Chapter 40 Unexpected Visitors

“Somewhere by helping others you are soothing your own scars!” ― Somya Kedia

Vertibuck, Enroute to Baltimare. NCR Airspace: Ginger Snaps

As I sit back with my eyes closed, I can feel the vibration of the aircraft against me. On one side of me is Xochitl, on the other, Twinks. From a few seats away I can hear Cowlick snoring. Across from me in the aircraft, I can hear Eni and Meanie chatting away.

You would think by now I would be getting used to this. But I am still nervous and find myself occasionally licking my lips like a little foal. Of course, this part of our mission I have only done just about half a dozen times, along with the rest of both teams.

I open my eyes and look forward toward the cockpit. Through the front canopy, I can see the moon as it appears and disappears in the clouds.

I look at my PipBuck and I see the time and shake my head. It is going to be a really long night.

Beside me, I hear Twinks praying quietly to Luna and Celestia. While not extremely religious, I find myself silently beginning to pray to them as well as the All-Mother, Sweetcream.

As we close on our destination, I look out one of the side windows and can see the silhouettes of two other transport vertibucks flying beside us.

Then I feel the wind inside the aircraft pick up as the back loading ramp opens wide into the night sky. I noticed the loadmaster who was assigned to the vertibuck for this mission stand up by the door. The red light by the loading ramp is still red and I hear him yell, “Troopers on your hooves!”

We all stand up, both teams, and fold our seats up before we turn toward the ramp. We do a quick once-over of our gear again. Then we hear him yell out, “Make ready.” Which we repeat.

Next, we hear, “Get Ready.” Again, we repeat it as we shift ourselves in preparation for what is soon to come.

“Get Hooked,” is commanded, and all of us non-fliers grab our hooks and prepare our static lines to be attached to a cable that is running down the center of the aircraft. It was one of the first modifications made to Flight Plan and his crews vertibuck at the training center. Again, we repeat the command. The fliers, just shifting their wings in preparation.

Next, we hear, “Hook up.” Now we attach the static line hook. After we have hooked up, we repeat the command and double-check the pony or bovine ahead of us as he calls out, “Check your equipment.”

I feel my pulse begin to speed up and my tail tucks in tight.

“Sound off for Equipment Check.”

From closest to the ramp back we all call out first the order, then our jump number and “OK,” to confirm we have done so.

We then wait as we near our designated landing zone. Finally, we hear, “Stand by,” and we know it is almost time. I find my mouth dry as I see tracer rounds firing on the ground ahead of us.

Then I see the red light go out and a green one under it lights up and I hear, “Go! Go! Go” as I watch first Choo and then Mudwing both step off the back of the landing ramp into the dark with their wings tucked close. As they go, we all shuffle forward until we reach the ramp.

Once I am at the ramp, all I can see is darkness ahead of me. This is my second night jump. I already have momentum from the group helping me to keep moving forward as I leap head-first into the darkness. I feel the slight tug of the static line pull. In front of me, I can faintly make out the line of parachutes as well as the shadowy outline of Mudwings.

Then I feel the jerk of my parachute opening as my fall is arrested. As I slowly continue my descent to Equus below, I look around. In the distance, I can see lights from the ruins of Baltimare. I look up above them and I can see several large shadows drifting down from the other vertibucks. However, I see one that does not have its parachutes deployed fully and I watch as it crashes into the ground. Behind me, I can barely make out more of the fliers and parachutists. The fliers I notice are almost racing for the ground. Their weapons already drawn and ready as they land, When they land and begin to help us non-fliers out of our chutes.

As I land, I feel the hard impact on my legs and I feel an ankle buckle. I only hope I have not broken it. I roll and as I knock the wind out of my chute, I begin to remove the parachute harness. Once free I limp off to the side and access my injury after I have gotten my weapons out of their drop pouches. I then put my night optical devices on my helmet and scan the area around me takes on eerie shades of green. One more thing they trained us on the last couple of weeks.

