Another half hour of walking in relative silence took us to the point where we thought it was worth the gamble to get back into the air again. Our rest stop must have had Violet thinking that Galina might be in pursuit of us, because every minute or so, she’d look back over her shoulder into the deep dark blackness of night behind us. Struggling enough with focusing on keeping myself in the air at all, I tried to ignore her constant worried looks. I mean, if Galina was coming up behind us, I’m pretty sure Violet wouldn’t see her in the dead of night.

However, her worried checking was all for naught, when true to her original estimate, we spotted the soft lights pouring out from under the Hauler’s canvas covered living area. The striped armored lead vehicle and the runner were both parked nearby down the road from where we were, and I finally felt like I could relax a bit. Thank the goddesses as well, because my eyelids felt like brick walls ready to collapse as soon as I so much as thought about getting some sleep. That’s also not mentioning how my sore wings felt like with each forceful beat, would close against me on their own, and drop me just short of sweet, sweet relief. Really, I’d be surprised if I’d be able to lift them at all in the next few days.

Putting ourselves into a shallow dive, we aimed for the heart of home. Again, thanks to the weight of the gear still tightly strapped to me, and the thicker air toward the ground, I was able to control my descent. Violet lifted her forehoof to her muzzle oddly, blowing on it’s edge to create a shrill, whistling noise that echoed across the mountains and valleys around us. Honestly, as I flicked my ears to try to get the ringing they now had out of it, I wished I’d had some sort of warning before hoof. Still, not thirty seconds later as we made our final approach, both Hardcase and Buck peeked out of their respective containers.

Coming down under the lofty canvas covering of the inviting rec area, I misjudged my trajectory and clipped the arm of the old couch with my legs. I tried to brace myself for impact against Buck, but instead found myself quickly grabbed from the air by Buck’s enormous claws. Falling limp in his grasp, I panted softly and looked up in silent gratitude toward him. I was just glad to be back with the Convoy.

“I was so worried about you.” Hardcase sniffled as Violet came down and trotted straight into his embrace. I fought against the exhaustion to turn my head, watching the two hug each other as an odd sense of happiness overwhelmed me at the sight. Not only sadness, but a deep regret filled the back of my mind that I couldn’t quite place. I wasn’t sure why I felt this way, but really, I didn’t care about the why. I was back at the closest thing to home, around those who were the closest thing to family, and above all, I was finally safe.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Delilah’s cranky voice was hoarse and soft. We must have woken her up. Glaring at us without her glasses across her muzzle, I couldn’t be sure if she was doing it out of anger, or just to see us to some degree at all. “You two disappeared this afternoon without informing anypony, and left Lucky wondering just where you’d gone.” Looking between Violet and I, Delilah’s angry eyes hung on me just that single moment longer than Violet every time. “Now you come back in the dead of night. Explain yourselves.”

“I can explain.” Violet started, pulling off of Hardcase and turning around. “Well, at least partly.” Even exhausted, I knew that I couldn’t quite pass out yet.

Delilah simply raised an eyebrow at us. “Go ahead.”

“Well, you see…” Violet looked over to me, nervously shifting her weight from one tired hoof to another. I didn’t envy her at all. Having to explain what we’d been through would have been stressful enough, let alone doing it after we flew however long to even get back. “Bombay and I can’t quite remember this afternoon. At all.” I nodded as she spoke, keeping my own muzzle shut but at least conferring enough to Delilah. Not that I could really say anything to screw Violet’s story up in the first place. How do you screw up a memory you don’t have? “We were unconscious for some reason, but I think Solomon had something to do with it.”

“Solomon.” Delilah sighed and brought her forehoof up to her muzzle. She rubbed between her eyes with another sigh. “What makes you blame him?”

“Well, when Bombay and I woke up, Galina was there to escort us over to him.” Violet sat down and let her tired wings flop to her sides. “She brought us to talk to Solomon.”

“Really? About what?” Hardcase jumped in, immediately freezing up as Delilah shifted her burning glare to him.

“He’s still convinced you know the location of the Ark, Ma’am.” Violet continued. “If I had to guess, he was probably going to hold us hostage until you gave up the location.” Looking back over to me, she smiled softly. “If it weren’t for Bombay, than we wouldn’t have made it out of there.”

“What happened?” Buck this time interjected. As he did, he maneuvered me over the old, squeaky spring couch that Boiler had been using before, and gently set me down on it’s soft padding. Even as cold as the night air was, the comfort it gave was enough to send my mind reeling towards sleep for a moment before I refocused myself. Getting myself into a sitting position, I fidgeted against my sweaty and abrasive battle saddle. I couldn’t wait to get this thing off me and climb into bed.

“An impending tribal attack on his camp left us alone with him.” Looking back to Delilah, Violet sat up straight as she recounted the events. “He tried to bait Bombay into joining his crew, but Bombay wasn’t having it. I spoke up and got struck down for it.” Delilah’s eyes uneasily shifted to me, full of her doubtfulness of Violet’s words. “Bombay seized the opportunity and struck out against the bastard.” Violet snorted as a smile crept across her face. “With a single hit, Solomon went down for the count. Pretty sure the hit broke his jaw as well.”

“What?” Hardcase laughed, “Really?”

“Hah, nice!” The muffled voice of Happy Trails came through the door from inside his cargo container.

“We should change her nickname to jawbreaker!” Boiler’s muffled voice came cheerfully from behind me in her container. Really, it was nice to be praised for something other than blowing up yaks on a fluke, but it was… odd how everypony on this crew listened in through the walls. I’d have to remember that for down the road in the future...

“Settle down, everypony.” Delilah spoke up in sharp annoyance. “While this may seem like a victory, it’s a pyrrhic victory at best.” Looking at us all, she shook her head. When Violet joked about missing Delilah’s face at what we’d done to solomon, I expected something with more… emotion. Well, an emotion other than silent, fuming annoyance that is. “Despite the setbacks I’ve arranged, Solomon is catching up with us.” Setbacks? Again, why did that sound familiar? “If he’s willing to capture us when we’re separated, than nopony leaves the convoy alone anymore. Is that understood?”

