Dizzy’s pink face and neck had been badly burned by the explosion on the submarine, and his whole body was mottled with painful looking wounds. His wings, or what was left of them, looked like twisted black branches growing from his back. He was joined at the side by a green coated unicorn stallion that was almost as big as the brick who’d captured us yesterday. As he stepped out, the green stallion torqued the gun he held in his magic and ground it against the back of Hispano’s head.

“So,” Dizzy smiled at us, hoofing back his partly melted mane. “now that we’re all nice and calm, let’s talk about how I’m going to turn each and every one of your lives into a living nightmare like you’ve done to mine.”

“T-this doesn’t need to come to violence.” Buck stuttered. I watched as he’d become tense and rigid, and his glowing eyes were focused on the gun that pressed up against Hispano’s head. Buck was fast, but I knew he wasn’t fast enough to stop a bullet. Unfortunately for us, it seemed like Dizzy and his associate knew that as well.

“So long as you sit right there like a good dog, sure.” Dizzy smiled and canted his head. “You know, I have to hoof it to you. Mrs. Tapit took a whole lot of care in keeping herself isolated. You weren’t the first to make an attempt on her life, but…” His smile fell away as he looked over to me, and a cold look replaced his jubilance. “Now that she’s gone, and her operation is in shambles, there’s only one thing I know that she’d want.” Giving a sharp nod to his associate, the levitating gun pulled away from Hispano, and turned on me.

My heart raced as the gun swung over to me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew what was about to happen. Just like in Filly Crossing, Buck moved to protect me. He was as impressively fast as he’d been before, but so was the gunpony.

It all happened too fast. A pair of shots rang throughout the room. Splinters of wood and warm blood hit me before I could even blink. And Buck… he flopped down onto the floor next to Hardcase. Time felt like it had stopped as the smell of cordite and blood took over my senses. The only thing past the ringing in my ears was the ragged gurgle that came from his muzzle. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t look down at him. I knew if I did, he… I might never look away. So even though my body was frozen in fear, I did the only thing I could. I prayed.

To Celestia, to Luna, to anypony that was listening. I prayed that he was still alive, and that he would make it through this. I prayed because it was again my inaction that had cost me. This time, it might have cost me everything I had left. But more than anything, I prayed to them for the strength that I’d need to fight. To kill.

Hispano gave off a short sigh. It was her that pulled me back into things. Looking over at her, her expression was cold, calm, and focused. Gripped tight in her talon was one of the twenty millimeter rounds for her sister. Her gaze was locked down on her sister, and again my mind knew exactly where this was going to head.

“You made a mistake in doing that.” Hispano cooed softly. “You could have walked out of here.”

No, I wouldn’t let them touch her. I wouldn’t lose her, or Buck, or Hardcase for that matter. What I needed to do was to focus the rage that was building in me. To direct it into a distraction for Hispano or Hardcase.

“Oh, what was that?” Dizzy’s muzzle spread into a wide smile as the rifle his cohort held swung back to her. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did my friend here hurt your friend, little talon?” Forcing a gasp out of his muzzle, he could barely hold it without laughing. “Oh, wait. That wasn’t your employer, was it? I know how bad it can be for a talon when their employer is killed out from under them.”

It took all of my strength right then not the charge at the asshole and beat him to death with my hooves.

"For being in charge, you're kind of an idiot." Hispano smirked as she gripped the round in her talons tighter. "You're right, Night here is a survivor. He's also the one who killed your employer. And he’ll kill you, and all of your friends if you don’t give up now." Was she trying to piss him off!? She was going to get herself killed at this rate. “Think about it. If Night killed her when so many others failed before, what are your chances of walking out of here?” Fuck it, if she thought intimidation was the route to go, I guess I had to jump on board with it.

“Just who the hell do you think we are?” I growled, taking Hispano’s lead and running with it. “I’ll tell you what. Turn around right now, drop the gun, and leave. I’ll forget this ever happened and never come after you.” Posturing like this was still new to me, but funny enough, I actually believed my own words.

Though, maybe it wasn’t posturing or acting at all. Part of me actually believed what I’d said, and I knew that was something I couldn’t ignore. For a moment, I felt like I did last night with those stallions around Happy Trails. I wanted Dizzy to make a move, and I wanted to make him regret it. I fought back the idea that giving into this feeling would make me a raider, and pushed back the disappointment that I knew Buck would feel about what I was going to do to Dizzy.

That of course pulled a laugh out of the bastard.

“Really?” He bellowed out with a wider smile than he deserved to wear. “Tell me how you think you’re in any way in a position to make a demand like that.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Dizzy.” I grunted. Slowly, I raised my hoof and pointed to the stallion holding the rifle in his magic. “I blew up Mrs. Tapit’s ship and survived. I had my leg shot off and I survived. My whole settlement exploded, and I survived. Dizzy is right, I’m a survivor, and I don’t care what’s left in my wake.” As those words left my muzzle, I felt a wave of shame wash over me. I did care about it. I never wanted to hurt anypony, I never wanted any of this. But as I’ve come to learn about living in the wasteland, there’s a price to pay for surviving. “Leave now, and you don’t get to be one of the bodies I’ve left behind.”

“Can you believe the balls on this gal?” Laughing, Dizzy looked over and shared a look of disbelief to his friend with the gun. His friend smirked and shook his head as he looked over at Dizzy. Which was the last mistake he’d make.

With neither of them looking at us, Hispano made her move. Holding the round in her talon, she spun around and lunged at Dizzy. With a piercing screech from her beak, she slammed into Dizzy and took him down to the ground. With a scream of pain that fueled the grin that spread across my muzzle, Hispano drove the twenty millimeter round down and into Dizzy’s fearful eye.

My own body took over as I let my rage out. Pushing myself to move, I scrambled over to Suiza. Unlike on Mrs. Tapit’s ship where the knockout gas had drained my adrenaline boosted strength, the enormous gun didn’t weigh nearly as much as I thought when I took it into my hooves. Hefting it up, I brought it around toward the armed stallion. Hispano had only loaded one round into Suiza, so I had to make this shot count.

For a moment, he couldn’t decide whether to aim at me or Hispano. As my hoof worked its way over the odd trigger assembly built for griffon talons, his eyes went wide, and he released the rifle from his magic. The gun fell for a moment before Hardcase’s magic caught it and spun it around. He’d seen the light and surrendered, raising his hooves up into the air.

But I’d given him a chance to surrender, and he spurned it. He’d made his choice.

The flare Suiza gave off as my hoof depressed the small trigger on her was blinding. My hearing disappeared again into a soft ringing. The recoil from the shot threw Suiza out of my hooves, sliding her back along the floor into some of the crates behind us. With a surprising pop, the stallion all but disappeared from the single highly explosive shot, painting the nearby walls with blood and gore. What was left of his front and back halves dropped to the floor as a pile of shredded meat, bone, and bits. The sad, unfocused gaze his eyes held as his still intact head came to sit there on the floor shot a pang of guilt through me.

