I watched from afar as Vapour Trail and Icewind gently loaded Lightning’s curled up body onto the small cloud. The fallen pegasus looked so small out of her armour, her hooves folded across her chest. A second later, I saw Firestreak join them, her helmet removed, giving me a clear view of her scared face. I don’t think I had ever seen Firestreak show the smallest of care for another, but right now her eyes glistened with moisture.

She was not the only one. Beside her, tears were streaming freely down Vapours cheeks. He turned away from us, facing towards the wastes, clearly trying to hide them. It didn’t matter. I could hear his tears in the snivelling of his muzzle as he openly sobbed.

Icewind reached out, her hoof trembling as she gently closed Lightning's eyes. She gave a sturdy flap of her wings, sending a gust of wind surging up beneath Lightning's cloud, causing it to slowly begin floating upwards, rising higher and higher into the sky above us.

Another loud, sob-like gasp broke free from Vapour's lips. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes turned upwards as he watched the cloud ascend. “I’m going to find the Dashites that did this,” Vapour promised as the cloud holding Lightning's body began to disappear beyond our lines of sight. “I promise you this. I’ll make them pay for this.”

A proper pegasus funeral; that’s what Icewind had called this. It lacked many of the formalities I had grown accustomed to seeing above the clouds while in the Enclave, but the principle of it was still there. This is all that one who died on the battlefield away from home could really hope for, especially while below the clouds. To be reunited once more with the sky. The domain of the pegasi.

I watched the three of them stand there for a long time, their heads raised as they watched the last bits of Lightning's final ascent. Finally, no longer able to see anything of the cloud that would serve as Lightning’s final resting place, I turned, trotting back out into the dilapidated streets of Manehattan. There was no time to sit around feeling bad for ourselves. We had some Dashites to kill.

“We’ll set up camp here,” Icewind ordered, coming to a stop by the ruins of what appeared to be an old grocery store. Above us, the sun had set below the horizon and the cloudless night sky had filled with the glittering lights of hundreds of stars. I could see the beginnings of thin, pale beams of moon strewning through the city, though the moon itself remained hidden behind the towering structures.

“No. We keep moving,” I grunted, turning back to look at her with one big, glassy red eye. “The longer we wait, the more likely those traitors will escape us.”

Icewind snarled at me. “Unlike you, Horrigan, some of us actually need sleep. We will be able to search them out much faster and more efficiently if we’re well rested.”

True to her words, all three of my companions seemed to be looking rather worn down. Twenty four hours of scavenging the city to no success had left them tired. I could practically see the dark bags forming under Vapour Trail’s eyes even through his tinted visor.

At my silence, Icewind stamped her hoof. “We need rest, Horrigan. That is an order.”

Orders made sense. I snapped my wing up into a salute. “Very well,” I rumble as I pivoted and trotted into the ruins of the grocery store. My subordinates followed close behind me.

Setting up our camp inside didn’t take long. Firesteak had quickly scavenged as much flammable things as she could find from the building and threw them in a big pile in the centre of the floor, before quickly igniting them with a loud fwoosh of her flamers. The walls were cast in the warm, flickering glow of the fire, the single light source in the centre of the room casting large, geometric shades across every surface. The building appeared to have been picked clean by raiders years ago, so there wasn’t much around for eating, though that mattered little. We had packed at least a month's worth of MRE’s with us before leaving the Hippocampus oil rig. Food would not be an issue.

Not that I had even seemed to need to eat since my accident. I had never really stopped to think about it, but I supposed that I hadn’t had anything to eat in over two years.

I stood by the doorway, focusing more on my EFS than my subordinates as I scanned the outside area for any hostiles. Icewind offered for me to join them at the fire, though as it wasn’t an order, I just grunted and returned my gaze to the street.

“You r-really think the Dashites heading for a settlement?” I heard Vapour Trail ask, bunkering down by the flickering firelight, the warm glow of the flames dancing across the metal surface of his visor.

Icewind gave a nod, resting down across from him. “I’m certain of it. If they care anything for their companion's life, they’ll seek out medical help, and with their wounds, they aren’t strong enough to carry her all the way out of the city.”

