About two hours later, after Thunder Clap had finished what little maintenance that needed doing, he found himself sitting on the prow of the boat with his metal leg hanging off the side. Despite it taking the brunt of most motions, it was still VERY heavy. He liked just letting it dangle once in a while. He looked out over the desert far below them. Once they'd reached altitude, everything settled from its usual organized chaos to ponies lounging about, playing cards, or just chatting about themselves.

Nexus spent all of his time in his quarters with Vince. Thunder could hear the tapping of a typewriter every time he walked by and Nexus' disapproval of a few things on them. That didn't matter to him. He'd already talked to Vince about what he knew about this operation. So he wasn't accepting anypony to talk to him; that is until one of them tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and came face to face with his favorite rust colored mare.

"Hey Thunder." Silver said with light concern in her voice.

"Hey. What's up?" Thunder replied looking back over to the ocean of sand with his hoof hanging over the side.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine to me.”

“Why do you care so much?”

“Because, like it or not, I’m your friend.”

Thunder’s ears perked up when he heard her say ‘friend’. Yeah he had friends back home, but not a lot. They were too few and far between. And seeing as his job took up most of his life, he never really had a true friend. “Seriously?”

“Well yeah. Not like you’re as annoying as Autumn, but you’re just as kind. So what’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you really going to make us go in a circle until I get a straight answer? I mean about volunteering to stay behind back in port.”

“Look, it’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing. From what you told me, you're not the kind to just back away from a fight."

"What fight?"

"This one. After Chrysalis, you seemed kind of out of it."

"I'm fine."

"No you're not. Tell me what's wrong."

"It's nothing!"

"You're lying!"

"If it was something I wouldn't tell you anything!"

"And why not!?"

"Because I was afraid!" Silver seemed to be taken back by what he said. "I was afraid okay. I've been afraid before but I've never been that close to death. I just- I just don't want to be here anymore."

Silver had a look of understanding on her muzzle as she got closer to him.

"It's okay to be afraid Thunder. It's a natural response."

"What do you know?"

"I've been in a changeling hive. I was terrified." she looked to the floor for a moment. "I even watched my boyfriend die right in front of me. I might have been angry, but I was more afraid for my own life. Chrysalis wanted me to be afraid, she thought it'd make me weak."

"Fear makes us all weak."

"No it doesn't. I've learned that no matter how afraid you are, no matter how scared you can get, it's all in how you use it. It can cripple you," Silver put her hoof on his shoulder, "or it can drive you to do what is necessary for both you and everypony around you. You understand?"

Thunder did understand. He knew the feeling of fear turning to bravery. When he was in the clock tower to shoot Nexus, he knew that he had to do something or a good stallion would die for no reason. He looked her in the eyes and nodded.

"Good to hear. Just get some rest."

"Alright. Thanks Silver." Thunder said with a smile.

"Don't mention it." She kissed Thunder on the cheek. This turned his face a deep shade of rose red.

"Uh… Yeah, I'll be in my hammock." Thunder said stammering as he started towards the stairs.

Hestaria smiled as Lightning Clopper, or was it Thunder Clap, went to his hammock down bellow. She giggled at how nervous the engineer, Silver Bit, made him as he tripped down the stairs.

"Ooooooo. Somepony's got a crush." she said hoping to pluck a few strings.

Silver looked up at her and rolled her eyes. "I hope you don't mean me."

"Half and half. I know who you like, but I was talking about your little friend going downstairs."

"Yeah I know. He's not really my type."

"That's reserved for the walking fast food mascot."

"What?"

"Yellow body, red mane… Come on! You might as well call him Ronald!"

"I'm not sure I follow. Anyways, like I said, he's nice, but he's not my type. Plus, he's ninteen."

"So? I'm nineteen and Ephi's twenty."

"Yeah, but I'm twenty-four. He's too young for my tastes."

"Then you're just too picky."

"Picky? He's-Too-Young! It's just not right. You only have a year difference between you and Ephialtes."

"Still…"

"There's no still. He's too young."

"What about Nexus?"

"What about him?"

"Is he too old?"

"He-Wait how old is he?"

"He's about twenty five."

"That's not too old. Too old would be thirty or forty. And I thought he had a girlfriend?"

"No."

"Really? Orion-"

"He's got a fiancé."

"He does?" Silver looked to the helm to see Nexus giving orders to the helmswoman with a serious look on his face. "He proposed to somepony?"

"About two months ago he did. He's even got a little one on the way."

"He does!?" Silver shouted thinking of a little robotic filly or colt crawling around.

"Yeah he does."

"Is it…you know, his?"

"Not all of him is made of metal Silver."

"How do you know?"

"Well, he goes to the bathroom like everypony else. Often enough says he's going to take a piss."

"Still doesn't answer my question."