Another stallion murdered by my own hooves.

The thoughts lasted for only a moment, until my brain found a suitable thought to push it out of my head. He’d also shot Buck, and I would’ve never forgiven him for that.

Shit, Buck…

My blood froze as I thought about him. Slowly, I’d turned around. For only a moment, my eyes latched onto the splintered wood on the side of his Medical yoke. Lines of crimson ran over and stained the old wood, draining from a large hole in Buck’s neck. It sent my heart into a spiral that felt like it was being pulled apart. Then, Hardcase’s hoof stopped me and shoved me away.

“He’s still alive.” Even from right next to me, Hardcase’s voice felt like it was a million miles away. Still, his words beat back the ringing in my ears. He was… alive. Thank you, Celestia, Luna, anypony listening. Thank you for saving him. “I can help him, but for now, you might want to help Hispano.” Hardcase’s horn flashed as he levitated the dead stallion’s rifle over towards us.

Flaring my wing out, I took the rifle under it and gave a nod. As I tried to turn back around, I found the rifle refused to move because it was still firmly within Hardcase’s grip. Looking back at him, he held a weary look as he gazed over towards the writhing and whining Dizzy.

“Look, I know it’s been rough for you adjusting for life on the ground. And...” Hardcase spoke slowly. His eyes drifted over to me, not seeming to refocus and instead seeming to stare right through me. “We have to do what we need to in order to protect those we care for in life. Buck might not approve, but you can’t consider that right now. I know you want blood for what he did to the Doc, and I think you should take it. If you don’t go through with it, you may regret it in the future.” Releasing the rifle from his magic, he gave me a nod. “Whatever you do decide on, remember what you’re feeling right now. You’ll need it for when Solomon does catch up to us.”

Turning back toward Hispano, the pained whines and whimpers from Dizzy became all too apparent. She had him pinned under her, and her relaxed gaze was locked onto him. She’d all but destroyed Dizzy’s one eye with the round, leaving a bloody mess on the burned half of his face. The round she’d used was coated in his blood, and held only inches above Dizzy’s other fearful eye like a dagger.

“You’re the one with my contract, Night.” Hispano spoke with a cold callousness to her words. “What do you want me to do with him?”

What Hardcase had said sent my mind spiraling into a few different thoughts. I held Dizzy’s fate in my hooves. I could do what I felt deep down was right, and show him the mercy he refused us and let him go. To which end he would still run what’s left of Mrs. Tapit’s operation, and would most likely come after us again. I could use his friendship with Violet to force him to help me convince her to work against Solomon. To which he might just convince her he’d keep Hardcase safe from Solomon in return for killing me and sabotaging the convoy again.

As much as I wanted to let him go, every option in which he lived ended up with trouble for us. I couldn’t trust Dizzy, and he’d made a very decisive choice in following us here. So, even though it went against everything I knew was right, and against everything Buck would have wanted, I opened my muzzle.

“Tear his throat out.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Hispano smirked as Dizzy froze up in fear, opening his muzzle to only let out a whimper in protest. Dropping the twenty millimeter round to the floor, Hispano reached down and dug her talons in around Dizzy’s throat before he could plead a single word.

The gurgling scream he gave out as he thrashed around under Hispano was something I’d never forget for the rest of my days. Blood flowed from his neck like a fountain, and I watched as every ounce of life spilled out of his body. His eyes were locked on me as his struggling became more and more sluggish, and eventually, stopped altogether. Like Buck had feared, today had become a day that was punctuated by my constant misfortune. Again, I’d been forced to kill ponies who didn’t have to die, but who seemed determined to force my hoof.

And once again, I’d come out alive. A survivor who left nothing but ruin in his wake. Even so, that’s who I am now, isn’t it? Or rather, could it be that this is part of what Lilac Lace had shown me in the mirror, and it’s always been a part of who I am? Honestly, so long as Buck and the others were alive, I could deal with the consequences of today, later.

I watched as Hispano took a step back and tossed the bloody twenty millimeter round from her talon. Looking over at me, she gave me a soft nod.

“You know, back on the Inuvik, I wasn’t sure your pretty little flank could cut it out here.” Hispano muttered as she wicked some of Dizzy’s blood off her talons. “Glad to know I was wrong about you, Dum Dum. You’re going to be just fine.” Walking over to me, she gave me a pat on the shoulder that left a bloody talon print on my coat. “Now, let’s patch up your fuckbuddy and finish up this job already.”

“Are you sure he’ll be fine?” I asked Hardcase as we trotted down the empty halls of the depot.

The enormous main room of this depot was only the beginning of this place. We’d made it a fair way into the secondary storage rooms when we arrived, and now we were venturing even deeper down into what felt like a whole underground complex. One which I’d hoped would be nothing like the one we’d been stuck in before. Hispano didn’t seem to mind, having flown off into the west wing on her own. She was confident that she could search it twice as fast if she flew alone, and if she believed that, I had to assume she knew what she was doing.

“Again,” Hardcase sighed. “Yes, he’ll be fine. The wound only looked bad, and even though he lost a lot of blood, the radiation he soaked up outside is what kept him alive. Give him a half hour or so and he’ll be all healed up. Besides, I barricaded the door, so nopony’s going to know he’s in that particular storeroom until he wakes up, or we come back for him.” Reaching up, his hoof hooked onto me and pulled me to a stop. “But you still haven’t answered my question. Are you going to be alright?”

I wasn’t proud of what I’d done to Dizzy, and inside I knew it hadn’t been the right thing to do. But I also knew that I didn’t have any other choice to protect Buck. To survive. And while it was cringeworthy how Hispano had confidence in me for what I’d ordered, I was somewhat happy to know that I’d earned at least a little bit of respect from her for it. Still, I had to wonder just what was going through Hardcase’s head right now to make him ask.

“Yeah.” I gave him a nod and looked over to him. “Like you said, I weighed the options, and did what I had to do.” As I turned and looked at him, I sighed as he cocked an eyebrow. “I know you think I’m lying when I say I’m alright, but you have no idea how done I am getting pushed around and ambushed. I think I finally understand what it takes to survive down here.”

“True, you may be getting there, but I don’t think you really understand how punishing the wastes can be. At least, not yet. And it’s alright, because it’s a fine line that takes time to learn the boundaries of, especially around the ones you love.” Hardcase gave me a firm pat on the side before turning to walk again. “You got lucky back there, and you need to watch your emotions. Not only will others use love against you, but your own emotions can be a worse enemy than any ‘Dizzy’ you’ll ever find out there.”

“Then teach me how to use love as a weapon.” I spat out. There was very little I had to my name in the wastes outside of my friends, and my love for Buck. With the idea that these sort of conflicts were going to be a daily occurrence in my life from now on, I needed to hone every tool, and use every weapon I could.

