It was good to be back on the road. The jagged obsidian mountain range in the distance was partially obscured by wild storm clouds on the horizon, but it was a nice change from the ruins of Destruction Bay. Really, the ominous ‘cursed’ mountain range should have worried me, but I found my thoughts occupied at the moment. Flying high above the lush green northern forests in the clear blue afternoon skies, really put things into perspective. You never truly appreciate something you love until you have a chance to never have it again.

No, I’m not talking about the incident with Buck this morning, as scary as it had been. Nor was I talking about just being alive up here in the expansive and breathtaking northern wilderness. I’m talking about something more mundane that most take for granted.

Silence.

“You went to school up in the clouds, right? I heard that the schools up above the clouds had a designated class where you just ate food.” Hispano chirped through the headset keeping my head warm. “Is that true? Cause if so, did you end up skipping that class or something?”

With the news from this morning that Solomon was now ahead of us, Delilah had thought it best to equip the convoy with a better means of communication than just shouting at each other. To be honest, these headsets weren’t all that comfortable, but I guess that’s the tradeoff for being able to communicate better. At the very least, I now can see why Hispano wore her cap all the time, and she was lucky the coms gear fit right under it. But, while it didn’t mute the outside world like the ones inside Bessy did, I sure wish it muted some aspects of noise around me.

“It wasn’t a class, it was just... lunch.” I groaned and resisted the urge to facehoof. “And… not everypony could afford it.” Then again, throwing off my balance and plummeting into the ground might be a more enjoyable alternative to listen to another twenty minutes of Hispano’s questions.

“I wish I got a lunch break.” Hardcase sighed through my headset. Wait, what the hell was he doing on this channel? “Do you know how great it would be to just take a break in the middle of the day?”

“Yeah, but you don’t really even do anything up there as it is.” Boiler’s voice came through as well. “All you do is sit around next to that big ol’ gun mount anyhow until somepony starts shooting.”

Okay, just what the hell was going on? Looking down at the control pad awkwardly affixed to my left forehoof, the little amber light next to ‘channel 2’ was on. Delilah had told everyone that recon was channel two and everyone else was on channel three, so what gives?

“Big talk from someone who on average sits there looking at reactor lights all day.” Lucky chimed in as well, making me force my eyes shut in irritation. “Try driving while crammed in here with somepony else buffalo sized plus three others! That’s what I’m dealing with here.”

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, looking over to Hispano and getting nothing more than an indifferent shrug. “Channel two is for recon, what are you all doing on it?”

“Well,” Boiler came over with a slight static crackle to her voice. “My job starts when there’s a problem with how something works, and that hasn’t happened yet. You two fliers up there have been gabbing for the last half hour anyway, so I figured I might as well listen in. You two are more entertaining to listen to than an old and bitter married couple!”

Okay, I couldn’t help but facehoof this time. Of course, it threw off my balance, but I was getting better at mitigating it. Dipping down slightly, I torqued my wings and arched myself to quickly roll back over into level flight. I lost a few feet in altitude, but not facehoofing had become an itch I couldn’t afford not to scratch.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much the same.” And, “Same here.” were all I got from Hardcase and Lucky respectively.

“Great.” I huffed flatly. This was the last thing I needed today.

My ear’s perked from under the headset as an odd noise drifted through the air. Hispano shifted her gaze ahead over the rolling hills ahead of us. Flapping a few times, she moved for more altitude. Even though it sucked to do, I pushed my wings to climb as well. However with twice the effort it took her, I managed to keep my pace consistent, and my wings didn’t feel like they hurt as much as I’d expected them to.

From a bit higher, I managed to glean a look over the next few hills, and found that the old road the convoy followed swung around next to a huge clearing. In the wide opening between the trees sat what looked to be another whole town. However, this town was built mostly out of similarly sized cargo containers to what was on Bertha, and arranged into long, parallel rows. In between some of them sat long stretches of parallel piping that glinted softly in the afternoon light.

“End of the line.” Delilah’s voice crackled over the headset. “Lucky, this is your stop. Drop your passengers off and catch up with us. Should be a quick in and out thing, but even so, I don’t want you to dither around out there.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lucky’s voice came back through the headset strong. “I’ll be back on the road and caught up in no time.”

“Talon, Hispano.” Delilah’s voice came through again, sounding a bit sterner than normal. Which, of course, was saying something when it came to Delilah. “I want you to stay with Lucky. Keep an eye out for trouble following him, and put that big gun to use if you spot anything on your way back.”

“Talon, Hispano.” Hispano mocked her, rolling her eyes. “Is she always this serious?”

“I’ll remind you that that I am on the master channel for a reason.” Delilah’s voice nearly made the young griffon turn as white as her father was. “It’s so I can hear you at all times. You might want to keep that in mind in the future.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.” Hispano stuttered in a rare moment of weakness. “Understood.” Wow, I’d never really seen Hispano flustered before outside of dealing with me. It was… nice. Not because it was fair turnabout for the awkwardness she’d cause me before, as sweet as that did feel. Rather, it was because for a moment there, I could relate to her.

Thinking about that, the more time I’d spent around Hispano, the more she’d opened up to me. Sure, she’d been clingy, and pushy, and over the top with her advances, but she felt different today. Much like with Buck, she’s becoming less and less closed off from me, and that to me, actually made me happy. I’d thought it before, but I hadn’t taken too much stock in it at the time. Hispano really was one of the best friends I had now, and I was happy that she was.

The sound we’d heard before rang through the air again. This time, it was closer, and I managed to track it to a light that was moving through the forest on the far end of ‘End of the Line’. It was some sort of machine, following the pipes on the ground heading into the clearing. Unsure if it was a danger, I looked myself over. Loaded up on grenades? Check. Bison loaded and ready? Check.

Stiffening my wings, I tilted myself forward and dropped into a shallow dive as Hispano peeled off from the convoy.

“Where do you think you’re going, Bombay?” Hardcase spoke up as Hispano and I flew over the treetops and became obscured in the vegetation.

“Just going to check out whatever machine is moving towards the town.” I spoke up, finding Hispano look back at me over her shoulder.

“What?” Hardcase called out. “It’s just the train.”

“Train?” The words slipped out of my muzzle. I remembered that from history class, old world machines they used long before the war. In fact, I was pretty sure I recalled them being one of the major reasons for the war in the first place. “Huh, well if that’s what it is, I just want to take a quick look at one.” Now that I took a harder look at the town, I guess those pipes were actually the rails, and their houses were the train carts themselves!

“Bombay,” Delilah’s voice came over the line yet again. Oh great, here come the fun police… “It’s fine that you’re curious. Do a pass overhead, get your look in, and then swing back around to the convoy.”

Wow, she was actually okay with me doing that? Well, if she was alright with it, then it couldn’t have been all that bad of an idea. Then again, I’m not sure that means it’s a safe idea, anyhow. So then, just a quick look to minimize me screwing anything up, and then it’s back to work!