All manners of mumbled affirmations came from the containers around us, as well as from Violet and Hardcase. Though, like me, I think Buck wasn’t quite sure what to say to this, so the two of us ended up simply nodding to Delilah.

“Good. With Solomon and his team closer than expected, I want you all up an hour early in the morning.” Delilah called out. Her new timetable elicited groans from everypony in the containers. Looking over to me, she kept her gaze just as sharp as when she’d scolded me. “While not selling out to Solomon merits some sort of reward, you’re still on probation for the crew. Not only that, but this time crunch means we have to make sacrifices.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling another pit in my stomach forming.

“If your story about where you came from is true, tomorrow night we will be nearby where we picked you up, and your town would be only another hour away by air. The plan was for us to camp out overnight and for you to head out the next morning to find what was left of your settlement, where as by the time you were done, we’d have caught up and be nearby enough for you to join us again.” A look of immense guilt took ahold of Delilah, and she took a step back. “I’m sorry, but with Solomon so close, we can no longer afford to await your return if you decide to leave.”

“But… you said that no matter if I chose to join your crew or not, you would still take me there!” I… I couldn’t believe that she would do this to me! I realized that I owed her much more than I could ever repay, but… a promise was a promise. Either from shock of fatigue, my forelegs gave out from under me and plopped me down onto the squeaky couch cushions.

“I’m sorry, Night.” Delilah sighed, turning around and heading back into her container. Looking out, she looked over to Buck. “Doc, I want you to give Zoomer and Bombay a once-over in the morning. But for now, it would be smart if we all got some sleep.” Closing her door behind her, I simply sat in silence.

A nagging thought picked at me as all of us seemed to sit in silence. This was how my world worked now. I tried to do good, tried my best at something, or maybe for a moment felt a little bit of hope. Then the second I did? It evaporated before my very eyes. I hadn’t known what I would find in going back home. But, at the very least, found closure among the ruins. I could have said my peace and started to move on with my new life in the wasteland. Without warning or permission, I found Buck’s large claws wrap around me again and pick me up off the couch.

“I’m sure she’ll reconsider, Night.” Buck said softly as he turned us around. Gently, he carried me back into our container and set me down on my bed. Curling up on it, I reached out with my hoof and grabbed the rainbow rug. “Just get some rest for now, and we’ll deal with talking to Delilah in the morning. Okay?” Reaching over, Buck helped slide the rug over me. Looking at me with guilty eyes of his own, he offered me a small smile. “I’m just glad you came back at all.”

Closing my eyes, I waited for myself to fall asleep. I didn’t care anymore about today. I couldn’t care less about Solomon, or Delilah, or any stupid fucking two century old ship. All I wanted to do was drift off into the emotionless void of sleep.

And either by divine grace, or sheer force of will, I managed to do just that.

Tick. Tick. Tack. Tick. Tick-Tack. Clack. Tick-click.

The odd noises in the room around me roused me from what had felt like only a moment’s rest. I hardly remembered curling up on the bed to sleep, but it felt like only moments ago that I did. Giving a short yawn, I flared my wings out, finding that while a bit sore, they didn’t actually feel all that bad. The rest of me didn’t feel too sore either, and I was oddly not feeling as parched as I would have expected.

Still wrapping my mind around the senses just coming back to me, I splayed myself out underneath the luxuriously warm rainbow rug. My mind fought a losing battle for consciousness against my body, who’s only goal seemed to be in dragging me back into the darkness of rest.

Then an obnoxiously large bump in the road tossed me almost a foot into the air.

My mind snapped awake. I reached out, grabbing onto the side of my bed tightly as I looked frantically about without aim. The lack of gunshots or screaming, and the sound of Bertha’s reactor humming along like it normally did kicked my mind out of it’s panic. Looking over across the container, I found Buck sitting at his terminal typing something up on it. He sat focused intensely on whatever was on the old green and black terminal screen. His claws ticked and clacked against the terminal keys at a good pace. Though I had no right to know, part of me was wondering just what he was typing up so diligently.

“Good morning.” He said with a sigh, looking over to me slowly. His ice blue, tired looking eyes softened as he did. The weary smile he wore felt to me like it was instead him who was about to collapse from exhaustion, rather than me. “Feeling better today?”

“Yeah.” I nodded before my stomach gurgled louder than the sound of Bertha in the background. “Just hungry.” Stretching my forelegs a bit again, I realized that I was finally out of that damn battle saddle. The spots it had chafed felt good exposed against the cool air, finally free of any constrictions. Really, I was just glad to have that obnoxious gun no longer hanging off my side. It may not feel like much at first, but over time it felt like it was slowly turning from a steel weapon to a lead brick.

“Heh, I bet.” Buck nodded, leaning back as a particularly long yawn took hold of him. As he stretched out, I watched him roll his shoulders a few times and crane his neck from side to side. “I could use some breakfast as well.” Looking over to me, he pointed down under my bed. “Why don’t you see what looks good to you in your bag, while I go and see if Zoomer has made any coffee yet today.”

“Violet’s already up?” I asked, scooting myself over to the edge of my bed. Grabbing the old, well worn saddlebags that I’d gotten from Mrs. Leaf, I slid them out and dragged them up to me. Honestly though, I shouldn’t have been surprised that Violet was up already. She’s a whole lot tougher than I am, and she seemed to have an incredible strength of will about her. Really, she reminded me a lot of mom, and it’s probably why I feel fairly comfortable around her.

“Yeah,” Buck nodded as he stood himself up as tall as he could, arching his black and white furred back this time. A stiff shiver worked its way down from his neck, culminating in the quick wiggle of his fluffy spiked tail. “Came in early yesterday as well to look over you. She was concerned about that new scar on your head.” Yesterday? “But as it turns out during her examination, I found a similar one in an identical location on her scalp.”

“Wait, yesterday?” Sitting up, I set the saddlebags aside and watched as Buck stopped just short of the door. “I’ve been asleep this whole time!?”

