Chapter 33 Mare on the Run

“In the animal kingdom, one of the keys to survival is to outwit your enemies. And when you’re surrounded by carnivores, one of the best strategies is to fade into the background and disappear.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hoofington, Lunar Commonwealth: Ginger Snaps

As Windy and her family provide covering fire the rest of us begin our run for the train station. Tek and Xochitl are leading the way. Epona is on one side of our group, I am on the other. Suddenly ahead of us, I see a jet of flame shoot across the street. I then see a couple of ponies I know with their firefighting equipment and flame throwers and call out, “Tinder, Kindling, it’s us!”

Kindling calls back, “What’s going on?”

As we hear gunfire coming behind us, I pop off a couple of rounds of suppressive fire and hear I have made a lucky hit before I run over to kindling and explain, “The Mayhem’s Mares, the Broken Clocks, and a few enclaver’s are after us.”

Tinder grins widely and tells me, “Well, get going, we will slow them down a bit. They are not going to come into our territory. We cannot have them getting bad habits now, can we?”

I stay behind with them briefly as the rest run forward again. This time Epona is with Tek in the lead while my husband takes a few aimed shots at our pursuers before he slaps Kindling on the shoulder and tells him, “Thanks, I will see you next time.”

As we run to catch up, we are several blocks away when I hear the flame throwers firing off again followed by more screams. Then we are on an open road as we continue running. I have just reached the middle of the column when I hear Epona yell to Tek, “How far to the border?

I cringe when I hear him hell back, “Only twenty kilometers as the crow flies. But we can’t fly, so a bit more.”

After almost ten minutes we can no longer hear the fighting behind us. Our entire group keeps up its quick pace for another twenty minutes after we escape, Ma Mollygirl then decides we need to find a place to rest. Shortly after this, we do. It is an old red brick city bus garage. We can see that two of the large bus doors are hanging open. As we enter it is not only dark but dank and musty.

Epona and I stay at the doors, as lookouts. But we can hear the rest of our party behind us. We have caught our breaths for only a couple of minutes when Moon Lily calmly says, “Ma, there are ghouls and ferals in here and they are coming our way.”

That is when in a surprised tone of voice, we hear Tek say to her, “YOU? YOU ARE THE NECROMANCER?”

While I am looking out still, I hear Moon say stubbornly, “No, I am not a necro romancer. I just feel them, and help them find their way.” When I hear how she has answered this I have to stifle my laughter.

In reply, Tek sputters out in a frustrated voice, “That is what necromancers used to do!” He then asks in a very confused tone, “You have pony shaman?”

I have just looked back over my shoulder to see what is going on when I see Moon lift her hoof and begin to pray and make the sign of the blessing as we begin to hear the growling coming our way.

Papa Archer then orders, “Everyone, back out, now!”

As they come our way, Epona and I start to see MEW beams strike the ground near the entranceway. We provide covering fire as Lieutenant-Colonel Windy and her family run outside and begin to dogfight with the pegasi that are still in the air. Papa Badger and Attaché both struggle to back out of the doors while this is going on.

Then I hear my little sister Mills yell out, “Moon to your right,” and I turn to defend my sister and I see Moon Lily’s horn begin to surge with power as it flashes time after time. Soon she is joined by both her mother and Purple Haze. As they defend us from one side, I and most of the others are involved in the firefight outside. Finally, we fight our way back outside and begin to move out again as fast as we can. I look at the carts briefly and I notice that Purchase Order is sitting propped up in the cart. As we move, she provides covering fire for Badger’s cart and the young foals, who are sheltering under what baggage we still have in it.

As we are running, I see Mama Mollygirl looking at a factory ahead of us. As she does this, I hear Moon Lily call out again, “Not that way Mama Mollygirl, more ghouls.”

With that, we begin to head in a different direction. As we do another pegasus makes a strafing run toward us. Mama Mollygirl skids to a stop and braces herself as she aims her Deathbunny SMG at them. She fires a quick burst and I see sparks as she hits them in the helmet of their power armor and then my attention is drawn to another one coming from the opposite side. I shoot on the run and hear several of the others doing the same.

It is a running gunfight for us for the next twenty minutes. Finally, they give up, or are low on ammunition and break off the fight. We have slowed some and as we do a wound check I hear several of us call out that they have minor wounds. This includes myself having been hit with a through and through of my left foreleg, but I use a healing spell on it and do not bother the others.

During this time Moon Lily gets out of the cart and helps her mother tend to the others who are wounded too. We do not stop at all but continue on at a walk for another hour before we decide we need to take a break again.

We begin to look for a sheltered resting spot when we find a building that has one entire side knocked down. It also appears to have suffered a fire inside about a century ago. Once we enter it, we all huddle under the roof. This allows those who were pulling the wagons to finally take a break from the traces and harness. As the rest are doing this my team sets up a loose perimeter and watches for trouble.

Shortly after we start to rest, I hear Tek tell the Colonel, “I go scout ahead. Be back soon.”

As he starts to sneak out, I see my beloved put a hoof on his shoulder and tell Tek, “Be careful out there ok.”

Tek grins back at him and pats his hoof with one of his, “I will Flower. I will.” Then I watch as he pulls up his hood and all but disappears as he slides out of the building and into the urban jungle that surrounds us.

When he returns, he approaches the Colonel and Windy and tells them, “Ahead, three blocks that way,” He points in the direction we were traveling and then says, “Gang territory, they call themselves the Hoof Ferals. That way,” he points again towards our left, “Is rad scorpion territory under an old park.”

The Colonel then asks, “Ok, how about that direction?”

He shakes his head, “No Good. That way is Marimare. Many Pegasus, many friends of Enclave.”

I see her nod her head, “Ok, which way do you recommend?”

He almost seems surprised she is asking his opinion then he points towards the park. “That way is bad, but other ways are worse.”

I am now watching outside again and I hear the Colonel say, “Ok, let’s get everyone ready then. I need two ponies in the traces. All the youngsters back into the back of the cart. Everypony who has a weapon make sure you have it ready. We may be dealing with radscorpions.”

Buck, I think to myself. I really do not want to deal with radscorpions. I quickly check my weapons to make sure they are ready. As I do this, I hear the others doing the same thing. Then I hear one of the dignitaries asks, “What do you mean might? Is there anything else we need to worry about ahead?”

I turn to him grinning and tell them, “There are lots of things ahead to worry about, but for now our closest ones are the radscorpions,”

Millie then adds, “Yeah, that should not be much worse than radhog hunting back home.”

