“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.”

While Longbow and Skyline arranged to meet with the Steel Rangers, it was suggested that the rest of us take some time to relax. Predious had gotten all of our supplies, and was off doing his own thing. Gauge was supposed to be fixing up Tasteless and her augments. Though, I had this nagging feeling that she’d only end up back in that cell again once Gauge was done. Lastly, Ficha had gone off somewhere to gamble or play cards or something. Honestly, I could care less about his annoying ass.

While they all did that, I’d resolved to actually take the given advice and relax a bit.

“So Private Chalk, she put the snack cakes under Rammer’s helmet pads like we said.” Shadow chortled from between chews of his hay fries. “When she went to sleep, we swapped their helmets without telling her.”

Just picturing that, I let out a light laugh through my sip of sparkle cola. It drew a number of annoyed looks from the uptight residents who’d been eating here with us. Honestly, I didn’t care. I enjoyed myself and was happy to relax for a bit.

“Chalk didn’t even realize it until we were already running the drills.” Shadow hit the table with his hooves as he laughed heartily. “She ran the whole course with snack cake filling dripping down her cheeks like delicious tears.” He shook his head with a wide smile and sighed. “But hey, she still kicked our flanks with the fastest time. The damage had been done though, there was no way she’d ever lose the new nickname after that.”

“Oh?” I laughed and set my soda down with my own wide smile. “And what was it?”

“It was ‘Sweetcheeks’, of course.” Shadow said with a snerk. He tried to keep a straight face as he shoved a few more hay fries in his muzzle, but neither of us could contain ourselves. We both broke into hysterical fits of laughter at our table. From amidst my gasps, watched as an annoyed elderly couple got up from their table and left in a huff.

“You’re life in the clouds must have been pretty good.” I got out as I did my best to regain my composure.

“Yeah,” He nodded and laughed a little as he too straightened himself out. I watched as he nudged his wings back behind him, thinking how much trouble those must give him when he sits. “It wasn’t easy, but it was far from bad.” He shrugged and stopped when he looked at me. It was about that time that I realized that I was blushing like a filly.

“Well, thank you for telling me some stories.” I muttered out as my brain tried to get back on track.

“Yes!” He blurted out and looked around the room. He put his eyes anywhere but me, but he couldn’t hide his own blush. “I’m just glad I didn’t bore you with them.”

“D-don’t mention it. We’ve got some time to kill,” I found myself stuttering as I pushed my chair back. I looked down at the mostly empty Sparkle Cola bottle and figured it was worth leaving. “I thought I’d get to know you a bit better before we sailed right into hell.” I stepped away from the table and waited for him to do the same. Again, he fidgeted with his wings as he got back up. “Do you perhaps want some fresh air?”

“Do I ever.” His face lit up at the suggestion.

I paid for the meal with a few of the caps in my satchel and we left the restaurant. I swore I could have heard the sigh of relief that came from the other diners the second we shut the door. We strode down nearly empty the hallway, which was strange for midday. I didn’t have a second thought about it though. For once, there weren’t random ponies to bother us. Me. To bother me.

“So!” I blurted out without really thinking. I just needed to stop where my head had been going with that.

“Yes?” He asked with a smile. As we reached the doors to outside, he hoofed it open. We were immediately met with a cold blast of air. He unfurled his other wing and put it around me as we both walked out into the frigid air. He was just as warm as the other night, but I didn’t want to admit it. I looked up to him and my eyes jumped right to the scar that ran across his face.

“Buh…” I struggled to find the words. “If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get the scar?”

“Oh.” His expression died faster than a raider with a faulty grenade. He pulled his wings back against himself with a sigh and walked down the steps to the snow. “It happened just after training. I was on a forward recon mission looking for a place we could salvage some materials for the shipyards.”

I could tell that this was going to be a pretty uncomfortable topic for him. I walked down the steps and up next to him. He had a thousand yard stare into the tents of refugees surrounding the tower, but he didn’t even register it.

“We found what we thought was an abandoned settlement. Three shacks built in the midst of a collapsed power facility.” He shook his head slowly. “The three of my team took the other two shacks, and I was given the smallest one to check for myself.” He sat down with a heavy thump in the snow and continued. “When I opened the door, I found a blood soaked filly standing there with a knife. Her parents were dead by the door. Somepony else had shot them up. She looked so afraid of me, and she was all alone.”