“Yes, but that’s fairly normal for somepony who was dehydrated and suffering from exhaustion. I gave you an IV for a while yesterday to remedy it, as well as got you conscious enough to get down some potato soup, but I’m not all that surprised you don’t remember that. But, I think barring the scar on your head, you’ll be just fine.” Buck smiled, leaning forward and resting his enormously warm paw on my shoulder. “On that scar however, I can’t be sure how exactly, but I think somepony might have done something to both of you and Violet’s memories. That it’s most likely why you both couldn’t recall what happened that afternoon.”

“Can… you fix it?” I must have sounded like an idiot asking that. No, scratch that, I was an idiot. Of course he couldn’t fix it! Whatever can alter memories is magical in nature. He can’t just doctor it away without even knowing what it is or how it works.

Before he could answer, the whole container shifted forward as it felt like the hauler tried to buck us right off the back of itself with a metallic squeal that drilled into my ears. Buck easily pressed his massive paw up onto the ceiling to brace himself, while I nearly slid right off the end of my bed from the sudden movement. Holding onto my saddlebags like it were an anchor, the force subsided quickly, and a huge hiss of pressurized air sounded from deep underneath us.

Both Buck and I looked at each other before turning to the container door. Swinging it open, the quick hoofsteps of Hardcase could be heard through the walls of his container across the way. Throwing the door open, he looked at Buck and I with wide, worried eyes.

“Bombay… you need to come up here.” Speaking quickly, he didn’t even wait for a response before turning around and hastily running back to the ladder in his container.

Scrambling to my hooves, I hopped off my bed and practically flew across the unpopulated rec area and through the open door of Hardcase’s container. Inside, I didn’t find Violet resting like she probably should have been, rather, only the open hatch to the outside. My legs, while sore, carried me steadily to and up the old makeshift ladder. The bright sun reflected off the side of a nearby mountain, nearly blinding me as I climbed up and onto the top of the container. It was far too bright up here to be normal, and actually felt like all the light of the sun was focused down solely onto me. I lifted my hoof, trying to shield myself from it’s brilliance until I found Hardcase plop a pair of old, scratched up sunglasses down on my muzzle.

“I guess we wouldn’t have needed stop long for you anyway…” He spoke in a reverent tone as I blinked in confusion and horror at the sight of what lay before me. The heavily tinted glasses muted the bright morning sun just enough to etch the brutal scene into my mind forever.

It wasn’t the sun that was brightening this area, but a reflection of it off the concave, glass baked surface of the megaspell scarred mountain where the skydock had once sat. The blackened and twisted remains of the raptor had since cooled to a ashen black from the last time I’d seen it. Even from here along the road, it was still visible, towering over the charred husks of the blasted trees that lay flat all across the disfigured mountain. Scattered among the broken trees, a fair distance from the raptor’s wreckage, lay the outlines of furniture, equipment, and other bits and pieces of non-cloud furnishings from Four Peaks that had survived the blast only to plummet to the ash covered ground.

“Wait… what is that?” Hardcase asked, pointing his forehoof to what little was left of the town of Four Peaks.

“Ghouls.” Buck spoke up from behind me, almost startling me from his sudden presence. Turning to look at him, he was squinting as hard as he could and holding his massive paw up over his eyes to help. “Could be survivors who changed in the blast.” That word made my heart nearly skip a beat. “Could be ferals attracted by the radiation.” If… if my father had ‘changed’, then maybe he was still out there.

Turning back, I squinted and looked as hard as I could. They were hard to make out, but I could see… things moving about slowly around among the twisted rubble. Spreading my wings out instinctively, I felt Hardcase quickly swing his forehoof over against my chest.

“Woah there, remember what Delilah said. We go in pairs.” He spoke in a calm tone. Looking at him, I paused in confusion as glowing green flecks in his blue eyes shimmered in the tinted, bright light from the mountain. Before I could reflect on their oddness any further, I found the sunglasses stripped from me by his magic. “Come on, Delilah’s sure to give you a half hour or so with it being so close.” It was bright enough again without the glasses, that I could barely see him reaching out to give me a pat on the shoulder. “Let’s go find Zoomer.”

Turning around, I returned to the ladder. Buck stood down at the bottom, looking up at me with a solemn look about him. He couldn’t know what it was going to be like for me to go out there, yet he felt sorry all the same. It was Buck to me that seemed the most like a friend out here so far. He’d watched over me every time I’d been hurt, and even when I’d screwed up, he still did what he could to help me.

Stepping down the ladder, I had to wonder to myself just why Violet didn’t feel the same to me anymore. She’d shown me nothing but the will to help me learn. Yet, some part of me wanted to say that she was disappointed in me, angry at me even. It was an… odd feeling that I did my best to shake off. But still, it hung around in the back of my mind like my mother’s tags did around my neck. They were there as a reminder to me that nothing is ever going to be the same, and things will only get worse.

Stepping back down onto the floor of his Container, I waited for Hardcase to come down as well. Giving Buck a small smile of my own, I found his gaze still locked up and out of the container hatch. Stepping back, I cast my gaze up towards Hardcase as well, and went ridged as he turned around to descend.

“Hey, don’t think you need to look away.” He muttered as he climbed down. Though, funny enough, I almost didn’t hear his words as my mind was busy keeping my eyes focused on the perfection that was his flank. Sadly, the sight disappeared when he stepped onto the floor and turned around with a bright smile. “Okay, I think she’ll be down with Boiler getting things ready in the armory.” Stepping past me, I watched his flank walk out the door… him. I watched him walk out the door…

I found myself shoved by one of Buck’s enormous paws as he gave out a soft laugh.

“Better get going before he leaves you behind.” Buck said, pointing out the door. “Oh, and Night? Please be careful out there. I’ve been on this crew as long as you, and already I’ve spent more than half my time patching you up.”

“I’ll… I’ll try.” Nodding to him, I turned and left. I wasn’t so much sure if anything out there was going to try to kill me, but the one thing I did know I could never be protected from? How much seeing up close was going to hurt me inside. It wasn’t until Dad gave me Mom’s tags that it really became real. This was going to be the same thing. Only this time? I probably wouldn’t have anything left to hold at all.

Heading down with Hardcase, we passed through the Ice hold. Inside, as usual, was Happy Trails. He sat in his normal place on the other side of the Ice. Sometime, I’d have to ask him just what it was he always did down here. However, as Hardcase cranked open the door to the other side, I pushed that idea from my mind. Crossing the short catwalk with him, we indeed found Violet inside the cage helping Boiler get our gear together.

