“Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow.”

Without her helmet on, the subtle annoyed twitching of Hail’s eyes stood out in the silent air of the tent. Sure, we had to condense down the events since Filius first showed up, but I could tell that trying to process it all was harder than she’d thought it would be. After a moment, she relaxed in her sleek black power armor.

“Of course you lot would have a story like that.” Hail sighed and facehoofed. “Even if I believed in your supposed element, and a thousand year old madpony” She shot a harsh glance at me. “I’m sure as hell not going to believe that Iron has been ‘mind controlled’ into her actions.”

“Oh, that’s because she hasn’t.” Gallant laughed. “Filius is merely using her to…”

“I’ve heard enough.” Hail grunted and cut him off. The stern look that took over Gallant’s face betrayed the rage behind his eyes.

“A foal acting as insolent to their superiors would have been banished by the princesses back in my time.” He snorted and crossed his forehooves in a way that itself seemed like a foal angry at their parents.

“Look, princess, I’m with the Ministry of Awesome. I operate on direct behalf of the late Princess Luna.” She snapped back at him before facehoofing hard and letting out a long sigh. “Damnit. Me and my big mouth.”

“Hate to tell you, but the MoA is defunct.” Shadow said, taking a step back from her. I honestly had no idea why she’d have claimed to work for Aunt Dashy’s ministry, but it’s such an incredible lie if it is one, that I’m not so sure she would have said it in the first place if it wasn’t true.

“Since the end of the war, we've been operating at the highest levels of discretion. My last training task assigned me to a low level observational job on Iron Cross. My supervisors didn't want her wasting valuable Enclave resources the way her mother did looking for Mrs. Longbow here.” Hail’s expression went flat as she spoke, casting her gaze over to Longbow as she spoke. “Yes, we know who you are. No, we don’t care what you did. Honestly, I'm not sure how Iron could have missed it.”

“So if you’ve been keeping tabs on her, than why the fuck haven't you done anything?” Shadow snorted, grinding his hoof against the muddy floor of the tent. “She tried to kill me, she murdered an entire settlement!”

“It's called protocol.” The emphasis she put on that matched the frustration that we all had begun to feel about Iron in general. “I wasn't advised to do anything until she moved over the Baltimare ruins. The brass at the top have activated me and the other MoA officer on board to find out what she’s planning to do, then to sabotage the ship to force it cloudside so it can be retaken.” She looked over to Shadow with a grumble. “Something you almost mucked up with your little stunt.”

“She’s been hired by Filius to keep us from getting into the city.” I stated flatly. “Look, I don’t care what you have to do, but we need her up above the clouds as much as you do. If you can’t do it, then you’re going to tell us how we can.”

She raised her power armored hoof to me with a small smirk. “Don’t get your britches in a bunch. Working with anypony outside of enclave authorization for monetary gain is good enough.” Pulling her hoof up to her muzzle, she pressed a button on her armor with her nose. “Hope you don’t mind that I recorded our conversation, but it gives the operational authority of the situation. Within the next ten minutes, the Lenticular won’t be a worry to you or the enclave any further.”

“What does that mean?” Longbow used a surprisingly harsh tone as she spoke up.

Hail gave a razor sharp glare at Longbow. “A raptor has been compromised by a rogue crew. Standard procedure is to Sterilize the ship of it’s crew.” She raised her voice as she continued, cutting off Longbow before she could interrupt. “Further more, the entire crew of the Lenticular has been trained to expect this outcome should they fail to inform the Enclave, or refuse the orders of the rogue captain. Seeing as no pony outside of myself and the other MoA operative have come forward to Enclave command, all crew are to be treated as a hostile force.”

“That is fair.” Maple spoke up, sitting down and putting his hoof on the table. “Harsh, but fair.” Looking over to Longbow, he waited until her expression softened to speak again. “However, I need to know, how do you intend to get the raptor above the clouds?”

“With the override authority that you all have given me through your testimony.” She lifted up her hoof again, flipping open a small cover to what looked like a pipbuck screen. “As an MoA agent, I’ve been given override access to the main spell reactor. With a few quick clicks, operation party popper will begin. Just have to pull the string...”

“Are you insane? Without both cloud generators, the storm will dissipate both it’s clouds in seconds and the whole ship will fall!” Shadow blurted out as she continued to hit buttons on her foreleg. A quick chirp from her armor pre-empted shadow tearing open the tent flap and dashing outside. A few of us followed as another chirp came from Hail.

Stepping outside, the enclave skyship hung in the air like it had when we’d arrived. However, the few lights that I could make out along its hull flickered and went out all at once. Then, the front and back of it started to glow. Eight spikes of flame shot out from the bottom of the V shaped hull, a deafening crackle boomed across the night sky as the jets of fire forced the darkness back. I watched in awe, as slowly, the massive ship started to move up. Higher it rose as the roaring jets pouring out of it licked at the swirling stormclouds above the city. Like the sun, it disappeared into the cloud layer, leaving only a bright glow in it’s place as we all sat unsure of what we’d just witnessed.

