It had been another few hours of driving before the summit of ‘The Last Bastard’ as Buck had called it, came into view. An odd choice for the name of a mountain if I had to say anything about it, but being the biggest in the north supposedly, I could see why it would need a name. From the sheer cliffs that hugged the side of the winding roads, a large plateau sat alongside the mountain’s peak. Funny, it looked like it might have been artificially made. The mountaintop was nearly split in two, with one part of the top being a sheer cliff upward, and a large flat top running off to a sheer drop straight down a few hundred feet. However, the wind up at this elevation whipped around us wilder than the winds on the arctic ice planes had. I dared not open my wings for fear of being carried away and dashed against the rocks below.

Sitting on the edges of that flat top, was a set of impressively large and intimidating walls. At around what I guessed was forty feet tall, they were a flat, bland grey color, and a few cracks ran up from the base around each section. Dozens of lighter spots denoted where it had probably been patched in the past as well. Though, the patched spots hanging over the cliffside portion of it, would think would be a nightmare to repair. Especially for a Pegasus in this wind.

The winding road made it’s way to a rather feeble looking, half wall sized scrap metal gate. Compared to the walls however, I’m not sure you could ever find any gate nearly as intimidating. A pair of rickety wooden guard towers sat behind the gate to each side, and a pair of ponies with guns sat watch in each post. We’d just spent hours driving up this grueling climb. I’m not sure why anypony would do that and then continue on to attack this place. Still, I’m sure there was a good reason for it. If there wasn’t, then I’m sure they wouldn’t be guarding this place so intensely.

Lucky pulled us up to the gate, stopping for only a moment as one of the tower ponies looked over us intently. The guards pony nodded and waved to a pony behind the wall. With a scratchy scraping that I wished I couldn’t hear over the wind, the scrap metal gate pulled back. Once it opened, my eyes immediately locked on to the sight of the parked Hauler on the other side of the sprawling mountaintop compound.

I gave out a heavy sigh, and slumped back against the bed of the Runner. Annoyingly, the tightly bound bandages around my chest stiffly refused to want to shift with me. I gave out a soft grunt as they pulled away from my fur a bit with a painful tug, and I could finally relax with a smile on my muzzle.

“Glad to be home?” Buck asked, wearing the same relaxed smile I was.

“Yeah.” I nodded, closing my eyes as Lucky pulled forward past the walls, and into Filly Crossing itself.

“Would you look at that?” Buck asked.

I opened my eyes again at his oddly timed question, and looked over to him. Following his gaze behind me as we drove in, my eyes went wide, and I felt my heart skip a beat. In the corner of the closest cliffside edge of the compound, sat a jet black Vertibuck. Not only that, but a great big white E sat plastered on its side surrounded by stars. An Enclave Vertibuck… up here? Not only that, but milling around inside the cockpit, I could see a pair of Enclave dressed ponies. Finally, I had found the Enclave again.

“Now now, Night.” Buck spoke up again in an odd way. His jarring tone pulled my attention back to him, only to find that he wore a worried look across his face. “We’ll probably be here for a couple of hours, so don’t go running off to them until after you talk to Delilah about what happened.”

“Okay.” I nodded, turning back around. Part of me wanted to head right over there, to jump on the opportunity to tell those soldiers what happened at four peaks. However, after everything I’ve been through, I could finally fight that urge. My chance would come in time, and rushing into things only caused me more problems than I could handle. For now however, I should just take in the scenery.

The center courtyard as I guess you could call it, was mostly empty and open. Carts of random supplies were parked around five hutts that stuck off to our right in the open. Each sheet metal hut was quite large, maybe about two stories tall, and each sporting a large metal smokestack that billowed black smoke from it. The one in the center was a bit different however, having an open front instead of being fully enclosed. Inside, several large earth ponies swung heavy hammers, clanging against bricks of red hot steel, while several unicorns used their magic to pump a pair of large bellows. In the center was a large forging fire that sat under the bottom to what I’d assumed to be a smokestack. Instead, I found that the nearly blue burning fire fed its exhaust into the open breech of a large artillery piece. Looking back, I was sure the other huts must have similar guns acting as their chimneys as well.

“Impressive, right?” Violet’s voice came down from above and startled me. I winced as I jumped, making my chest remind me that quick movements are probably not a good idea for the time being. “Wait, Bombay, are you hurt?” She gasped, dropping down as Lucky slowly pulled us up behind the Hauler.

“It’s a long story.” I grumbled as we came to a stop. “In fact, we’ve got to talk to Delilah about it.” Turning to Buck, I watched as he stretched himself out a bit before he stood up.

“I’m going to leave that up to you.” He said, carefully pulling himself out of the back of the Hauler. “I’m going to stay back and help Laika get oriented first.”

“Laika?” Violet zipped up into the air again. As she did, Hardcase opened his door and hopped out. Turning to him, she dropped through the air toward him and gave him a long, tight hug. “Hey. Glad you’re alright.”

“That’s my capsule!” Laika shouted angrily as she pulled herself out of the Runner. Dropping down, she angrily pointed up to the strung up craft dangling from the back of the Hauler. “It’s a ten million bit spacecraft, not some cheap pinata you can just hang around! It’s got tons of fragile experiments and equipment on board!” Heading over towards it, Laika stood on the ground under the Hauler, almost perplexed on how to get up there.

“Well, break’s over. Looks like that’s my cue to act.” Walking past me, Buck gave me a nervous grin. “Sorry, Night. Didn’t mean to phrase it like that.”

Offering him a genuine smile, I nodded and watched as he walked off after Laika. Still, I hoped that he could help her like he’d helped me so far. Laika needed someone there to explain things to her, and I’m pretty sure she’s smart enough to adapt far faster than I did.

“Why don’t you two go off and find Delilah?” Hardcase smiled as he broke off the hug between him and Violet. With a nervous smile of his own, he pointed back to the open side door of the Runner. “I’ve got some cleaning up to do, and Lucky needs to get some sleep.”

“Alright, I guess.” Violet shrugged and turned back to me. “Well, it sure seems like you had a hell of a time. Going to make for an interesting story I bet!” Reaching out to me, she walked over and gave me a tight wing hug. “And lucky for you, Delilah and Happy just went to go have lunch at the best restaurant in this settlement.” She said, pointing to the hut that was the farthest from where we’d come in. I looked at her as she smiled. “I’ll buy us lunch, and you can fill us all in on just what was going on.”

My stomach gave a gurgle of approval that made me blush again. “Yeah,” I nodded. “Sounds good.”