Soon over my PipBuck, I hear Sunny call out, “Boss, Got some bad news. That load that had the bad chute, it was the one with some of the supplies and ammo.”

“Roger Blackbird, any hope of saving some of it and getting it in one of the carts?”

“Not sure boss, but I will see what we can do.”

Shortly after this, I hear Cowlick call over the PipBuck, “Hey can someone get over to my coordinates? I am stuck up in this tree and I can’t get out.”

I find myself chuckling at the thought of a bull caught up in a tree. Then I hear Morning Mist say, “I got him.” As he flies off, I think it is Eni joins him.

The rest of us begin to try to get organized. After Cowlick and the others rejoin us, as a group we head over to where the carts and cargo dropped. We hook up the carts and then all of us quickly load the weapons, ammo, rations, and medical supplies we may need onto the wagons. I do notice though that one of the weapons that was destroyed was a missile launcher. Great, we really might need that. But it is what it is.

Soon we are ready and I hear Choo call out, “Ok, let us move, we don’t have much night left.”

We reform as we go. I have already bound my bad ankle as tightly as I can with a bandage roll and I have popped a couple of tablets of pain reliever to take the edge off. However, I can still feel it, but I don’t want to waste a healing spell on it.

“Hey Cookie,” Twinks says to me as she comes up on my side, “Next stop me or Choo needs to look at that ankle.”

“It’s nothing Danger.”

“Normally, it is nothing, but before we hit our target, I want you to be in the best shape we can be, got it?”

“Yeah, I got it Danger. Thanks for caring.”

“Ginger, your one of my best friends, but let’s be honest, when we go in there, it is all of our flanks on the line.”

“Gee Twinks, glad to hear you really care.”

“It’s not that I don’t care Cookie, but I want you to realize this involves more than just you.”

“Yeah, I got you Danger.”

“Glad to hear it. Now, what did you think of that jump?”

“It could have been much worse. Remember the first time we jumped and had to recover the equipment?”

“Yeah, how could I forget watching that cart shatter as it hit the ground when its chute failed? That got my attention really quickly. Not going to lie to you Cookie, I really would prefer not to have to start a mission that way again.”

I grin at her in the predawn light and tell her, “Thanks, that makes two of us. But it is, what it is.”

*****

Outskirts of Baltimare, Disputed NCR Territory: Xochitl

Once again, I am on point for our team. About 15 meters behind me are Ginger and Sunny. Near the middle are the two carts that are carrying equipment and supplies. I tried to get Ginger to ride in the cart earlier, but she would hear nothing of it.

I still find wearing a set of NODs to be amusing with the various shades of green. The only thing I really hate is when there is a bright light or flash it can white out the screens on them. I had never seen a set, much less used one until they issued us them for this mission. It is amazing what all was stored in the basement of that old house there. They never let us down there, but every time we turned around Apple Sprout was saying, “Ok, I think we might have something for that in the basement.” Then she would disappear for a while and come back with what we might need.

While it was great, it had the disadvantage of really adding to the load in our saddlebags. I am just glad my Pipbuck has helped me with keeping track of what all is in them now.

As we slowly advance, I am not only looking for possible hostiles, I am also trying to find us a place to bed down for the day. Twice while we are moving deeper into the enemy’s rear area we are forced to go to ground or divert out of our way to avoid possible hostile forces or creatures.

Finally, as the day begins to dawn enough that we have removed and stowed our NODs we find an old factory that is mostly still standing. We slide into the alleyway and after making sure it is clear, we open one of the rear roller curtain doors by a ramp so we can get the carts undercover as well.

Once inside and out of sight we set up a guard from each team while the rest of us begin to eat a pack of rations and try and catch some sleep.

It is getting late in the day and I am on watch for our team when I hear some sounds skittering around in the back part of the factory. I quietly call over to Choo to let her know and I am joined by Miney from the other team. He has reverted to the original pony form he had when we first met. He is covering me as we advance through the abandoned machinery in the low light that is coming in from the missing windows that are high above the factory floor.