"I got curious one day and I followed him into the woods during a training mission, okay."

"You perv."

"You think that's bad, you should hear what I've done to Ephi. But back on subject, it's his. No way he'd let anypony touch her besides him."

"I still can't believe you followed him just to see his-"

"We're getting a distress signal on our radio!" The reporter Vince said running out of the Captain's quarters.

"What'd you mean distress signal? I didn't think that anything that had electricity was even this far out here." Nexus said stepping down from the helm.

"It's a river town off to the east. They said something about evil creatures attacking them again."

"You think it's changelings?" Ephialtes said putting down a hand of cards.

"I don't know, but they need help."

"We'll go take a look. We'll do what we can for them. Vince, get Lieutenant Midnight the location. All hands to battle stations!" Nexus commanded.

"Guess you'll have to wait to hear how big he is." Hestaria said with a smirk.

"I'd rather you keep that to yourself." Silver replied a little off put by the statement.

It took about fifteen minutes to be in visual range of the town. Smoke was already rising above it in columns. Hestaria threw on her light armor on and grabbed her Lightning Lance. As soon as her hoofs touched it, the spear head arched with electricity. Topside, Pegasi in their armor, that made their wings appear to be bat wings, in lines ready to attack. Ephi, Knight, Silver, Clap and Nexus stood at the helm ready to go. Nexus had his helmet this time. His ebony armor blended well with his dark blue coat and strangely went with his metal legs. Hestaria took her place with the five ponies up top, and waited for Nexus to say something.

"Vince," Nexus started. "please tell me you got something."

"The radio's dead, but the attack is still going on."

"Alright then. Ten-Hut!" Everypony clicked their heels together and stood up straight. "Prepare to launch!" They all spread their wings, even those that had Irion Icarus'. Hestaria put her hoofs under Silver Bit's shoulders and prepared to attack. "Fight as one. Celestia guide us and Luna give us strength. Attack!"

Hestaria lifted Silver into the air and followed Nexus as he took off first. Everyone followed as close as they could while still keeping formation.

"Right formation," Nexus shouted over the wind. "Flank north! Left, south! You five stick with me until I say otherwise." he said looking over his shoulder at her and the others.

Both sides let out a resounding 'Yes, Sir!' and peeled off towards their respected attack positions. Nexus flapped his wings harder and Hestaria followed as best she could carrying the weight of another fully armed pony. As they approached, black dots ran from red as the red launched green bolts of magic at the black. Nexus rolled over and dove for the deck. Hestaria wasn't going to be nearly as risky with her passenger.

She flew low and dropped Silver at the end of the road where she would be more effective and flew off straight down the street while taking the lance off her back. She didn't have to have any confirmation, she was fighting armored changelings. The closest one to her was just starting to try and maul a woman in a robe. Hestaria, now free of the weight of Silver Bit, shot towards them with twice the speed she would normally. The tip of her lance passed through the armored side and out the other side as she pinned the changeling to a building.

The mare ran as Hestaria forced the changeling's still screaming writhing body off of the lance. Before it had an opportunity to counter, Hestaria brought the bottom of the lance down on the creature's head before digging the tip into its eye sockets. She was suddenly tackled from behind and her lance went sliding out of reach. A changeling opened its maw and prepared to bring it down on her neck. Hestaria was quick to act; she drew her hindlegs back and bucked it off of her.

Just as she got up, another changeling came from behind her and grabbed her. Hestaria knocked her armored head into the changeling's, causing it to let her go. She then reached back and grabbed its right foreleg. As the first changeling started to recover, she pushed her hips back and threw the second changeling over her shoulders. The second's hip collided with the first's head and knocked it to the ground. She still held the second one's hoof and pulled up as she brought down her hindleg on its head.

She didn't have time for a shitty movie reference line; more were already bearing down on her. She tucked and rolled out of the way of another as she grabbed her lance. Just as one was about to tackle her again, she swung the electrified spear in a wide arch and wacked the changeling in the jaw. That one when spiraling off to the side as three more surrounded her. She didn't have time for a standoff either. She lunged at the changeling in front of her with her spear outstretched and embedded it in its chest.

With it stuck at the moment, the other two attacked from behind. She knew this would happen and dodged out of the way of the one on the right as it impaled itself on the blunt end of the Lightning Lance, thanks to both shitty exoskeletons and something that could have come from a lower form of novel writing. The second one was much smarter and waited for a moment before attacking. Hestaria was just getting up when the one on her left lunged. She didn't have time to move out of the way or attack it. She started falling back to take less of the hit.

As the third changeling in the group attacked Hestaria, Ephialtes threw himself from the main building he was perched on with the Iron Icarus into a flying roundhouse. His right hind hoof slammed into the changeling's had and splattered its bright brains on the inside of its helmet. The now limp body went flying through another building on the opposite side of the road. He looked around Hestaria and saw no other changelings attacking them, rather more attacking the sides to keep from losing the town.