“Oh, you think it’s that easy?” Hardcase laughed. “It can’t be taught, and takes years for a pony to learn how to stay calm when their significant other is under fire.” Shaking his head, he started to trot off faster. “Plus, you think I could teach you? Did you forget who you’re asking? I can barely keep myself under control when Violet goes out on patrol.”

“Yeah, but you’re just acting, aren’t you, Alabaster.” I spoke out sharply. Sure, that might have been a little blunt, but I was pretty sure with my slip up before, he knew it was coming at some point.

Hardcase froze in his steps and pinned his ears back. His body went rigid, and if I didn’t know better, he almost flushed completely white with that name. Slowly, he swung his head around with a not-so-subtle twitch to his eye.

“I remember.” Reaching up, I tapped at my bandaged head. “Until last night, the spell matrix that was in my head kept me from it, but Violet told me about you. How you came up to meet her in Bridleshade, how you two hit it off...” Hardcase clenched his jaw as I spoke, visibly getting more angry the more I went on. “How you aren’t the pony that anyone else thinks you are.”

“Why.” He snorted and snapped his tail. “Why would she tell you?”

“If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been having my own issues with a changeling. I think she wanted to make sure that I didn’t make any assumptions if I found out about you at some point.” Raising my hoof I tried to offer him a nervous smile, as well as passing over the fact that she only brought it up because of my lie about Hispano. But, the last thing I needed was for him to get spooked by thinking I was out to ruin everything for him. “Before you say anything, I won’t tell anypony about it. I understand now that changelings aren’t all the same, and I know you’re my friend.”

“So it wasn’t a coincidence when you asked if I could feel love earlier. It was a slip up on your part.” His tension melted away, and Hardcase sat down hard on the damp concrete floor. “This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”

“While I know you’ve got your fears about the others finding out, I’ve got some more bad news.” Walking up, I took a seat next to him. “That isn’t the only thing I learned about Violet last night.” His ears perked, and instantly a look of worry flushed across his muzzle. Okay, hopefully he can take the news in stride and work with me on this. “Violet… she never stopped working for Solomon.” He gave a loud gasp, one that I’d expected from the news. “I know it’s not easy to hear, but…”

My head exploded in pain as I was hit hard. I tumbled to the floor with a yelp as the force of Hardcase’s swing sent stars shooting around my vision. Honestly, I should have seen that coming and told him from a few feet back. With a blue flare, the room flashed, and a white coated stallion towered over me.

“No. How could you even say that after all she’s done for you?” His voice was cold and deeper than before. His almost yellow hazel eyes peered down sharply from above his bluntly squared off muzzle. “Violet would never betray Delilah, or you for that matter.” My eyes looked over the stranger standing above me, wandering from his nearly neon blue half mohawk, down to the one wing on his back that was pared with only a blackened nub. “I don’t care what you may think you know about me, but don’t you dare slander her.”

The rifle that Hardcase had been holding in his magic floated in the same way that bricks don’t. Squinting a bit, I found that it was being held in a light blue aura that trailed back and emanated from the center of his forehead. So, changelings could still use magic in other forms. Good to know against Salt down the road. However, that’s getting ahead of myself. One enormous problem at a time, Night.

“Easy there, big guy.” Hispano’s voice called out calmly from down the hall. Her head was partially hanging around the edge of an upcoming junction. Predictably held under her, was Suiza. “Dum Dum there is right. She confessed all of this down in that nightmare facility that put these stupid chips in our heads.” Glancing over at me, she smirked. “Even from ahead in that tunnel, I could still hear your conversation about Hardcase. You’re incredibly loud, you know that, Dum Dum?” Hardcase growled and pulled her attention back to him. He tensed up as he swung the gun away from pointing at me and begrudgingly lowered it a little bit. “I’m sorry, but Violet has been lying to your crew this whole time.” She sighed, lowering Suiza a bit.

“And why should I believe you.” He snapped back at her.

“You told her that you were the only survivor of your hive.” Hispano offered in a calmer voice than I’d expected. Even as a white coated stallion, the words made what little color he had, flush. “You were just lonely, and that you really did love her.” Lowering her sister, Hispano stepped out into the hallway. “Think about it. She went back, was the only one at your vehicle when the tire blasted off, and the only parts that could help are suddenly misplaced? I’m sorry, but it’s not Night who’s been lying to you.”

“No.” Hardcase shook his head and stepped away from me. “W-why would she lie? Why would she ever work for him?” Stumbling back, he fell back onto his flanks and dropped the rifle to the floor with a clatter. “She’d have to know he’ll kill us all for what’s in that safe…”

“She thinks she can convince Solomon to spare you because she think’s he’s too strong to fight.” Groaning, I pulled myself up onto my hooves again. “I need your help, Hardcase.” Looking up at him, his teary eyes peered at me with more pain in them than I’d ever felt. “I need you to help me convince her that she’s wrong.” Reaching my hoof out to him, I was blinded by another blue flare of magic. In a flash, Hardcase was back to the yellow maned, purple unicorn stallion I’d known on this trip. But even so, the pain in his teary eyes still remained.

“I still don’t believe you.” Hardcase sniffled as he reached out and grabbed my hoof. I strained to keep on three hooves as I helped him back onto his. “But I don’t see any reason for you to lie to me. You felt nothing in saying it.” Turning, he glared at Hispano. “You knew as well? You were there with them?”

I was going to speak up in her defence, but Hispano spoke up before I could.

“Yes, and I’m going to tell you something right now so you don’t have a conniption fit like your Marefriend did when she found out at the start of this fucking mess.” Hispano took flight and made her way down the hallway to us. Landing next to me, she hefted her sister up so that her barrel rested on her shoulder. “I’m a talon mercenary, so I’ll assume you know the gravity of what I’m about to say.” She paused, letting Hardcase nod before continuing. “My father is also a talon mercenary. He was contracted by Solomon to keep tabs on your convoy and relay information.”

“What!?” Was all Hardcase managed to get out before Hispano’s talons were around his throat. Dizzy’s dried blood flaked off against Hardcase’s coat as he all but froze up.

“I wasn’t finished.” She gave out through a guttural growl, to which a very surprised Hardcase nodded. Slowly, she released her talons from around him and he relaxed. “I don’t work under, nor share his contract. In fact, while you were negotiating to come on this fantastic errand, Night and I were drawing up the terms of our agreement.”

“Something like that, yeah.” I nodded. “She’s with us, Hardcase.”

“So… ever since Fort Mac, Violet’s been the one to Sabotage us?” Hardcase was understandably having a hard time processing all of this, but for Violet’s sake, I hope he processed it fast. “The tire, the thermo-cycler,” He gasped and looked up at me, “the attempt on your life in Filly Crossing?”

