahead, something that had blended in with the emergency lighting. It was a red light, just slightly lighter in shade than the rest of the lights, coming from a single round stubby bulb attached to yet another door control console. And as we closed the distance between us and the panel, I looked upon the door for the Hall of Records… or rather the battered, marred, and scorched slab of steel that was what remained of the door. Together the three of us begun to slow, giving me all the time I needed to see what the raiders had done here. What had once been clean gray metal was now streaked with black, where fire and electricity had carved away at it. The welders and flamethrowers that the Black Blood had utilized left great gashes in the steel, looking like gaping wounds. Additionally, mixed in with the dark scorch marks that covered the great majority of the door’s face, there were countless white scratches where various tools had been used to slash and stab. I even recognized the depressions where bullets had struck, leaving what seemed like a whole screen of dents and dings from where rounds had bounced uselessly off. And on the bottom of the door, I could see where the whole thing had been curved inward, as if something had simply bent the whole thing to try and get in. But despite all the marks and all the damage, the door to the Hall of Records remained standing.

“Looks like they were having some difficulty with this one.” Gunny observed, stopping beside me as the three of us looked it over.

Saber did not respond this time… ahead of me and just to my right, he was looking over the door’s control panel.

“You don’t think that might mean…”

But I stopped mid-question, my last word fading to nothing as I found myself looking Gunny eye to eye… with an idea in my head that seemed…… nearly impossible; and yet, judging by the way his eyes begun to widen, he was thinking the same thing.

“I’ve got one way we can find out.” And Saber realized it too.

Looking back over, I spotted the captain as he reached his right foreleg up to touch his chest, his hoof settling over one of the front pockets. But to that I cocked an eyebrow, in time with Gunny as he took a step forward to ask, “Captain, wasn’t the Hall of Records was the most secure room in the whole Stable? I thought the door could only be opened with a-”

“A keycard.” And with a quick motion, Saber let a rectangular plate fall from his pocket and onto the floor. “Or rather, the Overmare’s security badge.” In the glow of the scarlet lighting, the badge Saber revealed glinted along its face, the glass covering smooth and undamaged. And preserved within was a single sheet of white paper, at the center of which was a small golden circle that I could just barely make out.

“Crystal gave that to you?” Gunny asked, his voice betraying his surprise.

“Just before we left One Eighty-one.” Saber answered, drawing his hoof along the card’s protective case to trace along the chain that made it into a necklace. “Outside of residents’ quarters, this thing let Crystal enter or exit any room she wanted to. And it was only one night before we ran that she gave it to my keeping.” His hoof then came to a stop atop the glass case, a sigh escaping his lips. “The truth is… I really don’t know why she gave it to me.” he said, an immediately notable melancholy touching his words. “But the last night we spent together, sharing a bottle of hard cider in her quarters, and she just slid it over to me, didn’t say a single word about it… All she did was smile at me… as if she’d finally settled some sort of old internal debate. I even asked her about it… but she just took a sip from her glass and changed the subject… The most I ever got out of her about it was when she told me that I was under orders to keep it… and that I wasn’t to disobey.”

“So you kept it all through the time we were up on the surface…”

That definitely started explaining some things…

To me, Saber gave a nod, though keeping his eyes on the ruined door. “That last night we shared in the Stable – it was one of the main reasons why I fought so hard to get this mission off the ground.” he replied. “I’d been holding onto that badge for so long, I just wanted to come back… see if there was anything that I could unlock with it… something good. And the more time I spent out there, the more time I’d been left to my own thoughts, it became a desire, really… and in truth, I had almost given up hope that I’d get my chance to do so.” And as he spoke, he worked his right forehoof under the necklace. “Now that I’m here… I’m eager but… terrified at the same time.” he continued, a single soft note of laughter escaping him. “Seeing everything I’ve seen here… I fear that after waiting all that time I’ll just find another dead end… find that everything that was once whole is no more than useless junk…… After waiting for so long…”

But if he had even thought of anything to finish his thoughts with, it didn’t come to our ears. Instead, our leader only sighed, a little shiver traveling along his body as he mustered himself up in the ensuing pause. “With all due respect, sir,” Gunny piped up, gentle as he could. “there’s only one way you’re going to know for sure. And it’d be wise to find out either way.”

“Lest you never know at all.” I added, equally tender.

But despite our approach, Saber only looked over his shoulder to cast a tiny smirk to us both, as if our voices were all he needed to work up the courage to carry out that desire he had made for himself. Then, raising up his foreleg, now with Crystal’s security badge draped around it, Saber focused on the door’s control panel and lifted the badge up until it faced the red light at the panel’s top. As it lightly swayed before the scanner, only silence remained, drawing out second by second. And when nothing happened, I took a sidelong glance to Gunny where he stood beside me… a look of creeping doubt that he exchanged with me. But suddenly, from the scanner came a ringing note of a near musical quality, the both of us snapping our attention back to the door. There, as Saber lowered his hoof back down, I saw the green light on the panel that had replaced the red, and from the door itself came a deep mechanical thud, the releasing of a heavy lock inside the door. And without any further hesitation, Saber reached back up for the panel to press the button below the light. A hiss of air greeted his touch, and the door hitched as it begun to open, the internal components pulling the steel slab up into its slot in the top of the frame with a low whine. But just shortly after and it begun to slow, and I saw where the door’s plating begun to grate against the edge of the aperture. The warped steel had been bent too far inward, and suddenly, with a bright flash of light, sparks erupted out from the door slot and showered the floor as an electrical component within blew out, the door grinding to a halt.

It had opened barely a third of the way, making only a large enough gap for somepony to be able to crawl through. “Damn… should have seen that coming.” Saber grumbled, studying over the jammed door as he let out a thoughtful hum. “Gunny, get over here and hold the door up with your telekinesis. I’m going to take a look inside, and I don’t want this thing coming down on me.”

“Yes, sir.” From Gunny’s horn came a prompt pulse of lighter red in the deep crimson, the same glow rising to life around the base of the door. “Alright, I got it.” When Gunny gave the word, Saber took a step back and lowered himself down onto his belly before the opening. And I watched on as he crawled forward, ducking his head down low before he begun to pull himself past the gap. But when his head passed through, giving him a view of the room, his efforts abruptly ceased all at once when he suddenly fell still… leaving me staring after him with a growing restlessness.

“Captain?” Taking a step forward, I lowered my head to try and get a look into Saber’s eyes. “Captain, what do you see?” I asked again; suddenly, I begun to feel rather… anxious…

As if snapped out of a trance, Saber shifted before pushing himself back out into the hallway. It was a surprisingly fast movement, the same speed with which he pulled himself back up to his hooves, then finally looking back over his shoulder to face me. Wide eyes met mine and Gunny’s, paired with a look of stunned disbelief on his face. “Look for yourself.” he answered, giving a little shake of his head as he turned away to face the door again.

Goddesses… he was actually beginning to shake…

My curiosity had already been high when Saber had proven that Crystal Sunset’s badge still worked, when that battered and broken door actually opened. But with Saber’s wide eyes and brief response… with him so suddenly being too dazed to speak as he normally did…

I didn’t wait for a second invite.

Approaching the door, I eased myself onto my belly just a few steps away from the gap. And with an ever-increasing eagerness, I crawled along to reach the opening, and begun to pass under the raised door. But I didn’t even have to go that far before my eyes found what Saber’s had… and in a split second, my whole body became paralyzed with shock when I beheld a sight that I never thought I would see again. Books… books, everywhere in front of me, sprawled out to the left and right in their shelves, starting at the glinting floor and reaching up to touch the spotless ceiling. No matter where I looked, I… found… books – storybooks, schoolbooks, journals, manuals, file folders, binders and cases, all arranged as neatly as I had last seen them over four weeks ago. Past the mangled door, which had survived a merciless beating from raider weapons, was the only spotless room I had seen in the Stable thus far, a circular chamber with a massive array of bookshelves that followed the curve of the room itself, home to dozens upon dozens of preserved literary artifacts from the Old World. And at the center, surrounded by those shelves, placed upon a small circular table, was the final artifact, perhaps the greatest of them all.

A single radio, a compact box of electronic and magical components, Stable 181’s method of listening to the music holotapes that we had kept close to our hearts… my favored refuge in my previous life… and it too, was still here… just waiting to be found…

Inside this room, there was not one torn page, not one piece of trash, or a stain of blood, or a single bullet casing. Inside this room was nothing but the collective knowledge that the Golden Fire family had brought with them before the world had been turned to glass. This room had been spared the terrible fate that had befallen the rest of our beloved home, and within it was the very center of all our understanding of the pre-war and wartime eras. Within this room was the Stable’s cumulative intellectual wealth. Within this room was the place that had given us everything we had grown to know, love, and protect, from the material to the spiritual.

This room…

“Goddesses…”

This was the great Hall of Records… the very heart of Stable 181…

And it had survived the Black Blood’s onslaught…

“It’s untouched…”

BEEEEEP!!!

From out of nowhere, a tremendous blaring horn ripped through my ears, the only sound that could have pulled me away from the shocking scene before me. And consequently, the noise had ripped me out of my awestruck state so fiercely that I struck the suspended door with the back of my head, eliciting a pained shout as the noise finally dissipated… only to be replaced by what I recognized as the buzzing of static… radio static.

“Everypony,”

A voice, from all around, called for our attention as I backed out from under the door, doing my best to ignore the pulsing sting where I’d greeted the metal. “Is that Shore?”

Pulling myself back up to all fours again, I looked back over my shoulder at Gunny’s question, finding both him and the captain as they traced their eyes along the ceiling. “That’s the Stable’s PA system.” Saber observed in reply. “The controls are in Crystal’s office… It must have survived, too.”

“This is Shore, calling from inside the Overmare’s office.” the voice continued, definitely him. “With Sierra outside in the atrium, we could not maintain contact with the rest of you as we would like, and so after a little searching, Ivy, Joker, and I found that the Overmare’s personal terminal had survived the raider’s takeover. Once I passed its lockdown, I was able to log in to the Stable’s functions that could be controlled from the office. I’m afraid that the lights are not going to be salvageable, and so we will have to deal with these emergency lights for however long we stay.”

“The Memory Room was a loss I’m afraid.” A glance back down to the others, and I saw as Raemor joined back up with us, holstering his weapons back to their places on his combat armor. “There was nothing that was not destroyed.”

Saber gave only a nod in reply to Raemor’s unfortunate news.

“However, I called to inform Captain Saber of a discovery that I’ve just now made.” Shore continued over the speakers; that got our attention. “When I unlocked Crystal’s terminal, I discovered a rather large database, and over the common materials like the scouting reports and scheduling files… well, there was one thing in particular that caught my eye. From the look of things, Crystal was a rather reflective mare, or at least far more so than I had previously thought. I found a set of personal audio files here, and each one mentioned a name of somepony in the Stable. It turns out that Crystal kept personal records of certain ponies. And one of those ponies happened to be Damien.”

With a start, I found myself listening in far more carefully. “Dad…”

“I apologize in advance, Nova,” Shore said. “but I played the log just to hear what Crystal had to say. I’m afraid I found out more than I had anticipated, and I called through the PA to get you to come up to the Overmare’s Office. This audio log is something that you’re going to want to listen to. So when you get done in the science wing, please do make your way back and come find me at your earliest convenience. Again, this is something that you really should hear.”

With that final request, the light buzz of the PA that accompanied Shore’s message cut out, leaving me standing there with only a steadily rising pool of questions. “Um… Saber?”

When my eyes fell back to the others again, I found all three stallions looking to me, each wearing an expression of varying perplexity. “What do you think he found?” Gunny inquired curiously. “I didn’t take the Overmare as being somepony to keep records on residents.”

“Neither did I.” Saber replied back, exchanging a puzzled glance with the others.

“What should I do?” I asked.

“Well…” With a hum, the captain looked back to me. “I’ll say to go back to the office and find out what Shore discovered on Crystal’s terminal. I’m going to be picking up every unicorn in our team to start going through the Hall of Records and load up everything that’ll fit aboard the wagon. So while we get busy with that over here, you can go find Shore and see what he wanted you to go see.”

“You won’t need help from me here?” I asked; already I was beginning to move.

“No, I’ll need magic users for this.” Saber assured, stepping aside with Raemor to give me a path to move by. “And that’s why Madeline’s team is here. So you go ahead, you’ve done your part.”

“Alright then. I’ll get going.”

I only made it around the corner before I took off for the office at a full gallop.

*** *** ***

“Oh, excuse me, Nova.”

Upon reaching the top of the stairwell, I jumped as I suddenly came face to face with Quinn, the both of us briefly startled out of our thoughts as we crossed paths. “Things okay outside?” I ventured after the pause, stepping aside to let the unicorn mare through.

“We ran into some trouble out there.” the mare responded, stopping two steps down to look back to me. “There were seven outside that we happened to stumble across. But don’t worry, we knocked them out without any of us getting hurt.”

“I’m glad you answered that before I could get worked up.” I replied, flashing a small smile to her. “Is Blake alright?”

“He’s doing fine.” Quinn assured. “He kept his head down in the skirmish out there, and the wagon’s plating held up good. So don’t you worry.”

And exhaling with relief, I nodded to her. “Thanks.”

“Now it’s time to see what Saber found so interesting.” Quinn remarked, already turned about and marching down the stairs. “Sarge didn’t tell us much. She just gathered us up and told the others to get ready, which must mean the captain didn’t tell her much either.”

“You’ll love what you find.” I called in reply, watching as she passed the last few steps. “Honestly, it’s the only thing that’s kept me in here this long. Otherwise I would’ve stepped outside a long time ago.”

“Yeah? Well… that’s good to hear.” Quinn answered, pausing at the base of the stairs. “I’ve already seen enough to want to get the hell out of here… it’d be nice to see something positive for a change.”

And on that unfortunately sour note, the two of us headed out for our separate destinations. Turning back around, I picked up my pace to a trot and rounded the corner immediately before me. The access hall, thankfully, was largely clean. A couple wrappers here, an empty bottle there, no blood stains. On the left, about halfway down, there was one open door, the room beyond it unlabeled. Passing it by, I saw a double bed facing the entrance, flanked on both sides by nightstands. The bed sheets and the blanket on top had been wrinkled up, showing that it had been slept in. But otherwise, Crystal’s quarters looked to be largely preserved, apart from the usual trash.

And no more than ten yards past Crystal’s room, the hallway fused into her office.

“So… I have the same name as your first Overmare, huh?”

“Ha. Imagine that.”

“Yes you do… Or… well, her nickname… but, yes.” As I drew up to the final corner, I slowed at hearing voices within the room. “Everypony here referred to her as Ivy in the classroom, or when Crystal discussed her history. But according to the file, her real name was actually Blackfire.” Shore said, responding to Ivy’s question.

“I guess that’d explain the colors then.” A third voice commented - Joker. “Black, gold, blue.”

“Crystal never mentioned that name before.” came a fourth curious tone after – Daisy. “I wonder why?”

“I don’t know.” Shore replied, the tapping of computer keys following. “It says she was a sergeant in the air force back before she came here. There is quite the service record here… and here, this last operation is marked with a star.”

“Operation Trinity.” Ivy said, reading aloud. “Hm.”

“Crystal never talked about a military past either.” Joker remarked thoughtfully.

“Oh, Nova.” From his place behind the Overmare’s desk, Shore spotted me over the top of Crystal’s desk terminal as I silently entered the room. “Please come in.”

“You wanted to see me, Shore?” I asked, moving forward to come around the right side of the desk. Both Joker and Daisy were just in front of me, with a picture frame hovering before them, one of six that were set around their hooves. And as I passed them by, I could see the mare in the picture they studied together, the first Overmare of Stable 181, a black pegasus with a dark golden mane, looking off to the side with half-lidded, meditative blue eyes. Her image there gave me pause, her exhausted gaze, her weathered but still feminine and pretty face… something about it made me draw a line between her and the Stable… rather, it made me feel like she was… still here. Looking at her… Ivy, Blackfire… whatever her real name… for a moment I felt that she had been aware of everything that had happened here, that she had seen the home that she had commanded and had built to be the first pure bastion of civilization after the Last Day… fall to the Black Blood. Her face here… I saw a pain in it, a longing just like we one and all had coming back here.

I had seen her picture many times before… but never in this light… and the fact that I felt like our founding Overmare had wept upon seeing how far we had fallen…

It was a painful way of thinking.

“Nova?”

“Yes!” With a jolt I was pulled back into the real world, turning my attention back to my waiting friend. “Sorry…”

“How are you feeling, Nova?” Having been standing with Shore by the terminal, browsing through its content with him, Ivy was looking back to me as well, suspending her right foreleg to keep pressure off the wound on her shoulder; next to her on the Overmare’s desk was a half-empty healing potion… salvage from the clinic.

“I’ll be okay… now that we found what we did.”

“We got the report from Quinn when she arrived.” Shore responded to me. “The whole Hall of Records…… it’s unbelievable.”

“That’s the heart of the Stable…” Joker put in, daring to use an actually happy tone. “That door held… the raiders didn’t get the heart.”

“It’s more than we could’ve ever dreamed of in these times.” Daisy replied; I was surprised to hear a little sniffle escape her as she and Joker bumped muzzles… Daisy was actually starting to cry.

Regardless, it was impossible not to agree.

“So are you going to show me what you wanted to show me, Shore?”

While I didn’t fully intend it, there was no fully concealing an impatient tone in my words, something my friend took note of. As I joined him and Ivy behind Crystal’s desk, he quickly tapped away at a few more keys before the screen he was on disappeared, and in its place, a list begun to load up, a list of names in the personal log menu… that just grew and grew. “Look at this.” he beckoned; I leaned in to look into the monochrome green of the terminal. “The Overmare kept personal logs about a number of residents, and on your way here, I was able to listen to a few.” Tapping at a key, he begun to scroll through the menu. “She had a bit of a theme going, if you will. Many of her logs were made to commemorate an event in the Stable or speak a personal thought on a pony’s latest achievements.”

“The way you made it sound over the loudspeaker makes me think she said something a little different about my father.” I commented, watching the screen as Shore scrolled through the names on the menu; it was a very lengthy alphabetical list.

“Yes… yes I know.” Shore replied, clearing his throat. “That’s because she did.” And that’s when the cursor stopped… and there was my father’s name, Damien, flashing on the screen. Tapping a single key, Shore selected it, and a new menu with only one option appeared… one log. “The other residents that I looked through had multiple logs, both audio and text. And with how many I found, I would imagine that she added new entries rather frequently. But for your father… I only found this one.”

“And you said that you listened to it already?” But though I asked… I already knew he had. I’d heard him when he said it, I wasn’t dumb. Seeing him nod though… it was a way to get the courage I needed to pass by the way he had presented his discovery to me… how he said that it was something I had to see; silly as it was… I just wanted to see that sign. “Play it.”

He nodded only once, no hesitation, then facing the computer’s keyboard, reaching a hoof up to press the key. And at his touch, a sigh came through the terminal… a sad and very tired sigh that nearly drowned out a soft background of muddled voices, the general roar of a crowd. “Goddesses… I’ve never come back from a weekly dinner feeling so… so tired.” Crystal… that was definitely Crystal. Even now, after four weeks, I remembered that voice… strong and authoritative, yet still of a gentle and feminine. But already, I wasn’t liking the way she sounded this time; she had never, ever, sounded so… weary before, even in the Stable… it wasn’t like her at all… and it made me uncertain… uncertain as to what I’d find. “There’s a weight on my back, same as after every other gathering. It’s really no stranger to me… except this time it’s far stronger than what it used to be… because there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of Damien… of what happened to him.”

Dad…

“It was so many years ago, but I remember… everything… every time I see him.” Crystal continued, that same sorrowful tone haunting her words. “Sometimes it’s hard to even look at him because every time I do, I feel so much guilt at what I did. I feel it every time he smiles or waves… or makes conversation… when he calls me Crystal or Overmare or ma’am… never big sister.”

… Big sister…

“The last log I made on him… and promptly deleted after a… bottle or two of hard cider… it said the same damn thing… makes me wonder why I even bothered making it.” Here, she paused long enough for the dimmed roar of the crowd to take over, and Crystal Sunset sniffed in the recording. “Maybe it’s just because Damien’s family is as strong as ever.” she finally said. “His little son, Blake – he still hasn’t lost an ounce of his energy. And his daughter is just growing and growing… my niece… Goddesses, she’s already an adult… sometimes seems like it was just yesterday when Damien and Seiyara brought her into the world.”

Merciful Luna…… niece…

“Even after so many years of putting on the ruse of being the simple Overmare to those children, I still think about how they might’ve seen me if I hadn’t completely wiped away Damien’s memories. Auntie Crystal… sounds like something I don’t deserve, much less than being a mother myself.” I couldn’t stop myself from leaning back from the terminal, slowly beginning to shake my head… just in sheer disbelief; out of the corner of my eye, Shore was watching me with no small amount of concern. “No. Now I just think about how Nova and Blake and even Seiyara would see me if I told them the truth.” And still the recording continued. “Seiyara would probably bash my skull in if I told her what I did to her husband all those years ago. That spell is one of the most dangerous, for both the unicorn performing it and the one on the receiving end of it. Still might deserve it even more than I already do knowing that his memories are still here in this Stable.” Again she paused, this time with the hum of magic coming to life before she took a drink of something. “Sometimes I look through them on my own, lock myself up in my quarters after everypony’s asleep and lose myself in the ones I chose to spare from total destruction…” she continued, now with a rather suddenly conversational tone. “Only the bad ones though… I can’t bring myself to look at the good ones… For taking away Damien’s first six years of life… the six years he lived as my little brother… I deserve to relive my nightmare every once and awhile. Can’t forget.”

I couldn’t even… I couldn’t find any words…

“But now, the more I look back to the time when Damien was still my baby brother, of when our family was happy and whole… the more I want to reveal the truth, to tell Damien and to give him his memories back so he can see… at least a piece of what I’ve kept from him for his whole life.” With a hollow thud, a bottle was set roughly onto the desk. “I’ve thought about it so many times now, so many that it’s… just plain inexcusable at this point. But now I’ve got the confidence to say that… I think I’m finally coming to terms with my past now. And I think it’s time that I tell him the truth, him and his family, no matter how much they’ll hate me afterwards… it’s just the best thing to do.”

Crystal… Crystal was my… my dad’s…

“Nova just got her cutie mark today…” Goddesses, no… this had been recorded right before… right before she died…… “It’s not the best time right now, not while they’re celebrating. But in a couple days, once everything in the Stable gets back to the normal routine again… I’m going to come out and tell the story, show Damien the memory orbs in my safe. And after that… I’m standing down as Overmare.” And this time, she sighed with a terrible heaviness, a sort of exhaled sob mixed in to make a near pitiful, unbearable note to hear. “Because in all the time that I’ve spent keeping up this deception…” And she choked back her words… she was crying. “my baby brother has done so much better for himself than I could have ever possibly dreamed of...... I’ve watched him grow from a devastated young colt into a proud stallion who came to do so much good for our beloved Stable. He’s built a fine family, settled down with a beautiful and honorable wife, and brought two amazing children into this torn world of ours… children who I know will carry his spirit along with them as they follow in his steps.” And as she stopped once again, she actually laughed, just once, a note that was the capsule to a dozen emotions. “He’s been the perfect vessel for the virtues our ancestors cherished… I don’t even think Blackfire herself could have asked for anything better of him… And that’s why I’ll be appointing Damien as Overstallion to take my place.” she said with confidence. “I can think of no better leader than him. And as for me… I’ll accept the consequences of my past choices, and I’ll do whatever I can to atone for those sins… even if I have to disappear into the wasteland for a second time… I’ll do whatever it takes to do better.”

And here, after Crystal sniffed one more time, the log cut away, ending with a chirp of sound.

“That is what I wanted you to hear.” Leaning forward, Shore looked into my staring eyes, the only way to snap me out of my binding trance. “I’m not certain if we will be bringing this terminal with us when we leave. So I wanted you to hear this before you would miss out on the opportunity to do so.”

Taking a step back, turning away from the terminal, I cleared my throat as I fought to get a hold of myself. “Um… well… thanks for calling me here.” I replied with some effort. “I don’t really… know what to say about it though…”

“It came as quite a shock to me, too.” Shore said, as comforting as he could. “She hid a lot from you and your father… well, your entire family, really. But I never took her as the kind of pony to hide things, let alone something as important as that.”

But to that I nodded a wholehearted agreement, swallowing as I begun to ease. “Neither did I.” I managed to reply. “I mean she was… she was my father’s sister, for Goddesses’ sake. They were family and she just… hid it all away. She buried it… and I can’t even think of a remotely good reason behind that choice. I… I can’t understand why…”

“Shore…” Glancing to the left, I locked on to Ivy as she gingerly interrupted us. “We should show her the other things we found in the office.” she suggested. “You said yourself how you thought there might be a connection.”

“You found more?” I asked the black stallion, instantly drawn in by Ivy’s remark. “Was there anything else that involved my dad?”

After a thoughtful hum, Shore gave Ivy a nod, gesturing with his muzzle to the Overmare’s desk. “Well, there were two things.” Ivy responded at Shore’s silent command. “It turns out that your Overmare had a personal floor safe in this office, stashed away under a hidden panel on the floor under her desk. And it also turns out that raiders are not very skilled lock pickers, because it was still locked when we found it.”

“I took a crack at the lock when we got in.” Joker added. “Gunny would have had an easier time of it, but once I got it open, we found what Shore believes to be the very same memories that Crystal mentioned in her recording.”

“Y-you did?”

With a dim flash of green light, Ivy’s telekinesis flared to life, and only a second later emerged a floating container from under the desk, a short, wide black box that she lifted up and over to set atop the desk by the terminal. “This case has eight memory orbs inside.” Ivy explained, the glow around her horn pulsing again as she pulled back the lid. “And aside from that, there were two more memory orbs sitting outside the case, each one on its own little bag.” And as she spoke, two more items came floating out from their hiding place beneath the desk, two raggedy cloths, each wrapped up like a ball to protect an object within. But I could see past them… the glint of crystal catching in the crimson light, winking at me. And in the case… eight of them, two rows of four, all shining bright. “You have a recollector if I remember right. So we both figured you might end up finding a time to view them… of course, only if you want to. We just thought we’d save them anyway, that way you could at least have the opportunity to decide.”

“I see…”

“And finally, there was one other thing we found in here.” Shore put in, standing up in order to turn away from the glowing terminal screen. “Except this thing wasn’t in the safe.”

After a moment of thought, I understood what he was getting to. “You mean it wasn’t even Crystal’s?” I asked, shaking my head before letting out a light sigh; I was finding it more and more difficult to work on my ‘recovery effort’ the more that Shore revealed.

“Yes. It was just sitting in the corner of the room there.” Shore answered, pointing a hoof to the far right corner of the office, where a collection of scattered wrappers was mixed up with two empty bottles… along with a tattered, empty duffle bag and an old grey blanket. “We found it hidden under a couple wrappers there.” And that’s when I heard a soft click from the desk, the last item being set with the others. It was a thin white box, perfectly square, nearly flat. A clear plastic window protected a pair of reels inside; I knew the device… because I already carried two of them with me in my saddlebags. “A holotape.” Shore confirmed. “As soon as we found it I brought it out to Sierra so that I could access it, since it required a pipbuck system in order to play.”

“And?” I pressed edgily.

“Well… to cut to the chase… the stallion on the log mentioned your father by name.” Shore replied. “And he said that he was going to bury him.”

Buried…… BURIED!! “He… he buried my dad?” In a fit of nearly staggering expectance, I drew up to Shore to lock eyes, nearly muzzle to muzzle. “Did he say where??” I demanded. “Where was he buried??”

“He didn’t say where, Nova.” But before I could deflate at his reply, he put a hoof up to my shoulder to keep my eyes on him. “But from the way the stallion on the log was talking, it sounded like he knew the Stable quite personally. And what’s more than that, he claimed that he actually lived in the Stable before.”

Oh Goddesses… “You’re… you’re actually serious aren’t you?” I asked… softer now at the sudden turn. “But it couldn’t have been one of our survivors… because nopony ever entered here again, not with the raiders still around.”

My friend nodded. “I agree, and you’re right. There was a lot to the stallion’s recording. He spoke frequently about a history on the surface, about his past life and his experiences, and he spoke a lot about things he knew about the Old World. But what took me by complete surprise, above everything else, was that he claimed to recognize you, you and your entire family.”

I had to blink once, take a moment to rebound from his final words. “Wha… he did?”

“Yes. And that is why I would theorize that, given how much he knew about the Stable, and how he claimed to know you yourself, and how he sounded when making mention of the Stable’s ultimate fate, he buried your father out by the graveyard we made after we fled the Stable. If he knows as much about the Stable as he says, and saw what happened in here, then it is only right to believe that he would have also seen what we left behind outside.” With that, Shore lowered away his hoof, keeping his eyes on mine as he leaned back to give me some space. “I would look there first. And if he’s not there, then I would say to look anywhere on the surface directly above the Stable.”

As soon as I had been told my father’s fate, as soon as I’d met the raider who’d boasted the shot that finished him, it had become my mission to find where he had eventually come to rest. Between the rage and the pain that swirled like a violent gale within me, I had made that task my chief priority, giving it precedence even over Saber’s own mission. With all the time that Blackhawk had spent pursuing me on the surface, there had been a rather large gap of time where the Black Blood had fallen off the proverbial radar. After Hopeville, and the region-wide losses that they had sustained both before and after that battle, they had just… ceased to exist. But being here… learning everything I had learned, seeing what I had seen… I was reminded the hard way just how cruel these monsters were… the very real enemies that they were… what they were capable of. And here and now, the burning hatred I had shaped for myself outside the armory was becoming refined, molded into a sense of purpose, into a duty to recognize the Black Blood as I did Blackhawk. The faction as a whole – it was an enemy, a mortal enemy, my enemy who had from the start made our fight against them a personal one, in a trillion different ways. And I knew that as soon as I got back out there, no matter where it was that we would be traveling to next, I was not going to make the same mistake of forgetting them again. No. In fact, deep down, I found myself looking forward to the next meeting I had with one of their patrols.

But before any of that came the matter of my father… taken from the Stable and buried, not even by a stallion of our community, but by nopony more than a stranger. And despite the emotional storm raging along within me, the shock I felt at learning what I did still stood at the forefront of my vision. Now, having actually been presented with the chance to find my father, a chance that I was uncertain of attaining from the start despite my resolve… I was feeling a lump forming up in my throat, and a tension in my gut, the final product that was my ultimate reaction to the knowledge I had gained here…

I needed to leave…

“Shore,” After a sigh, I spoke one more time to my friend, still waiting where he had been before. “Um…” At a light rasp in my voice, I promptly swallowed and cleared my throat. “Could I… could I have a few minutes to step outside, please?” I spared a glance to Ivy where she remained behind the black stallion; finding her sympathetic eyes on me. “As long as none of you need help… I’d like to get some air.”

“Sergeant Madeline and her team already passed through the atrium,” Looking back over my left shoulder, I saw where Joker and Daisy were standing by the office’s single circular window, looking out into main chamber. “so they’ve likely already started moving things. I think you’ll have the time you want.”

“Yes, I would say the same.” Shore added, drawing my focus back to him. “You go ahead, Nova. Somepony will come out and find you if something else happens.”

Gratefully, I nodded to his answer. “Thank you.”

*** *** ***

“Sir… what happened down there?”

The sky above, the blanket of grey cloud cover… it was the same… the same as the first day I stepped upon the dirt now under my hooves. Goddesses… it really was the same…

“You said the Stable was sealed, so what happened?”

Evening was beginning its approach now, the clouds darkening even with the arrival of a temporary break from the light rain that had been falling earlier… like it was when I first emerged from the underground.

“A pony stayed behind. He activated the door when we were out and placed an explosive charge on the console.”

I remembered the path… the way… The feeling that it had only been yesterday that I had walked it was… agonizing… a pain that steadily intensified as I recalled that day… And I knew, with my head bowed so that I could look along the soil… this was the same path I’d first walked out here… it too was the same.

“Once the door shut, I heard that explosive go off… so the door can only open from the exterior console.”

Southward was the direction of the old camp we had made, roughly ten minutes of slow walking away from the Stable entrance. The ground here… I recognized the curves, a slow rise, then a slower fall, then a quicker rise back up; nothing of the landscape had changed in the time between then and now… only the mare who walked it for the second time had changed.

“He was Nova’s father.”

Coming back out onto the surface, heading even farther south than the Stable, had triggered the memories of my first steps out on the surface. I remembered the voices, Gunny and Saber as the two discussed the losses and the lives that had been saved. I remembered seeing the clouds for the first time, the great sky, something that the passing rain system had repainted up above like the reflection in a mirror. And I remembered… me… my fear, how petrified I had been… and my pain, the tears that had come after leaving my father behind.

I remembered it all.

“Come on Nova. Let’s get you back to the camp so you can rest.”

The camp… A short time later, accompanied the whole way through only by the cooler breeze left in the wake of the weather system that had come and gone, and I began to climb over a steeper rise in the earth, a short ascent to the top of a round hill, surrounded on three sides by lifeless fields. But past the apex… I knew what was there. I anticipated it, seeing the landscape as it had been four weeks before now as I passed the rest of the hill. And even before reaching the top, I could hear the voices of the survivors, the two hundred and ten souls who had made it out alive. I could hear them all again, the coughs and agonized moans of the wounded, the weeping of separated families, the orders being called out between the security guards who had escorted the civilians out. They were all there again as I reached the hilltop, finally getting a view of the landscape beyond, and the clearing behind the hill where our camp had been set up. The area was completely empty, devoid even of trash. Upon leaving to move into the wasteland, we had packed up everything we had carried out with us, not leaving a single scrap behind for the Black Blood to find; we had simply disappeared. But though the clearing was completely deserted, with no signs of our temporary residence within it remaining after the four week gap… I could still see the encampment, the clinic for the wounded, separate from the camp’s main body where those who had escaped the fight unharmed had been assigned to rest and recover best they could. But over all that, I could still remember my arrival to the camp, and the message that I had been given.

“Nova! You need to come to the clinic… Grace needs you… it’s urgent…"

Mom……

Using the empty clearing as a visual guide, I took in a deep breath and exhaled, calming myself before intentionally seeking out my past. I picked up right where I left off, reliving the rest of that day in fast motion as I begun to scan along the terrain. I followed the clearing up to where it connected to the hill to the right. That incline in turn connected to the top of the hill I stood upon, together making half of the lopsided bowl that the area made. But it was looking upon that part of the hill that I remembered – we hadn’t actually disappeared… not completely. From my elevated position, I could see in the near distance four stakes jutting up from the dirt, each with a small white cloth flapping gently in the breeze. And each was placed at the head of the mounds that they marked, the graves of the four ponies who had made it out alive, but had died of their wounds after.

Mom… she had been… so agonizingly close to making it out in one piece. I remembered the battle, the last moments when our final group of survivors was ordered out. She had left only mere seconds before me. We were both nearly out… and then that explosion… a grenade, a rocket… whatever it had been. It had caught us at just the right time… and it had led to my mother’s death. If we’d only been a little quicker… or even waited just a couple seconds longer. Only a small change, and mother would have still been here… And that was the absolute worst thing about it, was just how close she had been to escaping, to living on. With me, it had been a sheer stroke of luck that the same blast that had fatally wounded mother didn’t tear me to pieces. And that was the reason why I had asked myself what I had when mother had passed away. Why hadn’t it been me? Why hadn’t it been me that had died? And why did it have to be her? Why did it have to be her when she had been so, so very close?

Everything from that first evening on the surface had come back to life… and the closer I got to the graves, the more I just wanted to turn back. That lump that had formed up in my throat back in the Stable was growing… and I was beginning to feel weak, my pace falling apart to uneven steps. But now, the graves were clearly visible, only a few yards dividing me from the site. And from here I suddenly found myself squinting as I caught sight of something… different. The four flags I had seen from a distance were placed as I remembered them. They were side by side, no more than two yards apart from one another, looming over the graves they had been set in. But that was what I caught – four graves had been made that first night. One had been for a guardspony who had been one of the last two guards to have died protecting the escapees. The second had been for the other guard, Gunny’s father, killed in the line of duty, making the ultimate sacrifice. Then the third was next to that one, the final resting place of a civilian, another who had been so close to escaping, to living on. And the fourth was for mother. That was it. Four graves had been made… only four.

But in front of me now… there were six mounds.

“Goddesses… it’s true.” The dust and wind and rain from the past four weeks had each played their part in weathering the mounds left after each pony’s burial. Each one had been patted down by the elements, molded into a more solid mass. As such, they had all been shortened, and were now more flat. But still, the lack of flags on two of the six total mounds showed me that the two newest graves were the two that were closest to me. “Shore was right.” I said aloud to myself, in disbelief. It was actually true – somepony had actually found this place, recognized its origin, and discovered the fate of Stable 181 for themselves. Whoever this pony was on the holotape Shore uncovered had brought two others of his choosing outside, dragged them out here all the way from the Stable, and because of whatever motive, had put them to rest here.

And if everything else was true… that meant that one of the ponies he had chosen was my father. If everything else was true… my father… he was actually here…

And seeing this, knowing that everything I had learned was actually, genuinely true… it was that that gave me the strength to approach.

With the soil moistened up by the rainfall, there was very little dust in the air now. Still, the breeze was as constant as it had been throughout the past day, and from a short spell of calm it picked back up as I moved to the gravesites, stirring up my mane to brush away the strands of hair that had managed to fall over my eyes. It was cool to the touch, comfortable through my armor’s padding, a sort of gentle hoof… as if the wind itself knew what I was about to see.

From here, with only a few paces between me and the graves, I caught sight of yet another familiar scene, another anchor to the past. As a final touch to each grave, to complete the brief memorial that had been held for them, each of the four graves we had left were adorned with an item, something to leave behind as a final farewell gift. Over the course of the month, the churning dust during the dry days had shifted, beginning to conceal those gifts. However, not one of them was entirely covered. The two farthest graves were still marked with the disabled ten millimeter security pistols that belonged to the deceased. The third grave’s pearl necklace was still at its place in front of the flagstaff, the bottom third of the Old World trinket the only part of it that was buried. And the last…

The family portrait… my family portrait.

“It’s still here.” Right where I placed it, at the center of my mother’s earthen bed, the framed photograph that was the possession I left for her was laying at rest. When I stopped in front of the picture, I saw that the dirt that had accumulated over the protective glass shield had made a thin layer of mud over the lower right corner of the portrait after the rain. Dirt had brushed over the rest of the glass too, but had not gone so far as to create a solid layer. No. I could see the picture behind the dirtied glass… I could see our faces… all of us. In front of a grey background, my baby brother and I sat down on our haunches beside one another, looking forward towards the camera with smiles on our faces while our mother and father stood proudly behind us. Mother was behind me, a foreleg on my shoulder, and my father was behind my baby brother, resting a hoof on his neck. We were all smiling together in the picture… we were all just… together… the sole reason that it made the perfect token for my mother to keep with her after the tragedy that had come and gone. That was the purpose… I gave it to mother so that she would be able to stay with her family, even in death, no matter how far away Blake and I journeyed from the Stable.

But now… that purpose I had created – when I looked past my mother’s grave and to the next, the first of the two newest additions… I realized with a soft shocked gasp that the idea behind my action had become a reality.

Two feathers adorned the fifth grave… lifeless, aged and fragile… grey…… my father’s feathers.

It was all true… My father was here…

In that moment, I could only stare. For the first time since the Stable… I was in the presence of my father… and my mother, together. When mom had been laid to rest, I wanted to keep her united with dad through our family portrait. As cheesy as the whole idea was, even with it being made in the wake of a terrible loss, it was the only way I felt they could still be together. And with dad sealing himself inside the Stable… it really was. But Goddesses… they actually were together now. They were actually, truly together.

It all hit me like a bullet, and very suddenly, I felt the urge to sit. I fell right down onto my haunches, my eyes glued to the two graves. The lump in my throat was nearly painful now, my breathing was soundless and shallow, and even before I could even think of crying, I felt my eyes trying to water up. And yet, through all that, there was the rising up of a feeling of… triumph. It waged a war of its own on every other emotion that was spinning around up there in my skull… but this reunion… it fueled that feeling. Because for the first time in for what seemed to be an eternity… my parents and I were back together again. And that was what drew a sad, little… yet triumphant smile.

"Hey mom..." I said; that smile widened all on its own, just at saying that one word again. And then, I turned to the second grave; I hitched with a short muddled sob, one that tried to take the form of a little laugh. “Hey dad…” Sniffing, I reached a hoof up to wipe away the tear that had tried to fall before it could. “It’s been a while… too long, really.” I said, nodding to dad before turning back to mom where she lay to my left. “And the thing is… one of the last things I said to you was that I probably wasn’t ever coming back here… But I guess I should’ve known better than to say never…” And I actually laughed a couple light labored notes as I looked along my left and right sides in turn, glancing over my equipment and stretching out my wings… just showing off to my parents. “Because now I’m here again… bristling with weapons and weighed down with all kinds of gear, and…” I faced my parents again… that amusement that had built up evaporating in a flash. “And changed… in more than a couple of big ways.” I had to pause then, just long enough to take in a breath, let it out slow, close my eyes for a second and gather myself up best I could; I was about to relive the past four weeks.

“I won’t lie to either of you.” I said, scuffing a hoof along the moistened soil. “Things have been… things have been pretty rough out here… to put it in the mildest possible terms. I suppose that you already knew that… and even if you didn’t, I know the both of you would be able to tell just by looking at me.” In a fit of rebellion, that small smile I had managed to summon before returned at the passing of an entertaining thought, one I spoke aloud. “Sorry dad, but mom was always better at reading me than you were.” The wind, which had subsided to its gentlest form, abruptly pushed at me with a stronger gust; perfect timing. “But, yeah… things got pretty bad out here over the past week.” I continued, a much graver tone retaking the field as I let that smile drop away like it wanted to. “We’ve encountered some very powerful groups our here… one of them drove us from a home we made up here. And now we’re homeless, for the second time, and our own group is… it’s almost half the size that it was when we fled One Eighty-one.” I stopped again, just long enough to run my foreleg across my eyes, wiping away another pair of tears that tried to form. “We’ve run into a lot of problems that we’re in the middle of dealing with now… and that’s actually the reason why I’m here now. Captain Saber organized a team to return to the Stable.” I explained. “He wanted to take a chance to come back here, to try and find something that we could salvage from our previous life. With everything that’s happened up to this point, he really thinks that something from our Stable could really serve well to inspire everypony we have left, to give them some hope and some motivation to keep going. Being driven out of not just one, but two homes… it really takes a toll on you. And in all honesty, it was that thought that made me unsure about the sense or even the purpose of the whole thing. But leave it to Saber to keep us moving, even in the worst of times. And so we came back… after all this time away. And we opened the door again.” Stopping myself again, I looked past my parents and toward the direction of the Stable, unable to hold back a shaky sigh before I said, “The invaders tore the place up bad… and we saw some hideous things in there. It was the work of… of monsters… and it was so hard to go back through there. And then…”

Then, at my mentioning of the raiders… of that terrible word… and I was suddenly replaying the memory of my final encounter with the enemy inside… of that one mare…… and what she said. Without even intending, I shivered as my focus came down like a hammer on that memory. My eyes fell to dad’s grave, my breathing picking back up… that lump in my throat making itself known to me once again… all of it, all at once. “And then… I-I came across one of the invaders… one of them that stayed here instead of leaving with the rest of them. And she… she told me what happened to you, dad. She told me how you died… and that she did it…” With each passing word, my voice was becoming more and more strained. My throat tightened up… I could barely swallow… “When she told me what they did to you…” My mouth hung open then, everything… everything came to a grinding halt. All I could do was shake… and slowly, I pursed my lips back together. I looked upward, away from my father and to the clouds, shaking my head when my lower lip begun to quiver. “Damn it…” With a grunt, I stomped a hoof to the dirt. But that didn’t keep my eyes from watering up, or stop the sob that escaped my lips. “Goddesses, I’m so sorry……” The fight in me was gone. “I’m so sorry, daddy!” Bowing my head in defeat, I finally surrendered. The tears broke through, coming down freely, and my sobs were no longer quiet. I cried without restraint, closing my eyes over my father’s grave.

And raising my right hoof, I reached out to find the dirt over the grave, and I set it down… the closest I’d ever get to touching him…

Goddesses, how I yearned to be held in his arms again!!

Four weeks ago… Blake and I had reunited in our camp of dazed and battered survivors to cry together. We had wept for… I don’t even remember how long… to the point where my baby brother had cried himself into exhaustion… and I had almost reached the same point. But even that had not been enough. No. The manner of our parents deaths, that alone warranted the tears Blake and I had shed together that first night in the wasteland. And that had been that, for the time being. They had died, we knew how, we cried together, and though exhausted and defeated, we moved on as best as the children of two parents who had been killed simultaneously could. But this – this was different. Hearing the very details of our father’s death… hearing his true fate after going four weeks of believing his death to have been quick and painless… to me, it felt like he had died all over again.

It felt like an hour… more, even. But slowly, weakly, the ‘fight’ in me that had just been shattered like fragile glass begun to repair itself. Second by second, I begun to regain control of myself, my sobs lessening… my tears thinning… until finally I could open my eyes again. In the blur of my vision, I was presented with a view of my hoof where it rested atop father’s grave. And I stared at that spot, watching as I begun to pace my breathing, slowing it as the first step towards taking back control of myself over my emotions. It was a difficult task, a push-and-shove battle in which every second won me only minimal progress. It came to the point where a good half-minute passed me by, and still I was barely keeping myself from crying again.
But even through that, I was finally able to shift in my place, finally taking my hoof off the grave and leaning back to look out into the distance. I sniffed again, once more reaching up to run my foreleg over my eyes to wipe away the trails that my tears had left behind. And in that moment, I finally recovered the strength to speak again. “Goddesses……” One more pass from my foreleg, and my vision was mostly cleared up when I lowered it back to the ground. “I wish you two were here…”

It was the first thing that came to my mind.

“So much has gone on……” I said to the both of them, shaking my head. “We’ve made it this far, I know… but…… I just wish you two were here with us.” I forced myself to stop again, taking in a good long breath and letting it out slow, continuing in the effort to free myself up from my relentless anguish; and here… I actually begun to feel a sort of releasing effect… I began to relax a little more. “But I suppose… I suppose that’s what’s really important though, right?” Nodding to myself, I looked back to the graves. “Despite everything that we’ve had thrown at us… Blake and I are still here… we’re still together and… and we’re still going.” And one more time, reassuringly, I nodded, a gesture I gave to myself. “Gunny and Shore are still here, too, you know.” I explained with a little more confidence. “They came with us back to the Stable… they’re in there right now…… Gracie…” For a moment, my ears begun to pin themselves back. “Gracie didn’t make it…… and that was… probably the hardest thing to deal with…… and really, it still is.” With a heavy sigh, I looked away from the graves and back to the northern horizon, cursing under my breath as my eyes started watering up again. “But the rest of us are here… surviving…” I continued after a weighty pause. “We’ve done a lot together out here. We’ve seen a lot of things… gotten wrapped up into more than a couple of… conflicts… But you know, I think the most important thing we’ve done…” But when my train of thought took its next turn… I once more found myself brightening back up, only a little… but enough. “The most important thing we’ve done was that we’ve actually made friends out here. Once we started exploring the region, we found other groups, other survivors in actual towns.” And at this point, I had thrown myself on a straight road that was taking me right through my past; but I began to smile while it happened. “The first pony from the wasteland that I actually started talking to on a regular basis… he was an earth pony who uh…” Now, I definitely felt a more genuine smile, a near miraculous sensation in the wake of the very recent past; but thinking of Cross again… something about remembering that energized, battle-crazy buck just brought it out. “He had a thing for fighting, unpleasant as that sounds. But it was really only something he enjoyed when it was done in order to protect his home, when he was facing down raiders. He took me by surprise a couple of times, to tell you the truth. But outside that, he was actually really easy to talk to…” And at those passing memories, I actually let myself giggle as I described him to my parents. “He actually took me out to dinner after we worked together on guard duty, just a short time after we met. Dad… you might’ve come at him with a shotgun and an alibi… but he really started showing a genuine interest in me, looking to make a friendship. We talked a lot, grew more open… and there was one time where we… well we actually got pretty close to each other. He said he liked how I thought about things, about how I always talked about honoring promises…” But here, with a light sigh, I was forced to pass along where he and I had parted ways, where he had been taken from this world, and left me behind in it. “He died in a firefight that he and I were in together against the raiders that invaded our Stable.” I explained. “That was a tough spot…… but he was really the first pony I got to know that had lived in the wasteland his whole life… He was the first outsider that I could call a friend… He was the first to show me that it really was possible to make friends out here.” But despite the reminder of his undeserved death… I kept right on going. “A few days later and we met another pony. She was actually a former raider… or, well, raider-in-training, I guess you could say. We found her when the squad she was with attacked us when we were escorting a supply wagon. When we beat them, she was the only one to survive. Gunny was actually going to execute her because of her ties with the group that drove us from home… but I persuaded him to spare her… and when he did we saw who she really was.” At that, I turned back to look between my mom and dad. “She was young, with a very rough and conflicted history. Her past made her feel that she owed something to the raiders, which was why she was on their side when we found her. But when we gave her the chance to tell us her story, and she did… she won us over and we let her go, and we offered for her to join up with us. She jumped right on that opportunity, and she’s been with us ever since.” And my small smile returned to me on the more pleasant topic. “She’s actually here with us right now, too, back inside the Stable. Ever since we sent her to find our group she’s been helping us out, and in a lot of different ways, too. Her name’s Ivy… and she’s a little timid, rightly so, but still a real pleasant mare, nice to talk to, friendly… and she even holds a special place in the hearts of the children we have with us. She kind of stole all my thunder in that sense.”

I took a moment then to shift my place, still trapped in my recollections that I more and more became glad to recount to my parents, to bring them up to speed after our time apart. “It wasn’t long after her that we met Raemor.” I continued on. “He’s an old stallion, and I mean old. He’s got a greying mane, aging body… in fact, I’d wager that he might very well be one of the oldest ponies in the whole wasteland. You both would probably agree if you saw him… He’s very wise, knowledgeable… something that really compliments his age. He’s said a lot of things with a good deal of weight to them… and I’ve noticed personally how that wisdom really seems to come out when somepony is struggling with something.” To that, I smiled a little, briefly recollecting my time with the old stallion in Buckley’s church, seeing him in what had to be his deepest state of mind. “He’s very religious too, very devout to Celestia and Luna. He says that the both of them have played a significant role in his life, all throughout it. And putting that together with some of the things he told me about his youth, then you can really understand that look he’s always got about him, the one that tells you he’s seen a lot in his years, things that I’d probably never even dream of experiencing… and I think there’s a lot more that I don’t know about him yet.” I shifted again, pausing to look out toward the direction of the Stable. “We met him when we were bringing a supply wagon back to our ponies from out farther in the region. It started out with some plain casual chatting, but a couple days later, and he asked me if he could join me and the others in our travels… for a reason I have yet to know about, actually. But either way, ever since then, he’s been sticking with us, and more and more he’s become a friend to me and the others. He’s followed me all the way to the present, and now, he’s here in the Stable too, helping us out like he’s always done.”

And I continued to keep my eyes on the northern hills, their eternal inactivity, and my thoughts came up to my latest acquaintance. “Only a couple days ago I met somepony else… another pegasus, if you can believe that.” I explained. “I remember how I was always curious about how dad and I were the only pegasus ponies in the Stable. And out here, it wasn’t any different for a long time. I was the only flier, and as I came across other settlements in the region, I got so many surprised reactions from others. Between the two towns I’d seen, I was either told that pegasus ponies were thought to have just up and vanished entirely, or asked if I’d come from the clouds themselves… It was interesting to hear those things, truth told.” Then I faced my parents again. “But after all that time as the only pegasus walking the surface, I encountered Sierra, a pegasus from… somewhere far away. And the circumstances of our first meeting were… unfortunately unpleasant… because I’d been captured by a group who had actually been looking for a pegasus. Blake and I both had been captured by them… but Sierra broke us out of the prison they’d put us in.” That was something I knew would’ve caught my parents’ attention in a heartbeat. “She saved us both…… and though I don’t think she intended it, she ended up getting pulled into our group’s affairs once she got Blake and I out of that prison. And she’s stayed with us ever since then, putting two heavy weapons, a suit of power armor, and a pair of wings to use in keeping us safe.” And for a second, I let myself huff out a light note of laughter, shaking my head. “I really do need to properly thank her… because in all honesty, if it hadn’t been for her, Blake and I might not have gotten our freedom back.”

But at the passing of my closing thought on the newest pony to our group… I found myself going back, with shocking suddenness… back a little before then. And catching even me by surprise, my thoughts locked in on a new point of focus as I found myself remembering something formerly forgotten… or rather, somepony formerly forgotten… who I remembered now with a mix of… sadness… guilt…… even a little… longing. “There was… one other, before her, though.” I spoke up again, softer despite my efforts to avoid it. “He was a pegasus too… Archer.” But from the initial downheartedness I felt at remembering that stallion… how we had parted ways for the final time… I actually found myself beginning to smile again; Goddesses… that name alone just provoked so many things. “He was… he was nice…” For a moment I lost myself in my memories, slowing back to silence as my smile went lazy… a consequent little blush touching my cheeks at remembering how I’d first reacted at seeing the first pegasus on the surface. And quickly, for dad’s sake, I added with a little laugh, “And not just in the physical way either… When we first met, he was a little cautious around me, because he was under orders to be. But at the same time, he was pretty open to me and my friends soon as we started talking, and he only grew more and more comfortable around us the longer we stayed in his home settlement. Hell, it wasn’t too long a time before he and I started working missions together, assigned by his settlement’s leaders… and over time we… started talking more. He talked with everypony at the time of course… but the more he was around me, the more interested in me he seemed to be. It got to the point where he really started caring about how and what I talked about… and how I felt about things. Whenever I’d talk about something that was bothering me, he’d be attentive and concerned. And if I’d talk about something happier, he’d share my enthusiasm about it.” At this point, I couldn’t help but utter a reminiscent sigh, one that took on an unintended note of sadness. “We did a lot together. We flew together, fought together… even danced together…… but he’s not with me now.” I explained lowly. “Circumstances forced us to go our separate ways…… but thinking about it now…… I wish we hadn’t. I wish he was still here with me… and that what I did didn’t force us to stay apart…”

“I had a feeling that we would find you here…” The voice that came up over my own put itself between me and the path my reminiscing was taking me. And blinking away from those last… yearning thoughts, my ears twitched at the familiar tone that had made itself known. Looking to the right, I found Shore making his way over, following the same path I’d taken to reach the gravesite. But he was moving with a slower stride… one that the pony who was with him could keep up with.

“What are you doing, Nova?”

Following behind Shore, Blake stepped out into my field of view, coming to a stop as soon as he saw me. Though I had made every effort to clean away the evidence of minutes ago, I knew that despite it all, my face still showed a good deal of what I was feeling, and what I had felt earlier. The tears had been wiped away… but they remained visible in the trance that they had left behind, the state of mourning that I had made for myself, one that had evolved from the tears I’d cried into a state of acceptance… which surpassed the longing I felt, even if barely… It was that state that kept me here, kept me talking to two graves… and it was what my baby brother questioned.

But out here, in the presence of our parents… I found it rather easy to answer him. What would have normally been an effort to try and divert him from the truth was made into the truth itself. And I told him with a little smile, asking him, “Would you believe me if I told you that I was talking to mom and dad?”

And at that, Blake’s eyes begun to widen, and quickly he looked to the graves to see them for himself for the first time. “You… y-you are?”

“In a sense.” I answered him after a moment’s thought.

“They’re here?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper now.

Even before he proved me right, I had anticipated this – my brother’s dive into a state of shock that provoked the awakening of dozens of memories, many trapped behind the iron curtain that had been thrown up by the wasteland and all the experiences that he had gone through; because it was exactly what I had felt… and I could see that in his eyes, on his face and in his body language… he was actually starting to tremble… and for a good reason. After the Stable, Blake had been so stricken with fear and grief that he had not found the strength to do anything more than lay down and cry. As such, when he had finally found that strength on the day of our trek into the southeast… he had not seen our mother’s grave for the first time when I had seen it. This was his first time… and here, I was seeing with my own eyes just what I looked like when I had been brave enough to see mother’s final resting place, to say a final farewell before I left her behind for good to head into the wastes.

“Yes, Blake… they’re here. They both are…” I gently answered; Blake only continued to stare at the mounds that marked our parent’s resting place. “Come over here.” I urged, motioning him over to me with a nod. “There’s something I’d like you to see.”

Thankfully, despite Blake’s slow efforts to take in what he was seeing, he flicked his eyes back to me. For a second, they darted back and forth between me and our parents… but he took his first step, a courageous move… and his second followed as he started looking away from the graves and back to me. And then, all at once, he picked up his walk to a fast trot, quickly closing the distance between us only to latch onto my right foreleg in a tight embrace. No sobs came from him as he did… and I did listen for them… but I moved in just as quick as he in order to return the embrace in full, lowering my head down to nuzzle along the back of his neck as he clung to me. “Look in front of you.” I said, running my muzzle through his mane one more time to face the graves. “See that there?”

When I raised a foreleg to point a hoof, Blake leaned just enough to follow it to find where I was looking; he found it in but a couple seconds. “That’s… that’s our picture.” Even partially buried under four weeks of blowing dust and churning sand, Blake still found the portrait, our greatest family treasure. Its presence, after being forgotten for so long, carried Blake through the same emotions that I had only just moments ago finished dancing with. And just by watching him, I was able to piece together just what it was that was beginning to occupy his thoughts more and more. Then, craning his head back, his eyes confirmed my own prediction for me – he wanted to know how… why… how the portrait got out here and survived the Black Blood’s takeover… and why I was here now.

And he more than deserved those answers.

I prepared myself only with a little sigh, nudging him again before kissing him on the forehead, a silent ‘I love you’ for my dear little brother. “Four weeks ago…” I began, clearing my throat before proceeding. “late on the night after we left the Stable… those of us who weren’t utterly crippled by our wounds and our losses took those who hadn’t made it past the night, and buried them up here on this hilltop.” Blake continued to stare, only listening. “After mom died, she was laid to rest up here… so she could sleep.”

Just like I had said to him that very first night outside…

Blake nodded a very little nod at reliving the same memories as me; we were of the exact same mind now. “And in the morning, when I left you to see the captain and get outfitted for guard duty… I decided to come up here and see the grave for myself, both for the sake of seeing it… and to say one last goodbye to mom before we left for good.” I explained, not taking my eyes from Blake’s. “And I gave her our family portrait and set it here for her to keep, that way she could still be with all of us even as you and I left the Stable behind to head out into the wasteland. But as it turns out… somepony… who we don’t know… was here when we were not, and he found dad inside the Stable, and buried him here.”

“That’s why you’re out here?” Blake asked quietly.

“When I heard from Shore that somepony had buried dad, I had to come out here and see for myself. And coming up here, I found out that it was true.” I answered with a nod, pointing to the two feathers on the neighboring grave. “And I found out that it was all true… and I came here to… say a few words to the both of them… because it’s been so long.”

Blake finally broke eye contact with me in order to find where I was pointing, his eyes now beholding dad’s grave, and holding him there in an iron grip. “And they can… they can actually hear you?”

A question I hadn’t expected to hear from him… but one that, despite its abruptness… actually put a little smile back onto my face. “I’d like to think they can.” I answered for him, looking with him back to the graves, resting my chin over his head. “Do you want to say anything?”

No answer.

He didn’t even move at my question. But I knew that he was already torn between the only two possible choices. And in the silence, I stayed right there with him, unmoving with him… thinking with him. I had asked him a very difficult question, one that he needed time to answer. And he took his time, showing me his uncertainty, his own psychological matrix that had been shaped from the tragedy he had suffered alongside me. Perhaps it ran in our bloodline… I didn’t know… but watching my baby brother as he pondered the hefty question I had given him – I saw a sort of mirror reflection of myself. Or more specifically, I saw a mirror image of my own mind, my own thought processes. I had a very strong tendency to lose myself in reflections on past events and the memories they consequently shaped, especially those of greater significance. I had lived with that curse for well over a couple of years… but seeing what was, for all intents and purposes, a copy of that ‘curse’ in Blake was both intriguing… yet worrying, the latter emotion birthed from the present moment.

But it was just when I was about to express that concern to him, when I would have offered him a way out of responding, that he shifted under my chin, just lightly as he turned his head a little, and he opened his mouth… a few more seconds passing us by… Then…… “Hi mom… hi dad.” I flinched when he finally spoke… noting immediately the hitch in his voice; Goddesses, he was trying so hard not to cry. “I hope you’re… I hope you’re doing okay… and I hope you’re happy… wherever you are.” he said; I lifted up my right forehoof to rest it on his shoulder. “I know that… when we left home you weren’t together… But now you are… and that’s really great to see…… We don’t know who brought you back together… but I know that if I get to meet him, I’ll thank him for you.” Again, I smiled a sad little smile, touched by the vow he decided to take up. And leaning back, I kissed him on his head again as he added, “Nova and I are still okay… we’ve looked out for each other all the time… and we’ll keep taking care of each other, just like you both wanted.”

“Yes we will.” I chimed in agreement, looking back to the graves.

“And… we really love you…” he said… with a little more struggle this time… “And we really miss you…… I just hope you’ll both… sleep well… and I hope that we’ll see you again someday…”

When a sigh escaped him, I moved my hoof down under his neck to pull him into a gentle hug. Bless his brave heart, he kept himself together, but after a moment, he did reach up to nudge my foreleg away, grabbing my attention to get me to lean back. And when I did, he craned his head back around and looked up to me. A pair of tears had fallen already… and another couple looked to be on their way. But my brother reached up a foreleg to wipe away those tears, and he nodded to me… all he needed to do. “Okay.” I said, nodding with him and reaching my free hoof up to help clean away the last of the tear trail down his left cheek.

“Hey, Nova…”

I lowered my hoof away from his face, letting him look me in the eye again. “Hm?”

“You um… when you came up here for the first time… to see mom,” he said, speaking slow through the haze of his own emotions. “you gave her our picture before we left.” I nodded. “Do you think we could give dad something before we leave again?”

“Well…” I glanced back to the graves again, looking over our family portrait, and the two feathers that rested nearby it. “I suppose we could, if you’d like. But what would we give him?”

But to that, Blake turned away, looking over his right shoulder. “Shore brought something with him when he came and found me.” he answered. “He was the one who thought about it first.”

Taken by surprise, yet again, I turned back behind me to where Shore was standing a couple yards away in respectful silence, now looking at me as he pushed up his reading glasses. “Is that true?”

He nodded his confirmation. “Yes.” And that’s when he moved his foreleg, sliding his hoof over the soil… pushing a short, wide black box across the dirt.

And I stared. “That’s the…”

“It’s the box containing your father’s lost memories, all eight of them.” he answered for me, nodding again. “I kept the other two that we found separate from it, along with the holotape… but after you left, I began to wonder if it might be wise to let you decide whether or not to keep the other memory orbs. So that’s why I came up here.”

“Oh Goddesses, Shore…” I had to raise a hoof up to my muzzle, touched at his gesture. And really, with Blake having been the one to suggest it… I couldn’t help but start to think his idea an honorable one. Learning what I had learned – it filled a gap that I hadn’t even known to exist. It had been alarming to know what had been kept from my father. If things were as they’d been four weeks ago, all of us would have been absolutely speechless. As it was now, it was still shocking, of course. But it didn’t carry the same heft as it would have in the past. Still, it was something to think about, what to do with those memory orbs. On the one hoof, they were my father’s memories. Those memory orbs in that little black box made eight different pieces of his past, eight different pieces of him that none of us had never known. In a more materialistic view, they should belong to me and Blake. As his children we had a right to them, to preserve them and to see them for ourselves… But on the other hoof… they were my father’s memories… and his alone. Even as his daughter… did I really have a right to trespass on those memories? Did we really have a right to see those memories, when he did not?

I had to admit… there was a part of me that was urging me to leave them be… to let them rest with their true owner… and it had a very strong voice.

“What about this, Blake?” Backing away, I turned about and approached the black box, Shore taking a step back as I did so.

“It has dad’s memories inside?” he asked curiously, trotting over beside me. “What does that mean?”

“It’s a little difficult to explain.” I replied, dragging the box in front of him. “But yes. There are eight crystal orbs in this box, and each one holds one of dad’s childhood memories… things that he lived once, but didn’t know about himself when he grew up.”

“How would he not remember things about himself?” Blake asked, cocking his head in puzzlement.

“Well, in this case, it’s because these memories were stolen from him.” I explained, putting a hoof overtop the box. “I can’t even fathom how. That’s something that’s far, far beyond me. But either way, I’m thinking that since they’re dad’s memories, we let him have them and leave them be. What do you think, Blake?”

And when I turned back to look him in the eye, I saw a little smile creeping across his face. “If dad didn’t know that those memories were his, then I think he would like that a lot.”

I was glad he thought so… and I was very proud.

Giving him a nod and a smile of my own to match his, I turned my attention back to the box, then reaching down and taking hold of it gently as I could in my teeth. And turning back, facing our parents again, I stepped forward, Blake falling in beside me for the both of us to walk back to dad’s grave together. We stopped by the very edge of the burial mound, and without pause, I leaned forward over the dirt to set the box down. And pulling my head back and away, I reached out with a hoof to give the box a gentle push, setting it more firmly in the uneven soil. “There.” And when I was satisfied that it was secure, I gave it a final pat before I pulled my hoof away. “Now he can know everything.”

“Now he can remember.”

Looking over, I caught Blake as he gave a satisfied nod, then looking back up to me; his little smile still held on, as did mine. “That’s right.”

Thump…

Suddenly, a sound echoed past us, a dim, hollow thud that made my ears perk up. Blake had heard it too, the colt looking up from the grave and out to the north. But when I quickly followed his direction, looking back out to the hills again, I spotted something moving… two of them… both rising up into the air from behind one of those hills.

Dust…

“Shore, do you see that?” I asked, tensing up as I looked back over my shoulder to my companion.

“What is it?” Blake asked curiously.

“It’s alright.” Shore answered quickly, raising a hoof to calm us. “I believe that would be Captain Saber’s doing.”

“Captain Saber?” I turned back to the twin dust trails myself, seeing them rise higher over the hills. “What’s he doing in there?”

“He’s sealing the Stable, Nova.”

And all at once I froze… blinking once before my eyes went wide as I stared ahead at the two clouds of dust drifting lazily up and to the west.

“I overheard him saying just that on Sierra’s pipbuck before I came out to get you.” Shore said. “He went into the living quarters on his own, and sent Gunny into the reactor room so they could find the two tunnels the raiders made to get in, then collapse them with the c-four that we found. He said… he said he wanted to lay the Stable to rest… so I think that’s what that is.”

Oh…

“So…” Blinking again, I finally turned back around to look over the black stallion again. “If they’ve blasted the tunnels closed again… then that means that…”

That meant that there was only one entrance left.

“All that’s left is the main door.” Shore replied with a solemn nod. “If they’ve destroyed the tunnels, then I would wager that the Hall of Records is getting close to being emptied now.”

Slowly, I nodded with him; I understood.

“So what does that mean?”

My brother on the other hoof…

“It means that we’re going to need to get heading back to the wagon, Blake.” I answered. His voice alone called my focus back away from the shock of Shore’s reveal, back to something more important. “And after a little bit, we’ll be heading back home.”

“But what about the Stable?” Blake asked, looking to me with puzzled eyes when I turned to face him again.

“We can’t stay here anymore, Blake.” Shaking my head, I reached over and rested my hoof atop his neck. “As appealing as it is when you look past everything that happened… the most good it would do would be to give us a roof over our heads, a fortified one too. But in the end, it wouldn’t be able to sustain us like it did before. It’s just not a safe place to live anymore.”

“Oh…” The disheartened tone in his voice was immediately perceptible. And it pained me to hear it… even if there was no way to avoid it. Still, after receiving the honest truth on the matter, Blake only looked away to face mom and dad’s graves again. “So… I guess this is the last time we’ll be seeing mom and dad for a while, huh?”

I couldn’t help but let out a little sigh, a sad note for Blake’s defeat. “I’m afraid so, Blake.” I replied, gentle as I rubbed along the back of his neck.

“Should we say goodbye?”

Turning to the graves to join him, I took just a short moment to look between them. With the memory orb carton on its place atop dad’s grave, a tribute to his memory, I found myself admiring the gifts that had been left for the both of them. The black box of memory orbs for dad, coupled with our family picture for mom, together made the most worthy items to adorn our parents’ final resting place. But the best thing about it all was the fact alone that dad had been reunited with mom, buried with her for the two to rest in peace together. In the end, that was what gave me heart, courage, and what helped me to reply to Blake with, “If you’d like to say goodbye, then you can. But just remember one thing, Blake.” And raising a hoof, I pointed it to him. “Mom and dad – we’re not really leaving them behind. Because while we might be putting their graves behind us, they’re going to be with us no matter where we go from here after.” And as I begun to work my thoughts into words, I found myself thinking back, only to the recent past, and a select few words that I remembered hearing inside Stable 181.

“He’s built a fine family, settled down with a beautiful and honorable wife, and brought two amazing children into this torn world of ours… children who I know will carry his spirit along with them as they follow in his steps.”

“I want you to know that our parents are never that far away. Even if it feels like it… they’re really not.” Through my words, Blake kept looking me in the eye, watching and listening, only until I moved my right forehoof off his neck, bringing it back around in front of him. And that’s when I reached over, placing the same hoof on Blake’s chest, right over his heart. “Because we’re still alive… and we remember them in here, our hearts.” And with a small smile crossing my face, I reached up, setting my hoof down on his forehead. “And we remember them in here, our minds.” I said, watching as the same smile I possessed begun to take shape with Blake too. “So long as you remember them, you’ll never have to say goodbye to them, because they’ll never leave you.”

And bless him, Blake smiled a little wider, nodding his approval of my assurances. “Yeah.”

In one gentle move I pulled him back into one final hug and held him there against my chest. And he hugged me back, reaching up to hook his forelegs around my neck, resting his head against me. One last moment of silence together in the company of our parents… and it was in that moment we all four of us shared together, as a whole family… I felt like mom and dad were right there, hugging us up as we sat there together… smiling at us… proud of us…

Proud of us both.

*** *** ***

“Wow…”

Goddesses… it was just beautiful.

Having left mom and dad to their rest, for what would be the last time for… at least a good long while… Shore, Blake, and I made our way back to the Stable. Upon crossing over the last hill and back onto the flat natural courtyard that surrounded the entrance, we found our cargo wagon now parked right outside the wood and wire-mesh door leading to One Eighty-one. And when we came up on the tunnel, we found what had once been an empty cargo compartment to now be packed up full with the contents of the Stable’s Hall of Records. All of it, right there… a sight that brought me a joy I had not felt in a long, long time.

Now, the three of us were stopped to observe the glorious sight for a moment, and we all looked on with a smile.

All the books, folders, and documents that had been locked away in the dark had been loaded aboard and packed up tight. The great stacks of books nearly touched the ceiling from the very back of the wagon all the way to the center. And in the front, one of the wagon’s crew, Tiny, was standing inside, using his telekinesis to organize our haul for the journey home. There was barely any room for him to maneuver inside the wagon, and Tiny himself was a bigger stallion. But still he squeezed himself in, taking what he could from the front and moving it farther to the back to make as much room as he could for whatever was still in the Stable, tucking thinner folders and books as far back as he could without touching the wagon’s ceiling. It was definitely a good thing that our wagon was as sizeable as it was. Along with the texts from the Hall of Records, there was a bit of salvaged equipment that was mixed in. A number of weapons, largely rifles with the occasional shotgun mixed in, took up a good deal of the space against the wagon’s walls, leaning vertical against them so as to take up the least amount of floor space. The recovered food and water, along with a trio of ammo boxes that I could see, was stashed in the far back left corner, sitting atop the stacks of thicker textbooks placed there. And up in front were the two toolboxes that Saber had found; one was open, revealing a number of miscellaneous tools… which made a bed for what looked at first glance to be a pistol, a very short-barreled sidearm with a large drum magazine at its center – a nail gun.

“Can you believe this, guys?” From his place up in the wagon, Tiny called out to us just as he cleared out the last books from the front left corner, lifting them up and stacking them neatly on a slightly shorter pile beside him. The big smile he wore coupled with his jubilant tone of voice made for an infectious combination. “It’s a freaking miracle-and-a-half!”

I had no difficulty smiling along with him, nodding my agreement with his statement.

“You got that right!” From behind us suddenly came the creaking of the wood and wire door, and from within came two more members of the pulling team. Quinn, the one behind the heartfelt reply, stepped out into the open with a half-dozen heavy textbooks held in her telekinetic grip. And behind her, Boulter was likewise carrying his own load from the Hall of Records, a whole stack of thin file folders, each with only a couple papers inside. “I never, ever even dared to think that I’d be laying my eyes on any of this again.” Quinn said, trotting with energy up to the wagon with her cargo floating close by. “I’ve got a lot of reading to do when we get back home.”

“Forget when we get back home.” Boulter spoke up, leaving the tunnel door open behind him as he joined Quinn by the wagon. “I’m going to start reading when we set up camp for the night.”

At that, I couldn’t help but giggle. “You know he’s right, Quinn.” I chimed in. “Why wait, right? I don’t think I am.”

“Exactly.” Boulter said, nodding to me. “With everything that’s happened over the past few weeks, with all the bullshit we’ve been through, I’d consider all of this brand new material.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Quinn agreed after a short pause of thought, then handing up her books to Tiny.

“Hey, speaking of getting out of here,” Tiny then said, taking the books from Quinn’s telekinesis with his own and hoisting them up to the wagon. “are we about done in there?”

“We’ve only got a couple more loads left I think.” Quinn answered for him. “When I picked up my last bunch of books, all the shelves except the bottom one were empty. My guess is that this’ll be our last trip before we get everything. I know I’ve made my last trip.”

“Sounds good to me.” Tiny replied, setting Quinn’s books into place aboard the wagon before turning to Boulter where he waited. “Alright. Send those beauties on up here would ya, Boulter?”

With a nudge, Shore drew my focus back onto our own task, back onto the open door to the Stable’s entry tunnel. Together, with Blake following behind, we reentered the tunnel and headed for the Stable door. Had it not been for Shore’s assurance that Captain Saber had spared time to cover up the bodies in the entrance lobby with salvaged blankets from the living quarters, my brother would most certainly not have been following after me. As it stood now, though, Blake had expressed his own wish to catch a glimpse of the Stable before we left it behind once again, even if just one room. And really, even if Saber hadn’t gotten around to hiding the evidence of the raiders’ presence, who was I to deny him his wish? He deserved to see a slice of his home again, seeing as how the rest of us had already done so.

We passed along the first of the two turns in the entry tunnels, moving in with the intent of finding somepony inside to try and assist in the final stretch of our stay. And already, as soon as we rounded the first corner, I could hear two ponies talking, one voice immediately recognizable as Gunny’s, the closest to us. The second had come from farther in, and was drawing closer, coming from the entrance lobby past the door. And as soon as we passed by the final turn, we found both of them in unison. Just crossing through the open Stable door was both Gyro and Mavis, their horns alight as the two stallions each carried out a tall stack of medium-sized books mixed with document folders. And just in front of them, Gunny was setting the All-Equestrian vertical against the tunnel wall as he looked over the Stable door’s control pod. And by his head, floating freely in the air, I recognized one of the recovered bricks of C4.

“Nova.” he greeted, glancing only sidelong to us as we came to a stop together. “Blake, Shore.”

“How are you doing, Gunny?” I asked him, stepping aside to let Gyro and Mavis through with their loads; a quick glance into the entrance lobby showed that the corpses had one and all been covered over, with at least a half dozen old sheets being used to do so.

Staring for a moment, my friend slowly turned back to the door control. “Well… I’m ready to get out of here.” he said, nodding as he brought the C4 charge in front of him, floating it between him and the console. “I’ve had my share of this place for… well… for a good long while. Strange as it sounds… I’m actually looking forward to getting back outside. Even without Hopeville, I’m ready to get back out there.”

“You know… I actually kind of share that sentiment.” I replied after a moment of thought, eventually nodding my own agreement. “I don’t think it sounds too strange, really.”

“I can’t say it does either.” Shore put in.

Really, that just went to show how four weeks had changed us… Goddesses, had it changed us.

“But we’ll still miss the Stable, though.” Blake piped up after, briefly drawing all our eyes to him. “Right?…… I know I will…”

“Of course, Blake.” I agreed instantly. “We’re all going to miss it, for a million different reasons.”

“Just because we have to leave it behind doesn’t mean that we’re not going to miss it.” Gunny added after me, good sound words that I nodded with; Blake too nodded his approval.

In the break of dialogue that followed, I picked up the sound of hoofsteps coming from the entry chamber. A quick glance back into the Stable, and I saw Sylvia, the last unicorn of the wagon team. And after coming down the stairs, she only passed us a smile as she trotted by with a stack of papers and document folders, moving eagerly towards the exit. “That’s quite the haul we got though, isn’t it?” Back by the door controls, Gunny was turning the C4 in the air, bringing the back before him and pulling back a plastic tab, exposing what looked to be a rectangular pad of rubbery material.

“Yes it most certainly is.” I replied first, just a little grateful for his snappy change of subject.

“It’s funny to think – when we were on our way here, the most we ever hoped to find was a picture, a weapon maybe, or just one or two books. But instead…” With a chuckle, Gunny turned the explosive back around, and attached it to the console before his magic faded away; the pad kept it stuck to the metal. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time.” he said, shaking his head. “I think even I’m going to have to do some reading when I get a chance to.”

But that, despite the sentimentality behind it, drew a laugh from Shore. And in that moment, I too was drawn back to history, back to a time that I knew Shore had remembered to. “You?” Shore asked, jabbing a hoof at him. “You’re going to do some reading?”

“With your undying love of textbooks and reading assignments, you’d actually choose to read?” Even I had to question it. And in a vain attempt to stifle a giggle, I raised a hoof up to my lips. “Who are you and what did you do with Gunny? The real Gunny would never let his classroom days come back to haunt him like this.”

“Well, you see,” Gunny responded, looking over his shoulder at me with a little smirk. “there was another Gunny – an evil Gunny… and… I killed him.”

I shut my eyes, letting myself laugh. And for a precious couple of seconds, even Shore and Blake joined in; we all laughed together… just like in the Stable… remembering our gun-loving friend’s absolute boredom and disinterest in the pages of a good book, something that he had been well-known for in our younger years.

Goddesses, it had been far too long.

“Head’s up folks!”

But the moment, alas, was very short-lived… sadly brief.

Turning to the entry lobby, I looked past the concealing blankets on the railing just in time to see Joker and Daisy as the two came into view from the atrium. Joker moved with a little more difficulty, his wound still having remained unattended. But Daisy was by his side, keeping close to help him along if he staggered. The both of them carried their own load of books in their telekinesis, and from behind the hovering stacks, Ivy and Raemor emerged side by side, likewise carrying their own books and folders with them. The former, thankfully, looked to be moving with a greater deal of ease than she had before. Though there was still a small limp in her stride, likely an after-effect, she was doing far better than she had before. And sure enough, behind them, Sergeant Madeline came trotting in, only three large books held close to her in her telekinesis. And with her, unburdened with contents from the Hall of Records, was the power-armored Sierra, her shiny black visor passing over us as she emerged from the atrium. And lastly, Captain Saber came back, wearing a face of single-minded focus as he took a quick glance over us. “Gunny, are the charges in place?”

Looking back to my friend, I saw him as he raised a hoof up to the plastic explosive, reaching over to press a small black button on the far right side. With a beep, a red light on the opposite end begun to blink. “Yeah.” he answered the captain. “Charges are armed and ready.”

“Good. Then let’s get this over with.”

Together, the four of us stepped up closer to the tunnel wall, giving some extra moving room for the others to carry out their books. Both Joker and Daisy passed us quick smiles as they crossed through the open door, speaking in silence the great satisfaction they carried at being able to hold those old texts again. And Raemor and Ivy were smiling too, and with them, I saw instead the care they took around those texts, how they respected them for the value they held to the rest of us. The two of them likewise passed by without a word, picking up their pace to match Joker and Daisy as they made their way to the wagon outside. “Did you manage to get everything, captain?”

“The whole room’s empty.” I turned back to the others to find our captain just as he crossed through the door with Madeline and Sierra, looking to Shore to answer his question. “The wagon was just big enough to hold everything.” he explained, coming to a stop with Sierra as Sergeant Madeline kept moving to bring her own books to the waiting wagon team. “We got it all.”

“Wow… that’s amazing.” Shore replied.

That was… truly… amazing to hear… the best thing I’d heard in a long, long time…

The Hall of Records was coming back.

“Alright Gunny.” After passing only a single nod to Shore’s joyed words, the captain turned to the brick red unicorn, gesturing to the Stable door controls. “It’s time.”

Time to go…

“Yes sir.”

My eyes came upon Gunny, as did Shore’s, and Saber’s… Blake’s too. Together, we all looked to him as he turned back to face the control pod. And one more time, tunnel vision blurred out the world around me as Gunny stepped up to the panel. He put his back to me as he aligned himself with the controls. And a second later, his horn begun to glow with pale red light, the same light that slowly enveloped the door control switch on the center of the panel that I could just see over his left shoulder. And as soon as the light fully coated the mechanism, Gunny gave a nod, staying perfectly silent, letting only the hum of his magic echo in the tunnel. Just a couple seconds… just enough hesitation to show us that he felt the same way as all of us did.

*click

He pushed the lever forward.

From within the main lobby, the door alarm buzzed back to life as the red of the emergency lighting took on an orange hue from the spinning light on the ceiling that also activated. Then, with a mechanical rumble, the great Stable door shifted before rolling forward. Together, we one and all watched as it rolled into position, blocking away our view of our now completely emptied home. And when it came to a stop, the yellow 181 painted into the steel leveled out and facing us, we beheld a brief but beautiful display. While the door rested there, the hinge-arm beginning to move with a long his of air, through the cracks between the door and its frame came rays of crimson light like sunbeams, splashed every other second with the orange of the spinning warning light.

Even with my eyes set on the door, I could hear behind me hooves against the dirt… many hooves; even from outside, the other ponies of our team had heard… and they’d come to see the door close again… for the last time.

Steel screeched against steel, and from behind the door the hinge-arm locked into its slot. And as the machinery in the room beyond came to life, the door was pushed forward, and those rays of crimson light thinned out until they winked away into nothing, and with a tremendous ear-piercing shriek, the door slid back into its place… a final hiss of air allowing the hinge-arm to retract back to the ceiling… and everything went silent.

“Raemor…” Suddenly, after the brief pause, Saber spoke out to get the attention of our elder companion. I turned with him and the others to look farther back into the tunnel where the others had rallied; among them, Raemor was looking over Ivy’s head to find the captain, waiting for him to speak. “I believe you’re a praying pony.” Saber said after finding him. “Would you care to perhaps say a few parting words for us before we leave?”

From the captain I turned to the old unicorn… as did everypony else, one by one. For a moment, even in the dim light of the tunnel, I could see that Raemor was, for just a brief time, caught off guard by Saber’s offer. And with nothing else to distract me, I knew just where that question had come from. It had come from the last time the two of them had spoken together, when they had joined minds, thought as one, sparked from a prayer that had touched our hearts.

“I pray to the Goddesses that upon our departure, this place might be at peace in the form of its inhabitants’ joyful memories.”

And now, I felt that Saber wanted everypony to hear those words, and after a few seconds of dead silence, when Raemor finally stepped forward, nudging Ivy to have her make way for him, I knew that my old friend understood.

“Blessed Goddesses… full of grace…” Raemor passed by the rest of the team to face the Stable door; those who were farthest from him huddled up closer to the rest of the team, each moving in to gaze upon our old home with him. “These halls marks the final resting place of two hundred cherished souls, who, through their way of life and their deeds in it, have preserved the very elements and virtues that you both embodied in your time of mortal existence. Here, in this Stable shaped by Old World hooves, lays two hundred souls who continued to follow in your steps, even in the dark and lawless world that had fallen into place around them at the end of days, and only continued to darken in the years to follow. And to these ponies you see with me, and their friends who survived that fateful day… they were the finest mares and stallions to be able to live alongside… Coworkers, students, friends, family… they were all brothers and sisters in life and in virtue.” the old stallion said, raising his head up to look to the door… with a level of focus that made him seem as if he were seeing right through it and back into the Stable itself. “And though their lives were taken from them by an act of unspeakable malice…” he continued; all eyes were on him. “those who continue to live today, to fight and survive in honor of their memory, can take heart and be comforted by the knowledge that you, mighty, elegant, loving sisters, live on in eternity and continue to watch over your subjects.” And here, Raemor tilted his head back, turning to the tunnel ceiling before he said, “Celestia… Luna… as we move on, with priceless relics in tow, we speak a prayer to you. To you we pray that you have found those fallen friends who died here, and that you have called them to you in the everafter with your loving voices, and have taken each of them under your wings so that they will know eternal peace as they sleep in your embrace.” Slowly, he lowered his head back down. “And for their friends and family that carry their memory in their hearts, we pray that you will never turn your gaze away, and that you will continue to guide them through their trails. We pray that you will ease the burden of loss that has come from this tragedy… and we pray that this Stable, One Eighty-one, and its lost residents will all be at peace in the form of the survivor’s joyful memories.”

There was those words… those truly touching words. And as he paused one more time, I found myself smiling just a little, nodding my agreement at his inspiring consultation with the Goddesses; I definitely prayed alongside him.

“For their presence in our story of life, they will always be remembered. And for being the shelter that they, and those who now live outside, were proud to call their home, Stable One Eighty-one too will always be remembered. Celestia… Luna… lastly, we pray that you both will know and understand the true beauty of this Stable, and the great virtue that resides in its inhabitants, both in those here and in those who dwell with you high above…” And here, after a short pause, Raemor eventually nodded… his approval of his prayer. “In your name, Celestia, the sun, and Luna, the moon, we pray.”

Wow…

The very first thing I heard after Raemor had finished was a sad little sniffle coming from the back of our assembled team. When I turned to look over the group’s combined reactions, to satisfy my own curiosity, I saw that a couple of our team members had actually shed a couple of tears. There was Quinn, farther at the back… her head was bowed as Tiny looked on with sympathetic eyes… and I saw when the unicorn mare hitched with a suppressed sob. Sylvia too let a couple of silent tears fall from her place in the center of the assembly, even as she nodded in approval of Raemor’s prayer. And there was Boulter too, off to the right, wiping away his own tears with a quick swipe of his foreleg over his eyes. Miraculously, I didn’t let another tear come down… but Goddesses was my soul lifted. In that instant, the words of a wastelander had reached out to the hearts of everypony here, and those words had found their way to the deepest, most sensitive parts of us… they had dug in to our very core, stirred up our memories and emotions, and with those, the good and the bad of each, they had unified us… brought us together to send our wishes and our love to those we had lost.

I was so touched by Raemor’s prayer… and honored that he would speak it for us.

“Alright everypony, let’s head to the back of the tunnel.” I turned back just in time to see Captain Saber as he walked past me, leaving One Eighty-one behind him. As one unit the team stepped aside to let him through, and he turned left and then right to look upon his subordinates as he moved on. “Once I hit this detonator, the blast is going to collapse most of this tunnel.”

Though slowly, the shifting of equipment and the light stepping of hooves grew into a steady clamor as the team turned away and followed our leader. I hesitated… just a moment longer, giving the Stable door one last longing look… staring at those three yellow numbers against the blackened steel. But I too looked away, on my own… and turned to my brother. The young colt was waiting for me, his eyes soft with his own emotion. And when I met him, I gave him a little smile and a gentle nudge along his back to get him moving. Together we put the tunnel wall between us and the door… those yellow numbers finally disappearing from sight. And moving ahead, we passed by a couple of the others as they brought themselves to turn away – Quinn, now pushing away her tears, Tiny, just looking ahead, hesitant to go, Raemor himself, his head bowed and his eyes closed as his lips moved without a sound.

Up ahead, Saber had come to a stop at the end of the longest lane of the entry tunnel, the dim light of the surface barely reaching him to reflect off his security armor. The rest of our team was stopping with him, huddling up close as they turned around one after the next, looking back down the tunnel… waiting for that detonation. “Gunny… the detonator, please.”

“Yes sir.”

As Blake and I joined the others, following their move and turning around together to face the door, I looked back over to Gunny when I caught the light of magic hovering close by. And wrapped up in his telekinetic grip, a thin rectangular box, silver in color with a short little antenna on the top and a red button at the center covered by a little plastic lid. It hovered over Ivy’s head to reach the captain, whereupon it was lowered to the ground. And I watched as Saber followed it down, raising a hoof up to the button’s cover… and with a click, he got the cover open. “Now… now we lay Stable One Eighty-one to rest.” he said; I turned away to face the tunnel. “Now we bury it… let it sleep…… let it sleep…”

BEEP!

BLAM!!!

With a near deafening thunderclap, the C4 charge on the door console detonated, sending a great wave of dust billowing out to crash against the tunnel wall. Simultaneous with that was the more echoing blast of the charge within the Stable itself, and the screeching of metal that came from the door’s hinge-arm as it was torn apart by the powerful explosive. Then, just a half second later, and the tunnel ceiling on the third lane came crashing down with a rippling rumble, sending a wave of dust exploding outward towards us. Quickly I reached a foreleg up over my muzzle, covering my mouth just as the dust washed over us. But it was when it did that the sound of the shifting soil, of the dirt that was piling up in the third lane, came to a stop… that a dead silence came back once more… wrapping us all up in the weight of what Saber had just done… his final act in the presence of his home.

Stable 181… it was sealed…… it would never be opened again… never seen again by anypony… by us…

“Now One Eighty-one can rest in peace.”

Yes… Saber was right…… It would never be touched by another soul…… it would be at peace…

“Come on, everypony.” the captain beckoned to us in the silence, some members of our team beginning to uselessly swat at the churning dust that now surrounded us as I collected myself from my thoughts. “It’s time to head on home now. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us, and important cargo to protect. So let’s get a move on.”

And slowly, with a collective reluctance hovering around us, our group begun to turn away and head back out through the screen door… one survivor at a time.

“After you, Nova.”

Gunny… off to my right, gave me a nod, gesturing to the now open screen door, drawing my eyes to follow, seeing where our team begun filing out. And in my peripheral sight, I found Shore too, just a few paces ahead, likewise looking back to me. And just beside me, having drawn up to my left, Blake was waiting too, waiting for me to move… to do as everypony else, though with their own varying levels of struggle, forced themselves to do…

To let go…

And seeing the faces of my two dearest friends, and that of my baby brother… all three of them the last of my family…… I was able to close my eyes… take in a long breath… exhale with barely a sound… and open my eyes again just as Ivy and Raemor both stepped out of the tunnel together, leaving only us still inside. And finally, with a nod to reply to Gunny’s gesture, I took that first step… and eased into the rest, heading for the exit with my friends right alongside me.

Finally… I let it go.

Footnote: 50% to level up.

Chapter 22: Lost Heart

“Right or wrong… he just couldn’t see it anymore.”

“You can give up now, or we can keep doing this the hard way! It’s your choice, Nova!”

He had to kill me first…

“This is about you and about how important you are to General Vance now!”

I was a slave once… I wouldn’t be again…

“I swear to you, if you weren’t the key to Hayward’s survival against its enemies, I would’ve seen you and everypony in Hopeville dead long ago, and that beloved town of yours burned to the ground to put an end to all this!”

But he… he wouldn’t leave… he wouldn’t leave me alone…

“You can’t beat me, Nova! You’re no soldier!”

And that’s… that’s when he said…

“We’ll just have to see how much you can stand to lose before you finally accept your true role in this war!”

True role…

That was what I couldn’t get out of my head. Those two words… spoken with such force… with such fire… and he just wouldn’t back down.

“There are greater forces at work here than petty desires now, and you have become one of them!”

He claimed this… claimed me as a priority for his faction… claimed me as a ‘greater force’. And he didn’t even flinch, deviate from his thoughts, when I had told him just how crazy he actually was…

No…

“Vance was going to give you the power to guide the direction of this whole conflict because there is power in you!”

Power… he said there was power in me… power that he wanted… power that the whole Legion wanted… needed…

“And you used that power for the first time when you woke up the Guardian Project!”

The bunkers… I used it at the bunkers…

“Nova.”

A nudge against the side of my neck drew me back, back from the fires of Buckley and to the fire burning just a couple yards directly ahead of me. Our campfire, the only light in the dark of the early nighttime. And surrounding it, Gyro, Sylvia, Boulter, Madeline, Mavis, Quinn, and Shore, all with their attention focused on their book of choice from the wagon that was parked just behind them. Joker and Daisy were there next to the wagon itself, the two of them sharing a larger book together. And there was also Ivy and Gunny, sitting by the wagon’s left rear wheel and likewise sharing some reading time together, holding a manual between them; Gunny was actually following his personal oath to read… heartwarming to see as he guided Ivy through whatever schematic was written on the current page.

Once we had finally left Stable 181 to its rest, Captain Saber put us right back on the trail. For a good four to five hours he pushed us northeast back towards the Equestrian southeast, with a steady determined drive that kept us moving well past nightfall. And when he finally let us set up camp, he did so with a reluctance that everypony had been able to take note of. I had seen it clear as day when he had finally given in to Madeline’s pressuring to stop the group for the night. He didn’t want to stop, even with the pace he’d set, even with the distance we already covered, and with the way he had resisted Madeline, it wasn’t hard for me to gather that the weight of our return visit to our beloved Stable was beginning to catch up to him. Before, inside One Eighty-one, he had never been seen as anything less than unfazed. Despite the blood and the bodies, despite the wreckage that the Black Blood had left behind, despite reliving our last day underground, he had set his focus on that one mission, and keeping the countless atrocities the raiders had conducted behind him, he had been able to walk through it all with barely a flinch. Only when we had found the contents of the Hall of Records, untouched by four weeks of the raiders’ occupation of the Stable, did he actually break away from his seemingly emotionless state and show the same level of shock that the rest of us had.

But once that had come and gone, it was back to the old ways for the captain… and he had been trapped in that same frame of mind ever since. Even now, finally seeing the outside world again past the walls of my own thoughts, I found where Saber was walking along the north side of our camp’s perimeter, taking up part of the first watch for the night with Tiny, Raemor, and Sierra. His head was bowed, his eyes on the ground at his hooves as he moved along in his slow unchanging circular path around the campsite. He looked restless, deep in thought… I knew he was eager to move again. He had finished his mission after all, or at least part of it… now it was all about getting the books back to the rest of their owners… and that was going to be another long trip all on its own.

A second nudge against my neck… a hoof poking at me. And when my name was spoken again to accompany it, I looked to my left, finding a pair of young hazel eyes waiting for me. “Sorry, Blake.” I shook my head to put my wandering focus back in line. “What do you need?” I asked my baby brother.

“You asked me to bring you these.” I blinked once, puzzled, until he looked down to the ground at his hooves. And when I followed him, I found two items waiting there. A tiara of black metal was one of them, surrounding a small crystal orb laying on the opened up cloth that had once been wrapped around it; the circlet and the orb within both glinted in the campfire, even at my distance from it. “You wanted me to get your recollector thing and one of those orbs from your saddlebags, remember?”

Just past him, I could see where my saddlebags had been deposited, sitting in a heap along with Blue Fire’s Torch; I’d wholly forgotten that I’d taken them off for the night. “Um…” Looking back to my brother, I reached over and pulled the blackened metal circlet and the memory orb to me. “No, I actually forgot.” I replied to Blake, passing him a weak smile. “Sorry. I was just thinking to myself.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Blake asked curiously, stepping forward and drawing up beside me. “Ever since Buckley…”

This was the second time today he had asked…

“I know, Blake.” I gently interrupted. “I know… and I know there’s no hiding that there’s just a lot on my mind.” And he nodded with me; at least we were both on the same page there. “But I’m afraid that a lot of it’s just stuff that you’re going to have to let me fight through on my own. And before you start,” I caught him right when he opened his mouth to object. “I want you to know that you are doing more than enough to help me. With you being here with me, sticking with me, helping both me and others the way you have, you’re doing a great deal to ease me through what I’m fighting with.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” I answered with confidence, reaching over to bump his right cheek with my muzzle. “So don’t worry about that. Just understand that there are some things that I need to figure out on my own… and it’s going to take a little while for me to get past those things.”

And for a moment, he simply looked at me… uncertain… and definitely not fully convinced. “I… think I understand.” Blake said, his words sluggish with worry. “I just wish there was more that I could do.”

“You’re doing just fine.” I assured, raising a much more confident smile for him. “And I don’t want you to think otherwise.”

It was true, Blake’s concern, and he knew a great deal of what was going on for me. He knew about Buckley… and he knew that what happened there made the source of a great deal of my mental turmoil. Between the community there and the exile that I had faced, and before it, the National Guard Bunkers… my head had been plagued with a darkness that just wouldn’t break, couldn’t break. So much damage done, so much life taken, all to save my little brother, and with it, Blackhawk and his threats, the revelation of his new goals and the role that I had already played in working towards their completion…… the role that he swore I would continue to play. And though Blake didn’t know all of that, he had come to recognize some of the struggles I faced within myself, especially after we had left Stable 181 for good. Because it was after we had left that the joy I had felt in our recovering of the contents of the Hall of Records had faded away, not dying, but simply receding so that my past could make its grand return to the front of my thoughts. And so it was that Blackhawk had been the one to occupy my thoughts, all through the few hours we kept on the move. Only now did the griffin’s words finally yield, finally giving way to my own efforts at a distraction from the past… one that I sought to attain not with a book from our wagon like the others, but with my recollector and a memory orb of Blake’s choosing.

Though taking some time to try and think of a way to press his argument, Blake eventually nodded at my assurances, and when he tapped my left wing, I fanned out the appendage and lifted it up to invite him to lay up against me. Gladly he laid himself down and snuggled up against my left side before I draped my wing back over him, then turning my attention to the recollector he’d brought me. The blackened metal tiara, one of Mother Shimmer’s gifts to me, was a very simple device, yet built for a very complex purpose. At first glance, it looked rather delicate, the metal thin and light. But it was actually rather sturdy, and really, in my opinion, it could have been taken for a more ornamental piece of jewelry. The metal was smooth, unblemished, and the way it reflected the light from the campfire was actually kind of eye-catching. It had been forged into an oval shape, following the curves of an equine skull, and while the back of the circlet was rounded, the front arced downward, the two sides joining together at a point that rested right between the wearer’s eyes. And there, tucked in just above where the point was formed, was a small circular slot welded into the design, a pedestal for a memory orb to sit so that it could be viewed.

“So how does this thing work?” Blake asked, reaching over to pull the waiting memory orb towards him.

“I had it explained to me once.” I replied after a pause, turning the recollector so that the orb slot was facing Blake. “Apparently, if an earth pony or pegasus puts this on when a memory orb is attached, it’ll let them see the memory inside.”

“How does it do that?” he inquired after.

“Well, I was told that it establishes a magical link between the memory and the pony itself, so that way they can see it like unicorns can do naturally.” I answered him. “The way it was explained to me was that the wearer would relive the memory as if he or she were actually there. So they would feel and hear and see everything that occurred during the memory, but would not be aware of their actual surroundings. So… in a sense, it would be like sleeping in that I wouldn’t be aware of where I really am. But I would be aware of everything that was happening inside the memory.”

“Wow…” For a moment, we turned to each other; I couldn’t help but smile a little at my brother’s intrigued look. “That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely out there.” I agreed, turning back to the tiara, nudging it closer to Blake. “Here, go ahead and put the memory orb in the slot.”

With a nod, Blake lowered his head down and reached out to delicately take hold of the glinting crystal sphere between his front teeth. And in his hold the orb made a smooth transition into its slot, falling into place with a gentle clink. “There you go.”

“Thank you, Blake.” And nodding, I reached over and situated the recollector before me. “Let’s see how this thing works.”

Hooking a foreleg underneath the back, I lowered my head down and hoisted it up, pulling it over me and setting it down over my head. And after a couple of quick adjustments, pushing up the front to set its point between my eyes and moving the right side past my ear, the rest of the recollector fell into place, sliding down just slightly until it settled snug atop my head. And… nothing happened…… a few seconds passed, only the crackling of the campfire came, the flipping of pages sounding with it… and Blake looked at me in confusion…

Until, right above my eyes, a light, pale white, dim, begun to flicker.

The last light I saw before the whole world faded away to black… only to be replaced by a whole new reality.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

Light – bright, clean white light washed over me, and cast a soothing glow over the whole of the room I was standing in… or rather, the pony… whose eyes I was seeing through and ears I was hearing through was standing in.

Goddesses… this was just the most bizarre feeling. I felt like I had been paralyzed, because I couldn’t move myself, no matter what I tried. And at the same time, I no longer felt the cool breeze of the surface, or the dirt under my belly. I was literally frozen here, in this new place… and yet I could still see the light and the steel walls that they illuminated, and I could feel the comfortable temperature of the room.

For a few seconds longer I was looking ahead at the far wall of the room, a plain bland grey. And in view before it, a trio of medical beds made neatly and complete with smooth clean white sheets, all partnered up with a corresponding metal table. But before I could see anything else, I suddenly found myself being turned, my gaze, that of the pony I was seeing through, looking over to the left towards a closed door, a steel slab with a yellow stripe painted vertical down the middle… the number 181 stamped in black against the paint.

Merciful Luna… I was in Stable 181… in the Stable’s clinic.

“I wonder what’s taking her so long.” Then, I was turned the opposite way, as the pony I was seeing and hearing through looked over to the right. I came face to face with a stallion garbed in Stable 181 security armor, an aging earth pony with a pure silver coat and a black mane that was greying at the edges. He was looking back to me… or… the pony I was seeing him through, and his face was wrought with puzzlement… even concern; so far as I gathered, we were the only two ponies in the room. “It’s been almost an hour.”

“This is a very difficult task for her, Magnum.” Finally, my host spoke; my host was definitely a mare. “We have to give her all the time she needs.”

Magnum responded with a sigh, turning away with a look that slowly transformed into one of guilt. “It’s just such a strange request. It feels… wrong.” My host only continued to stare, catching the stallion’s eyes when they looked back to us. “What she’s about to do… I know what we promised, and I won’t back down on it… but it’s just something that’s far beyond anything I’d ever heard of or even read about.”

“I know how you feel, Magnum.” My host responded delicately, taking note of the tone of voice she was replying to; and pausing, we leaned over to bump his neck with our muzzle. “I admit, a part of me feels uncertain about her reasoning. But in the end I just can’t help but agree with her. We never had a tragedy like this in the Stable before… it’s new to everypony, loss like that. So for the sake of that poor colt… we need to go through with this.”

Suddenly, from the left, a hiss of air heralded the opening of the clinic door, and together my host and I turned back to the entrance as the door slid away into its slot in the wall with a steady whirring of the internal components. And soon as it stopped, a single pony stepped through. A young unicorn mare entered the clinic, with a grey coat paired to a short, clean white mane and long flowing tail. Her light blue eyes came to look upon me and my host as soon as she stepped past the door, looking between us and Magnum while she slowed herself to a full stop. But despite her array of bright colors, the young mare herself… looking to have only just crossed out of her childhood years… was absolutely exhausted. And it was a shocking state to see the mare in… because I recognized her colors…

“Are you two ready to do this?” she asked us.

“Are you?” My host asked back, carefully, respectfully.

The young mare didn’t move… but I could just feel the jolt that went through her at those words. “I tucked him in for his nap time…… and then I gave him the sedative.” she replied with a resigned tone. “I’ve said my goodbyes.” she assured, then craning her head around to look over her shoulder… to the young colt that I now saw laid out atop her back…

The young grey colt with a black mane and short black tail… and tiny wings at his sides……

No… it couldn’t be…

“Then we’re ready, Crystal.” My host said… or rather whispered, speaking with a heavy heart.

Crystal Sunset… the Overmare… and the pegasus child with her was…

“Good.” Crystal responded with a single nod, shutting the clinic door and then turning her attention to the nearest medical bed, her horn shimmering with dim light. “Once I do this, Damien won’t remember anything about the past couple of weeks… he won’t remember his parents, or me either… But at least he won’t remember this tragedy.”

The pegasus with her was Damien……

Dad…

“What will he remember?” Magnum spoke up in question, my host and I watching the younger version of the Overmare I grew up with as she trotted up to the medical bed. “Will he remember anything?”

“He’ll remember everything except his closest relationships.” Crystal explained, looking back to my dad… the young, sleeping form of who would later be my dad… and focusing; the light that surrounded her horn begun to envelope the sleeping child. “This is a very precise memory spell, and I can use it to capture certain memories in order to eliminate his ability to recognize me as a sibling and to eliminate his connections to his parents…” Slowly, the child was lifted off her back, and Crystal kept her eyes on him as she guided him over her head and onto the bed; he remained in his slumbering state without stirring even an inch. “And when he wakes up, you and Ginger are going to be his new parents.” Crystal asserted, strongly for being so drained. “That’s my first order as the Stable’s Overmare.”

“Like we said, we’ll uphold our promise…” Magnum replied confident as he could manage, my host and I turning to him to nod our agreement. “We both understand how difficult this has to be for you.” the older stallion added. “And… I can’t lie… a part of me does wish that you would let me argue for you to reconsider. But every time before now, you’ve stayed persistent…”

But that drew a heavy sigh from Crystal, one that held a rather sudden color of frustration in it. And that’s when the gaze she had fixed us with before molded slowly into an ominous glare. “Magnum…” she huffed wearily. “You know… exactly what I’m going to say to that.” And though my host didn’t show it, I noted with alarm the rate that her fatigued voice grew in strength… a strength that was fueled by… by anger. “His father died because a fucking battery exploded in what we all thought to be a perfectly functional reactor mainframe…” Crystal was… beginning to shake. “And his mother abandoned the Stable and got tangled up with a fucking raider clan because she was so stricken with grief that she couldn’t think straight!!” she yelled, stomping a hoof down on the metal floor. “And on top of all of that, I went out there onto the surface for two weeks to find her and bring her back, only to find out that she had turned into a complete psychopath when I found her fucking some poor defenseless wastelander buck at gunpoint in the living room of an abandoned house in Marefax!!!” And with her voice raised to a frightening volume, she came around to face us full, and she screamed at the top of her lungs, “I KILLED MY OWN MOTHER FOR GODDESSES SAKE!!!”

