Fallout: Equestria - A'Way Down Thereby Vic the Tricky UnicornChaptersIn The Land of TraitorsCaptain KlutzThe Eyes of the Sky are Upon YouTable For TwoIn The Land of Traitors"Yeah well, whoever you are, I just dispatched a verti-assault team to your location. Have a nice day." "This is Angel one seven! We are going down in Stratusburg sector Alpha Tango seven niner! Mayday!" Gone... It was just... gone. Everything. Everypony... I've never seen so much fire in my life... Stratusburg's governing headquarters... it was there one minute, and gone the next... just consumed by the inferno, and-- Oh gods... I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched the entire structure collapse, right through the torn open cloud layer. The blast was so large, it even took down the vertibuck sent to try and contain the fire. A whole squad of pegasi... gone! I sniffled, wiping my nose with a hoof as tears began to sting my eyes behind my visor. I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe, as the glow from the plummeting building slowly faded below the new crater in the cloudcover. So many ponies... my friends, my neighbors, my parents... Skies above, mom and dad! They're all gone... The mare... she seemed innocent enough. It'd only been a week since I stepped off my family's sky chariot for my first ever assignment. I was at my post, with orders to check everypony's ID as they entered the HQ. That's when I saw her. Oh, how am I going to explain this to everypony!? I couldn't help it, I had such a hard week! One embarrassing face plant in front of all the other recruits... and another in front of my superiors... within the first week, I had already earned the nickname 'Private Klutz!' I was just so tired and upset and... humiliated! I probably looked like a pitiful mess, because when she saw me standing guard, she asked if I was okay... It... it meant a lot after the last few days. I tried to say it wasn't a bother, but... I guess it was too obvious. I'll never forget what she said to me with that caring smile and silky voice as she tilted her head to let her pretty mane hang adorably over one side, "Well, that's just terrible! I don't think you're a klutz. Those ponies should be ashamed of themselves." And if that wasn't enough to warm my heart, she asked if we could talk more after my shift, maybe share a meal together in the mess hall! I felt like I was about to make my first actual friend in the Enclave! She was so sweet and kind, and I was so excited that I-- I-I... I didn't think I'd need to ask for her identification... I managed to catch a glimpse at her flanks when she trotted by, elegantly swaying back and forth without a care in the world. She must not have realized her uniform had sagged a bit on one side... Even then, I don't think I realized I'd just made the gravest mistake of my life, but my heart still sank to depths I didn't know possible, when I saw the brownish charred scars of a cloud and lightning bolt where her cutiemark should have been. I may have been fresh out of flight school, but I knew what that mark meant. I was about to chase after her, but... I second guessed myself. She didn't seem suspicious at all! She was sweet and conversational. And I... I didn't want to scare off the only friend I could possibly make here. Besides, it couldn't have been what I thought it was, right? Maybe... the light just made it look that way... It only took a few minutes for it to happen. The shock wave actually blew me a good ten feet from the building. Celestia, if it wasn't for my power armor, she would have killed me too! She must have set it off at the base where the clouds were generated and where lightning powered the structure, as one explosion set off another in a devastating chain reaction that sounded like a continuous clash of bone rattling thunder. I heard stories about Dashites, but... but THIS!? How could somepony have done that to so many innocent ponies!? Half the city worked in that building, and now... it's just gone!!! It was so loud... the screaming was so loud! And my parents... Gods, I was just talking to dad before my shift! Mom had told him to fix my armor again. They had a meeting with our Chancellor, and before he left, dad... he hugged me and told me how proud he was. It was so embarrassing in front of all the other recruits, but now... I'd give anything to wrap my hooves around him right now... but, I... I'm never going to see him or mom again, am I? And it's all my fault... Skies above, what have I done!? "Sweep the area!" I gasped sharply out of my daze as I heard the officer's stern voice shout through the thick fog of glowing ash, still floating above the clouds around us. "I want all survivors brought to me for questioning!" He snarled. Oh, I am SO dead... What the hay am I going to tell them!? I could just barely make out his handsome looking uniform and cap through the ash, occasionally covering his mouth with a wing as he coughed. He looked distraught, and lost in the smoke and ash, yet the intimidating pitch black fabric and silver trim of his uniform told me he was hellbent on holding whoever let this happen responsible. "Report!" He coughed again, before scolding a group of power armored pegasi behind him. "I want a goddamned report! There was a mare on duty! I want her here like YESTERDAY!!!" I winced, spreading my wings on sheer pegasus instinct as fright drenched my whole body. With a single flap, I was off my hooves, before several more zipped me behind a cloud big enough to hide behind. My ears perked as I heard their voices close in. "Sir!" One of the soldier mares yelled. I peeked behind the cloud to see her just a few yards away, staring down the giant hole in the cloud cover. "What if she was killed in the blast!?" The officer flew above with a look so fiery, he could have turned her to ash. "I said bring her to the barracks! I didn't say whether I want her alive or not! Somepony is going to pay for this!!! Head or no head!" I watched them continue their search for me, until I swore one of their bug-like visors swiveled toward my hiding spot and looked right at me. I quickly ducked down, slapping a hoof over my mouth to quiet my breathing. But even that couldn't silence a petrified whimper from escaping my throat. I clenched my eyes and bit down on my hoof, praying that they didn't see me. Oh please, PLEASE tell me they didn't see me! "Private Kluuuutz~" The soldiers began to tease as I heard their voices spread across the cloud layer. My heart beat like an off-tempo drum as I tucked my legs, wings and tail against my body and curled up in a pathetic ball. Okay, think Sky! Once they're spread out enough, I can... escape... E-escape? Escape to where!? It's not like they'll just give up searching for me here. They'll start showing my face on the news from here to Thunderhead! I'll be a fugitive. A Dashite! Oh crap! I don't wanna be a Dashite! But what am I going to do!? The only other place to go, is-- THUD! The sound made me squeak in undiluted horror. Something... something just hit my cloud... My eyes snapped open to see two pairs of flamingo pink hooves standing in front of me. Oh guardians, this is it! They found me and their gonna brand me! Every fiber from the tips of my hooves to my wing feathers anxiously trembled as my gaze traveled up the pony's dapperly dressed body. He was definitely a stallion... but he didn't seem to be military. He didn't wear any type of armor or uniform, but his black suit and tie absolutely screamed 'important pony', while his longer black overcoat, which successfully obscured his cutiemark, seemed to whisper back 'none of your business'. The silver E, wings, eyes and arch enclosed by a circle of stars of the Enclave government, was pinned tightly to his lapel. His gold eyes nearly glowed in the night, while his short and styled navy blue mane flapped against the smoky wind current. And his smirk... He was SMIRKING!!! Time felt as if it had disappeared as he stared down at me, remaining silent and almost... charming... It made me feel sick. His smirk suddenly turned into a sneer. I was so paralyzed with panic that I hardly acknowledged that he'd actually spoken to me as he grabbed my hoof with his own and pulled me up with an aggressive yank. My lips finally quivered in response. "W-what?" He rolled his eyes with a demeaning laugh. "You got feathers in your ears, darlin'? I said you better start flyin' or I reckon you'll make this too easy..." He gave my chest a hard push before pressing his forehoof to his ear. "Target spotted in sector 17..." My nerves were so shocked, it took me a moment to realize he was talking into an earpiece, and another to realize that this... was sector 17. I must have still looked like a frozen stuffed pigeon, because he looked back at me with his face nearly aghast. "You still here, feather brain? FLY!!!" I took a step back, spreading my wings as if to follow his baffling order, but hesitated to commit. Tears began to fill my eyes again. I had so many questions, but my voice felt as if it were stuck in my chest. "W-where?" Was all my flat lungs were able to squeak. The mysterious pegasus scoffed as he grabbed the back of my mane through my helmet, making me wince, as he pulled me in his suggested direction. "Where do you think?!" My eyes widened to horrified saucers as I followed his forehoof to the giant crater. "Down... there!?" I was in disbelief. "N-no... No no no! I can't just--!" I was suddenly cut off by the stallion throwing me further towards the daunting exit. A one way ticket to the surface. To the wasteland! I tripped over my hooves and face planted, as several more thuds landed on the cloud behind us. I nervously raised my head to see the officer and soldiers from before, galloping passed him to aim their magical energy battlesaddles at me. "Just who do you think you are, cadet?!" The officer jeered. "You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!" The suited pink pegasus suddenly laughed. "Well what are you waiting for, Captain?" His wing put a cigarette between his smug lips, striking a match to light it with his pinions. "Brand that traitor already." ...t-t-traitor?! My heart stopped as every fiber of my being seemed to snap into place. The turmoil of emotions were suddenly replaced by one focus. One choice... Fly... or die. I twisted back to my hooves and leapt into the air. "OPEN FIRE!!!" Was the last thing I heard through the vortex of adrenaline pulsing through my head. The wind beat unforgivingly against my visor, my mane and tail flapping in my wake, as I dove through the crater. I thrashed my wings relentlessly as they pushed me at a speed I didn't know possible until now. I couldn't even see where I was going. I had no direction or strategy but to just fly down. I didn't care if I slammed into the ground and broke my neck... I just had to keep flying down! I felt cold and empty... believing I wouldn't even notice if I were hit. That naïve belief shattered around me with the rest of reality as I felt the electric burn of crystalized energy strike the back of my head. And just like that, the whole world turned black as I fell into its dark abyss... "Ow! Owowowowow!!!" I stirred awake to the base of my left wing twitching from a painful crunch. Agh! I hate wing cramps! Must have tweaked it in my sleep during my... M-my nightmare... I tried to stretch my wing, but all that did was elicit an agonizing holler as its joint was struck with more pain. "M-mom? Ow! My wing is cramping up again!" I cried out, while making an excruciating effort to fold the appendage back to my side. Yeah... I'm NOT flying anywhere anytime soon. I better take today off. Hope Captain Short Fuse doesn't mind too badly... I gave a defeated groan at that thought. Who am I kidding? With a name like Short Fuse... I waited for Mom to come rushing in with her tender voice to ask if I was okay... or for Dad to make some embarrassing comment about preening my feathers more often... but, when nopony answered my cry, I opened my eyes to see-- "Gyaaaah! AAHH!" I was greeted by a uniform... a captain by the look of the two silver bars on her handsome looking black uniform with its silver trim and matching cap. I instantly tried jumping out of bed, but... wait... Why am I on the floor? I shook that thought away as soon as it came, instead focusing on snapping to attention. But... for some reason, my armor was harder to move... Oh crap, did I fall asleep in my armor? Ugh! Doesn't matter Sky Bliss! Just salute the Captain before you get punished even worse! Probably fell asleep on duty again, you klutz! "Private Klu-- Grrr! Sky Bliss reporting... ma-am?" I gave a confused blink when I realized... she wasn't standing. She... O-oh... Oh no... Gods, she's dead! My heart sank with grief as I stared wide eyed at her cold and lifeless body. O-oh crap! W-what's going on? This... this is morbid! She was laying down against a bunch of rocks with her neck... It... it looked like it had snapped at a rather excruciating angle. It was so terrible, it-- ...wait... ROCKS?! I looked around, only to realize that I was no longer on the fluffy cloud layer of Stratusburg... Just rocks, dirt, and... Oh gods... OH GODS!!! Everything from the HQ's destruction to me falling from the clouds, came rushing back to my memory. I shuddered as more glowing embers and toxic smoke clouded my senses. I coughed into my forehoof and fanned the smoke away with my right wing, while my left remained useless and crippled against my side. Where the hay am I? I decided to trot forward to get my bearings... or at least I tried to. It became harder and harder to move with every step. I chalked it up to my own exhaustion at first, but when a red warning flashed in front of my HUD, I knew it was something... bad. POWER LEVEL CRITICAL! That... can't be good... My power core must have taken damage when they shot me. And my wing... I must have landed on it pretty bad when I fell. Oh, why do rocks have to be so... hard?! It doesn't only hurt when you crash into them, but... jeez, the ground feels so uncomfortable under my hooves. Nothing compared to the soft clean cloudcover. And who would have thought that dirt would be so... dirty! I groaned in both disgust and pain as I trotted further through the smoke. I had no idea where I'd landed, but I got a pretty good hint when my forehoof suddenly reached out to a terrifying emptiness. "W-woah!" I wobbled forward, nearly losing my balance before backtrotting away from the edge of... whatever part of Equestria I apparently landed in. Because that's exactly what it looked like as the smoke cleared enough for me to peer out at the horizon. The sun was completely covered by our cloudcover, so I couldn't tell whether it was dusk or dawn. I last remembered it being night, but... who knows how long I've been out. I was undoubtedly on the surface, but... everything was still up high as I looked down on Equestria below me, complete with charred fields, dead grass and ruined buildings that poked above the horizon like jagged teeth. Was I... on a mountain? I looked up to see the hole in the cloudcover still there. I must have drifted for miles before I finally hit the ground. Directly below it was what looked like some kind of run down shack village, set ablaze by... Oh gods, that's the Stratusburg HQ! It looks like it's still partly intact! Maybe my parents are still alive! I spread my wings, ecstatic to fly down there and search for them, when-- "Ow! Damnit!" Right... broken wing... really hurts... NOT flying... I'm gonna have to get to that village another way. They could be hurt, or... or worse! But, there's no way I'll be able to make it down this mountain with my power armor locking up. And with no way to repair it, I'm gonna have to leave it behind sooner or later. I coughed again as I turned towards the source of the smoke, prompting me to gasp as shock hit me like an angry storm cloud. "Angel one seven..." I said with a gloomy whisper as I came across the burning vertibuck wreckage. Several bodies of armored pegasi laid around the debris, and... just like the officer, they were all dead. These pegasi, however, appeared to have met a much more gruesome end than their captain. By the look of how their power armor had all been fried to a crisp, if the impact didn't kill them, then I had no doubt that the fires did. I despairingly slapped a hoof to my mouth as I saw that one of the soldier's helmets had been knocked from her head, allowing her hallow eye-sockets to forever stare at the pony who helped cause her death. Me... I... I think I'm gonna be sick... I tried to backtrot away, but my armor had nearly locked from the lack of power, and I ended up falling on my haunches. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but my armor wouldn't even allow me that. "I'm... I'm sorry..." I whimpered, "I didn't mean to! I-I was just-- I'm so... so sorry..." I'm not sure how long I sat there... but, in all the time I was there, I found it impossible to tear my eyes away from the carnage, or stop apologizing to ponies who had long since lost the ability to hear me do so. The thought of even being partly responsible for this... it made my stomach twist and my chest ache. I could have sat there until I starved, but something inside me, a familiar voice, demanded that I suck up my blubbering. I found the little pony inspiring, as she always had been when I was a foal, and with another shuddering sigh, I slowly began taking off my armor before it locked me in completely. I peeled the leg plating away first. After that, I was able to move much easier, moving to my flanks and chest plate. I had to be careful with my back so to not injure my wing anymore than it already was. But, when my hooves began lifting my helmet off... "OW! What the--? Why did that hurt?" The back of my neck felt as if something molten had welded my hide to my helmet. I quickly trotted over to the front of the vertibuck, seeing that the right windshield was still intact. Thank the skies for small favors, I guess... After getting as close as I could to the glass... Well... the reflection it showed me was NOT what I was expecting. I gave a mournful gasp as I saw the awful result of getting shot by a beam rifle. My once longer and styled mane would usually stick out the top of my helmet and droop over the side of my face. Now... the lavender and magenta hairs were singed beyond repair. The blast was direct to the back of my head, and nearly butchered everything exposed from it. I sniffled, tears once again welling in my eyes. The once pretty and cute and... rather unsoldierly style, was a bit embarrassing compared to the cooler and butch manes of the more hardened troopers... but mom had worked so hard on getting it nice... and now it's completely destroyed! With a painful scream, I pulled my helmet off, taking a patch of my neck with it as I cringed from both pain and the natural light stinging my pink irises. I tried to ignore the blood dripping down my ghostly purple coat, no doubt leaving a permanent scar behind, as I got a better look at the damage. My once long sweeping forelock that hung down passed my shoulders was gone, replaced by short and uneven spikey bangs that couldn't even hang passed my eyes. The back of my mane was even worse, singed and messy. I used my hooves to try and style it as best I could, but the only form I could get it in was a somewhat organized chaos, with... -sigh- ...more spikes. At least I had a little bit of mane left to hang off my neck, but... gods, I look like-- I paused, blinking at my reflection in disbelief. I look just like my sister... I sniffled, trying to ignore the tight feeling of grief in my chest. Sky Vapor... well... Let's just say I felt I had big horseshoes to fill after we got her devastating telegram. She was one of the most talented fliers in all of Stratusburg. Probably could have became a Wonderbolt if she wanted to. Meanwhile, I barely passed the flight exam. I was an... amateur flier at best. Which was a huge disappointment to my drill sergeant. Apparently, Sky Vapor's portrait is hanging up in the hall of fame somewhere with one of Stratusburg's fastest flight course records. Yet, when I finished the course, I was rewarded with, 'You're a fucking embarrassment to the Enclave, cadet!' Even her cutiemark set the bar pretty high after shooting through all the clouds around us so fast, she turned them to vapor! (-ahem- hence her name, heh... funny how that works out.) It was awesome! I, meanwhile, got mine after hugging a cloud. One cloud. Nothing special or magic about it. Just a big, soft, fluffy and (in my defense) an incredibly-comfy-to-hug cloud. I instinctively looked back at the heart and cloud on my flanks, conflicted in both embarrassment for it being so girly and relief that it hadn't been branded off... yet. Unsoldierly was one thing, but now that I'm down here... in the wasteland... I'm probably about the weakest looking thing out here... And without my armor, I'd get torn apart by... who knows whatever is watching me! I was ready to start another round of mournful sobs, when a strange sound suddenly caught my ears. I knitted my brow as I tried to make out what it was. It took my senses to recover a bit before I recognized the tinny ambiance of pianos, guitars, and drums echoing around the mountainside. It was... music. Not the usual patriotic orchestra music of Enclave radio, but... actual songs. I wasn't exactly in the mood for music, but my ears betrayed me anyway and unconsciously perked, forcing me to listen to the final beats of the song. The melancholy tune just made me want to cry some more... but the little Sky Vapor pony in my head told me to cheer up. It was hard, but... I managed to hold back anymore tears for the remainder of the song. I looked to where it was coming from, but the source only drew my gaze back to the dead captain. Even in death, the officer was still intimidating. She was the only pony spared from the fire... I guess she'd flown through the left windshield on impact and broken her neck. I solemnly trotted back over to her, only to follow her eternal empty stare, still longing for a radio just feet from her outstretched forehoof. The same radio she was screaming into when the vertibuck went down. Did she switch frequencies at the last second? Was... was this music the last thing that she and her squad heard? Whatever she did, her actions were probably what saved the radio from the crash, her own body likely absorbing the impact, even after it looked to have been ripped clean from the vertibuck's console in the cockpit. The song finally began to fade behind the radio's speakers, only to be replaced by-- "Good morning, wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3! With today's musical wake-up call!" Author's Note I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! For those who read this in Alphabet Soup, you probably noticed that this is only half of the chapter I originally posted. The reason is that I'm gonna try to organize it a bit more with the advantage of having multiple chapters, along with a few edits to hopefully make it a little easier to read. The second half will be updated shortly after a quick proofread. As for regular updates for this story after that... I'm gonna try my best. As always, if you can leave some feedback on my work so I can improve my writing, that'd be awesome! Captain Klutz"Don't they realize we are a mighty tribe of warriors, and should not be crossed!? We have got to break ranks with those weak foals!" "Good morning, wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3! With today's musical wake-up call!" Huh!? I flinched at the stallion's voice. DJ Pon3? But... but that isn't an Enclave station! "Now, if you're a consistent listener, you might be expecting the news BEFORE I move onto the weather. Well, get ready for a slight change of pace my little ponies, because if you live--" *STATIC* "--might have noticed some pretty strange rain drops falling from the sky recently. And when I say 'strange' and 'rain drops' I really mean one entire building just dropped out of the clouds! A building MADE of clouds for that matter. And that's not all. It looks like the structure not only fell, but was consumed in flames all the way 'till it landed on the village below. What the HAY are our 'friends' up above doin' up there?! Your guess is as good as mine. Keep it tuned here for updates." My jaw hit the dirt as I stood there, so staggered by his words that my knees felt weak. A radio station. In the wasteland. Not only exists, but just broadcasted to all of Equestria about our HQ! That... that's gotta be a security breach! There could be all sorts of classified information in that building! I listened, waiting to hear anything else, but apparently it was all the news of the hour, as another song started back up. I was so frustrated that the last remaining strands of my former mane style sprung out to join the rest. "That's it?!" I scoffed, glaring angrily at the radio. "It wasn't us! It was a Dashite! From the surface! And he didn't even mention the attack! And this is definitely NOT Enclave permitted music. I couldn't even count how many regulations this broadcast broke! We can't just let him--!" I looked about, only to remind myself that I was the only pony listening... and, all but a Dashite myself. "I... I can't let him?" I rolled my eyes with a defeated laugh. Yeah right... This 'DJ Pon3' wouldn't be threatened by somepony like me... Not even if my armor was still operating right. There's nothing intimidating about a mare nearly fresh out of flight school. He'd be crazy to think I have any kind of authority to-- All other thoughts suddenly stopped in their tracks as an innocent -yet uncontrollable- idea formed in my head. Before I knew it, my gaze had pivoted to look at the dead officer mare, her body still wedged into the side of a rock. My breath hitched, and I instantly clamped my eyes shut. It... it still made me sick every time I looked at her. I could feel tension rise rapidly inside my chest, as if my heart had started battling two fronts of guilt against my head and my queasy stomach. But it was the sneaky thought that would win in the end. With a shaky breath, I opened my eyes to finally get a better look at the dead mare... but, more specifically, I was eying her captain's uniform. I admit... I was curious. But... I huffed and shook my head. "Oh, come on, Sky! You can't be seriously thinking it can--! I-I mean, it's not like it would actually... make me look..." ... Hmm... I gave my reflection a skeptical look as I fit my ears through the slits in the officer's cap, giving the silver emblem of our Enclave in its center a quick polish, before looking over the rest of the uniform in the windshield. I saw myself give an anxious sigh as I did so. I don't know about this... I look so... I pivoted in place to get a side view of the sleek black uniform, all buttoned up to hug my chest. Even though the sleeves sagged down to my hooves due to the mare being just a bit taller than me, it still looked... impressive. I blinked in surprise. It seemed every second I stared at the mare in the reflection... she looked less and less like... me. Sure, my colors were the same, not to mention my cutiemark. But, the way my mane now stuck out behind the cap, and how my bangs just barely covered my eyes, it was hard to even recognize myself. I gave a curious tilt of my head as my forehoof kicked the dirt in thought. I wonder just how different I can make myself look... I trotted back over to the now bare-coated officer, and looked through her saddlebags. After rummaging through them, I found some dangerous encouragement for my curiosity. After all was said and done, I'd found a plasma pistol, a tobacco pipe, and a makeup bag, which I proceeded to apply to my face, giving myself a darker eyeshadow and thicker lashes to match how the officer wore it. The mare in the reflection looked even more different. So much so, that... I could hardly believe she was actually me. Even with my new chaotic mane, the cap actually made it look natural, and -with the help of the makeup- kinda pretty. While the pistol and dashing uniform gave me an impressive shade of seriousness. And the Pipe... well, I put that back where I found it. I looked a bit silly with it, and even my curiosity knew its own limits. But, something was still missing... I still looked... nervous. I needed to look confident and serious. After a few failed attempts, I finally saw the same stern glare of Captain Short Fuse, except now, on my-own reflection. For the first time in my life, I looked... intimidating. "W-wow..." My ears suddenly perked as I heard DJ Pon3's voice return to the radio. "Ah. That was Sweetie Belle with another one of her timeless classics. And here's me; DJ Pon3, with the news." "W-who do you think you are?" I winced at my own voice. I still sounded... timid. Okay, c'mon Sky Bliss! Time to show this pony that you're NOT just some air-headed filly! All those years of trying to act tomboyish aren't gonna go to waste now! No more screw-ups! Think tough! This time, my voice came out raspier than ever before as I grated it against the back of my throat. "Just who do you think you are, jackass!?" I couldn't help but giggle after I said it like that, though I had to catch myself and try to regain composure. Captains do NOT giggle! I gave a quick sigh of preparation as I tried to remember all the times my superiors had scolded me, and with a tilt of my head and a crack of my neck, I let all my pent up frustration, from 'Private Klutz' to 'DJ Pon3', connect with vocabulary I would otherwise never dare to use as a recruit. "You treacherous, scum! You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!" DJ Pon3, however, was unphased, still continuing his broadcast through the radio. No new updates on my HQ, I noted. Just something about bigotry against... ghouls? "What the hay is a ghoul?" I was genuinely curious as I found myself listening the rest of his PSA, only to shake my head with a scoff. "Focus, damnit!" This time, I approached the radio with an angry glower. "DJ Pon3... You've committed crimes against the Grand Pegasus Enclave." I paused to give him a chance to respond. At this point, I had completely tuned out what he was actually saying, although... I could have sworn I heard him talk back to me. "What was that?!" I snarled. DJ Pon3 stayed silent. "What did you say to me, huh?! How DARE you deny it?! I should kick your freakin' ass!" DJ Pon3 snickered before satirically claiming he had no idea what I was talking about. I gave him a look. "Oh? A wise guy, huh? We'll see how smart you feel with my hoof up your ass. Dickhead!" He seemed stunned by my response and began to apologize. His sudden change of attitude made me laugh. "You know what, ground-pounder? I want you to use those strong legs of yours to run..." He gave me a confused look and asked me to repeat. "You've got feathers in your ears, buck-o?! I said run!" He took a step back as my right wingtip curled down and pulled the plasma pistol from my holster with threatening intent. "I'm giving you a chance... and all you do is stand there like a fucking pigeon!? Get going! RUN!!!" He struggled to comprehend what was happening. He tried begging for mercy, but knew I wouldn't give it. He finally took the opportunity as he spun on his hooves and galloped away as fast as he could. I closed one eye as I looked down the sights. Well DJ Pon3... or whoever you are... The only thing ponies will remember you by is the after-action report we show the recruits... I pulled my wingtip against the trigger, and-- PEW! I clenched my eyes and winced as I felt the recoil throw my whole body off balance. My lungs betrayed me after years of teaching myself to act tomboyish and hardened... only for an all too sissy squeak to escape my throat. Whatever audience of spectators I imagined suddenly came to life around me, the charred ponies from the crash waking up, only to gasp in shock as the plasma bolt missed its target... "Nice shot, CAPTAIN Klutz!" A stallion behind me teased... igniting the powder keg of loud crushing laughter that erupted from all the other pegasi. I insecurely tucked my tail between my legs, completely humiliated. I suddenly felt like I was back in flight school. I wanted to bury my head in the clouds and cry... but I had no clouds to do so... I bit down on my lip to keep it from quivering, and with a determined curse of my breath, I tried again. Another miss, and another, and another, until... "Son of a mule... Hold still you little--!" Finally, I hit my target... if just barely. The crystalized acidic plasma tunneled through the corner of the radio, and began to melt the brown metal frame into the tubes and wiring beneath, making whatever news DJ Pon3 was reporting to the wasteland die into utter nonsense, only for another song to sputter and gurgle its way through the mesh speakers... almost as if the stallion were still mocking me with his stupid music. "W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WWWWWe'll meet again. Do-...*STATIC*...-ow where. Don't know w-when... *STATIC*know we'll meet again. Some sunny daaaaaay. Keep smiling through. Just like you always do. Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds, far awa--" PEW! I shot it again, this time straight through the center. The radio finally peeled apart into molten metal and goo, at last silencing it forever. DJ Pon3 was gone. Worse still, he had never been here to begin with. Nor the other pegasi, save for the same dead ones from the crash. Their laughter had died quicker than a stir in the wind... I cautiously searched for anything else of use... specifically food. I was so hungry, I could eat a-- I hesitantly glanced at one of the 'well-done' ponies beside me and winced. This time... it was my stomach that won the tension, as I started to feel acid rise and burn the back of my throat. Okay, I'm not that hungry. I hardly believed I'd find anything here that wasn't ruined to ashes, but a box of MREs survived the flames... even though their packaging didn't necessarily survive the crash. But, after concluding that squashed MREs are unequivocally better than starving to death -or resorting to cannibalism-, I tore open the package with my teeth, and chowed down on the dehydrated cloud-grown produce. Hopefully it wouldn't wreak too much havoc on my intestines until I find something more suitable. I adorned the captain's saddlebags and pocketed the rest of the MREs inside. I was in the process of keeping the contents from coming up my throat again, when I spotted something unique sticking out of a pile of embers in the dirt. It looked like some kind of metal stick... or maybe a pole, it's colors contrasting with that of the vertibuck. The end looked scorched by the glowing coals, while the handle looked safe enough to touch, so -failing to check my impulse- I reached out and wrapped my forehoof around it. I was about to pull, when something suddenly stirred in the dirt behind me... followed by a soft feminine gasp. My first thought was that it was a survivor from the crash who must have gone out to scout ahead, before returning to find me wearing their dead officer's uniform. Damnit, Sky! Why didn't you think this through?! I was so startled, I could have jumped out of the captain's uniform... I almost wish that's what I had done, as my legs bounced my rump so high that I lost my balance and fell on my face, thankfully finding a nice patch of hard gravel instead of scolding hot embers. That's it, Sky! Keep looking on the bright side... I recovered as quick as it happened, grabbing back hold of the strange pole and yanking it free of its burning pit. I went so far as to take a defensive stance with it in my forehooves, which in retrospect, probably wouldn't have done horseapples to stop whatever projectile weapons she likely had. However, it frightened the mare all the same... in fact, maybe even more so than what any gun could have, as she stared at me, frozen and terrified beyond all belief. It took me a moment to realize what I'd done to spook her, as my gaze lowered to the sizzling orange glow of the infamous cloud and lightning bolt that made up the other end of the pole. Oh... that's... Holy Hurricane! The mare eyed the brand for a while longer, obviously uncertain about my next move as she gave a nervous gulp. However, with a puff of her chest and a salute of her hoof, she showed a valiant effort to suck in her fear... valiant, but not quite successful. "Miracle Breeze, reporting for duty, ma'am!" She announced clear as day, as she strained her otherwise soft-spoken voice to sound more determined. My eyes blinked in confusion as I watched her salute... me?! I looked around, half expecting another officer to be standing behind me, before finally realizing the only pony here who even looked remotely like an officer was... me. I hesitantly let one hoof go of the Dashite brand before saluting her back. She returned her hoof to the ground, and everything became quiet. We stared at each other for the longest time... well, at least she was looking straight at attention, while I just stared at her in awkward silence. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to be scared to death of her reporting me to the Enclave or relieved to see another living pegasus. I was just about to accept the possibility that I might never see one ever again. Though, maybe I should have been so lucky... Yet, she didn't seem to look or even act very... Enclave-y. She was Enclave, I could at least tell that by her black coveralls and beam pistol strapped to her leg. But, no armor, barely any weapons... no aggressive nature to her rather delicate looking frame. Her coat was a soft pale creamy-yellow, while her scarlet red mane was left long and wavy in front, her styled forelock hanging over her face. She had to have been no older than a cadet herself, and looked... rather cute for a mare. Déjà vu suddenly struck me like a clash of thunder. I was so caught in my daze, that I hadn't noticed her lips had been moving. I flushed before clearing my throat. I tried to speak, but... I was too stunned to form a coherent response. Her timid look suddenly tilted in concern as she pointed at my side. "Y-your wing, ma'am. It... doesn't look good. Is it broken?" I didn't need to look down at it to know how 'good' it looked. I'd long since given up on testing my tolerance for my injured wing. As it turns out, tolerance for pain I severely lacked. I continued to stare awkwardly at the mare in silence. I was honestly at a loss for words. She had no idea who I really was or what I did. And there's no way in hell that I can tell her... I don't care how timid she looks. She's Enclave and I'm... I-I'm a Dashite... Even if she didn't pull her beam pistol on me, it'd be unlikely a single pegasus mare would be down here all alone. There could be a whole platoon waiting for her. Besides, I'm already in enough trouble as it is, I don't need impersonating an officer as a topping on treason. I gave a hesitant nod, trying my best to appear determined, while my heart frantically thumped in my chest. She gave a soft smile in return and began to trot toward me. However, I’m guessing my nod was either too hesitant or the Dashite brand in my hooves held too much of a paranoid kind of sway to it, as she gave a cautious backtrot. "I uh... I can take a look at it. Your wing, I mean. I-I'm a field medic..." She reassured me with a hopeful smile. It would soon evaporate after seeing my doubtful glare. "F-field-- uh... -ahem!- Field medic?" She nervously licked dried lips before nodding. "MmHmm..." I looked her uniform up and down with a raised eyebrow. "Um... What's your tag?" She bit her lip as if to think about it for a moment. “Miracle L. Breeze, serial number 192-01-2125...” I had to say, I was impressed... I at least stutter once or twice when reciting my serial number, but she got through it without a hitch... of course, the timid pinch in her throat almost made her sound unsure of herself. She must have noticed my skeptical look, as she looked down at her hooves to avoid it. "...We were enroute from Neighvarro, when our chariot--" "We?" I asked. She nodded. "My platoon... we were supposed to make contact with a detachment from Stratusburg. But our sky chariots came under heavy fire. We don't know what hit us, but we had to make an emergency landing on the mountainside... the other chariot... they weren't so lucky..." She said in a shaky voice. "We watched them land at the foot of the mountain... They survived the crash, but... there were creatures there. Big creatures! And they--" She clenched her eyes shut with a shiver. "...there was just ten of us after that..." By now I had set the Dashite brand down in the dirt as I listened to her story. That had at least helped put her at ease. "Did you... have any friends in the--?" She gave a solemn nod. "O-oh... Sorry..." I replied, lamely. She wiped her nose with a hoof and sniffled. "Thanks..." She looked at the vertibuck crash behind me, giving a quiet gasp as she saw the bodies around it. "O-oh... Oh gosh! I... I didn't know that you-- I didn't mean to be insensitive to your squad, ma'am!" Huh? What is she-- OH! ...oh... right... I tried my best to keep from turning green at the thought. "Ahem... It's... It's okay, Miracle... It sounds like you've been through a lot... and I appreciate your concern." She gave me back a small smile, but still seemed a bit guilty for unloading her baggage onto me. I didn't mind. To be honest, my heart kind of ached for the poor mare. I gave her my best comforting smile as I draped my one good wing over her shoulder. "I'm Captain Sky Bliss." The Eyes of the Sky are Upon You"Why do the Yankees always win?" "Because, the other team can't stop looking at the pinstripes." "Aaaand... there." Miracle said, as she finished adjusting the sling. "How's it feel?" I grimaced, giving it a little test as I tried to move the stem of my wing. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that I had dislocated it. And after several excruciating minutes of screaming into my hoof while Miracle snapped it back into place, she decided it best to constrict it in a sling to prevent anymore pain... She might as well have been a medical goddess compared to what I know about medicine, but 'prevent' certainly felt like a strong word. Even an hour later, after following her further down the mountainside, I could still feel my wing throb in a painful chorus with my heartbeat. "You uh... wouldn't happen to have any painkillers?" I regretted asking that after seeing her hopeful smile ruthlessly crushed under my words. "No good, huh?" Miracle sighed, "Sorry, ma'am. I'm still getting used to the field... To be honest, I've never had to put my training to use before now." I winced as I felt a little Sky Vapor pony smack me aside the head, insisting that I cheer her up. I was way ahead of that. I was seconds away from wrapping my forelegs around her and pulling her into a tight hug... However, there were a few problems I noted before doing that. First of all, that might have been too sympathetic for a Captain... and second, I was reminded of how embarrassed I felt when Dad hugged me while in uniform. So, out of concern for blowing my cover in hypocritical fashion, I kept my hooves to myself, and instead gave the cute pegasus a soft smile. "Hey, I'm not saying you didn't do a good job. You'll get the hang of it. Besides, once you get back to the clouds, you'll probably be the most experienced field medic in your class." She blushed... Holy Flash Magnus, I actually made her blush! I've never made another mare blush before! Not like that anyway... She gave a ghost of a smile before looking a bit perplexed as she thought on what I'd said. "You really think you'll be able to get us back to the Enclave?" I paused. Did I say I could do that? I replayed the words of encouragement I put together in my head. Okay, so I didn't explicitly say that, but I certainly suggested it, didn't I? Damnit, Sky, you featherhead! Even if I could somehow contact Neighvarro, they'd need a video feed to confirm my identity... and the identity that'd pop up would probably doom me, Miracle, and the rest of her platoon for associating with a de-facto Dashite. Maybe if I could convince them to fly back through the cloudlayer... I glanced to the sky, searching our ocean of clouds for the HQ-sized hole where I fell through, but when I looked to where I swore I'd seen it last, nothing was there... or more like, something was there to plug it up. I may have dismissed it as the mountain fog just being too thick to see through, but the fresh batch of greyish-orange clouds were as clear as the blue sky above them... Stratusburg must be working overtime to have filled that so fast-- Aaaand... trip. Guardians damn you, stupid rocks! I stumbled so hard that I fell on top of Miracle Breeze, nearly knocking both of us over. Way to go, klutz... The little Sky Vapor quickly corrected me with, 'Captain Klutz'. "Sorry!" We both stammered in chorus, before awkwardly turning away to hide each other's embarrassment. Luckily nopony else was around to see that. We quickly recovered with a mutual silence and understanding that... we probably should forget that ever happened. I grumbled under my breath as I heard the voice of my older sister again, this time teasing me with, 'Sky Bliss and Miracle Breeze, sittin' in a cloud...'. NOT FUNNY, Vape... Well, the awkward moment helped change the subject of me helping her... for the time being, at least. If she's taking me to meet her platoon, they're going to be expecting at least something from me. It was time to put my brain in overtime as the silhouette of a crashed sky chariot transport came into view through the heavy fog along the path. My ears perked as I caught the sound of music in the wind again... This time, however, instead of that DJ ground-pounder or Pon3 or whatever his name was, it was the familiar parade music permitted by all Enclave stations. Well, it's good to know we can still catch the frequency all the way down here. There must be something wrong with it though, or else they would have been able to radio for help. Maybe... they needed a new receiver? Before I could bask in the sound of pegasus patriotism, a mare suddenly cried out from the distance. "You see anything out there, Thunder?" Even muffled from under the sky chariot, I could still hear her smooth voice practically drip of rural Neighvarro. I heard a stallion sigh a few paces to her right. "I'm gettin' sick of answering that question, Bell..." He warned, tiredly. I couldn't quite see them through the fog, but the mare sounded as if she were tinkering with something, due to the occasional sparks lighting up her silhouette, while the stallion sounded like he was on the edge of the mountain. "Damnit, Corsair!" He suddenly scolded, "Give the poor buck some space..." A sniffle came to my ears as another mare quietly sobbed under the tinny assortment of drums and horns from the radio. "I... I ain't leavin' him, Thunder!" She said with a shaky voice. "H-he wouldn't leave, me!" "C'mon 'Sair, he's dead." Thunder paused, only for her heartbreaking sobs to continue. "HE'S DEAD!" His roar was enough to make Miracle and I stiffen in our tracks, abruptly silencing both the crying and the tinkering from the other two mares. "Just... just leave him alone." He finally said, giving a mournful sigh himself as he returned to his former task. "O-oh no..." Miracle's heart sounded as if it had sunk as she quickened her trot toward the three ponies. "IT'S YOUR FAULT, THUNDER!" Bell raged from under the sky chariot, her once smooth voice now loud and direct. I was finally able to match the voices to the ponies, as the fog grew thinner between us. I presumed the chestnut stallion near the edge of the mountain was Thunder. He laid on his belly as he peered out into the mist of the wasteland through the scope of a long beam rifle, his ashy white and golden streaked mane cut short into a mohawk. The usual shine that I would expect from the sleek black power armor he wore was replaced by scratches, dents and dried-up mud... not all of it, I assume, from the crash. I could picture him rolling his eyes behind his bug-like visor at the mare's outburst. "Ain't you fixed it yet?" Bell scoffed, "Ah'm gettin' sick of answerin' that questio-- Oh, goddamn you!" Her silky blonde and pink tail angrily swished between her orange legs. It, as well as her wing feathers, suddenly jolted outwards, as the sky chariot gave her an electrical shock, eliciting a feminine squeak to echo around the mountainside, only to be followed by a blitzkrieg of angry sailor phrases. She punched the underside of the chariot with her hoof, before muttering 'it's your fault we're here', over and over again, each time in a different colorful way. "There's more where he came from..." Thunder replied, making a navy-blue mare with a blasted-back arctic mane to stand up in outrage. "What did you just say, sergeant?" Corsair hissed, rubbing her teary eyes with her wings before pinning the stallion with a fiery glare. If the two were to fight, they just might have been an even match for each other, as the mare wore the same sleek black and scorpion-tailed power armor as Thunder, only she sported a battlesaddle of mid-ranged beam rifles, while the latter appeared to be a sniper. She wore her visor up, allowing her lovely face and beautiful deep blue eyes to burn holes of purebred rage through the stallion's head. "He was our FRIEND, Thunder! You take it back!" "If you would have flown us away from the fire, we wouldn't be in this mess..." Bell continued her begrudged mumblings, prompting Thunder to twist around from his perch and kick her legs in retaliation. "OW! Fuck! What you do that for?! I'm tryin' to fix this!!!" She crawled out from under the wagon to stand in front of him, her long blonde and pink mane drooping over a pair of goggles she wore over her eyes. She was smaller than the others, so she had to look up to meet Thunder's gaze. If it wasn't for the grease stains covering her orange coat and ragged coveralls, she'd actually be drop-dead gorgeous. They all began arguing, occasionally pushing each other with their hooves, Thunder going back and forth between Bell and Corsair, before they all descended into a chaotic physical struggle of grappling, punches and headlocks. "TEN-HUT!!!" They all froze in mid-fight, locking their tangled limbs in place, as they turned their attention to the young field medic, standing with her chest proudly puffed out. The three seemed to weigh the order a moment, looking from pony to pony in confusion before finally untangling themselves. "Where the hay have you been, 'M'?" Bell asked, as she lifted her goggles above her eyes with a wingtip. Miracle looked a bit crushed by that as she sagged her shoulders. "Wha--? I said, ten-hut, guys!" Thunder gave a skeptical glance at his comrades before tilting his head at Miracle with a condescending smirk. "Aaaand? What're you sayin' 'ten-hut', fooooooooor--?" His patronizing question trailed off as he caught me galloping up from behind her, my face plastered with outrage. Something about the way he said that to her... I was reminded of the ponies in my barracks back at Stratusburg, and how they would purposefully ignore my relay of Captain Short Fuse's orders to get me in trouble... "HEY!" I growled, skidding to a halt right in front of him as I stuck my muzzle into his face. "Just who do you think you are, soldier!?" I instinctively snapped the rehearsed line, the words leaving my throat before my mind could fully recover from the memory. Wait... Crap! Did I just--!? My eyes widened as I realized what I'd done. Damnit, Sky! You can't just berate a pony like that! ...especially one who's in power armor! My mouth drying out in panic, I was pretty sure I had already outstayed my welcome. But, before I could make a hasty retreat away from the stallion, shooting out apologies as fast as my lips could move... I saw first hoof the effects of my outburst... Actually, from the second I'd made myself known to these ponies, all three of them had instantly stiffened, snapping to attention after sharing a moment of wide eyes and agape jaws. Finally having followed Miracle's order, they quickly saluted their wings in a perfect line of stunned statues. Huh? Bafflement darted my gaze between them as I tried to comprehend what had just happened, eventually having to shake my head out of its daze. Right! Captain... I am... a Captain. Soldiers salute Captains... and now they're... I... I can't believe they're saluting! I soon had to keep myself from looking smug. Heh... They're saluting me! A Captain! Miracle Breeze saluting me an hour ago was one thing... but having seen these ponies do it too... it all started to sink in. The irony of three ponies, who otherwise would be patronizing me as a recruit -not to mention as a Dashite- now saluting me as an officer, was pretty hilarious. And now... Oh... okay, now they're all staring at me! Quick! Do something... Captain-y! Calming myself down, I decided to narrow my eyes, my glower trying its best to be intimidating as I casually stepped closer to inspect the three pegasi. I stepped so close, I could see the look of surprise in Corsair's eye, the occasional nervous twitch of her ears on either side of her raised visor, then the tiny beads of cold sweat pushing through the short layer of Bell's orange fur. And lastly, even though his muzzle was the only exposed part of his face, I could still see the anxious glance of Thunder's pupils through the gold tint of his bug-eyed visor. I stopped abruptly after noticing the stallion's lip quiver... and he gulped. "Well?" I asked, impatiently. "Does an Enclave medical mare, a pony who may be tasked with saving your life, not deserve any respect when calling you to attention in front of an officer!?" "U-uh..." He began, "W-well, I--" "As a decorated Enclave Captain," I quickly interjected, growling as I poked his armored chest with my hoof. "...should I tolerate such disrespect!?" His face recovered swiftly and hardened. Though caught off guard, the stallion was obviously experienced when responding to a higher rank. "-Ahem!- No ma'am!" He said, direct and clearly. "Sorry ma'am!" ...but I wasn't quite satisfied. This time, I stomped my forehooves in front of the other two pegasi next to him. "AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXCUSES!?" While still saluting, the two mares' other wings instantly pomfed outward in shock, both their bodies flinching from a few stray drops of my saliva. "NO EXCUSE, MA'AM!" They screamed in reply. I held my glare between the three for several seconds before finally approving them with a nod. I turned back to the medical pony in question, where Miracle Breeze stood, now just as stiff as the others, as she tried her hardest not to recoil at my gaze. I couldn't help it. Letting my expression soften, I smirked, giving the adorable mare a reassuring wink... which proceeded to turn her cheeks all different shades of crimson. Heh... I think I'm getting good at that... While her stature remained mostly solid, her lips threatened to smirk back at me, only to quickly snap out of it. "O-oh! Right!" Miracle sheepishly blurted, sounding as if she'd forgotten the obvious. "-Ahem!- Ponies, this is Captain Sky Bliss." The three of them blinked, each pegasus sharing a look with the other. Watching them gave me little defense against my amateur, albeit growing, sense that they might suspect something, feeling helpless as my teeth slowly moved over my lip to gnaw at it. I knew I could scold them like before, and put a stop to the inquiring looks on their faces, but... I couldn't! What if I'd already pushed too much of my luck!? What if calling out their discipline a second time in a row is a step too far!? It was my turn to sweat, as I saw their expressions range anywhere between surprised and skeptical... and I, the sudden, strange appearance of the Enclave Captain in front of them, was the only recognizable thought in their eyes. "Ma'am?" Corsair finally asked, being the first to brave the question. "Permission for us to speak freely?" Curling my lips back over them, I nervously ran my tongue along my teeth. I nodded meekly, preparing for the worst as they all lowered their wings. The mare noticeably relaxed beneath her power armor. "Ma'am..." She said again, as her muzzle split into a thankful, albeit weak, grin. "Gods, are we glad to see you here!" I actually had to bite my tongue to keep myself from sighing too loud in relief. Corsair then turned to the stallion, arching her brow. "Aren't we, sergeant?" She asked, her tone rather forewarning. Thunder didn't look to actually appease her hint as he did genuinely look to feel the same as her anyway, if not more so, coughing out a grateful chuckle as he shook his head in agreement. "I couldn't have said it better, 'Sair." "Agreed!" Bell drawled with a thankful smile. "It's about goddamn time those feather brained dolts sent somepony like you t'a help us out!" "And if you don't mind me sayin' ma'am..." Thunder continued. His armored forehoof suddenly raised off the ground, lifting the gold bug-eyed visor above his face. "...hot damn! It's been a while since I've been chewed out like that!" He chuckled, "I swear, you had me worried I'd be doin' wing push-ups for a month back there!" My face lifted in surprise after seeing his eyes for the first time. They were a sea blue, if just a hair shade different than Corsair's stormy ones, but with a noticeable scar down his left brow. I felt myself staring for an uncomfortable amount of time, before his words finally registered, and I was almost thankful for the burning sense of embarrassment in my cheeks. "O-oh..." My tail swished at the stallion's compliment. It was a compliment, right? Yeah... it sounded like a compliment! "You really think--? I mean, I'm glad you like-- U-uh..." I quickly caught my words before they could continue along a... certain train of thought. The one that never seems to arrive at a good time. What's our fraternization policy again? Wait... Damnit, Bliss! Mind out of the gutter! "I-I mean--!" I hid the crack in my voice behind what was probably the weirdest cough anypony has ever heard. "-Ahem!- Heh... well, you know... with the situation we're in right now... you'll have to excuse me losing my temper like that." My inner pony was still trying to sort through the haze clouding my mind, made only thicker by the fuzzy feeling this stallion was suddenly inducing... and I wasn't sure whether to hate or treasure the fact that the charming smile he gave me after hearing my little bashful filly moment had warmed my-- ...well... a number things. Thankfully, Miracle Breeze had quickly doused the heat, her sweet voice clearing my head as she approached our side. "I was telling the Captain about our platoon, and--" She never finished, however, her ears falling back as she scanned the three pegasi in front of her. "W-wait..." Miracle's eyes stretched wide in realization, before her gaze landed on Corsair. "S-sergeant... where's Comet Chaser?" Just like that, Thunder's handsome smile was gone, and Corsair's beautiful blue glare instantly became downcast, a soggy heartbrokenness drawing attention to the damp fur on her cheeks. "M-Miracle... He's--" Before she could say, there was an abrupt stir within the crashed sky chariot, shortly followed by a sharp click of a dial, which echoed throughout the transport's hull. The only thing keeping the mountainside from descending into a silent void was now the anxious and occasionally mournful breaths of the pegasi before me, as the staticky tune of Hail Cloudsdale was cut short, its orchestra dying with a scratchy end to the radio's frequency. The wind shifted... and it was as if it took every last ounce of my newfound confidence along with it. When the vehicle's door opened, I suddenly felt like a timid filly again, as the black and silver uniform stepped into the murky light. "TEN-HUT!!!" Another hurried shout came from Miracle, noticing the officer stallion herself as the four pegasi once again snapped to attention. Her voice was tiny though, barely worth registering in the back of my mind as I watched him approach me. The officer was a yellow stallion, not as burly as Thunder, but where he lacked in that, he made up for in class and style. His gold mane was combed into a pompadour as he brushed it back with a hoof. He tilted his head down and put his cap on, covering his eyes with the shadow of its bill as he left only his muzzle to express his otherwise cold emotions. I could tell he wasn't just staring at me... he was staring right through my uniform. Through my eyes. Even through my very soul with only an icy sneer to pivot his gold pencil thin mustache on one side. He seemed amused by my presence as he trotted forward. I just stood there in a cold sweat, hoping nopony could hear my heart beating against my ribs as loud as I could. The other three ponies didn't dare flinch, but the officer's entrance pulled Miracle's attention away from Corsair, and towards a bloody mound of blankets, a gray hoof sticking out from underneath. It was the same spot that Corsair had been crying over the moment we arrived. "Is... is that--?" Miracle's voice whimpered, "Oh gods, Comet's hurt guys!" And just like that, she broke her own call for discipline to gallop over to the mutilated stallion. The officer suddenly spread his wings and galloped between Miracle and her comrade, hooking them around the sobbing mare to stop her. "I do believe he's dead, Breeze." He said in a quiet classy voice. "N-no!" She cried, struggling to get passed him. "I-I can still--!" "You lock it down now, Private!" He growled, pushing her back in front of him before nodding toward me. "It looks like you brought us an important visitor. Now you will show restraint." She sniffled into her wing, before giving a gloomy nod. "Y-yes, sir..." The mare looked so heartbroken, I wanted to cry right along with her. Oh gods, that's exactly how I felt watching the HQ collapse into the clouds! The few friends I ever had... A-and my parents... Biting my lip, I tried to keep it from quivering as I hastily looked away, mainly to avoid the gaze of the officer, but also to think of what I would say to him. Okay. You can do this... just... do the same thing you did with the rest of them. Making use of my one good wing, I made sure to dry my eyes, before returning my gaze, its previous intimidation ruined by melancholy shyness. They both trotted back into line in front of me. The officer gave me another skeptical look, and I suddenly felt self-conscious about my uniform as his eyes traced the extra length of my sleeves. My heart stopped. Oh crap! Does he know?! Has the Enclave REALLY never made a measurement error before? Oh, c'mon! It could happen, couldn't it?! Just when I was about to start thinking of the different ways I could plead for mercy, the officer himself finally straightened his smirk and slowly raised his wing to his bill. "Lieutenant Yonder Wild, reporting ma'am." My mind just about exploded with relief. Thank The Council... Practically choking on the breath I'd been holding, I saluted him back, hoping he didn't sense my near panic attack. "I apologize for my platoon's... under-preparedness. Been a rough pack'uh days." He suddenly puffed out his chest and shouted, "Platoon! SOUND OFF!!!" Starting with Thunder, each pegasus shouted their name one-by-one down the line. "Sgt. Thunder Bolt!" "Sgt. Corsair!" "Cpl. Rotor Belle!" "Pvt. Miracle Breeze!" Hesitation forced a dangerous, "U-uhm?" to my lips as I stuttered. Alright... Equestria calling back tougher Sky Bliss! It's still your time to shine! "At ease." I finally spat with the gruffest voice I could manage. "Well... uh, it's good to finally see who's in charge here. -ahem!- I'm Captain Sky Bliss..." I paused, thinking back to the crashed Vertibuck, before adding, "...17th Stratusburg Verti-assault squadron. The Council's Headquarters in our Stratusburg branch was bombed by a terrorist... Uhm, we were sent to evac the officials and put out the fires, but we got caught in the chain of following blasts and crashed." "That Vertibuck we saw go down was yours? So, your... your not our rescue?" Corsair asked. "Do they even know we're down here?!" I shook my head with a sorry sigh. "None of us were aware... But, it's still my mission to extract the survivors from the HQ here on the ground. My... my crew didn't make it..." I quickly distracted the pit in my stomach before it grew too sour, arching my brow as I took in the five ponies in front of me. "I... thought there were 10 of you. Where's the rest of your platoon?" The five looked at each other with a nod, before all agreeing in unison, "Deserted." Yonder gave a nod to the dead stallion behind him and sighed, "Four... after we sent Breeze to investigate your vertibuck... one came back and killed poor Comet Chaser..." They all hung their heads, ranging from sorrow, to regret, to anger. "How long have you ponies been down here?" I asked. "About five days ma'am..." Bell said, before drearily adding, "Haven't eaten in three..." "Protocol demands we not interfere with any surface dwellers, however we've been getting desperate." Yonder explained. "We had reports of a settlement made up of these... 'wasteland ponies' to the south of the mountain, but we didn't want to move in case a rescue team came to extract us. Contacting the locals is, of course, a last resort." That's when it hit me. That's how I'm gonna get to the HQ! I cleared my throat before I got too giddy and put the mask of authority back on. "My mission is in that settlement... and seeing as you ponies are also in need of rescue, I'm making you a part of my mission. If I'm right to believe you're radio is... not up to the task of contacting Neighvarro, then the only way we can get an extraction for all of us, is if we get to that town, deal with the locals and help the survivors." If there's any survivors... I... I don't know if I'll be able to go back to Stratusburg, but... it's the best chance I've got if I want to find my parents... or, frankly, survive. I raised my eyebrow as I turned to Rotor Belle. "Can you fix your sky chariot?" "You mean the lost cause I've been workin' on?" She sighed, posture sagging along with her enthusiasm for the idea. "Yeah, why not?" She shrugged, tiredly. "Good..." I nodded, before looking back over to Yonder. "Now, about your... deserter problem..." I met his smug gaze, still seeming to drill right through to my soul. I hated looking into his eyes... It was like I could see my own knowing deception reflected right back at me. He doesn't know! He couldn't... just keep on talking, Bliss! My heart settled with relief when he finally took his eyes off of me, and widened in surprise at what I pulled out from under my wing. I swear, I saw every pegasus before me shiver at the sight of it. Them, and every other pegasus, both friends and foes of the Enclave, knew the cloud and lightning bolt brand all too well. An hour or so ago, I would have feared it the most out of all these ponies... So... why did I have the cockiest smirk in the history of pegasi on my face? It was REALLY cocky... it was so cocky, it made Yonder swap expressions with the one I had when he was looking at me... Now it was his, Miracle's, and every other Enclave pony's turn to be intimidated by my gaze. But it wasn't just intimidation... they were afraid. Even Sky Vapor winced... "It appears... I have the solution to that... right here~" I purred, dropping the Dashite brand in front of them. "But, first thing's first..." It looked as if my voice was barely registering with them as they all continued to stare at the Dashite brand. I could see the two power-armored soldiers swallow dryly, while Miracle Breeze tried to keep herself from shuddering. My eye caught Rotor Bell's tail instinctively wrap around the side of her leg as if to protect the vertibuck propeller on her flank. While even Yonder appeared to twitch as if he could feel a slight imaginary burn across his own cutiemark. I glared sharply. "-AHEM!