We’d won a battle, and we’d gotten away clean.

We even found a veritable oasis, hidden in the North. Sure it was hard, but things were falling our way for once. We started looking towards the future, and what it might bring. We started thinking of what life might look like once we’d rescued Bernard’s daughter. Sure, some of us would probably go our separate ways, but the group we were beginning to put together was looking like we might just stick it out that way.

Fade might not hang around, and we had no idea how Ebb might fit into everything, if she could live with existing around the people who had killed her sister… but for Crafter, our fledgling group was all he had. Bernard, too, had been travelling in solitude until he ran into us.

It was only natural that we’d start to think of the future, and how the pieces might fall once we’d finished what we’d set out to do.

Our heads were up in the clouds, riding high on the progress we’d made.

If the Wasteland has taught me anything, it’s that this damn place is an expert on bringing even the flightiest down to earth.

That was a lesson I should have heeded.

After some discussion, the consensus was to make the cave our own, as much as we could. None of us knew if, much less when, we’d be back, but we left a small stash of weapons, ammo and food behind, and shared the terminal password. If there ever came a time that we returned, any one of us would be able to do as we saw fit with the cave’s contents.

It seemed only fair.

Gear from the battle was scavenged, divvied out or stored as needed. The bolt action rifles and a pair of pistols were left behind along with enough ammo to hunt, or defend oneself. In the end, we brought the anti-material rifle with us. It was big, it was iconic, but it was also something that groups like ours could conceivably have found on our own. All things considered, it was probably less conspicuous than the pegasi in our group.

Bernard spent the evening with Ebb. There was an unspoken agreement to leave them alone for as long as they needed. I had planned to ask him to help me figure out how to mount the griffon carbine, but the loadout we’d found on one of the battlesaddles suited me just fine for the time being; a rugged but functional assault rifle was mounted to the side, along with a simple but effective feed mechanism that fed straight from the saddle’s ammunition hopper.

I left the raider saddle behind as soon as I’d retrieved my pistol from it, without a hint of remorse. The pistol was strapped once again on my foreleg, just in case.

When we finally left the cavern, I couldn’t help but notice a few things that hadn’t been there the night before — an empty can of beans, and a rough alphabet scrawled in charcoal on one of the wrecked tarps of the Lobos camp.

There was some initial apprehension when we first left the cave, but in the absence of any ambush laid for us in the night, we simply pressed on. By the updated map on my TFD and Ebb’s guidance, we set a course for Trotwynd at a steady, but sustainable pace. Odds were that if we had aerial scouts out it would only draw attention, so Tail, Fade and myself stayed grounded, walking along with the others.

It was quiet, for the most part. There wasn’t much to talk about, and everyone was either on edge or outwardly apathetic towards the current situation. Ebb was leading the way, her light machine gun hanging at her side from a small frame for exactly that purpose — I’d told her I trusted her, and the first step in backing up that statement was to prove that to her, at least the way I figured it.

She seemed relatively carefree, and I could only wonder at her mental state. With the notable exception of dinner last night, she was a remarkably difficult pony to read.

Gradually, I found my attention slipping. Between opting to walk and having quite frankly had a long day yesterday, it was difficult to focus on just about anything. Blinking through a few menus of my TFD, I decided to pull up the text logs Tailwind had recovered from the terminal in the cave.

It would give me something to think about, at the very least.

Day 90: The North is a ghost town. I’ve walked through so many places, once crawling with activity, work camps, small towns. Now all as frozen as the ground. Early on I had to be selective with my scavenging, taking great pains to not be seen by other survivors.

Now though? I walk freely among the abandoned industry of old.

Though I fear this will not always be the case — Neighson seems to be preparing to spread its influence over the few souls stubbornly sticking together. It’s coal and food for now. I doubt it will always be so benign.

One text log in, and it confirmed the suspicion of mine that the Neighson Ranger chapter really was the direct descendants of the original garrison. I had to dredge through my recollection of ancient history, but I recalled something along the lines of The Day happening in mid-Spring. If that was “Day Zero” for him, then that would put this entry at mid to late summer.

I opened the next one.

Day 129: I was right to be anxious.

These storms from the north are like nothing I’ve ever seen, lasting weeks on end. I was ready, to an extent, but the poor souls in the valley were not so lucky.

I’ve been leaving supplies for the ponies that have stayed in my other cave, I led a few others to them using lanterns, they should be safe.

I find the winds oddly calming.

Somewhere around October or November, based on the date... and the storms were already bad enough for all that? I shivered at the thought. It was late November, and we’d already weathered one such storm, thanks entirely to Chess.

The last line truly had me shaking my head at this crazy bastard — though I guess living through the apocalypse would mess up just about anybody.

I brought up the last entry.

Day 225: I’ve decided to build a library, I don’t know where yet but I feel like it’s my responsibility. Seeing my efforts bear fruit in the little family group I’ve been caring for has shown me how much I take my knowledge for granted.

I’d like to have them be able to learn and grow, maybe make something of this oblivion we’ve dealt ourselves. That is if this winter ever ends.

I saw something in the storm, an ethereal figure wrapped in wisps, never had I felt such a cold. Despite it all, I could not bring myself to be afraid, this… thing simply stared at me, like a child would observe a new bird outside. That stare will haunt me.

Don’t test the storm.

We’d been traveling for most of a day before before we caught sight of smoke over the far side of a small crest. The smoke of cooking fires, campfires and fireplaces. The smoke of life, sheltered from the frozen wasteland.

As we got closer and closer, Fade was becoming increasingly anxious. I hadn’t brought it up, but his usual tics and eccentricities had been increasing as we’d been walking. By the time we caught sight of the first signs of habitation, he was just about constantly wringing his talons together. He slowed his pace and spoke up as we reached the last treeline before the town. “Perhaps Ebb should lead us in? She should know the town best, after all.”

Ebb, for her part, hadn’t slowed her pace at all, and just kept on trotting past, humming a vaguely familiar tune to herself as she went.

I fell in behind the sea green mare, idly wondering at Fade’s mental state. We’d gone over the plan in some detail, and we’d already reconciled the fact that there was a degree of risk, and every possibility that we’d be seen through. Honestly, we were committed by that point. Why bother worrying at this stage? Naturally, I kept those thoughts to myself. I don’t think Fade would actually be bothered, but it might dishearten the others to a degree… and I was already worried about what Tailwind thought of my current decision making.

The mare herself landed beside me, giving a quick stretch of her tired wings. “Time to see what all the fuss was about, hmm?” She commented.

