So, as it turns out, safes that have been sitting in the ice for two centuries really don’t like to be opened easily.

Happy had to spend the last two and a half days of travel using the acetylene torch in an attempt to cut his way through the rusted deadbolts. Something that he said apparently takes a painstakingly long time to do for just one, and he’d only gotten through eight of the ten in there by the time the acetylene in the tank ran out. Worse still, was the fact that the entire time he was down in the hold working on it, Delilah had been hovering over his shoulder. Until the torch ran out of fuel, she was there, just watching and waiting for that safe to open.

Me however? I had it easy. Well, relatively easy at least.

While Violet was still in the last stages of recovering from her shrapnel wound, I’d taken on the brunt of the Recon duty. However, during that time, I’d noticed something odd as we left the mountains that Carmacks was nestled in. There was a wide break in the mountain range, and for the entire time we’d been on the road again, the highway we followed was just a single, uninterrupted straight stretch of land that probably went on until it hit the mountains on the edge of the horizon. The wide, brushless flat plains that stretched on for miles felt more like we were back on the ice cap again, rather than a few hundred miles south. However, it hadn’t been all boring, just for this stretch it was exceptionally bland.

During my time in the air leaving the Carmacks range, I’d seen a few interesting things. Another tribe of deer, with a few of them out hunting what I learned from the others was a Radbear. I saw another pack of Bramble wolves crossing a stream under a bridge the convoy went over. Most interestingly, I’d met a phoenix that had made it’s home in the charred remains of a burnt down lumber yard. It actually flew up with it’s chicks to say hello! While they seemed to be friendly, not attacking me or anything, I spent quite a bit of time trying to keep away from them. Mostly because even if they were friendly, they were still made of fire.

Hispano mostly laughed at me for acting so awkward, but I was just glad that she seemed to return to her normal, bubbly self. I knew that she still hurt inside, and that she wouldn’t give up on me. But, for the time being, I laughed with her, and enjoyed the little talks we had. However, there was always something she’d shy away from whenever our conversation drifted over to it as a topic. Just now returning from my break, I intended to ask her directly about it.

“Hey, Hispano?” I asked as I pulled up alongside her cloud, shaking off the discombobulated feeling the Dizzitron always left me with. “Why don’t you ever talk about your mom? Or your sister for that matter.” Perking my ears and listening, I found myself quietly flying without an answer. The silence that I was met with was odd. Normally her pep never kept her quiet more than a few seconds… “Hispano?”

“Hey!” She squawked excitedly from behind me.

I locked up, giving a whimpering gasp as I dipped a few feet through the air. Panicking, I flapped my crappy wings as hard as I could, and stiffened up my forelegs as they hung to re-stabilize myself. Looking back behind me, I watched as she zipped through the air, flying about outside of her cloud.

“What the hell are you doing out here!?” I snapped, looking back down to the convoy. Oh, this was bad! All it would take is for one of the others to look up and see her for this to have the potential of going incredibly wrong.

“Relax, Dum Dum.” She rolled her eyes and saddled herself up next to me. She beat her wings at a steady rate as she rolled herself around me through the air. “You have no idea how horrible it is to be cramped inside that cloud all day without a chance to so much as stretch your wings.” as she flew rings around me, she nodded and pointed to down below. “Besides, I thought you told me that the guy on the anti-aircraft mount knew that I was following.”

“I said Hardcase knew about you.” I grumbled and drifted over toward her cloud. “I never said he knew you were following us.” Saying that prompted her to roll her eyes at me. I knew that Hardcase wasn’t that dumb, and there was no way after Carmacks that he didn’t know she was following us. Still, the safer bet was on lying so she didn’t get any ideas of making good on her threat of shooting me... “So,” I raised my voice slightly. “Not going to answer my question then?”

Deadpanning, she leveled herself out and glared at me. “You know I don’t want to talk about my family.” Flaring her wings, she rolled herself over a few more times before ending up upside down. Cruising through the air backwards in a relaxed pose, a smirk found it’s way across her beak. “Something I’ve been meaning to ask you, actually.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “What did you do with that white dress you wore for our date?”

“It…” I started to say softly. After I’d gotten back that night, Buck had given Violet a sedative to help keep her both from tossing in her sleep, and to keep her knocked out. What we did after she was asleep however, Buck had actually insisted I keep the dress on for. Though, along with my budding relationship with Buck, none of this was something I was going to disclose willingly to Hispano of course. “I think it’ll need a wash before I wear it again.”

“Eh,” She shrugged and rolled herself over into normal flight again. “I guess that makes sense.” Eyeing over me, she clicked her beak together in thought. “Why do you even like to wear something so restrictive anyway?” She asked, only giving a momentary pause before speaking up again. “I mean, past looking the part of being a mare.”

“I… just do?” Goddesses that was a good question. One that even though I’d had ample time to ponder, I could never come up with anything solid. That, or as Lilac said, I’d kept hiding it from myself without realizing it. “I just like the way they feel around me. How they grab onto me in all the right ways.” Even flying, the wind itself felt like it was my dress. Caressing along my body, holding me delicately, and making me feel more confident, even with my disability. Looking over to Hispano, I watched as she stifled a laugh with her Talon. “What?”

“You really do act the part of being a mare.” She giggled and gave my wing a nudge with her own. “Goddesses, I don’t know how you can like clothes. They're just pieces of dumb fabric.”

“Well, you and Buck seem to enjoy my dumb fab...” I said, gasping and biting on my tongue to shut myself up quickly. But it wasn’t quickly enough. I knew deep down that it was too late to fix anything my gabbing muzzle spat out the moment I’d said his name. Hispano just sat there blinking as my slipping out Buck’s name seemed to send her into momentary shock.

“Who…” Her eye twitched as she slowly looked over at me. “Who the hell is Buck!?”