I cringe as she says this as Ma now knows about their hunting. But instead of getting angry she just says, “Well, first off, these critters can burrow underground and surprise us when they come up. Secondly, when did you go radhog hunting?”

Mills then tells her, “Ma, we only did it a couple of times.”

“Who is this WE you mention?”

“Ma, it was me, Woody, Bucky, and Moon. We sold the meat off.” She tells me.

Finally, Mama Mollygirl asks, “Does this mean you all know how to use weapons?”

I smile slightly as I see my younger siblings all standing a bit tall as if in trouble, but nodding their heads.

“Fine, next chance we arm you. But until then, keep your heads down.” She tells them. Then she tells the rest of us, “Ok, let’s get this done with.”

Windy looks over at her and asks, “Mollygirl are you sure about this?”

“Windy, what choice do we have?”

She sighs and nods, “Ok, Kids, Squall Line, on me, were air support.”

They go up into the air, but not too high, just skimming the trees slowly ahead of us.

As we begin to go forward, we have the foals all in the wagon, one cart behind the other. Most of us adults are walking alongside the carts Tek and Xochitl are ahead, me and Epona behind them.

We make it halfway across the park when I see the Colonel stop and looking startled at the ground yells out, “INCOMING!” and she jumps to the side just as radscorpion explodes from the ground where she was a mere second ago.

It swings towards her and she dodges the stinger on its tail as she rolls to the side. Right after this one appears; I hear one of the diplomats on my side of the wagons call out and we feel the ground moving as another one burrows its way up.

While Ma and several others on her side are fighting that radscorpion we are busy on my side with the new arrival I watch as it raises its tail and strikes one of the diplomats. As it does, I hear that pony scream in pain, followed by the call “Medic!” from Aunt Purple.

As we fight them, I hear Epona yelling, “Here comes another one!” and then she opens fire with her SMG in full auto. The radscorpion Mama Mollygirl is fighting turns towards the wagons. When it does this, she runs forward and strikes it at the joint where the tail connects to the body with her sword. As she is doing this, I glance over and see Windy dive down and fire at it with her MEWs and shortly the beast stops moving.

This is followed by two shotguns firing and Mama Sumac saying, “That’s one down. Now keep moving forward.”

From the corner of my eye, I watch as Tek and Xochitl guard Mama Sutures as she puts the wounded pony into the wagon with her TK. When they are done with this, we all begin to trot, no longer worried about being cautious as we just want to escape this park. I quickly glance behind us as we move forward. Behind us I see the three dead bugs lying there. Then I notice motion from the other side of the park that becomes several earth ponies and unicorns beginning to run towards us. From the clothing they are wearing, I can tell they are from the Broken Clocks. As the chase begins and I am getting ready to stop and shoot at them, I see the earth open up in front of some of them and another radscorpian comes to the surface ready to fight. I bump into Mama Mollgirls as she has stopped to look at the spectacle of an earth pony mare jumping onto the tail of the creature and holding on as it swings its tail trying to get it off.

I then yell to her, “Move it ma, those are the Broken Clocks, see what I mean, that just is not right.”

She shakes her head and begins to run to catch up with the others again. As we run, she asks me, “Why do they call them the Broken Clocks?”

Laughing I tell her, “I am not sure, but maybe it is because even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

“Well, I certainly agree something is wrong with them,” she yells back as we catch up with the rest.

As we run, we see several more radscorpions come above the ground, but they are far enough away from us that we ignore them. It is then I notice that Mama Sutures has jumped up into the other cart with the wounded dignitary. By the expression on her face, I can tell it is not good.

We are then surprised when another radscorpion appears from behind some bushes in front of us. It is larger than the others and I find myself charging ahead firing as I go. Beside me are Xochitl and Mama Mollygirl. From the other side of it Epona, Archer, and Tek are all swinging in and attacking it, firing at it as we run toward it. From above us, Windy and Squall line are taking aimed shots at the behemoth as it moves to block our escape. Then Moon Lily yells, “Ma, Auntie Purple, our horns. Reverse cleaning spell.”

Those pulling the carts quickly swerve to the side as they try to move around it, Papa Badger stumbling slightly as it keeps moving towards them.

When it is almost upon the carts, all three unicorns have their horns flare, and all three of them become one when the beams meet and flare. It crumples to the ground, and as we pass it I see that it looks and smells like it is rotting at a more quickly than normal rate, but I have no time for curiosity as I scan ahead and to the side of our group. Finally, we reach the other side of the park and are back among the normal ruins of Hoofington.

That is when we begin to slow back down and look for a place to rest and perhaps make a meal with what rations we have with us.

As we continue, I find myself smirking as I look at both Xochitl and Epona. Epona then quietly tells us, “There really is something wrong with those Broken Clocks.”

This is followed by Xochitl telling her, “True, but it was a sight to see. I am just curious if the rest of them are still wound up?”

Finally, my real worries come to the surface and I ask them, “Well we know where at least some of the Broken Clocks are, but where are the Mayhem’s Mares?”

*****

Hoofington, Lunar Commonwealth: Xochitl

Once we make our way out of the park Tek and I take the lead of our small caravan again. After a bit, I ask him, “Tek, we need to make sure the way ahead is clear for them, what do you say we do a little scouting ahead.”

He looks from me to the rest and tells me, “I think you are right. Have them wait here.”

I walk back to the Colonel and tell her what we want to do and why. She nods her head and tells us, “OK, but in twenty minutes we are going to start forward again with or without you.”

I nod my head, “I understand ma’am. We will try to be quick.”

Soon after this, I give Ginger a quick kiss and she tells me, “Be careful ok. I do not want to lose you.”

I smile back at her, “I will be dearest.” Then Tek and I begin to slowly advance along the path that we think will be best for the rest behind us.

Twice we come upon routes that look promising, but both times as we slowly creep forward, we find the path blocked. The first time we see a large group of feral ghouls milling about outside of an old, partially collapsed office building. The second time, we see a small group of pegasus recon troops in their power armor. One suddenly looks our way and I see them looking in our general direction through the scope of their MEW. Both Tek and I freeze where we are for several minutes and the soldier finally shakes their head and returns their weapon to the carry.

When he does this, we slowly sneak back the way we came and after a few more blocks we shift over a couple more blocks and in the distance, we can see a settlement that is made up of an old apartment building complex that has fences set up between the buildings. “Tek, do you know about that place?”

He shrugs, “Not really. I have never been there before, but I have heard of it. We should be safe overnight there.”

“Ok, let’s go get the others,” I tell him. Then we make sure the way there is clear before we return to the others.