“Huh? Yeah, something like that…” I replied absently, caught somewhat off guard.

Tailwind gave me a long look, the levity in her voice belied by the concern in her green eyes. She wanted to ask if I was ok. If I was ready to face the town that might well have been where my father died.

It was just as well that she didn’t voice the question; I didn’t have an answer for her. Still, I appreciated the thought, and it really was reassuring that I wasn’t the only one thinking of what might have been. I shimmied up beside her, giving her a quick nuzzle, which she readily returned. A smile made its way onto her face, and I couldn’t help but find the same on my own. We’d figure this out together.

As one, we parted the last set of trees, and the town of Trotwynd opened up before us.

Trotwynd had been a workers’ camp in times immemorial. There was a cluster of standing buildings huddled around the skeletal remains of the stripped out railway — once upon a time, it had probably connected all the way to Chess’ waystation. Most of the standing structures were of relatively recent construction, along with a few repair-jobs of older buildings — sheet metal, cobbled together siding and a whole lot of salvaged brickwork were the hallmarks of these, each with a chimney giving off a slow trickle of smoke.

Yet the thirty or so lived-in buildings could not hide the nature of the town’s violent past.

The loading crane which once would have loaded trains full of cargo now lay half-slagged across glassy, scarred ground. Melted and burnt out structures and foundations stood as a grim reminder that the Enclave had visited the area in the past.

I knew the signs. I’d been instructed on their application, for skies’ sake. I could spot the scars left by a Raptor’s main cannons. The slagged steel and concrete where plasma teams had gone to work on building after building, not content to simply root out resistance — but to burn homes down to their foundations.

My emotions were complicated. My heart went out to the victims, the poor souls who had this come upon them. A critical eye saw a clinical effectiveness to the damage, professional hooves at work rather than any sort of random horror raiders might have managed. And the part of my soul that still ached for the loss of my father wondered what they’d done to deserve such a fate. It wasn’t for nothing that the Enclave left the clouds, after all — certainly not with heavy hardware like a Raptor.

For all that, the town seemed to have recovered to a degree, the survivors and those who had resettled there scraping out a life in the shadow of one of the world’s lesser apocalypses.

A meter-high wall had once protected the town, and upon its slagged foundations, a more recent construction had been built. Considering we didn’t want to immediately come off as hostile to this little town, it restricted our route of entry down to an approach through the old railbed, with a pair of guards standing watch.

Casting a closer look over the obvious entrance to Trotwynd, the pair manning cardinal points of a gate sited at the old railhead seemed alert, but not particularly concerned. They consisted of a bearded Earth pony and a hawkish looking unicorn. Both wore more of a uniform than the winter wraps we’d seen prior, with the stylized scarlet eye showing their allegiance beyond any shadow of a doubt. Unlike the soldiers in the pass, their rifles were relatively new, and of an identical style.

Those very same rifles raised as we approached, coming to point at Ebb at the head of our group. “What brings you lot out this way?” The brutish Earth pony called out as we entered shouting range.

I glanced at Ebb. We really were banking a lot on her sense of self preservation, and it was now or never. I felt my pulse quicken with adrenaline.

Without batting an eyelash, Ebb replied calmly, “We came up from the South lookin’ for work. The Rangers didn’t seem to have any, so we figured we’d come ‘round to see if Red Eye had work.”

Coming to a halt a few paces behind her, I did what I could to reinforce the notion that she was running the show, glancing across the town with an air of casualness that belied the turmoil I felt and the pulse hammering in my ears. I was unsure how much we were really committing with her story, but it was still better than just about anything I would have thought of, to say nothing of the fact that I’m one of the race that glassed this town.

Musclehead seemed skeptical, but not outright hostile. “And what exactly do y’all do?” He drawled.

Again with an ease that belied the situation at hoof, Ebb replied casually, “We were a hired group of escorts and mercs for a pair of ponies out of Friendship City. They paid caps up front for what they called an ‘expedition,’” she emphasized with her right hoof while rolling her eyes. “Turns out we were goin’ to try a dig or some shit at Maripony. Needless to say we weren’t too fond of that proposition, and our grif’ friend here-” she motioned over her shoulder at Fade, “-gave ‘em a couple of rounds and we parted ways. One thing lead to another and we decided we’d try our luck somewhere ponies weren’t so eager to get themselves killed.”

Morbid, but potentially effective. I’ll have to ask about “Maripony” sometime. The name seems distantly familiar; probably from some briefing or another, but I can’t for the life of me recall the context.

As she mentioned him, Fade stepped up and added, "Jā. Jā, es pilnīgi nebija kāds viņa teica." I suspected it was as gibberish to them as it was to me, but it seemed to add a level of credence to at least have a second voice speaking for our sakes.

A certain amount of skepticism was maintained between the guards, but between Ebb’s tale and Fade’s… well, I’ll go with supportive presence, they seemed at least passingly convinced. “Yeah, well you’ll still have to clear in with Grassknot at the ‘racks.” Meathead tipped his head towards the only remaining two story building in the town.

Ebb nodded, maintaining her role as the “leader” of our group. “Is now a good time, or should we come by in the morning?”

Muscles gave a shrug. “I s’pose you could go in the morning, he’s less likely to be in a foul mood that way. As fer lodging, there’s a little tavern that might have a room or somethin’.”

Now that seemed like a plan I could get behind. Breaking my silence, I spoke up in a tone I couched to sound like a suggestion, “That sounds great! We can get sorted, have a few drinks…” I cast a deliberate glance back towards Bernard, meeting his eyes before returning to Ebb’s, “We can see who’s been this way, too.”

Now that certainly brought Muscles’ head around. “Yeah,” he replied sardonically, “Keep your heads down, ‘specially you lot,” he nodded at Tail and myself. “I don’t mind diggin’ holes in the morning.”

I flipped my mane dismissively at him as I replied in a deadpan, “Oh, we know. Rough and tumble, hates turkeys, all that jazz.” Without waiting for a response, I started forwards, letting the others fall in behind.

Tail just stuck her tongue out at him as we passed by, giving a pretty clear impression of which hole she figured he could fill foremost.

We passed by without issue and the two guards closed the gate behind us, speaking quietly to each other once we were out of immediate earshot. Whatever, we were in, I figured.

The town itself didn’t look a whole lot different up close, but as always the devil was in the details. It was getting dark, and the only ponies left out were a few quiet souls moving from building to building on some errand or another, or Red Eye liveried goons with weapons carried openly.