“Bombay. Delilah’s given us a half hour to look around.” Looking up to me, she used her wing to hook around my hanging harness on the armory wall and toss it my way before going back to loading bullets into a magazine. I grabbed it with my forehoof, before having my attention snatched away again by her. “Hardcase, what did you see out there?”

“Ghouls in the rubble. Dunno if they’re feral or even how many there are.” He said, shifting uneasily on his hooves. “The glare off the mountain is too bright to see anything useful with optics, and there’s a surprising amount of rubble for having been a cloud settlement hit by a megaspell.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a megaspell. At least, not like the ones two centuries ago.” Boiler spoke up, both spitting a screwdriver from her muzzle, as well as gaining my full attention. She set the gun for my saddle down next to her at what seemed like an agonizingly slow pace before continuing. “A regular megaspell doesn’t create enough heat to vaporize rock and bake it into glass. No, they spread their magical energy out over a wide area, that’s kind of their point. If what Delilah said about Bombay here’s story, this wasn’t a random spark reactor meltdown either. And honestly, I’m kinda surprised there was even anything of that ship left that survived.”

“So… what happened then?” I asked, letting the harness in my hoof drop to the floor. Maybe it wasn’t an accident then. Maybe there’s somepony to blame for everything.

“See, a regular reactor like Bertha here?” Boiler said, nodding back to the enormous machine built into the walls behind her. “Worse thing you’ll get is a steam explosion if you screw something up. You might have a radioactive gas cloud on your hooves then, but not an explosion like that out there.” Leaning down, she picked up my gun again in one hoof, and a rag in the other. “But, if you were to somehow overcharge some sort of capacitor and then dump all that stored energy all at once into the conduit for the spell generation chamber?” Using her rag to point past Hardcase and I, she shrugged. “Theoretically, you’d get a self starting plasma burst that would superheat the air around it and well, potentially cause something like all that out there until it cooled enough to dissipate.”

“Noted.” Violet nodded and looked at me expectantly. “Well, get suited up.”

“Hold up.” I said to Violet before taking a step toward Boiler. “Could something like that have been an accident?”

“Sure, if you gave a deaf, dumb, and blind pony access to the complete power grid of a skyship like that.” She shrugged before wiping down my weapon a few times and hoofing it out to me. “But from what I’ve heard of the Enclave, they may have been selfish assholes in keeping the sky to themselves, but hardly ever that idiotic.”

“Perhaps,” Violet sighed, giving me an annoyed glare. “Maybe we’ll find out if we actually get out there.” Sighing, she set down a magazine she’d filled with bullets and turned around to grab her own harness. “Now, are you going to get suited up or continue to waste the little time we have?”

“Do we really need these?” Looking down at the harness, I really didn’t want to have to put this thing on again.

Violet sighed. “You don’t need the grenades, as they probably wouldn’t help against ferals running around out in the open. The shrapnel barely affects them unless they get hit in the head with it.” Shimmying and twisting herself, she pulled her own harness on surprisingly fast. “However, you’ll need your submachine gun for this, just as a precaution.”

My own harness glowed for a moment before stretching out on it’s own.

“Don’t worry, Bombay!” Hardcase tapped me on the shoulder with a smile brighter than the crater out there. His horn glowed as he all but forced the harness up and around my legs. “I’m sure everything will be fine out there.”

My wings strained to carry me through the air. Though the day off I’d given them had done a lot to help, they were still pretty damn sore overall. The harness had at least dried of my sweat as well, and the gun strapped to my side didn’t bother me as much this time around. Mom had always told me that I was a fast learner… makes me wonder what she would have thought about all my mistakes so far down here.

As ‘Zoomer’ and I flew over what once was a vibrant forest, now ashen and burned, we kept our eyes open for signs of life. Passing over what looked to be the front end of the skydocked raptor, I cringed at the jagged and curled metal, finding what almost looked like charred blisters scattered both all over the hull, as well as inside the various torn open sections of the ship.

“Poor bastards.” Violet said softly. “At least their deaths were quick and painless. Still, I’d hate to die and end up as a splotch on some rusting piece of metal.”

With a sigh, I couldn’t do anything that hope that she was right, and pray that my Dad is somewhere better now.

“Hey,” Violet called out as she rolled over the top of me. It was amazing how agile she was in the air, even in the bulky battle saddle she wore which was almost completely covered in different pouches. But now wasn’t the time to focus on her flying prowess. “Four-o-clock up ahead.” She said, pointing her hoof toward an odd arrangement of rubble that lay among the blackened and ash covered ground.

Changing course, we turned ourselves toward what looked like a neatly set up area at the far edge of town. On our way to it, we passed over what I assumed was left of the main warehouse building for the shipyard. The snarls and growls of ponies burned and trapped in the rubble perked my ears. Shifting my weight, I slid myself into a shallow dive to go investigate. I hadn’t made it far before I found a hoof hooked through the back of my saddle harness.

“Woah there.” Violet spoke, lowering her voice a bit. “Do you see that?” She used her better wings to pull me almost to a dead stop in the air. Pointing down below us, I followed her forehoof to a collapsed section of blackened steel trussing. It was heavily melted from the heat, and had broken along its structural supports. But at the bottom of it, pinned underneath, was an all black and red pony. Or, half of one to be more specific.

It stared up at us, eyes glowing brighter than the end of a magical energy weapon. It growled at us, snapping its jaw in the air and scraping it’s forehooves across the ground to pull itself free.

“We have to help…” I began to say, only to find Violet’s forehoof quickly shoved against my muzzle.

“It’s not a pony anymore.” She whispered to me. “That’s a feral ghoul. They may look like ponies, but I will tell you…” As she spoke softly, I watched in silent horror as the glowing inside the pony grew brighter the harder it struggled to pull itself. Hoarsely, it growled and twisted itself, a red line splitting along it’s back before with one great wrenching tug, it tore itself in half. “They’re just mindless monsters now. Waiting to be put down.”

