The flight back to Stonetalon felt like it lasted until midnight.

After the medical evac arrived and we loaded Serge and Lita up, I spent the whole flight hovering just above the sky cart and watching them for any changes. There was painfully little that I could do while we were still on the ground, and even less now that we were airborne, but I couldn't relax until they were both in the medical ward, or better yet, out of it. Potion drip IVs in the cart were about the best that could be done for now.

I didn't recognize any of the three griffons that had been dispatched, although it was probably too much to ask for Adelaide to have been dispatched with surgical tools. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but the third, who was serving as armed escort, did mention something about this being all that could be spared. That was always the state of affairs, so that didn't strike me as a comment to dwell on.

That is, until we did get back.

Even before we landed, it was clear that there was an unusual amount of activity around the base. At least two full flights were circling the peaks, and every machine gun emplacement that I could pick out from our altitude looked manned.

A lump of apprehension coalesced in the back of my throat. The robotics facility had been infiltrated by Steel Rangers, not the Enclave, but that could easily have been a coincidence. Maybe there was some truth to the rumors before and Captain Stern was expecting a possible assault from the pegasi. There was no time to ponder what-ifs though, and we rushed through the loading doors into the cargo hangar the instant after we landed.

The cargo hangar was abuzz with twice the activity we passed outside. Troops ferried cartons and crates of materiel into and out of more carts, but more alarmingly, half of them were covered in patchworks of muddy and bloody gauze and field dressings. Maybe the Enclave attack had already begun, and a platoon got caught in the open above the cloud line somewhere?

I caught a glimpse of Lieutenant Blackfeathers and her little purple assistant Egon directing some of the activity, but she looked way too busy for me to bother her in search of answers. Instead, I waited for our escorts to park the cart in the first vacant bay and informed them all that I was going to head down to medical and get Adelaide to prep for surgery.

The news only got worse the closer I got to the infirmary.

Winding my way down was a chore with so many griffons choking the hallways. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that the entirety of Fillydelphia's Talons had been deployed here, and that wasn't doing my heart any favors. If this wasn't in preparation or response to an Enclave attack, what could it be?

For the moment, it didn't matter. What mattered was that I had no idea how I was going to get stretchers past all of these people and mess to transport the patients down here.

The groans should probably have prepared me for what I was going to find once I made it down to the level with medical, but I almost stepped on someone the moment I left the stairs. A young sky blue griffoness, maybe twenty years old, was stretched out along the hallway's wall and doing her best to get out of my way. One of her hind legs was laying at an odd angle and clearly broken, and the rest of her was marred with dozens of bruises and nicks.

The dozen other patients lined up against the walls looked little better. There must have been thirty gunshot wounds between them all, and enough blood seeping through their bandages to paint the floor. One had crisscrosses of multiple deep lacerations across her throat. Another was stretched out and trying desperately not to breathe any more than he had to, probably from broken ribs. One particularly unlucky griffon was missing one of his wings, and was probably on his way to a medical discharge...

I lingered at the door for a few moments before I tore my eyes off of the wounded, and fought back the anxiety over what I might find inside long enough to turn the handle.

Inside was about what I expected. Another six soldiers were laid out in neat lines in the receptionist area with a yellow griffoness moving between them and checking them over. For a moment I thought that it was Adelaide, but when she looked up I recognized her for who she was.

“Dr. Longtalons! Oh, thank heavens, Dr. Darkskies is going to be so happy to see you.”

“Zella?” I asked, stepping inside enough to shut the door behind me. “What's going on here? Yvonne is here too?”

“Yes, she is. In the back in surgery with someone who was shot I don't know how many times.”

I stepped past the rows and rows of soldiers who were motionless enough that they must have been drugged up or dead already. “Who is in Fillydelphia right now? What's going on?”

“Almost nobody,” she answered. “And I really can't tell you much. All I know is that they shipped us out here to prepare for the aftermath. Dr. Darkskies can probably tell you more, and she could really use some help right now.”