Hispano adjusted herself to fly alongside me as we approached the closer end of the clearing. Dozens of ponies scurried about the traincarts below, hurriedly clearing the rails that the coming train was traveling down. Both Hispano and I adjusted our flight path, turning and following along the outside treeline while looking over the place. As we did, the train itself pulled out of the trees, giving a loud blaring from its horn as it slowly pulled down the line.

It was a sleeker looking machine than I’d seen in my textbooks, looking more like a silver bullet than the ugly iron beasts from the pictures. An off yellow headlight capped off the streamline metal cylinder that comprised the main body of the train, and it’s many wheels were hidden under an aerodynamic cowling. Thin vents running along it’s side obscured whatever engine drove the train, but leaked an eerie purple glow from inside.

“That’s a train?” I asked, glancing over to Hispano. “It’s… not what I expected.”

“What did you think they looked like?” She smirked and looked at me like I were the crazy one. “You clowdy featherheads must have had some strange ideas up above the cloud cover.”

Ignoring the truth in her words, I found myself distracted again as I gazed upon the carts that were being towed by the train. Just the one engine of the train had a line of carts that stretched back into the forest until the canopy was too thick to see through. Yet, as it pulled forward, more and more carts were pulled along behind it. They just… kept coming.

“How long is this thing?” As per usual, the words just came out without any forethought.

“What, Jealous? Feeling a little like you might not compare?” Hispano gave a wink and blew a kiss to me that made me facehoof hard again. “Oh come on, you flew right into that one!” She giggled as she tumbled out of my spinning view.

Flipping around through the air, I recovered fairly quickly. Sticking my legs out straight under me to get my balance again, I sighed. Ugh. With as many times as I’d have to facehoof, I was going to be losing a lot of altitude on the rest of this trip. As I leveled out, more than a few traincarts that came out of the forest held a familiar looking symbol on it. The tree that had been in Crystal’s workshop had been crudely painted in white across all the different carts coming through into the open. As they did, a few ponies from the town jumped between the shifting carts and began to work on them.

With a shuttering, the first of the ‘tree’ carts slowed down from the rest of the train, and swerved to the side. It turned, following a different track that took it down a different line from the engine, one that ran closer to Hispano and I. This new line was quickly becoming crowded as most of the ponies who’d been scurrying around the yard gathered their tools and rushed over to the new line. As the tree carts slowed more, the doors on them slid open, and something unbelievable happened.

Hundreds of ponies cheered as the light of day poured onto them from inside the carts. Louder than any train horn, the sound of joyous celebration filled the afternoon air. As Hispano and I almost completed a full lap around End of the Line, it was… confusing to see, to say the least.

“What’s going on?” I asked Hispano, who now wore a small smirk as she pulled up beside me again.

“Slaves.” She spoke softly. “They must have been heading south when the shit across the country went down. Lucky bastards.”

“Slaves? I’m… confused.” I mean, Mrs. Delilah had told me that Lucky and Gearbox had been slaves, but these below me in the carts were mostly ponies. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I should have expected really. Everything in the wasteland had been so backwards and odd that I really shouldn’t have been surprised.

“They were probably going to be bought by that Red Eye guy,” Hispano chirped as we watched whole lines of ponies stream out of the carts and head up to the waiting ponies along the side of the lines. “I heard that the market for slaves crashed when the shit in the southeast went down, and most northern slavers have had to send back their stocks.”

That was unthinkable! There must have been a few thousand ‘slaves’ on this train alone! How could one pony be so cruel as to order this many ponies to be taken like that? Looking down at the surging crowds, there were ghouls, foals, and a few other races mixed in with the mass. It may have been a bit racist, but it filled me with a profound sense of shame to know that there were ponies out there who could be so terrible as to enslave other ponies.

“Go wake up the slave.” The words Solomon spoke this morning floated into my mind again. “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.”

Unless other races could suddenly use magic, I’d completely missed that Solomon was talking about a unicorn. Even so, I could expect it from somepony such as him. But now that I think about it, was it really so far fetched to think that ponies like Mrs. Tapit wouldn’t have made money out of others through slavery? No, I guess not...

“Don’t look so depressed, Dum Dum.” Hispano huffed as we passed over Lucky and the Runner as they pulled up toward the Train engine. “It’s a lot to take in, but you shouldn’t waste your time feeling sorry for them. They’re free now, so just be happy with that.” How could she be so dismissive of all of this? Sure this may not have been new to her, but that didn’t make it any less horrific to see at all! “I’m honestly surprised they weren’t just all killed.”

“Never burn the excess harvest when you can just sow it and reap a larger crop later. There’ll be more demand again in a few months, there’s always somepony out there buying more slaves than they know what to do with.” Delilah’s voice filled my ear. “However, these slaves weren’t released, they were liberated. Might spell trouble for us down the road when said buyer pops up.” Wait, how would Delilah know about that? Maybe she’s run into the ‘Celestia’s Angels’ before? “But that’s not your problem to worry about. It’s time for you to head on back, Bombay. I trust that you’ve seen enough.”

Maybe Violet was right after all, and Destruction Bay really was the nicest place in the north. If so, the train carts below didn’t give me hope for where we were heading. It’s horrible for me to say, but I can’t help but feel glad that my parents didn’t live to see things like this. Then again, if freeing slaves was what Crystal Harmonium’s group was working towards, I’m sure my mother would have signed on with the moment she found out about it. Not to mention, she would have dragged dad and I along with her, even if we were kicking and screaming the whole way.

Maybe I should have taken her up on the offer and agreed to help. But, it was too late to go back now, and I doubt there would be much I could do in the first place. Still, if this was just a small example of what was to come, they needed all the help they could get...

“Yeah.” I sighed, looking back along the line of tree painted train carts. Even now, it still wound it’s way out from the forest beyond End of the Line. I didn’t know how many more carts were obscured by the forest canopy, but to be honest, I was terrified of finding out. “I’ve seen enough.”

The afternoon sun had begun to creep down toward the hills that stretched out to the sliver of ocean we could still see from here. The far off obsidian mountains loomed ever closer as the convoy had begun to climb through the winding valleys and hills that headed south toward the misery range. Even still this far out, the air had become frigid, and the great billowing storm clouds that clung along the range looked poised to lash out toward us and engulf the forests we were passing through. Even so, my mind was still focused on only one thing.

Slaves.

Really, I don’t know why I’d gotten so hung up on it. As appalling as the thought of it was, it was far from the worst thing I’d seen so far in the wastes. Still, something about it just really hit me harder than I’d expected.

“Hey, are you alright?” Hispano’s voice came over my headset. Ever since she got back, she’d been quiet. But that was almost an hour ago, and she’d been busy doing her job. Something that I’d become increasingly distracted from. Even though I didn’t want to talk about it, I needed to get it out of my system.

“Why slavery?” For once, being blunt hit the nail on the head for me. There wasn’t any better way to phrase it, it just felt that absurd. “What makes anypony think that they’re privileged enough to own somepony else?”

