Chapter Twelve – Probational Period

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Double Tap nudged the dial with the back of his hoof, making the flame from the pre-war stove climb high enough to lick the sides of the pan. A moment later, Raspberry swatted his hoof away and turned it back down. Tap frowned.

"It's not hot enough," he explained.

Raspberry Tart smirked and shook her head. "No, but it will be soon. You need to be patient or you'll burn it."

Tap sighed quietly and sat back on his haunches, restlessly watching the slab of raw meat in the center of the pan. A dry, crackling sound very gradually rose up out of it. He looked to Raspberry expectantly.

"Now what?"

"Now you need to make sure it doesn't stick." She lifted a hoof as Tap wrapped the pan in his magic. "It's okay to leave it alone for now, since it just started to sizzle, but if you leave it for too long it will burn to the pan."

"How did you learn all this stuff?" he asked without looking away.

"Hmm?"

Tap spared a quick glance in her direction, noting her tilted head. "You know." He flicked his hoof idly. "Like cooking, or potion making."

"Well, I taught myself a great deal through books and the like, but I have my mother and father to thank for instilling such a passion in me." She had a fond, thoughtful look on her face when he glanced her way again. "I dare not imagine who I would be without their guidance."

"Must be nice," Tap murmured.

Raspberry pursed her lips. "Your relationship with your parents was not ideal, I assume?"

Tap shook his head. "I loved my dad." His ears wilted. "He was just… taken away from me, when I was still young."

"Oh." The sizzling of meat filled the lull in conversation. "I'm sorry," she eventually offered.

He shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it."

"Now," Raspberry answered.

Tap blinked. "Well yeah, there's nothing I can do about it now; it happened when I was—" He gave her a sideways glance.

Raspberry was gesturing to the pan. "I meant now as in, it's time to move the meat."

"Oh, uh, fuck. Right." He levitated it off the burner, glancing over for additional instructions.

"You have to shake the pan around, darling." She moved her hoof in a sawing motion. "Back and forth." The pan and meat moved as a static object in his telekinetic grasp, and she added, "Hold it by the handle."

The glow of his magic receded until only the handle remained in his hold. He shook the pan around until the sizzling meat began to slide with the motions. "So your parents were cooks in Friendship City or something?"

"Or something," Raspberry repeated with amusement in her voice. "They were not chefs by trade, nor did they operate out of Friendship City. I come from a family of alchemists and herbalists." She waved a hoof at the edge of his vision. "You can set it down on the burner. We don't want the pan to cool."

Tap did as instructed, then looked over at her. He had seen her smirk and grin in shades of spite and smugness, but presently, her smile was something genuine, even content. It faded as she met his gaze and arched a brow.

"Alchemists and herb-a-whats?"

"Herbalists," she corrected. "What I mean to say is, my family's profession was potion crafting."

"Isn't that, like—" He paused, trying to find the words, but settled for, "Zebra stuff?"

Raspberry furrowed her brow. "Do you use healing potions?"

"Well yeah," Tap answered.

She lazily pointed in his direction. "Are you a zebra?"

He blinked, glancing down at his forehooves. "Uh, no?"

She nodded slowly. "Then it follows that potions are not exclusively for zebras." With a chuckle and an eye roll, she added, "Though, it doesn't surprise me that some ignorant pony with active magic at their disposal would think it alien to rely on the combined properties of flora and fauna."

Tap snorted. "Fuck off, I didn't mean it like that. And if you're such a damn good potion maker, why don't you whip up some healing potions for this?" He gestured angrily to his black eye and bruised cheek.

"I lack the ingredients at present." Raspberry shrugged, smirking. "I would need to either procure them in the wild or purchase them from an apothecary." She looked over at him, eyes flicking to the stove. "You should flip that now, unless you prefer your meat well done."

"How cooked is that?" he asked.

"Very."

Tap levitated the slab of meat off the pan, turned it over, and let it flop back down. The sizzling swelled in volume. "A-poth-e-canary?" He turned his eyes toward her. "Is that like, that weird little shop in Tenpony with all the salts and plants and animal parts and shit?"

Raspberry snorted out a laugh, shaking her head. "You certainly have an interesting way of describing things. But yes, that would be an apothecary." She paused, glancing to the side. "Though, given the choice, I'd prefer to purchase my supplies from a traveling merchant. Their prices tend to be more reasonable."

"Yeah, my dad used to sell stuff like that pretty cheap when he could find it." He shrugged. "I never really understood why people would want to buy leaves and sticks or carnicero wings."

"Your father was a merchant?" she asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah. Actually, I kinda remember him trading with this family of herba-whatevers whenever we ran this one route." Tap smiled fondly. "He would make a list with little drawings of plants, and tell me to find as many as I could. I would get to keep whatever caps he made selling the stuff to them."

Raspberry's expression had become very serious when he met her gaze again. He cocked an ear.

Very slowly, she asked, "Your father… what was his name?"

A series of sharp pops cut through the silence. Double Tap looked up from the stove and pulled the shotgun to his side, turning for the door.

"Turn off the burner first," Raspberry scolded from behind him. He was already two steps out of the kitchen.

Tap prowled through the cafeteria, sticking to the shadows cast by the late day sun. His ears flicked and swiveled, listening closely for the popping, and instead hearing an unearthly, rasping choir. The screams echoed in from the street, through the vacant window frames. He approached cautiously. Being pursued by a mob of ghouls was not an experience he wanted to repeat. Peering through the vines, he could see the ghouls swarming through side streets and over hills of rubble several blocks away. Their distant cries reverberated off the trees and buildings, but he couldn't see what had gotten their attention.

A series of rockets suddenly shrieked up over the rooftops, erupting into brilliant and colorful displays that trickled down into crackling trails of light. Fireworks. There was another sound, slowly getting louder with every passing moment. A sound like a wailing guitar. He recognized the riff after several seconds.

Rita? he mused. What the fuck are you doing?

The sound of hoofbeats drew his attention. He glanced over as Raspberry came up beside him, trying her best to step lightly.

"What is that?" she whispered, squinting through a gap in the vines.

Tap shrugged. "I think it's Leaf and Rita? I can't think of anyone else who would be playing music or setting off fireworks in a place like this."

Raspberry frowned. "You're not really willing to allow them to eat me alive, are you?"

"Nah," he said with a chuckle. "I owe you that much for showing me how cooking works."

She gave him a sideways glance, lips tense. "And what would it take to make you reconsider turning me in?"

"You know I can't," he sternly replied.

"I could pay you," she said, turning to face him. "What are they offering? I'll pay you double... triple. You can do whatever you like with it; split it, keep it for yourself, give it to charity—"

Tap cocked an ear, brow furrowing. "Raspberry."

"You've been under her talon for years," she continued, eyes wide. "This is your chance! You can retire and live freely!"

"Raspberry, you fucked up." He took a step toward her, eyes narrowed. "You really fucked up, and a lot of ponies were killed because of it."

Raspberry sneered, shaking her head. "Who the hell do you think you are? Don't try and take the high road, assassin!" She stomped, snorting. "As if you weren't guilty of your own misdeeds! Your own mistakes!"