“He’s the doctor…” I said, not really sure how to phrase it. Then again, you already screwed yourself, Night! Might as well just tell her everything. “He and I…”

She gasped, wearing a wide smile across her beak. “Oh. My. Goddesses.” She blushed, carrying more of an exuberant expression that I expected from her. “You two are fuckbuddies, aren’t you!?” She laughed at her crude, and might I add, wrong assessment of our relationship. “You and a Snow Dog of all things!? Wow!” Covering her eyes with her talon, she blushed brighter than I even was right now. “Oh, you had me worried there for a bit, Dum Dum!” She laughed so hard that she started to sink out of the air. “And here I thought this whole time you were a virgin!”

“And what’s so bad about thinking that!?” I flailed my hooves at her, momentarily dropping out of the sky. “It’s not like you’d have any experience with somepony.” Flaring my wings stiffly, I caught myself as she paused, looked at me, and then busted out laughing hysterically. “I don’t see what’s so funny.” I grumbled and tried not to think about her mocking me for the rest of the trip south.

“You think that I’m…?” She cackled as I deadpanned and simply waited for her to calm herself down. I knew what she was trying to insinuate, but the only way I’d ever believe she’d been with a pony, would be if someone like her dad told me she’d…

“You stay away from my daughter and go do your whoring someplace else.”

Shit, he had said that, hadn’t he…

“You can’t be serious.” The words slipped out of my muzzle as easy as every other time I’d ever tried to hold them in. “But… you’re how old!?”

“Old enough.” She gasped, recovering from her spout of laughter. “Goddesses, you ponies are all the same.” Feigning shock, she grabbed her face with her talons. “But… you’re too young. You can’t seriously be that naive, Night.” Rolling herself over, she flew right over on top of her cloud, landing on her back with a soft pomf. “Seriously, us Griffons do everything faster than ponies. Grow, fly, get stronger, mature. We do it all better too, if you didn’t already figure that part out. Besides, I never heard any of the stallions complain about it...”

“That’s not a valid reason.” I grunted. Buck’s advanced aging and mental development made sense to me, and I didn’t see any reason for him to lie about any of it either. Griffon’s however, I’d been taught about in school. They didn’t age any differently than we did, and while they were normally larger and stronger than your average pegasus, they weren’t all faster, and they weren’t all better.

“You need a reason why?” Hispano asked, perking up as she rolled over onto her stomach on top of the cloud. “Then you give me one.” She smirked. “Tell me why I can’t enjoy some quality time with any stallion I choose.” Closing her eyes, she sighed and took a little too much pride relaxing on top of her cloud.

“Because…” I spoke up, for once not finding any real way to phrase it. “Because you don’t yet know what you want?” Defaulting to what I’d said on our ‘date’ wasn’t really an all encompassing answer, but it was better than me telling her ‘because it’s just wrong’ as my entire argument. Even if it was one hundred percent correct.

“Listen up, Night, because I’m not going to say this again.” Hispano grunted, lowering her voice as she did. “My sister was known as the biggest whore in all of ‘Claw. Self proclaimed queen of her wing. Pissed my Dad off to no end to hear the stories of her ‘nighttime conquests’.” Her voice wavered as she talked, and even without knowing it, I’d drifted right up to the side of her cloud. “Do you know what Suiza told me when I asked her about it?”

“What?” I asked, reaching out and pulling myself onto her cloud.

“That every time she was flying with them on a job? Every time they got into a fight,” She whimpered, wearing a small smile as she did. “Each and every time she’d been in bed with her wingmates was all she could think about.” Looking at me, Hispano shrugged. “She knew that if that fight was their last, that she could die knowing that she’d at least used her time alive in the wasteland to the fullest.”

While I couldn’t really see that as a agreeable justification for what Hispano was trying to say, it’s something I couldn’t deny about myself. Now that I had Buck in my life, I’d wanted to spend every moment I could with him. I wanted to go to him every night and make it a night to remember. That’s what made me so afraid of losing him. And really, I have to be honest, I would probably have regretted it a whole lot more if I’d lost him before we spent some time in bed. I’d have just spent my time wondering what might have been had things turned out differently. And that’s not something I ever want to be forced to do.

“So then,” She said softly. Looking up at her, she blushed at me. “Even though you said you didn’t…” She pressed a digit of each talon together as she looked around nervously. “Maybe one of these days… we could... try it together? You know, just to see if you do like it?”

Rolling my eyes, I flared my wings, and let the wind up here peel me off of her cloud. While I’d just come back from a break, there’s been nothing out here other than flat, snow covered land. Just another few minutes of break maybe to let the awkwardness subside before coming back up again...

“I’ll take that as a maybe!” She called out excitedly as I flipped over in the air. Starting a soft glide back down to the hauler, I tried to ignore the loud, elated giggles she gave. Goddesses, why did she have to be so persistent?

After my normal few minutes of slow descent, I looked up and watched as Bessy continued on like normal in the lead. Lucky sat a bit further behind than usual in the Runner, but it was nothing to be worried about. And looking up at the Hauler as I approached, I frowned as I saw Hardcase standing at the side of his gun, his head propped up in his hooves as he watched me come down.

“Have a pleasant time up there with the cloud?” He called out with a wide smile. Even if he knew Hispano was following us, so long as he kept his muzzle shut about it, I’d take any amount of jesting he could throw at me. That, and two could play at that game.

“How is it sleeping all by yourself in that container?” I asked with as much of a sly grin as I could throw at him. Coming down a bit quicker than normal on my approach, I pitched myself up to give myself some time to drain some extra speed. That, and to be able to watch as Hardcase’s muzzle fell right into a deadpan. “Violet’s been such a great guest, I’m thinking of asking her to move in for good.”

Dipping down again, I guided myself toward the Rec Center floor. Coming in, I looked over to make sure that the hatch to the Ice hold was still shut before coming in for a landing. I only wanted to make the mistake of nearly killing a crew member once on this trip, thank you very much. However, as I did, I watched as the couch hopped across the floor a few inches in Hardcase’s magical grasp. Not far, but it was enough to catch my rear hoof and swing me down.

