As usual, it was hard to keep track of time, but things settled down a tiny bit for a few weeks after the disaster at The Pit. Security was already heightened in Talon Company, but after that fiasco, Red Eye had apparently pulled in more resources from his army to add to the routine patrols in an effort to make a show of force to keep the raiders from getting any ideas. After two small mares escaped The Pit by themselves, I wouldn't have been surprised if the raiders thought we were all a bunch of jokes and tried something, so I was glad for it.

That all changed during a routine briefing from Serge one morning. After giving out the usual patrol assignments, Serge was interrupted by Lita asking, “So, I noticed that Red Eye's minions aren't crawling all over the city today. What's up with that?”

Serge cleared his throat. “Thank you for getting ahead of me. As I was going to inform you all, Red Eye recently came across information leading to a stable nearby. Unopened, from what I gather. Since there's already a Steel Ranger presence nearby, intelligence is concerned that they may try to interfere with the reclamation so he's pulled the extra security forces back to protect it. If the Steel Rangers do try to interfere, we're on standby to assist, but until you'll report to the patrol routes I've already assigned.”

Leigh asked, “The reclamation team is already in place?”

“Yes, but I'm not sure when they left. Talon Company is going to be on standby until we're told otherwise. Depending on how functional the stable's tech is, it may take days to strip everything of value.”

I tried to not to think about what was going to happen to the inhabitants if there were any left, and took a little solace in the fact that there had to be exceedingly few stables left that hadn't been opened that also hadn't had some kind of calamity that killed all of their inhabitants. Not that it discounted the possibility of a pitched battle against powered armored ponies with anti-vehicle weapons, which after the Robronco facility, I was not in a hurry to take part in.

“If the reclamation has already started and the Steel Rangers haven't approached the site yet, what are the odds they'll take interest later?” I asked. Given the kind of technology they had, they had to have surveillance that would have told them what was happening by the time the teams got there.

Serge shrugged. “We don't know.”

“Who knows what the Rangers are ever thinking,” Lita quipped.

Amy tapped her talons on the table. “They could be trying to pull in resources from other chapters. If they had the strength to challenge Red Eye directly they'd have done it by now.”

Serge shrugged again. “That's possible. If intelligence expects it, the lieutenant didn't tell me. Anyway, the last order of business should be a pleasant surprise for you all: we're scheduled for leave next week.”

Lita's eyes widened. “Is this a joke? I thought with the staffing issues we'd never see leave again.”

“It's not a joke, but it is subject to change without notice or cancellation if necessary, so don't be surprised if it doesn't happen.”

Leave that soon? I was just as blindsided as everyone else and exchanged a surprised glance with Amy. Maybe she remembered my offer to take her to Oatsfield the next time I went. That was going to be the most boring week of her life, but I didn't really care. A week away from this city was going to be welcome, even if it meant being stuck in that nasty bog the others kept going to for their “fishing trips” instead of going home.

It was going to be hard to really focus on the patrols for the next few days.

I didn't even make it through the first day.

Amy and I were maybe an hour into our evening patrol before we heard the sound of gunfire cracking off in the distance. Both of us slowed to a halt inconveniently close to the vents over one of the refineries, which were spewing searing hot smoke just waiting for the wind to change direction.

Leigh had the radio, so if anyone called in a need for assistance, we wouldn't get it. As such, we were told to use our best judgment on rendering assistance if we thought it was needed, and in a dire emergency the stable team would fire flares to get our attention. Knowing Amy, we were about to render assistance anyway.

A few heavier caliber weapons discharged and the automatic fire intensified. Yeah, we were about-

Searing bright flashes of red rocketed up into the air, rising above the skeletons of the burnt out buildings at the edge of the city. More booms.

Shiiiiiiiit.

“Come on!” Amy shouted as she beat her wings to head that way as fast as they would take her.

I looked around, as if Serge was going to magically materialize and tell us that it was a false alarm and that we didn't have to rush off to face extreme peril.

No such luck.

I drew my pistol and took a deep breath. Amy was pulling well away from me, so I poured on all the speed I could muster to catch up to her.