Firestreak snorted. “That’s assuming they actually give a dick about that bitches life,” She trotted towards the makeshift campfire, gazing into the smoldering flames. “You forget that they’re Dashites, Icy. Traitors. They don’t give a flying fuck about any pony but themselves.”

Icewind flinched. “Trust me. Dashites care about other ponies just as much as we care about our own,” She looked away from Firestreak as the Tartarus Fire trooper cast her a stern glare. “You know full well that I speak from experience.”

Vapour Trail shivered, curling his hooves around himself. “So then which settlement? Tenpony?”

“We can likely rule Tenpony out,” Icewind grunted, not bothering to look up at him. “They didn’t appear to have enough caps on them to get in, let alone afford their medical services. No. They’ll likely head for either Friendship City or one of the smaller settlements in the area,” She paused, tracing her icy blue hoof on the ground, making a swirly pattern in the thick layer of dust. “I’m going to bet on one of the smaller ones. Friendship City is too far and they’ll probably expect us to check there first.”

Firestreak smirked. “If you’re right, that narrows it down exponentially. Not many settlements still left standing in Manehattan. Not with how hard it is for savages to survive in these parts of the wastes.”

Vapour Trail trembled again, this time resting his head down on the ground and glaring at the flames. “I’m going t-to kill them when we find them… I-I I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to k-kill anypony this much in my l-life…”

Firestreak raised an eyebrow at him, finally resting down by the fire herself, tucking her armoured forehooves beneath her. “You and Lightning had history?”

Vapour gave a slow nod, taking a deep breath to try and console himself. “Yeah… W-we met in training back when we were both still privates,” he sniveled, whipping his hoof across his muzzle to clean off some of the snot. “I’ve never actually been on a mission without her… we did everything together.”

Icewind’s expression took on an even more dower look than before. “I’m sorry to hear that. I know what it’s like to lose a pony you care about.”

“Did you like her?” Firestreak asked. Icewind shot her a sharp glare, though her question didn’t seem malicious. Just curious.

Vapour gave a slow nod. “O-Once. We tried dating b-b-back before the Lightbringer destroyed the cloudlayer. Didn’t really work out. We were f-f-fine just being friends.”

All three pegasi drifted off into silence for a moment, the conversation seemingly over. Eventually, Firestreak of all ponies decided to speak up. “I lost a pony I cared about once too. I met him, say… ten years ago now?” She paused, looking deep into the writhing flames and chuckling slightly to herself. “His name was Commander Flamestroke. If the name didn’t give it away, the two of us were a match made in heaven. He used to be a Tartarusfire trooper like me, that’s where we met, before he got promoted anyway.”

Vapour dared glance up and look at her, the tears in his eyes subsided somewhat. “O-oh? What happened to him?”

“Dead. Killed during the siege of Dashite City two years back. His body was never recovered from the wreckage of his Raptor,” Firestreak sighed, leaning back and looking up at the roof above us. “Might have been the first time I ever truly cried over somepony. Didn’t cry when my dad passed, nor my brother, but Flamestroke’s death hit me bad.”

“I’m sorry,” Icewind said lamely, though her voice seemed to lack remorse towards the reminiscing Tartarusfire trooper. I supposed the two of them had grown far too detached for any real bond to form between them. “I worked under Flamestroke back when I was a soldier. He was a good commander.”

Firestreak smirked. “Heh, yeah. One of the best,” she glanced over at Icewind her eyes hidden behind her visor, obscuring whatever expression she might have had. “Well? What about you?”

Icewind hesitated. “What about me?”

Firestreak rolled her eyes. “Vapour and I just gave the stories of ponies we’ve lost. Now it’s your turn, ground lover.”

Icewind scowled at the comment. “Please refrain from calling me that.”

Firestreak rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just tell us a story while I don’t actively hate you.”

Sighing, Icewind looked up at the ceiling, her expression lost in thought. “There was this one pony. Back when… when I was, uh… Out of employment with the Enclave.”

“When you w-were still a Dashite?” Vapour asked curiously, his stuttering voice peaking with interest.

The question made Icewind wince. “Uh. Yeah. Back then.”

“I don’t think I-I-I’ve ever actually heard the story about how you went Dashite,” Vapour confessed. Icewind winced again, though it was clear to me Vapour had no malicious intentions with his questions.