“Everyone back at base thinks it’s funny how scary our helmets must look to you grounders.” He looked down to the snow. “I took mine off. She was innocent and needed to know I wasn’t some monster there to kill her. I took a few steps in and tried to calm her down.” He paused and quivered. “Then Tesla and Rammer came over from their shack.” He looked up to me and sniffled as he grew teary eyed. “She was just scared.” He whimpered and turned to face me. He traced along the X shaped scar with his hoof. “She came at me with the knife. She was so weak she didn’t cut deep. But Rammer shot her anyway.” His gaze slowly fell back to the snow.

“Oh. I see.” I said with a remorseful whisper. For a moment, my mind shoved the image of the frozen filly into my mind before it was muted by the rest of my thoughts. I’d never used to care about death in the wastes, but there’s been so much of it recently.

“I nearly beat Rammer to death for that.” He let out a forced laugh and a smirk that lasted for only a second. “You know what’s funny? I got demoted for that beating.” He scuffed at the snow with his hoof. “The only thing that Rammer got was a stern talking to about how she shouldn’t waste ammo on targets like that. She was told to just use the tail blade next time.” He looked back at me with angry eyes. “They didn’t even care that an innocent pony was dead because of her.”

I couldn’t even say anything at that point. What could I have said? With all the bad shots I’ve taken, and even a few that I hesitated with, I’ve gotten plenty of innocent ponies killed over the years. The thing was, I knew that it was my fault each and every time. I mean, I feel it every time I look at Skyline now. With nothing to say, I simply reached forward and hugged him. Not a move I’d normally take with somepony I barely know, but I was okay with the risk.

“I think that was the first time I'd ever realized that the Enclave was wrong. About anything at all, even.” Shadow spoke up as he pressed against me. “You don't understand what it's like up there. Yeah, it's peaceful, but everypony lives in ignorance. Half of the civilian population thinks that the ground is completely uninhabitable. The other half know it's fine, but want nothing to do outside of the lives they've already made.”

“To be honest,” I spoke up. “I think it’s a good thing that they don’t come down.”

“What?” Shadow pulled away from me. He looked somewhere between insulted and horrified at the thought.

“If what you say is true, what do you think would happen if they opened the clouds tomorrow?” I sighed and had to be realistic with him. “How many would come down to help, and only meet somepony who would faster shoot them for what little they had rather than cooperate?” I gave him the most sincere look I could as he processed that. “While they could help, I don’t think either side is prepared to work with each other.” I gave him a weak smile, which he didn’t return. “Not until there are more ponies up there that think like you at least.”

“Yeah, that may be true.” He sighed and wiped the tears from his cheeks. “But if they did clear the sky tomorrow, at least they could see that what the government says is wrong.” He stood back up and placed his hoof on my shoulder. “If only they knew that ponies like you were down here, there might be hope for cooperation.”

“How could you could say that?” I didn’t understand what he saw in me, but as he moved his hoof from my shoulder up to my chin, I knew where he was going. “Even with everything I’ve done, all the ponies lives my actions have destroyed?” I reached up and curled my hoof around his leg. I kept my eyes anywhere but him again, trying to find somepony to get him distracted with. “Think of what we’re waiting on right this second. I mean…”

Not looking at him also had it’s downsides.

He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. It was so abrupt that it made the fur around my mane stand on end. I don’t like getting intimate when I’m not in the mood, never have. If any stallion had ever wanted to touch me in that way, I ensured they’d never have foals of their own again. Shadow’s touch was different though, he was a friend, and my brain was all sorts of confused about what reaction to have.

“Look, I understand that you want to be friends. I get that.” He said as he took a step back. I’d hoped it was more the idea he knew I needed space, and less the fear that I might rip his balls off. Among the only working parts on me at the moment were my ears and a whole mess of nerves that I didn’t want to even think about in my nethers. “Like you said,” he continued, “What we’re going up against means we might not come back from this. If that’s true, I can at least have that kiss to hold on to.”

“I, uhmm.” My brain was still frantically working to let me control my muzzle again. It was a miracle that my legs were still working with how much like jelly they felt like. That kiss must have knocked something loose in my head, because I’ve never felt this way in my life. “You see,” I couldn’t form a clear line of thought as I just blinked and stared at him. “I just…”

“A minute.” He gave me a soft smile and a heavy blush of his own. He unfurled his wings and stretched them out. “Yeah, I figured as much. I’m going to take a short flight to get some blood back into these babies.” He flexed his wings a bit as he took a step back with a short nod. “I’ll… be back in a few.”

He kicked off the ground with all fours and pumped his wings. With a short flurry of snow, he shot up into the air and took off around the tower. I was left amidst the hustle and bustle of the refugees to fill the unnaturally lonely feeling I’d been left with. Without much thought, I carried myself over to the tower steps and plopped my rump down on it. My heart had finally calmed down in my chest, and I could finally start to understand what had just happened. Still in a daze, I reached into my saddlebags and dug around. I really needed a smoke.