My mouth was salivating over my plate. The ‘artillery piece’ for this ‘restaurant’ was used as a sort of oven for cooking, and regardless of how odd that was, the food here smelled fantastic. They served all sorts of dishes that I’d never heard of before, and I’d defaulted to just getting whatever Violet had ordered as a safe bet for something edible and tasty. The tray of curried mixed veggies I’d received was probably lukewarm by now, but I hadn’t even been able to get a bite in. Having run through what happened in Klondike, I had been too busy answering questions that delved into more detail about things than I would have liked.

Still, Delilah seemed to shift to a better mood as I went about explaining things. Even Happy seemed to be in a good mood as well, which made for a really odd experience as they sat across from Violet and I. Violet however probably didn’t care, as she was too busy scarfing down her second helping of her own curried veggies to really comment.

“I’m not sure what worries me more.” Delilah spoke up as she finished her own plate of noodles and some sort of baked root vegetable. “The fact that you keep getting into trouble, or the fact that you have an uncanny ability to get out of it mostly intact.”

“I got shot.” I said flatly and pointed to the bandages bound against me tightly. “Right here, in the barrel.”

“I said mostly, didn’t I? It’s the wasteland. Everypony gets shot at some point. The point is, you’re still alive.” She smirked. “But you handled the incident without losing face, and salvaged the deal for us. You aren’t out of the woods just yet in regards to my warning to you, Bombay, but you’re getting there.” Pushing her glasses up, she looked at me with softer eyes than normal, and a smile that seemed out of place on her normally stern muzzle.

“For following your instructions, you’ve earned your spot on Recon duty with Zoomer here. I’m proud of you, Night.” Delilah seemed… happy. It felt odd, but good. Along with the oddly kind words, Violet gave me a playful nudge, her smirking muzzle still stuffed full of food. “And for keeping up our deal with Klondike, you’ve earned one hundred caps from me once we’re back on the road.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” I said, looking down to the plate in front of me. It was technically the first money I’d ever made, and for some reason, part of me felt an immense pride in that. Still, the only reward I’d wanted right now was sitting just below my muzzle. Leaning forward, I dug into the delicious food like a madpony possessed. I think I must have almost finished the whole platter in ten seconds flat! Or at least, that’s what it felt like to me. The rich flavor of it hit me hard all at once, and I lost myself in it. So much in fact, that I almost missed Delilah getting up out of her seat at our table.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going down to the lower levels to see about going through Filly’s extensive ammo cache to make sure we’re fully stocked.” Eyeing over each of us, her face returned to it’s normal, stoic look. “We will be leaving Filly Crossing in a few hours. I suggest you use this time to relax or make any trades you need to before we head out again. We’ll be passing through a few odd settlements before we hit Carmacks in two days time, and Destruction Bay in another three. I don’t want to stop anywhere before we get to Carmacks, so get what you need while we’re here.”

“You got it, boss!” Violet gave a quick salute that made me chuckle. While she hadn’t spoken with her muzzle full, she still wore green curry sauce all over her mouth in thick splotches. It was even thick enough on some parts of her muzzle that it dripped back onto her second empty plate.

Shaking her head, Delilah turned around and headed out. As she did, a lime green pegasus in an Enclave officer uniform stepped through the doors into the restaurant. He carried himself well, wearing a properly pressed dress uniform and smart looking officer’s cap. I couldn’t help but smirk as I remembered every time that mom used to agonize over every detail. Guess it wasn’t just her who did that.

“Not you again.” An annoyed stallion called out from the back of the restaurant. The portly head-chef trotted up to meet the stallion, as nearly the whole restaurant went silent. “What good is coming back every day if my answer has always been the same?”

The pegasus stallion stopped, waiting for the chef to come closer before responding. “Look, we're just asking for some clean water.” He spoke calmly. “Only a few gallons, and we can stop bothering you.”

“And I'm telling you the same thing I did yesterday and the day before.” The pale blue coated chef who looked like he had had just about enough, was turning a deep red as he stomped his hoof angrily on the floor. “You'll have to pay for it like everypony else!”

“With what?” The Enclave officer retorted with a laugh, raising his hoof and tugging at his uniform lightly. “This gear isn't ours to give, and come on! You've got ice everywhere!”

“Ice tainted with magical radiation, sure.” The chef growled. “We have to drill deep enough to get uncontaminated ice, and drill bits are in short supply. On the other hoof, the chemicals needed to purify dirty water to the level you want would ruin my boiling vessels anyway!”

“Look, even if it's just basic bottled water, we don't care.” Taking his hat off, the Officer respectfully bowed to the chef. “I swear, once we report back and sort things out with our command, we'll come back and pay you more than in full for the trouble.”

“I'm sorry, but I find that a little hard to believe coming from the Enclave.” The chef spat with such disdain that you could almost feel the room around him recoil from it. Looking around, I saw more than a few other patrons nodding in support of the chef. It made my blood boil. “Why don't you try asking again in another two hundred years and see if we've forgiven you then. For now, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”

The Officer hung his head as the Chef turned around and headed off to the back of the restaurant. Murmurs of conversation picked back up softly at first, and I simply sat back in my seat with a sigh. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy. Was a few gallons of water up here really so much to ask for?

“Can you believe that guy?” Violet chuckled as she looked over to Happy.

“Yeah, only an Enclave square like him could ever think anypony would be cool to just let something like that slide.” Happy straightened out his flower print tropical shirt as he leaned back. “On that note, I’m going to split from this jive joint.” Turning to me, he gave me a wink and a smirk. “Hey Bombay, hit me up when you get back onto Bertha. I’ve got a proposition for you.”

“A wha….” I asked, wondering just what he meant by that. However, he turned and left like he didn’t even hear me. He knew I was a stallion, so it couldn’t be that kind of proposition. Must be something else he had in mind...

“Don’t let him get into your head.” Violet rolled her eyes and put her forehooves on the table. Nodding over towards the door to this place, she smiled. “Want to go check the markets for anything neat?” Looking over to the door, she froze as yet another stallion walked in. This one had on a puffy, bright green vest, and really tacky looking silver sunglasses. His pink coat was obnoxiously bright, but what grabbed my attention, was the two folded wings on his back, and the matching Dashite branding on his flank to Violet’s.

“Dizzy?” Violet asked, getting the stallion’s attention.

“Violet? Violet Pulse, is that really you?” He called out, raising his forehoof and flicking his sunglasses down. His magenta eyes matched the color of his stiffly worn mohawk mane, while a wide smile spread across his muzzle. “It's been what, a year? How are you?” He asked, nearly galloping across the restaurant to get to us.

“Actually, pretty good.” Violet said before looking over at me. “Bombay, this is Dizzy…”

He cut her off. “Dizzy Rays.” He cocked an eyebrow at me, quickly reaching past Violet to sweep my forehoof up off the floor and bring it to his lips. “The pleasure is mine.”

