I found myself facing a crowd of my peers, which was another first. I'd been the Chief of Field Operations for five years now, but I'd never had a group of these ponies looking at me.

My counterpart in the other half of Security, Justice Amber Rhyme. My direct superior, Colonel Range. Her direct superior, Overmare Book Keeper. Then there was the Arcane Sciences mares, who I was not so familiar with. Uchawi was the Head of Arcane Sciences, a pale green unicorn with zebra ancestry that is evident in her striped coat. Astral Vision was Uchawi's subordinate and my direct counterpart as the Chief Researcher. Her position was surprising, because she took every possible opportunity to downplay her magical power. The Arcane Sciences mares were sitting across from me, Book Keeper at the head of the table, Range and Amber Rhyme to my right.

Book Keeper spoke into her Pipbuck, beginning the meeting. "So, Captain, tell us about your excursion."

I launched into a brief explanation what had happened over the past two days. The fight at Haven, the trip to Deathcon. "While in Haven, one of the townsponies told me that the last Security team had stopped there, and then left. Apparently, one of them had returned, settled down in Haven and had a foal." I paused, glancing around. The group's interest wavered between outright distaste from Range and mild interest from the rest.

Range gave me a dark look. "Captain, it would be best if some ponies stayed dead." Book Keeper glanced to her, and she fell silent.

"Remember, defending the Stable is your priority, not finding your father." Book Keeper spoke up. The room fell silent for a long moment, before she resumed speaking. "Tell us what you found in... Deathcon, was it?"

I nodded and explained about how there was a group of unconnected alicorns in Deathcon. "They apparently wanted something in Stable 60. Do you know anything more about the alicorn project?"

"We know nothing more that is of help to you. It is surprising we know that what we do." Uchawi looked to us. I spent a moment translating that in my mind, before nodding.

Astral Vision was busy digging through her Pipbuck. After a moment, she looked up. "Uhh, sorry, Captain, she's right. I'm not sure how we even know that the IMP Project even existed. It was super classified during the war and the end of the war, well..." She trailed off. Everypony died, of course.

"About what I was expecting." I frowned, then shrugged. A shame. "Do we know where Stable 60 is?"

Astral Vision shook her head. "No. We didn't even know there was a Stable 60 in the area until now." She glanced down to her Pipbuck for a moment. "... the mare from the radio, uh... Lano, Luna? Lunar Note?" I nodded. "She may know more. She probably has more contacts than we do."

The room fell silent for a moment before Amber Rhyme spoke up. "Well... now that your trip outside is over, why should you go out again? We know what's at Haven."

"Because the world outside of the Stable isn't just Haven." I glanced to him. "We need to know more."

"Are you sure you're not simply looking for somewhere else so you can take the Stable's defenses and abandon us?" Amber Rhyme had a smug look, which confused me. Where did that come from?

I looked to him curiously, but Range got called him out. "Justice! You will keep a polite tongue in your mouth or you will stop coming to these sessions."

Amber Rhyme's expression shifted from a smug scowl to an apologetic frown. "My apologies, ma'am." He sounded sincere.

Book Keeper quietly cleared her throat. "Mares. Stallions. Arguments are unproductive." She looked around to all of the ponies in the room, ending with Amber Rhyme. "Now, with all that said, is there anything else you have to add, Captain?" She turned her purple eyes on me.

Hrmm... Ah! "I suggested an alliance with the mayor of Haven. He seemed interested." I looked to Range. "I suggest that Colonel Range go to Haven to negotiate the terms of the alliance."

Book Keeper closed her eyes. "Yes, that sounds good." She opened her eyes and nodded. "Anything else?"

Astral Vision spoke up. "We'll keep looking into the alicorns - we have so much information I don't even know what we have, so we very well may have everything on the IMP Project and not know it." Good.

Book Keeper looked around to the ponies around the table. "Meeting adjourned, then. Good evening, ponies." She smiled as she suited words to action by rising to her hooves, stretching, then trotting over to Range.

I followed Range and Book Keeper out of the conference room with a yawn. "So, Dashie. Do you want to go to Baltimare?" Of course he does.

"Lovely." Dashie sighed.

"Oh, and I win! No list in the Library! Pay up." He narrowed his eyes slightly, then nodded, digging out five prewar bits and tossing them my way. I grinned and tucked them away in my money container. I had to wonder why he kept making these bets, though. He almost always lost them.

I yawned, glancing to the clock on my Pipbuck and doing some quick calculations. Woke up at 0900. Left Haven at 1130. Trotted an hour to reach Deathcon. Passed out. Spent an hour unconscious. Spent a few hours scavenging Deathcon. Another three hours trotting home. An hour in a briefing with my superiors. 1930 now. Got stuff to do. "Dashie, I'm gonna wrap up on some work. You're off duty now, go do whatever you do. Go take a shower! That's an order."

Dashie nodded. "Sure thing, boss." He shrugged at the shower comment. "I'm off duty, you can't order me around like that." He smirked at me as he packed up his stuff and headed to the Armory. I followed him into the Armory, turning in my weapons to Slate Weld first.

"Welcome back, Captain. Did you ruin any of my toys yet?" Weld was sitting at his desk, but at the sight of me, he hurried over to the door.

I yawned. "'Scuse me. No, I haven't ruined any of your weapons. In fact..." I levitated out Firefly's Fury. "I got you a new one. It's called Firefly's Fury. Don't scratch it now."

He opened his mouth to respond, before seeing the IF-9, and he stared at it for a long moment, before carefully taking it from my magic. "Oh that... that's gorgeous." He smiled in awe. "This is beautiful machinework. Where did you find it?" He rotated the magazine tubes with a soft click, before unloading it, lining the shells up in neat rows. "What in...?" He leaned down to stare at the green hulled shells. "What are these?" He looked over to me.

"Taking up space in the weapons store at Haven." I levitated out all of my weapons and ammunition, unloading my pistols and setting the magazines down in neat rows. "According to the mare who ran the shop, they're "Dragon's Breath" shells." I shrugged. "The orange ones are .50 caliber slugs."

"I don't know if those are safe to use... Lemme look at them before you use them." I sighed and nodded, digging out the rest of the ammunition and weapons I'd found. "I found these too."

He set Firefly's Fury aside carefully. "An IF-44! Good find." He casually set the IF-44 aside after unloading it, turning to the beam weapon. "...I don't know what this is." He levitated the beam weapon up, holding it up near his muzzle but pointing away from him.

"It's a beam pistol." I looked to it.

He grumbled at the beam pistol, held in his pale pink aura. "It doesn't even smell like a gun."

I shrugged in response. "Imagine it's unfired. Does it smell like a gun now?" I smirked.

"No." He made a face at it. "Too much plastic, not enough metal, wood or grease." He set the beam weapon aside. "Okay, Captain..." He held my shotgun up. "This inspires me." Oh, great. Wonderful. "Find me a pair of regular IF-9s and I think I can make something with them. Trust me - you'll like it." Oookay...? I nodded and headed off while he put his new toys away.

The next hour or so was spent productively. I stripped off my armor, groaned in sheer delight of being finally free of my heavy gear, then went to deal with the most boring aspects of being in Security - filing reports. I copied my intelligence reports to the Stable computer. Checked the roster to find a team for my next excursion out of the Stable. Took a shower, finally went to sleep in my own bed.

The next morning began as most mornings do, with my alarm going off. I slept like a filly. Wow, I guess I must have been really tired. I rose, exercised and retrieved a clean Stable suit for myself.

My mother was passed out on the couch, dead to the world. I paused, and then I noticed her breath fogging the Sparkle-cola bottle in front of her. Unfortunately, only temporarily. I grimaced as I passed her, my grimace fading as she whimpered in her sleep. I wonder if she's dreaming of dad... Memories of being a little filly without a mother floated to the surface of my mind and my grimace returned as I exited my quarters, grumbling and heading for the shower.

A moan filtered out from under the door as it opened with a soft hiss, and I frowned, glancing around before finally seeing the source - a pair of mares were employing, ah, 'ineffectual washing methods' using their tongues. I trotted past them, and one of them - an orange pegasus - immediately snapped to attention and saluted, wings poofed out tightly, hooves spread. "MA'AM! Uh. I, I can explain. MA'AM." Her expression wavered slightly and a glance down revealed her marefriend was laying underneath her on her back. In spite of her wingboner, she was seriously trying to maintain her at attention stance. I had to admit - her dedication was impressive.