-" That snapped them out of it, their eyes blinking away the nightmare scenario, while their heads shook themselves back to reality. I made sure to lock eyes with everyone of them -with the exception of Yonder's. I tried to avoid those fiery beams as much as possible- before finally lowering my stern guard with a sigh. "...three days, huh?" I asked, making Bell jump as I turned towards her again. "T-that's right, ma'am." She confirmed, "We're... we're all pretty hungry..." I nodded, giving her a friendly smile. "Well then... let's make this our first order of business." Tilting myself down to my haunches, I let my saddlebags slide off my back. With a kick of my hind leg, I knocked the satchels over to allow a healthy amount of MREs to spill out before them. "We'll have pegasus grade preservatives all around..." I smirked, presenting them with a pan of my forehoof. "...Vertibuck emergency ration flavors." For a minute, I thought they might have gone back to reeling from the image of the cloud and lightning bolt, even as it lay disarmed at my hooves and slightly muddy from landing in the mountainside muck. But, while their wide-eyed expressions of trepidation and hesitance returned, their uneasy glares were instead staring down at the pile of packaged dehydrated meals in disbelief. And yet, the remnants of the platoon still could have been mistaken for a row of cloud chiseled gargoyles outside the Enclave council building, though I could have sworn I saw a string of drool ooze down from Corsair's maw, hanging loose from shock, while her eyes filled with a lustful fire that could only be doused by my MREs. "YEEEEEHAAAAAW!" Thunder Bolt suddenly blurted, the stallion giving a shockingly cute whinny of excitement as he reared up and pedaled his forehooves in the air. "Now, that's what I'm talkin' about, Cap'!" Grinning wide, his wings flared with elation. "Lets dig in, ponies! Chow is served!" The others hardly even flinched, as they soon followed, thankful smiles on their faces as Thunder, Miracle, Corsair and Bell all galloped as fast as they could, fighting each other to get their hooves on the first meal they had in days. That is... everypony except-- "I must say, Captain..." That Neighvarro aristocrat drawl sounded as if it had just slithered up my neck and bit my ear. "...this is a wonderful and, I might add, much needed surprise. I do believe you just saved us from starvin' to death in the middle of nowhere." I turned to see Yonder Wild, keeping a calm but appreciative posture as he watched his platoon begin to tear open the MRE packages with their teeth, and dumping them into a prepared assortment of meal kits. I heard Corsair suddenly begin to flap her wings, before quickly taking to the air, gathering enough wisps of fog around the mountain side to form a cloud. "O-oh... uh... -ahem- of course, Lieutenant." I coughed, feeling the fur on my neck stand straight. "It's the least I could do... and uh... it wasn't like my squad will be needing those rations anyway..." The thought of those burned pegasi and their hallow baked eyes from the crash returned to me, staring lifelessly at the mare who all but killed them. My stomach flipped, and I suddenly no longer felt like enjoying a meal with the rest of the platoon. He must have mistaken my guilt for sorrow, as Yonder gave a gloomy bow of his head. "I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am." After his gaze rose back up to meet mine, I could swear his eyes relapsed back into digging through the contents of my soul, desperately searching for something I'd hidden from him. Once again, I could feel my heart beat in a sporadic tempo. Maybe it was just the uniform that made him look like that. Or maybe it was the way the bill of his officer's cap casted its shadow across his face, where, instead of allowing them to be dimmed under the sun and now solemn clouds, his eyes, their irises bright and red, burned like power armor head lamps through an eternal shade of night. But, it couldn't just be the uniform he wore. Heck, my mom and dad were officers too... albeit, with more of a civilian role... but their uniforms were one of the same, with maybe only an assortment of alternate shades like white, gray and beige and even dark blue and purple. But... but that sharp ocean of pitch black fabric... -sigh- Well, guess what Bilss? You're wearing the same uniform too! You know the act, just keep on going... and... maybe you'll get out of this. "Thank you Lieutenant... and... I'm sorry for what happened to your ponies too... A-and..." I tried to keep my nerve, clearing my throat to hide the bulge that'd formed after I'd swallowed dryly at my next words. Well... this is it. The moment of truth... "...and now that I'm the ranking officer..." I couldn't help but notice Yonder's glare again as his eye twitched in my direction. While I could see it in his face, that he all but knew what was about to be uttered from my mouth, the uncertainty in his gaze of what would come of it was as clear as a day above the cloudcover. I took a deep mental breath, giving my inner tomboy another boost over the timid filly in my head before finally finishing. "...I will be assuming command of your platoon to get you all to safety." With a tilt of his head, Yonder's eyes were once again consumed by the shadow of his officer's cap, so much so that its bill eventually blocked those fiery irises of his from sight as he cast his gaze to the dirt. A heart stopping silence fell over us, only to be broken by the cheers of Thunder and Bell, Corsair eventually fluttering back down to the ground with a nice fluffy cloud between her hooves, giving each pegasus a good amount of water to turn the dehydrated produce into... something that at least resembled diced apples and carrots. Herself and Miracle had even started to smile again at the thought of a meal, though with hints of sadness to them as both continued to glance back at the poor lifeless buck under the blankets. "...Captain." My ears perked, and I suddenly realized that my own head had gradually drifted to a tilt just like Yonder's, feeling the shade of my cap across my face as if instinct helped me hide the fact I'd been gnawing on my lip while waiting for his response. Lt. Wild shot me a skeptical glare as I found the nerve to look him back in the eye. "...after what you've done today..." He began, his voice cold, but soft. My blood turned to ice as I froze underneath the stiff blackness of my uniform. A-after what I've done? Crap! Did... did he just figure me out!? Did I push too far!? Ooooh! Stupid! Stupid! I didn't dare blink, even as the air threatened to dry my eyes to a crisp. Yonder's glare remained narrowed and sharp, his pencil-stache tilting slightly inward. "Why..." His muzzle gently rose, finally letting me see the expression on his face. "...I'd be more than happy to relinquish command of my platoon to you, ma'am." He said, smiling softly. Author's Note Alright, this pretty much catches us up on where I left off with the One-Shot. Only new chapters from here on out! Unfortunately, this means that the next chapters will probably be slower, but I will try to pump them out at a reasonable rate, since I plan on them being shorter in length than my other story. But, thanks to everyone who's showed interested so far! And stay tuned for more! As usual, leave some feedback if you have any so I can improve my writing or fix any mistakes you point out, like grammar, lore, etc. Table For Two"U-uh Oh! That isn't smoke. It's steam!" "I'd be more than happy to relinquish command of my platoon to you, ma'am." Stupid! Stu--! Wait... what did he just say? I couldn't help it when the Lieutenant's wing abruptly swatted the air between us. I flinched, my eyes clamping shut as I blew a silent breath of fear through clenched teeth, only for the pinions of his wing to touch the tip of his cap in a salute. "Consider myself and my ponies at your disposal." Yonder finished in his usual drawl. I-- He-- ...my disposal? H-holy Hurricane! The realization of what I'd just accomplished came crashing down on me so hard I almost fell on my face. Not even Thunder Bolt suddenly appearing at my side with an ear-shattering celebratory shout could have snapped my mind out of its stunned abyss, as the stallion trotted up and patted my back with a hoof. I winced, the impact barely missing my injured wing. "Hey, you hear that everypony!? We've got a new chain of command to follow! Welcome aboard, Cap." He said, giving me a curt nod before waving back at the others. "Hey, 'Sair! Com'ere and bring that cloud over for Captain Bliss." Though I could have sworn he'd heard it at least once before, my ears picked up Yonder's voice muttering the name, barely a moment after Thunder had spoken it, sounding as if he were testing its taste over his tongue. It might all have been my imagination... but his tone suggested something was sour about it. Okay... if he just gave me command, then why does he still seem unconvinced? Seriously, I feel like he's just seconds away from calling for my arrest! Wait... nope. He'd probably call for my execution if he knew what I was up to. Grrr! But he doesn't know! He couldn't! How would he? Bell said they've all been here for five days with no contact! Ooooh, c'mon! I need to get a hold of myself! I'm just being paranoid. Corsair arrived next to Thunder, holding up the cloud in her forehooves, only to tilt her head at me with a frown. "O-oh... do you have a meal-kit you can use, Captain?" "U-uh..." I blinked, finally catching up to what was going on around me as I noticed Thunder standing at my side with one of the MRE packets in his hoof. My stomach protested the second I looked at it. Right... The last time I ate, I'd poured the dry crusty contents down my throat without any moisture to actually make it worthy of eating. That, while being surrounded by burning wreckage, charred pegasi, and the body of an officer whose uniform I'm currently wearing. Erk! Oh... that's... not a good feeling... Something suddenly climbed up my throat, and I had to move my hoof to my lips to keep myself from hurling it all up in front of them. The two sergeants gave me a concerned look, before I waved them off as politely as I could. "That uh... that isn't necessary." I said, giving a weak smile. "I... I don't have a meal kit, anyway. You two go enjoy your meals." Part of me was pretty hungry, the MRE being the only meal I've really had all day. But... even if the first experience hadn't already ruined my appetite, I was probably just a bit too overwhelmed to eat anything without choking on it. ...and I'd like to go without adding something like that on top of everything else. "Well then, we can't allow that." Our ears perked as the two power-armored ponies stepped aside, letting Yonder to slowly make his way between them. "A spare meal-kit, complete with dishes and utensils, is kept in the sky chariot o'er yonder." Over his wha--? Oh... His usual crooked smirk morphed into a smile, as gracious as a salespony trying to sell me Bs. "Corsair!" Before I could even think of a response, Yonder suddenly barked, swatting his wing against Corsair's armored leg. The mare jumped at his blunt gesture, but quickly regained composure. "Sir?" She asked, curtly. "Once everypony has had their share, would you please bring the cloud to the sky chariot." Yonder's eyes popped wide before snapping his wing pinions together. "Oh!" He blurted as he turned to me. "I do believe you should have somepony bring your Dashite brand inside as well." His words only seemed to bury me deeper in self-doubt. My face must have shown my lagging brain switch to timid confusion at the mention of my Dashite brand, as an all too concerning chuckle left his throat. "The use of which, among the many things you wish to discuss, I'm sure." Actually, that was just about the last thing I wanted to discuss now... In fact, discussing anything with him felt like the surest path to getting caught... Damnit! I thought I had the upper hoof with the Dashite brand! He could barely look at it without his wings twitching a minute ago! Now he's expecting me to... what? Have a chat with him about it over a lunch that I'm probably gonna throw up!? But... Oh, crap! What am I supposed to do!? Say 'no'!? "You uh... read my mind, Lieutenant." I said, giving an anxious smile. I turned, quickly scanning the rest of his-- my platoon, vague purpose all but controlling every movement of my muscles, before I finally zeroed in on my intended target: The mare I'd grown most comfortable with the past couple hours. "Private Breeze!" Miracle immediately went tense, whatever conversation she was having with Rotor Belle ending as the mare snapped to attention. "Y-yes ma'am?" She stuttered, obviously caught off guard. I sighed, not exactly content with myself for making, arguably, my only potential friend (a word I probably shouldn't use very lightly these days) feel nervous. "Miracle..." I said, sounding softer this time as I nodded toward the object still laying in the mud. "When you're finished with your meal, would you bring the Dashite Brand to the sky chariot?" I watched her eyes slowly crawl toward the cloud and lightning bolt, the fiery gold and orange glow from the burning vertibuck long gone, replaced by its cold natural color of dark steel. She physically gulped regardless, eying the brand as if it were glowing hotter than ever before. "U-uh... Yes ma'am!" The apprehension was plainly visible. And how could I blame her? Miracle's wings restlessly flittered at her sides, making one of her feathers break loose. The broken plume twirled away, carried by the gentle wind as it passed in front of a just as stressed Bell. I think it might have led Yonder's gaze to fall upon her next, as she took another bite of her MRE. "Corporal! I say, Corporal Belle!" The mare's eyes widened, her chewing coming to a screeching halt. "Yrrs?" She tried to say through a mouth full of recently rehydrated cloud-farmed carrots. He sighed, his tone suddenly becoming scornful. "If you would be so kind as to hurry and finish repairing our way off this rock?" The realization of his order dug up another memory of Captain Short Fuse. That hot-headed stallion made me do drills the whole day after I accidently tripped and spilled my breakfast all over him in the mess hall. Sure, I... probably deserved it for being a klutz... but he made sure I didn't get to eat a thing for the rest of the day, and that I, 'obviously couldn't trot straight, so I needed to learn before I could carry a tray of food'! So, when he finally dismissed me for the night, I cried myself to sleep embarrassed, starved and exhausted. But... but this is the first meal she's had in three days! Bell's ears folded back against her head as Yonder's words sunk in, breaking her gaze from him to look mournfully down at the half-eaten meal in her hooves. She sighed, opening her muzzle to respond... but the voice everypony heard was not hers. "Eh... a-actually..." I found my shaky voice echoing in my ears, as every surprised eye suddenly turned to me. Well... it's too late to back out now... "...wouldn't it be better to have her at full strength when fixing transportation?" Forcing my head to turn towards him, I fixed Yonder with an unstable glare. "She should... I mean... I'd feel better if our engineer finished her meal first, before working on the thing that could drop us out of the sky..." The following silence nearly made me wince. "Wouldn't you agree, Lieutenant Wild?" I grinned sheepishly. It was the best I could salvage as my expression threatened to waver. Yonder considered me for a moment, locking eyes with me as if I were still some enigma he's yet to solve, before finally, he simply shrugged. "I... do suppose that course of action is an agreeable one." He paused for a moment. "Yes... right you are, Captain." He nodded, "...right you are." Without another word, he turned and began a trot towards the sky chariot. I allowed myself a brief sigh of relief before turning back to a somewhat shocked group of pegasi, still glaring at me with their usual hints of hesitation and skepticism, only for each of them to hastily divert their eyes away from me, as if feigning ignorance. I spun on my hooves to hide my wince. Yeah... if I saw Captain Short Fuse suddenly give our squad sympathy like that... I'd probably feel exactly the same. I glanced back at them over my rump, again seeing their nervous eyes shoot away to their meals or the ground under their hooves. Heh... cause nothing screams more riveting to a pegasus than discovering dirt! Yup... awkward. Even Miracle looked flustered, her eyes rolling up to look at our overcast sky. Damnit! That's it! If I'm gonna keep this up, I'll have to act more... captain-y... ...ugh... and step one is to find a better word for it than that. If I didn't know any better, I would have said our transport looked more like a sky tank than a chariot. The model was newer in the sense that it was produced to rely on cloud generators to give it lift, rather than the older wagon and chariot models relying on pre-war tech and a single pegasus to pull it like our city sky wagons. This one was near completely incased in armor plating, painted a sleek black to match Thunder and Corsair's power armor. A better choice if you ask me. It's a lot harder to notice the dark of scorch marks from whatever fire had brought them down... Though the abundance of hoof-sized dents in its hull were a little easier to spot. What in the name of Lightning Dust could have made those!? While the damage didn't look all that bad, I knew it was at least enough to have forced them to land. Maybe knocking something loose? Not to mention grounding the other platoon's sky chariot. Oh gods, what kinds of weapons do these ponies have down here!? Sure, it's not real close to the firepower we have, but if they can do this to our transports... what kind of chance do we have if we-- i-if... if the Enclave ever has to engage the surface? The pegasi would have to strike first and fast before they could target us! -sigh- ...not that it would make any difference to me. Looking down, my forehoof nearly followed through its next step forward before I could force myself to a stop, quickly bringing it back. I was so lost in the sight of the sky chariot, it took until I was practically a leg's length away for me to notice the bloody mound of blankets, still fluttering silently against an occasional breeze hitting the mountain side, right in front of me. They were kept at bay by a few rocks the others had likely scavenged to keep the sheets in place, but every so often, they would lift enough to reveal the gray coat of the stallion's left rear hoof. From what I could see, the poor buck had about as much armor as Miracle... which was next to none unless you consider lightly padded coveralls as barding. Was he a medic like Miracle? Maybe an assistant engineer for Bell? -sigh- All I knew was that he was a pony named Comet Chaser... and he was killed by a pegasus trying to desert their own platoon. A Dashite... It felt like the meaning only seemed to grow by the day... How quickly these ponies could turn against us! How long did it take infamous outlaws like... Like Radar or Deadshot Calamity! What about the... t-the mare at the HQ? How long did it take her to go Dashite? And Comet Chaser's killer... they'd been down here just five days, and they're already blood thirsty murderers, same as the other ponies who live in this... wasteland! And yet... here I am... and the first day hasn't even ended... I shook my head. No... no I'm not a murderer! I... I didn't want those ponies to die! ...but it was still my fault. It was still my stupid fault! I felt my ears droop as I started to picture all the Comet Chasers who died in the Vertibuck crash. All the bloody mounds of pegasi covered in blankets, their same gray coated hooves sticking out from underneath, who died in the HQ bombing... All because I had some naive belief that a lovely mare would want to be my friend... "Is it really that bad?" I blinked. “W-wha-huh?” Yonder, I realized, was looking quizzically at me from the entrance hatch of the sky chariot. Okay, so he was always looking quizzically at me in some form or another. It still didn't feel any less intimidating the second, third or... umpteenth time. The dapper officer chuckled. "That look... I say, that look on your face, ma'am... you've been eyin' our transport here as if it were your coffin." Leaning against the hatch's frame atop the extended ramp, he reached out with a forehoof and rapped it against the side of the hull, making three loud bongs echo off the mountainside. "I know she's not the vertibuck that you're used to, of course, but I do believe she makes up for her lack'uh speed with her ability to shield us from... unwarranted projectiles." He pointed a wingtip to the dents and scorch marks across its armor. "That there is flak damage... Enough to rattle our instruments but not enough to break through our armor. As to what could have fired at us... well, I do suppose we still need to figure that out. Regardless, Sergeant Bolt was able to glide us down safe enough... better than our sister transport faired." He sighed as his gaze suddenly went cold, before casting down at my hooves. It took me a moment to realize he was looking at the dead stallion in front of me, his expression unreadable. "Now... if circumstances were different, perhaps the Sergeant wouldn't have had to take the stick from our driver, and we could have made it to our cloudcover..." His tongue clicked. "...but I do believe the pressure can get to a pony at times..." And then, as if it never happened, his spirit abruptly lifted, and a casual smile returned to his face as he shrugged. "Ah, but I suppose that's life... All is fair so long as the iron hoof of justice always wins the end. After all, what is it that our Council says?" I flinched, barely registering the question as I fumbled my speech. "U-uh..." "What is it the Enclave says?" He asked again, before smirking. "We make them pay, Captain. Each Dashite Buck must understand, his flank will burn with a brand." Uhm... right... I could only nod dumbly back at him as I tried to regain composure. "Well, I'm... sure the chariot's just fine to fly, Lieutenant... It's just..." It's just... that out of the three vehicles I've learned about down here, three out of three have crashed... and two of the three had no survivors! Sure, I've been on sky wagons plenty of times, but... this was pretty far from the public transit of Stratusburg. Oh for Pansy's sake! Get a grip, Bliss! It's not like it's going anywhere... yet. To my surprise, Yonder gave an understanding nod. "Of course... Your last vehicular experience was not exactly as 'pleasant' as ours was, was it..." Saying this, he rubbed his forehooves together after a single clap. "Well then, allow me to reassure your faith in the technological superiority of the Pegasi, Captain... Sky Bliss." Uh oh... That sour tone in his voice as he said my name struck me again. I shivered. "You know..." He spoke again, putting a hoof to his chin. "...you're a tad bit... young for an officer." My eye twitched in panic. "D-uh-huh..." I fumbled, screaming internally as I nodded in agreement. "I'd think one would need friends in some pretty high places to help you climb that ladder as fast as you have, ma'am..." "W-well, uh..." Oh, c'mon Bliss! Focus! You've seen younger officers before! I smiled pathetically, trying to keep my mouth from trembling as I stared at him. "I have good standing with General Hazard of the Enclave Council..." I answered as evenly as I could before finally finding some edge in my glare, frowning and stomping my hoof for good measure. "...not that that has anything to do with my skill as an officer, Lieutenant." I silently prayed for something else to get shot out of the sky in that moment, just so it could land right between us. "Ah! Of course not, Captain. I didn't mean it like that!" He quickly assured. "In fact... I've had the pleasure of meeting General Hazzard myself." His eyes narrowed. "But uh... I don't recall ever seein' your face around ole' Duke." "U-uh..." I had to suppress the urge to bite my lip. Instead, I kept my glare steady and started to tap my hoof as if thoughtfully... I was doing it nervously. "W-well, you wouldn't be the first to say that Lieutenant. I actually get that all the time." I rolled my eyes, "I guess I just have one of those uh... forgetful faces!" My heart sank when I saw an unconvinced grimace appear. "B-but--! Uh... You better not forget me now, since I'm the new platoon leader!" His eyes were colder as he glared down at me and shook his head. "I don't believe I ever said that I didn't recognize your face... In fact... one could say that I never forget a face, Captain. Because now that you mention it, you do seem rather familiar..." Habazawa!? He seemed so sure of it that I could have believed it. I... I didn't though. I've never met this stallion before in my life! ...Right!? If the others had looked over, they'd no doubt think I'd just entered a staring contest with their Lieutenant. And he would without question be winning that contest. "I understand now..." The yellow stallion pushed his lips together in annoyance, before suddenly, as if a switch were flipped somewhere behind him, they twisted back into a smirk. "We must have crossed paths once before!" Yonder said with nothing more than a shrug. "Perhaps we can figure out where... over some lunch." He then stepped aside and bowed, offering a path up the ramp toward the hatch with a point of his wings. I took one look through the entrance, and my mane immediately caught an itch that burned the scarring welt on the back of my neck. Okay... now this was starting to look like a bad idea! There was an urge to roll up my sleeves before I moved. Regretting giving into it, I really hoped the impulse didn't draw any more attention to the extra length of my uniform. Averting eye contact, I obliged, quickly and wordlessly. Stepping forwards up the ramp, I instantly had to hide a wave of hesitation from Yonder as I was met by a solid dark mass of air, clogging up what was the inside of the sky chariot. Passing by the stallion, it felt as if I'd just flown through the HQ's crater in the cloud cover again, as my hooves stumbled below me in panic. Oh gods... OH GODS! What am I doing!? My ears flattened against my cap as I could almost hear the beam weapons charging up behind me. The only source of light was from the outside, dimly shining through the entrance hatch, teasing me with just enough visibility, that vague silhouettes of unidentifiable shapes were all I could make out, stalking the only way forward into the transport... the way that Yonder was patiently waiting for me to follow. Not even the sounds of the others outside could break through the uncomfortable silence the void suddenly brought, the hull deflecting their collective meal-chatter as if they were now too distant to hear. I gulped, before finally placing one hoof forward after the other, only to stop again when I could have sworn I saw a shadow, one of many now lurking ever closer in the darkness on either side of the vehicle, creep toward where I stood, the walls pushing them to close in around me. I was surrounded. My heart rattled mercilessly in my chest as the sound of hooves trotted around my paralyzed body, cold echoes clanking against the metallic floor. I flinched, my ears twisting back in horror when the hoofsteps came to an alarming stop right before me. Then the dark was pierced feebly by a blood red light, and I had to fight my voice not to squeal at the sight of Yonder holding a spark battery, powering a lantern's red crystal in front of my muzzle. What the--!? When did he get in front of me!? His wing pinions held the lantern tight between us, and unsurprisingly, his lips were curled in that signature smirk of his, as he moved his wing to set the lantern on a large steel crate, placed next to an all too familiar looking radio. Its weak glow disclosed the metal deck under our hooves, the unpleasant red casting it and the rest of the walls with an unrecognizable chill that only seemed to make me feel helpless. As my eyes adjusted, I could finally begin to make out the rest of the transport's innards, all splashed with the red gloom of the lantern's crystal. Its metallic walls were lined with coils of wire and hoses, chrome tendrils weaving in and out of sight like slithering sky serpents, while a column of seats led to what I assumed were the driver and gunner positions further toward the front. "Let's see if we can make this more appropriate..." Yonder's voice swiftly kicked my attention back to him. The stallion was kneeling on the floor, searching under a small open compartment, his wings outstretched as they cast a large beastly shadow over the several boxes and metal crates secured around the transport. It occurred to me that we were completely surrounded by military grade cargo, all tightly boxed and welded shut. There was probably just enough room to fit the ten ponies of the platoon it carried. And yet... it still seemed roomier than any verti-buck. In fact, if I shut my eyes, I could probably picture myself standing inside a regular old sky wagon... but, you know... one without any windows or lights that weren't made from crystals we use to shoot red beams of death from. "Aha! Here we are." Yonder's head rose with two plates in his maw, followed by a net holding an assortment of utensils used for eating. His wing brushed across the crate as if to sweep any recent dust to the floor, before setting a place for two ponies atop it. "And... voila!" He grinned, "I give you the one and only Enclave officer's table this side of our cloud cover." Gesturing with his wing, he pointed to the dish and utensils closest to me. "After you, Captain." I looked down at the crate in question. My 'spot' was on one edge, while Yonder's was on the adjacent. The plates sat across the flat top of the crate, which stood just at the right height for us if we were to sit on our haunches. All I had to do was sit down... with him. Is it too late to buck this whole idea, and bolt for it? I glanced back at the entrance hatch where a minimal amount of light was allowed to remain in the back of the transport. Yup... still open... I... I could still try and run! Everypony was probably too distracted by the MRE's I brought to notice... Sure, Yonder would alert them, but I would have a head start! Maybe... maybe I should go for it! There's no way I'll be able to sit through this without blowing it! Ooooh, this might be my only shot to escape! My legs tensed, and my hooves prepared themselves for launch against the floor. All I had to do was gallop! ...gallop. On my hooves. Down a mountain. Away from ponies who can actually use their wings. And shoot me. With beam guns. That they're all probably trained in. And... Oh, what the hell am I doing! My rump hit the deck faster than I thought possible as I sat in my place at the crate. Welp... I guess this is it... Yonder followed (much more professionally of course...) as my eyes watched him remove his officer's cap with a wing, setting it on the other side of his knife and fork. Whether it was instinct or if I was simply inspired by the action, I quickly did the same, shaking my mane loose from my own cap before realizing that my new mane style was far shorter than what I was used to. Ack! I winced at a split second of pain, grasping my face with a hoof, as one of my spikey bangs pricked me in the eye! Okay... that's another new mane style feature I'll have to get used to. I growled silently to myself. -Sigh- Whatever. Thankfully Yonder didn't notice. ...I don't think he did anyway. Damnit! Does this guy ever stop smirking to himself? "I assume you've tried the MREs before you arrived." I blinked. Er... winked. "MREs? The MREs I brought?" Now it was Yonder's turn to blink as he nodded slowly. "...unless there's another Captain around here my platoon owes thanks to." He chuckled, "Yes." Oh... you have no idea. ...at least, I hope you don't! Right! He asked me a question! Okay, so... as far as answers go, mine set the bar pretty low. Don't panic, Bliss! Just... answer his questions! How hard can that be? "Y-yes? Er-- Well... yes!" I stammered. Ah... that hard. Oh gods! Really bad time to figure out I have no social skills! "Last any of us had'em was three days ago..." Yonder scrunched his muzzle, thankfully, I realized, not at my pathetic response to his question. "I'd honestly hoped I wouldn't need to eat them again... but, I'd just about eat anything at this point." He clicked his tongue. "A shame we lack the weapons to hunt crows off the mountain side. I do believe there are dozens more nesting around here than we could ever find above our cloud cover." Raising his eyebrows, he showed his teeth, gleaming red as he grinned. "Unfortunately, ash doesn't make as nice a stew!" I did the best I could to mirror his grin and the laugh that followed... though my ears were awkwardly pinned to the back of my skull, and my laugh sounded about as genuine as I was a 'genuine' Captain. When the laughter finally faded, I found myself actually yearning for even the most painful of silences, if only to give myself a short break to think. But Yonder seemed determined not to let that happen. "Yes... Yes, I do believe we have met before." Watching the stallion's accustomed smirk slowly erode from his muzzle, I suddenly found myself uncomfortably pinned by an officer's questioning grimace, backing me against the silence I so desperately wanted a second ago. Oh, buck me with lightning strikes! This again!? What does he mean, 'we've met before'!? I... I don't think we have! We couldn't have met unless... unless... I... I guess he could have been stationed in Stratusburg as an officer... He would have had to have been there when I was in flight school, though! Pressure started to sprout over my soul, as Lieutenant Wild's glare piled on its radiating insistence, his red eyes made only more oppressive by the glow of the lantern between us. I mentally dug around in my head for some memory of this stallion, before realizing that even if it were true... then there's no way he would buy me becoming an officer after merely just attending Enclave training! Let alone outranking him as a Captain, no matter who I had 'good standing' with on the council! “I...” Dammit, what do I tell him!? Why else would he think he knows me!? Ooooh! I can't keep lying my tail off to these ponies! But... but I've got to get him off this topic quick or else I--! My eyes were locked with Yonder's for what felt like an eternity. I had nothing to offer in response, and I couldn't help but feel that he knew. Like he somehow always knew... All I could think to do was prepare for the worst. I took a breath as if I were about to speak again, hoping the stallion couldn't see my wing tip slowly dip into my holster, or hear my feathers skid along the plasma pistol within, when like a knife, another silhouette curtly slit our sources of light in half. I blinked, and for a moment, I could have sworn the world of red around me turned to an eerie shade of white. Oh no, no, no-no-no! My whole mind started to scream at me, making my wing pinions twitch and curl around the trigger. All that was left was to charge up the plasma cells, and... THEN WHAT!? I can't just start blasting like they're DJ Pon-- er... the radio... They're Pegasi!!! Do it! Don't do it! Run for it! Beg for mercy! Do something, Bliss! As the silhouette approached, I made some kind of movement akin to nervously grabbing and petting my tail with my hooves. No! Damnit, not that something you feather brain! Captain-y! Do something Captain-y! But a sweet and carroty smell reached my senses long before I got the command to unfreeze my joints from fright, finding Corsair giving me a look as she prepped Yonder's MRE with her cloud. I blinked again, and quickly threw my tail aside and ripped my wing from my holster. Leaning my foreleg against the table, I flashed my best 'I promise I really am a Captain' grin. She just flushed and looked away. Yeah, that just about sums up what I felt like doing too. The lantern once more casting the room in red allowed me to see Yonder holding a fork in his pinions, bringing the freshly moisturized bits of oats, apples and carrots to his lips. Corsair guided the cloud over to my plate next. I studied her another moment, and suddenly had to fight the urge to cry after realizing what I'd been debating a minute ago. I didn't even know it was her until she'd trotted passed me. Would I have been able to pull the trigger on her? On Miracle, if she'd trotted in instead? Gods, even Yonder... I've only known these ponies for an hour or so, but... Damnit, I'm not a killer! I'm... I'm NOT! Please, don't make me a killer! My chest was starting to get really tight to the point I was close to breaking down right here in front of her. Every sane part of my mind was still screaming for me to run... The hatch was free again! Open! Maybe I could excuse myself and sneak away before they notice! I've already almost blown it! How could I possibly keep this up!? I snapped out of it as I felt a little Sky Vapor pony slap me across the face. Whoa, whoa! Okay... you're right, sis. I need to relax for Council's sake, or else I'm gonna end up choking on my tongue... and then probably my brain if I keep thinking like that. Besides, it's just a little lunch. This'll be over before I know it! Then, all that's left is to wait for Bell to fix this thing and find mom and dad! Just take deep breaths, and-- wait, deep breaths are probably too deep. Yeah, scratch that... just breathe normally, moron! Returning my 'Yup, I'm definitely still a Captain' grin, I at least got Corsair to smile back at me as she gave her cloud a couple of taps with her hoof, hitting all the right spots on it, before it finally released a good portion of moisture. Not too much. Not too little. Huh... she sure knows her way around a cloud. Some might wonder if it were physically possible for a soldierly mare like her to share a similar cutiemark with me. Heh... yeah... that would be the day. Still, my eyes instinctively glanced to her flank, before remembering I'd have no way to see it while her back side was completely encased in her power armor. Still... I'd be lying if I said her lithe, well-fitted armor didn't hug the curvy outline of her flanks and shapely legs rather nicely... But that didn't get me any closer to seeing her cutiemark. ...and then I noticed Yonder glancing at me with a raised eyebrow. W-wait! I was just--! I wasn't looking to--! Ooooh, that's not fair! My cheeks burned as I retracted my gaze. I tried to think of some creative excuse that he'd buy, like 'just inspecting the troops!' or 'just admiring the technological superiority of the pegasi!' Eh... no that's something he would use to convince me he wasn't really trying to lure me into some kind of self-incriminating death trap... I winced as I heard him chuckle softly to himself. Oh great... now I was Captain Fillyfooler! Corsair gave me a concerned look when I face-hoofed. All I could do was give her a sheepish smile as my once bone-dry meal became a quick plate of oatmeal, diced apples and carrots. "Hmmm..." Yonder shrugged as he hummed to himself. "'Bout what I figured... Not bad, but a bit more of a soggy experience than what I was hopin' for." "Well, what were you expecting, biscuits and gravy?" Corsair snorted, "After three days, it was pretty delicious if you ask me." It... definitely smelled like food I enjoyed. Actually, if I didn't know any better, I'd think Mom had just made me a home cooked meal! I still felt a little queasy, but tried to ignore it as I picked my fork up with my right, still mobile, wing. "I'll go check on Bell. See if she's made any progress with the repairs." Corsair said, placing the small cloud in one of the crates among the rest of the transport's cargo. Her gaze swiftly turned to my own. "Oh, and Private Breeze should be done soon. She'll be here with your... uh... -cough- ...your Dashite brand in just a bit, Captain." With a clank of her rear hooves, the power-armored mare gave a salute with her wing, before trotting back out. I watched her armored scorpion tail vanish through the hatch, before quickly twisting my head back around, not wanting to give Yonder any more ideas. Once again, I was alone with the dapper lieutenant. If there was any hesitation left, I forced it aside as I scooped up the cloud-grown produce and took a bite. It... Okay, it did taste pretty good when actually prepared properly, at least compared to how I'd eaten it this morning. The carrots were... more or less, carroty... though a bit soft and mushy. And the apples, while still