Ephialtes leaned over and held out a hoof. "Need a leg up?" he asked.

Hestaria didn't say anything and took his hoof. Ephialtes pulled her up and she gave him a quick hug and kiss. "I guess I owe you?"

"More than you know." Ephialtes said using his horn to take the lance out of the changeling.

Hestaria stole one last kiss as she grabbed the floating weapon and flew back into the fight. Ephialtes started running on his hindlegs towards a separate objective. He ran towards the tallest building in the small town where magical archers were raining magical arrows on them. The building wasn't more than two stories tall so one push from the Iron Icarus on his back and he was airborne.

As he flew at them, he prepped his hoof for a devastating right hook to the first changeling he found. As he came down on the roof, he delivered the promised punch and once again scattered the changeling's head contents on the inside of the helmet. The other archers wheeled their stationary bows around and prepared to fire as many shots as they needed. Ephialtes jumped straight up as the arrows were released, out of harm's way. The arrows zipped past, under his hoofs and into the opposite archer.

He came down and looked over his handy work. But self admiration wasn't yet deserved. One changeling took a hit, but only in his shoulder. Ephilates realized this too late. The changeling launched its arrow at Ephialtes. Ephialtes was never good with shield spells so he was forced to dodge to the side. The arrow passed by the left side of his neck and embedded itself in his left shoulder blade. The armor kept the arrow head from digging too deep, but it was enough to knock him down.

He looked up and watched as the changeling started advancing on him licking his lips and showing his fangs. Ephilates starts to get up but knows he can't get up before the changeling is over top of him. Ephialtes is hardly on his hoofs as a loud bang echo's comes from behind him. The changeling's head burst and the helmet flew straight up into the air. Ephialtes looked back and saw Thunder Clap lowering his rifle from a lower roof top with a smile. Ephialtes nodded to him as he reached back and gripped the arrow. Thunder nodded back and jumped down from the roof. Ephialtes had hardly heard a rifle shot this whole time. All of these soldiers were trained on lances and swords. This wasn't their thing. When the battle stared, rifle fire was unrelenting. After that, they didn't bother reloading; they started using their training to great effectiveness.

Ephilates cringed as he yanked the steal headed arrow out of his shoulder. He tossed the useless piece of wood and metal to the side and looked for a way in. a small opening in the roof lead to a staircase. Ephialtes moved as fast as he could down the stairs. On the second floor, Ephialtes had to stop and make sure he was seeing everything right. In the decrepit room, that was most likely the family room at some point, was occupied by eight zebras: two of which were foals.

Ephilates spent his life in a library but never bothered reading up on his own heritage. His mother was far removed from her zebra ancestors and was comfortable doing the same to him. This was the first time he had ever seen other zebras. Under a normal circumstance, they'd probably have the same reaction. But thanks to Nexus' template spell, he stayed in conspicuous.

"It's okay." Ephilates said trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder. "We're here to help."

The oldest stallion in the dimly lit room said something to his family and stood up.

"What is happening?" the stallion asked in very broken Equestrian.

"You speak Equestrian?"

"Not well."

"We are here to help." Ephilates said trying to keep his sentences as simple as possible for the old man.

"What happened to the creatures above?"

"They are gone. You will be free from them soon enough."

"Thank you. Thank you." He said bowing his head.

Ephialtes bowed his head out of respect and scanned the room for the stair case down. He walked past the young men, women and two children and started to make his way to the stairs. One of the children stopped him and asked him something.

"He wishes to know if everything's okay." the elder translated as best he could.

"Everything's fine. I promise." Ephialtes said kneeling down to the child's level. The elder translated and the child gave Ephialtes a tight hug before letting him go down the stairs. From the sounds around him, he found that everything had grown startlingly silent outside. He hobbled down the stairs faster and burst out into the hot, dry desert air. The view around him was void of all combat. Thunder walked out into the middle of the street and raised his flare gun into the air. There was a loud pop as the bright red flare flew up into the clear blue sky.

Author's Notes:

Nexus: Blunt end of a lance making a changeling shishkabob? Really?
Vince: About time you showed up. I was getting worried I'd stopped pissing you off.
Nexus: You couldn't do that. Anyways. Where am I during most of this story?
Vince: You can't have all of the screen time. Got to give the others some attention too.
Nexus: Even Knight?
Vince: Even Knight.
Nexus: But he's booooorrrriiiiiiiiing!
Vince: That's why the story isn't all about you. It's so we can get a feel for other characters that might not have gotten a lot of attention before.
Nexus: Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllll!
Vince: Shut it or I'll make an Equestria Girls version of you.
Nexus: ........... Shutting up now.