"Knock Knock!" Rita's voice boomed over a crackling loudspeaker. "I'm here! Gimmie some kinda signal!"

Tap floated the shotgun between himself and Raspberry, glaring at her as he threateningly pumped a shell into the chamber. He looked out the window again, keeping her in the corner of his vision. The swarm of ghouls was a lot closer now; so close, he could see that they weren't charging in any particular direction. Instead, they were surging around a single point like a swarm of insects, literally crawling over one another. He still had no idea who or what was at the eye of the storm, but it certainly couldn't be Rita. He imagined Leaf Marine with a speaker on her back, while Paharita broadcasted from a safe place. The whole squirming mass was less than a block away now. Tap gritted his teeth, anxious about doing something that might bring them charging. He pointed his horn out the window and fired off several flash spells in quick succession.

"I seeee yoooou!" Rita sang. "If you would be so kind as to escort the esteemed Fatty-Fats to the main entrance foyer, I'll be joining you shortly!"

"Alright, you heard the bitch." He stepped away from the window, vaguely pointing the barrel of the shotgun in Raspberry's direction. "Let's get moving."

She looked to Tap, tail flicking. Tap snorted and maintained a hardened expression.

Raspberry inhaled sharply and said, "As much as I would love to—"

"Cut the shit, Raspberry. Let's go." Tap waved the barrel toward the other side of the room.

Raspberry pawed at the floor, looking back and forth between him and the exit. "If you would simply allow me—"

Tap narrowed his eyes. "You're not getting out of this. It's time to own up to what you did."

"I—" Raspberry looked to the floor, ears splaying. "I want to say goodbye first," she said quietly.

Tap suddenly lost his nerve. "Alright," he said after a short pause, lowering the shotgun. "Go ahead."

Raspberry nodded and stepped away from him, slowly trotting through the moss and grass. He followed for several steps, then abruptly stopped. This, he realized, was something she probably wanted to do alone. Tap watched as she knelt down at the spot where Digit had been laid to rest. Her eyes closed and her head bowed as her lips moved silently. It all seemed very familiar. He looked away, moving back to the window.The swarm of ghouls was right outside now, their withered forms thrashing and pushing past one another several stories below. He looked over his withers and saw that Raspberry had gotten to her hooves, though she continued to stare down at the grave.

An explosion rocked the building moments later, shaking dust and chunks of concrete from the ceiling, followed by another not long after that.

"Good grief," Raspberry groaned, looking up from the grave. "Would another minute have been too much to ask for?!" Tap stayed rooted to the spot, unsure of how to respond, but shortly after her outburst she came trudging up to him, a miserable scowl on her face. "I'm ready."

|[o8- ]|[  7 ]|[(  ) ]|

The hallway leading into the main entrance foyer had collapsed. Slabs of concrete lay in a great heap, with jagged ends of rebar and pipe jutting out through the dusty air. Water, brown with rust, splashed over the debris. It was barely audible, because somewhere on the other side of the blockage, the thunder of guns raged so intensely that the floor trembled. Tap held the shotgun close and stayed low to the ground. Raspberry's heavy hoofbeats sounded at random behind him, as though she were anxiously shifting her weight.

"Is it the Justifiers?!" she shouted over the roar of gunfire.

Double Tap didn't answer. His ears flicked and swiveled as he picked up a new sound, coming closer by the second; thumping, accompanied by hissing and rattling. He pointed the shotgun down the corridor and backpedaled. The mound of rubble heaved, stirring up more dust. Raspberry's shocked exclamation was lost as the hallway shook so hard that new cracks spiderwebbed under Tap's hooves.

For several seconds the shooting and rumbling ceased, replaced with screeching vocals and a screaming guitar. And then, just as suddenly, a doorway and the surrounding wall on the left side of the hall shattered outward around a massive, lumbering figure. Even through the dense cloud of dust, it was plain to see that the silhouette did not belong to Leaf Marine. Several beams of light swept over the hall, settling on Tap. In that same instant, ghouls began to pour in through a doorway on the other side of the hall. The spotlights swung around as the figure turned. Every heavy step sent shockwaves through the floor, and then the dust cloud lit up with muzzle flashes.

Tap turned and saw that Raspberry was already in the process of retreating, tail flying as she galloped as fast as her elephantine legs would carry her. He followed her example. The thick, wet sound of splattering meat echoed with the gunfire, drowning out the guttural cries of pain that were cut short mid-scream. An explosion tugged at his mane and tail, pelting him with fragments as he neared the double doors at the end of the hall. He glanced back just in time to see the hallway coming down behind him. Tap barreled through the doorway, coughing as he emerged from the thickest of the dust. His ears buzzed, muting everything but his pulse. Raspberry paced anxiously ahead of him, ears folded back. Her mouth moved, but he could barely make out what she was saying. He was about to call out to her when he felt the floor shudder behind him.

He wheeled around, shotgun leveled.

A broad metal face stared back at him, streaked with copious amounts of the black ichor that ghouls bleed. Six points of yellow light pierced the heavy air, joined by spotlights on its head. He stumbled back, keeping the shotgun between himself and this hulking machine. Several tense seconds of stillness followed as he debated pulling the trigger. The sound of griffon music flooded his thoughts as his hearing returned.

"Oh man!" Rita squawked through a speaker. "You should see your face right now!"

Squinting, Tap lowered the shotgun took another step back.

The figure before him resembled an industrial boiler with legs. It was definitely power armor, if a suit of power armor had been scaled up to the point that it nearly filled a doorway. The faceplate appeared vaguely equine in shape, smooth and streamlined, but completely lacked lenses or a visor. Six small, yellow lights were set into the metal, arranged in triangular groups of three around where lenses would have been. Beyond that, only a few faint seam lines were visible where he assumed it had been welded together.

Its neck was short, thick, and segmented, disappearing into a solid metal collar that came up around the base, where the neck met the torso. Some bands were black and iridescent, like Enclave power armor, while others bore the cold, galvanized look of the Steel Rangers. The legs had the same mixed appearance, broad as tree trunks, but with much heavier plating over the joints. Thick slabs of metal were also arranged horizontally over the immense barrel of a body, like plate-mail, obscuring it for the most part. The plating didn't appear to be Steel Ranger or Enclave in origin, looking drab and worn, charred black around the rough edges.

An enormous cannon was mounted over its withers, protruding past the neck on the left. He could see some kind of drum magazine with a shielded feed ramp hanging over the left side, bolted into place. As a clear afterthought, a launch tube had been duct taped to the right side with a trigger mechanism crudely wired into the armor, a curved magazine of rocket propelled grenades protruding atop it.

The whole thing had Rita's name all over it.

A sharp hiss cut through the air as the armor knelt down, and the music cut out as the back splayed open like a hatch. His eyes focused on Paharita as she climbed up out of the suit. She hopped off, gave her wings a shake, and dusted herself off with one claw, then the other. Apparently satisfied she looked to Tap with a big, toothy smile around her beak. The gesture was not returned.

Rita pouted. "Aw, it's been like, two weeks! Don't mess up our reunion by being a sourpuss!"

Tap took a deep, slow breath through his nose. "You fucking abandoned me with—"

"Why is Chunky Butt not gagged?" she interrupted, waving a claw at Raspberry.