My father… the colt on the bed… he didn’t even flinch.

All of us, Magnum, my host Ginger… Crystal too… we were all plunged into silence… only the latter of us moving at all. And for several agonizing moments, all I saw was the young Crystal Sunset, breathing heavy, shoulders rising and falling as she glared. But finally, after what must’ve been a half a minute at least, that glare begun to fade, retreating back into the tired, distant stare it had been before… and one more time, she sighed, as Ginger turned me to Magnum, the both of us trading heartbroken glances. “Damien’s six years old, Magnum.” Crystal spoke up softly, my host turning me back to her. “His family is gone… his father’s dead, his mother’s dead, and… and I’m not the same pony I used to be.” And with a sad little sniff, Crystal looked back to the sedated young pegasus colt; I didn’t have to see it to know that she looked upon him with an incredible longing. “She was our mother… and it doesn’t matter that she became some psycho up there… her blood will be on my hooves forever.” she said with a wounded voice. “How would I be able to tell my baby brother that his own big sister killed his mother?......” She didn’t even look at us when she asked… only shaking her head; somehow, someway… she kept herself from breaking down. “I just wouldn’t be able to do that… and no amount of strength could get that to change…’ she concluded… devastated. “I can’t be his big sister anymore… because that mare died in the wasteland with her mother.”

Goddesses… I just wanted to run up to her and give her a hug… no matter how utterly useless it would have been to do so.

Crystal took in a breath and let it out slow. “This is the answer, Magnum.” she picked up. “And when this is all over with, he’ll have a second chance to live the normal life that was taken from him by a stupid freak accident.” And this time, when we turned back to him, Magnum was slowly nodding, giving in with a heavy heart and a saddened frown. “And I’ll be out of the way of that.” Crystal added decisively. “I’m trying to give my brother his life back… and I hope that you and Ginger will do the same.”

Then, Ginger turned back to the young Overmare, and we said, “I do hate to keep delaying you, Crystal… but I have to ask one more thing before you proceed.”

“What, Ginger?”

Together we turned to Damien, raising a hoof to gesture to him. “Well, look at him.” we said. “He looks nothing like either myself or my husband.” Crystal looked with us, listening despite her fatigue. “His face is different, his eyes bear no resemblance to either of ours, and while his colors are similar to Magnum’s, both he and I are nearing an age where we would not be able to make our own children.” And when she looked back to us, we lowered our hoof away. “We’re getting old, Crystal.” Ginger and I stated. “Wouldn’t he take note of any of that?”

But Crystal shook her head. “You’re a pegasus, Ginger. That will be more than enough.”

“I’m also a pegasus with a heart condition… one which will likely see to my passing within the next few years.” we responded tenderly; out of the corner of my host’s eye, I could see Magnum, shifting his hooves uncomfortably. “Damien would still be young when that time comes… and I’m just concerned.”

“I know. And I know that you are the only pegasus we have left except Damien. Apart from yours, Blackfire’s bloodline is the only one that’s lasted this long, call it luck, or genetics, or something else.” Crystal spoke after a short pause. “But with you he’ll at least be able to have a mother during his childhood. No child deserves to live without a mother, especially at his age.” And she spoke that with a steel-clad resoluteness, standing firm with her choice. “And if Damien grows up and actually learns his true origin again… that Blackfire was his many-greats grandmother… then I suppose that’ll be the punishment for what I’m about to do.”

And my host was resigned to that answer; together we nodded, convinced. “Very well… That’s all I wanted to ask.”

“Magnum?” At Crystal’s question, my host and I turned to Ginger’s husband, who only shook his head. And at that, Crystal gave us a single nod before she faced the young colt on the table, her horn beginning to spark with magical light.

“Then let’s get this over with.”

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

All at once, the Stable 181 clinic faded to black, before my own reality came rushing back to existence. And with a sharp jolt, I gasped as I returned from the memory, letting out a short breath as I bowed my head, steadying myself from the dizzying state that I was left in from the startling transition.

But before I could even begin to recollect my wits, a blink put in my sight the hooves of a pony, which my transition back into the real world had hidden from me. A soft but sharp gasp escaped me at the surprising sight, and when I looked up, armored hooves and forelegs connected to a chestplate of black and blue padding, a yellow 192 painted on the front. And then I found the pony’s face. An amused smirk met me as the grey coated, orange-maned unicorn stallion I found myself facing looked down to me.

“Did you have fun in there?” he asked.

“Nova!!”

Blake…

My baby brother’s cry came from my left… sending a cold shock ripping through me before I snapped my eyes over to find him. He was sitting on his haunches beside Ivy, tucked up against her side, and the both of them were looking to me with frightened stares…

An assault rifle hovered by their heads… and they weren’t the only ones.

Off to their left, Gunny was there, glaring ahead and breathing slowly where he was being held at gunpoint by another blue and black armored pony. And past him… I found one more member of my team, and then another, and another, and another… and another… All of them were lined up past the flickering campfire and arced over to the wagon, the last pony in the line being the captain himself, who was held by an earth pony wearing a savage battle saddle made from twin light machineguns. They had all been taken hostage, with all of their weapons having been thrown away behind them…… the same with my own weapons… And now everypony was a prisoner to a whole squad of heavily armed ponies. They numbered over a half dozen… sixteen… one for each of my own squadmates… and one for me… the stallion who was still looking down at me with that same smirk… and all of them wore the same uniform – blue and black security armor, modified to varying degrees, all with black cloaks settling over their backs.

Each suit was painted with that same yellow number… 192…

Stable 192…

Goddesses… no…

A deep painful pit formed in my gut as I recognized the stallion from days before. And slowly, I reached up to remove the recollector still atop my head; he let me as he took a step back.

“Bolt…”

Bolt from Buckley Air Force Base.

“Hello, Nova.” he greeted with mock warmth. “I figured that you’d remember me.” The recollector fell with a light thud onto the dirt before I lowered my hoof back to the ground, staring up at him when he looked back over his shoulder at his assembled companions from Buckley. “And I’d wager that if you thought hard enough about it you’d recognize a few of the others I’ve brought with me.” he added, nodding to his friends while each of them, in turn, glared their own degree of hatred back at me; true enough… there was a couple other familiar faces. There was Brock… the wagon gunner from the Marefax expedition, wearing an assault rifle and a forty millimeter grenade launcher on a battle saddle at his place behind Tiny. I recognized Diego, one of the snipers from the same expedition force – his .308 sniper rifle hovered right by Sierra’s helmet; though she was wearing her full rig of steel armor, not even she was safe, not at point blank range. And there was Butch too, the big tan earth pony with a dark brown mane and tail – he wore his flamethrower saddle that he had used against the giant sand hornets in Buckley’s generator building, now aiming the lit weapon toward Shore. And finally, there was a familiar unicorn armed with a carbine rifle and a belt of four metal apples who was the stallion guarding Gunny, the weapon’s barrel pressed against the back of my friend’s neck; I recognized him from when I’d told Buckley of my involvement with the Talon Legion… he’d nearly killed me on the tarmac.

The rest were new faces… new angry faces…

“When you were in Buckley, I didn’t take you as the type of pony who would be forgetful.” Bolt continued conversationally, turning back to face me again. “I admire that, you know.” I stayed frozen in place, laying still on the ground. “It’s nice to know that you’re not one to simply let your… past mistakes… just… blow away in the wind.”

“Bolt…” Slowly, cautiously, I put a hoof under me to start pushing myself.

“It’s been quite the journey trying to track you down, Nova.” he said, bypassing me wholesale as his horn begun to shimmer; his eyes were beginning to change… that false warmth had left him. “We’ve traveled a long road to find you again.” And that’s when I froze again, only partially standing, as the precision carbine rifle strapped across his back came floating up out of its holster. “And now that we have,” he growled, pulling back the cocking handle to chamber a round. “you, me, and the rest of us – we have a lot of catching up to do.” I barely kept myself from shaking as his rifle hovered in beside him, slowly turning to point for me. “Get on your hooves.”

A light, shaky sigh escaped my lips. “Why didn’t you believe me, Bolt?” I asked, struggling with myself to remain calm as I hesitantly complied with his demand and rose back up to all fours. “You heard me at Buckley when I confessed. So why didn’t you believe me when I told you the truth? Why didn’t you believe what I said – that they gave me no choice, that I didn’t open that door on my own free will?” I slowly shook my head. “Why didn’t you believe me when you knew that I never wanted any of it?”

“I remember what you said. And I know that you think you’re innocent.” he replied, keeping his rifle trained on me. “But what I’d like to know now is what makes you think that your words justify what you did. And more importantly, I want to know what makes you think that one life is more valuable than two hundred and sixty.”

“There’s nothing to justify in this.” I said back carefully, standing my ground. “You know that I’d never aid the Talons willingly, and in any other circumstance I would’ve made them kill me before I would’ve done anything to help them.” Bolt’s glare only intensified as I tried to formulate my response through my fear; my eyes kept darting back to Blake. “I am not the villain here.” I pressed on, my mind scrambling for anything that might appease him. “The Talons made me! They took my brother and threatened to blow his head off with a Goddess-damned explosive collar, and that was the only reason that I helped them!”

“Two hundred and sixty, Nova!” he fired back darkly, pointing a hoof behind him, to the northeast. “Two hundred and sixty died in that attack! We have dozens of families back there in Buckley that are torn apart! We have orphans now, and widows, and brothers and sisters who will never see their siblings again… all because you gave in to the Talons’ demands and opened that door for them! And now your little brother lives at the sacrifice of over a fourth of our entire community!” Suddenly, I felt the cold touch of steel, and I flinched as the barrel of Bolt’s rifle pressed up against my throat. “That colt’s floating on a river of blood made from the friends and family we lost that day, Nova. You took all of them from us…”

“What would you have done, Bolt?” I asked, swallowing and nearly choking at the rifle’s touch. “What if you had been me and it was one of your family that was being threatened with execution? Would you have really just let your own family die, especially if that family member was the last one you had?” And after that… after that came silence. Bolt kept his rifle against my neck… and though I felt he didn’t intend it, I could see how that fiery glare of his had lessened, only slightly… but enough for me to see… enough for me to try and make a move. “Bolt…” And slowly, I dared to move against him… pressing myself a little tighter against the steel of the rifle muzzle. “I’m begging you… please, believe what I said at Buckley. Opening the door to those missiles… it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life… because I know just what it cost.” Again, I glanced over to Blake; both he and Ivy were watching me with worry. “It cost me Buckley’s trust… it cost me my home entirely… and it’s all I can do to keep myself from crying every time I think about how many might’ve died altogether-”

“And how many ponies did you lose?” The stallion behind Gunny was the one who called out his question to me, one that made me flinch at the level of anger in his voice, the same anger he had spoken to me with back on that runway. And… I couldn’t answer him; I could only look away. “Exactly.” the stallion growled; his hatred had only grown stronger since our confrontation on the runway.

Then I felt Bolt’s rifle pressing just a little harder against me, drawing a small start from me as my eyes darted back to his; his glare faltered… he was actually shaking. “Do you want to know why I didn’t believe you, Nova? Do you want to know why I still don’t believe you?” he asked. “Because once upon a time, I had a brother and sister in Buckley, both younger siblings. My brother was about two years my younger, my sister just over five. I raised them up since they were young, brought them up to serve in the guard. Even after our parents died when we were just kids they grew up courageous, learned quick, became well-respected. They had bright futures to look forward to, part of which was brought by you, Nova. Believe it or not you inspired those two to look forward to stepping outside, to put Buckley on the map and to make our home a part of something greater.” That pit that had stayed in me opened up even wider… his words hitting me like a bullet; I already knew what was coming… but it didn’t keep me from feeling all the worse. “When you opened that door, you killed the both of them… They died in Buckley’s defense that day…” And with a sad little shake of his head, “You took away the last of my blood family in order to save the last of yours…… You’ve given me nothing left to lose… same with a few of the ponies here with me.” I was devastated, even more so when his rifle fell away from my throat… and when he looked over his shoulder, back to his party, I barely swallowed back a sob that wanted to escape. “We could spend an hour going through everypony’s story, just so you feel the weight of what you’ve done to us.” he added, turning back to me one more time; sadness gave way… and I nearly shivered when I was greeted by his former glare. “But you see, Nova, we’re here for a different reason. We’re here to teach you just how much you have to lose.”

No… no, no, no…

“And we’ve got all your friends and your precious little brother here to do just that.”

“Bolt, please don’t…” But right when I tried to reach out to him again, the grey unicorn’s horn abruptly flashed with light, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw his rifle just as it swung around with shocking speed.

Then it connected right with the side of my head.

Pain ripped through my skull, the staggering force of the hit knocking me off my hooves and sending me sprawling onto the dirt. I landed hard on my right side, my vision having gone dark only to return as a blur of its former self. But even through the tremendous sting lingering from the heavy hit, I heard a swell in voices from the others. Blake cried out for me, Ivy did too, and I heard growling from a couple of the others; Goddesses, there was even a pained grunt sounding in time with a thrown punch. A quick couple of seconds later, and I was able to look back up, and despite my daze, I saw Bolt as he stepped around to approach me, his rifle hovering in beside him.

And he raised it up to strike me again.

“BOLT!!”

But he froze, startled into staying his wrath when his name was called out, and he snapped his head around, looking over his shoulder. Taken by surprise myself, I searched with him as my vision begun to return… but his comrades weren’t looking back to him. None of them had been the one to call him, because they were seeking the voice too, looking over the rest of the camp for a short few seconds, until one by one, they all looked up… up… And when Bolt turned skyward… that’s where his eyes stayed…

That’s when I heard it – the beating of wings in the air… and when I looked to see for myself…… there, settling into a hover over the camp… a pegasus pony was illuminated by the dying fire. Unlike Bolt and his team, the flier was wearing no combat rig, only a pair of white saddlebags and a weapon saddle. But it was the pegasus pony’s weapons themselves – a dual rifle saddle made from two .308 scopeless rifles, and then one larger rifle secured over the flier’s back – they made a familiar sight, igniting memories. And it was when the pegasus begun to descend that I found myself gasping in shock. Because when the pegasus looked down, it… he… came to look at me with a pair of hazel eyes that I had, even after all this time, not forgotten. And when he was but a yard off the ground, the campfire illuminated his colors, revealing his steel-blue coat and slightly brightening his black mane, before he landed smoothly on all fours, tucking his wings back against his sides as he faced the stallion he’d called out.

“Archer…” Bolt growled.

Goddesses… Archer…

Buckley Air Force Base’s pegasus met Bolt’s glare with collected focus, completely unfazed by his fellow’s irritation. “I had a feeling Mother Shimmer would be sending somepony out to try and call us back once she knew we were missing… and I had a feeling it’d be you she’d be sending.” the grey unicorn continued, nodding to himself as he spoke. “Nopony else in Buckley could find us in all this wasteland… I figured it was just a matter of time before you caught up.”

“Bolt…” Archer took a step forward; his eyes met mine briefly as he did so. “Hold on a second.”

“Save it, Archer!” one of the stallions in Bolt’s crew called angrily. “Our business is with Nova, not you!”

“Go back home!” a mare added with the same tone. “Stay out of this!”

But Archer only focused on the team’s leader, standing strong in the face of his glare. “We need to talk about this.”

“Do we now?” Bolt asked lowly.

“You need to think about what you’re doing.” Archer answered, calm. “Think about it… you’ve heard Mother Shimmer on this. You’ve heard the truth, and you’ve heard me too, my warning about what this mission of yours could cost you.” After a pause, Archer lightly stamped a forehoof on the dirt. “I know you want blood. I get it. But these are not the ponies to get it from, and you know it. You’ve got to let them go.”

“In the end, the Talons pulled the trigger… I understand that.” Bolt responded after a moment’s pause. “But Nova is still the one who gave them the bullet, Archer. And after everything that she explained to us about that technology that she accessed, about how she was the only pony who could open that door, there’s no way to ignore the simple fact that if she had said no, then the Talons would have never gotten those cruise missiles in the first place.” In that moment, I was glad that Bolt’s focus was on the pegasus stallion; I didn’t want him to see my ears pinning back. “She might have lost her brother because of it, but she would have been hailed a hero by all of Buckley, and even the rest of the southeast once they learned what was kept out of the Legion’s reach. But instead, she was willing to sacrifice everything for that colt, regardless of how it would have impacted others.”

“And would you have been able to sacrifice one of your family had you been in Nova’s situation?” Archer challenged, the volume in his voice climbing as he became just a little more aggressive.

“Yes!” Bolt answered sharply.

“Like hell you would have.” Archer replied back, a glare of his own beginning to take shape.

“It would have been a tough choice, I know.” Bolt said. “But in the end, it would have saved more lives, along with our home.” And it was then that he turned back to me, looking over his shoulder. “Which is something that Nova obviously didn’t bother to think about.”

I didn’t respond…

“We lost so many ponies, Archer, and all for one child.” Bolt continued, turning back away to Archer again. “And there’s no telling just how much more damage was done and how many more lives were claimed in the rest of the region.” He shook his head at that… all while I simply lay there… losing myself more and more in a deep pit of despair. “Mother Shimmer might have advocated for Nova’s innocence, but you saw everypony’s response after that big gathering in the concert hall.” Bolt continued. “There aren’t many who agree with her, and I think the only reason that the rest aren’t up in arms against her is simply because she’s been around for so long. But once we get rid of Nova, Archer, Shimmer’s going to understand that her death is going to bring stability back to Buckley far sooner than letting her live would have.”

“No, Bolt!” Archer snapped in response. I nearly gasped when Bolt’s rifle flinched in the air where it hovered; Archer saw it, too. “This isn’t what Mother Shimmer would want!”

“And what the hell do you know about what Mother Shimmer would want?!” Bolt challenged heatedly. “What do you know about Buckley, or any of us?”

“I know that you’re smarter than this.” Archer answered, refusing to yield. “This won’t end well for you unless you reconsider what you’re doing and back down.”

“Is that a threat, Archer?” Bolt asked with a dangerous warning tone, taking a step back. “Because I know how you feel about these outsiders, and don’t think I don’t know about how you feel towards Nova in particular.” I looked back to Archer myself this time, watching as he followed Bolt’s move. But suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw as Bolt’s rifle came into view; it hovered down and turned in the air… pointing for me once again. “I’m doubting where your loyalties really lie, Archer.”

“Buckley is my home, Bolt.” Archer replied… suddenly with a much calmer tone; his eyes flicked back to me. “I’m only trying to reason with you.”

But Bolt only brought his rifle in closer to me. “Considering your history, Archer, I really doubt that.” he responded after a short pause. “You’re not one of us. You came from the sky, and it was only by Mother Shimmer’s grace that you weren’t executed after you were shot down over the base.”

“Does my history even matter when I’ve lived in Buckley and served its citizens for as long as I have?” Archer sharply interrupted.

“Yeah, Archer, it does.” Bolt answered, raising a hoof to point at him. “It matters because you were a traitor once in your life already.” That time, Archer froze… and I was left staring. “And really, I don’t think I want to risk you crossing that line again, not when it might put my mission in jeopardy.” He looked back to his companions behind the pegasus. “In fact, I think it might just be better for all of us if we eliminate that risk entirely.”

And he gave a nod.

Archer spun around, catching Bolt’s gesture at the same time as Diego moved forward, his comrade next to him dragging Raemor up against Sierra to keep his eyes on the both of them. And I jerked at the same time that Diego’s rifle slammed hard into Archer’s side. “NO!!” I screamed with fright as Archer grunted heavily. But I only moved one step forward before Bolt’s rifle hovered up to face me again, the unicorn turning back to glare hateful fire. Past him, I saw Archer as he fought to steady himself. But another one of Bolt’s squadmates stepped into my view, a unicorn stallion with a missile launcher slung over his back, moving on an intercept course with the stunned pegasus as he tried to back away from Diego. But it was the weapon that was held in the second buck’s telekinesis that came into view from behind him as it was pulled back, and Archer didn’t even see it before the stallion’s sledgehammer came down on his back. He cried out as he was smashed to the ground, both the sledgehammer stallion and Diego surrounding him as yet a third pony from Bolt’s team approached, a big earth pony wearing a twin LMG saddle and his own leg sash of three frag grenades. And as Diego hooked his foreleg around Archer’s middle, hoisting him roughly back up to his hooves before he could recover, the newcomer swung himself around and kicked out with his hind hooves, bucking Archer square in the jaw to send the pegasus sprawling back onto the ground; all three chased the direction of his fall, not giving him even a second to recuperate.

“Bolt stop!!” I shouted, finally looking back to the angry stallion and his rifle; Archer was thrown bodily across the dirt, landing closer to the wagon.

“Max, go ahead!” Bolt shouted, ignoring me wholesale as he looked to one of his other teammates. “Here’s your chance for a little payback!”

From the corner of my eye, I found the stallion behind Gunny as he nodded, all too eagerly pulling his rifle away from my friend’s neck. And before Gunny could even look back, the rifle came back around, and the stock smacked harshly into his jaw, sending him stumbling forward. And with shocking speed, Max righted his rifle and swung again, an alarming crack sounding when it connected with Gunny’s skull; that hit sent him to the ground, pumping raw fear into me. “Bolt listen to me!!” I cried again, the enemy leader finally looking back to me. “It was just me that helped the Talons! Nopony else was involved!!”

“Oh I know.” he replied menacingly, turning around to face me fully. “You’re right, Nova. And that’s why I’m going to be fair about all this.” Shaking, I watched briefly as Bolt begun to walk off to my left side, giving me clear view of where Gunny and Archer were being savagely beaten. Archer was just laid out again from another punch. He only pulled himself forward a single step before he was grabbed again and thrown by the sledgehammer pony, his momentum carrying him all the way to the wagon where his head smashed against one of the wheels. And closer to me, Gunny was slammed with Max’s rifle again as he fought to recover; his horn flared as he tried to use his magic, to reach for anything, anything at all to help him. “First,” Bolt had drawn up along my left side, his rifle still hovering before me. “first you’re going to watch as your little coltfriend is beaten to death.” he said, another resounding smack sounding as Archer was hit again. “Then we’re going to kill all of your friends that were with you at Buckley when the Talons launched those missiles, starting with your bodyguard, Gunny. And after that we’re going to execute everypony else in your little team, one by one.” Then his rifle flicked in the air, gesturing over to the rest of my team, the captives who were only able to watch Gunny and Archer’s thrashing helplessly; together Bolt and I looked to where Blake and Ivy were being guarded by the assault rifle unicorn mare behind them. “And then I’m going to personally execute your little brother.” Bolt vowed with a threatening low tone, finally turning back to me. “Then I’m going to kill you, and that’ll make us as even as we could ever possibly be.”

I trembled where I stood, my mind racing for a solution, any solution at all. Across the campfire, Archer was thrown bodily into the wagon’s armored side, keeping on his hooves only to be drilled in his right side by the stock of Diego’s sniper rifle before the LMG stallion grabbed him by his shoulder and threw him back down. And Gunny managed to catch Max’s rifle before it could come down on him again, only to be punched in the gut, breaking his concentration on his magic as he let out a pained grunt.

BLAM!

I jumped at the report of a rifle. I feared the worst when my eyes snapped back to my imprisoned friends, only to see as Ivy was struck across the jaw by the unicorn mare behind her, sending her into Blake to carry them both to the ground before her assault rifle was leveled back at the both of them, quelling any more attempts by Ivy to rebel. Desperately, I looked out of my peripheral sight, seeing where Bolt watched the mare guarding Ivy and Blake, exchanging a quick nod with her to show that they were under control again. I would have tried the same, and I wished that I could. But my saddle had been removed when I’d been in that memory orb, same with my sidearm. All I had on me was my armor, the only weapon my hooves……

With a grunt I pulled back my left hind hoof and brought it down, catching Bolt’s leg in a solid kick. His rifle went off right in front of me, stabbing at my ears as a bullet slammed right into my armored chest. The plate barely absorbed it, and I staggered back at the impact of the high-caliber round. And as soon as I caught my balance, I lurched forward as I was struck on the back of the head, and I toppled face first back into the dirt. “I got her!” Bolt called past the ringing in my ears. Frantically I tried to push myself back up to all fours. But immediately, a weight pressed down on me, on all of me, as Bolt slammed me back down onto my belly, his hooves pressing down on the back of my neck to keep me pinned. “You want to play this fucking game, Nova?!” he demanded, his voice a raging storm. “Then we can play this game! And I’ll go ahead and start by clipping your wings!”

And with a jolt of shock, I felt my left wing as it was forcefully pulled, magic splaying it out against my will before… before the familiar touch of Bolt’s rifle barrel came down on it, pressing right where the wing met my shoulder.

“HEY!!”

Suddenly, a cry… multiple cries, shouts of alarm. In front of me, I spotted Gunny just as he planted his hind hooves against Max’s underside. And with a great heave, he sent the Buckley unicorn flying off of him. He fell a couple yards away, landing on his back before quickly rolling onto his side, trying to push himself up-

BOOM!!!

A violent thunderclap, sending a pulse through the ground under me, and in a blink, Max exploded. One moment he was a solid pony, and the next, blood, flesh, and pieces of armor went flying in all directions. I jerked away, shutting my eyes when I felt blood splatter right across my forehead, a piece of him bouncing off my back while the rest of him showered the ground with light patters, like a sick and twisted rain shower. Behind me, I heard Bolt cry out his comrade’s name, along with two mares from his group whose voices reached me past the replenished ringing in my ears. But then came the report of a rifle, a single shot that was followed quickly by another. And then there was the sustaining of an automatic weapon, and then another… and a third…

We were fighting back!

Within seconds a whole volley of automatic fire was sounding off around the camp as I thrashed. Catching Bolt off guard, I felt the stallion stumble as I kicked out, giving me enough room to roll aside to put some space between us. Quick as I could manage, I staggered back to all fours, moving myself to find Bolt, the closest to me. When I did, he was already bringing his rifle to bear, snapping it back to his side as he took aim for me. I leapt to the right, throwing myself back to the dirt just as he fired a single shot. I skidded a short ways before coming to a halt on my side, suddenly finding myself face to face with my confiscated weaponry. I scrambled to reach my sidearm as Bolt followed after me behind his iron sights. But just when he would’ve taken another shot, another cry reached me over the gunfire, and when I looked back, Blake leapt into view from seemingly out of nowhere, launching himself for Bolt and plowing right into his neck. I cried out for him, ignoring my weapons and racing to get back to my hooves as Blake latched onto his much larger opponent, hooking his forelegs around his throat and using his body weight to pull down and drag him away from me. But Bolt only stumbled, balancing himself quickly before he reached up. And hooking his foreleg over Blake’s back, he ripped the colt off him with ease, slamming my brother into the dirt. I was on my hooves, wheeling around and launching myself after him with a savage cry. And before he could do anything else to Blake, I drove into him myself, this time taking him to the ground. I tumbled over him when we landed, falling back onto my right side from the momentum of my lunge. Bolt however, was the quicker to recover, and before I could even roll back onto my stomach, he was on top of me, his rifle hovering in as he forced me onto my back. But I was quick to react, and I jammed my right hind hoof into his own gut when we stopped together, and with a shove I forced him the rest of the way over me, his hooves catching on my side and knocking him back down; I rolled back and away from him again, moving to go for my brother and make sure he was safe.

I caught sight of Blake as I got back onto my stomach, the colt pulling himself up and shaking his head to clear himself of a momentary daze. “Blake!!” I shouted over the firefight, pulling myself to all fours and springing over to him. “Blake are you okay?!”

“I’m okay!” he shouted, trembling as he raced to close the distance between us. But when he opened his mouth to speak again, he caught sight of something off to his right, my left, which drew an alarmed gasp from him. “NOVA!!”

That’s when I heard the threatening cocking of a rifle.

I snapped my eyes over, finding the mare that had formerly held my brother hostage as she snapped her assault rifle up, taking aim at us with a vengeful scowl. “RUN!” I wheeled to the right, seeing as Blake turned with me. And together we galloped as the mare opened fire.

Three rounds, one right after the next, strafed my left side with a fourth striking my flank, the armor holding up against them all as I threw myself forward, putting the only available cover in my sights. Between us and the wagon, both Tiny and Boulter grappled with their former captors. We raced right by the both of them, the ground exploding all around me as the assault rifle mare pursued us, sustaining her lethal bullet storm. And at the impact of another round against my right flank plate, I launched myself forward in a desperate dive to close the remaining distance between myself and the wagon. I landed on my gut, skidding across the ground and falling just short of the right rear wheel. Dirt pelted my face as three more rounds strafed the ground just inches away from my right side, another two striking the wagon’s armored hull above me. And to my left, I saw as Blake threw himself bodily under the wagon, diving right between the two rear wheels before coming to a halt. And kicking and pulling, I hurried under the wagon to join him, pushing myself up against the wheel as the enemy’s barrage finally subsided, the last four rounds smashing against the wheel itself.

To my right, another explosive thunderclap overtook the spaced gunfire and drilled into my already sensitive ears, dirt pattering against the wagon as I righted myself, looking for the mare who had chased us. Past a literal shower of uprooted soil, I reacquired her as she jammed another clip into her weapon, replacing the empty one with one swift practiced motion. And a split second later, the mare opened up again, forcing Blake and I to huddle up behind the wheel as it soaked up bullet after bullet of her controlled bursts of fire. I was forced to keep low, having no chance of moving from cover without getting hit. But the wagon wheel was falling apart rapidly, more and more bits of wood flying away with each hit. Again, an explosion ripped across the camp, raining dirt down on my attacker, none of it making her flinch from her target.

But that was when I caught movement, left side… Bolt!!

The mare continued firing, pinning us down for Bolt to get the angle on us, and I found the enemy leader just as he leveled his rifle for us, crouched low to aim his shot. I scrambled away, farther under the wagon as he fired once, his shot plowing into the soil just inches from me. Then he fired again, his second round hitting the wagon’s armored hull as he tried to focus back on me. But suddenly, dirt kicked up right in front of his hooves, a stray round forcing him back a step. And soon as I saw him do so, I took the chance to move. I hoisted myself up and scurried even further back, nearly forced into a crawl because of the wagon’s low undercarriage. Four steps back and I found Blake again, unharmed, watching me with frightened eyes. Thankfully, even without telling him, he followed my move, crawling as fast as he could after me as I made my way to the back left corner. And just as Bolt lined up another shot I passed by the left wheels, finally coming out from under the wagon just as another round struck where I had just been. Blake was jolted back with a cry of alarm, the same shot barely missing him, and he pushed himself back, keeping himself under the wagon.

I couldn’t let us get separated!

A chain of explosions sounded on the other side of the wagon, bringing my focus on the fight as Bolt came around the wagon, leaping into view and bringing his carbine to bear. And before I could react, he fired. Pain exploded through my left shoulder, the round punching through a weaker part of the armoring and making its way through. I jerked away with an agonized yelp, and before I could catch myself, I lost my footing when my whole foreleg locked up, and I landed on my left side. Instinct drove me to move, guiding my focus back to the wagon as I pulled myself toward it. But then I thrashed again, feeling as a second round struck my side, stopping me with the sting of the impact. Bolt was locked onto me, and I didn’t even get a second of clarity before a third hit my shoulder again, the bullet burying itself into the armoring dangerously close to the wing joint.

But suddenly, right after another rippling detonation, I heard a masculine cry of pain… from the same direction of the shots.

I was free. A precious couple of seconds to breathe, and then I gathered up my strength and I rolled, stopping myself on my back to look. There was Bolt, down on one knee… his rifle on the ground at his side… as he looked with shocked eyes to the fire axe buried in his shoulder right where it met the neck… blood already seeping out around the blade.

BLAM!!

A single shot echoed, one that seemed to silence the whole battle. And I saw as it punched through his armor to find home in his chest… right in the heart. And without a sound he went down, toppling back… falling still…

That shot was the last one to sound…

“Nova, are you alright?”

I gasped in alarm at the sounding of a calm but fatigued voice. And when I turned, another pony suddenly came to stand by my right side, promptly turning and bowing his head to look me in the eye. I was greeted by Raemor’s face, his .45 automatic pistol floating close by. The sight of a friendly figure was so welcoming to me that I rolled back over onto my stomach with barely a wince. “Raemor…” I managed to say between labored breaths, pushing myself raggedly back up onto my front hooves. “Raemor… is it…”

Even as I fought to get myself fully upright, I heard the old stallion when he let out a sigh. “It’s over.” he said, moving in close to me when I wobbled on my crippled limb.

Silence… dead silence…

Just moments ago, grenades had been going off… missiles were flying, rifles and machineguns firing… But now there was just… nothing…… no voices… no shifting equipment… not even the crackling of the campfire…… Just like that… it had ended…

It sent a sharp, nearly painful chill through my aching body as I simply stood there, staring ahead. It was a chill that was nearly as painful as my freshest wound, which I hissed at when it pulsed to get my attention, overcoming the dwindling adrenaline still coursing through me. It demanded a glance, and I saw the fresh blood that had snaked down the left side of my chest plate in a slowly widening tendril, still lengthening as it proceeded to trail down my foreleg. But even through the terrible burn, that silence still spoke in the strongest voice by far, one that pushed through everything else to bring my mind back around, back to focus on what had just come and gone… and on what I’d find on the other side of the wagon……

I felt myself shaking…

“Nova!” It was right when I began to scout the immediate vicinity that another pony called me, the pony that I searched for first. A tremendous wave of relief poured over me when I found Blake as he crawled out from under the wagon, hurrying to his hooves before racing over. He leapt right into me, knocking me back a whole step while consequently firing up my wounded shoulder as he hooked his forelegs around my neck to hug me. But much to my own discomfort, I found that the fear that had begun to well in me surpassed even my baby brother’s presence. The relief was genuine… but it was very short-lived. I didn’t even return his embrace, and through his hold, I only found myself looking past him to the far edge of the wagon, my eyes locked there… and my desire to move only increased twofold as the silence continued to lord over us.

Nopony else came around the wagon to find us…

With a gentle nudge I used my left forehoof to move Blake aside, the colt hesitantly releasing me and setting himself back down on all fours, stepping away to give me room. And with a pained huff I moved my first steps, my shoulder reminding me again of Bolt’s successful hit. Raemor and Blake stayed on either side of me as I moved, matching my slow pace and keeping close, watching me as I limped on my left foreleg. And together, the three of us passed the wagon, rounding the corner… seeing the outcome…

It was a scene of total carnage…

From a fight that had lasted mere minutes… I beheld a brutally heart-wrenching aftermath. The once peaceful campground we had established, only minutes ago serving as the sanctum in which we reunited with our long-lost archives, was now a blasted ruin. The ground had been carved into, smoldering blast craters left behind from where grenades and missiles fired from the Buckley assassin team’s launchers had detonated. Various rifles lay strewn across the whole of the camp, separated from their masters, and the ground was littered with empty bullet cases from the continuous fire from the multitude of automatic weapons. But worst of all – the bodies… seeing how our once peaceful camp had become the final resting place of over twenty motionless bodies. Buckley’s team… they were utterly eradicated in the fight. As I scanned the field, I found enemy casualties one after the next. Butch lay off to the right, his flamer saddle still primed for use; he hadn’t gotten the opportunity to use it. And after him I found Diego, laying farther back… one foreleg completely missing. Then, a few seconds later, and I found Brock, his back to me where he had fallen on his side; I could see the burns and the holes that had been carved into his armor… and a couple yards from him, I found Diego’s missing foreleg. They were spaced around the whole of the camp – the newest casualties for Buckley Air Force Base. Whether by explosive or skilled shot, each and every one of them had fallen in the fight… each and every one of them…… But in the mix… I found others… familiar faces lying amidst the bodies of the enemy…

We had taken losses.

Closest to me, I found Quinn. I could see the headshot that had claimed her.

Past her, there was Sylvia – same thing.

That pit I was all too familiar with begun to open back up in my gut when I saw Tiny. He faced me, eyes open in a lifeless gaze. His armor’s chest plate had been ravaged, blood trailing from what had to easily be a dozen wounds.

Mavis had been killed too, his body having been blasted open by an explosive; Boulter stood next to him, his head bowed over the body of his fallen friend.

A soft but sharp exhale escaped me as I kept looking… and my shaking came back to me, stronger.

There was one more unicorn from our pulling team that had been killed – Gyro. He was the farthest away, close to where I’d been resting at the other end of the now erased campfire. His back was to me… but I could see the dark color and the moist texture the soil around him had taken.

Then I scanned right and traced back in a circle, slow… and found a pink unicorn with a golden mane, two bullets having hit her, one punching through her front left leg, the second through her skull… Without warning, my lower lip trembled just slightly as I took in the sight of Daisy…… and……

“Goddesses…” I whimpered, my eyes beginning to water when I found a platinum colored white-maned unicorn not but a couple yards from her, shot over a half dozen times in his left side, the side that faced me.

They got Joker…

“I need help!!”

With a start, my eyes snapped farther to the right. And almost immediately I found Gunny, the stallion turning around with a startling limp as light from his horn faded away, same as the light around the pony on his back did. Ivy – the grey unicorn squirmed in her place atop Gunny, her eyes closed tight and her teeth bared in pain. And underneath her, blood was already flowing free along Gunny’s right side, sliding between his armor and his holstered riot shotgun and quickly darkening his armor as red mixed with blue. “How bad?!” And farther to the right still came a frantic response; that was where the remaining survivors had clustered together.

“Three hits – two torso, one leg!”

“I’ve got two potions left! Bring her over, quick!” Sergeant Madeline spoke the call, beckoning him over with a quick wave of her hoof before she focused back on her task – another pony laying on the ground before her. Beside the sergeant was Shore, sitting on one side of a pair of white saddlebags as he leaned over the same pony, whose face was concealed behind him. And lastly, Sierra was there too, standing farther back and watching behind her helmet visor as she tucked her armored wings back to her sides. “Here, take them!” Madeline ordered, levitating two healing potions from the saddlebags at her side and setting them at Gunny’s hooves as he joined the group; a half-empty healing potion bottle of her own came into view, floating just behind her.

She didn’t wait for a reply from Gunny, only turning away as he set Ivy down, who groaned weakly as she was deposited beside the other wounded pony. “Hang in there, you’re going to be fine.” Madeline said, softer as she focused back on the pony she tended to. “The potions are already working, you’re going to be okay.”

“Yes ma’am…” came a faint reply… Captain Saber’s voice.

“Drink up, captain.” she urged gently, helping him gulp down the healing brew. “There we go.”

“Ivy can you hear me?” As I watched on, my eyes fell on Gunny again, the stallion hobbling over by Ivy’s side with one of his two potions hovering beside him. After a short pause, “Good. Now you need to open up and drink this down for me, okay?” With a tug, his magic pulled the cap off the glass bottle. “There we go, good.” And he lowered the bottle down, tilting it forward for Ivy to drink. “This’ll help slow the bleeding, and then I can dig those bullets out of you before I give you the last one.”

“Are they going to be okay?” Finally, finally I got the strength to speak up in the wake of the fight, raising a foreleg to wipe away the two tears that had come to trail down my cheeks. “Are they going to be okay?”

Only Gunny spared time to look back to me at my call. “They will, Nova.” he responded after a short pause. “Once these potions get moving in their systems, they’ll be alright.”

“We’re going to have to get that fire going again though.” Madeline spoke up in reply to him, turning back to him as he helped Ivy drink her first potion. “Without medical supplies of our own, we’re going to have to cauterize any wound that these potions don’t fix, which means yours.” Gunny only nodded, passing a glance to the sergeant. “Okay, I need you both to help me out with Saber.” she added, looking between both Gunny and Shore. “He’s got four bullets that need to be removed, two in the right shoulder, two in the chest. From what I can tell though, it doesn’t look like any of them went in more than about an inch or so.”

“Alright.” And I saw Gunny just as he unsheathed Honor, taking the combat blade in place of a now empty potion bottle. And turning the knife in the air, pointing the tip down, he stepped around Ivy and up to the captain. “You ready, sir?” he asked, looking down to his commander.

“Get ‘em out of me…” came Saber’s strained answer.

“Yes, sir.”

It was then that I finally tore myself free from that sight, turning away and sagging down under the ever intensifying weight of the short but terrible fight’s aftermath. Captain Saber and Ivy, both severely wounded… but at least able to drink down some healing potions; I believed the answer Gunny had given me. Shore, Sierra, Madeline, and Boulter – they all looked unharmed, and Raemor and Blake were too. Gunny and I were the only two that were likewise wounded but were still able to remain upright all the same…… and that was it…

Ten of us remained… ten out of seventeen…

BLAM!!

With a yelp I jumped in place at the shocking report of a weapon behind me. Ears ringing, I spun about to find myself facing our wagon once again. Only this time, I was facing the vehicle’s right side, which I had crossed under to flee the mare that had chased my brother and I across the camp trying to put an end to us…… the same mare that now lay still at the hooves of another pony.

Archer…

He’d survived the fight too. And now, he stood over the motionless body of my would-be killer, looking down at her behind the barrel of the .44 magnum revolver held in his jaws. But just as quick as he had pulled the trigger, he spit the weapon back out, only to stagger back a step, hissing with pain. I only watched on as he collected himself, gradually opening his eyes and relaxing his posture, breathing evenly to cope with his pain best he could. Even in the dark, I could see some of the marks that showed just how brutal his beating had been. Blood had flowed out of the left corner of his mouth and traveled down his cheek and under his chin in a thin trail. There were three spots on his left side that were already standing out against his natural coat color. And one of them was bleeding, the force of whatever hit him leaving a sickening gash as if he’d been cut by a knife; I had a feeling that the sledgehammer had made that mark… and with it being right over his ribcage, I had an even worse feeling that there was more damage that I wasn’t able to see.

Briefly I turned away to my left side to find Blake, he too focused toward Archer. When I looked right, I saw that Raemor was gone, and I instead found him with the others, both him and Boulter assisting Gunny and Madeline in the care of our two incapacitated survivors. Gunny was at work on Ivy with his knife now, pulling the blade back from her with a sharp tug as Ivy herself managed to let out a pained yelp. It seemed he was making a quick pace in extracting the bullets, and Saber was moving where he rested; he shifted only slightly as Madeline set aside a second empty potion bottle… but that was still an encouraging sign.

Then I faced front again, looking back to Buckley’s pegasus as he begun to move towards me, branching off to my right and making to pass me by. “Archer…”

His name came out soft on my lips. But even that was enough to catch the stallion flier’s attention, and at the sound of my voice he slowed himself to a stop, his hazel eyes only reluctantly meeting mine. And after a short yet uncomfortable moment of silence, he grunted a single pained note in response, looking away slowly over the battlefield before limping closer. I watched after him as he moved, following him as he drew up alongside me… But it was as he did that he came to stop all on his own, only continuing to stare towards the lifeless fire pit of our camp. He took one more step as he did, setting a forehoof down ahead of him to keep going… but he didn’t move. He was just stuck there… as if trapped in some mental struggle… “I killed three of ‘em.” Then, in the lingering quiet, he finally spoke to me. “I killed three…” he repeated, softly, with struggle… struggle of more than one kind. And I only watched on as he raised a foreleg, gesturing out to the camp. “I killed that stallion there… Charger was his name.” With him having turned, putting his back to me, I could see the battlefield in full at my place behind him. And with his very voice as the trigger, I followed where he pointed, tracing it back to a dead unicorn from Bolt’s team; a missile launcher was still laying over his back… and a sledgehammer lay close by him. “As far as I know, he didn’t lose anypony in the Talons’ attack.” Archer said, lowering his foreleg back down. “But there were those he knew who lost somepony… friends who suffered… I guess that was enough to make him throw in his hammer for Bolt’s cause.”

I stared at that dead stallion, my ears perking at the silence that fell back into place when Archer went quiet; Charger was his name.

“Then I got Meg up in the air.” Archer spoke up again; I looked back to him, sidelong as gestured off to his right. “Your power armored friend saved me from Diego and Mel, gave me enough time to get airborne and try and fight back.” I had to move to follow him then, drawing up alongside him before I found the mare he’d pointed out; she had died lying beside a scoped energy weapon, a laser rifle that looked a lot like Shore’s own, the only main differences being the bulkier body and the dark green paintjob. “I recognize her from the church choir.” Archer explained, eliciting an unpleasant hitch from me. “She was one of the few who managed to pull off rehearsals and guard duty at the same time…… I think her involvement here was along the same as Charger’s.”

She’d been from Buckley’s choir…… Goddesses… what if she’d been in the same concert that I’d been in?

“Then I killed Zera.” I began to sag as he spoke his third name, his third and final kill… against his own ponies… And that’s when his left foreleg rose up into my sight, pointing to our left… to the wagon.

To the mare who’d chased Blake and I across the camp trying to end us.

“She was one of Bolt’s closest friends.” Archer explained lowly. “That was one reason why she joined his mission… that and she and her sister lost their younger sibling when the cruise missiles hit…” I sighed heavily, bowing my head, barely able to stand listening to the pegasus as he explained… more so to himself; I felt a hoof on my left foreleg… I didn’t look, but I knew it was Blake, trying his best to comfort me. “The both of them joined Bolt’s mission… probably were the first ones to sign on……Then the rest followed quick after that…”

And with that, Archer went quiet once again.

And me? I shook my head, sniffing once before I slowly looked back up. “I’m so sorry…”

But out of the corner of my eye, I saw as Archer shook his head in return. “No…” He didn’t look at me, but he spoke the word with a firm voice. “No, I’m sorry.” he said, weary. “I’m sorry that they didn’t listen…… I’m sorry I couldn’t get them to stand down.”

That was when he finally looked to me again, and I back to him; my ears begun to pin back just slightly… I could hear a note of guilt in his voice, one that was slowly growing with each word. “Archer…”

“I tried, Nova.” But he only continued ahead, lightly stamping a forehoof to the ground. “I really tried… And not just here, but back at Buckley too…… but no matter what I said… I just couldn’t get them to understand.” He stomped his hoof down again, harder. “And I warned them would could happen.” he said insistently. “I told them that they would be putting their lives at risk for nothing if they tried to find you. I told them you’d fight back, or if not you, then your friends would, and everypony saw that after the Talons’ attack……” Here, he calmed himself, just enough to turn away. “But Bolt’s call to action was just too strong and too relentless for my own voice to carry any weight with them.” Goddesses… he looked like he was fighting back his own tears; I could just barely see the frown on his face from where I stood nearby. “Bolt assembled his team in secret, disobeyed Shimmer’s order for everypony to stay inside the perimeter and snuck out in the dark with the help of night-watch guards sympathetic to their mission…… I tried to track them down… but they anticipated Shimmer sending somepony out that could actually have a chance to find them again…” He shook his head again, looking out past the camp to the blackened southern horizon beyond. “They just disappeared… whether in the Moonstone Peaks or near Plainwell territory I don’t know… but their trail went cold a couple miles past the highway… and I couldn’t find them fast enough to… to stop all this.” And at that, he huffed out another sigh… one of defeat… one that provoked quickly growing concern. “So despite everything I said, everything I did… they still managed to track you down…… And now Shimmer’s lost even more ponies… and you’ve lost seven friends…”

For a moment after I waited for the stallion flier to continue. Only this time, he kept quiet, standing still, lost in looking towards the southern landscape… leaving me staring as I tried to think of what to say. There were things that I wanted to say right then and there, yet couldn’t quite draw up the courage to speak them. I wanted to tell him that there was nothing that he needed to apologize for… because there really was nothing for him to apologize for. He’d been forced to turn on his own ponies, some of whom may have very well been his friends back on the base, and yet he was the one who was apologizing, for something that was my fault; he didn’t need to apologize… but he was so set in his words… I doubted saying so would get through.

Along with that, I wanted to assure him that he had done his absolute best in trying to stop Bolt. Whether such a statement would’ve held any weight was debatable, but still, even though the Buckley unicorn had carried out his plans, Archer had still done everything in his power to try and get him to understand the risk of his choices. And the effort he had put in trying to help us… help me… that was something I wouldn’t forget.

But it was that that brought me to the third thing I wanted to tell him, perhaps the most important of all of them – I wanted to tell him that I was thankful for his return…… I wanted to say thank you. But that too… that was something that would not bid well here… not after what he’d just been put through… and the truth was… the meaning that would have normally been carried by those words would’ve been lost in my own trauma – at losing the ponies we’d lost in the fight. I wanted to say it… but the emotion that would’ve normally come with it would have been nonexistent.

Instead of any of those, there was instead one question that continued to linger in my thoughts, one simple question that took precedence over everything else – why? I wanted to know the why of Bolt’s choices, the real, full why of it. And to break the ever swelling silence between Archer, myself, and Blake, I set that question out onto the table we shared. “I just wish… I just wish I knew why.” I finally piped up. Archer turned to glance sidelong at me from his place nearby; on my opposite side, I felt Blake lightly graze his muzzle against my foreleg. “I wish I knew why Bolt wouldn’t… just wouldn’t fucking listen to me… why he wouldn’t listen to us?”

And sidelong became full as Archer craned his head around to look me in the eye. “Zera told me why.” His eyes flicked past me, back to the mare by the wagon, just momentarily before they came back to me. “Like I said, she was one of Bolt’s closest friends in Buckley… most of the reason why she joined up with him and brought her sister Zia along too…” I had to close my eyes at the reminder, both that she had been Bolt’s good friend… and that she had brought her own sister along to be killed with her… “She said that when Bolt found out his brother and sister had been killed… he just lost his mind.” he explained. “She said that he just screamed and cried… that he just couldn’t think about anything else except revenge for what had happened. And that was all he set his sights on when the fires died.”

Goddesses… it was nearly chilling how closely that resembled someone else I knew…

“Right or wrong… Zera said Bolt just couldn’t see it anymore.” Archer said. “She said that when he lost his family… he lost his way. And that’s why he did what he did.”

Through the whole explanation, I hadn’t let my eyes open. Not until he finished did I finally do so, finding the ground staring back up at me; now I knew why… now I had the truth… despite how bad it hurt. Bolt did it, “Because I took it from him…” Because I’d taken everything… because I had pushed that button… “And don’t pull the ‘none of this is on you’ speech again, Archer.” I spoke up sharply, quick to block any effort on his part to do just that. “We both know how that ended up last time.”

“I… I know…”

Hesitantly, he said that back, taken a little by surprise…… Good. Because right now, trying to take this in… I knew he wanted to say that it wasn’t on me. I knew he wanted to… or at least, I felt confident enough to believe that he did. But either way, I had no patience for any of that. I only let my thoughts fly on their current turbulent course… “But you know what might have to be the absolute worst part about it all…” I said, clearing my throat as Archer only stared on at me. “It’s having to go back to our group, having to come to them with our mission complete, with our wagon full of books and Stable-issued weapons… only for them to see that we lost nearly half our team out here…” Dejectedly I scuffed a hoof along the ground. “It’s nearly impossible to put what happened at Buckley behind me… but when I tried to by coming back to Stable 181, back to my home… this happens to remind me what I did. And it’s all the more painful knowing our mission was going so smoothly, when we found what we did and things started looking up. That’s the worst part about it… knowing that if just one thing had been different, if I hadn’t pushed that button… they’d all be alive to celebrate what we accomplished.” And with a final sigh, I turned away, putting my back to Archer and walking past Blake; I felt both their eyes on me. “My body count just keeps going up…”

“I’m sorry, Nova.”

That was all he said. After the very weighty pause that had come after I’d said my piece… that was all Archer said. But really… what could he say? What could anypony say? I didn’t hold it against him that he didn’t try to console me through it all. It wasn’t his place to, especially since he had gone through his own trials here, killing his own allies… choosing me and my friends over them… Instead, it only brought up one more question, one that I wanted to ask both out of curiosity… and out of concern. “What are you going to do now?”

I looked back over my shoulder to find him looking northeast; that alone gave me the answer. “I need to go back to Buckley.” he eventually said, more than a little reluctant. “Mother Shimmer has to know what happened here.”

But… “But what are you going to tell her?” I asked, making no effort to hide my own worry, which he picked up on quickly. “You’re not going to tell her that you… you know…”

“I have to.” I came about then, taking a step forward to protest. But this time, he was the one to stop me when he raised a hoof up, shaking his head. “Mother Shimmer needs to know everything, and I’m not going to make any effort to hide anything that happened here tonight.” he said, resolute. “Shimmer at least will understand that I fought back out of self-defense, and that you all did too. But most important, she’ll know that despite the loss, Bolt was the one who willingly put himself and others at risk to try and kill you. I warned him, and so did she. She won’t blame me.”

“And what about everypony else in Buckley?”

And for the second time tonight, the sympathy I’d felt for him came back when he looked off to the side. “I know…” he said lowly. “And I know the risk. If word got out that I killed ponies from Buckley, it might very well push some ponies back on the base over the edge, and things could get a lot worse over there than they already are.”

“Then think about this.” I warned nervously, coming up closer to him. “What if… what if they come after you? What if somepony else gets the same idea as Bolt and Mother Shimmer can’t stop him, except they come after you instead of me?”

“I can’t just leave Mother Shimmer in the dark.” he fired back, calm but firm. “She loved Bolt, same as she loves everypony in Buckley.”

“Just tell her that you were too late to find Bolt and his team.” I spoke up louder, with an unintentional desperation beginning to form in my tone. “Tell her that you were the only one to get away from us… or that you just couldn’t find us and got ambushed by Talons… or something.”

“No.” But he persisted still, speaking just a little more sharply and pressing me into silence with a glare that forced me to take my words back. But as quick as it had come, his eyes eased up when he knew I’d stay in my place. “I can’t have this hanging over my head.” he replied. “If it comes to it, I’ll tell Mother Shimmer what happened, and then I’ll just disappear.”

Goddesses, Archer… “You shouldn’t have to do that.” I interjected, my anxiety adding silently, “Not when you ultimately chose to help me when you could’ve walked away and gone back home.”

But Archer didn’t even flinch. “I do this, then I’ll be safe, and Mother Shimmer can focus on keeping Buckley from wholly falling apart. So if leaving is what it’ll take to see that happen, then that’s what I’ll do.”

I shook my head again, bowing away. “You risked too much coming here, Archer.” I said back, nearly a whisper. “You should’ve either stayed away… or you should’ve just taken Bolt’s side. Any one would’ve kept you from this… but you chose to try and help us either way, and you had to kill three of your own ponies just to do that…… You did too much, Archer…”

“No, Nova.” With a light start I was jolted back to where Archer was now moving. And I met him eye to eye again as he limped past me. “I did what I thought was right.” As he moved on by, I turned to keep facing him, watching him until he came to a stop. And slowly, he let his wings come unfurled, giving them a careful test flap; they both looked unmarked. “Judging by the firepower Bolt’s team faced you with, I’d say they geared themselves up pretty good before they left Buckley.” he said, keeping his eyes to the northeast. “I imagine they should have some items tucked away in their pockets – food, water, maybe even a little extra medicine too. Those four potions were all I brought with me, I’m afraid.” Again, I was taken a little aback, to the point where I craned my head back around to the rest of my friends. Ivy looked to be stabilizing, laying on her side with both Raemor and Gunny next to her, staying quiet and letting the grey unicorn mare rest. And surprisingly, Captain Saber was rising back up to his hooves, being guided along by both Madeline and Boulter. Shore and Sierra were close by too, watching the captain as he fought to balance himself. And Blake was halfway between me and them, looking over his shoulder at me… waiting for me as I took in Archer’s reveal. “I suggest you grab whatever supplies you can and load it up in your wagon, or hell, even on the roof of it if you have to.” I faced front again as Archer called my attention back to him. “There’ll probably be enough food and water to last your team another day or two. And these weapons are some of Buckley’s best, so I’d bring along whatever ones you’ve got room for. Even the armor would come in handy for repairs. These ponies won’t be needing any of it anymore, so you and the others might as well have it.”

And without a moment’s pause Archer pumped his wings, lifting himself into the air, then beating them again to gain some altitude before he let himself settle into a hover low over the ground.

There was no more was to be said… and despite how desperately I wanted to convince him to rethink his next move, despite how worried I was that he might become a target just as I had become… there just wasn’t anything else I could do. But maybe, maybe it would be that Archer could actually convince Buckley that the loss of Bolt and those who had followed him into the wasteland was something to learn from. Maybe, as tragic as his death was… maybe it would be that his passing would teach a lesson, and not one that said that I and the rest of Hopeville’s survivors made some sort of unstoppable force. Rather, maybe it would serve as an example that would show to Buckley how somepony could lose one’s self, lose their sense of reason, of right and wrong. Because in its own way, Buckley Air Force Base knew what was right and wrong. In their own community, there was law and order, a system of government, community… family. It was reminiscent of the Old World in there, in its way of life. And so maybe, with help from Archer’s voice and Shimmer’s leadership, Bolt’s death could finally show to the rest of the community what the real truth was – that no matter what loss was suffered in Buckley, those who survived needed to understand that there was still in fact much more to lose. And though losing family and friends, two hundred and sixty of them, was a tragedy that no simple words and no small measure of time could fix, maybe the eyes of Buckley could be opened again, at least enough for its survivors to understand that they needed each other, and that Buckley needed them in order to keep what was built there and what was still protected there alive, so that it could teach and heal and inspire.

In the simplest terms, maybe Bolt would teach Buckley not to forgive me, but to forget me, and to focus back on the true good that still lay within that place. At least, in that regards, the lost heart that had died here this night, the life I’d claimed through my history and the lives that were lost with him, could create something good from this whole, Goddess-damned mess.

Archer rose up one more wingbeat; I was glad to see him moving with smooth even strokes. “Archer!” And I was especially glad he hadn’t left just yet. Even if I couldn’t persuade him to rethink his options, I could at least tell him one thing. And when he turned himself in the air, looking back down to me, I spoke it. “You be careful out there, okay?”

And even in the dark, I could see him give me a nod… “I’ll be fine.” came his reply. “You get on back to the others and make sure they’re okay…… and… and you be careful, too.” Such a small, simple wish… yet one that I felt grateful to take in, especially now. Just a little, it gave me heart, encouragement, and I gladly gave him a nod of promise to do what he said.

He accepted that as an answer, and without another word he turned away. And with one more powerful beat of his wings, he pushed himself forward, picking up speed and fading away into the night as he flew northeast, back to Buckley and Mother Shimmer.

“Be careful…”

*** *** ***

“There’s no way out of this for you, Nova!”

No way out…

Pain… the pain was so intense… I just wanted to scream. Even from our distance apart, I could see the blood that coated Blackhawk’s claws… my blood, most of which I felt had come from the third wound he’d scored on me. My back, from the middle all the way to the base of my neck, had been carved wide open. One missed wingbeat had been all he needed to catch me, and now… now, with five different wounds all blazing with agony, I could barely keep my wings going at all. But Blackhawk’s mere presence still kept me from falling over the edge. It kept me angry, and that was enough for me to keep my eyes fixed on him, even despite my body’s cries for mercy, and the roar of the battle below… which I noticed was lessening… and lessening fast. But I didn’t dare take my eyes off my enemy as he hovered there before me, not but fifty yards away. “This fighting won’t stop until you finally accept your part in this war!”

My part…

“I know what you think of me!” he called, wearing that same fiery glare, intensified like the rest of him by the billowing smoke rising behind him. “I know you don’t believe what I’ve said about you, and I don’t expect you to! Because in any other circumstance, I would’ve done everything in my power to break you for taking my wife from me!”

I only kept staring… I couldn’t take my eyes from his… and I couldn’t speak…

“But I don’t care whether you believe me or not!” He shook his head. “Because the Legion has discovered things about you that even you don’t understand yet!” he boldly declared. “There really is power in you, Nova! You showed us all that at Guardian!”

Guardian… where he claimed I used this ‘power’ for the first time…

“Just by being a pegasus you showed us that! And what you achieved there was proof enough!” But that’s when he raised a clawed forepaw, pointing one of those blood-coated talons right at me. “But the real power in you doesn’t come from being a pegasus – it’s all in that mark of yours!”

My mark… my flame…

“After Guardian was secured, we found that mark all over that project! And it wasn’t long after that that we found it elsewhere!” he said, strong, confident. “That mark is a part of something powerful, Nova! And through you it has the capacity to reawaken the Old World, a part of it that will turn the direction of this whole war!”

No… I didn’t believe him… not even after Guardian. I didn’t believe him!

“And that’s why the Legion won’t stop until you’re under its banner, whether you volunteer or not!”

But still, he wouldn’t stop… he wouldn’t leave me… that he swore to me.

“So you listen to me, Nova, and you listen good.” He begun to move then, beating his wings in broader strokes to rise in the air as he faced out toward the east… disengaging from me; below, the battle had diminished even further… it was nearing its end. “Power like yours is rare in this world. And it can only go untapped for so long.” he called. “No matter how far you fly, no matter how hard you try to keep yourself hidden away, the time will come when your real strength is going to wake up and find its way back home, whether carried by you yourself or called upon by someone else.” Slowing himself, he halted his ascent, now looking down on me. “Eventually, there will come a day when you will finally discover what you’re really capable of. There will come a day when you will understand what your mark really is.”

There would come a day…

“And when that day comes, Nova,”

And when it came…

“the Legion will be waiting. I’ll be waiting.”

Blackhawk would be waiting for me…

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Moonlight on Still Water - Your ability to be swift and silent is to be admired by your allies and feared by your enemies. The noise you make when sneaking is now reduced, and you gain +25% to your overall sneak speed.

Skill Notes:

Sneak (100)

Chapter 23: Breaking Point

Author's Note

Alrighty, and so comes Chapter Twenty-three, and might I say - damn I'm really good at cliffhangers when I want to be. Anyway, with this chapter comes the three year mark of this story. By Luna I've been at work on this for a long time, longer than I should have been by now maybe. But I'm still enjoying writing it, because it really is fun for me, and I hope any and all who've read up to this point are enjoying the finished product of my labors. So without further adieu, here's the latest installment to COH. Enjoy.

Chapter 23: Breaking Point

“…”

With an unenthusiastic huff, I kicked away the now empty can of preserved watermelon, mine and Blake’s dinner for the night; it made for a meal that was not nearly as filling as it could have been.

After the fight against Bolt and his assassination party, once the initial shock of the conflict had passed, those of us who had escaped uninjured had been ordered to tend to the fallen. Each of them, Joker, Daisy, Mavis, Quinn, Sylvia, Gyro, and Tiny, had been reunited with their weapons. And then had come the physically and emotionally arduous task of laying them to rest. One by one, with magic and hoof and even rifle, graves had been dug for each of them over the course of the night, and each of them had been filled before being blessed by Raemor, who spoke a separate prayer for each of them to honor their names, their strengths, their histories, and their commitment to trying every day to build and refine a life for all those who looked to them for protection and courage, for all those from Stable 181 who yet survived in the wasteland. In the end, they’d all been sent to the everafter with the rites and farewells they deserved, with our best wishes, with our love and our admiration and our tears.

Now, they too were free of this world, of all the struggle and all the pain and uncertainty; they had each earned their rest.

We however, had not.

When we had finished in taking care of our comrades, the night had already given way to the sunrise. Despite this, Captain Saber had ordered us all to try and get a couple of hours sleep before heading back, and we one and all tried to do so. But the success of that particular effort was limited, and everypony who actually managed to sleep only woke up all the more exhausted. But still, we picked ourselves up, leaning on one another for the motivation to do so, and we eventually moved on. After waking, we started the day with finally looting Buckley’s team for supplies. Between each member of Bolt’s crew, we had found enough canned food and fresh fruits and vegetables to last us two days, pending on how the supply was rationed. Water was about half that when the fifteen bottles of purified water had been collected, and coupled with what little we had left of our own stock, we had enough water for two days maximum so long as it was sparsely tapped into. A swallow or two for everypony every couple of hours – it was a tough deal.

After the food and water had been counted up, we took stock of medicine. Using up Archer’s potions, along with our own bottle of pain killer pills, we had been left with nothing of our own. And Bolt’s team had only carried with them four healing potions of their own, and back then, I remembered how Buckley’s clinic had been destroyed during the Talons’ attack on the base. In the end, I had used one of the potions for myself to take care of my shoulder wound after the painfully unpleasant extraction of the bullet with Gunny’s knife, and with Gunny himself cauterizing his own wound, we now had three potions to divvy up among the ten of us that remained.

And finally came weapons and ammo… which was, ironically, the one thing that we actually had a surplus of.

Sticking to Archer’s advice, Saber had ordered every weapon, every bullet, every piece of ordnance to be recovered from Buckley’s ponies and stored away aboard the wagon. As a result of that order, we were now packing some rather serious firepower, including two SMGs, three carbines, two shotguns, five assault rifles, four light machineguns, one new laser rifle, one extra sniper rifle, a flamethrower, two grenade launchers, and two missile launchers, along with five sidearms including a .44 magnum revolver, and even a belt of frag grenades, all of this put atop the small stockpile we’d collected from Stable 181 itself. And all of these had come with a decent supply of ammunition too. Most everypony was able to refill on their own ammo supplies, and was also able to claim some of the Buckley teams’ armoring in order to patch up their own, while storing the rest, along with six battle saddle assemblies, away for later use. Once everything gatherable had been put away, our wagon was well over capacity; some of the less essential gear even had to be laid out on the roof due to lack of cargo space.

Afterwards, Saber got us all in line and moved us out just after sunrise. And from then on we marched, retracing our steps back towards the southeast.

In all the times I’d traveled on hoof, crossing from Hopeville to a new settlement and back again, traversing miles of desert over several hours of nonstop walking, I had come to the conclusion that this was definitely by far the most difficult trip. Due to his eagerness to get us out of the open and back to the rest of Hopeville’s survivors, Saber pushed us to keep a solid, steady pace throughout the course of the day. Breaks were sparse, short, and meals were smaller than anypony would have liked. Blake, being so young, was the only one to get close to a full meal in those rare moments when we’d get a couple minutes to rest our hooves, because I made sure that he did. The rest of us, for the sake of ensuring that we had enough food to last us to the radio station, had to deal with hunger and thirst picking away at us, with grace periods of two hours or so being the only salvation from them. Hungry, thirsty, sore, exhausted, we still miraculously managed to make the progress that Saber had wanted at the end of the day. And after around fifteen hours, all the way to the fading sunset, we had found the familiar ruin of the Southeast Regional Power Plant.

And with a good five to six more hours of walking still between us and the radio station, Saber finally called it quits for the night, only ordering the establishment of a perimeter and a small security detail for first watch before letting us rest and eat dinner.

That was where I was now.

“Are you going to be okay, big sister?” Sticking together, Blake and I decided to set up our bed right under the wagon itself, taking up the front half while Boulter had laid out his things between the rear wheels. With dinner having come and quickly gone, Blake was now rooting through my left saddlebag to pull out our shared blanket, still in good condition. “I tried to leave you enough of that watermelon so you wouldn’t be as hungry on watch…”

“I’ll be fine Blake.” I assured, unable to stifle a yawn as I watched him scoop out the blanket and begin to unroll it. “I had enough tonight to get by until morning.”

Finally pulling the rest of the dirtied blanket from the saddlebag, laying it out flat, he looked away from it long enough to cast me a worried look. “Okay…” he replied uncertainly. “I just feel like I ate too much tonight.”

“No, not at all.” I said back with a firm shake of my head. “You need to keep up your strength. You’ve been working hard these past couple days, walking, keeping watch, so you need to eat, and now you need to try and sleep.”

“Okay…” Blake himself was just as drained as the rest of us. Between having no room in the wagon for him and having fewer ponies altogether, Blake had officially been recruited as a guard for the return trip. With his nine millimeter pistol at his side, he’d kept on his hooves and stayed on watch for the entirety of the day, sticking with me when Sierra was taking watch in the air, and joining up with Raemor when I had to take flight. Since Shore, Gunny, Madeline, and Boulter were confined to pulling the laden wagon for this first half of the trip, having his own eyes on lookout duty helped the rest of us a great deal for monitoring the ground. In the end, Blake had done a good job for the day, more than managing to hold his own even despite his fatigue. I was proud of him for his hard work, and now, I was just glad that he had an opportunity to try and get some proper rest.

We were in the clear now. Only the light breeze made a sound tonight.

“Alright then.” Pulling myself up to all fours, keeping myself crouched to avoid bumping my head on the low ceiling of our shelter, I shuffled over to join my baby brother by our blanket. “Let me tuck you in, and then I have to go on watch for a while.”

Blake was in no mood to object as I reached over and took the front left corner of the blanket in my teeth, then tossing it back to make room for him to lay down on the dirt. “Are you going to want to share the blanket tonight?” came his question.

I stepped off to the side to let Blake pass and situate himself. “Yeah, I think I will.” I responded, coming back beside him as he laid himself down on his belly. “I’ll try not to wake you up when I get done with my shift.” He gave me only a tired nod as I snagged the blanket in my teeth again, then craning his head around to take the opposite corner. And together, we pulled the blanket up and over to rest it over his back, and I made sure that the end rested up to the base of his neck before I let go. With a tired sigh, Blake let his head fall to the dirt, looking ahead as he settled down; already, I could see that sleep was going to take over quickly. “Are you comfy?” I asked.

“Yeah, for the most part.” he answered back, shifting to look back over to me. “I kind of miss those pillows we got back in Hopeville though. Those were nice…”

“Hm.” I nodded my agreement with that. “Yes they were.”

“But that’s okay.” he assured. “I’ll be able to sleep without them.” And he gave a rather mighty yawn to back that claim; I definitely believed him.

“Alright.” And leaning over, I placed a gentle kiss on Blake’s left cheek, nuzzling him afterwards and keeping my muzzle there against him, taking a few extra seconds to savor the embrace. “I love you, baby brother.”

I felt him as he lightly shifted, reaching around to nuzzle against my left cheek in return. “I love you too, Nova.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Giving him a final parting bump, I pulled back and away to give him room. “Sleep well.”

And with a single nod, he faced forward and laid his head back down on the dirt, shutting his eyes to do just that.

Now, it was time for me to get to work.

Situating myself on my hooves, I turned away and faced out towards the open ground, sidestepping my way out from under the wagon. Upon stepping back out, I gladly rose up to my full height, taking the opportunity to stretch my legs and wings out individually. Yawning in the process, I had to shake my head and wipe a foreleg over my eyes in an effort to keep myself as close to being fully awake as I could. I had to be for my shift tonight, as I was going to be spending the next four hours staring out into the wasteland beyond our shelter outside the old regional power plant. Captain Saber had ordered two shifts for the night, both divided equally in their length… which would mean that it would make for the second night in a row with less sleep than I would have liked; I prayed that that wouldn’t become a regular occurrence, despite my growing pessimism on the matter.

Focusing on the task at hoof, I gave a once-over of my surroundings. We had parked our wagon and set up our camp right outside what was left of the power plant’s main entrance. By and large, it was intact enough to at least grant us entrance to the main lobby of the building. As such, we had enough room inside for a couple of us to sleep, and for now, Madeline, Sierra, and Ivy claimed it.

Back outside, we used the building itself as part of our perimeter, and gave ourselves a smaller area to patrol. Out of the team on watch, two were assigned to stay at the building’s corners, securing our flanks. The others were charged with watching the south, covering anything that might possibly approach us from the front or sides. For first watch, Shore and Gunny had been assigned guarding our flanks, and had already left to take up their positions. I could see both of my friends as small darkened figures when I looked from one side to the other, moving slowly along their self-made patrol routes.

Then there was Captain Saber who was leading our shift, choosing for himself the front and center position. Even from here at the wagon, I could see where he had set up shop, sitting on his haunches with his back to the rest of us… staring out… as if he were a statue frozen forever at alert attention; I’d seen him like that before, long ago… back when we’d first established ourselves in Hopeville.

Then, there was Raemor, who volunteered first watch as the final member of the team under the explanation that he himself was not feeling as tired as the rest of us. It was difficult, and yes, a little stereotypical, to imagine that the eldest of our group was the least fatigued by the day’s traveling. But he had definitely looked the part when he’d made that claim, and sure enough, he was already outside, about fifty yards out from camp and sitting at his post off to the left of the captain. But I stopped myself at finding him when I spotted a second pony sitting at his side… and even in the dark, I could recognize a pair of wings on Raemor’s visitor. It was Sierra. She had come out of the old plant and joined him, and the two were looking at one another, engaged in conversation. But the sight of the newest member of our party caught me off guard when I found that this time, she had come out wearing… well, nothing. She was free of her armor, no longer encased in that shell, and no longer weighed down by her heavy weaponry; everything I was used to seeing her with was gone, stored away in the plant.

Curiosity guiding me, I trotted away from the wagon towards the two. Together, the both of them looked to the south as I did so, going silent as their conversation momentarily halted. And as I closed in with them, I found my eyes drawn back to Sierra again when I noticed something strange about her. Despite it being night, the colors adorning her slim, feminine, yet strong and athletic body were still quite clear to me. And I saw that there were actually two colors to her coat. Her long black and silver mane concealed quite a bit of her, falling all the way past her shoulder blades. But what it didn’t conceal was a literal canvas of sapphire markings against her steely pale-brown coat, all of them akin to those I had seen on her face when she’d first removed her helmet. Most prominent among them was the solid line that stretched from just above her tail to the base of her neck, following her spine. And at the end on her neck, the line morphed into what looked to be a bladed tip… a spear. It was a spear, perhaps like those of the Old World’s royal guards of Canterlot, and the blade was clear against her coat. And from the shaft extended additional lines at spaced intervals, and after a quick but careful study, I understood that they followed the curve of Sierra’s ribs. That alone was an intricate array of marking, but what was even more so than that was those on her wings. Drawing up to her left on my approach to Raemor, I could see that the wing was ornamented with a line that followed the wing bone itself, and from that line, thin blue tendrils branched out to her feathers and traced over each and every one of them along its edges.

I couldn’t help but remark it silently to myself when I saw how clean and well-kept her wings were… much more so than mine.

From her wings I panned down to find her cutie mark as I begun to slow my stride. Her cutie mark was that of a sapphire sword crossed vertical over a lighter blue cloud. This too had been touched with its own markings in the form of an outline that surrounded it, from which extended a half dozen lines that curved downward along her flanks. All three of these sets of markings were accompanied by a whole array of simpler marks – two rings around both her hind legs like painted bracelets, a single wider circle around her left front foreleg and a pair of arches tracing down the back of her right, a trio of wavy lines along her whole left side perhaps representative of ocean waves or a wind current, a line that began at her right shoulder blade to disappear over the shoulder, a pair of dashes at the top of her right flank.

She was, quite literally, a walking canvas.

“Hey you two.” Having walked up on them undetected, I made myself known with a short, simple greeting.

The both of them craned their heads around to find me, and Raemor was the first to raise a foreleg in his own salutation. “Hello, Nova.” he responded, Sierra giving a dip of her head to silently say the same. “Are you ready for watch?”

“As ready as I can be.” I answered tiredly, looking from him to Sierra. “I didn’t expect to see you out here.” I said to her. “I figured you’d be asleep like the others.”

“I intend to rest shortly.” the pegasus answered me. “I’m afraid that yesterday’s events have served to keep my mind occupied, for reasons similar and different from everypony else’s. So I wanted to speak my thoughts to Raemor before I retired for a while.”

“Oh?”

“I took interest in Elder Raemor when he answered me about his age.” she explained, sparing a glance to the old stallion. “In my tribe, the elderly are revered for the great number of experiences they have gone through, and the wisdom that they gained from those experiences. Naturally, I take after my kin in honoring ponykind’s elders, and seeking them out to speak, to ask questions, share stories. And that is what I’ve done over the past couple of days, coming to him when a question… or a concern, comes to mind.”

“And what’s on your mind now?” I asked, curious.

“She was explaining that to me just now actually.” Raemor then spoke up, facing me. “Having learned of her background among the tribes of The Halo, I became curious of her having come from a tribe myself, and she’s told me some interesting things about her tribe. But now, she was just in the middle of telling me something about her more distant past.”

“From when I was younger.” Sierra elaborated for me, forcing me to tilt my head in question, to which she answered, “I was just telling him about how I recognized that pegasus stallion from the previous night.”

My eyes widened in surprise at her claim. “Archer? You… you know him?”

“I remember his face… from years ago.”

“How do you know him?” I asked, my curiosity peaked. “Were you from the same tribe?”

But to that, she shook her head. “Oh no.” she said. “Not all of my history belonged to The Halo. Years ago, I lived up in the skies, a citizen of a pegasus city in the clouds.”

“Enclave.” Raemor chimed in, nodding as he understood her words.

“You were part of the Pegasi Enclave…”

Sierra gave a nod. “Yes. I was born and raised in their ranks, the sole child to a patriotic family, destined to become a regular soldier.” she explained, with a notably hurried character to her words… as if the subject held a bitter taste to it.

“So how did you come to know Archer?” Raemor asked curiously.

“I never knew him personally… but I remember what he looked like.” she said. “He and I lived in the same cloud city, served in the same division… And I remember having to witness his public branding.”

“Branding??” I repeated with alarm, leaning back wide-eyed

And to that, Sierra nodded. “Yes… it’s actually something that I had forgotten for some time, until I just recently recognized him.”

“Why was he…”

“For treason.” Sierra answered lowly. “For betraying the laws and beliefs of the Enclave, and becoming a traitor to the pegasi nation.”

A traitor… a word I’d heard bestowed upon him more than once, or at least a sentence making a variation of the word… and yet events had moved so quickly that I hadn’t been allowed to question it. I remember hearing it in Buckley, back when Archer had been playing with Buckley’s children in their recess, coming from the lips of a mare who jealously guarded her daughter both from him and from me. “You’re not one of us no matter what you do for us.” That was what she claimed, and yet I was too occupied in blaming myself for the unnecessary lashing that Archer had taken to understand it. It had been dropped after that, forgotten, lost among everything else that had followed it that day and in the days that followed. But then, inevitably, it had returned from that veil of obscurity, and only yesterday… when Bolt had told Archer the same thing when they had faced off, fighting over my fate. “You’re not one of us. You came from the sky, and it was only by Mother Shimmer’s grace that you weren’t executed after you were shot down over the base.” Bolt said, his hidden thoughts coming to life bathed in hateful fire at Archer’s interference with his goals. “You were a traitor once in your life already.” All of Buckley came to know this, Archer’s history, when he was taken in. And thinking back on it now, I could believe that there were no secrets that Archer had hid from Buckley’s ponies, whether he had willingly told them of his past or not. But hearing it from Sierra of all ponies, that was not something that I could have anticipated. Only four days ago had we met face to face. Only four days ago did she finally take off her helmet and meet me with her eyes, so that I could see her face. And in that time, she had only told me of what had to be but a tiny fraction of her tribal history. Of course, as far as I was concerned, she had won a great deal of positive reputation with Hopeville’s survivors, both in aiding my escape from Talon custody and in joining us in our return to Stable 181; but we were just acquaintances.

Yet still, in all my time out here on the surface, I liked to believe that I had a knack for telling from a pony’s tone of voice whether or not he or she was being truthful or not. And here… I couldn’t hear any lie in Sierra’s voice. “We all heard it before.” the pegasus mare added to me, replicating my own internal thoughts into words. “That Bolt pony was right, and I can vouch for him, much as I’d rather not.”

“What happened?” I asked, my own curiosity held back by a wall of worry. “What did he do up there?”

“I was in basic training when it happened.” Sierra responded after a moment of thought. “When he was ordered to be publicly branded, our platoon was ordered to watch. It was a method used on new cadets to solidify their loyalty through fear. I can’t recall what exactly he’d been doing, but I know that he was charged with insubordination, and endangering Enclave personnel and ground operations, and a couple other things too.”

“All for helping ponies on the surface?” I asked in disbelief.

“Understand Nova, that the Enclave was… is… a very secluded faction. And its laws are made to keep the pegasi up there from breaking that seclusion.” the pegasus said. “Its leaders utilize every single measure at their disposal to ensure it. And that’s because they share a common fear, that what’s up there in the clouds would become the very same thing that they see on the surface every day, and that the evacuation of all pegasi to the clouds on the Last Day would be for nothing.”

“They try to maintain the Old World in their own way, by separating themselves from the surface and its troubles.” Raemor remarked, nodding his own understanding.

And to that, Sierra nodded too. “That’s right. They pretend that it can’t affect them so long as there are clouds between them and the surface, even when it’s those very actions they use to protect themselves that have already changed them and have outright made their goal impossible to achieve.” Then, she turned back to me. “And so, when Archer broke protocol and headed his own operations to lend material and military aid to surface settlements in secret, his superiors felt that the Enclave’s way of life was threatened… and they put a stop to it by branding him a traitor and turning everypony against him.”

“Goddesses…”

“Our senior drill instructor forced us to watch when they brought him into the street, same as the rest of my platoon that was in training with me. He wanted us to see what happened to those the Enclave leadership labeled as traitors.” She shook her head as she spoke. “They branded him right in the middle of the street, burned off his cutie mark in one practiced motion. They kept him pinned down in the street as the burns took their toll, the better to make an example of him. And when they were done they hauled him off. I never saw him again after that, because they threw him to the surface. But I know that it was him that I saw that day, and I remember hearing his name as his judge read it off to the assembled crowd.”

“So those marks he has now… those are brands…” I trembled at the dreadful realization as I rallied up memories of that stallion; Sierra only nodded one more time.

“That’s horrible…” I muttered, my ears slowly pinning back as I remembered the times I’d shared with him. And this time… I couldn’t remember the best of those times. No. This time I only remembered seeing what I thought were his cutie marks, that black puffy cloud with the single bolt of lightning jolting out of it in a zigzag… and the blackened ring surrounding it that remained forever written on his coat. And quite suddenly, I felt a fresh wave of guilt as it came crashing into me from those memories… guilt at being so simple-minded, so distracted, that I hadn’t recognized those marks for what they’d really been. That was amplified threefold for hearing from Sierra what those brands really, truly meant, and what Archer had been subjugated to in obtaining them. Undoubtedly, it had been the greatest disgrace in the Enclave… and the fact that Archer, a strong, caring, brave, honorable stallion, had been put through it…… I quickly found myself wishing he was with us, that I could express my sympathies to him… no matter how little they might’ve meant.

But worst of all… with Sierra’s story… I now realized what Archer had meant when he’d told me of a ‘previous life’… and all of a sudden, the patrol cap he’d given me, which was still tucked away in my saddlebags didn’t carry the same value it had before.

“In the end, he really didn’t put anypony in danger.” Sierra spoke up, drawing my focus away from my churning thoughts. “But the military leaders just didn’t care. In their view, they saw his actions as something that would compromise the safety of everypony else. Their judgement was all it took.”

“He didn’t deserve that.” I muttered with a shake of my head.

To which Sierra replied, “I agree. He didn’t deserve it… and all it did for me and my platoon was keep us docile, keep us from asking questions and following in Archer’s path, such was the desired goal.”

“It’s a shame… a real shame.” Raemor voiced in his own agreement. “I can’t begin to imagine how his family must have reacted in a faction so loyal to a set of laws. And losing one’s home in that fashion…” Here, the old stallion gave a sad little shake of his head. “These past couple of days… they’ve only served to remind me of…” And he let out a weary sigh, further raising my alarm at the sudden further darkening of the subject. “Of the darkest moment in my many years… And no matter how I prayed, no matter how long I meditated, no matter what I did… I just couldn’t get it out of my head…. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“What are you talking about, Raemor?” I asked anxiously.

“Over the past five days… I’ve been reminded of it four times, once through my ears, and thrice with my own eyes.” Raemor responded… maybe more to himself as he stared ahead, making no effort to meet my worried eyes. “First it was Buckley, fighting there… They didn’t lose their home… but they lost a great deal when the Talons attacked.” After a short uncomfortable pause, “Then there was Hopeville… when we found its survivors in the radio station.” He only spared a short glance back at me when he said that name, turning away again a second later. “Then I saw for myself Stable One Eighty-one and its fate…… and finally, I heard Sierra’s story, brief as it was, about what she lost in her younger years.” This time, I heard the mentioned pegasus mare as she let out a little sigh of her own, one coated with sympathy. “It all weighs so heavily on an old stallion’s heart…” Raemor said, clearing his throat to speak clearly; this time, he looked back to me, and did not turn away. “Seeing my friends and acquaintances going through the very same things I went through, things I would not wish on anypony I came to respect… it’s tiring, disheartening… and reliving my past scene by scene… it’s been plaguing my thoughts ever since Buckley.”

Goddesses, I could hear the sadness in his voice, a tone of suffering that I had never before heard in the seasoned stallion. It was actually rather startling to hear in him, especially when he had always shown himself around me and my friends to be very reserved, very calm, meditative. And briefly, I was reminded of a very dreadful question that he’d asked me, back when we were together in Buckley’s church. “Would you believe me if I told you that I was dying?” I was feeling the same alarm I’d felt then, only now, on a much greater level. With that, I was quickly finding that his words here were very effectively carving open a sorrowful pit in my gut. But worst of all… I was rather suddenly feeling… ashamed of myself. Because ever since my capture by the Talons, and my consequent exile from Buckley, I had trapped myself in my own misfortunes, and I had only focused on myself. Aside from Blake, I had not once between then and now given any thought as to how my friends had been doing in the wake of everything that had come and gone. Now, with Raemor opening up to me here, I was finally seeing what he himself had gone through while I was locking myself away… distancing myself, unintentional as it was. He was suffering through a great deal of his own stress… I saw it now… and I felt so horrible for not seeing it sooner, or at the very least, asking about it.

“All four of these terrible misfortunes… each one of them holds a connection to me.” And again, his voice drew me back to the present. “Because each one, in some fashion or another, tells the story of how I lost my home… my Harmony…” Goddesses… Harmony… “The only home I ever had outside Hoofington.”

And still he stared to me as my ears folded back and stayed down. I remembered Harmony, the name he’d first spoken in Buckley’s church. And when we were there… the two of us smiled at his recollection of that place, laughed together at the stories… and I remembered the imagery, what he described – the tall chest-high yellow grass, the wide dirt road and the two rows of houses, the children playing about in a bustling trader’s market, admiring the rain, gazing at the lightning, cheering at the thunder, and splashing in the puddles left in the wake of the storms. But now… now it had been cast in a terrible new light… and he spoke something that, deep down, I felt I should have already known, yet didn’t because of my lack of attention. And now that I knew… I felt all the more worse than I already did.

It had been a long pause that hovered between us after Raemor let himself go quiet, only looking back to me in knowing that he’d answered my question. But with a great deal of effort, I forced myself to ignore that pit in me, and the memories of the past that came with it. “I… I won’t press to know what happened, Raemor.” I finally managed to say. “You shouldn’t have to relive that again by telling it to me, especially when you relive it enough on your own.”

“Hm.” With a light snort, Raemor shifted in his place. “I… really do appreciate that concern, Nova. It moves me that you care like that.” And though he didn’t smile… I knew what he said was true. “But… in all honesty, I’m beginning to feel that with everything I’ve accompanied you through, with all the things we’ve seen and done together ever since you let me into your group that day in Hopeville… I feel that the time for keeping secrets has come and gone.” And despite everything, despite the very depressing atmosphere we found ourselves in, the old stallion actually smiled a faint little smile at me, only the corner of his mouth showing it.

It was a gesture that I didn’t share, touching as his admittance to his trust towards me and the others was. Still… he was opening up to me about it, despite my fears. Perhaps, in this case, listening to him here no matter how much I really didn’t want to put more weight on my already shattered spirit would be wise, the better to be able to help him later in whatever way I could. At least this way, there really would be no more secrets between us. He knew everything about me after going through Stable 181, seeing my history…… I supposed now… it was my turn… and uttering a hesitant sigh, I gave him only the slightest nod before I made my way forward.

In silence both he and Sierra watched me as I made my way around, stopping by Raemor’s left side before slowly sitting down on my haunches next to him. “The last time we talked about Harmony,” Together, Raemor and I faced one another. “you told me that it had been the place where you met your wife.” At his nod, I knew he remembered too. “Maybe you could tell me what she was like first…”

It was both uplifting… and dismaying to see him smile just a little bigger. “Where would I begin in describing my wife?” he asked with prominent reminiscence. “She was… she was beautiful…… but beyond beauty that can be described in words.” he said after some thought. “Her name was Lucilla… a unicorn… coat white as snow, with her hair black as night, and eyes silver, the balance between those two colors. She was a truly unique gift upon the wasteland, not only because of her personality, the way she cared for the residents of Harmony, but also because of her unique talent.”

“And what was that, Elder Raemor?” Sierra asked curiously.

The old stallion kept that smile going when she asked; Goddesses, even if he would eventually return to the subject of his greatest loss… he more than deserved this moment to take his mind off it by remembering these good memories. “The magic she possessed allowed her to take an object, be it metal, glass, plastic, anything at all, and mold it into new forms.” he explained. “She herself was an embodiment of true beauty, in body, mind, and spirit alike. But she could create beauty from the ruin of the Old World itself, bending the very wreckage left behind into new creations.” Goddesses…… “It’s actually how she made me this necklace I wear.” From the top of my vision I caught a gentle flicker of light that illuminated from the tip of Raemor’s horn. At the same time, the same light came to life dimly around his armored chest, and just a second later, his medallion slid out from concealment behind the armored plate, floating in the air for Sierra and I to admire with him. I’d seen the medallion in Buckley’s church, when Raemor had been praying to the shrine of Celestia. Even from a distance, it had looked lovely. But here, I could admire how truly dazzling it actually was. The black circular disk shined even in the darkness, catching the dim light of telekinesis that surrounded it beautifully. And then there was the three gems fused into it, the clear gem set into the left side, the pink stone on the right, and the green stone in the center; it was absolutely lovely… and now I knew where it had come from. “The metal,” I saw as Raemor lifted a hoof, gesturing to his treasure. “Lucilla shaped it from the hull of an old train car, added the black color herself.” he explained. “And the gems – she took them from three pieces of glass that had fallen off a stained glass window from the Manehattan City Hall.”

“Wow…” That was all I could find in me to say.

“When did she give it to you?” Sierra ventured as Raemor tucked the medallion back into its hiding place, the light from his horn winking away.

“Roughly a year after we met.” came his wistful answer. “I had been stationed as a guard in Harmony for just over two weeks when we made our introductions. I had seen her walking by a couple times between then and my arrival, but we had never stopped to talk. The first time we did, and we both found conversation to flow rather easily. She was curious about me and my time outside Harmony’s fences, and I looked to her for answers about Harmony itself. Over time, we talked more and more, begun to share our time with one another… and things just picked up from there.” He stopped long enough to nod, as if checking with himself to make sure he was correct about his remembrance. “Up until we got married about a year later, we kept close, spent a lot of time sharing our duties in harmony, and even explored Manehattan itself. We even shared a couple close calls with animals and raiders local to the area… hm…” A brief but throaty chuckle escaped him. “I remember our first kiss was after a firefight with local raiders… imagine… a first kiss on a battlefield…… But, after about a year, we both felt that we had been through a lot together, enough to birth a greater affection for one another than just mere friendship… With that, I eventually proposed for her hoof in marriage. And shortly after, we decided to have a child.”

He’d had a wife… a wife and a child…

“We named her Angel.” Raemor said; that smile hadn’t lessened an inch. “She had my mane and her mother’s eyes, had a pink coat instead of one of ours.” Until… until he paused here, longer than he had any time before… and he shuddered, making me wince as that pit in my gut made itself known again. “She… she lived to be seven years old…” he said, low… hesitant… “But eight years of peace was far too much for me to claim… and my history caught up to me then.”

Oh no……

“The tribal warfare in Hoofington had done nothing but escalate in all my years away from that city.” Raemor explained, stone-faced as he forced himself through his next words. “Old enemies had grown in my absence, and some had expanded themselves out of the city to find the resources they needed to support their swelling ranks… and the Black Blood Raiders were one of those factions.” The anger at the mere mention of that name was immediately apparent in him… yet something else I had never heard in the stallion before… anger… it made me all the more regretful that I’d given in to his assurances, both to let him do as he wished to do and to sate my own curiosity. “I don’t know how they managed to do it… but they had won a great deal of resources, territory, and numbers in Hoofington.” he continued grimly. “Eventually, we begun spotting patrols out in Manehattan, at first just one every couple of days… but then more and more. Their whole faction had been on the move then, and we didn’t know that they’d come to Manehattan with hundreds in their ranks, all claimed from various conquered gangs and tribes and villages in that region.” But here, Raemor finally shifted from his formerly frozen posture, only giving a little shake of his head. “Or… we didn’t until they set their sights on Harmony…” And with a ragged sigh, his shoulders rising slowly, and then falling heavily, “After two weeks of seeing nothing but their patrols, we were attacked in the night by a force twice the size of the town, and those who knew how to fight made less than half of the settlement’s citizens and merchant contacts. We made our fair share of kills… but there were far too many. They overwhelmed us… and those who they didn’t kill they took away as prisoners, or tortured for their own amusement… like my family.”

Goddesses…

“The force that destroyed my home was led by a unicorn name of Carver.” Raemor explained after a short exhale. “And he recognized me from back in Hoofington… back when I was still part of the Dawn Warrior tribe. Perhaps he had known me from our own clan feuds back in that time, or perhaps he recognized me from my parents… I don’t know what, but he knew me and my tribe of origin… And he took such mock joy in meeting a face from the past that he ordered me kept alive… so that way I could see when he found my wife and my daughter where they had hid. And once he recognized who they were to me… he…”

"Raemor… you don’t have to say…”

But he did.

“He raped them both… even Angel… he did it… one after the next he defiled them before my very eyes… and when he was done, he ordered them both executed… and he just walked away as they were shot in the head……” I couldn’t speak… I couldn’t even move… “Their execution was the last thing I saw before I was knocked out by one of his soldiers… and when I woke again, the fires had died, leaving Harmony as nothing more than a smoldering ruin… another ghost of civilization like Manehattan itself.” When he finally looked back around to me again, he only saw me with a hoof over my mouth, eyes wide with a sorrowful gaze. “I was found by an allied caravan that had been away from Harmony at the time, because I hadn’t left my wife and daughter ever since I’d woken up…” he said, turning away to find a similar reaction from Sierra. “Once I finally found the strength to move again… we saw to our loved ones’ burial… and then we left Harmony behind for good.”

‘I’m so sorry…’ That was what I wanted to say. I really wanted to say it… But the truth was – words would never, ever, be able to mend something like that. Such an atrocity could never even hope to be healed by mere words. But it was the fact that what Raemor had suffered had been even worse than what I’d been through…… Coming back to Stable 181… it was a hard thing to do. And when I’d discovered my father’s real fate, hearing from a witness to his final moments, a witness who had been the one to not only deliver the killing shot, but had also defiled him before she did… I’d only barely kept myself from bolting altogether. To know that my father had been raped before his murder… to realize that my father had been alive for several minutes after the Stable’s evacuation… that he’d been alive while Blake and I had only been weeping, assuming that he’d already been killed… there was a scar left from that, one that would never go away. But for a father to witness the rape and murder of not just his wife but his daughter, his young filly… not even I had ever experienced something so sinister, so repulsive… so cruel…… it was, really, the most evil act I’d ever heard committed…… and it was one of my friends who had suffered it.

“After Harmony… I could never bring myself to remain in one place for long.” Raemor spoke once again. “And because of that, in time, I eventually set my sights on finding Carver. Years of tracking, asking for news, listening in on local gossip… and I could never find him… I never saw him again after he walked away from Harmony…… But as those long years came and went, I begun to hear more and more about this place, the southeast… Challenger, the center of a great deal of hopeful thinking. Between traveling merchants and settlers on the move, I was able to follow up on a great deal of the region’s development, including hearing of when a new conflict was beginning to take shape there. And when I heard the Black Blood were among the factions involved, I made it my mission to come here and continue my search.” And when he looked back to me again, he raised a foreleg, gesturing a hoof to me. “So you see, my real purpose here was one I made for myself after all those years of fruitless wandering. I joined up with Challenger’s caravans to discover what there was to discover, get the lay of the land, find out where the Black Blood were hiding out in the region… When I found you and your friends…and what you built in Hopeville… I saw… so many things that reminded me of the pony I used to be before my family was taken from me… and of all the things that I’d loved. And that was why I asked to join you and your group. Because while my intentions remain the same… what I’ve seen in you and your friends, from when I first arrived in Hopeville and up until now… you’ve given this old stallion a great deal of strength and motivation, something that the years have slowly drained away from me.”

This was…… on top of the past five days… this was almost too much to bear. Learning Raemor’s past… the rest of his story… and his real reason for being here……

One.

One tear came down from my right eye, sliding slowly down my cheek. And I made no effort to hide it from him when it came. No. He saw it, and his mouth curled just slightly down, a small sad frown slowly taking shape when he saw that tear… and then, seeing the pain in that face… I couldn’t keep myself away from him. I raised myself back up to all fours, and with no forewarning to him, I approached and slung a foreleg over and around his neck and pulled him into a hug. I sighed heavily, my voice shaking as I fought only to keep myself from breaking down, and I shut my eyes tight to fight back, resting my head against his as I held him there. And then, just a moment later, I felt as Raemor returned my embrace, setting a hoof on the back of my neck and giving me a gentle pat.

“I’m so sorry…”

Finally, I said those three words. Meaningless as they were… I said them. And I felt as Raemor shifted lightly against me, uttering a small sigh of his own while we stayed locked there. “I won’t say that the pain of that day has left me. No measure of time can heal something like that, but only dull it down.” the old stallion responded, with a rougher rasp in his voice that told me of his own struggle to stay composed. “But I feel you know that already… or if not, you certainly will as you age.” Even though he let me go, I only held him tighter, unable to keep from uttering a sad little sniffle as I nuzzled lightly into his greying mane. “You and I… we share many terrible similarities.” he added, even lower in tone. “We’ve both lost not just one, but two homes… we’ve both had loved ones taken from us, by the same faction, no less… and in varying degrees, we seek revenge for what we’ve lost… justice by bloodshed…… My motivation to follow you was as I said… but when I learned everything there was to learn about how you came to step onto the surface, about what you went through to get here… those motivations broadened. And as I’ve spent more time among you and the others, I’ve been praying that those misfortunes could be used for a greater purpose than just haunting our memories.” And here, I felt as he nodded, as if approving his own words. “Ultimately, it’s my hope that by staying in your company, I will eventually find Carver again, and finally give myself and my beloved Lucilla and Angel the peace we’ve been denied all this time. And perhaps, if I’m lucky, I can help you find the peace that you deserve as well… or at the very least, help you in drawing closer to finding it.”

So… I finally understood Raemor’s story in full. Now, it was as he wished it – there were no more secrets between us.

In his words, we were bound by three terrible tethers from our pasts… He and I had walked similar dark roads, nearly identical in every way… and we had suffered, shockingly, very similar fates. Was it just coincidence? Was it sheer happenstance that we were so alike? Did any of those questions even matter? Because no matter what, even if what we’d gone through was common in the world of today, the pain of loss on as great a scale as this was still just as punishing and unforgettable as it would have been one hundred and seventy-five years ago. For hearts that beat for good virtue and intention, the loss of those they loved the most would always make scars that would last a lifetime. Raemor and I had those scars, the very same scars, just like Gunny, just like Blake.

Now… I felt much closer to my old companion than I had ever felt in our travels before.

When I finally released him, there were no immediate words between us. I looked to him as I dropped back down to all fours, taking a step back to give him a little more space. And when I was still, he looked back to me, Sierra watching on behind him in respectful silence. Meeting Raemor’s eyes then, staring into a part of him that age didn’t look to have touched at all… I found myself wishing the same as he in knowing our likeness. Because in those eyes, there was written his story. There was the pain of his greatest loss in those eyes, just as he said there was. And there was the scars left behind from all his hardships, all his many battles, his defeats. These were the eyes of a weathered, weary soul, who had walked through the ruins of the Old World to find peace in the new. He was tired, slowing… and in his words… dying… But amidst all that haze, all those darkest of times… amidst everything that would’ve stamped out even some of the bravest hearts, there was a spark that shined through, a youthful spark that showed the determination backing what he revealed to me to be his motivations. It was one that survived through absolutely everything, and yet hadn’t aged a day. Because still he fought, still he lived on, propelling himself forward by his own unadulterated will. That strength he had, he now wished to lend to me, both through action and through word… and I was honored. That strength… it was a rarity, a frail thing, yet possessing the greatest power. And now he showed it to me, offered to lend me that strength so that I too could find peace.

It was all there, in his eyes… and it was an inspiring sight… one that, despite everything, gave me just a fraction of assurance, confidence, hope… which for the first time, pushed through that cold barrier created at Buckley, and reinforced through the loss of Hopeville and the return to Stable 181. And for that, I finally found something to say in response to the brave old stallion. “If there’s a chance that we can win the peace we deserve… then I pray that we find that chance… together.” I said… and I felt the corner of my mouth rise just slightly, enough for a tiny little smile that Raemor spotted. “To Celestia, the sun, and to Luna, the moon… I pray this.”

And Raemor… just slightly, he smiled too. “We pray this.”

*** *** ***

“Do you hear that?”

I heard it.

“Captain!” From the other side of the wagon, Raemor’s voice carried out as he called for our leader’s attention; he heard it too.

“What is it?” the captain asked in response, both Blake and I looking over our shoulders as he closed up to the wagon from his place at the rear.

“Are you hearing what we’re hearing?” Ivy asked, also from the other side of the wagon.

As the captain disappeared from mine and Blake’s line of sight, we listened back in to the noise coming from within the wagon itself. “Radio static.”

Yes… there was static coming from within the wagon… from our radio.

“It just turned on all by itself.” Raemor explained, his slightly diminished voice carrying a puzzled tone.

“If the radio picked up something, then maybe our pipbucks did too.” Saber observed in reply. “Madeline! Take a look at your pipbuck and see if anything’s come up! If this static is what I think it is, then a pipbuck should be able to identify it!”

“Already did, captain!” came the sergeant’s reply from her place at the front as a part of the wagon’s pulling team.

“What’d it say about this static?” Saber inquired.

“My pipbuck says it’s definitely a radio station.” Madeline answered him. “Radio Signal Bravo Delta Channel Fifteen Thirty. That’s the designation I have.”

“I’ve got the same.” Saber responded after a moment’s pause.

“Is it ours?” Boulter asked from the front. “We’re close enough to the radio station now that we might pick up our security channel from here.”

“No, definitely not.” the captain answered. “The name itself is enough to show that this is military grade. Stable channels didn’t have those coded names. So unless Challenger’s got some sort of broadcast system of its own, we’re nowhere near any place on the map that might send out a signal.”

Military… I didn’t respond, but I listened with attentive ears as the others speculated the cause of the mysterious new radio signal. I was cautious not to assume, but out of everything I’d seen in the southeast thus far… there was really only one source I could think of, and it wasn’t Challenger. In my time in that city, I’d never heard anything about the city having its own radio system. And I had even held an audience with the city’s General, practically it’s second in command after the president herself. So… if I was correct… then it was both heartening yet shocking to see that a promise had been held, pushing through fear, doubt, and loss. If I was right… then Mother Shimmer was still set in her goals. Because the only other place I could think of that could get a signal out to the whole of the region was Buckley Air Force Base. And as I listened to that static, the gentle buzz coming from within our wagon, I found myself unable to fully believe my own thoughts. Could it really be that Mother Shimmer was still going to go through with her plans to reach out to the southeast? Despite the Talons’ cruise missiles, despite the aftermath? Was Buckley really going to make itself known despite everything it had been through?

“What do you think, Nova?” With a light jolt, I turned to my right, finding Blake’s eyes on mine as he looked for an answer. “Where is that signal coming from?”

“I have a feeling I know where.” I responded after a short pause.

“Where?”

“Buckley.” I answered, taking a moment to look out to the northeast, Buckley’s direction.

“You think so too?” he asked, nodding when I looked back to him; it seemed he was of a similar mind.

“Shimmer must have gotten through to the others.” I commented. “It’s surprising, really. I was sure that what happened would have set back their progress. But I still don’t want to assume. It could be something else for all we know…… but it would be… rather inspiring to see Buckley carry through with its original goals.”

“I’d like to hear some of their songs again.” Blake remarked in response, with a very clear wistfulness in his voice that I more than wholeheartedly shared.

I faced front. “I know how you feel, baby brother.”

“Captain! Sierra’s back.”

At the call from Gunny, my eyes darted skyward. True enough our other flier was coming in from the east, a dark winged figure against the lighter grey of the afternoon, flying low and gliding towards us in preparation to land. Behind her was the radio station, perhaps another five to six hundred yards out now; the three radio towers atop the boxlike building looked to cut into the sky from here, the fallen one also seeable from here, the only monument in the otherwise barren landscape. But when Sierra closed in to just a few yards from the wagon, she pulled up at the last second to settle into a hover instead. And at the front of our caravan, Saber came back into view as he met her. “What’s the word Sierra?” he called up. “How are they doing over there?”

“Captain…… there’s nopony there.”

What??

“Nopony there??” Saber repeated, alarmed as I came to a stop midstride. “The place is empty??”

“Everypony looked to have packed up and left the station.” Sierra answered, looking back over her shoulder towards our now former shelter. “There were no blankets, no saddlepacks, no weapons… everything was just gone.”

“There’s absolutely nothing there?” Gunny asked, perplexed. “It’s just abandoned?”

“There was one thing.” Sierra said back, hovering in lower over the ground to come in closer to us. “There’s a radio signal coming from the station. I didn’t go inside to see its origin, but I did play part of it on my pipbuck, enough of it to understand.”

“And?” Saber asked.

“It’s from your sergeant, Mobley.” she explained. “We should be coming in range soon.”