“Quit showing off, Bombay’s not going to buy your product.” Violet rolled her eyes and playfully shoved at his side. “How have you been, Dizzy?”

Letting my hoof go quite suddenly, he stood back up with a prideful grin. “Oh you know, here and there, distributing sunshine and rainbows wherever I go.” He laughed in an odd way, giving wheezing gasps between the sharp cackles. “Just up here for about a week overseeing some distribution. Anyway, heard there was a convoy coming up the mountain this morning, but I never thought it would be yours!”

“Yeah, it's us.” Violet nodded, her genuine smile falling into a sort of oddly nervous one. “Actually, on that… you don't still offer that special service you used to advertise, do you?”

“For you, baby, I’d do anything.” He bit down softly on his lower lip and looked her over with a cocked eyebrow. I was getting a creepy vibe off him, and I was about to step in when he spoke up. “Depends on what sort of service you want, and if it's going to be a quick thing, or an all night sort of thing.” Yeah, I didn’t like where this was going.

“I'm talking about for somepony else.” Violet rolled her eyes, catching me off guard. Now that my mind had screamed to a halt, I was really hoping she wasn’t setting something up for me.

“Oh, well,” Dizzy laughed and shrugged. “I was sort of hoping you'd finally take me up on my offer, goddesses know how much I’d love to have you overnight. However, I can make due I guess.” With a sigh that sat between disappointed and happy, he smiled at her. “Who's the lucky pony?”

“I don't know yet.” Violet shook her head, shifting uneasily on her seat. “There's another convoy from up north, coming through in a few days to a week. We need them stalled for as long as possible.” Her smile returned as she flared out one of her wings. Ever so softly, she reached out and caressed under his chin with her flight feathers. He gave off a fluttering sigh and nearly fell over from it. “Just, find the cutest one to you and do your thing. But… avoid the griffon.”

“Oh,” He moaned, blinking a few times and seeming to recover from Violet’s touch. I’d have to remember that move for down the road! “You know, girl. It's going to cost you quite a bit for something like this...” He cocked an eyebrow and smirked as he reached up and brushed her wing out of his way.

Violet got to her hooves and walked closer to him. “Oh, I have payment already in mind…” She said, lowering her voice before she leaned in. She whispered something into his ears, and within moments, his eyes went wide.

With a sharp thrust, both of Dizzy’s wings flared up with a distinct pomf. “B-both?” He stuttered as a blush went across his muzzle. “Oh my, yes. That will most definitely be acceptable compensation.”

“Excuse me?” I spoke up, doing my best to interject and kill the awkwardness that was now quickly making me wish I was anywhere but here. “What’s going on?”

Violet blushed hard at that as well. “W-we’re just discussing an arrangement, Night.” She smiled and shifted uneasily on her hooves. She kept from looking at me directly, fidgeting her wings until her gaze fell upon the door to the outside. “Why don’t you go get me Hardcase and Gearbox? Gearbox is probably going to want to buy some Wave from Dizzy here, and I need to talk with Hardcase about something. Alright?”

“Wave?” I asked. Normally, I’d scold myself for speaking up like that again, but this whole conversation seemed annoyingly off in the first place. I’d have to ask Violet what ‘arrangement’ she was talking about later though. If I’d read this right, she was planning on having some ‘adult’ fun with this guy. Which was odd, because here I’d thought she’d said she was married…

“You ain’t heard of Wave!?” Dizzy spat in surprise. “You’ve been living under a rock or something?”

“Above the clouds, actually.” I answered, drawing an even more surprised look from him. “What is Wave?”

“It’s a new type of drug.” Violet answered for Dizzy this time. “Showed up a few years ago down south under the original name of ‘Chill’. Hardcore muscle relaxant and hallucinogen, really nasty drug, addictive as all hell too. Not an obvious addiction like Dash either, it really creeps up on you with repeated use. It’s hard hitting stuff to a new user, unless cut with other chems and diluted in water, which is what Wave is now.”

Dizzy laughed at that. “Yeah, but Wave is still the way to go, even if you don’t up your game to Chill. With Wave, it’s all the ups, none of the downs…” Flipping his sunglasses up his muzzle and over his eyes again with his hoof, he smiled like he was made out of a million bits. Yeah, I wasn’t even technically out of school, and even I knew that all drugs had side effects. “And best of all? It’s cheap. I got it for five caps a tab if you want it, just need a glass of water to go with it!” Cheap as well? Now I knew he had to be full of crap.

“Like I said, Bombay isn’t interested.” Violet nearly growled at him. While I agreed that I wasn’t interested in drugs, I was getting tired of being protected by her. She had good intentions, but I needed to fight my own battles. Even if I couldn’t do it well, I had to get better at standing up on my own in the wasteland at sometime or another. Something that Dad had tried to tell mom and I back on that day years ago...

“Alright, alright!” Dizzy put his hooves up. “I was just sayin’ for if the mare had any interested friends willing to give it a shot.” Cocking his eyebrow back up, his wings extended again as well. “Then again, I can offer her my other service as well…”

“Dizzy.” Violet glared at him before turning and looking at me. With a softened gaze she eyed the door and nodded towards me. “Go, before I have to beat Dizzy here for not knowing what he’s getting into.” Pointing outside, she offered a sincere smile. “Please, go tell Hardcase and Gearbox to meet us on level fourteen. They’ll know where to go.”

“Alright…” I didn’t know what I was agreeing to, but she was going to have to answer for it when she got back. Getting up out of my seat, I had a bad feeling about all of this. Still, I had no reason to freak out. Maybe I was just misunderstanding yet another aspect of wasteland life. Still speaking of propositions, as I trotted towards the exit, I remembered that while I was back there, I should stop by and see just what the hell Happy wanted with me.

Today was going to be an odd day.

“Just a moment!” Hardcase called out as I stood at his door. A flash of light flared around the edges of the door for a moment before I heard his hoofsteps approach. He quickly unlatched the door and poked his muzzle out, still keeping the door mostly closed around it. Looking around for a moment, he eyed me over as if I were a stranger. “What’s up?”

“Violet told me to get you and Gearbox,” I paused, having the odd ozone smell of a magical energy weapon hit my nose from inside his container. “Said for you two to meet her down on level fourteen?”

Looking confused and deep in thought for a moment, he nodded. “Noted.” Slipping back inside, he shut the door firmly. After only a moment, he peeked the door open again, sticking out his whole head this second time. “I’m sorry, did you say level fourteen?” As I nodded, a wide smile grew across his face. “Oh, right then! I’ll be out in just a moment!” With another jarring pull, he dipped back into his container and shut the door again.

“Just a question,” I spoke up, calling out through the door. “What’s ‘level fourteen’ anyway?”