“Not all slavery is bad.” Lucky’s voice came over my headset. He was the last of us that I’d expected to hear something like that from. “My brother and I, we may not have deserved to be sold like property, but sometimes something good can come from it.” Looking down, I watched as Lucky drove the runner as calmly as ever, riding right on the backside of Bertha with little deviance. “My former owner used his slaves to farm. We grew turnips for the community we were a part of, helping to feed four times the amount of ponies than worked in the fields. Sure, we all lived in one building, and we weren’t allowed to leave. But we were fed, clothed, and had warmth in the winter months.”

“Then why not just hire ponies to do the work?” It still didn’t make sense to me at all.

“Because,” Cora’s gruff voice came over the headset. He’d been quiet this whole trip so far, but I knew I’d hear from him at some point today. “The work is hard and unrewarding. Even so, that doesn’t make it any less important to do.” Looking around, I couldn’t see where he was hanging out at. However, with one look at Hispano, I traced her gaze off to a familiar small cloud loitering in the distance. “Given a choice, would you ever want to farm for days on end? Toiling in the hard and dry dirt that yields almost nothing for your efforts? Or maybe scavenging in the irradiated ruins of a barely standing hospital? The tech still inside could help to save so many, but no one would willingly risk their lives for it.”

“He’s right.” Lucky sighed. “My brother and I? We weren’t cut out for that kind of work when we were bought. But we learned to do it all the same, and I am not ashamed to say that we were better off for it.” He gave a light chuckle at that before he sighed. “If we had not grown to know how to farm the land, Mrs. Delilah would have never purchased us off of our old master.”

“And I never would have fallen for your goofball of a brother!” Boiler chimed in as well, pulling a long groan from Lucky. As he took another deep sigh, I heard Hispano give off a groan as well. Looking over, she glanced at me.

“What are you groaning about, Dum Dum?” She asked, looking slightly confused as I mirrored her look right back at her. “What? Not going to answer?”

The groan came through the air again, this time, both of us looked down to see a small, green boxy vehicle moving around down on the road. They weren’t groans, but arcano-engines starting up! The vehicle was about the size of the runner, and was quickly coming up on the back of the convoy at a good pace. With what seemed like the blink of an eye, another ‘runner’ burst out of the treeline along the side of the road, joining beside the first one.

“Uh, there’s a couple of vehicles coming up behind the convoy.” I spoke up slowly. “Anypony want to tell me if we should be worried?”

“W-well, they haven’t opened fire on us, so that’s got to be a good sign.” Lucky’s nervousness came through crystal clear as the Runner swerved a tiny bit and pulled closer to the back of Bertha. Almost as soon as he’d said that, a flash from the leading boxy vehicle preempted a streaking rocket to slam right into the road next to him. “Yet!” He yelped. “I should have said yet!”

“Dum Dum, let’s dive on it!” Hispano called out, rolling herself over and dropping into a dive. I did the same, making sure my legs were stiff before inverting myself and pulling toward the ground. The dive sounded a lot weirder through the muffling headset, but what didn’t change was how loud Suiza was.

Barking shots from the huge autocannon yanked Hispano around as she dove toward the ground. Bright flares erupted from the road around the vehicles as the high explosive rounds tore up the old pavement, but failed to find a home in either of the two vehicles. In response, the windows of the vehicles opened, and several ponies leaned out of them. They held various guns in their hooves, aiming up towards us as we dove.

I would have maneuvered more if I hadn’t already committed myself with my dive. Instead, I torqued myself into a spin. Pulling the trigger on my grenade saddle, I felt as the pin to one of my grenades fell out and the weapon dropped from me. Pulling myself up, my wings bit the chilly air, pulling me up in a perpendicular line to the way the convoy was traveling.

My speed and the change in direction from my spin probably helped to throw off the aim of the ponies who blindly began firing at Hispano and I. However, it had also thrown off my grenade slightly, and I watched as it bounced off the roof of their vehicle. Still, it didn’t bounce far, landing in the rear bed of the other vehicle I hadn’t been aiming at. Focusing back toward the air, I pushed myself to use all the speed I’d built in the dive and convert it back into altitude.

The sharp pop from the grenade was only followed by a bright, multicolored blast as the whole truck went up in a prismatic fireball. Ultimately, I guess it didn’t matter which vehicle it hit so long as it got one of them!

As the blast echoed off the forested hills, another groaning noise met my ears. Looking down as my climb peaked, another, larger vehicle broke through the forest and onto the road. It wasn’t much larger than the two runner sized vehicles from before, but it had a larger bed on the back of it, and that bed had a sizeable cannon currently being aimed up at us by a few ponies.

“Shit, we’ve got Flak out here!” Hispano shouted through her headset. “Bombay, scramble! Use the treeline to get beyond their line of sight!”

Quick to heed her words, I stiffened my legs again and sharply rolled myself to the side. I dipped through the air, forcing myself back across to the other side of the road. My heart beat faster in my chest as I glanced down at the ponies. The artillery piece they were loading spun slowly, not able to traverse fast enough to keep up, but enough to worry me about reappearing from cover. Once I’d drifted far enough from the road for them to see me, I gave out a small sigh of relief. That is, until I realized that them not seeing me, meant that I also couldn’t see the convoy...

“Lucky, get around the side of Bertha and try to keep her in the way to stay clear of their aim.” Delilah’s sharp voice came over our headset. “Bombay, Talon, keep that cannon aimed up at you and away from the convoy. I’m maneuvering to drop Bessy back as we speak. Howitzer, load up and reverse the turret.”

Arcing myself back around, I tried not to think about the fact that I could be blown out of the sky at any moment. Come on, Night! You can’t care about the fact that you might die, you went over this last night! Hell, Delilah has confidence in you as well! She’s giving out orders like this all happened yesterday and she already knows we’ll be fine, so stop your worrying.

As I appeared over the edge of the treetops again, one the ponies in the back of the truck pointed up at me. It didn’t take long for their friends to react and get that cannon pointed my way again. Torquing my wings to roll, I spun myself over and dove nearly straight down at the ground.

The cannon fired with a heavy boom. A whistling in the air met my ears as the shell flew wide, sailing harmlessly into the air. As I tried to right myself, the shell exploded above me with a crack, throwing hot shrapnel through the air. Thankfully, it went off quite a ways above, and sizzling bits of metal sprinkled the air behind me. Pulling level, I prayed that the cannon below me took a while to reload. Then again, they wouldn’t be a problem so long as Delilah actually got into position.

“Uh....” Lucky called out into my ear. “A little help here!”

Looking down, I found a disheartening sight. Lucky had moved up as he’d been asked to, but the other runner sized truck was hot on his tail. One of the ponies leaning out the passenger side of it was fumbling to get a rocket set up, and unlike the first shot, there was little chance he’d miss at that range.