“Well… It’s a long story. You probably don’t want to hear it,” Icewind deflected. When it was clear no pony had any desire to object to the tale, she sighed. “Fine. It was about five years ago. Before the Enclave came down from the clouds. I was on a reconnaissance mission. A traitor named Calamity had been spotted out in a nearby town called New Appaloosa. We got a message from command telling us to take him out..”

“I remember Calamity,” I grunted, breaking my silence and speaking up for the first time since we had entered the abandoned grocery store. All my subordinates turned their heads to look over at me as my voice rumbled out. “I recall him being one of the few ponies with an aim that could rival my own.”

Icewind nodded. “They don’t call him deadshot for no reason. And it was for that reason that you can probably guess why the mission didn’t go well,” She leaned back, returning her attention to Firestreak and Vapour. “My team was shot down. Not one of his shots missed its mark. One of his shots hit my wing, downing me,” Her wings ruffled slightly at her sides and she traced the scar on her face with her fore hoof. “His second shot grazed my face. Only thing that kept his second shot from blowing out my brains was that hitting a free falling pegasus is mighty difficult.”

Vapour looked about for a moment, trying to make sense of the story. “S-s-so how d-did you become a Dashite then?”

Icewind fixed him with a stern glare. “I failed to kill my target and I was grounded on the surface. The Enclave doesn’t let ponies back up into the clouds for failure,” she turned away, her face downcast, her pink eyes obscured by dark shadows. “When I woke up on the surface, there was this pony, an earth pony mare named Ceder. She took care of me. Patched me up, kept me safe while I recovered. She didn’t care that I was Enclave. She just saw that I needed help and helped me.”

Firestreak made a loud gagging noise. “Ew. You fell in love with a ground dweller? Fuckin’ hell Icy, do you have literally no shame?”

“You asked for the story,” Icewind shot back, growling at the Tartarusfire Trooper. At Firestreaks smug smirk, she quickly averted her gaze back to the flickering flames. “Anyway, she was nice. I liked her. She was from a settlement out by the ruins of a place once called Rainbow Falls, and had gone out exploring the wasteland when she found me. After I was healed, and since the Enclave wouldn’t take me back, I decided to go exploring with her. We looked out for each other. Things were good.”

“W-What happened?” Vapour asked, scooting a little closer to the fire. His tears were all but gone now, his mind enraptured by the story.

Icewind’s face fell. “She was killed by raiders. It was… messy…” She closed her eyes, taking a long, slow breath. When her eyes opened again, there was a strange melancholy to them. “When the Lightbringer destroyed the cloud layer, the Enclave was desperate for recruits. They couldn’t bring wastelanders into their army, and most of the pegasi had either gone Dashite or been killed in the battle for Fillydelphia. So when Colonel Thunderbolt found me, broken and alone in the wasteland, he let me rejoin… at a cost of course…” her body shifted, the tips of her wings rubbing up against the brand on her flank as a painful memory crossed her mind.

“But w-why join back up?” Vapour questioned slowly, his eyes lingering on Icewinds branded flank for a second. “After all that happened on the surface, why join us again?”

Icewind sighed. “Cedar showed me that there are good ponies down here. But she also showed me that being a good pony doesn’t take you far in the wasteland. I watched the pony I love get ripped apart by raiders in the most vile, violent way imaginable. I saw first hoof that the Enclave was right. There is no home for us below the clouds. All that awaits ponies down here is death.”

“And I thought Horrigan over there was grim all the time,” Firestreak chuckled darkly, pointing at me from across the room with a hoof.

“What happened to the r-r-raiders?” Vapour pushed, his eyes not wanting to look up from his hooves. “Did you kill them?”

Icewind shook her head. “They got away. As far as I know they’re still out there. It’s not like it is above the clouds; down here, there is no justice. Good ponies die, and bad ponies get what they want. That’s how the wasteland works.”

There was another long moment of silence between them as they all thought that over. After a long moment, Vapour looked up at me. “W-well? W-what about y-you Horrigan?”

I turned my head to look back at them with one of my glowing, glass eyes. “What?”

Vapour gulped. “What’s your story? You l-lost somepony too, right?”

“Why?” I rumbled back, my glass eyes burning into him.