So I figured. Bleeding pinfeathers, I was so tired I was afraid I'd do more harm than good trying to treat anyone right now, but this was my job. I wiped my face and said, “Alright, look, I came back with two more in serious condition. Can you send someone up to the cargo bay with stretchers to get them down here? Needs to be sooner than later.” I was pretty sure they were in worse shape than everyone outside of the infirmary at least, but triage was kind of her job.

After getting an affirmation from her, I made my way into the back, dropped the rest of my equipment in the first vacant spot I found, and followed the trail of blood spatters and streaks to the operating room.

In truth, it wasn't the scene of a slaughterhouse like I imagined. Vonny and Adelaide were both working on different patients, with medical techs assisting with both. Vonny glanced my way, her graying pink feathers spattered in red, and told the tech assisting her to bring in the next patient for me to start on.

“Got a lot of customers waiting, Kaz. Better get prepped, it's going to be a long night.”

The tech interrupted any attempt I had at a quip in response by informing me that the next one being brought in had a severe head injury of some kind and was currently unresponsive. No x-rays or other diagnostics were available, so I was basically left hoping he or she hadn't been shot in the skull and left only with brain stem functionality left.

That kind of sucked the last of the energy out of me. I drifted over to the vacant bed that I knew I'd be parked at for the next ten hours or so, and reached for a pair of gloves…

The soldier with the head injury wasn't as bad as I feared, although his prognosis was iffy. He'd been struck across the side of the head with some kind of blunt object and had a fractured skull and broken mandible. There wasn't a ton I could do for either except try to brace his jaw, reduce the joint and apply healing potion until the bones knit back together in mostly the right shape. The problem was that he didn't regain consciousness afterward, and that was a very bad sign. He probably had significant brain damage, and if he ever woke up he'd probably never be the same.

Of course, I didn't have time to dwell on it, as patient after patient was brought into the OR. In the end, I couldn't keep track of who all I saw, and I was getting so tired and sleepy my eyelids were stinging. There was someone who'd been shot multiple times in the gut, which was at least solvable with careful application of potions instead of needing full surgery. The griffoness shot in the spine was less lucky. Healing potion would repair the bone and damaged nerves, but only after the bullet had been pried free of the shattered and twisted remains of the vertebra it slammed into, which turned into a pony goddess-damned nightmare since the bullet must have been cast out of the shittiest quality scrap iron available, judging by the number of fragments it exploded into on its way into her body.

By this point, I was growing increasingly suspicious that the train of wounded hadn't been engaging Enclave pegasi or Steel Rangers at all. A power armored boot to the face might have caused that skull injury, but neither would shoot bullets made out of garbage. There weren't any laser or plasma burns on anyone I saw either, and if I didn't know better I'd have thought they were ambushed by every raider group on the continent.

Both Serge and Lita ended up being treated by Yvonne instead of me, which made me a little anxious at the time, but the steady stream of patients again didn't leave me time to dwell on it. At least the severity of the injuries finally began to taper off some, as we transitioned to setting bones and applying potions to gunshot wounds on extremities. Our supplies were beginning to run a little thin too, given the amount of potion we had to pump into some of the bleeders, so I had to start rationing it by dabbing bandages with what was left and patching some up the old fashioned way.

I thought things were finally going to calm down enough for me to get some information out of either of the other doctors working with me, but the next surprise through the door kind of short circuited the attempt.

A solid gray griffoness hobbled through the door behind Zella, who ushered her my way. “Dr. Longtalons here will see you.”

It took me a few moments to realize through the mental haze who I was looking at, and my heart didn't so much skip a beat as perform a short ballet. “Liese?”

“Whoa, Kaz? Must be my lucky day for real...” She finished hobbling over and grimaced at the now quite unsanitary bed. “Don't tell me I've got to get in that.”

From a quick inspection of her injuries, no, she wouldn't. “Just hold still a second. What hurts?” She didn't have much in the way of obvious external injuries. Some scrapes dotted her chest, side and wing, and a gash crossed her hip that looked like it had already started healing from a potion. She was holding her left foreleg up and refusing to put weight on it.