“Whoops!” Hardcase called out as I was pulled straight down onto the old, squeaky sofa cushions with a heavy whump. “Sorry about that.”

“Okay, that’s it! I’ll make both of you sorry.” Boilers groggy voice resonated incredibly well through her container. Pulling open the door, I was met with her angry, squinting eyes as she glared at me from the doorway. The polkadotted eye cover that hung lazily off one of her horns, slipped off as she gave out a sharp yawn while she continued. “I can’t hardly get a moment for a peaceful nap now and again ‘cause you’re all screaming your damn muzzles off the whole damn day!” Sharply pointing her hoof at me, she scrunched up her square muzzle tightly. “I already had a hard enough time sleeping last night with all the moving and shaking you and the Doc were getting up to. So could you maybe keep it down for a bit? Is that so much to freaking ask?”

“Oh don’t be so hard on ‘em, Hun.” Gearbox spoke through a yawn as he cuddled his way up the side of Boiler’s fuzzy form.

Wait…

“Gearbox, aren’t you supposed to be driving right now!?” I gasped, looking back behind us. It was hard with the great expanse of snowy nothing around us to find a reference point on the old paved road. However, the heavily faded yellow stripes on the old highway were still just visible enough to let me know that we were indeed still moving.

“Oh no…” Gearbox gasped, actually seeming worried. “What’s going on? We’re all doomed! Who’s driving this thing!?” He shouted almost comically before giving off a laugh I very much didn’t share. “Oh right, that would be me.” The drug fueled smile he normally wore returned to its regular, permanent look as he pushed past Boiler and out of their container. “Relax, Bertha’s on cruise control. This stretch of road doesn’t change direction for at least another hour.”

“Fifteen Minutes!” Hardcase called out from his post on top.

“See?” Gearbox yawned before he trotted over to the kitchenette and pulled out a bottle of water. Setting it onto the counter, he reached up into his rainbow bandana and pulled out a small tin container. “We’ve got plenty of time before I even need to worry about driving Bertha again.” Hoofing off the cap to the container, Gearbox pulled out a small white tab and set it on the counter. Opening the water, he hoofed in the tab and gave the bottle a small swirl. In a few moments, the tab had dissolved, and he greedily guzzled down the whole bottle.

Actually, his mention of the Hauler’s name prompted me to ask something that had been on my mind for a while now. Well, this whole trip, really. I just never had a good time to ask until now.

“So, why Bessy and Bertha?” I asked, pushing myself up on the couch, and getting to a comfortable seated position. “For convoy names, I mean.”

“No one’s told you the story yet?” Boiler asked, scrunching and scratching at herself on the back with her own horn. Looking at me for a moment, I shook my head. “Well, you see, Burro Industries wasn’t something that just Delilah’s family owned back during the war.” Finishing up with her scratching, Boiler walked out toward the kitchen and started messing around with the coffee maker. “Bessy and Bertha were two wealthy friend’s of Marcela Neddy, Delilah’s ancestor. The two were sisters, and heirs to a profitable Whinnyapolis cheese dynasty. Anyway, while Delilah’s family had done well for themselves on their own, when the war broke out, they all saw the potential profit it had for those who invested in it. So they went in together and founded Burro Industries. Made quite a lot of money for themselves doing so.”

“I… see?” I said, not really getting one point of it. “I get that the names were given to the convoy out of reverence, but…” It almost sounded absurd to think it was actually true. “Cheese dynasty?” I laughed. “What kind of dynasty is built on cheese?”

“Hey!” Boiler snapped as she scooped the coffee grounds into the filter. “We don’t make fun of cows in this family. It’s bad luck.”

“Wait, cows?” I spat. “I thought they were donkeys!” Now the whole cheese thing was making a bit more sense...

“Well they weren’t, so watch what you say.” Boiler grumbled as she put the filter in, slid the coffee pot into the maker, and flipped the switch. “Seriously, there’s some weird shit that always ends up going down whenever any of us would even so much as think something that could be taken as disrespectful of them. And I’m saying that as someone who doesn’t ever buy into that whole ‘everlasting meadow’ superstitious bullcrap you ponies are always going on about.” Chuffing, she shook her head. “Hah, afterlife. That’s rich.”

The radio crackled for a moment, getting all of our attentions. “Whoever can hear this, you might want to tune into the radio station right about now.” Delilah’s voice came in with more of an urgent tone than usual.

“I’ve got it.” Hardcase called as he strolled out of his room. Seriously! How the fuck was he always around to mess with the radio!? “One second…” He said, using his magic to flip the switch.

“More on that unfortunate news I was reporting to you all about earlier,” DJ PowerColt’s smooth voice seemed off, and he spoke with a bit more reverence than he normally did. “Reports are still coming in from way up north, but so far it seems like a convoy moving southward from the settlements of Klondike and Filly Crossing, have opened fire on the innocent ponies who inhabit them. In what can be considered the only thankful part of these unprovoked attacks, the convoy didn’t seem to slow down as they passed through, which limited both the damage they could cause, and lives they could affect. Still, no cause has yet to be found for these callous and barbarous attacks. But…” The DJ’s voice hung for a moment, a pregnant pause filling the dead air as we all sat on the edge of our seats. “It seems another report is in. Not even the Road Crew checkpoint south of Filly Crossing was able to slow them down, having been almost completely wiped out in the hostile convoy’s wake.”

“Goddesses…” I gasped, looking over to Boiler who looked at me with an annoyed glare.

“See, what did I tell you?” She grunted. “Shit always happens when you disrespect the cows.”

“Yeah,” Gearbox added, looking a bit off put from her remark, “though it’s odd. Normally it’s a bit delayed most of the time…” Shrugging, he went sat down and tossed his empty water bottle back into the cupboard.