It was going to take several minutes. A lot could happen in several minutes, right? Maybe the Rangers would meet more resistance than they expected and pull back. Maybe something else had attacked the security forces. But, of course if that was the case, the gunfire was definitely going to attract attention…

We were too late.

Just… absolutely, completely and thoroughly too late.

Even before Amy and I got close to the rocky outcropping that the stable door was set into, the aftermath from the battle that had occurred there was abundantly clear. Two caged wagons, no doubt used to bring the slaves there in the first place, had been blasted to pieces and hurled dozens of meters in every direction. Dozens and dozens of dead ponies laid scattered in various states of disassembly, lying against trees or boulders, partially dissolved into piles of ash, protruding from craters or just sprawled out in states of ruin ranging from a dozen high caliber bullet holes to crushed torsos. Slaves, raiders turned slaves and Red Eye's soldiers were all conjoined in the scene of gore and destruction that made The Pit look like a pony goddess-damned ballet.

If there was any doubt whatsoever that the Steel Rangers had been here, the remains of one laid not far from the stable door with their head entirely missing and still oozing blood. The sounds of explosions and artillery discharging back closer to the city told me that not only had they been here, they weren't done.

For the briefest moment I felt relief at the thought that we were too late and had avoided the massacre, but my eyes picked out the corpses of at least three dead Talons littered about, and relief turned to guilt. My eyes settled on a black griffon hanging motionless from a tree, caught on a branch by the straps in his armor. Would he still be alive if we'd made it earlier? Who was I kidding to think a fucking pistol would have helped drive Rangers off?

Amy hovered uncertainly above the scene of carnage but slowly turned back to the continuing din of combat receding from us. “We need to hurry back. Hurry back and reunite with-wait, where are you going?”

I dove down to the ground and landed next to the closest pony. I wasn't going to be any help in the fighting, but maybe there was someone here who could be saved still. If not a Talon, maybe one of the soldiers, and if not any of them, maybe a slave.

Amy landed with a thump behind me. “Kaz, we don't have much time to waste here. I don't think anybody still alive stuck around.”

Before I could even say anything, a small brown griffoness ahead of me raised a wing weakly. She was laying stretched out with her back to us, but covered in bleeding wounds along her wings. My heart froze. Was it Leigh? I didn't see Isaac, but maybe they got separated. I bounded over a pony covered in mud, blood and fist sized wounds from a weapon I didn't want to think about and rushed around to get a better look at her.

The only good news was that it wasn't Leigh.

Whoever she was, she must have been hit by a flak cannon shell. The profusion of holes in her wings probably came from shell fragments, but her underside had been so ravaged by the impacts that she'd been eviscerated. Entrails spilled from long tears in her abdomen and coated the ground in front of her with more blood than I thought possible, mixed in with bowel contents and other fluids I didn't want to dwell on. Her eyes were distant and unfocused and her breaths were shallow and rapid.

“Shit...” Amy whispered.

Yeah. Deep down, I knew she had basically no chance of surviving, but I wasn't going to give up without trying. I tore off my medical kit and started digging for a potion. Not a restoration potion this time, since even that wouldn't heal this kind of injury, but something to stop the bleeding. If I did that, maybe I could-

“What are you two doing?!” a deep and forceful female voice shouted down at us.

I glanced up in time to see the white plumage and black coat of Captain Stern flash past. She slammed onto the ground on the other side of the dying Talon and bore down on me with an expression of disbelief and barely contained fury.

“Wh-what? Captain, I-”

“Leave her! We don't have time for this!” Stern insisted.

Amy spun around and said, “But captain, she's still alive. Kaz is a med-”

I jumped with a start as Amy hit the ground. “Don't talk back to me!” Stern pulled her claw back and thrust a razor sharp talon at me. “Leave her! Brimstone Blitz escaped and if he's not recovered I will have you both shot for dereliction of duty!” She turned the talon back toward the city. “Get moving!”