It was a short trek to a building that seemed to be a heavily reworked steel train car built into the remains of what was probably a pre-war bank. To be honest, I was kind of surprised some Raptor gunner hadn’t seen fit to slag the place years ago. Steel plates, wood and spray insulation served to protect the building from the elements. It didn’t look pretty, but I supposed people paid for shelter all the same.

Pulling back the sliding train car door that acted as the primary entrance revealed that the interior was mostly lit with coal lamps, leaving the inside heavy with shadows and a thick, smoky air to the building. Six improvised tables crowded the room despite being pushed against the walls, each of them either composed of re-purposed supply boxes acting as tables, or heavily damaged old hardwood. The place was deserted aside from an old earth pony seated behind a steel counter, presumably a bartender and innkeeper all in one. The old Earth pony was playing a card game with himself and nursing a glass of what looked like whiskey. He looked up as we entered, nonplussed even when he saw the wings.

I walked right up to the bar. Something about the place irked me. I was aware that there was most likely a degree of personal bias at play, but… well, I had felt a desire to associate with the ponies of Neighson. I subconsciously wanted to fit in, even if it was mostly superficial. Here… I didn’t give a fuck. I put my hooves on the counter, all business. I wasn’t expecting any courtesy. “We’d like a room,” I stated, straight to the point. “Preferably something with a lock — we’ll pay in salvage.” It wasn’t a question.

The buck continued playing his game, not really giving me much notice. “Mmhm, bet you will,” he replied sardonically.

He pissed me off, but it wasn’t like I didn’t expect it. Instead of getting angry, I just got slightly irritated. “Unless you’d rather we freeload at one of those empty tables all night,” I tossed my mane towards the tables for emphasis, “Yes. We will.”

He gave a sigh as he put his cards down and actually sat up to look at me. “Girl, I don’t think ya rightly know how cold it gets in the main room without the lamps on — and the way I figure, there ain’t nothin’ more you could do to ward off honest folk than y’all’ve already done,” that last was accompanied by him motioning towards my wings with his snout.

I gave a soft sigh at that, reflexively ruffling my feathers in acknowledgement. When I did speak, it was in a… less irritated tone, more so just tired. “Yeah, I’m aware. I don’t suppose a sob story about us being stuck down here would help any, huh?”

He gave me the most deadpan stare I’d ever received. “No.”

Evidently seeing that my method of negotiation had rapidly broken down, Bernard stepped up and addressed the buck. “Look sir, I won’t pretend to know what you and yours have gone through, but all we want is to get out of your mane as smoothly as possible. We don’t want to cause any trouble.”

The bartender gave another sigh. “Yeah… sure thing big guy. I got one room for ya. 90 caps for the night, my only offer.”

Bernard gave me a quick glance before turning back to the buck. “We’ll take it. Thank you.”

What? I would’ve gotten there eventually.

He started to pull out weapon parts, and I quickly lost interest in the interaction. He had far more of an eye for the cap value of random weaponry than I did, and my mind was already on the mess of things that would have to happen tomorrow. Talking to the garrison commander, seeing about talking to some townsfolk, maybe turning a bit more of our assorted weaponry into caps, and moving on towards wherever the Serpent might have headed.

Our plates were pretty full, and we were only just starting to make decent time in our trek West.

Before long, they’d decided on a fair trade, getting rid of some of the rifles and less useful ammo. I figured we were still getting grifted considering it was for a single night, but stayed silent. I didn’t want him to actually call my bluff about freeloading in the common room.

We took our key, which had been tack welded to the handle of a hoof-long spatula, and headed towards where the old pony indicated. An interior door led to the remains of a hallway, passing by where the original building began, with a layer of slagged rubble mended by a variety of creative means to form a seal with the tailing end of the traincar. The room we were in was the third in, and appeared to have been a printer room in a past life. Now, it was mostly gutted with a single lamp sitting on an end table between two makeshift beds.

We filed inside, coming close to filling the small room. Taking up the rear, Fade closed and locked the door behind us, letting out a soft sigh as he slumped back against the wall beside the door.

I hazarded a guess that once we settled in, there’d be just enough room not to have to step over each other’s sleeping bags. Crafter took a look around and gave a soft, whimsical smile. “Hey, it’s better than some of the places we’ve been…” At a guess, it seemed like the place reminded him of his Stable.

Biting back a comment about how claustrophobic the place was making me, instead I replied a touch more tactly, “Cozy as it might be, I don’t plan on us staying long.” Sitting down, I started rolling out my sleeping gear as I posed a question to the group; “So how should we go about this? There’s a good chance somepony knows where the hell the Serpent went from here, but I don’t imagine they’ll be particularly forthcoming with that info. Certainly not to Tailwind or myself.”

Fade leaned forwards into a standing position, using the momentum to walk over to the far side of the room, straight to the corner furthest from the door and tossed his sleeping kit in a somewhat organized pile. “No idea,” he called back over his shoulder, “Especially since everyone in this town either holds a grudge against you pegasi, works for Red Eye — who primarily deals in slaves — or both.” Turning around to face us, he raised a talon and quickly added, “And, considering the fact that the guards are going to pass on word of your arrival, the less time we spend here poking about, the better. Don’t want to be around when their Boss rolls into town.”

“Oh goood,” I purred sarcastically. “Well, we definitely don’t want to stay more than one night then, so we gotta be smart about this. We can fence some of the guns and salvage tomorrow, but I’m open to suggestions otherwise.”

Until that point, Ebb had simply watched quietly as things progressed — now, she spoke up, “Um, so what’s the deal with this Serpent guy? You guys following a hit or something?”

The room went quiet.

I decided to speak up, to break the tension her question had unknowingly brought forth. “He killed Bernard’s family and took his daughter,” I stated evenly, glancing sidelong towards Bernard as I did. “We’re trying to get her back.”

Nodding to me, Bernard elaborated, “I was following him North when I met Snap and Tail,” he inclined his head towards each of us, “They then offered to accompany me on getting her back.” There was emotion welling in his voice. Obviously bringing up his daughter wasn’t easy.

I reached out, placing a comforting hoof on his shoulder. For a moment, he looked up, meeting my gaze. There was pain in his eyes, but also a glimmer of hope, a shared thought that we’re finally getting closer, I imagined.

“Oh,” Ebb deadpanned, “Well if he’s taking…” she faltered for a moment, at loss for a name.

“Rosemary,” Bernard filled in helpfully.

Ebb nodded in thanks as she continued, “Then I’d figure he’s going to Iron Junction. That’s the only large stop I can remember hearing a name of when we came North.”