“Consider this a public advisory issued to all southern settlements who belong on highway five to be wary of any convoy’s traveling southward in and around your areas, regular or otherwise.” The DJ almost sounded shook up, which only served to make it harder to process this. Was Solomon so desperate that he just opened fire on anypony who even tried to get them to stop? “As always, I’ll bring you more as I get it. But for now, let’s try to lighten such a dark mood with a little bit of…”

Hardcase’s magic flipped the radio off the normal band with a click. Bathed in silence, I don’t think any of us really knew what to say. However, the Mic glowed as it was wrapped in Hardcase’s magic, and he wore a serious look as he brought it up to his muzzle.

“What’s the call, Boss?” He asked, speaking with more than a hint of worry in his voice.

“Nothing about the plan has changed.” Delilah’s words came over the radio with a decisiveness about it. “We’re not the Convoy responsible for this, so we shouldn’t have any problems other than a few extra stops to be questioned is all.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Hardcase spoke up quickly, seeming a bit unnerved. Pausing, he looked around to each of us here before bringing the Mic up to his muzzle again. “If we keep following this route, Solomon is just going to use every settlement we pass through as target practice.”

“I understand the risk, Hardcase.” She called back, the crackle of static making her voice sound a bit off. “But if we change course now, we’d only slow our progress. There’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t just keep following the road to try to get ahead of us, and lie in wait for us at some point down the way. I won’t risk putting this crew in that sort of danger.”

“Yes, but Ma’am…” Hardcase spoke up, only stopping when a harsh squeal of feedback rang through the set.

“Alright, I want everypony to listen up.” Delilah snapped. “I understand that the ponies of the settlements ahead may not have asked for this sort of misfortune, but with that call out to them on the radio, they will be far from defenceless. Not to mention, traveling through them won’t be safe for Solomon either.” Her harsh voice seemed to beat back the static completely, pushing it into submission as her words came across the line with crystal clarity. “We still have a fair lead on him, and even the Road Crew are going to be trying to lock down things along the roads now. Our best bet, is to run this convoy as fast and far as we can, and hope that some lucky pony in one of these settlements has the enviable privilege of blowing that bastard to kingdom come when he shows up.”

With her sharp words still resonating in all of our ears, nopony even moved a muscle. Hell, I don’t even think any of us risked breathing. We all just sat there, waiting.

“Am I understood?” She seethed furiously over the radio.

Slowly, Hardcase brought the mic back up to his muzzle. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Bessy, out.” She grunted before the radio gave out a burst of static and went silent.

I had nothing but respect for Delilah because of what she’d accomplished so far. Yes, I’d taken issue with how she went about hiding the real reason we were here. Still, I had to admire her for the fact that she’d orchestrated the secret well enough, that it took an outside variable like me to stumble upon it. I don’t think there was a single pony on this crew who doubted that whatever call she ever made for us was in our best interest. And as much as it was regrettable to admit, I couldn’t help but feel like this was the right call to make.

Still, hearing that Klondike had been attacked, hurt me to hear. I know that the place was a nightmare when we’d been there, but with Lilac Lace in charge, I’d hoped that they could do better now. How much of the disturbingly perfect little town did he put to ruin? How many lives did Solomon destroy? And for what? Some stupid boat? Delilah hadn’t even told us what was on the thing that made it so important. Granted, none of us had even asked…

Like I’d done when I wanted answers before, once we stopped again, I intended to ask Delilah to give us all a much deserved answer.

Following the highway as planned for another half hour, the road had started to curve southwest, skimming along the edge of what had been the far off mountain range. However, now that we were so close, I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how much space there really was between things up here.

“You okay, Dum Dum?” Hispano called out from inside her cloud again. “You’ve been awfully quiet recently.”

“Just having issues understanding why Solomon is doing what he’s doing.” I shook my head, keeping my eyes scanning along the treeline that skirted the southern side of the road. “Why is he even doing all this?”

“From what my dad said, some stupid old ship.” Hispano huffed as she tore a window into the side of her abode. Just behind her, I saw what looked like a large sparkle battery powered fan that was running on a low speed. Huh, so that’s how she keeps this thing going all the time. A bit like cheating if you ask me. Looking over at me, she shrugged and changed her gaze downward toward the convoy. “For what it’s worth, I don’t get it either.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, giving a few beats of my wings to offset the lack of thermals here. Pushing myself up above the height of her cloud, I flared my wings and began a slow glide again.

“Well, he’s supposedly a prince back in Saddle Arabia.” She said as she changed her gaze again and looked ahead down the road. “He’s got riches galore there. Why the hell would he spend all these caps just to find one ship that may or may not even exist?” Squinting, she scrunched her beak up. “Road Crew.”

“What do they have to do with Solomon?” I asked, watching as she deadpanned and pointed down the road. I could barely make out the faintest semblance of something on the road almost along the horizon up ahead. “How can you even see that from here?”

“Because I’m amazing, Duh.” She huffed and pulled herself back into her cloud. “You should tell your friends that even though it’s road maintenance, and not a check point, they’re going to want to stop for them anyway with what’s been going around on the news.”

Huh, so she’d been listening in as well then. Regardless, she had a good point, and I dipped down toward the Hauler. Looking ahead toward the specks on the horizon, I felt my stomach twist into a knot. I knew it wasn’t good to be this on edge, but I couldn’t help but be worried that something was about to go wrong. Maybe what I’d said about the Cows really could get us into some trouble...

“Hey, something’s up.” I called out to Hardcase as I bypassed him. Flaring my wings once I dipped over the front of the Hauler, I lined myself up with Bessy. Coming in a bit fast, I flaired myself at the last moment and dropped down onto the top of the wheeled zebra apc with a heavy thunk. Almost immediately, one of the small optic mounts on the turret spun around toward me. After another moment, the top hatch on the turret popped open.

Howitzer hoofed off a cloth helmet as he looked up at me through the open turret top. “What’s going on?” His grunting speech was just barely loud enough to beat out the thrumming engine inside the tank with them. Geeze, how loud was this thing inside there!?