“Not so much.” Hispano laughed and rolled her eyes. “The tire, yes. The thermo-cycler was my dad. Even as a Talon, he’s not big on killing, so he’s been doing little things like that to slow you down.” Hefting her sister over her, she slung the large cannon around onto her back. “And the attempt on Night was most definitely Galina acting on Solomon’s behalf.” Giving a grunt she deadpanned. “No one wants that disgrace of a griffon merc to live. Not Violet, not me, and not even my dad.”

“This is all so much to take in…” Hardcase sighed and facehoofed. “Look, let’s just… deal with the job here. We’ll worry about Violet later.” Looking down the hallway, his worried gaze said that everything he’s heard was probably going to weigh on him until he could get some time alone to think. And the sooner we got out of here, the sooner we could get Buck back to the Convoy. “Alright, did you find anything when you went to the west wing?”

Looking back to Hispano, I watched as she perked up more than a bit.

“Yeah! I found a couple of things, actually!” She squealed excitedly. It was amazing to see how not much kept her down for long. Sure she could be serious and cold, but it was almost like it took more effort for her to keep that way than it was worth. “I found the general’s office, but it’s sealed by a bulkhead I can’t hack open.” Waggling her eyebrows at Hardcase, she smirked. “If I’ve observed anything interesting about you on this trip so far, it’s how… ‘creative’ you can be in solving stubborn electronic problems.”

“Thanks… I guess?” Hardcase blinked a few times at the odd complement. “Depends on the door, but I’ll see what I can do to open it.”

“What was the other thing?” I asked as Hispano flared out her wings excitedly.

“Oh, you’ll know it when you see it! But only after we get what we came here for.” She giggled giddily. She was positively vibrating as she pushed off and took flight again. Zipping down the hall she was already at the other end by the time that Hardcase had picked his gun up off the floor. “Come on! We’ve got work to do, slowpokes!” With that, she turned and zipped around the corner and out of sight from us.

“I mean, I’ve grown to trust you, Night. But I don’t know her.” Hardcase sighed. “Are you sure you can trust her?”

“With my life.” I nodded with a smile.

Hardcase grumbled as he dug around inside the busted electrical door panel sitting next to the large, sealed steel bulkhead. He gave out a sharp yelp as the snap of electricity was followed by a few sparks. A humming noise ran through the concrete all around us, and slowly, the large door began to retract into the ceiling… at an incredibly slow pace.

“Geeze, about time. Would have taken me half the time to hack open had the damn thing not been busted in.” Hispano huffed. “But, credit where it’s due. Nice work.” Nearly flattening herself to the ground, she laid Suiza beside her. Without any hesitation, she ducked under the opening door when it had only been open enough to just fit her.

“You’re welcome. I’m just glad the interior of this base seems to be devoid of ghouls. That, or they’re the reason all the doors in this place seem to be shut and broken...” Hardcase sighed as he stepped back from the panel. Looking over to me, he deadpanned at the slow door. “Either way, this door is really heavy, so it’s slow speed might be because the mechanism that works it is as busted as this panel, and on it’s last leg.” Sitting down, he crossed his hooves. “Honestly, I’m not sure we’d be able to open it again if it dropped.”

“So we’ll make this quick.” I offered, sharing a nervous smile. Yeah, quick, just like this job should have been. “I’m sure that even if we did get trapped, Buck would eventually come find us and cut us out. Once he wakes up that is...”

Hardcase chuckled. “I’m sure he would eventually, but that’s not the problem.” Pointing to the cracked, but still intact rubber gaskets along the bottom of the doorway, he frowned. “Rooms with doors like these were designed to be airtight, and I’m going to assume that ventilation is all but nonexistent after all these years. With the three of us locked inside, I’d estimate we’d have a few hours of air at most.”

As the door retracted up past our vision, Hardcase and I looked in. A small, well furnished, wood paneled room sat past the door. The brightly stained red wood walls and maroon colored carpeting contained more color than anywhere else so far in this drab, concrete base. A couch, a few chairs, and a desk laid scattered about the corners of the room. A faded painted picture of a cloud city still hung on the wall, with rainbow falls pouring off different sides of the city, and down onto green grass covered hills below.

“Huh, must be some sort of receptionist’s room.” Hardcase spoke as he trotted forward into the room.

“Hey, back here!” Hispano shouted from through an open door sitting opposite the painting I’d been admiring.

Both Hardcase and I joined Hispano in the attached room, stopping when we were greeted by the skeletal form of a pony sitting upright in a large leather chair. He sat still fully clothed in dusty military dress garb on the other side of a large mahogany desk. Other than the thick layer of dust on it, the desk was absolutely covered in old papers and a large, unfurled blueprint. On the dead pony’s head, was an officer’s cap that resembled the style that they still wore in the Enclave. Er, used to wear in the Enclave, I guess.

Hardcase pointed at the slightly tarnished line of silver stars adorning the old military cap. “Four stars. That’s our guy.” He moved to take a step forward, but froze when the skeletal hoof of the general pointed forward.

“Halt.” Hispano spoke up in what I guess was her approximation of a gruff stallion’s voice. “You don’t have the authority to relieve me of my command.” Using her talon to work the general’s jaw and hoof, she could barely keep from laughing as both Hardcase and I facehoofed hard. “Guards, take these treasonous traitors away!”

Hardcase’s horn glowed as he wrapped the general’s skeleton in his magic and forcefully yanked him up from his seat. There was a sickening snap as one of his back bones split, and only the top half of the body was pulled away.

“You may have taken my better half, but you’ll never take me alive!” Hispano squawked as she jiggled the lower torso in the leather seat. Receiving no response from us, her flight cap and jubilant eyes peered over the backside of the desk.

“Are you done?” Hardcase asked with a smirk. “Is Spitzer’s ‘unique’ pistol on your half of the general?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.” Hispano cooed as she raised a bright silver looking revolver in her talon. “You want his ‘unique’ clothes as well? Or his fancy ‘unique’ hat perhaps? Ponies always seem to enjoy stealing one of a kind outfits from these sorts of places.” Honestly, from the way she’s spoke about it, I wasn’t sure if Hispano was kidding or not. However, I was completely entranced by the shiny object held in her talon. The silver finish on the ‘unique’ revolver was so untarnished in fact, that it still held a mirror shine to it, and the pearl grips on it almost gleamed, even in the poor base lighting. “For what it’s worth, this gun is really fucking weird, and I’ve seen quite a few weird revolvers around the wastes. I wonder why Spitzer wants it.”

“Family heirloom.” Hardcase replied as his magic pulled the gun from her grip. “A gift from one of his ancestors for the general’s commitment to protecting Germineigh with the Equestrian navy.”

As Hardcase floated it over, I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the odd gun. It looked like the old equestrian army service revolvers I’d seen before up in the gun case at the armory in Fort Mac. However, instead of having the normal indexing mechanism on the side of the cylinder, a zig-zag track ran along its outer edge instead.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s super interesting and whatnot.” Hispano said with a mock yawn. Stepping up behind the desk, she canted her head as she looked down at the large, unfurled blueprint held down by paperweights on the desk. “What I’m wondering is what the hell is this thing?”