Vapout Trail recoil. “I, um… I-I-I-I Thought that it might be n-n-nice to include you…” He shrank away more as I continued to stare at him. “O-o-or not. T-that's fine too.”

Firestreak rolled onto her back, looking up at me with upside down eyes through the large campfire. “Come on, Horrigan. Tell us about Skylight.”

I cast a glance at Icewind, looking for orders. The icy blue pegasus just rolled her eyes at me. “Tell us about Skylight before your accident, Horrigan. That’s an order.”

Nodding, I turned and trotted over to them, sitting down next to the fire. The whole building shook as I dropped to my haunches. “We met as foals,” I started bluntly, my eyes staring into the fire and refusing to make eye contact with the other three pegasi. “We… cared about each other… I think those are the right words for it.”

Firestreak snickered. “Oh? The big monstrosity of metal and flesh actually has feelings? I was beginning to wonder.”

I glowered at her. She was wrong. I didn’t care about ponies. Not anymore. “Perhaps once,” I grunted dismissively. “But that was a long time ago…”

<-=======oo0 0oo=======->

I sat on a high flying cloud, looking down at the group of pegasus colts playing ball a few feet below me. I had no intention of joining them, but sitting around doing nothing had gotten boring. I watched as one pegasus colt kicked at the orange ball, sending it shooting through the air and dropping into an open hoop. The rest of the colts cheered.

“Watcha doin’ up here?” A voice piped up, making me roll over to look up at the pony who had flew up behind me. She was a young filly, maybe only a year younger than myself, with a yellow mane and white coat. She cocked her eyebrow at my dumbfounded expression. “Don’tcha wanna go play with them?”

I shook my head. “They aren’t interesting enough for me,” I grunted back. I rolled back onto my front and looking away from the small filly and back down at the pegasi colts below. “They just throw a ball around all day.”

The filly snickered at me. “Right. They totally aren’t interesting enough for you. That’s why you’re up here watching them and not off doing something else, huh?”

I shot her a glare. “I was bored,” I rebutted, though I gave her a small smirk.

Flapping her wings a little, the pegasus filly dropped down and roughly landed on the small cloud beside me. Now up close, I saw that she was a goof few inches shorter than me. She looked down at the cloud field below before eventually looking back up at me. “Well, what about me? Am I interesting enough to hang out with?”

I looked her over, one eyebrow raised. I had to admit, this odd encounter was defiantly interesting. Even still... “I don’t even know you?” I pushed, fixing her with a hard look.

In response, the filly just smiled at me, showing off her white teeth. “My name’s Skylight,” The filly announced proudly, extending her hoof for a hoof shake. “What’s yours?”

Skeptically, I took her hoof and shook it. “Prance Horrigan.”

Skylight's face lit up like a heart-warming tree. “Ooooo! I like the name Prance. It’s really pretty.”

I grumped. “I’m not pretty.”

Skylight stuck her tongue out at me, wiggling her eyebrows a little. “I don’t know. You look kinda pretty to me,” She paused for a second, waiting for a reaction. She never got one. “Well? Do you want to hang out with me or what?”

“Most ponies my age don’t want to hang out with me. Why would you?” I questioned suspiciously. When she didn’t immediately respond, I narrowed my eyes at her. “Well?”

“Cause you looked lonely,” She finally shot back. her words cut deeply into me and I forced myself to look away from her. She was wrong, I wasn't lonely! I was just... just... I didn't need other ponies. Skylight didn't take my flinching expression as her cue to stop and kept going. “And it looked like you could use a friend. A-and I could use a friend too.”

That caught me off guard. I hesitated, looking back over at her. “What… what would we even do?” I had never hung out with any pony before.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Play pretend?” There were a few gasps from below, drawing out attention down to the colts below us. They had stopped their game, their eyes turned skyward as a large shadow passed overhead. Raising our own gaze, we saw the hulking form of an Enclave Raptor fly overhead, its immense form blotting out the sun above for a moment. Skylights eyes lit up again at the sight of the massive battleship and she gave a playful smirk, looking back at me as an idea crossed her mind. “We could play Enclave soldiers! We can pretend to be brave soldiers fighting those wasteland savages below the clouds like the pegasi in that ship! We could have out own Raptor and protect the all the pegasi with it!”