"As you were, mares." I sighed and waved her down. "Just cause I can't get any, doesn't mean you can't."

Her marefriend, an orange unicorn mare with a sly smirk, poked her head out from underneath her pegasus partner. "Y'know, Captain... we could change that, if you like..." Her partner was gesturing crazily above her, but I'm not sure the unicorn even saw her.

"Unless one of you are secretly a stallion, I think I'll pass." I turned towards the far shower stall.

"Welll nooo, we're not... but... I recently learned a spell, 'Arcane Strapo-'." Her pegasus friend had given up on trying to shush her with gestures and had turned around, settling down on top of her. Yeah, thank you, no. The unicorn stopped talking and whinnied loudly as I hurried away to take my shower.

You know, maybe I should get back into the dating pool. I could use some stress relief... Surely there's somepony in the Stable that isn't completely intimidated by dating the Chief of Field Operations. Only number three in the entire Stable's chain of command. Heh, heh. Yeah right. The last time I tried that was a pathetic catastrophe. I showered quickly and dressed, exiting the room, unable to quite block out the moans from the two.

"Hey Pumpkin, don't forget you're on duty in an half hour." I left the bathroom, listening to one of them swearing and the other whining as I snickered. Yeah, sure, it might be a bit petty, but messing with my troops heads (and their sex lives) is kind of fun.

I headed to the Cafe to get an apple fritter, dully munching on it as I headed to Security. Unsurprisingly, Dashie was already awake, looking through a bunch of files at his desk. "Mornin' boss."

"Good morning, Dashie." I settled down at my desk, looking through the list of volunteers. Pumpkin Blitz and Cerulean Mend was the first team on the list, which I thought was a good idea. A pony with wings and a pony who knows more about fixing ponies besides 'pour a healing potion down their throat and let them sleep it off' would be useful. Hot Range would be accompanying us, so an escort team for her would be needed as well. After looking through the list, I selected Dawning Petals and Winter Green, and put out an alert to have the four of them meet with us in the briefing room at 0900.

The next hour and a half was filled with the unfortunate necessity of paperwork. Dashie and I headed into the briefing room at 0830. Hot Range trotted in and settled down in a corner in the front of the room. Cerulean Mend and Pumpkin Blitz showed up a couple minutes early. The orange pegasus mare had a cheerful and curious expression, dressed in the Security under armor barding like I was, her wings folded up against her sides. Upon seeing me, she ducked her head and headed for the back corner quickly. Cerulean Mend was small, a pale cyan unicorn colt with a black and purple streaked mane, and he was dressed in the normal Stable barding that covered his front half. He laid down in the middle of the briefing room. Dawning Petals and Winter Green arrived a few minutes later. Dawning Petals was a pale blue-green unicorn mare who wore her dark red and purple striped mane and tail in a tight braid. At some point in the past couple of years, a brawl had cost her the tip of her right ear. Winter Green was a large, green earth pony with a cropped pale green mane and tail. Minty rolled his shoulders, waved to me and settled down in the front row next to Dawn. Finally, I noticed Justice Amber Rhyme leaning by the door. Interesting.

After a moment of letting everypony sit down, I turned on my Pipbuck's recording device and cleared my throat. "Good morning, everypony, thank you for coming. You are now officially a part of Operation Baltimare." I paused for just a moment, surveying the group. "Operation Baltimare is the Stable's plan of defense. The objectives are simple. First and most important, is intelligence. We know nothing about the wasteland around us, and we can't prepare for what we don't know exists. Second, is spreading repute for the Stable. The ponies outside don't know anything about us. They need to be happy when we show up, and they can't do that without knowing us. We scratch their backs, they scratch our backs when we need them to. Questions?"

Everypony shared a look, but nopony had any questions yet.

I projected a map of the area on the wall behind me. "Today, there are two separate missions going on under Operation Baltimare." I gestured to myself and Dashie. "Team One - Lieutenant Dash and I - will be heading to the Baltimare Radio station." I pointed out where Baltimare Radio was on the map - a radio tower in a square - then gestured to Pumpkin Blitz and Cerulean Mend. "Pumpkin and Cerulean will be Team Two, acting as backup for Team One as they proceed to Baltimare Radio." The two of them shared a look, Pumpkin curiously cheerful, Cerulean wary. Good, good.

"The other mission will be escorting the Colonel to Haven." I pointed out where Haven was approximately on the map - a town marker appeared there - and then pointed to the other two security ponies in the room, Dawn and Minty. "Dawn and Minty will be Team Three, acting as escort for the HVI." I gestured towards Range, settled in a corner. She waved a hoof in response. "After the HVI has completed her task, Team Three will return to the Stable with her." I paused for a moment, glancing around. "Questions?"

"Yeah." Cerulean Mend rose from his haunches, waving a hoof in the air. "What purpose does going to the radio station have for Stable defense?"

"That's a good question. In the short term, it doesn't. In the long term, we need the radio station on our side, because if they wanted to, they could turn the wasteland against us."

Cerulean looked to me with a confused expression, head cocked. "What sense would doing that make?"

"We're in the Baltimare Wasteland. There ain't no sense to be found within these lands, Doctor." I remembered the cut down IF-64 rifle I'd seen in the gun store in Haven.

He frowned, then shrugged, laying back down. "Right then..." I glanced around the rest of the group.

Dawn spoke up softly, waving a hoof in the air. "Why is the Colonel going to Haven, ma'am?" She glanced to Range, curled up in the corner.

"That's classified for the moment." The edges of her mouth curled down in a frown. "I know, I know. You'll find out soon enough." I looked around. "Any other questions?" The lack of responses suggested no. "Alright folks." I glanced down to my Pipbuck's clock. 0855. "We move out at 1000. Gather back here no later than 0930. Dismissed!" The security team filed out of the room and dispersed. I followed them out a moment later with a yawn and trotted to my desk, levitating out a shot glass and my bottle of healing potion, consuming a shot of it. There we go.

The next half hour was consumed by reports and other, less than amusing and yet vital parts of Security. Finally, at 0920, I headed to the briefing room to find the rest of my team was gathered there. Excellent. Glancing around, I noticed there were a few extra ponies. Not so excellent. Amber Rhyme was back.

I cleared my throat and everypony quieted. "Nice to see everypony here on time. Any more questions?"

The orange unicorn mare from the shower earlier waved one of her hooves. "Uh, Captain, how long will this take?" She was standing next to Pumpkin Blitz, the two of them at an intimate distance.

"That's a question I don't have an answer for. We don't know anything about Baltimare. This could take a couple days, this could take a week." A couple of them shared looks. An inquiry if there were any further questions confirmed there were none. "Let's get ready then. To the Armory!"

I lead the way to the Armory. Minty and Dawn started helping each other dress. Dawn had an IF-44 subgun, hanging from a sling across her side. Minty was lightly armed with an IF-21 pistol. Both of them were in heavy armor with hard plates, Minty with a helmet, Dawn in a boonie cap. The rest of the team dressed and were ready, armed and armored in fifteen minutes, and assembled in the entrance room.

Pumpkin Blitz was dressed in light armor with a helmet, the visor flipped up. A beam pistol sat in a chest holster, and several spark batteries were tucked safely into sealed pouches beside it. The front of her barding was covered in useful equipment - a length of rope, a flare, marking chalk, binoculars, a knife sheathed by her jaw. She was deep in a discussion with her unicorn partner - I caught something about "the Colonel not liking intra-Security relationships" before the unicorn shut her up with a kiss. This is true. I wonder what that's about.

Amber Rhyme caught my eye and I trotted over coolly. "Yes?"

"I would like to apologize for my behavior at the meeting last night." He bowed his head lightly. "I spoke without thinking, and I did not intend to question your loyalty to the Stable. Your father..." He paused. "Was not very popular among the leadership. Many saw his exit from the Stable as abandoning his responsibilities." I wasn't expecting that. "I wish you good luck on your mission." He lowered his voice slightly. "As a side note, the Council is watching you very closely, Captain. I would advise that you don't screw this up." He saluted me.

I blinked, not sure how to respond to that, before nodding. "Thank you, Justice." I returned his salute, and he trotted off to talk to Range.

Cerulean Mend sat in a corner with a grouchy look, dressed in the same soft armor I was. I trotted over to him. "How are you feeling?" An IF-18 revolver lay slung across his chest.

He shook his head in contempt. "No more apprehensive than whenever I have to leave the Stable. At least this time we have another competent unicorn with us."