somewhat juicy, somehow seemed even more bland than normal, barely enough to sweeten up the small cup of oatmeal we got on the side. All things considered... no, it wasn't what I was used to back home, and I'm not sure I'm quite ready to say I can get used to it. But... at least it was something. While my wing dipped down to poke my fork into my next bite, Yonder had already defeated half his plate. He suddenly chuckled in-between his chews, before looking back to me. "Well... I am of the opinion that today is not exceptionally a good one for rememberin' past times." I swallowed before I could finish chewing my second bite, nearly making me choke for real this time. "...you mean... about where we've met before?" He nodded, eying me more curiously now. "Yes... I do believe you were about to explain before our meals arrived..?" I felt myself get pale at that, my eyes slowly widening as I stared at him from across the 'officer's table'. My ear twitched nervously as I blindly grasped for a memory, and realized I was scraping the bottom of my thought barrel... that was until a tiny Sky Vapor pony saved me again, this time by shoving a single word to the front of my mind. H-huh? My head slowly tilted to the side, examining the word behind my panicking eyes, thinking of a way to make it all significant. "Maybe... I mean, uh..." I couldn't help my forehooves from shyly tapping together as I spoke. "...you'd have seen me if you were part of the surface operations with the..." I gulped, then finally uttered the word out loud. "...Hellhounds?" I prayed to the guardians that it was an actual thing and not part of some kind of nursery rhyme I heard as a foal. The stallion froze mid-bite at the word, only moving to slowly drop his fork, before raising his eyes to squint back at me. "Ah... you mean you took part in General Harbinger's scouting party project." Yonder drawled, another smirk slowly forming. "I'd gamble those mind control experiments could have been one of the better projects... it really could have been..." He shook his head. "But no... no we didn't meet there... uh..." He put his hoof to his chin in thought. "Eh... you were at Griffinstone, right?" I blinked as my mind began to merge anything I could remember, from Pegasus history lessons as a filly to the war stories my sister used to tell us about. "Y-yeah..." I nodded thoughtfully, "Uhm... a couple of years back... during the third invasion of the Griffins." "Eck..." Yonder winced, and I could almost see a replay of the battle behind his eyes. "That there was one stroke short of a modern art masterpiece. Brutal, those bunch." Taking a bite of his leftover oatmeal, he gestured to me again with his forehoof. "So, was that where you were promoted?" “Yeah. I-I uh...” I rolled my eyes as I brainstormed. But with time short, and Vape's inspiration running dry, I found myself glancing away for any kind of mental boost. But aside from more cargo, the only other thing littered around the crates and boxes were several clipboards holding assortments of paper documents together. The closest one on the crate behind Yonder, read: "Shipping Manifest. Origin- Neighvarro. Destination- Stratusburg. Ship Number- 17. Shipment Description- Steel, Concrete, Mountain Resources, Old World Tech, Misc. Stable-Tec Debris". My eyes snapped back towards Yonder before he could give me another quizzical glare. "...cornered a Griffin mercenary unit. After interrogating the survivors, I led my squad to their camp... they had a mining operation... uh... some kind of scheme to trade resources with the surface... I uh... I think." I suddenly felt myself smirk at the thought. "...figured Neighvarro would find a better use for it than they would." The lieutenant chuckled at that as he finished another bite. "Yeah... yeah I do believe I heard about a victory there... so, that was you, huh?" I opened and closed my mouth in surprise, before biting my tongue and nodding. His forehoof abruptly reached across the crate, and lightly, playfully, swatted my shoulder. "That... if I may say, of course... is a well-deserved promotion, ma'am. I'm sure General Hazard was proud. You oughta be proud." Oh, I was proud alright... proud I was able to pull that out of my tail! Yet still, for some reason, his compliment forced me to grin, and I had to make sure to hide a spreading blush with my good wing, using it to scoop a good amount of oats and apple slices into my mouth. I couldn't help but push my chest out another inch as his appreciation spread a pleasant feeling of warmth inside me. More silence fell on us as we chewed on our meals... but... instead of the dread it brought through the transport's darkness, or by the lantern's unsettling crystal light, or with Yonder simply regarding me with that deep suspicion of his... it felt as if now, I was just enjoying a meal with a colleague... a friendly one at that. After about a minute, I swallowed another bite (is it just me, or is this suddenly starting to taste better?) I gestured with my hoof across our crate, much like he had. "And you?" I asked, raising my brow. "During the invasion?" He shook his head. "Not there for long, I'm afraid. I was reassigned to lead a squad in our southern jurisdiction, where a Pegasus colony was needin' Enclave protection. Settled around a Sky Port... uh..." He squinted, snapping his wing pinons as he tried to remember. "Midnight Blossom!" He blurted, "I say, it was the Midnight Blossom Sky Port." My ears perked at the mention of that. I'd heard about that Sky Port when I was in school! Genuinely curious, I leaned forward, my attention thoroughly caught by the stallion. "Yeah... I remember that. So, you fought in the Thestral Conflict?" "Heh..." He chuckled, "If you call holdin' position for three days until we realized they were gone, 'fighting'... never did see a single damn bat the whole time there... yet picked a few of us off durin' the night. The fourth kind is a tricky sort, I'll give'em that... if it really was them, of course. I have doubts, but that's just myself." A reasonable opinion... though his grin made it seem like I should believe the exact opposite. I awkwardly shrugged and changed the subject before I accidently involved myself in... something I probably don't want to be involved in. "Uhm... so, how long have you been an officer?" "Oh... been about five years now." He said, "Cut my teeth dustin' a bunch of abominations off Mount Aris." As he spoke, I could have thought his cap was back on, as a cloud seemed to pass over his face. "Gods, Mount Aris..." His eyes narrowed as he shook his head, a low pitch creeping into every tired word. I was about to nod solemnly in the heavy quiet that followed... Until he laughed. "I loved it!" Okay... maybe I read the room wrong? I had to keep myself from gawking in astonishment. "Some uh the best days I've had in the Enclave..." He sighed, giving another smirk. A smirk that my past self would probably want to run far away from. In fact, everything about the way he said that should have screamed, 'Run for your goddamn life, little pony!' And yet... I found myself fighting to hold back a giggle. What can I say? His delivery was pretty funny... I quickly tried to morph it into a raspier laugh as Yonder extended his wing in front of him. He reached into the breast-pocket of his uniform and removed a small grey pack, which featured a faded picture of a smirking pegasus mare in sunglasses on the front, smoking, her forelegs crossed over her chest, while saying: "You too can be Twenty Percent Cooler!" Yonder put it to his muzzle in a routinely manner. Then, when his wing lowered it, a cigarette was tightly held between his lips. His gaze quickly shifted back to mine, before swinging the pack towards me with his wing. "Cigarette?" I blinked in surprise, the offer going over my head at first. I must have impulsively nodded in approval, because the next thing I knew, I had replaced the fork between my wing pinions with one of the lieutenant's cigarettes, while his own wing had swapped the pack for a fancy Enclave engraved flip-lighter, plated in gold and platinum. One spark later, and both were lit by its tiny flame. So, you've probably guessed that I've... eh... never smoked before in my life. I didn't exactly plan on starting any time soon, but... well... I guess I've always wondered what it would be like to be Twenty Percent Cooler... Putting it between my lips, trying my best to mirror Yonder, I sucked a breath of air through the stick... and tears immediately welled in my eyes. I felt as if I might as well have swallowed a chunk of ash, as my throat started to burn like crazy! And that warmth inside me was no longer pleasant... in fact I was pretty sure the inside of my chest had just burst into flames. "...t-thanks." I managed to wheeze, suppressing a cough. Not wanting to make a scene, I swallowed whatever tantrum my lungs were ready to throw, as if I were swallowing vomit... actually, I'm pretty sure I did that too... And I was almost certain that if I had a mirror in front of me, I'd be able to see my ears bellowing black clouds of smoke. Yonder, meanwhile, looked as if he were in a moment of heaven, breathing a sigh of relief as he blew the tobacco smoke across our crate. Yet, his ecstasy didn't seem to last as long as he'd hoped. Pinching the cigarette between his pinions again, he grimaced as he took it away from his lips in near disgust. "Goddamn cloud-grown tobacco..." The stallion groaned, "...'bout as soggy as a Hoofington stratus inspection." His eyes abruptly widened as they again locked onto mine, and for the first time since I'd shown him the Dashite brand, there was a hint of worry before he tried to cover it up with a laugh. "...er-- uh, if I may say off the record, Captain." I had to check my surroundings, before realizing Yonder had just asked for my permission to continue, shrouded somewhere in that last sentence. I nodded, spending a bit more of my growing confidence to flash him a smile. "Go on..." I instantly winced at the sound of my strained voice, suddenly raspier without me even needing to try. Heh... I uh... guess I still need to recover from being twenty percent cooler... Yonder nodded back, and despite his complaint, took another drag of his death stick. "I do believe..." He sighed as if hesitant to say it, "...that pegasus cigarettes are a sin... I say, a SIN against nicotine." He paused to blow more tobacco through his nostrils, the smoggy air barely bristling his pencil-stache. "I tell ya, once you've had a pack uh smokes from the surface... it's just cruel to go back to these." I raised an eyebrow. "You mean... you've actually... had cigarettes from the surface?" "I would hope you not to think to court martial me for that." He joked, "Earth Ponies have always been the better farmin' tribe, that includes tobacco farmin'. I like to think the Pegasi at least outdid the Unicorns, but..." Wait... what exactly is he suggesting here? I gave him a look and he awkwardly coughed up smoke before continuing, "...well, anyway, I'm not sayin' they're better now... given the circumstances, Pegasus cloud farmin' is the superior technique. What with all the taint and radiation and... 'dirt' that they've got to work with down here? If any dirt pony offers me an apple, it oughta be fresh, red, crunchy and one hell of an apple before it so much as grazes my teeth." Leaning forward, he shook a raised wing pinion above the crate. "That bein' said... there's no questionin' the time when Equestria was a livable place. Somethin' that appears to be loomin' on the horizon again." He scoffed, "...that is, if the winds of the council remain on course." I blinked and looked up and down at the yellow stallion. Equestria... a livable place? Like... livable livable? I mean... yeah, sure, stabilizing the surface from its dangers has been a potential policy floating around the Enclave ever since the decline in mountaintops to excavate. And less mountain peaks above the clouds means less resources for us to use. I never really found an interest in politics (not that I'd have the prestige for it anyways) but I always figured most pegasi, like Mom and Dad, were on the traditional side of the debate. You know... like staying away from the deadly wasteland. -sigh- That was our stance in Stratusburg at least. Of course, there were always some loud pegasus politicians out there urging for us to make a triumphant return to Equestria, help the surface dwellers, restore order to pony kind, and probably a variety of other reasons that I... never really understood. Regardless, exactly how to advance that policy... Well... I guess we're about to be the next addition to that debate. "Oh, I'm sure you've heard..." Yonder shrugged, sitting back on his haunches. "Why, one of my first surface engagement assignments was to... well, you know how it goes Captain, to more or less NOT engage with the surface." He rolled his eyes and chuckled, enthusiasm for the subject decreasing with every word. "We were to 'assess the situation' in Whinnyapolis. Followed protocol. Found a former pegasus holdin'. Set up an outpost uh sorts. And... observe. Heh. Of course, we got a little involved with havin' to clear out some baduns that just happened to be around and were sent back with a report detailin' their attitudes and firepower and such and what it would take to deal with'em." I nodded, briefly smirking as a picture slowly formed in my head. "...all just a coincidence that they sent you there, then?" "Oh, of course! Just a routine dive below our protective cloud layer to capture the importance of how a pack uh backward yokels rut in the dirt." He snarked, both of us sharing a moment to laugh. "Yes, well... I do suppose officers close to the council like yourself are at least given an ounce of light on what some uh those bureaucrat projects are for." I flushed, scratching the back of my mane with a hoof. "Heh... Y-you think I had any idea about what they wanted the Hellhounds for?" Seriously, what the heck would they be used for?! "It's not like they'd be real useful falling through our cloudcover." I gave a shrug. "I mean, we flew down to wire a bunch of electrified domes on their heads and made them march to 'Flight of the Shadowbolts'!" I said, spinning one of my sister's tales into my own. Putting a hoof to my chin, I rolled my eyes as I tried to think. "If uh... if I were to guess..." Okay, what am I guessing? What am I guessing? If I were a High General on the Council, what would I--? Wait... if I were planning to engage the surface, I would want every option on the table. Maybe the Enclave really is considering an attack... I cleared my throat. "...the only use for them would be to support an assault on the surface. But public support for another war, especially one with the surface, isn't quite where it needs to be yet. So... we're left with coincidences and experiments until morale is up." "Morale..." He suddenly raised his eyebrows. "Yeah... speakin' uh morale, that reminds me of somethin' else I've been meanin' to ask you... the Pegasi of Stratusburg ought'a be mighty crossed for what those murderin' surface sympathizers did to their governin' buildin'..." My calm suddenly dropped at the mention of my home as I sat up much straighter. "...yourself included." His eyes once again regarded me curiously. My own could only return an instinctive glare that even I found inscrutable. "...c-crossed." I murmured back, and I could have sworn I started to hear the explosions and desperate cries for help. See the shocked and frightened pegasi scrambling away from the HQ. Feel the slow fading of heat as it fell away with the Vertibuck. Smell the blast charred clouds around me... The scar on the back of my neck began to burn more intensely, before having to hide my hooves under the table as they started to shake. I... NO! Sweet Council, please don't make me fall apart in front of him now! "Well, I... it was a... I mean, what happened was a tragedy, and--" "Anypony close?" He interrupted, "In your Headquarters, that is. When it blew?" "I..." My voice got caught in my breath as the thought locked away all my words. All I could do was keep a stiff lip, fight my eyes from turning glossy and nod. Yonder sighed. "Listen, Captain... I've handed the leadership of my platoon over to you. As the higher rank, your authority is beyond question, of course..." As he spoke, his forehoof began lightly clip-clopping against the crate-top as if suddenly anxious. "...but, I do hope you understand when I say that your judgment is... a mystery to me." Yeah... that makes two of us. I mentally winced but compelled myself to laugh. "A mystery? What uh... what do you mean, Lieutenant?" "Well I... I'd gamble that after what happened to poor Comet Chaser out there, that our platoon is rightfully itchin' for some justice..." He paused for another smoke, fogging up the cargo hold with more tobacco. "...now, what I can't imagine is what you're itchin' to do after that terrorist not only destroyed your governin' building..." A terrorist who I helped. "...but also killed your entire Verti-buck squadron..." Who wouldn't have burned alive if I'd just done my job! "...and then of course there's your wing injury..." He shrugged and I felt my fake smile begin to strain. "I guess I'm tryin' to ask if you're holdin' up okay after all that..." He said, an unnatural but genuine concern in his eyes. "I-itching? But I'm not-- I mean, I'm just..." I shook my head, quickly searching for something to change the subject. Damnit! Why did we have to talk about this!? I... I REALLY don't want to think about it! I... I just can't right now! "I'm... -sigh-" For the love of the Council, please change the subject before--! It was too late... "I can assure you that I'm fine, Lieutenant." I lied. "I-I just... We..." My words began stumbling from my mouth as the wall around my concious began to crumble again at Yonder's question. If I'd just done my job, none of that would have happened! It... it was my fault for letting the Dashite through the checkpoint. I'd failed to ask for her credentials... and I... I failed Stratusburg and everypony on board the Verti-buck! I... I failed the Enclave. I failed my parents! I... I... I JUST FAILED EVERYPONY! I searched around, hoping Yonder couldn't see my reddening eyes through the already red light. I wanted to sob right there. And I came real close... But instead, I desperately zeroed in on the first thing my eyes fell on, finally distracting myself before I completely lost it. "Y-your radio!" I blurted, pointing a hoof. The surprised stallion's eyes snapped towards the object still sitting across from us on the crate. I cleared my throat as I struggled to recompose myself. "I heard you listening to it earlier. On Enclave Radio even!" For some reason, the change in subject seemed to disappoint him. "U-uh... Yes, I was... We do get the frequency down here. Unfortunately, it was damaged in the crash. Not even Corsair or Thunder Bolt's power armor mics can input properly." “Aha! I knew it!” I felt as if I should be happy for guessing right from earlier... but, for some reason my happiness wasn't working on its own, so I had to force it with a smile. "Um... Captain..." I ignored his wary tone, having since grabbed the radio, pretending to know what I was doing adjusting the device's dials to keep myself from shaking. "Hey, did you catch a second frequency when tuning in? Because there's this dirt pony called DJPon3 down here who plays this music and tells the news. He even mentioned the HQ. Which is an obvious breach of security. The Enclave will probably need to deal with him in the future. I'll be sure to put it in my report." I let a Dashite ruin my life... destroy my home... kill my fellow pegasi... maybe even my friends and neighbors... and I was talking about filing a report? "I say, Captain!" Yonder snapped, swiftly shutting me up before awkardly clearing his throat at his outburst, calmly reaching out to lower the radio down from my grasp. "You said our mission will be to engage with the settlement down the mountain to rescue survivors... what if we find the ones responsible for the mess they caused you, hidin' out in that very location?" The ones... responsible? The question cut me deep. Is... is he saying we could bring the ponies who destroyed my home to justice? And... what if we found them? What would I say to them? What would I do with them? I hadn't really thought of it, because... well, what right did I have for justice if it was my fault for it happening in the first place?! Weakness landed on me like an anvil. I could hear a tiny Sky Vapor pony trying to cheer me up, but I just wouldn't have it. I felt bile rising in my throat. But... If... If I let this affect me... No! I couldn't let it! Captains don't let it! I... I have to fake it! Thankfully, there was still one resolve I had left to clamp down on. "I-If we find them..." I sighed, hardening my eyes as I glared straight into Yonder. "...then we deal with them however we deal with them. But the ponies who matter there are not the traitors... The survivors come first." The stallion stayed oddly silent, so I cocked an eyebrow. "Understood?" "Hmm... yes, Ma'am." He said, a bit stiffly, before tilting his gaze back to me, his lips smirking again. "It's reassurin'. Your word, that is. I do believe me, and my ponies, are in safe hooves with your judgement." I couldn't tell if he really 'did believe' a single word he just said... I know I wouldn't have. Looking down at his forehooves, he shook his head with a shrug. "However, as I said before, these ponies will want justice for what happened. It's a matter I've been turnin' over in my head for the last pack'uh days, and how we should be respondin' to those deserters of ours..." "W-well, uh... you can stop turning it over." I said and his smirk vanished in an instant. "Now, just wait a cloud pickin' minute... Just because you don't find yourself angry at those murderin' bastards for killin' your friends--" “Enough!” I screamed. He flinched back, leaning away from me as I glared. Fuck! Why did he have to say it like that?! I am angry! I just... Ugh! “Don't say anything about friends... or... or whoever else could have been in there! I was there, Leutenant... I don’t… need to hear about it. About them. Or any of it. Just... please...” I begged, desperately trying to control my breath from showing cracks. “I'll... I'll be sure to give Seargent Corsair and Seargent Bolt and Corporal Belle and Private Breeze what's deserved for what they've been through..." I forced a sigh. It was all I had to calm myself down. "...and I promise that Private Chaser will get his justice.” Taking a mental breath, I knitted my brow and finally stood back up on my hooves. "It's a matter I will deal with." I said as evenly as I could, before continuing more firmly, "...and is no longer your concern." I just hope it was enough for him not to ask how I'd deal with it. His ears pinned back as I loomed over him, standing on rear legs with my forehooves hoisting me over the edge of the crate. His wide eyes seemed to study me, and strangely, they were surprised instead of suspicious. He opened his mouth to speak. I gulped, my hooves starting to quake under my weight, knowing that he was about to ask the question before I had time to think of the right answer... but he never finished, as a roll of thunder surged through the transport with a loud bang, and the ceiling lights abruptly flickered on above us, vaporizing the lone red light from the lantern. The darkness was gone... for the moment. There was a low winding sound of a generator below us, sounding as if it were on the verge of turning over, before everything collapsed back at once. The winding depressed back to nothing as the lights flickered back out, and the red returned. A fit of harsh hacking and rasping coughs erupted from beneath our hooves, followed by a long list of obscenities I could hardly begin to explain. Now all I could think of was a small, gorgeous mare such as Rotor Belle going against Captain Short Fuse in a contest to see who has the worst temper. "That blasted, stupid, cloud generator! Fuck you, you cheap clanking heap uh junk! Aw, goddamnit! For council's sake, Thunder, open up that moisture vent, will ya!? Who in the hell turned it closed, AGAIN!? Oh Magnus, fuck me with your--!" I cleared my throat, Yonder and I still staring at each other in silence as Bell waged a war with her tools, slamming them against the evil compartment below us. "Gyaah! Tute-blurtle-rattle-crap-camel-klirk! You mother fuckin' piece uh jerk off cunt crap! Drop dead you dumb fratterhaustikkelfieffe!!!" The fur on my coat stood on end, making my ears twist around in disgust. Yeesh! Those words could make a dirt pony want a bath if she heard them... "O-oh guardians, Bell..." A familiar soft voice sighed. I turned and spotted Miracle standing in front of the hatch, staring at the deck beneath her hooves. Shaking her mane, she stood back up straight and saluted with her wing, revealing the cloud and lightning bolt brand tucked behind it. "Miracle Breeze, reporting as ordered, ma'am." I would be lying if I said she didn't immediately make my heart flutter. Just hearing her voice had practically washed all the sin I swore Bell's profanity had just doused me in. I blinked, realizing I'd been standing there, staring at her while she waited for me to respond. I blushed, quickly saluting her back with my own wing as she relaxed. Hoping the simple mental demand was enough, I tried to shake away the burn in my cheeks, before turning back to Yonder. "U-uh... what were we talking about?" His expression unreadable, he took another drag of his cigarette before his lungs relieved a breath. "...justice." He stated, flatly. "-Ahem!- Right!" I... still had nothing. I looked around like a bird struggling to fly with broken wings. And once again, my eyes fell on Miracle. "Well, uh... Like I said before... the solution is right here." I gestured my hoof towards the adorable mare. "W-wha-huh?" She stammered as both Yonder and I turned to stare at her. "But... but I'm not a--" Stumbling back on her hooves, she frantically traded looks between us. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and giggle at her flustered expression. Raising my brow, I nodded to her wing. It finally seemed to click when she blushed with embarrassment. "O-oh! Uh... right!" She chuckled, flashing a nervous grin. Her wing unfolded and set the Dashite brand down in front of us. As she did so, she glanced at me, then at Yonder in confusion. "Justice? What do you mean?" Alright, Captain Sky Bliss, time for a... -sigh- ...a captain-y plan. Yonder opened his mouth to answer, but I beat him to the punch. "Well, those Dashites who attacked your friend couldn’t have gone far. And the closest place to fly to is that surface settlement down the mountain. Since that's where we're headed, we might as well brand any we find as traitors and make sure they don’t hurt any more Pegasi while we rescue the HQ survivors." I said with a reassuring grin. Ha! Nailed it! At least that's what I thought for a whole two and half seconds... Clearly, Miracle wasn't quite on the same page as Yonder and I on the matter. "You... you want us to brand the ponies who deserted... for revenge?" Revenge? Who said anything about revenge? This was justice... right? "It's very clear on the matter, Private Breeze... the law, that is." Yonder said, his tone patronizing. "But--! But they're our platoon, Lieutenant!" Her ears flattened against her wavy mane in shock. "I... I'd just helped Private Cloud Wisp with her leg injury! A-and Private Wind Stomper and I are friends from flight school! And Corporal Rain Fly, he--!" "Murdered Private Comet Chaser!" Yonder interjected, making the pale grey mare gasp. "I do believe he was your friend as well, was he not?" Miracle stayed silent, casting her gaze to the space between her hooves at a loss. "U-uh... I'm starting to get the impression that justice isn't as high a priority for the platoon as you thought it was, Lieutenant Wild." I said calmly, trying not to look smug as I arched a brow. The smile that came across Yonder's muzzle as he looked at me put that concern to rest as it sent a chill down my spine instead. "Perhaps it's not..." His eyes squinted, but his smile never stopped. His cigarette had gotten noticeably shorter, as he'd apparently inhaled a significant drag off it at my quip. "...have your orders changed then, Captain?" He asked politely, sighing an incredibly long breath of smoke. I felt a timid spike in my heart as the tobacco clouded around my head. Captain-y, Bliss... think of the Captain-y thing to do. I had to remind myself, suppressing a cough and trying to relax. You can't just neglect Enclave law! Besides... killing their own... that's not right! I let out a long sigh, the smoke finally clearing. "No... I'm sorry Miracle, but ponies who desert the Enclave and side with murderers and rapists need to be condemned." "B-but--!" She stammered pleadingly, before her ears drooped, her protest dying faster than the speed of a Wonderbolt. "Y... y-yes, Ma'am. I... I understand." She whimpered... and my heart shattered into pieces. Damnit! Was that too captain-y? I... I didn't mean to sound heartless, but... Ooooh! I can't just leave her looking like that! "But-- ...I uh..." I winced, desperately searching for a way to reverse what I'd just said... Somehow without actually reversing it. But I panicked and blurted before thinking. "But... but I wanna hear them out, first!" Both Yonder and Miracle perked up and blinked. Securing my nerve, I shook my head and gave them a gritty stare. "Look, I'm not gonna promise anything. But I want to know why they did what they did. And that's IF we find them while we're helping the survivors, understood?" Miracle's wings sprang up in excitement. "M-ma'am, I... Er... I-I mean--!" She flushed, "...u-understood, Captain." She said, visually relieved, at least to a degree. The mare still looked shaken by both Yonder's revelation, and the plan to condemn her former squad mates. The Lieutenant himself had since stiffened. His silence was starting to worry me. Yet, when I turned to him, he still smiled a little, and nodded. "Understood." He said, calmly. I paused for a moment, casting my gaze to the floor in thought. "...there's... something else..." I muttered, tilting my eyes back up to meet his own. "Whatever shot your transports down... if that settlement is the only one of its kind for miles, then it could be the source." I'd apparently caught his attention, his ears perking as he regarded me curiously. His uh... his wings didn't spring out like Miracle's, though I couldn't help but smirk at the thought. "The platoon wants its justice? Fine. They'll get it when we find who's responsible for bringing you all in this mess in the first place." Yonder seemed to consider that. "And?" He asked, "What then?" Trading looks between them, I flashed a smile and chuckled. "What is it our Council says?" He blinked, staring flatly at me for a moment before his lips slowly curled into a grin. "We brand'em then..." Miracle Breeze flinched at that, her eyes falling back to her hooves, but gave an affirmative nod after noticing my gaze. "U-understood, ma'am." Yonder snickered and shook his head. "I do believe that if I had a glass, I would toast to that." His wing finally discarded his cigarette, plunging the smoldering butt into the scraps of his meal with a twist, putting it out with a tiny hiss. "Well... I suppose I ought to see what those three are muckin' up out there." Placing his officer's cap back on his head, he stood and touched his wingtip to the visor in a salute. "Pleasure discussin' with you, Captain Sky Bliss." He turned to leave, trotting passed Miracle Breeze and toward the hatch. ...but there was one more thing I had to do before he left. "Lieutenant Wild?" Looking over my shoulder, I saw him freeze completely. "Have you figured it out yet?" His head slowly turned to look at me, then raised his eyebrows and blinked. "Figured what out?" "Where we've met before." I said, curiously fluttering my lashes at him as I felt a flash of thrill strike at the numbness within my core. "I'd... really like to know." The shadow from his cap once again blanketed his face before he chuckled. "Oh... yes, of course!" His eyes narrowed, looking me up and down, and I couldn't help but feel pride as his smirk disappeared from his muzzle. "You're--" He grimaced then shook his head with a grunt. "No... no it couldn't be..." I arched a brow. "Couldn't be?" He gave me another look. "It's nothing... it's just... well, I do say, you are an awful lot similar to a mare I knew in my squad. Durin' the surface scoutin' party I went on about... very similar, in fact. In almost every way..." He took a step closer, his blood red eyes looking straight into my pink ones. "Hmm... But no... no you're not her. I'm... afraid I was mistaken." He shrugged with a small chuckle, though his face showed a bit of disappointment. I watched as he turned back around toward the hatch. "It can happen sometimes, right?" I said after him, making the stallion stop again. "Actually, I thought I recognized you too. You talk just like that senator on the radio from Cumulusville. Beauregard Foghorn." I laughed. In fact, I could have fell to the floor in laughter at the unexpected effect I'd apparently struck into him. Without turning around, his wings twitched as his orange tail flicked behind him. "Yeah..." He nodded, then trotted down the steps out the hatch. There wasn't another word he had to say... but the fun quickly ended. And I couldn't have been more relieved for it. My lungs were just about ready to burst before they finally let out my held breath. Thank the skies, that's over... I turned, only to see Miracle Breeze trotting up to me. "Oh... -ahem- was there... something else, Miracle?" She stopped and her eyes went round for a moment. Ah... or she was just trotting passed me and wasn't expecting me to say anything. Her lips parted as if about to blurt an answer, but then her eyes caught something at my side. Finally, she straightened herself with a nod. "Yes, actually... I wanted to ask about your wing, ma'am. Y-you... said it still hurt when we first arrived. Do you want me to check on it, just in case? I..." She looked at me and flushed, "I still don't have any painkillers, but might be able to adjust the sling if it's uncomfortable for--." She suddenly stopped talking with a wary look. "Ma'am? Are you feeling alright?" "H-huh?" I blinked and became swiftly aware of the burning in my cheeks again... though this time, it wasn't because of the lovely mare in front of me. No, seriously! I swear it wasn't! I tried to clear my head of its daze by giving it a shake. "Uh... Sorry, it's nothing." I had to clear my throat when it started to burn. Eventually, my eyes fell on the Dashite brand still on the floor. "But... yes... I-if you could... with uh... with my wing... that would be... g-great, like a m-miracle! ...er...I mean!" I said, slowly scooping the brand up in my hooves. "Ma'am!" She winced, "You're... ah... oh my..." My legs began to quiver as they trotted me forward. I urgently nudged one of the loose crates open with my muzzle and carefully placed the brand inside. Giving a nod, I made my way to the nearest open crate beside it... and voided my stomach of the meal I'd eaten with Yonder. Violently. Aha... for my first act as this Platoon's commanding officer, I, Captain Sky Bliss, designate this the puke crate! I staggered and fell to my side, Miracle crying out as she galloped up to me. See? Told you it wasn't because of her... Author's Note Whew! Finally finished this one! Deeply apologize for not getting this out sooner. I still don't feel completely satisfied with it, but I figured I had to squash that feeling to finally get this out. That on top of finding less and less time and inspiration to write, it was about time. But enough excuses. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and really hope it wasn't too slow for you since it was a very dialogue heavy chapter, plus I noticed that it's almost as long as the last three chapters put together, so if you're reading this, I'm glad you made it all the way! As always, I hope you leave some feedback if you have any so I can improve my writing or fix any mistakes. And stay tuned for more of Sky Bliss in the future!