A message. At least there was something. But as Captain Saber ordered us to pick up the pace, the sooner to arrive at the station and find the answered we needed, I still couldn’t help but be worried. Everypony, just gone. Even with some evidence as to our group’s whereabouts, there was nothing good about a group that was already battered and weary heading out from the only safe shelter we had left. Even with the crew of outlanders and their vehicle, Lil’ Luna, even with The Overmare, the Talons outgunned us in every way. Their vertibucks were sure to be out there, and their own ground patrols too. There was a whole army of enemies out there, and very few allies to fight them… and of course, that didn’t include the Black Blood. With my last encounter with any sizeable force from them having been over three weeks ago, I had not a single clue as to how they had moved about the region in that time, where their own forces had been allocated to. As far as that was concerned, they were virtually ghosts to us after Hopeville. So between their disappearance, and the Talons’ latest move against the region, there was no doubt in my mind that it was far too unsafe for travel anywhere in the southeast. The risk was too great… and for a group like ours, that was struggling to stay on its hooves… we were vulnerable…

“I’ve got a signal, captain.” A signal. Madeline had acquired it first, instantly drawing me in. “Sierra’s right, it’s our security channel.”

“Put it on speaker.” Saber ordered in reply.

Together, Blake and I trotted up to the front of the wagon as the pulling team continued to move it along, and the two of us drew up to them just as Raemor and Ivy did from the other side. And with a brief flash of light from her horn, Madeline cued up the broadcast on her pipbuck as she walked. “get this message, know that we’re okay.” Right away, Mobley’s voice greeted us as we caught it mid-sentence; his first words provided a small measure of comfort to ease my worries… but not much. “I’m recording this broadcast just after sunrise on the day after you left for the Stable.” Two days ago… “Just a little bit ago, we were visited by six ponies that were wearing that green camo we saw on that Challenger scout we have with us. Naturally, we were cautious, but our friend Jocko was the one who assured us they were the real thing. So after we asked em’ some questions just to make sure, one of them introduced himself as Lieutenant Colonel Ajax, one of four battalion commanders in Challenger’s armed forces. He gave us the lowdown on what brought him to us… and it ain’t good, captain. Those missiles that came down on us at Hopeville – turns out they landed everywhere. Proudspire got hit, another settlement called Searchlight got hit. Even Challenger took damage.”

Oh Goddesses…… they really had attacked everywhere…

“Ajax said that because of those missiles, the Talons had free reign to set up outposts and patrol routes all over the region.” Mobley continued. “He assured us that Challenger was still holding its own despite those missiles. But he also said that the city was pulling in everypony who survived the attack, and that he was under orders to evacuate Hopeville’s residents and bring them into the city as a part of that mission. He says we’ll be safe there, or at least a hell of a lot safer than being out here… so… I’ve given the order for everypony to pack up their things, and we’re going to be rolling out here in a few minutes.”

Challenger. They went to Challenger.

“I gave the order believing that it’s something you’d do, Captain Saber.” Mobley spoke after a hesitant pause. “But even if it wasn’t something you’d do, you have to admit that we’re not doing great here. We lost most everything back in Hopeville, and we’ve barely got enough supplies to keep ourselves going for any longer than another couple days at best. Ajax says that in Challenger we’ll be able to resupply, and we’ll be well-protected there… it’ll be nice not to have to sleep with one eye open… just a couple days of that is more than enough for me, and I’m sure that there’s more than a few of us who would agree with me.”

“Good job, Mobley.” Captain Saber remarked softly; out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nod his approval to his subordinate’s move.

“So when you get this message, captain, head to Challenger. That’s where you’ll find us.” Mobley said. “I’ll leave my pipbuck inside the station to play this message, and I’ll set it on a loop so that it’ll be waiting for you when you get back from One Eighty-one. Oh… and I’d appreciate it if I could have my pipbuck back as well. I left it in the station’s control room at the back of the building.” A light sigh came from the sergeant. “We’re looking forward to your return, to seeing all of you again. So you all be careful out there, and we’ll see you back in Challenger… Message repeats.”

And that was that.

As soon as he finished his message, Madeline shut down the broadcast, doing so with noticeable quickness… for a reason I knew why. It was impossible not to be reminded of those of us who didn’t make it from Mobley’s wish. But for me, more than that… I immediately thought back to Mobley’s message, and more specifically to what he said had been told to him by this Lieutenant Colonel Ajax. The Guardian missiles… the Talons had actually sent them everywhere. Hopeville, Buckley, then Proudspire, Searchlight, even Challenger itself. They had made targets of every settlement in the region that wasn’t under their control…… Sure enough, my guilt hadn’t faded even a little… but this just added a whole new weight to it all. Buckley was bad enough, knowing that two hundred and sixty souls had been lost on the base because of those missiles. Hopeville was even worse… because my choice had drove the ponies who I cared about the most from their second home, rendering all the effort each and every one of them had put into building it a complete and total waste. But now… now… it wasn’t just us that had been driven from our home, but others too. Searchlight’s residents, and… and Proudspire… little Kayla, and Ironhoof and Redfield… Rocky and Flare… All those ponies I knew, who I’d become friends with, who I had helped before, just like Buckley. All that progress I’d helped them to make, all that good I’d done for them… dashed away with the push of a button… erased by my hooves…

Goddesses… what if they’d been killed?? What if I killed them??

“Nova!”

But Captain Saber was the one to keep me from going any farther with that train of thought. Despite the chills I felt at nearing a panic attack, I was able to bring my eyes onto him, choking down my anxiety by clearing my throat. “Y-yes? Yes, captain?” But he wasn’t fooled… not in the slightest… and I was sure he wasn’t the only one to notice my reaction to Mobley’s message. Right now, though, Saber had a look of purpose in his eyes. Right now, he wanted us to keep moving. I could see that as I met his gaze; Challenger was where our remaining survivors had gone to, to escape an increasingly hostile landscape, and that was where the captain was going to take us next.

“I’d like for you to fly ahead and scoop up that pipbuck for me, that way we won’t have to stop at the station.” Saber explained to me, nodding over to the radio station. “We’re going to adjust our course for Challenger, so when you get it, come back and find us. We won’t have gone too far by the time you’re done.”

Composing myself best I could, I gave our leader a single nod in response, fanning out my wings in preparation. “Okay.”

“And make sure to hurry back.” he added quickly. “I don’t want anypony to be gone for too long.”

One more nod to show the captain my understanding, and then I faced the station and pumped my wings to lift myself up. This time, unlike the others, Blake didn’t voice any concern as I made to leave. And though I didn’t look back, I had a feeling he was keeping himself closer to the wagon as our group changed its course, protective, alert like a guard should be; ever since he joined the guard for the journey back to the others, he had taken his duty with a very adult seriousness… something that I was proud of him for.

Pushing myself forward, I put on a moderate burst of speed to settle into a smooth pace, keeping low over the ground as I quickly closed up the distance between me and our old shelter. I arrived back at the station with ease, free of distractions in the area. I slowed myself back down upon crossing into what I remembered to be the station’s old perimeter, arcing upward just enough to backwing, settling into a momentary hover before I let myself land smoothly back onto all fours outside the station’s north wall.

Right away, as I tucked in my wings, I felt a sort of ominous atmosphere about the station. Having landed where I did, I could dig into my memory and think back to right before I’d left for Stable 181. I could remember the exact spot where I’d first laid eyes on Lil’ Luna, the Old World military vehicle that had saved our group from wholesale destruction from Guardian’s cruise missiles. I looked over to that spot, recreating the image of that eight-wheeled machine, its midnight blue steel, its lethal mounted rocket turret and grenade machinegun, how the vehicle towered over its crew of ten outlanders. From there, looking right, I could recreate the sight of The Overmare, our confiscated twenty millimeter flak gun, its long barrel pointed out to the east as it kept guard over the rest of us. There would have been a sentry out that way too, perhaps two… maybe even a couple of civilians would have been walking out that way. Maybe, if luck had its way, little Melody would be drawing in the dirt, and Flash and Candice would be with her. Maybe it would have been also that I would’ve seen Juniper and Chase outside escorted by their widowed mothers, or perhaps with some of the younger ponies who joined us from the outlands. There would have definitely been guards on the roof, of course, and as I slowly begun moving myself forward, I spared a look up there. A guard from up there would have waved us in, maybe even Mobley himself would have been the one to greet us from up there. Or perhaps he would have been by the wreckage of the Zebra’s reconnaissance aircraft just north of here.

I could see everything that was here, everything that had been here. But now it was wholly deserted. The only evidence I found of our group’s presence here as I rounded the corner and begun to follow the east wall of the station was a wide, deep set of tire tracks, undoubtedly left behind by Lil’ Luna. Outside that, there was not a single trace left from our group, not even so much as a wrapper or tin can. There really was nothing here… and despite knowing the situation, despite knowing where our remaining survivors were heading off to, the emptiness they’d left behind here still served to heighten my anxiety on the matter. And coming up to the entrance of the station didn’t make it any better. The double doors making the building’s entrance had been left wide open, showing to me that our ponies had packed up and left in a hurry. And even before I stepped hoof inside the building, I could see the bare floor of the entry lobby… just as empty as the outside.

Taking in a deep breath, letting it out slow, I made my way into the station. In this, the first room, there was nothing but the floor. No blankets, no wrappers… nothing. I remembered the three rows of ponies here, arranged that way to fit as many within the lobby as could be settled in. I passed the room by without much delay, heading left and crossing through the open doorframe into the next chamber only to find a similar sight. Where once families and groups of friends had slept was now another abandoned room, similarly emptied of anything and everything. The electrical room straight ahead was the same as well, cleared of everything down to the smallest piece of litter. The next room, the one which had seen the most damage both from the many years of natural weathering and from the firefight that had taken place here at the world’s ending, was no different. The only markings here were those of the decaying sections of the floor space, blackened circles of rot parallel to the holes in the ceiling above.

It was an uncomfortable feeling coming through the station again, seeing it in such a state. The first time I’d stepped hoof into this place, I was distracted by my curiosity, by my wish to discover it. The next, I had been focused on saving Blossom from her Black Blood captives… much as I hated myself for doing so now. And then, the third time, I was too stricken with guilt at seeing the faces of those of my ponies who had survived the Talons’ missiles to feel the way I felt now. Now… this place was… dead… and this was the first time I’d seen it as such. Now, it was foreboding… as if it were a herald of something terrible that was on its way, or perhaps just a reminder of what had already come and gone… My mind was wandering something fierce by being here… and as much as I tried, I couldn’t stop it.

But then, finally, I came upon the control room.

The hum of the fallout shelter terminal was the one thing that gave some small measure of life back to the empty radio station. That computer was still where it had been left, perched on its simple metal table ahead and off to the right against the wall. And there, I saw Sergeant Mobley’s pipbuck. He’d set it next to the terminal, its screen facing me where it lay. It had been left on its radio screen, showing its active status as it broadcast the looping message through Shore’s programmed security channel. And with a breath of relief I trotted up to the table, gratefully reaching for the device and sliding it over to the edge of the table to look it over. A quick review of the buttons, and I shut down the broadcast, my signal to Saber and the others that I had acquired the device, and quickly, I scooped it up, biting down on the foreleg clasp and craning around to open up my right side saddlebag to drop it safely within.

Now to get out… I wanted out of-

“I would’ve thought you to be more alert coming back in here.”

I gasped lightly at a voice, not from behind me, but from further into the control room. I was jolted by its sudden presence, and I snapped my gaze to the left, my eyes zeroing in on the far end of the control room, to the open fallout shelter shutters there… where a black-armored griffin passed over the final step to emerge into the room with me. I nearly panicked when I found the paws and the talons, and the strange tail. Hard staring eyes met mine when the griffin stopped just a couple yards in front of me, memories rushing back in a lightning-fast replay of my nightmares. But it was only a second later, after I has tensed up to fight, half-way to reaching Mother Shimmer’s pistol already… that I noticed something… out of place.

The pearl-white revolver on the chest plate… the scar across the right eye…

Missing.

“After your show in Marefax, I’d have thought it near impossible to sneak up on you, warrior.” I had to take a step back, diverting from his eyes to study over the rest of the griffin before me. This griffin… not Blackhawk. Big, toned, sturdily built like Blackhawk was, sure. But my enemy was far more worn than this griffin was, both physically and mentally. There was age that I could always see when looking upon Blackhawk, a weathering character in him. I could see it in his eyes and in his movements… maybe brought by age… maybe by his loss and his quest for revenge against me. Either way, this griffin was younger, in age and state of mind… and yet… something looked familiar about him. “Then again,” he said, his voice lowered to a surprisingly polite quality. “maybe after Guardian, you’ve got a lot on your mind… Even the mightiest warrior can be hindered by her past.”

Marefax? Guardian? This griffin knew about them…… Goddesses… was it…

“Raptor?”

The griffin gave just one nod to confirm my question, to show me that I really was looking upon the face of the griffin who I’d met in aerial combat over the dead city of Marefax. This really was him, the one who I’d shot down, who plummeted from a sky masked in heavy rain to land on an old street blanketed with debris, to be run through by rebar and bleed out then and there. He was the one I’d bested in the air… but who I’d come back for after seeing how his death would have only come after an underserving period of great suffering. And I’d rescued him, given him a second chance at life, at recovering to fight again, and perhaps, someday, to see his home again just as I had wished to do. This was him… the griffin who I had come to believe would fight me again upon our next meeting. But now, here he was, staring me in the eye… completely unarmed. He wore only his Legion combat armor, black Kevlar plating with the trio of white slashes painted across the chest, and a portable radio clipped into the armor on his left shoulder. He was not ready for a fight… but it was that in itself that raised my suspicion.

“What are you doing here, Raptor?” I asked, recovering from my shock enough to manage the question. “Don’t you think it a bit risky to come out into territory inhabited by your enemies completely unarmed? Even after Guardian, there are some groups out here who can still put up a fight against your faction, believe it or not. And my group is one of them.”

“From what I’ve seen of you, I don’t doubt that.” the griffin retorted, keeping a straight face in the presence of my distrust. “And your right – it is risky. But not as much as it would be for you if you did the same.”

I wasn’t amused by that answer. “How long have you been here?” I pressed instead.

“Long enough.”

“Were you waiting here?”

He nodded again. “Yes. I knew that this would be the most likely place to find you had you not already fled to Challenger.”

“Is that why you’re here?” I asked; unarmed as he was… I wasn’t going to lower my guard around him, even with our history. “Me?”

“I came here to find you.” he responded, staying still as he kept his eyes on mine. “I’ve been tracking you for the past two days.”

The others were easily within earshot of the station; one gunshot, one scream, was all it would take to bring them running to my aid… and I was ready to call them. “Why?” I demanded.

This time, there was not an immediate answer… or at least not in words. Instead, his eyes began to soften, threatening to show a sliver of sympathy… something I thought looked very odd on a griffin. It took me by surprise, seeing that… but that look didn’t go away. And after a light exhale, “There’s… more than one reason why I’m looking for you.” he said, slowly, as if struggling to piece together what he wished to say. “As I’m sure you know, soldiers in the Legion are talking about you. Some I’ve been around, they talk about Guardian… and they thank you for giving Hayward the high ground against Challenger.” Though he looked right into the glare my eyes settled in, he didn’t hesitate to continue, and he added, “Others talk about your actions at Plainwell, when you first made yourself known to the Legion by infiltrating the town’s prison and freeing its captives. They speak with hatred at how you bested an entire outpost on your own, and blame you for the Talon blood spilled there…” Oh good… “And others still see you with neutral eyes, those who talk about your rivalry with Blackhawk. The word is getting out why he came after you… and it’s also becoming known what lengths he has gone to in his quest for revenge, what… and who he has sacrificed.” I made no effort to reply to Raptor’s speech here. No… with the way he was presenting his words, I was actually becoming… curious. And despite how much a little voice in my head screamed at me not to become distracted… I just couldn’t shake it away. “You have a mixed reputation among the Legion, Nova. You’re neither idolized nor vilified.” Raptor said, taking a second to lightly shake out his wings, his larger feathers rustling gently before the limbs were returned to their place against his sides. “Some wish you dead. Some wish you to become an ally, to meet you and say thanks. And some only want you back for future missions, knowing what you are capable of after you opened up the Southeast National Guard Bunkers. But me……”

“You what?”

“My view of you matches none of those.” he answered me collectedly. “Like I said, Nova… I’m here to see you for more reasons than one. I was witness to Guardian’s activation, watched as those silo doors came open. And after, I took part in the invasion of Buckley… and amidst the fighting I could see you and Blackhawk as you dueled each other again. But I am not of his mind… and I believe that you did not deserve the torment my superior officer has put you through despite the role you played in unleashing the monster in him. That is one reason why I came to find you… to tell you that.” Oh, how nice of him… “Another reason is not my own.” he explained, continuing despite my own silent thoughts. “After Buckley was crippled, I was sent as part of a separate detachment of griffins to search the region for you and bring you back into the Legion’s custody. After Guardian served its purpose, it was easy to rule out Hopeville as your place of hiding. And so after searching through a regional map I came upon this place, and I saw your group, your Stable number on the guards’ armor. I saw them just before they left the station under escort from Challengers soldiers. And when they were gone, I took up residence here in their place, knowing that eventually, you’d come back from wherever you had traveled to.”

“So… you sympathize with me.” To my observation, the griffin gave a slight dip of his head to confirm. “But you try to follow your orders to bring me in, too.”

“And I remember Marefax.” he spoke up, finishing my observations for me by startling me to a stop. “Our first meet is why I consider you an enemy… but it’s also why I cannot find it within myself to fight you and bring you back to Blackhawk… My views differ from the others because I see you as both ally and enemy at the same time.”

“I see…” For a moment, just a second, that same voice in my head screamed for me to run… or to fight. There was just something about the way he spoke. I could hear the gratefulness in his voice, and I knew that that came from his memory of Marefax. But the pitch of his voice… that reminded me of where his allegiance really was, and despite his coming to me peacefully, with no initial desire for a fight, the Talon banner still flew behind him… and with it was the chance that he was merely waiting for the right time to spring a trap, to carry out those orders he’d been given. And so… for me, that raised only one question. “What’re you going to do, Raptor?”

The griffin shifted in his place at the top of the fallout shelter stairs, looking briefly over his left shoulder, down into his former hiding place. And when he looked back, after a long, weighty pause, “When we met in the skies over Marefax, I expected to come out as the victor in our duel.” he said. “When you shot me down and I hit the ground, impaling myself on that rebar, I expected to die there… to just bleed out and fade away. And when I was laying there in the pouring rain, I expected you to carry on your fight up there, to leave me to my fate just like my retreating comrades would have done…” Again, Raptor turned away, this time putting his back to me as he descended the first two steps of the staircase leading to the station’s shelter. “But one by one, you shattered those expectations. You followed me to where I crashed, you pulled yourself away from that battle to come to me… and for a reason neither of us knew then, and perhaps still don’t know even now, you saved my life when you would have otherwise claimed it.” He had kept his back to me as he spoke. And after crossing a third step, Raptor bowed his head down, only to raise it back up a moment later… with a leather strap held in his beak. He turned himself around on the stairs, making his way back up to return to his former place at the top of the staircase. Now, a single saddlepack was hovering before him, swaying lightly while he held it by the leather sash until he set it down on the floor at his paws. “You gave me a second chance, Nova.” he said, keeping me away from a chance to break my silence when he cracked a small… yet genuine smile. “You gave me a chance to live, to try and make it through this war so that I can go back home and see the people I love… My parents, my two little sisters, my grandmother… my wife and our newborn son. You gave me a chance to reach my ultimate goal – to see my family again. And in the end… that’s why I’m really here. That’s the reason that presides over all the others as to why I came looking for you.”

Goddesses… a whole family waiting for him back in Hayward… and he was stuck in here too… waiting for this war to reach its end. Hearing that… hearing of an intact family like that, even if it did belong to an enemy, even after my history…… There was a part of me that wanted to show little care for it. After all, he served an enemy’s flag. Why should I care about the family of an enemy if he served a faction that stole part of my family from me?

But…… a gentle wave of relief, of self-appreciation, was what easily overpowered that darker part of me – the knowing that, if I hadn’t done what I’d done in that city, a mother and father would have had to bury their child, two young girls would lose their eldest sibling, who they must have looked up to…… and worst of all, a wife would be widowed, and their child would grow up without a father. I’d saved all of them from that horrible fate, even after I’d suffered the way I had… and that held an impact of its own.

“You gave me the greatest gift of war – another chance.” Raptor explained. “And for that… the least I can do is repay the blood debt I owe you.”

That’s when he bowed his head, looking upon the saddlebag he’d brought here with him. And reaching a paw forward, he slid it along the floor, pushing it toward me. “What is that?” I asked, softer.

“I don’t like having debts, Nova.” Raptor explained, looking back up to me. “It’s my belief that that trait is something that’s universal to griffins, or at least to those native to Hayward. In one form or another, we repay any debt we may come to owe, in as significant and lasting a way as we can. Within this bag is what I hope will settle my debt and make us as even as two soldiers under two banners could be.” He turned his attention back to the saddlebag, placing a paw back over the top of the pack and hooking a claw under the flap. With one single motion, he pulled the flap up and over before pushing the bag over onto its side; even with it faced out like that, I couldn’t see what was in it… and I actually wanted to see what was in it even before he showed me himself. “I have something of yours.” he explained, looking back up to me from the bag briefly. “Two somethings, actually. I managed to find them once I returned to my station after the battle in Buckley. With how unorganized things were between that fight and your escape from Stable One Eighty-four before that, no one was going to notice those two items missing from all the other confiscated equipment that’d been collected with it.” Then he looked back down, setting his paw against the bottom of the pack. “So, like I said, I hope that what I’ve brought you will make us even.”

He turned over the saddlebag. Rolling out smoothly, a circular device emerged and settled onto the floor. I recognized it immediately, because just moments ago I had grabbed the very same object from the nearby table. It was a pipbuck, the screen blank, but the device as a whole undamaged. And below the screen, I could see the emblazoned letters on the metal – Stable 181 Pipbuck. It was one of our pipbucks…… but… more than that… “Isn’t… isn’t that mine?” But that’s when Raptor gently shook the bag, coaxing the second of his promised items the rest of the way out of the pack and onto the floor. With just two heavy clanks against the floor, the item dropped. The glint of polished metal was the first thing to catch my eye, the same sheen covering it from the end of the barrel all the way to the back of the slide. It was a pistol, .45 auto. “What is…” But when I tried to inquire why this was the second item… my words were stopped dead in their tracks, only to be replaced by a gasp when I saw an engraving etched into the pistol’s grip just below the firing bit.

Etched against the black plastic plate armoring the metal underneath… it was the outline of a blue flame… a flame that copied the shape of my very cutie mark.

And shielded within it… a sapphire rose…… my mother’s cutie mark… protected by the mark of my father……

Fire Rose… it was my mother’s pistol…

The name of my mother’s weapon came out a hushed whisper on my lips as my eyes stayed locked on the weapon I had thought lost forever. I couldn’t believe my eyes… I just couldn’t…… but there it was… brought on the wings of an enemy soldier… I couldn’t speak a word… couldn’t utter a breath. But I took a step forward instead, and then another, until I finally settled into a slow but solid walk to close the distance between myself and Raptor. I stopped just inches from the Talon griffin. He made no move against me, didn’t even budge. In my peripheral sight, he only stayed there, leaned back to give me a little more space. I felt his eyes on me, watching as my stunned reaction played out before him. And I let him watch as I reached my right forehoof out, placing it ever-so-gently upon the engraving… the design my mother had requested be engraved into it… showing forever the bond between her and my father.

Here it was… her weapon… passed to me upon her death… now the last heirloom of my family. And Raptor, of all people, was the one to bring it back.

“Oh, and lest I forget,” the griffin suddenly spoke up; I didn’t look back to him when he did. “I managed to save your ammo belt as well.” A soft rattling of objects, light and metal, and I saw at the top of my sight as the promised ammo belt was set on the floor; it was mine too, taken just like Fire Rose when I’d been captured. “There’s seven full clips in total, six on the belt and one already loaded up.

“Goddesses…” A good minute… or maybe even two… must’ve come and gone in my trance. But finally, I managed to speak, recovering enough to blink before I slid Fire Rose closer to me. “I thought… I thought I’d lost this weapon forever.” I took just one step back as I paused again, then slowly looking up to meet Raptor’s eyes where they watched down on me. “I… I don’t know what to say…”

To that, the big griffin shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything.” he responded. “It’s easy to tell that this pistol held sentimental value to you. You don’t find a weapon like that very often.”

I couldn’t stop my eyes from falling back down upon my long-lost treasure… resting underhoof. “This weapon… it belonged to my mother.” I began. “When we were living in our Stable, she had it engraved with her cutie mark and my father’s. She wanted it to represent their love, and I’m sure eventually she would’ve made it a family heirloom.” And as I spoke, I couldn’t help but start tracing the design of the engravings, running my hoof along every curve of father’s flame. “When she died… I took it for myself, not only out of necessity’s sake, but also because it was a part of her. It was something that I could look at and remember her by if ever my memory faltered.”

“I see.” the griffin replied after a short pause; when I met his eyes again, he was nodding. “Then I’m glad I managed to return it to the pony whom it belongs to.”

“This pistol is the last material memory I have of my mother.” I said back, lowly. “When I lost it back at Stable 184… it was like losing a part of me because of what it meant to me. And in all honesty… I just can’t imagine it in the possession of anyone else but either me or my little brother.”

“I understand.” Raptor responded. “Being a husband and father myself, I know what it’s like to have something special that symbolizes the family. And I wouldn’t want to see it taken away from us when it has that kind of value… And hearing your weapon’s story – I hope that returning it to you has made us even.”

And to his hope, I was able to crack just a slight smile to show him my answer. “If there was ever a debt you owed me… this has repaid it.”

That answer – that looked to satisfy him. “Good. I’m glad to hear that.” he said with a nod. “For what you did for me, I thought this the best way to repay you. I’m glad to see you think it so.”

Fire Rose was back. In a moment where two enemies became allies, even if just for a short time, it had been brought back to its rightful owner. Looking into Raptor’s eyes now, I knew we both believed the same thing – that we were, in this moment, allies. Here in this station, because of our shared past, the war outside didn’t reach us. In here, it just didn’t matter. But now, it seemed that our business here was drawing to an end. And that knowing jolted me onto a new thought path, one that promptly raised a single question… one that I was hesitant to place on the table. Because here and now, we were speaking in peace, unguided by the rules of the conflict that was reaching its crescendo outside. But after that…… what would happen to us? That was the question I wanted to ignore. That was the question I didn’t want to have to speak. But in the silence that followed the conclusion of our meeting… it was the only thing that could be said.

And so I asked him.

“What happens now, Raptor?” Lowering my muzzle down to Fire Rose, I carefully retrieved the weapon off the floor, making sure to bite down on the slide and not the firing bit before I backed away a few more steps. “What will you do?” I inquired after setting the pistol back down at my hooves.

The griffin shifted in his place, his claws clacking lightly against the stone. “In the immediate moment,” he responded, slow and thoughtful. “I think it’d be wise for me to stay low here in this station for a little while longer yet. Before you arrived, I tapped in to that broadcast when I found the pipbuck.” When I looked back to him, he cocked his head in a little apologetic shrug. “So I know that you’ve got a group out there with you. And my guess is that they wouldn’t be as welcoming to me as you were.”

I acknowledged that truth with a little sigh. “Yeah… you’re probably right.”

“I’ll give you some time to cover some distance toward Challenger.” he continued, nodding. “Then I need to head back to base… let my superiors know that I didn’t find you along my patrol route before I get a new assignment.”

“Covering my tracks yet again…” I remarked, unable to suppress a little note of laughter.

Raptor, however, did not share that petite level of amusement. “Yeah… well, don’t get used to it, Nova.” he responded, with a much more pessimistic character to his words now; it actually… it actually hit me pretty hard… because in the back of my mind, I knew something like this was going to come up. “Chances are that if we see each other again… it’ll be back to trading gunfire …”

I uttered a little sigh of defeat. “I suppose it’s out of the question for you to join my group, huh?”

“You may have saved my life, Nova. But I don’t consider you worth betraying my home for…… Sorry.”

Ouch.

“Well… still, I pray that it won’t come to that.” I spoke up after a pause. “Especially after this.”

“As do I.” the griffin responded. “I’d rather meet again in a time of peace… or not at all.” And I only looked away… eventually nodding my own agreement to his wish. “Your group is probably wondering where you are.” My silence that time had gone for a lot longer than was comfortable. Having only looked to the floor, shifting my forehooves uncertainly, the griffin took the cue. “You should probably get back to them before they come looking.”

A good idea… despite the emptiness that seemed to be present here… the knowing that this was something that had gone unresolved, and would be as such for a long time yet. It was a terrible feeling, knowing that this was something that I couldn’t bring to a resolution… especially when Raptor had just done what he did for me. Seeing Fire Rose, a weapon I thought I’d never be able to hold again… it brought a measure of comfort to me, something that helped to mend the impact of having seen my parents’ graves again. I had a part of my mother again, a part of both mother and father all in just this one little pistol. A part of our family was back where it belonged now, all thanks to this griffin.

But still… the others were probably beginning to wonder. It didn’t take a few minutes to pick up a pipbuck and return to the group; it was time for me to go. “You’re right, Raptor.” Bowing the rest of the way down, I scooped up Fire Rose, then craning my head around to deposit the weapon into my right-side pack. Then I did the same with my own pipbuck, finally closing the bag back up. “I really look forward to wearing that again.”

“Why don’t you wear it now?” Raptor asked curiously.

To that, my mind thought of an answer that I couldn’t help but crack a smirk at. “I figure I might as well return the favor and cover your tracks.” I answered, showing him that smirk; it was a pleasant sight to see him smile just a little in return. “They’ll eventually know about you either way, of course. But I can at least give it some time so we can put some distance between us.”

And that warranted a chuckle from the griffin, who lightly shook up his large wings as he shifted in his place. “Alright then.” he said, dipping his head. “You take care of yourself, and your crew. And stay alert out there, especially now. The Talon Legion is all over the southeast now.”

“I will.” I promised confidently. “You take care too, Raptor. And thank you… I mean it.”

And with one last nod making his reply, I gave him what I hoped was my most heartfelt smile of gratitude before I turned my back on him, leaving the Talon warrior to the station to return to the others, with all of my treasures now in tow.

*** *** ***

“So that’s why you took so long back at the radio station.”

“That’s some coincidence.” I added atop Captain Saber’s comment, craning my head to the right to see where Nova walked beside me. “Considering that you shot him down back in that old city, I’m actually a little surprised he was there at all, let alone waiting for you to show back up.”

“It’s like I said, Gunny,” my pegasus friend replied. “He said that he didn’t want to have a debt hanging over him. He saw my saving his life as something that had to be repaid… and while I wasn’t expecting nor wanting any kind of repayment, what he did speaks very highly of someone who happens to fight beside our enemy.”

“It most certainly does.” Sergeant Madeline remarked to my left; I agreed silently that it certainly did paint a different picture, especially for a soldier of the Talon Legion. “It shows that we’re not fighting a faction that’s made up of a bunch of savages… even if they do fight like it.”

“At least we know that there are a couple Talons with a solid head on their shoulders out there.” Boulter put in after.

“I just hope that we won’t cross paths again for a while.” Nova replied, facing forward as she did. “Circumstances would see to us trying to kill each other again… it’d be a real honest shame if it came down to a fight to the death, especially after what we’ve done for each other.”

I had every faith that Nova would win in such a fight.

“It was really nice of him to bring back mother’s pistol.” From Nova’s other side came Blake’s own input as he kept up to our pace, forcing the conversation away from becoming something far more unpleasant. “I’m so glad we have it again, because it just isn’t right for it to belong to anypony else.”

And I felt the same way on that subject of Seiyara’s pistol.

As Nova agreed with her younger sibling, I dismissed myself from the conversation to look ahead. Having traded my place at the wagon with Raemor, who volunteered to join Shore, Madeline, and Boulter on the job in order to ‘keep himself busy’, I had been free to move around joining up with the guard detail of our reduced crew. Nova and I, along with Blake, kept by the wagon’s right side, while Saber and Ivy, both of whom had made a good recovery over the past two days, were guarding the left. We had maintained this formation for the majority of the day, Raemor having taken my place on the pulling team just before midday on our first short break. Now it was approaching mid-evening. The sky was growing paler, dimming down as the sun began to set behind the cloud ceiling. But even so, up ahead, I could see our destination on the horizon. I recognized the crane, the salvaged Old World industrial device that towered over the rest of its home city. And I was starting to make out what I felt was the wall that guarded the great settlement behind it, the north face of a full defensive perimeter marked with round guard towers, behind which was the tops of some of the settlement’s taller structures. Against the grey backdrop of the cloud ceiling, I could see the settlement that was the spearhead for all the southeast region’s efforts of growth and development. We were approaching Challenger, finally, after the past four days of travelling, we were finally about to find the rest of our group again, tucked away behind the safety of the capitol city’s great walls. And my eyes were locked on that city.

“Hey, Gunny.”

Until a voice spoke my name to snag my attention.

I turned right once again to find Nova as the source. And to her I cocked an eyebrow in question. “Yeah?”

“Um…” Her eyes darted away briefly to scan over the dirt underhoof, making me all the more curious at her out-of-place pause. “With everything that’s been going on…” she said, speaking slowly, thoughtfully. “I never got to ask you how you’re doing.” She looked back to me then. “Are you doing okay?”

Doing okay? Well… “I’m as okay as I can be I suppose.” It was a question I should’ve expected… yet didn’t. And the thing about it – parts of the answer were obvious, while other parts, not so much. “You’re right.” I added as we stayed side-by-side. “A lot has happened. Too much’s happened all at once, and it weighs on you.” Nova nodded her agreement. “Everypony’s dealing with the same thing. These past few days we’ve all walked the same path, but we each have our own struggles to push through on that road. Hopeville hit us all equally. The Stable was the same, to an extent. But in there we each had our own histories that we relived when we opened that door again.” I glanced back ahead, passing a brief but studious look over the slowly approaching city. “Then there was Bolt and his crew, and we all suffered the same losses because of them. But the deaths of some hit some ponies harder than others.”

“And what about you?” Nova asked, gently.

“Well… memories of the recent past come and go for me.” I answered with a slow nod. “They still throw punches my way. But the more I think about them the more distant I get from them.” Nova gave me a quizzical look as I tried to piece together my explanation. “The Stable was tough, I won’t lie. I kept myself away from the graveyard in order to stave back the worst of my memories about the invasion. I was already reliving it second by second when we were in there. Every step I took pulled me towards an image, or even a sentence, a moment in my life.” She gave a single nod, showing her understanding. “But we’ve been out here long enough that I’m better at prioritizing what’s really important nowadays. The past is the past, and it’s over. But we’ve got a lot facing us down up here on the surface, and that’s what I need to focus on.” And again, Nova nodded. “You can’t afford to stay trapped in the past anymore. Otherwise you lose sight of what really matters. Besides, I’ve cried all the tears I need to cry for the Stable, and for my dad. The Stable’s at peace, dad’s at peace… that’s the best I can ask for.”

“Yeah… I feel the same way.” Nova remarked after a moment. “I think I cried the last of my tears back when I saw my father’s grave next to my mother’s. Plus… Bolt dragged me back to reality the hard way… I still hate thinking about how the others are going to react when they learn about what happened.”

“I don’t like to think about it either.” I replied after a sigh, with sympathy. “Mavis was the brother to Boulter’s wife. And Quinn was the youngest of two sisters… It won’t be easy… and it’s one of the things I’m focused on. I’ll be breaking the news to Quinn’s sister when we find them in Challenger.”

“Oh…”

“That’ll be the last thing I do before I finally start doing something about all of this.”

And that brought her eyes back on me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m tired of running.” I explained solidly. “I’m tired of feeling like the one being hunted, and I’m tired of always looking behind us for an enemy squad to show up and start shooting, or looking up and seeing a wing of griffins diving in. I want to see my enemies behind my iron sights and do my part to eliminate the threat to our ponies…which is why I intend to see about joining up with Challenger in their fight against the Legion and the Raiders.”

And unsurprisingly, Nova took my claim with no small measure of alarm. “Really?”

“I imagine they’re not going to be shy about recruiting some extra help.” I answered with a nod. “If the opportunity comes up, I’m taking it.”

“That’s…” Her hesitation to support my choice was written on her like a book. “That’s a… bold move, Gunny…”

“Captain Saber, come in!” Suddenly, from the left, from behind, and even straight from Nova’s saddlebags, I heard static as it buzzed sharply to life, thinly coating a female voice that spoke through Shore’s programmed security channel. “Captain Saber, respond, quickly!”

My ears flicked at the voice of Sierra, and how she called for us with a very blatantly urgent tone. That drew in my focus in a blink, and I snapped my eyes to Saber, all four pulling ponies doing the same with me. “Go, Sierra.” Saber called back as he walked. “What’s going on up there?”

“Captain, you and the others either need to ditch the wagon and run or you need to dig into your current position!” Sierra responded quickly. “I have eyes on Talon soldiers that just emerged from active camouflage! There’s at least twenty, and they’re moving on an intercept course from the east! They’ll be on you any second!”

I looked out past Saber and the others even before Sierra completed her warning. But at first glance I couldn’t spot anything along the open fields! “We can’t see them Sierra! Where are you looking?!” the captain demanded; slowly our wagon came to a halt as Madeline, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter drew themselves to a stop, all of them searching frantically along the east.

“I see them!!”

Nova spotted them first, suddenly galloping past me to skid to a halt by the captain to warn him, to show him where.

“Your ten o’clock, captain!” Sierra answered over the coms.

But when Nova raised a foreleg to point, I found them too, just as a whole line of half a dozen muzzle flashes flickered farther down the field.

CLANG!!

I jerked away as a violent eruption of sparks shot out from the front left corner of the wagon, a bullet striking the armor plate there as the ground in front of us erupted in a violent spray from the rounds that hit there. I threw myself down as tracer rounds slashed right by overhead, and over the diminished but raging gunfire, I heard an agonized cry as everypony else hit the dirt in rapid succession. I made to look, only to have to shield my face as the ground just behind us exploded, showering us with soil as a billowing wave of dust rolled over us. We were sighted in by a grenade launcher, and I confirmed my own suspicion when a second grenade detonated, this one blasting open the dirt right in front of us.

“TAKE COVER!!” Saber’s voice was the first one I heard over the fire the Talons were putting down on us. “GET BEHIND THE WAGON!!” Looking back up, I saw immediately where the pulling team was throwing off their harnesses. Boulter was the first to free himself, keeping low as he turned his attention to where Shore struggled to get his own tether removed. But I saw that it was Shore himself who had been the one to cry out; the bleeding hole in his upper left foreleg was a clean exit wound.

“MOVE BLAKE!!” I heard Nova behind me as I adjusted myself to make a run for the wagon. A quick glance back over my shoulder, and I saw as she hurried her alarmed little brother out of the open, almost literally throwing him behind the wagon’s front right wheel as she took cover with him. Ivy and Madeline were the next ones to hurry behind the wagon as I pulled myself along on my belly, keeping myself prone to keep below the whizzing rounds that kept us pinned.

“GUNNY!!” As I put the wagon between myself and the Talon ambush, hurrying up to my hooves in order to move behind the right rear wheel, I turned to find where Saber and Raemor threw themselves behind the safety of the wagon, taking shelter with the others as they prepped their weapons. “GUNNY!!” As Raemor hunkered down with them, the captain made his way to me, shouting to project himself over the barrage of fire that now mercilessly peppered our wagon. “I need that light machinegun on the Talons’ line!!” he ordered. “We need a break in this fire so we can get the heavy weapons out of the wagon!!” I fired up my horn, looking over my shoulder and yanking the All-Equestrian free from its place on my back with a grunt. “Put down some rounds so that Boulter can grab the launchers and their ammo!!”

Seeing the mentioned unicorn as he helped Shore into cover, I drew my weapon close and chambered the first round, flinching as another explosion from the enemy grenade launcher ripped into the chorus of the gunfire; the wagon rocked on its wheels from a near direct hit. “I’m on it!!”

Whirling about, I brought myself back down onto my stomach, setting the All-Equestrian in front of me before quickly crawling out from cover to take up a firing position. “Ivy, cover from Gunny’s position!! Nova, get behind your scope!!” I heard Saber order. “GO! GO! The rest of you stay with me while Boulter gets the launchers!!”

With one final lunge I landed myself right next to the wagon’s back left wheel. Then I pulled the All-Equestrian tight against my shoulder, holding it steady and taking aim at the muzzle flashes flickering wildly about two hundred yards out. Then I pulled the trigger and held it down, firing a long burst as I trailed my iron sights along the line of enemy soldiers. A brief pause to bring my sights back on target and I opened up again. “Right behind you, Gunny!” Then at the second pause, I recognized Ivy’s voice, very close, and just a second later, a new weapon joined me as I fired again. Right next to me on the left, Ivy had thrown herself down on her belly, her heavy SMG, her 12.7mm, spit fire downrange with me in short controlled bursts. And past my iron sights, I could see that we were putting a strong counterattack down against the enemy aggressors. Despite Shore’s injuries, I saw the twin lasers of his saddle’s energy weapons striking out, hearing the reports from Madeline and Saber that accompanied them. And on my right, and above, I heard the familiar crack of sound from Nova’s sniper rifle where she had set up her position atop the wagon itself. Right away I noticed a diminishing in the fire that was coming our way. And as I paused long enough to readjust my aim, I saw an explosion from the enemy’s side of the field… and the pegasus that shot by the rising column of fire and smoke; Sierra was engaging them from the air.

“Coming in behind you, Gunny!” I felt a tap on my back in time with Boulter’s call just before I let loose another long burst of fire. Though I heard him as he climbed aboard the wagon, I kept my focus solely on the distant figures of the Talon soldiers. We were making some progress in keeping them pegged down, especially with Sierra getting up close and personal with her heavy weapons. And now they were spreading out, their response to the sneak attack by our air support, keeping their intervals wide even as a couple of them targeted her to force her to evade out of a second attack run.

I jerked away from my iron sights when another grenade from the enemy launcher detonated right in front of me, the resulting blast blocking my view of the enemy position. With a growl, I forced myself back up to all fours, scooping up the All-Equestrian with me. And in the brief pause I’d been forced to swallow, I took a moment to check over the others nearby. Ivy was in the middle of reloading, having already removed an empty clip to slide a fresh one into the top of the weapon. But past her, I saw with a sharp jolt where Blake had also laid himself prone, firing a shot from his nine millimeter pistol before resetting his aim, slow and careful before he fired into the dust again. I actually almost spoke to warn Nova of her little brother’s bold position, only to see the pegasus where she kept herself hovering in the air just behind the wagon, glued to her sniper rifle’s scope as she waited for the dust to clear; she was too focused for me to distract her.

“Gunny!! Take this!!” The enemy fire had lessened, but the fight still raged as Shore, Saber, and Madeline kept shooting from the wagon’s other side. And from my right, Boulter shouted to get my attention over the noise once again. Looking to the wagon, I saw where he had awkwardly placed himself aboard to clamber across the overstocked cargo hold. And before I could react, his telekinesis literally dropped one of Buckley’s missile launchers for me to catch. I barely intercepted the heavy beast of a weapon, snagging it just as he quickly deposited three missiles one after the next, dropping them atop our two forty millimeter grenade launchers and their respective ammo belts. “I’ll help you out here with the other missile launcher!” Boulter shouted from his place above as he sifted through the assorted salvaged weapons on the right side of the wagon, dropping a fourth and fifth missile into the pile. “We’ve only got eight warheads to share between the both of them! Make ‘em count!”

“Got it!” With a heavy grunt I hoisted the launcher up into the air, keeping both it and the All-Equestrian afloat as I moved in behind Ivy and Blake. And settling down, I dropped my LMG and set the launcher down on its nose to bring over one of the missiles; the dust had nearly cleared now.

“Smoke! Smoke!”

But with a start, my eyes snapped back to where brown was swiftly being replaced by thick grey. It was rising up from four different spots where smoke grenades had been deployed, close together to build up a literal wall of smoke between us and the enemy. But in such an open area, with very limited cover, I quickly found myself believing that that group out there wasn’t the only one around.

“Captain, be advised, I’ve got eyes on an enemy vertibuck coming in from the west! It’s going to try and flank you!”

And no sooner had I gotten the notion than Sierra’s voice barely reached my ears from the combined volume of Saber and Madeline’s pipbuck speakers. Swearing, I focused on my new weapon, pushing the large cocking handle forward to break the tube from the weapon’s console. Then with a quick fluid motion, I dropped one missile into the tube before I closed the weapon back up with a heavy metal click. Ready to fire, I turned around to find the incoming vehicle, easy to spot against the darkening clouds and becoming easier to hear even over the firefight. “I see it!” I called in warning. “Dead ahead, coming in fast and low!”

“Shoot it down, Gunny!!” Saber responded, the only one of his group of three to come about and find the approaching vehicle. “We can’t let it zero us in!!”

Wordless, I brought the missile launcher up to eye-level, peering through the plastic combat sight extending from the side. Remembering back to Buckley itself, when I’d used one of their missile launchers in the Talons’ invasion, I steadied myself and focused my telekinesis to hold the weapon tight. The enemy vertibuck was coming in straight for us, with no angle in its flight path. Even from here, I could see the weapons that bristled out from its stub-wings just behind the cockpit; I saw the rounded six-barreled noses of two miniguns, one on each wing, and I saw the square-faced rocket pods, also with one on each wing. The knowing that this vertibuck was outfitted for heavy assault was motive enough for me, and tracing its path, leading it, I focused on the trigger and pulled. The missile’s engine sparked in response, roaring to life before it flew smoothly out the tube and into the air. It was a dead-on shot, but the vertibuck pilot had definitely been anticipating it. The approaching aircraft dropped its airspeed before making a hard turn to the left, banking away as the missile sailed right by. But just as it tried to put itself back on course from the evasion, a second projectile suddenly streaked by overhead, this one curving in toward its target. But this time, just like in Buckley, the vertibuck dipped farther to the left, this time deploying a whole cluster of flares that exploded to life with dull ringing pops and bangs, which intercepted and destroyed the heat-seeking missile. That’s when it came to face us once again, and this time, it opened fire. Even from my place on the ground, I saw the smoke trails of unguided rockets as they streaked right for us, and I couldn’t even do so much as brace for the impact before six rockets smashed down all around us. Two exploded right in front of me, peppering me with dirt as a third struck the ground just ahead and to my right. Then the fourth passed right over us with a grating hiss of sound, the fifth detonating alarmingly close to our left side before the sixth fell short like the first two.

Suddenly, from above, Sierra came racing back into view, diving right toward the enemy air unit, ditching the ground soldiers to take on the more threatening enemy element. The aircraft spotted the approaching challenger, the pair of miniguns on its stub wings opening up to force Sierra to abandon her head-on charge and take evasive action.

“Here’s another missile!!” My attention was drawn back to the fight when a second missile landed at my hooves. Boulter had joined me, our second missile launcher held in his telekinesis as he loaded it up. I followed his example in response, splitting the break-action and sending the second missile down into the tube before closing it back up.

At this point, I had to put full faith in Ivy and Blake that they would keep our side covered while I tried to clear the skies; both of them were firing again.

I focused back on the vertibuck, hoisting the launcher back up and sighting in. Sierra was flying quick as she tried to circle around the machine, fighting for an angle of attack. But the vertibuck was rotating in place, turning just as fast as its blazing miniguns followed right on her tail. But with it hovering in place, it was the perfect opportunity. I pulled the trigger, the missile roaring to life before racing out the tube and into the air on a straight course for my target. And just after, Boulter launched his own warhead, following right behind mine. But to my frustration, the vertibuck abandoned its pursuit of Sierra to lurch forward and out of the missiles’ flight paths. One after the next they streaked right past the vertibuck’s tail before it hooked hard left to come about.

“They’re trying to move up past the smoke!!” My ears perked up at the sound of Nova’s voice, her shouted warning carrying clearly to all of us.

“Raemor, you and Madeline take the forties!!” captain Saber ordered sharply. “Boulter, I need you back here with me!”

“Roger!” As I scrambled to pull over another missile from the wagon and reload, I saw Boulter as he hurried back over to where the captain was holed up with Madeline, Shore, and Raemor, carrying his own missile launcher with him

“We need to focus all the heavy weaponry on the infantry before they get too close! Gunny, let Sierra handle that vertibuck!”

With a quick shout of confirmation I wheeled back around and closed the tube, a third missile ready to go. Now, presented once again with a clear view of the enemy, I saw that they were indeed making a move to gain ground, and despite what looked to be a couple of casualties on their side, they had already gotten in closer. With the temporary smoke distraction behind them, I could see now some of the finer details of the unit we were up against, and I saw that at least six of the squad was carrying with them the large deployable cover units I’d seen in previous fights. The steel plate barriers were already extended out full, and they had been joined together by their carriers to make one solid wall behind which a couple of others were taking shots at us; two light machineguns in their squad mixed with assault rifles and carbines to put up a constant barrage against our position. A split second after I spotted them, I saw how effective those shields were at repelling conventional ammo and even lasers. Saber and the others weren’t even making dents in those plates. But this time, I was more than ready to meet their old trick.

I brought the launcher back up and leveled it out to take aim at the advancing line, keeping myself steady even when two rounds sparked off the wagon’s plating just off to my right, a third round promptly drilling into the dirt at my hooves. But I kept the launcher’s combat sight on the plate barrier shielding the enemy, and I steadied my aim on it. Then the missile was free when I pulled the trigger, racing out with an eager roar towards the advancing enemy line. And just before I ducked back behind the wagon, I saw as the missile struck the barrier head on. Enemy fire halted all at once when the missile hit, and setting the launcher back on its nose, I kept watch at seeing the enemy line dissolve into a chaotic mess. The barrier had been cracked wide open, the blast from the warhead sending at least a couple of the enemy soldiers flying back. And before they could get a chance to recover, I heard the hollow thumps of our forty millimeters, two grenades launched out. One after the next, they smashed down on the already disoriented enemy position, further scattering them. And then, just after the second grenade detonated, another missile streaked ahead, Boulter’s missile, and it too found home, passing right through the gap my shot had made to strike the ground just beyond it; three more legionnaires went flying from the direct hit.

We were getting the upper hoof now!

“We’ve got them on the run!” Saber shouted for the rest of us to hear. “Keep fire on them and they’ll break soon!”

We’d done enough with the heavy weapons by this point, and with new confidence I set my missile launcher aside and brought the All-Equestrian back to the front. The enemy line was still recovering from the brutal attack we’d sent at them, and now, with their barrier crippled, I had the best chance at actually taking some of those bastards out. Above and to the right, a report from Nova’s sniper rifle sounded just before one of the enemy soldiers toppled backward; even from here I could see the pink mist that sprayed into the air.

Staying upright, I snapped my light machinegun up and tucked the stock tight against my shoulder to take aim, and I quickly let loose another barrage in time with another raging report from Ivy’s heavy SMG. Together with the automatic rifle fire from the other side of the wagon, we kept the enemy barrier down. Now we were on the offensive, not giving the weakened Legion squad even an inch to try and recover themselves or their mobile blockade. We had them-

“INCOMING!!”

Even over the voice of the All-Equestrian, I heard the cry that had been taken up by the captain. And over all that… the familiar mechanical whirring of vertibuck engines took a chillingly sudden dominance over the noise of the firefight. My only instinct was to duck back behind the wagon, to spin back around and take aim at the approaching sound… only to find myself staring straight into the teeth of the enemy aircraft as it launched a second volley of unguided rockets.

Then the whole world exploded as those rockets came crashing down on us.

*** *** ***

Warning.

I’d only heard it before it was too late. I’d been staring down my rifle scope, lining up the last shot of my clip when Saber had taken up the call, when I’d heard the rotors of the vertibuck. And then I was blown away as a high-yield explosive smashed right into our position. I was launched bodily over the wagon from the shockwave, losing the Torch and screaming a cry that I couldn’t even hear over the terrible thunder. I went tumbling head over tail, flipping over myself three total times before I plowed back into the dirt face-first. And after skidding another couple seconds across the ground, I finally came to a halt, vision blurred, ears ringing loudly. In my painful daze, the first thing I felt in the explosive’s aftermath was a fiery stinging along my right flank. Even without looking, I could tell that I’d sustained a long gash there, perhaps shrapnel from the shell… and I could feel the welling blood as it begun to spread. But with that, I also felt a similar stabbing pain in my lower back… and with a panicked jolt, I felt something that was buried in the flesh there, something that had pierced my armor entirely to stab into me.

“Nova!!”

My name came out as a scream, though my ears only perceived it as a dull whisper. Still, I heard my name from behind me, carried on a voice that inspired me to try and get myself back up to a stand. But in the wake of the Talons’ counter, I found myself unable to get up as I tried to recover my senses. My legs trembled under me, and the pain of my new wounds with the shellshock from the blast pressed on me full force to keep me pinned down. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t break through the burn to coordinate myself. But it was in my second dazed attempt to stand when I suddenly found a pony coming up on my left side. Ivy, her SMG in her telekinesis, stopped beside me and kept herself facing the enemy line. She herself looked unsteady, even as she took aim down her iron sights and fired a long burst of ten rounds. I could even see a gash along her right side, where shrapnel had cut through her leather armor. It was already bleeding at a moderate rate, blood already sliding down her side in multiple thin trails. But miraculously, she choked down her own pain as she drew up close to me. “Nova!” she shouted to me, passing me only a brief glance before she stepped back out of my sight. “Come on, get up! We need to get back behind the wagon!” she warned. “The Talons are coming in, and they’ve still got a dozen soldiers left!”

With a labored grunt I pushed myself through the grating in my ears, and tried again to get my hooves under me, Ivy’s warning throwing me into action. I planted my forehooves down in front of me, one after the next. But I promptly found that only my front hooves would cooperate. I could move my hindlegs, but I couldn’t force them through the lingering shock of the injuries I’d taken from the vertibuck’s rockets.

“Hang on, Nova!” But suddenly, I felt as something took hold of me, clamping down on the armor just behind the back of my neck. And with a sharp tug, it begun to drag me back. “Come on, Nova! Crawl!” Ivy gave her order between labored grunts, and I slid along the ground again as she pulled me back.

One more time I focused my strength on getting my hindlegs working. This time, I managed to plant them into the dirt, getting a solid enough hold to push myself in the direction Ivy dragged me in to help us along. I put all my effort into getting out of the open as quick as I could. Already the fight was picking back up, this time, much more one-sided. Hostile fire hammered our position hard as Ivy and I worked back toward the wagon. In desperation, I stopped my own efforts just long enough to reach for Shimmer’s pistol, ripping it free from its holster and sighting in. In that moment I was face-to-face with the Legion’s advancing soldiers. They’d completely reestablished their barrier, their entire formation. Their two light machineguns kept a constant spray on us from behind the wall, their wielders shooting blind to stay in cover. And the shield bearers moved at a slow but steady pace, keeping themselves tucked away behind their deployable cover; even if I were at my position above the wagon, I wouldn’t have been presented with a target to knock one of those shields out.

But nonetheless, I closed one eye as I brought Shimmer’s pistol to bear, firing one powerful shot that rattled my jaws. I saw the round smash into one of the barriers, sparks flashing bright, before I turned my attention to the left end of the enemy wall, catching sight of an enemy just as she peered from cover, an assault rifle floating into view from behind her. I beat her to the trigger pull, but my shot went just short, spraying up dirt into her face that startled her into returning to her place behind cover.

Suddenly, the dirt just to my right kicked up, three rounds punching into the soil one after the next to make me shield myself out of instinct. Quickly, I rolled myself back into position, Ivy giving another tug to pull me along as her SMG roared a burst of five rounds to assist. Then, from above, I heard the sudden chopping of vertibuck rotors, its twin engines. For just a second I feared another barrage like the one that had scattered us. But just as quickly, my fear was quelled when I saw the enemy aircraft pass by right over us. Flying low, it looked to wobble on its flightpath, and much to my relief, I caught the trail of thin but seeable smoke that emitted from its tail, its tail that had been caved in just before the craft’s rear fins. It was retreating from the field, giving us precious breathing room against the real threat of the Talons’ shielded infantry. But I didn’t let it distract me from my target, and as I was yanked back again, I snapped my crosshairs over the opposite end of the barrier when a Talon unicorn stallion aimed his assault rifle over the barrier. He got off a burst of four rounds before I fired, this time a hit that blew his brains out the back of his skull, sending him reeling back and behind the barrier.

Slowly but surely, my hearing had cleared up, at least enough to where I could catch that, thankfully, we were returning to the fight. I heard an assault rifle behind and farther to the right, a larger pistol mixed in with spaced shots. And in my field of view, twin lasers still struck out at the barrier, forcing one daring Talon to duck back down just as one shot sliced over her head. But the enemy was still moving closer, not even a hundred yards out anymore, and they’d be right on top of us soon.

With one final yank, Ivy threw me onto my back, landing me right beside the wagon’s back left wheel just before she stumbled back and away with a yelp; I saw the round hit her armored chest, the leather catching the bullet and preventing a wound. Then, my ears perked when a loud mechanical whirring sounded over the gunfire. I recognized it instantly, and confirmed what I heard when I spotted Sierra as she glided over us, backwinging to slow her descent as her she spooled her personal minigun. And as she drew herself into a hover, the heavy weapon let loose with a mighty roar, belching fire as a solid stream of rounds smashed into the enemy barrier. Sparks erupted from the steel in a solid and constant display of violent light. And as she kept herself steady in the air, banking just to the right to evade a retaliatory line of fire that had gotten past her barrage, the Talon’s revived formation was engulfed within a series of smaller-scale detonations that strafed the line from right to left; the hollow thumps of Raemor’s APW preceded them from the other side of the wagon.

Quick as I could, I rolled back over onto my gut and forced myself up, ducking down with a jolt as three round sparked off one of our wagon’s plates. This time I had much better luck in ignoring my fresh wounds, and I was able to plant my rear hooves down to hoist myself the rest of the way up. Steadying my balance, I hunkered down against the wagon, stowing away Shimmer’s pistol back into its holster. The Torch was out in the open somewhere close to where I’d been thrown, and I knew that I couldn’t go back for it. But right when I bit down on my saddle’s firing bit, readying myself to get back into the fight properly, I came back around to find a shocking new scene.

The whole right side of the Talon line had literally caved in on itself, folding inward to bend their original line. And to the south, approaching fast from Challenger’s direction, was a whole new cluster of ponies easily a dozen strong, putting their own scattered volley down on the now flanked legionnaires. I found the new attackers just in time to see as a missile streaked out from their closed-in formation, and struck the barrier head on, blasting away on of the deployable plates along with its carrier. And right after, a second missile raced down from above, this one from Sierra’s launcher, which also found home against the Talon wall.

Both missiles had blasted them away from us. And now, the remaining soldiers of the enemy line were hastily falling away, keeping themselves facing both of their opposing parties as they begun to draw back northeast. But everypony with me – they only took inspiration from the assistance that we’d been given, a precious moment to regroup and then to keep the Talons on the retreat. Again, I heard four different weapons, an automatic, a pistol, two energy weapons, and Raemor’s grenade rifle. The latter weapon was doing the greatest deal of work. Raemor’s grenades detonated right in front of the enemy’s noses. Even without taking part in the counterattack, I could see how the enemy’s remaining number tried desperately to keep their protective shields up. But between Raemor, Sierra, and the newcomers, they were crumbling; I could see four new kills already.

With the enemy on the retreat, I took the time to back away and take cover behind the wagon again, returning to safety and taking in a short breath, letting it out with a shaky sigh; I’d made it… with Ivy’s help I’d made it.

“Hey, can you get yourselves moving?!” Suddenly came another voice, a male’s that I didn’t recognize that called over the new firefight that had sprung just in front of us. Turning quickly, I discovered a new face among the others. A big stocky stallion, black-coated and silver-maned, had slid into cover with Saber, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter. A unicorn, he carried with him a light machinegun that floated beside him, a larger model than even Gunny’s All-Equestrian, and he was garbed in a full suite of heavy padded armor; a portable radio was clipped to his chest plate. “We need to get you out of the open!!”

His armor was colored in multiple shades of green… green camouflage that was Challenger’s colors…

We’d won a break in the fighting thanks to the new arrivals, whom I had no doubt were other members of Challenger’s forces. But with the fire drawn away from us, and with my faculties more or less pieced back together after returning to safety, I was finally beginning to think more clearly… and because of that, I took my first real full look at the others as soon as my name was called… in a pained and very desperate voice……

And suddenly, my whole world came crashing down around me.

I had seen Saber, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter first. Three of the stallions were unharmed, and Shore had only taken one wound on his upper left foreleg that he was managing to cope with. But nearby them, closer to me, I found Gunny looking at me… and… and the whole left side of his head was burnt and bleeding. Even a part of his mane had been burned, and all along the left side of his Stable security armor, the dark blue padding was torn and blackened. He was barely standing, just like Sergeant Madeline, who was pressing a forehoof to her head just behind him, holding her bleeding left ear as she kept her head bowed, trapped in a painful shellshock spell… But between them, my eyes fell on the pony that was laying there squirming on the dirt… screaming… with a bleeding gash that had been carved into his left side by the metal shard that jutted out from just behind the shoulder.

“No… NO, NO, NO BLAKE!!”

Pain and adrenaline alike vanished in a blink as I scrambled to reach my wounded baby brother, and Gunny limped back a step just before I skidded to a halt before him. I was immediately greeted with a ragged, high-pitched cry before he took in a broken breath, releasing it in a terrible whimper. Right away my hoof went to his foreleg. “I’m here, Blake, I’m here!” I spoke, my panic stuttering my words. He grunted in reply, hitching heavily with a rough gasp. And when he coughed a single wretched note after, I snapped my attention on his wound, and pressed my hooves down on the gash right beside the piece of shrapnel buried in him. Blake rasped out another cry as I pressed down, a feeble effort to put pressure on it and halt the bleeding… “Goddesses…” Breathing hard, fast, my eyes trailed down Blake’s blood-coated belly and to the ground, where red was already beginning to color the dirt. And off to the right, I could see a dim but frightening trail of crimson, showing me where he’d fallen and how long he’d been dragged to get to safety.

Goddesses, there was so much blood!!

“N-Nova!”

My name came out as an agonized whimper as he uttered a staggered sob under my hooves. And with a short gasp I darted my eyes to see his face; he was trying to lift his head to look at me even as he cried, a tear already trailing down his left cheek. “I’m here Blake.” I assured best I could, reaching over and placing a blood-coated forehoof on his neck. “I’m here.”

“I-it hurts… Nova!” He shifted under me, trying to reach a forehoof back to touch his wound. “It hurts, it hurts……”

“I know it hurts, Blake! I know it hurts!” I spoke frantically, trying to soothe him as his words died out to another pained sob. “You’re going to be okay!”

But he only hitched again, uttering another yelp of agony as he shut his eyes tight.

“SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs to get somepony’s attention, anypony’s. All at once, Captain Saber, Raemor, Shore, and the Challenger stallion looked my way as Boulter kept fire down on the retreating Legion squad. Both Raemor and Shore, as focused as they’d been on keeping to cover, adopted looks of open shock at seeing me with the wounded Blake. “We need help before we go anywhere.” Captain Saber turned his focus to the Challenger soldier among us, raising a foreleg to point a hoof toward the rest of us. “Please tell me you’ve got potions you can spare.”

The black unicorn, however, promptly shook his head, a gesture that only heightened my desperation threefold. “Not with us, no.” he responded. I nearly screamed at him for it, until he turned to me to say, “But at Challenger’s gate we’ve got a medical team on standby with everything you’ll need. You fly your little one there, they’ll fix him up.”

That was the only answer I needed.

Without reply I turned my focus back to Blake, who grunted again as I took a stepped over him. “Alright, Blake… I need to pick you up, okay?” As soon as I hooked my foreleg around his torso, he cried out again, making me wince with fright. “I know, I know it hurts.” I repeated gently, as soothingly as I could as I forced him to lie on his back to face me. “We’re going to get you some help.” I added, trying to look him in the eyes as he moved his head from side to side, his pain the only thing guiding his near thrashing movements. “But I need you to hang on to me, because I have to fly you over there-”

“Sergeant! Sergeant!!” A sharp female voice drew my eyes back up to the front of the wagon, where I saw a second soldier in Challenger’s green camo just as she ground to a halt beside the black unicorn stallion. An out-of-breath earth pony mare, teal-coated and golden-maned, she wore a battle saddle comprised of two long-barreled semiautomatic rifles, and even as she joined us, the auto-loaders for her weapons were loading in fresh rounds. “Sergeant… our eyes on the wall… spotted three incoming vertibucks!” she explained between gulps of air. “There’s two coming from the northeast… the third from the west. We gotta scoot!”

The sergeant wasted no time in turning to Saber. “Do whatever you have to do to get yourselves moving, but we need to get back to the city before we get swarmed.” he ordered. “Carry your wounded, ditch the wagon. It’s the only way we’ll have even a small chance of getting you lot to safety.”

Immediately, I saw the hesitation in our captain’s eyes as I got Blake ready to move. And the Challenger sergeant and his subordinate saw it too, especially when it was Boulter who spoke up first, saying, “I’ll get Madeline if you or Raemor can get Gunny.”

“I’m fine!” came Gunny’s protest.

“Hey, did you hear me?” the black unicorn asked, meeting Saber eye to eye with a firm glare. “We need to get out of the open! Those vertibucks will be on us in seconds!”

“I heard you.” Saber finally replied, only to stomp his hoof down as he rose to all fours. “But the wagon’s coming with us.” And before either of the Challenger ponies could protest, he added fast, “We’ve lost ponies trying to get this wagon here, and we’re not just going to surrender it to the fucking Legion!” And catching Boulter in the middle of heading for Madeline, he said, “Boulter, hook up with me. Raemor, you get back on the harness too. Shore,” He fired off his orders in rapid succession, finally looking over to where my friend crouched nearby, watching and listening intently. “How’s that wound?”

“I’ll get back on the harness, captain.” Shore answered him, quickly pushing his dirtied reading glasses up to the bridge of his muzzle before limping his way back to the front of the wagon.

“You ponies are insane!” the black unicorn remarked, shaking his head as he trotted out into the open to scan the skies.

With the absence of gunfire now, I could already hear the incoming engines of the enemy vehicles. That ominous sound drove me back to my primary focus, and turning my attention back to Blake, I slid my foreleg all the way under his back and hoisted him up. Once again he uttered a pained shout, weaker as I managed to hug him to my chest. “Blake, I need you to hold onto me, okay?” I snapped out my wings as I adjusted my grip, giving them a quick test flap. “Can you do that for me, baby brother?”

And much to my relief, he actually managed to move his forelegs, and with a little help from me, he got his hooves up and around my neck to close around it; it was a weak embrace, but it was the best I’d get from him, still far more than I anticipated. “Good job, Blake. Good job.” I encouraged. “I’ve got you. Come on.”

With a single powerful beat of my wings, I lifted us both into the air, promptly hooking my other foreleg around his lower back to secure him against me. “Lieutenant Colonel Ajax, this is team three!” And as I rose up, I heard the sergeant, finding him as he spoke into his portable radio. “Be advised, we need the teeth of the big guns on our position for incoming aerial attack! We’re inbound with a heavy wagon, and the Legion is all over this group of survivors! We’re going to need everything the wall can give, over!” And as I leveled out above my group, I saw as each of them prepared for the run for Challenger. Saber, Boulter, Raemor, and Shore were all hooking themselves back up to the wagon. And just behind them, Gunny was scooping up Madeline, and with Ivy’s help, was situating her atop his back; Sierra hovered just over them, overhearing everything from above, now scanning along the north to find the approaching aerial threat.

But they’d be on their own this time. In my hold, I felt Blake trembling. The blood loss was taking its toll on him, and still he continued to bleed from the terrible gash he’d received. I needed to get him help, and fast.

Nothing else mattered. And as Saber continued to get the others ready to move, I forsook all else and drove myself forward towards Challenger, clutching Blake tight against me as I picked up speed and made a run for the city’s wall. “Hold on, Blake.” I said to him again, focusing ahead. “For Goddesses sake, just hold on. The Talons aren’t taking you from me too…”

Footnote: 33% to Level Up.

Chapter 24: Storm Front (Part 1)

Chapter 24: Storm Front

“We need to use everything we’ve got.”

Another round slashed right over my left wing with a terrifying hiss.

I had banked left as sharply as I could, anticipating another shot and shouting my frustration when it came. I managed to right my course again, hoisting Blake up tight to me again to keep him secure. I called for my baby brother to hold on, to just hold on a little bit longer. But over the sound of the spinning rotors, I could only barely hear my own voice. A vertibuck was right behind me and just above, keeping its position at that angle to present a clear target to the sniper that was taking shots at me as I fled for Challenger.

The city was only a few hundred yards away now, no more than four. Even from here I could hear a raid siren, a chilling note that cut through the skies, one of two that managed to reach me through the vertibuck’s engines. The second was the booming reports of two heavy turrets, one on each corner of Challenger’s north wall. Positioned atop the guard towers there, they were large platforms of two different models. The one on the left – I could see four long barrels jutting skyward, belching fire as the quad gun sent a literal line of rounds after its target. On the right, only a single-barreled weapon was there, but I recognized the resounding cracks of the twenty millimeter flak gun. Both turrets were following the flight path of the second Talon aircraft as it raced southward along Challenger’s wall, drawing the anti-air’s attention away from me. Behind me was the third vertibuck that had come swooping in, lingering back to engage the rest of my team down below. I would’ve looked back to check on them, and in any other circumstance I would’ve been staying with them to fight back. But Blake… now, Blake’s hold on me was slackening. He was growing even heavier in my grasp, and it was getting hard to keep him in a strong embrace. He wasn’t moving, he wasn’t speaking. I only felt his beating heart as I hugged him to my chest, quick… but weakened.

He’d lost too much blood back there-

BLAM!!

Another round sliced by right above me, forcing me to duck down and drop my altitude yet again. With Blake’s weight pressing down on my forelegs, it was becoming an even greater struggle to get myself realigned in the air with my constant maneuvering. The ground was closing in, and ever since I’d made a run for it, the Talon sniper was harrying me, driving me closer to the surface. A grounded target was easier to hit than one that was able to maneuver in the air, and just as I finally managed to get myself leveled out again, yet another round raced by on the left side; I didn’t lose my pace again, but I sure felt where the bullet had grazed the armor on my flank.

Challenger was even closer now, and the city was rallying up its defenses. From farther in, even over the blaring raid siren, I heard the dim popping reports of small arms fire. Whether guards or civilians, more ponies were taking shots at the vertibuck that was now flying directly over the city, circling back around to head north as it continued to distract the city defense grid. There was even heavy machinegun fire coming from outside the city wall to the west, from a small farmhouse built out there, and even to the east where two larger barns had been established; that vertibuck had already taken some hits in its risky move to travel over hostile airspace.

But my attention was snapped back to my own pursuer when the rumbling of the vessels engines abruptly heightened with a sharp low-pitched whine. The wind that was spawned from the turning rotors, which was already blowing strong against me, picked up its power in unison, and I heard as the vessel drew even closer. My instinct was to evade yet again, even despite the shrinking distance between me and the surface. But though I was in the perfect position to be targeted by the vertibuck’s array of weaponry, I knew that wasn’t why I was being chased. And my instinct vanished when a shadow came over me. The vertibuck flew right over me, its twin engines tilted forward a whole ninety degrees to propel it ahead at an alarming speed. With that, and with how labored I was in the air, it had no problem overtaking me. As soon as it did, it dropped its altitude by banking right as it gained a good lead over me, branching away before its engines begun to tilt back and draw vertical. I’d been following its every move, already hooking left in response to try and put more distance between me and the enemy. But in so doing, I found myself staring down the unicorn sniper that was standing at the lip of the entry hatch into the vertibuck’s crew compartment. The glint of his scope came into view as the vertibuck adjusted its course to present its left side to me, putting a line between us.

And the sniper was already aiming.

The muzzle flash flicked to life, and the crack of the rifle sounded right in time with the thump of the bullet striking the plating on my right side. I jolted in the air from the impact, keeping myself from crying out, but nearly missing a wingbeat as the armor there just barely absorbed the round; it was the second shot that hit me.

As if shouting its frustrations, the vertibuck’s engines thundered louder as that same whine filled the air. And with that, the vessel put on another burst of speed to get even farther ahead of me, nearing the city’s wall. This time, after its first display, I could anticipate this next one before it came. One more time I pulled again to keep Blake as tight against me as I could. And then, with all the strength I could muster, I focused on my wings and pumped them fast as I could. Even with Blake’s added weight, I managed to climb as the vertibuck began to turn, putting itself directly between me and wall, now less than two hundred yard away. And when the sniper found me again, taking aim for another shot, I arced in as tight a turn as I could manage, tilting myself completely vertical before banking right and dropping all at once. The rifle reported again, just like I thought, this shot far to the side. And with that I completed my roll, turning myself over and leveling out with a heavy grunt. The ground was just shy of reaching us now, a mere few yards all that was left of my airspace. But the city’s gate, open wide and waiting, was right in front of me.

It was all or nothing now. Blake was no longer holding onto me, and a formerly fast heartbeat was slowing, weakening even further. I pushed myself forward with all my might, wings aching with a pulsating pain from the extra weight they kept aloft.

But suddenly, the vertibuck came back into view, literally dropping down into my line of sight from above. In one fluid move, it had adjusted its altitude to nearly match mine while instantaneously backing up to align itself with me and spinning to complete a full circle in the air. And I gasped as the aircraft completed its maneuver by bringing the sniper back around to find me yet again. The vertibuck wavered in the air from the risky yet shocking move, wobbling into an unsteady hover right in front of me. But the sniper was given the chance he needed as I now flew on a collision course for him-

BOOM!!

The vertibuck jerked in the air as a ball of fire and smoke erupted from its right engine. The rotors on that side snapped off like twigs, the whole engine block caving in as it was blasted apart by some unknown projectile. The vehicle abruptly halted its lean, a quick, desperate, and futile struggle to stay afloat. But its remaining engine then carried it into a spin, and as I sharply snapped out my wings to stop myself from getting too close, it fell away to my left to plow into the ground, kicking up a churning cloud of dust and smoke as metal screeched and crumpled. So close had I been to it that I felt the wave of heat from the explosion as it washed over me, and the dust and smoke too as it rolled in to conceal the city from me.

I had to turn my head away, shutting my eyes as I threw myself back into flight. Banking away to the right, I pumped my wings to try and get into the clear, to regain lost ground. In just a few short seconds, I managed to escape the brunt of the dust, getting a hazier view of Challenger. And up above, I could see where the vertibuck that had once been flying low over the city was now making a beeline for the northeast, already passing over one of the barns out that way. As it crossed out of the corner of my eye, I could see the thick trail of black smoke that drifted behind it. Challenger’s anti-air had chased it away, but there was still one more vertibuck out there… and I didn’t hear its weapons… only its engines as they drew closer to me.

With the loss of its two wingmates, the third craft was diverting to follow me; they weren’t giving me up!

But as I angled in for the open gateway to the city, I found myself taking heart as I saw the city’s preparedness. At the gate, a whole platoon was emerging from within. Thirty soldiers at least, all in that signature green camouflage, were moving in a double line and fanning out to cover the whole width of the city’s entrance. And behind them, rolling out on heavy creaking wheels, were two steel-plated wagons pulled ahead by two teams of four earth ponies encased in their own steel armor rigs. And atop each vehicle was a mounted gun with a gunner at the ready behind it, the first with a long-barreled heavy machinegun, and the second with a break-action missile launcher. The latter wagon, with a bright flash of light, fired a second missile as I approached. It flew straight, just long enough to gain speed before it abruptly hooked away to my left to pass me by. And though I didn’t follow it, I heard the familiar pops of vertibuck flares, my chaser deploying countermeasures; the noise of its engines fell away to the west as it was forced to evade the missile.

The missile chased it back, buying me precious seconds! And below, there was a whole platoon of infantry with heavy armor as backup keeping their eyes on me. And I was going to make it to them!

BLAM!!

The crack of a rifle, a rifle I’d heard before, and a high-caliber round smashed into my right flank. The armor couldn’t catch it, cracking from the impact, and I screamed as I took the hit. The shot pushed me with a jolt, my wings missing their beat because of it, and I dropped instantly with a burn coursing through my wound like nothing I’d ever felt before. And before I could even think of anything else, all of my senses were shaken together when I struck the ground. I crashed dead on my left shoulder, then hitting with the rest of my left side. I bounced once after a short painful skid, and then I hit again, flipping once over myself and landing hard on my right side, igniting my fresh wound with twice the burn as I finally came to a standstill. The aftermath of my crash landing was not as severe, however, and with the adrenaline still rushing through my veins I became aware almost immediately.

And the first thing I noticed was the absence of Blake!

Frantically I searched as I lay there on my side, propping myself up on one hoof and looking out where I’d landed. He was there, laying with his back facing me just a couple yards away… unmoving. But just when I got another hoof under me, something pushed on me from above, a shocking touch that made me drop myself back down again. I would’ve rolled, scrambled away, anything to get back to Blake. But my racing thoughts made way long enough for me to hear the voice that called to get my attention. “Hey, you okay?!” Hooves ground to a halt by my right shoulder, followed by a stallion’s head concealed behind a grey metal helmet, the visor of which came down to meet my eyes. And when I didn’t answer, “I’ve got you, you’re going to be alright!”

Others were coming in around us, three more on each side that were fanning out, with rifles and saddles trained on the area ahead. But just as I saw the first soldiers of Challenger’s platoon, another resounding crack signaled yet another shot from the same rifle that brought me down. I saw the muzzle flash ahead of me, coming from the wreckage of the downed vertibuck. And I heard a cry from my right at the same time, followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground. “Sniper in the crash site!” The call was passed quickly, traveling with haste along the ranks of those soldiers behind me. The stallion next to me threw himself down onto his gut, snapping his scoped assault rifle up to his shoulder and promptly firing. He and three others all fired together in their prone position, a shower of sparks erupting off the crippled tail of the downed chopper. And I saw as the same unicorn sniper who’d taken me down ducked back behind cover, hoisting his three-o-eight rifle with him.

“I’ve got another, right side!”

“On him!”

There was another, a second pony hiding at the crumpled nose of the aircraft with a ten millimeter pistol clenched in his jaws. But he only managed two shots before he had to take cover again, three assault rifles putting fire down on him together to keep him and his surviving companion pinned. “Hey!” I was already bracing myself to get back to all fours when the same stallion I’d first seen called me again, punching my right shoulder. “Can you walk?!” He ducked, and me with him, when another sniper shot echoed out, racing by overhead. “Our spotters on the wall found enemy infantry to the west, coming for the gate with forty troops plus flak support! We need to get you out of the open before they get here!”

“Get my brother!” I shouted over the response of two carbines that shot back. “He needs a doctor, right now! Please get him!!”

“Alright, I’ll go get him!” the soldier replied, finding where Blake still lay motionless after a brief moment of searching. “We’ve got our town doc waiting just inside the gate behind us! I’ll get him there!” Keeping himself low, he snapped himself back up to all fours and gave me literally no time to argue as he caught the attention of two other soldiers next to him on the right. “Get Nova inside!” he ordered. “She’s got three wounds that need tending!”

“Hey, wait!”

But without a moment’s pause the unicorn soldier made a mad dash for Blake as a call for covering fire traveled through the soldiers now behind him. And immediately after, I felt as my whole body was lifted up against my own will, a dim greenish light coloring my vision as I floated off the ground. And before I knew it, I landed on the back of a big pale green unicorn stallion, his own coat color blending well with his green camouflage combat armor. As soon as I recovered from my forced relocation, with the unicorn wheeling about to face the city gate, I shifted in my place to get his attention. “Wait!!” I shouted at him. “I need to get my brother!!”

But in my attempt to try and slide off him, his telekinesis fired back up to restrain me, keeping me pegged to his back. “Duke’s got him!” he shouted back, already picking up his pace to a fast trot as he held me down. “You need to see the doc, long enough to get that shard out of you and drink a potion! After that, then you can get back to it and help us repel this group that’s coming in!”

We were crossing into the back of the platoon now, where the two wagons were digging in. Their steel-clad pulling teams, having moved their wagons into position, were beginning to disembark from their harnesses, readying their own heavy weapon saddles. The missile wagon fired its third projectile, the missile immediately hooking west to sail right over our heads. “Just put me behind the wagons and get this metal out of me!” I shouted back, having to hook my forelegs around my carrier’s neck to keep from accidentally sliding off. “I need to be with my brother!”

“You’ve got nasty wounds, pegasus!” the soldier responded, undeterred as he carried me past the wagons at a strong gallop; we were almost to the gate. “You need to get those treated before you do anything else!”

“I need to be with my brother, damn it!!” I screamed it again, but only just finished it before suddenly, my would-be-rescuer jerked hard left. I felt his right side cave in from the force of a bullet impact, and a short cry of pain escaped him before we both toppled over. As soon as he hit the ground, my own momentum carried me over him, and I face-planted into the dirt, rolling over my saddle weapons once, twice, before coming to a stop once again on my right side. Immediately, the burn from my lower back took prominence, reminding me harshly of the metal that still lay buried in me there. My second tumble had moved it, shoving it back while pushing it just a little deeper. But even despite that, I heard the noticeable change in the weapon fire. And after a quick glimpse to the west, I ducked down as a line of automatic rifle rounds passed over my head.

The Legion force was already here.

What was once just a smaller line of around twenty soldiers was now over twice as long and twice as fortified. Just over a hundred yards out, the Talons had established a solid firing position with shocking speed. Plate barriers made up the single wall of their station, and at the far right end came the signature echoing cracks of a twenty millimeter. The flak gun branched off the northernmost barrier, already opening up against the front of the platoon. Altogether, the enemy force engaged with a mighty strike, and Challenger’s ponies were scrambling for shelter behind their own wagons as their turrets came about. Three of the allied soldiers had been too late to flee from that flak gun, mowed down as the rest flooded behind the wagons. Those who weren’t close enough to the vehicles, or who hadn’t been shot, hit the dirt. And only the ponies in steel armor remained standing, now fully detached from their wagons and charging ahead as a single eight-member unit to meet the enemy head on.

A quick glance to my right, and I could see the unicorn who had carried me. He looked uninjured from the round that stopped his run, only stunned as he pushed himself back up to face the enemy line. Past him, I could see the soldier who had gone after my brother. He was crouched as low as he could be without falling prone, and on his back was Blake, facing me with closed eyes as he was held in place by the unicorn’s telekinesis. Beyond all three ponies, I managed to see our own wagon, alight with muzzle flashes showing a strong resistance.

They were okay… I knew my friends were okay… They had to be.

I asserted this with all my heart as I forced myself to move, again and again as I got my forehooves under me, pushing myself up enough to get my back hooves on the ground. The burn tried to get me to back down. But more and more, willpower was taking over, giving me the courage to ignore my wounds, to see, to know, and to fight back. The Talons – they weren’t shooting at me, not to kill. They needed me, wanted me back, and that was why they were here. Raptor had been right about them, about what he said, and I knew it here as I got back up to all fours. But I was so close, my brother – so close, the others… the Talons wouldn’t get any farther.

Stomping my hoof down, I chomped down on my firing bit with one last shiver that reminded me of my injuries. The Talon soldiers were taking it in turns to put fire down on Challenger’s platoon. The city’s two wagons had met them now, the heavy machinegun pounding the barrier to force a great deal of them to stick to their cover. One missile was free too, and I saw it as it raced in for the flak gun itself. But the missile detonated just shy of it, and I saw the rippling barrier of light that revealed itself from the impact. A magic shield, just like in Hopeville, just like in Marefax, something I felt was a common but effective tactic. And above the enemy line, the last vertibuck flew northward, its unguided rocket pods unleashing a short four-shot volley to where Sierra was coming in to assist; the steel-clad pegasus had to tuck in her wings and dive to pass under the projectiles.

My current state would keep me from flying at full effectiveness, and taking to the air would make me a far easier target; I had to hit the infantry, whatever I could hit, and stay on solid ground.

I crouched down low to steady myself, then taking aim and zeroing in on the center of the barrier as our machinegun wagon targeted the left side. Amidst retaliatory fire from Challenger’s own soldiers, there were four Talons that I could see over the barrier, and I sighted in for the one on the far right, an LMG hovering in his grip as he strafed our position. One sharp trigger pull, and my rifles kicked with a hateful roar, voicing against their long period of inactivity. The pair of rounds sent sparks off the barrier, right under my intended target. The stallion backed away a step in response as I settled from the light recoil, and before he could get himself back into positon, I fired again, chasing him back to cover and taking his heavier weapon out of the fight for however brief a time.

I stepped back a pace and turned slightly to adjust my aim left, targeting his companion who was another unicorn buck with a long-barreled repeater rifle. I leveled out quick, focusing and firing one pair of shots that likewise sent the enemy soldier ducking down for cover. And quick as I could, I turned back the way I came when I saw a third farther down the line emerge to take a few shots with his carbine. I was on him in a blink, firing twice more, the second shot scoring a hit on the stallion’s armored shoulder that sent him tumbling back.

With a resounding ‘ping’ Cross’s rifle went empty, and the autoloader kicked in to eject the spent clip and load in new rounds. Thus forced to wait, I backed away and closer to the wagons that were just behind me. But when I did, I was startled out of step as the ground before me exploded at the impact of two high-caliber rounds that kicked dirt up into my face. And as a third and a fourth both sailed by my right side, I planted my hooves into the ground and jumped away, diving left and throwing myself onto my gut.

Then, from my right, I flinched at the very sudden roar that punched through the skirmish, coming from just up ahead. A quick glance there, and I saw that Challenger’s heavy troops were making their move. All eight were standing in a staggered line, and they were all going weapons free. Eight different miniguns unleashed hell together in a violent and awesome display of firepower. The whole of the Talons’ barrier was alight with sparks, and even when one of those armored ponies was hit, they didn’t stray from their attack. I even caught sight of one as he took a twenty millimeter round square in the chest, eliciting a short gasp from me when the pony was knocked wholly off his hooves from what had to have been a crushing impact; but still, after a moment’s daze, he… or she… got right back up, not much worse for wear.

Those armored ponies were like tanks all on their own, each of them, and they were beginning to advance.

I heard the click of my battle rifle’s autoloader as it finished reloading the weapon fresh. Finally ready, I hoisted myself back up to all fours, scanning over the line of heavies with a quick but studious eye. Then I was on the move just as a half dozen allied infantry ran out of cover to advance with their armored comrades. I circled back around, finding the vehicles again and moving as fast as I could toward the closest, the machinegun wagon. And once I drew parallel to it, along with the troopers still taking cover behind it, I faced the enemy line again and took aim, finding a gap between friendlies to fire through. The enemy position was already being hammered mercilessly by the heavy troops and their new backup. But the Talons were still finding room to maneuver across the barrier, and the twenty millimeter was the weapon that was giving them that room. The flak gun was forcing the heavies to break their formation. Two of the troops were even caught by the mobile weapon, and one after the next they were knocked down after a violent blast of sparks erupted from their armor. But they got right back up under fire as the rest of their unit sprinted outward and scattered, an attempt to limit the casualties they’d already taken from the mobile turret. And with it distracted to one side, the barrier that was protecting it was flickering under the constant fire that it was taking from the rest of the unit that was behind cover.

And so I fired on the weakening shield to help, three quick consecutive shots before it was once again engulfed in fire, a missile from the launcher wagon smashing into it. Out of the corner of my eye, just above the fireball left from the warhead’s impact, I caught a glimpse of the Talon vertibuck that remained over the field, leaving a trail of flares behind it just before a missile from the north detonated in the fiery cluster. Back on the barrier, Challenger’s heavy troops were still keeping a constant barrage on the enemy line, and others were taking the advantage they’d been given in their effort. To the north and south, allied infantry was trying to make its way around to establish flanking positions, and they were moving at a quick pace with the opportunity they were given. The Talons were under a relentless assault, the most anypony behind their barrier managing was a reckless blind-firing that proved a valiant but fruitless effort.

I took aim at the barrier, watching for any who’d dare try and emerge to aim their shot. No such pony surfaced under the miniguns that drilled into their position, but I fired instead at a hovering light machinegun that was putting fire down on the troops to the north, the first shot adding to the sparks being thrown off the barrier before the second actually caught the weapon itself, knocking it out of the telekinetic hold of whatever unicorn carried it.

“NOVA! OVER HERE!” Just barely audible over the raging fight, I heard a familiar voice call my name from behind me, belonging to the unicorn stallion in custody of my baby brother. He had circled around and fallen back to the wagons for cover, to protect himself and Blake both. I turned and spotted him just in time to see as he reemerged from behind the launcher wagon; Blake was still there on his back, still unresponsive.

Without a word I wheeled around and ran for cover, three more stray rounds hitting the dirt now at my back as I galloped away. Quickly, the unicorn made enough room for me to squeeze into cover with him and the other soldiers that remained here. “Are you okay?!” I shouted.

“We both are!” came his yelled answer; he and I winced away when the launcher wagon let loose another missile. “I’m going to make a run for the gate, Nova!” he explained quickly, his helmet’s visor already facing the city entrance… so close now… “I need you to cover me so I can get your brother there in one piece!”

He didn’t have to say anything else. With a nod only, I leaned up against the wagon’s hull and stopped at the corner, watching as he drew up beside me, bracing himself for a mad gallop. Then, waiting for a pair of detonations close by to come and go, he gave the word and leapt into a sprint, and I spun out of cover to sight in for the barrier. The heavies were scattered even further as the Talon flak gun put up a bold resistance. With that I saw where two of the steel ponies were struggling back up to their hooves, flanking a large blast crater made from a grenade, and farther out, in a startling turn of events, I found where the infantry to the north and south had been forced to fall back under heavy fire; the Talons were hiding some bigger weapons behind their wall, a last resort.

I immediately found a new target as he emerged from behind the barrier, able to take aim under the cover of the Talons’ ferocious drive. I fired, one pair of shots smashing into the barrier just under the unicorn, and before he could duck, a second pair scored a hit at the base of the neck, sending him down. Then I was after another, his neighbor, an earth pony buck holding a heavy SMG that he fired into the retreating southern squad. One pair of shots, and that SMG went silent as a round struck the frame, knocking the weapon out of his jaws altogether. But I couldn’t fire again, as with another ping, my battle rifle emptied, and I had to return to cover, ducking away just as five rounds hit the wagon’s hull in rapid succession.

Stuck waiting, my attention immediately went to the south, to where my brother had been taken away. I found him, and the soldier who carried him as he was assisted by another Challenger fireteam that was already waiting past the open gate. Words couldn’t describe the relief that washed over me to see as Blake was carried past the wall, the soldier keeping up his gallop as he headed down the dirt clearing; ponies were swarming all over the area.

Blake was safe… safer… now I could focus on helping the others get to the wall.

With a final click, my battle rifle was loaded back up. Up above, the chopping rotors of the vertibuck blazed by overhead, drawing my eyes to the sky just as the craft raced by. Fire from the city wall’s anti-air battery kept right behind it, falling just shy of hitting the target; the pilot behind the wheel of that last vertibuck was a good flier. Back on the ground, the roar of the launcher wagon’s missile brought my attention to where those still remaining behind cover were gathering, exchanging weapons, passing out grenades. I counted six grenade launchers that were being handed up from the now open hatch of the machinegun wagon, too, and even as they were brought forward, other soldiers were heading out of cover and laying down additional fire to back the heavy units still taking the full brunt of the fight.

I followed their example, coming back out into the open and sighting back in on the barrier. The whole line was being suppressed under a constant barrage. Even the flak gun’s bubble shield was wavering, flickering wildly as it struggled to keep up with the beating it took. It was on its last legs, and with that knowing I made it my next target along with several others attacking from all fronts. One, two, the shield disappeared, just for a second, before clawing its way back to life. Three shots, four shots, it faded again, flickering away before a whole line of detonations raked the Talons’ barrier, two exploding in front of it, another three farther back, behind that nearly indestructible wall. Fifth, the energy shield wasn’t there anymore, but still they didn’t reach the gun emplacement, that twenty millimeter still firing in the wake of the relentless onslaught. Sixth, seventh, still they didn’t reach. But then, fire concealed the gun from me when another grenade tore at the earth there, three more following after it in turn. And just a blink later, another missile slashed through the flames and a mighty blast shook the dirt underhoof, kicking up fire and metal into the air, a direct hit on the flak gun! I retreated back behind the wagon, the adrenaline at a peak at the sight of that damned gun’s demise. Challenger was pushing ahead, executing a successful counterattack, and closing in on the barrier and the struggling platoon behind it. Now I had the opportunity I needed to get out of here, escape the fighting and get back to Blake, make sure he was okay. I had let him go just this once to keep his savior protected.

Now I had to get back to him, and quick.

Over the raging gunfire that forced the Talon platoon into cowering away, I heard as a commanding voice led Challenger’s soldiers on, giving them courage to finish the fight that the Talons started, to deliver the final blow. I kept my back to that voice, focusing only on Challenger’s gate, that which had waited in invitation for far too long. I forsook everything else, crouching down and bracing my hooves into the dirt. And with a single powerful leap I launched myself into the open and ran, galloped to the gate with all the strength and speed I could muster.

Then… then I saw green… green light everywhere, painting the dirt and even the dust itself in a brilliant flash. And not even a second later, a tremendous thunderclap erupted behind me, and I was thrown off my hooves as the explosion ripped into my ears, shook my body, sent me tumbling, screaming through the air only for me to come crashing back down. I landed head first, sending a jarring jolt of pain down my neck and along the rest of me before I was sent into a reckless tumble. Again I felt my rifles stabbing into my sides as I rolled over them again and again. And again, I reached out, scrambling for any way to stop myself until finally, after one final flip, I landed belly down. Even in the painful daze, even in the tremendous burn that came from the wounds on my flanks, I managed to get my eyes to open quick thanks to the adrenaline rush that came from my third tumble. But I only beheld a virtual sea of green, green that came from the emerald flames that raged from the twisted wreckage of Challenger’s wagons.

They were gone! Just a second ago, they had been the shields for the platoon. Just a second ago I’d seen them whole… But burning wreckage was all that was left, twisted hunks and bent sheets of metal being eaten away by molten balefire from the spark batteries that had detonated within them. Even as I stared with shock, metal shards rained down all aflame amidst the remains. And through my once again ringing ears, I could hear voices… screaming voices… and I saw a pony as he emerged from the wreckage…… burning alive. And then there was another… and then a third soldier wrapped in green flames as he thrashed on the ground, cooking even as radiation from the explosion tore away at him too. Two uninjured soldiers tried to subdue him, trying to pin him in one place while desperately patting down the flames with their own hooves. Off to the left, the damage continued to spread. A whole line of blast craters had been carved into the ground, five of them side by side. And all around them were bodies, the bodies of Challenger’s soldiers, over a dozen, five of which were the now crumpled forms of the steel-armored heavy troopers.

But in that moment was when I heard something else, something that reached me easily because of the very sudden lack of gunfire. I heard vertibuck rotors, just as I had before. But there was a sound that accompanied it, not the low drone that I heard in the vertibuck engines, but a very high-pitched and piercing whine. It came from above, moving directly over me and heading westward, slowing itself. There was a vertibuck overhead… but its engines were so much louder, far more powerful. My ears picked up the distinction, which drew my focus up to the now smoky sky.

I searched, searched quickly, trying to find out what was going on up there. But directly above me… there was only empty space.

And the Talons’ vertibuck was flying to the north of here… quitting the battlefield altogether as it too left a trail of smoke behind it.

But the sound… that whine… it was so close……

But that’s when I saw something move above. No… not move…… To my left, I caught sight of a disturbance in the air. Something was sparkling there, low over the ground. The very air was shifting, molding, flickering in a wild display like invisible fire. And then, that shimmering sheet of energy begun to ripple back, fading away with a high-pitched piercing magical hum, revealing something hidden within. A long, rounded obsidian metal nose emerged first, under which the six barrels of a large chaingun appeared, a monster of a weapon that was held in a heavy box-like housing that fused it into the hull. Then, the top of the frame arced slightly upward, leading to the long, slanted glass window of what was indisputably a cockpit, and as more of what I came to realize was a vertibuck emerged, I beheld long stub wings mounted into the fuselage just behind the cockpit… where a deadly arsenal came to existence from thin air. There were two more chainguns mounted onto the far ends of the wings, just as large as the nose-mounted one. A rocket pod with at least two dozen slots was fused into each wing beside the enormous miniguns. And next to those, a rounded four-barreled housing lay on each wing, both the home to a quartet of larger missiles. As the weapons of this vertibuck revealed themselves, so did the aircraft’s engine… this one made only of a single rotor unit whose blades spun at a blur above it as the craft settled into a hover. And from thin air, the rest of the aircraft showed itself to me. Just behind the rotor, there was a pair of short but wide tubes that extended from the vertibuck’s back where its form sloped downward into the long tail. I could see the shimmering heat coming from them, which was decorated with a violet light coming from within those tubes… the source of the whine. And then came the rest of it, the tail, a fuselage-mounted triple-fin assembly where, on the central and taller fin, a smaller tail rotor was spinning.

Hovering over the field, revealing itself from its stealth field, was a vertibuck the likes of which I’d never seen before. Those I’d been used to seeing – they were pudgy, bulky in shape. This vessel – its frame was sleek yet still made of strong plate, its black color giving it an intimidating appearance. It was longer than the normal vertibucks, and a little larger all around, the rotors of its main engine longer, yet still it maintained that trim slender frame. And on the right side of the fuselage, just under the cockpit canopy, I saw the trio of white slashes across the black plate that designated its faction of origin. And below that, a scrawled name:

Vulture

The appearance of the vertibuck from its stealth field looked to have won the attention of everypony. I heard not one shot over the whine of the Vulture’s engines. But from where the aircraft hovered, a bright spotlight cut through the smoke, shining down on the wreckage of the wagons before passing along the battlefield, as if it were scanning the area. Then, ringing cracks of gunfire announced themselves from Challenger just a half second before the hull of the Vulture lit up with bright sparks. The aircraft jerked lightly in the air, caught by surprise from the sudden engagement. But then, from the back of the beast, violet fire licked out from the tubes under the rotors, and with shocking speed, the Vulture raced ahead, passing directly over me before arcing away to the north. And as it did, gunfire picked back up, from both the Talons’ side and Challenger’s.

Even after the vicious fighting, the Talons did not retreat. Even as a much-needed batch of reinforcements poured in from the gate, at least two-dozen strong, the Talons did not budge from where their weakened barrier had been established. And all the while, Challenger’s casualties were piling up.

My flank and my back were screaming at me, now that I was aware of the wounds I’d sustained there after recovering from my dizzy spell. The shrapnel I’d taken earlier was digging into me, scraping against flesh even at the slightest movement. It made it almost impossible to rise now… and I… I felt weak. Perhaps it was that it took another good shaking to get me to perceive it… but I felt tired, my body aching all over, begging for an end to being thrown about, to being cut and stabbed and shot. I managed to stagger back to all fours, but not without that painful feeling crushing down on me from all sides, amplified by the adrenaline that clashed head on with the urge to just collapse.

I wobbled on my hooves, tilting before I spread my legs apart to maintain balance. I faced north, towards the burning wagons, the fire within them briefly making me wince away before I squinted to adjust to the light level. The Vulture was there behind the fire, presenting a menacing display as it completed its arc and faced the city head on. And a second later, it was charging forward, the sound of its engines reaching me even over the gunfire just as its two rocket pods flashed with rapid pulses of light. A combination of fear and pain drove me to collapse back onto the ground, and as soon as I hit the dirt, a whole volley of unguided rockets roared by overhead, passing over us completely to enter the city and detonate within. The anti-air inside the city perimeter opened up on it again… only one gun firing to accompany the heavy machineguns by the eastern and western structures outside the city. The Vulture turned away at the same time, tilting over and banking to the right at an alarmingly sharp angle. But as the city’s twenty millimeter gave chase, I found my eyes locked to where the Vulture had once been… as it had flown to the side only to reveal something else in the sky.

Five new contacts, closing in fast. Just ahead of me, I saw that I wasn’t the only one to identify the threat. Those soldiers who remained were calling to one another, some pointing up to where the airborne contacts were coming in to warn the others nearby. But I already knew what they were… and I could feel my quickening heartbeat as I rose slowly back up to all fours. Griffins. I saw their flapping wings. They were in a V formation, just for a couple seconds more before the two on the right side arced out of the shape, diving in for the wagons. And at the same time, the two on the left side broke the formation, adjusting their course straight south and coming in for the soldiers, who were prepping themselves for an intercept.

But my eyes were on the only griffin of the five that stayed his course, pumping his wings in a steady drive right toward me. My heartbeat was racing even faster as I watched him. My body tensed. The pain was still there, still strong, but obsolete as I took hold of my saddle’s firing bit.

Then I spotted a flicker of light from the griffin, one pulse, one muzzle flash. And I was forced back one step as a single round punched into the dirt before my hooves. I rushed into action with instant focus as what was once hesitant thought became fact, rearing up onto my hind hooves to get the angle I needed with my saddle. And before I landed, I fired one shot back at the griffin, a miss that he didn’t even budge from in his straight shot for me. With a ping, my battle rifle once again ran dry, and I felt as both my weapons autoloaders activated to reload. But I moved quick, quicker than ever, with vengeful eagerness propelling me to go for my sidearm. Out came Shimmer’s pistol just as a second round plowed into the dirt just off to my right, a second shot from the incoming enemy. Then I was aiming down my iron sights, and with a heavy kick, the weapon knocked my head back when it belched out one powerful shell. This time, just as he was nearing mere yards from me, the griffin broke from his dive, pumping his wings with a single sharp flap that gave him a burst of speed, and banking right, he raced right by me.

But there was no missing the glint of the pearl-white revolver held in the griffin’s right paw. Blackhawk was here… and that only proved further the real intention behind the Talons’ attack here; they were coming for me, and Blackhawk was here to collect.

I wouldn’t let him have me… not again… NOT AGAIN!!

Executing a tight turn in the air, Blackhawk was coming back around and climbing to regain some lost altitude. I spun around to keep him in front of me, aiming again and trying to anticipate his flight path. And as he straightened out his course, I fired a second shot. This time, he hitched violently in the air, and I nearly shook with anticipation when I witnessed as the fifty caliber round nearly brought him to a complete halt. Miraculously, he kept himself up, the only incentive I needed to recover and fire again. But I was just a second too late, as Blackhawk snapped his great wings shut and dropped right before I pulled the trigger, eliciting a frustrated growl from me as I gave chase behind my sights.

Blackhawk let himself fall all the way down to the ground, fanning his wings back out long enough to pull himself into a hover before landing on his paws. But right when I reacquired him, I was jolted when a round smashed into my left side, the armoring there absorbing it just before a second shot ricocheted off my battle rifle. I stuck out my right foreleg to keep myself upright, keeping my sidearm locked in my jaws as I fought against the force of the shot and turned to find the attacker. And I spotted one of Blackhawk’s griffins just as he flashed by right over me and out of the corner of my sight. As quick as I looked, I ripped myself away to put my attention back ahead of me…

Only for a high-caliber round to drill right into my chest plate.

The armor absorbed the bullet, but the force of the impact knocked the wind out of me, sending me stumbling back. I lost my footing from the hit, and fell flat on my stomach when I slipped, unable to recover. But still I held onto my pistol, fighting every part of my wounded self to force the weapon back up. There, I found Blackhawk in mid-sprint, coming right for me with eyes glaring the hatred of the world. And before I could act, his momentum carried him through the air as he threw himself into a leap, pouncing right for me. Eyes going wide, I threw myself into a roll, dodging away to the left just before the griffin slammed down onto the ground right where I’d been. And hearing his landing, I used my own momentum to complete my first roll, and then come to a stop on my left side, snapping my sidearm to bear against him. And desperately, I chomped down on the firing bit… realizing only a fraction too late that he was already leaping away, and my shot slashed by behind him as he dodged away to safety.

And now, my pistol was empty.

I gasped through the firing bit, a muffled sound. And with that same desperation I reached over to its holster and stuffed it back in. But then, Blackhawk was on me, and bellowing a hateful cry, he smashed into me, his sheer weight and power sending us into a reckless tumble across the dirt. All I saw in that moment was a blur, but I sure felt as I rolled over him, then under, and then over again and then back under. We came to a halt all at once, and as soon as the spinning stopped, I was face to face with that ragged scar, Blackhawk’s glaring eyes. He was already raising a paw up to strike, but I lashed out in swift retaliation, catching his opposite foreleg with a punch that got him to drop his paw away to balance himself. And then, one more hit, and he fell over me and onto his side, giving me the time I needed to roll away and put precious distance between us.

We both pushed ourselves up in unison, my own glare of vengeance locked to his, following his every move. But even then I wasn’t prepared for when he threw himself back for me, quickly closing the gap I’d made. And I only managed to back up a step before he used his momentum to swing his right forepaw and strike me full in the face. I only barely kept myself from toppling over as my jaw exploded with pain, stomping my right forehoof into the dirt to stop my fall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blackhawk recover from his punch and reach for me again, his paw open wide to try and grab me. But I moved quick, reversing my own momentum and swinging back to knock his paw aside with my right front hoof. And when I landed again, I carried the rest of my body in the same direction to follow through with the maneuver, bracing myself with my front hooves, lifting my back legs off the ground and tucking them in as I turned, and then bucking out. I caught him right across the face with that kick, delivering enough of a hit to daze the griffin.

When I landed on all fours, I about-faced and went straight for my battle saddle’s firing bit. But just as I took hold, he was after me, and he caught me with another punch, this one sending me reeling as I fired an involuntary shot that missed entirely. I went down, landing with a pained grunt on my right side. Before I even came to a full rest, Blackhawk had made his way to me, giving chase. And just when I came to a stop, he punched down right on my ribs just below my battle rifle. I jerked hard from the hit, crying out as I fought to get out from under him. In doing so I managed to get onto my back, finding his clenched fist as it came back down. This time I got my forelegs up to intercept the swing, and they took the full brunt and consequent sting of the attack. That was what I needed, and as he reared back for another hit, I managed to pull my hind legs back again, and buck out to catch him in the lower gut. He jerked from the hit, pulled from his focus to cancel his next punch. But when I brought my own hoof back to throw a punch, his paw shot out to intercept me, grabbing my foreleg in mid-swing. And immediately I was overpowered as he slammed my foreleg back down onto the ground, and a moment later, his other paw came down on me again, knocking my head to the left with another wicked punch. That punch amplified the burn in my jaw tenfold, and with that, I recognized the movement of blood from the corner of my mouth. But before I could get my bearings back, Blackhawk’s paw came down on me again, and this time, it closed down around my neck, crushing down and instantly forcing me to gag.