“What's it look like? Everything hurts.” She huffed and fixed her vision on the bed.

I brushed a talon along her shoulder, causing her to suck in air and pull back. “Come on, I'm not in a joking mood right now. I don't think it's broken, but it might be dislocated.”

She huffed again. “I just jammed it, it's not broken or dislocated. Some little shit hit me with a stun spell and I crash landed.”

It was my job to be the judge of that, but she was probably right and to be blunt, I didn't feel like wasting time with getting x-rays unless she came back to me later about it not getting better. Another dose of potion would probably fix her up anyway. As I measured that out, I asked, “Yeah, speaking of that, who exactly was that little shit? I have yet to have anyone explain what chewed everyone up and spat them out.”

Liese sucked down the potion I offered her and halfway choked on it. “What? You weren't there?”

I started dabbing potion onto some gauze for her hip and shook my head. “No, my squad got sent off to pick through some robotics plant instead. We came back with three wounded, two seriously.” I pressed the patch onto her hip and muttered, “Looks like we were lucky by comparison. We've had twenty-eight come through here, and I heard another dozen were KIA.”

“No kidding,” she muttered back. “That would explain why I couldn't find you when we were forming up.” She flexed her elbow. “Well, since you were so lucky, the cyclops in charge lost his damned mind is what happened.”

Yvonne stopped stitching the scratched and scuffed up griffon under her care and said, “Careful what you say there.”

“I'll say whatever-the-fuck I want,” Liese spat back. “When I see you in the middle of that much horseshit then you-”

“I was in the middle of that horseshit! Now, I'm not any happier than you are, but you know that can get you shot.”

I held up both claws and shouted, “Enough! Shut up. I don't want to hear that, I just want to know what happened.”

Liese cleared her throat. “Yeah, right, well, the answer is that Master Red Eye decided that he wanted us to capture the raiders, so Captain Stern mobilized the entirety of Fillydelphia's Talon Company to support his army when they went to round them up. Surprise, surprise, the raiders didn't want to come with us, and all holy hell broke loose.”

“Raiders?” I finished with the bandage and asked, “Which raiders?”

“How should I know? It had to be damn near all of them in the area, that's for sure. Hundreds of them. Maybe a thousand. You know The Dragon, right? That big, mean pony that would send a Steel Ranger pissing her armor in fear? Yeah, he was there.”

That had to be a joke. “Wait a second, isn't that the same pony as Brimstone Blitz? Like, the leader of the group of raiders so powerful that it raids other raiders?”

“Yeah. That gigantic bastard.” She grimaced. “We drilled his ass good, but someone said he was still alive and they took him in. If I'd have known that I'd have shot him five more times in the face. Least he deserves for giving me a promotion.”

It took a moment to process that, but only a moment. Promotions were never a happy topic in Talon company, since rank was only ceded when someone moved out of their current rank, and that hadn't happened under pleasant circumstances ever to my knowledge.

We all grew kind of quiet at that point, and I really took that moment to be glad that Serge survived our ordeal.

Liese finally spoke up as she twisted to leave abruptly. “When you're done here, come look me up. You've still got a few out here that need bandages and kisses for their boo-boos.”

After she disappeared through the door, but certainly before she was out of earshot, Yvonne snorted. “She's charming. You two know each other?”

“My sister.”

Adelaide blinked blearily and sighed. “Either way, she's right. Just a few more and we can relax for a minute.”

I evidently had to have a longer chat with Liese after I was done, but for once I was anxious to do so. After that proverbial bomb shell, I was quite distracted with the next two soldiers I had to deal with, and really wanted to know more about this capturing raiders business.

Locating her turned out to be more involved than I expected. The only other member of her squad that I knew on sight was Alfred, given how much time he used to spend in the clinic from drinking too much of things he shouldn't, but I didn't blunder into him on my search. Eventually some maroon colored griffoness pointed me outside, where I found her at the landing pad, perched under an awning and practically inhaling a cigarette.