“Level fourteen is the recreation floor.” He called back as he made odd noises from inside his container. It sounded like he was moving a lot of stuff around in there. Between the secrecy and the weird smells, now I was incredibly curious just to what he was up to inside. However, I wasn’t about to intrude on him, not without consulting Delilah about it first. Unless I had a probable reason to step inside...

“What do you mean, floor?” I asked, hoofing at the door. I was about to pull it open when instead, Hardcase nearly barreled through it.

“Oh, right.” He nodded as he squeezed past me. His magic shut the door quickly, and I could hear as the latch inside slid into place, locking it. “Filly Crossing was a military outpost during the early years of the war.” Wow, did he actually believe I didn’t know that by the giant fucking guns being used as chimneys around here? “Most of the base was built into the mountain. This place was the strategic arms reserve for most of the northwestern crystal range. They have more ammo stored here than half of the northern wastes combined. But, levels seven through nine are regulated to growing crops. One through five is residential, six is medical, while level ten is base command. And Fourteen is where the fun is. Everything else below is currently storage, for ammo or other things.” Walking around me, he headed to Gearbox and Boiler’s door. “Hey, Gearbox. Get yourself together and let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Gearbox called out groggily through his container. He let out a few wheezing coughs as I could hear him get up from his bed inside.

“Level fourteen. So bring some shit to trade.” Hardcase called back before turning to me again. “Look after Bertha for me?” He offered a smile, but it wasn’t one that I had much confidence in. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being deliberately left out of the loop. Reaching out, he pat me on the shoulder. “Oh, and before I forget! Pretty well convinced by the records on the Doc’s terminal, Laika went to confirm the date down in the command center of the bunker. The Doc seemed to think that the world ending meant that there’s no government for her to return to, so he suggested that she stay here at Filly Crossing. He went down to the command center on level ten with her to help see about if they could make up some permanent arrangements for her. So if you’re looking for him, he should be back up sometime soon.”

“Okay.” I nodded and turned my gaze back towards the container I shared with Buck. Still, it made me both a bit sad and a bit hopeful that Laika might choose to stay here. It’s not a bad place from what I’ve seen. Well, from up here at least, as well as past the asshole who wouldn’t give a pony in need any water. She could build a life here, maybe one day even make the trip up toward the Empirica. I’m sure the Snow Dogs up there would love to see their ancestral hero returned to them.

Hardcase and I looked over as Gearbox’s door opened. The relaxed smiling muzzle of the zebra met us with a laugh. His eyes were bloodshot, and his whole container smelled of sweat and various herbs.

“I’ll be back, dear.” He said, rousing a soft grunt from Boiler inside, before her snoring filled the air. Stepping out and shutting the container behind him, he trotted right past Hardcase and I. “Alright, let’s go buy some sunshine.”

“Don’t get into any trouble?” Hardcase smiled and pat me on the side yet again before trotting off to join the perma-fried zebra. The two of them quickly made their way down into the ice hold, leaving me up top all on my lonesome. Looking over, Delilah’s door was wide open, and the darkness inside meant that she was still off on her own errands. Finally, I could relax a bit.

“Pssst!” Happy’s whispering muzzle pressed out of the gap between his container and it’s door. “Are they gone?”

I nodded, pausing for a second as I realized he couldn’t hear that. “Yeah.” I spoke up, listening as he worked at unlatching his door. “What did you mean before that you had a proposition for me?”

“Yeah, just follow me.” He said, ducking out of his room and right over into the Ice hold. For the second time since I’d known him, he dropped the ridiculous way he spoke and talked normally for once. Only because of this, I reluctantly followed him. As he reached the bottom, he waited for me before continuing. “I was thinking, maybe we could help out that soldier looking fellow with his water problem.” Pointing over to the giant block of ice we were hauling, I nearly locked up at the top of the stairs. “I’ll split the profit with you, fifty-fifty.”

“You want to get the water from our ice!?” I gasped loudly. My voice made him cringe and shrink down.

“Keep your voice down!” He snapped at me in a harsh whisper. "Come down here and make sure the door is shut.” Waving his hoof quickly, he seemed on edge more than usual. Part of me was hesitant to even consider this, but that soldier did need help.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped down the rusting metal stairs. A few steps down, I turned and gripped at the hatch toward the top, swinging it shut overhead. Giving a few tugs on it to make sure it was shut, I felt contented that it was, and continued down. Looking around the Ice as I stepped down to the floor of the Ice hold, I’d noticed that Happy had already made his way around the back. As I trotted to the far side of the frigid blue-white block, the small ceiling light in the room flickered on above me.

“What the hell would Delilah…” I began to say as I walked around the light blue block. My words died as I came around the back side.

The backside of the whole thing had been curved inward. A great concave cavity had been burned into it by the acetylene torch that still sat secured up against it with duct tape. The cavity was at least a half a pony deep, and revealed something big frozen into the ice. As I stiffly stepped forward, the odd shape became recognizable under the small light above. It was the front of a large, wartime safe with a six pronged spinning handle. Written in fancy, faded gold lettering, were two lines of text.

“What the hell!?” I opened my muzzle, nearly shouting at the top of my lungs. Before I could say anymore, I found Happy’s forehoof nearly crammed down my throat.

"Hey! I said keep your voice down!" He growled. "Before you get your pony panties in a bind, my mother asked me to do this." He looked around nervously for a moment. "Yes, the safe is what we came for, not the ice, and you're going to keep your muzzle shut about it, got that?" I nodded, and he slowly pulled his hoof from my muzzle. "Look, she can tell you all about this later, but do not mention what we’re doing here right now. So long as I'm melting the ice anyway, I was thinking that I could sell some of it to those Enclave sods out there. I can melt away a bit more from where I cut it, the guy gets his good water, and my mother won’t even know it’s missing."

That… sounded alright, and it made sense from what the officer had asked for earlier.

“Because it’s pure…” Why go cut ice somewhere when we had some here. And if this safe actually was what Delilah was after, that really did mean that all of this would go to waste then. Another thought cropped up in my mind, one I didn’t much like remembering.

“How about your friend here? Has she bought into Delilah’s stories as well?”

Solomon… was right about all this. The ice was some sort of cover story, which was something Delilah hadn’t told anypony. Well, at least hadn’t told Buck or I. Violet could have straight up lied to Solomon, but honestly? The fact that this safe was even here at all scared me a little.

"Yes, exactly. But I need you to go talk to them." Looking around, he found his toolbox sitting at the far edge of the ice and hoofed it open. "They wouldn't talk to somepony like me without getting suspicious. You on the other hoof, are one of them." Smirking, he pulled out a solid looking hacksaw and cocked his eyebrow as he looked it over. "I'm betting that they wouldn't trade anything to Filly Crossing, but another Enclave citizen? That might make them think it’s worth it."