After a thoughtful pause, I replied,“Then Iron Junction is where we’re headed next. We’ll offload what we can and head out early — the sooner we’re out of here the better."

Ebb simply nodded, presumably not having anything else to add.

The conversation had hardly finished before my train of thought was interrupted by Fade leveling what seemed to be a protective wooden tube of some sort at my chest and declaring, “Miss Roll, I need to speak with you,” he stated with a degree of finality. With no further context, he simply stared at me, unblinking.

He must have taken the thing out while we were talking, and I assumed at some point in the conversation he had more or less tuned us out. “I, um- okay?” I replied, having an abrupt false start at his comment out of the blue. He also seemed… both specific, and urgent. Confused but willing to play along, I shucked my saddlebags, leaving them with Tailwind for the time being. “Just me?” I asked, tipping my head towards the others who were currently obliged to listen in, giving the intimate quarters of the tiny room. I didn’t voice the question, but if he wanted it to be a private discussion, we’d have to find somewhere else.

His initial decisiveness rapidly gave way to him wringing his talons around the small wooden case, leaving a few small nicks in its otherwise smooth surface. As if realizing he’d just done that, he adjusted, looking for all the world like he was trying not to fidget with the damn thing. Nodding a quick affirmative, he tipped the tube towards the door and replied, “Yes, just you. And me. Us. We’ll go out to the lobby. Or another room. I doubt we’ll be bothered.” As if to reinforce that assurance, he reached back and reclaimed his rifle from the kit pile, slinging it and tucking his protective tube under his arm, gesturing for me to lead the way out of the door.

I gave a slightly confused frown, but turned to make my way out of the room. Pausing a moment as I opened the door, I turned to call back, “I don’t think we’ll be long, but could you get a watch list set up, Tail? For… insurance.”

Dramatically, my pale blue lover flopped back onto one of the two beds, “Okaaaay, but you’re getting third watch!”

Grinning, I turned to leave with Fade following close behind. He closed the door behind him, and I immediately perked my ears up with curiosity. “I assume this isn’t because you’ve suddenly fallen for my equine wiles. What’s up?”

Fade seemed taken aback for a moment, so I chalked that up as a point in my favour. “Wha-? Ahh, no. Not yet. Just need your mind right now.” He hooked a thumb back towards the lobby, adding, “I’ll explain in a minute. Need a table.”

Seeing that whatever it was was clearly going to happen at Fade’s pace, I simply nodded, and followed as he led us back to the common area, picking a table off in the corner furthest from the bartender — who eyed us briefly, before returning to his solo card game, seemingly disinterested. He’d brought out an old radio, and it was quietly playing an old violin piece, a soothing ambience that lilted through the still air of the lobby.

What was far more interesting to me was Fade’s body language. He was as tense as I’d ever seen him. Hell, I’d seen him less tense when we’d been hunting that griffon just the day before. As he walked, his eyes twitched from shadow to shadow and his talons ground together at nothing.

It was putting me on edge, and I wasn’t even sure what I was seeing, exactly.

Fade wasted no time. As soon as he sat down, he gave the wooden tube a twist, removing the cap and carefully revealing a simple, off-white roll of parchment, setting the tube aside and placing the paper in the centre of the table. Keeping it rolled for the moment, he explained, “Alright. This is why I wished to speak with you: given where we are and where we’re going, a route out is something that should be addressed. Up until now it hasn’t.” Using the thumb from one talon, he unfurled what was quite evidently a map, smoothing it with a gentle whisper of paper as he deftly brushed it down with his palm, delicately keeping his talons safely away from damaging it. Gesturing with a toss of his head for me to get in close for a better view, he continued, “That in mind, I thought it might be prudent to make you privy to this.” He gestured expansively at the finely preserved map, then shrugged, as if in afterthought, “Also, seeing as you’re nominally in the lead and all.”

The full significance of what he’d unrolled before me was apparent from the moment I laid eyes on the precious artifact. I was obviously aware that a map, more importantly an accurate map was of very high value both financially and strategically. I leaned forwards almost before he’d beckoned me, eyes scanning over the topography. I was more than eager to figure out even a fraction of what we were trotting into in the coming days.

The map itself was clearly of prewar construction, judging from the Stable-Tec cog toothed logo in the bottom right corner. Attached to the document’s flip side were a series of quick, hoof-written notes — some of which were certified by Ministry of Arcane Sciences seals, stamped with an ink that seemed to shimmer and alter its colour even as I watched. The map itself had to be magically protected to some degree, as it seemed to have hardly aged a day, much less two hundred some odd years.

I cast my eyes over. Most, if not all of the geographical features were virtually identical to the map still stored on my TFD, though by now I was far from surprised when the level of detail was completely different. As I was figuring out exactly where we were, I located a series of places we’d already been, all noted by names known to ponies before the apocalypse. Chess’ waystation had a simple note, with rail tracks running through it and continuing right through Neighson, past Stable 248, the Foothills… Trotwynd, with the notorious Stable 245 just to the South of where we sat right then. To our immediate North, the imposing-looking waypoint dubbed “Saltpeet Quarry.” Considering the Rangers hadn’t managed to raze the place, I could only imagine it had quite the reach over the surrounding area.

Following the winding road South and West, tomorrow’s goal of Iron Junction stood out. Beyond that, what seemed to be more towns, places I’d never even heard the names of — they didn’t concern me. Of course there were settlements, all spaced at strategic day travel intervals. What did concern me, however, was the tiny little tag labelled “M.A.S. Site 303,” to the North of Neighson and a series of numbered sites labelled only “X-1” and “X-2” respectively.

Still staring down at the map, willing as hard as I could for it to divulge its secrets to me, and ingraining its very details as much as I could into my brain, I asked, “Fade, what is this? What are all these?” I glanced up, “What the hell sort of interest did the Ministries have this far North?”

For all the questions that burned in my mind, fate itself seemed to have other plans.

Before Fade could reply, the radio crackled with a hiss of transmission, and over the gentle violin music came a curt, gruff voice. The sort I’d heard countless times before.

“...Confirm target’s location, over.”

“Strike five, Saltpeet Control. You have the go ahead, location is Train Wreck tavern. Six targets in total. One of them is a Griffon; unaffiliated, over.”

“Strike five, acknowledged Saltpeet Control, executing now — out.”

I looked up, making very, very deliberate eye contact with the bartender. I know exactly what that was, and whether or not the bartender was going to survive the next thirty seconds depended on how he reacted right then. I felt the familiar weight of my pistol holstered on my leg, the muscles in my jaw already tense at the thought of having to use it.