Suddenly I see movement ahead. I signal to Miney to stand still as I try and find the source using my EFS. I think I see a couple of yellow blips, but nothing serious. I turn to look at Miney and I watch as he quickly shifts forms again. Then suddenly I hear two voices call out, “Is that you Miney?”

He nods his head and I watch as two rats, suddenly shift, and become smaller changelings. “Are you back to help?” one of them asks.

Miney seems surprised at the question and asks, “What do you mean help?”

“The Enclave. They have captured our hive. Queen Chrysalides was captured along with most of us.”

“How did you escape?”

“Miney, we hid as rocks. They never thought to even check if we were real rocks or not.”

He nods his head as do I as I am truly impressed with their presence of mine to try that. Then I say, “I did not know changelings could turn into rocks.”

The two youngsters look at me as if surprised and ask, “Miney, he is not one of us?”

“But he is not hostile to us?” the other asks.

“No young ones, he is not. He knows our true selves, now, come, we must tell the others.” Miney answers.

Soon we have rejoined the others and I notice the two youngsters have changed themselves into a colt and filly.

Mudwings raises an eyebrow as we approach, “What do we have here?”

Miney answers her, “They have brought news of my home hive. It is not good.”

The rest, many of whom are just waking up all turn to them expectantly. Eni and Meanie both look suddenly worried.

The one that looks like a filly, steps forward and tells us, “The queen and most of our hive have been captured. The Enclave took it when they invaded this area.”

Choo then asks, “And they allowed you changelings to survive? That does not seem normal for them.”

The filly and colt look at each other and smile, then the colt one answers her, “Our people all took other forms, most are pony-shaped right now. The hive was on an old stable that we took over.”

That makes sense to me and I can understand it. Then Choo asks, “Miney, I have wanted to ask this since we first met, please forgive me if I am being rude, but I thought all of your kind were ruled by Queen Chrysalis?”

Miney answers back, “At one time we were. But you must understand how our society works. When a queen egg was hatched, after it grew enough to be almost an adult, they were killed by the queen or driven out. So, while we are descended from Chrysalis, we are not her subjects. Our queen had certain, how shall we say, different ideas of how to work with the ponies and survive.”

This time I am curious and before anyone can say anything more, I ask, “So what were some of the differences?”

I hear Eni and Meany both sigh. Then Miney answers, “One is how during the great war we sided with Equestria. Not all of our kind did, but our hive was a great source of infiltrators as well as special agents during it. Also, how we fed. Yes, our kind still does feed on love sometimes. But we do not consume it to the point we weaken the source. We have also since learned to survive on other sources. This has led to some of the changes you may notice from the old propaganda. Such as we no longer have the holes in our bodies we once did.”

Choo nods her head, “Huh, that makes sense, I guess. I had not realized any of your kind were on our side during the war.”

This seems to catch Miney off guard and he asks, “Even if our people were enemies during the war, that would not have mattered to you?”

She shakes her head, “No, no it wouldn’t. That war was a long time ago. We need to move past that if we are to survive. Besides, my kind is often still hated just as much, and often with good reason.”

Most of the Fixers look at her with questioning expressions. Then Mudwing says, “For you youngsters, for almost two hundred years her kind. The chemically made alicorn, they were different from the rest of us. They were predators and often any who opposed them became prey. And the way they operated in a fight, it was frightening because it was almost like they were fighting with one mind.”

Choo first nods her head then as she looks at the ground, then up at Mudwing, she says, “That is because until the death of our mother; the goddess. We were all connected to Unity. The best I can describe it is as a hive mind. We all shared our thoughts and most of our memories with each other. When Unity was broken, we lost that. We, we became individuals with the death of our mother and so many of our sisters.”

Those who have not talked with Choo about this before are all surprised. Then Choo continues. “Myself, I am still trying to remember and relearn who I once was. It has been a hard journey.”