“You should be glad that you are listed as Dead.” Hail remarked calmly as she trotted out next to Shadow. “Few are told about the below cloud emergency systems, one of the enclave’s closest guarded secrets.”

“It must not be easy to keep emergency retro rockets that large a secret on a ship like that.” Maple spoke up, his eyes still stuck skyward.”

“No. However, most of their components are built into inaccessible areas of the ship, sealed from all maintenance when outside of a skydock.” Hail sounded more relaxed than she had been a few minutes ago, and for once, so did I. Iron was finally out of our way. “Initially thought up after the loss eighty years ago of the Cirrostratus due to reactor failure, most of our cloudships were retrofit with this one time use emergency system.”

“One time use?” Gauge snorted. “Isn’t that a little short sighted for an ‘emergency system’?”

“The engines are unique, using a special alchemical blend of fuel that the Enclave had… liberated from an abandoned zebra missile production facility.” She shrugged. “I could go on and on all day about the things that we’re not allowed to tell enclave citizens. It feels so… good to finally be able to tell somepony all these things. There’s so many secrets up there, sometimes it’s hard to believe that anything could be what it seems.”

“I would like to point out…” Predious spoke up from the tent behind us. “that with the sky clear, this would be an excellent time to infiltrate the city.” There he goes again, being all smart and on point like he usually is.

“Right. No time to dilly-dally.” Maple nodded. “Longbow, you and Mr. Cheap Shot head on over to requisitions and get anything you need. I’ll meet you two at the infiltration point. We’re team one, and we’ll be hitting the spruce boulevard bank, and the Mareiott grand hotel across from it.”

“Storm?” He looked over to me as he trotted back up to the map. “You, Mr. Predious here, and Mr. Shadow head down to the closest target. The Horseshoe casino on Sprout and 8th street. Place the targeting talisman down, get out, and call in the strike.”

“Guys?” Shadow called from outside. I did my best to ignore him for the moment. I needed to make sure I knew what streets where were near our target building, I didn’t want to blow up the wrong one and sink our entire attempt.

“Shit.” Hail chimed in now too. Her voice had even got Maple to stop talking. “She evacuated the ship.” Hail hissed. “I can’t let her get away!”

Peeking out from the edge of the tent, I stared up again into the stormy sky. Little dots punched through the clouds, streaking down like little missiles toward the city. Even from this far, the high pitched whine of the vehicles archano-tech engines was barely audible. Dozens of Virtibucks and Skytanks

“I have an idea!” Shadow looked over to her and spread his wings. “Follow me!” Before I could say anything, both Shadow and Hail jumped and took flight. They zipped up into the sky at an alarming speed, and were almost out of sight in ten seconds flat. With Shadow, went my feelings that this mission was going to work out alright.

“Shit, Longbow…” Maple started up. Longbow was already out of the tent by the time he’d even turned to see her run by him.

“I’m on it!” She shouted, charging down the hill and towards what looked like a field of telephone poles set up at the far end of the camp.

“Gauge,” Maple continued, pointing his hoof at the third and furthest street from us. “You, Mr. Ficha, and your mother will be headed to the Solaris Inc energy building.” He waited until she nodded before shooting his hoof over to Gallant, who raised his eyebrow as he did. “You are to stay here with Cottage and listen in on the radio. You’re the strategist here, you need to direct the main assault on how to keep them busy while we set this all up.”

“Elder, I must request that I go with Mrs. Longbow in your stead.” Cottage stiffened up, throwing up a salute to Maple. “You are too much of an asset to risk sending out.”

“Cottage? If I’m going to lead my family into this fight, it’s going to be from the front lines.” Maple smiled and put his hoof onto his shoulder. “You are a Star Paladin of the Manehatten Rangers. One day, you will be the elder, and you too will know what you’ll have to do for your family.”

“But sir…” He tried to reply, only to be cut off.

“That’s an order, Cottage.” He snapped, losing his genuine and calm demeanor. “The rest of you, get loaded up and get moving. This might be our only window.”

“Come on, Pred.” I turned around with a smile on my muzzle. “Let’s go get us some bullets.” For once, things were starting off on our terms. Sure, Iron was still going to be a problem, but without that ship to protect her, we had a chance at pulling this whole operation off.

As I trotted toward the old water treatment access outside of camp, I realized how good it felt good to be armed to the teeth again. I’d grabbed plenty of rounds for my rifle and my revolver, enough to be sure that I won’t suffer any shortages guaranteed. Pred on the other hoof, was an indecisive bastard when it came to weapons. He had at least had the foresight to agree not to bring his beloved minigun. The problem is he stood around the whole time debating which weapon to requisition for the fight. I of course ignored him and got my shit together because we were on a time limit.

A thunderous boom emanated from the back half of the camp. The multiple field artillery guns went off in sequence. Each shot screamed overhead and toward the city, flashing and lighting up the sky around the few dozen aerial crafts zipping about. No hits were scored, but by the time I’d thought that, another series of booms cracked out across the sky, and the second barrage was away.