"Because it's in rather poor taste to talk to oneself extensively." Raspberry Tart chuckled and added, "But don't fault him, darling. Even a foal could have undone that knot."

Rita shook her head. "I told you to keep her tied up and gagged, dummy!" She stepped past Tap, giving him a look of scrutiny in the process. "And why’s your eye all jacked up? What the heck have you been doing?"

"Rita," he roared, "shut the fuck up! You fucking ditched me here with no way to defend myself, barely any supplies—" Tap took a step forward, looming over Rita as she shrank away from him. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Rita opened her beak, but he lifted a hoof to close it. "Seriously! Don't even start with me you fucking cunt!"

Rita sat completely still for a moment, the pin-prick pupils of her wide eyes reflecting Tap's glaring face. Her brow trembled, eyelids twitching, and then she put on a glare of her own.

"What-ever!" She put her palm in his face and shifted away from him. "You can cry and moan once we cash this big, flabby paycheck."

Raspberry raised a brow. "Well darling, now that you've gotten the attention of what is likely the entire city's rather ripe population, how exactly do you plan on extraditing us?" She tilted her head, smirking. "Would you like us slip out the back and slink away like rodents while you continue your joyride in your glorified security blanket?"

Rita waved a claw, shaking her head. "Puh-lease." She then gestured to the enormous suit of power armor behind her. "You're riding out of here in style!"

Raspberry looked from Rita to the mechanized armor and back again. She frowned and said, "Absolutely not."

"Mmmmkay, you don't actually have a choice here." Rita fished the taser out of her flak jacket, donning a wide grin as she waved it in Raspberry's direction. "Get in, tubbo."

"Yeah uh, you wanna put the fugitive in the big, weaponized suit of power armor?" Tap asked as he leaned in front of Rita.

She raised a brow. "Psh, really? You think I didn't program the thing with weapon locks when I made it specifically to carry her?"

"And I'm truly and sincerely flattered that you would go to such lengths for me," Raspberry interjected. She turned up her nose and added, "But I refuse to board that awful contraption."

Tap sighed quietly as Raspberry looked to him. "Just climb in the damn thing and get it over with."

"I will do no such thing." Raspberry focused on Rita again, furrowing her brow. "I'd much prefer to avoid being crushed and mangled by your shoddy workmanship."

Rita chuckled and retorted, "I know you're just worried you might break it, or it'll be a tight fit, but don't you worry. This bad girl is built for comfort." She narrowed her eyes and thrust the taser in Raspberry's direction. "Now get in."

Raspberry took a step back, wrinkling her nose. Tap could plainly see that the situation was going nowhere fast. Rita was still grinning when he wrenched the taser out of her grasp with his telekinesis. Her claw opened and closed reflexively, then she scowled in Tap's direction.

"What is your problem, mister?" She took a swipe at the floating taser. "If you wanna zap her, just ask!"

Tap ejected the leads from the taser, keeping it well out of Rita's reach. "Raspberry, you can either leave with us, or with the Justifiers, or get ripped apart by ghouls. Take your pick."

"Are you worried I'll wound her pride by insisting on traveling by my own hooves?" Raspberry asked, sneering.

"No, but there's a fuck-ton of ghouls out there," he said as he waved his hoof toward the collapsed hallway. "Rita can fly, I can run and hide, and we're not giving you a weapon or letting you make one of those thick-skin potions, so that makes you a big, walking snack for them." He waved his hoof at the power armor. "So stop wasting time and get in the fucking robot, Raspberry."

Raspberry stared at him for a long moment, frowning intensely. She sighed deeply and nodded. Tap hesitantly returned the taser to Rita, raising a brow as she snatched it out of his levitation field.

"It's reassuring to know that at least one of you possesses some degree of patience and rationality," Raspberry said as she waddled around to face Rita. "And I do hope piloting this monstrosity does not require your level of obsessive finesse."

Paharita smirked. "Don't worry, it practically drives itself."

Wearing a look of suspicion, Raspberry slowly approached the kneeling power armor, beginning her awkward climb. Tap glanced around anxiously, listening to the muted growls and hisses echoing through the building. He stepped up beside Rita, glowering down at her.

"You think maybe Leaf can give her a boost to speed this along?" He looked around again, ears perked. "Where is she, anyway?"

"She's not here," Rita replied simply.

Tap blinked, then scrunched up his face. "What do you mean she's not here? Where is she?"

A shrug was her only real response. Tap gawked, mouth hanging open. Rita tapped her pip buck a few times as Raspberry hesitantly squeezed into the the suit. Raspberry raised her voice to say something, but managed little more than a yelp as the hatch closed on top of her with a sharp hiss. Rita grinned with satisfaction and gestured for Tap to follow. The floor began to rumble, and he turned to watch the power armor stomp around in a half circle, demolishing the doorway in the process. Seconds later, the speakers began to blast heavy metal at teeth rattling volume. The suit plowed through a wall and out of sight, bringing the ceiling down not long after.

Brow furrowed, Double Tap stepped into a hurried trot to catch up with his migraine inducing partner.

"Rita, where the fuck is Leaf Marine?!"

Rita let off a long, frustrated groan. "She got all mopey when we were done salvaging, cause she thought she was the only hellhound left or whatever, and I was all oh you don't know about the hellhounds living around the Everfree Forest? And she was all thanks for the hot tip gotta go!" She glanced back at him, flicking her tail in his face before he could say anything. "And why is it my responsibility to know where she is? She's your dog!"

The growling from down the hall prevented Tap from cursing her out. Rita's PipBuck went dark with a click, followed by the dull, telltale zap of a stealth buck. Tap flattened against a wall, muttering under his breath.

|[  7 ]|[BAR]|[o’o ]|

"Hello?!" Raspberry shouted, muffled by the armor she had been effectively trapped inside. "I can hear you out there! Release me at once!"

Double Tap frowned as he looked at the power armor, still caked with rancid ghoul blood and shreds of leathery flesh. He almost felt sorry for them, how easily they had been ripped to pieces by gunfire and utterly trampled by the suit's heavy, metal hooves. Despite the way they had ferociously chased him, he found himself hoping that they were as mindless and feral as their behavior led most to believe. The nature of feral ghouls was not the only thing on his mind, however.

"So it's like a toy, then?" he asked, glancing between Rita and the power armor.

Rita rolled her eyes, perched on a towel spread over the back of the suit. "Just because something is remote controlled doesn't make it a toy, dummy." Tap scowled, and Rita snickered. "Look, the important thing is that The Potbelly does what I tell it to do."

Raspberry Tart made a sound like a growling animal. "Paharita," she screamed, "could you at least turn the monitors on so that I can see where the hell we're going or what's happening out there?!"

Laughing, Rita thumped on the back of the helmet with a balled claw. "Quiet down in there, canned ham!"

Tap chewed his lip for several moments, then said, "She was going to come with us without a fight, you know."

Rita looked over at him from her rotund, mechanized steed. "Hah! Yeah right."

"The Justifiers showed up while I was guarding her."

A series of blinks followed. Rita narrowed her eyes. "The Justifiers, huh?" She shook her head. "Those bozos are super sketchy. You know their leader has refused to meet with me or give us work?"