I turned myself to head toward lucky, but was forced back as the cannon fired again. Another shrieking shell shot past me, this time exploding shortly after. Unfortunately for me, it was close enough that I was peppered in the side by hot bits of metal. My breath was taken away as it felt like a thousand knives cutting into me, and I nearly fell out of the air.

The boom from Howitzer’s cannon shook the air under me. The force of the exploding flak truck battered me, helping to shock me back into action. My side hurt, but I was alive, that’s all that mattered and more than those bastards could say now. The flak truck was taken care of, so it was on to the next target...

“Sorry I’m late.” Violet called out as she swooped out of the back of the Hauler. Cutting a hard left, she zipped through the air around toward Lucky and his pursuer. “Let me take care of that for you.” With an ease that I could hardly ever see myself as having, Violet flew down right along side the attacker’s runner. Hooking her forehooves around the top of the car, she braced her rear hooves against the door, arching her back to point her guns through the side window.

“Hi there!” Was all that came through the headset before her rifles let off a series of quick shots. She kicked off from the car as it faltered, swerving a few times before dropping back and slamming into a tree off on the side of the road. “Well, that should be the last of them.” Violet sighed as she came in for a landing on top of the Hauler.

“Alright, good job, Crew.” Delilah called out with a lighter tone than normal. “I knew that you…”

BOOM

Another flak cannon shell whistled through the air from a ways ahead on the road. It slammed into the front of Bessy, exploding in a tremendous flash. Delilah’s radio cut out as I all but froze up again. I couldn’t do anything but watch as Bessy swerved off to the side of the road, smoking heavily before rolling to a stop.

“Shit, shit!” Lucky cried out. “What the fuck happened!?”

“It’s another cannon!” Hispano and Violet both called out at the same time.

“Delilah, are you there?” Hardcase called out. Silence followed as Bessy continued to sit there. “Shit, stop the convoy.”

BOOM

Another cannon shot slammed into the Hauler. Gearbox slammed on the brakes as flames enveloped the whole front of Bertha for a moment. The blast hit the armored front, and the gong-like ring that filled the air meant that it probably hadn’t penetrated into the ammo storage area. A growl like the ones before sounded out from the forest ahead as the archano-engine on yet another flak truck was started up.

“We have to get that cannon down!” Violet called out. “It’s somewhere off the road ahead.”

“Yeah, but what about Delilah!?” Lucky screamed at her. “We have to go back!”

What do we do? What do I do? I couldn’t do anything because again, I was frozen in fear. Shit, come on, Night! Do something, anything! Delilah trusts you, and you can’t let her down.

“Boiler, get Gearbox to keep going. You can’t stop yet.” I spoke up as the words just spilled from my muzzle. “The armor can handle it, so we need them shooting at you.”

“What?” Violet spoke up. “Bombay…”

“Zoomer, Hispano, distract that last vehicle and kill them if you can.” I said as I flared my wings and dropped into a shallow dive. “Hardcase, fire into the forest ahead! If anything, keep their heads down until the others can find them through the foliage.”

“Alright, on it!” Hardcase grunted. Walking his gun around on it’s mount, he lined himself up behind it and opened fire. Four lines of tracer fire opened up from Hardcase’s machine gun mount on top of the Hauler, spreading into the forest like a deafening chainsaw. It only took him a second of tracking along the treeline until a line of tracers were deflected away by the hidden armored vehicle inside.

“Lucky, you need to reverse and make sure Delilah and Howitzer are fine.” I called out as I turned myself toward the Hauler, aiming for just ahead of it. “Boiler, if you’re still listening, I need you to go get Buck.”

“On it!” Boiler shouted as Gearbox started to move Bertha ahead again.

“Pulling back!” Lucky called out over the squealing of his brakes. The runner shot backwards as I flew over it as Lucky quickly worked to get himself spun around.

The Flak-Truck drove forward, practically crawling its way up the small drainage ditch and onto the road. The old truck had been well camouflaged. It was painted to match the green and browns of the forest, and covered with various pieces of attached foliage to break up it’s shape. The large gun itself sported a robust metal shield that nearly encompassed the whole rear of the vehicle. It was much better protected than the last one, and even it’s crew cab was covered in thick slabs of rusty looking steel to protect the driver. Great, of course the only gun we’d had that could punch right through it was on Bessy!

The moment the armored truck was out in the open, rounds from Suiza slammed into the gunnery shield and harmlessly burst as bright flashes against it.

“Now I remember why I don't use fucking H.E. bullshit!" Hispano screamed into my ear. “We’ve gotta get around behind it!”

The cannon turned, arcing at a different angle than its previous shot. At first I thought it was aiming for a wheel, and cringed as it fired. Another resounding gong like blast pushed flames up the front of Bertha again right before Hispano and I flew over it.

“They’re probing for weak points in the armor. Lucky for us, it looks like they haven’t figured out not to use H.E. bullshit either.” Hardcase called out with a light laugh. “Zoomer, you ready to boom?”

“On it!” Violet’s voice sang as she streaked down like a bolt from the sky. She came down at an angle from behind the truck. Her twin rifles barked a few times in quick succession before a grunt came through her headset. “Fuck, only got one of them. They are really protected in there, two more left!” Pulling back up, she streaked higher into the sky again.

“Hispano, I’ll go left, you split right and come in wide. Zoomer, come in from the rear.” I called out. “They can’t protect from every direction.” From the way they’d pulled out onto the road, I might be able to drop my grenades right under the armored front cab.

“Alright!” She and Violet both called out as I peeled off from them.

Rotating my wings again, I pushed myself into a wide left bank. My short glide had built me up a hefty amount of speed, but I couldn’t afford to blow too much of it arcing back around. As I turned however, the truck’s engine roared as it started to move. I glanced over as I corrected my bank and watched as the truck began to drive up the road. The gun in back turned, using the back of the armored cab as a shield as it corrected it’s aim again. Shit, looks like they could protect from every angle.

The pain in my side was becoming unbearable as I flapped my wings and forced myself to speed toward the truck. No, these assholes weren’t going to just keep harassing us as we drove! I don’t care if I blew off another leg, I was going to make these fuckers pay for shooting Bessy and attacking us!

I was attempting to line myself up with the truck when another boom filled the air, but not from the truck ahead of me. A whistling shot flew Directly under Bertha and slammed into the gun mantlet of the fleeing Flak-truck. A fiery explosion engulfed the truck, and flames shot out of the armored cab’s slits. One of the flaming ponies screamed as they shoved the door open. They fell to the ground and desperately tried to put themselves out. The flaming pony didn’t have a chance to even dampen the flames before Hardcase’s chattering gun mount ripped them to pieces.

Looking back to where the other shot came from, the cannon on Bessy smoked as Howitzer halfway hung himself out of the top hatch. Smiling through the pain, I banked myself around and set up a glide right toward them. As I did, Gearbox brought Bertha to a complete stop in the road.

“Was that all of them?” Howitzer grunted, coughing heavily through his headset. Even from here, I watched as he pulled his lumbering body from the turret and climbed to the ground.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Cora spoke up again from his cloud above us. “I suspect that if there were more, they’d have come at us by now.”