“Howdy there cuz!” Harmony’s voice was jarring as she stood right behind me. With a yelp and a short jump, I found myself just as flustered as a few moments ago. “So, he seems like a odd, but nice feller.” She took a few steps down and sat alongside me with a wide grin. I’d prayed to Celestia that she hadn’t just seen that. Then again, I’m never that lucky.

“Yeah.” I grumbled, not able to find my cigarettes. “Dammit, where are my smokes?”

“Ah, yeah. Ah distinctly recalled that yah cyberghoul had a pack that looked an awful lot like tha brand yer always totin’ around.” She smiled as she reached back into her saddlebags. From out of her pack she pulled a new pack of my favorite brand. “So, How’d mom take tha news?”

“About as well as expected.” I sighed as Harmony shuffled the pack open and popped one of the sticks into my mouth. I brought my lighter out of my satchel in my hoof and flicked it open. With a crisp crackle and a deep breath, I felt I could finally relax. “On the downside, she looked worse than I’d ever seen her with the news. Especially when I told her about who I really am.”

“Oh, no.” Harmony groaned and facehooved. “She didn’t hurt ya, did she? I’d heard y’all were in the clinic, but Ah never thought she might add a few injuries on top of what yah’d been through.”

“Well, she held her gun to me, but the fact that she didn’t shoot me was about the only bright side to our conversation.” I said before I took another long drag off my smoke. The more I thought about it, the more Harmony’s family just puzzled me. “Anyway, she’s getting in contact with the rangers now. We’ll know if they can get us what we need shortly.”

“Actually,” Predious spoke up from right behind the two of us. I would have enjoyed how much it had startled Harmony if I hadn’t joined her with my own jump.

“Why does everypony have to sneak up on me!” I shouted. In my rage, I accidentally spit my cigarette out. Fortunately for me, Harmony was quick with her hoof and gave it a soft kick. As it flew back toward me, I caught it on the edge of my pipbuck and let out a soft sigh of relief. I need this smoke, and I’d have beaten predious over the head had I lost it. “Seriously, any warning at all would be nice.” I huffed out before I leaned forward and put my smoke back in my muzzle.

“Sorry.” He rolled his eyes and his hoof impatiently. “I was told that Harmony’s mother just got off the radio with the Rangers. As it turns out, they’ll let us use the boat. But we must be at Friendship city tomorrow morning for pick up.”

“Tomorrow?” I sighed. Just another notch in the column of today’s bad news. “We’re already behind that asshole. Losing almost another whole day might get us there too late.” There had to be some other way!

“Finding another boat that could potentially make the trip might take days.” Predious shot back with his annoying, but sound logic. “It’s better to wait for the sure thing than to risk ourselves on a fraction of a chance.” Seriously, I hated when he was right like this. “Besides, another good night of rest might actually mean you’ll be strong enough to win against him.”

“Have I ever told you how much of an annoyance you can be?” I grumbled and got to my hooves. “But you’re right. Rest would be best for all of us.” I looked up to the sky and looked around for Shadow. Between the grey and black skies against grey and black ruins, I couldn’t see anything worthwhile out there. “I assume you’ve also arranged for us to stay somewhere?”

“Oh, right!” Harmony chimed in. “Y’all can stay with us. We’ve got an apartment in this place that we hardly ever use, yah know, seein as we’re so close ta home.” She smiled and walked up the steps. “It ain’t much, but I’ll reckon it’s a mite bit better than sleepin’ in one a them tents.”

“That is quite kind of you, miss Harmony.” Predious smiled and gave an overly courteous bow. Sometimes I forget that he’s a ghoul from the old world, but he has no right to act like a pompous ass like that around us. Like he could read my mind, he’d shot his glance over to me. What a fucking asshole.

“Come on, ah’ll show y’all where it is.” She nudged her head to the door as she reached it. The two of us followed her as she went in. Immediately, she made a left turn and opened another door that sat just inside the entrance. It lead to a stairwell I’d never even known existed that only ran up to the next floor. Once there, she opened the door right into the second story hallway of apartments. “Skyline taught meh a few of tha shortcuts through tha tower.” She chuckled as she walked to the first door outside of the stairwell and reached back into her bag. “Comes in handy when ah’m in a hurry.”