“I’m going to be a real Enclave soldier when I grow up,” I told her factually, my eyes still fixated on the large Enclave Raptor. I was unsure about this whole idea, but I had to admit that it had begun to catch my interest. I had never played pretend before either; my imagination was admittedly quite lacking, but the idea of getting to be a cool power armoured soldier was enticing.

“Then this would be the perfect practice!” Skylight insisted, reaching out and hoisting me up to my hooves. “Come on! It’ll be fun! Pleeeaaase!”

I finally gave a sigh of defeat as she gave me a wide eyed, puppy dog-like look. “Fine. We can play this pretend thing. Perhaps it could be fun after all…”

<-=======oo0 0oo=======->

“Daww, aren’t you just adorable,” Firestreak snickered at me, interrupting my story. “You act all tough and heartless, but you’re just a big softy under all that metal and muscle, aren’t you?”

“Suggest that again and I will turn you to ash,” I growled back flatly, my glass eyes glowing ominously in the dancing firelight. Firestreak opened her mouth to give a snarky response, only to quickly shut it, a small tremor racing down her spine. Clearly she saw the look in my eye that told her I was very much not joking.

“Is that why you joined the Enclave? Because you and Skylight played soldiers?” Vapour Trail asked curiously, looking up at me.

I gave a small grunt. “No. I wanted to join the Enclave long before then,” I responded. “My father was a soldier. Died in the line of duty when I was very young. I wanted to aid the Enclave where he failed. And of course, there was what happened to my mother… Skylight and I’s ambitions only added to the fire.”

“Oh, we’re getting metaphors out of you too, now,” Firestreak remarked. “You’re a lot smarter than you make yourself out to be half the time. And a decent talker when you need to be.”

I snorted, a burst of steam escaping the ventilators on my grafted on Enclave helmet. “Sure.”

Icewind looked at me curiously, as if she was sizing me up. “Well? What happened next? Between you and Skylight?”

I just glared at her disdainfully. “Does it matter? Why should you care?” I countered. I didn’t really appreciate all these questions about my past. Questions meant I had to think, and thinking meant I might question things. And I never question orders.

“Because,” Icewind soothed back, giving me a hard look. “I want to know you. We all do. We’re all going to be working together a lot. Hell, we’ve already had to work together a lot, yet I hardly know the first thing about you. You always just stand there silently and shoot what I tell you to shoot. I want to know who Prance Horrigan really is, and clearly the only way to get that from you is to order you to open up. So keep talking. That’s an order.”

I huffed. I didn’t like it, but I obeyed. I always obeyed. “Very well… We were close friends, Skylight and I. Life for a long time was… nice… Until the Night my mother was murdered…”

<-=======oo0 0oo=======->

“We’re the Grand Pegasus Enclave!” Skylight roared, rearing up on her short hooves. “And we’re going to save the wasteland from you- You vile savages!”

We were facing off against five stuffed ponies toys. They had once been plushies of Enclave soldiers, though we had since modified them to look like vile Earth ponies. Their coats were mud soaked and patchy and stupid, evil looking expressions had been scrawled across their face in black marker. They’re bodies showed off an impressive amount of wear and tear from the numerous beatings we had given them. One of them had had their leg violently ripped off in an earlier game, though it had been lazily stitched back on the night before.

“Yeah! Surrender now, savage scum! Before we need to obliterate you,” I growled. Even back then, my voice was deeper than most colts my age. “We’re not going to ask you twice!”

The stuffies, of course, gave no reply.

Skylight fluttered her small wings, lifting off into the air. “Oh no! Prance! They’re using their evil mutant mind powers on us!”

I gave a low growl. “Oh no they don’t!” I lunged forwards, knocking one of them off their place on my bed and onto the floor with a small plop. “It’s over Mutie! Time to die!”

I never had the chance to attack the fallen stuffie, as a loud booming noise shook the whole house. I staggered to my side, my wings flapping as I was suddenly thrown of cliter. Skylight dropped to the ground beside me, her hooves sinking a little into the cloud floor to try and secure herself.

“W-what was that?” Skylight asked, her head darting around as if expecting the answer to her question to jump out at her.

I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t know, only for the door to my bedroom to burst open, my mother rushing into the room. “You two! Under the bed! Now!” She urged us, panic in her voice.