The feral ghoul didn’t seem to mind in the slightest that it was now half of itself. I watched as its entrails streamed out behind it, and black ooze crept out among the ash around both halves.

With my own great heave, I promptly threw up.

With a straining pull, Violet hoisted me up a bit and flew against my side. “It’s okay. It’s a perfectly normal response.” Patting me on the back, I wanted to thank her for comforting me, but instead I doubled over and threw up again.

As I should have expected, throwing up left me little control over my wings, and the second go at it forced them closed as I heaved. I started to drop like a rock. However, let me tell you, nothing gets rid of sickness as fast as starting to fall to your death. Straightening myself out, I groaned and turned myself toward where we’d seen the odd rubble. As I passed over the last of the warehouse debris, I was just glad that I was away from that… that, thing.

“Thank you.” I muttered as Violet pulled up beside me. I could feel the sick dripping down my chin, but I’d have to worry about that later. She offered a comforting look before refocusing ahead.

Trailing over what must have been the residential section of town, most of the debris looked like they had fallen to the ground in roughly the same locations of the houses that once sat above. I forced myself to look away from a few of them. The charred and blackened bodies of those who were at home when the raptor exploded still lay broken among their burned possessions, and I didn’t want to see them anymore. Not because I might throw up again, but more out of the fear that maybe, just maybe, I’d recognize one of them.

Looking around, I kept my eye out for where our house had once sat. It didn’t take me long, Four Peaks having been small town after all, but I still wasn’t too impressed with what I’d found. Dad’s dresser sat mostly unharmed, just sort of crunched in on one side. Mom’s old footlocker was burned down, and the numerous things that had once at inside were all destroyed. Most of the furniture had gone in the blast, but appliances like the refrigerator had survived.

“Wait.” I called out, spotting something odd on top of the now prone facing refrigerator. Adjusting my course once again, I turned toward it and brought myself down toward the ashen ground with a soft glide slope. Touching down across the gritty, burned dirt, I trotted through where our front door once sat, and over into where the kitchen had been. There, sitting on top of the refrigerator, was the slightly charred and broken picture frame I’d seen dad holding the last time I saw him…

Walking over, I reached out and picked it up. My legs gave out as tears clouded my vision, and I couldn’t hold back anymore. Looking down at the still intact picture, I cried softly and pulled it against my chest. The broken glass of the frame jabbed at me, and the splintered frame pricked at my hooves. Still, I squeezed it against me, praying that somehow if I pressed hard enough, it would bring them both back to me. That I could go back to being the smiling, carefree young stallion in the picture, and that my parents would still be here by my side to tell me that although everything had changed, that I’d be alright.

Warmly, I found Violet wrap her hooves around me in a hug. She didn’t say anything, I think she knew she couldn’t. Still, she stayed with me for a few minutes as I clung onto the last memory I had left of my dad, and the only one that showed that I’d once had a family at all. After my sobs had quieted, Violet patted me on the back.

“I’ll take care of it until we get back, okay?” She spoke softly. She held her hoof out to me. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to let go of this picture for risk of never seeing it again. It was all I had left, and I intended on protecting it for the rest of my days. Still, I pulled it away from my chest, and carefully hoofed it over to her. She had done nothing but believe in me, and try to protect me down here, and in short, I trusted her enough to keep it safe. Even past the nagging thoughts in my head saying I was wrong.

Taking the frame from my hooves, she turned it over in her hooves. She made quick work of the fasteners holding the frame together, stripping the whole thing down in a matter of seconds. Gingerly, she pulled the photo out from it, and slid it into one of her numerous pouches.

“Are you okay?” She asked as she fastened the pouch shut.

“Yeah.” I replied as simply as I could. I wasn’t alright, but only because of the pain inside from all this. My life wasn’t here anymore, and I had to endure this so that I could move on. That’s all. “Let’s go.” Spreading my sore wings, I stood up and beat them against the air. With great effort, I took flight again.

It didn’t take long to figure out what the odd arrangement of rubble a ways off was. I’d made that walk a few times since I’d moved, and the schoolhouse was never a welcomed sight. However, seeing it as it was now sent a shiver down my spine. All the desks had been set up among the ashen dirt and fallen trees. A few blackened and charred foals sat at their desks still. Some of them sat face down and unmoving, while a pair of them still writhed in their chairs. Astonishingly, still sitting behind her desk at the front of the class, was Mrs. Chalk.

“Oh my word!” She gasped as both Violet and I came down out of the air. “Night Flight, how nice to see you again!” Her skin was just as charred and blackened as all the other ghouls we’d seen. However, thick red gashes across her were filled with shimmering shards of glass that almost seemed melted against her glowing skin. The dim red glow to her eyes seemed to ebb and pulse as she looked around, and overall it made me feel uneasy about all of this. “Please, Mr. Night.” She said sternly, pointing among the ‘room’ to where my desk would be. “Remove your weapon and take your seat so we may begin today’s lesson.”

“Mrs. Chalk…” My brain was still trying to comprehend the fact that she wanted me to sit and learn. Even though everything was gone. Still, just by the fact of speaking up, the ghoul foal closest to me turned around, snapping her jaw and growing at me. I froze in horror at just who the ghoul was. “Shimmer...”

Once the bane of my existence in this crappy little town, the small bully had been reduced to a mindless and aggressive state. Her bright red coat still sat untouched here and there on her, but it was only small spots among a sea of burned and twisted black skin. She torqued and pulled at her seat at her desk, violently lurching about, yet going nowhere. It was only then that I noticed the pieces of steel tubing pinning her down to her chair through her haunches, as well as the cable tieing her forehooves to her desk so tightly that it had ground right down to her leg bones. If I’d had anything left in my body to throw up, I might have. However, already having seen enough today, I simply closed my eyes and turned away.

“Night, I told you to take your seat.” Mrs. Chalk spoke up again, her voice cracking with the low tone she took. “Dismiss your guest, and sit down so we may begin today’s lesson.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Violet spoke up, shifting her weight and hoofing at the bit to her own battle saddle. With a crisp click, the bit flipped up off the rigging and popped into her muzzle.