Then, I was dragged, dragged and then lifted, and thrown bodily to the side as Blackhawk bellowed a fearsome cry, and I was sent skidding across the dirt, grinding to a halt on my stomach as my perception was left in a state of painful dizziness. In a rush, the air left my lungs as I snapped my eyes back open. And fighting to erase the blur in my eyes, I scrambled to get myself back up before Blackhawk could charge me again. But halfway up, and I collapsed back to the ground as a shock of alarm raced through me, an instant piercing roar that ripped violently into my ears.

I was drawn to that sound, coming from above… and I found it instantly – the Vulture, bathed in light and fire. In unison, the miniguns mounted on its stub wings and its nose-mounted chaingun were firing down, the latter sending down a barrage of bright red lasers, all creating one continuous devastating attack. And it was strafing what was left of Challenger’s line, sweeping through the debris of the wagons and carving its way forward and to where the new reinforcements had begun lining themselves up, already close to beating down what was left of the Talons’ own infantry. But all they could do was look up before the Vulture bore down on them with all its fury. One by one, those Challenger soldiers who had emerged into the open were swallowed up, and all I saw was the explosion of crimson light, Challenger ponies being mercilessly mowed down before the rolling dust concealed them from me.

I couldn’t even hear myself cry out when I managed to. I could only watch as what had just moments ago been a fresh batch of reinforcements scattered away in whatever direction they thought of first as the Vulture rained fire down on their position.

Through that deafening buzzing roar, I was able to hear the report of other weapons still fighting in the battle. From the city, the anti-air battery had come fully back online, yet still was, for some reason, not targeting the Vulture… just like the machineguns at the barns and farmhouse; it was those griffins… it had to be!

Just to my right, the report of two carbine shots drew my focus back towards the green flames left behind by the wagon. There was a single Challenger unicorn that stumbled into my view, coming to a stop as he quickly ejected an empty clip from his bolt-action rifle. He was speaking, shouting, glancing to me as he retrieved a fresh clip from his combat armor, trying to call for my attention. Then his head snapped back as a far more prominent gunshot pierced my straining ears, and I flinched with a gasp as he took a round right between the eyes, toppling back to the ground as his rifle fell useless beside him.

I threw myself back into focus, reaching once more for my saddle’s firing bit as I spun right and reacquired Blackhawk. His revolver was held in his right paw, and I found him just as he was turning it toward me, coming on target right when he put me in his own crosshairs. I chomped down, his weapon fired with mine. I didn’t see if I had hit, but I sure felt as his shot hit me. Another round plowed into my battered chest plate, caving in the armoring of my left shoulder. And immediately after, I was shoved again as my already burning left flank took another hit. Once again, the armor held its own against the shot, but the second hit took away all the fight I had to try and keep myself up, and with the force behind the second shot, I collapsed down onto my haunches, only catching myself with my forelegs to keep myself partly standing. Having held on to the firing bit along the way, I fired a second shot I had not intended, which kicked the bit out of my mouth to give me the opportunity to utter a pained, tired gasp. But that’s when I heard it – a new silence interrupted only by the city’s remaining anti-air; the Vulture’s tremendous storm had ended.

But then something hit me with a sharp sting, and I snapped my hoof up to it instantly with a startled yelp. There was a sudden biting pain right in the base of my neck, not a bullet wound… but I froze as my searching hoof came across something… something that wasn’t there before. In my haste, my hoof slid across the culprit and knocked it free, where it landed right in front of me.

A dart… a… dart……

“Oh Goddesses…” My blood flash-froze at the sight of that little black plastic projectile and the needle that made its nose. “No... no…” But already, my voice was slurring, just slightly. And my heartbeat… it quickened in fright only to begin to slow back down in but a second. Even as fresh gunfire came to life from Challenger’s gate… I felt… so tired. Even as the memory of the night of my capture by the Talons came rushing back,, I could only get myself to turn around before my legs refused to pull me any farther. I was running… but only in mind. My fear told me to run, my will told me to run… and I tried… but I couldn’t move… couldn’t obey.

At Challenger’s gate, another platoon was coming out … and to my shock, I saw something rolling into the fight behind the infantry that rushed out into the field, putting down a volley onto the Talon line. It was… it was a vehicle… and I recognized its shape… its weapon platform and its midnight blue color. It was Lil’ Luna rolling in, accompanied by four soldiers garbed in black combat armor, and the vehicle crossed the threshold of the gate as its launcher turret came around and pointed skyward in a single quick motion, locking on to the biggest aerial threat in the field.

That beast was my salvation… but it was already out of my reach.

With a final futile effort to try and run, I fell forward as my legs gave out under me, and I landed on my gut, hitting the ground hard. The battle was picking up again… but I was… just so tired. Even fear and adrenaline both yielded to the very same poison that had captured me the first time. And the last thing I saw as my eyelids begun to slide shut, was Lil’ Luna as the mighty fighting vehicle came to a stop. And soundless, its turret launched a blazing blue fireball from one of the eighteen glowing mortar tubes, a fast projectile that raced out of view as soon as it had come. And then came a second, then a third right after it, and a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth one right after the next as the vehicle unleashed a mighty barrage of energy missiles upon what I could only assume to be the Vulture itself. The brilliant flashes of sapphire were the last thing to fade away as my eyes finally closed, my body losing the fight against the tranquilizer.

And right there on the battlefield, I fell into sleep… bested yet again by my archenemy.

*** *** ***

Noise… silence… if the two of them could ever mix, this was the moment where they did. I heard the whine and the slicing rotors of the Vulture’s engines, the thunder of its miniguns… the roar of balefire from Challenger’s obliterated wagons… all of them like a scene that had been stopped right in the middle of its existence, paused by some supernatural force to finally pick up where it had left off. But all of it overlapped a heavy silence that I could sense at the same time, silence that promptly took over, eradicating all that sound that had come to me… except for that of the outside world.

I was awake… awareness coming with shocking rapidity.

I had jolted from my slumber, though my eyes remained closed. My eyelids felt so heavy, my body achy and worn. But that didn’t stop me from being flung into a coughing fit, a series of heavy racking coughs that did the work for me in getting me to move. Through this I found out that I had been laying on my right side. And after the first four, after which I had to take in a ragged breath, I rolled over onto my stomach and brought my right front hoof up to my muzzle as I let loose another set.

That’s when I felt something press against my back, patting me twice.

I flinched away at the touch as fear took the stage with greedy expectance. Like the sounds I’d heard, the memory of that fight at Challenger’s gate came rushing in like the tide in my sea of thought. And immediately I raced to the conclusion of the worst possible outcome. But as I passed through yet four more coughs, I finally, finally got my eyes to open up. Light poured in, a yellow-orange that forced me to wince away as I choked back another cough. But my eyes adjusted rather quickly, the blur that greeted me dissolving away into a clearer picture. It was a picture of browns and yellows, of whites and blacks…

Not of greys…

“Easy now, Nova. Easy now.”

I dared to hope as my vision begun to settle back to its normal self, revealing to me a line of hospital beds along the opposite wall; each and every one of them was occupied by an unknown face. But the voice – it was a stallion’s, sounding aged… and distinct… not unknown. And with a quick glance to my right, I found the one who spoke those assurances to me, the one who patted my back again when I found him. A bronze-colored stallion, his mane and tail a clean white, wearing a look of concern, yet chancing a small smile as he finally met me eye to eye. “You took a bit of a beating out there, and your wounds are still healing up. It ain’t a race to get back on your hooves.”

“Doc?...” I couldn’t find it in myself to believe what I was seeing and hearing. I had to turn away and blink, shutting my eyes tight and opening them with caution… only to see the same thing, the same stallion who I swore, in that moment, that I recognized. “… Doc Miles?”

And the older stallion gave a single nod. “Welcome back to Challenger, Nova.”

Challenger…

My eyes fell away from him to stare at the wall behind him. In the ensuing pause, my head fell back to a pillow that I only now realized had been given to me, and a light sigh escaped me, a tiny note that carried with it a nearly staggering wave of relief. I’d made it to the city. Somehow, someway, I’d made it… But the thing about it – I couldn’t remember any fine details. For just a few seconds I recollected what I did know – the Talons had revealed some sort of vehicle… a modified vertibuck they named the Vulture… and it had outmatched a whole platoon on its own. Blackhawk… yes, he’d been there… He came after me. There were no words this time. He swooped in and attacked without the slightest pause as the Vulture and the griffins who’d followed him in dove into the fight against everypony else that was backing me… Thinking on it now, I had a strong feeling that it was Blackhawk’s griffins that kept the anti-air from fighting the Vulture… maybe even keeping Sierra out of the fight, too. But even before all that… I did remember being shot down… and I could feel where bandages had been applied to a good chunk of my flanks and lower back. But I’d been shot out of the air… not because of the wounds I’d taken when we’d first came under attack by the cloaked legionnaires… but because I’d been weighed down…… by Blake…

“Blake…” It came as an alarming surprise to me that it took me so long to remember why I had clawed my way to this city, why I had fought so desperately and suffered the pain I did… left my friends behind… It was so much a shock that upon reaching that realization, I snapped upright in my bed so fast that my wounds burned white hot all at once as they were ripped away from the sleep that was the mending process, eliciting a sharp grunt from me and stopping me just as I got my forehooves planted on the cot.

“Hey! Careful now…” Miles chided. In one swift move he set his hoof down between my shoulder blades and pressed, gently, but firm enough to try and keep me from making any further disturbance to my wounded body.

I couldn’t keep myself from hissing in the wake of the painful aftershock my new battle scars so generously granted to me. But even as I fought to keep my breathing under control in the lingering burn, I forced my attention back on the doctor, who was already anticipating that. And with a final pant, I managed to rasp out my baby brother’s name again. “Where is he?” The doctor leaned slightly back as my eyes bored into his, demanding his response as I took in another short breath. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine.”

Miles’ assurance… it came immediately, two words that froze me in my tracks. Only until he repeated himself did the spell finally break on me… where I gathered the courage to instead ask, “He’s alive?”

And the doctor nodded, another little smile slowly returning to him. “He pulled through.”

He… he survived. “He made it.”

“Yes, he did. He’s a tough kid.” the doctor replied, lifting his hoof away from me and setting it back on the floor, drawing my wandering attention back to him. “That shrapnel he took cut deep, clipped the upper ribs and put a chip in his shoulder.” I couldn’t keep myself from suppressing a wince, my lips pursuing and my eyes reflecting my anxiety. “On top of that he lost a lot of blood… and I dare say that if he hadn’t been brought to me when he did… well… we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

I nodded slowly… shuddering lightly at those last words. “W-where is he now?”

“The folks you came in with were taken to where the rest of your group made camp in the city.” Miles answered, nodding to his right to show the general direction of where. “Challenger’s got an unfortunate lack of living space for the refugees coming in from outside, so your friends were forced to set up on the lawn of the Presidential Palace. Your little brother’s recovering there right now.”

That was all I needed to hear for me to let out a sigh, one expressing the incomparable relief I felt at having that weight lifted from my shoulders. And with that terrific news, I finally felt relaxed enough to set my head back down on my provided pillow, allowing myself for just a second to take in how comfortable the lump of polyester was. “So everypony’s there?” I asked after a pause, during which time Miles moved away and off to a small metal table at the center of the clinic. Two opened first aid boxes were there, along with a flattened down duffle bag, empty. Assorted tools were scattered around them, those I could see being a pair of scalpels and tweezers, a belt of syringes, and some kind of surgical saw, all clean. “Did you see my friends as well?”

The bronze unicorn’s horn flickered to life, heralding the hollow jingling of his medical supplies as he begun to put them back in their boxes. “Yes I did. I had to treat three of them upon their arrival.”

The comfort of my pillow was short-lived as I brought my head back up again, carefully. “Who?” I asked, my former worry trickling back to life. “Are they okay?”

“I’m glad to say that there were no casualties in your group.” Miles assured me that as he closed up one of the boxes. But after that, the pale light surrounding his horn dimmed away into nothing… and he looked over his shoulder back to me. “But a few of them left the fight with some pretty bad injuries…” My silence was his cue to continue. “One of your companions… name of Gunny, was one of them. A pony in your group said that a rocket went off right in his face. He took a lot of burns and a whole mess of cuts and tears because of it. A couple healing potions were able to heal the physical damage, but I’m afraid that he’s lost most if not all his hearing in his left ear.”

Goddesses…

“There was another pony who suffered similar injuries, probably for the same reason.” Doc Miles continued. “Madeline was her name. She had to get her head wrapped up in healing bandages to repair the damage that’d been done to her face and neck. I would imagine she and Gunny were caught by the same blast.” But then, he turned fully around, facing me directly with a face written by sympathy. “Then there was one other.”

Three severe injuries… all in our small group… “Who?”

“One stallion – Shore.”

Oh no……

“According to your leader, the Talons’ modified vertibuck put them in its crosshairs just before it fled the field from that vehicle your group came in with. It hit your wagon and clipped one of its pullers in the process.” Beyond my power to control, my ears begun to flatten as the doctor spoke with an unsettling slowness. “Shore came to me with a mangled right foreleg… The round that got him was a thirty millimeter from the vertibuck’s chainguns…” And he stopped here at seeing me, an already sensitive frown deepening; there was no way he couldn’t have seen how I was beginning to shake. “I’m sorry, Nova… but we had to remove the limb to save him. The round shattered the bone, and the limb itself was only hanging on by a few strands of flesh that hadn’t been severed by the shell. If the bone had stayed intact, a super-strength potion might have been enough to put the leg back together… But in his case, it was enough to mend the wound after amputation and keep him from bleeding out.”

That was it… I needed to get out of this bed.

“I need to see them, doc.”

I forced my forehooves under me and pushed, bringing myself up quick. And though I caught out of the corner of my eye as Miles took an instinctive step towards me, I was glad to see no sign that he intended to intervene. And it stayed that way as I got my hindlegs working, finally getting myself back onto all fours despite the protests of my healing injuries. Their agitated voices got me to pass a look over my shoulder to see the extent of the damage I’d sustained. My right flank had been covered by one large medical pad, made of thinner but what had to have been absorbent fabric. There were two splotches of red against the otherwise clean white color, a rounder mark farther back, and a thinner, longer mark closer to the lower spine. “You took some shrapnel as well.” Miles explained as I studied over the scars left behind. “That, and you were also hit with an incendiary round, burns after causing the initial wound.”

Yeah… I remembered that…

“Then there was one other piece of shrapnel that you were hit by, caused a puncture and grazed the bone there on your lower back.” Miles added in conclusion, drawing my attention to the narrower healing bandage draped along my spine close to my hips; there was drying blood there, too. “So long as you’re careful when you move, you should be fully healed within the next day or so.”

Without a word, I dismissed my own wounds as I focused on getting myself off the bed. The steep ledge didn’t deter me from springing off, but when I did, I wasn’t prepared to catch my full weight on weakened legs, and with a startled gasp I nearly carried myself into the neighboring bed and the sleeping stallion that occupied it. “Whoa!” But then my momentum froze all together, and I saw the familiar light of telekinesis as it materialized right across my chest like a small net, keeping me just inches from the bedframe before I was hoisted up properly onto my hooves. “I told you, you have to be careful.”

When I turned, I saw the older stallion as the glow from his horn faded away, letting me go as he gave me a small scowl. “Sorry…” I spoke after a breath.

“Doctor Miles.”

But just when he opened his mouth to make his own reply, another stallion’s voice made his response for him, forcing him to take his words back and instead look for the entrance. And when I followed him, I saw a stallion standing in the doorway bridging the clinic to the lobby. He wore a dark green duster overtop a black armored vest. What parts of him weren’t covered by what was clearly a military uniform showed a pale white coat and a dark brown mane and tail. The earth pony looking to the doctor was big, defined, and sturdily built, with visible muscle definition. And he wore a serious face, and I felt that it was more a natural look for him than just because of the situation. But what caught my eye was the glint of light that came from his shoulders, where the candlelight of the clinic reflected off two silver badges, each shaped like a small five-pointed leaf.

“Lieutenant Colonel.” Miles greeted, dipping his head to the big stallion.

“I see Nova’s up now.” the visitor observed, his brown eyes swinging over to me; I didn’t speak up to reply.

“She’s made a good recovery, and quickly, too.” Miles said, nodding my way. “I was hoping that the next time she and I crossed paths would’ve been in better circumstances.” And I saw as he cracked just a little smile of comfort. “But I’m glad she’s awake either way.”

“So am I, doc.” came the officer’s response. “I’ve had run-ins with her friends before. They’re good ponies, and that means she is too.” I looked back to the LC to see a similar smile on his face. But me… I didn’t share the smile they did, not in the least. Because his words brought with them a rather alarming prick into my conscience. “And speaking of that,” I nearly gasped when he spoke up again. He couldn’t have missed how I jolted, a slight but still visible motion. He had spoken up at the exact perfect moment, making me believe just for a second that he actually knew what I feared he did – Guardian. “one of those friends is here with me and wants to see you.”

But all of that, mercifully, was pushed away when he stepped back and to the side, and an equally large unicorn stallion came trotting in, brick-red coat, ash-grey mane, armor, weapons… all of him still in one piece. “Gunny…” I hobbled toward him, passing the doctor by as he made room for me to get through. But I only hobbled a few steps before Gunny reached me, hooking one powerful foreleg over my neck and pulling me in against him with ease. With his own strength keeping me balanced, I was free to sling both my forelegs around him and melt into his hold, and I gladly took advantage of that, pulling him in as tight as my recovering body would let me.

“Hey, Nova.” came his very comforting greeting. “It’s good to see you on your hooves again.”

I couldn’t keep back a sigh at those words. “Goddesses, I’m so glad to see you.” And I nuzzled into his mane to emphasize my point, squeezing around his neck just a little tighter. “I was so worried when I left the wagon with Blake. I didn’t want to go… but Blake was… he just…”

But I was interrupted when Gunny gave me a solid but harmless push in his embrace, still keeping me locked to him. “Hey, now’s not the time to be playing any kind of blame game, Nova.” came his chiding response. “You did what you had to do to save him, and because of you he’s still kicking.”

I nodded against his neck. “Yeah…”

“And in the end, we all made it here alive.” he quickly added. “Maybe not fully intact, but we still made it.” Which… despite how much I didn’t want to ask, brought a question to the forefront of my thoughts.

“Gunny… is it true about Shore?”

My friend’s hoof begun to slide off me, my cue to do the same. And together, we backed up just a pace so that we could see each other eye to eye. Though Miles’ word was really enough to have put that question to rest… there was a part of me in my recovering state that wanted to hear the opposite. It was… foolish to think otherwise, to believe that Miles was just lying. But there was still that small part of me that just wanted to hear that it really was a lie. But Gunny’s sigh dashed that foolhardy hope. “I’d assumed the doctor would’ve told you.”

“He… he did…” The uncomfortable pause that followed was enough to make me turn away from him, back to my hospital bed and where the doctor watched silently from his place beside his medical table. “Is Shore okay at least?”

“Miles and the nurse he’s got at our camp have done everything they can for him.” Gunny replied. “He’s stable, resting… yeah, he’ll be okay, all things considered. But when he’s able to start focusing on moving around again, he’s going to have to get something to replace that missing leg… a pair of crutches… something. And he’ll have to learn how to walk again once that gets fixed…”

Goddesses, Shore…

“We need to go see him.” My eyes flicked to the exit, where the Lieutenant Colonel still waited within the lobby. “I want to see him, Gunny.”

And my friend promptly nodded. “I came here to bring you back to our group, whether you were still knocked out or not.” he asserted, pausing to look back to the doctor where he remained watching. “Doc. Is it alright for Nova to head out?”

When I found the older stallion, I could see the glint of hesitation in his eyes. There was good reason for that, of course. My wounds were still in the middle of healing, and I could feel that with every step I took. They might have been closed up, or at least mostly so, but I could still feel the burn in each of them, especially where that incendiary round had got me. But the doctor… something in his thoughts got him to close his eyes, to think… and reluctantly give Gunny a nod. “Well… I don’t want to give off the impression that I’m kicking Nova out. But the truth is,” And he turned to me again. “you ain’t exactly my worst patient in terms of wear, and I could use the bed to get somepony else off the dirt and onto something comfortable where they can rest properly.” he explained, his voice emphasizing the tentative emotion first shown in his stare. “So, as long as you take it easy for the next day or so, then you’ll be able to make a proper recovery. I would advise plenty of sleep and plenty of food and water, coupled with very limited physical activity. Those bandages will keep working their magic on you for a good few hours yet, and so long as you don’t disturb them, then you’ll be fixed up in no time.”

Good… “Thank you.” I said, gratefully giving my healer a bow. “I know this is the second time you’ve fixed me up… but I’ll do my best not to make it a habit of taking up one of your hospital beds, especially when there are wounded soldiers out there who need it more than I do.”

“Now, don’t go worrying about that.” Miles assured, with a little smile that proved to be rather contagious. “Healing ponies is what I do best, and I’ll fix up any friend of Challenger any time.”

Yes. I felt he definitely would.

“Thanks again, doc.” Gunny piped up, my friend already half turned around in preparation to leave. “Thanks for patching Nova up… and me, and the others. Shore and Madeline are both alive because of you.”

“Ah, don’t mention it. It’s what I’m here for.”

With that, Gunny gave me a little nudge with his forehoof before he headed back the way he had come. And with a swirling mixture of emotions underneath the lingering fatigue of my recovering body, I followed after him to where the Lieutenant Colonel was still standing by. He made way for Gunny immediately, backing up a step to give him room to cross, and me in turn. We passed him by without a word, but it was when Gunny came upon the clinic exit that he stopped and looked over his shoulder, giving a nod to the stallion now behind us. “Nova, this is Lieutenant Colonel Ajax.” he explained as I looked back to Challenger’s officer. “He’s been periodically visiting us ever since we arrived, talking with Saber and Mobley.”

I managed to give the big earth pony a little courteous smile. “Hello, sir.”

“It’s good to finally meet you in person.” came his response. “And it’s good to see you on the mend.”

“Hm…” His greeting was pleasant and welcoming, something I found myself appreciating seeing as how it was coming from a commander of Challenger’s armed forces. However, his last sentence quickly spawned curiosity, and I had to cock an eyebrow as I asked him, “How long was I out for, sir?”

But instead of an answer, he raised a foreleg to point a hoof to the exit. “I’ll answer as many questions as I can on the way to the Presidential Palace.” he responded, Gunny pulling open the metal door with his telekinesis. “Follow me.”

After letting the Lieutenant Colonel through, Gunny held the door and motioned for me to go first. And taking his offer, I followed Ajax back outside… and into a young night. The sun had fully set on the southeast, and now what light was given to Challenger was provided by candles on window sills and hanging lanterns on spaced posts lining the dirt road. Both glowed with a surprising power, arranged in such a fashion so that their auras of radiance connected to one another, keeping darkness at bay for those who still walked the city streets.

Things were quiet as I stopped outside to wait for Gunny, a stark contrast from my last memory of this city, or even my more pleasant memories of the time before when I’d first stepped hoof beyond its gates with Lucky Hallion and Marian. There was not a soul on the clinic’s street, giving out that impression of emptiness. And yet, I could pick up voices in the distance, a small group of ponies on the move to the east as they traversed one of the streets behind the line of houses in front of me.

In truth, it was plainly clear why this home of thousands was so quiet. I could feel the air of tension that drifted over it, a stifling blanket of alertness and anticipation. Challenger was locked down tight, bracing for another attack, though not knowing when. This was proven further by the sight of a turret on the rooftop of the building parallel to the clinic, a stationary twenty millimeter flak gun with its long slender barrel jutting skyward. There was an earth pony gunner that I could see perched on the seat behind the trigger, and there was a unicorn with him that was looking through a pair of binoculars, watching the northern sky.

“Let’s go, Nova.” With a gentle nudge, Gunny got my focus back onto walking, and I gave a single nod before following him north down the road. The Lieutenant Colonel was just a few paces ahead, leading us towards a large enclosure surrounded by five-story scrap metal buildings. The array of stalls, booths, and canvas tents there that I first laid eyes on told me that this was some kind of market square; everything was boarded up now… and not just due to the hour of night.

“To answer your question, Nova,” From the lane bridging the clinic to the market we passed through an open metal gate. Here, Ajax waited for us to draw beside him before he began walking again; his eyes were on the road as he spoke to me. “You were only out for about four hours.” he said. “According to Miles, the Talons hit you with some kind of poison. He’d seen it before from the northland tribals who live in this region, Plainwell folk largely. It’s crafted from native plants in The Halo, not strong enough to be lethal, but enough to leave somepony knocked out for days. Thankfully he had an antidote for it, which is why you were able to wake up after just a couple hours.” Well, that explained something at least, insignificant as it was at this point. “Now, as I promised, I’m willing to answer some questions for you if you have them.” he added quickly after. “Is there anything else on your mind?”

What wasn’t on my mind? So far, what I’d seen of Challenger was intact, looking just as I’d seen it before. But I remembered Mobley’s transmission when we’d returned to the radio station from One Eighty-one. Challenger had been hit hard, so had Ashton. And there were ponies I knew here, good ponies, who suffered from Guardian’s day of terror. I wanted to ask how the city was fairing in the aftermath, hear for myself the opinion of one of the city commanders because of its great weight. I wanted to ask if he’d heard anything from Shotshell, Bella, and Lucan, or from Auburn or even Silverlight herself. I wanted to ask about Proudspire, about Kayla and Redfield, Ironhoof, Rocky and Flare. That urge was so great… but the fear of the consequence was greater. Any of those questions – they’d surely raise inquiries of his own… Anything that could possibly trace back to those cruise missiles… in my unease, I couldn’t see any option that wouldn’t reveal my involvement. I knew all about Guardian, what the Talons did and how they made me bring those missiles down on the southeast. If Ajax knew…… it’d put me and everypony I knew in danger of being exiled from Challenger… the last safe haven of the whole southeast.

I could think of the opposite, of a better outcome… but I couldn’t keep my fear down… couldn’t take the chance of Ajax knowing… right?

“You said in the clinic that you met our group before, right?” For now, I managed to take a different road entirely, evading that fear instead of facing it. “How are they doing?”

“They’re settled in as comfortably as can be managed.” Ajax answered as we came upon an open gate at the opposite end of the market. “Your group’s one of the biggest we’ve managed to get into the city, and with just over a hundred of them altogether, we had to give them the Presidential Palace lawn. I’m afraid it’s the best we could manage.”

Which was perfectly fine, the same way I felt the first time I’d heard that. “Are they okay?”

“Oh yes.” I was glad for the instant assurance. “Same as you, they came under attack when they arrived at the gate. With such a larger group it was hard to keep them protected, but we managed, thanks largely to the flak gun you brought and that IFV. That sucker really brought the pain, and I’m glad it’s here on our side.”

“So am I.” Gunny chimed.

“All in all, there are some injured folk recovering from their own encounter with the Talons.” Ajax summarized as we crossed the gate. “You can thank Vinnie and the good folks of Rio for the lack of casualties.”

“Good… good…” I was unable to keep myself from huffing out a thankful sigh; hearing that from anypony else other than the LC, and there would have definitely been some doubts left behind.

We were now making our way down a broad road, flanked on either side by two lines of five-story residences. Spaced loosely among the open windowsills were the occasional flickering candles, adding to the light cast by the spaced out lanterns that had been placed on the ground along the lane. “I’ve got to wonder though…” Ajax spoke up. “The force that came after your group was largely infantry with just a couple vertibucks for protection. So why did they come after your group with so much more… and that modified vertibuck of theirs?”

A cold wave shot through me at that question. My eyes went to Gunny for help… but I stopped myself at a sidelong glance… and I could see as Gunny shook his head ever-so-slightly. “I don’t really know, sir.” I managed to reply, having to swallow beforehand, choking down the truth to replace it with a white lie. “It’s not the first time they’ve come after me and my friends… but I have yet to figure out why.”

“That right?” Ajax asked, more curious than anything.

And I nodded glumly. “Way I figured, they came after anypony and everypony equally. Coming to Challenger… it just kind of proves that’s not entirely accurate.”

“Well… I’m sorry to hear that, Nova.” His sympathy was… actually genuine… making me feel all the more guilty about having to force out that little trivial fib. “Sounds like the Legion’s got a beef of some kind with you, and you’ve got yourself one with them. I’d say that’s a good thing, but I’d also imagine that what led up to that rivalry was anything but good.”

Well… that was indeed true. “I lost a friend to them when they attacked Hopeville, killed by a member of the Legion that I know by name.” I explained, intentionally brief.

“We both did.” came Gunny’s addition, to which I nodded my agreement.

“I see.” Ajax replied with a solemn nod of his own. “I know what that’s like, having something taken from you. Lot of ponies here do.”

“No matter how many ponies know, no matter how many times… doesn’t mean it don’t hurt.” Gunny retorted.

“I know, son. I know.”

More and more I was finding myself eager to change the subject. And I didn’t hesitate to jump on the opportunity the proceeding silence offered. “When we were on our way over here, one of our ponies left us a radio transmission to point us in the right direction. Maybe you remember Mobley?” When I turned, the Lieutenant Colonel confirmed. “He told us in that message that Challenger ended up getting hit by those cruise missiles same as we did… So how is Challenger fairing in the aftermath?”

From him came a hum of thought, seeming to toss the question around a bit. But when he responded, he met me with eyes of intent. “Well… since you’re asking that, I suppose I won’t beat around the bush anymore.” he said, causing my ears to twitch. “I’ll admit, ever since your group’s arrival I’ve been meaning to get an audience with you, Nova.”

“Really?” I asked, a little uncertainly; I barely kept a stutter out of my voice. “Why did you want to see me?”

“To put it simply, I’ve heard a lot about you.” came his explanation as he faced the road again. “I first heard about you from chatter among my battalion. Later on, General Silverlight herself made mention of her brief encounters with you, both when you showed up to Challenger and when you were sent to the clinic.”

“She told you?”

“Yes. And I saw for myself how grateful she was for your involvement in Plainwell, despite the fact that you didn’t have to put yourself at risk the way you did.” the LC answered. “Shotshell’s a good stallion, good soldier. But more than that, you brought home that colt Lucan, and you damn near gave your life on multiple occasions to do so.” So they still remembered… Goddesses, if General Silverlight herself found out about me and Guardian… “My point is that you’ve got a good reputation here. Word about Plainwell moved quick, about how you helped get Shotshell and Plainwell’s survivors out of that town and gave them the chance to make the run back to home turf. Citizens know your name, know you for more than just being a pegasus in a land of unicorns and earth ponies. And like I said, you even won Silverlight’s gratitude by doing what you did.” We were coming up to the end of the lane leading out of the market square. Our northbound course shifted west as the Lieutenant Colonel turned us left at a T-intersection. There was one street heading further north just a couple yards ahead, but Ajax kept us moving onward away from it. In the gap made by that road however, I swore I could see the top of our destination when I cast a glance past him, sitting perfectly black against the night sky, almost hidden away.

“So… no disrespect, sir, but what are you getting at with all of this?” I inquired as we passed the street by.

“You asked how Challenger was doing.” he replied; his voice betrayed the answer I feared even without his intention. “My response to that is that Challenger needs your help again… direly… and I want to ask you for that help.”

It was all I could do to keep from wincing, from shying back. I did look away from the Lieutenant Colonel, putting the dirt underhoof in my vision. But once again, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gunny looking my way, maintaining his silence. And when he saw that he had caught my attention, he once again gave a little shake of his head, forcing me to keep quiet… telling me through the silence to lock the memory of Guardian away… bury the key and then build a house on top of it. It felt so, so wrong to do such a thing… I hated myself for it, for not being able to speak it… But that fear… it was a constant reminder of Buckley, our exile from a growing shelter where friendship had been birthed from suspicion, something truly special coming from something so ordinary out here. It had been a real sanctuary for me and for my friends. But this time, the location was a refuge not just for me and my circle, but for all of our survivors that were left. One wrong move, one wrong word that revealed what happened, and it would be all of our ponies that paid the price.

“What’s the situation outside, sir?” Gunny suddenly asked, breaking the silence for me before it could become too weighty; I looked back to Ajax to maintain my role of cluelessness…

“To put it in the simplest terms, it’s bad out there… real bad. And there’s just no other way to put it.” came his answer. “Things were rough enough before those cruise missiles came down. We’d been fighting the Black Blood tooth and nail outside Ashton for weeks before, and despite their reckless tactics, they’ve got the numbers to make them formidable. But when those missiles hit, they hit us everywhere, pulling us in five different directions at once. Here in Challenger we ended up on the receiving end of ten of those missiles… lost just over a hundred from the barrage, and ended up losing a warehouse and a few houses.”

A hundred… another hundred to my name…… “I’m… sorry, sir.” I spoke, low, with an unexpected rasp that forced me to clear my throat after.

“Well, what good can be gleaned from this is that our anti-air kept the damage down.” I almost didn’t hear as the LC continued his answer to the unpleasant question of Gunny’s making. “Without that flak gun battery we have, it would’ve been far worse than it turned out… And really, in my opinion, that battery we’ve got is the only thing keeping us in this fight, especially with the air force the Legion has.” We were coming up onto a second four-way intersection now. This time, Ajax had us turn right onto a new road as he said, “After those missiles we did our damnedest to pull ourselves back together. But that was the hardest to do in Ashton and The Warpath, because all that got hit, too. And we didn’t have the defenses there that we do here.” Oh how I didn’t want to hear this… “The reports that came back said that our forces stationed there were driven back from the heart of the town that we’d been holding for the past month and change. The same went for the Black Blood. We were both hit equally, and once the damage was done, the Talons rushed in and pushed us both out.” Gunny and I both let him continue even after he let himself pause. “I guess the Black Blood made a quicker recovery than we did, because it wasn’t long after that when they made a new push of their own. We ended up losing ground on two fronts in that town in the same day… and as it sits now, we’re close to losing the whole damn place. Both the raiders and the Legion have set up command centers beyond Ashton’s borders, and now they’re dug in good, trying to kill each other as often as they’re trying to kill us. The Talons have an army of a couple thousand stationed there, and the Black Blood’s got even more thanks to some recruiting they’ve been doing. We’ve had confirmed sightings of Marefax raiders fighting with them… and that lot’s made of nothing but the nastiest psychopaths you’ll ever find on this fucked up earth.”

“Oh great…” I mumbled darkly, a flash of my own encounters with those ponies making me close my eyes and sigh.

“At least they turned their attention to one another.” Gunny remarked after.

“That did give us the time we needed to regroup our forces and make a new camp to keep our operation in Ashton running.” Ajax responded. “And while that was happening there, we were rushing to organize ourselves here to start checking the other settlements. Talon patrols and vertibuck wings were springing up all over after those missiles, swarming in all at once. And eventually, they were becoming so numerous that the President gave the order to find what survivors we could and bring them back behind the walls to keep them safe before that chance was lost to us. That’s what I’ve been in charge of ever since we reorganized after the missiles, and I’m glad to say that with you and the rest of your ponies from Hopeville coming in, my mission’s been accomplished.” That at least was a bit of good news. “So right now, the situation here in Challenger is stable at least. We’ve managed to evacuate the settlements and bring what survivors there were into Challenger. With their lives and the lives of our own citizens on the line, the city’s on a permanent lockdown. Nopony leaves except military personnel.” I nodded my understanding. “Challenger is still functional, still capable of defending itself. But Ashton is different story. We’re barely hanging onto that town now… and if we lose it, Challenger itself will become the frontline, which is something we have to avoid at all costs… lest we risk losing the war itself…” Then, out of the corner of my eye, I found Ajax as he turned my way once again, looking to meet me eye to eye. And despite my racing thoughts, the depression and the anxiety that had been building up layer after layer over the course of our debriefing, I managed to return that look, waiting for his next words. “This is why I wanted to have this time to speak with you, Nova. I want to ask you for your help… to enlist in the S.E.R.A.F.”

If I had been more focused on taking in the information I’d been given instead of letting my guilt take me for yet another joyride, I had a feeling I would have figured out his intentions rather quickly. As it was now, Ajax’s hope for me caught me a little by surprise. So suddenly? So soon after waking? And… why put faith in me that I’d be even remotely close to soldier material? But only a second later, and I found myself taking those questions back in a moment of clarity, and I pursed my lips together at the obvious reasoning behind his request. Simply speaking, it was all about having soldiers. He was outnumbered, outgunned, needed more ponies loyal to their struggle to survive in the face of an enemy that was approaching a near overwhelming power, which was definitely exemplified with the terrible turn of events in The Warpath.

And more specifically in my case, it was all about the wings.

At first, it was almost an immediate answer that I conveyed. Perhaps it was a remnant of that old original determination I had in my first days on the surface, back when I was first introduced to the unending struggle that was survival. The further along surface life took me, the more that single focus had been torn down and rebuilt to encompass new purposes. So perhaps it was the original shape of that sentiment speaking then… and really, I did want to follow Challenger’s call to arms, carried on this stallion’s voice. After all, from this cry for help came a chance at atonement, to try and fix the damage I’d done, even if in the smallest of ways, by putting my life on the line for the city I’d brought new suffering to. In truth, that was the least I could do. But on the other hoof… the voice of uncertainty fought against that with a warning – a warning that I could cause even more harm than good to an already wounded community… again. Somehow, someway, it could happen, even though I couldn’t see it… and that feeling just wouldn’t go away.

But despite the internal clash, I could focus enough to turn my attention back to the waiting officer. And I started off small as that skirmish went on, taking the chance to gain a little more information from this figurehead of the city’s war efforts. “S.E.R.A.F.?” I questioned, genuinely curious as to the acronym’s full definition.

“Southeast Regional Armed Forces.” Memory kicked in at the explanation as I ran through a quick flashback, back to when we had been holed up in that old radio station. There had been a scout from Challenger who met us there, bringing in Vinnie and Lil’ Luna… and I’d seen the abbreviation on his uniform in the form of a patch spelling out that abbreviation in white letters against a black backdrop. “Jocko. Yes, I remember.” Ajax replied when I made that known to him. “It’s not a name we had ten years ago when the Talons came knocking the first time. But now that patch is stitched onto every suit of combat armor, and every soldier we’ve got, native and foreign, wears it proudly.”

I gave a small nod as my internal struggle had been decided. And after a short pause, “So you want me to enlist in Challenger’s army, and join into your battalion?”

“Absolutely.” Ajax looked to ease up a little as hearing that he had gotten my interest. “I would hope that the reasons for my request to you were obvious, and given your reputation, I’d say they are. But I still can’t state enough just how highly prized you’d be in Ashton.” Those were words that I had anticipated, though ones that I most certainly wasn’t annoyed by. It was just the cold hard truth that my wings were indeed my greatest asset, and would be once again if I took this chance. “And actually, I’ve already given your friend Sierra the same talk I’m giving to you.” he added. “I’m glad to say that she’s willing to lend her wings to the cause, and Gunny here has already expressed his own interest in enlisting despite his recent injury… Now, I’m just hoping that you’ll lend your guns, too. Because I could really use somepony like you before we send out the Fourth Battalion to Ashton.”

I nodded in reply, seeing behind him as we passed through an open gate; we were entering what I remembered to be the city’s presidential district. “You’re right, sir. I do know why you want me to sign on. And if we’re truly on the same page, then I can also say to you that I understand what Challenger has given to me, what it’s given my people. The efforts of a city that cares about others has given us all a second chance in a world that would’ve kept that from us… and I’m so truly grateful, even after everything that’s happened.” His face remained unmoving, but the way he was looking at me as we walked… I knew I was saying what he wanted to hear from me. “You might say that I don’t owe Challenger anything, that it was simply fulfilling its mission to establish civilization. But Challenger helped us build a new home after we lost our old one, and took us in even when it was occupied with trying to contain the Black Blood threat.” The Lieutenant Colonel… I saw the beginnings of a smile on his muzzle. “We may have had to fight battles on our own, but it’s still the same in the end. What help we were given kept us going… and what better way to repay that gift, that compassion, than to help protect Challenger?”

Right at the end, Ajax slowed in his stride, coming to a stop a few paces behind me before I did the same, taken a little off-guard. But it was when both Gunny and I turned to face him that the officer uttered a chuckle, his eyes locked on me. “Has anypony in your group ever told you that you have a way with words, Nova?”

“I… um…” And I…… Goddessess… for the first time in… a long time… I actually found myself blushing, just a little, but enough. And when that coupled with a shy little smile, I found Gunny as he cast a soft little laugh of his own, a genuine note that was… rather refreshing to hear. “Yeah… a couple times.” I replied, slowly but surely composing myself again. “I’m sorry, I just get a little carried away sometimes… I guess.”

But Ajax didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. “So, is it safe for me to say that you’ve given me a definite yes?”

But to that question, I begun to settle back into my previous state, during which I replied with, “It’s a definite maybe, sir… There’s still some things I need to think over… and I really want to get back to the others… I just hope that’s not a problem if I wait just a little bit longer to answer.”

But thankfully, Ajax’s confirmation of the opposite was near instantaneous. “I understand, Nova, don’t worry.” he assured. “It was my intention to give you some time to recover on your own, I know you need a day to yourself after what you’ve been through. I’m just glad that you heard me out about what’s going on out there, and are at least considering my request. I’ve got nothing to offer you for your service, nothing material anyway. But I can offer the chance at the better future that you, your group, and all the southeast so rightfully deserve. And again, I really cannot overstate how useful you’d be to Challenger out there, and how much of a contribution you’d make to the effort to win peace back from the enemy.”

“That peace is the thing that’s worth fighting for, because in that is everything else that we hold close to ourselves.” I replied, keeping my own smile to show my understanding. “But with all due respect, sir… just give me a day to think.” I requested after, speaking with as humble a gesture as I could. “Once I get my bearings, I promise I’ll come back to you with a final answer.”

And to that he nodded. “Alright. Then that’s enough for me.” But in the moment where I thought we were done, he raised a foreleg up to jab a hoof my way. “Just understand, Nova…” The sudden darkening of his words won my attention back in a heartbeat. “If we’re going to have any chance at regaining the ground we’ve lost, we’re going to have to use everything we’ve got, and we’re going to have to use it soon.” he said, almost like a warning. “I’ll give you your day. Use it to rest up. Tomorrow evening, I want that answer. Because, I’ll let you in on a little something – Challenger is making a move to regroup and launch a counteroffensive against enemy posts near the city, and that’s my new mission. We’re stocking up here, on gear and personnel alike, gathering all our resources, and we’re going to clear ourselves a path to Ashton so that we can deliver the last batch of much-needed reinforcements we’ve got to that city… with or without you.”

Well… I guess that explained yet another reason for the quiet, yet deeply tense atmosphere that hovered over Challenger. But really, this was something that was easily understandable, even without knowing for myself the fine details of the situation outside. That was why it was all I needed to hear to understand the gravity of Ajax’s words. And when I relayed that to him, he at least looked content. “Then head on back to your group.” came his order, an order with an air of encouragement about it. “Gunny can lead you the rest of the way there. It’s not far.”

Yes… I needed to be back. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow, sir?”

And as he put his back to us, he gave me a single nod, not even looking my way as he made his way back into the city. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Nova.”

*** *** ***

“Nova… Goddesses, it’s good to see you.”

The relief in her voice was plain as day as she trotted up to me, swiftly hooking a foreleg over my neck to pull me into a solid hug. “Hey, Ivy.” I replied tiredly, still more than happy to return the embrace she gave. “Nice to see you’ve made a good recovery.”

The silver unicorn was bereft of armor and weapons. Apart from the cumulative dirt and dust that marked her, she looked wholly uninjured now. “I should say the same thing about you.” she replied, breaking the embrace to take a step back and look me in the eye. “I saw glimpses of you throughout the fight from the wagon… when you were shot down, when you were with Challenger’s soldiers… and when that griffin came for you. After that though, I didn’t see you again until we got into the city. And by then you were being shipped off to the clinic… You really didn’t look good… but thankfully that’s not the case now.”

With that last bit came a welcoming smile, a pleasant sight that drew a smaller one from me. And reaching forward, I bumped a forehoof against the young mare’s chest, right before she took a step to the side, allowing room for another friend to make his way to me. He was garbed in his Equestrian Army combat armor and duster, but his weapons had been stowed away somewhere in the camp. “Raemor…” This time, I was the one who acted first, closing the distance to the old unicorn and hugging him tight.

“Welcome back, Nova.” he said, gently patting my back between above the bandages.

“Are you okay, Raemor?”

“Oh yes, I’m fine.” he assured. “No need to worry about this old bag of bones.”

I nodded against him. “That’s good to hear.”

“And how are you faring?” he asked after a short pause.

“Much better.” When we released one another, he looked past me and to my bandages, studying them briefly. “Especially knowing that all of you made it through.”

“Not without some scars, I’m afraid.” came Raemor’s response, sympathetic in its note. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now?”

That grim, solemn atmosphere returned lightning fast, reminding me all too harshly of the situation we faced here. “Yeah… I heard.”

“About the wagon, too?”

But at that, my ears perked, my eyes beginning to widen when I looked past Raemor to the pony who spoke that question. Sierra was there, stripped of her power armor, standing at a respectful distance from myself and the others. She too bore sensitive eyes when I found her, which followed me when I passed my first look over our camp in the lawn of Challenger’s Presidential Palace. Completely lacking organization, the camp itself spanned maybe just over half the yard. It was clear that Mobley had tried to take up as little space as possible, maybe to make a good impression on Ajax and the rest of the city… or perhaps because he was ordered to do so. Either way, we were using the lawn’s north fence as our barrier, then fanning out to the east and west fences before taking up a stretch of the lawn itself. We were as far from the palace itself as possible, which was undamaged despite the missiles; there was a gun turret atop the palace, a mounted minigun like the ones I’d seen in Buckley. But back on the ground, our survivors were established in small clusters, family and friends taking up a small plot of the yard as their own, with rifles and saddlebags scattered among them, their meager few belongings they had left. They were all established in their own circles, like little clans, with small but adequate lanes for travel between them.

But all there was were ponies… just ponies…

“Where is it?” When I looked back to Sierra, the pegasus only shook her head, slight, but packing the punch that came with the only answer that gesture could mean; something had gone wrong. “What happened?” I asked, my ears beginning to pin back as I begun looking among each of my gathered companions in search of an answer. “What the hell happened??”

“When that supped-up vertibuck of theirs showed up, it made a pass over us.” Gunny explained, drawing my eyes over my shoulder to see him. “When it hit us, it blew out one of the wagon’s wheels and put a bunch of holes through the hull… We had no choice but to leave it behind.” From the very first words onward, I felt myself sagging. Even a short sigh escaped me, to which Gunny’s frown deepened.

“It wasn’t destroyed.” Sierra piped up, picking up where Gunny had left off. “But we wouldn’t have been able to pull it no matter how hard we tried.”

I had to sigh again, a channel for a quickly building tide of anger and frustration, bowing my head and shaking it. “Where is it?” I asked lowly… already anticipating the answer with the help of that welling aggravation. “Still out there?”

“Yes…”

“It’s just sitting there, about fifty yards from the gate.” Gunny explained to me, stepping up beside me. “We would’ve gotten it once the fight was over. But the Talons are using it as a lure. We can’t get close to it without them taking shots at us. And believe me we’ve tried…”

“They even fought Challenger’s wall patrols over it after the initial fight to get into the city. Now it’s just a part of the battlefield out there.” Raemor suddenly added, my eyes turning to the old stallion as he himself looked over to Gunny. “Both sides will take the chance to use it as a lure if their enemies approach it.”

So now… after everything we had done to reach this point, after reliving Stable 181’s death, after losing seven more survivors… seven more friends… all to get our prized possession of knowledge and history to safe haven in Challenger…… this was the only thing that had come of it all. Now, the very thing that we had fought and bled and died for in an attempt to gain something good amidst all the bad, the one thing that we had faced down our nightmares for, fought and killed good ponies for… the one remaining beautiful remnant from our previous life… it was nothing more than a lure, a trap… just waiting for somepony foolish enough to come and claim it. It was just dead weight laying in a battlefield. It was just… dead weight…

“Damn it…” Shaking my head again, those two words came out more as a sad little whimper, a mere shell of the hatred that was burning brighter and brighter in me, hatred of the Legion. Had it not been for the simple fact that I was in the presence of not only my friends, but also all the other survivors we had left, many of whom were already fast asleep, I would’ve let that anger come out. I would’ve screamed and stomped, cursed and vowed bloodshed for how useless all our efforts over the past five days had suddenly become. We had spent all that time trying to bring something back that would give our ponies hope. But now we had nothing with us, and what we would have had was just out of our reach, yet impossible to grasp. That was more than worthy of the rage that wanted to lash out from within my heart.

I truly did want to let it all out… but really… there were far more important things to devote my attention to. What was done was done. We failed… the Talons won, even if just a small and seemingly insignificant victory… and as bitter as that was to think of, as much as I hated myself for simply surrendering like that… there was no getting around the painful fact that it was beyond our power to remedy… at least for now. And with me being as tired as I was, having just recovered from yet another collection of wounds to add to my ever-growing list… any outcry would have been absolutely pointless. Instead, in the ensuing silence, I managed to collect my thoughts enough to remember what, or who, was actually more important to me. And when I felt that I’d successfully calmed my rage enough to be civil again, I looked among my gathered friends to make one simple demand. “Blake… and Shore… I want to see them.” I said. “Where are they?”

Gunny was the one who nudged me in answer, then nodding when he had my attention. He moved on ahead of me and past the first of our resting survivors, making his way into the crowd. I followed after him in silence, and I heard the hoofsteps of the others as they filed in behind me. Consequently, I had the time to look about as Gunny guided us through the camp, even though a part of me didn’t want to… the ashamed part of me. Still, I found my eyes wandering left and right, glancing over those we passed by. Sure enough the greater majority of our survivors were at rest, either sleeping, or simply closing their eyes, trying their best to recuperate from the tiring and dangerous journey that was made to get here; there was barely any chatter at all among these weary ponies… not even whispers.

The farther in we walked, slowly closing in on the northern fence of the palace, the more I begun to recognize familiar faces. The first among them was one of the young ponies I used to foalsit back in One Eighty-one – little Flash, the yellow earth pony colt with the black mane and tail. He was at rest with his family, snuggled up tight between his sleeping mother and father. And after passing by another cluster of survivors, I spotted Juniper, the filly who had lost her father in the Talons’ first attack on Hopeville, sleeping deep with her widowed mother. There was a measure of comfort I took in at seeing the children, which thankfully wasn’t wholly vaporized by the pain of remorse. Of course, that pain took the opportunity to remind me that these were the faces of those closest to me who suffered greatly because of my actions… my choice at the National Guard Bunkers. I made note of it, again. And I knew I wouldn’t forget it. But right now… I was just too tired. Even having been at rest in Doc Miles’ clinic… my body and mind alike had been growing wearier and wearier ever since I’d come to.

Further into the camp Gunny led us. But he was turning us to the west fence now as we were coming closer to the far corner of the yard. As soon as we settled on a straight course, I saw other ponies I recognized. Little Chase was asleep against his mother’s side, with two sleeping unicorn stallions neighboring them farther back, bolt action rifles laying close by. Just past them was Melody, her mother curled up protectively around her, and her father in turn providing his side for his wife to sleep against. And in the group next to them I recognized Candice, the little grey unicorn filly with the scarlet mane, protected between her mother and father. In the course of a minute, I found those young friends of mine one after another, those children who I had taken care of in their parents’ absence, played tag and hide and seek with, read books with, sang songs with… back in a time when I was just an innocent young mare who never once thought about becoming a gun-toting combat-ready survivor… or in Challenger and Lieutenant Colonel Ajax’s eyes, a genuine soldier of the organized army of a rising nation.

In that short time I spent looking upon them again for the first time in days… even weeks… my mind threatened to wander again… to think about how they looked at me now. Really… how did they look at me now? Was I still the foalsitter I once was? Was I still that compassionate soul that they looked up to? Was I that awesome foalsitter they loved to hang out with? Or was I… different… intimidating? With all the dirt and blood and weaponry… how had I changed in their eyes even before now? At the very least, they knew about Guardian… all of Hopeville did, I was sure of it. When I came back from Buckley, how could anypony not have overheard the dialogue that had ensued upon my return? How could word not have spread around, especially in a smaller group like ours? So if those foals did know… what did they think of me knowing that I’d pressed that button?

I would’ve gone on. I know I would’ve… maybe to the point of excessiveness. After all, my mind was the greatest slayer of the timid image of self-worth I had left. But before I could tread too far, all of it, mercifully, faded back into the sea of thought they had come from when Gunny slowed to a stop before me, looking back over his shoulder and giving a nod ahead of him. Past him, beyond one other family of survivors, a mare and stallion and their two young colts, I found the first of the two ponies I was actually looking for.

My heart collapsed in on itself in an instant at seeing the sight of Shore, his collective equipment laying near his head, as he lay sleeping on his left side…… his right foreleg completely gone. All that was left of the limb was a stump wrapped up thickly with bandages. “Goddesses, Shore…” His name came out as a whimper as I choked back a sob. And right away I made my way past Gunny to get to my wounded friend. In taking the lead, I could see that Shore was indeed asleep. But the expression on his face showed the pain he still endured, and his sleep was tainted by that anguish. And on top of that already terrible wound, his remaining foreleg was bandaged also, wrapped up at the top to conceal the gunshot wound he’d taken there. So focused was I on coming to his side that I didn’t even notice the two ponies with him until I was almost stepping on them. I came to a stop at the sight of the older unicorn mare that was Shore’s mother. A dark-grey mare, she had a lightly disheveled mane of white and red, just like her son’s. And beside her was a black earth pony stallion with a white mane and tail of his own. The both of them were wide awake, only watching as their child tried his best to rest.

Shore was laying against his mother’s right side. And with a gentle touch, she was running a hoof along his mane as she looked upon her now crippled son with deeply pained, saddened eyes. Behind her, Shore’s father only looked on, resting a foreleg over his wife’s back, doing his best to comfort her through the pain of seeing their only child in such an undeserved state. The two of them didn’t even notice me when I had joined them. Even a pause followed after which left me standing in a second layer of anxiety. But a moment after, and Shore’s father let himself look away long enough to find me. And he was strong enough to pass me just the smallest of smiles. “Hey there, Nova.” he greeted, a rasp in his voice that he quickly cleared out. “You feeling okay?” But his question, as brave as it was… it went unanswered. I just couldn’t find the strength within myself to speak, and it made me feel all the worse when he caught onto that as well, a small frown taking shape on his muzzle as we turned our eyes together back to Shore. In the silence that followed, I heard the hooves of my friends as they pressed lightly on the dirt underneath them; they one and all formed up behind me, spreading out, each of them looking over their maimed friend and his struggling family.

“When he was a colt… this always made him sleepy.” The silence was broken by Shore’s mother, however, her voice a very gentle, very motherly tone… one that, for a brief moment, reminded me of my own mother… “If he ever had a nightmare, I would come and sit by his bedside and run my hoof through his mane until he fell back to sleep.” When I looked back to the grey unicorn, I found her looking lovingly to her recovering son. I could see the makings of a smile on her face, reminiscent. But it didn’t take much to understand that it was hard for her to maintain in the wake of this heartbreak.

“I’m so sorry…”

What else could I say about all this? In all the battles my friends and I had been involved in, none of them had yielded to us a graver injury than this. Short of Gracie, this was the worst to witness, especially knowing the consequences that Shore would have to endure. He would be forever changed by this… he’d never walk without a support of some kind, he’d never fight like he used to, he would be slow and weakened, vulnerable… and with our wagon sitting broken down and abandoned outside Challenger’s walls… he’d suffered all this pain for nothing. My dear friend – he’d been put through all this with nothing to show for it in the end, no books, no treasures, no gratitude… and that was the most infuriating part of it all.

So… what else could I possibly say to the ones dearest to him, the ones who shared his misery as equals? There was nothing else… Shore had survived, but barely. He’d lost a leg today… all because of the Talons and their race to get their claws back around me. Now, Shore was among those who had been hurt because of me and my involvement with the Legion. And it wasn’t my fault… I understood that here at least. No. The Talons had done this to him… almost taken him from me just as they had taken Grace… and once again, fuel was added to that eternal flame that was my hatred of that banner and the ponies and griffins beneath it…

“At least you and Gunny are recovering.” I was startled back into looking to Shore’s mother as she once again met my eyes with her pale hazel ones. And with a small labored smile, she added, “When Shore wakes up, he’ll be glad to see that you two are alright.”

And for the sake of the courtesy, I nodded agreement to the older mare. “I think… I think it’d be best for me to leave you all to your rest.” I replied after a moment, already glancing past them, trying to find my brother. “I’ll make sure to come back tomorrow when he wakes up though.” I made sure to give that assurance quickly, both because I really wanted to see him when he could actually talk back to me, and because I wanted to be as civil as my exhausted and racing mind would let me. But still, despite the effort, Shore’s parents could see where my focus really rested. I had no doubt that they’d heard of Blake’s brush with death, too… judging by the condolences spoken in their eyes as they both spared a second to look away from their son and over to me together. “I really do want to see him awake… for the sake of hearing his voice, you know?”

“We do know, dear.” Shore’s mother replied with a nod. “You said the same thing Gunny did while you had been away in the clinic. The both of you have always been his greatest friends.”

“We’re glad for the support you’re giving him.” Shore’s father chimed in after. “It helps us rest a little easier knowing he’s got good friends who care about him.” And stopping himself, he let his eyes wander to look past me, back to the others who watched and waited in respectful silence. “Good friends from within One Eighty-one… and from outside.” he added, with just the faintest of smiles returning to him.

And with all the strength I could muster, I let myself copy that little smile, nodding my agreement, sharing in silence the gratitude I held for the fellowship of ponies behind me.

“You should go on and see your little brother, Nova.” Shore’s mother spoke up a moment later. “And you should get some sleep yourself. I know you definitely could use some proper rest, and now that we’re behind this city’s walls, you’ll actually have the chance to do just that.”

Oh, I had every intention of doing so. And with that silent vow I found Gunny again, who was already looking my way, anticipating the question I asked him. “Where’s Blake?”

“He’s right over here. Follow me.” With a nod, he walked past me, exchanging one final dip of his head with Shore’s parents as he moved along, and I did the same before following after him and moving farther into camp. But the walk was very short, as no more than a few seconds passed us by before Gunny stopped and pointed, showing me the rest of the way to my brother, my dear Blake.

The colt was resting in a clearing that had been made for him, or rather, for the both of us. There was more than enough space for me to lay down too, and I found that the north perimeter of that clearing was marked by my collective equipment. My M.P.D. armor was laid out plate by plate, the chest, belly, and back plates laying atop one another, followed by the side guards and flank plates, and finally the leg guards. Beside the armor, I was pleased to find Blue Fire’s Torch where it lay over my saddle weapons and two pistols. I remembered losing that rifle out in the fight… and having grown more and more attached to the elegant rifle, I knew that deep down, its loss would have added a great deal of its own weight to the emotional burden I already carried.

I didn’t know who the one responsible for its recovery was, but I hoped that they’d come forward to tell me themselves.

Finally, off to Blake’s left side, there were my saddlebags, the two packs set apart and both opened up. I could see that while they had indeed been opened, most of the items within them had remained undisturbed. I could see where the frame of a pipbuck pressed against the right-side bag, and I could see the shapes of my various scavenged items showing through the collapsed left-side pack. An item that had been removed, however, was the blanket that Blake and I had kept with us all this time. My baby brother was asleep atop that blanket, to keep his bandages off the dirt in case he turned in his sleep. As of now, Blake’s back was to us, giving me full view of the healing bandages that had been wrapped wholly around his torso. From just behind his forelegs all the way to his hindlegs, his whole torso was mummified with those bandages, all rising and falling together in time with his slow but even breaths…… it was something I never wanted to see… and something that made me sigh when I did.

“We’ll leave you to your rest now, Nova.” On my back I felt the tap of a hoof, belonging to Gunny when I turned to see him lowering a foreleg back to the dirt. “Try and get some sleep, you really do need it.” came his gentle encouragement.

“Blake made it through his wound.” From the other side, Ivy was the one who chimed in with her own words of inspiration. “He’s alive… and so for right now, that should be all the incentive you need to rest up best you can.”

And truly, I felt the same way.

I didn’t waste time with any argument, only giving my friends a parting nod to bid them goodnight. And taking them back the way they came, Gunny led the others out, leaving me only to find Blake again where he slept. Thankfully, at first glance, he looked at peace. There was no discomfort written on his face in the wake of his recovery, which was all the more heartening as I made my way over to him. And upon finally drawing up beside him, looking down to his closed eyes, I could see that he was indeed comfortable, or as comfortable as he could be. To see him in peaceful sleep… I considered that a blessing all on its own.

With a little sigh I let myself stretch out before carefully lowering myself down onto my gut, settling on the blanket with a near soundless thump. Still, despite my quiet approach, my baby brother stirred, making me freeze to watch him. Both nervousness and curiosity tugged at me as he pushed himself up a little, eyes still closed. I watched to make sure he didn’t hurt himself… and I waited to see if he’d actually wake up. But the young colt – he’d been put through so much today – he merely settled back down on his right side, a light breath carrying just a whisper of his tired voice reaching me before he went still again, back into slumber.

I could only watch on in the wake of his stirring… seeing Shore’s parents just beyond him…… feeling more and more like my friend’s mother with each passing second in Blake’s company.

“She’s right…” I spoke to myself only in a whisper as I begun to situate myself, rolling over onto my left side to face my brother. “Ivy’s right… You’re alive, little brother…… you made it…… you stared death down and won… and in the end that’s… all that really matters.” And sliding in close to him, brushing up against him, I gladly extended my left wing to rest it over him with the lightest touch, this time eliciting no reaction from the sleeping colt. For just a moment, that drew a little smile from me as I held that gentle embrace, one that we were both so familiar with. Seeing him relaxed like this… it was becoming something rare nowadays, slowly but surely. But seeing him that way under my wing, it made me feel… right… made me feel a little bit better.

And finally coming to rest in my most comfortable sleeping position, I found myself face to face with my baby brother when I lay my head down on the blanket, his closed eyes meeting mine… expression peaceful… inspiration for me to try and follow Blake’s example. And after a short silent yawn, I took just a moment to reach my right foreleg over to him, finding his mane with it, and giving the back of his neck a gentle stroke. “You rest up, baby brother.” I spoke in a whisper, pulling my foreleg back, but keeping my wing outstretched overtop him. “I’ll be right here when you wake up… I promise.”

*** *** ***

Chapter 24: Storm Front (Part 2)

There it was…

Staring back at me…

Pleading… begging for rescue…

So close… so far…

In the golden evening sunlight I sat atop Challenger’s battlements, perched just beside the north gate. Breaks in the cloud curtain allowed orange-yellow light to coat the city and even spots of the dusty fields beyond in a rare display of color. I had glimpsed to the glorious spectacle, seeing where the sun itself had become visible as it drew ever closer to the west, where patches and gashes of blue had been sewn into the dreary grey. It didn’t take long for one of those holes to be covered back up as the clouds constantly churned and shifted, expanding their puffy shapes. But as quick as they’d be covered, others would appear, keeping the sun on display for us mere mortals that lived below it. Of course, in any other circumstance, I’d have spent the rest of my day simply laying back and admiring that battle of nature versus nature, sky and sun versus wind and cloud. It would have been a terrific method of recovery for me and Blake, and maybe even Shore too… just resting, watching, together with all of our friends… it would’ve been perfect.

But as it stood now… past miseries drained all the wonder from this wasteland sunset as I studied over the battlefield outside Challenger’s gate… and the battered wagon that lay at its heart. Out there in the dust, not even a five seconds’ flight away, our wagon and all it held rested in its new home among dead ponies, S.E.R.A.F. and Legion alike. Sure enough, as Gunny had explained the previous night, the wagon had indeed lost a wheel, or at least a sizeable chunk of one. The Talons’ new vertibuck, Vulture, had definitely strafed it, as even from the watchtower I could see the large holes that had been punched into the hull along the roof, left behind by the heavy caliber of that aircraft’s miniguns. But the fatal blow had been dealt when the Vulture had ripped off the bottom chunk of the front right wheel. A good third of the wheel had been separated from the rest of it, and now lay on the ground. The wagon itself had tilted because of the precious but front-heavy cargo, not capsizing, but now setting down on what was left of that mangled wheel while its wholly intact rear left tire was lifted off the ground entirely.

And all around that precious vehicle were the scars that had been left behind from yesterday’s fight to the city. To the west of the gate was the wreckage of the Talons’ line that had been established to keep us from escaping to Challenger. There were a whole host of corpses out there, still garbed in their black combat armor, their weapons laying close by, their barrier broken and scattered, and their flak gun that had provided close fire support nothing but a heap of metal, twisted and burned. And to the east, I saw the remaining wreckage of Challenger’s two combat wagons, both destroyed by the Vulture. They left great black scorch marks on the already dead earth, and because of the blast from their destroyed spark batteries, the both of them had been reduced down to their mangled frames. And surrounding them… bodies of Challenger’s soldiers who had come to my defense. There was just as much carnage left behind on their side as the Talons’, but even more so as I followed the trail of bodies out toward the center of the battlefield, flanking the killbox from the north and south.

It was all a very painful reminder of what had been done… and what was just out of my reach…

I had been up here for what must’ve been a good hour or so by now, coming in after spending a good deal of the day with my friends and family. I had managed a good amount of sleep, despite waking up on three different occasions. In all of those moments, neither Blake nor Shore had stirred, and I had only woken to a silent camp… and an unnervingly quiet city. Despite the unease I had felt in all three cases at that silence, and despite the weight of my past, I had been able to rest up until midmorning. It was when I had woken then that I had finally been able to reunite with my baby brother, to speak to him again, and him to me, for the both of us to voice our relief at the other’s survival of that battle outside the city. His day had been marked with frequent naps, perfectly understandable. Even if for an hour at a time, Blake regularly rested his head again, once commenting how much better he slept knowing that I was right there with him. And I had always been more than happy to shelter him beneath my wing, as always.

When awake, we took time to walk together, moving about the camp after a small meal or brief dialogue, paying visits to all of Stable 181’s foals, Blake’s group of friends. All of them had been more than happy to see him back up on his hooves, and some were even curious about his injury. My baby brother, however, had not been in the mood to discuss it with them… and the more motherly side of me caught on in a blink that he remembered that moment when he’d been hit, that moment when his life had once again been put on the brink. It was scary for him, especially since it was the first mortal injury he had ever sustained, and he made that known to those friends of his who inquired.

I was grateful for how understanding they were when he shied away from discussing it.

In the time I’d spent with him, from the morning up to this moment, I felt that all in all, Blake was quickly settling back into his normal self, making a good, swift recovery. Shore however……

Shore was struggling through the day. As soon as I had woken and gotten myself moving, he had finally come to. Needless to say, we all rallied to him when word got to us. But unfortunately, our time with him consisted by and large of watching as Doc Miles’ assistant, a young unicorn mare, checked up on his injuries. Four times that nurse came by today, monitoring our friend’s recovery, taking notes, bringing food and water for him. Her checkups almost wholly prevented us from having any extended conversations, because he only stayed awake long enough to see them through before he fell back to rest. But at the very least, we were each able to share a moment with him to catch up, speak our assurances that we were all okay, as well as our hopes for his recovery. He was glad to see all of us, even Sierra, our newest companion, and it was all he needed – to see us – to rest far more comfortably… or so he assured, anyway.

There was no doubt in my mind that Shore wouldn’t be moving again for a good long while. And though he never said it aloud, something told me that he really hated being incapacitated the way he was. Unable to move, to follow us and stay in the group…… I had a nagging feeling that it would build up quickly to something very frustrating, and would eventually prove difficult to deal with. I know that I wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to deal with it. If I’d lost a leg… or worse, a wing… I hadn’t the slightest idea how I’d even begin to cope. But still, his parents were there by his side, both of them still wide awake despite the limited sleep they’d gotten the night before. And I had taken up that same habit out of instinct, of worry for my dear friend. Whenever Shore actually did wake, I was there in a heartbeat, ready to help, ready to listen, ready to just be there for him, and catch a little dialogue in the process, remarks about the city, comments on the emerging sunlight, wishes about being back in Hopeville again…

Between Blake and Shore, I had found all the reasons I needed to stay at camp and continue to relax my mind and body best I could. Now, for the first time this day, I gave myself some alone time so that I could think… think on the past… and the present moment. There was a question that needed answering about the latter today… and only I could answer.

I did answer.

I extended my wings and gave them a little flap, stretching them out as I finally took my eyes off our derelict wagon. Out to the east, it was all quiet, no movement. But I knew they were out there… the Talons… watching and waiting, perhaps circling Challenger with the help of their stealthbucks that they seemed to adore so much. Despite the calm landscape, I had no doubt that things were not as they seemed out there. And Challenger’s leadership knew it too. Ajax’s lockdown was tight and strictly enforced. In my time up here on the wall, I’d not seen a single soul exit the city, and the dozen guards at the gate were still as statues, ever watchful for anypony entering the area, warning away those few civilians who did.

The scene outside, all around, was perhaps the final factor in my decision to that question I’d been given last night. The land – so quiet… the way it should be… but wasn’t. And this city… so quiet… the way it shouldn’t be.

I raised my right foreleg, looking down…

My pipbuck… finally back where it belonged, clasped around my leg firmly yet comfortably. It’s monitor was alive and humming, currently showing me my radio screen, playing the static that still buzzed in a gently grating drone from the radio station that broadcasted to me - Radio Signal Bravo Delta Channel Fifteen Thirty… It was Buckley, trying to speak. I didn’t know it for sure… still had a gut feeling that told me so.

But that radio station, not as important as the pipbuck itself. Because with this device finally back in its proper place, my response to Lieutenant Colonel Ajax this evening was set in stone… my mind was all made up.

I was going to enlist in the S.E.R.A.F. tonight.

I was ready. I was ready to serve, ready to fight, to do better and to be better, to lay my life on the line for this place that had given me and my survivors a second chance. I was ready to go to war… and I was at peace with that decision… I wasn’t going back, and no amount of time between now and when I would approach the Lieutenant Colonel would change my answer. But the time I did have granted me the freedom to take care of some smaller… errands, so to speak. My belongings were back at camp, amidst them a holotape and three memory orbs, all unseen. After a night and day of recovery, I was finding myself in a reunion with my curiosity bump, a meeting that had been a long-time coming.

Besides… I’d had my fill of looking out into the wasteland… knowing my enemy was out there, but unable to do anything about it.

With a sigh I forced myself up to all fours, taking note of how much better my back and my flanks felt now that they had been fully healed; even the bandages had been removed, giving me back the full freedom of motion in walking without that awkward nagging touch they’d given me.

I turned away, thankfully without passing another look to the wagon outside, and focused my sights on the Presidential Palace, visible even from here at the city border. One flap of my wings got me airborne, a smooth and controlled movement that, for the first time in a while, didn’t hurt on takeoff. And after a couple more pulses to get some altitude, I begun the smooth, easy flight over Challenger to get back to the camp. But smooth as the journey was, it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as it could’ve been. Because like with the wagon, past misfortunes faced me down again from the overhead view I now had of the city. Those marks faced me this time as the blast craters left behind from the Legion’s missile strike against the region… and though the Lieutenant Colonel had assured otherwise, the damage to the city infrastructure was heavy.

Before arcing over the border wall between the warehouse and presidential districts of the city, I could see the empty space between a damaged but standing warehouse and the city’s tower crane. Another storage had been there, and I had been informed by a guard that it was the armor and apparel depot had taken a direct hit. One missile from the Talons’ barrage was enough to level the whole warehouse and nearly collapse its neighboring food and water storage. That was the first of six missiles to actually hit the city. Even from here at the north end of Challenger, I could see where the others had landed… I remembered where from the flight about the city I had taken before coming to the gate myself. Four more had hit the residential sector. With that district taking up well over half the city, it was of no surprise really. But the missiles had wiped out a number of apartments… causing the majority of the casualties that had come from the attack. The sixth had landed in Challenger’s military district, where soldiers trained. An armory had been wiped out by that missile, destroying three precious flak guns and much needed heavy weaponry meant for the Fourth Battalion. According to the guards I’d spoken to on the subject, the loss would see to them coming into Ashton underequipped… a very dangerous prospect, but one that they all seemed prepared for.

Or so I hoped…

Goddesses… how it angered me to keep the truth inside…

I was back to the palace lawn a short while later. Our survivors were up and about, though none left the yard. Still, it was good to see ponies moving around, exploring the area that had been given to them, taking in what sights there were. My friends were among the mix somewhere, though I couldn’t find them first thing. Still, mine and my brother’s spot was in the same location, untouched. To my pleasant surprise, I found that the whole site was vacant as I came in to land. Blake had been awake when I left him for my meditation, and was now on the move, likely with the other children. It was uplifting to see that, and simultaneously provided me with the time I needed to sort through my saddlebags undisturbed, to find what I wanted to hear.

I landed smoothly in our designated area, exchanging a brief hello with two passing mares before I turned my attention to my saddlebags. A quick look through both of them, and I opened up the left side pack, digging in and sifting through the items within until I found the first I wanted to hear. Out came the holotapes I’d collected across my whole journey, all three… the tape in the center of the stack was the one I needed, marked with a small indentation on the bottom right corner of the plastic case to tell me it had been unused. And leaving the rest of my belongings in place, I wasted no time in scooping up the tape delicately between my teeth, and then focusing ahead to the Presidential Palace itself. The time was mine, the opportunity was perfect, and my curiosity was at its peak, especially now that I was reunited with my trusty pipbuck. And I wanted to be somewhere quiet so that I could hear whatever this holotape had to say to me.

Without any interruptions from the surrounding ponies, I brought myself back into the air, pushing myself above the camp and then righting my course for the palace. Smooth and easy I climbed higher into the air as I made my way over to the proud metal structure, the heart of the city, unable to keep myself from looking down on the yard and the mingling ponies within as they grew farther away… just for the sake of watching them go about their own recovery… something that was much-needed for each and every one of them.

The roof of the palace was unattended. Of course, all around it, anti-air turrets and their respective crews were positioned on rooftops in tactical locations to protect it. But the roof of the palace was clean… only leaving me to hope that I wouldn’t be yelled at for trespassing. But still, I made my way over the lip of the palace rooftop and landed cleanly. And once situated, I tucked in my wings, turned myself about, and let myself lay down on my stomach, getting comfortable, overlooking the camp from above.

“There’s something about seeing something from the air…” I remarked this to myself with a little smile after setting my holotape down before me, then turning my attention to my pipbuck, looking it over in search of the necessary cable. The tab on the left side of the holotape housed the cord, and flicking it open, I laid out the cable and set my pipbuck down beside the tape, finding the port I needed and guiding the connector to it, plugging it in. With a little chirp, my pipbuck’s screen automatically switched, the radio screen dying away to be replaced with my terminal records display. Everything I’d come across in the wasteland that had once belonged to a computer or recorder was cataloged here, bringing to life a brief trip down memory lane as I scrolled up the menu. Two text logs and one audio recording were at the bottom of the menu, the oldest files which Shore and I had scavenged from the sole terminal in Hopeville’s Ministry of Peace Recruitment Center. Then came the holotape I’d found in the Southeast Regional News Radio Station… M.5-13. Below it – M.5-5… the second tape I’d found, the one in Marefax that shared the same coded name as the first.

And then, highlighted in the menu… the tape I’d found in Stable 181… in Crystal Sunset’s office…

M.5-8

“No… what the hell?” A formerly peaceful mindset was pulled back into the sea of inquiry with a jolt when I saw that name. It was the same name, same code on the two tapes I’d found before. In different corners of the region I’d found those tapes, and the both of them belonged to the same voice, the same nostalgic stallion who spoke passionate words about history, about the old Equestria, the good that had come of it. Both of that stallion’s tapes gave me the same feeling of wistfulness… but also left me with countless questions. And now… now I was looking at a third tape with that same distinct coding…… and if this tape really did belong to the pony I thought it belonged to… the stallion I knew only in voice…

“What are the chances?” I muttered this aloud as I stared at the playback button, my hoof beginning to reach for it.

If it was his……

With a final motion, I brought my hoof to the key and pressed it down, and the holotape activated with a click:

“Have you ever wanted to speak to history – just to know the why of it?”

Goddesses… it was him… it really was him…

“Made a habit of that… For years, history has been the only voice I’ve known.” came the stallion’s mysterious, near-monotone tenor. “After my reawakening, it was the only thing that walked beside me. I cherished it… let it guide my actions… let ancestry give me new life…… History had been my sole companion, within the Legion and without, a voice that was never silenced no matter the missions I undertook, no matter the lives I claimed in the name of the Talons’ great city…… But now… I can’t even hear its voice… not in here.” He spoke soft in this recording, intentionally so, it seemed. But even in his dampened voice, my ears could still hear the tone he spoke with… its air of… mourning… “The stories of loss, of the death of a purpose – those are the voices of our world… merciless, cruel. And here, I see the corpse of another victim… Stable One Eighty-one…”

The Stable… He… he had been at the Stable…

“An idea… sanctuary, the chosen safe harbor of our beliefs, of the values that we so jealously safeguarded, in life and in death… fallen.” This stallion… he’d seen my home… “Years ago… in my youth, I had learned of its history in my travels. Found records in the Stable-Tec Headquarters in the Equestrian heartland, some old terminals inside still functional then.” he said, speaking with that longing tone I remembered. “I learned of its intended purpose, then of its seizure. Stable-Tec had been fighting a war of its own over it. But their war, unlike Equestia’s, was quick and decisive. And when I learned what there was to know… that’s when I saw the symbol that had taken an interest in that shelter, that which Stable-Tec had declared war on and lost to in the final days before the end times. My symbol – my family.” The Stable’s history… he was reciting it… “When I saw the truth of it, when I saw another piece of the Old World still carrying that voice, I answered its call. And when I saw it for the first time… I saw everything that I had seen in my real home… except… it was alive.” That wistfulness in his words was growing rapidly, syllable by syllable… pulling me in… holding me in a vicelike grip. “The souls inside… they carried that spark in their eyes, that long-lost light that was the hope of ponykind. And they welcomed me as one of their own, a wanderer who had left his birthplace behind looking for pieces of his true self, a stranger from the outside… they took me in.”

In that moment… my whole world became his words… In that moment, I found my hoof traveling to my muzzle, my eyes wide the story that was unfolding. This pony… he didn’t just know of Stable 181’s history… he lived in the Stable itself… He had been a resident!

“I lived among them, left the wastes at my back.” he continued, slower, recounting memories. “Only a year… but a year that I still remember. I remember them, the Stable’s ponies… because they still carried that symbol and its virtue with them, in their actions, their lifestyle, their teachings. It was everything good that my ancestors had left behind all in one place, a place that was charged with the protecting of their treasures, the preserving of their bloodlines. It was home to everything that the zebras hadn’t been able to hunt down in their quest for vengeance – honor, hope, the General’s child.” A very wistful sigh came from the reflecting stallion. “For a year, I actually felt like I was home… not as what it is now, but as it had been, what it could have been had it survived the end. In one year, I took in their measure, saw how they lived. It was the Old World I saw in that, the pre-war world, that peace… harmony… that had been dead for one hundred and seventy-five years. And through their generosity, I had been given the chance to learn, to know what that peace was actually like. I got the chance to live as my ancestors once did… and it was the greatest gift I could have ever received… But…” I flinched at the slight hitch in his voice, barely detectable, that brought a very heavy silence in its wake. “But my duty kept me from staying then… no matter how badly I desired otherwise… no matter how many times Crystal asked me to stay on my last day of peace…”

He knew Crystal…

“The flag you wear, she said… I remember… She knew the symbol… said it was her duty to hide it, lock it up… bury the symbols, keep the virtues… But something changed in her when she confessed her remembrance. She told me I belonged here, with her and the rest of the Stable… She wanted me to stay… but I told her what my purpose outside was in reply, told her what I protected… And she remembered that too…… I told her – only we, who made it, lived with it, could keep it safe. And knowing this convinced us both to keep our history to ourselves. But I promised to return, to maybe witness change, only when I was sure that Trinity would remain untouched. And so I left, believing that I would keep that promise…… never did……” And here, the sigh that came through the light static screen spoke nothing but pain… regret… “And when I saw Hopeville, saw its residents, and the shadow that followed them… I knew that Stable One Eighty-one had fallen…… And now I see it again… gutted by the Black Blood… Never once believed that I would see something so beautiful… something so pure… die like this. Trinity’s child, protector of harmony’s virtues… and ours… gone……” But from that anguish came new sudden focus, fueled by a dim but simmering anger that my ears perked at hearing. “Few raiders still live here, two, maybe three dozen at most, maintain some contact with their allies on the surface… all maggots writhing in the Stable’s carcass… I’ve set about exploring the halls and chambers despite their presence here, taking in the measure of its new residents… Seen their atrocities, the apex of their barbarism, as if they took a personal interest in defiling the dead here… and never until now have I questioned the purpose I gave myself when first discovering my history, when I had been given my tribe’s blessing. Never until now have I thought that what I keep secret might very well serve a just cause…… It’s the thought that has stayed with me in these past few hours. Seeing this part of my past, this place that I had loved once… destroyed… I wonder at my purpose… I wonder if I have misplaced myself… set myself on the wrong road in the presence of such evil…” There was another pause here, long enough for him to shift in his place; the coking of a weapon sounded after. “I know that this will linger in my thoughts, battling with my old self… and perhaps soon, I’ll be strong enough to give myself an answer… But first… I’ll cleanse the Stable, show the Black Blood that their actions have set them in my crosshairs… and then I’ll bury my siblings. The others… they deserve to be at rest in this place. They lay in the arms of my ancestors’ final effort to prevail over the world… and themselves… and their souls would be at peace here when the raiders have gone…… but Crystal… Damien…”

Damien… father…… he spoke my father’s name!

“Saw the graves outside, recognized the family in the picture… all of them……”

Goddesses……

“And I know the history in their bloodline, even the parts that Crystal didn’t.” he spoke, unwavering. “But there are no secrets between them now… Seiyara would want to be at rest with her husband, and he with both his wife and his sister…” He… he knew it all! “They would want to rest as a family, such as they were, and always will be… and in honor of those in their line that yet live… I’ll see to it that they are before I walk the road back home.”

The tape clicked to a close… but I was left silent, staring…

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard…

This recording… what it revealed paralyzed me… One after the next, this stallion who I had heard twice before spoke the names of my family… my family. The Overmare, my aunt… then my father… and then my mother… This stallion… if what he said was actually true… he’d lived in Stable 181… shared his history with Crystal Sunset herself… and in his time behind our door, he’d met my family… all of us……

Me.

He’d seen me and recognized me upon finding what had to have been the family portrait I had left by my parents’ graves, a final token of my undying love for them, and a reminder of who we were, and always would be, even when death separated us. He… he said he knew me… and yet, I had no memory of him. When he had found out about our home, he had traveled miles and miles to find it. When he did, he had been welcomed… and sometime in the year that he had stayed… he found me. Of course, remembering the sole pegasus in a Stable of earth ponies and unicorns was no difficult task if one’s memory was good enough. But even then… this… was something far more significant than that. It was such enough seeing as how I could not even begin to guess when this stallion had come to One Eighty-one, nor could I even think back so far to remember if I’d ever spoken to a pony like this one. All I had was a voice to go on, in that case. But more important than all of that, here and now… was the fact that I’d heard this buck speak before in the recent past.

This was the third log in a row that I’d found belonging to the same voice. Unintended… I was on the trail of this stallion, uncovering pieces of his history… and with the way it encompassed me now…… his story… this was becoming personal. Now I was noticing a constant theme. This stallion was very meditative, sentimental, knowledgeable, and focused, and it was most definitely the case that Equestrian history held the greatest weight with him. I had heard all of this in both his prior tapes, the first when he buried an ancient skeleton for the sake of mourning the soul who it had once belonged to, and the second when walking the dead streets of the southeast’s metropolis – Marefax. He held a love for the past, it seemed, not recent, but very much pre-war, along with everything that had come from that great era of harmony. But now, amidst all his talk about the great Old World virtues, the tragedy of the Equestria’s war with zebras, and his own history… I myself was a part of his reflections, me and my family, my home.

In his previous tapes, he’d left me with many questions, most of which went unanswered. But after hearing his third tape… I had only one question this time…

Who was this stallion? He knew me… my family… my history… my home…… In this log alone, he revealed to me that he had once been a Stable resident, thereby knowing all that we knew, all that we lived by… and he showed that he too was affected by One Eighty-one’s fall…

So who… who was he that knew so much about me, while I knew nothing about him?

As I was staring, lost in my thoughts yet again, a sudden movement below my perch caught my eye, disrupting those thoughts to force me to look. Our camp was built with two exits, one to the west, and the other to the east. The latter of them was where this new batch of activity caught my eye, and upon squinting to look closer, I found where Challenger soldiers were making their way through, two unicorns flanking an earth pony garbed in a dark green duster. Even from here, I could see the gentle glinting of the pins clipped to his shoulders, and I could recognize his colors too, the pale white of his coat, and the dark brown of his mane and tail.

The Lieutenant Colonel…

It was perhaps the one thing that could’ve pulled me out of the trance that this third holotape had put me in, the one pony that could’ve cured the shock that had been given me by the words I’d heard. At Ajax’s presence here, I was set on the most important path, my focus brought back to the question that needed answering… the answer I was ready to give… It was time to enlist in the Southeast Regional Armed Forces.

As I rose back up to my hooves, quickly unhooking my newest holotape from my pipbuck and scooping it up carefully between my teeth, I took a quick look over the Lieutenant Colonel and his two soldiers. Already the three of them were mingling with some of the survivors, and I could see pointing hooves, turning heads, searching. “I guess Ajax isn’t one to waste time.” Despite the nervousness I was feeling at the coming question, hearing it from him personally, I couldn’t help but cast a little smirk to the ponies below as I stretched out my wings in preparation to dive. There was just something about the scene below that made me all the more ready to give the answer… and with that encouragement, I pumped my wings and jumped to throw myself off the roof of the palace, diving right in for them.

It didn’t take me long. And as soon as I leveled out low over the ground, I saw those nearby Challenger’s military leader making way so that I could land. And as for Ajax himself – his eyes were on me the rest of the way. We watched each other as I guided myself in, even when I arced up, backwinging to slow my pace and settle into a hover over the clearing that had been made for me. And the officer greeted me with a small smile as I lowered myself down and landed. “Ah, just the mare I was looking for.” he said, dipping his head as I tucked my wings against my sides and set down my holotape at my hooves. “You have a restful evening?”

“Yes, sir.” I responded, bowing my head in turn. “I’m very grateful for the time you gave me.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Ajax replied with a little nod. “Manage to check up on everypony?”

“Yes… I’m glad to say my brother’s doing well. And Shore is too, all things considered.” I answered with a half-smile.

“And you, Nova?”

I nodded my affirmative. “Yes. I’m feeling a lot better today. I’ve gotten my time to think and meditate and… just relax… You picked a good time to show up.”

And at that, a little amused huff escaped him as he nodded. “I was hoping I did.” he replied. “You must know why I’m here, then.”

“I do.”

“I’m taking my last roll call today, tallying up the forces I have to command.” he said, that serious tone I’d heard in him the previous night taking the reins, telling me to listen carefully. “I’ve been making the final preparations today for the operations I have planned tomorrow… and not to put you in the spotlight, but your involvement will force me to alter my strategies. So today, now that I’ve given you your time, I need to know if you’re in this with us.” My guess was that, at this point, he would have gone on about how he didn’t want to pressure me into all this, how he didn’t want to seem like he was forcing me to leave my group in the service of Challenger. Maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn’t have. But at this point, I knew where I wanted to go… and I knew the why of it.

I was ready.

“I’m with you.”

The Lieutenant Colonel fell into silence, looking me in the eyes and nowhere else, both he and his two soldiers studying me, taking in my declaration. “Just like that?”

And confident as I could be, I nodded. “Just like that.”

And slowly, he nodded, accepting my answer… sealing the deal. “I’m glad to hear that, too, Nova.”

“I want to serve.” I asserted. “Just tell me where I start.”

With that, Ajax looked back over his shoulder to the unicorn by his left flank. “Corporal. If you would, please.”

“Yes sir.” Right away, the soldier’s horn flickered to life with a gentle light, and on his combat armor, a pocket on his chest plate opened up. From there, three items floated up into view, and he hovered them before me side-by-side so that I might take a good long look. Two small pins of polished silver, each forged into the shape of a single chevron, drifted on either side of a rectangular black patch… a patch I’d seen before. The white letters embroidered into the fabric spelled out the name of Challenger’s army, the S.E.R.A.F.. And the pins… I had a feeling that they designated a rank, the rank that I’d enter the army with.

“If you’re ready to serve, then I’m ready to give you these.” As the unicorn soldier set these items at my hooves, the Lieutenant Colonel spoke his own declaration, doing so as I brought the very edge of my hoof up to the patch, tracing the fabric. “These pins will tell all those you pass in these streets and out in the battlefield that you are an ally of Challenger, and a soldier in its army.” As he spoke up again, I was drawn back to him, where I found him staring me down with those intense brown eyes. “Fellow soldiers will take you in as one of their own now, and officers will see you as a faithful subordinate fighting tooth and nail for this land. And with these pins comes your patch, which will show not just your allies, but also your enemies, who you fight for in this struggle. With all three of these, you will no longer be a wastelander, or a civilian, or an innocent bystander. You will become part of something greater, a part of a powerful army, a growing city, and the region that it protects. You will officially be a soldier in the Southeast Regional Armed Forces.”

And wordless, I nodded my understanding, just before a hoofstep behind me caught my attention. I looked over my shoulder at the proceeding sounds of gathering ponies… and I saw my friends taking the lead of over a dozen more curious onlookers. Gunny – he already wore his new symbols, the S.E.R.A.F. patch clipped to his chest plate, pins secured to his shoulders. Sierra was next to him, free of her power armor, long mane stirring in the breeze as she watched on with calm attention. And on Gunny’s other side, both Ivy and Raemor were looking on with their own curiosity as other Hopeville residents gathered to see this – my initiation. And with them behind me, I felt all the more heartened as I faced the Lieutenant Colonel once more. “I’m ready, sir.” I said; this time, nothing held my confidence back.

“Well then, Nova,” And with a nod, “on behalf of Challenger and President Radiant Gem, I welcome you to the S.E.R.A.F. You’re one of us now.”

*** *** ***

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

The air…

The air was tainted. As far as my eyes could see, the same colors meshed together in a sickly display, which was further defiled by the swirling dust that spun and danced in a thin unbreakable screen. Dark green coated the very air, unchanging beneath a sky of grey, near-black clouds. And underhoof, the dirt was dark and crusty, all brown, the color of dead soil. Not a single blade of yellow grass rested before my eyes. Only the turning sand shifted, ripped up from the cracked and torn surface by a powerful wind that blew against my back and right side as I walked onward, guided by the sight of a cluster of boxlike objects on the horizon, jutting out from the otherwise flat landscape.

Behind me was the flapping of a long-coat, the heavy duster tugging against me as it was pulled by the wind that tried to take it from me… or rather… my host.

I looked through the eyes of a mare, watching with her as she focused on that point a few hundred yards ahead. From this distance, I couldn’t make out any traits of what lay ahead. But this mare who I was seeing this moment through – she didn’t turn away from them. She was dead set on reaching them, as if on a mission to discover them. Even with the sky darkened to near pitch black ahead of us, even when a startling bolt of lightning lashed down from on high and struck the earth, casting a brilliant flash before a clap of thunder raced across the sky… even with all of this, she… we… didn’t turn away. We were walking on dead ground, and ahead of us, all around, a storm was in the making, violent and powerful. Yet there was only thunder and lightning, wind and sand… no rain. It was warm too, not like the normal temperature of the southeast, but hotter.

Suddenly, I coughed… we both did together, a series of racking notes carried on a shockingly brittle and pained voice. And as we coughed, our eyes came back open just in time to see a plume of green haze drifting away from us, disintegrating in the gust.

“Oh… curse this coughing…” My host’s first words, raspy as she looked back up from the ground and to the objects in the distance. We were making steady progress, even at a walk, and after another couple minutes, we were closing in on the site my host wished to get to. Now, those objects were beginning to take more discernable shapes… the shapes of wagons. One of them… I could see one that looked like a small two-wheeled cart, perhaps a supply carrier of some kind, sitting low to the ground as if it were sunk into the dirt. There was a much larger wagon with it, definitely a pre-war passenger vehicle. But this bus was outfitted with an enhancement, an old mounted gun turret on the roof. And even from our distance from it, I could see how the weapon had aged into uselessness, the barrel of what was once a fifty caliber machinegun now bent down, the body it attached to warped through many years of weathering.

But as my host drew ever closer, I was beginning to see some finer details. There was debris around the wagons… scattered and tossed. Shattered boxes, rusty hooflockers, small metal crates, all breaking down with nopony coming to claim them. As we drew closer and closer, more and more of these containers came into our sight, along with a third wagon hidden behind the larger of the first two. It was another wagon like the passenger vehicle, though a little smaller all around, and unlike the larger one, was missing three of its four wheels, each one rotted down to splinters. But shortly after seeing this, I noticed something else about the area we were approaching. What caught my attention here was the number of broken wooden planks that were scattered all about the area behind those three wagons, ranging from whole boards to little bits and pieces. Worn metal beams and bent plates were thrown into the mix, and there was even a wheel jutting out from the dirt, partly buried under the constantly churning dust and sand.

“Wreckage…” Suddenly, my host spoke up in that same aged, raspy voice, still watching as we drew near those derelict wagons. “I know I haven’t seen you before…” My host was driven onward by the sight of what was indeed a field of wreckage. Those three wagons sat undisturbed in the midst of a whole mess of rotted, rusted-down remains… and from this closer distance I could see other shapes peeking out from behind those three wagons we’d already seen.

It wasn’t much longer until we stepped hoof into the mess. At the flash of another lightning bolt and the consequent rolling thunder, we came to a stop at the edge of this new site, beholding even more ruin ahead of us. Past those first three wagons… there was a whole line of twisted metal husks, rusted down and collapsed in on themselves with their age. They numbered seven in total, all fallen into various states of decomposition, the earth swallowing them up piece by piece, inch by inch. Three more of these were smaller passenger wagons, four-wheeled civilian transports once built for everyday use. One of them, despite its age, even maintained patches of yellow and black coloring along its crumpled hull – a taxi. There were two more small cargo carts in the mix too, both of them demolished beyond use. And the last – a larger wagon, with what parts of its hull not completely rusted over painted with a dark coat of black paint. Atop this wagon were two gun turrets, another wrecked HMG, and the bulkier mass of what I recognized as a grenade machinegun, despite its misshapen body.

“Oh my…”

But my host and I – we saw something far worse than mangled wagons and scattered cargo. There were bones… pony bones… One skeleton was right in front of us, its brittle frame broken apart and strewn about… its skull facing us. And beyond it…… more bones. Skeleton after skeleton, following the path of this ruined wagon train…

A graveyard…

“Is this what happened to you?” my host ventured, hushed to the point where I almost didn’t hear the words over the blowing wind. Even the grating in her voice couldn’t hide the shock she was going through at the sight before us. And after a very uncomfortable pause, in which the gale grew more powerful, as if charged by the echoing thunderclap that rolled in from the near pitch black clouds ahead, my host dared to take one step ahead, one step closer to those ancient skeletal frames…

She stopped… we looked down to her foreleg that remained poised over the ground… her mangled foreleg… skin peeling back and falling apart… bare flesh visible in great unhealthy stretches of tight and hardened meat… patches of dead, matted dark yellow hair the only traces of what might have once been her natural color… And a wicked split down the front of the leg, from which smaller cracks spider-webbed off of it, emitted green haze that blew away in the wind, its source the glowing sickly light burning from within the very flesh.

Yes… this was Mother Shimmer who I was seeing this event through.

“Is this what became of you, children?” With great care, Shimmer and I took our first steps into the wreckage, passing the first skeleton and then maneuvering around another, our eyes looking from wagon to wagon, passing quick glances to the dead here in between. And as she made her way into the center of the ruined convoy, I was unable to keep my vision from going dark as Shimmer closed her eyes. I felt as we came to a stop yet again, and a pained sigh escaped into the air… I could feel the tension welling up… like she was bracing for something. “Show me your symbol… children…” She spoke with a… a sort of reverence… respect. But there was a great deal of stress in her voice too, of worry, uncertainty… “You tried to help me long ago… willingly put your own lives in danger not knowing what I was becoming… And for years… I wished that I had not run away from you…” There was even a hint of wistfulness… a dash of regret that peaked in her last sentence, enough for me to hear it. “Answer my question… Show me… your symbol…”

She opened her eyes again, taking one more step before the world begun to blur. And as she moved deeper into the wreckage to find her answer, I only slipped further and further away until I was swept back up in the embrace of darkness… pulled away from Mother Shimmer’s ancient memory.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

In a flash, a barren landscape under a dark stormy sky was replaced with the forms of Hopeville’s survivors and the much less intimidating darkness of night. Gusty winds were replaced with the light voices of mingling ponies among our camp in the quiet yet restless city of Challenger.

Like the first time I’d been ejected from a memory orb, I came back to the real world with a jolt that elicited a short, sharp gasp from me as my own senses and my ability to move returned. And like then, I found myself making quick darting glances around me… reminded for a brief, unpleasant second of Bolt and his assassins. But instead of a threat, I found only the faces of my companions… all of them assembled close together in our own little social circle.

That’s right… it was about time for dinner.

That’s what all the voices were on about, all the activity – there was a rations wagon parked out in the palace yard, a half dozen S.E.R.A.F. soldiers setting up a makeshift booth from wooden crates and passing out preserved foods to those still waiting in line. From here, I could see little Melody and her parents out at the front of the line; they received three unlabeled aluminum cans, one of the soldiers shaking each one individually and then speaking to the three with a smile… one that Melody shared as she watched the unicorn stallion with interest, a bottle of water standing beside her hooves.

“Dinner’s ready whenever you are.”

I was drawn back to my friends when Gunny called for my attention. The big unicorn was laying down right across from me, watching me as he himself lowered Honor and the bowie knife’s sheath to the ground in front of him. On his right, Ivy was laying down, waiting for the rest of us while looking to our own stock of food for the night as Raemor set can after can down in the middle of our ring.

“Six cans of preserved foods, three water bottles.” Sierra announced the tally of our collection from her place by my left, resting between myself and Ivy. “A very generous offering considering the circumstances this city faces.”

With a little groan I stretched myself out before reaching up to remove my recollector from its place atop my brow, pushing it off and catching it before carefully setting it down at my hooves, the twinkling memory orb in its socket facing me. “Yes it is.” I remarked, blinking full awareness back into me before taking a peek at our dinner for myself.

“How are you, Nova?” Then, right beside me, I heard the tired voice of a pony most dear to me. Blake was already laying down by my right side, already looking to me when I turned to find his heavily bandaged self.

“Hey there, baby brother.” I greeted in reply, a smile quickly coming to me at seeing him up. “I feel pretty good seeing you here to join us for dinner.”

A little smile came to him too as I reached over and bumped my muzzle against the side of his face. “I’m feeling better now… a little wobbly and still pretty tired… But I don’t hurt like I used to.”

Good. Goddesses that was the best news I’d heard in a while. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear that, Blake.”

“I think we’re all starting to feel a bit better.” Gunny piped up. “Even Shore’s looking a little more comfortable now. If he wasn’t sleeping I would’ve had us all over there to eat with him.” I nodded, unable to keep back a frown. “My plan is to see if we can’t get breakfast in with him before we ship out tomorrow, though.” my friend added hopefully. “I know we’ll be staying local for at least a couple days, but I still don’t want to miss the opportunity before we all end up on the other side of the region.”

And I hoped the same… especially with the knowing that all of us here, minus Blake, had chosen to enlist in Challenger’s army. After I’d voiced my final decision to the Lieutenant Colonel, Gunny and Sierra, who made their choice before I had, approved my decision by joining me as Ajax gave us his first orders. But after, Raemor added his name to the roster, and Ajax was more than willing to look past his age and present to him his own pins and S.E.R.A.F. patch. Though I kept it quiet, I knew the hidden reason as to his decision, and even though I knew his wish to stick with the rest of us was genuine and untarnished, I also understood that he still had his own mission to fulfill… his own bad dream to deal with… and the opportunity was a wide open gate for a chance to do just that. And finally, Ivy too decided to enlist, voicing her desire to do her own part to help out by being out on the front lines with us, the ponies who she now called her friends. To me and Gunny, she wanted to repay the chance we’d given her at a new start, how we’d spared her from execution because of her poor decision to join the Black Blood. She wanted to serve with us because of that. And to Raemor, and even Sierra, she said that she was glad to have met the both of them, and would love nothing more than to be by their side just as much as mine and Gunny’s. All four of us were equally happy to have her, and happy that she felt the way she did toward each of us.

The one sad truth that came from all this, however, involved dear Shore. With all five of us taking the oath to serve, I knew without an iota of a doubt that Shore would have signed on with us if he could have. But plain and simple, he wouldn’t be going anywhere for a long time. His wound would take much more time to recover from, and learning how to walk again would add a great weight to the sentence of immobility he’d been condemned to. It was a hard subject to talk about, hard to bear, seeing one of my dear friends like that. Hell, there had even been one time during the day when Shore had actually been awake that the very subject had been brought up (from me of course). It wasn’t hard to show my guilt on the matter. But like the friend that he was, he mustered all his strength to keep me from going so far as to blame myself for his misfortune. With us being to ourselves, with no Challenger ponies to overhear us, I had come out with my reasoning behind my self-blame, reminding him about Guardian and about how desperately they wanted me back in their custody. And yet still, he didn’t see it the way I did, and the two things that made me actually think his way, and the way of all my friends – he reminded me of where it all began… where it truly began…

Blackhawk and his quest for revenge… Shore called it petty, the death of that griffin’s wife by my guns insignificant. In his eyes, this whole Goddess-damned mess began when Blackhawk took Gracie from us, sneaking that revenge quest into his mission to capture me by killing her. And only after making me witness her execution did he succeed in his real job, shackling me to the Talons’ banner. That was a hard hit to remind me of Gracie like that. But Shore used that as his way of telling me that this really wasn’t my fault… and this time I… actually listened. In the end, he’d believed the big picture was that the Talons needed me to unlock a weapon that they in turn unleashed against their enemies, my friends. This was obvious already. But now that I was free from them, they wanted me back with no small amount of desperation. General Vance had plans for me, and in our discussion, all of my friends now knew that when I recounted my imprisonment. Had I not been rescued when I had been… well, I dreaded to think where I might’ve ended up, or worse… what else I might have been needed for. And when I had gotten to thinking about it, Shore went one step further by reminding me of somepony else who had spoken those words to me… somepony who he knew had a different effect on me than anypony else.

Archer had tried telling me the same things, about how it wasn’t me who was to blame for Buckley, for Guardian, that the choice I made was a choice that nopony should have had to make, and thus a choice that nopony should be blamed for except for the Talons themselves. That was when I’d heard it before – back in Buckley. But I hadn’t been inclined to listen, to believe that I was a victim and not a perpetrator… or at least not a willing one. In the end of all that… I felt guilty about how I’d left that pegasus then… turning my back on him… when all he wanted to do was to get through to me… make me feel better… make me see the reality of all this.

I wasn’t wholly sure about it all yet…

I’d heard a lot of this before, in some fashion or another. Then, like now, I wasn’t wholly willing to believe what the others did. I couldn’t let go of my blame, couldn’t see past it… not entirely. But at the same time, I believed that I was starting to open up to those opinions I once refused to acknowledge. And with that… I was beginning to tentatively feel that I wasn’t the villain here… at least, not entirely; a voice carrying that message was emerging with a will to fight for my attention. There was no denying the fact that I’d still made the choice between Blake and the whole region. I chose to keep the last of my blood family alive over keeping Guardian sealed. And the consequence – Buckley’s terrible losses, Challenger’s own loss of life, the situation at Ashton. I chose to end hundreds of lives for the sake of one. That was something I’d have to live with for the rest of my days. What was in the past was done, and there was no going back; but I wasn’t going to let go of Blake.

In the end… I felt I was a little closer to accepting my friends’ views… Maybe it was that enlisting in the S.E.R.A.F. was going to be my way of finding it. Maybe it was that I would fully understand in the fires of war… And at that, I couldn’t help but be a little amused in my own personal thoughts, a silent chuckle echoing in my head as I thought aloud, “No more little skirmishes… a real, actual war…”

“So what was in that memory orb you looked through, Nova?”

The subject changed, diverting me from my former thoughts to bring my attention to Ivy and her curiosity. She was looking my way when I found her, genuinely interested. And along with her, the others were also looking for an answer, even Gunny as he situated one of the cans in front of him, bringing his knife blade up in preparation to open it up. “It was one of the memory orbs that Mother Shimmer gave me before we left Buckley.” I responded, passing a quick look down to the recollector before me. “I finally got the guts to go ahead and watch it.”

“What was it about?” Ivy questioned.

“It was a memory from Mother Shimmer’s perspective, back in her days of wasteland exploration.” I explained. “I have no idea when or where the memory had taken place, but it was of her finding this wrecked wagon train out in the wasteland. She was walking into this nasty looking thunderstorm and found it.”

“I thought all those memory orbs you found for her came from her old farm?” Gunny chimed up in question, digging his bowie knife carefully into the top of the first can of our dinner.

“Yeah, they did.”

Pausing in his effort, he looked up to me to ask, “So not all of them were pre-war memories then?”

I shook my head in reply. “No, I bet they all were. But something tells me that she created this one herself… or, well, with the help of a unicorn who knew that kind of magic.” I shrugged at that. “When, I don’t know, but even if it wasn’t one she created herself… she’s been alive for so long, who knows who she’s met out there, what friends and enemies she made, what kinds of travels she’s had before settling down in Buckley.” I couldn’t help but cast a little smile at the thought of that. “She’s probably got a story of her own that would take days to tell, maybe even weeks.”