A shiver raced down my spine. I had never heard her sound so scared in my life. “Mom? What’s happening!?” I asked, fluttering my wings and flapping over to her.

Instead of responding, she just pushed me back towards the bed. “Just do what I say Prance, right now! Go!” She practically threw me under the bed before wrapping a trembling Skylight up in her wings and placing her under the bed with me. “Now you two be quiet. You understand? Don’t make a noise. And don’t come out of hiding. No matter what you hear. You stay out of sight. Promise me that Horrigan!”

“I-I promise,” sputtered, not understanding in the slightest what was going on. “But mom! What’s going on out there?”

Another loud boom rang out. I heard the sound of screams echoing from the city outside. I could see flashes of light and the dancing of firelight outside my window from my spot under the bed. My mother flinched, her eyes clenching shut and tears dripping down her face, her breath was coming out in panicked pants. “Just stay hidden. It’s all going to be okay. I love you...”

Then she spun around and rushed out, slamming the door to my room shut behind her. I screamed as another loud boom shook the house, this one sounding closer than the last. I scrambled to chase after her, only for Skylight’s warm hooves to wrap around me and pull me back under the bed.

Skylight sobbed, burying her face into the fluff of my chest, her whole body shaking. “P-prance, I'm scared! What’s happening?”

Boom!

The house shook as I heard the sound of the front door being slammed open. I heard the sound of shouting and rushing hooves. I could hear my mothers voice shouting something, though I couldn’t make out her words.

A loud gunshot rang out. I heard my mother scream, her wails followed by a loud thud of a body hitting the floor. Her screams went dead at the sound of a second gunshot.

My whole body went cold. I could feel myself trembling against Skylight's body, tears racing down my face.

The sound of hootsteps echoed up the stairs. I heard rough, gravelly voices, stallions, muttering back and forth to each other. I saw shadows passing through the hallway outside from my hiding spot under the bed.

“Check through the rooms. See if we missed somepony!” a gruff voice shouted. Skylight and I jumped as we heard the door across the hall burst open with a slam.

“This room’s clear!” Another voice shouted back. Their voices were getting closer.

The sound of another door slamming open shook the house. I flinched, curling up closer against Skylight. My vision had gone almost completely blurry from tears. There was a loud smash as the intruders shattered one of my mothers prized vases.

“Clear!”

The door to my room burst open. I saw multiple sets of hooves rush into the room, each one clad in a dark suit of nightmarish Enclave power armour. The ponies began ripping the room apart, throwing stuffies and blankets across the room. I saw one of my plushies crushed under hoof, its already falling apart frame torn to tatters by the heavy metal plating.

Skylight and I pushed ourselves back from the edge of the bed, shaking as we tried to curl up into as small of a ball as possible.

One of the ponies stopped in front of our bed. My blood ran cold as I saw the pony begin to crunch down, their eyes peering in at us. “Hey! I found some ponies!”

Hooves reached down and grasped at us. Skylight shrieked as a pair of strong hooves grasped her around the midsection, yanking her violently out from the bed. She thrashed her hooves, trying desperately to break free from the vice-like grip. She dragged her hooves across the floor, futilely trying to find purchase in the surface to pull against the intruders grip.

I gave a scream of rage, grabbing onto her hind hooves and trying frantically to pull her back under the bed with me. A pony reached under the bed and slapped me across the face for my efforts, slamming my head against the bottom of the bed; helpless to do anything but watch as they pulled Skylight away.

A second later, another pair of hooves reached out, wrapping around me as well and reefing me out from under the bed. I screamed, biting at the hooves to try and fight them off.

“Fucker!” The large pony holding me cussed, his hoof flashing out and slapping me roughly, forcing me to collapse to the ground. “The fucking shit bit me!”

I scramble to my hooves, rushing for Skylight, only for another pony to jump on me, pinning me to the ground.

“Let me go! Let me go!” Skylight shouted, panic rising up in her voice. One of the stallions slapped her, reducing her pleas to little more than frightened whimpers.

“Their just fucking children!” One of the ponies was shouting at the others. In the craze, I was having trouble telling which it was.