“Fine.” I grunted. It felt wrong to take advantage of them like this, and doubly so that he assumed that just because I came from up there they’d treat me any different. It was insulting, even if probably true. “But only because we’re the only ones who will even give them any help at all around here.”

Buck was right from what I’d seen. We needed all the help we could get, so we had to be friendly with ponies, not hostile. I’d been hurt enough to know that things would just be better off if I tried everything to stay out of a fight. But, I wanted to try to help these soldiers anyway. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because I knew that Buck would be happy if I did. I want him to know that he’s right about the world, and about me. That we can make things better if we extend a helping hoof first.

"Yeah, yeah. Find out how much they actually need and get what you can out of them while I work on this here. The guy said a few gallons, so it gives me some idea at least for where to start." Putting the saw onto the bottom edge of the ice, he slowly ran it back and forth. "I should have a good amount cut by the time you get back." Standing there, I watched for a moment as he began to saw at the ice. Stopping after another moment, he looked up at me with an odd expression. “Well, get going!” He muttered, shooing me off.

His eagerness for me to go rip off these soldiers only made me grunt as I turned to leave. Really, is this what he wanted to do? Sure, it’s good to help these ponies, but to profit off of them like this? That’s just low, and I didn’t want to have any part in it. Too bad I couldn’t just make Delilah help…

Wait, that’s it!

He didn’t want Delilah to know about this little operation he’s got going. Better yet, he said he needed me to help him. I had him under my hoof here! All I needed to do was get the ice to the soldiers, and that was that. No payment needed at all! If Happy doesn’t like it, what is he going to do? Tell Delilah I wouldn’t help him? It’s sounds like something a young foal would pull, but I’d rather be seen as immature over being immoral.

Opening the door to the reactor deck, I left the Ice hold with my head held high, and a wide smile across my muzzle. As much as I’d hated acting, it was time for the show to begin.

Up until this moment, I’d been feeling good about myself. I’d survived what happened at Four Peaks. I’d traveled across the ice cap, down into the northernmost Crystal mountains. I’d dealt with saying goodbye to home, and even made a new one on Bertha. However, standing before the almost monolithic feeling vertibuck sitting on the landing pad here, I lost that. Again, I was reminded of the behemoth that the Enclave had once been, and how I had only been one of many who owed their lives to it.

“Can I help you?” The tired sounding voice I’d heard back in the restaurant called out to me. Turning around, I was met with a less than flattering view of the Officer from before. From a distance, the lime green pegasus had looked presentable. However, that was far from how he looked up close. Scruffy brown stubble along his chin matched a few matted and dirty spots on his coat, while his dress uniform both looked and smelled woefully worn out. “Look, you youngin’s can’t just keep coming up here from the levels below to hang around. This is a dangerous piece of machinery.”

“What?” I asked, blinking a few times before remembering why I was here in the first place. “No, I’m not from this place.” Turning for a moment, I pointed back towards the enormous, six wheeled yellow and blue machine that sat in the open yard up here. “I’m with the convoy that came up this morning.”

“Oh, well the same thing still goes for you and your friends.” The stallion grumbled and shook his head. “Beat it, kid. I don’t need some wastelander coming to oogle or shame my squad and I anymore, even if you’ve got wings.” Maybe it was all the shit I’d been through that made me act, but when he moved to turn around, I reached up and stopped him.

“Excuse me,” I snorted, watching as he slowly turned back toward me with a glare of angry disbelief. “I am an Enclave citizen, and I have access to the water you need.” Like a starving pony hearing the call out for meal tickets, his ears perked higher than they’d probably been in days. “So I expect some goddess damned respect from an officer asking for help. Got it?”

He stood frozen for a moment, confused by my outburst before chuckling.

“Sure thing, kid.” He shook his head before staring up into the blue sky above and giving a huge sigh of relief. “Sorry about the attitude. Ever since we were stranded when the clouds went down, it’s been hard to even get a single pony down here to listen to us.”

“Stranded? What do you mean?” That… didn’t seem right. Why would they have been left behind anywhere. Maybe the problem with their vertibuck kept them from getting back. Still, back to where? The Raptor in Four Peak’s skydock was the only one I knew about around here.

“I say fuck Captain Gondola.” The voice of a young yellow mare called out, poking her head out from inside the crew compartment of the sky vehicle. She gave a light wave and wink at me from her purple eyes, before running her hoof through her shortly cut neon blue mane.

“It’s unbefitting of a soldier to insult a commanding officer, Private Turbine.” The Officer in front of me cocked an eyebrow and looked back at her sharply. “But I’ll allow it, this time.”

Hopping out of the Vertibuck, the yellow mare strode over. She wore a bright orange maintainance jumpsuit that was absolutely adorned with all sorts of odd looking tools. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, early twenties at most. Still, she looked just as tired and worn out as the Officer next to me did.

“You know, I don't care if that newbie captain was hoof picked out of the officer's academy. If Admiral Grand Cross was still in charge? She'd have never run the Dawn Strider off without waiting for us. Why take a raptor to chase after a rogue cloud city anyway!?” Turning towards the vertibuck, she reached up with her forehoof and gave it a loving pat. “Anyway, to get around to answering your question, kid. Issues with a leak in this ol’ gal’s cooling system caused us to set down on the clouds the last day of our long distance reconnaissance exercise. Almost didn’t get her started again when the clouds began to thin underneath us.”

“Yes, Ram. It was a very harrowing thirty seconds of you shouting obscenities and hitting sensitive mechanical equipment with a wrench.” The Officer rolled his eyes and sat down. “I would remember, considering you made all that racket right in my ear.”

“Well, I didn’t choose for you to sit next to the auxiliary coolant manifold, now did I?” She sassed at him before turning back to me. “Anyway. We barely managed to get the old girl down to some old ass northern airbase settlement. Ignoring the fact the cloud cover was just gone, we focused on getting back down south. And just like here, they refused to even help unless we paid them! I mean, we're all that's left of the fucking government! You'd think they'd be up for helping us out!”

“Northern Airbase?” I laughed. “You mean Fort Macaroni? I’d just missed you guys up there!” I smirked, finding both of them staring back at me with flat expressions. “I… you weren’t the only ones who were stranded when the cloud cover came down.” The two looked at each other and at least decided to give me a sympathetic look now in return. “Look, there's always gotta be an exchange. That's just how things run down here.” Shrugging, I pointed back to the Hauler again. “I've found it's best to adapt quickly. At least you have gear you could trade. I didn’t even have that.”