"Yeah well, I met the guy, I think. Big motherfucker called Rhino." He glanced over his withers, ears swiveling. "Anyway, I thought they were gonna kill me and take Raspberry for themselves, but when I mentioned you, he just kinda backed off and all his reinforcements followed."

Rita had sat up when he looked over at her again, holding the underside of her beak with two talons. She finally shrugged. "What a buncha weirdos.” She flexed her forelimbs unconvincingly. “But at least they know better than to mess with all this!"

Tap snorted and rolled his eyes. "So like I was saying, she said she would rather stick with us than get grabbed up by them."

"Uh-huh," Rita said boredly.

He looked ahead. "And since we're not in Hollow Shades anymore—"

Rita thumped on the side of The Potbelly, jolting his attention back to her. "Uh, hello? You better not be suggesting what I think you're suggesting!"

He raised a brow. "Without her potions or a gun, she won't be that hard to keep in line, so yeah, I'm saying you should let her out of there."

"What is wroooong with you," she whined. "We don't take requests from prisoners!"

"Yeah I know she's a prisoner and whatever but—" Tap looked at the head of the armor, then back to Rita. "Are you really gonna keep her locked in that thing all the way to Stable Twenty-Nine?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "I sure am!"

"What if gets hungry or she has to use the bathroom?" He asked, frowning.

"Lard-and-in-charge has been way overdue for a diet, and I'm gonna hose it out after we deliver her!" She tapped the side of her head. "Duh!"

Tap sneered with disgust. "That's fucked up! Let her out of there!"

Rita shook her head.  "No way! You give her an inch and she'll take a mile, and then strangle you with it!"

"I already told you that she said she was going to cooperate, jackass!"

"Ughhh! See, this is why I told you to keep her gagged! Fatty-Fats opens her mouth, and now you want to let her be all free range pork!" Rita shook her head and jabbed a talon down at him. "I don't know what she said to you, but you work for me," she said, hooking her thumb toward her chest, "and don't you forget it!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded, squinting. "I work for you?"

Smirking, Rita crossed her forearms. "It means that what I say goes, glue-for-brains! I'm the boss!"

Tap's jaw hung open as he came to an abrupt stop. "Holy shit. She was right."

"Wait, what?" she squawked. The power armor under her grinded to a halt.

"We're supposed to be fucking partners!" He stomped and thrashed, glaring up at her. "But we're not partners, are we?! You've been making me follow a carrot on a stick this whole fucking time!"

It was Paharita's turn to stare down at him, beak agape. "Okay, obviously she's feeding you lies, and you bought into them like a total sucker!"

"Bullshit!" He jabbed a hoof at her, ears laid back and teeth gritted. "Every time I suggest something or disagree with something— say I'd rather take a different job, or ask to know how much a job is worth, or what my cut will be when we get paid— it's, oh you don't know what you're talking about! What a dumb thing to say! I'm not going to let you put it in me if you don't do what you're told!" He slammed his hoof down, grinding it through the dirt. "You've been doing this shit to me for years!"

"Yeah well—" She furrowed her brow, eyes darting. "I uh—" She threw her claws in the air. "You're a chem addict who used to pay jerks to let you hunt down raiders. You aren't good with caps and you steal everything anyway, so excuse me, princess, for looking out for your best interest!"

"Fuck you! I can't believe I let you get away with this shit!" He turned away and trudged ahead without them. "Go fuck yourself! I am fucking done!"

Rita let out a roar of frustration in his wake. "Oh! My! Gosh!" she shouted after him. "You little cry baby! Fine! You want to take the pearl out of the oyster? Whatever!"

He glanced back at her as she stabbed at her PipBuck. She slipped over the side of The Potbelly and the back hissed open soon after.

"But since you're having such a fit about getting paid all the sudden, if we get less money because she gets injured or killed thanks to your stupid decision, it's coming out of your half of the bounty!"

Raspberry's enormous backside wiggled up out of the hatch, accompanied by a grunt of effort. Her tail flicked about as her haunches shuddered, struggling to step out of the armor one rear hoof at a time.

"Oh, and P.S." Rita yelled, trudging up to him, "she's only alive because I wouldn't let you and your dumb dog kill her!" She jabbed a talon into Tap's chest and added, "So why don't you think about that for a minute, genius!"

Scraping and thumping pulled Tap's eyes back toward The Potbelly. Raspberry had finally managed to get traction, now in the process heaving herself through the opening in reverse. Her hind legs splayed over the rear of the armor, belly spreading out under her, and then a foreleg clamored against the ridge of the hatch, followed by the other. Gasping and even more red than usual, her head finally emerged from the depths, mane clinging wetly to her face and neck. She pushed herself away from the hatch, sliding roughly down the rear of the armor and landing shakily on solid ground. Her wide eyes scanned her surroundings, sweeping over Tap before settling on Rita and narrowing.

"You sicken me," Raspberry hissed.

Rita rolled her eyes and without so much as looking back at Raspberry, she quipped, "Right back at ya, Jabber Jowls." She stepped away from Tap, waving her tail in his face. "Zero out of ten for the dismount, too."

Raspberry wrinkled her nose and shook her head. She next turned her gaze on Tap. "You, on the other hoof— Thank you for once again showing the compassion that some of us clearly lack."

"It's not a big deal," he offered with a shrug.

"Still," Raspberry continued, approaching slowly, "you have my thanks."

He shook his head, shifting his weight. "Really, it's nothing. Just, you know… you're our prisoner, but you're still a pony."

She smiled. "Of course. Well, before I reach my final destination, you're welcome to more cooking lessons if you'd like them."

Tap smiled too, nodding. "Yeah, that'd be pretty cool."

Paharita clasped her claws together, holding them to her cheek. "Awwww, you guys are like best friends now."

She reached into her flak jacket, producing a holo-tape recorder, which she then threw on the ground and pounded with her fist for nearly a minute. Tap and Raspberry exchanged looks.

Through a clenched beak, Rita growled, "I have to go fix this.” She scooped up the fragments of the holo-tape recorder with her bloodied claws and yelled, “Seeya later, Knock Knock!"

"Yeah bye, fuck-face!" he shouted with a sneer.

Rita leapt up onto The Potbelly with a flap of her wings, blowing up a cloud of dust. In seconds, she had disappeared into the armor, closing the hatch behind her. Drums and guitar and vocals resonated through the hull. Double Tap snorted and shook his head.

He looked to Raspberry, and furrowed his brow as he noticed that she was staring at him with one brow raised. "Uh, what's up?"

"What did she just call you?" she asked as her head canted to one side.

Tap glanced away, idly pawing at the dirt. "It's uh—" He met her gaze again, trying to suppress his embarrassment. "That's my real name."

Raspberry tilted her head the other way. "I thought that your name was Double Tap."

"No. It's not." His ears splayed slightly. "I just thought it sounded cooler or something, I dunno."

"I should have guessed that was a fake name," she said, snickering. "To be perfectly frank, Knock Knock sounds much less ridiculous than Double Tap."