"... Thank you." I think?

"Wasn't talkin' about you." He nodded over at Range, who was in a discussion with Book Keeper and Amber Rhyme. He looked back to me. "I s'ppose you're alright. You're a decent spokespony, at least..." He glanced down to my saddlebags, and the healing potion sticking out of it. "Try not to drink all of our healing potions. I don't like healing potions, but they'll do in a pinch when I don't have the magic reserves to, oh, I don't know, regrow half of the muscles in your foreleg or something." He glanced over to my face, our eyes locking for a moment. "I don't have to remind you that's not a good idea, right?"

Uh huh... I shrugged and walked over to Dashie. "A week, boss?" He grinned at me.

I shrugged again. "Expect the worst, hope for the best. I doubt it'll be more than a few days, but like I said, we don't know anything about Baltimare. That's the point of Operation Baltimare, after all." I glanced down to my Pipbuck's clock - 0954 - before clearing my throat loudly. "Five mikes, everypony. Kit check, kit check." Around me, everyone checked over their kit one final time, checked weapons, checked their comms and otherwise prepared to move out.

Five minutes later, everyone said they were done and we moved out, exiting the Stable grounds, beyond the wire. After a few minutes of trotting, Pumpkin glanced up and smirked cheerfully, galloping forward before throwing herself into the air. I watched her for a long moment, before remembering how easily I got motion sick and quickly returning my eyes to the damp dirt below us. Pumpkin's laughter came through the comms. "Pumpkin, I don't mind if you're having fun, but while you're up there, keep an eye out for anything on the ground."

"Yes ma'am!" She giggled. I glanced around to the rest of the group. Cerulean was in a discussion with Range. Dawn and Dashie were idly chitchatting.

Three hours later, we made it to Haven, were let inside by one of the guards on the walls and headed over to the Mayor's office. The mayor's secretary inquired if we had an appointment. You ass.

"Oh for Celestia's sake, Tumbler! Let the damn mare in." I smiled innocently in response to Tumbler's annoyed glare as he waved us through. "From now on, when this mare shows up, you send her in immediately! Y'hear?" Tumbler said he agreed, though I doubted he was pleased about it. "Mornin' Scout! Oh, brought some company, did ya?"

"Of course, Mayor. This is Colonel Hot Range. She's here to negotiate our alliance with your lovely town." Range trotted in behind me, glancing around his office with contempt. He gave her a lecherous grin, and I hoped he wasn't thinking of flirting with her. "Colonel, this is the Mayor of Haven."

"Very well, Captain. Resume your previous mission." Range trotted inside his office, levitating her helmet off as she spoke to the Mayor. "Nice little fortress you've got here..." Please don't try to flirt with her, Mayor.

"Yes ma'am." I nodded and gestured to my ponies. "Team Three will stay with the Colonel and escort her back to the Stable after her task is completed. Team Two will accompany Team One on to Baltimare. We'll see you back at the Stable, Team Three." I received two comm clicks in response. "Team Two, hold here at the Mayor's office. We have some tasks to take care of before we can leave." I received another group of comm clicks. "Dashie, on me."

"Riiight behind you, boss."

Dashie fell in with me as I trotted over to talk to Tumbler. "We're here to claim the bounty on Deathcon."

"Did you actually go to Deathcon?" Tumbler frowned at us, somehow managing to look condescending while we towered over him in our kit.

Ugh. I blinked, then turned and looked through my saddlebags, levitating out the box of irradiated Fancy Buck snack cakes and dumping it on his desk. "Yes." My Pipbuck went crazy as it came out.

"What the..." Tumbler stared at the box, leaning down to look at them. "Fancy Buck snack cakes?" He levitated a switchblade out and cut the box open, levitating one out.

"Those are..." I began to tell him they were irradiated.

Tumbler looked at me, his look full of contempt and annoyance. "Yes?" You know what, never mind. "Mmmm, delicious." He took another bite out of it and spoke with his mouth full. So much for manners. "Go talk to Frosty over there," he gestured over towards another section of the building and turned back to his terminal as he opened another snack cake, signaling an end to the conversation.

I glanced to Dashie, who shrugged, and I turned to head to the room he told us to go. "Not sure I can complain, saves us the trouble of tracking her down." Dashie grunted in quiet agreement.

Tumbler pointed us to partially ajar door with a poorly written sign marked "Security". I knocked on it, and it fell open. A loud crash came from inside and a familiar voice yelled at us. "What? WHAT IS IT, WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?" Frosty sighed as I looked into her office and she realized who it was. "Oh. It's you. I'm sorry. Again. Captain Firefly, you said?" She was nude, sprawled out behind a small desk covered in paperwork. Her lever rifle and belt of rounds hung from a peg beside her. A broom hung from a peg behind her desk. She pulled herself into a somewhat decent position as I poked my head inside her office.

"That's right." I nodded, entering. "Dashie, stay outside." There might not be enough space for three of us in here. "I'm here to collect the bounty on Deathcon. Tumbler said you were the pony to talk to."

"For a start, did you actually go to Deathcon?" I opened my mouth before she cut me off. Damn it. "Y'know what, I don't even care. I believe you anyways." Frosty yawned again and rolled over to look through the papers on her desk, mumbling to herself. "Here ya go." She stamped a sheet of paper and levitated it over to me. "Take this to Mocha Circus on the other side of the building." I opened my mouth, but she cut me off again. "Yes, I know. I KNOW. I'm sorry."

Something dripped on me, and I looked up to see Frosty's barding was stretched on hooks. I glanced to her. "Yeah, sorry about that too. Hey, by any chance, you don't know a drying spell, do you?"

I shook my head. "I'm not drying your barding for you."

"No, didn't think so. You never answered my question, though." This is true. I did not.

"You would think, with a name like Firefly..." I sighed and glanced up to her barding again, a square in a shade of yellow with a familiar three inside it, partially covered by sewn over patches. "Speaking of your barding... where did you get it?"

Frosty glanced up to it with a groan. "It was in my mom's stuff when she died, and it's the only thing I have that really fits." She waved her hoof with her Pipbuck on it. "Oh! And this thing. Damned thing locked up when I put it on."

"Oh really? ... that's interesting."

"What do you mean, 'interesting'?" She glared at me suspiciously. I opened my mouth to explain as Dashie poked his head in and interrupted me. I think I kept the irritation from my expression at that.

"Was your mother's name 'Soulful Impact', by any chance?" Both of us turned and stared at him.

Frosty's jaw dropped. "What? How did you know that!?" Dashie? Her rifle spun out from its hook, pointing at Dashie.

Dashie ignored the rifle being stuffed in his face. "I memorized the profiles for the previous team this morning, and two of the officers were pregnant when they left. Soulful Impact was one of them, and her palette looks similar to yours." Shiiit. Nice, Dashie.

"Just like that, huh?" Frosty leaned back at that with a low grunt, returning her rifle to its spot. "Alright then... Was there anything else you needed, Captain?"

I smiled to her. "I'd like to offer you a choice to come back to the Stable, if you want."

She spent a moment considering, before she shook her head. "Nah! Haven is my home, not the Stable. Plus, if I were to leave, this town would collapse within a week, and nopony wants that."

I looked around. "Y'know, we could offer you quarters bigger than a broom closet." For a long moment, she looked definitely tempted. Ha ha. "Yeah, you've got a good point there. Nopony wants Haven to disappear, most of all the Stable, so whatever you're doing, keep it up. Oh, one more thing. If you want that thing," I gestured to her Pipbuck, "fixed or removed, stop by Stable 30 and tell them I sent you, they'll get it straightened out for you. See ya 'round, Frosty." I smirked at her and left her office.

Dashie poked his head in. "Y'know, ma'am... you look a bit stressed out..." She bit back a response, which I could imagine the content without words. "I could 'help' you with burning some stress, if you want."

I sighed. "C'mon, lovercolt. I think you've 'helped' enough ponies to your dick already this week." I pulled him out by his mane, heading for Mocha's office. He protested that he wasn't just crudely 'helping ponies to his dick', he's assisting them with stress-related issues that sometimes involved his dick, but more often simply involved his tongue. Too much info, Dashie.

Mocha Circus was an aptly named brown unicorn mare with a brown and blue mane and a pleasant smile. "Hello. What can I help you ponies with?"

I levitated out the paper Frosty had given me. "We're here to claim the bounty on Deathcon. Frosty authorized it."