“Yeah, but... we can't just give away gear that the New Enclave government might need!” The officer sighed and pulled off his hat, revealing a very messy brown mane. “It's why we're just trying to get this Vertibuck down to them in the first place. All we need to do is get down south past some old world city named Cantercross to regroup with the other northern cloud regiments.”

“Well, I can see what I can do about your coolant problem.” I said, hanging on those last few words. I had a thought about Happy dragging me out of my container at the dead of night and beating me half to death for this. Though, I doubt with how Buck had been the last time he’d come in, that he’d be able to even get close. So buck it, I’m going to help. “You'd said in the restaurant that you'd only needed water without any contaminants, right?” Saying that brought hopeful smiles to both of the soldier’s muzzles.

“Yes! If you can get me water, great. But it can't have ANY odd contaminants in it. Most of all, no magical radiation. Period.” The mechanic mare nearly squealed in joy. The officer gave her a sharp look, forcing her to straighten herself up. In a slightly less excited voice, she continued, not deterred in the least from beaming her smile at me though. “I can deal with simple contaminants, common minerals, salt. That’s easy enough to clean out of it. Rare metals like gold, mercury, platinum, starmetal, or magical radiation however? If that shit gets in, it'll corrode the reactor lines. So it has to be free of those at least.”

“How about ice from the arctic sheet?” I smirked, getting another nod and squeal from the mare. “We're hauling a shipment of it, and depending on how much you want, I could get you what you need.”

The officer spoke up before the mare had a chance to become even more excited. “I need about six or seven gallons. Not much, just enough to get the coolant systems in the green for the rest of the trip south to the new Enclave HQ.” Putting his hoof to his chin, he rubbed at his stubble. “So in ice measurements... about a cubic foot of it? Maybe a bit extra just to be on the safe side.”

“Alright,” I nodded, thinking about what I had in mind to say next. “So about the payment…”

“Look, we don't have anything to pay you with.” The officer sighed, cutting me off and cupping his hooves together around his hat as he looked pleadingly at me. “We're even down to our last emergency ration packs today. If we don't leave soon, we might as well just trade in everything and call it quits.”

“I don't want anything from you.” I said, perking his ears up again. The expression on the mechanic mare shifted to one of complete disbelief. “But you need to carry a message to the new Enclave HQ for me.”

“Kid, if you can get me that water,” He said, hoofing his hat on before giving me a firm nod. “I'll take you all the way down there myself. I don’t know where the hell you came from, but I don’t care. By at least hearing us out, you’ve done more for my squad and I than anypony else down here. On behalf of the Enclave government, you have our thanks for that on it’s own.”

Smiling, another feeling replaced the awkwardness that I’d felt approaching here. This was the Enclave I’d been taught about. Pegasi who stood by each other and their morals, even in the toughest of times. That’s what my mom believed in, what my dad worked for every day. Even though it was all gone, it was good to see that the spirit and pride us pegasi held didn’t go away as easily as the clouds did. That’s what made what I had to say so much worse.

“Actually, it’s about where I came from that I need you to ask about.” I sighed, sitting down. “I came from a place called Four Peaks. You probably know it as Settlement 262...” The gasp from the mechanic mare that cut me off told me that they must have seen the wreckage on their way over here. “Some sort of accident with the raptor’s spark reactor wiped the whole town out. I was the only one to get out untouched. The mechanic of our convoy however, was convinced it couldn’t have been an accident. I need to know if that’s true, even if I’m the only one from there that lived.” That was a lie, but seeing as Salt was out of my life now, I didn’t care to bring it up. Looking up at the solemn face of the Officer, I nodded to him. “I was told that the convoy I’m with should be down in Cantercross at some point in the future. I can arrange to come find you when we arrive. Just please, find out what happened.”

“I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what, if anything can be done to find out. But, when we get down there, I won’t rest until I get some sort of promise out of them to look into it.” I sighed at those words, feeling a bit like I’d finally done something good for Dad after all these years. “And get you some compensation for the family you lost.”

“Actually, there is another favor I’d like to ask.” I spoke softly as I’d thought of something else I’d like the government to answer for me. “My mother wasn’t in Four Peaks. She… died, a few weeks back. She was on a Thunderhead with Councilpony Harbinger when it was destroyed. I want to know why they couldn’t tell my father or I that when they presented her things.”

“Look, I’ll be honest.” The officer said, speaking respectfully, but not looking me in the eye. “Those records might not have survived the dissolution. But I promise to look into both things for you.” Rubbing at his chin again, he smirked. “I might have a few friends from Neighvarro command I could call on for an answer. If they made it down to the new HQ, that is.” Turning to me, he stuck his forehoof out. “But I’ll do my best for you, Miss…?”

“Night.” I took his forehoof firmly and shook it. “Night Flight.” Letting go, I gave a nod back to the Hauler. “Anyway, I’ll get right on securing that ice for you all. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I got bright smiles in return for my words, and I couldn’t help but smile back at them. Turning around, I put on a straight face again. Happy would need to think that I’d had a bit of a back and forth with them, and I’d have to sell it that he’d have to trust me to get the payment. In fact, as I trotted back towards the hauler, I could see Happy gazing at me from over the back railing of the Rec area. He turned and headed down into the Ice hold as I approached.

“Hey!” A squeaky voice called out right into my ear. I jumped on my hooves, tripping over myself and sending my muzzle straight down to the frozen concrete. Funny how even as I’d recognized it as Hispano’s voice halfway to the ground, I still couldn’t stop myself.

“What.” I said flatly, grumbling and picking myself up off the pavement.

Zipping around in front of me, she flapped her wings hard to hover at this altitude. “I’ve figured out what I want from you.” She smiled wider than the Enclave soldiers had at the news of water. “Cause I was thinking about what we’d talked about before, and something in my head just clicked!” Fluttering around me in circles, she brought her talons up and removed the goggles from over her eyes, setting them up on her flight cap with a leathery slap of its straps. “You’re an oddity, Dum Dum. Somepony who isn’t jaded to the wastelands. At least, not yet that is.”

“Can this wait, Hispano?” I sighed, looking around her smiling face toward the hauler. Annoyingly, I found her tilt her head over and into my view again. Maybe I should just listen to her. I mean, she’s only been helpful to me so far on this trip. At the very least, I could be nicer in asking her to come back later. “Please?”

“No, because you still owe me.” She said before pausing in thought. “Actually, you owe me twice now. Once for saving your flank on the Empirica, and the other for killing those murderous freaks in Creepytown back there.” Gasping, she went wide eyed and cupped her talons around my cheeks. I simply deadpanned at her. “Ooooo, that means I get two things from you!”