A crackling static filled my ears for a moment before the most relaxing voice came over the radio.

“Yeah, probably.” Delilah’s dulcet tone was music to my ears. “Alright, I’m going to try this again.” She got out before she gave a wheezing cough. “Good job everyone. You did well.”

“Are you alright, Ma’am?” Violet asked the only question that I was sure was on all of our minds.

“Yeah,” She groaned for a moment as she climbed up and out of Bessy’s turret. “The armor took most of the hit on Bessy, but I took a good whack in the head when it did. Spalling did more than anything to me, but I’ll live.” She gave another few hacking coughs as I watched her step away from the still smoking armored vehicle.

“Alright, well we’re bringing Bertha back for you.” Boiler sighed. “The Doc’s ready to come down the moment we’re close enough for him to hop off and treat everyone.” Giving a pause, the pain in my side flared before she spoke again, making me squeak through my mic. “Speaking of treatment,” Oh goddesses, here it comes. “You still alive out there, Bombay? Not missing any more limbs, are you?”

“Nah.” I grunted. “But one of the flak shots clipped me. I could use some bandages and a painkiller or something.”

Dropping down to just above the ground, I flared my wings well before I needed to. It hurt, but as I winced with the pain, I wavered in my flight a bit. Getting all four of my legs down onto the ground at a trotting pace, I slowed myself up and managed to drop to a walk by the time I reached Delilah, Howitzer, and Lucky. Now that I was on the ground, I felt confident that I could turn and see just how badly my side had been mutilated by the flak shot.

“Eh, that’s not that bad.” Howitzer grunted, pointing to the three separate thin trails of blood that stained my side under my submachine gun. Really? That was it? “Like with Delilah, it may look bad, but it hurts worse than it is.”

“Yeah.” Delilah grunted as she reached up and pulled the radio helmet off of her head. Half her face was coated in blood, as well as most of her left forehoof and shoulder. “However, what wasn’t bad either, was what you did up there.” Reaching up with her bloody hoof, she adjusted her blood speckled glasses on the end of her muzzle. “I may have taken a knock to the head, but I heard you take charge. I told you that you had a knack for it.”

“I-I didn’t think up there, I just… acted.” I stammered. Damnit, why did she have to stick the idea of taking charge into my head? “I didn’t really take charge at all! I just…”

“You did what you thought was right.” Violet called as she came in for a landing with Hispano. “All of us didn’t know what to do out there, but you were the one who sounded like you knew what you were doing.”

“Yeah, you didn’t freeze up this time, Dum Dum! Good job!” Hispano squawked as she gave me a firm pat on my bloody side. I whined as she did, making her scrunch up her muzzle and pull her talon back. “Oops, sorry.”

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.” Cora called out from above all of us. In unison, we all looked up just in time to see the body of a pony drop out of the sky and smack down into the pavement between us. The pony had suffered an extreme case of ‘shot in the head’ before he’d hit the ground, but the crack that came from his neck, and the way his head caved in when he hit, made my stomach do flips. “The good news, is that that these guys aren’t raiders with a camp full of suicidal friends, so that was definitely all of them.”

Swallowing the bile that was trying to climb it’s way up my throat, I did my best to not look at the vacant expression locked across the dead pony’s face. In not staring at his face, I did notice that for looking like a raider at first glance, this pony was a lot better equipped than the skyraiders we’d run across before. This stallion wore old equestrian military armor that had been painted up to simply look like the rags and rusty bits tied to himself, but he had a service pistol and various military looking gear strapped to him underneath it all.

“That doesn’t look like raider gear to me...” Violet muttered. “If i didn’t know better, this pony is equipped like a merc.”

“That’s the bad news.” Cora grunted as he came down from his cloud. In his grasp, was what looked like an old field radio painted and dressed up with rusty bits in the same way as the dead stallion was. Still visible on it however, was the painted stencil of a white pony’s silhouette. “These guys are Whitehorse Militia, and I’m willing to bet that they were working freelance without their captain’s approval.”

“With all due respect, ma’am,” Violet spat out. “If that’s true, this whole ambush has Galina’s stench all over it. They weren’t aiming for the wheels, they were trying to blow the whole damn ammo storage up. They knew where to aim, even if they didn’t use the correct ammo.”

If it weren’t for the fact that we’d just had our talk about her working for Solomon, I might have questioned her on that. However, I don’t think she would have spoken up at all if she’d had any part in it now that we knew about her. Plus, this did seem like the same sort of crap that Galina had been trying to pull again and again, always getting somepony else to fight for her. Given the chance, I’d love to unload the full mag from my Bison right into her stupid beak...

“Celestia, Damnit.” Delilah sighed, groaning as she sat down onto the pavement. “Solomon must not know what she’s been doing. He wouldn’t risk destroying the convoy, not until he knew he could do it while keeping the information about the Ark safe.” Looking over to Cora as he touched down next to Hispano, she cocked her bloody eyebrow. “Violet only mentioned them on their first trip through. Do you know this ‘militia’ at all?”

“Yeah.” Cora nodded, glancing down to Hispano who gave him a quick nod as well. “They’re friendly enough to talons, so we stayed there for a week or so on our trip up here about six months ago.” Looking back up at Delilah, he raised the radio up and tweaked at the buttons on it with his talons. “With your permission, ma'am, I'd like to talk to them.”

Yes, that’s a wonderful idea! Let’s just start chatting with the ponies who were probably paid off by Solomon and probably make them even more pissed that we just murdered their buddies! I may be starting to act like a ‘leader’ in Delilah’s eyes, but that was just the dumbest idea that I’d ever heard.

“Do you know someone there we could get some answers from?” Delilah asked flatly. Getting a single nod from Cora, she huffed and nodded back. “Go ahead.”

Fucking seriously!?

“Hello, hello.” Cora spoke into the coms set, tweaking a few of the buttons until a burst of static came out of an external speaker on the radio pack. “This is Raindeer Talon four seven calling horsehead. You there, Trojan?”

“Four seven?” A stallion my age came back over the radio after a burst of static. “Cora, is that you?”

“Affirmative, Trojan.” He gave a smirking nod that the stallion on the other end couldn’t hear. What I hoped he did hear, was the sound of my hard facehoof against my muzzle. Which was of course followed by a heavy whine as the pain from my side flared up.

“Well, I’ll be!” The stallion laughed. “It's been what, six months or something? How’ve you been?”

“We can get caught up later.” Cora grunted and dropped all pretense of happiness from his tone. “Say, you know anything about a group of Militia sent to raid the convoy I’m with?”

“Shit, they actually went?” The stallion grumbled through his receiver. “The captain's going to be pissed if they've been out freelancing and come back having caused trouble.”

“Well sorry to say it but they aren't going to be freelancing anymore, or coming back for that matter. Your boys out here are already dead and dealt with.” Cora shook his head, looking at the bloody mess of a crumpled stallion between us. “You still copy, Trojan?”