She offered one as soon as I got close enough, which I declined with a wave of my claw. “No thanks, I quit a couple of years ago.”

Liese snorted. “Finally trying to be a good role model as a doctor?”

Not exactly. “Sure, whatever.” I parked myself upwind of the smoke and asked, “So, what else did you want to talk about? Something else about the operation earlier?”

She bit into her cigarette a little and shook her head. “Nah, not really. Not much else to say, I don't think. We brought in a few hundred raiders as slaves, including Brimstone, a huge minotaur and a partridge in a pear tree. Mission accomplished. I'm sure the pencil pushers think that's a great trade for twelve Talons.”

Guess I was just here for emotional support then, and since I was her brother, I might as well try. “I'm sorry about Brigitte. Err, was she the one that was KIA today?”

Liese nodded. “Yeah. Complete waste of a real soldier too. Remember that little shit with the stun spell? He got her first, and then Brimstone got her. Happened so fast I couldn't even react.”

Well, at least I remembered her sergeant's name, which was something. “I'm sorry. I wish I could have been there to help, but even if I were it wouldn't have mattered for her.”

She bit harder on her cigarette, and for a moment I wondered if she'd bite clean through it. “Yeah, about that. That right there is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Err, what now?”

“When you weren't at the mustering, I figured that meant you weren't part of Talon Company anymore. I was pretty sure someone would have told me if you were killed, but if your contract expired I didn't put it past you to just fly like an uncaged bird right back home without saying a word to me. Like when you showed up five years ago.

“Now, see, that math right there is what got me thinking. You've been here over five years now, right?”

Time was so vague to me now I honestly had no idea. “That sounds right.”

She nodded, and her half-bitten cigarette wobbled precariously. “Okay, so why are you still here? Unless they really screwed with the contracts after I started, you only signed on for four years, and have to renew every two after that. That means you've renewed at least once. Why? I know how much you hate it here, and even before days like today, I remember the pit and all of that shit. Why in Equestria are you still here?”

A surprisingly poignant question, but the answer came almost by reflex. “I've got nothing else to go back to.”

Liese finally took another puff of her cigarette, held it for a while and blew it out through her nostrils. “So, what, is papa finally gone then?” I nodded. She drew in a long sigh. “How long ago?”

“About three years at this point, I think. He lasted a lot longer than I thought he would.”

“Three years? And you didn't bother to tell me? When were you planning on it?”

“Now, basically. The next time I saw you, I mean. When's the last time we even saw each other?”

She sucked on her cigarette while staring a hole through the ground. “I don't know. Years ago. If I didn't know better I'd say they stick siblings in different platoons to make sure they're scheduled away from each other. You could have sent a message or something.”

Liese wasn't wrong, and I felt bad, but it was kind of too late now. “I know, and I'm sorry. I would say there hasn't been time or what ever, but the truth is that it just got buried in the back of my mind years ago. I forgot.”

“Forget it,” she growled in a tone that implied she certainly wasn't going to, not that I blamed her. “What happened anyway? Did that lousy doctor stop giving him medicine again?”

“Lung cancer.”

She stopped thumping the cigarette in her claws, and after a heavy sigh, tossed it aside. “Could have told me that to begin with...”

“Didn't think it would matter.” After an awkward silence fell, I added, “Kind of bizarre, you know? Nobody ever lives long enough to die from something like that anymore, but he did.” Somehow, that didn't help the awkward silence at all.

She coughed and groaned. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I should probably go find out what's happening with my squad, and I'm sure you've got a lot to get back to in the infirmary.”

Not before I got some sleep, but it was a good place to end the conversation anyway. “Probably. They may have discharged my sergeant too. Had a laser pistol explode in his claw and take some talons with it. I, uh, I know I'm not in line to get a promotion if so.”

“Good,” was all Liese muttered as she pushed past me back toward the door.

I watched the cigarette lying on the concrete fizzle out and tried to think back to the last conversation I had with our father. It had been over three years ago, so as much as I tried, I really couldn't think of much that he said. The only thing that stood out to me was…

“Hey, Liese!”