“Road Crew up ahead a few miles.” I called out, pointing in the general direction of them. “Supposedly it’s maintenance, but we should probably stop for them anyway.”

“What?” Howitzer shouted, cupping his ear with his hoof. “I can’t hear you. Climb in if you want to talk!” How the fuck did that make any sense? Still, he waved for me to come in before hoofing his helmet back on, and I figured I might as well. If he said it would be quieter on the inside, then who the fuck was I to argue.

Climbing down into the cramped turret, as soon as I’d gotten in enough, I pulled the hatch closed behind me. Of course, that had the opposite effect as intended, as the heavy thumping from the alchemy powered reactor that sat right under the seat I was in pulsed right into my skull. Howitzer’s hoof roughly shoved something at me, and looking down at it. Pressed firmly against my leg, I found a cloth hat like the one Howitzer once again wore gripped in his hoof. Rolling my eyes, I took it and put the cloth hat on. As soon as I’d pulled it down over my head, a sharp silence met my ears. So immediately did all sound drop off around me in fact, that it was almost disorienting.

“There’s a transmission talisman in the head flap snap button.” Howitzer spoke at a respectable volume, his voice crisp and clear in my ears. “Secure it to activate it, so you can tell us just why you’re here.”

Buttoning the flap like I was asked, I spoke up. “There’s a group of Road Crew up ahead.” I said, turning and looking towards the front of the vehicle. Delilah hunched further over her driving controls as she heard the words. “We should stop for them, let them know we’re the good guys.”

“Howitzer?” Delilah asked over the headset. “Are you at your post?” Reaching up, she grabbed a leaver on the ceiling above her and yanked it back. When she did, the two square front windows darkened as armored plates dropped down over them. Only thin, bright slits let the light in, and I had to wonder just how Delilah could even see out of the small ports.

“No,” He shook his head and gave me an annoyed look. “Bombay’s in my seat.”

“Bombay,” Delilah said, looking back at me with a stern glare. “can you please use the commander’s optics to see if you can get a better look at what’s ahead?” Looking down at the controls around my seat, I was surprised to see about a hundred or so different buttons. All of them either had words that had faded away with time, or were in what I assumed to be the zebra language. “Do you see a big square green button next to a set of four toggles to your right?” She asked.

It took me a second to find, but I picked it out pretty easily with her description. Hitting the button, I froze up as the seat, the turret, and what felt like the whole damn vehicle spun around. With a jarring stop, I found myself staring at a molded pad that looked to be where you’d put your head. Leaning forward, I shoved my face against it, and found myself presented with a surprisingly stable view of the road ahead.

“Okay, now there should be a hoof switch on the side of the optics you’re using. Go ahead and press it upward.” She spoke into my ear. I wasn’t sure how she could know how to use every piece of equipment in this convoy down to this button, but I guess that’s what she has to know as a leader. Reaching up and feeling along the side of the optic mount, I found the switch without issue. Pressing up on it, my view magnified. Not just a couple times, but to the point to where I could see the fact that the hardhat wearing crew ahead, had a blue circle painted instead of a green triangle or red diamond. In fact, one of them was plastered to their own tripod stabilized optic, looking straight down the road toward us.

“Up ahead, I see quite a few ponies moving about.” I watched as more than a few of them darted about quickly. They were setting up wooden barriers with flashing orange lights in the middle of the road. Various carts and small motorized wagons were parked on the side of the road, and there was an enormous grey and black rectangle that sat in the middle behind them. “They’ve got a lot of ponies out there, and what looks like work equipment.”

Shifting myself against the padded optic rest, the optic changed its angle ever so slightly. I panned over across the road, finding more than a few of the workers laying prone on the road with various weapons propped in their hooves.

“They know we’re coming, and they’re armed.” I said, tilting my head over the other way. Slowly the optic swung my view back across the road. There, standing off to the side and talking to three stallions with flags on their helmets, was Galina. She stood, pointing and nodding in our direction. “Yeah, Galina is there. I think she’s trying to use them against us.” I really didn’t want to have to fight these ponies over a lie. They were just trying to do their job! We were just trying to do ours!

“Shit.” Delilah cursed under her breath. “Okay then. What’s their offencive capabilities? I need to know if we can make a break for it around them.”

“Just ponies with rifles,” I spoke up, distinctly remembering that Hardcase had said not to try to run past them. “Nothing else.”

“No, look again.” Delilah snapped at me. “They’d never run road maintenance this far out from Destruction Bay. Not without one of the union reps with them, at least. Doubly so with the news from the north.”

“There’s nothing though.” I said, swinging the optic around. Pulling down with my hoof, I was forced to zoom out as we started to draw ever closer. “Other than a few carts and wagons, there’s nothing.” I stopped as I looked at the giant grey and black rectangle again. “Unless a big, grey rectangle in the middle of the road is something, I’m not seeing anything else.”

“Shit, it’s Double Drum.” She hissed through her mic. “Howitzer, do you have any HESH rounds in storage?”

“Only one right now, Ma’am.” Howitzer spoke without even needing to look. “I’m going to need more if we plan on fighting our way through him.” Well, using Bessy’s cannon was his one job, so he’d know better than anypony.

“I don’t understand,” I called out. Without warning, I felt as Howitzer hit a button next to me. The whole setup spun again, ripping me away from the optics mount. “Who’s Double Drum?”

“He’s the current Union rep for Destruction Bay. He protects the roads around here.” Delilah answered promptly. “Bombay, I need you back on Bertha and set up to run some HESH ammo over here as fast as possible. Understand? We take him down, the rest of them won’t be able to stop the convoy.”

Nodding, I didn’t understand really, but I looked up and pushed the turret’s hatch open anyway. The blisteringly cold wind outside rushed in with an odd silence to it. Flicking the button off the tanking hat, I pulled it off and was immediately bombarded by the incredible noise inside the vehicle. Using it as a powerful motivator, I scrambled up out of the turret, and flared out my wings.