When we return, I approach the Colonel and Windy and salute them, “Ma’am, up ahead about a mile we found a small settlement. It is called Creekside. They have a place where we can hide the carts, pick up some ammo and food and catch some sleep.”

Beside me, Tek nods his head. Then she asks, “How is the road there?”

Tek approaches and tries to imitate my salute which she returns. Then he tells her in his broken Equestrian, “Colonel, the road is good right now. We need to hurry, come nightfall, it might not be so good. But it is good now.”

“Ok,” She tells him, then she turns her head and tells the others, “Follow our scouts.”

Tek and I lead out with the others walking defensively. Soon, we come to the settlement we had told the others about. It is based upon several old brick three-story apartment buildings. The settlers have built walls from a combination of wood, wire fencing, old buses, and carriages. Tek leads us to the gate and we can see several earth ponies and a few zebras on the wall with weapons trained on us. A large grey zony stallion approaches us at the gate. He asks, “Who’s in charge here?”

Aunt Purple Haze steps forward. She briefly looks down and answers him, “You are. We ask for temporary entry for rest and to replenish what supplies we can purchase.”

He looks at her with a raised eyebrow and asks, “Who are you and why are you really here?”

“I am Purple Haze, the leader for the civilian delegates of our group from the NCR.”

He nods his head, “Ok, so what are you doing in Hoofington and why are you now on the run?”

Purple then answers, “We came to the area to talk with the heads of the Lunar Republic to set up trade and hopefully military alliances, Unfortunately, the Enclave has interfered with that.”

“And how did they do that?”

Purple Haze first tells him and then he asks, “I saw the dead pony with you, what happened?”

My mother-in-law Sutures then steps forward and tells him, “He was stung by a radscorpion when we crossed the park, I tried but could not do anything to save him.”

I see a look of disdain on his face as he nods his head and then asks, “Whose bright idea was it for you to cross the prime breeding grounds for radscorpions in this area?”

His question is answered by the Colonel, “It seemed like a good idea at the time all things considered.”

I can tell he is surprised by her answer as he then asks incredulously, “You thought that was a good idea?”

She is looking right at him as she tells him, “Yes, it was that or a ghoul-filled factory complex, Marimare with all its pegasi, so that was not a good choice either, not with the Enclave chasing us. Then behind us, we had two gangs, soooo…”

The way she answers it almost makes me smile, but I know better now. So, I fight the urge down and keep my face neutral

The gate guard then nods his head, “Ok, that makes sense, follow me inside.”

As we enter, I find myself as well as Ginger and Epona scanning the doorways and windows of the buildings. Then we scan the shadows of the other areas just in case of trouble. He leads us in, and our band follows him inside to a covered area between two of the buildings.

He turns to us and tells us, “You can place your carts in here as well as camp here.” He points towards a building across the way and continues, “If you look over that way you can see our cantina,” From the lower level of that building are several ponies coming and going from it. Then he points to another area and says, “Over there is our market, feel free to barter if you need to.”

Tek and I watch outwards as the others help unload the foals and wounded from the carts and those who are in the traces. Finally, we offloaded our dead compatriot’s body. I see several of the others sigh and I hear one of the others say, “We need to find a place to bury him.”

Behind me, I hear Purple say, “I will go see if I can find someplace. Why don’t most of you go get something to eat.”

The Colonel tells all of us, “You all need to get something to eat."

Then Sutures asks her, “What about you?”

“I will watch the carts until someone else gets done and comes back,” she tells her.

Right after this, I hear Badger say, “Let me know where and I will help dig the hole for the burial.”

Shortly after this the Colonel approaches Ginger and me and tells us, “Go get something to eat, seriously, I got it.”

As we are eating father Archer gets up and hurries back to the carts so the Colonel can get something to eat as well.

As the others finish eating, they get up and I watch them head to the market. Ginger is eating across from me when I ask her, “So what kind of weapons do you think your siblings are going to get?”

I see her about choke on her bite of potato. Then she smiles, “No, I am not sure, but we need to hurry so we can help them.”

We arrive at the market and I see most of her siblings have old military carbines and civilian rifles. I close as I hear Badger still bartering a price for a still fairly decent shape M79 grenade launcher. I smile as I had not thought of him using one before. I stand to the side as he finishes for a fair price and once the deal is done, I am stunned as he takes it and hooves it to Raven, who has a huge smile on her face and tells him, “Thank you, Papa Badger. I really appreciate it.”

“You are welcome, dear. Just remember to steady it before you fire it.”

With wide eyes, she nods her head. “Yes, Papa.”

Soon afterward we make our way back to the carts. Along with their weapons, we also have picked up a resupply of ammunition. While we are loading the ammo boxes on the carts Purple Haze comes over and tells Badger, “They have given us a burial location.”

Badger nods his head. Then he and a couple of the diplomate stallions follow her back outside of the gates. When they return, she tells the Colonel, “We have the grave dug. It is outside the walls of the town, but is alongside that of their own people.”

Archer tells us, “If you all want to go bury him, I will stand guard.”

Sadly, Moon Lily tells him, “I will stay with you, Papa. He is already gone and he knows how we felt.”

I must smile as he puts a hoof around her and hugs her close. Kissing her on her forelock and telling her, “Thank you, dear. I really appreciate your saying that.”

As a group, we slowly walk out the gate. Tek and I assist two of the others with carrying the body to its final resting place. As we go, the funeral reminds me of the one for this sides Epona and her mother Ivy, as we all have our weapons with us as we proceed to the gravesite.

Once there, Purple Haze gives a brief liturgy. When she is done the Colonel tosses the first hooffull of dirt upon his body wrapped in his blanket. After all of us have done so, the rest head inside while Badger, Tek, and I finish filling the grave back in.

As we get back to our carts, the others either head back over to the market area or begin to settle down with others. As I head over to Ginger, I notice Tek is sitting near Moon Lily and he asks her in his accented equestrian, “Lil one, where you learn necromancy?”

Moon Lily tells him, “No one taught me. I felt the magic and copied it from when Khatri. He was performing the blessing for one of the cattle who died in a farm accident.”

“Khatri does not sound like a pony name.”

“It is not he is a bull. He preaches at the church Mama Mollygirl and some of the others go to normally.” Moon tells him.

I see him look at her funny and hear him ask, “The Colonel goes to brahmin church?”

“Actually, it is cattle, the Brahmin came from the cattle after the big war.” She tells him.

In the growing darkness, I can see him nod his head, “Any like me there?”

She turns her head from side to side and tells him, “No, none like you, but we do have some other zebras there.”

He nods his head and asks nervously, “How do the others treat zebras?”