Tap grinned awkwardly and shrugged. "It's not any dumber than walking up to someone and saying, hi, my name is Knock Knock!" Tap let out a long sigh. "But, yeah, that's the name my dad gave me. Every time he said my name and someone fucking said ‘who’s there,’ he would bust out laughing. He loved bad jokes."

"Your father—" Raspberry's expression become distant, lips pursed in silence for several seconds. Her eyes shot wide open and locked with his own. "Wait, you're Bargain Bin's son?!"

"That's— Yeah." He flicked an ear, giving her a cockeyed look. "How did you know that?"

He had never seen her grin with such enthusiasm. "Your father traded with my family!" She lifted a hoof, excitedly gesturing toward him. "The herbs and such you would gather, remember?"

Tap's eyes widened as well. "Oh shit. Are you fucking with me here or what?"

Chuckling quietly, she answered, "I am most certainly not fucking with you. How is that delightful cornball?" Immediately after asking, she gritted her teeth and glanced away. “Oh… terribly sorry.”

A sigh and a shrug was Tap’s reply.

Raspberry tilted her head a bit, craning her neck from side to side as she studied his face. "But goodness, I didn't even recognize you. You were such a tiny little thing back then."

He squinted as he tried to remember his time spent traveling with his father, gathering herbs and seeds to sell to a family of alchemists that lived along one of their routes. Very fuzzy memories began to surface; faceless ponies talking with his father and laughing at his jokes, or haggling intensely over the goods Tap had so proudly gathered. There were always several ponies in the background as well, busy with grinding or mixing or boiling, a few of them around Tap's age. Only one of them even remotely resembled Raspberry Tart. A young mare with a blonde mane and tail, and a pomegranate coat, several years older than him. He couldn't remember her cutie mark, but she had definitely been heavyset, and seemed to become moreso with every visit.

The last few times Tap could remember trading with her family, it was Raspberry that had been doing business with his father.

"Wow, what the fuck," he idly commented as he was finally able to associate her face with his memories. "I haven't been out that way in a long time. Is your family—"

Raspberry shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. After my mother passed away, we dispersed."

Tap nodded slowly. "Sorry to hear that."

"Oh, not at all," Raspberry said, smiling. "She lived to a ripe old age. Anyway, my father moved down to New Oreins to live with my uncle and his family, and my brothers and sister went their separate ways." Her smile faded. "Of course, I fell out of touch with most of my family not long after becoming a prominent member of Friendship City's economic and political atmosphere. I felt that struggling in the dirt was a short-sighted approach to rebuilding society, and they disapproved of my business practices."

Tap shrugged. The Potbelly lurched and clanked, then began to lumber forward. He took a step after it and looked back at Raspberry. Sighing, she begrudgingly followed.

"And in the long run," she muttered from behind him, "I suppose they were right."

|[ /_\ ]|[o8- ]|[ /_\ ]|

Double Tap shook his head. "No, they're cool folks. Trust me."

"My experiences with Red Eye's diplomats have been less than pleasant," Raspberry replied, "so forgive my skepticism."

Tap glanced around. The barren fields on the outskirts of Fillydelphia were familiar surroundings. He could occasionally catch glimpses of the city skyline over the hills and through the trees. The flora in the area seemed to be responding well to sunlight. Tree branches rustled with stronger leaves, and the grass was growing in thicker and fuller than he had ever seen it. The unobscured sun did little to remove scars from the great war, of course; ponds of thick, bubbling, irradiated sludge and grossly mutated wildlife persisted in the adjusting landscape. They were coming up on the clearing that Pestilence and Steppin' Razor had led them to nearly a month prior, if passing the barn still littered with bones and segments of power armor were any indication.

"These aren't diplomats. These are soldiers and scientists and ponies that lived in Fillydelphia before the Steel Rangers took it." He nodded down the sunlit path, which was largely obscured by the enormous silhouette of The Potbelly ahead of them. "Rita knows a lot of them. They're not raiders or slavers or anything like that."

Raspberry raised a brow. "Their relationship with Paharita is not at all helping your case." She looked past him, toward the metal haunches of the power armor, and twisted her lips. "Speaking of, is this typical behavior for her?"

Tap tilted his head. "Huh?"

"Well, I'm grateful for the peace and quiet, make no mistake—"

Raspberry Tart nodded up at Paharita, who was seated on the back of The Potbelly, holo-tape recorder in one claw and beak clicking away with barely any pauses to breathe. She had been doing this for almost two days straight, taking occasional breaks for sleep, food, or thinly veiled attempts at getting Tap to pay attention to her. Sometimes she would ride out in the open, on the back of the power armor, and sometimes she would seal herself away inside of it. She had apparently become obsessed with talking to the recorder, and even stranger, speaking for the recorder, as though it were responding to her. It was admittedly not the weirdest thing he had ever seen her do, and this was not the first time he had ever seen her do it, but the amount of time she was spending doing it bordered on concerning.

"I had never imagined her to be someone who spends more time talking into a holo-tape recorder than to her traveling companions," Raspberry explained.

Tap sighed and shrugged. "Who fucking knows. This is probably some weird tactic to make me feel jealous or something." He folded his ears back, looking ahead. "It's like she doesn't fucking get it. All she does is piss me off, and then she acts like I'm the asshole when—"

Double Tap trailed off as he noticed movement further down the road; silhouettes shifting through the brush, much too large to be parasprites. He slowed and motioned for Raspberry to do the same. The Potbelly came to an abrupt, hissing stop and as Rita peered around the head of the suit, she lifted her PipBuck to her beak. The speakers crackled to life.

"Yeah, I know you're there and I've definitely got you outgunned," Rita droned. "You can either step on up and get destroyed or you can play nice."

Several seconds of tense and awkward silence followed. At last, a muffled voice announced, “Stand down.”

The owner of that voice was Pestilence, emerging from the brush on the left side of the road in a group of two other ponies. His gas mask protruded from the ghillie suit he had draped over himself, the others similarly dressed in camouflage. An alicorn followed from the right, stepping onto the path and gawking at the Potbelly, joined by others moments later. Tap bristled as a pair of armed ponies broke cover from a few paces behind him. They nodded idly in greeting as they gave the power armor a once over.

“Always a pleasure to see you,” Pestilence said, looking from Rita to Tap. “We haven’t much left in the way of supplies, but I’m sure we can part with a few cans of food if you’re interested in staying for dinner.”

Despite the shock, Tap felt a bit more at ease in the presence of the dozen or so Red Eye remnants. He may not have been able to remember most of their names, but their faces were mostly familiar. The alicorn in particular gave Tap a little smile from around the side of the Potbelly once she had satisfied her curiosity. She had been the one at the entrance on their previous visit, her dark green coat a bit less worn, her mane tied back in a pony tail. He returned the gesture, half listening to Rita as she clicked her beak at Pestilence. The Potbelly lurched forward, being led by Pestilence while most of the rest of the group returned to their ambush positions. The alicorn stayed put, waiting patiently for Tap to come nearer as he and Raspberry followed.

“What happened to your pooch?” the alicorn asked, stepping into a trot alongside Tap.

He shrugged. “Went off looking for family, I guess?”

The alicorn frowned slightly. “She must not have much left after what happened at Maripony. The hellhounds may have been a nuisance to us, but I know how she must feel.” She shook her head. “Poor thing.”