Curious, both Hardcase and I trotted around each side of the general’s desk. The old blueprint looked like somepony took the flight systems of an enclave raptor and mated them to the under and back side of the HMS Fairy Flight. It was a powerfully ugly looking battleship, but utilized the more streamlined designs of the late-war raptors and combined them into something that looked unlike anything that I’d ever seen before. Complex diagrams of an intricately laid out spell reactor where the engine room normally sat, ended in both what looked like an oversized rocket engine sticking out the back of the ship, and a long, barrel like opening that ran the entire forward length of the ship.

All of it was way too complex for me to even begin to understand any of the things written on here. Plus, the odd winglets, fins, and sealed ports all over the battleship made it look far too flashy, and that’s saying something for a ship related to a raptor. Hell, even the proposed name, HMS Star Blazer, was overdoing the presentation of this ship. I’d never even heard of any pegasus pony named Star Blazer before...

“Hmmm.” Reaching forward, I grabbed the odd blueprints and pulled them closer. “What do you make of these plans?” Leaning closer to them, I tried to read some of the incredibly small font in the description box under the project info, but was foiled when the plans were ripped from my hooves.

“I don't know much about Neighpon origami, but I could make a crane, a boat, a paper hat…” Hispano giggled as she wiggled the old blueprints in her talons, scrunching them up into odd shapes.

“Give me that.” Hardcase grumbled as his magic pulled the old paper from her. She gave a pouty face for a moment as I reveled in the quick turnabout. Hardcase leaned down, studying the plans before giving out a soft gasp.

“What, is it something useful?” I asked, stepping up beside him. I was hoping that from the way he held them, he’d seen something that I couldn’t a moment ago. If these were useful to the Fairy Flight, maybe Admiral Broadside would pay us for them as well!

“This…” Hardcase gasped as his muzzle split into a wide smile. “This is incredible! Genius!” Pointing to the reactor, he giddily bounced on his hooves. “This proposed generator was theoretically run by a gravity type megaspell. If these specs are right, it would have been powerful enough to not only make the ship fly like a raptor, but it could’ve also been used to make suborbital hops! The ceramic underplating was going to double up not only as magical energy weapon armor, but as a heat shield against hypersonic reentry speeds!” Looking over more of the blueprints, Hardcase looked happier than a foal in a candy store.

“A-and here,” He traced his hoof along the odd barrel that ran to just under the prow of the ship. “The same generator could power a solar directed beam megaspell like the one the lightbringer supposedly used on the east coast! This ship could have been deployed to any battle line in the world in fifteen minutes and wiped it out in moments!”

“Yeah,” Hispano groaned. “Too bad it didn’t.” Rolling her eyes, she pointed her talon up at a red stamped mark up near the project filing number on the corner of the blueprint. The old red ink had faded a bit with time, but PROPOSAL REJECTED was a pretty clear sign that this thing would have never been built. “If this thing could have won the war, the idiots who ended the world clearly didn’t care.”

With a sigh, Hardcase hung his head. “I know.” Wrapping the bluprint up in his magic, he rolled the old parchment tightly and pulled it close to himself. “I don’t care if it ever got built. It’s a part of our history, and something this magnificent doesn’t deserve to be locked down here.”

“You’re not going to try to get Destruction Bay to build it, are you?” Hispano laughed as she stopped in the doorway. “You realize that’s insane, right?” Looking back at Hardcase, I found a very nervous grin stretch across his muzzle.

“N-no, that’s not at all why I’m taking it! They can find their own copy if they want to build it.” He stammered, quickly sticking the blueprint under the straps to his own battle saddle. Sticking his muzzle in the air, he trotted around the desk and back toward the exit. “I’m just… keeping it as a souvenir. I love great engineering works is all!” Thinking back to his SFG MkIV, I facehooved.

“Do you have a fetish for mega-magical energy weapons or something?” I asked about as bluntly as I could. From the way he blushed and almost locked up mid step, I may have just stumbled onto something bigger than I thought with that. “Wait… do you?”

“Hey.” He snapped, pointing his hoof at me. “I don’t judge you for your kinks, Night.” Smirking at me, he pressed his muzzle high and gave a harumph. “Just because as a changeling I intuitively know all of yours, doesn’t mean you can shame me for mine.”

“Wait…” Hispano gasped as her eyes lit up with a million questions. “You know all of Dum Dum’s kinks!? Tell me!” Hopping up against Hardcase’s side, she pressed against him and followed him step for step as he trotted out. “Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

Following Hispano and Hardcase, I kept my eyes open and tried to not listen to the two ahead of me. Annoyingly, he’d folded like a house of cards under Hispano’s incessant asking, and had spilled out a good amount of the things Buck and I had done in bed. As much as that annoyed me, he at least avoided a few of the more private ones that Buck and I shared, and for that, I was thankful. Still, he’d just ensured that Hispano was going to try to get on all my good sides with her next advances at me.

For the next ten minutes or so, we wandered down more than a few twisting and turning hallways. Eventually, we were led into a large arching cavernous room with a pair of enormous armored doors at the end of it. For a moment, I thought we’d wandered all the way back around to the entrance, but these doors looked well kept. Not to mention, split between the pair of them was an enormous painted symbol of a pony’s skull on it.

Along with the door were pallets upon pallets of still sealed and preserved ammunition. Various smaller doors along the length of this room revealed more well lit rooms around us, each with various machinery and equipment that looked like it was meant for manufacturing. This must have been exactly the place Admiral Broadside wanted us to get to.

“Ooooh, doors like these are never good.” Hardcase muttered as we trotted across the room towards an eagerly waiting Hispano. She stood next to a small terminal inset along the wall near the gigantic door, and she was looking even more excited than ever before.

“While I know we're in a military ammo storage facility, what does that symbol normally mean?” Looking up at the large skull painted on the door, I felt that familiar pit in my stomach already forming.

“It means that this is the good shit!” Hispano squawked before she turned around to the terminal. With a speed and accuracy that rivaled what I’d seen some pegasi do with their wing feathers, Hispano hammered away at the terminal with her talons. “Now, let’s see what fabulous prize is behind door number one!” Green lines of coding flashed across the screen as she worked the keys, and a bright green CLEAR flashed up after a few moments.

“What are you doing!?” Hardcase exclaimed as he wrapped his magic around Hispano and yanked her all the way back to us.

Before he could stop her however, the room around us was bathed in flashing yellow lights. An alarm bell sounded throughout the air with three short bursts. A thick grinding noise came from each side of the doors before giving a loud creak. Hardcase gasped and shoved me aside as the doors began to open slowly. Between them to greet us, sat a blackness that not even the light in here seemed to want to touch. After a moment, the doors stopped abruptly, leaving a fifteen or so foot gap open between them.

“Are you insane!?” Hardcase slowly looked at Hispano and bristled up in anger.