“Oh, just like anypony else. Even Slip Stream likes them.”

I smile as he asks this and he looks at her funny asking, “Who is Slip Stream, why are they special?”

She looks at him and then says, “Oh, she is my friend from school who is a hippogriff. Her mom is a pony and her dad a griffon.”

I see him look at her funny, “Do not tease me little one, that is not real.”

She looks at him with a defiant expression. “She is too a hippogriff. I am not lying.”

He nods his head, “I am sorry, I just never heard of such a thing before.”

She nods her head, “Ask the spirits if you can, they will tell you.”

He then asks, “So you are a shaman.”

She shakes her head, “No, I am not, I am just a little unicorn filly. I do not talk to spirits, only the Mareigan.”

“Who is the Mareigan?”

“Sir, she is the spirit of our region back home.”

I see the surprise on his face at first, then he smiles and shakes his head slowly. “Well little one, maybe it is okay for me if I go there. Thank you for talking. Good night,” he tells her then moves over to his bedroll near the rest of our team.

After he puts his blanket down, I go over and talk to him briefly and ask in zebracan, “I heard you talking with Moon a bit ago, what was that all about?”

He shrugs, “Flower, she is a necromancer, and not a weak one. I respect her power and was curious where she got it.”

I nod my head, “Yeah, I can understand that. Though she just found out she had that ability a couple of months ago. “

He shakes his head, “So young and so powerful and yet, only a pony. If she had stripes, she would be of the One tribe and she would grow to be reckoned with.”

I nod my head in agreement as I know more about the zebra tribes now than when I was growing up. Then I tell him, “And yes my friend, you will be welcome there.”

He smiles tiredly then he asks, “This hippogriff she mentioned; are they real?”

I nod my head as I smile, “Yeah, and to be honest, their parents were very surprised the first time. But back home they are now no big deal.”

He nods his head in understanding and tells me, “That sounds good. Now we best get what sleep we can.”

I have to agree with him, so as he climbs into his bedroll, I do the same next to my wife. As I fall asleep, I hear the typical Hoofington, nighttime random gunfire, and noise. As it is fairly distant, I relax and thank the goddesses that be for our safety and survival so far.

The next morning, we awake and eat a hearty breakfast at the cantina again. As Ginger and I are in line she asks the closest of the cooks, “So, do you happen to have any radhog bacon?”

The stunned pony then looks around and quietly tells us, “Yes, yes we do, but we do not advertise it.”

I am very glad to hear this as today I want something heavy to hold me. At her answer, Ginger grins back at her, “Thank you. I really appreciate it. It is so hard to find good radhog cooking around here.”

The cashier smiling tells her, “Dear I know what you mean. My husband got this one just a couple of weeks ago. We not only salted this bacon, but we smoked it too, so we are charging a bit extra for it.”

Ginger nods her head in agreement, “Understandable, I will pay for a couple of slices please.”

As we wait for our meals, they continue to chat and finally, she asks the cashier, “Have you ever had bacon on your salad? It is to die for.”

I see the cashier smile and tell her, “Yes, but I thought I was the only one who liked it that way.”

I then tell her, “Actually most of our family enjoys it that way.”

“Well here comes your breakfast, enjoy you two, and when you come back through here, remember to stop in. Maybe we can exchange some recipes even.”

“I would really like that, just call me Ginger, and this here is my husband, Xochitl. I will see you then Twice Baked.”

Once we are all finished eating and back at the carts Badger and Attaché both take up the harnesses again and we are soon on our way. On guard at the gates is the zony who initially welcomed us standing to the side. I nod to him and he nods back and waves to us as we exit the gate. “Good luck folks and I hope you make it home safely.”

“Thank you, sir!” Moon calls back to him. Then we are back to the trot as we continue our run for home.

*****

NCR Airspace, South of the Foal Mountain Range: Choo Choo

Just after our pilot tells us to hang on, I feel us drop and turn to our left as two Enclave Gunship Vertibucks race past us, firing their guns at where we just were. I feel the vibration of some of those shots as they hit our vertibuck and pass through its skin.
From the rear of the passenger cabin, I hear several of the others exclaim in surprise. Then I feel our aircraft begin to twist and turn. As one side gun begins to turn, I see the door gunner begin to spin up his minigun and fire several short bursts from it.

As we start to swing to the other side, I see him take several bullets and go limp in his harness. I call out to the pilot to let him know the gunner is down. I hear him in a panicky voice tell me “Get someone on that gun if you can. Now shut up and let me concentrate.”

Before I can say anything, I see Twinks use her TK to move him over to her so she can work on him, and I am surprised to see Cowlick take his spot and begin to fire at one of the vertbucks chasing us.

Then I hear the pilot say to his co-pilot, “Ok, watch this.”

That is when I almost panic, that is almost never a good thing to hear someone say. The only way it could be worse is if it was preceded first by here, hold my beer.

Right after he says this, I feel the rotors shift and we jump upwards as the Enclave vertibucks shoot past and below us.

As we spin to our left, I see the two Enclave vertibucks turn outwards from each other as they maneuver to come back at us again. Our pilot then turns and dives for the foothills and ruined forest below us. I find myself grabbing for a hoof hold as we zig and zag, climb, and drop among the folds of the ground as our pilot puts us through his best evasive maneuvers.

As we do this while maneuvering, I see Twinks struggling to keep her patient from sliding about as she treats him. Several times I hear her swear as either he slides or she does. Still strapped in Days End uses his TK to try and help her.

We have just passed through a tight valley when I notice one of the gunships has broken off and I can’t see them. Suddenly I see that they had swung wide and slightly higher to enable them to cut us off. They are trying to force us to land or crash. I am not sure which.

Suddenly our pilot somehow pulls us up and to the right, but as he does so, we are racked by rounds and MEWs from them. I feel something lurch inside and I hear warning alarms and see flashing lights from the cockpit. But at the same time, I hear Cowlick yell out, Got the son of a mule, and I see that vertibuck turn and begin to limp its way back toward where it came from.

From the other side, I hear that door gunner yell, “I got a piece of that one too.” But it keeps coming and makes one more pass at us before it breaks off.

However, by now I can see that we are not going to make it. We are going down. Then I hear the pilot call out. “Everyone brace for impact, were going down.” Then he calls over the radio, “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, Flight R273, we are going down.” Then he gives a brief coordinate, as the aircraft begins to spin on its way to impact.