“Hm. I would agree.” Raemor put in with a half-smirk of his own. “Her own age and her own wisdom makes even me look like a youngster.”

“So what else was in that memory?” Blake asked after.

Though I gave it a little thought, rushing myself through a quick replay of what I’d gathered from Shimmer’s memory, there really wasn’t much else to say about it. I explained to my little brother about the wreckage I’d seen, the various carts and both civilian and military wagons that had been mixed in. And though I spared him details about the skeletons, I was reminded of something that was one of the more significant aspects of the memory, that being what Shimmer herself had said in the time of that memory. “Like I said, the memory was from Shimmer’s perspective. And close to the end of the memory, she began speaking… and what she said gave me the impression that she was tied to this convoy somehow. I’d be shocked myself if I actually figured it out, but in her many years, it could very well have been that she actually was a part of, or at the very least, came across that convoy in the memory before it had been destroyed. That was definitely interesting.”

“I suppose that wouldn’t wholly surprise me.” Raemor remarked, listening curiously.

“But other than that, the memory itself was very short…” I concluded. “There wasn’t a lot on that thing.”

“You might be interested to know that your pipbuck starting chirping when you were in that memory, Nova.” My ears perked at Sierra’s sudden claim, my eyes darting to her. “It was actually just a few seconds before you came back from it.”

“Really?” Having kept the device equipped throughout the day, I looked down and turned my right foreleg to bring up my pipbuck’s monitor. And sure enough, the display was now turned to my pipbuck’s larger map, showing me every location in the region that I’d discovered since leaving the Stable. Simply by looking at it, I could piece together the order in which each icon had been uncovered, recreating my path over the single month that I’d been on the surface. But amidst the digital squares… there was one icon, and the name below it, that was something I knew wasn’t there before. Due east and slightly south of Challenger, this new icon was the farthest point in that direction… and my pipbuck designated it as the very same location I had just seen from the eyes of another.

Convoy Wreckage

“How do you suppose that happened?” I asked aloud, distant as my eyes stayed locked to that little symbol.

“You’re getting information off that memory orb, even if it’s in a more unique way.” Gunny put in, opening up his fourth can with his knife. “Since you’re learning about whatever a memory orb contains, and in this special case, seeing it yourself through another’s perspective, I reckon that’s enough for your pipbuck to peg it on your map.” He gave me a little shrug as he set the can aside. “That’s the best explanation I can come up with. All that technology crap is way beyond me.”

“That would make sense.” Sierra responded to him as I let myself listen in to the ensuing conversation. “Nothing about you is changing when you’re in a memory orb, right?”

“Right.”

“So you got an imprint of the memory and in this case, it’s a location.” Ivy chimed. “That’s actually rather interesting.”

“Do you think you’ll visit that place?” Blake asked me.

But to that, I couldn’t give a surefire answer… only because of my enlistment. “I don’t really know, little brother.” I answered him. “I’m going to be pretty busy come tomorrow.”

“Yeah…”

“Well, that memory’s interesting and all, but every word is making me hungrier at the moment.” Gunny’s polite complaint was our dinner bell, all of us turning to him as he began cutting open the final can. “We’ve got some good stuff here tonight, and I’m more than ready to dig in.”

Yeah… I’d say it was about time to get some food in me. I was going to have a long day tomorrow… and in the days after. For that, I could put my newest discovery behind me for a little while. “Good idea. Let’s eat.”

“The gravy train’s given us one can of red apple slices, two full of leafy greens, two cans of corn, and one of celery slices.” Gunny explained, setting the final opened can at his hooves. “Who wants what?”

I cast him a little smile as I looked over our rations. “Oh, I’ll just take whichever’s left.”

To that, Gunny uttered a light chuckle. “Of course.”

“Could I have the apples, please?” Blake asked. “I haven’t had apples in a while.”

“Sure thing, champ.” And Gunny levitated the designated can over to my little brother, who smiled as it came to rest before him.

“If nopony else wants them, I’ll be more than happy to claim the celery.” Raemor said, having already secured the desired food in his telekinesis, though not taking it away. Only after our collective assurances did he bring it over to him.

“Give me the corn.” Ivy claimed, scooping one of the remaining cans up with a smile. “I love the stuff.”

“I’d like one of the greens, please.” Sierra added quickly, to which Gunny passed out the respective cans to their owners.

“Nova? What do you want?” our server asked, turning his head to me with only two cans left.

“You go ahead and pick one.” I encouraged, gesturing a hoof to him before crossing my forelegs in front of me. “Go ahead.”

“You first.”

“Oh, don’t start.” I chided, unable to keep myself from smirking.

“Just pick one.” Gunny retorted with mock sternness.

“We’re not arguing about this, Gunny.”

“Oh but we are.” he replied, grinning with me.

And to that I huffed a sigh of surrender, rolling my eyes. “Oh fine… I’ll have the greens.”

And satisfied, he sent the promised food my way, setting it before me. “There, was that so hard?” he asked, smug with his little victory.

“Hush.” And to my satisfaction, a light round of laughter went through our circle.

“Nova!”

Suddenly, my name came rushing to us from beyond our sanctuary, making my ears perk and my smile fade in a flash as I looked to the source. Coming in from the south, farther into our camp, I turned just in time to be caught by surprise by two beams of light, bright enough to force me to turn away, squinting to protect my eyes from the two flashlights that settled over me. Thankfully, as quick as they had come, they vanished for me to see the materializing forms of two Challenger guards, two unicorn bucks fully clad in their camouflage combat armor with battle rifles slung over their backs. “Sorry about the light.”

“You’re alright.” I assured, blinking away the last of the lingering distortion to get a good look at the two guards. And as they came to a stop at a respectful distance, my companions turning their way, “Can I help you?”

“We’ve been looking for you to deliver a message.” the guard on the left answered me, making me cock an eyebrow quizzically.

“A message?”

“Not but a quarter hour ago, a pony came through Challenger’s gate from the outside.” the second guard explained. “As soon as medics patched him up he told the Lieutenant Colonel that he was looking for you.”

“He’s insisted that you meet him personally.” the first guard added after.

Somepony was looking for me?

“Who is he?” I asked curiously.

“A pegasus stallion, of all things. He introduced himself as Archer.” the second responded; my eyes popped round. “According to Ajax, he said he knew you… And judging by that look you’re giving, I’d say that’s true.”

Archer… he was here in Challenger??

A quick sweeping glance over my companions, and I saw looks of recognition from all of them; each of them remembered that name just as quickly as I had. “Yeah… yeah, I know him.” Putting all else aside in my alarm, I rose up quickly to my hooves, already fanning out my wings. “Where is he now?”

One of the two unicorns pointed a hoof out past me and to my right. “He’s out on the street just behind you. Fly over the fence, hook left, and he’s at the north gate between the presidential and warehouse districts.”

I turned around to look over the designated dirt road, my eyes already scanning for any signs of the steel-blue pegasus. Even with the number of lanterns lining the road at regular intervals, I couldn’t see him from here; he must’ve been farther out. “Okay, uh… thank you both for telling me.” Looking over my shoulder, I gave the guards the thanks they deserved, the both of them nodding together before turning about and heading back the way they came toward their next errand. And at their departure, I looked instead to my assembled friends, seeing each of their eyes now on me. For a moment, I hesitated, my wings coming back in part way, but staying open. “Um…” I couldn’t help but shuffle a bit, feeling a little uncomfortable at departing right before our dinner… even if it wouldn’t be for too long. “I’ll uh… I’ll be right back…”

But Gunny was the one to wave me onward, motioning with a hoof for me to head on out and find our friend from Buckley. “Go on ahead, Nova.” he assured, Raemor nodding at his place while Ivy and Sierra and Blake only watched on with their own curiosity. “We’ll be waiting right here for you.”

With that, I turned promptly to the gate, bringing my wings back out wide and bracing to launch. With a single thrust, I got myself airborne, beating up quickly to get myself over the palace fence. Then I broke from my hover and put on the speed to get out over the street, turning west. From here, the gate wasn’t far at all, no more than a hundred or so yards. From here to there, a total of eight hanging lanterns dimly illuminated the road and the sparse civilian traffic that occupied it, along with the occasional guard on their night patrol. However, in my search for Archer, I was becoming more and more puzzled as I drew in closer and still didn’t find him… or not until I begun to slow myself, checking the approaching gateway with a more careful eye. Two civilians were crossing the threshold from the warehouse sector to the presidential, a young couple by the looks of it. Past the young mare and stallion, a single earth pony guard armed with a dual carbine saddle made her way through, moving towards the warehouses on her patrol route. And past her…… a figure standing at the edge of the light cast by the lone lantern hanging on the gateway’s left side, looking down the road and towards the palace fence that was visible behind the nearby corner building. As I settled back into a hover, eyes locked to that pony below, I found one item after the next that only served to confirm who it was I now saw. The pony was equipped with every piece of gear to his name – a full rig of light armor whose blue and black color scheme I could see in the lantern light, a pair of saddlebags, a battle saddle made of two semiautomatic rifles, three-o-eight scopeless… and a larger rifle secured over the pony’s back… fifty caliber.

And just a second later, at the end of my observations… that pony turned up, looking right at me… showing me his face as was revealed by the hanging lantern.

“Archer… it really is you.”

I didn’t shout to him, didn’t call for him… only said his name as I beheld that familiar face, those hazel eyes, from my place above. But from the surface I heard my own name carried on the wind when the pegasus below responded to me. “Hey, Nova.” Focusing on my wings, I made my way back down to the surface, the pegasus following me the whole way as I lowered myself down. “I’m glad to see you made it here.”

With a quick couple of flaps, I halted my descent before letting myself drop the rest of the short way, landing neatly on all fours and laying my eyes on him once again. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Archer.” I replied, tucking in my wings and standing up straight. “In fact I didn’t expect to see you… w-well… ever again.”

To that, one more familiar trait about him showed itself, that small smile that I’d come to remember this stallion by, as he uttered a faint chuckle. “Well, I didn’t expect to be here either.” Came his response, after which he took in a breath, exhaling as he added, “Not at first, anyway.”

Having been taking in the sight of the armed and armored, battle-ready and travel-worn pegasus, I spotted something as he spoke, something that brought up worry immediately at the image it cast in the lantern light. What I had thought was a plain sash over his armored chest was actually a long strand of healing bandages, wrapped over his left shoulder, maneuvering over his back and past his wings, then coming back around under his belly and hooking by his right leg to complete the circle; the portion covering his chest was colored crimson, a long mark of dried blood. “Are you okay?” I questioned.

“Oh, this?” He spared a moment to crane his head down, looking to his hoof as he raised it to press gently against the bandages. “Nah, it’s nothing. I’m alright.”

“Are you sure?” I pressed worriedly, watching as he set his hoof back down and looked to me again. “That looks pretty bad.”

But again, Archer shook his head. “It could’ve been worse.” he assured. “I ran into a griffin patrol on my way in. Made it in unscathed except for where one caught me with her claws. Doesn’t help that I’m only wearing a light rig. But it wasn’t too bad either way, never hindered my flying or concentration. So I’m good.”

I couldn’t help but frown as I looked over the bandaging again. But out of respect for the new surprising arrival, I let it go with a soft exhale. And with that matter now come and gone, I quickly found myself steering in towards another question, the only one I could think of at Archer’s unexpected appearance in this city. The last time we had seen each other, we’d barely made it through Bolt’s assassination attempt. He’d been badly wounded, beaten savagely, and still, while dripping blood and struggling through his injuries, he swore to return to Buckley Air Force Base, that simultaneously cursed and blessed place. Between then and now, it had been three days… We both knew it… And so I had to ask him, “What happened after you left?” We locked eyes, my concerned frown met by a little one of his own. “Did you go back to Buckley like you said?”

“Yeah.” he answered with a hesitant nod. “I snuck past the fences by coming in from above, kept out of sight, made my way to Shimmer’s silo.” With a little sigh, he added, “She’d been up the whole night, pacing back and forth, worrying about Bolt and the others. And I’m afraid she didn’t take it well when I broke the news about what happened.” I felt myself sagging at the memory of that sweet old mare, so kind and compassionate, now hearing how she had gone through even further heartache because of the hatred of one. “She had to have a moment for herself at hearing the news… but she pulled through well enough, even helped patch me up.”

“Did you tell her about what you had to do?” I asked, a little nervous.

“Of course I did. I didn’t think once of hiding it from her.” came Archer’s firm response. “When I told her, she didn’t blame me for defending myself. She actually felt that Bolt and the others that followed him were out of control, said that their inability to see reason was what justified what I did. And in the end she was very determined to use what happened as a lesson to keep the others in line at home. Even if they hate you and other outsiders for the rest of their lives, she told me that she’d rather have them live with that hatred than die coming to try and kill you. Even if it set back her progress, she’d still rather it be this way than put any other ponies at risk, both her own and outsiders alike.”

And at that, I couldn’t help but sigh, downhearted… but still acknowledging that truth, the truth that it would be better for them to harbor a hate for me and remain safe behind their fences and their howitzers than to try and come into the region and find me… especially with the way it was now.

“Regarding you, Shimmer was glad to hear that you’d survived Bolt’s ambush, and actually took some solace from that.” Archer continued, my eyes meeting his again at his mentioning of me. “She actually wanted me to convey her sincerest apologies and condolences for everything that happened that night. She knows about those seven ponies you lost, and she hopes to have your understanding that she did everything she could to keep Bolt from you.”

But to all that, I gave a little shake of my head. “She didn’t have anything to apologize for. She should’ve known that from the start.”

“Well she didn’t feel that way, and you know she never would either.” he responded, to which I had to agree.

“Yeah…… so… what about you?” I asked after a pause. “Where do you sit in all of this?”

“In the end… Mother Shimmer and I agreed that it’d be better for me to just leave Buckley altogether.” In that moment, I felt my heart hitch as I was sucker-punched by an old emotional friend. “If word got out that I played a part in killing off Bolt’s team, especially with how volatile things are over there, I’ve no doubt that I’d have been killed myself.”

I only swallowed in response, looking to him with a face that could have only been interpreted as apologetic. I didn’t have to speak it aloud to project my guilt, and judging by the small frown that took shape on Archer’s muzzle, he saw it as quickly as I felt it. “I told you that you risked too much doing what you did.” It was a strained response, weakened both by my voice and by my eyes that turned to the dirt. “You should’ve stayed away…”

“Nova… you know we’ve been over this right?” he asked, calm, patient…

“But now you’ve been kicked out of Buckley…” And when I looked back up to him, I felt the makings of a tear in my right eye; I barely held it back from being seen. “That was… that was your home, Archer …”

“Which is why I’ve come here.” he interrupted; I almost jumped in surprise when I saw him start to move, closing the distance between us. “I came to Challenger because I knew it was the one place that hadn’t been occupied by the Talon Legion. And in all honesty, when I left Buckley… I prayed that I’d find you here, that you would have come here for shelter just like everypony else.” He paused just a moment, stopping…… It almost seemed like he was… nervous about speaking the rest of what he had to say. “You and your friends are the only ponies I know outside Buckley… and so I hoped that if I’d found you…” Goddesses… this was the first time I’d seen hesitation in him like this… It was actually… kind of concerning. “Well… I was hoping that I might be able to find a place in your group…”

We were no more than a couple steps apart from one another. And from here, there was an uncertainty in him that I’d never seen before, a part of him that he’d never shown when he’d been in Buckley. I had no doubt that this was not something common in him, as I had the feeling also that this had come from what he had endured in the aftermath of Guardian’s reign of terror. And it was this that made me feel all the worse about seeing Archer in his current state. He stood strong before me. He was a fighter, tough and hardened. But beneath the shell… I felt there was a fear in him, even if just slight… a fear of being alone. It was something I couldn’t exactly sympathize with through personal experience. But despite everything, I was fully adamant on the belief that he didn’t deserve to be alone. That belief was reinforced even further at remembering Sierra and her recounting of her days in the Enclave… how she had seen his public branding and watched as he had been labeled a traitor for acts of mercy and kindness, becoming nothing more than the refuse of his home, thrown out and left to die. After that… who knew other than he what he had been through. History was there, and I couldn’t begin to guess how much of it had left scars on him that he had yet to reveal.

In the end, what he must’ve thought was asking too much of me, or what he must’ve thought was intrusive or awkward or just weird, I saw as something that he didn’t even have to ask for, something that was a plain and real prayer for help. Archer was far too good a stallion for me to just up and reject him, and I knew that others would feel the same way, not only because of what they’d seen of him in Buckley, but also because of how he had come to our aid when Bolt had found us… and because a select few had seen the two of us together in the past…

Shoving everything else aside, I regained my faculties to tell him this. “Of course there’s a place for you here.” I said, as confidently as I could.

And I saw as he begun to calm, just a little, as he replied with, “Are you sure? I’ll understand if you say otherwise.”

But I shook my head with that same confidence. “After everything we’ve done together, do you really think you even have to ask, Archer?” I asked as an assurance.

“I suppose that’s really up to you.” came his slow, careful reply.

And to that, I couldn’t help but role my eyes, after which he raised a shoulder in an innocent shrug. “Come on.” I urged. “My friends and I are about to have dinner. I’d imagine that you must be at least a little hungry yourself, so you’re more than welcome to join us if you like.”

Though at first he was still hesitant, looking to want to reply… he gradually started easing up… to the point where he almost looked to be settling back into his more calm, more relaxed, focused, normal self. And seeing that small smile come back to him as he finally let himself believe that I wasn’t lying to him… I felt just a little bit better myself. “That… that sounds great.” came his reply. “Thank you, Nova.”

And with a nod, I turned around, casting him what I felt was a welcoming little smile as I let my wings come unfurled. “Our camp’s right over the fence, Archer. Follow me.”

*** *** ***

“Here you are.”

“Ah, thank you.” I found my recollector just after Archer pushed it over to me, and when I tossed it into my left saddlebag, I had everything accounted for.

After bringing Archer into camp, I had reintroduced him to my companions. And as I had predicted, they welcomed him into our dinner circle with open arms. Of course, with this came the general inquiry as to how he was faring after our last encounter, to which Archer had situated himself and retold his story to the whole group. He had explained to them everything he had said to me, and out of his retelling of his return to Buckley, the recollection of Mother Shimmer’s own thoughts and prayers had held the most heft. Having already been of the general mind that Shimmer herself was no perpetrator regarding Bolt’s attack, Archer’s words only served to revitalize the sympathies that had come to life days ago. Even Sierra, who had not been in Buckley during the Talons’ invasion, who had not even met Shimmer herself, voiced her own condolences directly to Archer. That in turn helped him to feel more welcomed in our group, and he had even thanked us for feeling the way we did, for being on Shimmer’s side just as she was on ours… and for recognizing the real enemies in all of this.

A few minutes into our actual dinner, and we had received a surprise visit from Captain Saber, coming to investigate for himself the rumor of a new sudden arrival. And upon meeting face to face, the two stallions bumped hooves, and our leader immediately thanked Archer for his involvement killing off Bolt and his party before they could do the same to us. Being the pony he was, Saber spoke with this his understanding that what Archer had done was a very difficult choice for him to make. The captain too had recognized that those ponies had been, at the very least, acquaintances to him, and as such knew that it had been hard to choose us over them, and even harder to deal with the aftermath. Once he was in the loop about the reason behind Archer’s coming to Challenger, he made a promise to him right then and there that he was welcome among us so long as he wished to be here. And while it was indeed a difficult subject, Archer had been very grateful for the hospitality granted him.

Hearing it from our leader had taken away the greater majority of the uncertainty that had been left in him once I’d brought him to camp, and I was very happy to see how well-received Archer had become.

Now, with dinner complete and with most everypony making their way to bed, it was Archer and I sorting through and repacking all our things together. Having tucked Blake into bed not even an hour prior, I wanted to take some time this night before I crashed to make sure everything I needed and owned was stashed away safely in my saddlepacks. And with the recollector now loaded up, I had everything with me. “There. Everything’s packed.” With a satisfied nod, I closed up my saddlebags and secured them, making them travel-ready for my big first day in Challenger’s military tomorrow. “Thanks for helping me pack, Archer.”

Looking back up to the stallion flier, I found him as he gave a little dip of his head. “You’re welcome, private.” he replied, winning a little smile from me at his little reference. “Are you ready?”

“Well… travel-ready, yes.” I answered… a little slowly as I pushed my saddlepacks off to the side. “This is a big decision for me.”

“I understand.” came Archer’s reply. “But your nervousness is definitely justifiable.”

“Nervous…” I looked away to the side, my eyes passing over the groups of sleeping ponies in our camp. Most everypony had already drifted away for the night, even my friends. It was just me, Archer, and a couple of others farther away that were still up and about…… It was very late though… and in the back of my mind, I knew that I’d be rather tired if I didn’t try to get some sleep myself soon. Still… there were things weighing on me that wouldn’t leave me alone until they were freed… especially not when the very pony whom they concerned was right here in front of me. “Yeah, I’d say that I am nervous, Archer. But I can’t let that get in my way, especially tomorrow. I’ve got… I’ve got a lot to atone for. And this is the best way to do it.”

It was abundantly clear that my would-have-been hidden emotions were visible to Archer in that moment. But at this point, with how tired I was, with how indeed nervous I was about what was soon to come, I really didn’t care. And as I figured, Archer caught on quick, slightly cocking his head to look upon me with a mix of curiosity and concern in response to my more cryptic words. “Something on your mind, Nova?” He asked the question… but something told me he already knew the answer.

“I think the real question is what isn’t on my mind.” came my retort, accompanied by one mirthless note of laughter.

“Is there… any of that you want to talk about?” he asked, employing respectful caution that I… actually kind of appreciated.

“Considering that, up until recently, I’d thought I’d never be able to talk about it…”

“About what?” he asked.

“You…”

His concerned expression didn’t change. He didn’t show any surprise… nor did he show annoyance… nothing but that concern toward me, even as he asked, “About me leaving Buckley? Is that what you mean?”

And when I nodded, he nodded back his understanding, knowing for certain right then and there the specifics of my thoughts, knowing that it was my guilt that was coming out to speak to him. But despite the nagging feeling that pricked at me, telling me that I was just wasting his time, I pressed on with one simple question. “You say that you left Buckley for your own safety, and I believe you… But… it was my fault that you had to leave your home behind… or, that’s how I feel…… So I want you to tell me why, now.” Despite my sensitivity, I fixed him with slightly-narrowed eyes, demanding that my question be answered truthfully, and with no secrets. “I want to know, Archer – after Guardian’s missiles fell, after Bolt and his assassins – I want to know why you stood up for me all this time.” And Archer, even though he’d heard this before, listened, not even so much as flicking his eyes away from me. “I want to know why you took my side over Buckley’s, why you chose to help somepony you only knew for days over those you lived with for years… I want to know why you left Buckley at your back and killed ponies from your home for the sake of rescuing me… And I want to know how you believed through all of that mess that I was worth all the pain of loss and the physical scars that you took just to keep your faith in me…”

After a moment of stillness, disturbed only by a cool gentle breeze that rustled our manes, the pegasus let himself shift his hooves as he took in my words. That gave me the time to suddenly think back on a memory from a few days back, back when I’d left Buckley for good… just after Archer had tried to explain his answer to these very questions I asked now… only to be interrupted by a rather sharp slap across the face from me. But now there were no interruptions, none by me nor by anything around us, and he was weaving his answer when I looked him over again. And a moment later, he began with, “You’re right in saying the whole thing was one shitty mess. But the thing for me about it all was how Buckley took it. Given their history, you can’t blame them for how they reacted when you told them the truth. Thanks to you, they had only just started trusting outsiders before Guardian happened. And when it did, it was understandable when all that progress was set back.” I hated the reminder, the weight it put on my shoulders… but here, it was definitely unavoidable to hear again. “But that was still no reason to react to you like they had.” Archer continued. “They knew who you were, how you thought and what you valued. They should’ve known that the Legion was who the blame should’ve been given to from the start, because they’d fought against them ten years ago. And atop that they should’ve known that you wouldn’t have done what you did without a damn good reason, especially when their own leader, who they looked to for wisdom, said the exact same thing. They all knew Blake was that reason, the sole reason you would’ve gone through with what you did. And whether they’d like to admit it or not, many would’ve made the same choice that you did if the Legion did to them what they did to you. But they didn’t see it that way. Instead, they only saw it as yet another scenario in which an outlander tried to bring them harm, and in their eyes, insult was added to injury because you had been an outsider that they actually trusted. So they reacted in the one way they were so familiar with, which was to kill first and think later. And that is a weakness if the situation is right… as we saw through Bolt.” When I nodded, listening intently, he said next, “I was there every minute that tragedy unfolded, from Stable One Eighty-four to when you were exiled. And there were times where I felt I was the only one who knew who the real enemies were. You could say that I was different because I didn’t have blood family in Buckley, because I didn’t have a sibling or a wife or any close friends. But whatever you decide to call it… I want you to know that I was actually proud of my choices.” The assertion that had been with him this whole time, diminished but still prominent… I nearly flinched when it reached its peak in this moment. I only blinked when those words came to pass, doing well to hold back seeable evidence of my astonishment, and only watched on as he said, “When everything was said and done, I was more than willing and ready to come to find you and your friends and help you fight off Bolt’s party. And in the end… I’m proud of what I did – standing with you and Shimmer, and all those both at the base and in your own group that have stood behind you and continue to do so. I’m proud to say that I’m one of them.”

I was… startled… to hear the subject in this fashion, with words so forceful and passionate that the pride Archer claimed… it was there. He had tried to explain this to me before, I know he had… It was back right before I left Buckley behind forever. He had told me who was truly responsible, who was victim and who was foe, the first of many others that would say the same thing. But when he’d spoken, I hadn’t been willing to listen. I outright refused to listen, refused to believe. That part of me had been there time and time again when somepony else would speak those words, just as unyielding as ever… only until that part of my past had drawn farther and farther away, when the dust had settled just a little bit, when the trauma had died down just enough for me to finally listen with some measure of inclination to let others speak their words in my defense. Gunny, Shore, Saber, Ivy, and Raemor – my friends had been the first to speak, the first to understand and forgive… Then came the voices of Hopeville’s survivors, ponies from within our remaining crowd who had said their feelings that culminated into two simple, powerful words – we understand. Sergeant Madeline, Shore’s parents, one of Gracie’s nurse assistants… then Melody and her parents, and all the foals I’d cared for in Stable 181. All of them had spoken what Archer told me now – they stood with me, still cared for me… and hearing him now brought all those voices back, with him leading their charge.

And at the end of my thoughts… I could only muster myself to ask Archer one more time… “But… why?”

“Because of who you are.” Silence… not even a breeze to stir the pause that loomed between us as we stared back to one another. “Because of what you believe in, how you live… because of your virtue.” And as I stared on, frozen in place, his small smile returned across his muzzle in a kind, heartfelt expression of sincerity. “Because you are you.”

*chirp

Suddenly, a beep from below me yanked my attention to the ground underhoof, or rather, to my pipbuck still latched around my right foreleg, and puzzled, I quickly raised the computer up to eye-level. The display had changed, swapping the inventory screen back to a different list of items, beside which was the glowing L-shaped display that monitored radio wave activity, empty. But something was flashing on the screen, calling for my attention; it was down at the bottom of the list of radio frequencies I had been exposed to. Stable 181’s old security channel, Mother Shimmer’s farm, Major General Vance’s command frequency – Castle CF01 – all in black letters to show their inaccessible state… And finally, the signal we’d discovered just earlier today, that military station. But the codename for it – Bravo Delta Channel Fifteen Thirty – I remembered that name. But no longer did I see it on my screen. Instead, only two words gave me a new signal’s name…

Eternity Radio

I repeated that name aloud, glancing back to Archer in mid-thought as to the purpose of the change in its name. But when I saw the pegasus… saw that smile of his and saw how it grew just slightly… I uttered a soft gasp as realization hit me. “Eternity…” Of course… “As in… Club Eternity??”

And Archer raised a hoof to gesture toward me. “Play it, Nova.”

It was Club Eternity… Buckley’s Club Eternity, home to the base’s more modernized electronic musical selections, and with it, even old jazz tunes. I remembered the time when I’d been explained this… and I remembered the building… remembered all at once Buckley’s passion for music in its many forms. I couldn’t hold myself back, and I sat myself down and raised my pipbuck back up to guide myself to that new radio signal. And with one final glance to the waiting Archer, who nodded his encouragement, I activated the signal on my pipbuck.

There it was...

The speaker cast the gentle haunting strikes of piano keys, weaving a beautiful phrase of descending perfect intervals. The piano repeated itself, with faint strings speaking soft yet crystal clear. A third time it played, new strings coming in on a higher octave. And then came a fourth, where all gradually faded into silence, the piano slowing to a pause… Then came the melody, of which only the piano sang, chords in the bass making the tempo as the lyrical passage announced the theme of the work. It fell into a pause as the final keys sustained their tones. Then with a single note pick up the same theme repeated as a slight variation, with a short but beautifully chilling trill in the center before two more echoing chords brought another pause. I was swept away to Buckley all over again, nearly gasping at the return of the string accompaniment that rose to life to join a new melodic phrase in the piano. Together they made a striking force of harmonic elegance. And when the piano entered the third part of this new passage, I felt it in my very bones as I heard the descending melody and accompaniment, felt the return of that opening phrase. And it did with a strike of a deep bass note in time with the last tone of the melody, the descending perfect chords singing again to remind me of their beautiful presence, as the strings and even a flute drifted gently behind them. But then came a true herald of old memories, a solo violin that took over the lead role with its own playing of the melody. And as the vibrato in each of the long tones and the grace of each transition from note to note sculpted its rendition of the song… I was reminded immediately of Saharra…

And it was then, even as the song continued, that I finally tore myself away from the music enough to look back to Archer… only three words on my mind. “They did it…”

Buckley actually did it.

“Yeah they did.” Archer replied with that same smile, soft as if intentionally speaking below Saharra’s instrument. “I actually remember this one from a concert just over a year ago. It’s definitely Saharra on that violin, because this one’s one of her favorites.”

“Really?”

And Archer nodded. “Oh yeah. It’s called Awakening… a rather fitting title if you think about it.”

Awakening…

The awakening of Buckley from its isolation? The awakening of the ears of the southeast to this stunning thing, this beautiful treasure? Yes… it was truly fitting, and no doubt intended to be so. I knew Mother Shimmer, at least enough to know that, in order to announce Buckley’s tentative first steps out from its solitude, she would wish to send a message that was both peaceful and symbolic. And while nopony else would know the name of the song, the music itself was what spoke the nature of her mission.

And here and now, she finally made it happen.

“I can’t believe they actually did it.” I admitted my doubt freely to Archer, who nodded his understanding toward my reservation; he knew why I felt the way I felt. “I thought that after the Talons came… they wouldn’t want anything more to do with that.”

“I was there when Shimmer received the news that everything was set up in the base’s ATC tower, just this morning actually.” Archer explained. “She was so relieved to hear that, you could practically see the energy coming back to her.”

But even though Archer recalled that moment with fondness… I didn’t share that emotion with him. Instead, I only found one more reason to feel ashamed of the role I’d played in weaving his road for him… of bringing his misfortunes to him. That came to me in the form of a little frown, my averting my eyes away from him, briefly, but enough. And I knew he saw it, especially when I met his stare again. “Sorry…” I uttered after a short sigh. “I know we just went over this…”

“But now you see that Buckley is still standing strong, even in the wake of Guardian’s activation.” he replied, pointing a hoof at me. “Now you have proof of the true strength and resolve that rests in that place.” He lowered his hoof back to the ground… and he approached me. “The Talons hit them hard, but they’re probably the toughest lot I’ve ever met in my time. And most of that strength – it comes from their passion for music, definitely not something you see every day.” That was indeed true. “So you understand now that things aren’t as bad as they could’ve been. Buckley’s still very much alive… and something tells me that’s the case for all the settlements out here, yours and others.” Now… Archer stood right before me, speaking with all the sincerity he could rally. And as he did… I caught sight of his hoof reaching out for me… for my foreleg… poised over my pipbuck. The song had reached its end, one last chord from the piano hovering around us… and when nothingness took over again, Archer pressed the radio button on my pipbuck, shutting off the broadcast. “The Legion used Guardian in an effort to knock out everypony they possibly could to get a hold on this region. But while they may have succeeded in that, they failed to take Challenger out of the fight. In fact, I’d say things are quite the opposite here.” I looked on with questioning eyes, tilting my head as I tried to understand. “What I mean by that… you say you helped the Talons cripple the southeast. I say that you helped the Talons create a unified nation that is ready to fight back for their right to live, a stronger region that fights a common enemy, a weapon that can and already has beaten the Legion at its own game.” And at that… I blinked… rather… taken aback by those words… words that made a perspective I never looked through before… one I never even imagined existed… and yet held such a sudden impact that I… didn’t immediately know how to react. “Think on that.” Archer encouraged. “Because when I do, I get the feeling that things are going to turn out better than you think… And I hope that you’ll eventually feel the same way.”

I’d really, truly, never thought of it that way… and it… it actually brought me a little peace, something that stamped itself down and didn’t let go… something that actually gave me the perspective that several ponies had tried to make me see… now threatening to make me feel just a little better…… better about everything.

It was something that… in that moment… brought to my mind a subject with a little more importance. For the first time, without conflict to linger over us, I was face to face with Archer… with this stallion who I’d only known for days… yet felt like I’d been with for far longer. This stallion was the one who shared fierce battles with me, discovered new territory with me… shared a dance with… and now who tried his absolute best to encourage me in the wake of my own emotional maelstrom. This pony… he was a good stallion… and in the silence between us… I found myself smiling a much more genuine smile, one of thanks to him for his words… and one of……

With just slight hesitation, bashfulness, I reached up my left foreleg to him, slowly hooking it around the back of his neck. And when I pulled, he let me bring him in for a hug… and gladly, I rested my head over his right shoulder to savor the embrace. “I’m glad you came and found me, Archer.” I said, nothing but the truth. “And I’m glad you’re okay.”

And I felt as he returned my hold, patting my back just below my wings. “I’m glad you’re okay, too, Nova.” he replied softly. “I really am.”

And when we released each other, the both of us turned our eyes back to my pipbuck, the both of us sharing the same thought. And eagerly, I reactivated Buckley’s broadcast for the both of us to listen in. A new song was already playing, a solo guitar greeting us with a warm welcome, with a slower yet lively and meditative beat that I soon found myself tapping a forehoof to. And we stayed there together, basking in this music from Buckley’s new Eternity Radio… celebrating in comfortable silence the great victory we now beheld.

Mother Shimmer had completed her mission.

Buckley Air Force Base had won.

Footnote: 66% to Level Up.

Chapter 26: Eagles Rising

“Celestia sent us two angels, and at least one had her a three-o-eight caliber flaming sword of justice with a telescopic sight.”

Challenger.

That sprawling city, with walls high and strong… that jewel of iron and wood and earth… forged from the ruin of the Old World, surviving from the unity of the new one. The culmination of years of construction, of scavenging, of traveling and of battling… and of the dream to make something better than the struggle that was all that existed out here in the wasteland. These were just some of the things that gave rise to this beacon on a barren field, this symbol of life returning to an almost wholly lifeless land… this bastion of good in a world plagued by the evil that came from the fight for survival, the one fight that could never truly end.

That city was approaching fast as Sierra and I winged our way toward it, closing up the last mile between us with all the speed we could muster so as to deliver our very urgent report to our waiting commander.

Even before we passed into Challenger’s airspace, I could hear clearly a constant roar coming from beyond the northeast corner of the city wall, one that grew steadily louder as we crossed over it and into the presidential district. From our height, among the first things I recognized was the Presidential Palace, and our camp out in the palace courtyard. Most of our survivors were still there from what I could tell… and for a moment, I thought I saw my little brother amidst the crowd as we flew on by overhead. But we passed the camp quickly, forcing me to look away despite my wish to land and see Blake again. That in turn brought my ears back to my original focus. From here, as we flew over the southeast corner of the warehouse district, I could distinguish that sound as the muddled collection of dozens, maybe even hundreds, of different voices. Sure enough, upon looking down, I found a whole column of Challenger soldiers marching down the road, making their way deeper into the warehouse sector and toward that sound that was sourced close to the main gate. As a whole, the assembling force covered the greater majority of the street. The rest was occupied by civilians… no doubt following their loved ones out to where they were being summoned to, so as to say their goodbyes and to wish them all the luck that they could.

Thankfully, I had very little time to let myself be dragged down by what depressing thoughts and reflections were sure to follow; it was perhaps, I thought to myself, a perk of being a soldier.

Sierra and I were now over the military district. And already, my power-armored friend was beginning to drop her altitude and descend toward the now much emptier camp at a slight and comfortable angle. I followed her in, falling in line behind her and copying her vector of approach. In so doing, I found our destination where it sat amidst one of many clusters of tents and shacks, all following the curves of a nearly vacant network of walkways and dirt lanes. The command tent sat closed and undisturbed, with the one nearby flak gun crew and a half-dozen scattered ponies on the closest road to our right making the only other presence out here. It was so… strange… that I had to hum to myself, a little worried as we slowed to work ourselves into a hover. “Do you think he’s even here?” I ventured.

“If not, then we will need to fly to the main gate where the soldiers are assembling.” Sierra answered me, settling into a hover. “The Lieutenant Colonel is definitely preparing to begin a much larger mission.”

As I fell in beside her, the two of us exchanged glances. “Do you think it’s for the armory?”

Cocking her head to the side in a shrug, Sierra replied, “That may very well be the case. Let’s head into the tent and see.”

At her cue, we both hovered down the rest of the short distance to the surface, and touched down onto solid ground just outside the tent’s entrance. And as soon as I landed, my ears perked with alarm as they were greeted by something rather unexpected, something within the tent. Music... playing bright, clear, carried on the smooth tones of what I recognized as a trumpet. And at the passing of seven tones, a second brass horn joined the first, overlapping its melody with one that rhythmically copied its predecessor. A brief moment in the spotlight for the both of them, and then a third horn came in with the same material in a different key. But that was all I had time to study the very stately, almost royal-like song with my usual focused interest. Sierra was pulling back the tent flap, looking my way and nodding for me to enter first. “Come on, Nova.”

Very business-like, very focused… definitely a couple of things I needed to follow a little better… or at least when compared to Sierra.

Forcing myself forward, I trotted the rest of the way up and entered the command tent. Unlike this morning, the tent was now almost completely empty. All the radio equipment and the terminals with them remained in their places, same with the lanterns, now extinguished, and the central table with the large regional map. But the radio operators who’d been crowded in, and the officer’s we’d met at our first debriefing – they’d all vacated. Only one pony remained inside the tent now, and he was staring at the radio that was sitting at the table’s far end from his place off toward the back right corner of the tent.

“Lieutenant Colonel.” Coming up beside me, Sierra stood herself up tall at attention, a move that I quickly copied as we waited for his response to her greeting.

But… after a few seconds went by without a word, in which only the grand choir of brass kept us company… I began to get the impression that Ajax had been just as absorbed into this music as I had been. It was something I couldn’t help but crack a small smile at as I waited for any form of reply. That finally came when he looked up, past the radio… but not to us. “Have either of you listened to this station yet?” came his question. “That DJ they have on there – DJ Flynt… he’s got quite a lot of energy, a good spirit. He’s always calling the songs he plays gifts, gifts of peace and hope. And I’ve got to say, I actually agree.” Neither of us interrupted him, not even when he paused long enough to finally look us in the eyes. He didn’t say anything about us, about our mission, our waiting report. He only continued on his path, saying, “I’ve already gotten a few dozen remarks about how the music is lifting up the soldiers’ spirits. They’re telling me that it’s comforting them, easing them into things, or at least taking their minds off them for a precious few moments.” He uttered a little chuckle after, one that served to just slightly broaden my smile. “Way I understand it… last night, every single working radio in Challenger just came to life all at once. They all just picked up the frequency and started playing it, caused more than a few ponies in the city to wake up scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes. Then I guess the first song they played just put most of them back to sleep. That’s really quite something.”

“Buckley plays some beautiful music, don’t they, sir?” I asked, a little timidly as I shared my deeper sentiments on this blessing brought to us.

It was nice when Ajax nodded his agreement. “They most certainly do. Never thought something like that would’ve come from a bunch of reclusive artillery-slingers. But I guess even they can have their surprises every once in a while.” Then, he approached the table and stopped before the radio, reaching a hoof up to the top and pressing and holding down a button. The music begun to fade, growing quieter and quieter until he released the button; he still let it play, just loud enough for all of us to hear. “Now, I believe you two have some information for me, and I’d like to hear it.”

“Yes, sir.” I responded, both Sierra and I nodding.

“Just don’t get too distracted by the music while you deliver your report.” came his sudden warning, a light jolt from me fading into a touch of red across my cheeks at his little jab. “I very much enjoy it, and would rather not have to turn it off.” Thankfully, it was Sierra that delivered the report we’d made from our patrol, detailed but to the point. She began by explaining the defenses we’d encountered at the enemy post, plenty of soldiers setting up a good solid perimeter, and the sniper towers, as well as the possibility of turret defenses added to the top of the list thanks to the heavy presence of their mobile gun platforms. Once on the subject of the raiders’ heavy weaponry, Sierra recounted the various vehicles we saw. The wagon train, the mobile guns – the wagon-mounted balefire egg launcher we found drew Ajax’s attention the quickest of the threats we named, maybe second only to the mentioning of the vertibuck that I’d spotted hiding behind the farm’s warehouses. All of that gear mixed in with a garrison that was at least one hundred strong, probably more. And I remembered seeing the enemy soldiers through my rifle scope, their armor thick, their weapons ratty but still dangerous. It was a prime example of just how well-equipped these raiders were, how organized, coordinated, and prepared they were becoming. If there were other raider clans out there beyond the southeast, my guess was that this one put most of them to shame. And in the end, Sierra and I concluded our report with the same thoughts we’d been pondering on our way back to base. The Black Blood was gearing up for a push into Challenger’s turf, one that the city absolutely could not afford to let succeed. The S.E.R.A.F. had a mountain of problems to face already, and the loss of more territory would only dump salt on the wound; it didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

“While you were gone I looked over the old records that I made after the last report came to me on the enemy presence there.” Ajax explained upon taking in our findings. “There’s definitely way more military assets in that old farm now than there was before.” As Sierra and I nodded, he added then, “I won’t sugarcoat it – we’re on thin ice trying to keep the enemy out of our backyard. And make no mistake… one more hard push, one more loss on our part… and we might never link back up to Ashton again. This we cannot allow.”

“Yes, sir.” Sierra and I spoke together.

“You two came back just in time.” the Lieutenant Colonel explained. “The task force I’ve been assembling throughout the morning is ready to take the fight to those raiders. I’ve got two different units that I’m putting into play at once. The first is a platoon-sized force made of civilian volunteers in Challenger and a squad from Proudspire that I’m sending against another occupied farm to the north of the Base Post. It’s a more lightly defended outpost for the raiders, a place they’re using to organize ambushes against Legion scouts and our own runners. The second is my battalion’s first company, the unit you’re both a part of, and they’re heading for the Wheaton Armory.” At our silence, he approached his map and reared up to set his forehooves onto the table’s edge. “By targeting two objectives at once, it’s my goal to create the springboard I need to execute a pincer move against the Base Post and the enemy garrison.” he explained, running a hoof over the map as he laid out the next phases of his operations. “In the best case scenario, Wheaton and the Maple Farmstead will be cleared. After that, while First Company secures Wheaton, a new company from the battalion will approach the Base Post from the west while the team I’m sending after the farm now will come at them from the north. We’ll overrun that post, just like what we’ll do with Wheaton.” Then he looked back to us directly. “Fourth Battalion’s First Company has approximately two hundred and ten soldiers, including the two of you. Now that I have your report, I want you two to head back out there and link up with your unit so you can help in the assault against the armory.” As he gave his new order, he turned to Sierra. “The air support you’ll be able to give will be vital to this mission.” Then he turned to me. “And whether you take to the air or take a long-range approach with that rifle of yours, you’ll both be a tremendous asset, because you’ll be operating close to the mobile gun crews I’ve assigned to the force.”

“How so, sir?” Sierra ventured.

“Those guns are going to make the front line once we engage the armory.” Ajax answered. “I’m going to want you both to give them all the support you can in whatever way you see fit. Keep them from getting overwhelmed, because they’re the one shot we’ve got at keeping casualties to a minimum out there.” Once we nodded our understanding, he stepped back down from the table and backed away. “So, you’re standing orders are as follows – you’re heading to the Wheaton Armory. Report to Captain Royce, and he’ll tell you where he needs you. Then, whether the mission is a success or a failure, you’ll both be heading out to the Moonstone Peak Outpost as quick as you can, which Royce can mark on your maps for you. Since I’m keeping the battalion’s second and third companies in the city for the sake of fortifying the home front while these next operations are underway, you’ll be heading there to provide a little extra pony-power in the event of an attack on the peaks while I trickle in what reinforcements I can throughout the night. Then, so long as everything goes smoothly up to that point, you’ll eventually be taking part in the main objective to wipe out that raider post with either the second or third company so we can clear a path back to Ashton and send the Fourth Battalion into the city to reinforce the main army there.”

And that… that was quite the checklist, definitely the biggest, most intensive, and most important I’d ever been given in my time. There was a lot riding on these operations, and there was even more that went into making sure they were met with success. I knew already, just from hearing out Ajax, that this was going to keep me out in the field for a long time… and consequently keep me from returning here, back to our survivors… and most important – Blake and Shore. I’d kept hope up that I’d be able to see them again today, even if just long enough to let them know that I was doing just fine out there. But more than that, I’d also entertained the thought of showing Blake the medallion I’d found out in that ruined wagon train. With that strange but beautiful artifact in my possession, I’d begun to ponder using it to explain what I’d started thinking about in regards to the symbol we shared. With him having the same cutie mark as me, I felt he deserved to at least hear my reflections on the matter, which might then bring him to raise questions and propose theories of his own. This was something that we shared… and thus, it was something that involved the both of us.

But as it was now… time was not on our side.

“Any questions before you two head out?”

When Ajax spoke back up, my attention snapped quickly to where it was supposed to be, just in time for me to hear as Sierra in turn asked, “What kind of opposition can we expect?”

“I’ve got no doubt that the original force that took the armory is still there.” Ajax answered without a pause. “Couple that with any reinforcements that they might’ve smuggled in, and we’re looking at around one hundred fifty or more. It’s not going to be a short fight, and they’re going to be dug in good.”

I couldn’t keep a small sigh from escaping me. Thankfully, the Lieutenant Colonel let me be, instead listening to Sierra who asked, “And what about the layout of the armory itself?”

“There are five buildings.” came his explanation. “On the north side, there’s the wagon garage and office complex, and the primary warehouse is just beyond those. Then at the south end, there’s the base’s command center, and finally the vault holding the actual armory. Five buildings, lots of open ground between them, and the old road you’ll be taking to get there cuts the base right in half.”

“Then the fight on the outside is going to be the worst part of it all.” I chimed in.

“Yes it will.” Ajax replied to my comment. “With so many soldiers on both sides, it’ll be hectic. But this is what we’ve been preparing for, what we’ve trained ourselves to deal with, and I have every faith that we’ve all instilled in ourselves the skills we need to win this fight and take back what we lost.” And looking between us one more time, “You two are going to see a bit of what Challenger is really capable of in this operation and the ones to follow to Ashton. And I think you’ll find your new brothers and sisters in arms to be of a superior quality. Any other questions before you leave?” He gave us a moment, but in the end, neither of us raised another question. And so, he gave us a nod before gesturing a hoof out to the tent flap behind us. “The First Company should be exiting the city as we speak. Head back out there, find them, and fall in with their march, but make sure to stop by the main gate first and stock up on potions and whatever ammo you might need. Once you link up with Royce and the company, then you’ll play your part in showing our enemies what we do when they provoke us.”

Together, Sierra and I confirmed our new objective with a solid voice. “Yes, sir.”

“Outstanding. Dismissed.”

*** *** ***

*chirp

A light beep drew me to a stop, long enough for me to bring my pipbuck up to eye level. The regional map was displayed for the second time in the course of about a half hour, the collection of various icons showing me the full scope of my travels once more… quite a lot of ground that I’d covered over the past month. From the Southeast Regional Power Plant to the far west and Hopeville to the northwest of that, all the way out to Marefax in the northernmost border of the region. There was the Nation Guard Bunkers due northeast, way up there on the display, and the Black Blood’s Base Post as the farthest eastern landmark. And of course, Stable 181, that gear-shaped icon all by its lonesome way down in the bottom left corner of my screen. The first time my computer spoke, Challenger’s Fourth Battalion, First Company, had passed through an allied outpost made from the ruins of what I discovered to be the Roseluck Greenhouses. It was a small ruin, still mostly preserved after the many years. One larger office complex and a parking lot was accompanied by three dozen long, squat, rounded metal huts with shattered glass windows and roofs, once the home to a wide variety of vegetable plants and exotic flowers; only a few of those greenhouses had collapsed. There had even been a billboard outside advertising something that had brought about a brief trip down memory lane, both for me and for Raemor. Marefax – the Garden City. Knowing about that old city and the unique attraction that gave it its name back in the day – the Garden Ring, the river of flowers that surrounded the downtown sector – that billboard showed us all that the greenhouses either supplied some of those flowers to the city, played a role in providing food to the city or the whole of the region, or at the very least, was a part of a larger network of planting and growing hubs that worked hoof-in-hoof with the local farms. Whatever its Old World purpose, the platoon of Challenger soldiers that occupied the ruin had more than effectively given it a new and more relevant use. Thanks to the combined firepower of four twenty millimeter flak guns and two other custom-made mobile weapon platforms, coupled with a day’s labor of welding work, forming plate barricades and even guard towers, the greenhouse office building was a proper fortress.

Truly, quite amazing what only thirty ponies could do when the situation was dire.

The greenhouses had been quiet when we’d shown up. However, we were greeted quickly by a couple of soldiers on perimeter patrol, who bore to Captain Royce an urgent message. Searchlight, visible from the outpost on the far horizon, had been home to new activity from the enemy. According to the outpost’s commanding lieutenant, Black Blood patrols had been seen in the settlement, picking through the abandoned shacks. And lately, they’d been making themselves comfortable, patrolling the edge of town, keeping an eye on the greenhouses from there… just as Challenger was doing to them. During the short pause in our march toward the Wheaton Armory, I’d been able to overhear the captain’s meet with a collection of squad leaders on site, in which I heard the prominent worry that came with this latest bout of enemy activity. Both the greenhouse commander and Royce came to the conclusion that the Black Blood Raiders were fortifying their position at the Wheaton Armory by making an attempt to secure Searchlight for their own use. If they were left unchecked for too long, then Searchlight itself would become a shield for the armory, and a very potentially dangerous threat. And it would, without a doubt, keep us from making our move on Wheaton itself.

As such, we now had ourselves a new objective to meet before we could proceed with the primary mission. And as we were about to begin, I thanked my lucky stars for the resupply I’d gotten in Challenger, yielding fresh reloads for all my weapons and plenty of extra ammo for future use; Challenger definitely took care of its soldiers.

My pipbuck brought my attention back to the regional map this time to show me that we were now entering Searchlight itself. Thanks to some idle conversation I’d been able to start on our way here, I’d learned that Searchlight itself had risen up from one of the southeastern farms. Following the same example as Challenger itself, shipments of wood and steel and other raw building materials had been sent to the farm once every seven to ten days. And little by little, shack by shack, the settlement was growing. As it was now, it was definitely sizeable enough, not the size of Hopeville, but close. A collection of both large and small shacks were arranged in a pair of literal squares, perhaps a dozen or so a piece, forming blocks around wide open courtyards. And in front of that, closest to us, were the beginnings of two more such blocks formed of partially completed shacks. And finally, farthest away at the back of the settlement, was the actual farm itself that the settlement had been founded on. A massive barn stood over the settlement… which was unfortunately the one piece of the original property that remained standing. A farmhouse, along with a smaller barn, a wagon shack, and a pair of grain silos had also been here before. A strike from one of the Guardian missiles had annihilated the whole thing, wiping out those structures and collapsing the roof and part of one wall of the barn, this according to one of the soldiers in our unit… an eye-witness to the attack. The second and final missile that had struck the settlement had hit the corner of the left-side block, flattening three shacks and collapsing two others by the sheer force of the blast. While the settlement itself looked mostly livable regardless, even a strike like that was more than enough to send the settlers here running for Challenger.

It was a terrible shame… but one that I couldn’t concern myself with now. But what was concerning… and not just to me, but to everypony in the unit… was the lack of sound here in Searchlight.

The company was dividing into multiple teams to approach the abandoned settlement. Simultaneously, a pair of firing lines was being set up around it, covering the east and west sides, which would provide long-range fire support to the two main teams that were advancing into the town; they would close in on the settlement after the initial attack. The team leading the charge was comprised of the mobile gun units that the company had been given for the mission, put together with plenty of infantry support. We’d been given five guns for the mission, three of them being twenty millimeter flak guns, and the other two being all-purpose missile turrets, capable of defending us from both ground and aerial threats.

And finally, there was the team that Sierra and I had been ushered into, following right on the heels of the first as a second wave that would get up close and personal for the sake of protecting our gun crews.

With a sizeable chunk of the company hanging back to provide long-range support, there were around half of us that were moving into the town itself, maybe a hundred or so – fifty to a team. Gunny, Raemor, and Ivy were all ahead of me in the lead team, while Sierra and I were ordered to keep our distance and remain on the ground… only until we found the enemy. Here, Captain Royce wanted to use my wings instead of my eyes, but was careful to keep me close until he decided he needed me. As such, had me on standby for the first sign of an enemy presence, at which point I’d take to the air and dive right into the thick of the fighting.

As it was now, however, nothing emerged from Searchlight’s shacks.

Thankfully, caution was a shared sentiment among the whole company. Up ahead, I could pick up the order given by Captain Royce himself to hold, to stop moving up and to wait, to observe. The lead team, guns and all, stopped just behind the first line of completed shacks, thus causing our own team to come to a halt at the order of a sergeant leading the way for us. “I don’t like this…” The comment came from a Challenger soldier next to me, a large unicorn stallion that was pale green in color with an ashy blue mane and tail – the very same stallion that had helped me fight my way into Challenger just a couple days ago. “They’ve got to have something waiting for us in there.”

“I think you’re right, Micah.” I remarked in a hushed voice, keeping my focus on the leading team, and more specifically where my three friends were in the midst of Challenger’s soldiers. “This is too easy.”

After a couple quick shouted orders, the lead team begun to disperse. Quickly, quietly, and in an organized fashion, troops begun to fan out and advance around the settlement, left and right to follow the line of shacks. And a moment later, the order for our team to move reached us from our sergeant. In tandem we all begun to make our way up, moving at a steady trot to rejoin the stationary mobile guns and keep them sheltered. In the scramble, I was able to spot where Gunny, Ivy, and Raemor stuck together, advancing as their own unit amidst the other soldiers. As we moved up, I was able to piece together the plan that Royce had implemented here – he was keeping the troops out of the heart of Searchlight, or at least long enough for them to take up positions along the walls of the intact shacks. And sure enough, as my team begun to form up around and behind the line of mobile guns, squads were lining up near the closest shacks, waiting for a signal to move into the settlement, to clear up the place one building at a time.

But right then, as Captain Royce gave the order in the form of a waved hoof, a signal that made its way from squad to squad, the barn at the far end of the settlement exploded in a tremendous detonation, one that shook the very ground, and immediately set my ears to ringing as boards and fragments of metal went shooting into the sky like meteors. Everypony in my whole team jerked back, alarmed shouts going up in the wake of the detonation as, in place of the old structure, a bright green fireball mushroomed up into the air, streaked with black smoke yet blazing bright. We all knew what that green fire was, but nopony could react to it before, immediately after, another explosion caused the whole settlement to tremble. The shack closest to where the barn once stood lit up with green light before exploding outward, showering the courtyard with debris as another green mushroom cloud loomed up over the settlement. I was only able to recover enough to look back to the two balefire clouds before I recoiled again, a third explosion completely obliterating a second shack. Ponies were trying to talk to one another through it all, trying to maintain some kind of order. But a fourth detonation ripped through the settlement with a fifth coming in right behind it. And then there was another, and another, and another, until the whole world was just one constant deafening roar for seconds on end, accompanied through and through by one solid shade of bright green behind my closed eyes.

Then… just as quickly as it had begun…

I had ended up on my stomach… some desperate attempt to shield myself from the rapid string of blasts. There had been a gap in my awareness from the sheer power of those explosions, and now it was only slowly returning. For a good few seconds, a few dizzying seconds as my head throbbed painfully, my ears ringing loudly, I stayed laying there where I’d fallen, coughing twice as I breathed in a thick cloud of dust. That brought my head up, my eyes forward… and when I opened them…

Shrouded in a heavy churning cloud, tinted green from the balefire that burned in several large patches on the ground, Searchlight… it was almost completely destroyed. Through the haze… the once wholesome shacks I’d seen were either wholly leveled, or were now nothing more than a few boards and beams that remained standing. Out of over two dozen completed shacks, I could only count seven that were still standing. And of those caught in the blasts, twelve had been completely annihilated, while the rest had collapsed because of the concussive force of the balefire detonations.

“Hey! Get up! Come on, get up!”

Miraculously, my hearing was coming back, and had recovered enough for me to hear Micah before he gave me a shove with a hoof. All around, the soldiers of our group were struggling back up to their hooves. Just a few paces ahead, the gun crews were returning to their guns and assuming their positions, rolling their units into the destroyed settlement as quick as they could. And as the company scrambled to get organized, voices were shouting orders back and forth, calling for medical aid, demanding a casualty and injury report, trying to rally everypony back together. “A-are we under attack?”

As I pushed myself back up, rising unsteadily onto all fours, Micah moved into my field of view to answer, speaking up to reach me through my weakened ears. “No, but we need to help the wounded! There were a lot of soldiers near those shacks!”

My eyes snapped to the right, out toward the blasted northwest corner of Searchlight; my friends had been right there when it happened!

Micah was already galloping into the town, disappearing into the dust to assist in the rescue efforts that were already underway. I followed his example right after he vanished, focusing on where I last saw my friends and moving quick as I could to find them. As I made my way through, weaving my way between the other soldiers as they got their bearings and begun to assist on their own, I heard as my pipbuck spoke up through the crowd, talking via the built-in geiger counter. It was clicking slowly but steadily to warn me of the presence of radiation left behind from the balefire. That clicking intensified as I drew closer to one of the fires that ate its way through the remains of one of the ruined shacks near the corner of the settlement. This shack had been one of those holding an explosive within it, and nearby it were five soldiers working together to help three others that had been crippled by the blast. It was hard to see their injuries through the grey haze, but they were still alive, being hoisted onto the backs of waiting soldiers to take them out of the radiation.

“GUNNY!!” I shouted out toward those green flames, my eyes darting from figure to figure that galloped through the dust, or pulled another body from the ruins. “IVY!!” I couldn’t distinguish them from any of the others, and I didn’t see anypony turn their attention to me as I called my friends’ names. “RAEMOR!!” I moved on to the far corner of the settlement, where the shack here had collapsed, falling down on its east wall that had caved from the explosion next-door. There was a larger concentration of soldiers here, as the firing line that had been set up to the west of the settlement came rushing back to help. As such, it was even harder for me to try and make shape of anypony in particular. And upon calling out their names again, I still received no response from any of them.

But that’s when I heard my name, carried on a muffled voice. And spinning around, I found Sierra as she galloped over to join me, skidding to a halt beside me. “Are you okay, Nova?”

“I’m fine.” I quickly assured, briefly looking over her armor for any wounds. “What about you, are you alright?

“Just fine.” she answered me, equally brief; the same worries were on her mind too, it seemed. “Where are the others?”

“I thought they were right around this corner of the settlement.” I looked back and forth, scanning quickly over Searchlights wreckage to try and find one of those familiar faces. “I don’t know where they ended up, I can’t find them…”

“Come on, let’s keep looking.” Without another word Sierra trotted on past me, moving further up all the way to the tip of the corner I’d been looking through. And as I hurried around to follow after her, she took up the call herself to try and find them, shouting out each of their names to try and separate them from the crowd.

“I don’t see them…”

As I joined her at her side, Sierra tried one more time to find them by calling their names. But this time, as I glanced back to her, I saw her flinch with a start, whereupon she snapped a hoof up to point ahead of her. “There! I think that’s Gunny!”

My eyes darted to where Sierra was gesturing to, tracing more carefully over the cluster of soldiers working to get the rest of the injured out of the epicenter. “Where?” But only a moment after, and I finally found something that gave me an answer. Despite the dust, a dull shade of blue managed to punch through the smoke and dust, the shade of blue that was paired with the yellow paint of a Stable-Tec security armor rig. Gunny was there, standing at the opposite side of the collapsed shack closest to me, looking deeper into the Searchlight ruins. There from out of the dust, another pony rendezvoused with him, looking unsteady but mostly unharmed, and together they begun to trot toward the direction Sierra and I had come from, the both of them looking left and right for another member of their party.

“Gunny!!” I moved at a gallop around the ruined shack, cutting the southwest corner of the foundation with a little hop and then rushing the rest of the way over. And when I was close enough to see the brick red coat and ash-grey mane, I called out for him one more time. And finally, my friend looked over his shoulder to find me, uttering an inaudible sigh as I closed up the distance between us. “Gunny, are you okay??”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” he assured quickly, turning about to face me as I ground to a halt before him. “What about you? Are you hurt?”

I shook my head as I took in a breath. “No, no I’m okay. But you, you and the others were in the settlement when those eggs went off.” A quick glance to the right, and I saw where the pony with Gunny was moving west, approaching another stallion as he stumbled into view. “Ivy! Raemor!”

“You alright, Sierra?”

“Yes. I was not as close to the blast as you were.”

As Sierra and Gunny caught up, the three of us made our way over to the others. Sure enough, we found as Ivy looked over a dazed Raemor to check him for injuries. Even with little effort, I could see where the old unicorn had removed a chunk of shrapnel from his upper left leg, a streamer of blood left behind to show where he’d been hit. But other than that, he looked okay. Still, both to him and Ivy, I couldn’t help but venture the question. “I think we’re all okay.” Ivy answered me when I asked, both she and Raemor joining us as we made a circle. “Gunny had to take a piece of shrapnel out of his shoulder, and Raemor took shrapnel to his leg. But so far as I know, that’s it.”

“How’s the geiger counter, Nova?”

“Still ticking…” At Gunny’s question I gave the device a quick onceover – I could see that my radiation level was still relatively minor at this point, and the ticking emitting from the device was growing sparser with each passing second. “But it’s dying down quick. Radiation should disappear soon.”

Afterwards, I caught Gunny in the corner of my eye as he stomped a hoof onto the dirt, kicking up a puff of dust. “Luna damn it… those fuckers are tricky.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had to go against the Black Blood.” I said back, the both of us meeting eye to eye. “I guess even they can change their tactics.”

“They may be dumb and reckless most of the time,” Ivy chimed in. “but I’ve seen them resort to some downright fiendish tricks to get ahead in a fight.”

“They had this very same trap pulled on them in Hopeville.” my friend responded to her and I both, a sharpness in his tone brought about by his simmering anger; the reminder sent a jolt of realization through my head as I recalled the raiders’ invasion of the town all those days ago. “They just stole a page out of our book… After finding Searchlight empty, we should’ve seen it coming.”

I couldn’t help but sag slightly under the reminder. “I guess you’re right…”

“Hey, some of the commanders are gathering up back by the guns.” Raemor unified our focus onto him as he raised a hoof to point out past the ruin. With the dust beginning to settle, I could see where troops were mobilizing around the mobile gun crews. The majority of the company was gathering up in other groups, focused on tending to whatever wounded emerged from the aftermath of the blasts. But in the group Raemor pointed out, I could see Captain Royce in the center of a smaller cluster, where the majority of the dialogue I heard was taking place.

As our own group, we headed their way. En route, I stayed close to Raemor as he limped along. He took his wound better than I would’ve expected, a testament to just how seasoned he was for somepony his age. Still, before we got too far, I’d made sure he chugged down a portion of one of his healing potions to sew the puncture shut. As it was now, we five joined the circle just as one of our sergeants spoke up to the captain directly. “Those weren’t our eggs, were they? Please tell me those weren’t ours!”

The sergeant’s question, wrought with well-deserved anxiety, swiftly prompted some of the soldiers in the gathering to fire off their own questions. And there was a more-than-justifiable reason, too. What if those eggs really were a part of the supposed stockpile at the Wheaton Armory? What if the site had already been compromised? What if we were already too late? And most important – what if we were walking into a much bigger and much deadlier trap than the one sprung here in Searchlight?

Those questions very quickly brought me up to the same level of concern as the soldiers around me, and I found myself sharing nervous looks with Ivy and Raemor as they were spoken one after the next. But Royce – he himself didn’t look nearly as troubled as the others, and proceeded to raise a hoof to quell his subordinates. “Take my word for it – those scumbags did not get their hooves on the stockpile.”

“Besides,” another soldier spoke up; a quick look, and I saw Micah as the culprit. “those raiders have used balefire weapons against us before. The only difference here is in how many eggs they decided to throw at us this time.”

“But still, how can we be sure?” another soldier shakily asked. “I’ve never seen them put so many balefire eggs in one place before.”

“This was just them trying to scare us away, and luckily we didn’t just go barging into Searchlight. But the point is – you all know Wheaton’s layout.” he answered. “That place was built with a secure vault in its underground level. And with it being old military, that vault was protected by security measures that only Challenger has knowledge of.” At that point, Royce raised up an armored foreleg, then reaching down and biting onto something close to one of his pockets that I couldn’t make out. But I figured it out soon enough when he tugged, pulling on a string tied to which was a single object. Colored bright blue, it was a long, circular piece of shiny steel, with several notches carved into a pattern of vertical and horizontal lines along the slender body. He held it there for a few seconds, letting us all get a glimpse of the item he’d kept safe on his person. And upon sliding it back into the pocket on his foreleg, he finally spoke again, saying, “That is a security key, one of two that were built to unlock the vault door and access the stockpile. Only Challenger’s officers were let in on how that vault worked. To keep from compromising the stockpile, not even other soldiers were allowed to have that information. But all this time, we had both keys in our possession, always keeping one at the armory, and the other in Challenger itself to protect the balefire eggs the city had scavenged or purchased over the past ten years since the last conflict. Now, the enemy has one of those keys. But…… without this one, they cannot touch that stockpile.”

Thank Celestia… and Luna…

Hearing that – the failsafe the city had implemented in guarding its invaluable cache – it was a real assurance, one that put many more than just myself at greater ease. However, with that benefit came a price, a threat that, while not as physically dangerous as what we’d all been initially thinking, still put a shadow over Challenger. And Royce – he put that threat into words as he addressed all those that surrounded him. “The fine details of our mission – we are to get this key to the armory, kill every single scumbag bearing the Black Blood’s colors, find the second key, and open that vault. But now that everypony here knows the technology surrounding the armory, you now know what could happen if we fail. For the first time in ten years, this key has left Challenger, and both keys will be at the Wheaton Armory together. If the enemy overruns us and scatters us… then we are in danger of them acquiring the second key and opening the vault.”

For a good long moment, there was silence. My friends and I – we weren’t Challenger soldiers, not to begin with. Because of that, this revelation was, to us, just an extremely important piece of information to take great heed to. And we all did, I knew that for a fact. But for these soldiers… they had just had revealed to them a secret that had been in place for ten years… maybe even more. And that secret added a whole new layer of urgency to the mission they’d been tasked with. “In any other circumstance, the key I have would have stayed in Challenger.” Royce added in a finalizing tone. “But with the situation being what it is, we have no time whatsoever to waste in playing by the book. The sequence of objectives that General Silverlight and Lieutenant Colonel Ajax have laid out before us have to happen one right after the next, with no gaps in between. Otherwise, the enemy will find and exploit the window of opportunity that we give them. I know you all understand already… but I feel I have to say it one more time – it’s all or nothing now.”

“Captain!”

To my right, a soldier called out for our commander’s attention, and the white earth pony looked to see a unicorn stallion trot out through the lingering dust to stand at the back of our gathering. “What’s the situation, soldier?” Royce asked him.

“A lot of injuries… eight deaths, sir…”

“I’ve got casualties here too, sir…” Then, a second soldier called out by my left, an earth mare with a twin rifle saddle and an equally somber voice. “Eleven dead, and there’s six over here that won’t be able to do much more than watch at this point.”

In the aftermath of the report, a wave of mumbling passed through the assembled soldiers, making a mix of heartbreak, of worry… and more than both of those… anger.

“What do we do, Captain?” one soldier spoke out amidst the crowd.

But at the report he’d been given, Royce set himself into a glare of determination, just the right mix of focus and anger. “We move on.” he said, addressing everypony. “Leave the dead, pack up the wounded, regroup with your teams and fall back in!” And thankfully, nopony spoke up in protest, only beginning to scatter and reform their ranks. “These assholes though they’d scare us away with this… but the way I see it, all they’ve succeeded in doing is making us all the more pissed off!” And as shouts of agreement suddenly begun to rise up from the crowd, determination taking wing quickly in the wake of this disaster, Royce said, “We’re not going to back down in the face of this attack! We’re marching on that armory, and the enemy’s going to have hell to pay for this! Pick yourselves up, and move out!”

*** *** ***

“Third floor of the parking garage, left side!”

“Got ‘em! Firing!”

With a violent roar, a missile from one of the nearby mobile guns raced out toward its target, flying quickly into the Torch’s scope as it made its way toward the four-story stone structure at the north face of our target site. I followed that missile all the way to its impact, a direct hit on the target specified by the spotter. As soon as it hit, two other raiders emerged as they were blown out of hiding, forced to scramble away. That’s when I took my own shot, lining up my crosshairs quick as I could, and biting down on the firing bit. I scored a clean headshot on one of them before the second managed to duck back down behind the concrete. But only a second later, and green light swelled within the structure, and a deep boom echoed softly from within, an old wagon’s spark battery detonating right after the missile that had trigger it.

I was a part of a pair of lines comprised of all our company’s designated sharpshooters. Everypony that had packed up or had been issued a rifle with a long scope, numbering thirty-one approximately, had been ordered to the back of the company on our final approach to our destination. And then, when the charge had begun, we fanned out quick and orderly, and set up a long line of firing positions to reach out and hit the enemy before they could hit us. That plan was well in motion now, as our double-line formation of snipers was putting nonstop pressure on the enemy, keeping their attention on protecting their own miserable hides and off the advancing main force. I was in the back line, just a few yards away from one of the two mobile missile launchers in our company that had now been retrofitted into field artillery units. The unicorn crews that manned those guns were working double-quick to keep the missiles flying, and so far were maintaining a steady rhythm in the fire they put downrange. But it was because of those guns that we had a very limited window of opportunity to get into the Armory grounds; once those turrets ran out of ammo, we’d lose a big chunk of our firepower, and our ability to protect the rest of the unit.

As it was now, the main force of the company was charging in, moving in no organized formation, and the frontrunners were only two hundred yards away from the chain-link fence that made the north perimeter of the Wheaton Armory. It was a mad dash to their destination, the only way we could approach the enemy in the open fields that surrounded the site. Every soldier not a part of our improvised sniper platoon was galloping full speed straight into the teeth of the enemy guns. And already, we’d lost ponies. I couldn’t count how many, and worse, I couldn’t know who. All I could do was keep finding and eliminating targets.

I was keeping my focus on the parking garage, scanning as quickly and accurately as I could along the balconies to try and find the enemy before they popped out from cover to take shots at our advancing soldiers. As I moved my crosshairs from the third floor up to the fourth, another missile flying free from the nearby launcher, I found several available targets. The first raider I landed on was a unicorn wielding a simple assault rifle. Even as he came under fire from the main force, he held the trigger of his weapon until I put a round right between his eyes, a pink mist shot. Right next to him, another stallion was firing a compact SMG, having just emptied a clip and returning to cover before I could center my aim on him. But a mare next to him was open, using a scoped precision carbine, too focused on aiming to be aware. After two seconds to adjust, I pulled the trigger and caught her square in the chest, the armor-piercing round punching through her leather rig to send her down in a spray of crimson.

It was then that I was jerked away from my crosshairs as metal struck sharply against metal, a sniper round glancing off the armored hull of the mobile missile launcher as a second struck the ground just inches away from the first impact. The crew of four recovered quickly and returned to their positions, one of them calling quick that he’d seen a possible attacker on the second floor of the garage through his binoculars. I hurried back to looking through the Torch’s scope, zeroing back in on that area. A whole new cluster of raiders had set up shop, at least a dozen, all lining up along the balcony there with weapons ranging from long rifles to full auto. But worse, I found a bipod-mounted heavy machinegun in the mix, already opening up with rapid cracks of sound that rang louder than much of the battle around it. Even as I put my crosshairs on the gunner, five other raiders of the line had gone down thanks to other snipers in our group. And when I took my shot, the round hit the armor plate of his shoulder and sent him down, his weapon tumbling back with him.

After putting him down, I shifted my place and brought Blue Fire’s Torch around to face the structure across the way from the garage – the armory warehouse. This building, while tall and overall rather massive, only had one balcony in the form of a catwalk that wrapped around all four sides of the structure. While sections of it had fallen away with age, many of the support beams holding the walkway in its place still remained fastened into the walls, and what parts had collapsed were replaced with thick wooden planks. Only a couple raiders were using this balcony, as it was far more exposed than the garage. But an LMG raider had gone unnoticed up there, even as another hostile wielding a pistol was hit, tumbling over the rail and taking the long fall back to the surface. I homed in on the gunner, lining up a quick shot and pulling the trigger. The round drove into his armored torso, passing just under his weapon to hit him. The force broke his concentration on his telekinesis, and his weapon fell from the balcony. Then, one more shot, and I killed him before he could try and run, which emptied my first clip.

“There! They’re starting to move into the armory!”

A call to my left, one that was very quickly passed around among the snipers scattered about that way, drew my eyes back to the ground and to where the main force of the company was pushing open the chain gate that was the entrance to the armory. Everypony moving at a gallop, they were splitting off into teams, some heading left, others right, and others still sprinting right down the road between the warehouse and the garage. Though casualties had been on a continuous rise, we’d breached the perimeter. But there were still plenty of targets out there that we needed to deal with, and with the main force now past the gate, they were far more exposed.

Quick as I could I ejected my spent clip and set the Torch down to sit up and reach around and into my saddlebags for a fresh one. As soon as I found one, however, a stray round punched into the dirt just a yard in front of me. A second round followed the first immediately after that forced me to retreat from my saddlebag, jolting me into awareness as I instead prepared to relocate, to run long enough for another sniper to try and take the pressure off me, a solid tactic that had gotten us this far. Now, for the first time I got a good solid look around at the rest of the platoon… though it was scary what I found. Another rocket raced out from the launcher farthest away, leaving a thin smoke trail in its wake. But between me and the launcher, I saw at least seven dead from our platoon, and others were moving to present themselves as a harder target to hit. I followed suit in that regard, scooping up the Torch by the stock and setting off into a gallop to the east, toward the far end of the platoon. Even as I ran, another round hit close to me, nipping at my tail with the dirt it kicked up. But after passing behind another half dozen snipers, and with no other bullets striking behind me, I took a gander and set up shop once more, setting my rifle back down on its bipod and resuming my search for a new clip. This time, I was able to snag it without interruption, and pulling it free, I set myself back down onto my gut, and with my hooves, guided the clip into its place and finally chambered a new round.

I had done so just in time, as the last squads of the main force were pushing their way into the Wheaton compound. A whole mess of gunfire beyond the chain-link perimeter told me that the raiders had set up a considerable defensive force deeper within the base. It led me to wonder if Royce and Ajax’s estimates of the enemy numbers hadn’t been as correct as I’d hoped. But all I could do was keep providing what support I could, and prepare to move up; once the whole main force entered the base and begun their own mission to sweep and clear the northern half of the base, we’d be heading up to join them.

*** *** ***

“YOU FOUR, HEAD RIGHT!! CUT AROUND THE GARAGE AND HELP HIT THE OFFICES!!”

Under the steady roar of gunfire coming just yards down the road, Captain Royce ushered us to the right with a frantic hoof. And tucking the All-Equestrian close, I took the lead of our group and made a mad dash to the west wall of the wagon garage. Thanks to the sniper support provided by the platoon we’d left in the fields, a great deal of the enemy presence closest to us had been eliminated. They’d done a near perfect job in paving the way for us, and in our charge, we’d come under a lot less fire than we’d been expecting. Now it was time to do our part – we were to take over each of the five structures that made up the Wheaton Armory one piece at a time, starting with the garage and the single great warehouse. As a part of one of the last teams to enter the compound, we were able to avoid entering those larger buildings; the first squads were already inside and fighting their way through. But with being among the last to enter, Raemor, Ivy, and I were now moving up to become a part of the front line force that was pushing their way to the office complex behind the garage, the third of our five target sites.

The three of us, along with one other Challenger soldier – Duke, the blue unicorn who was our greeter way back when we’d first discovered Challenger – moved at an even speed along the wall and rounded the northwest corner one by one. We were following on the heels of a squad of six, who had just brought down one stray raider that had chanced a peek over the stone railing of one of the upper floors of the garage. Thankfully, no one else copied that move, making it safe to say that the garage was well under control thus far.

“How are we holding up??”

Though I didn’t look behind me as I asked the question, I heard positive remarks from both Ivy and Raemor. And after, Duke called back, saying, “One of our flak guns should be right up ahead! That thing will give us plenty of protection!”

I could hear the signature ringing cracks of the twenty millimeter already, and as we closed in on the southwest corner of the garage, the squad ahead of us disappearing swiftly behind the wall to join in the ensuing firefight, I was already plotting out where I’d move once we joined the battle. Whether a part of the original base layout, or the result of Challenger’s acquisition of the facility, there were a number of crates and barrels in organized stacks, piled up on steel pallets. And beyond them, I could see the edge of a rusty shipping container. Already, Challenger soldiers had taken up positions there as they put down their collective fire on the office complex that I was also able to see.

Then we were moving into the fight itself, passing the last stretch of the wall to emerge into a short clearing before a small storage yard. And without slowing I sprinted into the open and toward the first available cover I could find. On my way through, I found the flak gun, set up between two pallets of metal barrels and delivering an unending barrage that had already torn up a great length of the office building’s wall. Then I was in position, finally stopping to catch my breath as Raemor, Ivy, and then Duke came and joined me. Immediately after we had settled, a whole mess of rounds struck sharply off the metal barrels that made our cover, causing all of us to flinch as we readied our weapons.

“We’ve got a lot of ponies stuck here in this yard!” Duke shouted over the noise, chambering the first round of his standard assault rifle. “If one of you wants to provide some cover, the rest of us can move down to the other end and flank those assholes!”

Hovering my LMG close, I met his eyes to give him a nod. “I can cover you! Raemor, Ivy!” Quickly, I looked back to the others, who were just now listening in. “Follow his lead!”

“We clear out one of those windows long enough, and then we can get inside the building and take the fight to them!” Duke called back. “We just have to fan out more, engage more targets at the same time!”

“Just say when!”

“Right now!!”

With a start, I saw as Duke hooked around our cover and dashed away without warning. As Ivy galloped by me with her SMG in tow, I followed long enough to emerge from hiding and face the office building behind my iron sights. Unlike the parking garage, the office complex only had one story. Most of the windows within fifty yards of us were occupied by a raider trying to keep the rest of us pinned, or trying to get the jump on the twenty millimeter. With so many targets to choose from, I took aim at the closest window and opened up. I held the trigger, sweeping to the right along the openings, and then back to the left. Right when I completed my first pass, knocking out three targets in the process, one of the windows I’d passed by belched out fire and debris as two grenades detonated within the building one after the next. Even without looking, I knew Raemor was lobbing the explosives with his grenade APW, and when I returned to cover to protect myself from retaliatory fire, I found the old unicorn standing just outside his own cover behind a pallet of metal boxes sitting just in front of the larger shipping container. With one more trigger pull, he sent one more grenade into the offices, blowing apart another room within the complex before he too returned to hiding.

With the three of them having made it to cover, I focused on my own situation. One of the raiders was watching my location, but with so many windows, it was impossible to tell where he was. That didn’t deter me from making another move, swinging my LMG back around and stepping partway out of cover to take aim. My sights fell on one raider immediately, and a burst of ten rounds put the earth mare down. At the neighboring window to the left, I saw out of the corner of my eye another raider as he was taken out by a soldier positioned closer to the flak gun. I painted a target on the neighboring window to the right, where an enemy unicorn was taking potshots at the soldiers closer to the garage with a bolt-action rifle. With him thus being so distracted, I lined him up and brought him down with another quick burst. But that was when, just to the right of him, I caught movement as another raider occupied a formerly empty window. I ducked back into cover on instinct, instinct that once again served well as my pallet of metal drums came under fire from a lighter automatic weapon with a high fire rate. However, unlike my own weapon, the fire let up only a couple seconds later as the raider emptied out her clip; that’s when I made my move. As I’d expected, I found an empty window where my attacker once stood. But I didn’t waste time waiting, instead adjusting to find another target that was focusing her own carbine where Ivy and Raemor and Duke had sought cover. A quick strafe across her window, and I knocked her to the floor, at least disabling her.

Then I ducked back and away, anticipating another attack against my position. But instead, I heard another trio of detonations from within the offices, the lighter-yield but powerful blasts of Raemor’s twenty-five millimeter grenades. I looked out from cover back to their position, finding him as he was reloading that grenade rifle. Just past him, Ivy was putting fire downrange with her heavy SMG. But past her, I saw with a start as Duke ran out from cover and made a mad dash for the offices in a bold and very sudden move. I didn’t know if other soldiers had already tried or not, but after one quick check of the area ahead, I leapt out from cover and ran for the wall, moving closer to try and cover him. It was a short run, but before I even got past a yard from my cover, I saw the same raider come back up from behind her hiding spot, now pointing a freshly loaded weapon to me. But a split second after, and she was strafed as an arc of heavy rounds caught her across the torso, sending her down. And farther to the left, I saw another raider out of the corner of my eye as a headshot took him down. Ahead, Duke beat me to the wall, not even slowing the momentum he picked up as he came upon an empty window. And with a leap, he sailed right through the opening and disappeared into the lingering smoke from Raemor’s grenades. I was on the same window a moment later, stopping against the wall to check inside. Duke had tucked and rolled, leaping over the corpses that had begun to pile up on the other side of the sill, and ending up on his left side to face the nearest doorway with his assault rifle floating above him. But from my position, I saw somepony that he didn’t, another hostile sticking to the far corner of the office just in front of a pile of old desks, cabinets, and cubicle dividers. He had been taken by surprise by Duke’s entrance, but was very quickly recovering to bring a double-barrel shotgun to bear against him. But I beat the raider to the trigger pull, putting over a dozen rounds in him before he finally went down against the pile of wreckage behind him.

Wordless, though receiving a nod of thanks from Duke, I backed up to get momentum, and then leapt through the window to get inside. Just as I did, another pony landed at the other end of the room to join us – Ivy, who quickly turned around and looked outside long enough for Raemor to haul himself into the room behind me; now we were all inside the target building. “Everypony okay??” Duke called out, picking himself up while keeping his weapon pointed for the doorway at the front of the room. “No injuries?”

“No injuries, we’re fine.” Ivy remarked quickly, trying to catch her breath.

“LOOK OUT!”

Raemor gave that warning just a second before he fired his pistol for the doorway, in unison with Duke’s rifle. Their combined fire drove back another raider who’d tried to sight us in. But just when I was sure he would’ve retaliated, that raider emerged again only to collapse onto the floor, downed by a round to the back of the head. As soon as he fell, two more rifle shots echoed through the hall, tracer rounds slicing through my field of vision just before two allies jumped over the fallen raider and rushed down the hall; we were gaining ground!

“Let’s go back them up!”

Taking the lead once again, I found Duke just before he hooked around the doorframe and into the hall to follow his comrades. Right as I made my way after him, falling in just in front of Raemor, he opened up with his assault rifle, the rapid muzzle flashes painting the darker hall with light. When I found him, I saw two different raiders collapse under the combined fire from Duke and the other two soldiers, the latter having ducked into two different office rooms. But right away another one took the place of the downed enemies, and taking Duke by surprise, she opened up with an SMG. Lacking cover, Duke hit the floor to protect himself, and I felt three rounds cross my chest plate. But the armor soaked up the lighter-caliber bullets with ease, giving me all the time I needed to send a quick burst of much more powerful rounds out in return that dropped the mare before she could hide again. I kept my iron sights on the hall after that kill, and only a second later, found another raider that tried to head back further down the corridor, approaching a four-way intersection. I got him before he could get to cover, striking along his poorly armored back and putting the killshot into his neck.

Duke pushed himself back up to all fours, keeping his own weapon facing down the hall. And just ahead of him, the two soldiers stepped out from hiding one after the next, and they pushed ahead past the bodies of the dead raiders and up to the lip of the intersection. But as we followed up after them, the soldier on the right suddenly jerked to the side under a barrage of automatic fire, and was sent sprawling to the floor, killed by two consecutive shots to the head. The other soldier managed to get away, ducking back against the wall and putting precious distance between himself and the crossing hallway. Then he retaliated with a short angry cry, swinging his rifle around the corner to fire blind as Duke hurried over to take the fallen soldier’s place, putting down fire of his own to back up his comrade.

“Up ahead, Gunny!”

Though there was steady enemy fire coming from the crossway, Raemor’s warning directed my attention straight ahead, further down our current hall that led deeper into the complex. From a corner at the end of the hall, three more raiders emerged as a group, all of them armed with long rifles. “DOWN!!” I shouted back, just as all three of them fired a scattered volley, shattering chunks of the walls around us with high-caliber rounds as I crouched down low. But right when I was about to rise back up and return fire, I was suddenly shoved to the side, pushed up against the wall right before three hollow thumps sounded one after the next. Before I could even look again, the three new hostiles were engulfed in shrapnel and dust as the grenades from Raemor’s APW blew them away.

After that we were clear to move. At the intersection, Duke and the other soldier had managed to bring down whoever had been targeting them, and were now fighting together down that hall, pressing farther in to where it turned left toward the far side of the complex. When I came to the intersection I checked left for more hostile contacts, and when I found the new hall cleared, I called for the others to join me. “It’s a straight shot to the exit!” I spoke up over the continuing firefights around us. Behind me, I heard a larger collection of running hooves, all belonging to the soldiers that had followed us in; they were moving further southward through the building.

“I hear more fighting farther ahead!” Ivy chimed in reply. “Other soldiers must have gotten in through different parts of the building!”

“There must be a lot more of them here than we thought!” Raemor added after. “Between the outside and then in here, we’ve cut through a lot of them already!”

“Let’s just keep at it!”

Taking my advice to heart, I made my way up, keeping the All-Equestrian partly raised as I begun to distinguish the fighting that Ivy had made mention of. This hall was devoid of additional rooms, likely a bridge between the offices and whatever open chamber waited for us up ahead; and it was in that room that the closest skirmish was occurring. Automatic weapon fire took precedence over the smaller cracks of lighter-caliber rifles and pistols. As we closed in, beginning to hug the wall as we neared the entrance to this new room, I could even pick up voices coming from both sides of the fight, shouting orders and warnings. But right when we drew up to the end of the bridge, I jerked back as a missile came flying by, coming from the left and racing to the right before detonating in a fiery blast that shook the floor beneath my hooves. As soon as the dust from the impact rolled into the room, I stepped out into the open, coming in right in sync with another three Challenger soldiers, one of whom was telekinetically holding over his back a whole triple-barrel missile launcher.

“Good to see friendly faces!” one of them called, looking right to me as Raemor and Ivy followed close behind me. “You all okay?!”

“Fine!” I responded quickly. “You?!”

“Same! We’re making our way toward the far end of the building!” the same soldier answered. “There’s at least one or two more teams past us trying to secure the building’s lobby! If you three could give them a hoof in taking that entrance, it’d let us link up with the main unit moving down the center of the base!”

“Yeah, we can make it there!”

The missile launcher stallion then suddenly raised a hoof, pointing to the hallway across to the one we’d just come from. “It’s right down that way! Shouldn’t be far!”

Behind their squad, two other soldiers appeared and formed ranks with them, making ready to move across the room and into their next destination. “There’s a bunch of em’ still hiding out in here!” I warned, keeping my eyes on the next hallway. “You all watch yourselves!”

“You three do the same!”

They allowed us to go first, and I took the opportunity to make my way through the small lounge, arriving quickly to the lip of the next hall. “Got one down the hall!!” I jerked at the sharp crack of a rifle right nearby, a shot that was greeted with a short but startling burst of automatic fire as I spun around. Both Ivy and Raemor hurried to me to get to cover, all of us facing the Challenger soldiers as they too scattered. But the missile launcher stallion stood right in the face of the enemy attack, leveling out his heavy weapon and letting another missile fly, racing straight and true into the hall before belching fire and dust into the room. “Move up, move up!” And as a single unit, the group of five charged ahead to enter the next hall.

Once they disappeared, I focused back on our own destination. Everything ahead of us was clear, all the way up to where the path branched into a three-way intersection about thirty yards down. Hearing the hooves of Ivy and Raemor keeping up behind me, I made my way up without a word, moving as fast and light as I could, though still keeping myself cautious. There were no other side rooms here either, not until we reached the intersection itself. Off to the left side, there were three dead raiders just freshly killed, and the hind legs of a fourth poked out from where another hallway branched out toward our destination. On the right side, it was all new territory, an empty hall devoid of friendlies or hostiles. But despite this, I wanted to keep us moving toward the lobby.

“Which way, Gunny?” Ivy’s voice piped up in question.

Like the left side, another hall forked away from the main path, following the same S-curve shape; and that was where I pointed the All-Equestrian. “Down here. Follow me.”

“I’ll cover behind us while we move.” Raemor assured quickly, lingering back as he kept watch.

Into the new hallway we went, Ivy keeping close behind, Raemor staying farther back, though matching our pace step for step. This hall was spaced with four different rooms, two on each side, and all of them with closed doors, before turning to the right. A new swell in gunfire came from that way, showing me that we were closing in. But first… “Ivy, let’s check and clear these rooms.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll take the right side, you take left.” I didn’t watch to make sure she complied with me; her silence made me feel comfortable enough that she was following through. Instead I made my way up to the first door and leaned up against the wall just before it. And in a split-second decision, I forsook stealth entirely and rotated the All-Equestrian to point right for it, and then opened up, strafing the center from right to left, and then crossing again at the bottom left to right, all in one longer burst. But just when I pulled the weapon back to me, dust and wood blew out from the door as an enemy returned fire from within the room with his own automatic rifle. I collapsed onto my gut, my armor soaking up two more hits with more difficulty, and I heard as Ivy let out a startled yelp behind me. But despite my immediate fear that she’d been hit, the door behind me was flung open, and a voice cried out a savage yell. I got my hooves under me and begun to turn, throwing up the All-Equestrian in an impulse reflex to defend myself. And I felt the jarring impact a split moment later, and caught out of the corner of my eye the long blade of a machete as it deflected off my LMG’s stock. With the blade off to the side, I snapped my weapon forward as I locked onto the attacker, clocking him in the muzzle with the end of the stock. And before he could even stumble two steps, he snapped back the opposite direction as a single round punched through his skull. That gave me the room I needed to spin back around and face my own target. The door was now open, and inside – Ivy was grappling with the raider who’d hidden within, and with forehooves locked, they struggled to try and overpower one another. But with a twist of her body, she got her opponent to lurch forward as she broke the grapple, and when he fell, she had her SMG on him, and with a quick burst, put him down; she was unharmed.

A pair of sharp detonations jolted my attention back to the hall, where the dust and debris fresh from Raemor’s grenades was churning wildly. Another raider lay dead in the midst of it, but one more emerged, the earth mare immediately opening up with a pair of repeater rifles on a saddle. One pair of rounds caught my right flank, but once more my armor toughed it out, and in retaliation I strafed the hall from left to right. My arc went too high, cutting through the dust just above her. But the attack got her to flinch and duck, which gave me enough time to reach for my second weapon, and a single blast of buckshot to the head from my riot shotgun brought her down. In that moment, Raemor pushed ahead, pistol and grenade rifle both leveled, and swung the latter into the right-side room. Two trigger pulls, and he blasted the whole thing apart, not even flinching at the wave of dust and splintered wood that blew out into the hall. And as he stepped away from the open doorframe I moved up to join him, sweeping the All-Equestrian’s iron sights over the empty space, finding no hostile target within.

Now we were finally clear to make our way to the entrance.

“All clear… you two okay?”

“Fine here.” Raemor responded.

“A little shaky, but good otherwise.” Ivy answered after.

“Good. Let’s move.” Picking up my pace to a solid trot, I returned my shotgun to its place over my back and brought the All-Equestrian back to the front before we rounded the next corner of the hall. A short distance ahead of that was one more turn, still clear of enemies. And crossing through that finally brought us in range of our target destination. One final stretch led to a set of collapsed double doors, beyond which a whole new firefight was in full effect. The enemy’s red and black was the first thing I saw, two more raiders positioned behind a pair of toppled filing cabinets stacked up like bricks, their backs to us. And they were both firing straight ahead of them, where I saw glimpses of muzzle flashes that faced them in return, definitely positioned outside the building. The sheer volume of gunfire within told me that there was a lot of players in the fight, but we had a clear advantage here that I was going to exploit.

“Heads up behind you!” The gunfire nearly masked the voice that called behind us, but I still heard when a stallion tried to reach us. And I looked over my shoulder just in time to see as Duke came trotting up to us, falling in right behind Ivy and Raemor. “This building’ll be ours shortly. All that’s left is the entrance.”

“They don’t know we’re here yet.” Raemor responded, facing front with a glare as he raised up his grenade rifle. “Let’s get in there.”

“Do your thing.” I encouraged, stepping aside as he crouched and trotted ahead to take the lead. And a moment later, he let three grenades fly in rapid succession. The two raiders didn’t even know what hit them as they and their cover were blasted away. “Okay, GO!” Together we sprinted fast as we could, Raemor switching his weapons to draw his pistol as I leveled the All-Equestrian. Without any encounter, we arrived at the open entryway to the lobby, and uniform, we skidded to a halt to take aim into the room. On my side, I immediately found two other positions where the enemy was dug in. Two sandbag barriers, long and tall, shielded over a dozen of them from the Challenger soldiers that were right outside the shattered windows and doorframes at the office complex entrance; there had been several allied casualties out there that I could see from here.

Raemor’s sneak attack had shocked them out of the fight, bringing their eyes to us, but not their weapons. And without even sighting in, I opened fire on the line and carved my way along the first position. As I held the trigger, cutting them down one after the next, a second automatic weapon joined me, Ivy following my lead, and Duke doing the same right after. In just a couple seconds, we had all of us mowed down everypony hiding there. But it was here that my clip finally ran dry, the same with Ivy as well. Then we had to scatter as return fire met us with almost equal ferocity. Those first two positions weren’t the only ones that had been built up in the massive lobby. To the right side, a whole other arc of sandbags coupled with crude iron plates had been established, and atop one of the barriers was a heavy machinegun, the weapon that sent us running. I had dived to the sandbags we’d just cleared out, scrambling to where the edge of the barrier met one of the four stone pillars that still stood in this room. When I came to a halt, setting about reloading, I saw Ivy as she put herself back onto all fours, keeping low and staying close to me as she ejected the empty clip from her SMG. The heavy machinegun targeting us kept its sights on the pillar that was shielding us, tearing away at the weakened stonework. A second after, and its trail of fire diverted, sweeping along the far wall and to the entrance that we’d come from, driving back whoever had tried to get a shot off from that position.

The heavy weapon passed by my pillar once again, the gunner keeping the trigger pulled, before directing its fury out past the office doors. By then, I’d clipped my empty magazine to its place on my armor and loaded up a fresh one, chambering the first round. And without a pause, I scrambled out behind the now shredded pillar enough to poke my head out and take aim. I focused right on the unicorn gunner, right down to his glaring eyes as he tried to keep the assembled Challenger soldiers outside from gaining any more ground. Even as he himself was under fire, even as one of his comrades went down right beside him, he kept up his attack, the barrel of his weapon beginning to glow with heat. But one trigger pull, one long burst, and I shelled his cover and drew up to catch him right in the head, sending him reeling back and finally silencing the heavy weapon.

Retreating back to my hiding place, I spared a quick moment to check on the others. Ivy was putting fire downrange against the last barricade, trying to bring down any stragglers still alive behind the sandbags. To the right, I found both Raemor and Duke, along with one new arrival, sticking together at the lip of the hallway we’d come from, all firing together to where the remaining enemy reinforcements were now filing through to try and reinforce their position here. Even as they kept up a constant attack together, another raider managed to get her telekinesis around the heavy machinegun I’d just silenced, driving the three of them back into hiding.

But just as I was about to come back out to fire again, poking my head up from cover as Ivy returned to her shelter to reload again, the whole enemy barricade erupted into flame when a missile smashed into it, coming from outside. The blast washed me with heat before I collapsed back to cover to protect myself. And after a cloud of smoke and dust passed over me, I hurried back up to my hooves to see the enemy position again. The barrier had been wholly obliterated by the high-yield explosive, completely collapsing it. And in the wake of the attack, no new reinforcements were attempting to make their way out of the hall beyond. However, off to the left, a half dozen Challenger soldiers leapt into the lobby in rapid succession, immediately making their way for that hall; the soldier in the very rear of the line was holding a single-barrel break-action missile launcher in his telekinesis.

They met no opposition as the squad advanced into the building and made their way down that hall, showing no more reinforcements in the immediate vicinity. And thanks to the breakthrough they’d been able to make, we now had the office complex entrance, with the rest of the building slowly turning over to our control. But as I rallied the others together once again, we one and all faced the outside as Challenger’s soldiers advanced down the road, crossing in front of the lobby on their way up toward the south end of the base, and putting down a wall of fire on whatever enemy positions awaited them.

The fight still wasn’t over; we had two more sites to secure. And without a word, we made our way to the outside to join in the charge.

*** *** ***

All the way to the base perimeter, I flew low over the ground to keep from being too exposed to any remaining hostiles in the closest two structures. But thankfully, the flight was clear all the way to the fence, and at my arrival, I pumped my wings quick to pull myself up all the way to the top floor of the garage. After the main force had successfully worked through those first two sites, our platoon of snipers had been called to advance and link up with the rest of the company. Most of them would be mixing in with the main force, as the base had few vantage points for sniping. But in my case, I knew where to go even without being ordered to do so.

I crested the top of the garage with one final pulse of my wings, settling into a glide as I passed over the top floor’s northern edge. This level, home to four different heavily corroded wagons, was the sight of a firefight that had just finished, as I saw one Challenger soldier just as he pulled the barrel of his rifle from the head of a fallen raider, having just executed her there. There were five other allies here on the roof, and one unicorn was already taking shots from the far balcony. I closed in on that position, landing a couple yards away to gallop the rest of the way over to join that soldier by the stone. And when I arrived, I paused long enough to look overhead as Sierra moved by at an intentionally slow pace, which was quickly sped up as she hooked a slight left and dove, letting loose a missile from her launcher.

“Good to see you, pegasus!” the nearby soldier called, pulling his carbine from the wall and ducking down to reload. “But shouldn’t you be airborne?!”

“The enemy’s too thick here!” I called back. “I can do more at long range right now!”

He gave me one nod as he loaded a fresh magazine. “Well I’m glad you’re up here! Looks like the biggest mess of them is in that big clearing outside our primary target and the command center across from it! They were getting started on some fortifications before we showed up! Now they’re putting to use!”

As he explained, I set the legs of the Torch’s bipod up on the ledge and reared up to balance myself on my hindlegs, situating myself into as good a sniping position as I could. “I see them!” From this vantage point, I had a full view of what was now the main battlefield through my scope. Tracing closest to my new position first, I traveled up along the office complex, which looked to be by and large secured. And at the entrance at the far end of the structure, I even saw, much to my relief, Gunny as he stepped through one of the doorframes, holding in his telekinesis an old yet sturdy iron plate and dragging it along with him as a shield. Ivy was right behind him, sharing his cover and keeping close for fire support. Raemor was with them, hanging back at the edge of the office building’s lobby. And Duke – little Lucan’s family friend – was there with him, waiting for a chance to move up. The sight of them on the move served well to rejuvenate me, pushing away the fatigue that had been taking its first steps toward slowing me down.

Just ahead of them was the bulk of the main unit. As casualties had begun to mount in their charge forward, many soldiers were able to find cover behind captured Black Blood fortifications – sandbag barriers, plate walls, and even a couple of old wagons near the center of the base itself. Those who were out in the open were being forced away under the fire coming from the Black Blood’s final line. Comprised of what was indeed the beginnings of a pair of new two-story, rectangular shacks, with a half-dozen sandbag barriers set up before them, there was a whole mess of raiders hiding out behind whatever cover they managed to scrounge up, from their main fortifications and all around them, all the way to Wheaton’s centrally-located radio tower and the two remaining buildings under their control.

But I didn’t take the time to study them, only sighting in and lining up my first shot. With the advantage of being undetected in the midst of the firefight, I could choose my first target more carefully. I found my crosshairs drifting over the second floor of the right-side shack, crossing over three different raiders all gathered up close by to one another. And in the middle of these first three, one trigger-happy unicorn mare was holding down the trigger of a bipod-mounted light machinegun. Two seconds and one trigger pull, and I put one well-deserved round right through her left eye. Neither of her companions even noticed as she went down, one still focusing on emptying the clip of his modified assault rifle while the second returned to cover to reload his carbine. As such I moved right to the former of the two, and after a second to steady my aim, fired and blew open his left shoulder, not killing him, but taking him out of the fight.

Though other raiders were on that second floor, I diverted my aim down to the ground after a suddenly larger eruption of muzzle flashes flickered in the bottom of my scope. A larger concentration of raiders were positioned behind the rear line of sandbags, and they’d managed to pull off a ragged volley. With no time here to be picky, I targeted the first raider I settled my crosshairs on, a unicorn with a stocked SMG as she fired in quick, short bursts; I pegged her with one shot to the side, sending her crumpling back behind her cover. The closest raiders to her gave the spot where she fell a wider berth in response to her cries, only to return their focus to the front. With that I still had the freedom I needed to find a new target, the male earth pony next door, and take another shot. This time I got an instant killshot, one right to the top of the head that smashed him down onto his sandbag barrier before he toppled over to the side.

Even these raiders weren’t so dumb as to realize that something was amiss. The raider next to the one I’d just killed was calling to his nearby allies as he fired another trio of rounds from his semi-auto rifle, trying to speak up over the rage that dominated the battlefield. He was the one I targeted next, lining up as he retracted his forehooves from atop the barrier and returned to all fours. But when I fired, the shot went just shy of him and hit the dirt right next to his left hind leg, the consequence brought by the distraction from his movement. He stumbled from the near miss, eyes falling right onto where the bullet hit even before the dust settled. And it was when I lined back up to try again that his eyes came upward, right onto my position.

I saw his mouth open through my scope, saw as he begun to call again. But I gave him not one more second, and with another trigger pull, I finally put him down with a clean, textbook headshot. Now, my clip was empty, and I pulled Blue Fire’s Torch off the railing and set it on the floor as I crouched down low. With practiced hooves I hit the clip’s release lever, dropping it to the ground. Then I was on my saddlebag, digging in to find my last magazine in the right-side pack. Once out, I returned to prone and set about guiding the clip to its slot, and beside me, the Challenger soldier with me joined me as he reloaded as well, having a much easier time with his telekinesis. “Hey!” Getting his attention after lining up the clip, I spoke out over the noise in question, “I’ve got an ammo pouch in my right saddlebag! Could you fish out twelve rounds and reload my two empty magazines?!”

“Yeah, you got it!” came his reply, rearming his carbine before setting it aside and coming over to look through my pack. “You need to stay in the game up here!”

With both forehooves, I guided my last clip into the weapon, securing it, and finally pulling back on the cocking handle to chamber a new round. And once my comrade gathered what he needed out of my bag, I slung myself back up and returned to my sniping position. Back through the scope, the fight below was turning into a stalemate. Lots of ponies from both sides were putting down constant fire, but were engaged in a massive game of cat and mouse, ducking and dodging, poking out to fire, then hiding again. And for a moment, nopony could seem to get a good angle on the other. On our side, Sierra was still at work with her heavy weapons, diving in to attack and then racing away, basically a flying tank all on her own. But on the other side, heavy weapons were tucked away to keep up almost equal pressure on our own ponies. And with adequate cover available to both factions, it was slow-going for Challenger’s soldiers on the ground.

But I still had my advantage of height in play against the enemy.

I sighted the forward line of sandbags, bringing the crosshairs down on a raider with a bolt-action rifle. As he was chambering another round, I took my shot and succeeded in disarming him, blasting his weapon from his telekinesis wholesale though missing my intended target area. Still, I wasted no time in moving on as that raider threw himself to the dirt to hide. Next to him about a yard away was another unicorn with a similar long rifle, a lever-action that he was operating rapidly; one shot to the spine brought him down.

CRACK!

Suddenly, in a violent clap, the railing right by my rifle split, and a shard of stone stung my neck. I recoiled sharply with a yelp of alarm, dropping my rifle as I lurched back for it to clatter to the floor. And with sudden realization, I ducked back down, crouching well below the top of the rail. “Sniper! There’s a sniper onto me out there!”

“I saw that!” the soldier next to me responded, keeping his cool and tugging on my saddlebag with his telekinesis; he deposited two newly loaded magazines and the ammo pouch within and closed it back up. “I don’t know where, but that round was too powerful and too precise to be anything but a sniper!” As I leveled out my breath, I took a glance over to my comrade, seeing him as he pulled his carbine across the stone and back to him. And with searching eyes he looked back to me to ask, “What do we do about him?! You want to move out, get to the ground?!”

It only took a moment of thought to answer with a shake of my head. “No! We need to find him and put him down!”

“Got any ideas?!”

“Yeah, we need to relocate, that way we can buy ourselves a couple seconds to try and find this bastard!”