The old buck looked up from the radio and met my gaze without flinching or turning away. “You need to leave. Now.” A statement, not a question.

Fade pushed himself up away from the table, his eyes blazing with a fury I hadn’t seen from him before. He slammed a palm on the table with a wooden smack, gesturing vehemently to the radio with the other. “THIS is why I wanted an exit strategy! Fucking Red Eye! Always when I’m about to get one step ahead!” Rolling up the map without ceremony, he shunted it back into its carry tube, tucking it back into his jacket, and with an eye on the door stormed back towards our room spouting a continuous stream of curses that switched fluidly between Equestrian and Griffonic.

Hot on his heels, I bolted from the table, following Fade’s impressive hurricane of profanity. My mind was moving a mile a minute. Planning. Weighing odds. We had minutes at best.

If there was one thing Enclave Recce had taught me better than anything else it was that if you didn’t act, you died.

Calling at our backs, the bartender shouted out, “There’s a door out the back, leads South!”

Just before we reached the door, Ebb threw it open and only just managed to avoid being bowled over by Fade. She seemed to debate whether to address that or not, before glancing my way a heartbeat later. We shared a look, and without missing a beat, she stated, “I’m to pass on that we have contact incoming.” I was reminded that despite everything, she’d been a soldier just as much as I had.

“Noted,” I replied, glancing into the room to check on the others.

Fade had been in the room for mere moments, his kit was already on his back and he was racking the bolt on his rifle. “...And it’s always the FUCKING SAME WITH YOU PONIES!” he roared, bringing his tirade to a momentary halt. Beside him, Crafter had his caravan rifle held ready in his magic, Tail’s energy rifle gave its distinctive energized hum as it powered up and Bernard had his pistol held in his mouth.

Tailwind turned and with a practiced motion, tossed me my bags, already re-packed and strapped tight. Catching them with my hooves, I strapped them on, feeling a deadly smile already begin to spread across my lips. Adrenaline had already begun to burn through my veins. They’d caught us, but far from flat footed. I deployed my battlesaddle’s firing bit and kicked the charging lever into battery with the satisfying clack of a round chambering meeting my ears.

“There’s a door at the back,” I explained, “And we’re leaving right fucking now!”

Crafter glanced back and forth, scanning hard as he brought a hoof to his temple. “Uhh, guys we’re being surrounded I think.” He stopped looking for a moment and glanced my way, “What do we do?”

Poking her head out into the hallway, Ebb gave him a glance back, “How can you be sure?” She asked, dead serious but totally confused.

“Well,” Crafter replied, “The red bars have yet to be wrong.”

Ebb fixed him with a look that told me she was quite convinced he’d just jumped off the deep end. “Uhh…”

Snapping them both out of it, I spoke up as I started to dig through my saddlebags, “He’s got EFS on that Pipbuck of his, Ebb. Full threat assessment overlay, same as the Rangers.”

Digging deep in my saddlebags, I found my night vision monocular, unused since we first dropped. Quite simply, we hadn’t needed to fight in the dark yet — being in that environment in the first place was just short of a death sentence, and so the piece of kit had stayed, nearly forgotten. I drew the strap over my head and tightened it into place. Once I was satisfied I could use it as soon as I had to, I folded it back away from my head — it was still too light in the building, and I’d only risk burning the delicate device out if I tried using it while we were still in the settlement. That done, I pulled the hood of my barding up, over my head. It would be dark outside by now, and it was gonna be cold.

As I quickly prepped, I spoke up. “Here’s the plan, in case we get separated.” I glanced at the others, in turn, making sure they were following along. I made sure to lock eyes with Ebb, still acting as our door guard for the moment. She was in this as much as we were, and whatever was coming wasn’t making any special exception for her — hell, the only one they’d mentioned specifically was Fade. “We’re leaving to the South, the same direction as the gutted Stable.” I shook my head, “That’s a happy coincidence, as that’s where we’re headed. Fade, Ebb, I want you two to lead as we force our way out of the settlement. Your guns are the best we have for close range, and you’re our toughest fighters. Once we’re out of the perimeter, you’ll stay on close protection for the group. Eyes out, you’re the primary defense we’ll have as we move. Tailwind will take the lead from there,” I met her eyes as I spoke, “Pick a route that looks safest and fastest, and get to that Stable. Crafter, you’re with her. Back her up with SATS, watch her back. Bernard, your rifle is practically unusable here. Do what you can, stick with them, and I want you carrying my medical bag. Someone goes down, I need you to pony up and get them to the Stable, one way or another.” I shucked my medic satchel, along with some of the other gear I was carrying. I needed to be light for what I had planned anyways, and I passed them to the older buck.

Tailwind, evidently, saw the one thing I’d left out. “...What about you, Chief?” She asked, frowning. She probably had an idea of what I had in mind. She certainly knew me after all this time, and I was about to confirm it. Besides, I didn’t want to bring it up, but she had had an identical night vision piece to my own… hers was just smashed, ever since we landed. That’s just the way it is.

“I’ll have top-cover,” I replied. “I’m the only one with night vision, and I’ll be sending Tail and Fade updates via TFD and radio. If I can-” I saw Tail wince. Damn, of course she knew me. Still, I persisted. “-I’ll try and disrupt them, slow them down. I’ve still got some grenades left, and odds are they’ll be having just as hard a time as we are, with the dark and cold.”

Bernard spat out the pistol for a moment as he shouldered my bag. “Couldn’t’a waited ‘til morning…” he lamented.

Ebb seemed to have grasped her role in the plan for the most part, though I saw her mouth ‘EFS’ in confusion as she turned away.

Crafter surrendered a faint nod as he listened to the plan, a look steeling across his face. He redoubled his attempts to track the bars scrolling across his vision.

Fade steadied himself for a moment before squeezing out into the hallway, leaning up against the far wall, rifle raised and pointed back towards the lobby, he spared a glance back to me and nodded, “Alright, fine. I’ll do what I can, but let’s just move quickly. Don’t want to be in this damned town any longer than I have to. Can hold up again in that Stable well enough.”

Again?

“Fade, Ebb, whenever you’re ready, let’s do this.” I felt my pulse quickening. The feeling was getting more and more familiar. If I’d been asked, I probably wouldn’t have been aware I was doing it; but I was wearing a wicked, humourless smile.

This was what we trained for. Tail, Nose, Me.

Crafter spoke up, “There’s five coming to the front door right now!”