“Doesn’t matter! Boss says we fuck them all up! Show the Enclave we mean business!” Another was shouting. Somepony yanked me up by the mane, violently pulling at my scalp and making more tears leak from my eyes.

The pony holding Skylight slammed her roughly against the wall. I saw blood splatter the surface from where her skin split. Skylight screamed, frantically reefing herself back and forth as she tried to escape. A small pool formed around her hooves, the hide between her hind legs damp as the small filly wet herself in fear.

“You fucking bitch!” The pony holding her spat, giving her a hard kick in the chest. “You’re fucking pissing on me!”

“Just cut off the cunts head!” Another roared. “We’ll put their heads on fucking pikes outside their house. That’ll leave a fucking message!”

One of the ponies drew a long machete, its razor sharp blade glinting in the firelight that spilled through the open window. The large buck wrestling with Skylight pinned her down, slamming her body over my bedside table and holding her neck out for the machete to strike.

I flapped my wings and bucked the pony holding me in the face. I could feel the ponies nose break under my hooves, blood spurting across my coat. His grip loosened on me, allowing me to temporarily wiggle free from his grasp and once more rush for Skylight.

Blam!

A beam of magical energy lanced through my leg. Dropping me to the ground. Blood pooled around my leg. I screamed out, waving my hooves frantically to try and get the ponies away from Skylight. Another rough kick to the chest quickly shut me up.

The pegasus with the machete reared up above Skylight, the large blade raised and ready to swing down and lop her screaming head from her body. The pony had the audacity to look her in the eyes as he readied himself to strike, a grisly smile across his lips.

Blam!

Another beam of energy lanced out, this time fired from a novasurge rifle. The blast pulped the head of the machete wielding pony, skull fragments and brain matter splattering the walls of my room.

The rest of the ponies looked up, their eyes wide. Five more beams of energy from the powerful novasurge rifle lanced through the room, blasting at the walls. One of the shots pierced the chest of the pony looming over me, dropping their body down beside me, dead; their wide eyes staring out at me vacantly.

“Fuck! We got Enclave here! Tak-” The pony was cut off as a beam of energy burst through his throat, sending him collapsing to the ground, his words coming out as a muffled gurgle as he drowned in his own blood.

I desperately crawled forwards, pushing myself towards where Skylight had curled up in a ball. The large ponies had all but forgotten about us, their attention focused on the ponies that were shooting at them through the cloud walls. I wrapped my hooves around Skylight’s trembling body tightly, pulling her close, my own body shaking and my eyes shut tight as I tried to mentally block out all the gunfire.

Another pony fell dead beside us. Skylight shrieked as their blood gathered around our hooves, staining out hide red.

A large, black shape flashed through the window, its armoured form slamming into one of the ponies. The ponies' spine snapped as the metal shape rammed into them.

I looked up, my eyes locking with the eyes of one of our attackers. They were shambling towards us, one of their legs blasted open and oozing blood. They raised their magical energy rifle in their mouth, pointing it at us. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Blam!

A beam of energy blast through the ponies head. Instead of their head exploding open like the first pony had, however, their whole body burst apart, dissolving into glittering ash. The ash scattered into the air, fluttering upwards before slowly sprinkling downwards towards the ground.

My eyes widened as I took in our savior. The writhing firelight almost silhouetting their impressive form, beams of crimson light streaking out from behind them and the flittering ash before them making their already gleaming armour seem almost otherworldly.

They were an Enclave soldier, their whole body clad in a heavy suit of insectoid Enclave power armour. Two twin Novasurge rifles had been secured to their battle saddle and they had an imposing, metal, scorpion-like tail that swayed back and forth behind them. Their head was covered by their impressive Enclave helmet, their eyes glowing a deep, vibrant yellow. The Enclave insignia was emblazoned proudly on their shoulder pad; a capital E circled by stars.

I felt my jaw drop open. There was only one word that could truly describe the pony that stood before me. They were awesome.

“You ponies stay here,” The Enclave soldier ordered us, giving both of us a salute. His voice was strong and commanding. I felt safe simply by hearing it. “Obey and everything will be alright.”

I could do little else but nod dumbly as the armoured pegasus’ wings flared open, beams of golden firelight catching in his feathers and casting magnificent shadows across the wall. He turned from us, his legs bending and his muscles rippling before he took off into the air, flashing out the window and into the firefight beyond.