“This is a place of learning!” Mrs. Chalk rose her voice, slamming her forehooves down onto her desk. The cracking sound I heard forced my eyes open. The force of her own slam had split Mrs. Chalk’s forehooves, cracking them in various places where a deep black blood seeped out like the sap of a sickly tree. She smiled with a glowing grin as she slowly spread her wings out, each one absolutely shredded and coated with the same shards of glass all over her body. “If you do not leave, I will be forced to remove you mysel…”

That’s as far as she got before Violet used her rifle to put a bullet between her eyes.

Mrs. Chalk dropped down onto her desk, dead. The back of her head splayed out and dripping more of the dark ichor down onto it. Shimmer and the other feral foal went nuts at the sound, fighting now to rip themselves from their bindings even more than they had before.

“She was gone, Night. Just a matter of days before she went full feral.” Violet said quickly as she trotted over to me. “You said a name a minute ago. Do you know this filly?” Pointing to Shimmer, I instinctively looked at her. Shielding my eyes, I pressed against her and nodded. “No no, if you do, I need you to end her suffering.”

Shaking my head, I didn’t want anything to do with this. “You do it.”

“Night, we don’t have much time.” Violet spoke quickly, grabbing around my shoulders with a firm grasp. “The other ferals must have heard the shot and will be coming.” Sitting down, she flipped the bit to my saddle up. “Look, I know it’s tough, but… you came here looking for closure. That means cutting all your ties, no matter what.”

“I said no.” I stomped and pushed myself off of her. “What good will shooting anypony do!?” With tears in my eyes again, I looked at the ground. “None of them deserved this… not even Shimmer.”

“Then give her an merciful end.” Dropping the hushed tone to her words, Violet sighed. “You need to do this, Night. You may not see the need now, or think it possible to ever need to do something like this…” Pausing, she reached out and cupped my chin with her hoof. Pulling my vision back up, she moved and wiped the tears from my cheeks. “There may come a time in the future, when you have to shoot somepony to end their suffering. Somepony that even though you care for them, is beyond saving.” Pointing over to the now howling filly behind me, she shook her head. “That’s Shimmer now. She’s not in there anymore, and she needs you to end her body’s suffering.”

I didn’t want any part in this. I never wanted to come down to the fucking wasteland at all. Everything in my life was going to be simple and low key. Join the Enclave, get some low skill maintenance job or something. Not, shooting fillies and fighting psychotic ponies down here…

“Night.” Violet spoke up, getting back to her hooves. Over in the direction of the sky docks, more yips, howls, and screams of ferals grew louder. “You have to do this, Night.”

“Fine.” I sighed, pushing myself back around. “But not just her then.”

“That isn’t…” She started.

“We kill them all.” Glaring back to her, it was my turn to get mad at something. My turn to make a decision which none of Delilah’s crew could fucking berate me for. Popping the bit into my muzzle, I felt a coldness wash over me. All the pain in my heart, the conflicted thoughts in my head? All of those washed away with the simple numbness afforded to me by the bit in my muzzle.

Pointing the gun at Shimmers head, I offered a moment’s hesitation before pulling down on the first trigger. The gun shook as the bolt closed, and I took a deep breath. Wrapping my tongue around the second trigger, I pulled on it hard.

The gun on my side rattled off three shots. The reports of the rounds were less loud than I expected, but it still left a ringing in my ears. I don’t know if it was because they were actually loud, or if I just no longer cared. One of the three shots missed, but the other two found their marks. Shimmer’s head split in half from the first round, while the second blasted off her jaw. Her body slumped down onto her desk, twitching slightly as it leaked black brains and blood. Only a subtle shift of my aim lined me up on the other feral foal. With another trigger pull, they too ceased to exist.

Violet’s rifle opened up on the two dozen or so ferals who were running across the ashen hills and fallen trees towards us. I joined in, trying my best to place my shots to hit them in the head. I wasn’t doing too well, but that didn’t matter to me. Turning, the two of us kicked off into the air. The ferals, though pegasi themselves at one point, didn’t seem to know how to use their own wings anymore. Somewhere between the first new feral I downed, and the tenth, something in my head clicked.

This wasn’t anger, or coldness flowing through me. It was a sort of serenity. I didn’t feel sorrow for these creatures, because this was exactly what Violet said it was. Mercy. But somewhere in my mind, I felt like I’d known that all along and that I’d simply somehow forgotten it. Maybe it was the bleakness of the ash, the overwhelming feeling of death, or just the shock of it all. Hell, maybe shooting these things was therapeutic on some level.

Still, by the time the last ghoul in the group went down, I looked over to Violet with a genuine grin across my muzzle. The look she gave back was worrying. Probably thought I’d finally snapped out here. It didn’t matter to me. I knew what I’d find in coming here, and I’d done what I came back here to do. Mom, Dad, Mrs. Chalk, and even Shimmer. They would be remembered by me, and that? That was all that mattered now.

Finally, it was time that I actually moved on with my life.

Laying back on my bed, I was glad that the road underneath us had gone back to being somewhat still intact. The small shakes and shudders that rolled through the chassis of Bertha didn’t do much more than rock me softly. Buck seemed to be enjoying it as well as he too was laid out across his bed.

Staring at the picture in my hooves felt different this time. I’d seen this picture more than enough for it to mean something to me, but… it felt part of a different time now. My heart still ached for Mom and Dad, just not as much as it had been. I had my closure, and now I needed to decide where I went from here.

A quick knock at the door had perked my ears, wondering if it was just one of the bumps that had jostled it. After a moment, the door opened up enough for the latch to catch. Through the crack in the door, Violet’s feathers slipped through and flipped the latch up, opening the door.

“Hey, don’t mean to disturb you, but…” She offered a comforting but nervous smile. “Got a moment to talk?”

“Yeah, sure.” I said simply. Taking a moment to sit up, I’d wondered what she wanted. It was probably to talk about earlier. How I’d asked to kill all the ghouls rather than just Shimmer. Scooting myself over to one half of my bed, I patted the other half for her. “Have a seat.”

Uneasily, she crept up onto the mattress and sat next to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Leaning back against the cold cargo container’s wall, I nodded. “For the first time in a while, yeah, I am.”