“So it begins.” I muttered as I finally reached the small group of ponies that had gathered around the bunker-esc door to the water treatment plant. Most of them were clothed in simple robes, with various weapons strapped to them. Few of them were wearing power armor, at least less than I’d hoped would be. At the groups head, stood Longbow and Elder Maple, who caught my attention as I approached.

“Where’s Predious?” Longbow snorted. “Our window of opportunity is closing fast. I’ve already sent Frosty’s team ahead with Jack knife.” She didn’t sound happy at the prospect of them going off, but then again, I don’t think a single pony here liked our odds. “Once you and Predious reach the target and knock it out, you are to fall back into the tunnels and regroup at maintainance junction 73. The team I send will bring medical supplies and ammunition. Once they arrive, I want all available teams to hold that entrance. Above and below, is that clear?”

“Storm,” Elder Maple began. “Because your third team member is otherwise occupied, I’m assigning a group of acolytes to you.” He pointed to three robed mares who stood off to the side. “Kiwi Tart, Sweet Salsa, and Cinnamon Chips. You are to escort Storm and Predious to the target zone.”

“Yes sir!” The young and energetic earth pony mare in front of him bounced and saluted with her hoof. “We won’t let you...!” She was cut off by another barrage going out from the artillery. I was becoming concerned that even with us firing at them, they hadn’t fired back at us. What was it that Filius and Iron were up to?

“Kiwi, save that energy for the fight.” Maple said with a calm tone too good for a situation as dire as the one we were in. He paused for a moment as rapid hoofsteps thumped through the snowy ground behind us. “Nice of you to join us, Predious.”

Turning around, I looked back to find an odd sight. Predious nearly dragged his hooves through the snow as he trotted so slow he could almost be walking. The large, olive drab combat helmet that he wore was tipped back, sitting on top of his horn out of place. He panted heavily as the large green box strapped onto the heavy combat armor he wore swayed with him. The large antenna that flopped back and forth out of it might as well have had a big flag with a target painted on it.

“A radio?” I closed my eyes with a disappointed sigh. “All the choices of weapons, and you bring a radio.”

“Heh.” He choked out a forced laugh around his heavy panting. “We’ll see who’s… laughing when… we need fire… support.”

“We had three acolytes assigned to us.” I pointed my hoof over towards the three young mares. “I’m sure one of them have a radio.”

“I do!” The Yellow mare with a spiky red mane called out.

“See, she does.” I turned back to Elder Maple. “We don’t have time to change up again, we need to strike.”

“I agree.” The elder nodded and levitated his helmet on. It encased around his entire head with a hiss, and as it did, Longbow brought her helmet up as well. “To all combat units. This is it. It’s time to take back Baltimare!”

A rousing shout echoed through the night. A cheer of confidence shared by all who had given up their regular lives to fight here. We had all unified for this, the victory that was to be won would be ours to share and ours alone. Nopony in the wasteland could take this fight from us, and these ponies were about to show them how hard it would be to try.

“Are you ready?” Cheap Shot appeared at my side, wearing nothing but a white shirt, a vest that nearly matched mine, and a holster with an old zebra 9mm pistol in it. Still, I wore the vest better.

I gave him a short nod, and we walked forward, piling into the dark tunnels. Again, I was headed off into a maze of tunnels, as if I hadn’t already seen enough of them in my lifetime. Still, it was enemy territory, and there was no turning back anymore.

The heavy stench of sewage was more pungent than anything I’d ever smelled. At the very least, my nose went scent blind after a few minutes. However, annoyingly, I bet this smell would cling to my coat for weeks to come. Still, it could be worse I guess. I ran through a mental checklist in my head again.

Do I have my guns?

I looked down over myself as we traversed the long passageway that lead alongside the dark and churning sewer waters in the tunnel. My rifle hung heavy at my side, and my revolver was still snugly in it’s holster. Lastly, the small gem in my satchel pulsed with an energy I could feel in my soul, as if to respond to my question. So I can check that off.

Do I have my friends?

Looking back over my shoulder, Predious wore a wavering smile. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was afraid, or if he didn’t like the tunnels, or if he was just tired of lugging that giant early model field radio around with him. Honestly, it could have been all three and I wouldn’t have blamed him.

Turning my gaze forward again, I hoped beyond hope that Shadow would come hovering up to us from up ahead. I don’t know what kind of plan he’d had when he ran off with that enclave tart. No, not tart. She’s not trying to steal him from you, Storm. Shadow loves you.

“He really does, doesn’t he.” I let out a sigh as I thought about that.

“Hmm?” Cheap Shot glanced back at me. “Ya say somethin’?”

“No, sorry.” I winced, making him cock an eyebrow and offer an uncertain smile before he turned back around. Friend’s, check.

“We’re coming up onto the shit shed.” Cheap Shot whispered, keeping his voice down. I’m not sure why, because the heavy hooves of all of us trotting along wasn’t exactly subtle. “That’s our common meeting place down here. I set us to meet up with the others to tell them how to get the tunnel side defences ready.”

“Why did you name it the shit shed?” Kiwi, the brown mare with the flowing bowl cut green mane almost pushed her way past Pred to ask.