Skylight and I lay there for a long moment, staring at the window he had just left out of. Eventually, I slowly dragged her back under my bed, the two of us cuddling close to each other as we waited for the sound of gunfire and screams from outside to calm down. We wouldn’t say another word for hours.

<-=======oo0 0oo=======->

I glared into the twisting lights of the campfire, my voice trailing off as I ran out of things to say. All my subordinates looked up at me, unsure what to say themselves. Eventually, it was Icewind that broke the silence. “I’m… I’m sorry Horrigan. That’s awful.”

“It taught me a valuable lesson,” I replied bluntly. “Those who are weak do not survive. Those who oppose the Enclave deserve death. And to those who do not obey, death will soon follow.”

“W-what did those p-p-ponies want?” Vapour Trail asked, his eyes distant.

“They wanted to show the Enclave that life above the clouds was unsustainable,” Firestreak answered for me with a snort. “That was back during the cloud seeding rebellion? Right? Some… thirty years back now? It would have been before your time, Vapour. I was just a filly when it happened.”

“I remember reading about that,” Icewind nodded thoughtfully. “A bunch of pegasi wanted to convince the Enclave to go back below the clouds. They slaughtered whole towns just to send a message. Most of the time the Enclave just ignored them, but then they tried to launch an attack on Neighvarro. That caught the Enclave’s attention quick. Their regime didn’t last a month after that.”

Firestreak gave a small grunt. “Huh. Well no wonder even the heartless Prance Horrigan had feelings for this Skylight. I’d form a pretty big attachment if I went through that with somepony.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I rumbled, shooting her comment down. “Skylight is dead now. She was killed in the battle for Friendship city,” I glanced over at Icewind, but she gave no indication that she was going to call me out on my lie.

“I guess we've all lost somepony to the wasteland then, huh,” Vapour sighed. It might have been the first time I’d ever heard the small pegasus not stutter.

Icewind gave a grim nod. “There’s a reason the Enclave stayed above the clouds. Down here, in the ash and desolation, the wasteland eventually takes everything from you. To love is to set yourself up for loss,” She curled up, closing her eyes. “Now get some sleep. We need to be ready to find those Dashites in the morning. We leave at 5.”

“I’ll take first watch,” I grunted, pulling myself back to my hooves and lumbering over to the doorway, my red eyes once more scanning the quiet wasteland streets outside.

Icewind nodded. “Sure. Wake me in two hours and I’ll relieve you of your position.”

Quietly, all three of my subordinates curled up and promptly fell asleep. I turned my back to them, my gaze focus on my EFS as I watched for dangers.

I saw her move on my EFS before I heard her.

I shifted my head slightly, turning to look down at Icewind as she dragged herself over from where she had been sleeping and sitting herself down beside me. The crackling campfire had long since gone out, leaving the only light in the hollowed structure to be the pale beams of moonlight and the dark red glow of my bulbous eyes.

“You never woke me up,” Icewind grunted factually, her eyes looking up at the moon above us. “I said to wake me in two hours to relieve you. It's almost morning.”

I nodded. “I don’t need to sleep. Haven’t since my accident. You do,” I answered her simply. “You will need your strength if we are to find the Dashites tomorrow.”

Icewind sighed. “Horrigan, can I ask you something. And I want you to answer honestly,” I looked down at her silently. Icewind took my silence as her cue to continue. “When we catch up with those Dashites… are you going to be able to kill them?”

“Dashites belong dead,” Was all I bothered to say in response.

Icewind raised an eyebrow at me. “And what about Skylight? Does she deserve to be dead?” I paused, not daring to answer the question. I cast my gaze away, looking once more the the monolithic ruins of Manehattan. “Horrigan?”

“Is the Enclave ordering her execution?” I asked, my voice lacking any form of inflection. Icewind gave me a slow nod in response, her eyes sad. I didn't dare meet her gaze, unable to stand her wide, searching eyes. “Then yes. I’ll kill her. I obey.”

At that, the two of us just sat in silence, staring out at the wasteland as a dark cloud passed over the moon, casting the ruined streets of Manehattan into darkness.

Author's Note

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat

Hope you have a great day!