“I… understand that what I asked you to do out there...” She paused, looking down at her hooves. They were clean from the ashes we’d stood in earlier, but how she looked at them, you might think she still saw it on them.

“Look, you pushed me to do exactly what needed to be done.” Shaking my head, I looked down at the picture in my hoof again. “Ever since I woke up down here, it hasn’t really felt real to me.”

“But what I asked of you…” She began to speak.

“Just stop.” I cut her off, carefully hoofing the picture over to her. “I think that right then, acting like you told me too? That it was the right call to make.” I could see it in her eyes as she didn’t believe me. “I think it finally broke that illusion of thinking things could be normal again, and everything just fell into place. This is my life now. That it was what needed to be done for me to move on.”

“And you're okay with that?” She nearly spat. The disdain again wasn’t toward me, rather inward onto herself.

“Why wouldn't I be?” I laughed lightly while I wore a genuine smile. “I think now I can finally get myself together. Stop being afraid of what's down here, even if I don't understand it. You know?”

I watch as her muzzle curled into a small smile as well. “Yeah. I sure wish that I'd come to that conclusion as fast when I first got down here.” Shifting her weight, she gingerly hoofed the picture back to me. “But if you say you're okay, then I'm pretty sure you are. I think that even though you've had a rough start, you'll be fine down here.”

“Ahem.” Buck grunted as he too sat up. “Does this mean that I’ll have to patch him up less often?” A toothy grin across his muzzle was the nail in the coffin for Violet’s somber mood.

“Wouldn’t bet on it, Doc.” Rolling herself off my bed, she stretched herself a bit. “However, one can always hope for the best, Doc.”

“Indeed we can.” He nodded.

The sudden change in mood had me feeling warm again. Not in the physical sense, but… like I was welcome again. None of my mistakes, none of the issues that had come with me adjusting to the wasteland felt like they existed anymore. Only the warmth of those who genuinely seemed the share my thoughts on things, and who generally cared about my well being. Watching as Violet turned and walked out the doorway, I reached out.

“Hey, Violet?” I called out, stopping her in her steps. With a relaxed look back, she canted her head to me. “Thanks. For all you've done for me.”

“Don’t sweat it.” She nodded and turned around again. Her tail flicked up and curled around the container door behind her. With a fluid motion, she pulled it closed behind her. It didn’t slam shut, however the force was enough that it flipped the latch up and into the eyebolt that secured the door.

With a sigh, I readjusted myself on my bed. Laying back down, I pulled up the picture of Mom, Dad, and I again. Staring at it, I wondered just how long it would last down here. How long I would last. A photo was such a fragile thing, that I wanted to memorize it, so that the day where I forgot what my parents looked like would never come.

Buck shifted on his bed beyond my view of the photo. I pulled it down to my chest, looking over to the black and white frown that sat across his muzzle as he stared down into his open paws. I couldn’t even take a guess as to what was running around in his mind. As much as I felt he was a friend, I hardly knew anything about him.

“Hey, Buck?” I asked, perking his ears to me. He looked up with almost a sad expression. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” He nodded, trying his best to erase the look he’d just wore. Unfortunately for him, it stuck even through the forced smile he gave. “Yes, of course you can.”

“What’s your family like.” There. That’s a good solid starting topic that hopefully won’t bring up any bad memories like it did with Violet.

“My family?” The sad expression finally fell away, replaced by a look of befuddlement. “Just a query, but where's this line of thought coming from?”

“Just that the other night, you asked about mine.” I said, holding my darker than normal forehoof out to him as a reminder. “I was just curious. I feel like I don’t know much about you, even though you know so much about me.”

Looking alarmed, he stuttered. “I… I didn’t mean to offend if one of my questions was a bit much for you to answer. Or if you feel somewhat embarrassed that I wish to know certain things about you.”

“No! Not at all!” I replied, shaking my forehoof in dismissal. “It’s just…” Goddesses, why did I have to be so bad with words? “We’re friends, and I feel like in order to become better friends, I should probably get to know you more.” See, how hard was that to say?

“Friends?” He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before laughing. I wasn’t sure why he was, and frankly it felt more to me like he’d just thrown the notion of being friends back in my face. “Oh, is that all?” He shook his head, relaxing as he leaned back against his end of the container. “Friends… geeze.”

“I… I didn’t know you didn’t want…” I started. However, like Violet, interruption can be a great tool when used to correct the mood.

“No, that’s not it at all!” He gasped, sitting up stiffly. He folded his ears back and looked down at his paws again. “I’ve been trying to be friendly, trying to engage with the crew I signed on with. My hopes were that maybe at one point, I’d be considered approachable enough to be more than just ‘the Doc’.” Looking up to me, his ice blue eyes wavered when he smiled. “I didn’t expect you to say that was all.” Raising his arms, he dangled his claws down. “Nopony ever looks past these things. Nopony sees me as someone who they can trust.”

“I do.” With how long I was there, I couldn’t understand what things were like for him back on the Inuvik. But still, struggling with being the outsider? With having a part of you that you hated having attached to you because nopony would ever see past it? Flaring my wings for him, I watched as the idea must have struck him. “Among the clouds, who would want to be friends with a pegasi who can’t really fly?”

“You… must have had some friends.” Buck spoke up softly.

“A few, yes.” My thoughts jumped to some friends I knew back in Neighvarro city. Cider Rains, Misty Flare, Starstreak. Then my mind jumped to Rogue Winds. “But I never really knew them.” I answered, half tailoring that answer to the fact that I’d barely gotten to know Rogue in my time at Four Peaks. Still, even among my friends in Neighvarro, I’d fallen out with most of them as we grew older. Looking back to Buck, I had to assume the question was true for him as well. “Didn’t you have any?”

He sighed and shook his head. “A few over the years here and there. One that I really cared about, but…” He paused and slumped against the metal wall like a great weight had come down onto him. “It didn’t end well.” Even from under all that weight though, he smiled again. “Goddesses, my sister was right.”

“About what?” I asked, scooting myself over to the edge of my bed. I set my photo down next to me carefully before turning to find Buck looking up at the roof with a smile.