She stopped and cast a weary glance back. “What?”

“Papa did want me to tell you something. If I ever saw you again.” I tried to think of exactly how he worded it, but it didn't really matter. Only the contents did. “He said he wasn't mad at you. For, you know… this.” He also said a lot of other things, like he wanted her to come visit if she could, but that was way too many years too late for me to mention it now.

Liese stood silent for a few seconds. “That's something, I guess. Was he mad at you?” Without giving me a chance to answer, she finished heading back inside, leaving me alone to ruminate on her question before having to head back in and face whatever was coming next.

I hoped that would be a cot, but was pretty sure it wouldn't be.

It wasn't.

Well, not for long, anyway. I might have gotten one or two hours of desperately needed sleep before Amy shook me awake and informed me that first and second platoons were being redeployed back to Fillydelphia immediately. I groaned and cursed her out in my head, but it wasn't her fault so I kept it there.

At least I didn't have the luxury of getting into deep sleep, so dragging my sorry carcass out of bed was only dreadful instead of outright unbearable, and it only took a full minute for me to roll over, miss the side of the cot and end up on my back on the floor.

To my surprise, Lita was the first griffon to speak up, saying, “Jeez, Kaz, you look worse than me.”

After focusing my vision enough to get a good look at her, I disagreed. She was covered in bandages and had tufts of feathers missing where the zombies had bitten her, not to mention the big patch of gauze on her chest where the Steel Ranger's cannon shell struck her. Her eyes were sunken and beyond weary. She hobbled a little closer and offered a claw to help me up.

“I'm surprised they released you so soon. How do you feel?”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I got half of my guts blown out and stuffed back in. Guess I should say thanks for saving my sorry hide.”

“Don't mention it. Part of the job,” I assured her as I got back to my feet and recovered my balance.

“Yeah, well, Amy says you also got the ass that shot me.” She held a claw up to her forehead and mimed a pistol's hammer with her thumb. “Plugged her right between the eyes. That takes guts.”

I wiped my eyes and sighed a little. “And a lot of luck, believe me.” Before the conversation could continue down that track, I said, “I'm glad you're alright though. I wasn't sure at first. But, ah, did you hear about Serge? Has he been released too?”

“What? They didn't tell you? If you don't know, I sure as hell don't.”

Leigh stopped packing her gear and said, “He's being returned to Fillydelphia to be treated by a specialist. That's all the lieutenant knew when I asked her.”

A specialist, huh? I was actually pretty experienced with claw surgery, and I doubted anyone else in Talon company really knew more than I did. Who was he going to be treated by there?

“We're all headed back there now. Lieutenants Blackfeathers and Strongclaws are arranging a funerary service in the city for those KIA, and a followup for those who earned medals or promotions. After we attend those, we're immediately going back on city watch. After the raiders captured yesterday are processed, Captain Stern is expecting a not inconsiderable increase in unrest and escape attempts.”

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. “Yeah, I bet...”

We had little time before we had to rendezvous with the rest of the platoon in the hangar, so I shut up at that point and got to packing up my things.

The flight back to Fillydelphia went about as smoothly as it could have, and this was maybe the dozenth time in my years that I'd made the trip. Fifty-three kilometers over the course of about eight hours, with one stop in the middle for everyone to take a leak and eat something. As was normal on a return trip to the city, I didn't have a heavy supply pack to carry, so the trip wasn't bad. Aside from being miserably sleepy, anyway, but what else was new?

Carmelita looked like she could just barely make it, which was probably pretty accurate. Leigh had the foresight to tell Ike to carry her machine gun for her, since the extra weight probably would have made the trip unbearable, but even so she lagged behind near the end of the group for the whole trip. When we stopped to rest, she just flopped over to catch her breath. No jokes or snide comments. Just weariness.