“Yeah, copy that.” The stallion let out a long sigh. “Please hold. I’ll go get the Captain.”

The silence that followed was only broken by the low drone the chilling breeze gave before Bertha’s thrumming engine overtook it. Looking over, I saw Buck all but hanging off the railing of the stairs, ready with his medical duffle bag in his claws.

“This is Captain Havoc of the Whitehorse Militia,” A stern, regulated sounding mare came over the radio. Yeah, she was definitely the one in charge there. “Am I currently speaking to the head of the Convoy which is calling?”

Holding her hoof out, Cora simply passed the radio receiver over and placed it in Delilah’s hoof. With a soft sigh, she brought it’s microphone up to her muzzle and sat up straight.

“This is her, go ahead.” She presented herself with the same businesslike tone she always used, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure how she could keep herself that straight all the time. Hell, even bloodied and obviously in pain, she didn’t even let an ounce of that through her voice.

“The party you ran into were on an unsanctioned job, and forfeit their affiliation with the Whitehorse militia the moment they departed on it.” The mare had a force behind her words that bordered on being nearly as blunt as a club. However, she had more emotion than Admiral Broadside had when she spoke, so for that I could at least respect her a little bit more. “I hope that they were as incompetent at attacking you as they were at following the rules here.”

“They were.” Delilah snorted as she glanced at the dead pony again. “We have no need to salvage their equipment, and their remains will be left here for you to collect. We have no interest in further dealings with your outfit on our way through Whitehorse.”

“I can understand that, and you have my word that there will be zero retaliation from the remainder of the Militia for your actions.” She sighed, losing a bit of the regimented feeling to her words. “Due to the unfortunate situation we find ourselves in, I feel it's only fair to extend a friendly hoof to you and your crew. Accommodations and expenses for your stay here in Whitehorse will be on our cap. I hope that can begin to make up for this mistake.”

“Negative. We will stay on the outskirts and will not step one hoof into your city.” Delilah spoke, pulling a shocked look out of everyone including myself. We could have relaxed and enjoyed ourselves for once! “Along with that, you are to keep your militia at a distance from our convoy. No offence, Captain, but the one who poached your soldiers is likely to try to stop us again. If you want to do us a favor, then you might consider keeping your barracks locked up for our stay.”

Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that! Again, Galina’s just going to keep hiring ponies to kill us until we blast her stupid head off her stupid shoulders.

“Good copy on that. No offence taken, and I can sympathise with your hesitation.” She paused for a moment, letting a bit of static hang in the air. “In regards to locking up my soldiers, I’ll see what I can arrange. However, if you have any information on the one who poached my ponies, I'd love to hear it. From this point on, whoever they were will not set one hoof in this town.”

“It would be best to drop it, Captain. In all likelihood, she's already flown the coop, and the one who hired her is probably best left alone.” Delilah paused as Buck finally got over to us. He looked over to me with a worried smile as he approached, but his look turned sour as he spotted the stallion’s corpse sitting between us all. “Thanks for the offer, but we can handle ourselves. You can expect us pulling up to your outskirts to rest up the night in a few hours, convoy leader over and out.” Dropping the radio microphone, she let out a long sigh. “Alright, let’s get everything patched up and get back on the road.” As everyone moved to leave, she reached out to me with her bloody forehoof and stopped me in my tracks. “Even with the doc patching it up, my hoof won’t be good enough to drive until tomorrow. I need you to tell my lazy ass son that it’s his job to drive Bessy the rest of the way tonight. After that, you go get some well deserved rest. You’re back in the air first thing tomorrow.”

Nodding, I turned and headed off to the hauler.

It took me a few minutes once I climbed back on board to get out of my saddle and work my way all the way through the hauler. While the others were all busy getting to work, I hoofed off my headset last and made my way through the ice hold, stopping to look at the safe. Most of the ice was gone now, and the door to it sat locked shut. I smirked, knowing that even for everything Solomon has done, he still didn’t stand a chance at getting to the Ark before we did.

I did my best to laugh at Solomon in my head rather than out loud to save myself from the pain of my injuries. Speaking of, actually, this time around they weren’t all that bad. As ridiculous as it was, part of me was right there with Boiler and Hispano in joking about losing another limb. With the way things normally went for me in a fight, this was hardly anything to worry over. Sure, shrapnel in the side still sucked, but Buck would patch me up, and I still had my other three legs!

Smiling to myself, I made my way upstairs. Happy was helpfully lounging about on the rec area couch like the useless lump he always was, and didn’t even look up as I climbed my way up out of the hatch. My prosthetic leg gave a slight creak as I hopped up the final stair, prompting him to finally perk his ear lazily at me.

“Yo, Bombay, we gettin’ back on the road soon?” He mumbled, trying not to shift from his relaxed pose too much as he spoke. “Cause I’m pretty beat. I hope we get to the next stop soon so we can hit the hay.”

“Change of plans.” I grumbled. “You’re driving Bessy.”

“What!?” He spat out, expending more energy flailing himself off the couch than he’d probably spent all day today. He froze as he looked at me, glancing at my side. “Wait, is ma’ alright?”

“Yeah, but her hoof was hurt in the fight. She needs you to drive the rest of the way tonight.” I gave him a nod to the stairs, ignoring the heavy annoyed groan he let out. “You best get down there. The sooner we get going, the sooner we can all get some sleep, right?”

“Yeah yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “You goin’ back up?”

I shook my head. “Turns out that getting peppered by a few bits of shrapnel earned me the night off.” Or, at least that’s what everyone else thinks. Me however, I’m pretty sure that Delilah gave it to me for telling everypony what to do earlier. Which I still didn’t count as ‘taking charge’.

“Whatever.” He shrugged before giving a stiff yawn and a stretch. “Guess I better get down there before she yells at me…”

Happy straightened his floral print t-shirt and hoofed back his mane a bit before stepping around me. While I didn’t quite get how any stallion could be as lazy as him, I did want to applaud him for actually doing what he was told more often. He’d been all but useless on this trip, but at least he still had his moments, I guess. That, and he still owed me big time for saving his flank from Mrs. Tapit.

While I still didn’t quite agree that I ‘took charge’, I couldn’t be happier that I’d started to listen to what Delilah ordered me to do. I mean, of course I still kept screwing things up even when I try to do what she wants, but that’s not exactly the point. Almost every time she’d told me to do something so far, I just felt it was the right thing to do. Listening to that feeling is what I’ve been trying to do more of, and so far, it’s saved me more times than not.

As I heard Buck enter the ice hold below, I tried to push all that from my mind again. Looking out of the back of the Hauler, the sky shifted hues slowly, and darkened as the sun finally fell below the horizon. I smiled as I watched the transition, shifting my warm gaze down to Buck as he popped his head up the stairs. It had been a rough day, but it was over now.