After she says this. Mudwing looks at her with a strange expression then turns back to the changelings, “Ok, so what exactly happened to your hive?”

“The fighting outside, as it got closer, the queen closed the door to the stable door on the hive. But we had been outside with some of the soldiers. That is how we escaped when they captured the entryway to the hive.”

“So, did you actually see them enter the stable door?” Mudwing asks.

“No, when we left, they were still trying to get it open.” The filly says.

I hear Mudwing sigh as she puts a foreclaw to her forehead. Then she says, “Choo, I think we need to make a diversion. It is not far from our target anyways and it may allow us to help the locals.”

We all turn to Choo to see what she says. She seems to ponder it. Then tells her, “Ok, I think your right.” She turns to us as she stands fully on her hooves and shakes her wings, “You heard the Hen, let’s do this.”

With that, I extend my hoof and help Ginger to her hooves as she throws her saddlebags and grabs her gear along with the others. As I get ready to go to the door, Meaney tells me, “I got point Flower. This is my territory.”

The Fixers then lead out with our team following them through the streets of what was once Baltimare and their homes.

Baltimare, NCR Disputed Territory: Choo Choo

As we all but crawl through the debris of what I remember as a thriving city from my days on the railroad, I cannot help but think how I cannot believe we are going to help Changelings. Yes, I know this group of them worked with Equestria during the war, but still. They are Changelings for the Goddesses' sakes.

I am also very surprised at how well my team has taken to working with such diverse species. I am proud of them for that. I seem to remember ponies not being so accepting of other non-pony types at one time. In the back of my mind, I find myself wondering if, as a species, we were always like that. If not, what changed us to become the way we have?

I am interrupted from my thoughts by a noise off to the side. I quickly turn in that direction as I check my Eyes Forward Sparkle. The others all freeze at my command of, “Two possible hostiles to our right, go to ground, Tater, Days End, check it out.”

I hear them both answer, “Roger,” and then they are crawling their way in that direction. As they get closer, I can see the two new tags stay yellow as they approach them.

Soon I hear Days End call back, “All clear boss. We have two more of our special friends with us.”

“Roger, bring them in with you,” I tell them.

Soon I see the four of them rejoining our teams. As they approach, I am only slightly surprised to see them shift into the forms of changelings when they see the two younger ones from earlier. Then one of them says to the young changelings, “You have brought help I see, good.”

One of them nods their head, then tells him, “Eni, Meanie, and Miney are back with them.”

The older one who was speaking does not look happy as he answers, “I see. Well, we need their help.”

Hearing the tone of his voice, Mudwings looks at the three changelings on her team and asks, “Is there something you need to tell me?”

The three changelings with us look at each other and shrug. Finally, one of them says, “Boss, it was a joke. We told her we would not do it again. But she was mad and we were banished.”

I watch as Mudwing runs a foreclaw through her head feathers and shakes her head slowly. Then she asks in an exasperated tone of voice, “I am afraid to ask, but what was the joke and why were you banished?”

Two of them both point a forehoof at the third and say, “It was Miney, he pretended to be the queen and was giving orders to the guards.”

“Why? Why would you pretend to be the queen?”

“Boss, it was a joke. I thought she would find it funny as I did.”

I find myself smiling at Mudwing’s frustration as I have felt it before myself. Both in service and with my own team. I am now also curious so I ask, “So, Miney, just what was the joke?”

He proceeds to tell us, the whole time trying not to laugh along with Eni and Meaney. When he is done, Mudwing asks him, “You really thought it was that funny?”

Still trying to hold back a laugh he nods his head. Then he says, “But, I learned not to do that again.”

The older of the two new changelings solemnly nods his head and shifts his wings and tells him, “Good. She will be glad to hear that.” He then turns to us, “If you are ready, we will go with you. He turns and makes a noise with his wings and suddenly we have several more join us as we continue.

As we continue, I get Mudwing’s attention and draw her to the side where I quietly ask her, “Ok, so what is the plan for when we get to this stable?”