I could only speculate how relieved she was when the city popped up on the horizon. Or, well, when the first terrifying Pinkie Balloon peered back at us through the husks of trees dotting the hills. I'd heard through idle gossip that the balloons had been put into place about a month after we rotated out to field duty last time, and while we never got close enough for me to confirm it visually, word was that Red Eye's army had snipers perched in the baskets. There was always the ever present concern of slaves escaping, but the moat did a good job of keeping them in. No raiders were ever stupid enough to get close to the city either, so everyone guessed the snipers were mostly for show, to send a message to the Steel Rangers who had set up not far from the city. Not that they'd ever gotten close either, to my knowledge, but after surviving the encounter with hat one paladin through pure, blind and stupid luck, I was happy to have some deterrence to keep them away.

Speaking of the moat, I never did get used to the smell of flying over it. Its scent was like the worst combination of a leaking power cell and bile, and after it got in your nostrils it refused to leave for hours. Accordingly, I held my breath on the final approach, but it got all over me anyway and like every day I spent in the forsaken city, I desperately wanted a shower.

No time, of course. Our orders were to drop all of our crap off at our barracks and reassemble near the train station half an hour later for the services that would follow. Leigh promised me that we weren't going to be on active duty right after, so maybe if I was lucky I could get some sleep soon.

I hadn't ever been present at a service like that in the five or so years I'd served up through that point, but then I don't think Talon Company had been part of such a large action before such that we suffered so many losses all at once.

Both platoons, numbering over a hundred griffons, formed up by squads in neat little squares outside of the train station but well away from the minefield that surrounded the main part of the base. Heidi, flanked by Egon as always, and Gunther stood ahead of us all and facing the crowd. Behind them were a grim row of fourteen makeshift caskets, if I was counting right through the haze in my head, made from what I guessed were repurposed ammunition crates. No sign of Captain Stern, surprisingly.

Heidi started the ceremony off, calling us all to attention before saying, “Talons! We are gathered here today to pay our respects to the fallen, who have given their lives in service to Talon Company and thereby paid the ultimate price that none can exceed. In giving their lives, they have proven their courage, which will be forever recorded in our company's history.” She took a deep breath. “And so it may never be forgotten, by paying their lives in service, today we absolve our brothers and sisters in arms of their contractual obligations to Talon Company and Master Red Eye.”

She strode down the line to the first casket and gestured for Egon to follow. “With each name that I call, my assistant will record their history in the company's records.” She began rattling off names and handing rolled up contracts to Egon, which he skimmed and then recorded in a booklet as she said. I recognized most of the names, and one even that I knew from treating his broken toe after dropping a steel bar on it. Rolland Blackbeak. The name echoed in my head as I pictured the look on his face when he hobbled into the infirmary. He'd put it off for two days and barely wanted to admit even then what happened, but he was much happier after we gave him some painkillers and splinted the toe. I wish that's all it would have taken to keep him out of that box…

At some point Heidi handed the roll calling over to Gunther, who rattled off names I did not know. Probably from second platoon. That is, until he said, “Brigitte Swiftwind,” and handed a scroll off to Egon. That was Liese's sergeant. She must have been in the crowd somewhere, but I couldn't see her through everyone surrounding me.

After that sorry business was concluded, Heidi took over again and said something about issuing awards. Sitting still for a few minutes was making everything go distant and fuzzy as my brain wanted to shut down for some involuntary sleep, but I blinked furiously and shook my head to keep awake.

I drifted back to reality just in time for her to call Carmelita up, and the haggard griffoness hobbled up to receive her Purple Feather from, ironically, the very purple Egon. Everything blurred and swam again until Gunther called someone Longtalons up, who I recognized almost too late was Liese. He presented her with her corporal rank patch, which she accepted wordlessly before returning to the crowd.

From what I filtered through the fog, they never called Leigh up, which strongly implied that Serge hadn't been discharged. After losing effective use of his dominant claw, I wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but if he could stay in charge of the squad, I was happy for it. I didn't doubt Leigh's ability to lead, which she'd demonstrated in the field before, but I just didn't want anyone new rotated into our squad. Adjusting to Amy took much too long as it was, and I didn't want a repeat of that.