With the wounds in my side quickly tended to, I was free to finally relax in a way that I hadn’t had a chance to since arriving at Destruction Bay. Since everypony else at the moment was working, that just left Buck and I on this deck of the Hauler with nothing but free time. Alone.

Today had been one hell of a turnaround for me. We blew up an ammo depot, Buck and I had a fight, Hispano ‘joined’ us, Solomon caught up, Violet is back on our side, and I have a brand new leg. So much to deal with that I desperately needed to decompress. And with as much as I needed it, I knew that Buck needed it as well.

The best thing about today, the thing that made it all worth it, was how all of that melted away as Buck and I worked out our stress together. And while I’m sure that Hardcase probably heard us ‘relaxing’ from his post up top, he didn’t seem too interested in telling us that he minded. Honestly, I wasn’t sure there could be a better way to bleed off stress at all than in bed with Buck.

I’d come to realize just how much better I could feel when I didn’t have to worry about anything else in the world other than how we felt right then and there. One thing I was absolutely sure of as well, was that with the way he moaned and whined with me, Buck must have felt the exact same way about all of this.

Hell, I don’t even think I remember when we finally arrived on the outskirts of Whitehorse for the night. By that point, I think both Buck and I were so spent that we weren’t even aware of anything at all outside of our container. The only thing I think I could remember from then, was hearing as Hispano came in and said something to me that I couldn’t quite make out. But that was right before I drifted off to sleep, and oh boy, what a fantastic sleep that was.

Have you ever been in such a deep sleep that when you finally woke up, you’d forgotten what it was like to even have any of your senses? Yeah, that was me this morning.

I snorted awake laying on top of Buck, not quite sure what was going on or where I was for that matter. I went to give a stiff yawn, pressing myself into Buck’s fur as I did. However, when I breathed in, I got a mouthful of matted fur and the stench of sex sweat. Coughing, I pulled myself off of him. My own matted fur clung to his as I squinted at the bright light above us and questioned why the hell I was awake right now. Goddesses, why is anypony ever awake if everything is always so bright?

“Hmmm…?” Buck moaned softly, shifting under me and raising a paw up to his face. “Good morning.” He groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”

“Too fucking early.” I grunted, moving to push myself back down to the floor. Unfortunately, for some reason I wasn’t wearing my new leg, and I flopped down to the floor with a cold slap. The floor was cold, and the stark silence that met me as I sat there meant that Bertha’s reactor wasn’t even running yet. Well, at least we weren’t already back on the road. “Ugh.” I groaned as I rolled myself onto my back. Looking under our bed, I found my missing leg sitting by it’s lonesome. Well, now I at least knew where it went...

“I need coffee.” Buck groaned as well as he pushed himself to sit up. “Ahhaaa…!” He whined, softly rolling onto his side and curling back his tail. “Ohhh… still sore from last night.”

“Hehe, sorry.” I giggled as I wiggled myself over and pulled my leg toward me. “Goddesses, I needed everything we did last night.”

“Me too. Maybe we should argue more often?” He laughed, finally getting his paws under him. He stretched out, reaching up to the ceiling with his own long Yawn. “Alright, time to start the day.” Walking over, he reached out and flicked the lock off the door. Even from where I sat, when he opened it, I could see the others all sitting in the rec area shift their attention to our door.

“Morning, sunshine.” Boiler giggled. “Fun night?”

“You guys sounded like animals!” Hardcase laughed. “No, literally. You two must have been really pent up.”

“We had… issues to work through.” Buck wore the brightest blush across his face that I’d ever seen. Coincidentally, it also happened to be the cutest blush I’d ever seen, but that was neither here nor there. “Uh… coffee?”

Sitting there on the floor, my stomach let out a gurgling grumble. Well, might as well get up and get something to eat before we’re back on the road. Pushing myself back onto my hooves, I took a moment to steady my legs under me. Giving another long yawn, I pushed myself to walk forward out the open door.

The whole crew turned and looked at me as I left the room, perverse smiles across each of their muzzles. Eeyup, this was my life now. Not that I minded, really. They’d become the closest thing I had to family since Four Peaks, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. And I’m pretty sure that they felt the same way.

Well, all except for one of them.

Hispano gave a sad glance back from her perch on the rec area’s railing. Spreading her wings, she leaned forward and dropped off the back end of the hauler. With a few flaps, she flew down aways into the stark white that filled the wilderness around Bertha. The snow drifts all around us were a almost half a leg deep it looked like. They covered most of everything, from trees, to rocks, and even Lucky’s runner had a good amount on it.

Only the road itself seemed to be immune to the white, breaking up the oddly calm bland whiteness with it’s darkness. The small griffon who now dropped down onto it a few hundred feet away, cast a sad and lonely glance downward, and inside, I knew why.

Flaring my own wings, I stepped past the others. Ignoring their questions about what I was doing, I hopped over the back railing and took flight. I needed to try to fix whatever I’d ruined this time.

The glide was a short one, depositing me down on the road at a trot. After a few steps, I stopped myself a few feet short from Hispano’s back. From the way she didn’t even look back, I knew something heavy was on her mind. But unlike so many times before, no words slipped out of my muzzle. Instead, I had to force myself to speak up.

“Is everything okay, Hispano?” It was a stupid question. Of course she wasn’t alright, Night. That’s plainly obvious, good job. “Do… you want to talk about something?”

“No. Yes.” Her own response was meek, but at least she said something at all. With a small sigh, she shook her head. “I don't mean to be confusing. Just... when I saw you with him last night… it was just like with my sister.”

“I’m sorry.” Now I understood, of course. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what to say to her. “I didn’t mean to…”

“I know you didn’t.” She cut me off. “That’s the problem.” Slumping slightly, her wings fell limp at her sides, and she hung her head. “Out here on the road, we don't know how much time we have. I don't want to miss out on any of it, but… I’m still terrified at the idea that the same thing could happen.” She gave a short sobbing sniffle. “Even though I finally get the chance to try to make things work with you, I’m just as fucking paralyzed with the fear that I’ll just end up like my sister and Suiza.”

“You know this isn’t how I thought things would be.” I pushed myself to take a step forward as my mind once again started to push the words out of my muzzle. “My parents were the only ones I’d ever loved, and even now, Buck is somepony I didn’t realize I cared for until I got to know him on this trip.” Reaching out, I curled my forehooves around Hispano. She locked up with a gasp at my touch, but as I pulled her into a hug, she finally let loose and sobbed softly. “But I wouldn’t have had that chance without you, Hispano. I’ve had friends before, but you are probably the first true friend I’ve ever made in my life, and that means more than anything to me.”

Wrenching herself momentarily out of my grasp, she spun around and wrapped her talons around me in a tight hug. After all of the painful and awkward hugs I’d had yesterday, it felt nice to finally have a genuinely comforting hug from her. As she snuffled and pressed herself against me, I couldn’t help but think that this was something I’d needed as well.

“I know you mean well, Night.” She spoke in a weak, muffled tone against my neck. “I just wish you felt the same way about me that you do for him.”