Amy was already back on her feet by the time I got my act together and put my medical kit back on. She wiped at the bleeding cuts on her face, but jumped into the air without looking back. Or waiting for me, I might add.

I dared not look back at the captain either and took off after her.

A whole lot of disjointed thoughts raced through my head as Amy and I hurtled back toward Fillydelphia and away from Captain Stern and her anti-materiel rifle.

Chief on that list was why she was hanging around and not joining this wild chase she ordered, but I barely had time to dwell on the scene of the slaughter we'd just witnessed and narrowly avoided being on the receiving end of, since the sounds of combat were growing stronger ahead and I could see the flashes of automatic weapons going off clearly now against the dark alleys of the outskirts of Fillydelphia. Why, of all places, the Steel Rangers had retreated in this direction I had no idea. Maybe they thought they had a better chance of avoiding being overwhelmed and mobbed from the air if they could restrict the lanes of fire by buildings obscuring them, but it took them perilously close to the wall and the full garrison of Red Eye's section of the city.

Wait, we were supposed to be finding Brimstone! How the hell were we supposed to do that?

I rushed forward to tell Amy, “Hey, we're headed toward the Rangers, but what about Brimstone? He might have gone back some other way!”

She looked over briefly, just long enough for me to see the three parallel cuts on her face that ran from her beak to her cheek and the blood still smeared on her face, before she snapped back and cut her eyes to me. “If he's got any sense he headed back for the city. We'd pick him up fifty kilometers away from the air in open terrain.”

Guess that confirmed my theory about what the Rangers were doing, but how were we supposed to find a single pony in these ruins? As the leader of the Bloodletters, Brimstone was no doubt smart enough to not do something blatantly boneheaded. But what would he do?

Fuck it, if there was ever a time for a trained soldier to lead the way, now was it, so I let her drive.

Naturally, her driving took us closer to the sounds of combat.

We dropped closer to the building skyline before we crossed the last street that would put us within the line of fire of the Rangers, and not a moment too soon. One of the snipers in a Pinkie balloon took his chances snapping off a shot at something in the street, but regardless of whether he hit or not, his shot was answered by a fucking missile rocketing back up and striking the balloon right in its sappy smile. The flash barely penetrated the trail of smoke trailing behind it, but the detonation shredded the balloon into thousands of pieces in an instant and sent the basket plummeting to the street.

Amy and I both instinctively ducked back down and landed on the roof just below us, right as fragments from the warhead came scything past. No doubt that's what hit the griffoness we had to abandon earlier, but how many missiles could one pony even carry to waste like this? Did the armor literally conjure them magically?

“What now?” I asked her as I slipped below the lip of the wall.

“Shut up and let me think,” she snapped, doing the same.

Trying to attack the Steel Rangers would end up with us in the same shape, but if Stern caught up to us and saw us cowering up here on the roof she'd shred us herself, so I had no idea what the hell we were going to do.

Another explosion in the street and series of MEW hisses told me the Rangers had found another target to unleash their ire on. We might have a moment to race across the street and snap off a few shots, but they may well just demolish the building we landed on if we tried it…

“Wait, someone's coming,” Amy said, pointing a talon back toward the city. It was getting late and dark, but I clearly saw a squad of griffons flying our way, silhouetted by what light from the setting sun fought through the ever present cloud cover overhead.

We tried to flag them down, but to my surprise, the squad seemed to ignore the miniature reenactment of the Great War going on in the streets below and overshot us entirely. Amy and I exchanged confused glances and jumped into the air to chase them down. Whoever they were, they were in a hurry to get somewhere unrelated to the Steel Rangers, but I sure as hell wanted more numbers on my side before I faced anyone.

Catching up took a moment, but we managed to cut a corner as they banked to the right and intercepted them on the turn.

To my surprise, I immediately recognized two of them: Liese and Alfred.

“Liese! What's going on? Where are you going?”

Everyone in her squad came to a chaotic stop in the air as they realized we were there, some taking short arcing flights to get back into formation next to us.

“Kaz? Perfect timing! We're going after the escapees. Hurry, we don't have much time!”