“Did you just refer to yourself in the singular sense?” Raspberry asked.

The alicorn looked over at Raspberry, smiling. “Would you prefer that I refer to myself otherwise?”

Raspberry blinked several times. “You’ll forgive me for being a bit confused, I was just under the impression that alicorns were a part of a sort of hivemind.”

“That was the case until fairly recently," the alicorn answered with a shake of her head. "Goddess no longer binds my sisters and I into a single consciousness. Since her death, the collective has dissolved and we are now free to be as we choose."

"How's that working out for you?" Tap asked as he leaned his head a little closer.

"It was… strange, at first. Strange, and confusing, and a little scary. Being able to think for myself again after such a long time, with no voice to guide me but my own; it's a lot to take in all at once." Her tail flicked as she shifted her weight. "I took it for granted before I became a part of Goddess, but now, I wouldn't trade it for the world.”

She paused, and donned a smile. “Oh, and my name is Honeyglow. I’m glad to see you again, Double Tap." She looked to Raspberry and nodded deeply. "Miss Tart, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Tap and Raspberry exchanged glances. "Yes, of course," Raspberry said awkwardly. "But how did you—"

“Oh!” Tap's eyes lit up, ears perking up straight. “You can still do the mind reading thing even without Goddess, can't you?”

Honeyglow giggled and bowed her head. “I also do hat tricks.” She straightened her long, graceful neck as the procession continued down the path. “But back to what I was saying, I am not a part of we anymore. I am me and no one else.”

Tap squinted as he tried to process that. “So you remember who you were before you became an alicorn?”

“That was a lifetime ago," Honeyglow murmured, her expression becoming distant. "Who I am now is not who I was... but yes, I remember.” She smiled again. "And my memories of you are among the few that I cherish from my time as a part of Goddess."

Raspberry looked between the two of them, one brow raised. "The two of you have met before?"

Honeyglow shook her head. "Aside from his last visit here, not directly." She gave him a sly, sideways glance, her smile becoming more of a grin. "But I definitely remember him."

A blank, confused look had taken residence on Raspberry's round face, her brow wrinkled as she looked to Tap for answers. Tap knew exactly what Honeyglow was talking about.

"So uh—" He chuckled, suddenly feeling bashful. "Was that you? In Fillydelphia?"

"No, but seeing as we all shared the same consciousness, I saw, and heard—" A little shiver ran through Honeyglow, her tail flicking. "And felt every moment of it." She giggled softly, lidding her eyes. "You're quite adventurous."

"Yeah." He grinned and shrugged. "But how many ponies can say that they got to fuck a super-alicorn?"

Raspberry narrowed her eyes at Tap, then turned up her nose. "Yes, well, I think I've heard enough of this conversation." She picked up the pace, her wide rump bouncing as she waddled on ahead.

Tap snickered and started after her. "I probably shouldn't let her wander off alone."

"I already took care of it," Honeyglow said.

On cue, a pony galloped past them, slowing as he came within several paces of Raspberry. Tap was about to ask, but Honeyglow craned her neck down until she was at eye level with him, waggling her brows.

Without moving her lips, he heard her say, "Mind powers!"

Tap tilted his head. "If you can read my mind, how come you used Double Tap and not my real name?"

"That's the name you prefer, right?" she said with a smile.

He nodded, then glanced to the side in thought. "And if you remember your name, what did you mean by... you're not who you were? Like, I know you're not the same pony on the outside, but if you remember who you used to be—"

"Who I used to be died almost a century ago." She frowned, avoiding his eyes. "All my friends, my husband, my children— That life is gone. I'll never get it back. All I have left of it are memories, and my name. While I was a part of Goddess, I didn't even have that. I—" She sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Sorry," Tap offered quietly.

"It's alright. She's gone now, and these memories are mine again, for better or for worse." She took a deep breath and smiled. "And it wasn't all bad, I guess. I got to meet you indirectly, and I got to see all of Equestria and watch it change over the years. Plus, now I can read thoughts and I know spells that I never dreamed of learning."

Tap tilted his head. "Like what? Teleporting and stuff?"

"Mmhmm!" Honeyglow nodded enthusiastically. "I bet I could teach you, if you wanted."

"Uh, I dunno." Tap chewed his lip briefly. "Illusion spells are more my thing."

"Then I can at least show you how to turn invisible," she said with a grin.

"Yeah—" He paused, then nodded. "Yeah, alright. Show me."

|[BAR]|[BAR]|[BAR]|

There weren't as many ponies in the Red Eye camp's mess hall as Tap remembered. It had been so crowded before, and the smell of food had filled the air. Now the cauldrons were cold, and there were less than twenty ponies milling around under the tarp. Some of them were watching Tap with varying degrees of interest as he stood in the clearing in the middle of the makeshift enclosure. Rita was nowhere to be seen, but every now and then, he caught bits of the conversation Raspberry Tart was having with Pestilence. He only caught his attention wandering in time to hear the very end of Honeyglow explaining her invisibility spell.

"And that's pretty much it," she concluded. "When you perform it correctly, it looks something like this."

In the blink of an eye, she faded from view, the only indication of her presence being a hazy, distorted silhouette. It looked almost identical to the cloaking effect of a stealth buck. Just as suddenly, her silhouette solidified, now leaning forward in a deep bow.

"Tadaaaa!"

Tap snickered and stomped his hooves. "Very cool. Now uh… how do I do that?"

Honeyglow jerked out of the bow with a scowl. "I just walked you through it! Weren't you listening?" All he could do was put on a stupid grin and shrug. "Ugh. Fine, let's take this from the top. You start with an incantation. You'll probably have to say it out loud until you get the hang of the spell, but once you've practiced it enough—" She wrinkled her nose as Tap gritted his teeth. "What's that about?"

"I don't really do the incantation thing," he said, pawing at the ground.

Honeyglow tilted her head. "Then how do you cast spells?"

Tap looked away, one ear flicking. "I kinda like… imagine it, but really hard?"

Her expression softened. "You learn and cast through visualization. That's completely legitimate." She cracked a smile and shook her head. "Why didn't you say so sooner? I just wasted half an hour explaining magic theory."

"You sounded really into it and I didn't want to bum you out," he explained with a shrug. "But if I visualize or whatever, shouldn't I just be able to imagine myself becoming invisible?" He leaned his head to one side. "I've tried that and it doesn't fuckin' work."

"Well of course not." She tapped her hoof against the ground. "You can't just click your hooves and vanish. If you don't use incantations or glyphs, you have to understand and visualize how the spell is working to cast it." She lifted that same hoof to the side of her head, rolling it slowly. "It's kind of like meditating, in a way." She paused. "You know what meditating is, right?"

Tap frowned and snorted.

"Okay, okay. Just making sure." She lifted her head up high and spread her wings. "Okay, get nice and limber and close your eyes, then clear your mind of everything but the sound of my voice."

He glanced around, half-heartedly shaking himself off as he felt himself being watched. He turned toward her again and took a deep breath, exhaling as he let his eyelids descend.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

In the darkness, her words seemed to come from within him more than anything. Something about it felt comforting. He nodded, and again felt her voice reverberate through him.