She took the sheet and studied it for a long moment, before nodding and tucking it away. "This way, please." She trotted out past us and lead us across the building again.

Dashie leaned over to whisper to me. "Where do you think they found all these desks?" I shushed him with a look, and he smirked back at me.

"Stay here, please." The mare lead us to a door and went inside, returning a minute later with a bag of caps held in her deep blue magic. "One thousand caps, as agreed upon." I eyed the bag, considering counting it before realizing that a dozen caps means nothing in the grand scheme of things. "Have a pleasant day, ponies." She locked the door behind her and trotted back to her office. I took the bag and split it into roughly equal halves, dumping half in Dashie's caps bag and the other half in mine.

Dashie leaned over to me and whispered. "Seems pleasant, but kind of boring..." I glanced at him levelly. "Not a bad flank, either, though Frosty's is nicer, don't you think?"

I sighed. "Let's move, Dashie." We talked to Frosty about her barding. Got paid for the bounty. Did I forget something? No. "Let's go." I headed back to pick up Team Two, requested Team Three convey my message about Frosty's Pipbuck and headed out of Haven, heading for Baltimare.

After a while of trotting and finding absolutely nothing other than trees and bogs to both sides of us, I turned on the radio and was greeted by Lunar Note's wonderful voice.

"SOOOOO PONIES, y'all might be thinking, Baltimare has been slackin', just a bit, in the whole "havin' a Stable hero" department. TURNS OUT, we were just takin' our sweet time to do so, courtesy of Stable 30. Stable 30's colt showed up and killed a bunch of ghouls attacking Haven. Hearsay says he even blew up a ghoul in one of those Steel Ranger power armor suits, too! So if you see some ponies in Stable 30 armor, give 'em a hoof, will ya? Even heroes need help sometimes. As always, folks, keep on your hooves and watch your fire! With that, here's a reminder about how again and again nature points out the folly of equuskind."

"...I'm not a colt..." I frowned, then glanced to Dashie and sighed, who smirked. "You know everything that is wrong with that, right?"

"Yeah, but without you choosing to go with Enamel that night, we wouldn't be escorting that caravan, wouldn't have shown up in time to help Haven. By extension, all of our actions are because of you. You kiiiind of are a hero, yeah."

"Oh shut up, Dashie. That was your suggestion, anyways." I debated his last comment. "Do you remember what Captain Armet used to say about heroes?"

Dashie glanced up to the sky for a moment, before dully reciting, "Heroes are ponies who get innocent ponies killed."

"Exactly." I frowned slightly at his irreverent tone. "We're not heroes. We're professionals. We are Security. Security saves ponies."

Dashie rolled his eyes. "Please, boss. Reciting some flag waving rhetoric bullshit? I thought you were smarter than that."

What. I blinked. "Pardon?"

"With all due respect, ma'am." His tone suggested anything but, though I knew he meant it, to a point. "That is a load of crap, and you know it." His expression shifted, and I thought I detected a hint of an interrogative behind it. "We're heroes, Celestia damn it. You want to go and help the wasteland, right? Like the Security Mare and the Stable Dweller? You're a damn hero and you know it."

He had a point. I did want to help the wasteland. I sighed. "Your point is made, Lieutenant." I disliked pulling rank, but I'm not going to have my subordinates questioning me in combat.

He snickered slyly. "We'll be doing this again, boss."

I shrugged, ignoring that, and glanced up to Pumpkin Blitz, our eyes in the sky. She was very carefully not paying attention to us, which meant she'd been listening to our every word. Hrm. I switched to the squad frequency. "Hey Pumpkin, do you see anything?"

"Trees, swamps. I think there's a radfrog off in the distance, but I can't tell. My EFS isn't giving me anything useful. In other words, a whole lotta nothin', ma'am." She rolled over, buzzing us. I could hear her giggling through the radio again.

LOCATION FOUND: BALTIMARE

A couple more hours passed and we reached the outer limits of Baltimare. The sun was starting to go down. Pumpkin stopped wheeling about in the sky and went back to hovering with us. In the distance a large, round structure was visible, and Dashie suggested we go check it out. I considered, then nodded. "Sure, why not."

After a few minutes of trudging along in silence, Dashie broke the silence. "Hey, what do you think those are?" He pointed out some crude artwork painted on a building's wall. A crimson gear that strongly reminded me of the Stable's door had been painted over it... recently.

I spoke up, musing idly. "Gang symbols, perhaps?"

Pumpkin trotted over to it. "That last one looks like the Stable-tec logo, ma'am..."

"That's right, it does..." Hrm... I wonder...

LOCATION FOUND: BALTIMARE - ROOKS STADIUM

Finally, a half hour later, we reached the structure. A large sign overlooking one of the entrances said it was "Rooks Stadium" and "Home of the Baltimare Rooks". There was a large entrance, a few dozen pony lengths wide, with several brick doorways stretching across the bottom. Most of the doors had been blocked off, but the one in the center was still open. Above the entrances was open space for pegasi to enter. A strip of purple gems ran around the top level of the stadium. Two hundred years later, some of them still glowed brightly. I glanced to Dashie. "I don't think you can reach those gems, Dashie."

He glanced up at them, chewing on his lip, then smirked at me. "I can definitely reach those gems, boss." I shrugged and started for the open door.

A sound drew my attention to the floor, and suddenly I found myself airborne. My ears were filled with a loud ringing. Oh crap. My visor was spiderwebbed with cracks. Nothing had penetrated. Still alive. Good. Okay. What just happened. I felt something dripping out of my ears and nose. Eww. Somepony rushed over to me, and looking up at them, I saw it was Cerulean Mend. Two of him, in fact. I could hear by the time he made it to me, but my ears were still ringing. What is that smell?

"You stupid security pony. WHY DID YOU DRINK A HEALING POTIO-. Never mind that." I looked up, blinking. His voice sounded fuzzy. I opened my mouth to inquire as to why there were two of him. "Don't answer that, you idiot." His horn lit the area up around us in a lavender glow.

The Doctor took a step back and frowned deeply. What's up, doc? "Oh! Hmmm..." He started to say something further as he leaned down and then, blackness.

I heard a dull thump and felt a blast of air pressing against me, but it just pushed me back and made my ears ring. I looked up in the direction it had come from and saw Captain Firefly flying through the air back towards us. I hurried towards her, only for Lieutenant Dash to bite my tail.

"Stay back!" I glanced down and saw a series of round discs and bits of debris. I slowly flapped my wings to climb and backed away from them as Mend hurried over to her. My visor flashed a Flatline alert, and I looked to the Captain. "Captain!"

"Dash, get over over here and drag Firefly into cover." Dash carefully trotted over to the Captain and Mend, dragging her behind a pile of debris. "Pumpkin, go get Firefly's leg. It's over there somewhere." Mend gestured over towards the entrance, inside the field of explosives and traps. "Surely Basic taught you idiots something about first aid." I flapped over towards the two of them, glancing to the marker on my visor that illuminated the Captain's Pipbuck. "Or mine sweeping. I hope." It's called 'EOD', Mend...

"I found it..." A strong smell, metallic and spicy, surrounded me as I approached the two of them. Based off what Cerulean had said, I suspected it was blood. "Oh Celestia..." I fought back the urge to vomit as I carefully dropped to my hooves after making sure there were no explosives below them and used my wings to fan the smell away from us.

"Well, I suppose that was useful-ish... I think, but I really need Captain Landmine's leg now, because the longer it is before we reattach it, the less likely it will work properly in the future." I nodded and flew off to retrieve her leg, keeping my distance from the all of the debris in the area. "Good, this will do." The limb was pulled from my hooves by a purple aura and floated out of sight between Dash and Mend.

I flapped over to the doctor, looking to the Captain. "Are you sure she'll be okay?" He nodded and settled down beside her, rummaging through his medical bag. The Captain groaned and moved. Mend immediately turned and cast a spell on her. "Back to sleep, you." She went limp. He reattached her limb, casting another spell, her foreleg surrounded in a lavender aura.

While he tended to the Captain, Lieutenant Dash dug out one of the mines and disarmed it, showing me how to do it.

Finally Mend cast another spell and Captain Firefly groaned again, rolling over. "Are we feeling alive? That would be good."

The Captain dug out her canteen, taking a long drink. "... I'm alive."