I wasn't sure how much longer the ceremony went on, but I mostly snapped back to my senses when the sound of people shifting around me grew too loud to ignore. And right as a familiar voice asked, “I hope the ceremony wasn't too boring for you, private?”

Huh? I blinked the sleep from my eyes and focused hard to see Heidi's golden eyes locked with mine. While fighting to gather my wits, I glanced around and noticed patches of interrupted feathers across her left wing. I'd seen enough gunshot scars to recognize it on sight now, and knew they were fresh.

“Uh, no ma'am. Just doing my best on three hours of sleep in three days.”

She didn't challenge my answer and instead said, “I came to tell you two things. First, I hope your sister does well in her new role and that you'll follow her example. Second, I'm tasking medical with ensuring the proper disposal of the bodies. Private Darkskies will be assisting you, and we've already arranged for transport.” She held up a stack of rolled up pages. “See to it that these are burned as well. And don't worry about trying to save the crates. Just incinerate everything.”

Seriously? Ugh, whatever. Maybe I would have a chance to sleep again before I passed out and killed someone else. I accepted the scrolls and answered, “Yes, ma'am.” I wanted to ask her what was going to happen to Serge, but she was gone before I had the chance, and it was just as well anyway. A few seconds saved was a few seconds of sleeping later.

Back at the caskets, Yvonne was waiting on me with an equally weary expression. Much to my surprise, a trio of ponies was present as well, and not even Red Eye army soldiers. These were ordinary looking slaves, but the two earth pony stallions hitched to the cart were clearly the transportation Heidi mentioned. Maybe nobody in Talon Company but Yvonne and I could be spared.

The yellow unicorn mare present with the stallions barked something at them about getting the bodies loaded, and they set to it with disinterest and just enough speed that the slaver mare with them didn't have to get her whip out. Even so, Vonny and I grew weary of waiting and helped to load the last two caskets so we could get this over with.

“Where to?” yellow mare asked.

Oh joy, she was asking us? Hell if I knew. “Uh, the garbage incinerator,” I guessed.

She seemed to think that was a reasonable answer, so we started our agonizingly slow trek that way. My patience was worn all but to its breaking point after just a few minutes of the slow trudge, but out of reverence for the deceased I managed to keep my cool.

Vonny, however, did not. “Hey, can we pick up the pace here? Some of us have places to be,” she growled.

“You heard the lady!” yellow mare shouted. She drew her whip and cracked it once over the back of each of the stallions. Both exchanged looks that implied they'd snap her like a toothpick if they thought they had a chance, and for a few moments I felt bad about the exchange. That evaporated the instant they did indeed pick up the pace, and was replaced by a tiny bit of relief. Faster was good. I was so tired.

The trip must have still taken almost half an hour on the ground, due in no small part to having to wind around blocked off or damaged streets, but mercifully the smokestacks of the burner building finally came into view. We passed the twisted remains of its perimeter fence and pulled the wagon up to where garbage trucks would have once backed in to offload their contents. The team of ponies took care of the rest without orders by backing the wagon around, opening the hatch down into the main incinerator plant, and sliding the coffins in.

Vonny and I watched wordlessly, and when the process was over, the ponies took their leave for Pony Goddesses knew where.

“That's that,” Yvonne muttered under her breath. “No idea why we had to be here for it.”

“Heidi wanted to be sure it was done, I guess.” I held the contracts up in a claw and sighed. “I'd best see to it that these are burnt too, like she asked.”

Yvonne stretched her wings and jumped into the air. “Alright. I'll see you around Kaz. And get some sleep.”

“Thanks, I will.” I waved her off and worked my way around to the entrance I was used to, where we brought Ida after the accident. A couple of pony technicians scurried out of my way without asking any questions, and I paid them no further mind.