I know what I must do, and I tell our pilot, “Shut down your engines, I will get us down.” Before he responds I teleport myself fifty meters above us and I grab the vertibuck in my TK. I am struggling as I try to keep it from falling, but I am able to slow it down enough that when it crashes, it buckles the landing gear and only crumples the bottom of the vertibuck. As the engines finish winding down, I begin to see movement from inside of it.

Once the engines are fully stopped, I begin to see my team crawl out of it. Finally, I see the pilot assisting his wounded co-pilot out of the wreckage and Days End assisting Twinks with getting the wounded door gunner out.

We search the nearest stand of trees and find some branches that will let us make a couple of travoises. But by the time I get back, Twinks looks up from the wounded gunner, shakes her head and I see her use her forehoof to close his eyes.

In the distance, we can see a plume of smoke that I assume is from one of the other vertibucks and we can hear the rotors of another one in that direction as well.

I look at the pilot and his crew and tell them, “We need to get moving. They will be back soon.”

He then says, “Our Transponder is sending out a distress signal, help should be able to follow it to us.”

A blood-spattered Twinks walks up to him and asks, “If our people can home in on that transponder, don’t you think the Enclave will be able to as well?”

I see the surprise on his face and he nods his head slowly. Then Twinks tells me, “I have treated most of our big wounds already boss. The Copilot is stable enough to move, but he will need the travois.”

I look at everyone and I tell them, “Ok, grab your kits people, we need to put some klicks between us and this wreck.”

Everyone who can goes over and grabs their kits. The surviving door gunner goes over and grabs several small packs from a compartment inside the vertibuck and hooves them to the other crewmembers. Then he asks, “What about Storm Warning?” as he looks at his fallen comrade.

I am tempted to say, we can bury him, but I hear a vertibuck approaching us. Instead, I tell him, “Hopefully someday we can come back and bury him, but he is gone and we need to move if we want to keep breathing.”

I watch as he cringes some, nods his head, and then goes over, gently kisses his comrade on his forelock, and tells him goodbye. Then he trots back over to us and we are back at the trot with Cowlick pulling the travois behind him.

After about fifteen minutes we have cleared the crash site enough that I feel we can take a quick break, examine our situation, and determine what to do next. Behind us, we can see smoke where our aircraft went down. In the distance I can see at least one plume of smoke, and while I want to go high and look around, I do not want to attract any unwanted attention to us.

As I look at those around me, I notice that besides the badly wounded copilot, most of us are all suffering from bumps and bruises from the crash. Twinks is currently sewing up a cut above Double Back’s left eye where he hit his head. I then begin to treat Tater for a pretty good gash that has soaked through his emergency bandage on his right hind leg just above the knee. When I am done it is still healing, but he can use it without reopening the wound again. I would have healed it fully, but I need to keep some of my magic in reserve.

It is while we are doing this that I begin to hear another vertibuck. As I scan the sky, I see it in the far distance. I see a couple of dots jump out of it and I assume they are Search and Rescue troopers for the Enclave rescuing any survivors from one of the crashed gunships.

As we begin to move again closer to NCR territory and Junction Town, I see what looks like a cave ahead of us. Behind us, I hear the SAR vertibuck from the Enclave and I know that means that soon they will have more reinforcements. With that in mind, I make a decision and I tell the others, “We head for that cave up there.”

Doubleback then asks, “You want me to go ahead and check it out? It looks like a rough time getting there.”

I think briefly, “Yes, go ahead, but be careful and do not get seen by anyone if you can help it.”

He nods back to me, telling me, “Got it Boss.” Then he turns and heads towards the cave at first at a trot, then slowing down and soon I can not see him amongst the brush and brambles ahead of us.

I notice the nervousness on each of their faces as we continue. But press on we do. Soon we briefly see him on the ledge outside the cave. I watch as he cautiously waves us forward and dodges into the cave.

As we get up to the cave entrance, I cast my invisibility spell as I wait for the others to enter. Just as I start to enter the cave, I see another vertibuck fly slowly in our direction. I freeze in my tracks and watch as it flies near the cave. I see the Enclave copilot pointing toward the cave, then I see the door gunner shake his head in a negative gesture. After this, they continue their way down the valley.

Once they are out of sight, I enter the tunnel and drop my spell. I then notice how tired my people are. I shake my head and tell them. “I have the watch. Go ahead and sleep.”

Twinks then tells me, “I will try Choo, but we found a sleeping yao guai in here. I already hit it with an anesthetic spell, but I am still a bit nervous.”

I nod my head in understanding. “Well, try to catch some rest. Once it gets dark, we move again.”

The surviving door gunner then tells me, “Ma’am, I will stand watch with you if you don’t mind. I caught a nap on the way to pick you up, so I am probably the best rested of all of us.”

I nod my head and notice the rank insignia on his uniform. Then I tell him, “I appreciate it, Sergeant.”

Shortly after this the others all begin to settle down to catch what rest they can. As they do so, I pull one of the bottles of Sparkle Cola Rad that Spiral Notebook had given me, out of my saddle bag. I pop the cap and as I take the first sip, I can feel myself begin to revive as the magical radiation as well as its radish flavor tickle my tongue and throat. Now that hits the spot. I just wish I had more of them.

The next two days we spend using the escape and evasion techniques we learned from some of the ghouls in Dead Quite. We sleep during the day and travel at night as much as possible. When we stop, we try to make sure it is in an area where we are concealed, as we are still occasionally buzzed by Enclave Vertibucks as they search the valley for us. The interesting thing is that they seem to think we are traveling much faster than we are as almost always seem to be ahead of us.

During the afternoon of the third day, the others are trying to rest when we begin to hear a lot of noise coming in our direction. Unfortunately, we do not have any caves or such places to hide. But we are next to a creek bed and it has a slight overhang, so we slide down and use what we can to cover ourselves.

We have just finished getting in place and I have cast a simple camouflage spell to help us blend in better when I hear the metallic distorted voice of a pony in power armor say, “That is negative Blue Nougat 1, there is no sign of them yet. The MEW and Gunfire you heard were when we kicked up a pack of radhogs.”

There is a brief pause and I hear, “Roger Blue Nugget 1, I understand, return to the pickup site, hostile airborne forces are inbound. Blue Nougat 7 out.” Again, a short pause then I hear from almost above us, “Ok, ponies, wrap it up. We have company inbound and they want us to pull out pronto.”

“But Sarge, we are close, I swear I can smell them.”

“Fair Winds, that is not them you are smelling, it's you, you need to shower more, especially when you are spending this much time in the bush like this.”

We are all waiting, ready for the worse when we hear the noise of branches breaking as several of them take flight right where they are under the tree cover.