"I want you to imagine a ray of light, as though it were piercing through the clouds. You are standing in it, illuminated by it. Now, I want you to focus on that beam and bend it. Just a little bit at a time. Make it shift and bend until it's just barely grazing your coat."

As Tap imagined it, she murmured, "Good. Just like that. Now I want you to imagine another beam of light, just like the first. Bend that one too, until it's barely even touching you."

Tap shuddered as Honeyglow emerged in his thoughts, his eyes snapping open. She blinked her own eyes open, staring back at him from just an inch away from his face. At first, he felt like recoiling; feeling her enter his mind felt too much like a visit from Lady Luck. But then he could feel her horn touching his. A chill of excitement rushed through him, making his sheath tingle. Honeyglow lidded her eyes and rubbed her nose against his.

"Keep that thing holstered until after the lesson, won't you?"

"Alright, alright," he murmured.

Grinning, he nodded and closed his eyes again. She was there waiting for him in his thoughts. The beams of light descended, and he focused on them until they warped around him. They shrank and multiplied, three turning into six, then twelve, then twenty-four, all of them bent around him, rolling off his coat like rivulets of water. Eventually, the beams of light became more numerous than he could count, smaller than he could see, but he was able to divert it all away from his body. This, he understood, would make him harder to see.

"Perfect," Honeyglow whispered. “I think you’re ready to give it a try.”

The air was still when Tap opened his eyes. He seemed to have everyone’s attention now. Honeyglow nodded as she took a step back, the magical resonance of her horn lingering for several seconds after she broke contact. Tap took several deep breaths, focusing all his energy into maintaining the idea of bending light. He narrowed his eyes, his horn glowing. With one more deep breath, he tensed and leaned forward, trying to push the idea through his horn and make it a reality.

Everything dimmed. His horn continued to glow, but the light didn’t carry past the end of his nose. Honeyglow tilted her head from side to side as she looked at him.

“What in the world—” she murmured.

“What’s up?” Tap took a step closer. “Did I do it?”

“You did… something.” She raised a hoof, waving it to the left of his face. Her brow furrowed as her jaw went slack. “What the hell, Double Tap.”

Tap let the glow of his horn fizzle, the dimness dissipating in blotches. “What?!”

Honeyglow visibly bristled, jerking her hoof back as her wide eyes centered on him. “Okay! That definitely wasn’t invisibility.” She cautiously reached out and touched him on the muzzle. “It was like, you were there, but you weren’t at the same time. You were all blurry and I couldn’t get my eyes to focus on you, and when I tried to touch you—.”

“I did what you told me to do,” he muttered.

"Okay, uh—" She glanced around, then looked to him and nodded. "Give it another shot."

Everything went dim again as Tap gave it another try. Honeyglow inhaled through her teeth, eyes narrowed apprehensively. She waved a hoof around, very near to him, but not quite touching him. When she finally bumped the side of his head, she gasped and retracted her foreleg. Frustration began to mount. On his third try, someone laughed. He let go of the spell with a huff, scowling down at the floor.

“Don’t get discouraged,” she said gently. “Invisibility as a concept is easy to understand, but actually grasping how to make yourself invisible takes a bit of time.” She reached out again, tapping her hoof against him before actually letting it settle on his shoulder. “You comprehend the core principal of the spell. I’m sure that if you keep practicing, it will click sooner or later.”

Tap sighed and muttered, “Sure, whatever.”

Honeyglow lifted his muzzle with the tip of her hoof, her smile so warm that he couldn’t help but feel a little better. “How about I show you a shield spell? That’s almost like an illusion spell.”

“Really?”

She shook her head. “No. Not really. But it’s like using telekinesis as defensive magic, and I know you know how to use telekinesis.”

After a few moments of consideration, Double Tap nodded. Honeyglow did the same, leaning forward and touching her horn to his. Tap shuddered again, but got himself under control as she wrinkled her nose at him. He closed his eyes, then cracked one eye open and peered out at her. Her eyes had closed, a look of soft concentration on her face. Waves of magical aura slowly rolled through her horn, making his horn feel very warm as the waves broke over it.

"Focus, Double Tap," she monotoned without opening her eyes.

He cleared his throat and shut his eyes again. As he imagined himself standing in the darkness, he could see Honeyglow standing several paces away, slowly coming closer.

"A shield spell uses a more passive form of telekinesis," she explained, a green bubble enveloping her. "It utilizes the same property of a projected force, but less to move objects and more to prevent objects from entering a defined space." 

Her bubble popped, and she stepped up to him, touching the tip of her horn to his. Tap fought to keep a straight face. She raised a brow, then smiled as he put on a more serious expression.

"I want you to imagine that the aura of your magic is like a balloon, and you're inflating it with the tip of your horn. Make it expand outward until it completely covers you." Once he was sealed inside a glowing amber bubble, she continued. "Now, imagine that aura is impenetrable, strong enough to hold up against the heaviest weights and most powerful of forces. Nothing can pass through it. Not heat, or magic, or bursts of energy, or projectiles. "

Honeyglow stepped back as Tap made a slab of concrete drop onto the bubble, shattering and sliding harmlessly over the sides. She produced a sniper rifle next, squinting down the barrel as she squeezed off several rounds, all of them crumpling harmlessly and dropping away from Tap's shield.

She smiled. "That bubble is your safe place, and nothing can hurt you while you're in there." Her expression became very grave. "Within reason, of course! Don't expect to be able to protect yourself from explosions and high powered rifles right out of the gate. The more you practice, the stronger your shield will become and the longer you'll be able to maintain it." She stepped around him, inspecting the bubble. "Think you're ready to try it?"

Tap nodded, but kept his eyes closed, trying to picture the bubble around himself and feeling his horn glowing fiercely. He peeked out of one eye, expecting to see some kind of barrier around himself. Nothing. He opened both eyes, and still saw nothing.

"Come the fuck on," he groaned.

Honeyglow shook her head. "It's alright. Like you said—"

"Maybe it's invisible or something," he suggested.

"Double Tap, I don't—"

He tensed, pointing his horn forward. "Throw something at me."

Honeyglow took a step back. "I really—"

"Just do it, alright?" he grunted, peering up at her.

Honeyglow frowned, but looked around for a moment. A small rock floated up off the floor and hovered in front of Tap. He clenched his jaw and focused on the idea of a protective bubble, trying his hardest to make the shield manifest. The rock fell forward and bounced harmlessly off the end of his nose.

"Fuck!" Tap spat. "Sorry. One more time, okay?"

"I think we should stop," she said, shifting around uncomfortably. "Maybe I shouldn't be teaching magic after all."

"I can do this," he asserted. "Just let me try."

Honeyglow grimaced, levitating the rock off the floor again. This time, Tap stared at it, imagining it bounce off the bubble that he seemed incapable of creating. She very gently tossed it toward him, and Tap squinted, watching it tumble through the air. Deflect, he commanded. It came within several inches of his face when suddenly, it shot off in another direction, hitting one of the cauldrons so hard that the cauldron made a sound like a tolling bell. Honeyglow looked back at the cauldrons, then locked eyes with Tap, visibly startled.

"That counts… right?" Tap asked with one ear cocked.