“If you had to patrol down here all day, would you investigate a room with the words ‘shit shed’ on it?” He bluntly whispered back. Okay, I’ll give him points for ingenuity, but he could have just slapped a ‘Caution: Hazardous Chemicals’ sign on the door and been fine.

With a quick glance around, he slowed to a crawl. There was a sharp corner ahead that split the sewer off into a T shape. Carefully, he dipped his head out, glancing around the corner. Slowly, he pulled his head back and looked over at me.

“It’s clear.” He nodded, slipping deftly around the corner.

As we all followed him down the path, a muffled shriek came from far above us. A heavy whump shook the ground, and a line of dust trailed off the ceiling down into the viscous sludge next to us. The quick taps and other muffled explosions spoke volumes about what was happening in the city now. Our fighters had already made it to the city, and were fighting their way in.

“Alright,” Cheap Shot spoke at a whisper. He stopped us in front of a rusted steel door that reminded me of the bulkheads in the Nautilus. Carefully, he put his hooves on the small locking lever and twisted it. Unlike on the Nautilus, this door opened so quietly, that I’d have missed it had I not been staring at it.

The second the door had peeked open, a soft light emanated from inside. The form of a pony moved to look through the inside of the opening door, and even at a glance, her reaction to take a step back told me who it was. Mora’s ashamed look to hold as she stepped back, turning her eyes to the ground sadly as Cheap entered the room.

I was quick to follow, looking in to find what amounted to a small one bedroom house. Sure, the bedroom was the maintenance closet, but the three stacked mattresses called out to me longingly. There was a small kitchenette set up in the far corner, with a few couches and folding stools along the walls. All of it pulled my attention to the old billiards table with a familiar face sitting and playing solitaire at it. The bright pink puff she gave off when she turned around was disconcerting, but the smile she wore was a nice change since the prison.

“So, the miracle mare makes her return.” She snorted, sending another quick burst of pink cloud out. “Delightful to see you again.” The moment Pred and the ranger gang piled in behind me however, wiped that smile off her decaying muzzle. “Oh, and you brought the riff raff with you.”

“Now now, Mrs. Whinnyston, we all have to play nice for the moment.” Mora spoke up, rousing a sigh and a roll of the eyes from the old ghoul. With a quick glance back, Mora went wide eyed and looked back down at the floor again. I wanted to apologize for her loss. It can’t have been easy to lose her sister like that and just be forced to move on so fast.

“So then!” Cheap Shot clapped his hooves together and rubbed them. “The plan is, we hold the area around da arena, so I’mma need the both a ya ta take out any tunnels dat link up with em’. Got it?”

“I hope you grasp just how many tunnels you are implying we collapse.” Mrs. Whinnyston said as she raised a cigarette up to her lips. She took a long, wheezing drag from it. It was entrancing to watch as she opened her muzzle and blew a striped ring of pink and white out. “Two dozen tunnels isn’t going to be like an afternoon stroll through canterlot central park, you know.”

“Yeah, but the Steel Rangers’ll give ya more then enough boom ta do the job with.” Cheap smiled and paused for a moment. Another loud whistling came in from overhead, and another blast rocked the city streets above us. “Ya know, if they don’t bring em’ down themselves first dat is…”

“Corporal Kiwi,” The Yellow acolyte behind us spoke up. I turned around and watched as she nodded with her hoof to her ear before she pulled the headset she wore away from her red spiky mane. “Initial assault teams are in place. They’re digging in for the long fight now.”

“Thank you, Salsa.” The green mare nodded and looked over to me, fluttering her robes a bit. As she did, I noticed she was wearing something under them. I didn’t get a good look, but I’d hoped it was a battle saddle, and that the others had them under their robes as well. “If it were alright with you, ma’am, we should probably get moving.”

“You two,” Cheap said, pointing at Mora and Mrs. Whinnyston, “Get those tunnels down.” With a smile, he turned back to me and canted his head to the door. “All ready ta go, boss?”

“Just… I want a moment.” I stammered, looking over at Mora. “I’ll catch up.” I smiled up to him, only to have him shrug and head for the door. “And don’t call me boss.” He smirked and trotted out. Quickly, Kiwi and the other acolytes left as well, only leaving Pred standing there and staring at me. “Alone, please?” I asked him as nicely as I could. He nodded and shot a look over to Mora before leaving too. “Finally.” I turned around to talk to Mora, to tell her I was sorry, to tell her it was my…

And she kissed me.

It felt odd. It wasn’t like when Shadow had done it, it felt... hollow. Slowly, as she pulled away, I wrapped my hooves around her tightly. Little shivers ran along her body as I held her, punctuating the soft sobs she gave against my neck as she pressed against me.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered into her ear. I wanted so badly to make it up to her, to give her something to replace the sister that was stolen from her. It was never that easy with loss, was it? I couldn’t have given anything to Skyline to fix it, and I couldn’t help Gauge at all.

“I just…” She sniffed in between sobs. “I miss her.” She nuzzled herself against me even harder, wrapping her hooves around me as well. “I hated what she thought of me, but… why did I have to lose her on such a sour note?”