It is another twenty minutes when I see a large airship with two vertibucks in the distance. I turn on the radio on my PipBuck and I hear, “Flight R273, This is an NCR Airship, we are responding to your distress call, do you copy?”

I look over at our pilot who nods his head and tells me, “Yeah, that is the proper procedure, never give them your proper name, why give them free intel if you don’t have to?”

I nod to him and reply back after they have called again, “This is Flight R273, we can see you. We have one severely injured pony and several minor injuries. What do you need us to do?”

I then hear them say, “Pop a smoke grenade so we can get a vertibuck to you.”

As we pop smoke I see the pilot let out a breath as he tells me, “We should not stay right next to the smoke, just in case the Enclave decides to hit it with something.”

As a group, we move fifty meters to the side of the smoke. And as the vertibuck begins to hover over the smoke those of us who cannot fly run over to our next ride. This one is smaller than the transport vertibucks so those of us who can fly wait until they are in the air and we follow them as they head to the airship. Once the vertibuck has landed in the hanger bay, the rest of us fly inside and land as close as the slowly turning rotors will allow. Once we are all together, our pilot turns to me and grinning tells me, “Now that wasn’t too bad now, was it.”

*****

Undisclosed Hanger, Rainbow Dash Skyport, Hoofington: Ball Lightning

I smile to myself as my team arrives on the tarmac from the vertibuck and are taken to the same one we were led to the first time I joined the dark side operations task force. Of course, that is not what they really called it. But I still am not sure what the name for it really is.

We are led inside to the small briefing room. In the front of it is a podium along with a couple of seats that have ponies already sitting in them. I smile when I see Air Burst to the side alongside Lt Colonel. Sun Storm. I shake my head slightly as I see she is once again wearing her mirrored sunglasses and smoking her pipe, looking mildly bored.

Behind me, I hear Sergeant Flash Bang ask someone else, “What are we doing here?”

As I turn my head to look at him, I hear Sergeant Major Funnel Cloud’s voice almost growl as he tells him, “Shut up and pay attention. Maybe you will learn something, Sergeant.”

Then I am surprised when I hear Flash Bang say in a stunned voice as he looks at Sun Storm and asks, “Aunt Wind Shear?”

She looks flustered when he says this and tells all of us, “You will forget you heard that name, or I will give you all a memory wipe. Do I make myself clear?”

We all nod our heads. Then as we take our seats she stands and walks to the podium and tells us, “For those who are here for the first time, welcome to the dark side. To those we have worked with before, welcome back.”

When she says this, those who were with me before all nod their heads. Those who are new, well they seem a little surprised. I find myself taking a slight bit of joy in watching the reaction of Sergeant Flash Bang when he hears this. It seems that things just got real for him and he is suddenly nervous. I catch myself in time to keep from smiling though when I notice her look over her sunglasses as him with the don’t you dare screw this up look.

When she is done talking to us, Air Burst stands up at the podium and begins, “For this operation, we have been able to recruit the Mayhem’s Mares and the Broken Clocks to assist us. The plan is to let them be the drivers and has them drive the targets to your team. For those of you wondering who your targets are, they are two senior officers from the NCRA as well as two company-grade officers with them. Of note is that they are with a civilian diplomatic delegation. The goal is to take both the officers and diplomats as prisoners to be exchanged at a later day for our people. That means we have to do our damnedest to take them alive. Am I understood?”

We all murmur back in the affirmative.

Soon afterward we are back in the barracks area of the hangar and we are putting away what few personal possessions we have brought with us.

“Sir,” I hear a voice behind me asks, “Did you know she was my aunt, sir?”

I turn and find the sergeant standing there blushing. I shake my head, “I had no idea. If I had known, I would have never brought you on this mission.”

He looks confused and asks, “Why not? Are you afraid she will be nepotistic?”

I move my ears in a mildly annoyed manner that also shows a negative answer. Then I tell him, “I wouldn’t have because I would not want to expose her cover any more than I have to.”

Again he looks surprised and then he cautiously tells me, “Sir, you really do get into these black ops don’t you.”

Part of me wants to grin, but I fight that urge down and with a straight face I tell him, “If you don’t understand how black ops work, then maybe you shouldn’t be here.”

The next day, Air Burst pulls me to the side, “I need you with me when I go meet the heads of the gangs we will be working with. Moon Dial insists on it, or she says it is a no-go.”

I nod my head, “Yeah, I get it.”

He smiles ruefully and tells me, “Good, shall we go get this done with?” as he begins to walk out of the hanger and toward the gate.

I hurry to catch up with him and ask, “Shouldn’t I change into civies at least first?”

He shakes his head, “No, not this time. This time we are being upfront with them. No games. They are willing to work with us if we are honest.”

Soon we are in a vertibuck that takes us toward the Broken Clocks territory. Once we are there it lands and I hear the crew chief tell us, “Just call us on the radio when you are ready for pickup.” We nod our heads in understanding and they are gone.

Before long we have progressed through the ruined buildings and I can see the old Manehatten Watch and Clock Company building with its now missing clock tower.

We come to the intersection where I first met the Broken Clocks. But this time I see one of them sitting on the wreckage of the old clock tower, instead of being inside the storm drain. The ganger looks at me in my uniform and then looks at Air Burst. He shakes his head, “Glad you are on Time. She is waiting.”

Air Burst nods and tells him somberly, “I had no intention of being late. Could you either escort us in or have someone escort us to see Moon Dial?”

I see him turn and look toward the building behind us. He moves his hooves and ears in a signal. He looks that way for a short bit, then he turns back to us and tells us, “Yeah, your escort is coming.”

Shortly after this, two more ponies approach us, one has a bad scar on their face and is missing half her right ear. The other I can see walks with a heavy limp. When he gets to us, he sneers as he looks at my uniform. Then I hear him say, “I shoulda known you were a regular Enclave soldier. You seemed to goody goody.”

I simply shrug and Air Burst looks at him with some disdain and tells him, “Just take us to your boss.”

Once we enter the back loading dock doors, we are met by Moon Dial. This time I can tell she is not happy with us, but she is also foregoing the typical one upmareship. She has one of her forehooves on her hip and asks, “Ok, so what do you really want?”

This time I answer, “We need your gang and the Mayhem’s Mares to work with my squad to capture a group of NCR officers and diplomats.”

As I say this I hear another voice as a ratty-looking, heavily scarred light purple unicorn with the tip of her horn broken off comes out.

Beside me, I hear Airburst exclaim, “Hard Knocks, Thank the Goddesses you are alive. I thought you were killed when your main compound was attacked.”

She leans against the wall and asks sarcastically, “So you’re saying you knew nothing about that attack?”