I set myself at the back of the group, rifle set to auto and levelled in the direction of the lobby. I didn’t want to fight inside the settlement, much less this lodging, but if they came through, I wouldn’t waste a second to fill the air between us with steel jacketed lead. “Go!” I hissed behind me, just loud enough for the others to hear.

On my order, Fade and Ebb shared a look, then moved as one, sidling down opposite sides of the hall, guns up and pointed at the far door, stacking up on either side, then checking back to make sure the others were ready.

Crafter, Tail and Bernard caught up, with me moving quick on their hooves. Crafter called out, “There’s two just outside, either side of the door!”

Fade gave a few quick, unmistakeable hand signals towards Ebb’s horn and the doorknob, intending for her to magic it open for him to clear.

Ebb nodded, before taking a few steps back and charging straight towards the wall beside the door. An overglow built around her horn as she charged. When she was right about to impact, she took a running leap and let out a detonation of force from her horn.

The blast of force sent dust and mortar chips flying down the hallway; explosive overpressure had most of us covering our faces against debris.

Needless to say, the wall was not up to the task of sustaining that much raw magical force, and a pile of brick, mortar and leaping unicorn blasted through the door frame that one unfortunate motherfucker had decided to hide behind.

Ebb’s descent to the ground was neither graceful nor uneventful. She physically bowled over the first pony, going down in a tangle of limbs and pieces of building. Keeping a magical hold of her weapon, she fired blindly in the direction of the second trooper, a sustained burst that set our ears ringing, and made any attempt at communication impossible within the confines of the building.

I saw Bernard’s eyes go wide with shock as he silently mouthed ‘What the fuck!’ around his pistol before moving to cover the new point of entry into the building.

Through the shower of concrete dust, snow and smoke that followed Ebb’s destructive outburst, Fade alone seemed nonplussed. With a casual efficiency, he placed a strategic kick to the door. Lacking building on the hinge side, the door went flying into the night as Fade calmly rounded the corner, weapon up. He fired a pair of shots, point blank. He literally couldn’t miss.

By the time Fade exited the building, Ebb had somewhat recovered, more or less getting her bearings while Fade was putting rounds into the other trooper. Rolling until she was sitting on the pony underneath her, she had to be damn near deaf, blind and confused, but still she shouted out “Eat shit Brahmin fucker!” as she fired off a sustained burst into the pony underneath her.

Seeing she was occupied, Fade called back, “Clear!”

With the sound of violence from our side dipping for a moment, we could hear a distinct crash from the lobby and a trio of gunshots sounded off. We were about to have company.

I felt a twinge, not of regret, but anger. They’d just killed the bartender! That was… excessive. Unprofessional. He was one of theirs! One of their own civilians! If anything, I’d have assumed he might be used as a hostage… fuck.

Seeing the door cleared, Tailwind nodded to Crafter and Bernard. “Moving now!” she called out, loud enough for me to hear before she dashed through the door, picking a route across the open ground and setting off at a gallop.

Only a few steps behind, Bernard fell into a sprint behind her, making good time despite the limp in his leg. Crafter was caught slightly off guard, and was quickly forced to catch up.

They’d just started to move when Ebb called out, “Two, right side, in the alley!” immediately before she began to engage, her LMG blasting out a stuttering rattle of heavy suppression fire as she took cover behind the rubble and corpse she’d created.

Fade turned, firing off a series of single shots in the direction indicated, before he took off in the wake of Tailwind and the others.

The breaching team would be around the corner any moment now. I bit the trigger bit and held it down as the light rifle at my side roared to life with a hammer of hard rounds, spalling off the hallway and sending rounds into the visible wall of the lobby. The engagement outside was escalating, and that was all the time I could spare. I turned and galloped out the door, passing by the pair that Ebb and Fade had made short work of. I hardly spared a glance, flaring my wings as soon as I was clear of the building and kicking off into the air at a full sprint, keeping a low altitude and arrowing towards where the others, currently sans-Ebb, were headed.

As I passed, I saw Ebb spare me a glance, and I just barely heard her say, “Cool,” with a twinge of what seemed like genuine admiration in her voice, before returning to pouring fire on the pair engaging from our flank.

Crafter must have indicated a target to his group, because as I swooped over, I heard Tailwind shout, “Engaging!” as she let off a series of blazing red shots at a roofless building towards the edge of the town’s perimeter. Crafter, Fade and Bernard joined in, laying down suppression fire on an enemy only Crafter could see.

The building in question rapidly became pocked with holes, but aside from keeping whoever was within’s head down, their rounds didn’t seem to have much effect. It was a good spot, and as soon as someone had to reload, the pony inside would have a broad field of fire to lay into my squad as they moved through the open.

Not on my watch!

I banked up, arrowing over the building as I drew a frag, bit off the stem and looked down as I passed the wall of the building. Sure enough, I saw a pony in red armour leaning against the side wall, heavy rifle mounted to his side and ready to use as soon as our fire slackened. I dropped the grenade straight down and maintained speed, putting the building’s remaining walls between myself and any fragments from my own grenade.

I heard a scream, then a crump as the grenade sent the wall of the building crumpling inwards. Soon as I saw it fall, I pressed the talk button on my radio — the one Fade was still carrying the twin to. “Building clear,” I stated, all business.

Fade had reached the far side of the street, and he turned, crouched, and started placing fire on the pair engaging Ebb from the side. “Covering!” he shouted.

Ebb got up from her cover and dashed towards — and past — Fade, making good use of the covering fire he was providing. After she passed, he laid down one last burst before he turned and took up the rear.

My run complete and the squad clear for the moment, I beat my wings hard as I passed the perimeter of the town, banking left and increasing altitude as I started to move into an overwatch flight pattern.

Away from the burning lamps and electrical lights of the town, nightfall had fully encroached. As we reached a momentary lull, I became increasingly aware of the chill air currents that sought to sap whatever warmth they could through the insulated barding. It banished any lingering possibility of simply making a run for it — we needed shelter, and the Red Eye kill team was probably counting on it.

With a deft flick of a forehoof, I flipped the night vision monocle down over my right eye, interfacing directly with the TFD’s HUD as the device powered up. After a brief start-up, the world before me became bathed in an overlay of varying shades of green, putting everything into stark contrast and digital image distortion. As it always did, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust, causing me to blink hard for a couple seconds. Soon enough, I was able to spot the others moving at ground level. Using them as a reference point, I started to scan the area. Our intel on the Stable’s position was probably good, but I wanted to make absolutely certain.