“Choo, I don’t have one. I was winging this one.”

I simply raise an eyebrow at her answer and reply, “We really should come up with something.”

“Well, let’s have a couple of scouts go forward and recon the area first. See what we are facing and we can go from there.”

“Agreed.”

We send out Morning Mist and Sunny in their pegasi combat armor along with Eni who has changed himself into a pegasi and one of the young changelings who has done so as well. Then we begin to wait.

We take shelter in a couple of half-knocked-down buildings while we wait. Finally, they return. As they approach, I see Eni almost laughing again. So, I ask, “Ok Eni, what is so funny?”

He uses a wing to point to Sunny and replies, “He is. He ran into a pony who recognized him from Thunderhead and assumed he was with the Enclave. They even talked about having a couple of beers together there. This led them to escort us into the company headquarters that is blockading the hive.”

Sunny stands there grinning and tells me, “Yeah boss, he met me the first time when I was wearing the VC coveralls. He assumed I had been drafted, and I figured, why dissuade him.”

I find myself smiling back at him, “Good thinking Sunny. So, can any of you tell us how we can get to the stable entrance now?”

Eni speaks up this time and tells us, “Well, about that, I have an idea, and Miney, no laughing.”

After we listen, I look at Mudwing and she does the same to me and tells me, “You know, that might just work.”

Soon, I find myself invisible as Mudwing and several of the non-flyers are being marched as POWs towards the stable being escorted by the changelings, Sunny, and Morning Mist.

The rest follow at a distance. They are to provide cover for us and will provide a rear guard to defend us as we open the stable door.

As we approach the gate in a junk fence surrounding a wrecked building that houses the headquarters for the company guarding the entrance of the stable, I hear one of the guards call out from the side, “Hay Sunny, you weren’t joking about bringing in those prisoners, were you?”

“Nah, they are a bit more settled down than they were when we caught ‘em. But you know how that goes.”

“Yeah, I do. Follow me and I will take you all inside.”

The pegasus that Sunny was talking with calls up to one on the wall, “Open the gate, I can vouch for these guys. I have shared a few drinks up in Thunderhead with Sunny here back when he was with the Volunteer Corps.”

The one on the gate looks cautiously at us and then replies, “Yes sir,” then he makes a hoof motion to someone inside and the gate slowly and loudly slides to the side.

As we enter, I notice the lackadaisical attitude of many of the Enclave troopers. Several of them begin to walk with us as we are taken to the HQ. The company commander steps out and asks, “What is going on here?”

The pegasus officer that had allowed us inside the gate answers, “Sir, one of the reserve units from the area has brought in some POWs. His patrol did not have enough ponies to escort them all the way back to their HQ, so he brought them here.

The captain looks very displeased as he asks, “Doesn’t that seem funny to you Lieutenant?”

As we all watch on, the lieutenant then asks, “What do you mean sir?”

He moves his hooves and several of the Enclave members move closer to us. “That they just happened to be in our area of operations and not their own and brought them to where we are trying to enter a stable.”

I watch as the young officer's face goes pale and slack. I drop my spell and yell, “Now!”

Suddenly where Sunny was next to the other officer there is a puff of smoke and now there are two of the lieutenants.

The captain in surprise says, “What in the Tartarus!”

Suddenly one of the prisoners is replaced by another puff of smoke and in their place is a manticore roaring and leaping at the Enclave guards causing them to scatter. As this is going on weapons fire begins to be exchanged and out of the corner of my eye, I see the real Sunny flying over the fence and opening the gate, followed by several more fliers, several of them in their changeling forms and making a buzzing sound as they fly.

Things become totally confusing as we move to hooftacuff range and the changelings with us start to appear as pegasi. At one point I hear the captain yelling both to attack and to stand down at the same time and from next to each other as they both take swipes at each other with their front hooves.

As this fighting is going on, I see Twinks running into the basement doors for Companies HQ. She goes down the steps and is followed by Epona, Ginger, and Xochitl.