Galloping the few steps toward the front of Bessy, I flapped hard and used the speed of the vehicle to help grant me some extra lift. Pulling up into the air easily, I curved myself around and aimed for the reactor deck. Giving a few flaps, I knew I’d struggle to get my altitude up enough to make the deck at all, so speed was a secondary concern. Shifting my forelegs as I banked around, I hammered my wings down at the air.

Coming in, I drifted as the sidewind coming along from the moving mass of Bertha pushed me back. With nothing more than a small nudge against the metal walkway, I got my hooves firmly planted next to the Ice hold door.

“Boiler!” I called out as I trotted forward toward the arms cage. “We’re going into a fight here soon! I need you to ready some HESH rounds for Bessy.” Trotting into the cage, I started to strip off my battle saddle. Funny how comfortable I was wearing it now. Just a week of wearing it and I was so used to it that I almost didn’t feel the chafing anymore! Reaching forward, I grabbed at the hanging cannon shell harness on the wall.

“HESH?” Boiler called out as she squeezed past me. “Are you sure that’s what my brother wants?” Turning around, she gave me a confused look.

“All I know is two things. One, is that I don’t even know what the fuck HESH even means.” Speaking as I moved, I quickly stuck my hooves into the rigging and used my wings to pull it up over me. “And two, that Delilah told me to run HESH ammo over to them.”

“That was all you needed to say, dude.” She rolled her eyes and spun around. Looking at the well secured rack of various shells, she looked over them for a moment before she hoofed out ones with bright yellow tips on them. “These are always live, but won’t go off unless you give them a hard hit on the nose.” She grunted, Pulling the shell out of its rack and curling it under her foreleg. “So don’t go ramming anything with it.”

“Noted.” I said as I shimmied the shell sling up over me, and bent my wings back to slip the clasps shut. As soon as I’d done that, I felt as Boiler moved beside me and slid the shell into the holster. Immediately I remember just how fucking cumbersome these things were. With a heavy snap, she secured the latch that held it in place. She gave me a pat on the side and moved out of my way.

Turning, I got a running start toward the open side of the deck. Flaring my wings, I jumped when I hit the edge. The air caught me, and I banked myself around toward the front of the hauler. It was about then that I’d remember just how hard I’d come down on Bessy. Moving my forehooves forward, I pitched myself into a shallow dive towards the rolling APC.

“Please don’t smack this shell into them…” I muttered under my breath to myself, tweaking my legs and wings in synch to try to mitigate everything. However, thanks to the weight of the shell slung under me, I slowed down enough that I landed safely on the roof with a gentle tap.

Trotting up to the still open hatch, Howitzer poked up and reached under me. He gave a quick flip of the release mechanism, and the round dropped right into his waiting hooves. Giving me a firm nod, he pointed back to the Hauler again. Okay, one trip down… only a bunch more to go!

Repeating my takeoff procedure, I again lifted into the air without too much of an issue. However, looking ahead down the road, I found that what had once been only a speck, had grown large enough that the towering grey and black monolith in the middle of the road, and to some extent the accompanying ponies, were fairly easy to pick out.

Flying myself back over to the Reactor deck, I wanted to say that my landing had improved as much as the one to Bessy had. However, without the added weight of my battle saddle, I came in too fast and smacked against the side of Bertha above the walkway. Shaking off the hit, I turned and trotted over to find Boiler already waiting with another shell.

“Who are we fighting?” She asked, hefting the round up as she walked it to my side again.

“Some Road Crew guy named Double Drum.” I answered, feeling as she froze up for a moment with the round half secured. “Who is this guy anyway?”

“He’s got the toughest machine out of all of the Union reps!” She growled as she hefted the heavy round into it’s place in the harness. “A steamroller up-armored with literally tons of concrete to make him a mobile bunker. Almost makes it completely invulnerable to any sort of attack.” Firmly latching the harness around the round, she took a step back. “He can wait out any attack and leisurely pick off targets with his anti-machine rifles from his gun slits. He’s got them everywhere but the rear, which means we need to get past him to get safe.” Giving me a pat on the side, she frowned. “Though, while he might have an issue getting through Bessy and Bertha’s front armor, once we pass him, our soft backsides offer almost no protection.”

“Here’s hoping your brother can end this quickly then.” I grunted, turning so I could run toward the edge of the deck again. As I did, the resounding CLANG of something hitting the front of the Hauler filled the air. Both Boiler and I cringed as we heard it, pausing before we both ran toward the edge of the deck and looked around the front.

We barely saw the flash from the large rectangle in time when another clang from the front of the hauler filled the air. Shit, He’d already started shooting!? As Boiler and I pulled ourselves back, we jumped as a purple mass dropped to our sides.

“Ow, ow! We really need to put a ladder here.” Hardcase whimpered as he shook at his hooves one at a time. “Jumping down here is never fun…”

“Better than getting shot by an anti-machine rifle, I bet!” Boiler laughed before another clang made us all cringe. However, after only a moment, the resounding blast of Howitzer’s cannon filled the air. Thankfully, being where I was on Bertha had muffled the sound of his gun a bit compared to the last few fights, and only left a mild ringing in my ears. Stepping back up to the edge of the deck, both Boiler and I peeked around the side again.

A large cloud of grey smoke wafted away from the imposing machine. As it cleared, I squinted and found that only a small chunk of the concrete had been blasted away, and dark metal bars sat in the shallow hole on the front of his machine.

“Shit, it’s reinforced concrete on the front!?” Boiler groaned, squinting as hard as I was to see at this distance. As she did, another flash from the box pre-empted a whistling screech from above. Sparks flew as a large round ricocheted off the armored side of the hauler above us. The two of us didn’t need to be told twice to quit looking.

“Wait!” Hardcase shouted. Nearly leaping on me, he wore a crazy look across his face. “Bombay, you need to get back to Lucky and have him throw you as high as he can into the air!”