A blue griffoness with green eyes and a tired expression held up a claw to shut us up as she fiddled with her radio head set. “They've been spotted. Headed toward the cargo rail station. Half a kilometer out. One pony pulling a slave wagon, others inside.”

The squad didn't wait for orders and formed up before shooting off in a seemingly arbitrary direction, leaving just Liese floating in the air with us. She held up a metallic disc that I guessed was a mine and glowered. “I'm going to get Brimstone for good this time. Don't care what Red Eye says. Come on or we'll miss our chance.”

A brief question of what exactly would happen if we did kill Red Eye's prized captive flashed through my mind, but I suspected that he'd prefer Brimstone dead than free.

Liese clearly didn't care, and shot off without us. Amy trailed after her, so I had little choice but to join the chase.

Sure enough, a squad of griffons flying as the crows did let us catch up to the ground bound ponies in short order and well before we got close to the cargo station the radio griffoness mentioned.

Amy and I had fallen slightly behind, but I caught a glimpse of the massive cage on a wagon bed cutting a corner at a perilous speed and angle through one of the clear streets. The occasional crack of gunfire told me that Liese's squad had engaged the escapees, and that they were shooting back. At this range and under these conditions I didn't expect them to make good on many of their shots, but even so I lowered my altitude along with Amy to reduce the firing arcs they might draw to us.

An explosion rocked the street ahead and I heard some pony scream. Liese must have started dropping the mines she had. A followup explosion told me she hadn't gotten them the first time.

We jumped along from building to building to try to get closer and get a better shot at the pony pulling the wagon, but I almost lost my balance when I finally caught sight of him.

Brimstone Blitz was a mountain of a pony, easily half again as large as I was, and I might have mistaken him for a buffalo or a yak if I didn't know who he was. With almost unnatural stamina he continued to gallop with the heavy wagon yoked to him, cutting around corners and dodging chunks of debris and crumbling buildings with an agility I disbelieved.

Inside the wagon were two others. A unicorn with a rifle held in her magic and a small earthpony of some kind. I didn't get a good look before the unicorn swung her rifle our way and snapped off a shot that sent me ducking.

Amy leaped over an alley onto the building ahead of me and raced over to the edge to snap off return fire of her own, but the lack of screams told me she must have mis-

Another explosion went off, rocking the building I was sprinting across. This time, Liese hit her mark: fragments and splinters of wood sailed up from the street and over the roof I stood on. A twisted and mangled metal bar clanged off of the wall below me, and a shrill scream erupted from the street below. I doubted that was Brimstone, so with my heart racing and thundering in my ears I jumped up to the edge of the building and pointed my pistol down at the street.

I couldn't see anything. Smoke from the shoddy mines clouded everything, and what little I could see was just the carnage of what was left from the wagon. The passengers had probably been killed, but I knew Brimstone was still alive. The clanking of him wresting the yoke off told me as much, and given his reputation I was not going to take any chances.

Instead of rushing down into the street to finish him off, I jumped over the alley to rejoin Amy and scanned the skies to find Liese and her squad mates. It seemed they all had the same idea and were perched on buildings across the street, training their rifles on the dispersing clouds of smoke below. Liese herself was slinking across a rooftop further down the street, no doubt planning to cut Brimstone off if he tried to make a run for it that way. I was pretty sure that once the smoke cleared, she was going to shoot him even if he surrendered, and at this point I would hardly-

A metal ping sounded from the street below, and two pink flashes caught my eye.

“Grenade!” someone shouted.

“It's mine!”

“I saw it first!”

Amy shoved me back as she dove down after it. “No, it's mine!”

Hey, wait, I wanted it! I swore and jumped back up. Dammit, everyone had a head start so there was no way I was going to get it from all of them!

Alfred landed on top of it and clutched it to his chest. “I got it, suckers!”

Three other griffons were halfway down to the street, claws outstretched. “You drunk sot, it's mine!”

Dammit, they were going to-

Pain.

My back hurt. My wings hurt. My legs hurt. My head really hurt.