“I’m so worried about what others might think that I’m missing what’s actually going on around me.” He sighed and sat back up. “I’ve only been gone a few days and I’m already sabotaging myself.” Pressing his massive paw against his face, he drug it down across his muzzle slowly. “Not to mention, I’m already feeling homesick.” A frown threatened to pull his smile back down for a moment, and I knew what I needed to do.

“Tell me about your sister.” I asked, pushing myself up off my bed. With a couple steps, I pivoted and sat myself down onto the edge of his bed. “I… don’t have any siblings, so I’m curious what it’s like to have one.”

“Oh, well that’s a mistake.” Buck laughed, sitting up straight again. “Asking a Snow Dog about their family? Goddesses, we’ll be here all night.” He must have sense that I didn’t quite get what he meant by the fact that I didn’t really say anything to that. Clearing his throat, he rolled his eyes. “Well, my family consists of Momma, Dad, Cheyenne, which is the sister I’d mentioned. Then there’s Bruno, Sadie, Sarah, Chipper, and Cotter, which were all part of my litter...”

“Litter?” It was beginning to dawn on me that this was going to be a whole lot more complex than I’d expected.

“Yes, well Snow Dogs birth in litters of two to six on average.” He shrugged with his toothy grin and looked at me like having an army of siblings was as normal as anything else I’d seen down here. Well, granted a lot of stuff was ‘normal’ down here, but that wasn’t the point! “My litter was my mother’s first, obviously a bit bigger than average at seven pups, but she made it work for us. Funny, she’s had two more litters since I was born as well. I don’t know how she does it.”

I tried to comprehend that, but again my muzzle spoke before my brain could finish. “So… you have like, fifteen brothers and sisters!?” Actually, I’m glad I got that out there. Imagining what it would have been like to have that many brothers and sisters in the Enclave? I’m not sure I’d last a day like that!

“Twelve, actually.” He shrugged again, looking at me. “It’s not as crazy as it sounds. And really, I love each one just the same as the next.” With a deep breath, he nearly deflated. However, it wasn’t out of sadness, but out of fondness for them. “Still, I can’t imagine how much they must miss me now as well, now that I’m gone.”

“Yeah.” I sighed, looking down at my mother’s dog tags. “But all we can do is remember the time we had with them.”

Quick hoofsteps up above us startled me, making me jump up. My wings unfolded for flight, but I was so stunned I didn’t flap. Instead, I flopped right onto Buck’s fuzzy chest. We both listened in the awkward position as the frantic hoofsteps shifted to across the hall before arriving at our door.

“Hardcase calling all vehicles. Everypony, stop the convoy!” Hardcase’s muffled voice reverberated through the corrugated walls with a panicked tone. “I repeat, stop the convoy!”

Buck and I hardly had time to register that before the whole of the Hauler repeated the same hard braking that it had earlier in the morning. At least this time, I was forced up against something that didn’t let me slide around! As soon as we’d heard the same hiss of compressed air as earlier, both Buck and I scrambled to the door.

Throwing it open, I nearly ran into Violet as she too trotted out of her room. The three of us looked to the back of the Hauler, finding Hardcase leaning up against the back railing to the hauler. His eyes were glued up to the sky, his focused and unwavering gaze joined with a stern expression of concern.

Violet, Buck, and I made our way forward, joining him at the rear. The three of us looked up into the bright blue sky, seeking just what had his attention. It only took me a moment to identify Hispano’s cloud among the others lazily floating about. A wave of panic flowed through me as I worried that Hardcase might have caught on to them.

The loud slam of the door down to the Ice hold made us all momentarily shift our attention down to Happy. “Just what the hell is going on up here?” He shouted, glaring at us before turning and looking to the sky behind us. A look of mortifying confusion washed over him as he did. “What in Celestia’s name is that!?”

“At first, I thought it was a star, but it's moving and getting brighter.” Hardcase spoke as we all turned our gazes outward again.

I saw it. A burning yellow fireball that moved through the sky faster than any pegasi I’d ever seen. I realized that when I’d looked before, like Hardcase, I must have confused it with a star, or something else in the sky. But at the rate it’s grown in brightness, the speed it’s moving at, it was impossible.

“Shooting star, then?” Violet asked, loosening up her wings. What, was she going to try to catch it? It was just some space rock, nothing big.

“Nah. Would have burned up by now…” He replied, his words drifting off as he squinted. “wait…”

Shockwaves pushed through the air, slamming back the nearby clouds as the yellow object dimmed to an orange. The sky sound like it split open as the supersonic shock cone visible around the object swung out and reached us. It seemed like it was slowing down the further that it arced over our heads. The flames around it dimmed and flickered out, leaving a blackened, tapered cylindrical object shooting through the air like a cannonball.

“That's some sort of machine…” Violet said before she grabbed both sides of my face in her forehooves. “Get geared up. We're going on a salvage run!” She flared her wings with a bright smile before jumping and pirouetting in the air.

“If it's a vehicle, what about survivors?” Buck added with a note of concern.

“Survivors? Are you kidding me?” Violet laughed as she hovered in the air, seemingly in a better mood than I’d ever seen her in. “That thing probably came from space! Maybe it’s some wartime satellite or something! If it is, I bet it’s got tons of rare salvage in it!”

“Don’t worry, Doc.” Hardcase smiled as he looked back at Buck. “If there are any survivors, either Bombay or Zoomer could come back and lead us to the two centuries old mummified remains.”

“Exactly. I'm going to talk with Delilah and get permission to go.” Violet giggled like a school filly who’d just gotten asked out for the first time. Turning to me, she was so excited that she was nearly shaking. “Get geared up. Grenades and all, because who knows if anypony else out here is going for it as well.”

Nodding, I flared out my wings. “Alright, got it.” Jumping into the air, I let the wind catch me as I dipped into a shallow glide. I arched myself so that I’d bank around the side of the Hauler and be lined up to drop right into the Armory.

“Night?” Buck called out as I banked around. Looking back, I found his concerned look locked onto me. “Be careful out there…”

Nodding, I could only hope that salvage or not, I didn’t find a way to screw this up. I finally had my chance to move forward and show the others that I could do something right for once. And because I had a chance, there was no way in hell that I was going to let it slip out of my hooves.