“Well, how else were we supposed to see what was inside?” Hispano deadpanned over at Hardcase for his odd overreaction.

“Why the fuck would you just open it!?” Hardcase snapped, dragging Hispano over in his magic. “They could have kept chemical weapons in there! Is there poison gas!? You don't know!”

“Yeah, but wait for it... we're fine.” Hispano rolled her eyes as she was levitated back onto the ground. As soon as she was free, she turned and hopped back towards the terminal. “Stop worrying so much about it. Just gotta turn on some lights, and you'll see that everything is fine.” With a few raps of her talons across the keys, she stepped back from the terminal with a smirk. “Security here was really lax for whatever they were keeping behind this door. Any talon cub half my age could’ve hacked this in their sleep.”

With a high pitched whine, the strips of lighting in the room beyond began to brighten. The three of us moved towards the open doors slowly, like moths drawn to the brightening lights. However, the more we could see, the wider our eyes opened, and the deeper the pit that formed in my stomach.

What lay in the room beyond looked like some of the industrial warehouses I’d learned about in school when reading about the wartime buildup. Except for instead of being stocked with canvas, tanks, or canned goods, this one was rack after rack, row after row, of big, softly glowing spellshells. They’d been separated into entire sections of corresponding spell color and shell size. There were some that looked like they were made to be attached to torpedos, some smaller shells for use on things like naval guns, and some unthinkably large that they looked like they probably fit on guns even larger than the ones on the HMS Fairy Flight.

“A-are those…” I stuttered, feeling like my stomach had begun its attempt to bore to the other side of the world.

“Megaspells...” Hardcase spoke softly, as if even raising his voice could wake the spells that have laid dormant for two centuries. “Solar, Storm, Immolation, Cryo, Temporal, Gravitational, Petrification, even the healing ones we were asked to look for. There are even some I can’t even tell what they are...” His hoof pointed out each kind as he spoke. “All flavors of the end of the world, right here just sitting forgotten in this one room.” Shifting his hoof, he pointed to the back of the room where a lot of much more reasonably sized glowing shells sat. “They even have tank and field artillery sized tactical shells, there must be thousands of rounds in those crates alone.”

Without another word, he trotted forward, taking a few steps into the room as Hispano and I stood there in megaspell damned shock. Honestly, I would have said goddesses, but there was probably more destructive power in this one room than even Celestia or Luna could have ever wielded. Even just standing here, I froze up. Unlike outside with Buck, this was different. I was afraid that even taking a single step back could knock one of these relics from the shelf and blow us all to hell. This… this was not something I had ever expected to see in my life, and something I’d hoped nopony else ever would.

“I know what you're thinking, about how much destruction these could still bring.” Hardcase spoke up. “Which is why we need to shut these doors and make sure they can't be opened again. Ever.”

“He's right.” Hispano agreed before glancing back toward the terminal. “Imagine what would happen if somepony got their hooves on even just one. I know that admiral taco head wanted to destroy them, but can we really trust that she wouldn’t miss one? Or even keep some as a ‘just in case’ sort of thing?” Seeing as how Admiral Broadside seemed to have missed the small arsenal that Mrs. Tapit had acquired, Hispano’s point was all too valid here. “Sorry, I love blowing shit up, but no good will ever come from this room.”

“What about taking one of the healing ones?” I offered, taking a step forward toward the doors. I knew the risks, but… I know what Buck would want if he were here. “If the doctors on the Mercy could replicate it, think of how much good it could do for the whole wasteland!”

“I'm sorry, but it's out of the question.” Hardcase shook his head. “I know that you and Buck just want to help ponies, and it might do a lot of good at first. But what will those on the Mercy say when ponies start asking where they got the first megaspell from? More ponies are bound to come looking.”

“Yeah, and stumble right into the magazine cache that we left wide open for them to explore. Can we risk the next Mrs. Tapit or Dizzy getting their hooves on even just one?” Hispano added before flaring her wings. She gave me a guilty look before taking off toward the terminal. “Storage depots like this are normally built to protect each stockpile from the ones around it if they explode, so we should be able to cave this whole place in safely by just blasting the hallway roof.”

“Right,” I sighed. Well, it’ll be disappointing to the Admiral and Dr. Kaio, but yeah, it’s for the greater good. Even if it means us being kicked out of Destruction Bay. “We’ll need to cave in this place well enough that no pony for a thousand years will be able to find it, let alone dig themselves into it.”

“A partial collapse of the tunnels leading up to this place will have to do.” Hispano cringed as she looked back from the terminal. “If we load this place up with too many explosives, we'll risk setting those relics off. They're probably pretty touchy at best already, so discretion might be the better idea with an explosive collapse.”

“So, we’ll bury just enough of the place, and forget we ever saw it.” Looking between Hispano and Hardcase, they each gave an understanding nod. “Alright then, seal it back up, Hispano. Hardcase, you and I should get on looking for a way to collapse the tunnel into here.”

“Actually, I’ve got an idea of how to do it, but I’ll need Hispano’s help for it.” Hardcase smiled as he trotted back out of the doors. “But you’re right. First, let’s close these doors and get back to Buck.” Looking back to Hispano, he waited for her to hit a few more keys.

The flashing lights and alarm bell activated again, and the door slowly crawled its way shut. Once it was finished, Hispano gripped Suiza in her talons and swung her around like a club. The terminal sparked in an impressive display as it was caved in by the heavy weapon. With a sigh, she gave a talon up to Hardcase.

“Alright, step one, done.” Hardcase nodded and pointed back to the doors out of here. “Lead the way back to the main entrance, Miss Hispano.”

“With pleasure!” She squeaked as she took flight again. Zipping back across the room, she was off through the door again before Hardcase and I could even turn around.

Taking one last look, I sighed. We have the opportunity to help keep the world safe, even if it costs it the chance to learn about the workings of the medical megaspell again. Still, as I turned and trotted after Hispano with Hardcase, I couldn’t help but feel that pit in my stomach get deeper with every step we took away from it. Looking at the skull on the door one last time, I couldn’t help but worry that this place would be found again, and all of this would have been for not.

But that was a worry for another day.

You know, last night I’d thought Hispano was fairly heavy. Oh boy, was I wrong!

“Hey, Dum Dum?” Hispano whined as she helped me heft Buck along the wet concrete yard of the base and back to the Runner. “You're super fun to hang out with and all, but can we never find ourselves underground in another old facility? Like, ever again?”

While the fog was still just as thick as it was earlier, I hadn’t heard a single growl from a ghoul or anything, so we must have gotten them all on the way in. That, or Dizzy did us a favor by killing the ones we’d missed.