Blinking, I nodded slowly. “Okay…” I was really hoping that he wasn’t expecting me to do a repeat performance of what happened on the ice sheet. Because I really didn’t want to push my luck with that again. Even though I’d thought it might have been a good idea against the Bramble Wolves, these ponies had guns, and could easily retaliate if I happened to miss...

“Better yet, get him to turn and throw you towards Double Drum.” He yelled, shaking me as he laughed like a maniac. “Then you need to come right down on top of him like you did with the Yaks.”

I fucking called it!

“That could work!” Boiler laughed as well before we all cringed as another heavy clang resonated off the front of the Hauler. “He wouldn’t have reinforced the top! With griffons and pegasi having been so few and far between before the sky opened, why would he even need to!? You could put that round right into his cab in one go!”

It made some semblance of sense to me, sure. However, it didn’t really make me feel any more confident about doing it. Last time I tore up my hooves pretty badly. This time, even if I get away unscathed, I’m going in against a dozen ponies with guns that will be bad news for me if I happen to miss.

“You have to do this, Bombay.” Hardcase nodded to me. “You can do it. I believe in you.”

“I’d better not fucking die.” I grunted, taking a few steps back. Boiler and Hardcase each stepped back as well, clearing the path for me. “But if I do, Hardcase...”

He nodded. “I’ll tell him.” Offering a soft smile, he pointed out into the open. “Now go, we don't have much time.”

As I ran, Howitzer’s second and last HESH shot fired off. If anything, the blast would give me cover against the anti-machine rifle and normal gunfire that was coming in droves now. Pushing off, I flared my wings and immediately rolled myself toward the rear of the Hauler. Zipping past the gigantic rolling wheels, I almost missed Lucky as he sat with the Runner riding on the Hauler’s ass underneath Laika’s spacepod. Banking again hard, I curved and lined myself up for a landing.

With a heavy slam, I came down into the bed of the Runner. My momentum carried me forward, but rather than risk the weapon under me, I lowered my head down. With a heavy thwack, I rammed my head against the Dizzitron and came to a stop. Rubbing at my head, I moved over to the driver's side of the vehicle and hammered my hoof at it.

“Lucky!” I called out, pulling his confused look back to me. “I need you to fling me as high as you can! Preferably towards the upcoming Road Crew.”

Franticly, he nodded and stepped on the breaks, moving us into a better launch position. As I moved over toward the Dizzitron’s harness, I lifted myself to fit into it before I found a serious flaw in the plan. Wearing the harness with the shell strapped under me, made me too big to fit in any way but sideways. However, as another Anti-Machine rifle round pinged off the Hauler, I decided to buck it and loaded myself in sideways anyway, facing the center of the wheel.

As soon as I was in, the motor came to life as Lucky pulled us further back from the Hauler. The flat white plains on one side of the highway quickly blurred into the thick green treeline and slate grey mountains on the other as the motor spun faster and faster. I could feel as the force of the spinning pressed me further and further back against the side of the harness, the extreme weight of the shell against my chest sandwiching me against it. The odd sensation of being pulled to the side made the blurred world shift. For a moment among the quickly spinning background, I thought I could make out the blurred giant rectangle shape before what little color was there drained away, and my eyes began to feel heavier and heavier.

Stay awake, Night. You have to stay… I thought to myself before the whining and oddly pitched ping of the release mechanism met my ears. Everything went white as I felt myself go weightless. The muffled sounds of gunfire in my ears were all I could focus on for the moment. The bright light shifted away, and sensation returned to my body as the weightlessness ended, and the full weight of the artillery shell decided to make itself known again.

Flaring my wings out, I felt as they bowed and stressed to catch the air. Shaking off the dizzy feeling as best I could, I realized that I was much higher than Lucky normally threw me with the Dizzitron. Stiffly sticking out my forehooves, I stabilized myself, and looked around to get my bearings. Looking back, I saw Lucky bringing the runner back onto the road from the snowy plains. He quickly ducked back behind the safety of the Hauler, which was for some reason now quite far behind me. It seemed that I’d drifted a bit farther than I’d expected to get thrown.

But wait, that would mean that right below me was…

Looking down, I was right over the massive concrete machine. And when I say massive, I mean that I’ve seen houses smaller than this thing! As Boiler had told me, it was pretty much a giant bunker that took up most of the road just on it’s own! While most of it was a grey rectangle from up here, I did notice a square of black behind the steepled concrete cab. Steaming exhaust poured out from the dark, cutout section of the rear armor, and I was pretty sure I was now looking at the exhaust manifold for the engine it used.

If I could just get the shell to hit it right in there, I could disable the whole thing altogether! He wouldn’t be able to follow us, and Double Drum or the other road crew with him didn’t have to die! Well, hopefully they wouldn’t die from the blast itself, but I had to risk it...

With a smile, I tweaked my wings, and rolled myself over. Pulling my head up, I curved downward from my inverted position and snapped my tail in line behind me stiffly. Dropping into a completely vertical dive, I used my forelegs, tail, and even flicks of my ears to make small adjustments. A little correction now would make all the difference at the target.

Confident in my trajectory, I snapped my tail to the side to offset my forehoof moving up to the latch. With nothing left to do but pray to Celestia that I got things right, I gave the latch a stiff flick. I rolled my wings back a bit, flaring them to slow my descent ever so slightly. As I’d hoped, the heavy cannon round slipped clear of the harness, and into freefall.

It was about this point that I was confident in the arc that the round was taking. However, I’d gotten going a bit faster downwards than I’d wanted, and I needed to start pulling up… like right now.

Holding my wings out stiffly, I rotated them to catch as much air as I could. Arcing my tail, pushing my forehooves forward, and even curving my back, I tried to drag myself up to get level. Thankfully, unlike last time, I started to actually see a difference as I curved upward. Zipping over the heads of the construction ponies who were far too focused on the dropping bomb, my muzzle split into the widest smile I’d ever had. I skimmed about ten feet above the ground as I leveled out, quickly zipping through the air back toward the hauler. I’d… I’d done it!