He quickly tells her, “Tartarus no. We were coming to complete our dealings with you. We were just as surprised as you were.”

She nods her head. “Any idea who they were?”

This time I grin, “Yeah, and from what I understand, three of them are the guards for the group we are trying to capture.”

This has her attention. She then looks at Air Burst and asks him, “Is this true?”

He nods his head, “From what sources I have, yes.”

She looks at Moon Dial and asks, “What is our payment if we help you?”

Air Burst asks, “What do you want?”

Moon Dial and Hard Knocks look at each other, then Hard Knocks says, “Food, medical supplies. Real ones, not just drugs.”

I look at Air Burst and he just nods, “That is easily done. In fact, with your permission, I will see about having a Volunteer Corps station set up in each of your territories to provide you with said supplies.”

Then Moon Dial says, “We want you to agree to that, even if you fail to capture them. We will be the beaters to drive them to you. You will have to capture them.”

He nods again, and I ask, “And when we capture them?”

She smiles, “If you capture them, I don’t care what you do with the rest, I want those who are responsible for this,” she says as she points to the heavy scarring on her side, neck, and face. “I was buried for two days before they dug me out and could treat my burns.”

I nod my head, “I understand.”

Air Burst, with a grim expression on his face, tells them, “Agreed. As for our VC stations, just let us know.”

Moon Dial then asks, “How are you going to find out where they are?”

Air Burst smiles and tells her, “Everypony in Hoofington goes to Mega Mart, I have contacts there. I will contact both of you, agreed?”

They look at each other grudgingly, then turn to him and tell him, “Agreed.”

The next morning, I have my squad in standard uniform, sans power armor as we enter the Mega Mart grounds. We pay our fees at the gate. Then we walk inside.

I am amused by Sergeant Flash Bangs expression as he looks around at all the vendors, then looks up and sees Gun II above us. I then overhear the Sergeant Major telling him, “Never fire your weapon in here. It will automatically target you. Melee weapons are ok though.”

He slowly nods his head in acknowledgment. Soon I see Salvage Value and he waves to me. As we approach he asks me, “Can I help you find something?”

“Perhaps, but let’s take this discussion outside.”

Once outside we are off to the side from the main entrance and he asks me, “Ok, sir, what are you looking for?”

So, I tell him. As I do so I see a skinny, light green mare with a dark green mane and tail, and wearing a light blue Mega Mart vest and shotgun across her back. As I look at her, her eyes go wide as if she heard us talking. Then Salvage Value points at her and tells me, “That one there. She knows them and visits them where they are staying even. I can’t remember for sure, but I think it was the Hoofington Grand Hotel. I overheard her telling a couple of others about her visits. If you grab her, she should be able to tell you where they are.”

As he says this, I see her begin to run for the gate and she yells to someone near it. I quickly tell Salvage, “Thanks,” and I toss him a dozen caps. Then I tell my squad, “Capture that mare.”

With that, we begin to chase her and the zebra stallion who has joined her as she passed out of the gates.

We chase her for several blocks in the direction of the Hoofington Grand Hotel when one of my troopers calls out, “Stop or we will shoot.”

As they keep running, the trooper stops briefly, and before I can say anything he has taken two quick shots at her with his MEWs. I see the mare stumble as she is hit. The Zebra helps her get back up, gives her some kind of medicine and they continue to run.

We are only a few blocks from the Hoofington Grand Hotel when I tell my troops, “Ok, we need to fall back and have our armor dropped off.” I then get on the radio and call for a drop off at an open patch of land several blocks back the way we had just came. After this, I call Air Burst and give him the information that I know so far.

Right after this, he tells me, “Roger, I will let them know.”

As we wait I keep checking the time on my Pipbuck. I know it has not been that long, but it seems like forever. After a ten-minute wait, I hear a vertibuck coming in hard and fast. I set off a smoke grenade and it circles twice before landing in the open ground.

My people rush on board and begin to suit up in their power armor, assisted by the flight crew. As each gets suited up, they step off the aircraft and form a protective perimeter. Then the Vertibuck takes off again and quickly recedes in the direction of Thunderhead.

I then hear from Air Burst over the radio, “the auxiliaries are almost to the hotel you mentioned. Give them support.”

“Ok, colts and fillies, let's make this quick if we can,” I say as I lead them into the air.

We are only about a city block from the hotel when the Broken Clocks that are just ahead of us begin to take fire, so my team lands and we begin to provide support fire as they continue to advance.

I see in the distance two carts loaded with youngsters and baggage begin to run away from us. However, several of their party on hoof and in the air fire at the Broken Clocks. I hear one of them yell as they are hit and I see another go down without making a sound ever again. As a group, both mine and the gangers begin to chase them.

Soon we lose them in the urban jungle that is the ruins of Hoofington and its suburbs. However, we do know where they are most likely heading. The quickest route back to the NCR is by rail, so they most likely are heading in that direction.

I call on the radio to both gang leaders and let them know where I think they are heading. Hard Knocks answers first, “Ok Ball, I will move my people to the south some and try to swing that way.

Moon Dial then answers, “Yeah, we are moving straight ahead still, they won’t have many choices here soon, either they enter the Hoof’s Ferals territory, the old Down Chemical Factory for ammunition, which is full of ferals, or they have to head towards Maripony or across an old wide-open park that is a prime breeding ground for radscorpions around here.”

Just as she finishes saying this we stumble upon them as they back out of an old bus garage. Those on the ground begin to fire at us and at something inside. However, we soon have a dogfight going on with two adults and three younger pegasuses from their group.

I divide my troops up, half for air superiority and half to go after the ground troops. It is during this that I watch a mare with a red coat and yellow and black mane turn towards us, plant herself, and fire at one of my troopers, hitting him in his face piece. I hear him cry out he is hit and going down. As he does this my team medic calls out to him that he is on the way as he leaves the air fight.

Our medic lands and begins to treat him as another member of my team is hit. However, his power armors matrix spell automatically dispenses a healing spell and he is back in the fight shortly afterward.

My medic then calls back, “Sir, we will need a medivac for Trooper Sky Sweep. A healing spell will not save his eye.”

“Roger, I will call in for a pickup,” I respond before I make the call.

While you would think we would be at an advantage with our power armor, they are much nimbler and keep dodging us. I do see one of them get hit, but they keep flying and soon the rest of their group has escaped as they fly as fast as they can among the wreckage and we lose them.

I call back to Moon Dial and tell her where we had seen them and I hear her laugh, “Yeah, they are heading in that direction alright. We will keep driving them, why don’t you try to capture them up ahead?”