“Can you just tell me so I can go?” I asked, crossing my forehooves with a heavily forced harumph. As helpful as she’s been, she deserved what she asked for. She’d been nice to me, but I didn’t want her to walk all over me. I had to put up more of an annoyed front for deterrence. I didn’t want to sound like I was pleading, out of the fear she’d count it as a third time she’d saved me from something. Even if that something was herself…

“I want you to take me out somewhere nice once you get to the next major settlement. Should be Carmacks, I think.” She said with a smile. “I’ve seen plenty of ponies go out somewhere with ponies they like. Get something to eat, watch some sort of entertainment, you know, that sort of thing!”

“Ummm…” I sat there for a moment, not quite sure what to do. This was… the oddest request I’d ever had in my life. “You mean a date?” I’d seen plenty of mares and stallions ask each other out back in Neighvarro City, but… I’d never been asked out before. I’d always approached other stallions for it. Never got a yes from any of them anyhow.

“Sure, that’s the word.” She said, cupping her beak as she thought about it. “At least I think it is...” Slowing her beating wings, she dropped down onto the pavement in front of me. “So yeah, I want to be taken out and treated to a night on the town by you!” Looking at me oddly, she wore a devilish smirk. “And I want you to wear something nice. Like that dress from Klondike!”

“About that,” Thinking about the last time I spent some time with Hispano, I’d woken up being strangled by her father. “What about your dad? Didn’t he tell you to stay away from stallions like me?” Really, I just wanted her to drop this before she got the wrong idea about all this.

“Yeah,” She shrugged before leaning closer to me. “but I’m thinking, after he see’s how much of a gentlecolt you are, he’ll lay off on you a bit.” Looking around, she blushed brightly across her cheeks. “Look, you’re… not like the other stallions I’ve seen in the wastes. You’re nice to me, even if you sometimes put up a front that makes you look annoyed.” Was I really that transparent to her? With what might have been the biggest admission she’d given to anypony, she looked up at me and said something I didn’t expect.

“You may find me odd and annoying, but you're the first pony who doesn’t see me as just some mercenary for hire.” She shook her head softly and looked at the ground. “I’d said it before, even though you don’t remember. We’re friends, and... I like you, Night.” Looking up at me, I could tell that this was as serious as anything else in the world to her.

“Hispano…” I was actually at a loss for words. Not that words mattered, because the second I said her name, she leaned forward and kissed me. My mind felt like it went dark for a moment, and I was overcome with a resounding sense of deja vu. I was so shocked that it took my brain a moment to reboot and pull away from her.

“Just… think it over.” She said softly. Before I could even say anything, she flared her wings and took off like a bolt.

So… a fourteen year old griffon, who I’ve had save my life twice now, was for some reason infatuated with me because I saw her as more than a tool of death. The ebbing pain from before when I talked to her outside Laika’s capsule returned to my head. I put my hooves against my head and squeezed at it, hoping that somehow that would help. Half the social customs in the wasteland made sense, but Hispano… why the hell would she do something like this?

Maybe this would be a good thing. A chance to sit down and really talk with her without all this running about. Maybe then I could explain to her just what Solomon was like, and hopefully get her to get away from his side. Not for Delilah's benefit, but because she didn’t deserve to be around a brute like Solomon.

“Hey!” Happy’s voice called down from off the back of the Hauler. When I looked up at him, he raised both his forehooves up above his head. “You coming up or what!?”

“Today just keeps getting better and better…” I grumbled, getting to my hooves. Still, if Hispano wanted to feel like a mare out on a date, that’s fine. I owed her a night out if that’s what she wanted from me. But at the end of it, I’d have to be straight with her, and tell her I wasn’t interested in her like she seemed to be with me.

Trying to push the absurdity of the last few moments from my mind, I trotted over to Bertha and climbed the stairs up. Seriously, all I had to do was get the ice delivered and I was home free for the afternoon. Pausing on the steps, I thought about something else that the Officer had said. They were running low on food, and with who the hell knows how far they have to go, I can’t let them go potentially knowing they’d starve.

“Hey, Bombay.” Boiler called out as I climbed onto the reactor deck. Looking up, I found her lazily yawn at me from over at the reactor controls. “Nice to see you made it back.” Canting her large head, she bonked one of her horns into the wall as she looked at me and pointed to the bandages around my side. “Did you get hurt or something?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” I smiled and gave a dismissive wave. Oh goddesses, why is she down here!? I can’t just grab a chunk of the Ice and get out of here without her seeing it. Unless… maybe I can shove it into one side of my saddlebags! “Anyway, I’ve gotta grab something from my room. Chat later about it?”

She shrugged and went back to doing her thing at the controls. Turning, I trotted over to the door to the ice hold and dipped inside quickly. Shutting it behind me, I leaned back against it and perked my ears. The Ice hold was dead quiet except for the electric hum of the small light illuminating the room.

Lowering my voice to a whisper, I called out. “Happy?” Pausing and waiting, I heard a subtle shift from back behind the ice. Slowly, he leaned around the corner, straightening out his floral print shirt as he looked at me quizzically. “A cubic foot, maybe a little bit more.”

“Well, I sawed out a bit more than that.” He shrugged before pointing to the door behind me. “Problem is, I'll need you to get Boiler to take a break away from the hauler for a bit so we can both sneak this over there."

Putting on my best straight face, I glared at him. “I’ll take it alone. They won’t trust you, remember?”

He looked insulted, shifting his weight back a bit. “That’s not how this is going to work.” He narrowed his eyes at me and jabbed his hoof toward me. “And by the way, what are they paying for it. You did get them to pay for it, right? Because I’m here to make caps, not friends with the enclave. And if you didn’t...”

“Hey,” I cut him off, "I'll deliver the ice, and then bring back your share." He moved to speak up again, but instead I spoke up even louder. "You need me to do the deal, so you do it my way, Happy." He did his best to wear the look that Delilah made when she was angry, but I didn't care. "I could always tell your mother..."

"Fine." He snapped with a huffing kick at the ice. "Just get Boiler to leave before you head out. So long as they pay, I couldn’t care how it goes down."

I huffed and stepped away from the door. “They’ll pay for it so long as you cut the right amount.” Trotting across the hold, I quickly made my way halfway up the stairs before stopping and looking over to Happy. “You know what? Since I’ve done the negotiation and will be the one doing the heavy lifting here, why don’t you go get Boiler to leave?”

I knew that I was effectively lying to him about the payment, but seriously. I can see why most of the other crew avoided Happy. Yeah, it sucked for what happened with his Dad, but you’d think he’d be less of a self centered asshole than he is because of it. If all he cares about is caps? Fine, I’ll deal with whatever he wants to try to do about me ripping him off later. Between having to do the job Delilah’s now assigned me to, and Hispano’s antics, I had enough to worry about for now.