"All thanks of your conveniently present expert practitioner of battlefield medicine." He levitated out a speedloader for his revolver and held it up in front of the Captain. "Watch this. Don't move your head." She complied. "Good, good." I sighed. Mend is a good doctor, but he's... his bedside manner needs some work. "How do you feel?"

"... been better." The Captain nodded and pushed herself to her hooves.

"Of course you have. Your vital organs were subjected to far more pressure than they're supposed to. Your eardrums were ruptured and your left fetlock was explosively removed. You lost at minimum three, possibly four liters of blood. Quite frankly, it's a miracle you're still feeling anything. Or a testament to my skill. Probably both." He leaned up to look in her ears, which twitched as he got close to them. "What is the takeaway from this?"

"Don't step on landmines?" She spread her back legs as she waved in place.

"That's right. DON'T. STEP. ON. LANDMINES." He leaned back and smacked her over the side of the helmet with his hoof. "You idiot." She tumbled back to the ground with a shocked yelp. "And don't forget to thank your doctor."

A red and blue blur suddenly tackled Mend, and then Lieutenant Dash was pinning Mend to the ground. Oh shit!

"Dashie! Let him go." The Captain had pushed herself back to her hooves. "That was mean, but I deserved it." Um... "Let him go." She limped over towards the two of them. Dash growled at Mend, the two of them muzzle to muzzle, before stepping aside and letting Mend to his hooves. Mend started packing up his medical equipment. "I'll make sure you get a commendation for this, Cerulean."

"A commendation for doing my job? Thank you, no." What's his problem? He rose to his hooves with a groan. "You're all done, Firefly. Drink this." He levitated a healing potion out next to her, which she drank. "You'll be tired while your body regenerates. Try not to do anything too strenuous for the next few hours. I'll take a look at you when we break for the night unless something else happens, like you stepping on more high explosives." He paused, rubbing his muzzle. "I don't need to tell you not to do that again, right?"

We continued into the Stadium. A sign inside stated this was the Ticket Office. I hovered, keeping my hooves off the ground, hoping to avoid stepping on a mine. Glass crunched under the hooves of my fellow security officers. After a short trot, we found ourselves at a junction. A map showed that we were at one end of the oval-shaped stadium.

The Captain limped over to the map, studying it. "Team Two, head north and circle around. Team One will head to the south and do the same." She pointed to a spot on map, marked "Ticket Office". "We are here, at Point Thorn." She pointed to the map on the other side at a spot marked "Gate B". "We'll rendezvous on the other side of the stadium, at Point Bravo at..." She paused to look at her Pipbuck. "1630, should nothing go wrong. Keep in contact." She turned to us. "Questions?"

"What are we doing here, exactly?"

"Gathering intel and supplies."

Lieutenant Dash snickered. "She means looting."

The Captain gave him a sidelong glance. "See you in a few hours. Move out." Team One turned and headed to the left, Captain Firefly limping in Lieutenant Dash's wake.

I turned and fluttered down the hallway to the right, looking back towards Mend. "Soo... you said she was a 'stupid security pony'. Does that mean you don't consider yourself a security pony?"

He looked to me with an unsure look, before returning to his usual contemptuous grimace. "Of course I don't. I'm not a Security pony. I'm a doctor whose area of expertise happens to be battlefield medicine."

"It sure looks like you're dressed like a Security pony..."

"That's correct. I'm dressed like a Security pony. I am not one. I'm wearing armor, because only an idiot would leave someplace like the Stable without armor. This just happens to be the most accessible armor for me."

I nodded slowly, thinking about that. "Okay."

"Thats all? 'Okay'?" He frowned at me.

I nodded again, glancing back eyes forward. "Yes? Why?"

"Oh thank Sombra. Everypony else seems to enjoy pig-piling on me because I don't like Security and I don't suck up to Firefly."

I shrugged, turning to face him, hovering in place to let him catch up. "I don't really understand why you don't like Security, but... my family has been in Security since the Stable first closed, so it was kind of inevitable..."

He grumbled, speeding up to catch up to me. "So you're one of those generation jarheads. Figures." I frowned, sticking my bottom lip out at him. "Oh don't give me that look. You're not too obnoxious, all things considered. Let's go." He trotted past me. Hello, kettle. Pot says hi. I sighed and flew after him, tips of my primaries brushing the dusty walls.

After a while of trotting, we came to a large room. A locker room, if I had to guess. A purple shield with the head of a bird decorated the plushly carpeted floor, and Mend's hoofsteps kicked up small clouds of dust. There were no bodies, but the dark wood lockers were full of sports equipment. "Hey, Mend. You said you were looking for armor?" I grinned and pointed with a hoof.

He glanced where I'd pointed and shook his head. "That's not armor, that's sports equipment. One absorbs blunt force trauma damage, one stops bullets. Big difference."

I smiled at him and flapped over to one of the doorways, which lead to a bunch of showers. "Clear." I settled into hovering, turning to face Mend. "You know, you're not very much fun to be around."

He paused mid-step and looked to me, our Pipbucks ticking softly in the silence. "You're a nice mare, so I'll be honest with you." He put his hoof down, kicking up another small cloud of dust. "I hate the wasteland. It's full of things that don't want to kill you but will anyways, or things that aren't even living, but will kill you anyways. It's full of evil ponies who want to do nothing more than kill you and turn your corpse into a cock ornament. It's full of death, and as a doctor, I was trained to heal ponies. Not kill them." He fell silent, before changing the topic. "Do you remember Firefly's dad?"

I blinked, wondering where he was going with this and shook my head. "No, Captain Nimbus had already left the Stable before I was born."

"Con-grat-u-fuckin-lations. Red was an asshole. A prime, Grade-A asshole. I dunno if his daughter's one too and really good at hiding it, or not..." He paused, staring off at the wall. "No, Red wasn't an asshole. Not at first. The Wasteland turned Red into an asshole. THAT is why I hate the wasteland. It brings the worst out of ponies."

Maybe I shouldn't have brought this up, but... "Soo... why did you agree to leave the Stable with me?"

"Because, I don't know. Maybe I had a stupid moment. Maybe I knew that, deep down, Firefly deserved a chance to blaze her own path without the stain of her father's name."

"This sounds a lot like gossiping..." I regretted opening my mouth.

"Heh, heh heh..." This was the first time I'd heard him laugh. It wasn't a pretty or a happy sound. "Gossip? Ha, you have no idea some of the stuff I know. Red had it all - he had a gorgeous mare for a wife, a cute kid, a great job. Then it went to his head and he turned into an asshole. Maybe he'd always been an asshole and just had been more careful at hiding it before. Apparently he tried to sleep with his wife's best friend, and she didn't take kindly to that. Who was that..." He paused for the sake of drama, because I could tell he knew exactly what he was going to say. "Oh! Hot Range. Colonel Hot Range, you ask? The very same." He grinned. "So, Red leaves. His wife starts drinking. Range is kicked upstairs to take her position, and her first official task? Formalizing her best friend's dishonorable discharge." He sighed dramatically. "That poor fillyfooler..." He stopped talking. "I kinda feel sorry for Firefly, honestly." He shrugged and glanced around, smirking at me.

His smirk matched his laugh, and I wondered if he was anchored in reality anymore, or if Captain Nimbus was really as bad as he said he was. "Stop! I don't want to hear any more!" He paused, and his expression changed to one of shock, staring at me. "Just... stop! You're being mean for the sake of being mean, even if you are right." I frowned and turned, flying off towards the doorway. "... you're not a very nice stallion..." I heard him sighing softly, and I wondered if he regretted opening his mouth, too.

We continued through the Stadium, finding a lot of cramped, concrete corridors. You'd think, growing up in a Stable, I'd be used to closed spaces, right? I'm used to them. I don't like them.

"Team Two, Team One, report. Over."

I keyed my radio. "Situation okay, Captain."

"Team Two, Team One. Send traffic. Over!" Huh? Captain Firefly didn't get my reply?

I glanced to my partner. He had been quiet since his outburst in the locker rooms, but I couldn't tell if he was just reverting to his quiet state, or if he regretted what he'd said earlier. "Mend, try answering the Captain."

He started, glanced to me, considered for a moment, and then nodded, keying his radio. "What's up, Firefly."

"Why didn't you respond earlier?"

"Wings did. Something's wrong with your Pipbuck, it's probably on your end." I glanced over to him at calling me 'Wings'. A long delay followed, and I'm unsure if it was intentional or because comm issues.

"That's... interesting." The Captain's tone suggested "interesting" wasn't the word she was thinking of. "Situation okay?"