In The Land of Traitors"Yeah well, whoever you are, I just dispatched a verti-assault team to your location. Have a nice day." "This is Angel one seven! We are going down in Stratusburg sector Alpha Tango seven niner! Mayday!" Gone... It was just... gone. Everything. Everypony... I've never seen so much fire in my life... Stratusburg's governing headquarters... it was there one minute, and gone the next... just consumed by the inferno, and-- Oh gods... I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched the entire structure collapse, right through the torn open cloud layer. The blast was so large, it even took down the vertibuck sent to try and contain the fire. A whole squad of pegasi... gone! I sniffled, wiping my nose with a hoof as tears began to sting my eyes behind my visor. I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe, as the glow from the plummeting building slowly faded below the new crater in the cloudcover. So many ponies... my friends, my neighbors, my parents... Skies above, mom and dad! They're all gone... The mare... she seemed innocent enough. It'd only been a week since I stepped off my family's sky chariot for my first ever assignment. I was at my post, with orders to check everypony's ID as they entered the HQ. That's when I saw her. Oh, how am I going to explain this to everypony!? I couldn't help it, I had such a hard week! One embarrassing face plant in front of all the other recruits... and another in front of my superiors... within the first week, I had already earned the nickname 'Private Klutz!' I was just so tired and upset and... humiliated! I probably looked like a pitiful mess, because when she saw me standing guard, she asked if I was okay... It... it meant a lot after the last few days. I tried to say it wasn't a bother, but... I guess it was too obvious. I'll never forget what she said to me with that caring smile and silky voice as she tilted her head to let her pretty mane hang adorably over one side, "Well, that's just terrible! I don't think you're a klutz. Those ponies should be ashamed of themselves." And if that wasn't enough to warm my heart, she asked if we could talk more after my shift, maybe share a meal together in the mess hall! I felt like I was about to make my first actual friend in the Enclave! She was so sweet and kind, and I was so excited that I-- I-I... I didn't think I'd need to ask for her identification... I managed to catch a glimpse at her flanks when she trotted by, elegantly swaying back and forth without a care in the world. She must not have realized her uniform had sagged a bit on one side... Even then, I don't think I realized I'd just made the gravest mistake of my life, but my heart still sank to depths I didn't know possible, when I saw the brownish charred scars of a cloud and lightning bolt where her cutiemark should have been. I may have been fresh out of flight school, but I knew what that mark meant. I was about to chase after her, but... I second guessed myself. She didn't seem suspicious at all! She was sweet and conversational. And I... I didn't want to scare off the only friend I could possibly make here. Besides, it couldn't have been what I thought it was, right? Maybe... the light just made it look that way... It only took a few minutes for it to happen. The shock wave actually blew me a good ten feet from the building. Celestia, if it wasn't for my power armor, she would have killed me too! She must have set it off at the base where the clouds were generated and where lightning powered the structure, as one explosion set off another in a devastating chain reaction that sounded like a continuous clash of bone rattling thunder. I heard stories about Dashites, but... but THIS!? How could somepony have done that to so many innocent ponies!? Half the city worked in that building, and now... it's just gone!!! It was so loud... the screaming was so loud! And my parents... Gods, I was just talking to dad before my shift! Mom had told him to fix my armor again. They had a meeting with our Chancellor, and before he left, dad... he hugged me and told me how proud he was. It was so embarrassing in front of all the other recruits, but now... I'd give anything to wrap my hooves around him right now... but, I... I'm never going to see him or mom again, am I? And it's all my fault... Skies above, what have I done!? "Sweep the area!" I gasped sharply out of my daze as I heard the officer's stern voice shout through the thick fog of glowing ash, still floating above the clouds around us. "I want all survivors brought to me for questioning!" He snarled. Oh, I am SO dead... What the hay am I going to tell them!? I could just barely make out his handsome looking uniform and cap through the ash, occasionally covering his mouth with a wing as he coughed. He looked distraught, and lost in the smoke and ash, yet the intimidating pitch black fabric and silver trim of his uniform told me he was hellbent on holding whoever let this happen responsible. "Report!" He coughed again, before scolding a group of power armored pegasi behind him. "I want a goddamned report! There was a mare on duty! I want her here like YESTERDAY!!!" I winced, spreading my wings on sheer pegasus instinct as fright drenched my whole body. With a single flap, I was off my hooves, before several more zipped me behind a cloud big enough to hide behind. My ears perked as I heard their voices close in. "Sir!" One of the soldier mares yelled. I peeked behind the cloud to see her just a few yards away, staring down the giant hole in the cloud cover. "What if she was killed in the blast!?" The officer flew above with a look so fiery, he could have turned her to ash. "I said bring her to the barracks! I didn't say whether I want her alive or not! Somepony is going to pay for this!!! Head or no head!" I watched them continue their search for me, until I swore one of their bug-like visors swiveled toward my hiding spot and looked right at me. I quickly ducked down, slapping a hoof over my mouth to quiet my breathing. But even that couldn't silence a petrified whimper from escaping my throat. I clenched my eyes and bit down on my hoof, praying that they didn't see me. Oh please, PLEASE tell me they didn't see me! "Private Kluuuutz~" The soldiers began to tease as I heard their voices spread across the cloud layer. My heart beat like an off-tempo drum as I tucked my legs, wings and tail against my body and curled up in a pathetic ball. Okay, think Sky! Once they're spread out enough, I can... escape... E-escape? Escape to where!? It's not like they'll just give up searching for me here. They'll start showing my face on the news from here to Thunderhead! I'll be a fugitive. A Dashite! Oh crap! I don't wanna be a Dashite! But what am I going to do!? The only other place to go, is-- THUD! The sound made me squeak in undiluted horror. Something... something just hit my cloud... My eyes snapped open to see two pairs of flamingo pink hooves standing in front of me. Oh guardians, this is it! They found me and their gonna brand me! Every fiber from the tips of my hooves to my wing feathers anxiously trembled as my gaze traveled up the pony's dapperly dressed body. He was definitely a stallion... but he didn't seem to be military. He didn't wear any type of armor or uniform, but his black suit and tie absolutely screamed 'important pony', while his longer black overcoat, which successfully obscured his cutiemark, seemed to whisper back 'none of your business'. The silver E, wings, eyes and arch enclosed by a circle of stars of the Enclave government, was pinned tightly to his lapel. His gold eyes nearly glowed in the night, while his short and styled navy blue mane flapped against the smoky wind current. And his smirk... He was SMIRKING!!! Time felt as if it had disappeared as he stared down at me, remaining silent and almost... charming... It made me feel sick. His smirk suddenly turned into a sneer. I was so paralyzed with panic that I hardly acknowledged that he'd actually spoken to me as he grabbed my hoof with his own and pulled me up with an aggressive yank. My lips finally quivered in response. "W-what?" He rolled his eyes with a demeaning laugh. "You got feathers in your ears, darlin'? I said you better start flyin' or I reckon you'll make this too easy..." He gave my chest a hard push before pressing his forehoof to his ear. "Target spotted in sector 17..." My nerves were so shocked, it took me a moment to realize he was talking into an earpiece, and another to realize that this... was sector 17. I must have still looked like a frozen stuffed pigeon, because he looked back at me with his face nearly aghast. "You still here, feather brain? FLY!!!" I took a step back, spreading my wings as if to follow his baffling order, but hesitated to commit. Tears began to fill my eyes again. I had so many questions, but my voice felt as if it were stuck in my chest. "W-where?" Was all my flat lungs were able to squeak. The mysterious pegasus scoffed as he grabbed the back of my mane through my helmet, making me wince, as he pulled me in his suggested direction. "Where do you think?!" My eyes widened to horrified saucers as I followed his forehoof to the giant crater. "Down... there!?" I was in disbelief. "N-no... No no no! I can't just--!" I was suddenly cut off by the stallion throwing me further towards the daunting exit. A one way ticket to the surface. To the wasteland! I tripped over my hooves and face planted, as several more thuds landed on the cloud behind us. I nervously raised my head to see the officer and soldiers from before, galloping passed him to aim their magical energy battlesaddles at me. "Just who do you think you are, cadet?!" The officer jeered. "You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!" The suited pink pegasus suddenly laughed. "Well what are you waiting for, Captain?" His wing put a cigarette between his smug lips, striking a match to light it with his pinions. "Brand that traitor already." ...t-t-traitor?! My heart stopped as every fiber of my being seemed to snap into place. The turmoil of emotions were suddenly replaced by one focus. One choice... Fly... or die. I twisted back to my hooves and leapt into the air. "OPEN FIRE!!!" Was the last thing I heard through the vortex of adrenaline pulsing through my head. The wind beat unforgivingly against my visor, my mane and tail flapping in my wake, as I dove through the crater. I thrashed my wings relentlessly as they pushed me at a speed I didn't know possible until now. I couldn't even see where I was going. I had no direction or strategy but to just fly down. I didn't care if I slammed into the ground and broke my neck... I just had to keep flying down! I felt cold and empty... believing I wouldn't even notice if I were hit. That naïve belief shattered around me with the rest of reality as I felt the electric burn of crystalized energy strike the back of my head. And just like that, the whole world turned black as I fell into its dark abyss... "Ow! Owowowowow!!!" I stirred awake to the base of my left wing twitching from a painful crunch. Agh! I hate wing cramps! Must have tweaked it in my sleep during my... M-my nightmare... I tried to stretch my wing, but all that did was elicit an agonizing holler as its joint was struck with more pain. "M-mom? Ow! My wing is cramping up again!" I cried out, while making an excruciating effort to fold the appendage back to my side. Yeah... I'm NOT flying anywhere anytime soon. I better take today off. Hope Captain Short Fuse doesn't mind too badly... I gave a defeated groan at that thought. Who am I kidding? With a name like Short Fuse... I waited for Mom to come rushing in with her tender voice to ask if I was okay... or for Dad to make some embarrassing comment about preening my feathers more often... but, when nopony answered my cry, I opened my eyes to see-- "Gyaaaah! AAHH!" I was greeted by a uniform... a captain by the look of the two silver bars on her handsome looking black uniform with its silver trim and matching cap. I instantly tried jumping out of bed, but... wait... Why am I on the floor? I shook that thought away as soon as it came, instead focusing on snapping to attention. But... for some reason, my armor was harder to move... Oh crap, did I fall asleep in my armor? Ugh! Doesn't matter Sky Bliss! Just salute the Captain before you get punished even worse! Probably fell asleep on duty again, you klutz! "Private Klu-- Grrr! Sky Bliss reporting... ma-am?" I gave a confused blink when I realized... she wasn't standing. She... O-oh... Oh no... Gods, she's dead! My heart sank with grief as I stared wide eyed at her cold and lifeless body. O-oh crap! W-what's going on? This... this is morbid! She was laying down against a bunch of rocks with her neck... It... it looked like it had snapped at a rather excruciating angle. It was so terrible, it-- ...wait... ROCKS?! I looked around, only to realize that I was no longer on the fluffy cloud layer of Stratusburg... Just rocks, dirt, and... Oh gods... OH GODS!!! Everything from the HQ's destruction to me falling from the clouds, came rushing back to my memory. I shuddered as more glowing embers and toxic smoke clouded my senses. I coughed into my forehoof and fanned the smoke away with my right wing, while my left remained useless and crippled against my side. Where the hay am I? I decided to trot forward to get my bearings... or at least I tried to. It became harder and harder to move with every step. I chalked it up to my own exhaustion at first, but when a red warning flashed in front of my HUD, I knew it was something... bad. POWER LEVEL CRITICAL! That... can't be good... My power core must have taken damage when they shot me. And my wing... I must have landed on it pretty bad when I fell. Oh, why do rocks have to be so... hard?! It doesn't only hurt when you crash into them, but... jeez, the ground feels so uncomfortable under my hooves. Nothing compared to the soft clean cloudcover. And who would have thought that dirt would be so... dirty! I groaned in both disgust and pain as I trotted further through the smoke. I had no idea where I'd landed, but I got a pretty good hint when my forehoof suddenly reached out to a terrifying emptiness. "W-woah!" I wobbled forward, nearly losing my balance before backtrotting away from the edge of... whatever part of Equestria I apparently landed in. Because that's exactly what it looked like as the smoke cleared enough for me to peer out at the horizon. The sun was completely covered by our cloudcover, so I couldn't tell whether it was dusk or dawn. I last remembered it being night, but... who knows how long I've been out. I was undoubtedly on the surface, but... everything was still up high as I looked down on Equestria below me, complete with charred fields, dead grass and ruined buildings that poked above the horizon like jagged teeth. Was I... on a mountain? I looked up to see the hole in the cloudcover still there. I must have drifted for miles before I finally hit the ground. Directly below it was what looked like some kind of run down shack village, set ablaze by... Oh gods, that's the Stratusburg HQ! It looks like it's still partly intact! Maybe my parents are still alive! I spread my wings, ecstatic to fly down there and search for them, when-- "Ow! Damnit!" Right... broken wing... really hurts... NOT flying... I'm gonna have to get to that village another way. They could be hurt, or... or worse! But, there's no way I'll be able to make it down this mountain with my power armor locking up. And with no way to repair it, I'm gonna have to leave it behind sooner or later. I coughed again as I turned towards the source of the smoke, prompting me to gasp as shock hit me like an angry storm cloud. "Angel one seven..." I said with a gloomy whisper as I came across the burning vertibuck wreckage. Several bodies of armored pegasi laid around the debris, and... just like the officer, they were all dead. These pegasi, however, appeared to have met a much more gruesome end than their captain. By the look of how their power armor had all been fried to a crisp, if the impact didn't kill them, then I had no doubt that the fires did. I despairingly slapped a hoof to my mouth as I saw that one of the soldier's helmets had been knocked from her head, allowing her hallow eye-sockets to forever stare at the pony who helped cause her death. Me... I... I think I'm gonna be sick... I tried to backtrot away, but my armor had nearly locked from the lack of power, and I ended up falling on my haunches. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but my armor wouldn't even allow me that. "I'm... I'm sorry..." I whimpered, "I didn't mean to! I-I was just-- I'm so... so sorry..." I'm not sure how long I sat there... but, in all the time I was there, I found it impossible to tear my eyes away from the carnage, or stop apologizing to ponies who had long since lost the ability to hear me do so. The thought of even being partly responsible for this... it made my stomach twist and my chest ache. I could have sat there until I starved, but something inside me, a familiar voice, demanded that I suck up my blubbering. I found the little pony inspiring, as she always had been when I was a foal, and with another shuddering sigh, I slowly began taking off my armor before it locked me in completely. I peeled the leg plating away first. After that, I was able to move much easier, moving to my flanks and chest plate. I had to be careful with my back so to not injure my wing anymore than it already was. But, when my hooves began lifting my helmet off... "OW! What the--? Why did that hurt?" The back of my neck felt as if something molten had welded my hide to my helmet. I quickly trotted over to the front of the vertibuck, seeing that the right windshield was still intact. Thank the skies for small favors, I guess... After getting as close as I could to the glass... Well... the reflection it showed me was NOT what I was expecting. I gave a mournful gasp as I saw the awful result of getting shot by a beam rifle. My once longer and styled mane would usually stick out the top of my helmet and droop over the side of my face. Now... the lavender and magenta hairs were singed beyond repair. The blast was direct to the back of my head, and nearly butchered everything exposed from it. I sniffled, tears once again welling in my eyes. The once pretty and cute and... rather unsoldierly style, was a bit embarrassing compared to the cooler and butch manes of the more hardened troopers... but mom had worked so hard on getting it nice... and now it's completely destroyed! With a painful scream, I pulled my helmet off, taking a patch of my neck with it as I cringed from both pain and the natural light stinging my pink irises. I tried to ignore the blood dripping down my ghostly purple coat, no doubt leaving a permanent scar behind, as I got a better look at the damage. My once long sweeping forelock that hung down passed my shoulders was gone, replaced by short and uneven spikey bangs that couldn't even hang passed my eyes. The back of my mane was even worse, singed and messy. I used my hooves to try and style it as best I could, but the only form I could get it in was a somewhat organized chaos, with... -sigh- ...more spikes. At least I had a little bit of mane left to hang off my neck, but... gods, I look like-- I paused, blinking at my reflection in disbelief. I look just like my sister... I sniffled, trying to ignore the tight feeling of grief in my chest. Sky Vapor... well... Let's just say I felt I had big horseshoes to fill after we got her devastating telegram. She was one of the most talented fliers in all of Stratusburg. Probably could have became a Wonderbolt if she wanted to. Meanwhile, I barely passed the flight exam. I was an... amateur flier at best. Which was a huge disappointment to my drill sergeant. Apparently, Sky Vapor's portrait is hanging up in the hall of fame somewhere with one of Stratusburg's fastest flight course records. Yet, when I finished the course, I was rewarded with, 'You're a fucking embarrassment to the Enclave, cadet!' Even her cutiemark set the bar pretty high after shooting through all the clouds around us so fast, she turned them to vapor! (-ahem- hence her name, heh... funny how that works out.) It was awesome! I, meanwhile, got mine after hugging a cloud. One cloud. Nothing special or magic about it. Just a big, soft, fluffy and (in my defense) an incredibly-comfy-to-hug cloud. I instinctively looked back at the heart and cloud on my flanks, conflicted in both embarrassment for it being so girly and relief that it hadn't been branded off... yet. Unsoldierly was one thing, but now that I'm down here... in the wasteland... I'm probably about the weakest looking thing out here... And without my armor, I'd get torn apart by... who knows whatever is watching me! I was ready to start another round of mournful sobs, when a strange sound suddenly caught my ears. I knitted my brow as I tried to make out what it was. It took my senses to recover a bit before I recognized the tinny ambiance of pianos, guitars, and drums echoing around the mountainside. It was... music. Not the usual patriotic orchestra music of Enclave radio, but... actual songs. I wasn't exactly in the mood for music, but my ears betrayed me anyway and unconsciously perked, forcing me to listen to the final beats of the song. The melancholy tune just made me want to cry some more... but the little Sky Vapor pony in my head told me to cheer up. It was hard, but... I managed to hold back anymore tears for the remainder of the song. I looked to where it was coming from, but the source only drew my gaze back to the dead captain. Even in death, the officer was still intimidating. She was the only pony spared from the fire... I guess she'd flown through the left windshield on impact and broken her neck. I solemnly trotted back over to her, only to follow her eternal empty stare, still longing for a radio just feet from her outstretched forehoof. The same radio she was screaming into when the vertibuck went down. Did she switch frequencies at the last second? Was... was this music the last thing that she and her squad heard? Whatever she did, her actions were probably what saved the radio from the crash, her own body likely absorbing the impact, even after it looked to have been ripped clean from the vertibuck's console in the cockpit. The song finally began to fade behind the radio's speakers, only to be replaced by-- "Good morning, wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3! With today's musical wake-up call!" Author's Note I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! For those who read this in Alphabet Soup, you probably noticed that this is only half of the chapter I originally posted. The reason is that I'm gonna try to organize it a bit more with the advantage of having multiple chapters, along with a few edits to hopefully make it a little easier to read. The second half will be updated shortly after a quick proofread. As for regular updates for this story after that... I'm gonna try my best. As always, if you can leave some feedback on my work so I can improve my writing, that'd be awesome!
Captain Klutz"Don't they realize we are a mighty tribe of warriors, and should not be crossed!? We have got to break ranks with those weak foals!" "Good morning, wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3! With today's musical wake-up call!" Huh!? I flinched at the stallion's voice. DJ Pon3? But... but that isn't an Enclave station! "Now, if you're a consistent listener, you might be expecting the news BEFORE I move onto the weather. Well, get ready for a slight change of pace my little ponies, because if you live--" *STATIC* "--might have noticed some pretty strange rain drops falling from the sky recently. And when I say 'strange' and 'rain drops' I really mean one entire building just dropped out of the clouds! A building MADE of clouds for that matter. And that's not all. It looks like the structure not only fell, but was consumed in flames all the way 'till it landed on the village below. What the HAY are our 'friends' up above doin' up there?! Your guess is as good as mine. Keep it tuned here for updates." My jaw hit the dirt as I stood there, so staggered by his words that my knees felt weak. A radio station. In the wasteland. Not only exists, but just broadcasted to all of Equestria about our HQ! That... that's gotta be a security breach! There could be all sorts of classified information in that building! I listened, waiting to hear anything else, but apparently it was all the news of the hour, as another song started back up. I was so frustrated that the last remaining strands of my former mane style sprung out to join the rest. "That's it?!" I scoffed, glaring angrily at the radio. "It wasn't us! It was a Dashite! From the surface! And he didn't even mention the attack! And this is definitely NOT Enclave permitted music. I couldn't even count how many regulations this broadcast broke! We can't just let him--!" I looked about, only to remind myself that I was the only pony listening... and, all but a Dashite myself. "I... I can't let him?" I rolled my eyes with a defeated laugh. Yeah right... This 'DJ Pon3' wouldn't be threatened by somepony like me... Not even if my armor was still operating right. There's nothing intimidating about a mare nearly fresh out of flight school. He'd be crazy to think I have any kind of authority to-- All other thoughts suddenly stopped in their tracks as an innocent -yet uncontrollable- idea formed in my head. Before I knew it, my gaze had pivoted to look at the dead officer mare, her body still wedged into the side of a rock. My breath hitched, and I instantly clamped my eyes shut. It... it still made me sick every time I looked at her. I could feel tension rise rapidly inside my chest, as if my heart had started battling two fronts of guilt against my head and my queasy stomach. But it was the sneaky thought that would win in the end. With a shaky breath, I opened my eyes to finally get a better look at the dead mare... but, more specifically, I was eying her captain's uniform. I admit... I was curious. But... I huffed and shook my head. "Oh, come on, Sky! You can't be seriously thinking it can--! I-I mean, it's not like it would actually... make me look..." ... Hmm... I gave my reflection a skeptical look as I fit my ears through the slits in the officer's cap, giving the silver emblem of our Enclave in its center a quick polish, before looking over the rest of the uniform in the windshield. I saw myself give an anxious sigh as I did so. I don't know about this... I look so... I pivoted in place to get a side view of the sleek black uniform, all buttoned up to hug my chest. Even though the sleeves sagged down to my hooves due to the mare being just a bit taller than me, it still looked... impressive. I blinked in surprise. It seemed every second I stared at the mare in the reflection... she looked less and less like... me. Sure, my colors were the same, not to mention my cutiemark. But, the way my mane now stuck out behind the cap, and how my bangs just barely covered my eyes, it was hard to even recognize myself. I gave a curious tilt of my head as my forehoof kicked the dirt in thought. I wonder just how different I can make myself look... I trotted back over to the now bare-coated officer, and looked through her saddlebags. After rummaging through them, I found some dangerous encouragement for my curiosity. After all was said and done, I'd found a plasma pistol, a tobacco pipe, and a makeup bag, which I proceeded to apply to my face, giving myself a darker eyeshadow and thicker lashes to match how the officer wore it. The mare in the reflection looked even more different. So much so, that... I could hardly believe she was actually me. Even with my new chaotic mane, the cap actually made it look natural, and -with the help of the makeup- kinda pretty. While the pistol and dashing uniform gave me an impressive shade of seriousness. And the Pipe... well, I put that back where I found it. I looked a bit silly with it, and even my curiosity knew its own limits. But, something was still missing... I still looked... nervous. I needed to look confident and serious. After a few failed attempts, I finally saw the same stern glare of Captain Short Fuse, except now, on my-own reflection. For the first time in my life, I looked... intimidating. "W-wow..." My ears suddenly perked as I heard DJ Pon3's voice return to the radio. "Ah. That was Sweetie Belle with another one of her timeless classics. And here's me; DJ Pon3, with the news." "W-who do you think you are?" I winced at my own voice. I still sounded... timid. Okay, c'mon Sky Bliss! Time to show this pony that you're NOT just some air-headed filly! All those years of trying to act tomboyish aren't gonna go to waste now! No more screw-ups! Think tough! This time, my voice came out raspier than ever before as I grated it against the back of my throat. "Just who do you think you are, jackass!?" I couldn't help but giggle after I said it like that, though I had to catch myself and try to regain composure. Captains do NOT giggle! I gave a quick sigh of preparation as I tried to remember all the times my superiors had scolded me, and with a tilt of my head and a crack of my neck, I let all my pent up frustration, from 'Private Klutz' to 'DJ Pon3', connect with vocabulary I would otherwise never dare to use as a recruit. "You treacherous, scum! You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!" DJ Pon3, however, was unphased, still continuing his broadcast through the radio. No new updates on my HQ, I noted. Just something about bigotry against... ghouls? "What the hay is a ghoul?" I was genuinely curious as I found myself listening the rest of his PSA, only to shake my head with a scoff. "Focus, damnit!" This time, I approached the radio with an angry glower. "DJ Pon3... You've committed crimes against the Grand Pegasus Enclave." I paused to give him a chance to respond. At this point, I had completely tuned out what he was actually saying, although... I could have sworn I heard him talk back to me. "What was that?!" I snarled. DJ Pon3 stayed silent. "What did you say to me, huh?! How DARE you deny it?! I should kick your freakin' ass!" DJ Pon3 snickered before satirically claiming he had no idea what I was talking about. I gave him a look. "Oh? A wise guy, huh? We'll see how smart you feel with my hoof up your ass. Dickhead!" He seemed stunned by my response and began to apologize. His sudden change of attitude made me laugh. "You know what, ground-pounder? I want you to use those strong legs of yours to run..." He gave me a confused look and asked me to repeat. "You've got feathers in your ears, buck-o?! I said run!" He took a step back as my right wingtip curled down and pulled the plasma pistol from my holster with threatening intent. "I'm giving you a chance... and all you do is stand there like a fucking pigeon!? Get going! RUN!!!" He struggled to comprehend what was happening. He tried begging for mercy, but knew I wouldn't give it. He finally took the opportunity as he spun on his hooves and galloped away as fast as he could. I closed one eye as I looked down the sights. Well DJ Pon3... or whoever you are... The only thing ponies will remember you by is the after-action report we show the recruits... I pulled my wingtip against the trigger, and-- PEW! I clenched my eyes and winced as I felt the recoil throw my whole body off balance. My lungs betrayed me after years of teaching myself to act tomboyish and hardened... only for an all too sissy squeak to escape my throat. Whatever audience of spectators I imagined suddenly came to life around me, the charred ponies from the crash waking up, only to gasp in shock as the plasma bolt missed its target... "Nice shot, CAPTAIN Klutz!" A stallion behind me teased... igniting the powder keg of loud crushing laughter that erupted from all the other pegasi. I insecurely tucked my tail between my legs, completely humiliated. I suddenly felt like I was back in flight school. I wanted to bury my head in the clouds and cry... but I had no clouds to do so... I bit down on my lip to keep it from quivering, and with a determined curse of my breath, I tried again. Another miss, and another, and another, until... "Son of a mule... Hold still you little--!" Finally, I hit my target... if just barely. The crystalized acidic plasma tunneled through the corner of the radio, and began to melt the brown metal frame into the tubes and wiring beneath, making whatever news DJ Pon3 was reporting to the wasteland die into utter nonsense, only for another song to sputter and gurgle its way through the mesh speakers... almost as if the stallion were still mocking me with his stupid music. "W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WWWWWe'll meet again. Do-...*STATIC*...-ow where. Don't know w-when... *STATIC*know we'll meet again. Some sunny daaaaaay. Keep smiling through. Just like you always do. Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds, far awa--" PEW! I shot it again, this time straight through the center. The radio finally peeled apart into molten metal and goo, at last silencing it forever. DJ Pon3 was gone. Worse still, he had never been here to begin with. Nor the other pegasi, save for the same dead ones from the crash. Their laughter had died quicker than a stir in the wind... I cautiously searched for anything else of use... specifically food. I was so hungry, I could eat a-- I hesitantly glanced at one of the 'well-done' ponies beside me and winced. This time... it was my stomach that won the tension, as I started to feel acid rise and burn the back of my throat. Okay, I'm not that hungry. I hardly believed I'd find anything here that wasn't ruined to ashes, but a box of MREs survived the flames... even though their packaging didn't necessarily survive the crash. But, after concluding that squashed MREs are unequivocally better than starving to death -or resorting to cannibalism-, I tore open the package with my teeth, and chowed down on the dehydrated cloud-grown produce. Hopefully it wouldn't wreak too much havoc on my intestines until I find something more suitable. I adorned the captain's saddlebags and pocketed the rest of the MREs inside. I was in the process of keeping the contents from coming up my throat again, when I spotted something unique sticking out of a pile of embers in the dirt. It looked like some kind of metal stick... or maybe a pole, it's colors contrasting with that of the vertibuck. The end looked scorched by the glowing coals, while the handle looked safe enough to touch, so -failing to check my impulse- I reached out and wrapped my forehoof around it. I was about to pull, when something suddenly stirred in the dirt behind me... followed by a soft feminine gasp. My first thought was that it was a survivor from the crash who must have gone out to scout ahead, before returning to find me wearing their dead officer's uniform. Damnit, Sky! Why didn't you think this through?! I was so startled, I could have jumped out of the captain's uniform... I almost wish that's what I had done, as my legs bounced my rump so high that I lost my balance and fell on my face, thankfully finding a nice patch of hard gravel instead of scolding hot embers. That's it, Sky! Keep looking on the bright side... I recovered as quick as it happened, grabbing back hold of the strange pole and yanking it free of its burning pit. I went so far as to take a defensive stance with it in my forehooves, which in retrospect, probably wouldn't have done horseapples to stop whatever projectile weapons she likely had. However, it frightened the mare all the same... in fact, maybe even more so than what any gun could have, as she stared at me, frozen and terrified beyond all belief. It took me a moment to realize what I'd done to spook her, as my gaze lowered to the sizzling orange glow of the infamous cloud and lightning bolt that made up the other end of the pole. Oh... that's... Holy Hurricane! The mare eyed the brand for a while longer, obviously uncertain about my next move as she gave a nervous gulp. However, with a puff of her chest and a salute of her hoof, she showed a valiant effort to suck in her fear... valiant, but not quite successful. "Miracle Breeze, reporting for duty, ma'am!" She announced clear as day, as she strained her otherwise soft-spoken voice to sound more determined. My eyes blinked in confusion as I watched her salute... me?! I looked around, half expecting another officer to be standing behind me, before finally realizing the only pony here who even looked remotely like an officer was... me. I hesitantly let one hoof go of the Dashite brand before saluting her back. She returned her hoof to the ground, and everything became quiet. We stared at each other for the longest time... well, at least she was looking straight at attention, while I just stared at her in awkward silence. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to be scared to death of her reporting me to the Enclave or relieved to see another living pegasus. I was just about to accept the possibility that I might never see one ever again. Though, maybe I should have been so lucky... Yet, she didn't seem to look or even act very... Enclave-y. She was Enclave, I could at least tell that by her black coveralls and beam pistol strapped to her leg. But, no armor, barely any weapons... no aggressive nature to her rather delicate looking frame. Her coat was a soft pale creamy-yellow, while her scarlet red mane was left long and wavy in front, her styled forelock hanging over her face. She had to have been no older than a cadet herself, and looked... rather cute for a mare. Déjà vu suddenly struck me like a clash of thunder. I was so caught in my daze, that I hadn't noticed her lips had been moving. I flushed before clearing my throat. I tried to speak, but... I was too stunned to form a coherent response. Her timid look suddenly tilted in concern as she pointed at my side. "Y-your wing, ma'am. It... doesn't look good. Is it broken?" I didn't need to look down at it to know how 'good' it looked. I'd long since given up on testing my tolerance for my injured wing. As it turns out, tolerance for pain I severely lacked. I continued to stare awkwardly at the mare in silence. I was honestly at a loss for words. She had no idea who I really was or what I did. And there's no way in hell that I can tell her... I don't care how timid she looks. She's Enclave and I'm... I-I'm a Dashite... Even if she didn't pull her beam pistol on me, it'd be unlikely a single pegasus mare would be down here all alone. There could be a whole platoon waiting for her. Besides, I'm already in enough trouble as it is, I don't need impersonating an officer as a topping on treason. I gave a hesitant nod, trying my best to appear determined, while my heart frantically thumped in my chest. She gave a soft smile in return and began to trot toward me. However, I’m guessing my nod was either too hesitant or the Dashite brand in my hooves held too much of a paranoid kind of sway to it, as she gave a cautious backtrot. "I uh... I can take a look at it. Your wing, I mean. I-I'm a field medic..." She reassured me with a hopeful smile. It would soon evaporate after seeing my doubtful glare. "F-field-- uh... -ahem!- Field medic?" She nervously licked dried lips before nodding. "MmHmm..." I looked her uniform up and down with a raised eyebrow. "Um... What's your tag?" She bit her lip as if to think about it for a moment. “Miracle L. Breeze, serial number 192-01-2125...” I had to say, I was impressed... I at least stutter once or twice when reciting my serial number, but she got through it without a hitch... of course, the timid pinch in her throat almost made her sound unsure of herself. She must have noticed my skeptical look, as she looked down at her hooves to avoid it. "...We were enroute from Neighvarro, when our chariot--" "We?" I asked. She nodded. "My platoon... we were supposed to make contact with a detachment from Stratusburg. But our sky chariots came under heavy fire. We don't know what hit us, but we had to make an emergency landing on the mountainside... the other chariot... they weren't so lucky..." She said in a shaky voice. "We watched them land at the foot of the mountain... They survived the crash, but... there were creatures there. Big creatures! And they--" She clenched her eyes shut with a shiver. "...there was just ten of us after that..." By now I had set the Dashite brand down in the dirt as I listened to her story. That had at least helped put her at ease. "Did you... have any friends in the--?" She gave a solemn nod. "O-oh... Sorry..." I replied, lamely. She wiped her nose with a hoof and sniffled. "Thanks..." She looked at the vertibuck crash behind me, giving a quiet gasp as she saw the bodies around it. "O-oh... Oh gosh! I... I didn't know that you-- I didn't mean to be insensitive to your squad, ma'am!" Huh? What is she-- OH! ...oh... right... I tried my best to keep from turning green at the thought. "Ahem... It's... It's okay, Miracle... It sounds like you've been through a lot... and I appreciate your concern." She gave me back a small smile, but still seemed a bit guilty for unloading her baggage onto me. I didn't mind. To be honest, my heart kind of ached for the poor mare. I gave her my best comforting smile as I draped my one good wing over her shoulder. "I'm Captain Sky Bliss."