“She was wrong about you.” I spoke, making Mora pull back off me quickly. She looked mortified at my words, staring at me agast before pushing me away.

“She wasn’t!” She sniffled, bringing a forehoof to wipe away her tears. “She had no right to tell me who I could love, but she was right that I shouldn’t have even been looking. I should have focused on her, on keeping the only family I had left alive.” She hung her head again, staring at the floor. “But now she’s gone, and I’m alone.”

“Mora, you’re a good mare.” I started, not really knowing how to phrase what I wanted her to hear. “Good mare’s don’t have it easy. It’s not fair, and it’s always nearly an unwinnable fight, but you can’t let this hold you back.” I’d found the words in how I felt about Pallet. “She’s gone, but we can’t let ourselves get lost in the fantasy of our memories. We have to move forward, to make sure that they are going to be remembered in the future.” She looked up at me slowly, and I cupped my hoof under her quivering chin. “You’ll find a special pony someday, and they’ll need you to remember who she was so that you can tell them how much she meant to you.”

“Okay…” She whimpered, giving the softest of nods. “I… I’m sorry I kissed you.”

“You can kiss me anytime, Mora.” I gave her a soft smile. “So long as you remember your sister.” Slowly, I turned myself around, and headed for the exit. I swung the door out, stepping through it before stopping and glancing back. Mora still sat where she was, holding her hooves to her chest with a small smile as she cried. Maybe my words would help her, I’d hoped that they would. Carefully, I pulled the door back, and shut it.

Turning around, I nearly ran into Predious’s pursed lips as he stood in front of me.

“Bah!” I shouted and reflexively swung my hoof at him. It connected solidly with the side of the combat helmet he wore, sending it hard against the old concrete wall, and sending a spike of pain down my foreleg. “Damnit, Pred!”

“Worth it.” He huffed as he pressed a hoof up to his head. He blinked a few times and shook his head a bit before straightening the helmet out with his assholish smirk. “So, having a bit of fun behind Shadow’s back?” He cocked an eyebrow as his smile got even wider.

I ignored him and pressed myself past him on the walkway. “Come on, let’s get to the others.”

“Oh,” His tone changed in an instant. “Alright.” Quickly, he caught up to me, and we were both traveling at almost a canter down the old sewer line. “I’m sorry.” Just from his tone, I could hear that he knew it wasn’t the time for jokes, and he’d made a mistake.

“She and her sister helped me back at the prison.” I said, keeping my eyes ahead. “I’d promised to get them all out. Rosina was lost in the fight. There was nothing I could do.”

“Ahead, take a right.” Predious spoke out flatly. I could tell that he didn’t want to get into it, and honestly neither did I. Everypony had lost someone in this fight, and as much as I wanted to bring them all back, that wasn’t possible. For Pred though, it wasn’t just this fight. He must have seen countless die in the days after the war, and lost more ponies in the years since that he’s just numb to it. He’d have to be, or I’m willing to bet that he’d have gone feral by now. Hell, I would have.

We turned the corner and entered what looked to be a larger section of the sewer system. The tunnel itself was well lit like the previous one, and spanned almost twice as far across. The muck river in the middle churned and moved slowly, flowing to goddess knows where away from the direction we were headed. The old slab pathway we’d followed expanded as well, offering now a three pony wide span for us to walk on.

Then I looked down the length of the tunnel. It stretched on for what felt like miles. I don’t know how we’d ever find our way down here without Cheap Shot. Speaking of, he and the others were still in sight quite far down the tunnel.

I wanted to ask Pred about it, how he’d maintained control for so long. But, a part of me knows that’s like asking somepony to recount their first time having sex. There’s probably not a lot to it, it’s worse than you think, and it just leaves both ponies too embarrassed to talk about anything else. Maybe that had just been my experience, but still, it wouldn’t make for enjoyable conversation. Instead, we trotted down the tunnel in silence.

More whistling blasts, and some not so whistling blasts continued to shake the tunnels. Every so often, one of them would knock out a few bricks from the ceiling. That got me worried. While the side tunnels ceiling had been made of concrete like it’s walls, the main tunnel here had an old brick ceiling. If one of those bricks came down on somepony, it was lights out. With that worry nagging at my flank, I pushed myself up to a canter. Pred strained to keep up, but I think he was also worried about a collapse, so I don’t think he minded the strain.

We’d gone just about a mile down the tunnel when we finally caught up to the others. They were standing around, looking just as worn out as Pred and I were feeling. Another blast from up top shook the tunnel, and the ceiling a few hundred feet back dipped down. It held, with only a few of its bricks dropping into the muck river with thick plops.

“The sooner we get outta here, da better. We’ve been down here too long anyhow.” Cheap Shot panted, pointing his hoof up. “Da eighth street access is just up ahead, we could…” Another whistling blast came down what sounded to be right on top of us. The tunnel ceiling just ahead of us burst like a river of rock, pouring down onto the walkway ahead. “Go back, run!” Cheap Screamed as the ceiling almost seemed to unzip towards us.