"You betcha. So, boss, are we looking for boring, concrete walls? We've found a whole lotta boring, concrete walls. Oh, and radiation. My Pipbuck hasn't stopped ticking since we entered this Sombra damned city."

The Captain sighed softly and spoke over him. "Point taken, Doctor. Keep me informed if anything happens. Out."

"Sure thing, Firefly." I glanced to Mend, and he smiled, a little nervous.

I returned his smile. "If I'm 'Wings', does that make you 'Horn'?"

He grinned. "Interestingly, did you know that the medically proper term for the horn is 'alicorn'?"

I did not, and I told him so. We passed a few mines, which I stopped to disarm and take. Mend made a snide comment about how I was taking after Lieutenant Dash so well. I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, so I didn't respond.

A short time later, I heard a distant crack. "Hey, did you hear that?" I looked to Mend.

Mend's response was cut off by radio static, followed by the Captain clearly saying "Contact, contact!" Oh crap.

After a moment, our comms cleared up. "Team One, base of fire! Team Two, flank! They're halfway up the seats on the southern side."

"Team Two copies, flanking southern stands! Out." Oh, crap.

I glanced to Mend, who frowned, then shrugged. "There were stairs back there." He turned and cantered down the corridor. "Lets go." I hopped into the air, took to wing and darted after him.

A few minutes of cantering took us to the main level of the stands. I dropped to my hooves, folding my wings partially as I scanned the area. I saw a path of bloodstains leading to a door along a raised section of the stands. We weren't too far from their hideout, and I saw a large scoped rifle swathed in an olive green aura poking over the top of the barrier.

I pointed it out, and spent a moment thinking. "I'll fly up and distract them while you sneak over there and throw the mines inside?"

He blinked and frowned, closing his eyes and mouthing something.

"Team Two, Team One, where are you?!" The Captain's voice had a hint of concern.

"Team One, Team Two. We're near them, but they don't know we're here. Starting our attack now. Some cover fire would be nice. Over."

"Consider it done. Out!" Lieutenant Dash's voice came over the comms, and Team One started firing again.

"Doctor?" I looked to him. "We have to go, now."

He mumbled inaudible something before speaking to me. "I know. I know." He sighed. "On your go." I stripped off my saddlebags and threw myself into the air and started climbing. Mend called to me through the comms, "Hey, Wings. Don't get shot."

I nickered. "Are you starting to care for me, Horn?"

"No. Feathers are a pain in the ass to fix." He sighed quietly, mumbling something to himself as I watched him crawling towards the raider hideout, several landmines held in his purple aura.

After a few seconds of flying, I was high enough to start shooting at them and drew my beam pistol instead of responding. My first shot hit the receiver of the rifle as it spun towards me. I guessed I had disabled the rifle, since the unicorn dropped the rifle and fumbled for a revolver. One of their shots hit my visor, spiderwebbing it. I yelped, dropping my weapon. Holy shit! If I hadn't been wearing a helmet...

"Wings? You okay?" Not now, Mend... I folded my wings and brought up SATS, dropping like a stone until I opened my wings. Ow ow ow. I grabbed my pistol, firing a burst of shots at the unicorn with the sniper rifle as I dropped into a hover. A sharpened metal stake flew past, above me by at least a dozen meters. Not even close! I paused and opened fire at the unicorn, who was covered in a sort of armored barding made of clipboards. Instead of burning through the clipboards - like they should have - my shots sizzled against them ineffectively. What!? I moved horizontally across their field of vision, firing as I went. SATS ended. Several shots tugged at my barding, but none punched through, thankfully.

...and then they all exploded! Thank the sun. I circled around and swooped over their hideout long way, looking if there was anypony moving and finding nothing. I slid my beam pistol back into its holster as I dropped into a hover over the area. "All clear. Doctor?"

"I'm here." He groaned as he crawled over the edge of the box, looking at the results of his work with a frozen look.

"Team One, Team Two, it's secure up here, come on up. Over." The unicorn with the sniper rifle was olive with messy, dark green striped hair. A coffee mug had had the bottom bored out and used as an improvised horn guard. A revolver lay beside her, and I trotted over to kick it away from her. Clipboards? I stomped on one, and it resisted my hoof. Wow, what were they made of? I turned to study the rest of the scene.

The smell of blood in the air was sickening, overwhelming. There had been several other raiders with her armed with a mix of guns and close quarters weapons, including what appeared to be a sword that had been forcefully mated with a flamethrower. "We got a live one. Medic!"

I held my breath as I trotted over to the survivor, kicking another pistol away from him.

Curiously, he happened to be wearing a familiar looking combat helmet. The front of it bore the Stable-tec emblem, much like ours. A look around revealed a Pipbuck attached to a limb with an identical olive coat. Mend hurried over, freezing for a moment, as he stared at what he had done. I trotted over and put my hoof on Mend's shoulder. He glanced over to me, a look of disgust and fear crossing his face momentarily as he stepped away from me, then he got to work on the raider. Letting the medic do his job, I went over to investigate the Pipbuck. It was in a lock down countdown. "Team One, Team Two, we've got some Stable kit up here. Over."

"Say again, Team Two. Did you say 'Stable kit'? Over." The Captain sounded incredibly interested in that.

"Affirm. There's a Stable helmet and a Pipbuck in Security lock down up here."

"Roger. We're en route to your position, ETA three mikes. Out." The Captain sounded out of breath. While Mend tried to patch up the raider for interrogation, I jumped the barrier between the raider's nest and the stands, tossing myself into the air and studying the Stadium from up high. It was huge. It had to have held thousands of ponies in its glory days, but the intervening two hundred years had ruined it. It was falling apart, but curiously, the grass on the field looked in perfect health. Up here, away from everything on the ground, my Pipbuck's incessant ticking finally quieted down.

While hovering in place here both made me a perfect target for a sniper and was straining on my wings, it was... relaxing, being this free from everything. Nothing but empty air dozens of meters from me from all sides. This is great. I took a deep breath, enjoying the almost clean, blood-free air and let it out with a soft sigh.

A loud bang announced Team One had made it up to the raider's nest. I turned to watch them, before folding my wings. I dropped like a large, fleshy and feathered rock, spreading my wings and dropping into a hover a few meters above the ground. Captain Firefly was galloping from a recently opened doorway, mane and tail streaming out behind her as she headed directly to the raider Mend was tending to. Lieutenant Dash was a few paces behind her, and he wasted no time starting to nose through the bodies.

"How is he?" I could hear the Captain talking with Mend.

"Well, considering he ran afoul of several landmines..." Mend paused and his cool exterior broke. "... he's still breathing, which is something I can work with."

"Excellent. Tell me when he's stable enough for interrogation." Mend nodded. The raider's helmet was levitated off his head, and the Captain flipped her visor up as she studied it. "Hey, Dashie. C'mere." Lieutenant Dash paced over to her, tossing some items into his saddlebags.

"The Pipbuck is over here..." I pointed to it... and the limb it was still attached to. Lieutenant Dash diverted to retrieve it, removing the limb from the Pipbuck and gently setting it aside.

"Sup boss." Dash trotted to the Captain.

The Captain levitated the helmet over to him. "See if you can read the name?" He leaned down, then shook his head. "Negative, too damaged." He spent a moment looking closer. "This looks like it was intentionally removed. These scores look too clean to be battle damage."

"The Pipbuck might say who it belonged to?" I suggested, glancing to the hoof computer Dash was holding.

"Oh, hey. That's an idea." He grinned and turned it over, looking at the inside of the computer. I glanced to the Captain with a confused look, who shrugged. He set it down, glancing to the sky. "Oh! Specialist Stainless Hex. The previous security team's magitech expert."

"You didn't even look at the Pipbuck's operating system, how did you...?" I glanced to Dash with a confused look.

"I memorized the security team's profiles last night. This was the serial number for Hex's Pipbuck." ... Memorized... a dozen ponies' profiles... down to the serial number on their Pipbucks? Okay, the Lieutenant is definitely not dumb muscle... "Plus the OS probably would have reset when our raider pal put it on." He gestured towards the pony it had come from as I looked to the Captain. She simply shrugged in response.

"Good work, Dashie." The Captain picked up the Pipbuck in her magic and tried to take it, but Lieutenant Dash kept a firm grip on it.