I quickly spotted the Stable entrance — it wasn’t exactly hidden, but it was nestled into a short defilade against the mountain face about five hundred or so meters from the town, roughly on the bearing Tail was leading our group.

With a glance back at Trotwynd, a brief scan of movement turned up a worrying number of hostiles moving through the town. Far as I could tell, they had lost sight of us when we pushed through their blocking force, and their advance was forced to clear building-to-building along the route we’d taken. By comparison, our group was managing a controlled sprint towards the Stable.

One thing of note was that their direction seemed not particularly worried about finding our destination. Most likely, whoever was in charge on their side had figured out, just like we had, that the Stable was our best bet.

It could very well be our tomb, if it comes to that.

I pressed the PTT button on the radio right as I toggled voice-to-text over my TFD. No time for fancy radio procedure, I picked something Fade would immediately recognize. “Packet, this is Skyhorse. Contact: eleven — one-one — contacts moving through the structures to your six. Moving cautiously, but they know where you’re headed, over.” Message sent, I returned to slowly circling the area. I still had two more grenades, but there were too many variables to deal with if I did decide to engage them directly. For one thing, I’d be of absolutely zero use to the others if they ended up catching me. Even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to give proper intel if I was dodging bullets.

Tailwind’s reply scrolled across my screen a second later: ‘Packet acknowledges, out.’

I turned into a slow circle, fighting crosswinds but keeping level enough to monitor the situation. A few slow minutes ticked by on my TFD as I watched the two groups progress — a tense situation, and I watched keenly for any major developments. Once, Fade turned on his heel and raised his rifle, the sort of reaction I’d usually see from someone who’d just been shot at. It threw me off for a moment, and I thought I’d missed something, but as far as I could see, the only developments on the ‘Red side were that they were beginning to filter into the buildings on the edge of town, and no further.

Glancing back to our group with no small amount of confusion, I saw Ebb exchange a few quick words with the griffon, as they’d both fallen behind the rest by a few paces. Fade gave her some sort of reply, then they both turned to catch up.

Back in town, it quickly became clear that their orders were to hold at the edge of town, as I could see a series of buildings had been occupied and each turned into a firebase with guns pointed into the night. Some still had smoke coming from chimneys, but any that had been lit had had their lights doused or shuttered.

“So What?”

It was something of a mental tactics exercise I’d learned. So, they’re abandoning immediate pursuit. So, they don’t plan to try and catch us before we reach the Stable. So, either they’ve given up — unlikely — or they’re waiting for reinforcements. Therefore… they believe they can either bottle us up in there until we run out of food, or they believe they have enough force available to storm the place with a degree of confidence.

I’d put good money on the latter, though it boded ill.

Making the call, I abandoned my overwatch and arrowed towards our group of figures, just a series of faint green shapes against a plain of snow to my enhanced vision. I anticipated arriving right near the entrance to the Stable. They were right on target, no need to guide them in.

“Packet, Skyhorse,” I radioed in, “Coming up on your six, ten seconds.”

‘Roger’ scrolled across my TFD from Tailwind.

Nothing from Fade, though I assume he heard.

The group held up a moment, and I flared in for a landing amongst them. My hooves had barely crunched onto the hard snow before I was speaking. “They’re pausing at the town walls, looking for us. Pretty quick, they’ll realize what our plan is. We’ve gotta get dug in inside the Stable, maybe see if we can shut the door on ‘em. We’ll figure out a better plan once we’re in there.”

As I spoke, I glanced around, making eye contact with everyone, giving a quick appraisal of where they were at. Tailwind was fully engaged, her eyes alert. As was Ebb, though she threw a couple glances towards Fade as I gave my update. Bernard was steady, his pistol in his mouth and a resigned expression on his face, and Crafter had his rifle out, his eyes flitting across a hud that only he could see.

Fade, however, was a whole new level of… Fade. I couldn’t actually make eye contact with him, for one thing. He was half-turned away from me, watching back towards the town with his rifle raised. At one point, he flinched, as if to an impact that only he had heard.

He was our most capable fighter for the time being. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was going through some sort of mental breakdown, and I certainly didn’t have time to deal with it if he was, not here.

Seeing a chorus of nods (almost) all around, I motioned for Tail to take the lead for the last leg to the Stable, falling in behind her as I did. The terrain broke into a soft slope, dug out of the mountainside. I could make out the remains of what might have been some sort of ski lift, probably one of the only attractions towards this place back before the War.

As we crested the final rise before the land dipped down into a bowl-like depression and a cave entrance blasted into solid rock, we saw the wide open door of a Stable, illuminated by a few dim electrical lights built into the door’s housing. The first thing that struck me was that while we’d successfully reached our destination, certain assumptions were immediately challenged.

Such as there being a door in the first place.

There was a cog-toothed opening, for sure, but where the door should have been, there was just… nothing. Not even an arm left to move it into place.

Of course it couldn’t be as easy as locking the damn thing behind us.

It looked like we were going to have to keep them out by force of arms, rather than technology. Ushering the others to follow Tailwind as she made her way inside, I took one last look back at the town, just in time to see a single red flare shoot into the sky before bursting, making a slow, burning descent before fading entirely.

That was a signal, probably for follow-on forces to find the leading edge. We were short on time, and more were coming.

I turned off the night vision monocle and stowed it, cantering off after the others.

I saw Tailwind poke her head inside, scanning the entrance before waving that the first room seemed clear. I caught up with the rest just in time to hear Crafter speak up, “Where’s the door? How’re we supposed to keep them out now?”

Tail turned back to flash him a grin, “Well, I don’t think putting up some ministry ‘Do Not Enter’ tape will do, they don’t seem like the law abiding type.” She motioned him forwards, “Try to find some desks or something, we just need to bottle them here, Crafter.” She then caught my gaze and tossed her head further inside, beckoning me to follow.

As I headed inside, I noticed Fade glancing around, his beak slightly open. “Here we go again…” he muttered, as if to himself. As he passed Crafter, he stated flatly, without context and without stopping, “It’s long gone. Didn’t help before, it won’t now…”

Before?

Entering the cog-toothed opening, I saw my first glimpse inside the Stable. It seemed vaguely familiar, in the same sense that “utilitarian” and “military” design styles often reach similar conclusions. It felt a lot like the inside of a Raptor, and I immediately started to feel claustrophobic. Grey walls and galvanized steel, the entryway had a few decent firing positions amongst the minor maze of stairs, equipment, gantries and a slightly elevated platform. Dead ahead, there was a corridor that rapidly took a hard turn to the left, leaving the rest to imagination for the time being.