I slammed my hooves down and pushed myself into a gallop. My hoofbeats were lost to the single roar of flowing dirt behind me. I felt guilty about running as fast as I did, and I wanted to look back, but I feared that if I did I might trip. Thankfully, the sound behind me tapered off, and the rumbling that I could now feel through my hooves drifted away.

“Oh my goddesses…” Kiwi panted as she slowed to a stop next to me. “That… was scary…” With a sigh of relief, she flopped onto her belly. “Sweet, Chips, you still with me?”

“Yes… Ma’am” They both replied.

“You can run…” Cheap shot panted heavily as he walked up behind me. “really fast... you know that?”

“I too am alright.” Predious panted lightly, still seeming to have the same level of exhaustion as before we had to run. I looked back and found that he hadn’t even broken a sweat from all that.

“How come… you’re fine?” I wheezed through my pants. Okay, as good as the floor felt, we needed to keep going.

“Ghouls don’t need to breathe as much oxygen as normal ponies.” He said nervously, shooting a glance over to the others. “There is so much methane and nitrogen down here that it’s thinned the oxygen levels. You all should get above ground before you become completely exhausted.”

“And how a ya thinkin’ we’ll do that?” Cheap Shot offered with a jab of his hoof. “The way back ta the exit is completely sealed.” He shifted his hoof, pointing to the enormous wall of dirt that sat only twenty feet from us. Shit, if we couldn’t get through…

“Salsa, or whatever your name was,” Predious looked over to her. “Call this in and have them find us an alternate above ground route to the Casino.”

The mare looked perplexed for a moment, before looking over to Kiwi. “Should I, Ma’am?”

“Of course. We don’t want to be stuck down here forever.” Kiwi whined and rolled her eyes. She put her hooves under her and pushed herself up with a groan again. “I was going to suggest it, but he got to it first.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Salas nodded before looking over to the last mare with them. “Cinnamon, can you project the map, please?”

The mare simply nodded, pulling her hood back. The bright red unicorn mare closed her eyes as her horn glowed. In the air ahead of her, formed an exact copy of the Baltimare map that was displayed back in the command tent.

“Storm, can I… talk ta ya?” Cheap Shot smiled and pointed over to one of the nearby maintenance rooms. I nodded and walked over to the door. The old rusty door was dented inward toward the bottom, and was missing it’s door handle altogether, leaving just a corroded hole. I pushed the door open easily with my hoof, cringing as the high pitched squeak sent a shiver down my spine. I walked into the room and turned around, curious as to what Cheap Shot had to say.

“Be right back!” He called over with a smile, walking in and shutting the door. The moment he did, he nearly collapsed against it, shaking wildly. “Goddesses…” He whined, sliding down the door. His trembling hooves came up and pressed against his face, rousing another pained whine from him. “I can’t do it.”

“You can’t do what?” I frowned, sitting down and staring at him.

“I can’t die!” He looked up to me, pulling his hooves down and looking at them in horror. His breathing was getting quicker, and he was shaking all over now. Either the air down here was getting to him, or he was having a full blown panic attack.

“Woah, woah, slow down.” I spoke, lowering myself down a bit. “Sure, there’s a chance we all could die, but we have to try.”

“Ya don’t get it, Storm.” He curled himself up a bit, slowing his breathing down a bit. “I can’t die. If I do… then all my friends. The ones I betrayed…”

“Shut your muzzle, Cheap.” I snapped. “You shouldn’t be ashamed for living. Nopony blames you for what you did.” My outburst made him whimper and shrink even more. “Sure, you spoke up first, but can you say they wouldn’t have felt the same way after if they had spoken instead?”

“Yes, but…” He squeaked out, looking up at me with a look of self disgust that was almost pitiable had I not known why he wore it.

“No buts.” I grunted, reaching out and hooking my hoof around him. “It took me far too long to figure out that being the one left alive? It’s not something that I can let go to waste for regret’s sake.” Pulling him back to his hooves, he stood there with weavering eyes. “Cheap, I need you to hold it together for me. Don’t think that being a survivor makes you a bad pony. You’re one of the most brave stallions I’ve seen, and I need you to stay that way, just a little longer, alright?”

“Ya right.” He sighed, looking down at the floor again. “I just blame myself for their deaths. It ain’t dat I’m afraid ta die, I just don’t want ta die without beatin the asshole who killed em’.” Raising his hoof to my shoulder, he got a little smirk. “They always said dat I was the lucky one. Guess I just took it for granted.”

“Out there? In the fighting?” I pointed my hoof to the door, “No pony is going to blame you for choosing life. They’re all going to be afraid. I am afraid, but I can’t let that hold me back.” He smiled at my words and shook his head.

“I ain’t got a clue how ya can seem so confident.” He nodded and looked past the rusted door. Just outside it, I could hear the soft hoofsteps of the others approaching. “But ya right. Maybe after we’re done… I can put my friends ta rest once and for all.”

“Anytime you want, find me and I’ll be there to help.” I smiled and gave him a pat on the neck. “Now, let’s go see where we need to backtrack too.” Stepping past Cheap Shot, I pulled the door open and was met with Kiwi’s determined expression.