Topside I watch as Cowlick stops firing his MG, lowers his head with a smile, and begins to run with his head down into a crowd of unarmored Enclave soldiers who have just come around a corner. I hear one of the Changelings giggle and yell, “That looks like fun!” then they change into Cowlick and start following his example throwing ponies to the side as they plow through them. Soon I hear a loud grinding sound coming from the basement of the HQ and then there is more of a loud buzzing as I see a group of ponies in Stable Tech security barding come running out of the basement guns firing at the Enclave power armor and using batons on their unarmored opponents.

The battle rages for at least twenty minutes before I hear only one of the captains say with his head down in submission, “We surrender, all of my troops, stop fighting and lay down your weapons.”

It takes several minutes more before the fighting finishes, but I am relieved as well as stunned, at how quickly it ended. Many of the Enclave troops are injured as are ours. Fortunately, there are relatively few fatalities. However, near the basement doors, I see a changeling who is bleeding and having trouble getting up. As I approach, I find out it is Miney. I quickly assess his injuries and I realize how little I know of Changeling's anatomy.

As I am doing this one of the changelings from in the basement calls up, “All hail the Queen!”

I look up and I see a tall alicorn-shaped being, with a bright yellow mane and tail that contrast with her black coat, as well as insect wings and fangs, emerge from the basement steps. Her royal guards spread out in a defensive perimeter around her.

She looks down and sees Miney there and a flash of anger comes over and leaves her face. In a gentler voice than I would have expected I hear her ask, “Miney were you not told you were excommunicated from the Hive?”

He coughs and tells her, “Yes, my queen, but the Hive was in danger and I had to help. Eni and Meany are with me somewhere. We all had to help.”

She briefly contemplates what he has said. She nods her head and then says gently as she lays a hoof along his cheek, “You are forgiven my son, welcome home.”’

I see a pain-filled smile come over his face, and then he is gone. As he passes, she has a tear drop from her eye and tells him, “You shall not be forgotten, nor will your sacrifice be for naught.”

She turns to me and asks, “And who are you?”

“I am Captain Choo Choo of the NCR Rangers. My team as well as the team of Captain Mudwing joined forces with some of your stragglers to break the blockade on your hive.”

“So, you are the ones that the one called Twinks was talking about.” She nods her head before I can respond. Then she says, “How can I help repay you the debt of our liberation?”

By now Mudwing has joined us and tells her, “Your royal highness, we could use some help from your people in capturing some tech that we do not want the Enclave to get their hooves on.”

She nods her head and replies, “I see, well let’s go inside and discuss how we can assist.”

She turns one more time to look at Miney and tell his still form, “I will not forget. Peace to you when you emerge from your next chrysalis.”

*****

Rainbow Dash Skyport, Enclave Territory, Lunar Republic: Ball Lightning

As I look at the weekly supply requestion for my company that I have just approved I hear someone enter the office. I look up and see it is my company clerk.

“Are you finished with that Sir, I will take it and get it sent up the chain if so?” He tells me, then he adds, “Also we just had some mail delivered. You have a personal letter in it.”

As he hooves it to me, I smile, “Thank you, sergeant, on both counts.”

“No problem, sir,” he tells me as he takes the paperwork and leaves the room.

I then look down and notice the name on the envelope. It is from one of my classmates I went to OCS with. I smile as break the wax seal and begin to read.

Hay Ball,

Just a quick letter to say hello and to let you know that some of your classmates are still at it. I also wanted to tell you I finally made 1st Lieutenant. So, the next time we meet, the drinks are on me. While I can’t say directly where I am, I can tell you they have sent us to the same town my ancestors were working in during the great war. I am sure you remember that conversation. Things are not going too badly and I have only had a couple of incidents with the junior soldiers in my platoon.

One point of note is that I ran into your cousin I met back in Thunderhead, Sunset Waters. He and I shared a few beers together while you were in the hospital. I have to say he is a kick to talk to. He was in the VC back then but is now in the regulars it seems.