Everything was dull and quiet. Ringing. Like my head was underwater.

Groans and cries. That's all I could really make out.

I cracked my eyes, but all I saw was a swimming sea of dark clouds overhead. I twisted my head to the right and regretted it as a jolt of pain shot down my entire spine. There was a wagon wheel lying in the street. Someone's claw was resting atop it. Light gray.

Someone's severed claw was resting atop it.

I rolled over and jumped onto my feet, but collapsed the next instant. I'm pretty sure I screamed or squealed like a child as my body utterly rejected the notion of standing up, but my ears were ringing so bad I didn't hear much of it.

My head was spinning and I was so nauseated all I could do was push myself up gently into a seated position, doing what I could to ignore the throbbing pain in my elbow. Nothing was making much sense yet. I saw three griffons sprawled out in the street, but what had just happened was completely absent from my memory. We'd been chasing some escaped slaves… Brimstone Blitz was leading them… someone threw a grenade…

The grenade!

Alfred, who had been thrown down the street, was the easiest to identify from where I was. I didn't need to get up to know that he was dead. That was his claw over on the wagon wheel, and blood was pouring from his beak like a tap. His breastplate was entirely missing, his chest had been completely crushed by the pressure wave from the grenade going off and judging by the angle he was lying at, his back was broken.

The griffon ahead of me I was less sure about. She'd been thrown down the street in the same direction and was now sitting motionless, propped up in a corner between a rusty dumpster and the stone block building it was situated against. Her white feathers were stained red in half a dozen places and I couldn't tell if she was breathing.

She wasn't.

I don't know how long it took me to drag myself over to her, but I had a hunch she was dead around the second time I had to stop and let my head and stomach settle again. When I got across the street, I was sure. Fragments from the grenade had struck her in the face, and removed several sizable chunks of her skull on the way out. The dumpster and wall behind her were painted red.

I fell into a seated position again, rubbing my aching elbow as I tried to gather my wits. My leg and claw were swollen and flexing my wrist or any talon ached terribly. I knew that every joint in my body was going to hurt after being caught in the blast, and I might have had a concussion. As a small consolation, it looked like I'd managed to win the lottery and the only fragments that struck me hit my armor. A half dozen fresh scratches and dings covered my breastplate, and it looked like the flak weave on my abdomen had even managed to do its job.

Someone groaned. A weak, feminine voice.

I twisted around as far as I could without standing up again and an involuntary gasp escaped my beak.

Amy was lying on her side halfway up the steps to a building on the far side of the street. Her right foreleg was twisted at an impossible angle behind her, and each breath brought on a shudder and visible cringe.

The pain in my leg no longer mattered. I launched up and leaped over the obstructions in the street to reach her before snatching my medical kit off and digging for potions.

A closer examination showed two fragments had punched through her left rear paw and thigh, which was bleeding but not so badly I was concerned that her femoral artery had been hit. More concerning was her ragged breathing, which could have been from another penetrating fragment injury that I was missing, but could also have been from broken ribs. A slip could puncture her lung or heart…

I brushed that aside for the moment and turned my attention to her leg as I popped the cork from the first potion. Her shoulder was clearly broken, and her lower leg was twisted around enough that I was sure the leg was broken in at least one more place. Her claw was a disaster, having been shredded by fragments. I was not convinced it could be saved.

Amy pushed and fought me as I turned her head to pour the potion down her beak. Fucking burning pinfeathers from hell, what was I doing? If her neck was broken I could have just killed her, and if she-well, if she aspirated the potion she'd be fine, but if she started coughing and she had a broken rib she might puncture a lung, but-but the potion would seal the wound so she'd survive to get to surgery. I dug for a Med-X syringe to administer some painkillers so she'd relax and stop fighting me so much. I-I had to find something to make a stretcher from, but fuck me, I couldn't carry her back by myself even if I wasn't reeling from the grenade too. Where the flying fuck were the others that were here before? Where was Liese? Did they leave us all behind, assuming we were dead? I didn't believe for a moment they were dead themselves.