Still, I couldn’t even answer Hispano as I focused on keeping Buck’s Head and enormous paws from dragging along the concrete. Which, mind you, is a lot harder with three legs than I’d first thought. Oh how I really did hope that he woke up sooner than later. I mean, I knew that Hardcase said he’d be alright, but… I really liked it when he carried me, rather than the other way around. Hell, he never felt this heavy when he’d spent time on top in bed…

“Did you get the timing on all the charges set?” Hardcase asked as he sat in the runner and fiddled with connecting the wires on what I assumed was a detonator. The spread of a dozen or so cables that trailed off through the fog back toward the bunker was all Hispano and Hardcase’s doing, and I planned on doing my best to avoid having anything to do with the sensitive set up. “We need to do it right the first time, you know.” Yeah, best I avoid involvement on the off chance my luck decides to make today an explosively bad one.

“Yeah.” Hispano grumbled as she helped me set Buck down against the runner.

“Great.” He smiled and nudged at me with the small metal box in his hooves. “Care to do the honors?”

“Gladly.” Hispano cooed as she snatched the box from him.

“You two sure you didn't put up too many charges?” I asked, watching as Hispano inspected the box for a moment. I really didn’t want to end up exploding today. Dear Celestia, how had that become something I’d thought more than once in my life, let alone in the last week?

“There's enough of them and they're in the right spots. That’s all you have to know.” She sighed and flicked her talon over the big red arming button on the detonator. “Besides, if there are too many, we'll be dead before we know what went wrong.”

Hardcase cleared his throat. “Along with the entirety of Destruction Bay, half of the northern coast line, and probably half of the planet with how many shells were down there…” He trailed off as both Hispano and I deadpanned at him. Really, that was not helping.

“Then just hope we don't become ghouls, because I’ll beat you to death if that happens.” Hispano smirked and placed her talon over the big button that said ‘detonate’ above it in oversized red lettering. “Too late for regrets. Fire in the hole!” She screamed as she pushed down on the button. A sharp snap burst from some of the wires, as well as a few bright sparks.

A few flickering flashes from inside the cavernous magazine opening were followed by white bursts of cloud from the blast pressure. The roar from the explosion blasted us as the pressure rolled over our heads. The ground shook as bits of the hill the bunker had been built into cracked and crumbled inward. A secondary set of blasts inside mirrored the first, and this time a thick cloud of dust and debris shot from the opening, billowing out and engulfing the whole of the old compound.

The thick cloud quickly engulfed us and the entire area in a blinding white cloud that pushed back the thinning fog. The sharp ringing in my ears started to drop off as we all coughed and did our best to waft away the thick dust and smoke. Hispano fluttered her wings as she extended them. Giving hard, regular beats, she began to clear the area around us.

“Woo! We're alive and it worked!” She squawked excitedly as she pushed herself into a low hover. With each beat of her wings, bits of dust and the like dropped off of her. “I love blowing shit up!”

“Now who’s got the weird fetish?” Hardcase gave her a sly grin before using his magic to brush himself off a bit. The sharp glare he got from her in return however made him take a quick step back. “D-did you put a delay in there? I don't remember setting it up that way.”

Hispano nodded quickly. “Thought it was best to spread the shockwaves out, just to help dampen the effect on the megaspell racks inside.” With a quick swipe, she snatched her flight cap off her head and gave it a few good shakes.

“I didn't see any megaspells inside.” Hardcase spoke up before he looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Did you?”

“The what racks?” I smiled as I flared my wings and gave them a few flaps. All the dust on me dusted up around me, and I hacked a few times as I breathed a bit of it in. “Ugh, I could really use a shower.”

“Well, since we got what we came for, why don't we head back, drop off Spitzer’s gun, and find a place to clean up a bit?” Hardcase laughed before wrapping Buck up in his magic. With a grunt, he heaved the entirety of Buck up off the ground. I don’t know about Hispano, but my jaw hit the dirt as he did. He… he could have carried Buck? This whole way back!?

“Thanks for that.” I grumbled. Turning around in annoyance, I froze as the clearing haze of both the dust and fog revealed something standing only fifty or so feet away from us down the road.

Standing there looking more disappointed than ever, was Cora, Hispano’s dad. He let out a deep sigh that got Hispano and Hardcase’s attention, and made me facehoof. Shit, I’d hoped to avoid dealing with him for at least a little while. Wow, this couldn’t have gone any worse...

“Are. You. Kidding me!?” Another voice boomed out from the fog behind Cora, doing what I thought was impossible and sending his look spiraling down into one of shame. However, it made my blood freeze in my veins. From out of the dust and fog behind him, stepped Solomon.

“You’ll have to excuse my poor decorum, but this really is quite a delight.” Even from this far back, I could see the bright, wide smile he wore across his now stubbled muzzle. Along with his disheveled overall look, I could see dark rings of exhaustion under his bright purple eyes. “Here I thought that Cora was going to lead us to just one of you. What a treat indeed!”

How… how did they get here so fast? Did he drive non-stop all the way here!? Oh fuck this isn’t good at all! I just had to ask if this could get worse, didn’t I? With my shit luck, of course this had to fucking happen...

As the dust cleared, the lumbering form of Jess stepped up from behind Solomon. She looked just about as tired as he did, but she hid most of her face behind the window of what looked to be the ripped off rear door of an old armored vehicle. The old, large vehicle door looked to be insanely heavy, and the faded words of Clearwater Police Department were just visible from where we stood. In her left… hand, she held an odd, twin barreled gun of some kind. It was about the same size as my submachine gun, but compared to her, it was the size of a pistol.

“Now now,” Solomon childed, “no shooting.” Giving a whistle through his muzzle, there was a bright flash beside me. Without having any time to realize what was going on, I was enveloped in a bright light. The ground under me shifted slightly, and when my vision came back, I was standing beside Jess, and had both barrels of her gun pressed against my head. Now that I was this close, I realized that her gun didn’t have two barrels, but it looked more like two entire submachine guns bolted together. Shifting my attention to look at Solomon, he stood over my left, wearing a delighted expression. “Thank you, Rook.”

The properly dressed white coated stallion stepped forward from behind me and stood at my side. In his levitation, floated another two barreled weapon, only this one was pony pistol sized. Everything had happened so fast that it was actually about now that I remembered that my battle saddle’s submachine gun was empty, and I was pretty much fucked.

“Well, before we begin the next part of our little game, I wanted to give you all one, final offer.” Solomon called out to Hispano and Hardcase. As I watched, I wished for nothing more than to just rear up and knock him in the jaw again. Unfortunately for now, I had to wait. “I've got plenty of room on my crew for you, and each and every one of you can get your fair share of the profits from the Ark.” His sly grin spread further up his muzzle as he turned his attention to me. “We don't have to be enemies, you and I.”

“I don't think you get it.” Hardcase called out as he took a step forward. A step that forced the double barreled gun away from my head as Jess trained it on him. “None of your offers will ever swing us over to your side.”

“Sure they will! I'm open to it, why not?” Solomon snorted, craning his neck like he’d just been insulted. “Name your price, any of you! For Delilah, it'll be like a… a...” Tapping his hoof a few times, he yawned deeply before looking down at Rook. “Help me out on this will you, Rook?”