A flash from behind caught my eye. The blast of the bomb behind me came only a moment later, and while the blast wave hit me hard, I found it a whole lot easier to deal with than half the winds and explosions I’d encountered before. Coming around toward the reactor deck, the ringing in my ears started to subside, and I found both Hardcase and Boiler’s face light up at seeing me.

However, that’s when everything went painfully and unsurprisingly wrong.

Something hit me, hard. Not enough to knock me out of the sky, but enough to shift my course slightly. On top of that, it forced me to lock up completely as my body screamed at me that I was now for some reason, in bad shape. The world quietly drained of color to become a muted grey again as I think shock took over, and I felt like I was put on autopilot.

Pretty much, I stopped thinking. My wings carried me up toward the reactor deck, but I wasn’t in control anymore. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand what it was, or even check myself over. My vision was glued on the wide eyes of Hardcase and Boiler as I came in for a touchdown, and it prompted a couple of weird thoughts into my empty mind.

I wondered what was wrong, and when I’d become numb all over. Also, did I always feel this cold? I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to feel this cold. How did this even happen to me? Maybe it was because of what Boiler had talked about? Because I disrespected the cows?

I just don’t know what went wrong...

As I came down hard onto the reactor deck, the world tumbled and became fuzzy like the last time I’d dropped a shell on the Ice sheet. The world’s spin didn’t end as I rolled to a stop onto the reactor deck of the Hauler, and just like with had happened with the Yaks, the darkness clawed at my vision as I was slowly carried off into the land of thoughtless black nothingness…

Waking up from what felt like a blissful slumber, I found the most pleasurable warm pressure on my lips. As my other senses came back, I heard as Buck’s rhythmic breathing matched with the feel of his warm fur against my chest. Opening my eyes slowly, I found his sad looking expression brighten as he pulled off of the kiss he’d been giving me.

“Hey…” I said softly, feeling like I’d missed something important recently. Like… how I’d gotten here. But, as soon as he smiled, all of my worries drifted off into nothingness.

Glancing around, I found myself back home. I was in our container, lying on Buck’s bed. In another familiar turn of events, again, I had no idea how I’d gotten here. However, it didn’t actually matter so long as I had Buck with me.

“Hey.” He said softly, sitting up slightly. “How… do you feel?”

“I…” I paused, trying to find an answer for that. I felt great being so close to him again, but I didn’t think that’s what he was asking about. “Everything’s kind of murky in my head for some reason.” I went to sit up, but found him move to hold me down. As he did, I couldn’t really feel him pressing against me. “Everything’s numb.” Oh goddesses… why can’t I feel things?

“Try not to sit up.” He nodded and spoke up softly. “The numbness is just the painkiller working, nothing to worry about.”

“What… what happened?” My head didn’t so much hurt, more like I felt like my thoughts had to wade through the thickest kind of muck to even get through.

“We surrendered to Double Drum, and he ordered us to turn ourselves over one by one.” Buck spoke softly, reaching up and running a claw along the side of me face. He gave a light laugh as he looked at me. “The others said that you should have seen Galina go white as a sheet when Hardcase was the first to turn himself over.” Losing his smile, he shook his head. “She tried to attack him again, and the Road Crew held her off. When it was clear that she’d lied to them about us, they turned on her completely.”

“Is she…” I asked, starting to feel something creep back into my mind. Oh, right, the burning hatred I held for that griffon.

Buck sighed and gave a shake of his head. “No, she got away.” Leaning forward, he gave a soft kiss on my nose as he smiled again. “Good news though. Thanks to you, Double Drum cleared our name, and we made it to Destruction Bay earlier this afternoon.”

“Thanks to me?” I asked, trying to remember what he was talking about. “I was… flying. I rolled over and dove on his bunker-thing.” Squinting actually helped me focus a bit, and I remembered what I was doing. “I aimed for his engine instead of the cab. To knock him out of the fight without killing him…”

“And you succeeded. You found a way to end the fight without bloodshed.” Buck’s warm smile only lasted for a moment before his eyes drifted. “He… regrets not doing the same. As soon as he learned about Galina, he apologized profusely for shooting you.” I remembered getting hit by something, and that’s when everything went black.

“What happened to me?” I gasped lightly, opening my eyes wide as I looked up to Buck. Reaching up, I grabbed onto his shoulders. “Am I alright?” However, the moment I did, I found myself thrust back down into the bed by Buck’s powerful arm.

“Night, settle down.” He sighed, looking away from me. “You need rest right now.” He was deliberately avoiding answering me, and it made a pit grow in my stomach that I could still feel through the painkillers.

“Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” I growled and pushed up against his pinning grasp.

“Because you won’t like the answer you find.” Delilah spoke up from the other side of the container. When I craned my head up as much as I could, I expected to see the normal Stoic look worn across Delilah’s face. However, the one that met me could only be described as regretful. “Listen to Buck, Night.” She spoke in a tone that was filled with disappointment. “Focus on getting rest. You’ve done enough for now.”

“More than enough.” Violet spoke up. Looking over, I found her propped up on my bed. The stitches across her chest were gone, and past some pink scarring, she looked to have made a mostly full recovery. “Just do what the Doc says.”

“You just need to stop worrying and save your strength.” Sitting up, Buck reached over toward his desk and grabbed something I couldn’t see. Lifting it up in front of himself, he used one of his claws to flick at a syringe a few times. “Alright, I’m going to let you get some more rest now. Sound good?”

Nodding, I gave him a nervous smile as I looked at the large needle. Turning and looking behind him, he let go of my chest and pushed the syringe into the IV that I could only guess ran over to me. I whined as I started to feel woozy again, and closed my eyes as exhaustion set in. Then, I drifted off to sleep without any worries at all.