The Eyes of the Sky are Upon You"Why do the Yankees always win?" "Because, the other team can't stop looking at the pinstripes." "Aaaand... there." Miracle said, as she finished adjusting the sling. "How's it feel?" I grimaced, giving it a little test as I tried to move the stem of my wing. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that I had dislocated it. And after several excruciating minutes of screaming into my hoof while Miracle snapped it back into place, she decided it best to constrict it in a sling to prevent anymore pain... She might as well have been a medical goddess compared to what I know about medicine, but 'prevent' certainly felt like a strong word. Even an hour later, after following her further down the mountainside, I could still feel my wing throb in a painful chorus with my heartbeat. "You uh... wouldn't happen to have any painkillers?" I regretted asking that after seeing her hopeful smile ruthlessly crushed under my words. "No good, huh?" Miracle sighed, "Sorry, ma'am. I'm still getting used to the field... To be honest, I've never had to put my training to use before now." I winced as I felt a little Sky Vapor pony smack me aside the head, insisting that I cheer her up. I was way ahead of that. I was seconds away from wrapping my forelegs around her and pulling her into a tight hug... However, there were a few problems I noted before doing that. First of all, that might have been too sympathetic for a Captain... and second, I was reminded of how embarrassed I felt when Dad hugged me while in uniform. So, out of concern for blowing my cover in hypocritical fashion, I kept my hooves to myself, and instead gave the cute pegasus a soft smile. "Hey, I'm not saying you didn't do a good job. You'll get the hang of it. Besides, once you get back to the clouds, you'll probably be the most experienced field medic in your class." She blushed... Holy Flash Magnus, I actually made her blush! I've never made another mare blush before! Not like that anyway... She gave a ghost of a smile before looking a bit perplexed as she thought on what I'd said. "You really think you'll be able to get us back to the Enclave?" I paused. Did I say I could do that? I replayed the words of encouragement I put together in my head. Okay, so I didn't explicitly say that, but I certainly suggested it, didn't I? Damnit, Sky, you featherhead! Even if I could somehow contact Neighvarro, they'd need a video feed to confirm my identity... and the identity that'd pop up would probably doom me, Miracle, and the rest of her platoon for associating with a de-facto Dashite. Maybe if I could convince them to fly back through the cloudlayer... I glanced to the sky, searching our ocean of clouds for the HQ-sized hole where I fell through, but when I looked to where I swore I'd seen it last, nothing was there... or more like, something was there to plug it up. I may have dismissed it as the mountain fog just being too thick to see through, but the fresh batch of greyish-orange clouds were as clear as the blue sky above them... Stratusburg must be working overtime to have filled that so fast-- Aaaand... trip. Guardians damn you, stupid rocks! I stumbled so hard that I fell on top of Miracle Breeze, nearly knocking both of us over. Way to go, klutz... The little Sky Vapor quickly corrected me with, 'Captain Klutz'. "Sorry!" We both stammered in chorus, before awkwardly turning away to hide each other's embarrassment. Luckily nopony else was around to see that. We quickly recovered with a mutual silence and understanding that... we probably should forget that ever happened. I grumbled under my breath as I heard the voice of my older sister again, this time teasing me with, 'Sky Bliss and Miracle Breeze, sittin' in a cloud...'. NOT FUNNY, Vape... Well, the awkward moment helped change the subject of me helping her... for the time being, at least. If she's taking me to meet her platoon, they're going to be expecting at least something from me. It was time to put my brain in overtime as the silhouette of a crashed sky chariot transport came into view through the heavy fog along the path. My ears perked as I caught the sound of music in the wind again... This time, however, instead of that DJ ground-pounder or Pon3 or whatever his name was, it was the familiar parade music permitted by all Enclave stations. Well, it's good to know we can still catch the frequency all the way down here. There must be something wrong with it though, or else they would have been able to radio for help. Maybe... they needed a new receiver? Before I could bask in the sound of pegasus patriotism, a mare suddenly cried out from the distance. "You see anything out there, Thunder?" Even muffled from under the sky chariot, I could still hear her smooth voice practically drip of rural Neighvarro. I heard a stallion sigh a few paces to her right. "I'm gettin' sick of answering that question, Bell..." He warned, tiredly. I couldn't quite see them through the fog, but the mare sounded as if she were tinkering with something, due to the occasional sparks lighting up her silhouette, while the stallion sounded like he was on the edge of the mountain. "Damnit, Corsair!" He suddenly scolded, "Give the poor buck some space..." A sniffle came to my ears as another mare quietly sobbed under the tinny assortment of drums and horns from the radio. "I... I ain't leavin' him, Thunder!" She said with a shaky voice. "H-he wouldn't leave, me!" "C'mon 'Sair, he's dead." Thunder paused, only for her heartbreaking sobs to continue. "HE'S DEAD!" His roar was enough to make Miracle and I stiffen in our tracks, abruptly silencing both the crying and the tinkering from the other two mares. "Just... just leave him alone." He finally said, giving a mournful sigh himself as he returned to his former task. "O-oh no..." Miracle's heart sounded as if it had sunk as she quickened her trot toward the three ponies. "IT'S YOUR FAULT, THUNDER!" Bell raged from under the sky chariot, her once smooth voice now loud and direct. I was finally able to match the voices to the ponies, as the fog grew thinner between us. I presumed the chestnut stallion near the edge of the mountain was Thunder. He laid on his belly as he peered out into the mist of the wasteland through the scope of a long beam rifle, his ashy white and golden streaked mane cut short into a mohawk. The usual shine that I would expect from the sleek black power armor he wore was replaced by scratches, dents and dried-up mud... not all of it, I assume, from the crash. I could picture him rolling his eyes behind his bug-like visor at the mare's outburst. "Ain't you fixed it yet?" Bell scoffed, "Ah'm gettin' sick of answerin' that questio-- Oh, goddamn you!" Her silky blonde and pink tail angrily swished between her orange legs. It, as well as her wing feathers, suddenly jolted outwards, as the sky chariot gave her an electrical shock, eliciting a feminine squeak to echo around the mountainside, only to be followed by a blitzkrieg of angry sailor phrases. She punched the underside of the chariot with her hoof, before muttering 'it's your fault we're here', over and over again, each time in a different colorful way. "There's more where he came from..." Thunder replied, making a navy-blue mare with a blasted-back arctic mane to stand up in outrage. "What did you just say, sergeant?" Corsair hissed, rubbing her teary eyes with her wings before pinning the stallion with a fiery glare. If the two were to fight, they just might have been an even match for each other, as the mare wore the same sleek black and scorpion-tailed power armor as Thunder, only she sported a battlesaddle of mid-ranged beam rifles, while the latter appeared to be a sniper. She wore her visor up, allowing her lovely face and beautiful deep blue eyes to burn holes of purebred rage through the stallion's head. "He was our FRIEND, Thunder! You take it back!" "If you would have flown us away from the fire, we wouldn't be in this mess..." Bell continued her begrudged mumblings, prompting Thunder to twist around from his perch and kick her legs in retaliation. "OW! Fuck! What you do that for?! I'm tryin' to fix this!!!" She crawled out from under the wagon to stand in front of him, her long blonde and pink mane drooping over a pair of goggles she wore over her eyes. She was smaller than the others, so she had to look up to meet Thunder's gaze. If it wasn't for the grease stains covering her orange coat and ragged coveralls, she'd actually be drop-dead gorgeous. They all began arguing, occasionally pushing each other with their hooves, Thunder going back and forth between Bell and Corsair, before they all descended into a chaotic physical struggle of grappling, punches and headlocks. "TEN-HUT!!!" They all froze in mid-fight, locking their tangled limbs in place, as they turned their attention to the young field medic, standing with her chest proudly puffed out. The three seemed to weigh the order a moment, looking from pony to pony in confusion before finally untangling themselves. "Where the hay have you been, 'M'?" Bell asked, as she lifted her goggles above her eyes with a wingtip. Miracle looked a bit crushed by that as she sagged her shoulders. "Wha--? I said, ten-hut, guys!" Thunder gave a skeptical glance at his comrades before tilting his head at Miracle with a condescending smirk. "Aaaand? What're you sayin' 'ten-hut', fooooooooor--?" His patronizing question trailed off as he caught me galloping up from behind her, my face plastered with outrage. Something about the way he said that to her... I was reminded of the ponies in my barracks back at Stratusburg, and how they would purposefully ignore my relay of Captain Short Fuse's orders to get me in trouble... "HEY!" I growled, skidding to a halt right in front of him as I stuck my muzzle into his face. "Just who do you think you are, soldier!?" I instinctively snapped the rehearsed line, the words leaving my throat before my mind could fully recover from the memory. Wait... Crap! Did I just--!? My eyes widened as I realized what I'd done. Damnit, Sky! You can't just berate a pony like that! ...especially one who's in power armor! My mouth drying out in panic, I was pretty sure I had already outstayed my welcome. But, before I could make a hasty retreat away from the stallion, shooting out apologies as fast as my lips could move... I saw first hoof the effects of my outburst... Actually, from the second I'd made myself known to these ponies, all three of them had instantly stiffened, snapping to attention after sharing a moment of wide eyes and agape jaws. Finally having followed Miracle's order, they quickly saluted their wings in a perfect line of stunned statues. Huh? Bafflement darted my gaze between them as I tried to comprehend what had just happened, eventually having to shake my head out of its daze. Right! Captain... I am... a Captain. Soldiers salute Captains... and now they're... I... I can't believe they're saluting! I soon had to keep myself from looking smug. Heh... They're saluting me! A Captain! Miracle Breeze saluting me an hour ago was one thing... but having seen these ponies do it too... it all started to sink in. The irony of three ponies, who otherwise would be patronizing me as a recruit -not to mention as a Dashite- now saluting me as an officer, was pretty hilarious. And now... Oh... okay, now they're all staring at me! Quick! Do something... Captain-y! Calming myself down, I decided to narrow my eyes, my glower trying its best to be intimidating as I casually stepped closer to inspect the three pegasi. I stepped so close, I could see the look of surprise in Corsair's eye, the occasional nervous twitch of her ears on either side of her raised visor, then the tiny beads of cold sweat pushing through the short layer of Bell's orange fur. And lastly, even though his muzzle was the only exposed part of his face, I could still see the anxious glance of Thunder's pupils through the gold tint of his bug-eyed visor. I stopped abruptly after noticing the stallion's lip quiver... and he gulped. "Well?" I asked, impatiently. "Does an Enclave medical mare, a pony who may be tasked with saving your life, not deserve any respect when calling you to attention in front of an officer!?" "U-uh..." He began, "W-well, I--" "As a decorated Enclave Captain," I quickly interjected, growling as I poked his armored chest with my hoof. "...should I tolerate such disrespect!?" His face recovered swiftly and hardened. Though caught off guard, the stallion was obviously experienced when responding to a higher rank. "-Ahem!- No ma'am!" He said, direct and clearly. "Sorry ma'am!" ...but I wasn't quite satisfied. This time, I stomped my forehooves in front of the other two pegasi next to him. "AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXCUSES!?" While still saluting, the two mares' other wings instantly pomfed outward in shock, both their bodies flinching from a few stray drops of my saliva. "NO EXCUSE, MA'AM!" They screamed in reply. I held my glare between the three for several seconds before finally approving them with a nod. I turned back to the medical pony in question, where Miracle Breeze stood, now just as stiff as the others, as she tried her hardest not to recoil at my gaze. I couldn't help it. Letting my expression soften, I smirked, giving the adorable mare a reassuring wink... which proceeded to turn her cheeks all different shades of crimson. Heh... I think I'm getting good at that... While her stature remained mostly solid, her lips threatened to smirk back at me, only to quickly snap out of it. "O-oh! Right!" Miracle sheepishly blurted, sounding as if she'd forgotten the obvious. "-Ahem!- Ponies, this is Captain Sky Bliss." The three of them blinked, each pegasus sharing a look with the other. Watching them gave me little defense against my amateur, albeit growing, sense that they might suspect something, feeling helpless as my teeth slowly moved over my lip to gnaw at it. I knew I could scold them like before, and put a stop to the inquiring looks on their faces, but... I couldn't! What if I'd already pushed too much of my luck!? What if calling out their discipline a second time in a row is a step too far!? It was my turn to sweat, as I saw their expressions range anywhere between surprised and skeptical... and I, the sudden, strange appearance of the Enclave Captain in front of them, was the only recognizable thought in their eyes. "Ma'am?" Corsair finally asked, being the first to brave the question. "Permission for us to speak freely?" Curling my lips back over them, I nervously ran my tongue along my teeth. I nodded meekly, preparing for the worst as they all lowered their wings. The mare noticeably relaxed beneath her power armor. "Ma'am..." She said again, as her muzzle split into a thankful, albeit weak, grin. "Gods, are we glad to see you here!" I actually had to bite my tongue to keep myself from sighing too loud in relief. Corsair then turned to the stallion, arching her brow. "Aren't we, sergeant?" She asked, her tone rather forewarning. Thunder didn't look to actually appease her hint as he did genuinely look to feel the same as her anyway, if not more so, coughing out a grateful chuckle as he shook his head in agreement. "I couldn't have said it better, 'Sair." "Agreed!" Bell drawled with a thankful smile. "It's about goddamn time those feather brained dolts sent somepony like you t'a help us out!" "And if you don't mind me sayin' ma'am..." Thunder continued. His armored forehoof suddenly raised off the ground, lifting the gold bug-eyed visor above his face. "...hot damn! It's been a while since I've been chewed out like that!" He chuckled, "I swear, you had me worried I'd be doin' wing push-ups for a month back there!" My face lifted in surprise after seeing his eyes for the first time. They were a sea blue, if just a hair shade different than Corsair's stormy ones, but with a noticeable scar down his left brow. I felt myself staring for an uncomfortable amount of time, before his words finally registered, and I was almost thankful for the burning sense of embarrassment in my cheeks. "O-oh..." My tail swished at the stallion's compliment. It was a compliment, right? Yeah... it sounded like a compliment! "You really think--? I mean, I'm glad you like-- U-uh..." I quickly caught my words before they could continue along a... certain train of thought. The one that never seems to arrive at a good time. What's our fraternization policy again? Wait... Damnit, Bliss! Mind out of the gutter! "I-I mean--!" I hid the crack in my voice behind what was probably the weirdest cough anypony has ever heard. "-Ahem!- Heh... well, you know... with the situation we're in right now... you'll have to excuse me losing my temper like that." My inner pony was still trying to sort through the haze clouding my mind, made only thicker by the fuzzy feeling this stallion was suddenly inducing... and I wasn't sure whether to hate or treasure the fact that the charming smile he gave me after hearing my little bashful filly moment had warmed my-- ...well... a number things. Thankfully, Miracle Breeze had quickly doused the heat, her sweet voice clearing my head as she approached our side. "I was telling the Captain about our platoon, and--" She never finished, however, her ears falling back as she scanned the three pegasi in front of her. "W-wait..." Miracle's eyes stretched wide in realization, before her gaze landed on Corsair. "S-sergeant... where's Comet Chaser?" Just like that, Thunder's handsome smile was gone, and Corsair's beautiful blue glare instantly became downcast, a soggy heartbrokenness drawing attention to the damp fur on her cheeks. "M-Miracle... He's--" Before she could say, there was an abrupt stir within the crashed sky chariot, shortly followed by a sharp click of a dial, which echoed throughout the transport's hull. The only thing keeping the mountainside from descending into a silent void was now the anxious and occasionally mournful breaths of the pegasi before me, as the staticky tune of Hail Cloudsdale was cut short, its orchestra dying with a scratchy end to the radio's frequency. The wind shifted... and it was as if it took every last ounce of my newfound confidence along with it. When the vehicle's door opened, I suddenly felt like a timid filly again, as the black and silver uniform stepped into the murky light. "TEN-HUT!!!" Another hurried shout came from Miracle, noticing the officer stallion herself as the four pegasi once again snapped to attention. Her voice was tiny though, barely worth registering in the back of my mind as I watched him approach me. The officer was a yellow stallion, not as burly as Thunder, but where he lacked in that, he made up for in class and style. His gold mane was combed into a pompadour as he brushed it back with a hoof. He tilted his head down and put his cap on, covering his eyes with the shadow of its bill as he left only his muzzle to express his otherwise cold emotions. I could tell he wasn't just staring at me... he was staring right through my uniform. Through my eyes. Even through my very soul with only an icy sneer to pivot his gold pencil thin mustache on one side. He seemed amused by my presence as he trotted forward. I just stood there in a cold sweat, hoping nopony could hear my heart beating against my ribs as loud as I could. The other three ponies didn't dare flinch, but the officer's entrance pulled Miracle's attention away from Corsair, and towards a bloody mound of blankets, a gray hoof sticking out from underneath. It was the same spot that Corsair had been crying over the moment we arrived. "Is... is that--?" Miracle's voice whimpered, "Oh gods, Comet's hurt guys!" And just like that, she broke her own call for discipline to gallop over to the mutilated stallion. The officer suddenly spread his wings and galloped between Miracle and her comrade, hooking them around the sobbing mare to stop her. "I do believe he's dead, Breeze." He said in a quiet classy voice. "N-no!" She cried, struggling to get passed him. "I-I can still--!" "You lock it down now, Private!" He growled, pushing her back in front of him before nodding toward me. "It looks like you brought us an important visitor. Now you will show restraint." She sniffled into her wing, before giving a gloomy nod. "Y-yes, sir..." The mare looked so heartbroken, I wanted to cry right along with her. Oh gods, that's exactly how I felt watching the HQ collapse into the clouds! The few friends I ever had... A-and my parents... Biting my lip, I tried to keep it from quivering as I hastily looked away, mainly to avoid the gaze of the officer, but also to think of what I would say to him. Okay. You can do this... just... do the same thing you did with the rest of them. Making use of my one good wing, I made sure to dry my eyes, before returning my gaze, its previous intimidation ruined by melancholy shyness. They both trotted back into line in front of me. The officer gave me another skeptical look, and I suddenly felt self-conscious about my uniform as his eyes traced the extra length of my sleeves. My heart stopped. Oh crap! Does he know?! Has the Enclave REALLY never made a measurement error before? Oh, c'mon! It could happen, couldn't it?! Just when I was about to start thinking of the different ways I could plead for mercy, the officer himself finally straightened his smirk and slowly raised his wing to his bill. "Lieutenant Yonder Wild, reporting ma'am." My mind just about exploded with relief. Thank The Council... Practically choking on the breath I'd been holding, I saluted him back, hoping he didn't sense my near panic attack. "I apologize for my platoon's... under-preparedness. Been a rough pack'uh days." He suddenly puffed out his chest and shouted, "Platoon! SOUND OFF!!!" Starting with Thunder, each pegasus shouted their name one-by-one down the line. "Sgt. Thunder Bolt!" "Sgt. Corsair!" "Cpl. Rotor Belle!" "Pvt. Miracle Breeze!" Hesitation forced a dangerous, "U-uhm?" to my lips as I stuttered. Alright... Equestria calling back tougher Sky Bliss! It's still your time to shine! "At ease." I finally spat with the gruffest voice I could manage. "Well... uh, it's good to finally see who's in charge here. -ahem!- I'm Captain Sky Bliss..." I paused, thinking back to the crashed Vertibuck, before adding, "...17th Stratusburg Verti-assault squadron. The Council's Headquarters in our Stratusburg branch was bombed by a terrorist... Uhm, we were sent to evac the officials and put out the fires, but we got caught in the chain of following blasts and crashed." "That Vertibuck we saw go down was yours? So, your... your not our rescue?" Corsair asked. "Do they even know we're down here?!" I shook my head with a sorry sigh. "None of us were aware... But, it's still my mission to extract the survivors from the HQ here on the ground. My... my crew didn't make it..." I quickly distracted the pit in my stomach before it grew too sour, arching my brow as I took in the five ponies in front of me. "I... thought there were 10 of you. Where's the rest of your platoon?" The five looked at each other with a nod, before all agreeing in unison, "Deserted." Yonder gave a nod to the dead stallion behind him and sighed, "Four... after we sent Breeze to investigate your vertibuck... one came back and killed poor Comet Chaser..." They all hung their heads, ranging from sorrow, to regret, to anger. "How long have you ponies been down here?" I asked. "About five days ma'am..." Bell said, before drearily adding, "Haven't eaten in three..." "Protocol demands we not interfere with any surface dwellers, however we've been getting desperate." Yonder explained. "We had reports of a settlement made up of these... 'wasteland ponies' to the south of the mountain, but we didn't want to move in case a rescue team came to extract us. Contacting the locals is, of course, a last resort." That's when it hit me. That's how I'm gonna get to the HQ! I cleared my throat before I got too giddy and put the mask of authority back on. "My mission is in that settlement... and seeing as you ponies are also in need of rescue, I'm making you a part of my mission. If I'm right to believe you're radio is... not up to the task of contacting Neighvarro, then the only way we can get an extraction for all of us, is if we get to that town, deal with the locals and help the survivors." If there's any survivors... I... I don't know if I'll be able to go back to Stratusburg, but... it's the best chance I've got if I want to find my parents... or, frankly, survive. I raised my eyebrow as I turned to Rotor Belle. "Can you fix your sky chariot?" "You mean the lost cause I've been workin' on?" She sighed, posture sagging along with her enthusiasm for the idea. "Yeah, why not?" She shrugged, tiredly. "Good..." I nodded, before looking back over to Yonder. "Now, about your... deserter problem..." I met his smug gaze, still seeming to drill right through to my soul. I hated looking into his eyes... It was like I could see my own knowing deception reflected right back at me. He doesn't know! He couldn't... just keep on talking, Bliss! My heart settled with relief when he finally took his eyes off of me, and widened in surprise at what I pulled out from under my wing. I swear, I saw every pegasus before me shiver at the sight of it. Them, and every other pegasus, both friends and foes of the Enclave, knew the cloud and lightning bolt brand all too well. An hour or so ago, I would have feared it the most out of all these ponies... So... why did I have the cockiest smirk in the history of pegasi on my face? It was REALLY cocky... it was so cocky, it made Yonder swap expressions with the one I had when he was looking at me... Now it was his, Miracle's, and every other Enclave pony's turn to be intimidated by my gaze. But it wasn't just intimidation... they were afraid. Even Sky Vapor winced... "It appears... I have the solution to that... right here~" I purred, dropping the Dashite brand in front of them. "But, first thing's first..." It looked as if my voice was barely registering with them as they all continued to stare at the Dashite brand. I could see the two power-armored soldiers swallow dryly, while Miracle Breeze tried to keep herself from shuddering. My eye caught Rotor Bell's tail instinctively wrap around the side of her leg as if to protect the vertibuck propeller on her flank. While even Yonder appeared to twitch as if he could feel a slight imaginary burn across his own cutiemark. I glared sharply. "-AHEM!-" That snapped them out of it, their eyes blinking away the nightmare scenario, while their heads shook themselves back to reality. I made sure to lock eyes with everyone of them -with the exception of Yonder's. I tried to avoid those fiery beams as much as possible- before finally lowering my stern guard with a sigh. "...three days, huh?" I asked, making Bell jump as I turned towards her again. "T-that's right, ma'am." She confirmed, "We're... we're all pretty hungry..." I nodded, giving her a friendly smile. "Well then... let's make this our first order of business." Tilting myself down to my haunches, I let my saddlebags slide off my back. With a kick of my hind leg, I knocked the satchels over to allow a healthy amount of MREs to spill out before them. "We'll have pegasus grade preservatives all around..." I smirked, presenting them with a pan of my forehoof. "...Vertibuck emergency ration flavors." For a minute, I thought they might have gone back to reeling from the image of the cloud and lightning bolt, even as it lay disarmed at my hooves and slightly muddy from landing in the mountainside muck. But, while their wide-eyed expressions of trepidation and hesitance returned, their uneasy glares were instead staring down at the pile of packaged dehydrated meals in disbelief. And yet, the remnants of the platoon still could have been mistaken for a row of cloud chiseled gargoyles outside the Enclave council building, though I could have sworn I saw a string of drool ooze down from Corsair's maw, hanging loose from shock, while her eyes filled with a lustful fire that could only be doused by my MREs. "YEEEEEHAAAAAW!" Thunder Bolt suddenly blurted, the stallion giving a shockingly cute whinny of excitement as he reared up and pedaled his forehooves in the air. "Now, that's what I'm talkin' about, Cap'!" Grinning wide, his wings flared with elation. "Lets dig in, ponies! Chow is served!" The others hardly even flinched, as they soon followed, thankful smiles on their faces as Thunder, Miracle, Corsair and Bell all galloped as fast as they could, fighting each other to get their hooves on the first meal they had in days. That is... everypony except-- "I must say, Captain..." That Neighvarro aristocrat drawl sounded as if it had just slithered up my neck and bit my ear. "...this is a wonderful and, I might add, much needed surprise. I do believe you just saved us from starvin' to death in the middle of nowhere." I turned to see Yonder Wild, keeping a calm but appreciative posture as he watched his platoon begin to tear open the MRE packages with their teeth, and dumping them into a prepared assortment of meal kits. I heard Corsair suddenly begin to flap her wings, before quickly taking to the air, gathering enough wisps of fog around the mountain side to form a cloud. "O-oh... uh... -ahem- of course, Lieutenant." I coughed, feeling the fur on my neck stand straight. "It's the least I could do... and uh... it wasn't like my squad will be needing those rations anyway..." The thought of those burned pegasi and their hallow baked eyes from the crash returned to me, staring lifelessly at the mare who all but killed them. My stomach flipped, and I suddenly no longer felt like enjoying a meal with the rest of the platoon. He must have mistaken my guilt for sorrow, as Yonder gave a gloomy bow of his head. "I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am." After his gaze rose back up to meet mine, I could swear his eyes relapsed back into digging through the contents of my soul, desperately searching for something I'd hidden from him. Once again, I could feel my heart beat in a sporadic tempo. Maybe it was just the uniform that made him look like that. Or maybe it was the way the bill of his officer's cap casted its shadow across his face, where, instead of allowing them to be dimmed under the sun and now solemn clouds, his eyes, their irises bright and red, burned like power armor head lamps through an eternal shade of night. But, it couldn't just be the uniform he wore. Heck, my mom and dad were officers too... albeit, with more of a civilian role... but their uniforms were one of the same, with maybe only an assortment of alternate shades like white, gray and beige and even dark blue and purple. But... but that sharp ocean of pitch black fabric... -sigh- Well, guess what Bilss? You're wearing the same uniform too! You know the act, just keep on going... and... maybe you'll get out of this. "Thank you Lieutenant... and... I'm sorry for what happened to your ponies too... A-and..." I tried to keep my nerve, clearing my throat to hide the bulge that'd formed after I'd swallowed dryly at my next words. Well... this is it. The moment of truth... "...and now that I'm the ranking officer..." I couldn't help but notice Yonder's glare again as his eye twitched in my direction. While I could see it in his face, that he all but knew what was about to be uttered from my mouth, the uncertainty in his gaze of what would come of it was as clear as a day above the cloudcover. I took a deep mental breath, giving my inner tomboy another boost over the timid filly in my head before finally finishing. "...I will be assuming command of your platoon to get you all to safety." With a tilt of his head, Yonder's eyes were once again consumed by the shadow of his officer's cap, so much so that its bill eventually blocked those fiery irises of his from sight as he cast his gaze to the dirt. A heart stopping silence fell over us, only to be broken by the cheers of Thunder and Bell, Corsair eventually fluttering back down to the ground with a nice fluffy cloud between her hooves, giving each pegasus a good amount of water to turn the dehydrated produce into... something that at least resembled diced apples and carrots. Herself and Miracle had even started to smile again at the thought of a meal, though with hints of sadness to them as both continued to glance back at the poor lifeless buck under the blankets. "...Captain." My ears perked, and I suddenly realized that my own head had gradually drifted to a tilt just like Yonder's, feeling the shade of my cap across my face as if instinct helped me hide the fact I'd been gnawing on my lip while waiting for his response. Lt. Wild shot me a skeptical glare as I found the nerve to look him back in the eye. "...after what you've done today..." He began, his voice cold, but soft. My blood turned to ice as I froze underneath the stiff blackness of my uniform. A-after what I've done? Crap! Did... did he just figure me out!? Did I push too far!? Ooooh! Stupid! Stupid! I didn't dare blink, even as the air threatened to dry my eyes to a crisp. Yonder's glare remained narrowed and sharp, his pencil-stache tilting slightly inward. "Why..." His muzzle gently rose, finally letting me see the expression on his face. "...I'd be more than happy to relinquish command of my platoon to you, ma'am." He said, smiling softly. Author's Note Alright, this pretty much catches us up on where I left off with the One-Shot. Only new chapters from here on out! Unfortunately, this means that the next chapters will probably be slower, but I will try to pump them out at a reasonable rate, since I plan on them being shorter in length than my other story. But, thanks to everyone who's showed interested so far! And stay tuned for more! As usual, leave some feedback if you have any so I can improve my writing or fix any mistakes you point out, like grammar, lore, etc.