“Fuck you, Liese, Stern, Red Eye and whoever else is listening,” I croaked as I reached through a broken window to pull a set of ragged curtains off of their rod. “Fuck you all.” Catching Brimstone was all that mattered. Now two more were dead and Amy may join them soon.

“Lieutenant, look! Someone's down there.”

Egon?

I looked up just in time to see a flurry of black and purple feathers descend around me. Egon grimaced and turned away from Alfred's corpse, only to turn away from the sight of his severed claw even faster. Heidi was the first to speak, demanding, “Private, what happened here?”

“Brimstone was here,” I started, doing my best to collect my thoughts. “Someone threw a grenade. I don't… don't know where the others went. There was a squad from second platoon here earlier.” I nodded toward Alfred and his squadmate, and the jolt of pain in my neck made me wish I hadn't. “Those two are dead.”

Egon stepped back and held up a claw to the headset he was wearing. “Lieutenant, there's more fighting going on at the train station. More casualties. Definitely Brimstone and the slaves he had with him.”

She held up a claw to silence him. “What about Private Silverwing?”

“I-I think she'll live, but she needs to be taken back to the clinic immediately.”

“Is she stable?”

Fuck me, I don't know. “I-I think so.”

Heidi turned back to Egon. “Inform the clinic that there are more casualties coming. Get fourth squad on the radio and organize a medical evac. Bring in eighth and ninth squads to circle around to the train station and cut Brimstone off.”

“Yes ma'am.” Egon started relaying orders through his headset, before wincing and toggling something on his radio. “Updates coming in from the army...”

Heidi grimaced. “Go ahead.”

“The Steel Rangers are in a fighting retreat. Currently pulling back along Fetlock Avenue toward Bridle Lane.”

The lieutenant scowled. Her eyes darted from Egon, to me, to Amy, back to Egon and finally back to me. “That's moving away from here. You said Private Silverwing is stable?”

“I think-think so.”

“Egon, ready a signal flare.” As he complied, she raised a claw skyward and pointed off to the water tower rising in the distance that indicated the remains of the train station. “Time is short. We'll move up to reunite with what's left of second platoon's squad so you can attend to the wounded there.”

Wait, we were just leaving Amy? Sure, the flare would tell the other squad where she was, but what if I'd missed something? What if she had a bad reaction to the pain killers, or-

“Time is short,” Heidi reiterated. “You've done what you can for Private Silverwing and if we stay here half a dozen more may die.”

As much as it felt like a lead ingot forming in my stomach, she was right. I spread my wings and fought a cringe that brought on. Pony goddesses that hurt. “Yes ma'am.”

The three of us jumped into the air and started off toward the cargo station, which looked like it was fifty kilometers away now…

I had to trust that Amy would be all right, and that I'd done all that I could in the field. Fourth squad would be here soon and once she was back at the clinic, Yvonne or Adelaide would get to work on her right away.

As much as I desperately wanted to drink a potion from my medical kit to ease the aching that consumed me, I had to save them. I didn't know how many more had been hurt, and if I came up short just to make my life easier I'd never forgive myself as long as I lived.

Lieutenant Blackfeathers led the way to the station, flanked by her assistant as always. Egon continued to relay information to and from her through his radio set, but I never caught any of what they were saying. All I caught were her frustrated glances back in my direction because of how much I was falling behind, but it was everything I could do just to stay in the air.

The flight came to a merciful end just as we passed over a series of trains parked in a rail yard, no doubt rusted in place and so badly degraded even Red Eye didn't want to bother sending teams out to try to reclaim them for scrap. Two ponies dressed in light armor emblazoned with Red Eye's symbol flagged us down from their position between rows of train cars, and Heidi banked to direct us down to meet them.

“Brimstone Blitz came through here,” the yellow mare on the left said the moment we landed. “But that was minutes ago.”

The orange mare with a golden mane to the right nodded. “Last word we got was that he'd been chased to a bank a few blocks over. The slaves he was with haven't been spotted so we were combing the area for them.”

Heidi nodded once. “There were casualties here?”