“A firesale, sir?” His voice came across again as being completely bored out of his mind. His dull expression didn’t shift one bit, and to his credit, neither did his magical hold on his pistol.

“Not what I was aiming for, but the analogy works well enough.” Solomon’s bright smile returned as he held his hoof out to Hardcase. “Delilah and her quaint little town's going to be bankrupt anyway after I claim the Ark, so what the hell? Why not ensure your family’s future and get in on the ground floor with the winning side? This is a limited time offer, and there’s only one offer per customer.” What the fuck was he jabbering on about!? Seriously, the urge to hit him in the face again was getting harder and harder to ignore.

“No matter what kind of ‘firesale’ you present for employment, none of us will sell out to the likes of you.” My flat tone wiped the smile off Solomon’s face faster than my hoof ever could. Even held at gunpoint, it took all my strength to restrain myself. “Don’t you get it? We’ve kept one hoofstep ahead of you, so why don’t you just give up already?” Of course, his expression didn’t last.

“Is that so? We shall see.” Solomon’s smirk returned as he stood up straight, jabbing his hoof at his chest. “Funny you should mention selling out.” Shifting his eyes to me, the stinging glare he shot felt like he directed all of his annoyance directly at me. “The thing about firesales is that it marks the end of a failed business. Everything must go.” Flicking his tail, he gave a short laugh. “But you’ve made your choice, and that’s enough for now. Let the mare go, Jess, and let’s get back on the road. Go wake up the slave and have her ready to teleport my bus another thirty miles. I don’t care if she dies from the strain this time, we’ll just buy another one to replace her in the next settlement. I want to be well ahead of these foals by this time tomorrow.”

With another bright flash, I found myself standing back next to Hardcase where I was originally. Rook gave me a sharp glare before turning and disappearing in another burst of magic, who was quickly followed by Jess as she turned and lumbered off into the dust and fog. Still exactly where he’d stood from the start of this, was the still disappointed and shameful looking Cora.

Again, I’d come out of a dangerous situation alive. Again, I could call myself a survivor because of it. However, the question that burned in my mind was no longer ‘how could this have happened to me?’. Instead, I was asking myself how much longer would my luck hold out, or will it hold out for any of my friends at all. And if so, would it then last until after I could drop a grenade right down Solomon’s throat?

“Come on, Hispano. We’re leaving.” He called as he held his talon out toward her.

“No.” Hispano snorted.

“Now is not the time.” He ground his beak as he spoke, and he flared his wings out slightly as he stood as tall as he could. “Come here.”

“You know what, Dad? I’m not leaving.” Hispano laughed and mimicked his pose. Oh Celestia, please don’t do this right now! We were done with all this, and we could finally just leave this stupid foggy place. “I don’t care what you say, but I made a contract with Night, and I’m sticking to it.” The moment she said those words, Cora, Solomon, and I all froze up.

“You what!?” Cora screamed out. I couldn’t tell if it was part of the fog or not, but it almost looked like the plumage-less burn mark on the top of Cora’s head had started to sizzle. If so, it fit the blazing gaze he was currently trying to use to burn a hole right through me. Eeyup, he was going to murder me for sure now!

“Oh, now this just got interesting!” Solomon laughed as he turned back around. Celestia we were so close to just being done with him for now! Why would you do this to me? “Now isn’t that something, your own daughter even?” Solomon sighed and shook his head. Even though he sounded genuinely disappointed, that same smile never once left his muzzle. “Well, now that she works for them, I want you to kill her.”

Cora locked up for a moment before spinning around to face Solomon. “What did you just say to me?”

Solomon belted out a long laugh, kicking at the ground a few times. As he did, I could feel as Hardcase tensed up beside me, and even Cora looked like he was about to snap. While I may have wanted to hit Solomon in the muzzle again, I could only speculate what was running through Cora’s head right now.

“I'm just joking. Geeze, you've gotta lighten up a bit!” Solomon rolled his eyes and gave a lazy and dismissive wave of his hoof. “I don't want everypony to die, just some of you.” As he finished, his eyes locked on me. With a wink, he gave another light chuckle that made me want to gag. “You know, you should really just learn to relax. It's just business.” Okay, I don’t care what Buck says, I know exactly why Delilah hates him, and I’m going to kill that bastard whenever I get the chance.

“You know it's in my contract that you stay away from my daughter.” Cora spat at him. Slowly, he reached for his holstered gun, placing his talon on it.

To which, of course Solomon rolled his eyes again. “Oh, contract this, contract that.” Giving a long sigh, he shook his head. “Most of you talons are such great mercenaries compared to those we could hire in Saddle Arabia. But still… a bit too melodramatic for my tastes.” Really? He think’s the talons are melodramatic? “Rook, fetch the parchment.”

With a flash, Rook appeared next to Solomon’s side with a yellowed scroll of paper. Unfurling it, he levitated it up to Solomon’s muzzle. With a nod, Solomon reached up his hoof and brushed it away.

“Good. Destroy it.” He ordered through a stiff snort. In only a moment, the paper was set ablaze by Rook’s magic, and the burning remains of the parchment fluttered down to the wet ground. “Henceforth, our contract is null and void. Your service to me has been terminated, and you can have your boss send me an invoice for the total sum owed. Is this acceptable?”

“Fine.” Cora grunted, taking his talon off his gun. “I understand and agree.” I think as he did, all of us gave a sigh of relief.

“Excellent.” Solomon nodded with his wide smile. “Shoot him in the leg for good measure, Rook.”

The pistol Rook had before flashed into his magic before a single gunshot shattered the quiet misty air. A bloody hole blasted open on Cora’s haunch as he screamed out and collapsed onto the ground.

“Dad!” Hispano called out as she bolted past me. However, she’d only made it a few steps before Hardcase’s magic enveloped her and stopped her in her tracks. “What the fuck, let me go!”

“I’ve been planning this for a while, I’ll have you know. While I can speak highly of most talons in the Equestrian wastes, I grew tired of your uselessness to me, Cora. What good is a mercenary who won’t do what’s asked of him?” Solomon spat through his bright demeanor. “Fly back to your roost and be glad that I have spared your life. And don’t think it’s because I feel indebted for what little service you gave. I assure you, it’s only to stay in good enough relations that your miserable ‘talon company’ won't come and bother me further.” Turning around again, Solomon gave a soft laugh as he walked off into the thin mist. “Come along, Rook. Best to not indulge ourselves in their suffering for too long. Moderation is key, after all.”

“Yes, dreadfully sorry sir.” Rook nodded as the gun he held flashed away into the air again. Shooting me another glare, Rook turned and trotted off as well.

“No need for apologies, Rook.” Solomon’s haughty voice almost echoed through the thinning fog, feeling almost otherworldly as the first beams of morning sunlight began to claw their way down to us. “You of all ponies know how much I can lose myself in getting caught up with friends.”