Eventually I found my way back to the platform overlooking one of the burners, where I laid my claws over the railing and looked down. It was inactive right now, but the warmth in the room was overbearing all the same. I tried to recall how Heidi's little speech went when we dumped Ida's body in the furnace, but it had been many years and my memory was much too bad. It was similar enough to what she'd said in the ceremony just minutes ago anyway. Besides, it wasn't like I was going to try to perform the ceremony again myself or something.

I unrolled the scrolls, one at a time, and read the names and signing dates on them. Brigitte had been in Talon company for over ten years, and poof, that was it. Poor Rolland had only joined two years ago, but even so, poof, that was it.

It felt disrespectful, but I balled the contracts up and tossed them down into the waiting abyss below. If I left them open, they'd flutter around and probably fly back up and out the next time the furnace was turned on. It wasn't even a question of Heidi finding one and getting mad. I just really hoped they found peace, and I didn't want some stupid little piece of paper to hold that back, as dumb as the thought was.

A cool prickling feeling crept down my back, and I backed away from the edge. That was my cue to go.

“I'm sorry,” I muttered on the way out. To whom? Just myself, if I was the only one listening.

Leigh's promise that we'd get some rest turned out to be surprisingly accurate. After I dragged my tired butt back to our train car, I flopped down on my cot and for once didn't so much drift off to sleep as race off to sleep on a speedboat.

That speedboat crashed into a reef after what felt like only a few seconds later, and I found myself being very rudely prodded by someone's very sharp talon. I resisted the momentary urge to respond in kind with a swipe of my claw, and instead rolled over to see Amy's red eyes focused on me.

“What?” I stressed. As tired as I was, someone had best be dead or doing their best to die.

“You've been asleep for...” She glanced back to a clock just out of sight. “A little over eighteen hours, and something's come up. Corporal Dawnshower told me to get you up.”

...what? There was no way I'd slept almost an entire day. That wasn't possible. I felt so groggy I could have downed an entire pot of coffee and gone right back to sleep. But then, sometimes that's how it was with makeup sleep. I groaned and rolled over. “Alright. What happened?”

“Sergeant Swiftwing is back.”

That got my attention, and I sat up. Sure enough, Serge was sitting at the table at the other end of the car, and the others were all crowding around him. I clawed my way to my feet and headed over, just in time to hear Lita say, “We're going to have to call you The Claw now, sarge.”

Serge groaned and rolled his eyes. “I think I like serge-ant better.” He flashed me a weary smirk and waved. “Morning, Kaz.” His talons glistened under the gem lights set into the ceiling, and clicked with each articulated movement. It took me a few seconds to shake off the sleep haze to really appreciate what I was looking at.

The talons that had been vaporized by his exploding pistol had been replaced by cybernetics. Pinfeathers, they weren't kidding when they said there was a specialist here in Fillydelphia.

“You… your claw,” I stammered.

“Everybody's said it,” Lita said.

He nodded as if I'd asked a question. “Yeah, Master Red Eye has a cybernetics surgeon on his staff they call Doc Slaughter. I guess they thought I was too valuable to dismiss over losing some talons, so he attached some new and better ones.”

“No kidding...”

Lita asked, “So, are you going to tell us anything else about this mysterious griffon, or what?”

“I can't, sorry. He's a pony, I'll say that much, and he's probably the one who installed Master Red Eye's cybernetics too. But I saw a lot of things I'm sworn not to repeat here.” Serge flexed his mechanical digits a few more times and took a deep breath. He looked good, considering what had happened, but like Lita he'd take some time to recover fully. “But… I'll also say this. Master Red Eye has some big things planned soon.”

“You can't just say that and not tell us,” Lita said.

“I shouldn't have even said that much,” he admitted. “But, in any case, it'll be back to business as usual on the next shift, so everyone get what rest you can. We'll be back on city watch in five hours. The big things will have to wait until the lieutenant passes information down.”

Oh boy. I was relieved to have Serge back, but kind of wished he'd kept all of that to himself. It was going to make getting a few more hours of sleep really hard.

It would have been even harder if I knew how it would all end up playing out in the end.

Gain Experience – You gain 2,000 experience points for honing your skills.