Yellow Mare sucked a breath through her teeth. “There was some fighting in the cars up ahead. It was over by the time we got here but it doesn't look good. Talons were involved. Two of them.”

“Are there any Talons left in the area?”

“You're the only ones. Whoever was left must have chased after Brimstone.”

Heidi spun around to face me. “Your squad is on the way and will assist fourth with evacuating anyone they can.” She motioned for Egon to join her. “Come with me and inform eighth and ninth to reroute to the bank.” They departed without another word, leaving me alone with Red Eye's soldiers and enough anxiety swelling up inside of me that I was worried I'd vomit it up.

Orange mare banged a hoof on the train car next to us. “The fighting was in there. Just head up a few cars.”

I was pretty sure I heard her whisper something to her companion about leaving while they could, but I ignored it as I grabbed on the railing of the passenger car to pull myself inside. As late as it was, it was hard to make out much detail at first while my vision adjusted to the darkness, but there was no doubt whatsoever that Brimstone had been here. A pony his size would barely fit in the aisle between the seats on each side, and accordingly he'd simply plowed his way through. Benches had been shoved out of the way and even out of a window on one occasion, and the wooden planks of the flooring were splintering and flexing under my weight as I picked my way through the mess. Motes of freshly kicked up dust wafted past my eyes, catching glints of the spotlights in the distance that shined through the windows and threatening to send me into a coughing fit.

The chaos continued for three more passenger cars and what I guessed was a dining car judging by the profusion of silverware flattened and pounded into the decaying flooring, but turned to carnage in the passenger car beyond. My fatigued heart found new lows to sink to when I shoved my way past the smashed doorway, dodged the falling chunks of shattered glass and stepped in pooling blood.

Mixed in among the benches that had been torn from the floor were the griffons the ponies mentioned. One with dark plumage, and the other with white, both motionless with loose feathers that fluttered gently as I rushed ahead to check them over.

I could only guess what had happened exactly, but the black griffon I reached first was dead. Like Alfred, his beak was smeared and coated with blood and his ribcage had been utterly crushed. Bruises and cuts in the shape of horseshoes told me all I needed to know.

His partner was possibly worse, and most of the blood on the floor was probably hers. She was stretched out over another bench on her back, with at least two dozen stab wounds on every part of her body. I knew there was no point, but I checked her for a pulse anyway. She was dead too.

The interior of the train car suddenly felt smothering. I pulled back two steps and took in the bloodbath again. A light sheen caught the spotlights outside, covering the floor where the griffoness bled out. Feathers were everywhere. The damaged flooring creaked under me, punctuating the utter silence.

I was too late. Utterly, thoroughly and completely too late.

Without thinking, I ran a bloody claw through my feathers and retreated to the nearest exit door to get some air. In a matter of minutes, the Steel Rangers and Brimstone Blitz had killed half a dozen Talons. And I couldn't do a damned thing about it.

The stone in my stomach returned and I wrung my aching wrist as I thought about flying back to find Amy. I started down the steps. I had a bad-

I missed the last step as I caught sight of another griffoness lying against a cinder block building. The blood in my veins ran cold as I pushed myself up and got a better look. She was gray from beak to tail, save the crimson dripping from her beak and nostrils.

I tried to scream her name, but only a desperate spluttering noise made it out as I scrabbled to my claws and rushed over.

She wasn't breathing. I tore off my medical kit and promptly dropped it atop the bloody train wheel next to her. My claws locked and spasmed with every motion. I fought with the latch for an eternity before I wrenched it open and sent potion bottles flying. Every curse I knew flew after them.

The glowing violet of the restoration potion disappeared under the train car.

Bleeding pinfeathers from hell, I didn't have time for this!

I tripped over myself in a desperate leap after it, but the car was listing where one of its wheels had been torn free. A tiny desperate whimper forced its way out of my beak as I flopped onto my belly and stretched as far as I could. My claw brushed against rocks, tiny splinters of wood, something liquid…

With a gasp I withdrew my claw, knowing I'd find the glowing purple life saving liquid coating it.