Table For Two"U-uh Oh! That isn't smoke. It's steam!" "I'd be more than happy to relinquish command of my platoon to you, ma'am." Stupid! Stu--! Wait... what did he just say? I couldn't help it when the Lieutenant's wing abruptly swatted the air between us. I flinched, my eyes clamping shut as I blew a silent breath of fear through clenched teeth, only for the pinions of his wing to touch the tip of his cap in a salute. "Consider myself and my ponies at your disposal." Yonder finished in his usual drawl. I-- He-- ...my disposal? H-holy Hurricane! The realization of what I'd just accomplished came crashing down on me so hard I almost fell on my face. Not even Thunder Bolt suddenly appearing at my side with an ear-shattering celebratory shout could have snapped my mind out of its stunned abyss, as the stallion trotted up and patted my back with a hoof. I winced, the impact barely missing my injured wing. "Hey, you hear that everypony!? We've got a new chain of command to follow! Welcome aboard, Cap." He said, giving me a curt nod before waving back at the others. "Hey, 'Sair! Com'ere and bring that cloud over for Captain Bliss." Though I could have sworn he'd heard it at least once before, my ears picked up Yonder's voice muttering the name, barely a moment after Thunder had spoken it, sounding as if he were testing its taste over his tongue. It might all have been my imagination... but his tone suggested something was sour about it. Okay... if he just gave me command, then why does he still seem unconvinced? Seriously, I feel like he's just seconds away from calling for my arrest! Wait... nope. He'd probably call for my execution if he knew what I was up to. Grrr! But he doesn't know! He couldn't! How would he? Bell said they've all been here for five days with no contact! Ooooh, c'mon! I need to get a hold of myself! I'm just being paranoid. Corsair arrived next to Thunder, holding up the cloud in her forehooves, only to tilt her head at me with a frown. "O-oh... do you have a meal-kit you can use, Captain?" "U-uh..." I blinked, finally catching up to what was going on around me as I noticed Thunder standing at my side with one of the MRE packets in his hoof. My stomach protested the second I looked at it. Right... The last time I ate, I'd poured the dry crusty contents down my throat without any moisture to actually make it worthy of eating. That, while being surrounded by burning wreckage, charred pegasi, and the body of an officer whose uniform I'm currently wearing. Erk! Oh... that's... not a good feeling... Something suddenly climbed up my throat, and I had to move my hoof to my lips to keep myself from hurling it all up in front of them. The two sergeants gave me a concerned look, before I waved them off as politely as I could. "That uh... that isn't necessary." I said, giving a weak smile. "I... I don't have a meal kit, anyway. You two go enjoy your meals." Part of me was pretty hungry, the MRE being the only meal I've really had all day. But... even if the first experience hadn't already ruined my appetite, I was probably just a bit too overwhelmed to eat anything without choking on it. ...and I'd like to go without adding something like that on top of everything else. "Well then, we can't allow that." Our ears perked as the two power-armored ponies stepped aside, letting Yonder to slowly make his way between them. "A spare meal-kit, complete with dishes and utensils, is kept in the sky chariot o'er yonder." Over his wha--? Oh... His usual crooked smirk morphed into a smile, as gracious as a salespony trying to sell me Bs. "Corsair!" Before I could even think of a response, Yonder suddenly barked, swatting his wing against Corsair's armored leg. The mare jumped at his blunt gesture, but quickly regained composure. "Sir?" She asked, curtly. "Once everypony has had their share, would you please bring the cloud to the sky chariot." Yonder's eyes popped wide before snapping his wing pinions together. "Oh!" He blurted as he turned to me. "I do believe you should have somepony bring your Dashite brand inside as well." His words only seemed to bury me deeper in self-doubt. My face must have shown my lagging brain switch to timid confusion at the mention of my Dashite brand, as an all too concerning chuckle left his throat. "The use of which, among the many things you wish to discuss, I'm sure." Actually, that was just about the last thing I wanted to discuss now... In fact, discussing anything with him felt like the surest path to getting caught... Damnit! I thought I had the upper hoof with the Dashite brand! He could barely look at it without his wings twitching a minute ago! Now he's expecting me to... what? Have a chat with him about it over a lunch that I'm probably gonna throw up!? But... Oh, crap! What am I supposed to do!? Say 'no'!? "You uh... read my mind, Lieutenant." I said, giving an anxious smile. I turned, quickly scanning the rest of his-- my platoon, vague purpose all but controlling every movement of my muscles, before I finally zeroed in on my intended target: The mare I'd grown most comfortable with the past couple hours. "Private Breeze!" Miracle immediately went tense, whatever conversation she was having with Rotor Belle ending as the mare snapped to attention. "Y-yes ma'am?" She stuttered, obviously caught off guard. I sighed, not exactly content with myself for making, arguably, my only potential friend (a word I probably shouldn't use very lightly these days) feel nervous. "Miracle..." I said, sounding softer this time as I nodded toward the object still laying in the mud. "When you're finished with your meal, would you bring the Dashite Brand to the sky chariot?" I watched her eyes slowly crawl toward the cloud and lightning bolt, the fiery gold and orange glow from the burning vertibuck long gone, replaced by its cold natural color of dark steel. She physically gulped regardless, eying the brand as if it were glowing hotter than ever before. "U-uh... Yes ma'am!" The apprehension was plainly visible. And how could I blame her? Miracle's wings restlessly flittered at her sides, making one of her feathers break loose. The broken plume twirled away, carried by the gentle wind as it passed in front of a just as stressed Bell. I think it might have led Yonder's gaze to fall upon her next, as she took another bite of her MRE. "Corporal! I say, Corporal Belle!" The mare's eyes widened, her chewing coming to a screeching halt. "Yrrs?" She tried to say through a mouth full of recently rehydrated cloud-farmed carrots. He sighed, his tone suddenly becoming scornful. "If you would be so kind as to hurry and finish repairing our way off this rock?" The realization of his order dug up another memory of Captain Short Fuse. That hot-headed stallion made me do drills the whole day after I accidently tripped and spilled my breakfast all over him in the mess hall. Sure, I... probably deserved it for being a klutz... but he made sure I didn't get to eat a thing for the rest of the day, and that I, 'obviously couldn't trot straight, so I needed to learn before I could carry a tray of food'! So, when he finally dismissed me for the night, I cried myself to sleep embarrassed, starved and exhausted. But... but this is the first meal she's had in three days! Bell's ears folded back against her head as Yonder's words sunk in, breaking her gaze from him to look mournfully down at the half-eaten meal in her hooves. She sighed, opening her muzzle to respond... but the voice everypony heard was not hers. "Eh... a-actually..." I found my shaky voice echoing in my ears, as every surprised eye suddenly turned to me. Well... it's too late to back out now... "...wouldn't it be better to have her at full strength when fixing transportation?" Forcing my head to turn towards him, I fixed Yonder with an unstable glare. "She should... I mean... I'd feel better if our engineer finished her meal first, before working on the thing that could drop us out of the sky..." The following silence nearly made me wince. "Wouldn't you agree, Lieutenant Wild?" I grinned sheepishly. It was the best I could salvage as my expression threatened to waver. Yonder considered me for a moment, locking eyes with me as if I were still some enigma he's yet to solve, before finally, he simply shrugged. "I... do suppose that course of action is an agreeable one." He paused for a moment. "Yes... right you are, Captain." He nodded, "...right you are." Without another word, he turned and began a trot towards the sky chariot. I allowed myself a brief sigh of relief before turning back to a somewhat shocked group of pegasi, still glaring at me with their usual hints of hesitation and skepticism, only for each of them to hastily divert their eyes away from me, as if feigning ignorance. I spun on my hooves to hide my wince. Yeah... if I saw Captain Short Fuse suddenly give our squad sympathy like that... I'd probably feel exactly the same. I glanced back at them over my rump, again seeing their nervous eyes shoot away to their meals or the ground under their hooves. Heh... cause nothing screams more riveting to a pegasus than discovering dirt! Yup... awkward. Even Miracle looked flustered, her eyes rolling up to look at our overcast sky. Damnit! That's it! If I'm gonna keep this up, I'll have to act more... captain-y... ...ugh... and step one is to find a better word for it than that. If I didn't know any better, I would have said our transport looked more like a sky tank than a chariot. The model was newer in the sense that it was produced to rely on cloud generators to give it lift, rather than the older wagon and chariot models relying on pre-war tech and a single pegasus to pull it like our city sky wagons. This one was near completely incased in armor plating, painted a sleek black to match Thunder and Corsair's power armor. A better choice if you ask me. It's a lot harder to notice the dark of scorch marks from whatever fire had brought them down... Though the abundance of hoof-sized dents in its hull were a little easier to spot. What in the name of Lightning Dust could have made those!? While the damage didn't look all that bad, I knew it was at least enough to have forced them to land. Maybe knocking something loose? Not to mention grounding the other platoon's sky chariot. Oh gods, what kinds of weapons do these ponies have down here!? Sure, it's not real close to the firepower we have, but if they can do this to our transports... what kind of chance do we have if we-- i-if... if the Enclave ever has to engage the surface? The pegasi would have to strike first and fast before they could target us! -sigh- ...not that it would make any difference to me. Looking down, my forehoof nearly followed through its next step forward before I could force myself to a stop, quickly bringing it back. I was so lost in the sight of the sky chariot, it took until I was practically a leg's length away for me to notice the bloody mound of blankets, still fluttering silently against an occasional breeze hitting the mountain side, right in front of me. They were kept at bay by a few rocks the others had likely scavenged to keep the sheets in place, but every so often, they would lift enough to reveal the gray coat of the stallion's left rear hoof. From what I could see, the poor buck had about as much armor as Miracle... which was next to none unless you consider lightly padded coveralls as barding. Was he a medic like Miracle? Maybe an assistant engineer for Bell? -sigh- All I knew was that he was a pony named Comet Chaser... and he was killed by a pegasus trying to desert their own platoon. A Dashite... It felt like the meaning only seemed to grow by the day... How quickly these ponies could turn against us! How long did it take infamous outlaws like... Like Radar or Deadshot Calamity! What about the... t-the mare at the HQ? How long did it take her to go Dashite? And Comet Chaser's killer... they'd been down here just five days, and they're already blood thirsty murderers, same as the other ponies who live in this... wasteland! And yet... here I am... and the first day hasn't even ended... I shook my head. No... no I'm not a murderer! I... I didn't want those ponies to die! ...but it was still my fault. It was still my stupid fault! I felt my ears droop as I started to picture all the Comet Chasers who died in the Vertibuck crash. All the bloody mounds of pegasi covered in blankets, their same gray coated hooves sticking out from underneath, who died in the HQ bombing... All because I had some naive belief that a lovely mare would want to be my friend... "Is it really that bad?" I blinked. “W-wha-huh?” Yonder, I realized, was looking quizzically at me from the entrance hatch of the sky chariot. Okay, so he was always looking quizzically at me in some form or another. It still didn't feel any less intimidating the second, third or... umpteenth time. The dapper officer chuckled. "That look... I say, that look on your face, ma'am... you've been eyin' our transport here as if it were your coffin." Leaning against the hatch's frame atop the extended ramp, he reached out with a forehoof and rapped it against the side of the hull, making three loud bongs echo off the mountainside. "I know she's not the vertibuck that you're used to, of course, but I do believe she makes up for her lack'uh speed with her ability to shield us from... unwarranted projectiles." He pointed a wingtip to the dents and scorch marks across its armor. "That there is flak damage... Enough to rattle our instruments but not enough to break through our armor. As to what could have fired at us... well, I do suppose we still need to figure that out. Regardless, Sergeant Bolt was able to glide us down safe enough... better than our sister transport faired." He sighed as his gaze suddenly went cold, before casting down at my hooves. It took me a moment to realize he was looking at the dead stallion in front of me, his expression unreadable. "Now... if circumstances were different, perhaps the Sergeant wouldn't have had to take the stick from our driver, and we could have made it to our cloudcover..." His tongue clicked. "...but I do believe the pressure can get to a pony at times..." And then, as if it never happened, his spirit abruptly lifted, and a casual smile returned to his face as he shrugged. "Ah, but I suppose that's life... All is fair so long as the iron hoof of justice always wins the end. After all, what is it that our Council says?" I flinched, barely registering the question as I fumbled my speech. "U-uh..." "What is it the Enclave says?" He asked again, before smirking. "We make them pay, Captain. Each Dashite Buck must understand, his flank will burn with a brand." Uhm... right... I could only nod dumbly back at him as I tried to regain composure. "Well, I'm... sure the chariot's just fine to fly, Lieutenant... It's just..." It's just... that out of the three vehicles I've learned about down here, three out of three have crashed... and two of the three had no survivors! Sure, I've been on sky wagons plenty of times, but... this was pretty far from the public transit of Stratusburg. Oh for Pansy's sake! Get a grip, Bliss! It's not like it's going anywhere... yet. To my surprise, Yonder gave an understanding nod. "Of course... Your last vehicular experience was not exactly as 'pleasant' as ours was, was it..." Saying this, he rubbed his forehooves together after a single clap. "Well then, allow me to reassure your faith in the technological superiority of the Pegasi, Captain... Sky Bliss." Uh oh... That sour tone in his voice as he said my name struck me again. I shivered. "You know..." He spoke again, putting a hoof to his chin. "...you're a tad bit... young for an officer." My eye twitched in panic. "D-uh-huh..." I fumbled, screaming internally as I nodded in agreement. "I'd think one would need friends in some pretty high places to help you climb that ladder as fast as you have, ma'am..." "W-well, uh..." Oh, c'mon Bliss! Focus! You've seen younger officers before! I smiled pathetically, trying to keep my mouth from trembling as I stared at him. "I have good standing with General Hazard of the Enclave Council..." I answered as evenly as I could before finally finding some edge in my glare, frowning and stomping my hoof for good measure. "...not that that has anything to do with my skill as an officer, Lieutenant." I silently prayed for something else to get shot out of the sky in that moment, just so it could land right between us. "Ah! Of course not, Captain. I didn't mean it like that!" He quickly assured. "In fact... I've had the pleasure of meeting General Hazzard myself." His eyes narrowed. "But uh... I don't recall ever seein' your face around ole' Duke." "U-uh..." I had to suppress the urge to bite my lip. Instead, I kept my glare steady and started to tap my hoof as if thoughtfully... I was doing it nervously. "W-well, you wouldn't be the first to say that Lieutenant. I actually get that all the time." I rolled my eyes, "I guess I just have one of those uh... forgetful faces!" My heart sank when I saw an unconvinced grimace appear. "B-but--! Uh... You better not forget me now, since I'm the new platoon leader!" His eyes were colder as he glared down at me and shook his head. "I don't believe I ever said that I didn't recognize your face... In fact... one could say that I never forget a face, Captain. Because now that you mention it, you do seem rather familiar..." Habazawa!? He seemed so sure of it that I could have believed it. I... I didn't though. I've never met this stallion before in my life! ...Right!? If the others had looked over, they'd no doubt think I'd just entered a staring contest with their Lieutenant. And he would without question be winning that contest. "I understand now..." The yellow stallion pushed his lips together in annoyance, before suddenly, as if a switch were flipped somewhere behind him, they twisted back into a smirk. "We must have crossed paths once before!" Yonder said with nothing more than a shrug. "Perhaps we can figure out where... over some lunch." He then stepped aside and bowed, offering a path up the ramp toward the hatch with a point of his wings. I took one look through the entrance, and my mane immediately caught an itch that burned the scarring welt on the back of my neck. Okay... now this was starting to look like a bad idea! There was an urge to roll up my sleeves before I moved. Regretting giving into it, I really hoped the impulse didn't draw any more attention to the extra length of my uniform. Averting eye contact, I obliged, quickly and wordlessly. Stepping forwards up the ramp, I instantly had to hide a wave of hesitation from Yonder as I was met by a solid dark mass of air, clogging up what was the inside of the sky chariot. Passing by the stallion, it felt as if I'd just flown through the HQ's crater in the cloud cover again, as my hooves stumbled below me in panic. Oh gods... OH GODS! What am I doing!? My ears flattened against my cap as I could almost hear the beam weapons charging up behind me. The only source of light was from the outside, dimly shining through the entrance hatch, teasing me with just enough visibility, that vague silhouettes of unidentifiable shapes were all I could make out, stalking the only way forward into the transport... the way that Yonder was patiently waiting for me to follow. Not even the sounds of the others outside could break through the uncomfortable silence the void suddenly brought, the hull deflecting their collective meal-chatter as if they were now too distant to hear. I gulped, before finally placing one hoof forward after the other, only to stop again when I could have sworn I saw a shadow, one of many now lurking ever closer in the darkness on either side of the vehicle, creep toward where I stood, the walls pushing them to close in around me. I was surrounded. My heart rattled mercilessly in my chest as the sound of hooves trotted around my paralyzed body, cold echoes clanking against the metallic floor. I flinched, my ears twisting back in horror when the hoofsteps came to an alarming stop right before me. Then the dark was pierced feebly by a blood red light, and I had to fight my voice not to squeal at the sight of Yonder holding a spark battery, powering a lantern's red crystal in front of my muzzle. What the--!? When did he get in front of me!? His wing pinions held the lantern tight between us, and unsurprisingly, his lips were curled in that signature smirk of his, as he moved his wing to set the lantern on a large steel crate, placed next to an all too familiar looking radio. Its weak glow disclosed the metal deck under our hooves, the unpleasant red casting it and the rest of the walls with an unrecognizable chill that only seemed to make me feel helpless. As my eyes adjusted, I could finally begin to make out the rest of the transport's innards, all splashed with the red gloom of the lantern's crystal. Its metallic walls were lined with coils of wire and hoses, chrome tendrils weaving in and out of sight like slithering sky serpents, while a column of seats led to what I assumed were the driver and gunner positions further toward the front. "Let's see if we can make this more appropriate..." Yonder's voice swiftly kicked my attention back to him. The stallion was kneeling on the floor, searching under a small open compartment, his wings outstretched as they cast a large beastly shadow over the several boxes and metal crates secured around the transport. It occurred to me that we were completely surrounded by military grade cargo, all tightly boxed and welded shut. There was probably just enough room to fit the ten ponies of the platoon it carried. And yet... it still seemed roomier than any verti-buck. In fact, if I shut my eyes, I could probably picture myself standing inside a regular old sky wagon... but, you know... one without any windows or lights that weren't made from crystals we use to shoot red beams of death from. "Aha! Here we are." Yonder's head rose with two plates in his maw, followed by a net holding an assortment of utensils used for eating. His wing brushed across the crate as if to sweep any recent dust to the floor, before setting a place for two ponies atop it. "And... voila!" He grinned, "I give you the one and only Enclave officer's table this side of our cloud cover." Gesturing with his wing, he pointed to the dish and utensils closest to me. "After you, Captain." I looked down at the crate in question. My 'spot' was on one edge, while Yonder's was on the adjacent. The plates sat across the flat top of the crate, which stood just at the right height for us if we were to sit on our haunches. All I had to do was sit down... with him. Is it too late to buck this whole idea, and bolt for it? I glanced back at the entrance hatch where a minimal amount of light was allowed to remain in the back of the transport. Yup... still open... I... I could still try and run! Everypony was probably too distracted by the MRE's I brought to notice... Sure, Yonder would alert them, but I would have a head start! Maybe... maybe I should go for it! There's no way I'll be able to sit through this without blowing it! Ooooh, this might be my only shot to escape! My legs tensed, and my hooves prepared themselves for launch against the floor. All I had to do was gallop! ...gallop. On my hooves. Down a mountain. Away from ponies who can actually use their wings. And shoot me. With beam guns. That they're all probably trained in. And... Oh, what the hell am I doing! My rump hit the deck faster than I thought possible as I sat in my place at the crate. Welp... I guess this is it... Yonder followed (much more professionally of course...) as my eyes watched him remove his officer's cap with a wing, setting it on the other side of his knife and fork. Whether it was instinct or if I was simply inspired by the action, I quickly did the same, shaking my mane loose from my own cap before realizing that my new mane style was far shorter than what I was used to. Ack! I winced at a split second of pain, grasping my face with a hoof, as one of my spikey bangs pricked me in the eye! Okay... that's another new mane style feature I'll have to get used to. I growled silently to myself. -Sigh- Whatever. Thankfully Yonder didn't notice. ...I don't think he did anyway. Damnit! Does this guy ever stop smirking to himself? "I assume you've tried the MREs before you arrived." I blinked. Er... winked. "MREs? The MREs I brought?" Now it was Yonder's turn to blink as he nodded slowly. "...unless there's another Captain around here my platoon owes thanks to." He chuckled, "Yes." Oh... you have no idea. ...at least, I hope you don't! Right! He asked me a question! Okay, so... as far as answers go, mine set the bar pretty low. Don't panic, Bliss! Just... answer his questions! How hard can that be? "Y-yes? Er-- Well... yes!" I stammered. Ah... that hard. Oh gods! Really bad time to figure out I have no social skills! "Last any of us had'em was three days ago..." Yonder scrunched his muzzle, thankfully, I realized, not at my pathetic response to his question. "I'd honestly hoped I wouldn't need to eat them again... but, I'd just about eat anything at this point." He clicked his tongue. "A shame we lack the weapons to hunt crows off the mountain side. I do believe there are dozens more nesting around here than we could ever find above our cloud cover." Raising his eyebrows, he showed his teeth, gleaming red as he grinned. "Unfortunately, ash doesn't make as nice a stew!" I did the best I could to mirror his grin and the laugh that followed... though my ears were awkwardly pinned to the back of my skull, and my laugh sounded about as genuine as I was a 'genuine' Captain. When the laughter finally faded, I found myself actually yearning for even the most painful of silences, if only to give myself a short break to think. But Yonder seemed determined not to let that happen. "Yes... Yes, I do believe we have met before." Watching the stallion's accustomed smirk slowly erode from his muzzle, I suddenly found myself uncomfortably pinned by an officer's questioning grimace, backing me against the silence I so desperately wanted a second ago. Oh, buck me with lightning strikes! This again!? What does he mean, 'we've met before'!? I... I don't think we have! We couldn't have met unless... unless... I... I guess he could have been stationed in Stratusburg as an officer... He would have had to have been there when I was in flight school, though! Pressure started to sprout over my soul, as Lieutenant Wild's glare piled on its radiating insistence, his red eyes made only more oppressive by the glow of the lantern between us. I mentally dug around in my head for some memory of this stallion, before realizing that even if it were true... then there's no way he would buy me becoming an officer after merely just attending Enclave training! Let alone outranking him as a Captain, no matter who I had 'good standing' with on the council! “I...” Dammit, what do I tell him!? Why else would he think he knows me!? Ooooh! I can't keep lying my tail off to these ponies! But... but I've got to get him off this topic quick or else I--! My eyes were locked with Yonder's for what felt like an eternity. I had nothing to offer in response, and I couldn't help but feel that he knew. Like he somehow always knew... All I could think to do was prepare for the worst. I took a breath as if I were about to speak again, hoping the stallion couldn't see my wing tip slowly dip into my holster, or hear my feathers skid along the plasma pistol within, when like a knife, another silhouette curtly slit our sources of light in half. I blinked, and for a moment, I could have sworn the world of red around me turned to an eerie shade of white. Oh no, no, no-no-no! My whole mind started to scream at me, making my wing pinions twitch and curl around the trigger. All that was left was to charge up the plasma cells, and... THEN WHAT!? I can't just start blasting like they're DJ Pon-- er... the radio... They're Pegasi!!! Do it! Don't do it! Run for it! Beg for mercy! Do something, Bliss! As the silhouette approached, I made some kind of movement akin to nervously grabbing and petting my tail with my hooves. No! Damnit, not that something you feather brain! Captain-y! Do something Captain-y! But a sweet and carroty smell reached my senses long before I got the command to unfreeze my joints from fright, finding Corsair giving me a look as she prepped Yonder's MRE with her cloud. I blinked again, and quickly threw my tail aside and ripped my wing from my holster. Leaning my foreleg against the table, I flashed my best 'I promise I really am a Captain' grin. She just flushed and looked away. Yeah, that just about sums up what I felt like doing too. The lantern once more casting the room in red allowed me to see Yonder holding a fork in his pinions, bringing the freshly moisturized bits of oats, apples and carrots to his lips. Corsair guided the cloud over to my plate next. I studied her another moment, and suddenly had to fight the urge to cry after realizing what I'd been debating a minute ago. I didn't even know it was her until she'd trotted passed me. Would I have been able to pull the trigger on her? On Miracle, if she'd trotted in instead? Gods, even Yonder... I've only known these ponies for an hour or so, but... Damnit, I'm not a killer! I'm... I'm NOT! Please, don't make me a killer! My chest was starting to get really tight to the point I was close to breaking down right here in front of her. Every sane part of my mind was still screaming for me to run... The hatch was free again! Open! Maybe I could excuse myself and sneak away before they notice! I've already almost blown it! How could I possibly keep this up!? I snapped out of it as I felt a little Sky Vapor pony slap me across the face. Whoa, whoa! Okay... you're right, sis. I need to relax for Council's sake, or else I'm gonna end up choking on my tongue... and then probably my brain if I keep thinking like that. Besides, it's just a little lunch. This'll be over before I know it! Then, all that's left is to wait for Bell to fix this thing and find mom and dad! Just take deep breaths, and-- wait, deep breaths are probably too deep. Yeah, scratch that... just breathe normally, moron! Returning my 'Yup, I'm definitely still a Captain' grin, I at least got Corsair to smile back at me as she gave her cloud a couple of taps with her hoof, hitting all the right spots on it, before it finally released a good portion of moisture. Not too much. Not too little. Huh... she sure knows her way around a cloud. Some might wonder if it were physically possible for a soldierly mare like her to share a similar cutiemark with me. Heh... yeah... that would be the day. Still, my eyes instinctively glanced to her flank, before remembering I'd have no way to see it while her back side was completely encased in her power armor. Still... I'd be lying if I said her lithe, well-fitted armor didn't hug the curvy outline of her flanks and shapely legs rather nicely... But that didn't get me any closer to seeing her cutiemark. ...and then I noticed Yonder glancing at me with a raised eyebrow. W-wait! I was just--! I wasn't looking to--! Ooooh, that's not fair! My cheeks burned as I retracted my gaze. I tried to think of some creative excuse that he'd buy, like 'just inspecting the troops!' or 'just admiring the technological superiority of the pegasi!' Eh... no that's something he would use to convince me he wasn't really trying to lure me into some kind of self-incriminating death trap... I winced as I heard him chuckle softly to himself. Oh great... now I was Captain Fillyfooler! Corsair gave me a concerned look when I face-hoofed. All I could do was give her a sheepish smile as my once bone-dry meal became a quick plate of oatmeal, diced apples and carrots. "Hmmm..." Yonder shrugged as he hummed to himself. "'Bout what I figured... Not bad, but a bit more of a soggy experience than what I was hopin' for." "Well, what were you expecting, biscuits and gravy?" Corsair snorted, "After three days, it was pretty delicious if you ask me." It... definitely smelled like food I enjoyed. Actually, if I didn't know any better, I'd think Mom had just made me a home cooked meal! I still felt a little queasy, but tried to ignore it as I picked my fork up with my right, still mobile, wing. "I'll go check on Bell. See if she's made any progress with the repairs." Corsair said, placing the small cloud in one of the crates among the rest of the transport's cargo. Her gaze swiftly turned to my own. "Oh, and Private Breeze should be done soon. She'll be here with your... uh... -cough- ...your Dashite brand in just a bit, Captain." With a clank of her rear hooves, the power-armored mare gave a salute with her wing, before trotting back out. I watched her armored scorpion tail vanish through the hatch, before quickly twisting my head back around, not wanting to give Yonder any more ideas. Once again, I was alone with the dapper lieutenant. If there was any hesitation left, I forced it aside as I scooped up the cloud-grown produce and took a bite. It... Okay, it did taste pretty good when actually prepared properly, at least compared to how I'd eaten it this morning. The carrots were... more or less, carroty... though a bit soft and mushy. And the apples, while still somewhat juicy, somehow seemed even more bland than normal, barely enough to