“Ma’am. We’ve been ordered to backtrack to fifth street.” She said, bringing her forehoof up in a stiff salute that was far too formal for talking to somepony in a sewer maintenance closet. “There’s currently a squad of fighters up there holding that intersection. If we enlist their help, we can push the three blocks to the casino in a short amount of time.”

“One, don’t salute me.” I said, hoofing at her forehoof to bring it down. “Two, why can’t we just take seventh? It should take us less time.”

Salsa spoke up before Kiwi could. “Chips’ map showed that sixth and seventh were already blocked off by the ruins of an old skyscraper.” She slowed down her words toward the end, watching as Kiwi gave her an annoyed glare. “Sorry, Kiwi.”

“You aren’t in charge of the squad, Salsa. We have ranks for a reason. Step out of line like that again, and...” She grumbled, losing her train of thought as Cinnamon came walking up to her. In a surprising move, she slapped Kiwi hard before trotting past her. “Come on, Cinnamon… don’t be like that!” Kiwi stammered.

“I know you want to impress the higher ups,” Salsa sighed as she walked past, “but you’re letting your position go to your head. Cinnamon and I want old Kiwi back.” slowly, she continued on. Just behind her, Predious gave me a shrug as he simply followed.

“Goddesses, why is being a leader so hard?” Kiwi whined. “Can’t they just understand?”

“I’ll tell you when I figure it out.” I grumbled, leaving the maintenance closet. “I guess you could always ask yourself why you wanted to be a leader in the first place.” Continuing on, Kiwi got to her hooves and followed me. After only a moment, she was at my side, looking over me like I was somepony she needed to study.

“I… I didn’t.” She stammered. “Our old squad leader was killed back in the manehatten base.” So much loss caused by Filius, so much suffering. Each time I thought of it now, the flames burned brighter inside me. Kiwi’s voice pulled me out of my hatred again. “I was only chosen for promotion because I used to invent things back in the research room. The Elder thought my creativity could be utilized for command. I just… I don’t want to let him down.”

“Disappointing looks and angry friends seem to come with the position.” I muttered. “I still question myself, still make mistakes, and I still get ponies killed…” Watching Tasteless die replayed in my mind, and I couldn’t stop it. “But, they continue to look up to me so long as I do what I think will be best. I just have to live with the consequences and hope they can forgive me when this is all over.”

For a bit, Kiwi just seemed to let that sink in. Turning to look over at Cheap, I saw that he had a much more calm expression across his face now. A quick glance made him give me a smirk, and I could see the flame of hope relit inside him.

You know… maybe there was something to this whole element thing after all.

We’d shortly arrived over at one of the offshooting tunnels like we’d originally come down. The old brick gave way to the solid concrete, and with it dissipated the thought it could come down on our heads at a moment’s notice. As if to tell us to keep moving, another whistling barrage came down nearby, and everypony’s mane seemed to stand up together.

“Cinnamon…” Kiwi whined as she moved into a canter. She hopped up as she approached, and threw her forehooves around the bright red mare, who simply stood in shock. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be mean to you two! It’s just so stressful, and I got jealous, and… I’m sorry!”

Cinnamon smiled and wrapped one of her forehooves around her. She didn’t say anything, or make a single sound even. She simply held her for a moment before giving Kiwi a soft kiss on the cheek. The blush that came over Kiwi’s cheek make her look almost as bright as Cinnamon did. With a giggle, Salsa piled in on the hug and squeezed the two together. It’s amazing how until recently, I never believed that friends really could make a difference.

“Alright, the access point is only another couple hundred feet.” Cheap Shot said as he pushed his way past me. “I’ll head on up and take a look around.”

“Careful,” Salsa called out. “It’s a warzone up there. Stay low and out of sight if you can.”

Yes, I’m sure there would be plenty of concealment when coming out of a ponyhole in the middle of a street. “Unfortunately, there’s no real way to avoid it.” I sighed. “Come on, girls, it’s time we did our job.” Turning to Predious, he smiled at me.

“Didn’t I tell you?” He put his hoof on his chest, speaking in his ‘smarter than thou’ tone again. “A natural leader.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t march yourself up after Cheap, then I’ll make you… naturally regret your words!” I scrunched up my face, not sure where that insult had come from. I used to be so good at insulting ponies too. I guess losing my creativity for insults was the downside of actually trying to be a better pony.

“Storm!” Cheap shot called. “Get over here, now.” Even as he yelled to me, the sound of sporadic gunfire came through the tunnel louder than it had before. Checking the augmented vision that my pipbuck gave me, I made sure that my pistol was registered as loaded. I’d need something to use if we popped up into a bad situation.

“There are Steel Rangers fightin’ up top.” Cheap said as he climbed down the old, rusty ladder that lead out to the street. “Might be a good idea for ya ta go first, seeing as plenty of ‘em know who ya are and won’t shoot ya on sight.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably good thinking.” Pushing myself up against the ladder, I hooked my hooves into the rungs. Without thinking, I was back in the stairway of Pai’s orchard. It was only a moment, but I tightened my hold around the rungs, afraid I’d fall. “Alright. We need to go.” I whispered to myself.