Just muck. The bottle hadn't broken! I just… I just had to get it.

Again, I stuck my claw under the train car and groped for it. Something, anything glass.

My claw brushed against something round and smooth. I grasped it and snatched it out with much less care than it deserved.

I had it. I had it!

With the restoration potion in my claw, I bounded back over and unscrewed the cap. There was no time for finesse, and the intense healing magic in the potion would fix any additional injury I might cause pouring it down her throat.

Her neck wasn't broken. I was almost sure. I pried her beak open further, ignoring the blood dripping from the side and poured the potion in.

There was no reflexive gagging. She didn't fight it at all. But the potion still drained into her body, maybe down her trachea. I reminded myself that she'd be fine if she aspirated on it. The potion would absorb into her body faster that way anyway, and it wouldn't leave anything behind. She wouldn't suffocate on it.

A tingle ran up my right claw, and the throbbing pain began to vanish in a calming warmth.

I looked down and jumped back with a gasp as I saw glowing purple liquid pool around my claw. “Wh-what...”

My voice trailed off, and the truth that my mind had shut out was laid clear before me. Restoration potion ran in beads down the shattered ribs piercing her skin. None of it was being absorbed. Blood… just… so much blood was everywhere beneath her. In an instant, I knew that her heart had been destroyed along with everything else in her chest.

Liese was dead.

Liese was dead, and I was too late.

I couldn't save her.

My claws felt numb, but I backed away.

Driven by something deep, primal and unthinking, I ran.

I didn't make it very far.

Serge found me curled up under the next train car. He thought I'd been injured too, but I was fine. I heard something about radioing the lieutenant about finding me. Someone said something about Adelaide being drawn off to help with all of the wounded from the army, so it was just Yvonne dealing with the wounded from Talon company.

Were there any wounded? I thought they all died.

Wait, Amy was hurt.

Yes, I was fine. I ached and felt wrong, but I was fine. I had to help with the wounded. I'd been too late to help anyone else, but maybe I wouldn't be too late for them.

Was Amy still alive? I had to find out.

I don't remember much from the flight back to the city wall, but I do remember the parade marching Brimstone back inside. Flanked by two dozen ponies armed with guns big enough to scare Steel Rangers, they marched him back along the boulevards toward the gate. He looked like he'd been shot a few times, but it hadn't slowed him down much.

I tried to save a dying griffoness and was told I'd be shot if I did. He murdered half a dozen and they just escorted him back inside. He was Red Eye's prize. He mattered.

I remember stopping right as we got to the wall and watching for him to go through the gate.

Liese's last words to me flashed through my mind. 'I'm going to get Brimstone for good this time. Don't care what Red Eye says.' My claw reached down to my hip and wrapped around the pistol in its holster.

“Kaz?”

That was Serge I think.

Brimstone had survived being shot, but I was a doctor. I knew the best places to shoot someone to make them die. I could shoot him where nobody could get a potion into him fast enough to save him.

I lined the iron sights up on his eye.

“Kaz, stop!”

The pistol went off. Everyone else flying with us screeched to a halt and spun around to face me. The ponies on the ground didn't even flinch. Low caliber gunshots were so common in Fillydelphia nobody batted an eye.

Brimstone didn't flinch either.

I looked down my leg and saw a gray claw with mechanical talons wrapped around mine, where Serge had latched on and knocked it aside. The hiss of something landing in the moat below caught my ears. He pulled his cybernetic thumb off of the magazine release.

“Kaz. Kaz, give me the gun.”

I felt… something. Wrong. Words couldn't describe it. My grip on the pistol loosened and he snatched the useless weapon from my claw.

For a moment I thought my wings would give out and I'd fall into the moat below. One more hiss, and I'd never feel this way again.

Someone from fourth squad muttered something about telling Heidi what just happened. If I could have clawed her eyes out, I would have, but I didn't see who said it.

I don't remember much from the trip past that, but I do remember Serge flying next to me, my claw in his. He took me down to a back alley, not far from the entrance. He said something to me, but I don't remember what.

I just remember crying.

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