She fished out a set of keys and held them in her fetlock. With a jingle, she found the right one and hoofed it into her muzzle. She slid the key in and turned the lock. It gave a crisp click before she wrapped her hoof around the doorknob. As she opened the door, the musty stench of stale air bled out into the hall. It was enough to even make Predious blink in surprise.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since we used it, but ‘taint nothin but a bit a dust anyhow.” Harmony cheerfully said as she strode in. The interior wasn’t bad at all for as musty as it smelled out in the hall. The living room had a couple of barely moldy couches, a pair of plush chairs, and a small kitchen tucked off the side. Just from the entryway hall was a small bathroom, along with a pair of bedrooms. “Storm? Y’all can can use the guest bed, seein as it ain’t that big and yah still gotta recover a bit.”

She pointed into the first bedroom that still almost held it’s whole floral theme. Aside from the fact that the plush seat in here had a rusty spring jutting out from the cushion, and a rusty workdesk in the corner, it was almost homey. I nodded to Harmony and peeled off into the room. The bed wasn’t a big one, but it would do. I climbed up onto it and stomped around a bit. A small cloud of dust rose around me and sent me into a sneezing fit. All the quick tenses made my side and legs spike in pain. Without wanting to, I fell over onto my side onto the bedspread.

“Ow.” I groaned out.

“Y’all alright in there?” Harmony called out from out in the hall.

“Yeah, just getting comfy.” I said. Might as well get used to it, seeing as we were stuck here until dawn tomorrow. I shifted myself a few times on the lumpy mattress before I finally found a section that didn’t press against any of the healing areas on my ribs. With a hesitant sigh, I brought my pipbuck up and switched on the radio. Who knows, maybe the wasteland news will be on and I can beat my head against my pillow in my depression until I fall asleep.

For once, it wasn’t the news. It was a song I hadn’t heard much in my time listening to the radio. It’s slow beat was accompanied by the voice of a mare, or at least what I assumed was a mare. It was hard to tell, as the lyrics were talking about another mare. Honestly, I didn’t care as I just relaxed and listened to it. I hadn’t taken notice that my eyelids had shut, and before I’d knew it, I was sound asleep on the bed.

“Goooooood morning, wasteland!”

The jarring voice ripped me from the sound sleep I’d been in. I fumbled with my tired hooves and clicked the radio off. As I roused myself back to the world around me, a spike of dull pain shot through my side. Turns out that for as comfy as it was, my ribs still disagreed with the lumps in the old mattress. I let out a particularly long yawn as I stretched myself out. I don’t know how long I’d napped, but I was glad to not have any wild dreams in it this time. As my brain finally woke up, I thought to check the pipbuck to see what time it was.

5:16AM

“Shit.” I’d never admit to being the most gracefull morning pony out there, but I didn’t think I’d nap through the whole damned night. As quickly as I could coordinate, I slipped myself off the bed and opened the door to the rest of the apartment. As I stepped out, I bumped muzzle first right into Predious.

“Oh good, you’re up.” He remarked as he simply pushed past me. “There’s still breakfast on the table, if you’re hungry that is.” He opened the door with his magic and shot a look back at me. “The others are already downstairs, but I suggest you do eat. Who know’s what we’ll find on that island.” With that, he continued through and shut the door on me. I hated how he always wanted the last word on something.

Whatever. He made a good point about eating, and I do feel hungry. A few hay fries and most of a sparkle cola had been all I’d had since this time yesterday. I trotted over into the kitchen section to find a still warm pot of boiled oats sitting in the center of the table. I served myself up a bit of the mush into a bowl and practically drank it down. From the other bedroom, there was a soft giggle before the door opened.

“Oh, Storm. You’re still here.” Short Staff said abruptly before he closed the door behind him in his magic. A bit of oatmeal dripped down my muzzle as I turned to look at him. He wore a heavy blush and pressed back against the door behind him. “I was just… rather... “ He paused and scrunched up his muzzle. The thought that I looked that stunned yesterday made me want to kick myself. “Toaster repair, for a friend.” He spat out too hastily. “Came out to get the spatula.”

“It’s fine, I was just leaving.” I shrugged and set the empty bowl down onto the table. Not that I would have liked to stay otherwise, this place had just become a bit too weird. Even for how fucked up my life had gotten recently. I trotted back down the hallway and got out of that apartment as fast as I could.

Once I’d made my way to the stairs, I relaxed a bit. I couldn’t worry about other shit now. Break time was over, and it was finally time to get back after the only pony who matters in the wastes anymore. Reaching the lobby floor, I’d pushed the door open and run straight into Shadow.

“Oh! There you are!” He yipped as my nose squeaked against his flank armor. He turned around and put his hoof on my shoulder. “You doing alright there?”