"Keep practicing," she said flatly.

He nodded. "What about the teleport spell?"

"Do you really want to—"

"Yes!" He cleared his throat. "Yeah, sorry." She squinted at him, but he shook his head and waved a hoof around. "I'm alright, really."

Honeyglow sighed quietly. Tap closed his eyes as she trotted up and touched her horn to his.

"Imagine a door. It can be in front of you, or behind you, above or below you. It can be anywhere, as long as it's so close that you're practically touching it, or the object you want to teleport is touching it. Now, imagine that there is another door. That door can be anywhere, but for now, we'll say it's within sight of you. On the other side of a room, more or less. The two doors are connected, and open simultaneously. You open the first door, and when you step through it, you arrive on the other side of the second door, and this happens in an instant."

|[BAR]|[(  ) ]|[o8- ]|

The illusion spell that had been cast on the mesh netting was not disrupted by having a pony sized hole put in it, and the camp of the Red Eye remnants continued to resemble an enormous briar patch even from high above. Of all the thoughts going through Double Tap's head, he found it bizarre that this one be given any sort of priority. Tap continued to tumble through the air, the feeling of free fall pushing his stomach up into his esophagus. The landscape that had seemed so distant and far below seconds earlier was getting bigger and closer by the second as he plummeted toward the ground with worrying speed. He tried to teleport again, but couldn't manage enough concentration to pull off the spell.

What a stupid way to die, he mulled.

"Yeah," Honeyglow agreed, "this is pretty dumb."

She appeared next to him in a flash, looking none too amused. The glow of her magic wrapped around him, and as she spread her wings and glided out of the dive, he floated with her. Moments later, she dropped him in a heap on the ground. Tap remained sprawled out on the grass, staring blankly up at the sky.

Honeyglow sat down next to him, sighing deeply. "Maybe practice that over a body of water or something next time. I dunno." She rubbed the side of her head with a hoof. "I suck at teaching."

"Well I teleported, didn't I?" he asked, rolling his eyes toward her.

"No, Double Tap." She shook her head slowly. "No you did not. You physically traveled from point A to point B, like some kind of pony bullet."

"I figured." He debated for a moment, then asked, "Are you still down to fuck?"

Honeyglow snickered quietly. "After that? Not really, no."

Tap sighed. "Yeah, me neither."

The adrenaline rush of a near-death experience left Tap’s legs a bit shaky, but he managed to get his hooves under him and stand without help. Honeyglow rose up beside him, and they slowly made their way back to the camp under the afternoon sun.

“So what’s next for you?” Tap asked, glancing up at her. “Now that you remember who you were and stuff.”

Honeyglow appeared thoughtful for a moment. “Honestly, I’m going to stick with Palace Caravan and his group. I know that a lot of alicorns abandoned Red Eye’s armies after he died, but really, they’re the closest thing to a family that I have left.” She smiled fondly, looking down at Tap. “Palace Caravan didn’t even think twice about letting me stay with them. They were very supportive while I tried to make sense of suddenly having my own identity and stuff.”

She paused for a moment as Tap nodded, and then she said, “You should come with us.”

Tap raised a brow. “Are you going somewhere?”

“I uh—” Her lips tensed as she looked off into the distance. “I’m not allowed to say. But do you really want to go with Paharita and turn Raspberry Tart over to the Friendship City refugees?” She tilted her head. “Or are you just doing it because you don’t know what else to do?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?” Tap muttered through a frown.

Honeyglow shook her head. “Take it from someone who was denied a choice for nearly a hundred years, Double Tap. You should think and act for yourself.”

"Oh, hey," Tap heard someone say from behind him. "When did you get here?"

When Tap twisted his head around, Palace Caravan and Steppin' Razor were staring back at him from the shelter of a rickety grain silo. Palace’s wounds had mostly healed, the dressings significantly smaller and cleaner. Steppin’ Razor looked exactly the same as the last time Tap had seen her, tattered red scarf wrapped around her face and neck, expressionless and unreadable.

Honeyglow stood up straight. "Sorry! Didn't mean to interrupt, had to save this guy's life."

Tap snorted.

"It's actually a good thing that you're here,” Palace said as he approached, stopping a few paces from Tap. “I've got a proposition for you."

Tap arched his brows, looking between the Palace and Steppin’ Razor, who had stayed put under the grain silo. "Yeah? What's up?"

"If you were in camp,” Palace said, gesturing to the illusion of a briar patch in the distance. “I'm sure you noticed that there weren't too many ponies hanging around in there. We're packing up and getting ready to move out."

"I thought you were going to try and take back Fillydelphia?" Tap questioned, squinting slightly.

Palace nodded. "We were, and we got a hold of a few other units to help us with it, but more important priorities have come to light.” He paused for a moment, then stated, “We're scrapping the operation."

Tap gawked in surprise. "What's more important than kicking the Steel Rangers out of your city?"

"I can't give you the specifics until I know for sure that you're with us," Palace answered with a shake of his head.

"Huh?” Tap glanced between the three of them, then back to Palace. “You know I'm on your side."

Palace shook his head again. "It’s not like that. This isn’t about loyalty.” He took a deep breath, exhaling through his nose. “Look, I know the last time you were here, Paharita said you’ve got a lot on your plate right now but whatever it is, you should think about dropping it and coming with us."

Tap shifted uncomfortably, looking to Honeyglow before returning his attention to Palace. "I've got to run Raspberry Tart back to Stable Twenty-Nine."

"Uh, Stable Twenty-Nine is under Steel Ranger control,” Palace said, narrowing his eyes. “That's not such a hot idea if you ask me."

"Yeah I… I dunno.” Tap sighed, ears splaying. “You can't wait till I get back from that?"

Palace shook his head. "If that's where you're going, definitely not.”

“We had come from there the first time we came through,” Tap argued. “It wasn’t a big deal then.”

“Yeah,” Honeyglow interjected, “but we can't risk you having sensitive information while you’re in their midst.”

Palace nodded. “This is different from knowing that we were planning a counter-attack, because in all honesty, I’d be surprised if the Fillydelphia Steel Rangers weren’t anticipating one even before they took the city.” He looked to Steppin’ Razor as she came closer, the razor blades in her hooves clicking softly. “It's not exactly a secret that Paharita has done work for Red Eye. If they decide to interrogate you, or they have an alicorn supporting them, and you know any specifics—”

“It could compromise the operation," Steppin’ Razor stated, her synthetic-sounding voice chiming.

Tap glanced between them. "What operation?"

"What aren’t you understanding here?” Palace grumbled, rubbing the side of his face in frustration. “If you're not coming with us, I can't tell you."

"What the hell.” Tap shuffled his hooves, tail flicking. “You can’t even say where you’re going?

Palace shook his head slowly. "I’m sorry, Double Tap. All I can tell you is that we're leaving Equestria."

Tap’s eyes widened. "Why?"

Palace Caravan glanced back at Steppin' Razor. She nodded, then turned to face Tap, his pupils reflecting in the mirrored lenses that sealed her eye sockets. For several long moments, she stared at him in silence, and Tap half expected her to attack.

Finally, she said, "We've received orders."

|[(  ) ]|[o’o ]|[BAR]|