"Sooo I had a thought, boss..." I glanced to Mend while Dash spoke. He was grumbling to himself as he patched up the wastelander. "This Pipbuck wasn't locked down. At least, it wasn't until Team Two, uh... neutralized him." Dash glanced to me, and I felt goosebumps go up along my spine. The Captain gave Dash an annoyed look, and he dropped his dramatic voice. "That definitely wasn't Stainless Hex, so somepony removed the Pipbuck, but kept it from locking down, which can only be done by entering a code that only high ranking Stable 30 Security officers know."

Captain Firefly snorted impatiently and stomped a hoof on the ground. "What are you suggesting, Dashie?"

"I think Crimson Nimbus is still alive." Something in the Captain's expression changed. "For all we know, they were slaughtered and Soulful Impact was the only survivor," Who? "but the raiders tortured the lock down code out of Crimson before he died." He shook his head. "I don't think so, though. Based off Crimson's profile, I doubt he would let slip something like that. I think he's still alive. What he's doing, though... I have no clue."

"Captain, he's awake." Mend waved the Captain over, and the three of us moved over to the raider. A faintly purple iridescent Sparkle-cola bottle lay beside him. Two of his limbs had been... removed... and most of his underside was covered with rapidly staining bandages.

The raider stirred, looking around, blinking rapidly before his eyes focused on Captain Firefly, eyes widening. "Oh shit, aww shit! Wait..." His eyes focused on her horn. "You can't be Serenity. You're not Nimbus. Who the hell're you?" 'Nimbus'? I shared a look with Lieutenant Dash. He flashed me a smug smirk in response. Ugh.

"Answer my questions truthfully and we'll do what we can to help you. Where did you get your helmet?" The tip of the Captain's horn glowed blue.

"Wha... where?" He glanced around, and the Captain held up the helmet he had been wearing. "Oh... that..." He laughed, a deep, smug laugh. "That's for me to know and you to find out! Stupid Stable ponies!" His bandages started staining red faster.

"He's bleeding out, Firefly. I might be able to put him to sleep and keep him alive until we could get him back to the Stable..." The Captain looked tempted by Mend's suggestion.

I snorted. Oh, please. I drew my beam pistol, putting a beam through his eye socket. He was dead before he realized it, and his laughter died with him. Good riddance. I returned my weapon to its holster and turned to the rest of the group. A disgusting smell floated my way that I suspected was cooking meat, and I fanned it away with my wings.

"What the hell, Pumpkin!?" Everypony was shocked by what I'd done, Mend the most vocally.

I turned to Mend. "He was dying anyways. I simply ended his suffering."

Mend seemed to be appeased by that, but I could tell he wasn't happy about it. Team One, on the other hoof...

"Are you the squad leader, trooper?" Oops. Captain Firefly is pissed.

"No, ma'am."

"And who would that be?"

"You, ma'am."

"And who is the one who gives the orders in this group?"

"You, ma'am."

"Correct. I don't recall ordering you to kill him. Do you?"

"No, ma'am."

"Would you like to explain your actions?"

"Yes ma'am. He wasn't planning to tell us anything else before he died, and wasting valuable time and medical supplies attempting to prolong his life in hopes he would share something further is just that: a waste." I paused, then changed the discussion away from my execution. Just thinking about it made me feel dirty inside, but I still felt it was the right thing to do. "He confirmed Lieutenant Dash's theory that Captain Nimbus was still alive." Something in the Lieutenant's cheek twitched as I referred to him by rank. "He also referenced somepony named 'Serenity', though I can't even begin to guess the significance of that."

After the skirmish with the raiders, we resumed our previous courses, splitting up again to link up on the other side of the Stadium. Little happened on our end until we met up at the other side of the stadium. Lieutenant Dash looked considerably worse for wear. It looked like he had gone swimming in radroach slime.

Mend looked to the Lieutenant. "What happened to you, Dash?"

Dash glanced to us with an annoyed look. "Don't ask. Did you find anything?"

I glanced to Mend, who shrugged in disinterest. "Radiation? Narrow concrete corridors?" Mend grinned mischievously at Dash, and I suspected he was planning to pester Dash about what had happened, but a look at Team One's expressions changed his mind.

"In other words, nothing." The Captain's expression shifted to one of mild displeasure. "Move out."

As we exited through the front doors, my Pipbuck gave out a Lock down alert on the Captain. Shit! I threw myself into the air and drew my beam pistol, scanning around us on my EFS. Finding nothing at all, I turned slowly around, scanning the entire area before holstering my weapon. "Clear!"

"What happened?" Lieutenant Dash and Mend had turned, flank to flank with the Captain. I settled into a hover a few pony lengths above them.

The Captain groaned. "... My Pipbuck just locked down." She sighed and continued limping away from the Stadium along the train tracks. "Today is just going fucking swimmingly. Move out."

I flew up to the top of the stadium, using my knife to pry several of the still glowing gems out. "Got a gift for you, sir." I grinned to him, dropping to my hooves a few paces in front of him and holding out the gems for him with my wings.

"Oh, you shouldn't have." His usually sarcastic voice had a deadpan tone to it, but I could see a hint of amusement in his expression. "Thank you." He took them and tucked them away.

We followed the tracks for about an hour, encountering more gang symbols, crude art and well maintained crimson gears, until it really started getting dark. It felt... weird, seeing darkness. Sure, the Stable dimmed the lights during the sleep cycle, but that was just a small, muted darkness. This? This was full darkness, darkness everywhere.

"Probably a good idea to make camp now, boss."

The Captain considered, then nodded. "Yes, let's."

We quickly found a place to bunker down for the night, a prewar apartment building, and split into pairs to secure the building, floor by floor. Finally we settled down in an apartment on the second floor around a spark battery powered glow lantern.

"Debriefing time, ponies." I had just started unpacking my bedroll. I continued to do so, turning to watch the Captain while I settled down for bed. She turned to her Pipbuck, only to apparently remember what had happened. "Oh. Right. Glorious. Dashie, get over here."

"Yeah, boss?" Lieutenant Dash bounded over to the Captain.

Captain Firefly leaned over and grabbed his Pipbuck. "My Pipbuck is dead, so we'll use yours for our debriefings."

Dash shrugged. "Sure thing." He wriggled his way out of his armor and battle saddle, sprawling out beside Firefly, hoof with his Pipbuck resting across her hoof. I finished setting up my bed roll and pulled my helmet off.

"Stable Thirty, reconnaissance log, Day Two and after-action report for skirmish at Baltimare Stadium. Captain Firefly leading, Lieutenant Rapid Dash, Security Officer Pumpkin Blitz and Doctor Cerulean Mend participating." After a short pause, she continued. "Begin." She turned to Mend and myself. "Tell me what happened when we got to the Stadium."

I glanced to Mend, then answered as honestly as I could. "Well, you stepped on a landmine." Mend tried to conceal his snickering. The Captain did not find that as funny, apparently, as something in her cheek twitched. Oops. "Cerulean Mend patched you up as best he could."

"Yeah, you're welcome for me reattaching your damn leg and all." The Captain glared at him as Mend's usual grumpy tone returned, and I shushed him by prodding his barrel with my hoof. He glared at me, but fell silent.

"Shush you. We continued into the Stadium after Lieutenant Dash dealt with the mines. We came to a fork in the hallway and split up. Team One went North, Team Two went South, intending to link up on the other side of the stadium. We came to one of the locker rooms and..." I paused, remembering our discussion and glancing to the Captain, deciding I should probably omit that part. "... we found nothing." The Captain gave me a skeptical look, which I quickly brushed aside and changed the topic. "What happened on your side?"

Lieutenant Dash lazily rolled over onto his side. "Absolutely nothin'." I had to admit, for a stallion, he was attractive. For a stallion.

I continued as the Captain yawned, resting her muzzle on her hooves. "Then you apparently wandered out onto the playing field and found some raiders."

Dash glanced over to his armor. "Oh, yeah. One of my plates shattered when I was hit." He reached a back hoof over and poked the pockets containing one of his armor plates.

Mend glanced over and yawned. Celestia, are all unicorns this easily tired? "Yeah... I'm not going to be able to fix that." ... Oh. Yeah, they are, actually.

I continued as if nothing had happened. "While you kept the raider's attention, we flanked and neutralized them."

"Neutralized them, my flank! We straight up murdered them." Mend frowned. "No. I murdered them." He sighed quietly, burying his face in his hooves.

I reached over to press my hoof against his side. "We did what we had to do."