I should be talking to him again in a bit. We will have a beer in your honor. I need to close this letter out so that it can go into the mail that is being picked up in a little while.

Talk to you again soon

Sincerely

Your Friend Double Loop

When the letter began, I was very pleased to hear from Double Loop. I do remember the conversation. His family had been working in Baltimare during the war, but on the final day, his ancestors had been visiting family in Hoofington which is how they ended up in Thunderhead after the megaspell and balefire bomb exchange.

It was the second half that has me very concerned though. Sunset Waters. Again, the likable buck is haunting me and my life. This tells me he and at least some of his team’s members are in Baltimare and infiltrating our positions. While I like them, they could raise a lot of trouble for our people there.

I fold the letter and put it in my saddlebags. I grab my soft cover and put on my battle harness with my helmet hanging from one of the saddlebags. Then on my way out the door, I call out, “Sergeant, I will be right back, something important has been brought to my attention.”

“Yes, Sir. I will message you if anything comes up, or would you prefer a runner?”

“Messenger would be best. I will be back in a while.” I tell him as I get to the doorway and take flight as soon as I am outside.

I fly from my HQ directly to the RDS main terminal. As I enter, I see the youngsters over by Alizée’s shop. They wave to me and I wave quickly back but continue my way to the office of the facility commander Lieutenant Colonel Sun Storm.

As I enter the reception area outside her office her receptionist stops me and asks, “Can I help you sir?”

“I need to see the Colonel ASAP. I have some information she is going to want to hear.”

He nods his head, “Really sir, what is it and I will pass it on to her.”

I find myself sighing and I tell him, “Honestly, this needs to be passed directly to her. Let her know that Captain Ball Lightning is here with special information that pertains to some things my wife heard during her time in the field with the VC.”

His attitude seems to change slightly and he looks as if reevaluating me. Finally, he tells me, “Have a seat and I will let her know.”

Shortly after I have taken the offered seat, I watch as one of the other security force officers leaves. She sees me sitting there and nods in my direction and tells her receptionist, “Please send the captain in.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answers as he turns to me and tells me, “You may go in now sir.”

Once inside she has me take a seat across the desk from her. Once seated she asks, “Ok, Ball, what do you have for me that is so important you winded yourself flying across the base?”

It is then I realize I am still breathing a bit hard. I never had trouble flying that short a distance that fast before the incident with that NCR Colonel. I then pull out the letter from Double Loop and pass it to her with my wingtips.

She takes it and asks, “Ok, so what is the big deal?”

“Ma’am, I remember that conversation. Double Loop’s ancestors lived in Baltimare back then. One of them was working at the shipyards, but the other was working at a research depot that was there.”

“Ok, so what makes it so important to rush over here?”

“Ma’am, Sunset Water is also called Sunny Water, he is one of the team members of the Repair Ponies. The team that caused so much trouble for Air Burst team when I was attached to them.”

She sighs as she looks back down at the letter. Then she looks up and tells me, “Alright, I will pass this up the chain to let them know. But honestly, since this came in the mail, it may be too late to act on.”

This time I sigh before answering, “Sorry ma’am, I just wanted to get this information passed up the chain of command as quickly as possible.”

“Alright Ball, I will take care of this, and thanks.” She tells me as she smiles and I realize our talk is done. I get up and salute, which she returns, then I head back into the main terminal.

As I get to the main vendors' area, I see Savanna waving excitedly to me. As I begin to head that way, I see a couple of the other young ones further inside the store, but all are excited as well. Then I see my wife is in there already as well and I wonder what is going on.

I then walk to the shop and am very surprised to see my father off to the side of the shop with all the young ones sitting at his hooves as he tells one of his stories from when he was in service.

Before I can say anything Sundancer catches me and leads me outside and tells me, “He got sent down here to see if there was any technology we had that could be used for parts in Thunderhead.”