“Yeah, but I seem to be having a real problem not sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.” I remarked as I rubbed my muzzle. I’ve run into enough trouble in the last month that physically running into things was about all I had left to inconvenience me. From behind Shadow, poked two muzzles. Both Gauge and Tasteless were on the other side of him just standing around. Something seemed a bit off with them though as they were standing rather close to eachother. I raised my eyebrow at Tasteless. “I’m surprised you aren’t in lockup again.” I gave her a frown. “And here I thought my friendship was based on my breaking you out of somewhere.”

“If you wanted, I could always kill somepony.” She shrugged and looked over to get support from Gauge. Unfortunately, Gauge still had some semblance of equinity in her and she looked disgusted by the proposition. Tasteless sighed. “Or I could just sit here and not cause problems I guess.” She glanced over at me again. “But you know, whatever is more fun for you, I’m up for.”

“What I want to do is find the others,” I really just wanted to get going. Friendship city would be a bit of a walk, and I wanted to do it while it was still dark. Even though they weren’t tough to fight, all the armor in the world couldn’t save anypony from a lucky shot. That or another high explosive rocket.

“Outside.” Gauge said simply as she pointed her hoof the other was down the hall from us. I looked and saw Longbow standing outside the entrance to the tower, talking with Fruit Cup and Frosty. “She wanted to talk with my parents about coming with us.”

“What?” I asked before I looked back to her. This would be a hell of a task, and we didn’t even know what we’d find on the other side of that tempest. Could I really risk having even more ponies dying on account of me not objecting. “Why do we need more ponies?”

“Because they are both mechanical geniuses.” Gauge said as if she were insulted. She waved her cyber hoof in my face. “You see, if whatever is inside that storm is pony made, the Rangers need a way to identify if it’s controllable or not. That’s what we do.”

“That may be what they do, but that wasn’t our agreement.” I snorted. “Don’t you think you should be getting back to your brother soon?”

“Fuck that!” Gauge spat at me. “You can’t just tell me you’re going somewhere like this and just expect me to stay behind.” She huffed and trotted around us. “Seriously, what the hell else would I do with myself. Fight those zombie things?” She yelled back as she headed toward her parent’s. “Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Well, I’ll give her one thing.” Tasteless chortled under her breath. “She pisses you off. That’s a win in my book, so I say keep her around.”

“You don’t get a say, but thanks for the vote.” I shot back at her. I did my best to give her my annoyed look, but she only seemed to enjoy my anger more. I gave up. “You know what? Let’s just get going.” I rolled my eyes and turned toward the doors leading outside.

As we trotted down the hall to the doors, I couldn’t help but think we were taking too many with us. Without knowing what we’ll run into, it could either be imperative that they all came. Or, it could be a complete disaster, and instead I’d get them all killed. What choice did we have? I guess throwing everything we had at the necromancer was our only real choice regardless of what I thought.

“Ah, there you are, Storm.” Longbow smiled weakly as I pushed through the door. She looked more tired and weary than I’d ever seen her. Her eyes were the most out of place, almost looking right through me. “As I was just telling Frosty and Fruit. There is a prerequisite to this favor.”

“They do understand what’s at stake here, right?” I grumbled. Really, if I had to march someplace else in the wasteland on some stupid job, I think I’d just lose it and murder every stupid steel ranger in that base. I watched as Longbow simply nodded.

“When you get to wherever it ends up being, the rangers simply ask that some of them accompany you.” She gave a short nod to the others. “Frosty, Fruit, Gauge, and their son Diesel will accompany you, as well as a pair of paladins for good measure.” As she said her name, Gauge gave a light squee through her closed muzzle.

“Great, foalsitters.” Tasteless muttered under her breath.

“As much as you think that, the rangers don’t mess around.” Longbow said sternly and shot a glare at the cyberghoul. After a moment, she returned a softer gaze to me. “Look, I’ve seen some bad prewar places, and this place will more than likely be worse.” She reached over and put both her hooves on my shoulders, staring directly at me. “Know this. Don’t touch anything you don’t have to, and get out of their as fast as you all can. Pre-war places like this tend to destroy themselves rather than be revealed.”

“I don’t plan on staying for long.” I tried to reassure her, but something told me that she didn’t seem to buy it. “Only as long as it takes to kill that asshole.” I brushed her hold on me off. “Thank you, for all your help.”

“You’re welcome.” She said before she stepped up and gave me a surprising hug. “Keep my daughter safe.” They whispered into my ear.

“I’ll do my best.” I whispered back before I gave her a pat on the back. “Now if you’ll excuse us all, we have a boat to catch.”