He shifted away from my hoof. "Like you murdered that last one?"

"I ended his suffering. He was dying anyways and nothing you could do would have saved him."

"I had to save him! I murdered his friends. I left the Stable to help ponies, not slaughter entire groups of them!"

"They made the mistake of shooting at us. We taught them that was a mistake."

"For all we know, they might have been just been scared wastelanders! What gives you the right to get to choose who lives and who dies?" While we argued, the Captain levitated a bottle of healing potion and a shot glass out, drinking a shot of it.

"Both of you, stuff it! That's an order!" Oops. I immediately shut up and looked to her. "Good. We'll deal with whether or not we should have killed them when we're home. Right now, we're logging our day." The Captain sighed, eyes closed, rubbing her temples, and Dashie reached over to prod her in the side with one of his hooves. She jumped and glared at him, and then giggled (??) as Dashie held up a... coin? with his other.

"... A coin, Firefly?" Mend leaned over to get a look at it.

"Not a coin, Doctor. It's the emblem of the Ministry of Wartime Technology." She grinned as I looked closer. It was the outline of an apple, with a sword splitting it in half vertically. Three gears, two smaller than the third, branched out from the blade.

I shrugged. "Congrats, Captain?"

She tucked it away inside her collar, considerably more cheerful. "Alright, back to work folks." She turned to us, leaning over to pull Dash's Pipbuck over to her, the two of them intertwining hooves. Hrrmmm... "Team Two, please continue telling us what happened after the raiders found us."

I groaned, ruffling my wings slightly as I glanced to Mend. He shrugged. "You tell 'em, Wings."

"Very well. You called out the location of where the raiders were, and we diverted to where you'd directed. We emerged on the stands a short distance away. We quickly came up with a plan." The doctor snorted here, grumbling about 'us' and 'plan', which I ignored and continued. "You radioed us asking where we were. We told you we were ready to start our attack and asked you to provide some cover fire to draw their attention back to you, which you did, then we started. I flew up to distract them while Mend sneaked around and returned several of their landmines to them."

Mend winced. "What a wonderfully sterile way you phrased the death of a half dozen ponies. You'd make a good doctor, if you knew anything about fixing ponies." His snide tone returned. "And didn't get sick at the smell of blood."

"Hush, Horn." I glared over at him. He shut up. "I made sure everypony was neutralized, but I found somepony still alive. Mend went over to heal him, then Team One showed up." I glanced to Lieutenant Dash. "The Lieutenant started nosing through the bodies and I found Stainless Hex's Pipbuck and the Stable helmet. After looking at the two pieces of equipment, Lieutenant Dash put forth the theory that Captain Nimbus is still alive based on the fact that the Pipbuck was still active while being used by another pony."

"Wait, what." Mend sat bolt upright. "You're saying Red is still alive? Captain Crimson Nimbus, Firefly's dad? Sombra damn it!"

The Captain cleared her throat as she leveled a glance at Mend. "I would prefer, Doctor, if, at least in professional settings, you would refer to me as 'Captain'. Or at the very least, 'ma'am'."

Mend glanced back to her, then shrugged, laying back down. "Sure thing, Captain Firefly ma'am." His sarcasm was so thick you could almost feel it radiating from him.

I quickly steered the conversation back on topic after a look at him. "The raider we interrogated seemed to confirm Dash's theory."

"Before you murdered him." The Captain glared at him, and he stopped talking.

"... Yes." I sighed and continued. "While the Captain and the Doctor debated the finer points of stabilizing a raider and carting him back to the Stable and he bled out, I ended his suffering."

"And then, rightfully so, you got chewed out by Captain Firefly ma'am."

The Captain glared at Mend. "I would appreciate it if you would please be quiet, unless you have something useful to add, Doctor." A hint of bark slipped into her tone.

"Sure thing, Captain Firefly ma'am." The Captain glared and Mend smirked at her, one of his more antagonistic looks.

"Would you like to repeat your argument from earlier, for the sake of record, Pumpkin?"

I sighed. "Of course, ma'am." I closed my eyes, thinking back. "I ended his life because I did not feel that wasting the medical supplies and time to carry and escort him to our objective and then back to the Stable was a worthy investment on the potential intelligence interrogation would provide."

"In spite of you not being the squad leader?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The Captain nodded, then sighed, looking around. "Does anyone have anything else they would like to add?" Doctor Mend opened his mouth and she cut him off. "That would be relevant or useful to the discussion." Mend said nothing. "No? Debriefing adjourned." She reached down to shut the recorder off on Dash's Pipbuck. "Let's get some sleep. Team One will take first watch, Team Two will wake at 0030 to relieve Team One at 0100, then Team One will wake at 0630. Lights out at..." She glanced down at Dashie's Pipbuck. "1930."

I glanced to my Pipbuck's clock. 1900. Mmmk. I groaned, wriggling out of my barding and digging some food out of my saddlebags. The group remained quiet as we relaxed and Mend checked over the Captain. At 1930, Dash turned the glow lantern out and the Doctor and I crawled into our beds, drifting to sleep.

Several hours passed and I was woken up. I wouldn't say I had slept well, but Captain Firefly looked dead on her hooves. ...considering the events of this afternoon, that's probably not a good comparison. Team One went to sleep at 0100, leaving Mend and I on duty. I nibbled on another apple. Mend dug a book out of his saddlebags, reading by the amber light of his Pipbuck. I preened my feathers. We idly chitchatted for a while, then fell silent.

Some time after Team One went to bed, I started getting signals on my EFS, and mysterious echoes on my radio. "Hey, Mend, are you getting anything on your EFS? Or your comms?"

"It's probably just radsprites or something." Mend nibbled on an apple as he flipped a page on his book.

"I don't think so... they're not yellow, or red. They're green." I rose to my hooves, putting on my helmet and beam pistol holster. "And radsprites don't talk. Definitely getting voices here." I considered waking Team One, but a skeptical look from Mend changed my mind.

Something changed in the air around us - I don't know what - but something told me to go into SATS right then, and I did.

...and then we were under attack! A half dozen shapes pouring through the door. Crap. The ceiling above us exploded and debris rained down. Oh, shit! Ponies dropped through. I tried to yell through my beam pistol as I fled into the air. "Shit!"

Mend went down immediately, just collapsed on the ground and twitching. No!

Lieutenant Dash rolled from his bedroll. He came out swinging, hitting one of the enemies, but he too fell, twitching.

I saw a pegasus mare darting among the enemy. A familiar-looking pegasus, with a red coat and a blue mane. What? SATS wore off as I looked back to the pegasus... for a second. Just a second too long... and then, blackness.

I came to, upside down, an indeterminate time later. I had been stripped of my barding, right down to my bare coat. Brr. A look around revealed we were hanging from the ceiling of a small room by our hooves.

Mend. Captain Firefly. Lieutenant Dash. Everypony here. Good. A closer glance around revealed everypony was still breathing. Better. A glance 'down' revealed my Pipbuck was intact. Excellent. I folded my wings, which had fallen open while I was unconscious, with a soft sigh. Nothing to do but wait.

A fifth pony, an older, pegasus stallion with a familiar red and blue palette, hung face-to-face with the Captain.

The Captain woke with a groan, yelping and recoiling at the sight of a stallion a few meters in front of her.

"'Firey? Is that you?" The Captain recoiled, a look of shock visible on her face. The fuck is going on here?!

Author's Notes:

Sooo... who is this mysterious stallion, I wonder? I know, and some of you sharper readers may already be fairly sure who this is, but the rest of you... you'll have to wait!

Okay, okay. I promised "5k words in 2 weeks". Instead I delivered "13k in 3 weeks". Hope this makes up for it. The next few chapters are planned to be shorter ones, so hopefully I should be able to stick with the 5k/2w schedule for the next month or two. Should.

e: revised on 07.05.15
e: re-revised on 02.27.16
e: revised on 03.08.16

<Credits>
CrimsonVixen for "arcane strapon"
Wintrparkgirl for Spock's basic design
Seraphem for reminding me that the alicorn project should just be called "The IMP Project"
Brandon, Dendrish, TK "Gigantic Dickasauraus Rex" Knorr' for misc editing, spitballing, etc.

Just wanna toss out a shout-out to Generalzoi on DA, who's unwitting contribution through making V3 of her pony creator game helped shape the cast of Fallout Equestria: Stable Scout in ways I never expected to happen. (So yes, I used her game to design my characters. Thanks Generalzoi!)