“Ok, that explains why he is dirtside, but…” I say as I hold out a hoof in their general direction.

She smiles and tells him, “Oh, that is because he asked about our family, because of how much we have mentioned them in our letters.”

This gets me to smile and I quietly ask, “So he is excepting of them?”

She nods her head, then she surprises me again as she tells me, “He let me know that the background check that goes with our request to adopt groundsiders has already occurred, and to be honest he says it seems like it is being fast-tracked.”

This surprises me as well. Then I ask, “Anything else I should know?”

She shakes her head, “Not really, other than Patchwork and Little Bit have asked to work with me at the VC station to try and get their cutie marks.”

I grin as she tells me this. I remember my days as a blank flank and how badly I could not wait to get one.

Soon I hear my father has ended his story and while the youngsters ask him for another, he tells them, “Ok later, now I have to go see your pa.”

When I hear this my eyebrow raises in surprise and I feel a bit of a smile slide across my face. Once he is close enough, we exchange a quick hug and I tell him, “What a pleasant surprise Dad.”

“Well, it was nice to be able to combine business with pleasure son.” He pauses and looks back at the youngsters as they begin to take care of some things around the shop. He then turns back to me, “They are good kids. You surprised me by becoming a father of such a large family son. But I am glad to see it. By the way, you have some friends in pretty high places. A certain very powerful mare said she was very glad to see this and approves of it as it helps to show we are here to help those ground-side, not just our own.”

This really surprises me, and I tell him so. He nods his head, then adds, “But son, if fully approved, it comes with a cost. We can’t support too many more ponies cloud-side, so you and your family will have to remain down here.”

I nod my head, “Yeah, I kind of figured that. But Dad, it is not so bad down here. Not once you get used to it.”

He laughs, “Yeah, I get it. I really do. Now, son, I think it is about time for supper and I hear the kids say they were starting to get hungry. What do you say we all go get something to eat.”

“Sounds good Dad.” I then call into the youngsters to finish up what they are doing so we can go eat. After they rush outside, we find our way to one of the little restaurants that have sprung up in the old terminal.

Once we are eating my father smiles and looks at all of us as we share our typical family dinner together and he tells me, “You are right son, they may not be blood, but they are family. You’ve made me proud son.”

*****

Good evening to all you wastelanders out there. This is KOLT and I am your host Analog bringing you all of the latest in news and music in the Baltimare listening range.

In the latest news, the Enclave troops have recently placed a corridor around the ruins of the Wartime Technology Hub in the old downtown region. While they still have not been able to gain entry to it, they are reported to be impressing those who approach or killing those who resist. So, I suggest avoiding the downtown area.

For those in the northern and western settlements, we have news of fighting with the Enclave forces. We are hearing reports that the local forces have been defending and attacking the invaders in small groups. Ponies, Griffons, and all people of Baltimare, we need to stand together on this. If we are going to keep our freedoms, we can’t keep fighting each other, we need to work with each other and coordinate our efforts. People, no one is coming to save us, we need to self-rescue.

Remember, we can’t expect help, but we can hope for it. With that in mind, our first song of the hour is We Don’t Need Another Hero.

Author's Note

It has been a while and I really would like to take the time to thank Kkat and all of the other authors who have added to the universe of Fallout Equestria. It has made it a joy to play in this world and to add my own spin to it.

This chapter was a lot of fun for me to write and it got me to do a lot of research on airborne drops. The sequence of orders and operations of the parachute jump was based on the US airborne drop procedures. Interestingly, while the US and most other nations step out of an aircraft and drop feet first, I felt it was more accurate to show the ponies and cattle to jump head first, as was done by the German Paratroopers during WW2. This is because of their body structure.

I also hope you will enjoy my version of Baltimare that is coming up. I have tried to give it a unique flavor that is based on how the residents there may have redeveloped their societys following the Last Day.

Finally, for those of you who would like to listen to this chapters dedication song, the YouTube link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI2RGEhKFnQ