sweeten up the small cup of oatmeal we got on the side. All things considered... no, it wasn't what I was used to back home, and I'm not sure I'm quite ready to say I can get used to it. But... at least it was something. While my wing dipped down to poke my fork into my next bite, Yonder had already defeated half his plate. He suddenly chuckled in-between his chews, before looking back to me. "Well... I am of the opinion that today is not exceptionally a good one for rememberin' past times." I swallowed before I could finish chewing my second bite, nearly making me choke for real this time. "...you mean... about where we've met before?" He nodded, eying me more curiously now. "Yes... I do believe you were about to explain before our meals arrived..?" I felt myself get pale at that, my eyes slowly widening as I stared at him from across the 'officer's table'. My ear twitched nervously as I blindly grasped for a memory, and realized I was scraping the bottom of my thought barrel... that was until a tiny Sky Vapor pony saved me again, this time by shoving a single word to the front of my mind. H-huh? My head slowly tilted to the side, examining the word behind my panicking eyes, thinking of a way to make it all significant. "Maybe... I mean, uh..." I couldn't help my forehooves from shyly tapping together as I spoke. "...you'd have seen me if you were part of the surface operations with the..." I gulped, then finally uttered the word out loud. "...Hellhounds?" I prayed to the guardians that it was an actual thing and not part of some kind of nursery rhyme I heard as a foal. The stallion froze mid-bite at the word, only moving to slowly drop his fork, before raising his eyes to squint back at me. "Ah... you mean you took part in General Harbinger's scouting party project." Yonder drawled, another smirk slowly forming. "I'd gamble those mind control experiments could have been one of the better projects... it really could have been..." He shook his head. "But no... no we didn't meet there... uh..." He put his hoof to his chin in thought. "Eh... you were at Griffinstone, right?" I blinked as my mind began to merge anything I could remember, from Pegasus history lessons as a filly to the war stories my sister used to tell us about. "Y-yeah..." I nodded thoughtfully, "Uhm... a couple of years back... during the third invasion of the Griffins." "Eck..." Yonder winced, and I could almost see a replay of the battle behind his eyes. "That there was one stroke short of a modern art masterpiece. Brutal, those bunch." Taking a bite of his leftover oatmeal, he gestured to me again with his forehoof. "So, was that where you were promoted?" “Yeah. I-I uh...” I rolled my eyes as I brainstormed. But with time short, and Vape's inspiration running dry, I found myself glancing away for any kind of mental boost. But aside from more cargo, the only other thing littered around the crates and boxes were several clipboards holding assortments of paper documents together. The closest one on the crate behind Yonder, read: "Shipping Manifest. Origin- Neighvarro. Destination- Stratusburg. Ship Number- 17. Shipment Description- Steel, Concrete, Mountain Resources, Old World Tech, Misc. Stable-Tec Debris". My eyes snapped back towards Yonder before he could give me another quizzical glare. "...cornered a Griffin mercenary unit. After interrogating the survivors, I led my squad to their camp... they had a mining operation... uh... some kind of scheme to trade resources with the surface... I uh... I think." I suddenly felt myself smirk at the thought. "...figured Neighvarro would find a better use for it than they would." The lieutenant chuckled at that as he finished another bite. "Yeah... yeah I do believe I heard about a victory there... so, that was you, huh?" I opened and closed my mouth in surprise, before biting my tongue and nodding. His forehoof abruptly reached across the crate, and lightly, playfully, swatted my shoulder. "That... if I may say, of course... is a well-deserved promotion, ma'am. I'm sure General Hazard was proud. You oughta be proud." Oh, I was proud alright... proud I was able to pull that out of my tail! Yet still, for some reason, his compliment forced me to grin, and I had to make sure to hide a spreading blush with my good wing, using it to scoop a good amount of oats and apple slices into my mouth. I couldn't help but push my chest out another inch as his appreciation spread a pleasant feeling of warmth inside me. More silence fell on us as we chewed on our meals... but... instead of the dread it brought through the transport's darkness, or by the lantern's unsettling crystal light, or with Yonder simply regarding me with that deep suspicion of his... it felt as if now, I was just enjoying a meal with a colleague... a friendly one at that. After about a minute, I swallowed another bite (is it just me, or is this suddenly starting to taste better?) I gestured with my hoof across our crate, much like he had. "And you?" I asked, raising my brow. "During the invasion?" He shook his head. "Not there for long, I'm afraid. I was reassigned to lead a squad in our southern jurisdiction, where a Pegasus colony was needin' Enclave protection. Settled around a Sky Port... uh..." He squinted, snapping his wing pinons as he tried to remember. "Midnight Blossom!" He blurted, "I say, it was the Midnight Blossom Sky Port." My ears perked at the mention of that. I'd heard about that Sky Port when I was in school! Genuinely curious, I leaned forward, my attention thoroughly caught by the stallion. "Yeah... I remember that. So, you fought in the Thestral Conflict?" "Heh..." He chuckled, "If you call holdin' position for three days until we realized they were gone, 'fighting'... never did see a single damn bat the whole time there... yet picked a few of us off durin' the night. The fourth kind is a tricky sort, I'll give'em that... if it really was them, of course. I have doubts, but that's just myself." A reasonable opinion... though his grin made it seem like I should believe the exact opposite. I awkwardly shrugged and changed the subject before I accidently involved myself in... something I probably don't want to be involved in. "Uhm... so, how long have you been an officer?" "Oh... been about five years now." He said, "Cut my teeth dustin' a bunch of abominations off Mount Aris." As he spoke, I could have thought his cap was back on, as a cloud seemed to pass over his face. "Gods, Mount Aris..." His eyes narrowed as he shook his head, a low pitch creeping into every tired word. I was about to nod solemnly in the heavy quiet that followed... Until he laughed. "I loved it!" Okay... maybe I read the room wrong? I had to keep myself from gawking in astonishment. "Some uh the best days I've had in the Enclave..." He sighed, giving another smirk. A smirk that my past self would probably want to run far away from. In fact, everything about the way he said that should have screamed, 'Run for your goddamn life, little pony!' And yet... I found myself fighting to hold back a giggle. What can I say? His delivery was pretty funny... I quickly tried to morph it into a raspier laugh as Yonder extended his wing in front of him. He reached into the breast-pocket of his uniform and removed a small grey pack, which featured a faded picture of a smirking pegasus mare in sunglasses on the front, smoking, her forelegs crossed over her chest, while saying: "You too can be Twenty Percent Cooler!" Yonder put it to his muzzle in a routinely manner. Then, when his wing lowered it, a cigarette was tightly held between his lips. His gaze quickly shifted back to mine, before swinging the pack towards me with his wing. "Cigarette?" I blinked in surprise, the offer going over my head at first. I must have impulsively nodded in approval, because the next thing I knew, I had replaced the fork between my wing pinions with one of the lieutenant's cigarettes, while his own wing had swapped the pack for a fancy Enclave engraved flip-lighter, plated in gold and platinum. One spark later, and both were lit by its tiny flame. So, you've probably guessed that I've... eh... never smoked before in my life. I didn't exactly plan on starting any time soon, but... well... I guess I've always wondered what it would be like to be Twenty Percent Cooler... Putting it between my lips, trying my best to mirror Yonder, I sucked a breath of air through the stick... and tears immediately welled in my eyes. I felt as if I might as well have swallowed a chunk of ash, as my throat started to burn like crazy! And that warmth inside me was no longer pleasant... in fact I was pretty sure the inside of my chest had just burst into flames. "...t-thanks." I managed to wheeze, suppressing a cough. Not wanting to make a scene, I swallowed whatever tantrum my lungs were ready to throw, as if I were swallowing vomit... actually, I'm pretty sure I did that too... And I was almost certain that if I had a mirror in front of me, I'd be able to see my ears bellowing black clouds of smoke. Yonder, meanwhile, looked as if he were in a moment of heaven, breathing a sigh of relief as he blew the tobacco smoke across our crate. Yet, his ecstasy didn't seem to last as long as he'd hoped. Pinching the cigarette between his pinions again, he grimaced as he took it away from his lips in near disgust. "Goddamn cloud-grown tobacco..." The stallion groaned, "...'bout as soggy as a Hoofington stratus inspection." His eyes abruptly widened as they again locked onto mine, and for the first time since I'd shown him the Dashite brand, there was a hint of worry before he tried to cover it up with a laugh. "...er-- uh, if I may say off the record, Captain." I had to check my surroundings, before realizing Yonder had just asked for my permission to continue, shrouded somewhere in that last sentence. I nodded, spending a bit more of my growing confidence to flash him a smile. "Go on..." I instantly winced at the sound of my strained voice, suddenly raspier without me even needing to try. Heh... I uh... guess I still need to recover from being twenty percent cooler... Yonder nodded back, and despite his complaint, took another drag of his death stick. "I do believe..." He sighed as if hesitant to say it, "...that pegasus cigarettes are a sin... I say, a SIN against nicotine." He paused to blow more tobacco through his nostrils, the smoggy air barely bristling his pencil-stache. "I tell ya, once you've had a pack uh smokes from the surface... it's just cruel to go back to these." I raised an eyebrow. "You mean... you've actually... had cigarettes from the surface?" "I would hope you not to think to court martial me for that." He joked, "Earth Ponies have always been the better farmin' tribe, that includes tobacco farmin'. I like to think the Pegasi at least outdid the Unicorns, but..." Wait... what exactly is he suggesting here? I gave him a look and he awkwardly coughed up smoke before continuing, "...well, anyway, I'm not sayin' they're better now... given the circumstances, Pegasus cloud farmin' is the superior technique. What with all the taint and radiation and... 'dirt' that they've got to work with down here? If any dirt pony offers me an apple, it oughta be fresh, red, crunchy and one hell of an apple before it so much as grazes my teeth." Leaning forward, he shook a raised wing pinion above the crate. "That bein' said... there's no questionin' the time when Equestria was a livable place. Somethin' that appears to be loomin' on the horizon again." He scoffed, "...that is, if the winds of the council remain on course." I blinked and looked up and down at the yellow stallion. Equestria... a livable place? Like... livable livable? I mean... yeah, sure, stabilizing the surface from its dangers has been a potential policy floating around the Enclave ever since the decline in mountaintops to excavate. And less mountain peaks above the clouds means less resources for us to use. I never really found an interest in politics (not that I'd have the prestige for it anyways) but I always figured most pegasi, like Mom and Dad, were on the traditional side of the debate. You know... like staying away from the deadly wasteland. -sigh- That was our stance in Stratusburg at least. Of course, there were always some loud pegasus politicians out there urging for us to make a triumphant return to Equestria, help the surface dwellers, restore order to pony kind, and probably a variety of other reasons that I... never really understood. Regardless, exactly how to advance that policy... Well... I guess we're about to be the next addition to that debate. "Oh, I'm sure you've heard..." Yonder shrugged, sitting back on his haunches. "Why, one of my first surface engagement assignments was to... well, you know how it goes Captain, to more or less NOT engage with the surface." He rolled his eyes and chuckled, enthusiasm for the subject decreasing with every word. "We were to 'assess the situation' in Whinnyapolis. Followed protocol. Found a former pegasus holdin'. Set up an outpost uh sorts. And... observe. Heh. Of course, we got a little involved with havin' to clear out some baduns that just happened to be around and were sent back with a report detailin' their attitudes and firepower and such and what it would take to deal with'em." I nodded, briefly smirking as a picture slowly formed in my head. "...all just a coincidence that they sent you there, then?" "Oh, of course! Just a routine dive below our protective cloud layer to capture the importance of how a pack uh backward yokels rut in the dirt." He snarked, both of us sharing a moment to laugh. "Yes, well... I do suppose officers close to the council like yourself are at least given an ounce of light on what some uh those bureaucrat projects are for." I flushed, scratching the back of my mane with a hoof. "Heh... Y-you think I had any idea about what they wanted the Hellhounds for?" Seriously, what the heck would they be used for?! "It's not like they'd be real useful falling through our cloudcover." I gave a shrug. "I mean, we flew down to wire a bunch of electrified domes on their heads and made them march to 'Flight of the Shadowbolts'!" I said, spinning one of my sister's tales into my own. Putting a hoof to my chin, I rolled my eyes as I tried to think. "If uh... if I were to guess..." Okay, what am I guessing? What am I guessing? If I were a High General on the Council, what would I--? Wait... if I were planning to engage the surface, I would want every option on the table. Maybe the Enclave really is considering an attack... I cleared my throat. "...the only use for them would be to support an assault on the surface. But public support for another war, especially one with the surface, isn't quite where it needs to be yet. So... we're left with coincidences and experiments until morale is up." "Morale..." He suddenly raised his eyebrows. "Yeah... speakin' uh morale, that reminds me of somethin' else I've been meanin' to ask you... the Pegasi of Stratusburg ought'a be mighty crossed for what those murderin' surface sympathizers did to their governin' buildin'..." My calm suddenly dropped at the mention of my home as I sat up much straighter. "...yourself included." His eyes once again regarded me curiously. My own could only return an instinctive glare that even I found inscrutable. "...c-crossed." I murmured back, and I could have sworn I started to hear the explosions and desperate cries for help. See the shocked and frightened pegasi scrambling away from the HQ. Feel the slow fading of heat as it fell away with the Vertibuck. Smell the blast charred clouds around me... The scar on the back of my neck began to burn more intensely, before having to hide my hooves under the table as they started to shake. I... NO! Sweet Council, please don't make me fall apart in front of him now! "Well, I... it was a... I mean, what happened was a tragedy, and--" "Anypony close?" He interrupted, "In your Headquarters, that is. When it blew?" "I..." My voice got caught in my breath as the thought locked away all my words. All I could do was keep a stiff lip, fight my eyes from turning glossy and nod. Yonder sighed. "Listen, Captain... I've handed the leadership of my platoon over to you. As the higher rank, your authority is beyond question, of course..." As he spoke, his forehoof began lightly clip-clopping against the crate-top as if suddenly anxious. "...but, I do hope you understand when I say that your judgment is... a mystery to me." Yeah... that makes two of us. I mentally winced but compelled myself to laugh. "A mystery? What uh... what do you mean, Lieutenant?" "Well I... I'd gamble that after what happened to poor Comet Chaser out there, that our platoon is rightfully itchin' for some justice..." He paused for another smoke, fogging up the cargo hold with more tobacco. "...now, what I can't imagine is what you're itchin' to do after that terrorist not only destroyed your governin' building..." A terrorist who I helped. "...but also killed your entire Verti-buck squadron..." Who wouldn't have burned alive if I'd just done my job! "...and then of course there's your wing injury..." He shrugged and I felt my fake smile begin to strain. "I guess I'm tryin' to ask if you're holdin' up okay after all that..." He said, an unnatural but genuine concern in his eyes. "I-itching? But I'm not-- I mean, I'm just..." I shook my head, quickly searching for something to change the subject. Damnit! Why did we have to talk about this!? I... I REALLY don't want to think about it! I... I just can't right now! "I'm... -sigh-" For the love of the Council, please change the subject before--! It was too late... "I can assure you that I'm fine, Lieutenant." I lied. "I-I just... We..." My words began stumbling from my mouth as the wall around my concious began to crumble again at Yonder's question. If I'd just done my job, none of that would have happened! It... it was my fault for letting the Dashite through the checkpoint. I'd failed to ask for her credentials... and I... I failed Stratusburg and everypony on board the Verti-buck! I... I failed the Enclave. I failed my parents! I... I... I JUST FAILED EVERYPONY! I searched around, hoping Yonder couldn't see my reddening eyes through the already red light. I wanted to sob right there. And I came real close... But instead, I desperately zeroed in on the first thing my eyes fell on, finally distracting myself before I completely lost it. "Y-your radio!" I blurted, pointing a hoof. The surprised stallion's eyes snapped towards the object still sitting across from us on the crate. I cleared my throat as I struggled to recompose myself. "I heard you listening to it earlier. On Enclave Radio even!" For some reason, the change in subject seemed to disappoint him. "U-uh... Yes, I was... We do get the frequency down here. Unfortunately, it was damaged in the crash. Not even Corsair or Thunder Bolt's power armor mics can input properly." “Aha! I knew it!” I felt as if I should be happy for guessing right from earlier... but, for some reason my happiness wasn't working on its own, so I had to force it with a smile. "Um... Captain..." I ignored his wary tone, having since grabbed the radio, pretending to know what I was doing adjusting the device's dials to keep myself from shaking. "Hey, did you catch a second frequency when tuning in? Because there's this dirt pony called DJPon3 down here who plays this music and tells the news. He even mentioned the HQ. Which is an obvious breach of security. The Enclave will probably need to deal with him in the future. I'll be sure to put it in my report." I let a Dashite ruin my life... destroy my home... kill my fellow pegasi... maybe even my friends and neighbors... and I was talking about filing a report? "I say, Captain!" Yonder snapped, swiftly shutting me up before awkardly clearing his throat at his outburst, calmly reaching out to lower the radio down from my grasp. "You said our mission will be to engage with the settlement down the mountain to rescue survivors... what if we find the ones responsible for the mess they caused you, hidin' out in that very location?" The ones... responsible? The question cut me deep. Is... is he saying we could bring the ponies who destroyed my home to justice? And... what if we found them? What would I say to them? What would I do with them? I hadn't really thought of it, because... well, what right did I have for justice if it was my fault for it happening in the first place?! Weakness landed on me like an anvil. I could hear a tiny Sky Vapor pony trying to cheer me up, but I just wouldn't have it. I felt bile rising in my throat. But... If... If I let this affect me... No! I couldn't let it! Captains don't let it! I... I have to fake it! Thankfully, there was still one resolve I had left to clamp down on. "I-If we find them..." I sighed, hardening my eyes as I glared straight into Yonder. "...then we deal with them however we deal with them. But the ponies who matter there are not the traitors... The survivors come first." The stallion stayed oddly silent, so I cocked an eyebrow. "Understood?" "Hmm... yes, Ma'am." He said, a bit stiffly, before tilting his gaze back to me, his lips smirking again. "It's reassurin'. Your word, that is. I do believe me, and my ponies, are in safe hooves with your judgement." I couldn't tell if he really 'did believe' a single word he just said... I know I wouldn't have. Looking down at his forehooves, he shook his head with a shrug. "However, as I said before, these ponies will want justice for what happened. It's a matter I've been turnin' over in my head for the last pack'uh days, and how we should be respondin' to those deserters of ours..." "W-well, uh... you can stop turning it over." I said and his smirk vanished in an instant. "Now, just wait a cloud pickin' minute... Just because you don't find yourself angry at those murderin' bastards for killin' your friends--" “Enough!” I screamed. He flinched back, leaning away from me as I glared. Fuck! Why did he have to say it like that?! I am angry! I just... Ugh! “Don't say anything about friends... or... or whoever else could have been in there! I was there, Leutenant... I don’t… need to hear about it. About them. Or any of it. Just... please...” I begged, desperately trying to control my breath from showing cracks. “I'll... I'll be sure to give Seargent Corsair and Seargent Bolt and Corporal Belle and Private Breeze what's deserved for what they've been through..." I forced a sigh. It was all I had to calm myself down. "...and I promise that Private Chaser will get his justice.” Taking a mental breath, I knitted my brow and finally stood back up on my hooves. "It's a matter I will deal with." I said as evenly as I could, before continuing more firmly, "...and is no longer your concern." I just hope it was enough for him not to ask how I'd deal with it. His ears pinned back as I loomed over him, standing on rear legs with my forehooves hoisting me over the edge of the crate. His wide eyes seemed to study me, and strangely, they were surprised instead of suspicious. He opened his mouth to speak. I gulped, my hooves starting to quake under my weight, knowing that he was about to ask the question before I had time to think of the right answer... but he never finished, as a roll of thunder surged through the transport with a loud bang, and the ceiling lights abruptly flickered on above us, vaporizing the lone red light from the lantern. The darkness was gone... for the moment. There was a low winding sound of a generator below us, sounding as if it were on the verge of turning over, before everything collapsed back at once. The winding depressed back to nothing as the lights flickered back out, and the red returned. A fit of harsh hacking and rasping coughs erupted from beneath our hooves, followed by a long list of obscenities I could hardly begin to explain. Now all I could think of was a small, gorgeous mare such as Rotor Belle going against Captain Short Fuse in a contest to see who has the worst temper. "That blasted, stupid, cloud generator! Fuck you, you cheap clanking heap uh junk! Aw, goddamnit! For council's sake, Thunder, open up that moisture vent, will ya!? Who in the hell turned it closed, AGAIN!? Oh Magnus, fuck me with your--!" I cleared my throat, Yonder and I still staring at each other in silence as Bell waged a war with her tools, slamming them against the evil compartment below us. "Gyaah! Tute-blurtle-rattle-crap-camel-klirk! You mother fuckin' piece uh jerk off cunt crap! Drop dead you dumb fratterhaustikkelfieffe!!!" The fur on my coat stood on end, making my ears twist around in disgust. Yeesh! Those words could make a dirt pony want a bath if she heard them... "O-oh guardians, Bell..." A familiar soft voice sighed. I turned and spotted Miracle standing in front of the hatch, staring at the deck beneath her hooves. Shaking her mane, she stood back up straight and saluted with her wing, revealing the cloud and lightning bolt brand tucked behind it. "Miracle Breeze, reporting as ordered, ma'am." I would be lying if I said she didn't immediately make my heart flutter. Just hearing her voice had practically washed all the sin I swore Bell's profanity had just doused me in. I blinked, realizing I'd been standing there, staring at her while she waited for me to respond. I blushed, quickly saluting her back with my own wing as she relaxed. Hoping the simple mental demand was enough, I tried to shake away the burn in my cheeks, before turning back to Yonder. "U-uh... what were we talking about?" His expression unreadable, he took another drag of his cigarette before his lungs relieved a breath. "...justice." He stated, flatly. "-Ahem!- Right!" I... still had nothing. I looked around like a bird struggling to fly with broken wings. And once again, my eyes fell on Miracle. "Well, uh... Like I said before... the solution is right here." I gestured my hoof towards the adorable mare. "W-wha-huh?" She stammered as both Yonder and I turned to stare at her. "But... but I'm not a--" Stumbling back on her hooves, she frantically traded looks between us. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and giggle at her flustered expression. Raising my brow, I nodded to her wing. It finally seemed to click when she blushed with embarrassment. "O-oh! Uh... right!" She chuckled, flashing a nervous grin. Her wing unfolded and set the Dashite brand down in front of us. As she did so, she glanced at me, then at Yonder in confusion. "Justice? What do you mean?" Alright, Captain Sky Bliss, time for a... -sigh- ...a captain-y plan. Yonder opened his mouth to answer, but I beat him to the punch. "Well, those Dashites who attacked your friend couldn’t have gone far. And the closest place to fly to is that surface settlement down the mountain. Since that's where we're headed, we might as well brand any we find as traitors and make sure they don’t hurt any more Pegasi while we rescue the HQ survivors." I said with a reassuring grin. Ha! Nailed it! At least that's what I thought for a whole two and half seconds... Clearly, Miracle wasn't quite on the same page as Yonder and I on the matter. "You... you want us to brand the ponies who deserted... for revenge?" Revenge? Who said anything about revenge? This was justice... right? "It's very clear on the matter, Private Breeze... the law, that is." Yonder said, his tone patronizing. "But--! But they're our platoon, Lieutenant!" Her ears flattened against her wavy mane in shock. "I... I'd just helped Private Cloud Wisp with her leg injury! A-and Private Wind Stomper and I are friends from flight school! And Corporal Rain Fly, he--!" "Murdered Private Comet Chaser!" Yonder interjected, making the pale grey mare gasp. "I do believe he was your friend as well, was he not?" Miracle stayed silent, casting her gaze to the space between her hooves at a loss. "U-uh... I'm starting to get the impression that justice isn't as high a priority for the platoon as you thought it was, Lieutenant Wild." I said calmly, trying not to look smug as I arched a brow. The smile that came across Yonder's muzzle as he looked at me put that concern to rest as it sent a chill down my spine instead. "Perhaps it's not..." His eyes squinted, but his smile never stopped. His cigarette had gotten noticeably shorter, as he'd apparently inhaled a significant drag off it at my quip. "...have your orders changed then, Captain?" He asked politely, sighing an incredibly long breath of smoke. I felt a timid spike in my heart as the tobacco clouded around my head. Captain-y, Bliss... think of the Captain-y thing to do. I had to remind myself, suppressing a cough and trying to relax. You can't just neglect Enclave law! Besides... killing their own... that's not right! I let out a long sigh, the smoke finally clearing. "No... I'm sorry Miracle, but ponies who desert the Enclave and side with murderers and rapists need to be condemned." "B-but--!" She stammered pleadingly, before her ears drooped, her protest dying faster than the speed of a Wonderbolt. "Y... y-yes, Ma'am. I... I understand." She whimpered... and my heart shattered into pieces. Damnit! Was that too captain-y? I... I didn't mean to sound heartless, but... Ooooh! I can't just leave her looking like that! "But-- ...I uh..." I winced, desperately searching for a way to reverse what I'd just said... Somehow without actually reversing it. But I panicked and blurted before thinking. "But... but I wanna hear them out, first!" Both Yonder and Miracle perked up and blinked. Securing my nerve, I shook my head and gave them a gritty stare. "Look, I'm not gonna promise anything. But I want to know why they did what they did. And that's IF we find them while we're helping the survivors, understood?" Miracle's wings sprang up in excitement. "M-ma'am, I... Er... I-I mean--!" She flushed, "...u-understood, Captain." She said, visually relieved, at least to a degree. The mare still looked shaken by both Yonder's revelation, and the plan to condemn her former squad mates. The Lieutenant himself had since stiffened. His silence was starting to worry me. Yet, when I turned to him, he still smiled a little, and nodded. "Understood." He said, calmly. I paused for a moment, casting my gaze to the floor in thought. "...there's... something else..." I muttered, tilting my eyes back up to meet his own. "Whatever shot your transports down... if that settlement is the only one of its kind for miles, then it could be the source." I'd apparently caught his attention, his ears perking as he regarded me curiously. His uh... his wings didn't spring out like Miracle's, though I couldn't help but smirk at the thought. "The platoon wants its justice? Fine. They'll get it when we find who's responsible for bringing you all in this mess in the first place." Yonder seemed to consider that. "And?" He asked, "What then?" Trading looks between them, I flashed a smile and chuckled. "What is it our Council says?" He blinked, staring flatly at me for a moment before his lips slowly curled into a grin. "We brand'em then..." Miracle Breeze flinched at that, her eyes falling back to her hooves, but gave an affirmative nod after noticing my gaze. "U-understood, ma'am." Yonder snickered and shook his head. "I do believe that if I had a glass, I would toast to that." His wing finally discarded his cigarette, plunging the smoldering butt into the scraps of his meal with a twist, putting it out with a tiny hiss. "Well... I suppose I ought to see what those three are muckin' up out there." Placing his officer's cap back on his head, he stood and touched his wingtip to the visor in a salute. "Pleasure discussin' with you, Captain Sky Bliss." He turned to leave, trotting passed Miracle Breeze and toward the hatch. ...but there was one more thing I had to do before he left. "Lieutenant Wild?" Looking over my shoulder, I saw him freeze completely. "Have you figured it out yet?" His head slowly turned to look at me, then raised his eyebrows and blinked. "Figured what out?" "Where we've met before." I said, curiously fluttering my lashes at him as I felt a flash of thrill strike at the numbness within my core. "I'd... really like to know." The shadow from his cap once again blanketed his face before he chuckled. "Oh... yes, of course!" His eyes narrowed, looking me up and down, and I couldn't help but feel pride as his smirk disappeared from his muzzle. "You're--" He grimaced then shook his head with a grunt. "No... no it couldn't be..." I arched a brow. "Couldn't be?" He gave me another look. "It's nothing... it's just... well, I do say, you are an awful lot similar to a mare I knew in my squad. Durin' the surface scoutin' party I went on about... very similar, in fact. In almost every way..." He took a step closer, his blood red eyes looking straight into my pink ones. "Hmm... But no... no you're not her. I'm... afraid I was mistaken." He shrugged with a small chuckle, though his face showed a bit of disappointment. I watched as he turned back around toward the hatch. "It can happen sometimes, right?" I said after him, making the stallion stop again. "Actually, I thought I recognized you too. You talk just like that senator on the radio from Cumulusville. Beauregard Foghorn." I laughed. In fact, I could have fell to the floor in laughter at the unexpected effect I'd apparently struck into him. Without turning around, his wings twitched as his orange tail flicked behind him. "Yeah..." He nodded, then trotted down the steps out the hatch. There wasn't another word he had to say... but the fun quickly ended. And I couldn't have been more relieved for it. My lungs were just about ready to burst before they finally let out my held breath. Thank the skies, that's over... I turned, only to see Miracle Breeze trotting up to me. "Oh... -ahem- was there... something else, Miracle?" She stopped and her eyes went round for a moment. Ah... or she was just trotting passed me and wasn't expecting me to say anything. Her lips parted as if about to blurt an answer, but then her eyes caught something at my side. Finally, she straightened herself with a nod. "Yes, actually... I wanted to ask about your wing, ma'am. Y-you... said it still hurt when we first arrived. Do you want me to check on it, just in case? I..." She looked at me and flushed, "I still don't have any painkillers, but might be able to adjust the sling if it's uncomfortable for--." She suddenly stopped talking with a wary look. "Ma'am? Are you feeling alright?" "H-huh?" I blinked and became swiftly aware of the burning in my cheeks again... though this time, it wasn't because of the lovely mare in front of me. No, seriously! I swear it wasn't! I tried to clear my head of its daze by giving it a shake. "Uh... Sorry, it's nothing." I had to clear my throat when it started to burn. Eventually, my eyes fell on the Dashite brand still on the floor. "But... yes... I-if you could... with uh... with my wing... that would be... g-great, like a m-miracle! ...er...I mean!" I said, slowly scooping the brand up in my hooves. "Ma'am!" She winced, "You're... ah... oh my..." My legs began to quiver as they trotted me forward. I urgently nudged one of the loose crates open with my muzzle and carefully placed the brand inside. Giving a nod, I made my way to the nearest open crate beside it... and voided my stomach of the meal I'd eaten with Yonder. Violently. Aha... for my first act as this Platoon's commanding officer, I, Captain Sky Bliss, designate this the puke crate! I staggered and fell to my side, Miracle crying out as she galloped up to me. See? Told you it wasn't because of her... Author's Note Whew! Finally finished this one! Deeply apologize for not getting this out sooner. I still don't feel completely satisfied with it, but I figured I had to squash that feeling to finally get this out. That on top of finding less and less time and inspiration to write, it was about time. But enough excuses. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and really hope it wasn't too slow for you since it was a very dialogue heavy chapter, plus I noticed that it's almost as long as the last three chapters put together, so if you're reading this, I'm glad you made it all the way! As always, I hope you leave some feedback if you have any so I can improve my writing or fix any mistakes. And stay tuned for more of Sky Bliss in the future!