The soldier nodded, hoisting up his rifle. “Sounds good to me!” he called back. “We do that, then I’ll try and find him and let you know where he is so you can take a shot!” And once I nodded my agreement and picked up the Torch by the stock, clamping my jaws down tight around it, we were on the move. As I headed left, he came right, and we crossed paths before putting more distance between ourselves, moving closer to the corners of the floor. I stopped just shy of my own corner, turning myself around to see where my partner was placing himself. He’d already set himself up as close to his corner as he could, watching me and waiting for me to position myself. When I did, I gave him the nod to go, and quick as he could, he reared up behind cover, floating his rifle to eye level as he tried to find our hidden attacker. But just a couple seconds of looking and he snappily ducked back down, just a blink before another high-powered rifle round smashed into the railing, scattering tiny fragments of the aged stone through the air amidst the concrete dust kicked up from the shot.

Amidst the continuous gunfire below, I had been able to pick up a distinguished sound, a lingering echo right after the bullet hit the stone; it was definitely farther back… but I couldn’t quite tell.

“I didn’t see him!” the soldier called to me as I set the Torch down on its bipod.

“Look to the rear, past those raider shacks!” I suggested, situating my weapon for when I’d emerge from hiding. The soldier didn’t reply as he drew in closer to me, finding a happy medium between his first and second location along the railing. Eventually he settled, but stayed low as he instead focused his telekinesis on his combat armor rig, unclipping from his right flank plate a canteen on a strap. And in the air, he turned it upside-down, hiding the strap, and then floated it over the top of the railing.

Just a second later, and the canteen was blown out of his telekinesis, water splashing out from the exit hole as it slid along the concrete, and eventually pooling up where it fell still. That was when I made my move, pulling myself up over cover to search. Past the raiders’ fortifications, the grounds of the armory were near empty. And just as I suspected, only a few ponies marked the surface. That was all the time I allowed to observe, to memorize the details I found. As Sierra made another dive, her minigun buzzing violently as she strafed one of the shacks, I ducked back down to hide myself again. No shot was returned by the enemy sniper, but I knew he was down there looking, waiting for the right opportunity.

“What do you think?!” my fellow soldier called, keeping himself crouched as he looked to me. “Did you find him?!”

“He’s out back behind the shacks!” I answered him over the continuing noise below. “I couldn’t pinpoint him, but there’s more than a couple sharpshooters out there!”

“I don’t have anything else I can use as a decoy!” he replied, making his way along toward the center of the railing.

“Then we’ll have to figure out something else!” I said back, then picking the Torch back up and passing him by as I relocated again.

“Yeah, I pop up first then you, find him and take a shot while he’s checking me out!”

His proposition came up when I got into my next position, allowing for me to drop the Torch to protest. “What?! Are you nuts?!... HEY!!”

But he didn’t even answer me. Instead, he was already bracing to move, and he gave me only enough time to bring my rifle back to the ready before he was up. He took aim with his carbine, and I followed him up quick as I could, rearing up onto my hindlegs, hoisting up the Torch and placing the bipod back onto the railing. After a quick adjustment, I was looking down my scope once more, already focused over the back of the raiders’ last line of defense. And after a quick sweep, I finally caught the bastard, a unicorn raider out in the open just as he closed the bolt on his rifle. He’d already gotten a shot off, and I could see as he already made to try and center up on me next. But I took my shot before he could, and right when he brought his own rifle up, I put a round right through the scope and into his eye.

An exhale of relief escaped me at the quick end to the standoff I’d won us, and ducked back down quick, dragging the Torch with me. “Hey! I got him!” I called to my friend, looking over to where he’d been positioned. “We’re okay n…” But instead of hugging the wall such as he’d done before… the stallion was sprawled out on his side just a yard away from it, his back to me… surrounded by spatters of his own blood and…

I took an involuntary step away at the sight of the dripping bloody crater on the back of his head… and only after a great deal of effort did I force myself away from the sight of him, bringing my attention back onto the fight below.

The battleground had changed – I could tell just from the symphony of gunfire below. Challenger’s force was on the move, having won some ground, and the raiders were thinning. When I rose back up to see for myself, I found Challenger’s force spreading out and bowing in from the main line, rejoining fire teams that had made their way around the office complex and the main warehouse. They had successfully formed an arc before the enemy, stretching all the way from the radio tower to the office building’s southeast corner. All three flak guns in our unit were set and firing, one by the radio tower, one by the office building, and one before the center ranks. With that, our missile turrets were back into the fight at the rear of our ranks, having just sent out two warheads that ripped one of the raiders’ shacks in half. And finally, further back, I found the first signs of fighting at the rear of the enemy line, only light skirmishes. But that sight put a much needed dose of hope in me – we were starting to break through!

As I focused back on the main line, setting up the Torch to keep up my support role, I finally reacquired my friends out in the mess. They had moved up with the right side of the arc, though still remaining close to the middle of the formation. Thanks to that, I had a perfect view of all four of them, and Duke as well, and could follow them right to their targets to help. And so I did, settling back into position and focusing through my scope again. All five of them were right next to the other, targeting different positions. Up ahead of them, the line was thick with raiders, most of them firing blind over their cover as they became more and more desperate. I zeroed in on one such enemy, who only rose up quick out of cover to take no more than a single shot with his carbine before falling back behind the sandbags. This time, he was trying a more precise shot, his mistake as I lined up and fired; I took him down with a shot to the chest, allowing Ivy to turn her focus on a new adversary.

I adjusted left, just slightly to find a raider that drove Gunny back to cover with a surprise burst of automatic rifle fire. And I caught him just before he could make it back to safety, putting a round in his shoulder to take him out of the fight. Then, further away in the opposite direction, I found another bold stallion emerge, putting down round after round with a heavy-caliber carbine. At the base of my scope, I saw as he took out one Challenger soldier before forcing Raemor and Duke back down. I lined up on him while he was in the rush of the moment, of having just made a kill, and one shot to the head put an end to his part in the fighting.

After that round, my clip was empty.

Pulling my eye back from the scope, the full view of the battlefield returned just as Sierra strafed the enemy position again with her minigun. Rounds sparked off her armor as she flew in low to strike her chosen targets, but she didn’t even flinch as she completed her run and took off and away to begin her circle back around. And only moments after, two more missiles hit home right in the center of the enemy position. That attack nearly cut the enemy line in half, and by the time I had gone through the process of reloading, our line was beginning to close the distance on the remaining enemy force.

“We’ve got you now.” I whispered this aloud to myself as I looked to the battle through my scope once more. My friends were moving up with those Challenger soldiers who had taken up the cry to advance. Gunny was in the lead, his makeshift metal shield held in front of him, and his LMG floating off to the right side of the plate, putting down a steady barrage. Ivy was right behind him, stepping out to take shots with her lever-action every few steps. And Raemor, having a short but adequate stretch of open terrain in front of him, was taking the opportunity to rain hell down on the enemy with his grenade rifle, with Duke backing him up with his own AR.

Together they formed a single powerful unit, and gladly, I took up the mantle of protecting their advance. With Gunny’s shield, they were becoming more of a target by those raiders that remained closest to them, and it was an almost constant light show as bullets struck and were reflected by the metal. My first target was in the middle of backing away from his barricade, holding down the trigger of his SMG as he did. He was easy to follow, and a round to the torso dropped him. As soon as he fell, fire from a missile detonation washed over the body as Sierra made another pass nearby. Her attack roused more targets, and I scored a headshot on an earth stallion who had been blown out into the open by the force of Sierra’s warhead. Then I brought my crosshairs back onto my friends, long enough to see their progress, and a new enemy that targeted them. Gunny had his shield planted into the ground as a unicorn mare with an assault rifle unloaded her whole clip into the plating. Still he held his ground, returning blind fire on her and two other raiders nearby her that also made him their target. I sighted the unicorn mare first, and one shot to her lower chest was all it took to silence her. Just as she fell, one of my friends managed to put down one of the others before I lined up on the last of the trio; I added another clean headshot to my record.

At that point, other Challenger soldiers started to appear within my scope. Breaking through the raider’s final line, they were able to get right up close and personal and finish off those few who hadn’t fallen back. Those that did were now trapped between two groups of allied soldiers, and with nowhere to run on the outside, those who could fled into the armory’s command center and our target building. Only a minute, just one minute of observation from my nest was all that passed before Challenger finally claimed the surface, clearing the garage, the offices, the warehouse, and now the whole armory itself up to the last two buildings.

After that, the gunfire that had once been a constant roar near my position was now isolated to the entrances of the command center and the armory itself. A couple dozen soldiers who had managed to come around from the south perimeter of the base were now taking the lead of the effort, and outside, new fire teams were being set up to follow in after them while other teams were simultaneously dispatched back out and around the secured portions of the base. With these new maneuvers, and with the majority of the battle site secured, I finally let myself back down onto all fours, bringing the Torch down with me before returning the trusty weapon to its rightful place over my back.

Afterward, I found myself standing still in the relative calm that now blanketed the Wheaton Armory. And even before it actually happened, I could feel myself slipping into the beginnings of a whirlwind of reflection that sought to come to life in the wake of the battle. But before I could, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye… or rather, somepony, as she hovered up into view over the railing. “Nova!” came Sierra’s call, her muffled voice still reaching me clearly through her helmet. “Are you alright?”

Her arrival saved me from becoming trapped by my own thoughts yet again. And at the present moment, I was grateful for that.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I called back, recovering myself and trotting over to join her at the edge of the garage. “What about you? You took a lot of hits out there.”

And her power armor certainly had the dings, dents, and scrapes to prove it. But I didn’t see any punctures. “None of them got through.” she assured to confirm what I saw. “I’m okay, and so are the others.”

“They are?”

“Gunny took a couple of hits when he charged in with that old metal plate, but nothing serious. A healing potion should see to his recovery.” Sierra answered; despite the calm in her voice, I still felt a very heavy pang of worry. “Apart from that, troops are moving into the last two buildings team by team. With it being close quarters, they’re confined to that limited movement for the rest of the mission.”

“Are we going to head in there?” But just as soon as I fanned out my own wings to get myself airborne, Sierra spoke up again, quickly to get my attention.

“I came here to find you for Captain Royce. He wants to see us both down by those fortifications, right now.”

I blinked, a little taken aback. “What… why? There’s still fighting going on…”

“I know, and I do not understand either.” came Sierra’s response. “But we’d better go and see what he needs either way. Come on, quick.”

With a single pulse of my wings I was up, watching Sierra as she banked down and away over the roof of the office complex below. Then I followed after her, copying her flight path all the way out to the thoroughly demolished fortifications that had only a couple minutes ago been fully prepared for battle. As I approached, beginning to slow for my landing, I was able to take in the details of the raiders’ losses… and our own. At least four to five dozen Black Blood soldiers had been concentrated in their final line, judging by the number of unmoving bodies hidden by the sandbag barriers, along with those inside the two shacks as well. Challenger soldiers were going through them, poking and prodding with their gun barrels to check them over, and occasionally putting another round into a raider’s skull just to be safe. And so, I wagered that between the fifty or sixty here, plus even more than that distributed between the garage, warehouse, and offices, an attempt at a rough guess came out to about one hundred and fifty enemy casualties, give or take a few; it was my hope that there weren’t many more within the last two buildings… because I could still hear the gunfire within them as additional fire teams followed after their leading comrades.

As for us, I saw a fair share of green-armored bodies along the way toward the fortifications. And just like the raiders, it was impossible to tell how many more might’ve died in those buildings. The only comfort I could take from all this was that there were definitely fewer of ours dead than the enemy’s. And spaced regularly along the road that cut through the base, the injured were being tended to by whoever was closest to them, and there were more than a few combat medics moving about, moving as quick as they could to try and get to everypony who was out of commission. In the end, however, I was still nervous. Because with everything the Lieutenant Colonel had said about Challenger’s last battalion and how badly it was needed to reinforce Ashton, there was no denying that our company had lost a good chunk of its strength in this fight… and that could potentially be very bad news regarding Ashton.

As I brought myself in to land, I found my friends amidst my taking in of the new scenery. Everypony looked okay, though Gunny was sitting on his haunches, clearly out of breath, with his LMG and plate shield on the ground beside him. And as he sat there with his head bowed, Ivy brought to his attention a healing potion, which he promptly took in his own telekinesis to drink. But as much as I wanted to go to them, to check on them myself, Captain Royce was already trotting out to meet us.

Sierra landed as he circled around the last sandbag barrier in his way, and even before he made it to us, he spoke up to us. “Are you two alright?”

“Yes, Captain Royce.” Sierra answered as I landed beside her and tucked in my wings. “We’re both okay.”

“Good.” A moment later and Royce stopped before us, nodding. “That’s damn good. I couldn’t afford having one or both of you out of the fight.”

“Sir, are we going to help secure the stockpile?” I asked, unable to keep myself from looking out toward that target building. “We can get in there and help, just say the word.” But in response, he shook his head, making me raise an eye. “W-why not, sir?”

“Because you two have already played your parts here.” he answered, simple and to the point; but I didn’t like that answer in the slightest.

“Are you sure, sir?” Sierra ventured, sounding a great deal as if she shared my uncertainty.

“I know you both are hesitant, and that’s good. But I’m sure.” he said, looking to her as he added, “You – I can’t even begin to emphasize how much of a Goddess-send you are. That power armor, those weapons, and your wings – all of that makes a strike package that gives us a great advantage over the enemy. You can hit them, and anything they throw at you, like nopony else can.” And then he looked to me. “And you – you may not have been flying here, but I saw your sniper work. You made the right call keeping your distance, not charging straight in. And I think that when the situation is ideal for you, you can put that precision to work in the sky. Either way, you’ll be saving a lot of lives picking off targets before they can get our boys and girls, just like you did today.” For just a moment, he let his words soak in… and though I still didn’t like where this was going, I couldn’t deny the simple fact that Sierra and I both were a very valuable asset in this campaign. Because of that… I guess I would have to learn to expect unique situations as a S.E.R.A.F. soldier. “Now that we’ve secured the surface of the armory, there are others out there that need you more than I do. And with all that in mind, I need you two to get a move on and reach the Moonstone Peak Outpost.” Royce explained. “It’s a six to seven hour march on hoof, so if you head out now, you should get there by late evening.”

And after a quiet little sigh, I was the one to reply. “Only so long as you’re sure you don’t need us here, sir.”

And again, patiently, he nodded. “Yes. The Moonstone Peak Outpost is the closest allied station to the Black Blood garrison barring us from Ashton. They could come under attack at any time, and if they do before we can launch our own offensive, you’ll be doing far more good there than sticking with this company while it waits for the occupation force to arrive here.”

“Then we’d better get moving.” Sierra stated, already fanning out her metal-clad wings in preparation to leave.

“We can handle whatever’s left of the enemy in those two buildings.” Royce assured, confident as he looked over his shoulder; the last teams had already gone inside… and the gunfire was much softer, and more widely spaced than before. “Once we take them out, we’ll find that second security key, open up the vault, and the next time you see us, we’ll have a balefire arsenal at our disposal for the attack on the raider base post.”

And with a hesitant nod, I spread my wings out full. “Yes, sir.”

“You two are already turning into a couple of guardian angels.” Royce remarked, even giving us a little sliver of a smile as he spoke. “And I’ve got a gut feeling that’s only going to become more and more a reality with each battle you fight in… Thanks… both of you.”

“We will do what we can, Captain.” Sierra assured, launching herself into the air and beating upward to gain some height over the surface. “Which way to the Moonstone Peaks?”

“Just head straight northeast from here.” he replied as I followed Sierra up. “You’ll see them well before you get there. They’re the only tall hills in that part of the region for miles, you can’t miss them.”

But through his explanation, my attention was briefly diverted one more time as I found my friends again. None of them were taking part in the final maneuver, one team of several that remained on the surface to recover. But they were all sticking close together in the wake of the battle. Gunny had already downed his potion, and Duke was sticking with them, watching the groups of soldiers back by the warehouse. But everypony else’s eyes – Gunny, Raemor, Ivy – they were on me as I hovered there, looking at me with a mix of curiosity and even a little worry, two sentiments that looked to be equally distributed between the three. Not knowing where I was going, what was happening… all a part of being at war; looking eye-to-eye was all we could do to say our goodbyes. That was the only time we got to see one another after this brutal fight… and after a prompt from Sierra, I forced myself to turn away, and then followed her out over Wheaton Armory and into the evening sky toward our next destination.

*** *** ***

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

Portrait… a family photo with three members.

A mother – she was garbed in a simple white gown in the picture, a neutral color that didn’t clash much with the copper of her coat or the blue of her mane and tail. A father – he wore a dark green uniform, neat, crisp, and newly cleaned for the sake of the picture. On the chest was a pair of medals along with a number of service ribbons placed above them, and coupled with the uniform was a black beret with the Equestrian flag taking the shape of a patch sewn into the front. And between them – their daughter, a young mare I recognized in my memory, and the same mare that my host stared at as she smiled in the picture. Gold in color, with a flowing blue mane like her mother’s, all mixed in with a pair of emerald eyes like gemstones – this photo was of Mother Shimmer and her parents, all of whom I had seen once before in this pre-apocalypse setting. Macon – the father. Misty – the mother. Both of them – military. They made a couple that took full advantage of their honorable discharges from their military service and created for themselves a new life to take them away from the memories of the fighting. And it did just that, especially when they brought into the world their little miracle, the child that saved them both and gave them the power to live in peace.

They made a great family together.

I was greeted brightly by the very calm, very homey, very nostalgia-inspiring atmosphere of Mother Shimmer’s Old World abode. And in this new glimpse into the past, I was carried along by one of the mares of the family. Only with some hesitation did she and I together turn away from the picture, looking out into a comfy living room that made the central chamber of the house. A pair of long dark-red couches were set up at a right angle to face the back corner of the room, and an end table with a lamp was a part of the set. Just beyond that room, past a divider wall, was the kitchen, with clay pots cradling vibrant newborn flowers lined up along the countertops. All of the windows my host and I could see were wide open, curtains drawn back and tied up to let the clean summer air flow freely through the house. And it was a perfect day for it, as the wind was blowing audibly, with just enough force to channel a refreshing breeze throughout the house like a natural-made air conditioner.

Every second here, knowing how this place looked today compared to this… it only made me wish that I could see more of the Old World… of Shimmermist Farm and beyond.

“Hey, mom!”

Suddenly, a female voice called, coming from above. My host and I looked to our left, finding a stairway leading to the second story of the farmhouse. Though nopony was waiting for us at the top, we both zeroed in the call to the farthest room in the second-floor hallway. Right away, my host carried me up the stairs at a casual walk. “What is it, Shimmer?”

“I just need your opinion on these necklaces.” the other mare answered, to which my host uttered a little chuckle.

“Sweetie, you’ll look fine no matter which one you choose.” Misty called back.

“You already said that, mother.” Shimmer answered amusedly as we crested the staircase. In this hall, there were four doorways, all of them closed except for the door at the far end, which was only slightly ajar. “It’s just… we’re going into the city, and more than that, we’re going to the Moonrise Symphonic Theatre. I just want to look my best.”

“You’re so fretful sometimes.”

“You said that too, mother.” Shimmer answered, a little laugh of a pure and beautiful tone coming through the door’s opening to our ears.

And by then, we were upon that door, and together, Misty and I reached a hoof up to push it aside. Past it was the house’s master bedroom, complete with all the furnishings, all the living color, and otherwise absolutely pristine. And there, standing in front of the bed – Shimmer herself, beautiful golden coat, sapphire mane and tail, emerald eyes and all. She was reared up on her hind legs, forehooves set over the bed, as she stared down at two necklaces laid out before her. Even from the entrance of the bedroom, I could see them both in good detail, and my host took a moment to observe when we found them. One was a gold disk on a shiny chain of the same color, smooth and polished, with a single diamond in the center. But the other was a medallion I recognized – a clear-color, drop-cut crystal on a silver chain… within which a small, gentle, yet powerful blue flame flickered.

“They’re both beautiful, aren’t they?” Misty and I asked together.

Shimmer nodded as she continued to debate with herself. “Yes they are…”

“That gold disk was something that was passed to me by your grandmother.” Misty and I explained, staying by the doorframe and watching. “And she got that from her mother on her fifth birthday. She wore it everywhere she went while she was growing up… and because of that, there’s a whole life’s story in that pendant.”

For a moment, Shimmer broke her attention from the treasured necklaces, smiling with a reminiscent air. “It’s a story that I love.” she replied.

“Me too, dear.”

“This one has a story, too.” Mother Shimmer made her claim as she looked back to the medallions, this time focusing on the glowing crystal. “Though it seems that… it has a lot of missing pages.”

“It belonged to a stallion that your father and I fought beside when we were on duty.” Misty said. “We were a part of a joint operation with a new group of soldiers that came to reinforce our position. And the thing about them was that… they were ponies, our allies… and yet they looked so different from us.”

Shimmer nodded as she looked my host and I in the eye again. “Dad said they wore different colors.”

“Blue… blue and black and grey.” Misty explained, absorbed in her thinking. “They called it a simple designation, something to make them stand out among the rest of Equestria’s army… and they sure did. But… in regards to that medallion, one of those ‘blue soldiers’, as we called them, got to be a close friend with your father as they shared stories of their history, of their lives before enlisting, and what they had to look forward to when they were allowed to go home again. Your father talked about getting a farm with him, and he told your father in turn about his wish to open up a small wagon shop in the heartland. When your father talked about marrying me with him, he would share his hope of finding a sweetheart of his own once he settled down with his business… they shared many hopes. But… that stallion didn’t make it out of the war alive.” There was no missing how Misty’s voice slowed at this particular point in her recollection; Shimmer herself moved just slightly closer to us, a move guided by instinct as she sensed the distress in her mother’s voice. “Our camp was ambushed one night, and that stallion was fatally wounded in the fight to repel the enemy.” Misty continued, with a little difficulty slowing her down. “In the end, before he died, he managed to give your father that necklace. And according to him, when he was given it, he was told that there were many like it, but they all equally represented a great virtue, and were given to ponies who represented it in their actions and intentions… And your father was told by that stallion that he had that virtue in him, and so that stallion wanted him to take it to keep that flame alive.”

“That was… that was a very difficult time.” Shimmer responded with sympathy, nodding slowly as she bowed her head in respectful reverence to the departed stallion. “And it was only a short time before you both got to come home, right?”

“Yes.” Misty answered with a nod of her own. “And so, to fulfill that stallion’s wish, your father held on to it, and he kept it with us all this time until he chose to give it to you.”

“Because of this…” And that was when Mother Shimmer stepped back down onto all fours, turning just enough for us to see as she looked to her right flank… and to the cutie mark set there.

A blue fireball…… the blue flame…

Just like mine…

One and the same…

“Because of that.” Misty answered her, nodding again; now she entered the bedroom, approaching her daughter.

“That medallion’s really important to father, isn’t it?” Shimmer ventured, careful… already knowing the answer. “So… knowing how he acquired it… why give it to me?”

Shimmer asked that as Misty and I drew up to her. “He said that that medallion, according to its previous owner, represents the virtue of honor… a virtue that comes as the culmination of the six elements of harmony… The stallion who gave us this medallion told us that honor is the very definition of who we as Equestrians truly are, no matter how bad the politics, how deep the civil strife, or how dire the war.” she said, letting those words sink in as she and her daughter stared eye to eye. “And every time we’re reminded of that part of our lives… we think of you, and just how great a young mare you’ve turned out to be… Even with being raised by two parents who’ve spilled blood and were rewarded with… with battle scars and WTSD because of it… you’ve grown up like you’ve never even heard of war. You’ve done so many good things through your life… and when you got that cutie mark… it only served to prove what we already believed in.” At that point, Misty closed the remaining distance between her and her daughter, and pulled her into a hug, one that Shimmer immediately returned. “My point behind all this… is that that medallion is but a material representation of your virtue, and that with or without it, you’re showing to everypony you meet that you are truly special… that you are truly one of the good ponies.” Here, Misty leaned back, releasing her daughter and once again looking her in the eye; Shimmer was smiling a little but heartfelt smile back to us “No matter where you go, no matter what you wear… no matter how you look… you’re going to always be a mare of honor, because I know your heart, and I know the good in it.” And after uttering a happy little sigh, “And that’s something that’s going to live on forever, in you, in your descendants, and in the ponies whose lives you become a part of.”

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

When I returned to reality, coming back through that same slightly disorienting transition, a short moment of silence in which my ears brought me back the sounds of my surroundings heralded a sweet piano melody, simple but set in a beautiful key, and then transitioning into a more flowing musical weave as strings begun to accompany it. It served both to remind me of the present, and to make me all the more nostalgic in the wake of viewing Mother Shimmer’s second and final memory that she had given to me before we parted ways. At first, I couldn’t decide for myself where to set my focus, as I was both hesitant to put aside what I saw in that memory, but was also curious to rediscover my new shelter. The sight of a straw pillow overtop an intact yet dirty mattress, however, was what made the choice for me, and my eyes were drawn up to look over the wooden walls around me.

Sierra and I had made good time in our flight to Challenger’s Moonstone Peak Outpost, moving unhindered and unopposed. And as Captain Royce had predicted, thanks to the benefit of still remaining in Challenger’s territorial triangle, we arrived just before nightfall. Upon landing, we were greeted by one Lieutenant Ziggy, outpost commander, and definitely a little unusual among the rank-and-file soldiers in Challenger’s army. This was, however, only the case in regards to formality, of which he did not much believe in. He waved away our acknowledgments of his rank as an officer, and encouraged us to relax ourselves, even urging us to just call him by his blood name. With all of that in mind, we gave him the lowdown on the situation at the Wheaton Armory at his request. Both Sierra and I were glad to give him the good news of the turnout there, and even though we hadn’t been allowed to see the rest of the fight through, we were both confident in the strength of the rest of the company, enough to tell the Lieutenant that Challenger was going to get its armory back… despite losing Searchlight in the process.

That served as a bit of welcome news to the Moonstone Peak Outpost, because while it was intact and fully operational when we arrived, there were problems here as well. The Lieutenant in turn explained to us about the constant stream of skirmishes between his own scouts and Black Blood troops trying to get in past the outer ring of hills in the area. It was a routine thing here in the peaks, and those fights almost always ended in stalemates… just one side probing for weaknesses while the other showed them none. Despite this, things were in good order here, and the Lieutenant personally assured the both of us that we would be able to get a solid dinner and good rest tonight. And seeing as how the outpost was well fortified with numerous barricades, a flak gun team, a mortar crew, and, much to my surprise, an automated minigun turret atop the command shack, I had every faith that his promise was true.

In fact, he’d already fulfilled one part of that promise, as I remembered the hardy dinner of assorted veggies that we’d received just shortly after our arrival. Now, the time was drawing near to lay down and try and rest for a while under the protection of the night watch.

Sierra and I had been given our own beds in the barracks building, raised up from pure scrap. It was a solid enough place, the planks on the floor, walls, and roof all even and with very few cracks and holes. And it was a big building, long, and complete with two stories as well as rooftop access for an assigned sniper to use the guard post built there. As it was now, the two of us shared the first floor with about twenty other soldiers. Almost everypony with us was already sound asleep, weary from the constant alertness the day required from them. As such, Sierra and I were doing our best to keep our voices lowered where we’d been placed in the far corner of the building, just a few steps away from the stairs climbing to the second floor. Thankfully, in that regard, we were able to match our voices to the volume of the radio that the outpost had been provided with, brought to them almost immediately after Buckley began broadcasting. As I expected, it served to lift everypony’s spirits here, and in my case, it provided me a great luxury, as Sierra and I were almost right next to the nightstand where the radio sat.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I’d be sleeping wonderfully tonight.

The song that greeted me upon leaving the memory orb was still going, the piano restating that beautiful theme as a solo, one I already felt was going to be stuck in my head for a while thanks to a combination of the key and the smooth progression of the notes. And that melody was only augmented when the strings returned, more virtuosic on their own restatement of the accompanying figure. And it was then that the music coaxed me to speak my thoughts, solid and happier thoughts that I gladly welcomed as an intermission from everything else. “It’s beautiful… don’t you think?”

Sierra was to my right, laying against the wall on her own provided mattress, and looking almost wholly asleep. She was stretched out on her side, basking in having this music to grace us with its healing energy, and in being free of her power armor which was now stowed away outside the barracks. But in response to my question, she stirred from her own meditation, gradually adjusting herself onto her belly and taking a moment to get comfortable again. “I must admit,” she responded. “I’ve never heard anything quite like this back home.”

“Do you have music back where you come from?” I asked, openly curious as I removed my recollector and set it off to the side.

And when she nodded, she took hold of my interest. “Yes, but my tribe has music that is very different… and likely quite primal compared to this.” she explained; she seemed to take a measure of enjoyment in her recounting. “Most of the instruments we have are made from nature. If you were to visit my tribe, you would see things like drums made from wood and animal hides, and shakers made from hollowed gourds filled with pebbles. We even have some instruments made from scrap, like metal flutes forged from old rifle barrels, or even metal bells carved from old wagon plating.”

“Wow…” That truly was fascinating to hear. “I’d love to be able to see those.”

“My tribe, and other tribes in The Halo have their own appreciation for music. And in my own it’s used for many different occasions.” Sierra continued. “We have songs and dances dedicated to specific days or seasons, some tied to historical events, some used for ceremonies. In fact, for many of the tattoos that I earned living among my tribe, a drum circle would be summoned to acknowledge my achievements.” And after a pause in which I nodded my understanding, she cracked a small smile. “We have a very different culture out where I come from, very far apart from Buckley’s more modern musical character. But like I said, this music is very enjoyable, and I do appreciate getting the time to listen to it.”

“Is it weird that I’m already entertaining thoughts of visiting The Halo?” I asked, unable to keep a feint blush from my face. “Of course, only when I get the time to do so… you know, when all this mess is done and over with…”

But Sierra chuckled in response, shaking her head. “No, I do not think it’s weird at all. In fact, I’m flattered that you are so interested.” she said. “While I came here by order of my tribe’s leaders, and I’m still focused on my mission to learn everything I can about the enemy here, I do miss my home very much. And so, hearing positive thoughts on it from somepony else is actually rather refreshing.” After I nodded my understanding, she added, “But, to answer your question with a fuller answer… I’ve been around you long enough and learned enough about who you try to be that I certainly wouldn’t mind introducing you to my people. So long as outsiders that enter their territory possess no ill intent, they are welcomed.” And all of this, she said with a small smile that put in me a feeling of accomplishment, brought from the knowing that I’d been making a good impression on the mare that had rescued Blake and I from the Talons.

“Citizens of the southeast…”

But before I could respond, another voice with a shocking tone cut in between us. And so different was it in its voice that both Sierra and I snapped our eyes back to the radio, right before it spoke up again. “Friend and foe, pony and griffin… trader, wanderer, raider and soldier… from last night to the present, you have been listening to my voice and the voices of my ponies… all our hearts combined to reach out to all the region, to Challenger and beyond.”

“That voice…” For the first time, we were hearing somepony else from the other end. And she spoke to her listeners with a weary voice, burdened with age and heavily marred with a terrible grating rasp. But despite all that, the words were carried by determination… and passion… and all of that put together told me who we were hearing.

Sierra and I glanced back to one another before Buckley’s compassionate leader spoke up again. “I am Mother Shimmer, elder of Buckley Air Force Base… and you have been listening to our Eternity Radio.” she said, speaking with strength drawn from the very subject of her great deed. “For my youngers and I, this broadcast marks our greatest step in leaving the seclusion that we have lived by for nearly seventy years. And for everypony who is able to listen to us and receive our messages, it is something much greater – history in the making. But for all of us together… it is a force that brings our minds together, brings every eye and ear to one place no matter which side of the war we fight on.” In this moment, I was wholly drawn in by her words… this premier speech, carrying her voice all across the region; and she spoke with all the wisdom I remembered. “As I speak to those of you who can hear me, I wish to say that Buckley is not oblivious to the conflict that has spread across the region. We too have been a part of it, and we know what it is like to fight and die in it. But still, despite the cloud of war that has settled over us, and over all of you, we reach out to you. So listen well and remember – Buckley speaks, and no matter where our futures may take us, we will continue to give our music equally as a gift to all who can hear it.”

As Shimmer paused in her words, I lowered my head away from looking at the radio, instead slowly bowing as her voice became an unstoppable force in dragging me back to the recent past in Buckley itself. And my very first memory came as my final moments at Buckley’s gates, where she had seen me and my friends off… leaving with me her prized gifts. Hearing her voice again through the radio was all it took for me to fall into a bout of reminiscence, in which things I once thought were behind me only returned to stare me down. My regrets, my pain… their pain… it all came back here to serve as a reminder of something that really wasn’t in the past… but was just buried underneath the actions of the present… and the worries of the future.

Sierra and I were silent in the pause Shimmer gave us. During that time… I had a gut feeling that she was taking that time both to let her words sink in to whatever audience she possessed, and to contemplate her own presentation of Buckley’s emergence. And we waited until she finally spoke again. “From this moment on, we will continue sharing our gift. No matter how cherished or ignored it may become, we will give it to all who can hear it. And in so doing, it is our ultimate hope that we can show to the region who we are, what we have… and to those who have shared history with us… show how we have changed.” And after one more short pause, “And so with that message… that promise… I bid everypony and everyone good night.”

And as soon as she finished, a new song rose to take her place, entering in the form of a gentle piano that played with a mind of its own, set in a key signature inspiring mystery, calm… peace… every keystroke echoing in the barracks to wrap everypony up in its crystalline tone. Despite that beautiful touch, however, my own mind lingered on the history that I shared with Buckley… keeping me from that music… And Sierra – she noticed it at a mere glance, to which she asked, “Are you alright?”

Though it took me a moment, I managed to do my best to shrug it off with a shake of my head. “I’m just… just thinking…… again.” Of course, that was totally convincing. It was so much so that Sierra saw right through me, even before I’d made my full reply. And when she only continued to stare, I was forced to add more body to my words. “I’m thinking about Buckley… about Shimmer… And while this war kept it at bay for a while, being here makes the ideal setting to remind me of how much I miss that place.”

Sierra nodded as she took in my words. “I see.”

And now that she’d roped me into spilling, I had a question on my mind for her to answer. “Have you ever had a moment in your life where… where you think that something that happened in the past is going to stay in the past?” I asked. “Did you ever find yourself thinking that you were completely over something only to have it come rushing back?”

And again, she nodded. “Oh yes. And on several occasions.”

“Well… that’s how I’m feeling about Buckley.” I explained. “In all this time I’ve had to think… I think about how in the olden days, you had all the time in the world to dwell on something, think about how to approach fixing it or… or how to move on, all without a lot of distractions. But here and now, you move from one potentially life-changing thing to the next in a blink, all for the sake of survival, and the circumstances that come with all that pull your attention away from those things that affected you the greatest… That’s until you finally get a precious moment of peace, where you can move and think and… just breathe for a bit… without having to look over your shoulder. And that’s when everything comes rushing back…” After a pause, during which I ran through my cobbled-together thoughts again, I continued with, “At first, when I was exiled, I accepted the punishment for the sake of myself, my friends, and for Buckley’s ponies. I knew that disappearing was going to be the best course of action, and so did everypony else. But back then, given the circumstances, I didn’t have any room to think about much else other than trying to keep the peace, and leaving to keep myself and my friends out of hot water.” I couldn’t keep myself from uttering a little sigh at my more bitter recollection. “But now that things are different… I’ve been given the time and the reminders to bring me back to that moment. And it didn’t come from just this, but right when their broadcast first started… and now it’s ramped up a bit more with this memory orb Shimmer gave to me…”

“And what did you see?” Sierra asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

“It was just a short glimpse, no more than a few minutes of the past.” For a moment, I couldn’t help but smile a little as the scene replayed in my head. “Shimmer was getting ready for a concert in Marefax with her parents. And she was looking over a couple of medallions to wear… one of which happened to be the one we found in that wrecked convoy.” Though Sierra showed a small measure of surprise, she remained quiet. “Or, at least it was an identical necklace, because I guess a bunch of them were made back then. But it was at the tail end of the memory that I came to understand why Shimmer gave it to me in the first place. And that was because before she became a ghoul, she had a cutie mark that was… an exact copy of my own.”

“An identical cutie mark… really??”

If we’d been having this discussion thirty or so days ago, I would’ve been just as surprised as her. As it was now, I only gave a casual nod. “I know.”

“Seeing you and your brother with a similar mark was surprise enough.” Sierra remarked in thought. “But finding the same mark on somepony with no relation to you at all…”

“The story behind all that is a really long one.” I replied, taking a moment to stretch out my wings. “But Shimmer and I both came to agree that there was a rather unique story behind that mark, and now I know why she felt that way.” And here, I paused long enough to utter a light little laugh. “In the end, I guess that memory was just the final piece in the proverbial puzzle to show how my history with Buckley wasn’t done with me yet.”

“Hm… I came to understand how fond of that place you had become. Raemor told me some stories – winning their trust, going to Marefax.” Sierra replied, falling in smoothly with the change in subject. “You did quite a bit over there, didn’t you?”

“They introduced me to a culture that I never thought would’ve existed on the surface. And once I got them to open up to me, they let me be a part of it….” I stated back. “All this time, I don’t think I really ever fully understood just how much I missed that music… being up on their stage, singing for them… In Buckley, a habit in Stable One Eighty-one was making its first steps to becoming something… extraordinary. But being where I am now, my mind’s just kind of stuck on how all of it came crashing down…”

“It must’ve been hard.” Sierra remarked; I appreciated her empathy. “From what I heard about your exploits there, it really seemed like a place where you could fit in, and in many unique and important ways.”

Nothing but the truth, that. And it drew a little wistful sigh from me. “It was… It had a lot of gifts, a lot of ties to the lifestyle of the olden times that ponies elsewhere might think are unobtainable… and it had a lot of good ponies there. Shimmer herself was easily the most compassionate pony I’d met, and a lot of her flock followed her example almost to the letter. I made a lot of friends there, from the base’s military commander and his wife… a few soldiers… a couple musicians… and hell, even a couple of spa mares… I can recite all their names in a flash, you know…… And…” But as I ran through those names in my head, with a happy wistfulness… it came down to one last name on the list that I paused at, right when it was on the tip of my tongue. “And there was Archer, too…”

“Ah yes.” Sierra remarked, a little smile coming to her. “I take it he was a bit of a unique character among Buckley’s ranks, yes?”

I couldn’t find any room to disagree. “Yes he was… is…” It was right then that I began to focus only on memories involving him… and it became impossible to stop. “When the tensions settled to more civilized levels, he was one of the first to greet us… and I admit… I rather quickly found him… well… attractive.” Goddesses, I was already blushing a little… and Sierra herself was beginning to smirk, small and polite. “But it wasn’t long after our arrival that I found myself working with him on various tasks, helping Buckley within the fence and later without. We stomped some mutated bugs to get the base’s spark generators running again… We ran a patrol together and brought back some Old World artifacts for Shimmer to help her remember her old self. We uh… oh, and before that we raced each other once… and of course, he won.”

Sierra giggled with me. “Aw.”

Once we settled, I happily continued with our toughest shared ordeal “After a while came Marefax… and traveling through that city was… well, I would almost call it a nightmare. I saved his life only for him to turn around and save mine right after… constant fighting after that… yeah, it was a real mess out there, but Goddesses, was it worth it.” But then… then came what had to be my fondest memory. “Because after that came Buckley’s concert… and when that came along… he and I danced together, to two different songs. And I remember them both, crystal clear…” At this point, I was smiling bright, nostalgic but glad for the memory. And Sierra was sharing a smile of her own, one that told me she was happy for me to have been able to win that experience with Archer. “Over all the time I spent in Buckley, through all the good experiences we shared and all the bad ones that we helped each other through, he just continued standing out more and more among all the others… and I really… I really begun to admire him.” And that was the truth of the matter. “For who he is, for how he served his home with fierce loyalty, for how he treated me so respectfully and honorably… I really begun to like him… He’s a good stallion… I’m grateful for the time that we shared, and I’m especially glad that he made it through what happened at Buckley… because he almost didn’t.”

“Yes… he really came through for us that night… for you.” Sierra remarked, with a much more serious tone that brought me back into a firmer focus. “He went through quite a lot those couple of days. Everypony could tell he was struggling.”

I couldn’t help but sag slightly at that. “Yeah… he went through far more than he deserved.”

“But now that he’s in Challenger, staying with your group… I can’t help but think he’s getting better.” Sierra spoke up after, growing a little more optimistic on the subject. “And I think a great deal of that comes from being around you.” But before I could do any more than raise a questioning look, she asked, “Would it not be safe for me to say that you’ve developed deeper feelings for him?”

At that… I only froze…

“After the stories you’ve told, after the way recent events have played out… I’m sure you understand why I ask.” Sierra continued, taking my silence as her que to press her point, even while I found myself falling into a mental gridlock. “You think very highly of him, and I think the feeling is the same with him as well. And like you said, you two have had many experiences together, shared happily in the good, and helped each other through the bad.” And as she formulated her words, she nodded in approval of her own dialogue as I only continued to meet her eye-to-eye. “Given what I now know, I feel that you two have gained a lot of strength from each other. And I think that’s something worth considering if you continue to think about it.”

“I…” I was still stuck, not so much surprised by the question anymore as I was… just unsure. Of course, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about him… that way… at least once… But… with things the way they were right now, was there really a time for that? In that regard, it was a subject that even put a little nervousness in me. Way back in Proudspire, Cross and I had nearly reached that point. He admired the way I thought and acted, what I believed in, because it had coincided with his own ideals and given him much-needed strength and focus. And despite his quirks, he had been showing himself to be a real dependable, good-hearted, honor-bound stallion. But then, it had been as if the wasteland itself had condemned him for it… and I lost him right in the heat of battle. It was a terrible tragedy, plain and simple… and it had really hurt to see somepony like him taken in such a way.

And with that in mind… I found myself asking in the wake of Sierra’s words - could intimacy like that survive? Could… love… could love of that nature come out on top of a hail of gunfire, or more than that, a whole war? The southeast… this war that plagued it… was taking the chance a wise decision? I didn’t want to go through something like what happened with Cross again – to get close to somepony only to have them stolen from me… and seeing Archer go… I honestly felt that that would really cripple me. Like losing Grace… or any of my other friends… I’d been around Archer long enough to be able to easily call him a friend, a friend that I could count on, and a friend that I really cared for.

But was I ready to take that further? Did he even feel that way toward me at all? And if he did, could we make it work? Could we keep it alive?

But as Sierra herself watched me contemplate the words she’d left me with, I found that, right now, only one response could come out. “I don’t… I don’t know, Sierra.” And no matter how I tried… that really was all I could say. “I just don’t know.”

Footnote: 33% to level up.

Prologue: The Structure of a Virtue

Prologue: The Structure of a Virtue

If there’s one thing that I have learned in my life, it’s that a pony’s virtues are constantly tested. Life in the Stable could never fully prepare us for that. It didn’t know what life was like up there on the surface… and neither did we. Instead, the family line of Overmares and Overstallions did their best to give us an advantage, just in case the time ever came where we needed to live outside in post-war Equestria. The Stable taught us the names and the characteristics of the virtues that were held dear in the old world. As a filly, I was taught about kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, loyalty, and magic. All of these were virtues of pre-war ponies, all of these were elements. My teacher called them the Elements of Harmony and these were the foundations of life in Stable 181. I liked the idea, and I liked it for several reasons. Everypony in the Stable developed a strong sense of what was right and wrong, and everypony knew how to live together in peace, to make a life of good intent, a life of honor.

Honor. It was a word that I had only heard three times while I grew up in that Stable. I heard it once from my father when my little brother was born. He was boasting about how proud he was to be the father of not one, but two young ponies, and he told myself and my baby brother of the faith he had in us that we would become honorable ponies one day. Seeing my father that happy is an image that I haven’t forgotten since I first saw it... his strong and caring embrace, his loving eyes, looking down upon the two of us as if we were the greatest treasures to enter his life.

The second time I had heard the word honor was from my mother when she told me that an honorable mare was passionate, intelligent, friendly, helpful, caring, and willing and unafraid to stand up for who and what she loved. She told me this just before I became a grown-up, a mare, and her words of wisdom played out their part to reinforce my appreciation of the Elements of Harmony. She had said that she was so proud of her “little filly” who was taking up her studying so seriously, living life under the Elements of Harmony, just as we were taught to do.

The last time I heard that word in Stable 181 was the last day the Stable existed. A pony I had not really come to know, other than the fact that he was a security stallion as well as a stallion that had shared a makeshift medical clinic with myself and several others, had told me about how to honor something… just certain things. He said that some things are best left behind. Some things can be left to history while others should be forgotten entirely, put to rest. I never fully understood it, or so I thought, but the praise and love of my parents, coupled by the wisdom of those that taught me within the Stable, were the protection of my virtues when I stepped hoof into the wasteland for the first time.

I know a lot about the wasteland, how it welcomes new ponies with bared fangs, an ever-grinning maw ready to feast upon anything and everything that is good within a pony, only to spit that pony back out and leave a dark vessel, a pony who is corrupted and made to steal, murder, lie, and become wholly evil. There were many like that, and not just ponies who turned to the raider’s way of life. There were ponies in settlements too, seeking power with utter disregard for the well-being of others, often choosing to sacrifice others in their pursuits; there was a constant struggle between good (or what was left of it), and evil. Make no mistake, a lot of ponies tried to be the good ponies, and they were good. My friends and I, we met decent folk out there, trying to survive in post-war Equestria and make a living out of what they had. Everypony was tested, some passing the wasteland’s tests and besting its cruelty. And others failed, becoming just another victim of the wasteland, another statistic. We were no exemption from the wasteland’s challenges. I was tested, my friends were tested, all while we sought to get a foothold in the new Equestria and rebuild our lives. We experienced trials, triumphs, and failures all the same and I am proud to say that none of my friends broke and bowed to the vices of the wasteland. I still cannot say the same for myself, even after my road had ended and I was allowed to be at peace for however long a time that would be, long or brief.

The Wasteland has a unique way of helping you forge your virtue, and if you play your cards right, tread your road carefully, it might just turn out to shape something good for you and for all those ponies you desire to help. Even if the wasteland beats you down again and again, there is always a chance for the desire to do good to overpower the malice of the wasteland’s influence. I made the decisions I made because I thought they were ultimately the best decisions to carry out. My virtues were tested, strained… I made mistakes… plenty of them… but I still want to say that I hung on, even if barely. There’s a lot to think about when the decisions you make lead to annihilation. And it wasn’t the destruction of just some nameless thing that nopony would ever think about… well… perhaps in a way it was, but only to them. To me, as much as I didn’t want to believe it at first, I destroyed something that was mine. In a sense, I was related to what I destroyed, and to the destruction I brought. What I did still lingers in my mind, and I ponder it from time to time. I think about the influences that accompanied me on my road: the teachings within the Stable, the friends I had lived with all my life and loved, the old world secret I uncovered and the threat that it posed to Equestria. I think about just how far the ripples of my decisions might go into the future. Perhaps very far, perhaps not far at all. But that is probably the hardest thought to put an answer to. Maybe I’ll just let you decide. My name is Nova, I am a Pegasus, and this is my story showing just how much old world histories can persist and find meaning in the present and how honor is not just a virtue. This is a story explaining how honor is a code, a code of words, oaths, decisions, and virtues, constantly changing, shifting, and constructed by the very fabric of the heart and soul of the dedicated pony who seeks to live by it.

Chapter 13: Blue Fire and Grey Thunder

“Truth told, I’m surprised you made it out of there in one piece. You and your friends.”

Rain.

As I woke, the water of the clouds falling upon Hopeville was the first sound I could hear through the darkness of my closed eyes. It was light, nothing more than a gentle hiss as it fell to the earth, just as it had been on the return trip home with the Challenger caravan. But it was still there, all around… and this time I didn’t know what to think of it.

We had more than efficiently held our own against the more powerful and skilled Talon soldiers, but we had suffered losses of our own. Twenty casualties was the number that had been reported after the engagement with the Talon platoon, and another thirty guards had been sent to the clinic for treatment, immediately putting our new supply of healing potions and medicine to use. These twenty casualties we had taken were most unwelcome, and had brought with them a painful new wave of sorrow and mourning that cruelly struck the town, grief that I had partially shared. Specifically, I had learned that young Juniper, one of Hopeville’s foals that I had drawn and played kickball with days before, had lost her father in the fighting. I still remembered the cries of both her and her mother in the clinic, and as her foalsitter and friend, I had shed my own tears for the poor child, now fatherless just like me.

Because of the Talon Legion’s attack, we now only numbered around one hundred and forty, and Hopeville was now weakened even further. Along with these twenty deaths came the thirty injured who had survived the fight, and when I had been sent to the clinic to have my laser burn treated, I had recognized several others as Gracie and her assistants tended to them. Captain Saber was among the most severely wounded, our leader having been shot a total of eight times with what one of his sergeants identified as an assault carbine with armor-piercing rounds. When the battle at the north side of town had become a stalemate, neither side gaining or losing any ground, one Talon soldier had managed to sneak around undetected, and had caught the captain completely by surprise when he left cover. And yet, much to the surprise (and approval) of all of his subordinates, the buck continued to fight and lead, even with his terrible wounds, and hadn’t collapsed from his injuries until he made it to the clinic after the battle. Others that had been injured, but to a less severe degree, included two of Saber’s security sergeants as well as Shore, Joker, Daisy, and even Ivy who, though not participating in the initial fighting, had fended off a spirited Talon soldier when he entered the Hopeville Repair Shop where the foals had been hiding. For this, I was eternally grateful to the newcomer mare, as one such foal currently lay by my side, and I finally opened my eyes to the present as I remembered my baby brother.

The young colt was snuggled up tight against my right side, covered up to the neck by both my protective wing and the clean white blanket given to us from Challenger’s supply shipment. Through the other emotions I had been battling with in the aftermath of the fight, I had been very proud of him for what he had done after Hopeville was safe again. On his own initiative, he had returned to the clinic and had reunited with all of his friends to be with Juniper as she wept. Later on, he had gone to the injured ponies in the clinic and had personally thanked each of them for protecting Hopeville, including Joker, Daisy, Shore, and even myself. When words of doubt responded to his own words of gratitude, Blake had done his best to speak reassurances, telling the injured that they had done their best, and that because of them, Hopeville was still a town and still our home, our cherished and honorable home. And after speaking with each of the injured in person, Blake had remained at the clinic, volunteering to help Gracie by carrying potions and other supplies to her and her assistants when they were needed. He had worked in the clinic late into the night, eventually tiring himself out and allowing me to carry him to our new room in the City Hall. Now he was still fast asleep under the comfortable warmth our shared blanket provided us, and because of this, I stayed exactly where I was as I thought out the plan for the day.

I knew there was no way that I’d be leaving Hopeville today, and after the fight, two parts of my mind had been battling nonstop over whether or not to go to Buckley Air Force Base on the following day… or even at all. The situation for Hopeville was growing even more bleak, and I knew that everypony we had would be needed to keep the town defended and in order. Yet even after a full evening of private debate, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do regarding that Old World military base. On one side of the argument, I still firmly believed that there would be something of value within, and I was particularly hopeful that we might find more weapons to further fortify our home with. Equestrian military bases during the war were always well-stocked with arms and supplies, and should the base not have been looted over the course of one hundred and seventy-five years… which was an unfortunately strong possibility… anything inside would prove very helpful to Hopeville in the coming days. But there was still the other side of the case, the side in which the possibility of finding nothing, or worse, finding the base occupied by our enemies, was equal to the former. If this were to end up being the case, then Hopeville would be as it was now, with only Challenger to help us… there was still a lot to think about.

But presently, I knew that there were things I needed to do at home. First and foremost, I wanted to see all of my friends again, speak a few words with each of them and see how they were holding up. Then I wanted to check up with whoever was currently in charge and see what needed to be done around town. For today, I needed to be here and help the others, and that meant no flying off into the wasteland for any reason whatsoever. Though all I was intending to do was to scout out Buckley Air Force Base and not stay there for any extended period of time, the present situation required everypony in the community to be present in Hopeville and helping around town. I had to stay put.

Slowly, I unfurled my left wing to lift the blanket off of me and slip out with as little disturbance to my sleeping younger sibling as possible. Despite my effort though, he felt the shift in movement and the sudden lack of my other wing over his back, and as I wriggling out from under the blanket, he stirred to a drowsy state of consciousness with a tired groan. “Sorry for waking you up, Blake.” I spoke softly, rising to all fours and stretching.

“Nova? What are you doing?” came his drained response.

“I’ve got some things I need to take care of.” I explained, stepping around and facing him as he tried to look up at me with fully opened eyes; he was still quite exhausted from yesterday.

“You’re not leaving Hopeville are you?”

“No, of course not.” I answered, using a forehoof to nudge the edges of our new big blanket around him, tucking him in. “There’s just some small errands I need to tend to. I’ll be right outside when you’re ready to wake up.”

Blake yawned a big yawn, unsuccessfully trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. “But I’m… already awake.” he argued sleepily. “I wanna go with you.”

I giggled at his persistence as I finished tucking up the blanket around him, and I looked back at him to see his eyes already shut again as he fought to keep his head off of the floor; even in Hopeville, he battled against going to sleep, just like in Stable 181. “Blake,” I began, lovingly nuzzling him along the side of his face. “you’ve already done so much in just one night, and everyone’s grateful. I’m very proud of you for being so willing to help, and you’ll have more time to help today. But for now, you need to get some more rest. You’re still very tired.”

I felt him nuzzle weakly back against me, attempting to return my embrace before he nodded his tired reply. “Okay…”

As a final touch to Blake’s makeshift bed, I grabbed one of the corners of the blanket with my front teeth and carefully pulled it around, creating a small sort of makeshift pillow for my baby brother to rest his head. “Alright. Now you lay back down and sleep. I’ll see you outside when you wake up.” With a gentle nudge of my muzzle, I guided the young colt’s head to the pillow, and much to my amusement, he fell right to sleep as soon as he touched the fabric of the blanket, fully covering him to keep him warm and cozy. “I love you, baby brother.” I whispered, giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead before turning away, leaving the colt to his rest.

Our room, before the Last Day, was one of several small maintenance storage rooms on the City Hall’s second floor, and though it was indeed rather small, it was officially ours, the framed photo of my friends and I that hung on the wall making it so. The room was devoid of any furniture or miscellaneous supplies, and it held enough space for another one or two ponies to rest in comfortably should they need to. At present, all it held was Blake’s saddlebags and my own weapons and gear, all stashed in an organized row along one of the walls. For a moment, my eyes lingered over the weapons, long enough to remember that I had nearly lost Blue Fire’s Torch during yesterday’s battle. Fortunately, despite being thrown a fair distance by the missile launcher, the weapon had remained undamaged, and was now fully loaded and ready for use again… though after scoring my first headshot with it yesterday… I was uncertain if I really wanted to use it again. Seeing a kill through a rifle scope was… different… and worryingly so, especially since my very first kill looked back at me after he had already died…

I turned away from my equipment and stepped out into the hallway, unsurprisingly quiet and lacking any hoof traffic. Only occasionally did a voice of one of the other residents sound from within one of the City Hall’s many offices, and as I neared the staircase to the first floor itself, I froze at a familiar voice behind a closed and fully intact door. “Why did he have to go?” the high-pitched voice asked miserably, barely managing full words through wretched sobs. “It’s not fair…”

“No… no it isn’t fair.” an older mare replied soothingly as the younger broke into crying, sobs from the former joining the new round of stifled wailing that came from the latter.

“It shouldn’t have happened!!” the young filly cried pathetically. My ears pinned down, the pain in her words like a hot knife against me, and I bowed my head with a sad frown; poor Juniper.

As much as I wanted to comfort her, I knew that there was nothing I could do. At the moment, being with her mother was much more important than being with her foalsitter, and any interruption on my part would be most unwanted by the both of them. For a moment, I just closed my eyes, feeling sizzling anger in the back of my mind at the cruel fate that the Talons had stuck the poor filly with… that that griffin commander had stuck her with… and after a sigh, I continued onward down the stairs to the first floor.

The main entrance lobby of the City Hall held a number of sleeping ponies, all lined evenly along both walls while providing a lane of travel for anypony that was awake to move without waking the others. Following the open lane led me to the entrance, giving me a view of the mid-morning scenery. The cloud cover had returned in full, the thick grey blanket preventing any sunlight from leaking through this time around. The rain continued to gently drizzle, producing a sort of thin mist that surrounded the town and continued on into wasteland around it. Outside, Hopeville was utterly quiet, and the only ponies out and about were those of the morning watch, walking at a leisurely pace along the roads or patrolling the town perimeter; there was not one civilian attempting to enjoy the rain like yesterday.

Just on the road outside the entrance, the two Challenger caravan wagons and their brahmin teams were being inspected by the hired-in caravan guards; it didn’t take much to know that they would be heading out soon. I trotted around the front of the caravan, passing a good morning to some of the guards as I went, before I felt the hot breath of one of the brahmin brush over my side as it snorted, making me stop in momentary surprise. The eyes of one of the hardy beasts were watching me curiously as I went, and I couldn’t help but crack a small smile as I reached up to the left head of the creature, giving it a quick couple of gentle pats with my hoof before continuing along towards the Ministry of Peace Recruiting Center.

Out in the center of the courtyard, currently unoccupied by anypony, was the newest addition to our town armaments - the Talon platoon’s twenty millimeter flak gun. During the battle, Saber and his guards had managed to push back against the Talon forces with enough force to quickly kill off their flak gun crew and secure the weapon. Now, Hopeville had its own mobile heavy gun, something that would, if only slightly, ease the sting of our casualties. I looked over the weapon as I walked by, only a glance, before I continued forward, making my way across the courtyard before entering through the open door of the clinic.

I was greeted immediately by the occasional pained moan or grunt with some chatter mixed in. The relatively large main lobby held twenty patients, ten lined up along each wall and all of them resting on some of the blankets provided by Challenger’s shipment. Each blanket had created some sort of improvised mattress, stuffed with extra padding underneath that had been evened out to make relatively comfortable beds for the wounded to sleep on and recover.

At present, I could see as most of the wounded slept, while others cringed and squirmed restlessly, their injuries still paining them. One unicorn, a young white mare with a silvery mane and tail, was currently helping one of the wounded ponies drink a healing potion, offering words of encouragement to the guard buck as he slowly downed the whole bottle. “There you go.” she said with a gentle smile. “That foreleg’s looking much better today, so this should be the last potion that you’ll need to take. Another day of rest, and you should be able to start moving around normally again.”

“Excuse me?” I gently called to the nurse, getting her attention as she set the bottle down. “Is Gracie here? I’d like to talk to her for a moment if I could.”

“Oh, sure thing, Nova.” she answered with a half smile, looking over to the end of the lobby. “She’s just in the other room there. Go on ahead.”

I dipped my head in thanks before proceeding across the lobby, and I allowed another one of Gracie’s assistants, a vanilla-colored earth pony mare with a violet mane and tail, to pass the doorframe before I crossed into the M.O.P. building’s only other chamber. In this room, the remaining ten wounded ponies were settled on their own makeshift mattresses, all of them asleep except for one. Gracie was currently sitting in front of one of the mattresses, lifting away an empty healing potion bottle from Captain Saber as he lay his head back down, letting out a tired sigh. “Thank you Grace.” he said hoarsely.

“Certainly captain.” came her reply, the two words etched with concern as she set the empty bottle aside.

“Morning Gracie.” I spoke up, giving a small wave as she turned at my voice.

“Good morning, Nova.” she greeted back, flashing a thin smile. “How’s that burn?”

I trotted the rest of the way to her, exchanging a quick hug. “It’s gone now.” I responded as I released her. “I can’t feel any irritation anymore. I just hope I can avoid getting shot by another energy weapon in the future.” I added with a chuckle before looking down at our brave and exhausted leader. “Hello, captain. How are you feeling?” I asked, walking around the bed to look him in the eyes.

The buck shifted slightly, a movement that made him wince. “I could be better.” he managed with a weak smirk. “But I suppose it’s all part of getting shot a half dozen times… or however many times I got hit yesterday.”

“It’s nothing to smile over, captain.” Gracie gently scolded. “Last night I thought I almost lost you. Do you know how much you scared my two assistants and me… and some of the guards, now that I think about it?”

“I’d just fallen asleep, Grace.” Saber responded, smirking just a little wider.

“That’s not what happened at all.” my friend corrected sternly. “You’d bled considerably after being shot, and you’d lost a lot of blood in between then and when you finally came to me for help. When I was extracting those bullets the blood loss added up, and you went into circulatory shock. If Challenger hadn’t brought in those enhanced healing potions with its supply shipment, I’m not sure you would’ve made it.”

The captain chuckled. “So that’s what you call going to sleep…”

Gracie’s ears pinned back as she let out an exasperated moan in response. “Captain…”

“Well… this is an interesting side of you, captain.” I remarked, keeping to myself that it was one I never expected to find in our leader.

However, the older stallion chuckled again. “It’s just the whole near death experience thing… trying to keep morale up a little.” he said, then finally taking note of Gracie’s very obvious disapproval. “Sorry. I know I’m not making your job any easier, Grace. I’ll stop now.”

The medical mare sighed lightly, still giving him a thin smile in return for his mercy. “Thank you, sir.”

As the captain settled on his bed, I cast a look around the rest of the room, taking in the sight of the others that were resting here. The ponies I recognized first were Joker and Daisy, both of whom were sleeping side by side on their beds, Joker’s right foreleg held with Daisy’s left as the two recovered from their own wounds. At the other end of the room, I saw Shore, stripped of his armor and weapons that were now up against the wall as he slept. Ivy was in this room as well, the young mare whom my friends and I had ‘saved’ shifting in a restless sleep with a pained frown spread across her face; whatever wounds she had sustained were still bothering her. “How are the others?” I asked Gracie, eyes staying on Ivy.

“Most came in with a differing number of gunshot wounds.” Grace replied lowly, stepping up to me and following my gaze. “But some weren’t lucky enough to escape with just a bullet wound. Ivy’s an example… she wasn’t shot at all, but she was stabbed three times before one of the guards got to her and helped her defend the Repair Shop. According to the sergeants, some of the Talon soldiers have a habit of using combat knives and even longer machetes if they get close enough to their targets, so some of the ponies who didn’t have full security armor during the fight came in with severe lacerations. My assistants and I had to do a lot of needlework to stitch those wounds, and even then, there were worse cases. That evil mobile gun the Talons brought in killed I don’t know how many, and it critically injured two others. One of them nearly lost his foreleg because of that gun, but we saved the limb with one of those super healing potions…” She paused and looked away. “Most of the patients I have now will have made a full recovery before the end of the day… then they’ll be ready to get hurt some more…”

I swung my eyes back to her. “Hey. What’s wrong?” I asked, a little surprised at her suddenly dismal word choice. “Something on your mind?”

Grace looked to me again. “I just don’t like seeing all of the ponies we’ve lived with our whole lives suffer like this. Some of the injured here have been in my clinic during both the last battle and the one before it with the raiders…… I wish they didn’t have to go through all of that… through everything that we’ve had to be put through. I just wish that we could have Hopeville and be left in peace without having to fight nearly everypony out there.”

But this was the Equestrian wasteland, even if it was only the southeastern region, a small slice of the greater whole. “Unfortunately, at least right now, it’s what has to be done in order to keep what we’ve already achieved.” I replied. “And I think that the more time we’ve spent in Equestria, the more that everypony who came out of one eighty-one understood that it takes more to survive out here than the morals that home left us with.” My friend sighed, looking away again to stare at the floor beneath her forehooves as a lengthy pause proceeded my words. “Those who would destroy what we have won’t stray from their intentions, and so we can’t either.” I added gently, placing a hoof on her back. “Because despite everything we’ve lost, we still have many ponies and many things here that are dear to us, and those are the things that we’re willing to get hurt for to preserve.”

“And what about the others?” Gracie then asked, making me raise an eyebrow. “Those who were willing to pay in scars but ended up dead…… do you know how many ponies I’ve lost under my care? Do you know how many I couldn’t save?”

“Grace-”

“Seventeen.” she interrupted quickly, taking her eyes off of the floor and gazing back to me with pained eyes. “Including Gunny’s father… your mother… two others when we left the Stable, twelve more after fighting back the Black Blood, and then one more last night… Juniper’s father…” Oh… “When I lost him… I’m starting to give up, Nova.”

She paused again, shaking her head, and I immediately grew very concerned; this wasn’t like her. “What do you mean?” I asked, lowering my head to look her in the eyes.

“It’s getting harder to focus… being out here these past two weeks is starting to wear on me.” she replied; I could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. “I think that… pretty soon, I won’t be fit to run the clinic anymore.”

“That’s not true.” I stated firmly, my friend shaking her head in clear denial. “Just because others have died doesn’t mean that you’re some kind of failure. You’ve saved so many more than you’ve lost, and everypony knows it.” I paused as she remained quiet, her silence giving me an easy indication as to what was truly bothering her. “You know that everypony who’s lost someone else doesn’t hold it against you. You know that right?”

“If I’d been the medic that Hopeville needs, I would’ve been able to save that stallion last night.” Gracie responded miserably, dodging the question. “I would’ve been able to save Gunny’s father, your mother… I would’ve been better, and things would be better here…”

“Grace, stop!” I snapped, still keeping my voice controlled to hopefully prevent waking the sleeping patients. “Listen to yourself… you make it sound like you’re the cause of all Hopeville’s hardships. I know you, Grace, and I know that you’ve always tried hard and done your best. I understand how you feel about this, I really do. Sometimes, though… sometimes you just can’t save everypony.”

Grace sighed, sniffing and wiping her eyes with a foreleg before returning her gaze to me. “When we left the Stable on that day two weeks ago… on that day that Seiyara died… deep inside, I was scared that you’d hate me.” she said. “But after a day or so, I had gotten so caught up in what we were doing… that fear just kind of fell into the back of my head and was buried away…… it’s kind of funny how your past can just come back in a flash to haunt you.”

I gave a slight shake of my head, running my hoof along her back. “I don’t even know why you’d think something like that.” I replied. “I know that you did all you could for her… mom even said that herself before she went.”

“But it still wasn’t enough… I’m sorry…”

I shook my head at that, unwilling to let my friend fall into a breakdown for something that happened two weeks ago, and I swiftly pulled her into a tight embrace before she could keep going. “I’m not lying when I say that I don’t hold it against you, Grace.” I firmly asserted, feeling as she wholeheartedly hugged me back. “I don’t blame you for mother, and I know that Gunny and Juniper and everypony else doesn’t blame you for their own losses. You’re highly valued and respected here, as both a nurse and a friend. We need you, Grace. Hopeville needs you.” Gracie was silent, and I only felt as she nodded against my neck. “What happened then, it’s all behind us now, and that’s where it’ll always be. Right here and now, I care about you just as much as I always have, and that hasn’t changed. You’re like a sister to me, and sister to sister, I’m asking you to let that go. Because it isn’t the past that defines you. What defines you is the difference you’re making now, and the lives you’re saving. Don’t ever forget that.”

Grace pulled away as I finished speaking, and when I released her, I was pleased to find a smile on her face. “Coming from you… well, that means a lot to me. Over the past couple of days, that was really weighing on my mind.” she said, wiping away a tear that had ran down her right cheek. “Thanks.”

I smiled back. “You know our foalhood promise… though I have to admit, I think you’re better at keeping your thoughts locked away than Gunny is.”

“Heh… well… hopefully that’ll just be a one-time thing.” The both of us giggled at that, and Grace, looking to be in better spirits, turned to the exit. “I’m going to go to the inn and get some water. Um… captain, if you need anything, just call for one of my assistants. I’ll be back in just a moment.”

“Of course, Grace. Take your time.” the buck replied, and with a final farewell, Grace left the room to the captain and I.

“Grace isn’t usually like that.” I remarked after a pause, turning around to find the captain looking at me from where he lay.

“She only told me that she was having some troubling thoughts, said she didn’t want to waste a patient’s energy on discussing it.” Saber replied, smiling a thin smile as he added, “I’m glad you got her to open up about it though… the wasteland’s taking a little bit of a toll on everypony at this point.”

“Yeah, I know.” I agreed with a small nod. “I just hope she believes me.”

“You’re best friends. She trusts you and your word, and I’m pretty sure she knows that you spoke the truth.” Saber assured. “I know you did.”

“Thanks, captain.” I replied with a smile. “Before I go, I came by to ask you if there was anything that needed to be done around town.” I explained. “I mean… I know you’re in a hospital bed and all, but I didn’t know who else to talk to.”

Saber smirked at that as he closed his eyes, relaxing on his bedding. “That’s fine.” he assured before answering my question. “I’ve placed Sergeant Dusty in charge while I’m resting. He’s a light brown buck with a white and orange mane, can’t miss him. Talk to him and see if he has anything he needs help with. And if not, then go ahead and rest. Take some time off, be with Blake. We’ve been out in this wasteland for two weeks now, and as I said before, it’s been taking a toll on everypony. So whenever you’ve got the free time, use it to rest up so you can always be at the top of your game.”

I nodded at the order. “Alright Captain. I’ll go see if I can help out around town. I hope you get better soon, sir.”

“So do I, my friend. So do I.” the buck replied, and after a quick bow to him, I left the leader to his rest and exited the clinic.

Upon walking into the road, my eyes fell upon the courtyard to see two groups of ponies assembled in a meeting, gathered beside Hopeville’s twenty millimeter flak gun. Three ponies of the Hopeville guard were meeting with the Challenger caravan commander and the small group of green-armored soldiers under his command. From the Hopeville group, I recognized Gunny as well as Sergeant Dusty, the other stallion of the three being the second uninjured security sergeant, evident by the pipbuck clamped around his right foreleg.

“Hey, Nova! Come over here for a second.” I snapped my attention to the source of the voice, seeing as Sergeant Dusty waved me over. “The commander here wants to speak with you.”

With a nod, I trotted over to the courtyard, returning Gunny’s short wave with a smile before turning my attention to the sergeant. “What’s going on?”

“Our friends from Challenger are getting ready to head back home.” Dusty explained, gesturing to the group of soldiers. “The commander was talking to me about yesterday’s fight, specifically regarding this flak gun and the griffin you fought, and he’d like a word with you. Go ahead, commander.”

“Good morning, ma’am.” the white-coated commander greeted as I faced him, the both of us exchanging dips of our heads as I kept to myself how strange it was to be called ‘ma’am’.

“Before we start commander, I’d like to thank you for helping us over the past couple of days.” I said with a smile. “In Hopeville, I’m just a citizen, but I’d still like to just give you and your soldiers and caravan guards my thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be sure to pass that on to the others.” the beret-wearing buck replied. “I just wish we could’ve come out of that battle with fewer casualties.”

I nodded solemnly. “We all do, commander… Now, is there something that I can help you with?”

“I wont take too much of your time, ma’am, but I just have a couple of questions to ask you.” the commander began, removing his red beret with a forehoof and setting it over a small hook on the chest plate of his armor. Then, reaching up and brushing back his jet black mane, he said, “Yesterday, during the fighting, I had seen that you were engaged with a griffin in the air. When I leave today and return to Challenger, I’m going to be delivering a full report of what happened here to both General Silverlight and President Radiant Gem. What I need from you is a bit of information.” Beside him, one of his soldiers, a unicorn, levitated a notepad and pencil to take notes. At my nod, he asked, “When you were facing this griffin, did you happen to catch sight of any sort of badge or pin on the armor that indicated a rank?”

I lowered my head to think a bit on the fight. Really, all I had seen was his armor and the weapons that had been attached all around it… that, and of course, I was a little busy trying to keep my hide alive. “No, I’m afraid not.” I answered the commander, looking back up just as I remembered a different detail. “But I did see a scar over his right eye… I don’t know if that helps.” At the commander’s nod, the unicorn soldier scribbled away on the notepad.

“Every bit of information helps, so we’ll keep it written down. Now, one of my soldiers reported seeing you and the griffin hovering face to face but not fighting.” the commander continued. “I need to know - did the griffin tell you anything about the platoon’s operations in the area?”

The griffin had indeed talked to me during our dogfight… but he had spoken more about me directly, seeing me at Plainwell and making me his target… or something along those lines… but then, with a jolt of realization that I hoped I had hidden from the others, I remembered the two griffins I had fought over Plainwell. I remembered that I had killed one of the enemy fliers myself, and the other I had led into a waiting trap to take the griffin out of the air and clear the way for Plainwell’s survivors to evacuate. The first griffin had been female… this was something I remembered… and the second flier had been a male; this kicked my brain into high gear. Had the male survived my improvised trap? Was that him?? Though at first, it seemed very unlikely that he would survive a full volley… it now began to seem quite probable that he did survive both the trap and his impact with the ground, especially with the Talon soldiers’ very potent combat armor and the low caliber weapons that the ponies evacuating Plainwell had been using. “The griffin told me that he was the one that gave the order to attack and wipe out Plainwell.” I explained to the commander, adding, “He also said that he gave similar orders to take out that Black Blood camp to the north of here. After that was when he attacked here. He said that he had seen me at Plainwell…” I recalled his next words, words he had spoken with pure hatred. “He talked about making Hopeville a target after he knew that I lived here… I-I don’t know why… but I think he’s hunting me.”

“By the Goddesses Nova…” I turned to see Gunny looking at me with surprise.

“When I was fighting those two griffins over Plainwell, I led one of them into a trap… and I think that that griffin was the one who I had sprung the trap on.” I explained bitterly, a nagging tingle of anxiety putting a small edge on my words. “I got him to chase me in the air, and he followed me right into a waiting volley from the Plainwell ponies that were trying to flee the town. He was shot down, but… I’m starting to think that he survived the trap… and now he wants revenge for nearly killing him.” Right now, it was the only thing that made sense as I clicked the pieces of the memories together.

“That’s strange…” the commander remarked with a thoughtful frown. “But really, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of something like that, especially coming from a Talon soldier.”

“That’s crazy.” Gunny retorted, and I met his troubled eyes, trying to give a reassuring smile at my concerned friend. “Why the hell would someone go through all that trouble just to try and get revenge on one pony??”

“Battle can change a pony, or griffin, in many ways. Unfortunately, this is one of many ways.” the commander answered before facing me again. “I’m sorry to hear that, Nova. But really, I wouldn’t worry too much. You’ve still got a safe haven here, and the Talons are fixed on Challenger right now. If Talon officers want their army to be effective, then they’ll keep their subordinates in line.” I gave a nod at his attempt to ease my discomfort, and though the worry in the back of my mind about being personally sought after by an enemy of Hopeville, Challenger, and the whole of the Equestrian southeast, was still there, I managed to keep fear at bay. “Alright, that’ll be enough information to make a report out of. We know that this griffin is a ranking soldier, at least a sergeant if not higher up.” the commander explained, his unicorn soldier tucking away his notepad and pencil in his combat armor. “If he gave orders himself to attack Plainwell, then we know he’s a ways up on their own chain of command. He isn’t a high ranking officer, because they stay out of combat, but I think we can safely assume that whoever this griffin is, he’s at least a sergeant. But more important, we know that the Talons and the Black Blood are fighting against one another, and that’ll be a big relief to the general and the president.” He turned to address Sergeant Dusty, continuing, “And that brings us to our last point of discussion. Over the time that Challenger had been fighting the Talons, we’ve been trying to secure some of their twenty millimeter flak guns for our own use.” He turned away to look over our own captured gun, and I followed his gaze to look over the machine of death more closely.

The flak gun was mounted onto a thick iron carriage which was set onto two large wheels; a metal leg was extended at the back of the frame where it connected into a ‘U’ shape, keeping the gun evenly level on the ground. The gun itself was a long-barreled weapon that extended past the front of the carriage from its place among the internal components, all of them surrounded by forged iron plates. Fastened into the side below the big receiver was a large ammo container holding the 20mm shells that were fed into the weapon from the bottom. Aside from the first box, another ammo box was secured with special holders underneath the partly used ammo container, and I realized that the gun was loaded and ready for use at any time.

“During our first conflict ten years back though, we were only able to acquire a couple.” the commander continued. “If they’re on the verge of losing a battle, the Talon gun crews have a habit of sabotaging their guns so that they can’t be captured and used by enemy forces. They don’t mind it either, because every large force of about twenty or more they have has a flak gun that backs them up. We were lucky yesterday in that the gun crew were killed all at once by those forty millimeter grenade launchers Hopeville has.”

“What are you getting at, commander?” Sergeant Dusty asked curiously.

“Normally, I’d be under orders to confiscate this gun and return it to Challenger before we send it to Ashton.” the commander explained, returning his red beret to its place on his head. “And I was thinking about taking it at first… and really, I still am. I want to know how you feel about the possibility of my soldiers and I taking this gun back with our caravan.”

Sergeant Dusty looked back at the heavy weapon, slowly scanning it over before looking back at the commander. “Well… uh… this gun… it technically belongs to us now.” he began uneasily. “I’m not looking for any trouble here, but really, if we captured it, then we should be the ones who get to keep it.”

The caravan commander slowly nodded as he took in and thought over our temporary leader’s words. “Well, firstly, don’t worry. There’s not going to be any trouble over this damn thing. I just wanted to have an honest discussion about it.” he assured. But as I looked at him, his thin frown showed to me that part of him really wanted to follow his orders and seize the gun for Challenger’s efforts in Ashton and The Warpath. I really couldn’t blame him for it… but I also knew that Hopeville needed this weapon, and needed it terribly.

“Commander.” I spoke up, catching his attention and those of his soldiers. “If I may… we lost twenty of our own in that last fight. We’ve been outside for two weeks, and right now, we’re in more danger than we ever have been.”

“This gun would help us tremendously should we be attacked again.” Dusty’s fellow sergeant spoke up. “With two hostile armies outside, this gun could make all the difference in the world if we got tangled up in another battle.”

“It could save lives and keep this town on the map.” Gunny firmly voiced afterwards. “The truth is, we need it here. We’re working on getting more ponies acquainted with firearms, but right now, there’s only less than half of us here in Hopeville that can effectively fight should the Black Blood or the Talons come knocking again.”

“Yes.” the commander agreed with a nod. “When I was thinking about my report, I was wondering how I might get an audience with the president and get some soldiers to station themselves here and help protect the town. That is, so long as you wouldn’t mind soldiers, technically strangers, living amongst yourselves.”

Sergeant Dusty immediately shook his head. “The more allied ponies we can get here, the safer we’ll be.” he replied. “If they treat our citizens nice and follow our rules, then I’d welcome them with open arms. I’m sure Captain Saber wouldn’t object either.”

“I assure you on behalf of the president that they wouldn’t do anything besides give this town support. Of course, you’d have to feed them, but they wouldn’t take it over or assimilate it into Challenger or anything like that. The southeastern settlements are meant to be independent with Challenger only acting as a support for them through the supplies we send.” the commander explained, to which Sergeant Dusty smiled a relieved smile, nodding in approval. “Then I’m going to try and see if I can’t get some reinforcements to this town.” the commander declared. “And since I’m doing that, I’ll let you keep this twenty mil too. Celestia knows you folks need it way more than Challenger does.” the commander then chuckled, adding, “I guess it’ll just be our little secret.” I smiled at that.

“Thank you, commander. I mean it. If we could get extra support, we’d be so much better off, and I know that this mobile gun will do us a whole lot of good all by itself.” Dusty replied gratefully, pausing before he added, “Now we’ll just need to figure out how to use the damn thing…”

“Actually…” one of the Challenger soldiers suddenly spoke up, turning to face his superior officer. “Sir, I’ve been around these things before. My father fought in the battles of our first brush with the Talons, and he showed me how one of their flak guns worked. I even managed to work with one recently too when it needed a routine maintenance check.”

“What are you thinking, corporal?” the commander asked.

“Well, if Hopeville needs a hoof trying to figure out how to use this thing,” the soldier explained, nodding to the weapon in question. “I could stay here for a few days and help them get a proper gun crew trained on how to use this twenty millimeter effectively.”

The commander shook his head. “No, negative. I’m already going against orders leaving this gun here. I can’t leave one of my ponies behind too.”

The corporal stood firm though, asking instead, “I know I’m pushing it, sir, but perhaps we could wait here for a couple more hours? I’d only be able to show them the basics, but it would at least be enough to give them a good understanding of the weapon incase they really need to use it later.”

“I wouldn’t object to that.” Sergeant Dusty put in. “It’d make using it a little easier, that’s for sure.”

The commander hummed, sounding a little agitated at yet another attempt at altering his schedule. “Challenger’s ultimate purpose is to help build up the communities that are established around it.” he spoke aloud to himself as he thought over his options. Then, he let out a sigh and gave a nod. “Alright, corporal. I’ll give you two hours.” he said to his subordinate. “But we need to be heading back by midday and no later.”

“Done and done, sir.” the corporal replied, snapping a salute to the commander. “Thank you.”

“Dismissed.”

“Alright then… so what do you need, corporal?” Dusty asked as the soldier was dismissed.

“I need five unicorns.” the Challenger soldier buck answered, trotting up to him. “That’s the size of the crew you’ll need.”

“I’ll get a few that aren’t on watch right now. Come with me.” Dusty replied with a nod, and with a quick thank you to the commander, the meeting was adjourned, Dusty and the other sergeant trotting off with the corporal as the commander and his soldiers headed back for the caravan, leaving Gunny and I alone in the courtyard.

“Well, I’m glad the commander was willing to help us out. This gun’s a stroke of good luck despite everything else.” I commented with a smile, turning to face my friend… and finding that he wasn’t looking very happy. “Gunny?”

“So that griffin’s after you?”

I lightly sighed. “Yeah… I think he is.” I answered. “It’s kind of… unsettling… knowing that someone’s out to get you.”

“It’s horseshit is what it is.” Gunny growled in response. “Let the bastard try and come back here. He comes after you again, and he’ll see the error of his ways, because I’ll be the first to put a bullet in between his eye.” The last bit, he added more darkly, and when I looked up at my friend, he was glaring towards the sky, as if expecting that very same griffin to swoop down at any moment.

“Hey.” I gently spoke up, jabbing him with a hoof and catching his attention. “You shouldn’t let it worry you too much, Gunny.”

“Someone’s out for your blood and your telling me not to worry?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I already told you once, what happens to you, what happens to our friends, that stuff matters to me. When something like this comes up, a threat like this, it’s a bit of a deal.”

He paused here, the both of us staring back at one another as his words set in. The truth was, I admired his protective nature, and I was grateful that he cared about this whole situation. It was a part of what made him who he was, and it was something that I had been witness to on multiple accounts, especially since our return from Challenger. But more and more, I felt that he had been growing a little more protective of me. Whether it had been because of the events in Plainwell or something else, I wasn’t certain. But it was still something that I could see, even hear on his voice. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been… very protective lately.” I remarked, giving him a little smile

“Um… sorry?”

His apology-gone-question made an involuntary giggle escape me before I shook my head. “No, there’s no need for an apology.” I assured. “I was just curious.

“Well, why wouldn’t I be protective? We’re living out here in the Equestrian wasteland, the place that one eighty-one tried to prepare us for, all together in this town of ours that’s written in the hit-lists of two groups of bad guys.” he explained. “I think that’s enough of a reason as to why I’m this way. That and… well, what kind of pony would I be in Hopeville if I didn’t worry about the well-being of my friends?” He let out a light and short laugh at that, smiling a little as he added, “You know me. It’s just who I am, and it’s why I care.”

“I know.” I replied with a smile, reaching up and slinging an arm around his neck. “But if I might remark… don’t zero in on just me or Grace or Shore. You’re an honorable buck, Gunny, and you carry the right intentions. But everypony in Hopeville needs that kind of a heart, not just those closest to you.” I released him and took a step back as we locked eyes again, my friend arching an eyebrow. “And you might find that somepony may need it more than others.”

Gunny eased into a thin smile, giving a chuckle at that. “I understand. I guess we’ll see somewhere down the road.” I smiled back at him, giving a nod as he walked around to stand beside me, the both of us facing the south. “So what’s your plan?” he then asked. “Are you still thinking about going to Buckley?”

“I’ve still been debating it.” I answered, looking out to the horizon. “I really do think it’s a good idea, even though I’m a little nervous about leaving Hopeville for any extended period of time.”

“Understandable.”

I nodded. “But I’ve been leaning more towards going there and scouting the place out. On my pipbuck’s map, it marked the base as being about a two day’s walk from here. If I flew, of course, it’d only take about a day, but the truth is, I really don’t want to look over that place alone, especially if there’s supplies to be found there. I figure that if I can get this trip cleared with Captain Saber or Sergeant Dusty, I could take just one or two others with me, just enough for some support. That way Hopeville wouldn’t be any more short-hoofed than it already is.”

“And I think it’s a good idea too.” Gunny replied. “I think that going to that base would at least yield some answers, if nothing else. We’ll learn about the territory around it, see if anything’s there that can be useful or harmful. The more we learn about the outside world, the better off we’ll be, and to be honest, I’m still a little interested in seeing it for myself. So if you do end up going to that base, let me know, and I’ll gladly come with you and back you up.”

“I will.” I replied with a smile, but just as I was about to ask if there was anything I could help my friend with, I heard a buck clear his throat behind me, and I turned to see the familiar face of Raemor, the copper-colored stallion clad in his armor and duster with all his weapons attached, looking at me and waiting patiently to gain an audience. “Oh, hello Raemor.” I greeted, turning to face the old buck. “Do you need something?”

“Good morning.” he replied with a slight bow. “I apologize if I’m interrupting, but I was hoping to ask you a question.”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I was walking along the east road when I overheard your conversation.” he explained, trotting up to us. “Were you talking about possibly going to Buckley Air Force Base?”

“Um, yeah. I was thinking about heading out there to try and scavenge some supplies for Hopeville and scout out some terrain for our pipbuck maps.” I answered.

“If it isn’t too much trouble, could I ask a favor of you?” Raemor then asked, to which I nodded. “I would like to ask if I might accompany you and whomever else you might take with you to the base. As I’ve told you before, I’ve been very interested in exploring the rest of this region, and I see this as an opportunity to do just that.”

“Oh…” I began uncertainly, exchanging a glance with Gunny, my friend likewise puzzled. “But, aren’t you still technically under hire by the caravan from Challenger?”

“I was,” Raemor corrected with a small smile. “but I spoke with the caravan commander and forfeited the pay for the last leg of the journey. They don’t need two dozen guards and half a dozen soldiers for two empty wagons, and after yesterday’s battle, I wanted to stay in Hopeville for a time and lend a hoof to the town’s recovery. It was my hope that while doing so, I would still be able to further explore the land.”

I smiled. “Well thank you. That’s very kind of you.” The old stallion dipped his head in reply, and I instead asked, “Why did you want to stay here and help instead of going back to Challenger… if you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

Raemor was quiet at that question, long enough to where I begun to wonder if I had treaded onto a sensitive topic, and when he didn’t answer, I asked just that. “Oh no,” he assured me. “I’m not upset. I’m… just an old stallion thinking about old history.” He took in a breath before he said, “Seeing this town at peace… it reminded me of my old home after I left Hoofington behind. It was a community very much like this one, established in a small sector of the Manehattan suburbs. After the battle yesterday, I saw the… harmony of Hopeville being put at risk, and that’s what allowed me to make my choice.”

“I see.” I nodded slowly as I took in his explanation. Raemor was a very decent stallion, polite, respectable, and occasionally quite insightful, a trait that I suspected was largely due to his age and the wisdom that would’ve come from living so long in the Equestrian wasteland. Aside from this, judging by what I had seen of him so far, he seemed to be quite the fighter despite his older age, and I had no doubt that he had the know-how to be able to defend himself. To have him come along as a companion, in my opinion, seemed like a good decision all around. “Okay… well, if you really want to come with me, I’d appreciate the extra help.” I answered with another smile. “Though, just to let you know, I wont be leaving for the base today. I still want to help out around town, and then I still need to get permission from Captain Saber. But if I do go, I’ll be sure to let you know so you can come along.”

“Thank you.” Raemor said, bowing again before turning away and walking towards the west side of town.

“Well, there’s one member of your team down.” Gunny remarked.

“I’d half suspected I wouldn’t even be hearing from him again.” I replied, watching the old stallion as he entered the Hopeville Inn at the northwest corner of town. “I’m starting to think that this whole trip to Buckley might work out alright. I’ll have you, Raemor, and Blake will want to come too. That should work just fine.” I turned back to Gunny and gave a nod and smile. “Right now though, is there anything that you need help with?”

“I’ve been ordered to take a trio of new trainees to the firing range for some target practice around midday.” Gunny explained. “If you want to lend a hoof there, you’re more than welcome to. We’ll be using pistols and action rifles, and I know that you know your way around the basics. Plus, you’ve got a good eye and you’re a good shot, so I think they could use somepony like you helping them figure out their way around a firearm.”

“Well, I’m still technically not a guard… but I’ll see what I can do.” I stated with a timid shrug.

Gunny gave an amused snort, nodding towards the east. “I’m sure you’ll do fine, my friend. Come on.”

*** *** ***

A full day of quiet later, everypony working throughout the afternoon and evening and carrying out their various tasks, Hopeville was more or less restored from the fight two days before. The day had been acceptably busy for both myself and my baby brother, and after I had helped Gunny with his training of new guard recruits, Blake and I had moved on to continue helping Gracie in the clinic. By the end of the day, most of the wounded had been released with their injuries completely healed, only those caught by the Talons’ flak gun and those with other more severe injuries having been ordered by Grace to remain on their beds for more rest.

After helping at the clinic, I had been selected to assist in taking a new inventory check on Hopeville’s medical supplies and ammunition. Thankfully, Challenger’s shipment was large enough that we still had plenty of both, as well as weapons, armor, food, and water. Despite the aftermath of the fight, Hopeville was still well in stock, and would remain so for some time until Challenger’s caravan, which had departed from the town, would return with more supplies.

And finally, during the evening of the previous day, I had gotten together with Captain Saber, Gracie, and the security sergeants, updating their pipbucks with all of the locations that had been included on my own computer’s maps, bringing everypony up to speed on the layout of the southeast thus far. It was then that I learned that Captain Saber would be sending out small teams to scavenge out in the northwest, only once per day with no more than three to a team. He had already been hesitant, and after approving my own expedition, along with allowing all those who volunteered to join me do so, he was even more reserved about having any others leaving the town. But eventually, under the gentle pushes from his sergeants and the reminder that scavving in the north had rewarded us with additional supplies before, he had agreed to small-scale attempts at scouting out more territory to the north.

Despite everything we had accomplished, however, there was still a cloud that hung over Hopeville, the reminder of the twenty additional Stable 181 survivors that had been lost. The pain was still fresh in the hearts of many, and it wasn’t something that was going to go away for some time yet. For several, the loss itself was devastating enough, but I also knew that the aftermath of the fight held a particularly painful sting this time. Hopeville was finally getting the supplies it needed, marking the completion of the last vital step to becoming a living and potentially thriving community in the Equestrian southeast. For those twenty ponies to die just as all of their efforts were paying off, to not be able to enjoy their victories with the family and friends that they had left behind… it left a bitter mark that all of us felt in one way or another.

But now, it was midmorning of our fifteenth day, and I had a task to complete; I was ready to travel to Buckley Air Force Base.

I, along with those coming with me, were assembled out by Hopeville’s armory. Blake, of course, had been the first to volunteer, and along with him was Gunny, Shore, and Grace. Over the previous day, Shore had recovered from his wounds and was ready to work again by the following morning. Gracie, despite my initial concerns, had assured me that her assistants could care for those still in the clinic, both of the mares having enough medical experience under her tutelage to tend to every medical need that might arise. As much as I had questioned taking all of my friends, I truly was glad that they were coming, as we were finally going to be traveling and working together again. But this time, our party was strengthened by another pony. True to his intentions, Raemor was with us, fully garbed in his Equestrian Army combat armor and duster along with all of his weapons, checking his grenade APW as the rest of us discussed our plan of action for the journey.

“I think this would be the safest route to take.” I commented to my friends, looking between Gunny and Shore as they sat beside me, scanning their eyes over my pipbuck’s larger map.

“It is familiar terrain.” Shore replied. “We could just follow the same route we took to Challenger and camp out at the radio station when we reach it tonight.”

“Plainwell’s right there though.” Gunny remarked, tapping at my pipbuck screen with a hoof. “Since the Talons took over the town, there’s a strong possibility that they might be using it as an outpost of some kind. Plus, while the radio station is farther away from the town, Plainwell’s right between a direct path from the radio station to the air base. We won’t be able to make a straight shot there.”

“Couldn’t we just follow the road and then arc around the town?” Grace asked, peering over my shoulder to see my map.

“I’d advise staying off of the roads as much as possible.” Captain Saber then spoke up. The captain had been released from his bed during the morning on the insistence that he be present to see us off, despite Gracie’s protests; he was currently under escort by one of his sergeants as well as Gracie’s unicorn assistant. “There might be a long distance between Hopeville and Plainwell, but I’ve got no doubt that the Talons will be patrolling those pre-war roads for any sign of traffic.” With that observation, I had to agree. Hopeville and Plainwell, both pre-war towns, were positioned on the same old road, and the closer we got to Plainwell, the greater the risk of running into a Talon squad would be; that was an encounter that I absolutely did not want, especially with my little brother coming along with me.

“It’d take longer, but we could still go to the radio station, and then arc around this way.” I explained, my mental gears turning as I traced a trajectory with my free hoof.

“Cut under Plainwell and then head onto this road heading north?” Gunny asked, nodding as he looked over where I had plotted out my road. “That could work, seeing as Buckley’s right off of that northern road.”

“If we leave the radio station early tomorrow morning, then we could find the base, look it over, and then come back to the station in the same day.” Shore added, likewise nodding in approval.

“And if all of that goes according to plan, I can’t see this trip taking any longer than three days.” I finished, looking over to the captain.

“Sounds like a good enough plan to me.” he said. “Just remember to look out for each other, and be careful. If you end up seeing something in that base that looks hostile, then back off and get out of there. I’d rather you six come back alive and with nothing than not come back at all.”

“Of course, captain. But I do hope that we can find something helpful in there.” I spoke up for the others, scoffing as I added, “Otherwise I’ll feel kind of dumb for wasting our time.”

“If you don’t find anything, we’ll still manage just fine.” Saber assured with a small smile. “So don’t get bent out of shape if your search turns up empty. If nothing else, we’ll at least know what’s out there, and in my book, that’s good enough.” At my nod, he looked toward the armory building. “Alright then. Now before you go, I just have to ask again - are you sure that you don’t need anything else? Don’t be shy about asking, because we’ve got plenty of gear to chose from if you need a little extra.”

“We need more of our stock here at home.” Grace replied with a shake of her head, smiling as she added, “Besides, I think we can manage three days with everything we have.”

And the truth was, we were more than adequately equipped for this trip. As had been done before, Blake was given the saddlebags with our food and water supply, and the bags were nearly overflowing with both. Shore had kept all of his original weaponry and armor, the latter now being reinforced with additional plating from a damaged suit of armor, making more armored… well, armor. Gunny was the most heavily armed out of our company, with the All-Equestrian light machinegun and the riot shotgun secured to his armor, as well as his .44 magnum and our bowie knife given to us by Proudspire; much to his joy, he had been given four ammo types for his riot shotgun, including a drum of flechettes, two drums of buckshot, one of slugs, and another of more lethal magnum rounds. Gracie had traded in her nine millimeter for a more potent sidearm, and was now equipped with a new .357 magnum revolver, a sleek and sturdy silver pistol with a black grip that had likewise come from Challenger’s shipment. Afterwards, she had been given her own set of leather armor, completely new and unused, that fully protected her body. As for myself, I had initially refused taking any new equipment along, and for the same reason that Gracie spoke of now. However, arguing with the captain on the matter proved entirely futile.

As per his orders, I had received a new set of armor in the form of a Kevlar vest with separately attached back and side guards as well as leg and flank plates. The only slightly worn armor set had been one of several that was purchased off of one of the merchants who had come from the northlands on his way to Challenger, and despite my initial policy of wearing no armor during flight, this set fit me rather well. The armor, in its entirety, was lightweight and surprisingly comfortable to wear. The majority of my body was covered by the suit, and the leg plates protected all four of my legs from the top of the hoof to just below the tops of each limb. Every different piece of the armor, from the vest to the leg guards, was flexible, following my every movement without slowing me in the slightest, both on the ground, and in flight; after a quick modification to the side guards, my wings, despite being unprotected, could rest at my side and expand naturally, without interference from the armor itself.

But more interesting than the purpose of the armor was its origin. The armor set was steel grey and black, something that matched my own natural colors and the color scheme of Blue Fire’s Torch nearly perfectly. But the armor also had writing on it, three white letters on both of the flank plates (currently concealed by my saddlebags) that spelled the acronym M.P.D., as well as the word Police that was stamped onto the chest plate. According to the merchant who had sold the armor to us, he had found it in an old police station in the downtown Manehattan ruins, thus identifying the armor's acronym as being the abbreviation for Manehattan Police Department. Long before me, this armor had once been used by a pony in a pre-war law enforcement group, a police force that worked to keep order in one of Equestria’s greatest cities before and during the war. There was history behind this armor, and it was that knowing that influenced my final decision; now, I was more protected and felt more secure traveling about outside.

“Grace’s right sir.” Gunny put in. “We’ve got more than enough.”

Saber shrugged. “Well, alright then. You all take care out there, and we’ll see you back here in a few days.”

“We’ll be back as soon as possible.” I assured. “And hopefully, we’ll come back with something that’ll help us out.” And with a final round of farewells, our new company of six set back off onto a familiar road into the southeast. With the radio station as our midpoint, we’d be there, get to the base, come back, and then be home in just a couple of days, and it was my hope that this would be one of the last times we’d be leaving home for a good long time.

*** *** ***

Hills.

Throughout the southeast I had seen them, and as I remembered it, the southeast was largely meadowland that was spaced with these hills. I had first seen them on my very first day in the Equestrian wasteland, walked upon them with my first steps onto the dead earth of ponykind’s once great nation. Our original two hundred survivors had set up a camp tucked behind a hill, out of sight of the raiders who had taken Stable 181 from us, and we hid behind that hill as they undoubtedly looted and otherwise defiled our beloved home. My mother… she had been buried at the top of a hill, laid to rest right beside Gunny’s father, the both of them having died to help evacuate the Stable, to give us that second chance. Then, we had walked for two days without shelter, passing around and over even more hills in the vast dusty valleys of the Equestrian southeast. Beyond the hills of the southwest corner had been the flatlands upon which our new home had been built upon, our new home which had been the beacon of hope that we had been searching for.

In the days that followed, our first encounters with the Black Blood Raiders on Equestrian soil had been on hills, one where a squad had seen our survivors on the move, and another where the chainsaw maniac Butcher had taken over a pre-war farmstead and murdered dozens of Proudspire citizens. And later, on our way to Challenger, we had protected Hallion’s caravan from destruction by a raider scouting patrol that had been hiding behind a hill, thereby finding Ivy and persuading her to leave their ranks before she could truly become one of them. To me, it was funny how something so seemingly insignificant as a hill could have so much of a presence in our time in the Equestrian southeast, and that was no different now… except for what we saw around this hill…

“Eyes open.” Gunny warned, trotting up to the head of our group as he unhooked the All-Equestrian from his armor and pulled it in front of him with his telekinesis, keeping it at the ready.

Beside me, Raemor followed his example, checking the magazine of his grenade APW. “This may be the aftermath of a battle, but that doesn’t mean that there are not stragglers.” he said. “Be cautious everypony.”

This terrain was familiar… I could remember it down to the very curve of the earth beneath my hooves. We had passed by here once before, back when Lucky Hallion and Marian had been in our company. This was close to where we had fought the Black Blood patrol that had ambushed their caravan, but now, there were many more bodies, all of which I could see clearly even in the darkness of the early night. On a greater majority of the bodies was the black and red armor of the Black Blood Raiders… but there was also the black and white combat armor of the Talon Legion mixed in; the two factions had been fully engaged against each other.

The battle that had taken place here had been large-scale, and there was evidence among this graveyard that the fight had been recent. Just ahead was that familiar hill where we had fought the Black Blood patrol several days back, and at the base of it, surrounded by its dead gun crew, was the twisted ruin of a twenty millimeter flak gun, the wreckage still aflame and the long barrel jutting rebelliously out toward the battlefield as if it were still fighting against its enemy. A second metal wreck was still engulfed in orange flames several meters in front of it, this one lacking the long barrel of a twenty millimeter; it was one of the Black Blood’s mobile guns. And all around the both of them were more bodies lying amidst broken rifles, scattered bullet casings, and blast craters from explosives… sweet Celestia… the body count was high enough that I couldn’t count it quickly… nor did I really want to.

“This is terrible…” Grace remarked from my right side, sidearm floating beside her. “I know that they’re both our enemies… but there’s just… so many bodies.”

“There must be at least a hundred if not more…” Shore remarked lowly from behind us.

I nodded my agreement, grimacing as I caught sight of a dead griffin a few yards away, right wing shot off at the joint along with the bullet to the side of the head he had taken… but there wasn’t a scar across his right eye. Then I heard a sharp and shaky breath, a slow exhale following, and I looked down at my baby brother, walking close to my left side. He was trying his best to keep a straight face, bravely looking ahead and keeping his eyes away from the carnage to our left that we walked around. But there was no way that he hadn’t seen some of it already. “Hey… go around and walk by my right side.” I ordered gently, reaching around with my muzzle and nudging him along in front of me.

“I-I’m okay, I promise.” Blake protested, though still not hesitating to fit himself between Gracie and I.

“We know, but we just want you to be right next to us until we’re where we need to be.” Gracie replied, giving the colt an encouraging smile as he matched our pace; at least now he wouldn’t see much of the battlefield as we made our way around its perimeter.

“Are we almost there?” Blake asked after taking in another breath.

“Almost.” I answered, smiling as I asked, “Are you getting tired?”

“My legs are…”

“You’ve had a long day of walking today, so that’s to be expected. But don’t worry.” I encouraged, wanting to keep him talking to keep his attention off the bodies as we walked by. “We’ll be there in a few minutes, and then we can get some sleep.”

“I do like that blanket we got.” Blake remarked with a small smile.

That’s it, Blake. “I do too.” I replied. “I’m glad that I was able to pack it for the trip.” Indeed, when it was neatly folded up, it just managed to fully fit inside my saddlebag, and even though it completely took up one of my two personal bags, it was more than worth it to have it along.

“So… what do you think we’ll find at the place we’re going to?” he then asked.

“Well, I hope that we’ll be able to find some more supplies. The more stuff we have, the better off we’ll be.” I answered him as we begun to ascend the hill, passing by the burning flak gun. “I like to think that the wastelanders with the most gear wins.”

Blake laughed a little. “Yeah. Hey, do you think we might find some other toys for my friends too?”

On an air force base?… Well… “I’m not really sure… but it won’t hurt to look for some. When we get there, we’ll search for some of that stuff too.” I answered with a smile, one which he returned as we crested the hill.

“Looks clear from up here.” Gunny spoke from up ahead, both he and Raemor already looking out over the terrain ahead from the vantage point the hill provided. “Or at least as far as I can tell.”

As the rest of us joined the two bucks, I took the time to look ahead myself, scanning the land for any sign of movement. Just ahead, I could see the Southeast Regional News Radio Station, recognizing the three radio towers rising up from its ceiling. I could also make out the dark shape of the wrecked zebra aircraft near the building, all looking undisturbed, and between us and the station, there was no movement. “Yeah, it looks all clear.” I agreed.

“Alright then, let’s get over there and make camp for the night.” Gunny said, keeping the All-Equestrian hovering close by as he begun to descend the hill towards the station. “I’d rather be inside and out of the open if there’s survivors running around.”

As the others made their way down the hill, I couldn’t help but turn and take another look back at the battlefield behind me. All the bodies down there, the Black Blood and the Talons… I had already known that they were fighting each other back when that Talon platoon had tried to wipe out Hopeville, when that griffin had told me about the battle at the raider camp to the north of town. But this mess, all of those bodies… they were at war with each other, just like the both of them were waging their own wars on Challenger…

“It’s not an easy thing to lay eyes upon.” I looked back around to the voice, seeing as Raemor stepped up beside me to look out over the battle wreckage with me. “It never is, no matter how acquainted a pony is with the concept of war.”

“They’re fighting each other, and in turn, both factions are fighting against Challenger.” I replied, shaking my head. “It’s a damn mess.”

“Yes, a three-way battle… I’m afraid that the days to come will prove more and more difficult for the southeast.” Raemor remarked lowly, nudging me as he added, “Come on. Your friends are waiting for you at the bottom of the hill.”

With a nod, I turned away from the wreckage and followed Raemor back down the hill to regroup with the others before we continued forward. Even here, outside the battlefield, I saw another body belonging to the ranks of Black Blood, laying on his side with a hole in the back of his head. “This one tried to flee.” I commented aloud, to nopony in particular.

“War is always unforgiving.” Raemor replied, walking along beside me. “There’s not much room for mercy. That was something I learned many times in my youth.”

“Back in Hoofington?” I asked curiously.

Raemor nodded. “The Hoof, the heartland, Trottingham. The wasteland has its own unique influences on every region, and as I’m sure you all understand, even the much quieter southeast couldn’t escape.”

“A shame, really.” Gracie mumbled with a frown.

“I agree. While I don’t know too much of the southeast itself, word of it spread to the other nearby regions, and I had heard of it from travelers and merchants over time.” Raemor explained. “Hearing of a land that had a history of being free from constant fighting came as quite a shock, especially after growing up in a place that was known for its tribal warfare.”

“Was that what it was really like there in Hoofington?” I asked.

“Yes… constant fighting, and not many settlements that were uninvolved in it.” Raemor responded. “As far as I know, it’s still the same to this day.”

Grace and I exchanged a glance at that, both of us eventually shaking our heads. “The more I hear about the place, the more I want to avoid it.” I stated, looking back at the aging stallion.

“And for ponies such as yourself, who have just emerged from one of the Stable-Tec sanctuaries, that would be a good choice.” Raemor replied, looking out to the east. “This region… without the Talons and the Black Blood coming for its throat… I can see it becoming a place where ponykind truly has a chance to rebuild and thrive again.” He smiled a little as he swung his gaze around to meet mine and Gracie’s. “And that isn’t something that you would want to leave behind just to go to a place like Hoofington. Some places in this wasteland… well, some of them just can’t be saved.”