Pushing up through the hatch to the top, I quickly made my way over to my container. Opening the door, I looked over into Buck’s half. Thankfully, he was still out for the moment. Trying to be quick about this, I lowered myself down and reached under my bed. Dumping out the two sides of my saddlebags onto my bed, I made sure that I’d divide the remaining food in them out into things that would probably not make it another few weeks at most, and things that would be viable for a while. Considering they were good at rationing, I could give them most of what was left of the perishables.

Stuffing everything that I was going to give them into one saddle bag, I scooped everything else I intended to save for myself onto the rainbow rug on my bed. Wrapping it up, I scooted it towards the back of my bed and swung the half-laden bags onto my back. Turning around, I found myself run right into a big furry object blocking the doorway.

“Woah there.” Buck laughed. “What have you got all that packed away for? Not leaving I’d hope.”

Looking up, I found a soft smile on Buck’s jagged muzzle. However, I could see a look of disappointment in his eyes. I’d figured it was probably over Laika’s choice to stay here, but honestly, I really hoped it wasn’t because of something I’d done to disappoint him.

“Just…” I looked up, about to tell him everything. Stopping short, I tailored my words again. “The Enclave soldiers at that parked vertibuck? They’ve run out of standard rations, and nopony is willing to help them. They’ll be leaving soon, but it’s going to be a long trip.” Shrugging, I watched his smile grow wider. “I figured that maybe for their trip, they could use some of the food I was given.”

“That’s a wonderful idea.” He nodded and reached out. Patting me on the head with his heavy paw, I laughed as he ruffled my mane. “However, I do have to ask…” He paused, his ice blue eyes darting over to my wrapped up food on my bed. “Did you perhaps have another tin of that candy?”

“Uh, yeah.” I said, thinking back to all of the food I’d just had spread out. I was pretty sure that I’d seen another rusted tin of it among the things I wrapped up in the rainbow rug. Shrugging I looked up to him. “Go ahead and have it if you want.”

“Oh, it’s not for me.” He said, turning and looking toward the back of the Hauler. It was then that I’d seen Laika standing on top of her pod, looking down into it curiously. “I was going to give them to her, as a housewarming gift of sorts.” He gave a sigh as he looked at her.

I couldn’t help but smile. “You like her, don’t you?” I chuckled and nudged him playfully.

He gave a bright blush through his coat. “O-only as a scientist!” He stammered, dropping his voice into a near whisper. Leaning down he spoke softly to me, and I could hear the uneasiness of his words. “She had a family before today from her perspective. It’s going to take her time to cope with the idea that the world she knew is gone, even if she’s already physically accepted that as a fact. I could never be so bold as to presume she’d ever be open to the idea of another dog in her life.” Looking down at his paws, he gave a sigh. He hadn’t said it, but I knew that in his head, he was making the point that she couldn’t love him specifically.

“Well, that’s her loss.” I shrugged and gave him a beaming smile. “You’re a great Snow Dog, Buck. Anyone would be lucky to have someone like you in their life. I know I am.”

And just like I’d thought it would be, there was his own beaming smile. Buck and I had the same problem in assuming that others would look at us for each other's faults. Really, all we needed was to know that we weren’t alone in this mindset, and that worry seemed to melt away. I don’t know if I’d ever view Hispano as anything more than a friend, but… I’m pretty sure I know what Buck would tell me if I ever asked him his thoughts on it. We both just needed to go for what we wanted in life, and that’s because we were both capable of so much more than we thought.

Trotting back toward the Ice hold, I stopped and looked over at Laika. She looked to have repaired the hole in her suit where Buck had put the IV in before, and she was again wearing her oddly large tri-barreled pistol. She looked confused as she stood over the open hatch to her pod, staring down into it like she could make it fly using only her mind. After a moment, she seemed to notice me staring.

“Hey,” I said, reaching my wing out and giving her a stiff salute with it. “I know it was brief, but I’m glad we could help you out.” At the very least, it looked like she’d handled the news of the end of the world better than expected.

That pulled a smile across her muzzle as well. “Dah. Thanks for what you and the others have done.” She gave me a stiff salute in return. “This isn’t an ideal solution, but it’ll do until I can get back to Stalliongrad. Or at the very least, get back to whatever they call a government these days.” Looking up and off into the blue sky, she gave a small sigh. “From what the leader of this settlement said, it’s now something new called the NCR.”

Shrugging, I laughed. “Well, they’re not the only government out there.” Pointing back across the courtyard, she followed my hoof as I continued. “The vertibuck we passed on the way in is going to be headed back down to what remains of the Enclave. Maybe they could give you a ride?”

“Enclave?” Laika asked slowly. “What is the Enclave?”

“Well…” I scrunched up my muzzle before I could throw my entire race under the proverbial skybus. I get that we may have gone overboard with the cloud cover, but, that’s no reason to outright condemn the Grand Pegasus Enclave overall. I can’t taint what she thinks of them with the wrong words, so I have to get back to what we had been formed from. “It’s what’s left of the Pegasus Air Command?”

“Oh, so the pegasus air force still exists?” Laika asked, rubbing at her chin. “I bet that if they have records pertaining to my time, I could prove my identity as part of the M.A.S. and the original Cloudsdale Aerospace Command. I could get them to take me back home!” Smiling she grabbed onto the raised ledge of the hauler and pulled herself off her pod and up into the Rec area with a single bound. “Besides, being from two centuries ago, I basically outrank all of them now!”

That is... sort of true? I mean, that’s not really how rank works, but she’s probably a whole lot smarter and more qualified than anypony running things these days. Still, past all the petty politics of rank and such, that Officer out back was probably still under her rank of Commander. On top of that, he did offer to give me a ride down with him. I’m pretty sure he’d settle for a wartime hero instead.

“Before we go, General Laika.” I said with a smirk, receiving one in kind from her. “I do have to go discuss something with the Officer anyway, it may be a few minutes before you can head out.” Pointing my hoof back toward my container, I smiled as I looked at Buck as he moved around inside it. “However, I believe that my friend in there wanted to talk to you before you left.”

“Alright.” She nodded, “I still need to gather some of my notes, logs, and experiments. After I get them together, I’ll talk to your Snow Dog friend in there.” Reaching her paw out to me, she stood proudly on her hind legs. “Again, thank you for all you’ve done.” Reaching out, I let her grab my leg and shake it. With a laugh, she looked up in thought again. “General Laika. Yeah, I could get used to being top dog around here.”

Well, general or not, I felt like Laika was going to be in good hooves with the Enclave. Still, I felt bad for Buck, and hoped that he’d step up and say something before she left. I couldn’t really worry about that now though, I had some ice to deliver, and Happy Trails to piss off! Goddesses I hoped this wouldn’t come back to bite me in the flank...