I wanted to tell her that I wanted to feel that way, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Somewhere deep inside, I knew that would be a lie. Not because I never would find myself caring for my first friend as much as I do for Buck. Instead, it’s because I think I already did. Not like I did with Buck, but she was important to me, and she deserved to know that.

“I do.” I spoke as I wrapped my forehooves around her. It was weird to hear those words leave my muzzle, as surreal as it was when I’d admitted I cared for Buck. “It’s not exactly in the same way that I care for Buck, but that doesn’t mean I care any less about you.” No, Night. It's not weird to feel this way, it's the right thing to do. “But you're right, I have to try to change before I don't get a chance to.”

Hispano pulled herself away from my neck. I looked down at her, finding her wide waving, tear filled eyes brighten as a soft smile pulled across her beak. She sniffled as her wings perked slightly, and she tightened her talons around my sides as my words sunk in.

“You… you mean it?” She gasped. However, before I could respond, her glance shifted, and a fearful gaze filled her eyes.

“Let my daughter go.” Cora grunted from behind me. The familiar feeling of the barrel of a gun pressing back against my head sent a shiver down my spine. “Now.”

“Dad, wait…” Hispano gasped.

Turning my head back, I found Cora’s flat and annoyed glare locked right on me. My heart raced in my chest, and even though we were out in the frigid air, in that moment, I felt like the air around me had become boiling. It wasn’t from his anger however, rather the anger I felt boiling the blood in my own veins.

“No.” I grunted. I’ve been hassled far too long from Hispano about all of this, and now that I was pretty sure I realized how I really felt about her, this shit had to happen? Couldn’t I just have a few moments to get my own feelings sorted before someone came along and ruined them?

“Wrong answer.” Cora used his talon to draw back the hammer on his combat pistol, shoving it harder against the side of my head. “Care to try again?”

I’d expected Hispano to speak up. I wanted her to call him off like she had before. However, when I glanced back at her, she only strengthened her glare at him. She pulled herself closer to me, but kept her beak shut. Even if she’d made her choice to stand with me, maybe she realized that there was nothing that she could say to change his mind. That didn’t mean there wasn’t something I couldn’t say to at least try.

“Tell me,” I turned my own glare toward the battle scarred albino griffon. “Why are you so bitter?” My words didn’t even seem to have an effect on him. It was fine, I had plenty more to give. “I'm assuming that your wife was killed somehow, and that's when it started. Then when Suiza went, you shut yourself off from caring for anything, choosing to only focus on protecting Hispano.”

That pulled a smirk from him, but his stiff demeanor didn’t shift one bit.

“Figured that out all on your own, did you? Any foal could play connect the tragic dots.” With a grunt, his flat gaze became the same burning glare he’d given me yesterday. “I’d thought you’d be smarter than this. But even with figuring out all that, you still chose to be a stubborn, foolish pony.”

“Sure, figuring it out wasn’t hard, but it's you who seems to have forgotten how to care for Hispano.” My mind was back in the game, throwing that spitting accusation from my muzzle without a care in the world. As the words hit him however, he flinched.

“That’s enough from you.” He growled, adjusting his hold on his pistol and shoving it against my still bandaged head. I did my best not to whine as he dragged it along my healing half-ear. “You don't get to tell me how to deal with my daughter.”

“She's yours, right? As in, no one else's?” I spat at him, taking the pain in my head and doing my best to focus it on him. “That's your problem. You've spent so much time focused on your ‘job' that you don't even care to understand how she feels, or even look to see if she's happy, do you?”

“Of course I do!” He snapped back. His voice echoed through the snowy forest around us, and I could hear as those still up on the hauler clamored to see what was going on out here. “All I want is for her to feel happy and safe!“

“But I am happy, here with Night.” Hispano finally spoke up. She’d did her best to mirror his glare right back to him as she wrapped her wings around me. “It’s what I want.”

“You don’t know what you want.” Cora’s seething tone betrayed his own pain. But the words he’d chosen said more than he’d meant them to, but only because they were all too familiar.

“You know, if you’d asked me that yesterday, I’d have thought that way too.” The words didn’t so much slip out of my muzzle this time, as they were being fueled by everything that I realized I felt about Hispano. “But now, I can't be so sure that I don't know what I even want. And if either of us want to try to find that out together with Buck, then I'm not sure that I have a problem with that any more. The problem is with you however, Cora, and I was guilty of it as well. You know what you want for her, but it's not about how you feel about it anymore.” Turning my gaze down to Hispano, any number of guns pressed against my head couldn’t have kept the smile from my muzzle. “It's up to her to choose what she wants.”

“Is there a problem here?” Violet’s voice called out as she landed beside the three of us.

A pregnant pause filled the air as none of us moved or spoke another word. If it hadn’t been for the softly falling snow, I could've been convinced that time had in fact stopped. But as things like time tend to do, they continued forward without our say.

“No.” Cora groaned, finally pulling his gun away from my head. “I’m going to scout out ahead of the convoy. Tell Delilah to contact me on the radio if she needs anything.”

Flaring his wings, he jumped into the air and flapped hard. The falling snow flurried under his beating wings as he took off. In moments, he’d gone from holding me hostage, to disappearing over the treetops. Only then did I relax, and only then did I feel Hispano do the same.

“What was that all about?” Violet asked, looking off in the direction he went.

“Overprotective dad issues.” Hispano sighed as she slumped against me. “Nothing to be worried about, it won’t affect the quality of our work.”

“If you say so.” Violet rolled her eyes and pointed back to the hauler. “Well, if you two are done having a ‘moment’, then you might want to get saddled up. Delilah’s getting our Road Crew authorization, and then we’re back on the road in ten.”

“Alright.” I nodded and moved to get up. However, the moment I did, Hispano wrapped her talons around me again. Like yesterday, I found myself pulled into another tight hug I wasn’t prepared for. Though again, at least this one felt as good as the last.

“Thank you, Night.” She hummed softly against me. “For everything.” Opening my muzzle to tell her that I felt the same way, instead, my stomach took the thunder from the moment with a resounding gurgle. “And, moment over.” Hispano gave a chortling giggle as she released me, and I found myself join her in it. “Come on. Your crewmate made some pretty great omelettes earlier. Let’s go see if there’s any left.”

“Alright, sounds good.” I smiled, turning with her to head back to the convoy.

As I did, I looked up to the railing of the rec area. There, Buck stood with a contented smile across his jagged muzzle. He gave me a thumb claw up as we walked, and it forced a blush across my face. I knew my life with Hispano and Buck would certainly be complicated from yesterday on, but I think now I was going to be alright with that. Sure it was going to be a little rough, but we’d hang in there.

Actually, with the way things had been for the whole convoy, I think that everything was going to be alright.

Author's Notes:

Many MANY thanks to TheFurryRailfan for helping me to get this out today. Not only did he ensure that my recent cold didn't affect it's quality too much, but without him this chapter wouldn't be going up today at all. So seriously, man, thank you so much.