I cocked an eyebrow, a little concerned as his smile faded and he looked ahead again. But just as I was about to ask, I heard Gunny up ahead as he suddenly spoke up. “Hold up… I think I heard something coming from the radio building. Do any of you hear that?”

I looked back up and in front of me, seeing as Gunny stopped and perked his ears, listening as he looked ahead with a focused glare. We were now nearly upon the radio station, and I could clearly see the finer details of the zebra aircraft wreckage where it sat just up ahead and off to our right. There was nothing outside that was moving around the wreck or the station itself, and there was no sound except for the passing of the breeze. But as we all came to a stop, I perked my ears up, tuning out the others long enough to focus my senses on my surroundings… then I heard something… like a voice.

“I think there’s somepony in the station…” My own words involuntarily cut off when I raised my pipbuck leg to look at my E.F.S. compass; there were red markers up ahead. “There’s hostiles inside… wait…” But as I looked at the display screen more closely, I could also see a green marker, nearly invisible, hidden amongst the red; it was the only one among at least four red markers. “There’s a friendly marker too.”

“A friendly contact with hostiles? Is somepony in trouble?” Gracie asked concernedly from behind me.

“There has to be.” Gunny replied, looking over my pipbuck. “We need to go and find out.” he declared, holstering his LMG and trading it for his riot shotgun. “Grace and Blake, stay out here. I think we’re about to run into some trouble.”

Gracie nodded right away, keeping Blake close to her as he in turn looked back at me with worry. “Could somepony else stay here with us? Just in case?” she asked.

“I can stay back and keep an eye out for other contacts outside.” Shore volunteered in response, flipping his battle saddle safety off.

“Alright. Wait here until we give you the all clear.” Gunny replied with a quick nod. “Raemor, Nova, with me?”

“Yes.” Raemor answered, switching his grenade rifle for his fire axe as I nodded. “Let’s go.”

I took a quick look back at Blake, giving him my best reassuring smile before Gunny and Raemor trotted ahead, and with that, I fell in behind the two, Gunny taking point as the three of us advanced on the radio station entrance. Right away, I noticed the aroma of cordite in the air… some kind of firefight must’ve taken place here, and recently too. But as we neared the closed double-doors of the station, I picked up a second more faint scent, odd-smelling and musky; but then, I heard the voices of those within as we came up to the entrance to the station.

“You’re friends are dead.” a stallion’s voice spoke with a dark chuckle. “And once my buddy here is done with you, you’ll be joining them.” I heard a wretched sob within as a mare wept openly in response.

“Go ahead and cry all you want to you little slut.” a mare piped up with a cackle. “Nopony’s gonna save you now.” Then, my eyes widened with both shock and disgust as I listened in, hearing a strange sort of meaty slapping sound, the crying mare breaking into a new set of sobs at the same time… oh sweet Luna NO!!

“On three, I kick in the door, and you take out whoever’s in there with S.A.T.S.. Move.” Gunny whispered fiercely to me, and I saw as he quickly but silently approached the doors, positioning himself to buck them open. I caught on to what he planned to do, and with a nod, I promptly took up my position, switching my saddle’s safety off as I crouched down and took aim. Then, with a quick one, two, three, Gunny wheeled around in one swift motion and delivered a powerful kick to the double doors, and as they came crashing open, Gunny leaping away from my line of sight, I activated S.A.T.S…. and immediately saw what was happening.

In the middle of the lobby room of the station were three Black Blood Raiders and their one captive, a unicorn mare with a bright purple coat and black mane… and one of the raider bucks, another unicorn, had pinned her to the floor on her belly, raping her as his two comrades watched with vile grins. The second raider, a grimy pink unicorn mare with no mane whatsoever, was in front of the captive, levitating a straight razor against the battered prisoner’s throat, keeping her from fighting back as she was violated. And the third raider, an earth pony stallion, was just sitting back and watching with a self-satisfied grin, one that suggested he had already had his turn with their prisoner.

But whether he had or not, I didn’t care.

The sight made hate, the hate made adrenaline, the adrenaline made focus… one shot… two shots… execute.

The mare with the straight razor went down hard as my two rifles roared their first shot, both bullets smashing into her skull and sending her against the wall as her straight razor clattered to the floor. Then, the buck on the sidelines snapped his startled gaze to me just in time to see the muzzle flash of my second shot, and he went down with a similar headshot, this one sending half of his head splattering against the floor in a shower of pink and red. Then, time returned to normal as the spell concluded, and the raiders’ captive screamed at my thunderous arrival, the buck atop her yelling in surprise with her. His horn glowed as he pulled out of the mare and shoved her aside, attempting to reach his weapon to retaliate. And just as he brought his own weapon to bear, a small revolver, I had pulled Fire Rose from its holster on my left foreleg and had taken aim.

We fired in unison, and I felt my Kevlar vest take a bullet as my own shot went straight through the raider’s neck, sending the buck toppling to the floor as a spray of blood spurted into the air. The prisoner mare, now free, screamed again as Gunny and Raemor came in behind me with weapons drawn and scrambled away to collapse into a shaking mess against the news desk at the far end of the room. But just as I was about to go to her, another raider rounded the corner from the second room, and his dual assault rifle battle saddle roared to life, spraying wildly in our direction and forcing the three of us back past the entrance to take cover behind the walls.

Gunny returned fire first, riot shotgun blasting three shots before Raemor, fire axe at the ready, dashed back inside as the raider’s saddle reloaded. Then Gunny and I followed him back into the station, the two of us staying side by side as we checked the room, and I looked in time to see Raemor as he dispatched the raider with his axe, the blade slamming into the raider’s chin in a powerful uppercut, splashing the nearest wall with a wet streak of red and sending the buck flying back into the room where he had come from. But then Raemor fell back again, jumping away from the door as a female voice taunted, “Catch!”

I saw the metal apple as it bounced off of the wall and rolled along the floor into our room. But Gunny was already on top of it, and the grenade was swiftly wrapped in a red glow before it was pitched back into the second room and detonated. I made my move then, mouth tight on Fire Rose’s firing bit as I ran into the next chamber. There had been two raiders in this room, and one had taken the full impact from the grenade, an earth pony mare lying dead with a missing hind leg. The second raider, though also having been hit by the grenade, was still alive, struggling to his hooves despite the bleeding shrapnel wounds he had sustained from the blast. But I didn’t let him up, slipping right into S.A.T.S. and targeting two shots for his head before executing the spell, dropping him just like I had mowed down three of his friends; he was the last raider in the building, and with those final two shots, the station went dead quiet.

“Clear?” I heard Gunny call from the first room.

“Clear.” Raemor responded behind me as I holstered my pistol, letting out a sigh as I collected myself from my rage… rage that had put me into such a level of focus that I had mowed down two-thirds of an entire raider squad without a second thought… four ponies gone in less than a minute… raiders nonetheless… but still… oh Goddesses, I did that… “Are you alright, Nova?”

I looked back at our newest companion, his fire axe returning to its secure place on his back. “Yeah, I-I’m fine… I’m fine.” I replied with a quick nod, looking back to the doorway and trotting back into the first room; I didn’t want him to talk about it… but I caught a glimpse of a look on him; he knew that I had lied.

I’d never killed like that before……

But right now, even through the haze of those thoughts, the freed captive was my main concern, and as I emerged, seeing her still huddled by the news desk, the unicorn’s teary eyes swung to me, suddenly going wide as she saw me.

“Hey…” Gunny called gently to the mare, his voice snapping her attention to him as he attempted to approach her.

She immediately pressed up tighter to the desk. “No! Y-you stay back!”

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you.” Gunny assured, wisely stopping at her command. “We’re not with the raiders. We’re friendly.”

The trembling unicorn looked him over with darting eyes, her gaze then coming upon me once again as she likewise searched me, as if checking for some hidden attempt at bringing her harm. “Y-you’re all… not with them?… Who… who are you?” she demanded, a little more confidently as she looked square into my eyes.

“Me?” When she nodded, I answered, “I’m Nova, and these are my friends, Gunny and Raemor. We’re from Hopeville, up north from here.”

“H-Hopeville.” the mare spoke softly, looking away from me and taking in a ragged breath. But then, as if that was the answer she was hoping to hear, the mare sobbed again and shut her eyes tight.

Gunny cautiously approached the mare as she tried to fight back another round of tears, and when he reached her, he lowered his head down to try and look her in the eyes, still keeping himself at a respectable distance away. “Hey. We have a doctor with us. She can help you and get you cleaned up.” he explained in his best comforting voice, the unicorn mare flinching before looking up at him. “If you come with me, I’ll take you to her.” he offered, holding out a hoof to help her up. “I promise.”

The mare was obviously hesitant, and rightfully so. She looked him in the eyes, as if studying them for any sign of a lie in his words, and Gunny remained perfectly patient as he waited for her response. And then, with a sniff, the mare nodded and slowly rose to her hooves. Her legs were trembling, specifically her hind legs, and I sagged just a little at the sight of her. The raiders had undoubtedly beaten her as well, and I could see several gashes that had bled along her bright purple coat. What was worse, her cutie mark on her right flank, a fully blossomed dark violet flower, had been cut over repeatedly with a blade, shredded to the point where it was nearly unidentifiable. I could see where sweat and tears had dampened her coat, and all over her flanks and her back, patches of her coat were matted as another fluid dried and clumped the hair together; I looked away in revolt, revolt that mixed with my burning hatred of these raiders.

“Raemor, Nova, I’m going to take this mare to Grace so she can get patched up.” Gunny said. “When I get back, I’ll help move the bodies out of here so we can settle in for the night.”

I looked back at my friend, watching as he stayed near the mare and helping her to the door; she was nearly limping. “Of course.” Raemor replied for the both of us, Gunny giving him a nod before leading the rescued mare back outside; she passed one more look at me before disappearing around the wall.

“Nova…”

I looked back at Raemor, slowly turning around to face him as I saw the frown on his face. “What is it?”

“That mare… she… looked familiar.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Huh? Looked familiar… you know her?”

“I… I swear I’ve seen her before…” Raemor answered, voice fully expressing his own confusion.

“Where might you have seen her before?” I asked.

“Well… back home. Not in Hoofington of course but…” Raemor paused, brow furrowing as if his train of thought had smashed into a wall. “I… maybe I’m mistaken… we should secure this station so that the others can come inside.”

“Wait, Raemor.” I shot a hoof up to his shoulder, stopping him as he was about to turn away. “Are you sure?” I asked as I lowered my hoof away.

“…No… but right now, the mare just went through a terrible ordeal, and so I shouldn’t worry about it now. She needs our help.” he said, horn then faintly glowing. “I’m going to start moving the bodies out of the station. Perhaps you might check for gear while we wait for the others?”

Well, there was no arguing against helping the mare. After going through such a nightmare, she would need our help… I shivered at the thought of having to go through something like that myself. “Sure.” I answered with a nod, dropping the subject (but keeping a mental note for later) and turning toward the entrance to the radio station’s second room. “If I find anything I’ll let you know.”

And with that, we set off to our tasks, Raemor levitating up one of the corpses as I trotted off into the next room. Aside from the two dead raiders inside, the room was exactly as I had remembered it. The old news station equipment, broken down long ago for parts and now irreparable, still lay piled into the far corner, and the left side of the wall that had divided this room from the electrical maintenance room on the left side lie in rubble along with its own doors. The electrical systems room itself was also unaltered by the raiders’ presence here, but as I stepped through the one set of intact doors leading to the next room on the right side, I saw something new. Inside the room were two bodies, not of the raiders’ ranks, that were laid out side by side against the far wall amidst another pile of ruined pre-war radio equipment. The both of them were bucks, and both had literally been filled with bullet holes, now laying in a pool of their own drying blood. Nearby, there was a small collection of gear that only amounted to two suits of tattered leather armor, an assault carbine, a small revolver, a pair of binoculars, and two worn-down rifles, one a bolt-action hunting rifle and the second a lever-action repeater.

Your friends are dead.

“These two must’ve been that mare’s companions…” I muttered aloud to myself, stopping momentarily to look upon the bodies, giving a sad shake of my head at the sight of them. “I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner…”

Having paid my own respects to the fallen ponies, I turned my attention to the final room at the back of the radio station. The entrance to the chamber was already opened, and the small sign bolted into the stone on the right side of the entrance was still there, indicating that this final room was the control room for the radio station. But as I entered, the familiarity of the room froze me in my tracks as I realized then - this was the very room that held the underground fallout shelter where I had found my sniper rifle. That chamber was still there, the hidden metal shutter doors still open, and the terminal that controlled its locking mechanism still online. The control room itself was lacking of bodies, equipment, and thankfully, blood. Only the station’s dormant system terminals took up part of the room… and that’s when my eyes fell upon the entrance to the megaspell shelter.

“… I wonder if that skeleton’s still there…” I took a step forward, approaching the stairs but stopping at the lip of the chamber entrance. Everything here was still the same as well, the black trail of long-dried blood starting at the top of the stairs streaking to the back of the chamber itself, which was still well-lit by the ceiling light within. But if everything looked the same… why was I feeling so hesitant about going down here?? Because I had found a rifle with an exact replica of my cutie mark etched into it?… Yeah, that might’ve had something to do with it. Was it because there had been a diary within that had detailed a tragedy of a pony who had lived during the Great War?… Also probably a reason… but there was a nagging itch in the back of my mind, one that told me to go down and see the skeleton again… to see the pony who had lost all of his or her family and friends to the zebras during the war, who had been pursued even after the bombs fell. Goddesses… in a sense, I could relate to what the pony had to go through… it was so alike to what I had experienced.

Same curse, different killers.

I took in a breath, let it out, and then descended the stairs, stepping into the hallway. But when I entered the shelter itself, I saw something that I didn’t expect… or rather, I didn’t see something that I had expected to see; the skeleton was gone. Though the large open storage crate, the empty wooden shelves, and the metal table were all still present and set against the walls, the skeleton was nowhere inside. It had been taken out of the chamber down to the last hoof bone, only the circular stain of dried blood across the floor and the bullet casings with it remaining to show where the skeleton had once laid, where the pony in the diary had died. The skeleton’s old saddlepacks were still here with the broken down food containers and water bottles that we had found within, and along with them, I saw a silver gun case, the very case that had once held Blue Fire’s Torch. The case was open where it sat against the far wall, looking to have been undisturbed… until I saw something peeking out above the edge of the case. There was an object inside it, and when I approached, I saw a hoof-sized white square, flat with two reels protected under a thin metal casing. And on the left side of the frame, tucked within a small attached compartment, was a short black cable… one that I recognized. At the end of the cable was the means to hook this device into a computer, to access whatever information was within it, and I knew then what this white square was; this was a holodisk.

With the skeleton missing and this holodisk placed within the open gun case, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together, and with my curiosity quickly spiking, I raised my pipbuck leg and checked over the frame, finding the port I needed to access the disk. Though I lacked magic to simply lift everything up and plug it together, I laid down on my belly and nudged the holodisk out onto the floor before guiding the end of the cable to my pipbuck and securing it to the port. Right away, my pipbuck recognized the device, and with a beep, my notes and records display was on the screen, placing a new note below those I had downloaded from the Hopeville M.O.P. terminal. However, unlike the three other items on my pipbuck’s memory, which had names to title the records, this file was only listed as a short code consisting of a letter and two numbers.

M-5.13

I couldn’t help but read the baffling code aloud, unable to think of anything that it might stand for. Of course, it could’ve also been something that had been randomized and insignificant, something that wouldn’t really be important to understand… a programmed name perhaps?… “Strange… maybe playing it will help.” I said quietly, rising up to sit on my haunches before lifting up my pipbuck leg and activating the audio log.

“Been three months, three long months since I last saw this place… another ruin of the Old World, of Equestria, alone in the dust of the southeast.” The words spoken in the recording belonged to a stallion, a strong tenor voice… mysterious. “Didn't think I would be seeing it again at all, thought I was done with it…… But something in me told me to come back after visiting the southeast’s power plant, fixing my weapons with salvage hidden within its walls. I paid my respects to the dead pony here when I arrived, buried her bones outside the radio station.” My ears perked instantly as those words emitted from my pipbuck speaker. This buck had been the one to remove the skeleton from the megaspell shelter… and he called the skeleton a ‘she’… “It was the first thing that needed to be done - respect the honored dead, keep them in your thoughts... it was one of the first lessons of many that I’ve learned… part of me, like it was my ancestors… But there was another reason to being here, another purpose. I knew what had been buried here under this ruin, and I needed to come back and see what had changed. Hadn’t changed on the outside, but somepony had been here… recently too.” the recording continued, drawing in all of my attention. The stallion’s voice, thoughtful in tone, carried with it strong conviction, confidence that I could hear etched in every one of his words… especially in regards to the ‘honored dead’ he spoke of, about the lesson he learned, and the mention of his ‘ancestors’. And he’d said that he needed to come back here again… why? “Whoever it was bypassed the terminal lock I had programmed, found the hidden megaspell shelter. The diary was gone, and the remaining items of the saddlebags were also taken. But more than that, the gun case that had been hidden away was unlocked and the weapon removed. Blue Fire’s Torch… that was the name my pipbuck had given when I first discovered it. Had the markings of its name on the stock, the blue flame…… Seeing the empty case made me think that I should have claimed it as my own when I had the chance, to honor the request in her diary…” The stallion’s voice trailed off here after a more regretful tone had set in, and he let out a sigh while my world became his words. He had been to this station twice, if what he said was true, and he’d discovered Blue Fire’s Torch for himself, seen the marks on it with his own eyes. And then he’d read the diary, seen the last words the skeleton had ever written. I remembered the diary’s words, how the skeleton had hoped that her rifle would’ve be found by one of her brothers or sisters, her blood family. But he hadn’t taken the rifle, instead relocking the gun case, resealing the fallout chamber, programming a terminal lock, and leaving everything as it was… “… but only at first.” the buck said after his weighty pause. “When I think back to that day, I still believe that I made the right choice. Didn’t feel right taking it for myself… I’ve already inherited many gifts - Old World treasures, technology from the caches and bunkers in the wreckage, powered weapons that Challenger, Hayward, the Steel Rangers… even the Pegasi Enclave, might desire. Leaving that rifle here was the better choice… I wasn’t worthy of it then, and I don't think I'm worthy of it now either. I can only hope that the Torch was claimed by the right hooves, another brother or sister. Should any other have taken it, it would not serve its true purpose.” He paused again, as if pondering the truthfulness of his own words. Wasn’t worthy? Brother or sister?… Had he known the dead pony in this chamber? “I’ll remain here for a time, meditate on the scripture and the words it spoke to me. Then I’ll search the countryside again… confirm what I saw out in the north before continuing southeast. But really, I think I finally know the answer to all... well... at least some of my doubts.”

“Nova? Are you in there?” Just as the audio log ended, I heard Gunny’s voice calling from the control room, proceeded by hoofsteps descending the stairs into the fallout shelter… but I was too lost in the recording to respond. This buck… he’d come here sometime in the recent past, and he’d taken the skeleton to bury it… her… outside. How had he known who that skeleton had once been? Even though he hadn’t spoken a specific name, the fact that he knew the pony’s gender had to mean that he knew her in some way or another. But then, this was impossible… it had to be… because the skeleton had been dead for at least one hundred and seventy years… and yet he still referred to it as a she. He called the skeleton one of the ‘honored dead’, and he buried her ancient remains as a means to show respect, to pay homage to her. It sounded like something somepony from Hopeville would do… like what I’d do… and he called that act a lesson, one that he’d learned. In that specific moment, I felt like I’d heard the words of my father. He’d always spoken to me about honoring the dead, the friends and family who’ve passed on, keeping them in your thoughts and living on in honor of them. But then this buck had continued speaking, talking about Blue Fire’s Torch and how he wasn’t worthy to carry it. It was puzzling at first as to why he’d judge himself on whether or not to carry a rifle, and not because of the concept itself. When I had first seen the Torch, I had taken it out of instinct, only keeping it because of its marks and how similar they made the weapon to me. But when I had read the skeleton’s diary, I pondered whether or not I should take it even though I wasn’t related to the mare who had wielded it before. What was puzzling to me was how the buck had spoken as if he’d done something to wrong or insult the dead mare… his voice had held regret, very genuine regret, when he spoke of the Torch. Why… and more importantly, what had the stallion been talking about at the end of the recording? What did he see in the north? What were his doubts? What answers did he-

“Nova?” I looked back over my shoulder to the source of the voice, seeing as Gunny emerged into the chamber. “You okay?”

Nodding, I turned away and unplugged the holodisk from my pipbuck before rising to all fours. “Yeah… yeah I’m alright.”

“Did you find something?”

I looked back at the holodisk, nodding again as I nudged it across the floor for Gunny to see. “Just this. Somepony was here not too long ago.” I answered as my friend’s eyes fell to the disk. “He buried the skeleton’s remains outside of the station.”

Gunny cocked an eyebrow at that, picking up the holotape with his magic to look it over. “An audio log?” he asked. “This doesn’t seem like something somepony would want to leave behind.”

“I don’t know why he would leave it here… but I do know that I’d like to hang on to it.” I replied, stepping up to him. “Could you put it in my free saddlebag?”

“Why do you want to keep it?” he asked back.

“He… the buck talked about the Torch, Gunny.” I explained, gesturing back to the sniper rifle strapped to my armor. “He’d been here twice, once before we came to the station for the first time. He’d seen the rifle, the skeleton, and the diary we found before we had even found them, but he left them all here. He’d programmed the locked terminal Shore had to hack to find this hidden room too. But more than that, he talked about the skeleton in this holodisk. He identified the skeleton by gender… and nopony can do that unless they know the pony they’re talking about.”

“But the skeleton was one hundred and seventy-five years old.” Gunny retorted, levitating the holodisk to my saddlebag and setting it inside.

“I know, but he still said that the skeleton was a mare. He talked about her diary, about how the mare had hoped that the rifle would be put into the hooves of one of her brothers or sisters, and he hoped the same thing after he found the empty case that had the rifle in it.” I explained as he closed my saddlebag, looking me in the eyes as he listened. “I feel like he knew that mare, somehow or another… I just don’t know how to describe it.”

“You really think so?” Gunny asked, slowly nodding as he took in my words.

“I… well… I’m not positive, but I might look over the diary again tonight when I take my watch… though, it does sound a little ridiculous, even to me. You’d have to listen to the tape yourself in order to catch up to my fuzzy brain.”

My friend chuckled at that. “Hey, if that’s what you think, that’s what you think. I won’t stop you from looking into it. If you want, I’ll listen to the tape with you. Maybe you’ll be able to less ‘fuzzily’ explain your thoughts if you listen to it again.”

I smiled abashedly. “Sure, if you want to.”

Nodding, Gunny motioned for the exit. “But right now, the station is secure, so I came to find you and bring you back to the others before we set up camp for the night.”

“Yeah, of course.”

With the holodisk safely tucked away in my saddlebag, I followed Gunny out of the fallout shelter and back into the control room where we passed the entrance up to the small stash of gear that had remained untouched. “I’m guessing that those two bucks in this room were Blossom’s friends… it’s a damn shame.” Gunny remarked lowly, picking up the stash in his telekinetic grip. “The mare we found introduced herself, and she’s eased up enough to start talking with Grace and Blake and Shore a little.”

“Blossom? That’s a pretty name.” I commented.

“She seems decent enough from what I heard of her conversation with the others.” he replied with a nod. “She’s still shaken up, but she took me up on my offer to stay with us for the night. I figure we can at least offer her some food, water, and protection while she recuperates for the night.” And I agreed with that. After what she’d been through moments ago, she’d be in no condition mentally to be trekking across the wasteland.

The two of us left the station and emerged back outside, which was thankfully very quiet. To my right, Raemor was returning to the station, behind him laying a small pile of the bodies of the raiders… Celestia damn them. “That’s all of them.” the old buck called to us. “We can move in whenever everypony is ready.”

“We’re going to check up on Blossom real quick. We’ll be there in a moment.” Gunny replied, the two of them exchanging nods before Gunny motioned for me to follow.

Just to the right of the station, I could see the others gathered in a loose group, Shore keeping watch to the northeast while Grace stood in front of Blossom, the rescued mare currently laying on her belly as Gracie ran a wet rag along her back to clean off the grime. The violet mare was already wearing a number of healing bandages, the several gashes caused by the straight razor completely covered. Blake was sitting near the newcomer, though he looked a little uncomfortable, and I noticed that Blossom wasn’t looking at anypony. If I had to guess, Blake had tried to hold out a conversation, and the newcomer had eventually stopped talking; it was understandable.

“How are we doing, Gracie?” Gunny asked as we rejoined the group, my friend depositing the collected gear on the ground nearby.

“I’m just about done.” Grace replied softly, tossing away the now grubby rag before fetching a clean one from her saddlebags. “Is the radio station safe now?”

“It’s safe.” I answered with a nod, holding out my foreleg as Blake trotted up to me before I pulled him into a hug.

“Are you okay, Nova?” Blake asked, looking up at me concernedly.

There was no way I was telling him how I’d gunned down four ponies, even if they were raiders. “I’m okay. Are you?” I asked back, lowering my head down to nuzzle him.

“Yeah. I think all of the bad ponies were inside that building.” he replied, returning my embrace.

“Good.” I remarked with a sigh.

“Alright Blossom, those bandages should seal your wounds up fairly quickly, and I’ve cleaned off all of the gunk.” Gracie spoke up, and I looked to see as she closed up her saddlebags with her horn.

“Thank you.” Blossom replied, her voice raspy before she cleared her throat. “I’d like to sleep now… please…”

“Of course, of course.” Grace assured with a gentle smile. “One of us will be on watch on alternating shifts throughout the night, so you’ll be safe with us. Please, do rest.” The tired mare only nodded before walking back to the station, but just as I released Blake to follow suit, ready to get the blanket out for my baby brother, Gracie suddenly stepped in front of me. “Hey Nova, Gunny, I need to talk to you for a second.”

“What’s the matter?” Gunny inquired.

Grace looked back to the radio station, and I followed her gaze to see as Blossom disappeared back into the building; it was only then that Grace spoke again. “When I was out here taking care of Blossom, she asked if she could come with us.”

“When she eased enough to start talking to us, we asked if she might have been interested in going to Hopeville.” Shore joined in, adjusting his reading glasses with a hoof. “We do have everything she would need to stay sustained and safe, and she seemed partial to the offer. But afterwards, she asked if she could come with us instead.”

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Did she say why?”

“She said something about one of her friends escaping the raider patrol and running north towards Marefax.” Grace answered. “I told her that we were heading to Buckley after she asked if we were traveling to Challenger, and since our path to the base is the safest to pass around Plainwell… well, I imagine that’s why she asked.”

“Seems reasonable.” Gunny remarked, looking out towards the north horizon. “Did she say anything about why she was out here?”

“She said that she came down here from a small town in the heartland with the intent of exploring the southeast.” Shore replied. “She was with three others, three friends from the same hometown, and they were on their way to Marefax from the Southeast Regional Power Plant when they were captured by a Talon platoon. They were prisoners for a short time before the platoon was attacked by a larger Black Blood force.”

“According to her, the Talons fought down to the last soldier, but the raiders still overtook them with sheer numbers. After that, they were taken prisoner by what was left of the Black Blood force… and then, well, we all know the rest.” Grace finished lowly.

“It sounds like Blossom could use our help.” Gunny stated after a short pause. “If she wants to come with as we head east and then hook north tomorrow, I don’t see a problem with it. What do you all think?”

Blossom’s story easily added up, and considering everything that had happened to her in just one day, I felt bad for her. She had began as a simple explorer, banding together with her friends to map the region. But then, while she was just trying to reach what would’ve been her new destination, she had been taken prisoner by one force only to become a prisoner to another because of a battle, whereupon two of her friends were murdered in front of her before she was beaten and violated… the least we could do for her was set her on a path to find her remaining companion, her one friend of the group who had managed to escape. “I think we should help her too.” I said with a nod. “We all know the importance of having friends in this wasteland, and if one of hers is still out there, we should at least help her go in the right direction.” And to be honest, hearing terrible stories like that of Blossom’s… I felt extremely lucky.

“I agree.” Shore put in, Gracie nodding with him. “We can keep her safe tonight, give her some food and water and help her regain her strength. She deserves the aid.”

“Alright then. I think we’ve got a battle plan, more or less.” Gunny said. “For now, let’s get set up and settle down for the night.”

“I’ll go let Blossom know that she can join our group.” Shore added. “Hopefully we can help her out a little bit more.”

“And I’ll go ahead and take first watch while the rest of you settle in.” I claimed as we headed back for the radio station, slowing to a halt outside of the door as my friends filed into the station.

Then Gunny, the last in line, nudged me in the side as he stopped before the entrance. “I’ll be out to join you in a bit.”

I nodded at that, giving him a thin smile before he too trotted inside, leaving me to gaze out to the silent east, silence that I prayed for… because in just this one day alone, there was already so much that my mind was trying to focus on, so many things that I wanted to think over. But among all of these thoughts, it was the holodisk I had found that emerged to the top of the pile. Even after meeting Blossom and hearing her story from Grace and Shore, the words on that holodisk echoed in my mind, the voice of that buck and what he spoke of. He had found what I now carried from this station, and because of that, there was an imprint that came from hearing him speak, something that I couldn’t shake out of my head. It was a feeling akin to that which I felt when I first found Blue Fire’s Torch… and just like that rifle, the buck on the recording left me with so many questions.

*** *** ***

“We’re getting close.” I announced, lowering my pipbuck leg after studying the map once again. “Buckley should be just up ahead.”

Our group had set out from the radio station early in the morning with the hopes of returning there again by the end of the day. Thankfully, our plan had come together perfectly, and the route we had taken kept us out of the occupied town of Plainwell and the surrounding territory. By late morning, we had completely bypassed the town at a safe distance and had found a pre-war road leading up to the north, a four-lane highway that stretched, presumably, all the way to the city of Marefax. But unlike the other roads I had seen farther south, this one had been occupied when the bombs fell so long ago. As we had walked, we had passed by the occasional passenger chariot, pre-war civilian vehicles that had long been abandoned. Those that weren’t already broken down for scrap metal were simply rusting away, neglected by the natural elements, and others still that had come to halt onto the dirt had partly sunken into the ground. We had already passed by nearly three dozen of them throughout the first hour of our trip on this Old World highway, and it was after that first hour that we had found the first fork in the highway, a smaller two-lane road branching northeast straight to Buckley Air Force Base. These roads coupled with a shift in the overall terrain of the area, the flat meadowlands to the south giving way to spaced out hills of rock along with the occasional short cliff. There was only very sparse plant life here, unlike the south where the land was patched with dry and yellow grass, and the dirt itself was blackened in large shapeless blotches that were spaced along the terrain.

We had largely walked in silence as we made our way around Plainwell, and Blossom, our newest traveling companion, had been especially quiet throughout most of the trip, following at the back of the line and keeping her distance. There had only been a few instances where she answered our comments and questions, and those that she answered typically revolved around her missing friend. She described her friend as a mare like herself, having an identical coat color with a different mane and tail, blue to be specific. According to Blossom, the two of them were foalhood friends, just like the two bucks they had lost the previous day had been; to most other question, she only gave short answers, and none of us pressed her to talk.

When we had reached the highway fork itself, Blossom had opted to follow the rest of us on the northeastern road straight to Buckley in the hopes that her missing friend had sought shelter at any safe location closer to Marefax; with Plainwell occupied, it was the closest site to the Old World city farther north. “Since all the locations I’ve seen in the southeast so far seem to be spaced pretty far apart… this has to be the place where she hid… I hope she’s waiting for me.” Blossom spoke as we continued.

We had been walking this new road for the past half hour, simply following the trail straight to the Buckley AFB marker on my pipbuck’s larger map. “She knew to avoid Plainwell, since you both heard of its capture while in captivity.” I replied, turning to look at her as we walked at the back of our group. “That’s what you told me, right?”

Blossom nodded, staring ahead with concerned eyes. “Yes. Assuming she followed the same path we’re taking.”

“There could be other places farther down the highway.” I replied thoughtfully, smiling as I asked, “Perhaps, if you’d like, we can search farther north once we’ve searched through Buckley?”

“You’d help me look?” Blossom asked, finally making eye contact with me, and at my nod, she looked back ahead. “But you’ve already helped me out so much…”

“And?”

Blossom smiled a faint and timid smile at that. “Wow… thank you. I really do want my friend back… if you’d help me look for her, then I’d be grateful.”

“Sure. I think we can spare the time to lend a hoof.” I replied confidently, looking ahead as we begun to ascend a small rise in the road. “Besides, I know that my friends mean the world to me, and you’re a mare that feels the same way to your friend too. I understand what you’re trying to do, and after what you went through, I can’t just leave you in the dust if you care that much about the well-being of another pony, friend or not.”

Blossom smiled a little bit wider as we looked back at one another again. “I really appreciate that… it means a lot to me.”

“Hey… here we are everypony.” My gaze snapped to the front of the group as I heard Gunny’s call. My friend had reached the top of the hill, Raemor and Grace joining him by his sides as the rest of us caught up. Blossom and I were the last to reach the peak of the hill, and as we joined the others, I finally got a full view of our destination. “Buckley Air Force Base.”

The road we stood upon continued forward, but descended over a gentle slant that stretched all the way to the base’s south gate. The base itself was… well… it was absolutely massive. At the center of the complex were two wide strips of pavement that stretched from the north perimeter of the base to the south, easily a thousand meters long if not more; they were two runways that divided the base in half, connected together at three points with smaller perpendicular lanes. At the west side of the complex, lined side by side with each other, were three giant hangers that took up the space from the north end to about halfway down to the south. Three other buildings, two of which were nearly the same size as the hangers themselves, had been built to occupy the remaining space on the west side of the runways. One of these contained a built-in tower, doubling the height of the building as a whole, and providing what I assumed to be an easy view of the entirety of the base and the territory beyond it. The tower itself was oddly shaped, wider at the top and characterized by a ring of glassless windows just below the roof, atop which was an array of radio antennae; the top of the tower looked to serve as a sort of command center for the base.

At the east side of the twin runways, positioned in the northeast corner, was another collection of three large buildings, one resting near the perimeter, the second neighboring it, sitting lengthwise and parallel to the runway, with the third structure placed perpendicular to it. The final pre-war building sat in the southeast corner of the base, a huge block of a building that was even larger than the base’s hangers. But between the greatest building and the others on the east side of the complex, I could make out two large clusters of much smaller buildings arranged into two neat rectangles, and in between them was a large circular hatch, a steel door of sorts set into a ring of concrete. All of this, the entire base, was secured behind a tall barbed wire fence that made the base’s huge rectangular perimeter.

“Wow…” Blake and I voiced in perfect unison.

Gunny let out a whistle, likewise impressed with the huge base sitting before us. “Any larger and this base would be as big as Challenger. You could easily fit five towns like Hopeville in there.”

“That’s Old World engineering for you.” Shore remarked with a chuckle. “Military installations during the war were almost always big so that they could effectively carry out a wider array of operations, whatever those operations might have been.”

Beside me, I heard Blossom as she let out a sigh. “That’s a lot to look through…” she muttered, shivering slightly. “I hope it isn’t occupied by raiders…”

“It’s awfully quiet.” I observed, looking over at the nervous mare and giving her my best assuring smile. “It looks empty.”

“Blossom does bring up a good point though.” Gunny retorted. “It does look empty, but we should get a better look before we go waltzing into the base.”

“Yes, let’s please do that.” Gracie immediately voiced her approval. “I’d much rather not meet another bunch of raiders on this trip.”

“What do you want to do, Gunny?” Shore then asked, and I looked over to see as my friend searched the area in front of us

“There’s a pair of ridges farther ahead, one on each side of the road there.” he answered, nodding out ahead. “I wouldn’t mind getting a little closer to see things more clearly.”

“I can use my rifle scope to sc-”

My offer, however, was swiftly interrupted, Blossom suddenly stepping forward as she said, “Take my binoculars. I… oh… sorry, Nova.” She flushed a little at my surprised look that responded to her rather confident interjection. “Just want to help.”

I couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. “No problem. Those will help all the same.” Nodding, Blossom’s horn flared to life in a violet glow, and she removed her binoculars from around her neck to pass them over to Gunny; out of the supplies that her friends had left behind, Blossom had only brought a suit of leather armor, the lever-action rifle, the revolver, and the binoculars - a very useful tool to have.

With a thank you to Blossom, Gunny trotted to the front of the group again, leading us down the road towards the twin ridges that he had identified, and as he ascended to the top of the rise, I trotted up beside him to look out over the land again… land that revealed a very drastic change. Up ahead, once concealed by the ridge we now stood upon, was what was left of a small pre-war town. But there was not one building that remained fully standing, as the entire vicinity was what I could only describe as a blasted ruin. The small village was razed to the ground, only the occasional partial wall of what was once a house or shop standing amidst the scattered wreckage. The only things within the wreck that I could still identify were the foundations of the houses that had once been, and the narrow roads that had divided those houses into small blocks.

“What happened?” Blake asked as he stepped up by my left side.

I could only shake my head. “I don’t know, little brother.”

“It doesn’t even designate the place on my pipbuck.” Gracie remarked, looking over her own computer’s map screen.

“This must have happened a long time ago.” Shore observed in reply. “Surely somepony would’ve spread word about it if this was a recent event.”

“But how did this happen?” Blossom asked softly.

“Look at the ground.” I heard Raemor suddenly speak up, and I saw as he nodded out towards the demolished village. “There are blast craters everywhere.”

I looked back over the site again, keeping my eyes over specific locations longer to take in more details. I could see the craters that Raemor was speaking of, several of them scattered amongst the village and even beyond them in all directions, even past our ridge. Two such craters were home to two pre-war chariots that had fallen within, their metal husks having greatly decayed over the many years between their last use and now. A third chariot was sitting across one of the town’s narrow roads, this one having remained more intact than the others. I could see a few traces of its original green camouflage paintjob on the rear panel, and I could see the faded shape of Celestia’s sun on the wagon’s right side.

“I just wonder what could’ve done this much damage.” Gunny put in, levitating the binoculars to his eyes to look out over the air base. “The only things I can think of are missile launchers or balefire eggs.”

“It makes the most sense.” Shore replied with a shrug.

“Yeah…” Slowly, Gunny scanned left and right over the base… and stopped as the binoculars fell upon the east end of the base.

“What is it? What do you see?” Grace inquired.

“Shacks… a lot of shacks surrounding the base’s old barracks buildings.” Gunny replied, still staring through the binocular lenses. “There’s ponies living here.”

I snapped my eyes back to the base, squinting to try and get a better view of the finer details… I could just make out some movement on the runways. “This base is inhabited?”

“Yeah… and they’re not Black Blood or Talons either.” Gunny replied as I looked back at him. “I think…” he paused as a growing smile suddenly froze on his face, dropping as he focused his binoculars. “Wait… is that a-”

THUMP

An echoing beat of deep sound cut him off in mid-question, and at the same time, I saw a plume of white smoke roll into the corner of my vision.

“HOWITZER!!”

A low whine came to life from above before the ground behind us suddenly exploded in a violent blast of fire and dirt, the force of the detonation knocking me off of my hooves and over the ridge before I tumbled and landed hard on my back upon the dirt below.

I scrambled to my hooves, ignoring the sting in my back and the ringing in my ears as I frantically searched left and right for my brother. Blake, along with Grace and Shore had likewise been sent over the edge of the ridge by the explosion, and just like me, they were racing up to all fours again. I turned and rushed straight for my little brother as he looked about in a panic, and just as I reached him, I ground to a halt and shielded my eyes as another fiery explosion ripped up the old road in front of me, sending Blake falling to the ground as I barely kept myself from doing the same.

I wheeled around and hurriedly helped my brother back up. “Blake, are you okay?!”

“What’s happening??!”

“JUST RUN!!” I hurriedly guided my terrified brother towards where I had seen Grace and Shore, leading him away from the cloud of the second detonation. Up ahead, I saw Gunny, Raemor, and Blossom galloping down from the ridge just as another explosive projectile came crashing down upon it, engulfing it in flame and dust. Both Gunny and Raemor were waving, calling urgently for the rest of us to follow them forward as they sprinted into the perimeter of the ruined village, just as a fourth explosive shell struck the demolished town itself; now I knew what had destroyed this village.

I ran after them, momentarily tailing behind Gracie until I once again skidded to a halt and wheeled around, my thoughts returning to my brother. Blake was behind me, but his shorter legs made him slower than we were, and his saddlebags weighed him down; he wouldn’t be able to keep up! Without a moment’s pause, I raced forward to meet him, a fifth detonation blasting fire just inside the west side of the village, and as he came to a stop, I quickly skidded around him and flared out my wings before hooking my forelegs around his belly. And with a quick series of powerful beats, I hoisted him up into the air, flying low over the ground and carrying his full weight with me as I drove forward to catch up.

Right away, we were met by a sixth explosion just off to our left, and as I caught up with Grace and Shore at the back of the line, a seventh shell went off to our right, sending a shower of dirt over us and nearly knocking Blake and I out of the air. Up ahead, Gunny and Raemor were leading us straight towards the chain-link fence perimeter of the base, and there wasn’t much more distance to run before we’d be right on the base’s border. But just then, Gunny and Raemor were cut off as the eighth shell of the bombardment exploded in front of them, the ninth impacting to our right, bringing a rolling cloud of dust over us. The delay allowed all seven of us to regroup in the utter chaos of the barrage, and Raemor led on, steering us west, parallel to the fence. But we hadn’t moved more than a few yards before a tenth shell exploded in front of us, and less than a second later, an eleventh sent up a wall of flame just to our left, seemingly right next to us as I felt the heat of the blast.

The combined force of the two detonations knocked all of those on the ground off course, and at the same time, blasted me right out of the air. I was sent sailing, the gust of wind knocking Blake out of my grip, and we cried out in unison before the both of us hit the ground. I tumbled over myself again and again, dirt and gravel pelting my Kevlar vest as I tried feebly to halt my momentum. But I was unable to get purchase on the dirt, instead bouncing and grinding against the ground until I felt the surface disappear from under me, and with one final bounce, I landed straight into one of the blast craters.

I didn’t feel any wounds, but my body ached, and I hardly held that ache away as I pushed myself back up to my hooves. I couldn’t see any of my friends now, and at losing sight of Blake, my anxiety quickly reached its peak, fueling both my strength and my fear. Leaping up, I used my wings and legs to help me climb out of the hole and back onto the ground, just as a twelfth shell detonated directly ahead of me. That shell had been spot on to where I thought I had last seen Raemor and Gunny, but so much dust had accumulated from the hail of explosives… I couldn’t see anything ahead of me! I couldn’t see if any of the others had gotten hit! I couldn’t see anypony at all… except Blake! He was just ahead of me, pulling himself half crawling and half running across the ground toward another nearby blast crater. Tunnel vision took over, that familiar feeling swatting pain and fear aside like insects as I sprinted for all my worth straight for him. To my left, farther away this time, a thirteenth shell detonated, spraying dirt and blasting fire as I tackled my brother, my momentum carrying us both into the nearby crater where we tumbled over each other before coming to a halt at the bottom.

“NOVA!!”

“KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!!” I shouted, hugging him tight against me and dropping myself on top of him as a fourteenth shell ignited behind us. With my own body now a shield protecting Blake, I only shut my eyes tight, sending prayer after prayer to the Goddesses that my friends had survived the salvo of explosives. Buckley had thrown over a dozen shells at us, and it didn’t seem like they’d stop until they knew we were dead and there was nothing of any of us left to recognize… but the fifteenth shell never came, the dull thumps of the distant howitzers coming to a stop; the air base had ceased fire.

Under me, I heard Blake as he let out a sob; I could literally feel him shaking. “I-is it over??”

“Shh, it’s over, it’s over.” I assured, trying to get the words to come out without stammering as I did my best to comfort my trembling sibling. “It’s all over-”

“Move in!” a male voice suddenly called, not Gunny’s or Shore’s or Raemor’s . “Search the area!”

More voices took up the call, at least a dozen… oh Goddesses, the ponies from Buckley were looking for us!

“Shh, stay quiet Blake.” I whispered quickly, keeping him under me as I looked up at the lip of the blast crater we hid in.

“YOU! GET ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND!” another male voice shouted.

“Get the hell off of me!” I recognized Gunny as he snapped back to the shouting stallion, and I heard a scuffle ensue just outside our hiding spot, one that ended with a particularly painful sounding punch and a grunt of pain from my friend.

“STAY DOWN!” the same voice commanded, followed by the cocking of rifles.

“I’ve got two more here!” a mare then shouted. “Stay where you are! Don’t get up!”

“Two more here too!” a third buck called back; one, two, and two… all of my friends had survived the bombardment!

I snapped my eyes down to my pipbuck, the computer having remained undamaged from the explosions, and checked over my compass. There was a whole mess of contacts that my E.F.S. could detect… and none of them were hostile…

“Get them up.” a second mare then ordered. “Up!… Put them together over there and strip that stuff off of them. Move, move.”

“Nova, what’s going on??” Blake demanded nervously, much too loud.

“Shh! Keep quiet.” I whispered back firmly, placing a hoof over his mouth.

“Hey! I heard something over here!”

Too late!

I quickly rose to all fours, making damn sure to keep Blake under me as I made to reach for my pistol. But at the same time, a pony head emerged over the lip of the blast crater and into the corner of my vision, the newcomer unicorn buck immediately levitating his assault rifle in front of him and pointing it straight for me. “Stop right there! Don’t move!” I froze, halting my attempt to grab my sidearm; if I tried I’d be dead in a split second. “Is that a foal with you?… Answer me!”

I immediately dropped down over my brother again, snapping my wings out wide and baring my teeth. “Stay back! I’ll kill you if you touch him!!” I screamed in reply, making the buck’s eyes suddenly go wide… but not for the reason I thought.

“Sweet Celestia… you’re a pegasus…” the buck said, his rifle slightly lowering in his moment of surprise. “I didn’t think any other ponies like you lived out there.” I didn’t move, only staying over my brother as he looked me over. Then, “Did you come from the sky too?”

I cocked an eyebrow at that, easing my defensive stance at the question. But before I could form any kind of response, another voice cut in from farther away, the second mare calling, “Hey! Get whoever’s in there out and bring them here!”

The stallion snapped back to focus at the order, his rifle pointing back at me… though he no longer carried a glare of his own. “You heard the mare, get out.” the buck pointing the rifle at me then ordered, taking a step back while keeping the weapon trained on me. “No sudden moves. Come on.”

I had no choice but to comply.

Slowly, cautiously, I took my eyes away from the Buckley stallion and nudged my trembling baby brother. “Come on, Blake.” I gently urged the frightened colt. “We have to move.”

“I-I want to go back… I want to go home.” he whimpered, rising shakily to his hooves as I stepped off of him.

“It’s going to alright, Blake, I promise.” I assured as comfortingly as I could. “We have to go with these ponies for now, but stay close to me and you’ll be okay. Alright?” I knew that Blake wanted to bolt, and really, I did too, especially after running through a rain of death like that. However, he still nodded at my assurances, taking an unsteady step forward before slowly climbing his way out of the crater. “There you go.”

As soon as we made our way out of the blast crater, two rifles fell in right behind the back of my head as two unicorn ponies seemingly appeared to either side of us, and without words, they nudged Blake and I forward, guiding us through the fading clouds of dust from the barrage. Just up ahead, I could see all of my friends, still thankfully alive and fully intact, each only adorning a small number of scrapes and harmless cuts with a large collection of dust. The five of them had been put together into a group as they fought to get their breath back, surrounded by roughly two dozen ponies with rifles and carbines trained upon them incase of an escape attempt. As we approached, I saw as Gunny was relieved of his LMG and riot shotgun, the two guns tossed recklessly into a pile that was made of all of our weaponry. But what caught my immediate attention was these new ponies themselves. Each wore a set of light or medium weight combat armors with black hoodless cloaks worn over them, some of the suits looking just like Raemor’s Equestrian Army armor and others still looking very similar to Shore and Gunny’s security armor in both their material and their blue and black coloring.

Then, the two of us were shoved towards the others to be completely surrounded by the Buckley ponies, and I suddenly felt telekinesis around my foreleg as the holster holding Fire Rose was unhooked from its place; I could only watch as my mother’s pistol was tossed away into the pile, my battle saddle with my markspony carbine and Cross’s battle rifle quickly following.

“Are you okay Nova? Blake?” I heard, looking up and to my left to see Gunny looking concernedly our way.

I hugged Blake tight again, my younger sibling returning the embrace and burying his muzzle into my leg. “We’re fine… are you all okay?”

“We’re alright… we made it.” Gunny nodded.

“A pegasus??”

“She really is one…”

“I didn’t think another pegasus pony was out there.”

I heard the sudden chatter as it swiftly picked up and spread like wildfire around the ring our captors made around us, and when I looked, I saw several of them staring right at me.

“That doesn’t explain how the hell you all survived that bombardment!” one of our captors suddenly exclaimed, and I glared at the source of the voice - a green unicorn buck who was currently stepping from the ring to approach us. “Pegasus or not, nopony’s fast enough to outrun our guns.”

“Or you all need to work on your damn aim.” Gunny fired back coldly.

“If you want to see how good I am at killing outsiders, then I’ll show you.” the buck challenged with a smirk, Gunny (along with Shore and Gracie) glaring daggers in return.

“Hey!” I shouted back, catching the cocky buck’s attention. “We didn’t come here to fight you.”

The stallion only rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. I bet you-”

“Enough!” A mare suddenly shouted, entering through the circle and stepping in between myself and the young Buckley stallion. “Everypony, just stand down. They’ve survived the bombardment, and so we’re taking them back alive. Those are the orders.” she explained, the young stallion straightening and nodding before stepping back to his place in the circle.

This mare, an earth pony with a deep amber coat that matched her eyes and a dark red mane and tail, looked to be the one in charge of our group of captors… at least if the number of shiny bronze and silver medals decorating her armor’s chest plate declared some sort of higher rank. She was the only one out of those I could see which had any sort of decoration that might indicate a position of leadership, and now she was looking right at me, leaning left and right to inspect my wings. But she didn’t speak to me, and after another moment, she turned away from me to pass a quick look over the rest of her new prisoners, nodding before she said, “Bolt, you and your squad take their weapons back and store them away.” After a quick ’yes ma’am’ from one of the bucks in the group that I couldn’t see, the mare turned around, looking out at the air base as it came clearly into view, the dust fully dissipating, “The rest of you are with me. We’ll escort the prisoners back to base and take them to the missile silo.” At the commander mare’s order, my friends and I were forced forward, heading straight for Buckley’s main entrance as the reinforced gate rattled open up ahead. Right away, two guards took up flanking positions on either side of me, weapons thankfully not at the back of my head as we walked, but still at the ready. The others likewise found themselves in the company of their own escorts, but for one reason or another, they didn’t separate Blake from me, the young colt only looking slightly less afraid than he had been before. I made sure to keep him close while we walked, and as we got moving at a steady pace, the commander trotted ahead to the front of our escort, adding as she looked right back at me, “Shimmer’s going to want to speak with this bunch.”

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Gunslinger - You honor your family in many ways, and one of them is by using mother’s weapon to kill the bad guys. While using Fire Rose, or any type of pistol or SMG, your accuracy in S.A.T.S. is increased by 25%.

Chapter 21: Laid to Rest (Part 1)

Chapter 21: Laid to Rest

“Finding it though… that’s not the hard part…… it’s letting go…”

BLAM!!

I threw myself into a hard right turn, the next move in my desperate dance to evade my pursuer, all while simultaneously struggling to contend with both my broken rib and the freshly bleeding trio of gashes that claws had carved into my right side. And just as I had banked, tilting a full ninety degrees to get the sharpest turn, another shot from the pearl-white revolver slashed right by me, a shot that would’ve struck if I hadn’t moved. With a pained grunt I craned my head back as I completed the sharp turnaround, and I saw where Blackhawk snapped his wings shut and dropped, plummeting down in a nosedive to bring himself to my altitude. In response I quickly righted myself from my turn, then beating my wings frantically to start climbing back up. But Blackhawk had measured the speed of his descent, expecting just a maneuver, and as quick as his wings had closed, they reopened before he banked, coming in towards me and bringing his sidearm to bear.

BLAM!!

With a loud hiss, a rifle round shot by my right side, coming from up above. Without looking I knew I was in the line-of-sight of one of Blackhawk’s wingmates, one of the griffins of the Talons’ 63rd Strikers. And up ahead and just below, Blackhawk’s second subordinate soared by, this griffin under hot pursuit from Archer, who was keeping him at bay with his twin three-o-eights. But with one at my right and another above, my only choice was to turn left. Already they had pushed me closer to the surface, towards the battle that raged in Buckley’s own backyard. Now I was no more than two hundred yards up, and still Blackhawk was trying to force me down further.

I couldn’t let that happen. But Goddesses, I just couldn’t shake him!

With a hard hook I put Blackhawk at my back and poured on the speed, doing everything in my power to ignore the painful fire burning through my torso. But just as soon as I leveled out, one of Blackhawk’s griffins came down before me, flying in from above and adjusting his course to meet me head on. He had gotten away from Archer, and behind me, I could hear where my own wingmate’s weapons sounded again, exchanging fire with the other griffin that had formerly been in pursuit of me; the two Strikers had traded places!

In a split second I ground myself to a stop, only long enough to adjust my direction before I threw myself back into motion. With wings scooping at the air like oars I climbed straight vertical and set myself quickly back into my original speed, and the charging griffin overshot, unable to match my ninety degree turn in time. But in looking back, I found Blackhawk just as he lined himself up for a straight shot at me, using my momentary pause to put me in his sights. He charged me with shocking speed, and with focused eyes on me, he flexed his claws in readiness to attack up close again. Thinking fast I turned away from my ascent, and with a single desperate thrust of my wings, I swapped my climb to level out and dodge to his left. And right after, I let myself drop, meeting his move with the exact opposite. But this time I let myself meet his charge, taking hold of my rifle saddle’s firing bit and zeroing in on him.

With a sharp crack, both of my rifles fired. One, two, three – with quick chomps on the trigger I got in three pairs of shots, and to my satisfaction, Blackhawk lost the momentum in his charge, two of my shots hitting home in his armor’s chest plate. And with the counter successful, I pulled myself back to get away, and the two of us passed each other by before I leveled out parallel to the surface. Then I was hooking right to come back around, moving in another tight turn to get the jump on Blackhawk while he recovered, preparing to charge him myself.

But instead, I saw him already leveled out, and already his revolver had been sighted for me. A single flash from the barrel, another clap of the heavy pistol that reached me even over the rage of the battle below, both occurring in unison with the fiery pain that exploded through my right foreleg. I screamed in agony, my wings snapping shut in reaction to send me into a freefall. Through the familiar thick fog of pain, I desperately tried to focus back on my wings to keep my attention off the blazing wound, to get them back open and get the air under them. Only with great effort did I feel them again, to get them away from my sides and fanned out full. But it was when I managed to get my focus back when I found Blackhawk just a wing’s beat away, and I couldn’t move fast enough to evade before I was hit again. He tackled me right in the air, smashing headfirst into my chest to draw a second agonized cry from me, my rib buckling again as the force of his hit raced through me.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable!”

That voice… burning with hatred’s fire... a mutual feeling.

My eyes snapped back open when he roared, and I saw Blackhawk just in time as he pulled his claws back to swipe, and lunging, I threw up my forelegs to protect myself. I caught his blow, my legs stinging as they were forced back. But still I held, long enough to push his paw to the side, throwing him off balance enough for me to throw a swipe of my own. He leaned back to avoid my swinging hoof, the two of us coming to a full stop as we both beat our wings to stay airborne. But when I tried to get free, back-beating my wings to pull away, I felt where his right foreleg had hooked around my lower back, vicelike in its hold. It was all I could feel before I found Blackhawk rearing his claws back for another attack, and with a fearsome cry he threw another punch. Again I managed to block it, but I felt the difference in strength, and the sting intensified, drawing a short yelp from me as I recoiled from the impact.

“You’re never taking me back!!” I screamed defiantly, bringing my forelegs back up when he threw yet another punch.

But this time, his claws took hold, wrapping around my right foreleg and pulling to the side; with a cry I felt as my wounded limb erupted with fresh agony as my flesh constricted around the bullet inside. “I’ll drag you back bloody and broken if I have to!” came his venomous reply. I screamed again as the pain rapidly swelled under the application of further pressure, nearly unbearable to the point where I felt like he was going to rip my leg off! In desperation I threw my free foreleg forward to try and get myself out of Blackhawk’s hold. Though I didn’t see, I certainly felt as my left front hoof connected solidly with my enemy’s skull, and that excruciating pressure was lifted as my adrenaline-charged punch knocked the big griffin out of focus.

Gasping, I pulled my wounded limb free at last, my eyes falling onto the bullet hole that had already bled generously, turning my coat red in several narrow trails as it continued to bleed. But before I could recollect myself, my jaw ignited with a tremendous grating sting, and my head snapped violently to the right. And suddenly I was falling again, knocked aside by Blackhawk’s most powerful punch that sent tumbling head over tail through the air. Though in a daze, I scrambled for new purchase, bringing my now freed wings open and flapping to try and catch the air again, to stop the spinning. And thankfully, I found the leverage I needed after just a couple dizzying seconds of my tumbling freefall, and my wings settled on the wind to halt the momentum from Blackhawk’s punch.

“You can give up now, or we can keep doing this the hard way!” From up above, Blackhawk shouted his confident call as I slowed to a crawl, turning in midflight to face him. He had already settled into a hover, watching me with an intense glare as I came to a stop. And he had drawn his revolver again, the pearl-white sidearm held at the ready in his claws. “It’s your choice, Nova!”

Wincing, I felt a pulse from each of my wounds together, a single painful wave that shot through me to remind me of how much damage Blackhawk had inflicted on me already. But it wasn’t enough to force me into submission… no, nowhere near enough. Face to face with him again, my breathing begun to pick up, and I glared in return, baring my teeth as I let my own hatred come out for him to see. “You’re going to have to kill me first!” I shouted back.

“I’d love nothing more than to do just that!” he responded; I kept my eyes on his pistol… already preparing. “But this isn’t about my revenge anymore! This is about you and about how important you are to General Vance now! He needs you back, and I’m going to bring you back!”

“I don’t care what Vance needs!” I spat. “I was his slave once already! I’m not going to be his slave again!”

“He’s not giving you a choice, Nova, and neither am I!” Blackhawk replied with searing anger. “I swear to you, if you weren’t the key to Hayward’s survival against its enemies, I would’ve seen you and everypony in Hopeville dead long ago, and that beloved town of yours burned to the ground to put an end to all this! But as it stands now, I see that I’ll just have to keep fighting you until you’re too weak to fight back! And if tearing you apart is what it’ll take, then it’ll be the least I can do for my wife!”

Fuel.

His words, his threats… just fuel for my desire to end him, to get my own revenge and leave his unfulfilled. That bloodlust… something I hadn’t ever felt before, much less with this level of ferocity… but it was all I could think of. It was all I wanted, all I wanted from staring into the eyes of Gracie’s killer… and I welcomed it, letting it manifest itself in me in the form of my hatred that made me his equal on this battlefield. “Unfortunately for you, I don’t have any kind of orders barring me from killing you right here and now, Blackhawk!” I called back, huffing an angry snort as my body begun to tense.

And bearing his teeth to me in return, that hateful aura around him flaring up like its own raging inferno, he begun to pump his wings faster, rising up from his hover. "Then let’s see what you’ve got!”

And I answered his challenge.

*** *** ***

Music...

…

Music??

…

Yes… Yes, I was… I was hearing it… In the dark I was hearing a… a guitar. Yes, I remembered the sound. It was back in Buckley when I’d heard it first… back on their grand stage, when I had been trusted and respected enough to be given the honor of taking part in one of their grand concerts. But now I was hearing it again, something that I had been absolutely certain I would never hear outside Buckley’s fences… and so soon after my exile, too… What would have normally been the lingering haze of sleep was instead wiped away by a curiosity that gave me a solid shove into alertness. My eyes came open with little struggle, and I saw for a second time the Hopeville survivors that were scattered within the radio station’s control room. Yesterday, as an immediate ‘renovation’, the dormant terminals that had occupied roughly half of the room’s floor had been ripped out and thrown outside to make way for others, and only the computer that controlled the door for the station’s fallout shelter remained in its place, still active and glowing its eternal green. In our spot just outside those doors, I had shifted in my sleep only enough to tuck myself up against the west wall, with Blake still underwing, having copied my movements to adjust to the slight repositioning. Together we shared our space in the corner, and beside us on our left, Ivy was already awake, looking intently toward the other side of the station… toward where the melody of the guitar was gracing us with its soothing presence.

The silver unicorn caught my eye just as I made to turn away, stopping me. And without a word, she greeted me with a delicate smile before nodding ahead, back toward where she had been watching. There I looked, sweeping over the others, and noticing only then how the greater majority of them were awake… watching just like Ivy was. Among them, I could see only a couple that were still sleeping – little Melody tucked between her father’s back and mother’s side, a younger unicorn mare and a smaller filly beside her, both among the newest members of our group, and another mare with both her little colts huddled up tight with her and still at rest, the stallion of their family awake and looking over them, all four of them ponies joined in from the wasteland beyond. But when my eyes fell upon the wall I had been resting against, they finally found where a small area had been completely cleared away, giving the space to a single mare, the one responsible for drawing in everypony’s undivided attention.

She was wrapped up in loose, torn, dusty barding with a weathered heavy brown cloak draped over her back. Seeing her head, I found her colors, a blue-grey coat with a medium length ashy mane that was much like Gunny’s in its shade. And through her mane poked out a shorter horn, the tip of which flickered with pale white light, the same light that was wrapped around the black six-string acoustic guitar that floated before her chest. The strings moved on their own accord, guided by the unicorn’s telekinesis as she played out her song, gentle like the morning as everypony begun to stir. In steady rhythm she plucked at the strings, shaping a repeating melody, simple yet beautiful and lyric. And as she played, her eyes remained closed, though she would slowly shake her head in time with the tune as it progressed, repeating a previous phrase. At the sound of that instrument, so well-preserved… looking almost wholly new… I found myself staring as the mare played, her tune already… unfortunately… winding down. I could tell in the pace as it slowed just ever so slightly, each repeat of what must have been the concluding phrase containing slightly fewer and fewer notes, until only a final pair of notes rang out together, a perfect interval whose lower pitch sounded softer than the other. And then, after just a short moment of silence, the mare continued, picking up right at the beginning of the same song and playing it through again.

“I woke up for my second time about a half hour ago to find her playing that guitar of hers. After that I couldn’t get back to sleep again, more out of wanting to hear her play than actually being tired.” In a courteous whisper, Ivy drew my focus back to where she lay close by. And leaning her head closer to me, she added, “For a second though, I almost thought she was from Buckley.”

I gave only a nod of reply.

As her song progressed from the top, the guitar mare’s eyes came open before she looked over her attentive audience. To each and every one of them she passed a small but comforting smile, and though she received few reactions among them, that smile didn’t yield a single inch. Even with her attention diverted from her instrument, the song continued just as smoothly as its first run, played from memory, from the knowledge of the patterns in the strings. And looking from one pony to the next, the guitarist’s eyes drifted to our side of the room, soon falling onto me as she found the newest face to awaken. “Morning.” she greeted, dipping her head.

“Morning.” I replied in kind, returning her gesture just a little more sluggishly before she focused back on her guitar, looking to its neck to watch the strings.

“It’s lovely though, isn’t it?” Turning back, Ivy was now looking to me directly as she whispered her question. “I’ve never heard anything like it.”

“It is…” I agreed, a smile of my own trying to tug at the corner of my mouth; I didn’t let it form… warming as the music was. “It’s… not something I’d expect out here.”

“And look at her.” Ivy added, giving a nod towards the music mare. “She’s been out and traveling like that for who knows how long, and still she’s carrying on like any normal pony would.”

“What do you mean, normal?” I asked, the both of us looking towards the newcomer.

“Don’t you see her barding?” Ivy questioned back. “Look at her belly.”

Cocking an eyebrow, I took a second look at her insistence, tracing along the guitarist’s frame. And though once concealed at my initial quick look by her barding, this time I slowed myself to take the time to study closer. Though the old sand-brown barding and similarly colored duster, both quite baggy, covered her from neck to flank, there was still no hiding where the fabric bulged around her belly. I had missed it first only because of the loose fit of her gear, but now I could see that this wandering mare was indeed an expectant mother. In fact, she was very pregnant, as her belly had rounded to the point where its base nearly touched the floor while she sat on her haunches.

While no expert on the matter, I felt that she was due to give birth at any time, likely within the week. And Goddesses, she was wandering around out there like that, without companions or guards to keep her and her unborn child safe?

“Perhaps she came here for protection.” I quietly suggested, leaning back.

“I don’t know.” Ivy responded. “Gunny told me earlier that she came in overnight, right after I got back to sleep actually, and that she only wanted a place to rest her hooves. No matter what her reasoning, though, they’d bring her in either way with her being pregnant.”

But as curious as this mare was, this wasteland musician, my train of thought promptly shifted tracks at Ivy’s mention of Gunny. “What time is it, Ivy?” I ventured.

“I imagine it’s just approaching dawn now.” she answered. “It was still pitch dark out when I stepped outside a couple hours ago.”

“And you said Gunny was out then?” To that she nodded. “Has he been up all night?”

“Well… I’m not sure.” She replied after a pause, a small frown marking her muzzle at the thought. “But I do know that he was planning on waking you up soon.”

“He was?”

“When he came back inside last, he told me that some group came to the station, newcomers that’re armed with some serious firepower.” she said, my ears perking up with intrigue. “Apparently Saber already knew this group from before the Talons’ attack, and according to him, they helped in the town’s evacuation and were actually largely responsible for keeping casualties so low.”

“If they’ve stuck around since the attack, then it almost sounds like they’re protecting us.” I observed. “Maybe they’re from Challenger if they fought back against the Talons like they did.”

But Ivy only shook her head. “No, definitely not. Gunny said that they called themselves foreigners, said they were from a different region of the wastes. Apparently they arrived to the southeast just two days ago, only intent on coming and going. But after the attack, they’re sticking with us.”

“So what’s going on with them now?” I asked.

“Gunny said that Captain Saber’s arranging a mission, and it’s one he intends to start today, even after what happened yesterday.” Ivy explained. “I think he’s actually gathered most of the ponies he wanted to talk to about it. Anypony else he might want to join up with whatever team he’s gathering is going to be asked a little later when we’re all awake.”

A mission… even after Hopeville?

Right out of the gate came a feeling of unease, an immediate doubt for the wisdom behind bringing about a task onto a group that was still early in its recovery from yesterday’s trauma. Having seen how most everypony had been sleeping, and how those who weren’t had been dragging themselves, worn and weary, I felt… no, I knew that our ponies were in no shape to be undertaking any kind of strenuous task, heading out into the wastes to Luna-knows-where. And on top of that, there was the matter of security, of keeping what happened yesterday strictly to yesterday, and to prevent anything like it from happening again later on. The radio station was by no means a fortified structure. In fact, it was anything but fortified. The old building was all alone in the southeast, surrounded on all sides by wide-open fields, with only one shallow hill that overlooked it on the north side, all more than adequate to stage an attack on the site. For us, the number of ponies in the ranks of the Stable guard force and the number of non-combatants was uneven, with far fewer guards than civilians. Even while Saber had implemented training procedures to show as many as he could the basic knowhow of using a firearm, there were not many that had received the full training of a regular guard. As such, with our enemies roaming free across the southeast, our position here was a delicate one, and our choices were difficult to decide. Stay, and we at least had a roof over our heads. Leave, and we would have no way of telling how thick the enemies’ numbers had grown, how many patrols were outside simply for the objective to intercept any and all traffic, or what route, if any was even remotely safe. Stay, and we would be a stationary target, and we would be a curiosity to any and all who passed nearby; either way, we were exposed… and there were dozens of vulnerable ponies here.

“I see.”

With her same small frown remaining, Ivy shifted in her place and looked out towards the control room exit. “I can tell you’re not very fond of the idea either.” she said. “I was planning on heading outside myself so I could see what was going on, maybe overhear a few things. But since Gunny came looking for you, I could stay here instead and keep an eye on Blake for you while you’re gone, just in case he wakes up.”

Blake.

My little brother’s familiar form was tucked away under my wing, wrapped up cozy and warm in his blanket from Hopeville, still sound asleep. Through the whole of the night I had been able to rest without being stirred, and I hoped that that in turn meant Blake had been able to do the same. If that were the case, it would be the best that I could have asked for, especially with what Blake had been forced to endure because of my reputation with the Talon legion. Sleep was the one thing that he needed plenty of in the immediate moment, and after three consecutive days of exhaustion, there was no way that he could sleep too much. Of course… as soon as he was feeling up to it… there would come the time where I would need to sit down and talk with him, and not just to comfort him through his own ordeal. I would need to talk to him about how he was feeling, and discover through his responses how the past had affected him. I needed to make sure he would be alright, that he would be able to speak his fears, his doubts, his concerns, and be able to gain some relief from having me hear him and offer him any support that I could. I wanted to make sure that he would be able to rebound from this… and to do that, we would have to sit down and talk… together like adults.

No more kid stuff…

…

But first, I would have to wait for the appropriate time, because now wasn’t it. There would be a time for it… but for now, Blake needed his rest.

“Sure.” Carefully, I let my wings come unfurled to hold them out flat and stretch, unable to keep back a tired groan as I did so. “I’d appreciate that.” I replied to her, lightly shaking out my wings and drawing a soft rustle from the feathers. “I’ll make sure not to take too long. I’ll just see what Gunny needed me for, and then I’ll be right back so you can do what you want to do.” And slowly, to keep from disturbing Blake, I pulled myself up to all fours. “If at all possible, I want to stay with Blake as much as I can today. I don’t want to go on any scouting missions or take up watch duty. I need to be with him when he wakes up.”

“I won’t say that that’s a bad idea, Nova.” Ivy remarked back, words touched with sympathy. “Celestia knows the both of you could use the extra time together to rest.”

One by one, I stretched out my legs, stepping away from Blake as I did; once again, he didn’t stir at my departure. “Everypony here needs the extra rest.” I elaborated lowly. “But I also have a child to take care of. I think that gives me a little more of a reason to make sure that I stay put.”

To that, Ivy gave a single short nod. “Yes, it should.”

“Alright. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

But just as I faced the control room exit, I felt a single touch on my left foreleg. “Would you do me a favor, Nova, and let me know what’s going on out there when you come back?” Looking over to find Ivy’s curious eyes, I watched as she retracted her hoof from me, tucking it back against herself. “If there’s anything that I might be able to help out with today to take some weight off others’ backs, I want to know what it is.”

“Sure thing.” I assured. “I’ll tell you everything they I hear.” And after nodding together, I turned away and proceeded out of the control room, putting the guitar mare’s music at my back.

Past the exit, I was immediately greeted by a number of new faces, ponies who had come to stay in the neighboring room who had not been sleeping there the night prior. There were well over twice as many ponies here now, if not more, even despite the damaged roof and the light rain that made its way through the holes and onto the floor. Despite its condition, they were one and all awake and listening in to the guitar on the other side of the wall; having been laying directly below one of the holes in the ceiling, one stallion was even using his own saddlebags as blankets to keep the rain off him, just so he could get a seat to listen to the music.

Light and quick I stepped my way through the thick crowd, careful to stay out of the way of their opportunity to listen in to that thing of beauty, and passed into the second room. There were only a few ponies lounging here, spaced out in small circles of fours and sixes along the walls, while much of the floor space was taken up by the packs, weapons, and provisions of those who had gone to see the guitar mare. The entry chamber was the same as the previous, with only a little over a dozen resting inside, families speaking in soft voices while a couple others still remained asleep. I felt perhaps a little less than half of our group was outside, wholly unbothered by the lingering rainfall from last night’s weather system. And upon stopping before the station’s already open entry doors, I saw that the rain was indeed falling steadily, but only as a light shower. Still, despite the system’s currently dissipated strength, the soil outside had been moistened up, evidence that the rain had picked up from time to time throughout the night. And a curious swipe of a hoof past the doorway confirmed my observation when I collected up a clot of darker brown, cooler and wetter to the touch.

With a quick scrape along the doorframe I cleaned off my hoof, then scanning along the outside to look for Gunny. Despite the early hour, there was a considerable amount of activity outside. Three small groups came into my immediate sight one after the next, the first two of them made of five members who were moving with a slow, aimless, but uniform stride following the shape of the station. They were but a short ways away from the building, simply taking the time to create their own way of dealing with the trials of the recent past. The third group had only three, a family with their young child who were the farthest away from the station as they watched the colors change on the east. Apart from them, I spotted a half-dozen ponies garbed in their 181 security rigs that were split up into three pairs, part of the night shift as they made their final runs before the change in personnel that would be coming up soon. And when my eyes fell to the perimeter’s northeast corner, I found, much to my pleasant surprise, the familiar shape of Hopeville’s commandeered twenty millimeter flak gun. The Overmare was facing eastward, the weapon locked down into position and the long slender barrel jutting out protectively from the gun’s housing as the crew remained ever watchful; it was surprisingly heartening to see that gun out there, to see that it too had come out intact from Hopeville’s capture to continue to keep watch over us.

Giving the weapon a single nod of approval, I let myself take in a long breath, then letting it back out in a slow exhale before I stepped outside. And first came the touch of the rain, a dozen drops falling across my back in but a second. It was rather lukewarm when it touched, complementing the comfortably cool outside temperature. At its greeting, my body’s efforts to stir were gently nudged along, and I felt myself beginning to ease the rest of the way away from the lingering drowsiness of sleep as I followed the wall to the northeast corner.

Really… I was reminded of Buckley’s spa…

Coming up to the station’s corner, I followed it around and onto the north side. And here, I found an entire assembly along the wall, gathered up in a loose circle. Gunny was the first I spotted within the circle, the closest to me out of the group. Raemor was by his right side, and Shore was to his left, the latter looking to be the most fatigued out of my three friends. Captain Saber was farther down the circle, standing at Raemor’s right side as was Sergeant Madeline, the turquoise-maned, white-coated unicorn I’d met yesterday. With her was one other pony garbed in 181 security barding and a personal pipbuck, a peridot earth pony stallion with a grey mane and tail who I assumed to be Sergeant Mobley. And next to him, fully enclosed in her steel armor, was Sierra, the last familiar face in the assembled group. But past them, there were others, nearly a dozen new arrivals, and they were all lined up before a sight that I hadn’t expected to find… a sight that halted my hooves midstride.

At first glance, what I saw was a wall of midnight blue steel, standing over thrice as tall as the new ponies that were standing alongside it. But then I saw the four large wheels at the bottom that faced me behind those unfamiliar faces, all four of them on this thing’s right side alone, with four more undoubtedly at the other side to balance it; that alone was the indicator as to what exactly I was seeing.

A vehicle… I was looking at another vehicle.

From this angle the body of the strange craft resembled a sort of rhombus in its shape, with the back of the vehicle shaped at a slight obtuse angle, while the plating at the top of the vehicle’s nose lowered slightly down to make a sloped front, where I could see a viewing port in the center of the frontal armor and a pair of dormant headlights below it. The vehicle was armored, like Lily, and while nowhere near as thick and bulky as Buckley’s beast, the plating itself looked more than formidable. But at the top of the vehicle, mounted on the roof, were its most important features – its weaponry. It was equipped with two systems in total, one placed at the center of the vehicle’s roof, and the other placed at the front lip of the roof. The center gun was without question its signature weapon, a monstrous and intimidating array consisting of two massive rocket pods, each with nine tubes, built on either side of a squat steel pillar that connected them to a rotating dais atop the vehicle’s hull. And with it, the second turret at the front was made only of a single weapon, a familiar-looking grenade machinegun mounted similarly onto a rotating platform. At the very back of the vehicle was a pair of short antennae, with a raised point between them to break the roof’s otherwise flat shape, perhaps some sort of panel or hatch. But seeing them brought my eyes to the final detail on the vehicle, a symbol painted in pale white that sat at the top back corner of the hull – I recognized the partial moon, surrounded by the black that was the night sky… it was the mark of Princess Luna.

Leaning back to take in a breath, I thought back to yesterday when we had first returned, when Sergeant Madeline had told us of how the Talons’ takeover of Hopeville had played out. And seeing this machine, I had absolutely no doubt that this was the very vehicle that she had mentioned then, the very one that had likely kept Hopeville from being utterly flattened. And seeing this new vehicle and its crew in person… I wholly agreed that these newcomers, whoever they were, had some serious tech at their disposal, tech that could very well rival Buckley itself… Goddesses… that in itself was quite the thought.

“Hey, Nova.” With a start, I came back into reality when I suddenly found Gunny’s eyes on mine, trying to get my attention off the mechanical marvel behind him. “Hey.” he greeted, taking a step back. “I was going to go ahead and let you sleep, but I’m glad you woke up on your own. We’re going over the final details now, so at least you’ll be able to catch that before we leave.”

“Leave?” I blinked once in puzzlement, glancing briefly past him and to the circle; Shore, Raemor, Sierra, and Saber were already looking my way, and the others were beginning to do the same. “What’s going on?” I ventured, looking back to Gunny for answers.

But with a shake of his head, the unicorn only turned around, beckoning for me to follow. “Come on.”

“Gunny?” Uttering a light huff, I trotted off after him. “Gunny, what’s this about?” I asked him again, more forcefully as I drew up beside him to try and look him in the eyes.

“Bring her over, Gunny.” But instead, it was Madeline who responded, the white mare motioning me onward with her hoof before she faced front again, addressing the new arrivals when she added, “This is the other pegasus that we mentioned earlier this morning – our pegasus. Nova’s her name.” And so, no closer to an answer, I followed after Gunny to join him in the circle as was requested, stepping up between him and Shore; out of my peripheral sight, I could see as Shore made no effort to even glance my way.

“Well, well.” And after I took my place, I spotted as one of the new ponies studied over me, a blue earth pony stallion with a darker yellow mane and tail. “I haven’t seen so many pegasus ponies in one place for years. Half thought they up and vanished for good from time to time. But the fact that two pegasi are here, and in the exact same location, no less – I think that kind of proves me wrong.”

“Hi.” I replied, quickly recovering from an unintentional moment of silence.

“The name’s Vinnie.” the blue stallion introduced, giving a little dip of his head in reply. “I’m the buck in charge of this bunch here. Or, well, I’d normally be the one in charge. Technically, with the current situation, the buck in charge is that guy over there, the only one not garbed in black.” Indeed, the thing that stuck out about this new group of eleven was that they were quite uniform. The newcomers were all wearing basic combat armor that had been painted over with a coat of black to erase the vintage army green, or all of them except one. A smaller unicorn stallion, light orange in color with a short black mane, stood at the far end of the newcomers’ group, and he was wearing only a light set of combat barding, colored in that green camo that the others had replaced. It was a familiar color, and I remembered it well. But what I thought was once a rig that was one hundred percent green camouflage was broken in one place, where a patch was stitched into the chest plate over the heart; it was a black badge, a simple rectangle with white letters spaced with dots etched into it.

S.E.R.A.F.

“I’m Jocko, Challenger advance scout.” the orange unicorn spoke up to me. “Nice to meet you.”

But it was definitely Challenger’s colors.

“Alright, everypony. Let’s go over this one more time so we can get this thing going.” From my right suddenly came Saber’s voice, carrying through with ease despite the captain’s fatigue, and together we turned our attention over. “Last night, the final scout that I had sent out to the northwest four days ago returned with her report. It was the last report I needed.” he began. “She reported that the raiders holed up in the Stable had finally moved on, heading back into the region in a big hurry. While she couldn’t say for sure what had sent them packing, she did thankfully manage to get a look inside. She reported that One Eighty-one was, by and large, finally deserted.”

The Stable??

“With that in mind… I’ve decided to carry out my plan to head back to the Stable, and I intend to kick this mission off within the next hour.”

Oh Goddesses…

“There are two objectives to be accomplished on this mission.” Saber continued. “With the last report that came in, I’m confident enough to believe that a small unit will be more than enough to kill off whatever raiders might still be inside One Eighty-one. As such, the mission’s first objective will be to eliminate any enemy presence remaining in the Stable. Understand that this is not a task to pursue recklessly. Should we find ourselves outmatched, I will expect everypony to comply with the order to abort. This mission has been tossed around for weeks, and it is One Eighty-one that we’re dealing with… but it still isn’t worth your lives. Afterwards, should we secure the Stable, our second task will be to find anything salvageable inside and bring it back here. This includes both basic supplies, as well as any item from our past life that might have survived, whether it be a book, a trinket, a rifle, anything.” Here, the captain took a moment of silence, looking among his subordinates to receive understanding nods. “It’s my hope that something will have survived in there that can remind everypony about One Eighty-one… and in the way that really matters. That’s to say, it’s my mission… my wish… to find something in there that can remind us about what we learned in our previous life, the good experiences we had, and the memories we made that are worth cherishing… the things that shouldn’t be forgotten out here.”

Nopony could miss how the captain sagged under the subject of the Stable, and the revelation of his great wish… and I knew that most everypony felt the same weight he did as he laid out the plans for a mission that had once only been a tentative, reluctant idea. And like when it had been mentioned the first time, everypony was listening on in silence, their words held at bay by the mere thought of our old home… of their final memories within our steel walls where both they and their lessons learned were safeguarded. Everypony from the Stable in our circle had their own personal reasons to be hesitant now, just as they had before, and I could definitely see that hesitation. Shore and Mobley’s bowed heads, Gunny and Madeline’s uncertain looks… most everypony in my company shared that terrible page of history. And those who didn’t – Raemor and Ivy – they had their own histories, didn’t know what we had gone through, didn’t experience it how we did. But they did know what kind of impact could be born of such a tragedy, knew the severity of the scars that had followed in its wake and now lingered with us, and so they too shared in our silence, out of respect for our trials.

“The team that’ll be making the trip will consist of fourteen members total.” But still Saber pushed past his emotions, picking up where he left off. “And while I had intended to lead the team alone,” Saber explained. “Sergeant Madeline requested that if I don’t stay here, then I should go with a second-in-charge. Therefore, both Madeline and I will each lead our own squad, and Sergeant Mobley will be placed in charge of keeping things at the station running as smoothly as possible.” And then, he gave a single small nod to the white unicorn. “Madeline.”

“As Saber mentioned earlier, the team for this mission has been comprised of fourteen volunteers.” Madeline spoke, taking over. “They’ll be divided into two groups for this mission, and the first will be a team of unicorns that will be put in charge of our new wagon’s protection as well as bringing out items from the Stable and loading them up for transport. And seeing as how the same ponies that brought the wagon in three days ago have volunteered for this mission, I feel it appropriate to have Mavis, Quinn, Gyro, Sylvia, Tiny, and Boulter serve as its crew along with myself.”

“Sergeant Mobley, I’ll have you help them with checking the wagon harnesses when we’re done here.” the captain interrupted, long enough to give a nod to the peridot stallion.

“Of course, captain.” came the second sergeant’s response.

“The others will take their orders from the captain, and will be the ones who will enter the Stable upon our arrival and engage the enemy inside while my team keeps watch for any raiders that might be on the surface. Once the Stable is cleared out, we’ll be the ones looking through it to find anything that might be intact that the first team didn’t decide to pick up on their own.” Madeline continued. “The ones on Saber’s squad will be Gunny, Shore, Raemor, Sierra, Joker, and Daisy.”

“Since Vinnie and his crew have volunteered to remain with us,” Saber added. “I’ve been able to allocate more ponies to this mission than I would have been able to normally. As such, they’ll take over the majority of the lookout responsibilities left open while the mission is underway. And with their help, this station will remain secure in our absence.” And here, he turned to look back to the assembled newcomers. “You ponies have already helped us out more times than you ever needed to. But I really, truly appreciate you offering your protection to us. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

With a small polite smile, Vinnie gave a little shake of his head. “Given how bad things are for you lot right now, I don’t see any reason why we can’t stick around for a little bit longer. So long as Jocko here lets us stay, then we’ll help keep an eye on things so you can go after this Stable of yours. Besides, most everypony out there won’t want to tangle with this place with an IFV on call. Long as Lil’ Luna here is on patrol, this place will be locked down tight, I promise you.”

“You do approve of this plan, yes Jocko?” A unicorn mare from Vinnie’s group questioned, stepping forward to catch the scout’s attention.

“My orders were to get you to Challenger in a week’s time from when I was assigned my mission.” Jocko responded. “And seeing as how we made good time getting back down here from Rio, I think I can spare a couple more days… But I can’t lie and say that that wouldn’t be cutting it close. Like I told you all before, this thing with the Talons and the Black Blood has been going fierce for two weeks now. It’s really a war out there in Ashton, especially now after the Legion’s latest move.” To each of the new ponies, he had met them with a firm look, eyes alone reminding them of the gravity of the situation. But then he turned to Saber, easing up to add, “But in the end I’m of the same mind as Vinnie. You’re more vulnerable here than at Hopeville. There’s no buildings to protect you, not as much ground to make a good strategy with. On top of that, it’ll give me a chance to repay the pegasus that helped to get a warning out to Challenger that the Talons had been operating in the region in the first place.” And for a moment, he looked to me, just a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth that startled me into meeting him. “If she hadn’t gotten Shotshell out of Plainwell, I’m not sure when Challenger would’ve discovered the Talons operating undetected in the region… hell, could’ve been just now, and we would’ve been in a shitload of trouble.” Then, to Vinnie again, “So yes, I’m fine with your plan, and I’ll do my part here too. Just do me a favor and remember – I’ve given a couple days, two, maybe three tops. But after that, I’ll need to get you and your team to Challenger so that you can report in and get shipped out.” And he looked back to the machine behind him. “Whether you get sent to The Warpath or Searchlight, I cannot understate just how important you’ll be out in the field.”

And to that, Vinnie gave Challenger’s scout a satisfied nod. “Sounds more than reasonable to me.” he replied. “I’m glad you see it that way.”

But even after hearing out the arrangements, the agreement… only one thing kept itself latched to my thoughts… and it banished Vinnie and Jocko and all those other newcomers from the picture entirely. “You want to return to the Stable now? After everything?”

I spoke it outright, unafraid. It was just something that I couldn’t keep locked up inside, even if I tried. Instead, I only shivered, unable to keep my eyes from drifting down to the dirt. The first time that our beloved One Eighty-one had been brought up had been eight days after we had left it behind. I remembered. And when I had gotten that terrible reminder, I had been unable to ultimately decide whether I wanted to support or oppose the idea of returning… because I had wanted to do both, at the urging of two clashing voices.

And once more, like there had been when Saber first reminded us of home, there were two parts of me, each vouching for one side of the spectrum or the other. Despite weeks on the surface, despite everything, there was still that part of me that wanted so dearly to see the Stable again, to see the great door open, to walk inside and see my old life all around me. I wanted it back… Goddesses, I really wanted it back. The shelter that the Stable provided, the life that the Golden Fire bloodline had created for those it saved… returning to that way of life… now that Hopeville had been lost to us, it was something that we needed, and not just because of our fate on the surface, but because we needed it to live… to keep living… It was the return of that longing that I had felt before, coming back to life in a blink from the reveal of Saber’s latest mission. Only this time, it was no longer restrained in the shell of simple uncertainty, but was strong when my thoughts dared to wander, dared to bring to light what could be the worst case scenario, the gravest threat that we now faced – defeat… the failure of our efforts, the deaths of our survivors, our friends… the ultimate destruction of our group.

It was on our doorstep with the loss of Hopeville… there was no hiding it.

And with this, so came that second part of me.

It was the fear from before, returning side by side with that sense of longing and sharing the same potency, the same strength in its struggle to overcome its rival. Now, more time had passed, more time in which the Black Blood had their way with the Stable, free to do with it what they pleased. And I was reminded of my fears from before, all of them, together.

The first ever battle I had been a part of took place in there… and even to this day, it had been my worst… because it had claimed my parents. My father had died first… right in the entrance… right where I was standing when I had fought at his side. He had been surrounded, trapped, before he used that detonator to seal the Stable from the inside. And I still remembered those last few seconds that I saw his face… that final smile he gave me before he went down, giving his life so that his family could escape.

Goddesses, why did he smile?

And then death took my mother from me, the mare that Blake and I needed to cope with the death of our father. She died right there with me at her side, with only a few parting words to give, one simple request that I move on, recover, and find a strength within me to help those who needed it. “Let me go, Nova… and help the ponies here. They need you…” That was what she said, what she wanted me to do. She said that when the time came, I would do the right thing… and she said it like I already knew my way, like my path was set in stone. And then like that she was gone, leaving me, just barely an adult, terrified of the future and half-dead with grief, to safeguard a young colt, the last family member I had, all on my own.

My fears came from that battle alone. Even with my desire to return, to see home again… I still feared to tread there again. I feared to see what the Black Blood had done to it all. I feared to relive the escape all those weeks ago, to be reminded of every detail that I was certain to remember. And I feared to see the aftermath of the battle… the blood… the bodies… the faces of ponies I once knew, of classmates and teachers and workers… and Crystal… and my father…… I feared to see my parents again… my father’s corpse and my mother’s grave…

I didn’t want to see them like that…

And those were my fears. They were alive in me now, the source of my words to the others. And in just seconds, I could feel their eyes upon me; Captain Saber was the first one to catch my attention when he took two steps from the circle.

“Why?”

For a long moment, the tired captain stared, letting my question drift in the air. He wore a look on him… one showing that he had anticipated that question long before its appearance, even with how exhausted he still was. “Look…” Instantly, I could distinguish the struggle in his tone, struggle stemmed from trying to find the right words. “I know that… I know it doesn’t seem like the best of plans right now. Everypony here is thinking the same way if they haven’t done so soon as I had brought it up again. But I’ve been talking about this for weeks now, and we-”

But with a stomp of a forehoof, I stopped him. “But why??” I repeated, sharper to take command.

“Because!…” As if ripped out of a trance, his volume snapped up to match mine. And in the ensuing pause, he sighed heavily. “Because we’re a dying group…” he answered, a genuine direct answer… the revelation of our leader’s darkest thoughts that quickly put me into submission. And with the truth set on the table before the whole assembly… I could feel the atmosphere change, a terrible depressing darkness settling over us. “Look back to the past, Nova.” Saber said, now speaking softer as he recomposed himself. “We left One Eighty-one with two hundred and ten souls. When we beat the invaders at Hopeville, then there were a hundred and sixty, and now, after we lost Hopeville entirely… now there’s a hundred and twenty.” Through it all, our eyes stayed locked, even as a quick shiver ran through my body; I couldn’t stand hearing this… “You may not have seen it yourself yet,” he continued lowly. “but look into their eyes. Hear how quiet they’ve become. Everypony we have left… this latest blow has drilled into their heads that everything they did to rebuild, that everypony they’ve lost, was all just a waste for an impossible goal. They’re starting to give up, Nova. And everypony who joined us from outside – they’re afraid now. They came to us for a shot at a fresh start, followed the rumors of safe harbor in the Equestrian southeast. They took a chance and lost, and they’re afraid, because now they’re once again under attack from the very things they sought to get away from.” Here, he let himself slow down and stop, turning away to leave me staring sadly after him. And he took in a breath, letting it out as dead silence took his place. Nopony else dared to speak in that silence, only waiting; Goddesses… never before had I seen Saber so downhearted.

“You’ve got to understand, Nova… everypony.” When he finally spoke again, he stepped fully out of the circle, moving with slow, heavy steps to the center. “I’m not doing this for the sake of doing something to take our minds off what were just put through… twice.” And he raised up his left foreleg, slowly bringing the limb up to point at the radio station itself. “I’m executing this mission for them… for all of us. I’m doing this because I want to be able to bring something back here from the Stable… even if it’s just a single book… I want to bring something back that can give our ponies some hope, something that can encourage and inspire all of us to keep going with this uphill fight that we’ve gotten thrown into…” His foreleg lowered back down to the ground, soundless through the rain as he bowed his head again. “I’ve led our group of survivors ever since we stepped hoof on the surface…… and I can’t stand seeing us like this… I want to bring back the strength and the faith that we once had, our resolve, and if there’s anything that’ll give us some kind of hope out there, then it’ll be a remnant of our previous life, something that survived there just like we have here, something that’s still alive even in the face of near insurmountable odds… just like us.”

Hope…

…

Never lose hope.

…

“At the very least… I’ve got to try.” Saber concluded bravely, a heartening tone layering over the words. “If Crystal were here in my place… I know it’s what she would’ve done.”

Never lose hope.

Stable 181’s words…

After their successful takeover of the Stable from its corporate masters, the Golden Fire bloodline had shaped it using only their ideology, their set of beliefs that was the family’s personal embodiment of the legendary Elements of Harmony. It was how they made themselves a code to follow, which in turn became their way of carrying the elements with them in as close to a physical fashion as possible, without the necklaces and the crown that made the elements’ material vessels. As the end times drew ever nearer, that ideology was viciously guarded, and was reinforced with a set of ideas and rules, words that were shaped with the sole intent to provoke inspiration, restore strength, and give hope. With this kind of refinement, they had shaped that belief into a sort of warning, for them and for those who would become their future followers, as if they knew it in their gut that the end would come from the war. And so, when the bombs finally did fall, their ideas provided the bridges that the virtues represented by Elements of Harmony crossed in order to find those that 181 sheltered. Through the Golden Fire ideals, those bridges, the virtues that were the Elements of Harmony were saved from the apocalypse, and we, the Stable’s residents, became their Stables in turn, where they could manifest, grow, and continue to commit to their purpose just as they had done before the end.

Never lose hope…

So simple… but so meaningful.

That was perhaps the Golden Fire family’s chief rule in their way of thinking. And looking at it now, hope was, in a way, the family’s own unique virtue… and as such, it was a virtue that we as a group possessed through our life in the family’s Stable. Hope, faith, confidence… no matter the word that was used for it, it was that and both the actions inspired by it and those executed to retain or restore it that was spoken of in those three simple words. It was that desire to survive, to keep our traditions and our values alive in difficult times, to progress and to build with those values that we shared with the Golden Fire family. It was the desire to do good, to be inspired from and to bring back ponykind’s pre-war age of peace, and to have faith that good would prevail over what would become a dark and lawless world that we shared with our founders.

And now, that was the thing that Saber wanted to bring back with his newest mission. That was what he felt was being put at risk. That’s what he wanted to preserve… and seeing that drive in his eyes… understanding…

“Then I want to come with you.” I finally responded, softly clearing my throat as I came back from my thoughts. “I want to go back to One Eighty-one with you.”

The captain only looked back to me again, and in the silence, let his shoulders rise as he took in a breath, the slowly letting it free. “I had a feeling you would.” he remarked… a sliver of admiration in his words there that made my ear just slightly twitch. “You’ve got your parents’ spirit in you, that’s for sure.”

And there I could see the corner of his mouth rise, just slight, but enough to show the tiny… yet rather heartening smile that he gave me.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” The very question that I myself had only just answered came from Gunny, my friend leaning into my vision from his place at my right side. He himself, after hearing both Saber and I out, did not look very approving at my proclamation… nor did he seem convinced that I was in the proper condition to take part in Saber’s task. That concern was written on him like a book this time, provoked by all of my trials from the recent past. It was that protective nature of his, the part of him that was among the traits that I admired him for the most that I saw here again. “Don’t you think that you might just want to rest for a little while longer?” he asked, gentler… and a little hopeful, hopeful to an affirmative answer at his suggestion.

“No.” I let myself use a tone to match his in my reply, shaking my head to combat his concerns. “No… I’m okay, Gunny.” I said, as reassuringly as possible. “I’m okay because… well, because I’ve realized something.” In response, my friend remained silent, only listening. “I’ve realized that I often tend to get wrapped up in my thoughts… and there have come times where I’ve gotten them so tangled up that I’ve lost sight of some of the important things… and this is one of those things. Saber’s right on this, about everything. We aren’t broken, but we are dying… and with two homes stolen away from us… well who wouldn’t be on their last legs.” At that came a slight nod from the brick-red unicorn. “But just because we might be weakened to such a state doesn’t mean that we have to keep falling.” I continued to him. “No matter how critical the situation, there’s always a way to progress back up again… and in our case, Saber’s right. Stable One Eighty-one grants us a chance to give ourselves some hope, something to remind us of who we were, and that we don’t have to just let that be buried by what we have to do up here. Even if that chance is slim, it’s still enough to get me involved in this. It’s enough for me to want to make a positive difference for everypony we have left, to try and make up for my mistakes. And I need to take the opportunity, especially when it’s sitting right in front of me.” I noted swiftly how a frown begun to take shape on Gunny’s lips, the stallion none too pleased to see me pull the blame-against-self card. “I’m being presented with a chance to contribute to my ponies.” I added fast, cutting him off before he could even think of voicing his disapproval. “And if I stay, then all I’m doing is letting my head keep me from doing something important. I need to get away from that before it becomes a habit.”

“Well, that’s good and all… But with what happened to you in the Stable… I’m sorry, but I really don’t think you’d do well back at One Eighty-one.” Gunny responded after a pause; his worry for me still held tight in his voice. “I’ve seen how you react when that day is mentioned, Nova. I know how sensitive this is, and it’s justly so… but you’ve already got enough on your shoulders that you’re trying to recoup from without going back home and reliving its loss.”

“And what about you?” I pressed curiously. “What about Shore?” To my left, I saw the black stallion looking sidelong to me, only to face forward again when I tried to meet his eyes. “And Saber?” I continued anyway, turning back to Gunny. “You’ve all deemed yourselves ready.”

“We’ve steeled ourselves for this, Nova.” Gunny explained, Saber giving a little nod behind him to agree. “Yes, we all lost a great deal when the raiders invaded, and yes we’re all still anchored to our past. We’ve all got scars, some of which will last a lifetime. You however, have had things happen to you that have not happened to any of us, both in the Stable and on the surface.”

“He is right you know.” From behind Gunny I caught sight of Raemor. The old stallion took a step out of the circle, leaning forward to spot me. “You just got back to safety after being a hostage, after having Blake’s life threatened, and after your exile from Buckley, and you have all of that sitting on top of Gracie’s death and the deaths of your parents. That’s a great deal of weight that rests on you, and I would like to respectfully voice my own concern that should you return to the Stable, you might very well put yourself closer into harm’s way by reliving your home’s invasion. And believe me, Nova, you will relive that day, to some extent or another.” And at his waning, he too settled into a troubled frown. “You can trust me on that.”

And when he leaned back again, Gunny met my eyes in his place. “I’m just worried, Nova.” he added to Raemor’s words. “You really should take some time to just relax, to recover and to let things come back down to some level of normality again. And in my opinion, throwing yourself at something that’s going to cause you more harm than good later isn’t the way to do that.” And then he reached out, lifting a foreleg to set a hoof against my shoulder. “I only want to see you get through the aftermath of all this recent crap. I want to see you put it behind you, get yourself back on your hooves, and move on with what you’ve got right in front of you.”

But this time, to what had to have been Gunny’s prime concern, I actually smiled just a little. “I know you do, Gunny. And that’s what I am doing.” I answered, glancing then to where his hoof rested against me… a dear friend’s comforting touch. “When the Stable was first brought up again, I was terrified to go back there. You know that I didn’t want to see One Eighty-one again, not as a shell of its former self, looted and defiled. You know that I didn’t want to see those who didn’t make it out… just laying where they’d fallen, with no burial to let them rest in peace like they deserve… And believe me, Gunny, it’s because of those very things and more that I’m just as scared to go back now as I was before. But… you remember what I said about realizing something important?” A nod from him answered. “Well… I’ve also just very recently realized that… if I let it, my past, and all my fears that had be born from it, can take over what I do, permanently if I let it go far enough. My past can trap me, and I can’t let myself fall that far, to the point where I become useless because I spend all my time weighing my history and wallowing in my guilt. And that’s one of the most important reasons why I want to go. I need to come to terms with everything that happened that day… I need to face it without hiding myself away in my own thought. Otherwise, like you were saying, I’ll never really focus on what’s happening now, what’s right in front of me. I’d just… stay lost in all the bad that’s happened.” And it was that, my resolution that was taking wing, that got my friend to begin to ease away from his own fears, visibly so as he lowered his hoof away from me. “I’m not going to let that happen. I’m not going to let myself run from what happened before and destroy myself over it, not anymore.” I said; I found myself having no trouble keeping up my little smile… for the first time in… well… a good long while. “I’m going to help again. I’m going to help us again, not some other group, but us, our group…”

And in reply came a very hopeful sight, when Gunny too cracked just a faint smile of his own. That was definitely something that he didn’t mind hearing, and through that smile I knew that I had talked my way into coming along.

But really, I wasn’t bothered by that. Because this time, unlike the previous night, everything I said to him had been the truth. No secrets, no white lies. Everything I told him was genuine.

Because this was something that I really, truly needed to do.

*** *** ***

With a grunt, I ground my teeth together at the pain in my torso that swelled as my wings snapped out full to catch the air again, muscles flexing despite my body’s protests. For the fourth time I recovered from a chaotic spiral, slowing myself back to a nominal speed to get myself reoriented with the ground. And when I finally leveled out, I found myself hovering high over an open field, pockmarked with the freshly smoldering craters made by Buckley’s howitzers. With them were the tiny dots that were the bodies of the first kills of the battle, the Talons’ first casualties before the Guardian Project’s launch. Blackhawk and I had taken our dogfight outside of Buckley’s perimeter now, the both of us consequently leaving our wingmates behind, who continued to fight their own battle to add to the chaos on the ground; Archer was engaged with both of Blackhawk’s Strikers alone.

I had a full view of the rear lines of the Legion’s invasion force from here, the last troops that had yet to enter the field but marched steadily towards it. From my new angle on the battle, I could see where the Talons and Buckley’s defenders had come to a fresh stalemate. Buckley had been pushed back all the way to the west runway now, and the median between it and its twin now made a natural divider between them and the Legion. But Lily had made her grand entrance to the dance, the great mechanical colossus having passed the west runway to come to a stop at the median; she was turning now, coming about to face the fight and preparing to engage the enemy front head-on.

But my war was here… and Blackhawk came back into view, settling into a hover in the upper left corner of my vision, not even fifty yards away.

“Are you ready to surrender?!” he called, his voice carrying on the air. “Or are we really going to keep doing this?!”

My wounds called for him with another burning pulse of pain, begging for mercy as I hissed at the sting. Now both my right and left sides were bleeding freely from Blackhawk’s claws… and the bullet wound on my right front leg wouldn’t stop bleeding either. “Fuck you!!” I screamed back, defying my body’s commands.

To that, Blackhawk holstered his revolver, slamming it back into the chest-mounted carrier before he held out open paws. “You can’t beat me, Nova!” he called. “You’re no soldier!”

“And you can’t kill me, Blackhawk!” I shouted in reply. “Because you’re under orders not to! That pretty much means you’re stuck, doesn’t it?!”

But to my shock, I actually heard, for the first time, a laugh come from the griffin, short and mirthless… dark… a single note that made me flinch. “Wrong, Nova!” he said. “It just means that for however long you intend to resist, everything and everyone you care about is at risk! It just means that I’ll have to keep taking from you until you finally break!” I could only growl, a reply I knew he couldn’t hear. “Maybe eventually I’ll kill somepony you really care about, maybe that protective unicorn friend of yours, or maybe your brother!” My blood was at a boil by his poisonous threats; my body begun tensing back up as I readied another charge. “So I guess we’ll just have to see how much you can stand to lose before you finally accept your true role in this war!”

In that instant, my hatred was suddenly pushed aside, startling me into nearly skipping a beat of my wings. Blackhawk’s eyes were on me the whole time, watching, waiting for any sort of response to his sudden and shockingly bizarre choice of final words. And yet there had been no change of tone when they had been spoken, that same deep, hateful color that shaped all possible sincerity filling every crevice of his threat. But still, I looked on in surprise, an unwelcome feeling that dulled the anger that had brought me my focus. “True role??” I called, trying to regain my former concentration as I eased back into a solid hover. “Are you crazy??”

“Come on, Nova!” came his answer. “You’ve seen how the Legion operates! You’ve worked in our ranks, seen one of our leaders, know of our goals and how we work towards them! And so you should know by now that my superiors wouldn’t be after you unless they had a real reason! And I told you before, that this isn’t just about my revenge anymore! There are greater forces at work here than petty desires now, and you have become one of them!”

The more he spoke, the more my eyes settled into a familiar glare, the fire behind them returning; Blackhawk was losing it… “What are you talking about?!” I demanded sharply.

“You haven’t seen it yet, Nova, but Vance was ready to give you a new higher purpose, something greater than just simply trying to survive in the wastes!” he snapped. “Vance was going to give you the power to guide the direction of this whole conflict because there is power in you!” Then, he reached a forepaw back up to his chest plate, once again taking hold of his revolver and bringing it back out from its holster. “And you used that power for the first time when you woke up the Guardian Project!”

*** *** ***

Two days… two days brought us back…

Heading due southwest yesterday morn, we had left behind the last known landmarks of the region by the evening of the first day. In between, we had diverted an hour of our time to scouring the ruins of the Southeast Regional Power Plant for any additional supplies or salvage that could have provided use. In that time, I’d come to learn that the power plant collected solar energy as its power source, and then had converted that energy into the electrical power that had been used by all the southeast. It was an interesting diversion of thought to think that one plant had once supplied power to the whole city of Marefax, plus three additional towns and a scattering of farmhouses altogether. To think also what it might be like if it could work again… that too was quite something to think about. But time’s march had been cruel on the plant. One hundred and seventy-five years had whittled it down to but a husk, an industrial corpse that was barely standing on its own anymore. The compound had, back in its day, been comprised of the main facility, a solar collection tower, and a great fenced-in field of panels, the solar collectors that the plant had utilized. Out of what had to have been two hundred solar panels, barely two dozen were standing in the graveyard of rusty frames and useless scrap that had been left behind by scavengers. The solar collection tower, which had likely stood taller than the plant itself, had collapsed entirely, leaving nothing but twisted steel to mark its final resting place. With it, there had been a number of transmission towers, steel lattice spires that had once connected the overhead power lines as they stretched away north before gradually hooking east, back to Marefax. But out of what had once been a line of towers, only three were standing in our sight amidst spaced mounds of steel, and one of those still was looking ready to come down as it leaned on two weak legs. The plant itself was the only thing standing, and even then it was greatly decayed. The front wall had seen a good deal of damage, with both corners having caved in, and the main entrance itself having been blasted open in some sort of skirmish. Similarly, a portion of the east wall had collapsed, the stone and metal of the exterior spilling out onto the ground with the wreckage of catwalks, mangled filing cabinets and office desks, rotted computer terminals, and useless machinery. And the inside – you could barely tell what room was what in there anymore.