I followed after Tail, who had ducked inside what seemed to be the door operation control room, off to the right. Not that it served a purpose any longer, without the door itself. Coming around the corner, I asked “How’s it look? I don’t imagine they’ve got a spare door lying around.”

Despite everything, she still cracked a grin at the bad joke, “Yeah, and a whole robot army that hates iris infections!” She turned back to me, her face dropping. “Do we have a plan, Chief? Cause it’s very apparent to me that the former inhabitants stripped anything not absolutely essential from this place a long time ago.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but was abruptly interrupted by Ebb bursting into the control room, abruptly shoving her LMG sideways against me. “Bullets,” she stated bluntly. She had an earnestness in her eyes, like her actions were the most normal thing she could think of, given her situation.

Well, she was eager, I guess. Still, I couldn’t help her — Fade was carrying the rest of the belted ammo, which I voiced, “What? Fade’s got the ammo, go see him for more.”

She persisted, glancing awkwardly back into the room, “Uh, he seems…” she trailed off. She had something she didn’t feel comfortable voicing, and it was probably related to how particularly crazy Fade was acting.

I stepped back out of the control room right as the griffon in question was voicing his tactical opinion as he stood half-in, half-out of the cog-toothed main entrance. “...I can mine the entranceway and seed some further back. This place is like a maze, but we can use that to create choke points. Mostly worked last time. I’m still here, anyways.” He clapped a taloned hand around his beak, realizing what he’d said and wearing a look on his face that seemed as shocked at his own statement as we were at its content. He blinked, glancing around at us for the first time, his eyes hovering on Ebb’s empty machine gun, and he asked, “Wait. What’s going on here?”

He’d been here when the Enclave attacked, and this is the first I hear of it? Shit!

I clamped down on my thoughts. Not the time. If we lived, he was getting a barrage of questions. For now, I focused on the present. “Fade, you’ve got the ammo to top her up, right? Give her everything you can spare, she’ll need it.” Addressing the group, I continued, “He’s right though. We hold this entrance. Just as they did, seven years ago. We bloody their noses, force ‘em to wait us out. We can last the night in here — they’ll have to pull back to the town eventually, then we’ve got all night to figure this out.”

“Um.” Ebb vocalized, speaking up for the first time, “I think we need a more narrow avenue than this. Smoke, frags, and a screen rush will route us out of here quick.” She shrugged her shoulders, “Unless they have some useless slaver in charge instead of a lieutenant or something.”

Fade, still hung up on the ammo, dug a talon into one of his bags, pulled out a belt and tossed it towards the green unicorn. Under his breath, he muttered, “I shouldn’t even give you this, but take it, make it last. When this is over we’re talking about trigger discipline, or I’m taking the machine gun away.” Taking a breath, he turned back to me, inclining his head towards the open door and followed up with, “She’s right though. This place won’t last long even with a door. We can hold out for a time, but then the front needs to be narrowed. Give them only one route in. Now that is much easier to hold, and I can make things especially interesting for our unwanted tagalongs.” He ducked suddenly, as if to some blast from above.

I ignored it. It was pretty clear by now he was going through some pretty serious memory relapse, or something like it, to the last time he’d apparently fought here. “Then we go deeper,” I declared. “Still, mine the entrance — slow them, buy us time.” Much as it… worried me, scared me, to be blunt about my thoughts of going deeper, they had valid points. “We look for a defensive position. We go deeper, clearing this damn place as we go, see what we’re working with.” Though it pained me to admit, I added, “Thoughts? I’m flying by wire here — if you’ve got any ideas, speak up.”

Ebb took her newly acquired ammo, feeding it into her gun, slamming the feed cover and cocking the action back. “We probably got close to an hour or two. The response team they’ll have called was probably stationed at the command hub a couple clicks North of town. They have a little building where they keep a combat team for these sort of things.”

An hour or two. That… that helped. I took a few deep breaths, letting out the last in a bit of a sigh of relief. I took a moment to compose myself before replying. “Okay, that’s… more than I expected. Fade, Ebb, Bernard, I want you all to set up here. Tailwind and I will take Crafter, scout this place and find us a spot to hole up. We won’t be as bunched up, and if you guys get bumped, you can stage an organized retreat to us if we’re not back yet. We’ll send a guide to get you when we find somewhere suitable. Until then, keep any opportunistic probes out — we need to know where we can afford to let them get to. I certainly don’t want to have to go back and clear this deathtrap after we’ve forced them back. Any questions?”

“Shoot nosey bucks and sit tight,” Ebb replied, “Got it.” She took to eyeing up the room, trying to see where the best arcs of fire would be.

Giving a quick nod, Bernard went to set himself up as far back into the room as possible, unlimbering his rifle and beginning to stare out into the dark, watching for movement.

Fade set about inventorying his stock of weapons and ammo, and doing a bit of quick maintenance on his primary rifle, his movements robotic, even if his talons were shaking.

Seeing the three getting to work at the entrance, it was time for the rest of us to get to work. Turning to Tail, I commented, “Lets get this done. Finding what might not be there, with a time limit.” I gave her a grim look. “Nothing we haven’t done before, right?”

She gave a strained laugh, but there wasn’t any humour left in it.

We both knew this plan was banking on a whole lot of luck, and ours hadn’t exactly been stellar in the last two weeks.

“Crafter, fall in behind. I don’t want you running point, but I’d like to hear any thoughts you might have for how we can defend this place. You’d be the most familiar with this sort of place, besides Fade, apparently. That, and keep an eye on that EFS as usual — there’s no telling what might have taken up residence here what with the door gone.”

That said, I stepped off, beginning the task of clearing the Stable.

It really does figure. I swear on the skies above that there’s a cosmic sense of irony.

I followed the hallway straight out of the room, turning the sharp corner and immediately came up short.

Before me, just beside a set of stairs leading up above the entrance room was a stone propped up against the wall, meaningfully set into the existing structure of the Stable. On its grey-white surface, names, ranks and cutie marks were carefully, delicately etched. Where a heading might have been was simply a deliberately blank space. Sitting just in front was a solitary mast from a long ago broken flagpole, its base set in a hole drilled in the floor. Upon the mast rested a Ranger helm, worn and scarred from energy weapon fire.

The thing that drew my eyes, and a gasp of surprise from my lips, was the looped bands of identity tags hanging from the pole. Enclave issue, the very same style Tailwind and I were wearing.

The same kind my father wore.

Author's Notes:

Thanks a whole bunch to the editing team, which now includes Belmor, Shady, KylerAdams and BasicJasioh.