I have to agree with her and tell her so. Shortly afterward we hear the medical vertibuck arrive and they take my wounded trooper away. As they leave, I order my troops to form on me and we take to the skies flying high. Ahead I see the park she mentioned and I look at the roads beyond it. I make a snap decision, “Sergeant Major, we will be setting up a couple of checkpoints on those roads ahead. I don’t think they have much choice on which direction to go.”

Soon afterward we reach the abandoned checkpoints that block the two main roads from the Park towards the railway station. We hear gunfire from the park and when I call on the radio to Moon Dial, I hear her quickly say, “Can’t talk, we're busy right now.”

But I do hear the gunfire quicken and then die out. Soon she contacts me and tells me, “They made it through the park. I am pretty sure they are heading your way.”

“Where are you?” I ask.

I hear her huff out a breath of air, then she tells me, “We are on the other side of that damn park. Have you ever ridden a radscorpion. It is a wild ride, let me tell you.”

I catch myself smiling and shaking my head as I am pretty sure she really means it. Then I see one of my people point their rifle in the direction of the park and I watch as they use their scopes to examine the area. After about ten minutes he shrugs and brings the guns back down. We wait at the two checkpoints until it gets dark. Then we find an old barn to hold up in for the night that is several kilometers closer to the train station.

Come morning we get up, eat and begin to get ready for the day. I have the next two troopers who are to go on watch go high and begin to search for them. It is nearly midday when one of my people tells me, Sir, over by that abandoned farm, I just heard gunfire and a grenade go off.”

“Ok, go check it out, but be careful.”

As they arrive, they find some dead raiders and spent cartridges on the ground. They describe the place and one of my sergeants who has worked the dark side before, but not with me tells me, “Sir, I think I know that area, get them out of there.”

I nod and follow his advice. Soon we are back in the air. Below I see the Broken Clocks slowly making their way in the direction of the station. Then I hear all hell break loose from several blocks of the ruins. As we try to make it there the explosions and gunfire die down. In the distance, I can see them all running for the train station with no air cover this time.

Then I see the train is just starting to load passengers and the locomotive is taking on fuel and water. I find myself grinning an almost feral smile as I give the order. “Go for the station as fast as you can. We can catch them before they get onboard.”

As we begin to land we can see that many of them are wounded. They have just begun to try and load the carts onto a flat car when one of them sees us and points us out to the others. I am smiling still in my power armor as we land almost simultaneously, surrounding them.

I then call out to them, “Throw down your weapons and surrender and no one else gets hurt.”

The pegasus officer that I recognized from before calls back, “I don’t think so Lieutenant.

“And who do you think you are?”

She grins, “I am Lieutenant Colonel Wind Rider of the NCR Army. But I was once known as Yellow Taffy One when I had your job.”

“So, you turned Dashite did you? Or are you just a deserter then?” I mock her, as I know who she is, but with my armor on, she doesn’t know who I am.

Coldly she answers, “Actually no, we were let known that we were no longer part of the Enclave by Neighverro, and by your accent, I can tell that is not where you are from.”

I laugh and ask, “Did they fail to capture you when we attacked them, is that what you wanted to say?”

She smiles and says, “No, I was on maternity leave at the time. However, I am pretty sure that the colt I was carrying all those years ago has you targeted pretty well. Besides, If I were you, I would look behind you and your troops.”

I turn my head and am startled to see the large number of armed cyber augmented Zebras that are around all of us. The augmented hearing of my suit then picks up the one I know is Ginger whispers quietly, “That’s the Brood Ma. Stay calm.”

Her mother, that is who that scarred red mare is? I have attacked their family. I feel some guilt, but I had no choice. It was my duty.

From behind the scarred colonel, I see an official for the Commonwealth. He is wearing a close-fitting hood and cloak as he asks me, “Lieutenant, am I to understand that you and your people are conducting military operations in the Lunar Commonwealth? You know that is a violation of our neutrality and could be construed as an attack upon us?”

I audibly gulp and reply, “No, not military operations, we are just trying to apprehend these criminals.”

The hooded pony then tells me, “Ah so a law enforcement matter, and you did not check in with us to assist you? I tell you what, have your troops assemble over to the side here and remove their power armor, you have violated our jurisdiction and are being temporarily detained, what did you say your name was Lieutenant?”

I grit my teeth as I tell him, “It is Ball Lightning, Lieutenant Ball Lightning.”

“Very good Lieutenant Ball Lightning, now if you would please do as I have asked.”

I shake my head as the other members of my team assemble where they were ordered and I head that way myself. In the back of my mind, I wonder if I have just destroyed my career.

The Hoofington official turns to the colonel and tells her, “That should be enough for now. Thank you all for visiting Hoofington. I hope your stay here was a pleasant one and that you will visit again someday. Now you best get your people loaded, you have a train to catch.”

We remove our power armor as I watch them load onto the train. Once my suit is off, I see Ginger, Xochitl, and Epona all look at me in surprise. Then I see a sad look on the face of Lieutenant Colonel Wind Riders' face as she too recognizes me. But I do not want her pity.

As their train pulls out of the station my troopers are all giving their identity to officials of the brood so the Enclave can be contacted. I look one last time at the train as it begins to pull out of the station and I see the scarred colonel that is Ginger and Epona’s mother looking back at me. In a moment of anger, I stand on my hind hooves and give her the hoof. Then I turn my back on her and I hear the brood official tell me, “Ok, your command has been contacted and will be here to pick you up shortly. Just so you know, we are keeping the power armor.”

Again, I shake my head in frustration. I then look up at him and tell him, “Understood. Just let us know what you need us to do.”

He tilts his head, smirks, and tells me, “If only you had been that way, to begin with, we could have worked with you and your people.”

*****

This is Broadcast Nights coming to you live from Junction Town. That last song was by Velvet Remedy and is a personal favorite of mine.

For those on the borders of the NCR, remember that help is coming, but it just takes time to respond sometimes. The sooner we get information, the quicker we can respond and get help on the way to you.

In the news today, the Grand Pegasus Enclave has broken off diplomatic relations with the government of the New Canterlot Republic, after having said that it is obvious that the NCR has no intention of keeping peaceful relations going. This announcement was followed by several members of the Parliament calling for the President to resign and step aside for those who are willing to work with the Enclave. This has resulted in many accusations and counter-accusations being made.

We will have more news for you shortly after this next one. For all of you just trying to get out of the way, here is Band on the Run.

Author's Note

For those who would like to hear this chapters song, the YouTube link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__RF9j3Bs_Y