And despite our hour-long search, we had scrounged up an unfortunately short list of useable items – scrap metal plating for our salvaged wagon, a half-dozen bottle caps and three bobby pins from the aged corpse of some poor scavenger, a beat-up nine millimeter pistol with four shots in a locked strongbox, and a small bottle of pain killer pills buried under some rubble.

Still better than nothing…

After the power plant we maintained our course southwest, leaving it and the regional border at our backs, and putting a vast desert of nothingness before, and eventually, all around us. And throughout the rest of the day, that was all that we could see in any direction, and with it, the rain had been a steady companion. After a small break in the weather, the rain had picked back up again, walking with us out of the southeast and back into the desert beyond it. That day we had gone until the sun had fully set, and even a couple hours beyond that. Saber had pushed us to keep up a steady pace, the better to get to our destination, search it, and get back to the others. As such, we had all become more than tired when the captain had decided to finally call it a day. With only a small dinner for each of us from the limited supplies we had for the journey, we all went to bed hungry, tired, and wet, and the continuing rain forced us to sleep under and inside the wagon to keep from soaking further. We were one and all thankful that it was a cargo carrier that our ponies had scavenged, a large four-wheeler wagon complete with an intact roof and its own array of iron reinforcements.

The wastelanders who had it before didn’t need it anymore, and the Talons had been the ones to ensure that, so said Boulter.

Then we were up to an early start the next morning, and by midday, we had crossed into chillingly familiar terrain. What was once just flat dirt begun to rise and fall into rolling hills, each differing in size, but all short in height and wide in diameter. And what was once just patches of the dead yellow grass became a whole field of it, now moistened up from the ongoing rainfall and swaying in the accompanying wind. By midday we had crossed back into uncharted land, back onto the road that we had been walking when our time on the surface began. And from then to now, we moved with that knowing, with the guarded… weary… anticipation that came with the fact that we were, one more time, on the final stretch to Stable 181…

To where all of this began…

Just behind me and to the left, the rumbling of our new wagon’s heavy wheels was as constant as the light rain and moderate breeze. We had just crossed over another hill to emerge onto a smooth patch in the earth, extending out a hundred yards ahead to the next hill and rising only gently up towards it. I was moving at the wagon’s pace, keeping myself just outside the inner ring of guards made from its assigned crew. Just ahead and to the right, walking apart from the rest of us, Shore kept himself out of the way, still just as quiet as before. He had been like that for the duration of the journey, speaking only so often to the rest of us. The last time I had heard him had been back at the old power plant, and before then, when he had been saying goodbye to his parents back at the radio station. Though he had settled into a calm state of focus when our trek began, just as alert for danger as was required of him…… Goddesses, I wanted to hear his voice…

On the other side of the wagon, though out of sight, was Raemor and Ivy, the both of them having stayed closer to the front of our group with Saber and Madeline the whole way through; thankfully, the both of them had been more than willing to welcome conversation, for however brief a time. Covering our backs were Joker and Daisy, and it was easy to note how much closer those two had become. Beginning as guards of the same shift before 181’s loss, the two had developed a much closer bond, which had, encouragingly, only been strengthened at the weeks gone by… to the point where they could almost be called lovers. Up above, keeping a watchful eye on the landscape, Sierra was aloft, the two of us having decided to take overwatch in shifts. Despite her power armor, she was able to stay in the air for several hours at a go, and she insisted that she take more time up high between us, claiming that her suit was designed for aerial operations; along the course of our journey, she had become more open with my friends, and with the others too, gradually easing her way into our little circle. Gunny was my partner in our trip, staying the closest to me to help me in keeping our right side monitored. He had been the most collected of all of us, alongside Saber and Madeline, and was the least prone to let his mind wander off to the past.

And finally, protected by Madeline’s designated pulling team where he sat aboard the wagon itself, Blake was silent but awake. Just before we had left the station, right after I had volunteered, my baby brother had woken up, and just in time to find me explaining to Ivy our new mission. He had asked me only once if he could join me, and this time I was in no particular mood to deny him the opportunity to accompany me. This time, I had said yes only because I was not willing to separate myself from him again. After Stable 184, I became just as stubborn as he had always been in the past. I refused to let him leave my side, and Saber had relented nearly as swiftly, knowing my help would be more than valuable on his mission, thus willing to oblige us. With both Blake and I of the same mind, my brother became part of the team, despite how limited his role in the mission would actually be. Still, that had not stopped me from taking some time to oblige one of Blake’s earlier requests – to teach him the basics of the use of a firearm. When I had first proposed the idea the day before now, I had done so with the utmost care. And even then, Blake had shown some hesitation at the idea. His first kill had been sudden, a split-second decision, one that had saved a life, and yet given him his first real taste of what a battle was like. Because of the Talons, he had been thrown into the fire without restraint, and it had left marks after its passing. Still, after some gentle coaxing on my part, Blake had shown his bravery and taken the opportunity for a quick lesson to learn the basics from me.

And it had been in that time when I had gotten my chance to have my talk with him, to ask and to learn just how he had come out from all of this.

He made it known to me that what he had gone through had been the most terrifying days of his life, and at my request… he told me everything. He had recounted how he had been captured from Hopeville in the first place, how a pair of griffins, likely under Blackhawk’s command, had dragged him kicking and screaming from City Hall. He told me how he had cried out my name, begged for my help… help that I hadn’t been able to give. And he told me of how helpless he felt when I did not answer his cries, when instead, he had been forced into binds to be taken away from Hopeville. Then came his recollection of the time when he had been forced into the Talons’ explosive collar, that it took a unicorn’s telekinesis to hold him down and another unicorn’s magic to close the collar around his throat. He told me of how afraid he had been when he had only been able to see me through a monitor, and only as a helpless mare that was shackled and unable to fight back. Then came his fear, the most petrifying fear he had ever felt, when he knew that I was out there, but was unable to see me. He said that when I had gone off alone, and when he was around friends, whether mine or his or both, that it was different. He felt safer then. But for over a whole day, he had been alone, wrapped in chains, sitting in the clutches of a pony who had kept his hoof poised over the detonator of his collar. And after that, I was driven ever further into guilt when he talked about our escape from the Talons’ prison. Never until then had Blake been subjected to such a battle, one in which I had been throwing him this way and that to keep him out of the Talons’ crosshairs. Both on the ground and in the air, Blake had been just as much of a target as I had been, and the two of us had barely escaped intact, even with Master Sergeant Amber Dawn’s best efforts. And finally came the battle for Buckley itself, and he told me of his time trapped inside Lily, a bulletproof shell, but a cage at the same time when he had been an involuntary part of the mighty tank’s charge against the enemy. He had been with Lily for nearly the whole duration of the fight, even when the beast had taken a hit. And when the Talons fought Buckley’s defenders for control of the vehicle, Blake had been forced to cower through it all. Even after my friends had gotten him free, he had still emerged into the very heart of the fight. And that was when he made his first kill… and he was not hesitant to tell me of how he still saw the back of that stallion’s head, perfectly intact one moment, then facing him with a bloody gaping hole. It was an image that had, in his words, stuck to him like glue.

And that was that.

When he had finished, toughing through those horrible memories which had, as I had expected, resided at the forefront of his thoughts, nothing stopped me from breaking down one more time. The tears I cried then, they came because of what my dear brother had been put through. They came because there had been so many times where, in any other circumstance, I would have pulled Blake away and faced down the monsters that he had been forced to fight himself. They came because Saber had warned me of the consequences that taking Blake away from the safety of home would bring, and I had heeded his words only to face those very consequences anyway.

I had cried because Blake had gone through so much that he shouldn’t have had to go through.

I had cried because I was so, so very sorry…

But it was then that Blake, for the first time, had come to my rescue, to be the shoulder to cry on when it was I that was always prepared to do the just that. And hugging me, wiping away my tears for me, he told me that he was okay in the end. He told me that even with how terrifying those days had been for him, he was still going to be there for me. He said that he was going to be as strong as he could be, and that he wasn’t going to let what happened keep him from doing his part, from fulfilling our father’s final wish to look out for me. He said that he was going to be better than the things that scared him, that he was going to be brave and strong… he said he was going to be just like me.

In the end, I pulled him into a hug that we must have held for minutes. And from deep down in my heart, I told him how much I loved him, how I loved him so very much, and that I was so proud of him… so proud…

And so, trained and equipped with his own personal sidearm, a nine millimeter pistol donated to him by Tiny, Blake was now an official contributing member of our squad.

No more kid stuff…

“You okay, Nova?” My ears perked at the question, which had come in as a gentle intervention to my thoughts. “You’ve got that lost-in-the-clouds look again.” By my left, Gunny was looking down to me in simple curiosity, awaiting an answer. But despite whatever initial concerns he held, I gave him a small but more confident smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Or at least, as much as the present moment allows, given the circumstances.” I answered, to which he gave a nod of agreement. “I was just thinking about Blake… I’m sure you heard our talk.”

I was pleased to see Gunny share my smile, the corner of his mouth rising when he said, “Yeah. Bits and pieces, anyway.” he replied.

“He’s becoming a very brave young stallion.” Taking a glance back to the wagon, inside which Blake remained, my smile broadened. “There are a hundred different ways that he could have come out worse because of the Talons, but he took his natural fear and used it to better himself. He bested everything that I feared would destroy him… He made it, and he didn’t give up no matter how afraid he was, even when he was unable to do anything but hide. He’s changed, and is still changing from all of that. But he’s changed for the better. He’s become stronger, he’s found new courage, and he’s become more determined to keep following the road that the Talons had shaped for him, one that had once only held the purpose to force him into submission. And Goddesses, I’m so proud of him… for everything he’s done…” And meeting Gunny eye to eye again, I concluded with, “He’s given me new courage too… something that I know I’m going to need today.”

And when I nodded to my right, gesturing in the direction that our team was following, Gunny understood.

“I’ve noticed how Blake has changed. And you’re right.” he replied. “What he went through – it really should have affected him differently than how it did. He should have been scarred from it, from the fighting, from all the death he witnessed… and perhaps it did leave a mark on him, or at least the kind we normally think of.” He too looked back to the wagon. “But if it did, then he isn’t giving the past any room to get at him. That shows just how closely he’s followed the old teachings, how closely he’s taken in those lessons left by our founders.” And I found myself nodding my agreement. “And it shows how important it all was to him, and still is to him… and how devoted he is to protecting it now.”

And turning back to me, “He’s come to more greatly appreciate his origins now, because of what he was forced to see and to do. And that’s something positive to come out of it all, to know that what we were taught to value and protect in our minds has survived not just in us, but in the generation behind us, and to know that Blake exemplifies that with the new strength that he’s found in himself.”

Yes he did… yes he did.

“Alright, everypony! Gather round, listen up!”

At the front of our unit, Madeline had slowed herself to draw up beside the wagon, she, Gyro, and Boulter joining Tiny and Mavis as they pulled it along. Just beyond her, Sierra was winging her way back into the air, arcing to the east as she resumed her patrol. Now Captain Saber was in the lead, the first to cross onto the shallow incline that made the next hill. With a gentle nudge from Gunny, both he and I trotted ahead to join up with Madeline, Raemor and Ivy coming around the front of the wagon and falling in just as Joker and Daisy drew up behind me. “Sierra just wrapped up her first flight around this area. And she confirms that there is an old screen door built into the back of this last hill.” And we all knew what that meant. “We’re walking over One Eighty-one right now.” Madeline said, Sylvia and Quinn joining the rest of us from the wagon’s left side. “We’re here.”

No voice came to reply to her as we continued up this last rise. There were no whispers of anticipation, none of fear, nor of success. There was only the quiet among us, the silent, cold realization that we had, after almost a month on the surface world… come full circle. From Stable 181 we had left all those days ago, and to Stable 181 we now returned, to the grave that was now all that remained of our past. We were all joined together in the feeling that being here gave, a single mind within which a tornado of emotions and sensations ran wild. Anxiety fused with focus, grief with happiness, wrath with acceptance, fatigue with energy… they were all there… the companions that would accompany us into our lost home.

“I don’t…” Madeline was the first to brave that terrible silence, but even she had to clear her throat before she could clearly speak. “I don’t think I need to go over all your roles in this again, because I know it’s been the only thing on our minds for the past two days now… And the fact that we’re here… well, anypony can correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel that that’s been more than sufficient in keeping your respective tasks fresh in your heads. So… I won’t say anything more… just that I want each and every one of you to be careful. This may be home, where good memories were made, where we found safety and love and wisdom… and peace… but this place isn’t worth your lives… not anymore. So please, watch out for each other, protect each other, be alert for any raider that may have stayed behind here. I and Saber both want each of you to come out of this undamaged. And I think you know that that means more than just staying alive.”

“That’s right.” Past the others, Saber was finally looking back to us from his place at the lead, his tired eyes only half-open over his shoulder. “I haven’t brought you all this way to remind you of what happened here, or to force you to relive what you went through that day. I came here to find closure from the past, to put this place to rest for good. And I came here in the hopes that we could find the strength to put this behind us once and for all… because it needs to be done.” And with that, he faced forward again. “But the most important motive – I devised this mission for the sake of us, for the sake of our future. I planned this to help everypony we have left, to give them the strength to let One Eighty-one go, and the courage to hope even after Hopeville. I want us to miss our first home, of course. I want us to remember it. I want us to think back on the place where we made our identity, where we learned what was really important in this new world. I want us to remember everything that we’d been given by the Stable. But at the same time, I don’t want it to be a burden, an anchor that might prevent us from moving ahead.” And after a sigh, “I want us to miss Stable One Eighty-one, but I want us to let its death go, and to instead live in gratitude that we were once the privileged ones to call it home.”

We were near the summit of the final hill.

“So get with your teams, and let’s get this done.” Madeline said, nodding to the captain though he did not see. “You all know what to do.”

Though no acknowledgement replied to her, our group begun to disperse at her word. Passing into my line of sight, Raemor and Ivy picked up their pace to a trot to catch up to Saber and Shore, both now making their way atop the hill. And to my right, Joker and Daisy jogged past to catch up. “Hey, Gunny.” Just as the unicorn next to me was about to get my attention, I beat him to the move, stopping him just as he made to encourage me to follow after him. “I’ll catch up. I just need a minute.” And to a raised eyebrow, I gave a little nod back over my left shoulder to explain myself, gesturing to the wagon. Thankfully, that was all I needed for Gunny to understand, only nodding a reply before he faced front with his usual focus, moving on ahead as the rest of our team stayed close to the wagon, checking over their weapons.

With that I slowed, looking to the wagon as I came to a stop to watch it move on ahead. And when the back wheels rolled by, there was my brother, and already he was looking to me, leaning out over the edge of the wagon floor; I was certain he already heard. “Hey Blake.” I greeted him, veering left to fall in behind the wagon, matching its pace.

“Are you going back into the Stable now, Nova?” came his reply, straight to the point.

And I couldn’t avoid noting how… different he sounded. Weeks ago, his question would have been brought on a frightened tone, made from the natural fear that came from a child with no exposure to what occurred on the surface world. But though that apprehensive quality still existed, it was far more diminished now than it had ever been; really, now, he sounded… just curious, with that level of anxiety reduced to a level that was naturally needed by everypony to concentrate and remain alert… it wouldn’t hinder him out here. “I am.” I answered him, craning my head back to meet him at his elevated position. “I’m going to help Saber and the others look… look through it…”

But there was a crack in my voice at my answer, despite the simplicity of the task at hoof. And Blake caught it right away, his right ear giving a little twitch. “Are you okay, Nova?”

I had a feeling he would’ve asked that. And to that question, I gave him a little smile and a shake of my head. “Blake, I think it’s a little too late to be asking that question.” I gently responded. “Because really, I feel the same way that everypony else here feels. I have ever since you and I joined up with the team. And now we’re here at the Stable, back to where everything began, and we’re going inside again for the first time since we left it… This is a special case, Blake, and it’s one that you can’t avoid fearing in some fashion or another.” And to my words, words which the presence of Stable 181 beneath our hooves made difficult to formulate, Blake only continued to watch me. “But to answer your question, little brother, I would say that I’m feeling… confident, in myself and the others and in our ability to make our way through this. I’m feeling hopeful that Saber’s mission will be a successful one, and that he’ll realize his dream. So all in all… I’d say yes to your question, Blake. I’m scared, I’m hesitant, but I’m also determined to help Saber get what he wants from this, and nothing is going to change that. And if you haven’t found out what all those emotions feel like when they’re all mashed together, then all you’ll need is some more time, and you’ll understand what I mean.”

“I think I know now.” Blake replied, a little smile touching his lips to match my own.

But as much as I wanted to hop aboard with him, scoop him up in a big hug again, a quick glance past the wagon showed that my team was rallying at the top of the hill. “Alright, Blake. While I’m in the Stable, I want you to do something for me.” I said, my baby brother attentive as I spoke. “I want you to stay inside the wagon at all times, just as a precaution. But with that, I also want you to help keep an eye on things outside while the rest of us are down below, and listen to Sergeant Madeline. You’re equipped, you’re trained, and so as long as you think you can do that for me, I want you to be a full part of this team.”

“Yeah, I can help.” Blake answered right away, his smile growing wider as he answered with enthusiasm. “I’ll help watch the wagon.”

But though I admired his eagerness, the glimpse I caught of the nine-millimeter pistol secured around his right foreleg, and the belt of extra magazines tightened up around the left, kept me looking upon Blake with a motherly eye. “Just remember what I told you when we were training to use that weapon together.” I spoke up, adding just a little sternness to get his focus back to me. “That pistol you were given is for emergencies only. Use it only if and when you have to. You got that?”

“I got it, Nova.” Blake assured without haste, keeping that same smile as he observed the weapon holstered around his foreleg. “It’s like you said – no more kid stuff. I promise I’ll be careful with it. Just… you be careful too, okay? When you go in there – you be careful.”

Despite the seriousness of his words, I couldn’t keep myself from uttering a little giggle. “Hey, it’s my job to be the protective one.” I chided playfully, quickly adding to him, “Don’t worry though. I’ll be back again before you know it.”

“Okay.” Blake replied after a quick pause, apparently satisfied with my answer. “I’ll see you when you get back, then.”

“I’ll see you again soon, baby brother.” I said back, dropping out of the wagon’s pace to begin making my way around it. “I love you.”

“I love you too, big sister.”

Now it was time to focus.

Once I had solidly fixed my eyes on the hilltop, I found everypony already assembled there, Sierra being the last to join them as she hovered in from above to land among them. When I passed the wagon by, I picked up my pace to a slow gallop to join up with them, and on the way I made sure to check over my equipment again, just to be safe. My saddle was as it had always been, with my markspony carbine on the right, and dear Cross’s battle rifle on the left. Back at the radio station, I had done a little ammo exchange with what supply we had left, trading in a percentage of my more common assault rifle ammo for just a few more of the heavier-hitting three-o-eights to have some more shots available with Cross’s weapon. With them, Blue Fire’s Torch was at its rightful place across my back. Though two of the clips I had for the weapon were stashed away in my saddlebags, all three were now loaded up with armor-piercing rounds that I had won through trade back in Buckley. And covering my flanks were my saddlebags, with all the items I had left in them in check. All of this was over my Manehattan Police Department armor, fitting me perfectly as it had always done, and proving to be a rather comfortable suit of traveling wear during the long journey here. But the one new addition to my otherwise traditional setup was my new sidearm… and though it had taken me some time to decide, I had eventually forced myself to yield to the past… to accept what happened in Buckley… and finally take Mother Shimmer’s gift as she had wanted me to do before. Shimmer’s pistol was secured in its holster around my left foreleg, its sapphire and black colors glinting even in the dreary grey of the afternoon. After putting it on at the radio station I had learned from Gunny, who had requested a moment to look over and admire the beautiful weapon, that the pistol was chambered for the mighty fifty caliber round, or more specifically, the fifty caliber action express round, one of the most powerful pistol cartridges that had been made in the old days. But with its tremendous power came a tremendous rarity, as a fifty caliber round of any shape or grain was far less common than other rounds. Gunny’s knowledge of firearms explained why Shimmer had only supplied me with four clips for the pistol, making for a total of only twenty-eight rounds.

But with that aside, I was able to take some comfort in being fully decked out again, equipped for my next task the way I should be; it helped me feel a little more ready for what was coming.

As I crossed over the rest of the hill, slowing as I neared the others, I found that everypony in my assigned team had turned their attention in the same direction, following the curve of the hilltop to some landmark toward the east. And when I had come in range of the others, Gunny immediately waved me over, pointing out in the same direction even before I joined up with him. “Nova, look over there along the hill face.” he stated, watching me as I drew up beside him. And when I did, I traced my eyes along the hilltop, following its curves as it stretched onward like its own miniature mountain range. The slopes that stretched away from either side of the winding crest varied in their gradient, smoother and shallower the closer to us it was, but steeper in sections the farther out it went. But perhaps no more than a hundred yards to the front of us, wedged between two such shallower segments where the hilltop arched back to the north, was a gap in the earth. And just barely in sight, I could see the wood and metal edge that was tucked into the crevice there, one side of an old rickety frame.

The door…

“There it is.” Gunny remarked, echoing my own silent words as he lowered his hoof back to the ground.

“Looks like the raiders set themselves up a camp outside.” Up at the front of our group, both Saber and Sierra were observing the sight on their own. “Tin cans and bottles and wrappers… couple of old fire pits, too.”

“Something to keep the main entrance secure.” Saber replied to the steel-clad pegasus. “There’s no guard detail I can see though. You were right.”

“Nothing’s on E.F.S. either.” Sierra chimed, her visor unwavering as it studied the grounds near the door. “I say we move in, Captain.”

“And I agree.” Turning back to look over his shoulder again, Saber then promptly ordered, “Everypony check your weapons, then follow me in. Let’s get to that door, quick and quiet.” And at once came the cocking of weaponry, the release of safeties, and the light hum of magic for the unicorns in our company as one after the next, they readied their weapon of choice and followed after Saber. Reaching forward to take hold of the firing bit of my saddle, a quick flick turned the safety off, making me fully battle ready.

One of the last ones to check over their equipment, I fell in line at the back, moving behind Gunny as Saber led us down the southern slope of the hill and towards the first door. The whole way there was silent, just the way I had hoped. And behind us, the wagon was beginning to cross over the top of the hill, its crew guiding it toward the smoother terrain below as they continued southward. At just about ten yards from the door, we had stepped hoof into Sierra’s aforementioned raider camp. A whole mess of trash from countless previous meals had been left behind by the Black Blood here, scattered over a rather wide area in every direction from the center of the makeshift guard post; I had a very grim feeling that the majority of this wreckage had once been housed in Stable 181’s food storage.

But nice and easy, we came upon the door, stacking up behind Saber along its left side and coming to a stop just as he raised a foreleg for us to hold. “Anything Sierra?” he asked, looking back to the armored mare next to him as she looked in turn toward the entrance.

“No.” came her reply. “The compass is still clean. But we should play it safe and assume that that unit your scouts found left behind some stragglers, and that we’ll end up finding some once we get inside.”

“Agreed. Let’s get in there, but keep it tight, everypony. We need to stick close together at least until we get to the atrium.” the captain ordered, turning his eyes from Sierra to face Ivy, the second closest to him. “Would you mind doing the honors?”

“Not at all, captain.” At Saber’s word, the grey mare’s horn shimmered with gentle light as she stepped forward from the line and faced the door, and with a light creaking of the aged hinges, the old door slowly swung open, revealing the cave beyond it that was our entrance. “It’s clear.”

“Good. Sierra, you’re on point with E.F.S.. For the time being, you’re our eyes in here. I’ll use my pipbuck to update Madeline on our progress.”

“Yes, Captain.” came her response, after which she gave a quick nod to the rest of us. “Everypony on me. Let’s go.”

With that, she moved on through the door, and with a click, the previously pitch-black tunnel was bathed with bright blue-white light, cast by a flashlight mounted on the housing of her compact minigun. Captain Saber moved in after her, his head bowed over his holstered pistol secured to his right foreleg, and behind him was Ivy, her lever-action repeater held close in her telekinesis. Raemor followed her with both his automatic pistol and his fire axe drawn, and behind him was Shore, muzzle hovering over his energy saddle’s firing bit. Joker and Daisy moved in together after him, the former holding a ten millimeter SMG in his telekinetic grip, and the latter wielding a scoped assault rifle. Then I was upon the entrance… and my hesitation made itself known when I abruptly froze at the open door, at the sight of the tunnel’s dirt walls beyond it. But it didn’t take hold like it wanted to, as Gunny acted quick, giving me a strong nudge on the back of my neck as he followed at the rear of the line; his touch drew a startled breath from me… but thankfully, knocked me out of what would have become one of my trances. “Sorry…” I spoke up quickly, shaking my head and moving into the tunnel. “Sorry…”

“It’s alright.” Gunny assured softly behind me, the door at our backs swinging closed with a light rattle at a pass from my friend’s magic. “I’ve got your back.”

The tunnel leading to the Stable door was made with two total turns. After a short trip down the first of the three lanes, I turned left onto the second, the longest of the three, and also the widest, supported with a framework of wooden beams and pillars that hugged the shape of the passage. And up ahead, I could see to the far end of the lane just as Sierra turned right into the final corridor, Saber following close behind. I kept my eyes locked there, watching as each of our team moved single file to disappear around the final bend. For each pony that left my sight… I grew all the more anxious… until Daisy rounded the corner, coming to a stop in my line of sight a second later; it took all my willpower to continue at that point, despite how much I told myself to just keep going. But I did… I moved, hugging the tunnel wall until there was no more of it to bar my vision…… and after three steps out into the open, into the last short lane… I found everypony again, no longer in a line, but frozen in an unorganized cluster as they merely stared ahead in silence.

Here the entry tunnel came to an end…

Here, for the first time in four weeks, I found myself face to face with… with home…

Here, as I came to a stop at the back of the group, I beheld the great gear-shaped door of our Stable, the yellow 181 painted at its center still bright as day against the blackened steel.

“The console is still intact.” At the front of the group, Saber was already inspecting the control pod positioned to the left of the great door; I was glad he had such an easy time focusing…

“So this is one of the fabled Stables.” Sierra remarked, hushed as Joker and Gunny both passed her to take a look at the door controls with the captain.

“The light’s flashing red, just like it’s supposed to.” Joker spoke up. “The reactor must still be working, or at least enough to get adequate power to the door.”

“I’m surprised the raiders didn’t blow all that up after we left.” Daisy added from her place farther back.

“No, they’ve been using it.” Saber replied. “It’s no strategic place with its distance from the southeast, but everything we left here has benefited them greatly. Even they wouldn’t want to just blow up the power supply, not when Shore got everything functioning again before we ran.”

“Fucking vultures.” Joker grumbled.

Without reply, Saber turned back to the door panel, letting out a light sigh as he reached a hoof up to the lever on the center of the console. “Alright everypony. If there are any raiders left in here, they’re going to know we’re coming as soon as this door opens. So be ready for anything and everything.”

A moment he took to gather everypony’s silent affirmatives, and I got the time to show to him my nervousness as I settled down, lowering my mouth to my saddle’s firing bit. Then, when he was satisfied that his team was set, he faced front, and with one swift motion, pulled back the switch.

From the other side of the door, following a sharp hiss of air, an alarm blared to life, buzzing once before a brief pause and sounding again every other second, warning that the door was opening. Then, steel ground against steel as the air continued to hiss, the hinge-arm within sliding down and forward from its resting place against the ceiling. After a couple seconds, the arm connected with the door, the pulling mechanism sliding into its port and locking down. And finally, as the alarm went silent, the internals of the opening arm whirred to life, and the great door was pulled back from its frame with an ear-piercing shriek of steel. But what would have been a grand return to a lost home in any other world, only became a nearly unbearable arrival when suddenly, as the door was pulled all the way back, the most disgusting odor assaulted my nostrils. And I wasn’t the only one to recoil from the horrible stench, as a collection of grunts accompanied me when I turned my head away, nearly gagging when I did. But out of the corner of my eye, I could still see the door as the hinge-arm released it and folded back and away into its place on the ceiling. Red light poured in through the gap between the door and its frame, and with the light came a drifting grey fog that slowly made its way out to us. And then the door rolled away to the left, tucking itself back behind the wall, giving us a full view of the Stable’s entry chamber…

A place right out of my nightmares…

Chapter 25: Duty and Discovery

“Understanding the world you can see is only half the battle.”

Time.

Time was an interesting thing, full of little tricks, easily able to catch you by surprise. Out here on the surface, there had never been an instance of this. Things had been routine, a direct path, an objective with a goal at the end. Our new lifestyle upon taking Hopeville was very linear and organized, and the tasks we had to undertake didn’t have much of a timeframe. Of course, searching for supplies, exploring the land, they had to be done as quickly as possible. But there was no deadline to come along with it. We didn’t pay much attention to time… didn’t have any need to. Worrying about things like deadlines came from the more civilized life we had in Stable 181. Get to class before the bell, get homework done before the due date, get enough sleep to be well rested for school – all of that was the simple stuff, the habitual. For me it was easy. I enjoyed school and was a good student. But I still had plenty of moments where I wondered where the time went, wondered how the next day had come up so fast. Out in the wasteland, there were no thoughts like that… not until now.

Time…… It was already time to go.

Off to war.

And it seemed like it was only a few minutes ago that Archer and I were listening to the new Eternity Radio together.

My sleep the past night had not been disturbed, to which I was very grateful. However, it still seemed too short when I was woken up by a nudge from Gunny. And now that I was awake, I was up and moving in a very strange scene – I was just one of no more than a dozen that was up and moving in our whole group, five of whom made myself and my friends who were joining me. Just off to my right, Blake was still tucked away under his trusty white blanket, only his head sticking out from the covers. He shifted as I looked over him, turning himself over from his belly onto his left side and putting his back to me… but still sleeping peacefully. Archer was nearby too, and when I looked over my right shoulder, I found the available clearing he’d claimed just a few yards behind me. He was still asleep too, his battle saddle and the Longbow laying together behind him. And his saddlebags, now emptied of ammo and provisions, made a pillow for him to lay his head. And even in the darkness, I was still able to see where Shore and his parents had made their own nest. I wasn’t wholly sure, but I thought I saw the three forms out directly ahead where they slept together; his parents had finally allowed themselves to get a little rest of their own, something I knew they sorely needed.

But other than a few early birds who were out and moving, stretching their legs and working the sleep out of their eyes, it was just me and my friends, all soldiers of Challenger.

It was very early in the morning now, just a very faint bit of color showing to the east, pale blue-green against the thinner sections of the now fully-restored cloud ceiling. And I knew we were near due to head out to Challenger’s military district. Once we had all enlisted, Lieutenant Colonel Ajax informed us that a runner would be coming by in the morning to pick us up and lead us to where we needed to be to receive our first assignments.

And that’s where my eyes fell back to when I reminded myself of that – back to the east entrance to our camp in the Presidential Palace yard; I was ready to go.

With Gunny’s help, my MPD armor was back in place, every punctured, dented plate. Goddesses, this armor had seen so much use, protected me from so many potential wounds that I’d lost count. But despite its wear and tear, putting the rig back on was actually rather refreshing, which was turning into the case every time. It was so much a part of me now, something that, without it, I felt I would’ve been in far worse shape than I was now. It was just one of those little things, yet something that was so important.

After the armor, my saddlebags were resituated on their place over my flanks. And then my battle saddle was back in place, my Stable 181 markspony carbine on the right, Cross’s battle rifle on the left. Then came my two sidearms. After some fiddling, I found a place for Fire Rose and its ammo belt just above my pipbuck. It wasn’t the most comfortable fit, but at least I had mother’s pistol with me. Then, on my free leg – Mother Shimmer’s pistol, revealed by my pipbuck to have a name. I should’ve expected it, what with the way Shimmer had presented it to me. And with the same color scheme, and even the same marking on the frame as Blue Fire’s Torch, I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I’d been. But either way, it served to fully wake me up when my pipbuck listed the fifty caliber pistol’s name as Blue Fire’s Spark. In that moment, the connection became instantly clear. I now had in my possession two weapons with the same mark, and were no doubt from the same origin. Mother Shimmer had been right – there was more to this blue flame than we knew, and had I not been preparing for war, I would’ve pounced on the opportunity to look into it, to start raising the question to anypony who had plenty of travel time to their name. It had been odd enough when I’d gotten my cutie mark, only to see that it was the very same mark that my father had. As far as I knew, no two ponies were supposed to have the same exact cutie mark. But the peculiarity behind it only grew further when I’d first laid eyes on the Torch. Seeing my symbol etched on the stock of a weapon that had no history with the Stable at all – it showed to me that that mark had a presence on the surface. After that came Blake, when he’d gotten his cutie mark by killing a Talon soldier, saving Gunny’s life… making three of us that wore the exact same symbol. And now, with this pistol in my collection of weaponry, I was definitely a believer that this symbol hid something from me… something that I really did want to find out about.

But only when time would allow.

For now, all I had to do was sling the Torch over my back, and then I’d be ready to move out along with my friends, all four of whom were close by. Gunny – our support gunner with the All-Equestrian and his riot shotgun secured over his back, his revolver magnum and its ammo belt strapped around his right hind leg, Honor hooked to his front left, all overtop his Stable security armor, carried by him ever since we left One Eighty-one. Ivy was right next to him, garbed in her simple leather rig, her lever action rifle and her more sophisticated 12.7mm SMG hooked up to her armored sides. Sierra was father away, already waiting for us where she sat encased in her power armor and its provided compact minigun and missile launcher. And then there was Raemor, likewise ready and waiting, garbed in his Equestrian Army combat armor and duster, grenade APW and fire axe over his back, .45 pistol around his front left leg.

Each of them was merely waiting for that promised courier. And me – all that remained was the Torch itself. The beautiful blue, black, and grey sniper rifle was laying right at my hooves, my own cutie mark looking back at me. And with a nod of approval, I reached down and took hold of the rifle in my jaws, then swinging my head around and securing it in place over my back, the final piece to my uniform.

And as I observed it, I couldn’t help but cast a little smile at the sight of it… of all of it. It was no concert dress… but I looked good in my outfit either way.

With that, everything was set. Looking back to the entrance to the palace yard, there was still no sign of the military runner. Just to the side, my friends were gathering into a circle, Gunny looking my way in silent question as he joined Sierra and Raemor, Ivy following right behind him. To him, I gave a nod and raised a hoof, letting him know I was ready and about to join them. But it was right when I did that I heard a faint yawn, making my ears perk at the pitch of the voice that spoke it. And with slight surprise, I looked to find that it was indeed Blake that was stirring, rolling slowly back onto his stomach, and looking to the ground with half-lidded eyes fresh from slumber. Right then and there, a slight jolt ran through me as I came to the realization, quickly, that Blake was going to see me fully geared up and ready for battle. Except on top of what was already a familiar sight, he’d be seeing me as a newly enlisted soldier of this city, with my pins and S.E.R.A.F. patch in their respective places on my shoulders and chest. While he had already been aware of my choice to enlist… it had not been something that we had discussed.

But there was no time for me to worry on that matter. His eyes came around to find mine, and though it took a little time, awareness came to him as he looked me over in silence. I didn’t try to hide anything, didn’t try to speak about it. I only let him think what he did as I sighed my acceptance, looking back over my shoulder and… for no particular reason, really… fiddled with the Torch again, readjusting it and making extra sure it was secure. All the while, Blake continued to remain silent… which eventually prompted me to find him again. He only stared, tired… but I knew there was more.

“You should still be sleeping, baby brother.” I gently chided, looking away and pawing once at the ground with a hoof. “It’s early.”

“You’re leaving?”

I expected it at any moment now – protest. He was more than smart enough to know what was what in this situation, but I still expected it. “Yes, I am.” I answered with the same tenderness. “I’m just waiting for somepony to come pick me and the others up. I’m afraid it’s that time, Blake.”

Here’s where it would come up, I was sure of it. It had happened every time we parted ways. If he wasn’t by my side, he regretted it. It was for good reasons, understandable ones – living up to his promise to our father to watch out for me, his desire to stay close to his blood family, his own drive to make positive change, and not just for me but for everypony we held close – all proof of the many good lessons he took from the Stable’s teachings, those that would make him one hell of a stallion someday. Throughout our journey together, nothing had changed in the fact that I was so very proud of my baby brother. And after everything he’d done, that would never change. But now, after so much, came something that was too far out of Blake’s league, something I could not, and would not let him get involved in. And if protest came, I would quell it in a heartbeat, and not just for his safety. I would do so also because, in my eyes, he had truly done so much for me, and more, for all of us… more so than anypony of his age could be expected to undertake. This was the moment, the time for him to acknowledge what he had accomplished, and use that as the reason for him to stand down. And that was not for him to take with shame, but with pride in the knowing that his role in our efforts had helped us achieve results, and more, achieve meaningful victories.

With that, he deserved to grow up with his friends, become a stallion, maybe find a wife and have children, live a peaceful and enriching life. He had given his best to our fight for survival, and thus deserved the best as reward.

“I wish I could be there to help you, Nova…”

Well… not exactly what I had expected, but close enough. It was just one more shred of proof as to how good a pony Blake really was. But it was right when I opened my mouth to reply, speaking my first syllable, that he spoke up to overpower me, saying, “I just feel like I’m doing nothing but getting in the way…”

My eyes went wide, prompt worry overriding all else as I cast him a puzzled frown. “Blake…”

“I can’t help it.” he continued on, glumly as he looked away, his eyes averted to the ground. “If I’m not helping you… I feel useless… and I don’t want to feel that way.”

“Hey…”

Even as I approached, Blake lay his head down on the dirt, keeping his eyes forward. “I’ve felt like that before… and every time, it hurts…… I want to feel like I’m doing good and being helpful… but I don’t… I just feel like I’m no help at all.”

Without consent, I quickly laid myself down next to him. And he didn’t even flinch as I opened up my right wing and set it over him, hugging him to me. “I don’t want to hear any more of that.” I asserted with some sternness. “Because you know that’s not true.”

His ears begun to fold back. “I’m sorry…” he replied, guilty. “I just know that what you’re about to do… I know it’s something I can’t help you with… and I hate it that I can’t.”

With a little sigh of sympathy, I chose to lay my head down too, looking to him as I did so to try and get his eyes on me. “You’re right…” I answered him, very careful. “You can’t come with me on this one, and you know why already. But just because you can’t help me now doesn’t mean, even in the slightest, that you’ve been useless.” And finally, he did look back to me, the two of us laying there together, facing each other eye-to-eye. “You’ve been anything but useless, Blake.” I said, with all the confidence I could muster. “You may not believe it, but you’ve done everything you could have possibly done to help me.”

“You… you mean that?”

Without an ounce of hesitation, I hugged him even tighter, pulled him even closer. Now, I only wished that my carbine wasn’t in the way. But that still didn’t stop me reaching over to lay my head right next to his, bumping my muzzle to his in the process. “I would never lie to you about that, Blake… And I hope that you trust me when I say that.”

Slowly, he nodded against the dirt. “Yeah I… I do…”

“Ever since we left the Stable, I saw great courage and devotion. And not only have you helped us in so many ways, but you’ve willingly given your time and effort to help complete strangers.” I explained, taking advantage of the attention he gave me. “Do you remember when we first started traveling across the wasteland? When all our survivors carried only what they’d stuffed in their pockets or what saddlebags they’d managed to take?” Again, he nodded… and glanced sidelong to me. “You helped carry our supplies so that I could scout out the terrain from the air. And after, when we found Hopeville, you volunteered to help me and my friends scout the roads. And even in the face of incredible danger, you didn’t back down. You stayed with us, pressured me into letting you come along to Proudspire, and when we were there, you comforted Kayla through the toughest choices she had to make as a leader. You remember that don’t you?” Though he didn’t speak up, and though a sad little frown remained, showing his doubts… he nodded again. “I know how much Kayla appreciated you being there for her, and I know that out of everything that little town threw at you, you two became good friends. And it was the same case with Lucan when we found him. You remember him?”

“Yeah…”

“You were there for him when he had nopony else to turn to, you and the rest of your young friends. You helped make sure he felt welcome, and you gave him a friend to be with in Hopeville.” To that, he nodded a reluctant agreement. “Then, after going through a whole other battle in Hopeville, in the aftermath of which you worked in Gracie’s clinic, you still came with me and the others to Buckley. And… even though you’d almost been killed… because you were with us, you were the one that ended up saving Gunny’s life when the Talons invaded.” And here, I made especially sure we looked eye-to-eye. “As frightening as that was for you… and as sorry as I felt about you having to do what you did… Gunny wouldn’t be alive right now if it hadn’t been for you killing that soldier.”

“It was scary…” Blake responded, slow, hushed. “But I’m glad he’s okay… and I’m glad I did what I did.”

“We all are, Blake. And if all of that didn’t show how brave you are, then you fighting with me outside Challenger’s gate definitely did.” I said steadfastly. “You put your own life on the line for our survivors. When you were wounded out there… it was the most terrifying moment of my life… and honestly, it still haunts me. But that, and everything before it, has shown that you’ve played far more than a small part in helping our group through all the trials that this new life has thrown at us.” I definitely had his attention now. But I wasn’t stopping there. “Everything you’ve done, Blake.” I continued. “Even something so little as carrying around supplies – it all adds up. You have done more than enough, and so should have no reason to feel like you’re a burden, or that you’re useless, or anything like that.” And without a moment’s hesitation, I shifted enough to reach up a foreleg and sling it over Blake’s neck, pulling him in for a big hug. “You have been anything but useless, Blake, and I’m so very, very proud of you.”

With him against me, I felt when he hitched just a little, sniffling once lightly. And I couldn’t help but crack a tiny smile, realizing that my words had touched my dear brother. “Really?”

“Really.” I answered him, meeting his eyes once again; oh yes, there was a tear in there. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us, Blake… for me.” I picked up, letting my smile grow. “I love you so much, little brother. And don’t you ever doubt that for a second.” And it was then that Blake snuggled himself up tighter against me, resting his head against my chest… an embrace that I was all too happy to accept. “Your actions are just one of many reasons why I wouldn’t even think of taking back my choice to enlist in this city’s army, Blake.” I reached down, brushing my muzzle along the back of his neck. “Doing this – it lets me do something for you for a change, something that’s probably the most important thing I could ever do for you.”

“And what’s that, big sister?” he asked, remaining in his place against me.

“Fighting for a better future that you can grow up in and live a peaceful life in.” came my proud answer. “That kind of future is what you deserve, Blake. And if going off to this war and doing my part to fight in it can help me give that to you… then that’s my new mission.”

After a little bit longer, Blake pulled away and situated himself to look back at me. There was the remnants of a smile of his own on his face. But I knew what he was thinking now – the same thing that had always been occupying his thoughts to some degree or another. “I still wish you didn’t need to go out there.” he muttered. “I don’t want you to get hurt anymore… because you’ve been through a lot, too.”

Truthfully… I was touched by his words. But still, “Knowing that you’ll be able to grow up makes all of it worth it, Blake.” And I shifted to reach a forehoof up to touch his right cheek. “I want to be able to give you something from all this Blake, something greater than the life we’ve led so far, something greater than myself… something worthy of you. And I can think of nothing better than life itself, life in which you have freedom from fear, life in which you have beautiful things to look forward to. That’s what I want for you… because you have so much to be and so much to do. I want you to be able to do the things you want to do, whatever those dreams might be. And I want to be able to call that something that I won for you by fighting those who would take that away from you.”

Through all of my talk, he kept his eyes on me. He listened, didn’t flinch, didn’t object. I knew he took my words to heart. But right after we went silent again, his eyes abruptly looked away and off to his right… and I heard hoofsteps in the near distance, drawing me in to follow where Blake looked. I met Gunny’s eyes from afar, the big unicorn looking to me as, just beyond him, Raemor and Ivy closed the distance between two Challenger soldiers…

Our escorts were here.

Together, Blake and I looked to one another one more time. And before I could, Blake took the opportunity to speak. “Can I ask you for one more thing, Nova?”

After a moment, I nodded. “What’s that, Blake?”

“You said that you wanted me to grow up in peace…” he answered with strength, to which I nodded. “Well… I want you to be able to see me grow up, Nova. So…… just be careful out there, okay?”

One more time, I pulled him in for a hug, resting my head over his as he returned to his place against my chest. And after a short little sigh, I let myself smile just a little bit more. “Don’t worry Blake,” I assured confidently, shifting to plant a kiss on his neck. “I’ll be back before you know it.” And closing my eyes, I let myself repeat my words. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

A promise… and a prayer.

*** *** ***

“That the last batch?”

“This is it… for now at least.” Up ahead, an earth pony stallion was clad in the green camo S.E.R.A.F. combat armor, wielding a dual shotgun saddle, to whom one of the runner’s guiding us through Challenger’s streets was calling to as we approached the open gate leading to the city’s military district. “Way I hear it, the Lieutenant Colonel rallied up a couple small groups of civvies who signed on last minute.” the soldier up front and left of us continued as we approached. “But this group here is from the outside, one of the few to make it through to us.”

“Word’s already going around the camps about them.” the gate guard hollered back. “They’re going to save lives out there, especially those two fliers there. Never thought we’d have pegasus ponies on our side.”

And the soldier – he looked over his shoulder right to me, then to Sierra, who walked by my right side, and whose visor turned to me. “Neither did I.” he said, casting us both a smile before facing front, both he and the second soldier in our company trotting ahead to close their distance to the gate. “Is Ajax still meeting with the captains?”

“Yeah, they’re all still in there.” the earth guard answered him with a nod. “But he said to let them in anyway. He wants to get them on the field asap.”

“Alright then.” And as we came up to the gate, our two escorts turned and faced us, the second soldier ushering us through with a nod and small smile. “Head on in, wastelanders. The LC’s ready for you, so when you find the tent, just go on in.”

“Which way?” Gunny questioned, coming into my sight at my left side.

“The command tent’s dark green, big, marked by a white star on the front flap.” came the runner’s explanation. “Just follow the trail through the shacks, turn left at the fork, and you’ll find it on the left side in a dirt clearing.”

“There’s a twenty mil parked outside, too.” the first soldier added quickly. “You’ll know it when you see it.”

“Thank you.” I spoke out as Gunny nodded his understanding.

“Sure. And thank you for coming to serve with us.” he replied directly to me, raising his hoof to his brow in a quick salute. “All of you. Thanks. And good luck out there.” And with that, we were on our way through into Challenger’s military district.

Right away, there was a distinct change in not only the way this district looked in comparison with the rest of the city, but also in the atmosphere… like the gate was some kind of barrier between two worlds. Even in the early hour, things were very busy here, fast-paced, yet still crisp and organized. S.E.R.A.F. soldiers were crossing the street ahead of us regularly, trotting to and fro as they conducted their various errands. Flanking the road on both sides, immediately past the gateway, were four long, large metal shacks, two on each side of the trail. The front doors on all of them were open, and within each I could see the shining presence of candle fire. Beyond those shacks, I caught a glimpse of dirt clearings, home to a number of military supply crates and metal shipping containers, perhaps supplies for the city’s fourth battalion waiting to be allocated. Further down the road, we beheld a large plot of land to the left that was home to one massive tent. Dozens of tables were set up underneath it, atop all of which was a variety of disassembled weapons bathed in lantern-light. Mixed in with the technicians working on cleaning and maintaining those weapons were several couriers, carrying in hooflockers and ammo boxes to store there, while others still hauled out finished weapons and brought them further into the district. On the right side of the road was another yard sealed by an old chain fence, beyond which were more shipping crates; two twenty millimeter flak guns were sitting unattended amidst the stockpile there.

Further down the road we went, seeing next the district’s personal clinic. It was a small shack of metal and wood and cloth, but the field hospital was definitely seeing use this morning, as I saw through open windows three different army medics checking over the wounded from yesterday’s skirmishes… and perhaps more than that, the missile strikes themselves. The barracks complex was nearby the hospital, a much larger, much broader four-story sheet-metal house. But unlike the hospital itself and the multitude of smaller tents, shacks, and supply yards that made the majority of what we saw thus far, this building was largely empty, devoid of light, of voices; even the double doors were shut.

After passing by a pair of training yards, one devoted to physical training, the other to hoof-to-hoof combat, we arrived at the fork mentioned by the gate guards. Gunny took the lead at the sharp turn to the left, and upon rounding the corner past one two-story shack, we arrived at what I felt had to be the busiest section of the district. Nothing less than organized chaos, there was a whole crowd of soldiers in the streets, yet not one of them was staying in one place. Every one of them out here had a task and a destination. Some carried weapons – heavy machineguns and their tripods, heavy ammo including missiles, twenty caliber rounds on ammo belts, and what I recognized to be balefire eggs. And there were other weapons still that I’d never seen before, the most prominent being what looked like a minigun barring the weapon’s single barrel and what looked to be some kind of glowing battery pack. Those who weren’t charged with weapons were hoisting ammo boxes and duffle bags, and one team of four even pulled a two-wheeled cart loaded to the brim with assorted supplies. There was a constant flow here, both of soldiers heading deeper into the district with their gear, and of others returning with their own items. This wasn’t the case just here either, but everywhere I could see past the tents and shacks. And I had no doubt that Ajax’s entire battalion, or close to it, was out here, gearing up for the up-and-coming march to Ashton.

Though it took a bit longer in the congesting traffic, we eventually found our own destination, which Gunny called back to us and pointed for the rest of us to see. Sure enough, the one tent that stuck out among the others was that which was emblazoned with an aged white star against the dark green fabric on the entrance flap. It was the biggest as well, easily four times longer than, and twice as wide as, the more square-shaped tents along the road. And past the constantly opening and closing gaps in the crowd, I could see the aforementioned flak gun right outside, the barrel facing skyward on its modified housing, the crew ever watchful. With Gunny pushing through the crowd for the rest of us, we were able to follow him to a clearing just outside the command tent. I emerged from the bustle right behind him, the both of us turning around just as Sierra came through. Ivy was right behind her, stumbling past a hastily-moving soldier that crossed her path before Raemor came in smoothly behind her to join our circle.

“This is the place, alright.” Gunny commented, looking over his shoulder to the white star waiting for us. Then, facing front again, “We all ready?”

“I’ve been ready.” Sierra remarked, her helmet trying to muffle her voice. “It will be gratifying to me to serve Challenger’s cause.”

“I agree.” Raemor added promptly. “At this point, it’s among the most worthy and the most meaningful of missions.”

“Before I came to Hopeville, I never really thought about what this place was trying to offer me, and all those who came here looking for a place to call their own.” Ivy chimed in, a littler quieter. “Now that I’ve seen the light though… yeah, I’m definitely ready.”

“What they’re trying to make here, and what they’re trying to build for this world… that’s a very good reason to pay them back.” I said, heartened by my companions’ combined resolve. “So let’s get in there and see what needs to be done.”

“Right then.” With that, Gunny about-faced and made his way up to the entrance flap. And with one final look behind him to us, watching as Sierra and I followed him up, he pushed his way through and entered. With a quick gesture, Sierra motioned for me to go in next, and ducking my head, I pushed the flap and stepped inside.

As the flap brushed against my back, I looked back up to find myself entering a chamber bathed in the combined light of seven lanterns. Six were placed on separate tables along the tent’s walls, three to each side. All of them illuminated a vast array of equipment, ham radios and their batteries and speakers, computer terminals with their own power units tracking communication frequencies. Every terminal, every radio – they were each attended by their own operators, several of whom were speaking into their radio’s microphone to reply to whoever was on the other end. It made for a jumble of voices, words from which I could only pick out if I focused my hearing on one operator at a time. But it was the very center of the tent that I found myself drawn to. A much larger table was home to a large paper map, smoothed out to cover the whole of the table. A whole mess of miniature flags on tiny sticks, dark green, bright red, and black in their colors, dotted the map all over in a tri-color canvas. And around the table, congregating together and conversing, five ponies who, right away, I knew were officers. The first, because I had met him already – the Lieutenant Colonel himself, garbed in his black kevlar vest and dark green duster. Beside him, a stout light grey unicorn stallion with a darker grey mane, garbed in a simple leather overcoat and a dark green beret, pinned to which was an emblem in the shape of a five-pointed leaf, like Ajax’s, except gold instead of silver. Then, on the opposite side of the table, two earth stallions and one unicorn mare, all of whom wore dark red berets contrasting with the sole green one. I couldn’t see any pins on their hats or combat armor, but I knew that they were higher up on the chain of command somewhere. And one of them… I felt like I’d seen him before – the stallion closest to me, white with a jet black mane under his beret… but I couldn’t quite place it.

But just shortly after being able to fully take in the sight of the command center, during which time my friends had all joined me inside, Ajax himself looked my way, his firm stare causing me to stand straight, rigid at attention. One by one, his fellow officers turned to find us as well, halting their discussion, before the Lieutenant Colonel spoke up. “Just the group I was hoping to see. You’re right on time.” Without pause, he stepped around the grey unicorn and came to us directly. And together, all of us remained silent, the better to eliminate the risk of interrupting our now superior officer. “Real quick, I want to make introductions, a very brief tour of Challenger’s chain of command.” he said, turning back around and promptly gesturing a hoof first to the grey unicorn. “Fourth Battalion’s second in command is Major Dhatri. Any orders you’ll get in the field will be relayed to your company commander from him.” And then he motioned to the three others. “These are the company commanders.” came his quick explanation, looking first to the white earth stallion. “This is Captain Royce, first company. Behind him, Captain Ira – she’s second, and then Captain Knight for third company.” Then he looked back to us. “All five of you will fall in with first company. You’ll be taking orders from Royce directly, who I believe you met before in Hopeville a couple weeks back.” With a light start, I finally remembered that stallion, the one who delivered our supply caravan and helped us fight off the Legion’s first assault against us back home. And Royce himself, he nodded as he too recalled our first meet. “I did this intentionally, knowing you’d been in contact before.” Ajax explained. “I think taking orders from a familiar face would give a bit of an edge for you out in the field… So, now that you know the hierarchy, it’s time to get to work, soldiers.” And nodding to us, he said, “I’ll warn you all now – coming into the S.E.R.A.F. with the way things are now, your initiation is going to be lightning fast. You won’t have much time to acclimate yourselves before you’re thrown into the thick of things. As such, consider my first assignments your orientation.” We all kept quiet as he spoke, only watching. And I followed him as he looked right to me again. “You and you,” he said, first to me, then to my right where Sierra stood beside me. “you two are my V.I.Ps. I want you both to stay here with me so I can point out where I need you two to fly first. And I’ll be giving you some essentials for the trip as well.” Then he looked over me, back to the others. “The rest of you – I want you three to head back outside and proceed to your designated company area. As you might’ve noticed, we’re rallying troops and supplies, and sending them to their proper locations. When you get back outside, turn left and head deeper into the district. You’ll be heading to the Proving Grounds, the largest firing range in the district where you’ll be going through a quick run-through of unit tactics, and where you’ll also receive some additional gear for your upcoming missions. You’ll find signs out there that will show you the way to where you’ll need to go.”

“Yes sir.” Gunny voiced.

“Alright. Any questions?” With everything being very straightforward, none of us replied. “Outstanding. You three are dismissed. My two pegasi, come with me.”

As much as I disliked it, we had no time to speak goodbyes. I only looked over my shoulder to meet the eyes of each of my companions, exchanging only a silent message of farewell, and to take care, before Gunny led Ivy and Raemor back outside. And when the tent flap closed once more, separating us, I finally looked ahead to the command table. The Lieutenant Colonel was already back in his spot, and Sierra was moving up to join the circle of commanders. So, with a light lunge, I pushed myself into a trot to catch up, and stepped up beside my power-armored friend to face the regional map together. “Before we begin, ladies, I want to remind you how much of a blessing it is to have you two here.” Ajax spoke, looking between us. “Challenger has the numbers, the equipment, the skill, but lacks an air force altogether, and it’s our one true shortcoming going up against the Legion. Now that you’ve helped to fix that, at least in small part, we have a whole new element to work with, a very highly valuable element. So once again, thank you.”

“Of course, Lieutenant Colonel.” Sierra’s slightly muffled voice replied through her helmet.

“Just tell us where to go, and we’ll do our best.” I encouraged after, to which Ajax focused back on his map, his officers following suit.

“The situation is this.” he began. “As of two days ago, the Talon Legion successfully secured the whole northern half of the region with their cruise missiles, as marked by the black flags.” And to visualize his words, he swept a hoof over the great swath of little black banners pinned to the map; it was a very unnerving display, seeing the whole region shrunken down to this miniature model. “While we didn’t have many troops out there at the time, those who were are all assumed to have been killed in action, or captured by the enemy. And it’s this that brings me to a point of interest.” As he explained, he leaned forward to get a better angle on his map. “Despite the invasion, we’ve managed to keep a military presence in Talon territory. And we’ve received reports that the Legion is using key locations to intercept both civilian traffic and possible military reinforcements coming in from the northlands. These sites make a net for any and all that approach, and as far as we know, they’ve taken no prisoners.”

“Where are these traps, sir? “ Sierra asked.

“Deep in the occupied region.” Ajax responded, reaching a hoof out to the southern border of the mass of black flags. “The front of the Talon zone here shows where ground patrols and aerial scouts have passed through. While not heavily populated, we know that the Legion is keeping eyes on that front at all times, safeguarding its outposts, keeping avenues for their own fresh troops to move through without incident.” Then he moved his hoof back, tracing the northern border. “Out here is where the brunt of their forces in this area are located. And it’s where they’ve set their network.”

“Hopeville makes the northwest corner of this trap.” Major Dhatri suddenly explained. “From there, they use the old highway itself, all the way down to where it connects with Plainwell. After that, it’s Marefax, so that they can avoid running into Buckley Air Force Base. And then, their trap extends east out to the old White Mane Dairy Farm, and an old military bunker system in the far northwest corner here. Those four locations are their primary outposts on the northern edge of the region, and they make the four pillars of the blockade they’ve set against us.”

“What can we do about that… um, sir?” I ventured, curious… but also very uncertain… doubtful. “With how well they’re dug in… I don’t see how we can even get close to those locations.”

But in response, the Lieutenant Colonel raised a hoof, silencing me. “One step at a time.” he replied. “It’ll be a tough slog, but we can acquire the means to give ourselves a fighting chance when we turn our attention to the south. Have a look.” With his hoof, he reached over the map, over the black flags, and the dark green marking Challenger’s presence, then touching the tip of one of the red flags. “Here. While the Talons occupy the north, the Black Blood Raiders have taken over landmarks to the south and to the east of the city. Despite the Talons’ military strength, this is the most pressing issue we face. And there are two reasons why.” Listening intently, I studied over the positioning of the flags on the table, taking note of the names inked onto the aged paper. “The first reason is because they’re presence in this part of the region has cut the city off from Ashton, which has kept us from linking up with our base of operations outside the city limits. And additionally, raids on the HQ and on our own walls here are keeping us from gaining any ground in this sector.”

“We’ve only been able to hold them from two points.” Major Dhatri added at the break, hovering a forehoof over one of the green flags on the map. “We’ve kept an outpost running in the Moonstone Peaks, here, using it to intercept any hostiles coming from the old farms farther east. And we’ve got another camp built in a collection of ruined greenhouses to the south, keeping watch for enemy mobilization in Searchlight and running search and destroy ops against any patrols we can find. Between those two positions, and the Brightheart Farmstead to the northwest covering our flanks, we’ve managed to establish a triangle around Challenger to keep the enemy from throwing too much at us at once. But that’s all the territory we have left outside Ashton.”

“The soldiers still out there there do a good enough job catching enemy squads on the move, shooting down vertibcks, sabotaging supply dumps.” Captain Royce put in. “It isn’t enough to keep every enemy force out of what turf we have left beyond the city walls, but it definitely takes some of the pressure off of us while we rally up our last battalion.”

“Yes. And that issue is what brings me to the second reason as to why the raiders are our new favorite ponies.” the LC picked up. “They’ve occupied an Old World ruin that may hold the key to making a push against the Legion outside of Ashton.”

“What’s that, sir?” Sierra questioned.

But I already saw. “The Wheaton Armory.”

“That’s right.” Dhatri voiced, both he and Ajax nodding. “With how secure and fortified Old World military installations were, and generally still are, we jumped at the opportunity to secure it for ourselves when Challenger was still young, and restore it so that we could use it as it had been used way back when.”

“That armory houses Challenger’s largest weapon cache, an emergency supply that we could fall back on in times of need.” Ajax confirmed for us. “And while it has everything from small arms to heavy weapons inside, what I’m interested in is the stockpile of balefire eggs stored in the secure vault on the bottom floor of the armory.” Balefire eggs…… as much as I disliked them… there was no denying how useful and how potent they’d be in this situation; if anything could make a damn good reason to secure that armory, it was those eggs “There aren’t as many of them as I’d like there to be, but what the city managed to scavenge and buy over the years definitely amounts to enough for us to provide an edge for ourselves when we make a push into Legion turf.”

“How did the raiders take it over?” I asked… curious and worried simultaneously.

“According to survivor reports… they came at the garrison there with a force of over two hundred.” came his response, carried on a slightly resentful tone. “The sheer numbers that the raiders sent against it was enough to overwhelm them… It happened just a day before the Legion’s missile strikes.” That sort of opposition – it sounded very familiar. Back in Hopeville, long ago, they’d invaded the town with a force of about that many, if not more. But it seemed that Challenger did not have the ponypower that we had when we’d fought them; this was worrisome news.

“But if the raiders have occupied this armory, it might be compromised.” Sierra voiced concernedly, pausing as she looked among the assembly. “Correct?”

“Maybe to an extent.” Ajax responded, nodding with a little hesitance. “But definitely not in regards to the weapons we need. When the time comes that we get there, and if we take it back, then you’ll see why I’m so confident.”

“But focusing back on your task, the armory is just a large piece in a bigger picture.” Dhatri added quickly.

And Ajax nodded after. “Yes. This is where you two come in.” he said, drawing my focus back on him. “The whole battalion, and additional task forces, are gearing up to drive the raiders back to Ashton where they came from, a three-pronged maneuver that will give us a lot back in the shortest amount of time. But while preparations are being finished, I need the two of you to head east and survey the Black Blood’s Base Post, right here.” And tapping his hoof on the map, I found the location beneath the red flag there. “Runners from the Moonstone Peaks have been giving me more and more reports of increased troop movements out in the region around that location. Couple that with a sharp increase in the number of raider parties trying to chip away at that outpost, and I have all the reason I need to believe that they’re massing troops and ordnance for a push into our territory. With all that being said, I want the both of you to take over advance scouting for that outpost while they hold the line, and find out what those scumbags are up to.”

“Yes, sir.” Sierra responded as I nodded.

“Remember, I want eyes only out there.” he said sternly, looking between us. “Stay up high, move fast and quiet, get in, look, and get out, quick. This is only reconnaissance, so I don’t want you two picking any fights. If things get hairy out there, retreat and get back to safety. I’m going to need the both of you for far more than just this, so come back alive and unharmed. Understand?”

And together we replied with, “Yes, sir.”

With that said, he gave us a nod. “Alright then. I’ll be waiting for your report when you get back.” And he turned his focus back to his map, his officers doing the same. “You’re both dismissed.”

And turning together, Sierra and I made our way back out, ready to take to the air on our first mission in Challenger’s army.

*** *** ***

“Not much farther now.”

The warning came suddenly out of the lengthy silence, just before my wingmate adjusted her altitude to rise up and level out by my right side. Tracing along the great expanse of the earth far below, I found myself once again taking in the sight of the black smoke trail bridging the surface to the clouds above. We’d spotted it first just over two hours into our anticipated three-hour flight, the first unique anomaly emerging in the wake of over a dozen abandoned battle sites along our flight path. Sure enough, the whole region east of Challenger was its own warzone, the land marred with a spaced canvas of scars – blast craters and black scorch marks… bodies, enemy and ally alike, and the mangled wreckage of wagons and mobile guns too. Neither of us knew any of the specifics of the enemy presence out here, or the number of skirmishes that took place. But even though it’d been quiet throughout our flight, with only the occasional allied or enemy patrol breaking up that monotony, we both knew that with the farther away we flew from Challenger, the more dangerous the area became, even with all of its scars left over from those battles we’d not been witness to. And the closer we got, the both of us paying frequent visits to our pipbucks’ world maps along the way, the more closely we held to ourselves that caution.

That was the case now more than ever as we finally came to realize the source of that smoke trail. It was finally confirmed for us, as from our vantage point just below the cloud ceiling, we could see the full expanse of the tightly packed array of tents and shacks amidst scattered Old World buildings that made yet another farm of the old Equestrian southeast. We were very high up, our best measure to keep ourselves hidden from the eyes of the enemy until we were in position, but I knew the farm when I saw it. I could see an intact two-story house, the actual farmhouse, a little cube on the ground below. With it, a pair of grain silos were off to the northeast, like tiny needles sticking out of the dirt. And then there was one large barn positioned to the west of the house, with two smaller storehouses about half the size of the barn laying side by side to the south. From what I could tell from up here, everything looked to be in relatively good shape. And the Black Blood had wasted no time in making a very solid and very defensible position out here. But more than that – there was a lot of activity around it, lots and lots of little specs surrounding the buildings. And that’s what we needed to get a better look at.

“Remember the plan?”

Looking right, I met Sierra’s visor at her question, giving a single nod. “We’re going to have a good chunk of ground to cover on hoof once we get down there.” I answered… a little nervous as I did, something I couldn’t help to prevent. “Lot of room to run into patrols, especially if we’re seen on our way down.”

“I know.” Sierra responded, the two of us beginning to slow our airspeed as we prepared to split up. “Right now, let’s just focus on making it there. Keep your eyes on the surface the whole way down, watch for any signs of raiders on patrol. And most important, stay close to me. You’ve got the eyes with your sniper rifle, but I have the means to keep you protected if we come across any danger.” To that I nodded, the both of us gradually pulling ourselves back, slowing, and eventually falling into a hover. “Once we get to ground, we get as close as possible and learn whatever we can learn about this outpost. Then we leave quick and quiet, no distractions, no fighting, just like Ajax said.”

Blinking, taking in a breath, letting it out slow, I pursed my lips and nodded one more time. “Yeah.” I said, gathering up my focus, pushing away my worries. “Okay… I’m ready when you are.”

“Then let’s go.” And after a pause, the both of us waiting with locked gazes, she gave a single nod before her metal-clad wings snapped shut. And only a second after she dropped away, I followed suit, pulling my wings closed with a quick, sharp movement, entering an instant freefall. The air closed in around me, the cold wrapping me up, the wind whistling in a sustained low tone as I righted myself into a nosedive. Sierra was just a few yards ahead, and a couple of quick wingbeats closed that distance so we were back together side-by-side. Then, it was down to keeping watch on the surface as it rapidly approached us. But despite my focus on our potential landing zone, spotless as we drew closer, I couldn’t ignore the little nagging feeling in the back of my head, a pesky little wish that, for just a moment, I’d taken back my choice to enlist in Challenger’s army. Only here, only now, could I have thought of that regret. Because in diving through the air like this, just letting myself fall…… I felt that if the circumstances weren’t as they were… I would’ve actually found something rather meditative about this plunge.

I knew I would’ve.

As it was, I lightly chided myself to get my head back in the mission. No more than perhaps a minute passed us by before we were closing in on the surface. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sierra as she shifted in the air, letting her wings come out partially as she prepared to right her course. I did the same, slow, careful, drawing my wings out and extending them about half full. “Okay, let’s go in at an angle.” Sierra spoke through her helmet, her muffled voice battling with the rushing wind. “We have plenty of distance between us and the outpost, so let’s ease into the landing.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Sierra.”

At my word, she begun to pull up, easing out of her dive. And again, I followed her move, slowly fanning out my wings wider, leveling out smooth and easy. Then we guided ourselves down the rest of the way to the surface at an easy angle, coming down on an even patch of land. Soon as my hooves touched the dirt, I was on the alert. A quick sweep all around – we were all clear at the moment, thanks solely to our distance from the outpost. Still, we were deep in enemy territory, and I knew we couldn’t rely on that fact.

“Thankfully this terrain is rather smooth.” Trotting up to my side, Sierra was looking eastward toward our destination. Even from here, I could see the structures of the raider’s base post. “We may not have to get as close as I thought…… Let’s move up a little, and then we can get set up.”

“After you.”

Without a word Sierra headed out, setting herself into a steady trot. Even with her armor, her hooves stepped rather quietly on the ground, heavier, but still quite muffled, perfect for our advance. Like her, I kept my head turning and eyes searching, left, then right, over the shoulder, then facing front again, watching every angle I could to make sure the serenity we’d been graced with wasn’t about to be compromised. But the further in we moved, the more I came to believe that the raiders in this area were keeping themselves tucked away in that outpost. If that were the case, it might’ve served as a tactical choice, the better to keep the position fortified with as many soldiers as possible. But with that, it added to my initial suspicion that they were hiding something important in there.

Sure enough, the rest of the way to a closer viewpoint was perfectly clear. And with that little blessing on our side, Sierra finally stopped, looking over her left shoulder to signal me to do the same. “Okay. Set up here, and let’s look and see what those raiders are up to.” On her command, she hunkered down and settled herself onto her belly, going prone. And me, I craned my head around and bit down on the stock of Blue Fire’s Torch, pulling it free of its clamps on my back and bringing it forward before laying myself down by Sierra’s left side. “Hopefully this will do for you, Nova.” Sierra commented as I reached forward, unfolding the legs of my rifle’s bipod. “I just don’t want to chance going much closer than this.”

“This is fine.” I assured, securing the bipod and digging into the ground to set up. “Barring the buildings, I’ve should have a perfectly clear view. If there’s something important there, I’ll find it.”

“Okay.” Nodding, Sierra looked ahead again, then to the right, keeping watch. “Whenever you’re ready, then. I’ll keep watch.”

With one final shove, I dug my rifle’s bipod solidly into the ground. Then, I lined myself up to the ourpost, bringing the Torch up tight against my shoulder. And taking hold of the firing bit, I brought my eye up to the scope, and focused in on the sight I found. As I’d thought, I had a very good view of the outpost from this location, even from this distance. And without the land to block any part of the picture, I could look at any part of the expansive enemy base. Starting in the center, I settled my scope on the sight of a convoy of restored Old World wagons, a train of five lined up just in front of the barn. It was swarming with activity, raiders working together to unload large wooden crates, each of them disappearing behind the wagons en route to the barn. Around those wagons alone were a few dozen troops, easily three or four, all clad in that red and black armoring that defined their faction. I kept my scope on each wagon individually for a few seconds a piece, slowly making my way left. Across a gap between the barn and the two silos was where the larger bulk of the camp’s old ratty tents had been placed, nothing unusual to see there.

Then I looked over the silos. The both of them were rather well-preserved, with only the occasional missing tile in their shells. Atop that, they were both, by and large, left alone. The only exception were the sentries using the balconies at their tops to watch for intruders. None were looking our way, but the sentinels up there were packing some serious rifles, definitely military grade, and looking much better than the weapons I remembered seeing from past encounters with this group. With them… a sickening reminder of the kind of ponies we were dealing with, taking shape as the display made by seven corpses hanging from their necks by chains tied to the silo balconies, four on the right silo, and three on the left. The silos themselves seemed to make the north edge of the outpost’s perimeter. Nothing but a few stray crates and a couple of metal barricades lay nearby. “Everything alright, Sierra?” I ventured, guiding my scope back the other way.

“We’re okay for now.” came her reply, an answer I greatly appreciated as I passed over the wagon train again. “I’ll let you know if that changes. Just be ready to move quickly.”

“Okay.” Then I paused, checking out a cluster of activity by the southwest corner of the barn. A whole mess of raiders were gathered there, making one tightly packed circle. It was definitely an assembly, a debriefing, and while not threatening, it did serve to reinforce the Lieutenant Colonel’s suspicions, even if just slightly. There was definitely a high concentration of ponypower here. Between this assembly and the wagon train, there had to have been close to seventy or eighty raiders there altogether, and that wasn’t including any occupying the farmhouse, the silo sentries, or those outside the two storage houses on the southernmost part of the property. Past another cluster of old tents and spaced wooden shacks, there was a smaller group of raiders collected out by the two facilities’ entrances. They were split into two teams, both of them occupied with their own… “Uh oh.”

“What’s the matter?”

I kept my scope leveled on those two teams, taking a closer look at the mobile gun units that they were making modifications to. “They’ve got some mobile guns with them.” Indeed, I recognized the long tubes of a tri-barrel missile launcher, protected by welded iron plates and mounted onto an old iron housing, in turn attached to four wheels. Crude, ugly, but still an adequate delivery system to bring heavy weapons into a firefight, and making more than sufficient infantry support. Additionally, with the added plating jutting out from the sides of each of the two units I saw, I recognized how the gun crews could remain protected from direct attack while still guiding their guns through the battlefield. But it was then, as I continued looking those weapons over, that I managed to get a better look at the second gun, the one farther back. It was longer, more evenly proportioned than the first. But the weapon that occupied the unit’s frame was much larger than the missile launcher, with a single long, wide tube pointed at an upward angle from the housing that supported it. I recognized the shape of the weapon, its components… because I’d seen it in action before. “They’ve got a balefire egg launcher out there, Sierra.” I reported, slightly adjusting my scope to draw along the front of the storehouses. “Out by those two warehouses there.”

“What other reason would they have one of those other than that they’re preparing for an attack?”

And I nodded slightly. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” As I watched, there was a spaced but constant flow of raiders moving in and out of those depots; it drew my thoughts to another conclusion. “And who knows how many more of those guns they might have tucked away in those buildings… They’re definitely gearing up to make a move… and my guess is that a lot of that equipment wasn’t there before.”

But there was something else by those warehouses…

“Hey Nova…”

Yes, there was something there… there behind the farthest warehouse, just tall enough to stand above the slanted rooftop. Thin, long pieces of blackened metal… three… six… two sets of three attached to a single metal pipe that disappeared behind the depots. “Goddesses.” I recognized the sight of rotors, belonging to a grounded vertibuck; the Black Blood had their own aerial asset with them here.

“Nova…” Sierra spoke with an urgency that abruptly yanked my attention away from my scope. “We’re being watched…”

I’d seen all I needed to see.

Quick as I could, I reached forward and retracted my bipod, releasing the firing bit and grabbing the Torch by the stock. All the while, my eyes darted along the eastern horizon, searching for what brought Sierra’s warning. But it was only when I looked north, reaching around to secure my rifle to its place over my back, that I caught a blemish on the smooth terrain. That was where Sierra was looking, to a trio of ponies stopped about three hundred yards away; they either recognized us, or were about to. “Damn it.” With a shove, I forced myself back up to my hooves, settling back on all fours and stepping back to close ranks with my companion.

“I think they know we’re not supposed to be here.”

Then, in a sudden violent hiss, a bullet slashed right over us, right before three more struck the ground right in front of our faces in rapid succession, and a fifth deflected violently off Sierra’s armored body. I ducked down quick, crouching low with a jolt just as two more rounds whizzed by just off to my left. “I’ve seen what I need to see!” Another trio of rounds struck harshly against Sierra’s power armor, three more still striking dangerously close around us. “Let’s get out of here!”

But as I turned back around, already extending my wings to make ready, I found her just as she reared herself up on her hind legs, pulsing her wings to keep her upright, before a missile let loose with a mighty roar from her heavy battle saddle. It sailed east, right toward the raider post, arcing left to line itself up with the grain silos just as a bright red fireball shot up into the air from the left-side tower. “Signal flare! Move now!” She didn’t even wait for the impact. Looking to her again, I saw her on all fours once more, turning herself around. And as soon as the missile detonated, she was airborne, wings beating powerfully to carry her armor’s weight with her. “Come on, Nova! Stay low and move quickly!”

With a grunt, I threw myself forward, catching the air, rising up and following right on Sierra’s tail. “Are you alright?!”

“Just fly!!” Even then, another round shot by, a second one following right after that passed just below me. “And keep dodging! Don’t give them a target!”

She followed her own advice, banking hard left as two more bullets slashed past us. They drove me to tilt almost full sideways and turn, moving right, opposite of Sierra as she righted herself. Then, almost in unison, we drew back together, crossing over each other as more rounds flew by. I followed my own pattern, keeping left and putting more space between us as we pushed ourselves forward for all our worth. Out of the corner of my eye I saw as she climbed up higher, falling behind me as she did so. I peeled right again in response, keeping myself lower, and jerking with alarm as one more round struck Sierra’s armor with surprising strength, almost directly above me.

But that… that, and after two more rounds came and went, far too wide… I didn’t hear anything else, no more gunfire, no more bullets racing by. And a quick look over my shoulder – we’d put a lot of distance between us and the outpost in a big hurry… definitely enough to be out of effective range.

“Hey!” I looked up, then left, where I found Sierra as she leveled out at my altitude a short distance away. “I think we’re safe…”

“If anything, they’ve only chosen to stop pursuing us.” Sierra retorted. “You saw that flare they launched… if there were patrols in range they’ll be on the lookout for us. We have to keep moving…” But suddenly, she cut herself off with a grunt, and she dropped sharply when she missed a wingbeat. But before I could even react with more than a gasp, she managed to catch herself with professional swiftness, quickly stabilizing herself and returning to a smooth flight posture.

“Sierra what’s wrong??” I immediately set out to looking her over as I dropped altitude to rejoin her… But I found no indication that she’d been wounded in our very brief but very dangerous retreat. “Are you wounded??”

She only shook her head at me. “We need to get back to Challenger… ah… put some more distance between us and that outpost…”

But that little grunt – that was all the evidence I needed to confirm my worries. “Sierra you’re hit…” I couldn’t see where – her armor wasn’t any more dinged and dented than it already was – but I knew she’d taken a bullet.

“It’s nothing.” she insisted, firm, stubborn. “Besides… there’s no shelter to hide in… and until we at least cross into Challenger’s territory… we have to assume we’re being followed.” I couldn’t keep myself from frowning as I looked at her. But she didn’t make any effort to return the look. Instead, even though I didn’t speak, she shook her head again, keeping her eyes forward toward the open sky. “Just… just keep flying, Nova… We need to get back to Challenger… quick as we can.” Only then did she finally look back to me, that visor concealing whatever pain she might’ve felt from me. “This isn’t my first time.”

Though hesitant, I turned away without a word and faced the open western sky ahead of us. I did as she asked only for the logic behind her concerns of pursuit. We did need to put more space between us and the Black Blood’s proverbial hot zone. But I wouldn’t be keeping my eyes off her, either way. The slightest sign of danger to her ability to fly, and I’d make sure to land us, no matter how far from Challenger we might be.

*** *** ***

Enough was enough.

Sierra was slowing down, falling behind… just like my gut said she would.

We’d kept up a rather rigorous pace since the raiders had chased us off, as I was sure she wanted. It had to have been about a half hour, maybe a little more, into our flight back to Challenger, and it was easily past midday now. But with increasingly steady progression, Sierra was getting more and more sluggish, to the point where I was having to slow to an almost casual speed. “Okay, this has gone too far, Sierra.” I’d been watching her the whole way, and I knew that while a more critical wound would have grounded her long ago, I also knew that whatever injury she’d taken back at the outpost had to be treated before it became a real problem. “We need to land, Sierra, at least long enough to get you to drink a healing potion. Though, a little time to rest your wings wouldn’t be such a bad idea, either.”

“Okay, I… I won’t argue anymore.” came her response, her words laced with fatigue; at least she had good common sense on her side to balance that stubbornness she showed me earlier. “I’ve actually… had my eyes on a spot, out to the northwest from here… Do you see it? We’re close already.”

Eager to land so as to treat Sierra’s injury, I snapped my eyes back to the ground below, studying over that blank dusty canvas again. I followed her direction, tracking along the ground due northwest, scanning left and right to search for any signs of blemishes against the otherwise monotonous brown. But sure enough, just a few seconds later, and I found the site where Sierra had proposed to land. It took up a narrow but long portion of the land altogether, culminating in a multitude of iron boxes – Old World wagons. With the two of us flying relatively low to the ground, between three and four hundred yards up, I had a good clear view of the area. From this vantage point I could see ten identifiable vehicles in total, ranging in overall size and shape. And from here I could also see the scattered mess of wreckage strewn about each of them – boxes, metal crates, boards, plates, shrapnel... so much debris.

“Looks like a sacked caravan.” Sierra commented through my initial observation, drawing my attention back to her. “I think we can use those wagons… they should be enough to hide us just in case there’s enemy soldiers about.”

While that was true, of course, so was the opposite. That was the first thing that came to mind, with this wreckage laying right in the middle of raider territory. I wasn’t so confident that it was a safe place to linger. But still, it looked clear from up high… and Sierra’s struggle to keep herself aloft was becoming too difficult for her. “Yeah, let’s get down there. Come on, we need to get you a potion.”

She wasted no time at taking advantage of my command, dropping just a second later. Quick, but still careful, she angled herself in toward the wrecked wagon cluster, lining herself up with the rear of the train. I followed her in close behind, watching her movement, monitoring her condition. In the end, she handled herself well, maintaining a steady course, and a smooth, comfortable descent the rest of the way down. We both drew to a hover just above the rear-most wagon of the old convoy. It was definitely Old World, both in model and in its very worn condition. An old passenger wagon, it was rusted down to frailness and was full of holes, both from the many years of weathering it had endured and from the contributions of various firearms. But more than that, the bus had on its roof the remains of a mounted gun turret, a model of heavy machinegun complete with its own housing and gunner’s seat. There wasn’t a single spot on the whole assembly that hadn’t been visited by the same rust that coated the bus, and the weapon itself had been broken down, its long barrel bent down, and the rest of its frame warped and caved in various places. Right beside the old passenger wagon was a much smaller two-wheel cart, a small cargo wagon that was now partly buried under the ground. And just a few paces in front of those two – a smaller passenger chariot, with three of its four wheels rotted down to splinters around it.

But as I sat there staring, even as Sierra let herself land, her iron hooves hitting the ground with a heavy thud… I found myself looking over the first three wagons in the train again. I did so to revisit the order I’d seen them in… to see the details, the wear and tear in each. Something about them drew my interest, and with it a subdued yet strong sense of déjà vu… of familiarity.

“Nova…” Once again, Sierra gave me a shout to put my mind back into the present situation. She was already on the ground, now looking up at me through the visor of her helmet. “I would like that potion now, please.

“Oh… sorry.” I let myself fall the rest of the way to the ground, landing smoothly on all fours a few yards from the back of the passenger bus. “They’re in the right-side pack, Sierra. Go ahead and grab one whenever you want.” Right before our departure from Challenger, the Lieutenant Colonel had made extra sure that we had everything we needed for the mission. And while we both were all set with weapons and ammunition, neither of us had potions of our own, and thus, I was given two to keep for us, to use if the need arose.

As soon as I tucked my wings back against my side, Sierra was freeing herself from her power armor helmet. With a hoof she flipped a tab on the lower jaw for the plate to swing down from the hinge on the front of the muzzle. Then, reaching up, she placed her hoof on the side of her helmet and roughly pushed it up and over, letting it fall to the dirt with a thud. As soon as that helmet fell away, I could hear Sierra’s breathing, not heavy, but definitely labored as she struggled with the pain of her wound. She followed it down, staring at the hunk of metal with her head bowed, not paying any mind to the locks of her now slightly disheveled black and silver mane that brushed along her cheeks.

She took a second to close her eyes, holding her breath as she tried to keep the sting of her injury at bay. As she stood there, I turned and trotted the rest of the way to her, drawing up alongside her to present the saddlebag holding her potion. “Hey, where are you hit?” I inquired, putting a more demanding edge to my voice to get her attention back on me. “How bad?”

After a short exhale, she opened her eyes again, promptly shaking her head. “Right side… and it’s nothing serious.” she responded with an assuring bit of confidence. “My armor kept it from hitting me full force, but it was definitely a high-caliber round… I think I only got one of those sniper towers.”

“Well, as long as it’s not serious.” She turned herself around, passing a quick look to me before focusing on my saddlebag. “If it’s as minor as you make it sound, one potion should do the job.”

“Yes, I agree.” And reaching up, she used a forehoof to unbutton the pack’s flap, then throwing it over and digging her muzzle in to find her potion.

“Hope you don’t mind the mess.” As she sifted through the pack, I took the opportunity to give our surrounding another look-over. Right away, that familiarity I’d felt only moments ago returned, so quickly that I squinted my eyes in puzzlement. This cluster of wagons, this old caravan… it definitely didn’t seem very significant at first glance. Akin to the old radio station, or that power plant out west, it seemed like any other Old World ruin. And it was definitely Old World. These wagons were so broken down – heavily rusted, the metal distorted and caving, and most of the wagons themselves sinking slowly into the earth, falling at a crawling pace into their own graves – that they definitely resembled the state brought from a hundred and seventy-five years of age. But I just couldn’t get it out of my head that I’d seen them before… there was a small cargo cart closest to us, then an old armed passenger bus, then a chariot, missing three wheels… There was a taxi… I could see the fragments of yellow and black color on the hull where it lay nestled close to three other civilian transports. There were two other carts in the mix there… and the last, up at the front, was a heavily armed wagon… definitely military-grade, maybe a personnel carrier.

And that’s when it hit me… right as my eyes came upon something else that would’ve told me the same discovery had I not found out for myself first.

“Hey…”

Sierra startled my gaze back over my shoulder, where I found her holding a now empty potion bottle in her mouth, which she promptly spit out. Quickly I realized that I’d been so sucked into the sight of this wreckage that I hadn’t even noticed that she’d gotten her potion from my saddlebags. Now she met me with perplexed eyes, trading between looking to me for an explanation and looking out to this old convoy. “Sorry…”

“Are you alright, Nova?” came her question, my armored friend drawing up beside me so that we could observe together. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Well… kind of, I guess.” Swallowing, settling into a state of calm, I gave her the answer she wanted. “I’ve been here before.”

“Have you?” she asked in reply, more curious now. “I thought your group had not traveled out this far east.”

“No, it’s not that.” I explained, the two of us looking to one another. “I saw this place… in a memory orb.”

Sure enough, Sierra’s eyes showed her understanding as she remembered the recent past, just yesterday when I viewed Mother Shimmer’s first memory orb. “This is what you saw?” She took another moment to look among the old wagons again, nodding as she took in the sight. “How can you tell?”

“Because of that.” When she looked to me again, I faced the convoy, pointing to the ground just ahead. There, beside the first cart and hidden amidst scattered debris made of old crates – the remains of an ancient skeleton, brittle, cracked, with the ground slowly sucking it in. Only the upper skull, the spine, and part of the ribcage was unclaimed. And just like in that memory, more skeletons lay beyond it, one after the next scattered among the wreckage… a graveyard just like in the memory. “Mother Shimmer… she stood here once.” Sierra had never met Buckley’s leader in person, only hearing what my friends and I had to say about her. But still, she nodded, still knowing some of the details of the memory I’d given to her. “She saw all of this.”

“How did Mother Shimmer react to it?” Sierra asked.

“That’s the thing… the way she acted around it… it almost seemed to me like she had some kind of connection to it.” I remembered the memory as if it were my own. And I knew that even if it was only a small part, this convoy played a role in her history…… and it was that that made me all the more curious. “Kind of makes me wonder…” I paused, taking a look over to where Sierra watched me. “Are you feeling better?”

“I’ll manage.” she answered, brief. “What are you thinking, Nova?”

“I just… I want to have a look around.” But I was immediately hesitant afterwards, and for a good reason. We had a schedule to meet…… and I wasn’t some wastelander anymore… No, I was a part of a very organized, very real military force… where I was expected to follow orders quickly, thoroughly, and I even had the pins and the patch to prove it. But atop that, I had been told directly by Ajax, my superior officer, not to distract myself, not to fall astray from the objective.

All these thoughts ran through me in rapid reply to my initial desire… all of it berating me for the very thought of sticking around in hostile territory. But Goddesses… I wanted to look. That memory orb… Mother Shimmer herself, and the things she had shared with me, the things she’d given me right before my exile from Buckley… there was so much more to her, and to know that she had been here in this very spot once upon a time… I really did want to know why.

But apart from my clashing thoughts, Sierra herself was looking at me with a small frown and slightly narrowed eyes. “Nova, you know that’s not a good idea.” she warned, to which I had to let out a light sigh. “We have to get back to Challenger, quick as we can, and I know you’re responsible and dedicated enough to understand that.”

And at that, I had to purse my lips, looking away from her to accept the facts for what they were. “Yeah… you’re right.”

Then I looked back up to her… only to see that her eyes weren’t on me anymore. They were past me, and were instead on the wagon train, slightly squinted as she tried to identify… something. “There’s a… a light by that cart…”

I cocked an eyebrow, promptly turning to face the wreckage again, trying to find where Sierra was searching. That cart at the tail end of the convoy – it was surrounded by the remains of its former cargo, comprised largely of the splintered remains of old wooden crates. It was difficult to tell exactly how many, as there were both large and small chunks that made up the mess. There were other bits of junk in the mix too, amounting to two old sheets of metal, and a couple of tattered blankets, thin, brown, ugly things. But it was when I retraced myself, sweeping across the area again, that I finally found something… out of place… within the dark, dead color of everything around it.

And that was exactly what I found… color.

There was something underneath that little trolley, right behind the tailgate hanging from one of its four hinges. Piercing through the dreary browns of rust and dirt and rotten wood, overtaking the lifelessness there… a shade of sapphire hidden under one of the old blankets, just barely breaking through the small crack under its covering. It was just a thin sliver, almost wholly concealed. But there was no denying the pure, clean, gentle shade of blue hidden among the bleakness… and it was flickering, pulsing… a light.

“I… I did not see that before.” Sierra piped up, curious, puzzled… hesitant.

I was about to leave… I was ready to… but now… “What is that…” I narrowed my eyes… in a trance… Tunnel vision came back in a blink as I zeroed in on that light… and approached. Sierra said my name behind me, an uncertain half-question that did not make me stray from my focus… especially as I drew closer, confirming for myself that the hidden light was indeed flickering. It was like a candle… one of Challenger’s lanterns… but stronger to reveal itself through the light of the day. It was only when I stopped just before that flickering blue that it disappeared again, hiding itself away one more time under its rotten shelter. And in that moment, my pipbuck gave a little chirp to draw my attention. A quick look, and I was confronted with my computer’s larger map. Every location I’d passed through in my travels had its own unique sign stamped onto the display – a house, a cluster of buildings, a little hill, a star. But one of them was highlighted with a flashing light that encircled the simple ‘V’ icon and the name of the location beneath it – my pipbuck’s confirmation that this was indeed the Convoy Wreckage, the very one that it had first identified when I’d been viewing Mother Shimmer’s memory.

Now I was here, following her steps… walking where she once walked… through a place that she had her own hidden ties to. And as I lowered my pipbuck back down again, looking back to that blanket, the question came as to whether or not whatever I was about to uncover shared that same connection… And so without further delay, I reached out a forehoof, digging into that musty blanket and pulling it back and away with a single swipe. And that light came out, shining gently before my eyes.

There on the ground, set atop a much cleaner white rag, were three items placed side-by-side. Two of them I immediately recognized, having seen several before. Holotapes, one on either side of the last item of the set. Small, twinkling from the soft light that swirled around it… was an unblemished, clear-color, drop-cut crystal attached to an equally clean silver chain. And it was this crystal that cast that sapphire glow we’d found… which came from the inside. At first, I couldn’t distinguish it… but after a moment of study… I saw something shocking… and yet fascinating. Trapped within the crystal’s glimmering body, shielded within the light it gave – a little fireball that hovered in the very center of the crystal, copying the gem’s shape from its spherical base to its pointed top. The flames rose to life and danced up and around, brushing up against the crystal’s sides, base, and top, constantly intensifying and receding. But that little fireball burned on within the crystal… hovering freely and casting that elegant, beautiful light eternal.

It was… a strange discovery… as it glowed with such new life, the likes of which I’d never seen before in this world of rust and ash, of decay and ruin. But more than that… it sent a very powerful jolt of awareness through me. This… it marked a very big piece of a very obscure puzzle falling into its place. That puzzle started right where I’d began, where I’d been born in One Eighty-one and where it eventually came to pass that my father and I shared the same cutie mark. Then the Torch came into my life, sharing the same exact thing. And in time, so too did Blake bear it, and then the Spark… all carrying the same emblem and its colors.

And that led me to the present, to this…

No longer could I believe in coincidence, not on this matter. Because now, I was confronted not just by another item carrying the mark I wore, but by a blatant physical manifestation of that symbol. Even before now, I’d grown more and more curious. Between my own personal experiences and Mother Shimmer’s own thoughts on the blue flame, the first pony to speak directly about it, I’d been drawn further in. And this curiosity had peaked in Buckley, where Blake had gotten his cutie mark in battle, and where I’d been given the Spark. After then, I had acquired all the evidence I’d needed through my travels to believe that there was indeed something about the blue flame, something different. Now… now I knew that that hunch was more than just a hunch. This blue flame… it was out there, behind the scenes. I had no idea as to the what or the where, or even the how and why. But this crystal held the same origin as the rest of those artifacts and weapons I’d found. They were connected – how could it be otherwise? But the question now was how they were bonded. What was it that made this similarity? And who would know anything about it at all? Shimmer didn’t, and nopony in the Stable did, apart from my father and I upon earning our marks. So who would know? And if I went looking… where would I start?

“That’s… very beautiful.” To my right, I registered Sierra’s voice, now muffled. And when I finally allowed myself to look, I saw the armored pegasus once again concealed behind her suit’s helmet; her visor was tinted blue from the glowing crystal. “That flame inside… there’s a spell around this pendant.”

“You think so?” I asked, a little curious as I looked into that light again.

“I’ve seen things like this before back in my own home.” Sierra responded. “A shaman with enough aptitude and training can command water or light or fire with their magic, use them as weapons or weave works of art from them. It wasn’t uncommon there… and to see this flame burning without any source of fuel… the magic here is sophisticated.”

I nodded, with that thought having crossed my mind before. But really, there was only one thing I could think of here. “It’s just… a bit shocking to see something like this when your own cutie mark is this exact same thing.”

“Your… oh yes.” It wasn’t hard to tell that Sierra hadn’t thought of that at first; but she definitely did now. “Yes, that is… that is quite strange.” She even took a moment to turn to me, looking me over from head to tail in a quick sweep. “It’s just like your rifle… and your pistol, too.”

Again I nodded. “And my brother’s cutie mark… and my father’s… This is definitely more than a case of sheer happenstance.” I stated in firm reply. “At first I’d only entertained the thought to make inquiries about it. But seeing this… now I really want to make it a point of finding answers… or at least when I have the time to do so… even if that may not be for a good while yet.” And making that final decision, I reached out a hoof and proceeded to paw at the rag the three items rested on, draping it over them and hiding away that light again. “I’m going to take this medallion with me… and the tapes.” And once I had them bundled up, “Let’s get going.”

“Hold on.” Sierra’s voice became very suddenly hushed, focused. My ears perked at the tone – I recognized it from so many other circumstances. And when I looked back to her, she was staring out deeper into the convoy, standing alert. “There’s hostiles on my E.F.S..”

“Shit…” Uniform, we both lowered ourselves down into a crouch, huddling up against the cart to take cover. “How many do you see?”

“I’ve got three so far.” came her whispered reply. “Wait… no, four.” I raised up my pipbuck, checking out my own compass and pointing myself in the right direction. There they were, packed close together, moving ever so slightly on the display; but I counted five red dots, finding the fifth just as it appeared right in the middle of the others. “Five…”

“More raiders.” I stated, lowering my computer away… unable to keep myself from growling at my very obvious, very stupid mistake. “Sorry, Sierra…”

“It’s alright, Nova.” came her response; she took a quick peek out behind the cart, ducking back in after a moment. “It took us both by surprise. Right now, let’s just focus. We need to deal with this before we leave.”

The time for berating myself would have to wait. Now, all that mattered was ensuring that neither of us paid for that mistake. “Right… what’s the plan?”

“I’m not made for stealth.” she responded quickly. “But you might be able to get closer to them, take one by surprise. Can you do that?”

Without hesitation, I nodded, taking a look out from behind cover – it was clear so far. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“I’ll be close by.” she assured, a hoofstep signaling me that she was moving out. “You make your move, and then I’ll engage them, try and keep most of them off your back.”

I didn’t look behind me to watch her. But I could hear her steps, surprisingly light, as she made her way out into the open, slowly to keep herself as quiet as she could. That was my cue to move, and staying low, I rounded the back left corner of the old cart and trotted up to its front; past a pair of the old passenger wagons, the area was still clear. I snatched the opportunity to move further in, but still kept an eye out as I crossed in front of Sierra and the westernmost chariot, making my way over to the next closest vehicle. And with a leap to quickly close the gap between me and new cover, I landed quiet behind the rear of the splintered vehicle, moving along the tail to look out past its right side. It was here that I finally found one of the hostiles scouting out the convoy. Just as I thought, it was another raider, giving me a close up of a sight I hadn’t seen in quite a long time. That red and black patchwork armor, leather and cloth, heavily beat up with a combination of natural wear and general neglect… something I hadn’t seen this close since the first invasion of Hopeville. And this unicorn fit the bill of one of the Black Blood in every other way, too. He held in his telekinesis a beat-up nine millimeter SMG, and there was a pistol in its holster on his front left leg. And he himself was exceptionally dirty, with a scraggly brown mane and his normally bright red coat darkened with dust, grime… and traces of what I was certain to be dried blood.

Yes… it’d been a long time… and I was none too happy about it… Seeing him only inspired the focus I needed.

He was moving slowly down the north side of the convoy, checking every gap between the wagons with a careful, watchful eye. And judging from the simple fact that he was staying on a straight course toward me, I felt certain his companions were fanned out among the other wagons to maintain a formation in their search. Only a couple seconds later, and the unicorn raider stopped, squinting his eyes as he found something that caught his curiosity. I returned back to cover while he was distracted, then reaching down to my right foreleg to slowly pull my mother’s pistol from its holster, securing the firing bit in my teeth… preparing to jump.

One more cautious peek, and I found my target on the move again at that same slow pace, studying the caravan’s taxi wagon as he begun to pass it by. And with his attention diverted, I returned back to cover, taking a step back… crouching… counting down in silence, gathering myself for a lunge… bracing… and with a grunt, I leapt from cover and out into the open, turning myself in the air and landing to face my first enemy head-on. He swore with alarm, backing up a step with wide eyes on me, all he could manage before I activated S.A.T.S., freezing him in his place just as he was attempting to raise his weapon. One shot for the chest, the second one too, and I executed the spell.

With a mighty voice, Fire Rose lashed out, and the raider staggered from a direct hit to the torso. And with the second, he stumbled again, nearly dropping his SMG. And yet he stood, his armor holding together as he caught his footing again. Then, with surprising speed, he wheeled around and jumped, scrambling for safety behind the taxi. I followed after him behind my iron sights, lining back up just as he turned right and made for shelter. I chomped down on the bit, trying to catch him before he could flee. But this shot missed, the bullet punching through the wagon’s weakened hull just above his head before he disappeared. And with a short growl, I followed his move, ducking back behind my own wagon.

“Look out!”

“Fucking minigun!!”

Just behind me, a violent buzzing roar ripped through the air. And I saw Sierra, poised firmly in a crouch, her compact minigun belching fire as she made her terrifying presence known to the enemy. Even through the great noise, I chanced a quick look out to see where she was shooting. In a flash, her heavy weapon had shredded one of the enemy contacts while simultaneously annihilating the right rear corner of one of the passenger wagons near the head of the convoy. But just a second later, and another raider emerged from hiding behind one of the smaller cargo carts, a unicorn with a heavy revolver pistol. And before Sierra could turn her wrath onto him, he locked her in his sights and fired. His first shot silenced Sierra’s minigun as the round struck hard against her armored chest, breaking her focus and causing her to stagger back a step. Then he fired a second round, just as I emerged and brought Fire Rose to bear, that glanced off Sierra’s armor to smash into the ground just off to my left. Up came S.A.T.S., followed by one programmed shot to the head. I executed the spell, putting a round into the raider’s skull, and drawing a startled shout from one of his companions hidden behind the cover they shared. That was all the time it took for Sierra to recover, and a missile went racing across my vision, smashing right into the cart; I heard a scream of agony buried within the rolling flames and the pattering of shrapnel.

“EAT IT!” Suddenly, a cry reached me through the lingering ring in my ears, coming from the right side of the wagon I hid behind. And with a jolt, I dropped to a low crouch just as metal plunged through the weakened wood with a series of shattering cracks. As quickly as it hit, the object was ripped free of the broken boards, and I managed to come about to face the attacking raider. Another unicorn stallion greeted me with a hateful glare, a long pipe held aloft beside him… attached to one tip of which was a wicked-looking metal spike. It was coming for me again, the raider swinging with an angry grunt. I was forced to duck down again as I met his challenge, and once more the pipe struck the wagon. Behind me, Sierra’s minigun roared back to life to overtake a rifle shot as she engaged another target, and in my crouched position, I fired another round of my own that struck my attacker in the upper leg. But the armor plating around the limb held its ground against me, and though he stumbled, losing his footing, he used the momentum he had to carry himself forward, crashing right into me before I could get off another shot. I was forced two steps back as the raider recovered himself, finally stopping him with a desperate shove to keep him off me. But too late, I felt a hoof on me, just in front of my left wing-joint; and it shoved me back with shocking strength.

The force of his push destroyed my balance, and with a startled yelp, I fell over to land heavily on my right side, with my pistol landing with a thud just inches away from me. Soon as I was still, the undercarriage of my former cover now in perfect view, I quickly forced myself to look back up, and I found the raider just as he resituated his spear in his telekinesis, the tip of the blade pointing right at me. And down it came, just as I rolled over my carbine to evade, and the blade stabbed into the dirt where I’d fallen.

As the steady fire of Sierra’s minigun reigned over the field, I rolled back onto my stomach, using the momentum of the movement to push myself up onto all fours again, finding him just as he pulled his spear free. “Quit moving around so much you little bitch!”

He brought the bladed tip of his spear back around to face me, and thrust forward again. I anticipated the move, skipping to the side just enough for the blade to stab past me. But as I recovered from the awkward landing, I saw my assailant as he twisted, bringing the bottom of his staff around in a quick sideswipe to try and catch me. I ducked quick before he could reach me, and he stumbled forward a step from the momentum of his attack. Hunkered down, I knew his next move even before he actually did so. He recoiled, reversing his course to try and catch me again. But this time, I was ready, following the path of his weapon as I forced myself back up to full height. And as he swung, I reared myself up and brought my forehooves before me, and caught the shaft, halting his attack. I staggered back a step, the both of us grunting from the force of the hit. Still, I held my ground, locking myself and the unicorn in a standstill. That stalemate only lasted a moment, as his telekinesis was pushing hard, driving me back to the point where I was standing straight up on my hind hooves, threatening to fall backwards. But before I could be overwhelmed, I resorted to my wings, snapping them out wide, drawing them up and thrusting them down. One thrust, coupled with what strength I could muster to jump, and I pulled myself over the spear. And with one more thrust to climb, and one more to push myself forward, I flew myself over the raider entirely.

I landed right behind him, turning over my shoulder to find him as he tried to collect himself and return to a proper stance to face me again. I spun and rushed him, finding that spear again as he tried to swing again. But I had finally gotten ahead of him as I ground my forehooves into the dirt and spun again. And carrying my hindlegs around, I bucked out and felt as my hooves connected with him.

His spear fell just shy of me, plunging into the dirt by my left side, and I heard a grunt from him as he stumbled back. But as I made to turn, I caught new movement that startled me to a stop. Coming out from hiding behind the wagon I’d been driven from was the first raider I’d seen, who now snapped his SMG to eye level to take aim at me. But the gunfire that blazed to life… it didn’t come from him, but instead engulfed him. Without a single cry, he was torn to pieces before my eyes by a hail of bullets that rained down from above. He was literally pulverized into the dirt, ground down in a hideous display of firepower. And I saw at the top of my vision as Sierra pulled up from a steep dive, flying right above me and moving fast. I spun, following her flight path until I found what now had to be the last raider standing. He was now completely unarmed… and was running away at a full gallop, heading north in the first direction he’d thought of. He’d already fled the field, but only a second more passed before, in a blink, a missile streaked down from above, striking just behind him with a thundering detonation, and hiding him from me behind a raging fireball.

Just like that, the fight was over… and I couldn’t help but blink at the thick dust cloud left in the wake of that missile; Sierra… she’d taken down all but one of that squad… and with such rapidity and lethal precision… Goddesses, was I glad she was with me.

“Are you alright, Nova?”

Her call came from above, where she lowered herself back into my field of view and stayed in a hover low over the ground, facing me. “Yeah, yeah I’m good.” Wasting no time, I searched quickly for my mother’s pistol, finding it just a few steps away. “You?”

“I’m fine.” she responded, brief as I scooped up my weapon and returned it to its place. “Pick up what you found, and then we need to leave. One of the raiders managed to send up a flare, so more patrols will come soon.”

Looking back, back to the tail of the convoy, my eyes fell right where I remembered seeing that crystal necklace. And beyond there… all clear… but I knew that wouldn’t last long. So, following Sierra’s warning, I sprinted to reach my new treasures, to pack them up and keep them safe. And then, finally, we’d be off to Challenger again… no more distractions. We had a duty, and Sierra was in the right place to remind me. Now, we needed to get back and prepare for whatever step we’d take next in this mission against the massing Black Blood threat.

Footnote: Level Up!!

New Perk: Dancer – If there’s one pony who’s hard to hit, it’s definitely you. When evading or sprinting, you gain a +1 bonus to your agility.

Skill Notes:

Unarmed: (50)