Slowly, I reached my hoof up. One at a time, nice and slow. Rung after rung, I climbed the short way up to the top, reaching my hoof up to the heavy iron cover. With a grunt, I pressed against the freezing cold metal, popping it up just enough so I could see.

“Somepony get around to the left flank!” Oil Can shouted, bracing himself up against an old skywagon carcass that sat upturned in the road. “You!” He shouted, pointing his hoof to somepony behind me. “Get that power armor over and take out that sniper to the west!” It was odd to see him so collected. Every time I’d seen him standing guard at Tenpony, he always seemed so shy and apprehensive. Not to mention, he looked tired and worn out. Heavy bags hung under his eyes, and a bloody bandage around his side barely hid the fact that his ribs were showing through. Even tired, bloody, and starving, he fought on.

With a heavy grunt, I heaved the ponyhole cover up and flipped it aside. Among the frantic firefight, nopony had heard it slam down against the street. Pulling myself up however, caught Oil Can’s attention. He whipped the assault rifle in his hooves around, pointing it at me before lowering it in surprise.

“Storm?” He called out, hard to hear over the battle raging on.

“Are you in charge here, Oil Can?” I shouted, pulled myself up and out of the hole. He squinted for a moment before nodding frantically. “We need to get to eighth and Sprout!”

A burst of fire came from up the street, sparking off one of the power armored Rangers who was facing the other way. Quickly, he turned on his hooves and spun up his minigun. It let out a quick roar, spitting a line of red past our skycar and out to the street beyond. As quickly as he had fired, he was back turned around again. After another moment, the anti-machine rifle on the other side of his armor let out a piercing shot down the other street into the night.

“Eighth? The hell are you doing here!?” He shouted at me. “This is 5th! 8th is that way!” He flailed a forehoof over the skywagon. As he did, Pred pulled himself up and out of the tunnel, immediately ducking his head down as another stream of fire poured in from the other side of the skycart.

“I know! The tunnel's collapsed, we have to go on hoof!” I shouted back. “We need your squad to help us push forward!”

“Like hell! That way is full of em' deadites!” He frantically shook his head. “Pushing forward would be suicide. Even here we don’t have that much cover and we're already outgunned!”

“Hey!” Predious yelled and ducked forward as the others streamed through the hole. “Either that hotel comes down, or the whole city falls!”

He stared at us for a moment, trembling in rage. I’d never seen him so angry. He’d been pushed to the brink, and we were asking even more from him.

“Fuck it!” He screamed out, beating out the raging battle around him. “Everypony, listen up!” I don’t know how most of them heard him, but they turned to listen when he called. “New orders! We’re pushing up to the eighth street casino.” Pulling his rifle up to his chest, he grimaced and screamed out even louder this time. “Drive em' back to the holes they came from!”

A unanimous cheer erupted from the ponies around us as they regrouped. One after another, they took up positions and laid down fire. After a moment, the ones in back sprinted forward, taking up newer positions further ahead. Looking back at Oil Can, I could tell he was already regretting that order.

If I could be considered any sort of leader, I was half that of what Oil Can was. Who knew the meek security stallion could take charge so well?

“Storm, I hope you brought more than this with you.” He glanced over at my compatriots. “Or at the very least, I hope you brought some good guns.”

“Alright, girls!” Kiwi shouted, grabbing her cloak with her hoof. “Let’s get to work!”

With a clean swing, Kiwi and the other girls threw off their garments. Secured around Kiwi’s Barrel, was a pair of metal rings. that connected to a heavy metal plate on her chest. From each side of her, metal arms sprung out stiffly on swivel mounts connected to the rings. Each one bounced from the weight of the heavy machine guns that sat mounted on them.

From Cinnamon's sides, floated out several metal plates, which she quickly secured and locked on to the armored harness that Kiwi wore. The metal plates bent forward, looking more like they belonged on a tank than on a pony. They stacked up tall enough that they enclosed Kiwi, along with a bit of her sides. From Spicy, belts of ammo streamed from the containers she held on her side, and both her and Cinnamon took their place at the guns on Kiwi’s side.

“Forward, march!” Kiwi shouted, slowly walking forward. The whole contraption must have weighed a ton, and even then, she pushed forward on her own. Both Cinnamon and Spicy Salsa smiled for a moment to us before pressing close against Kiwi and keeping their hooves on the hanging guns. With a flicker of her horn, Cinnamon projected a light pink bubble around the whole group of them. Working together like that, they were going to be one hell of a fighting force.

“Well, that’s different.” Predious commented, shortly recoiling as Spicy stood on both hind legs and took the heavy gun in her hooves. With a scream, she opened fire, the heavy fifty caliber machine gun barking out shots that sent up kicks of snow and dust as the bright tracers flew off into the night. “Well,” Pred snorted, holding his hoof out, “Shall we?”

I groaned, turning the corner to head off after the makeshift walking bunker. “This is going to be one tough fight…”