Five seconds. That’s how much time we had to react between their volleys.

“Zoomer, get Boiler’s axel gaurd down!” Delilah’s strained voice snapped over the coms. “Bombay, you and Hispano get down to Boiler, then get over to those tanks and…”

Her voice was obscured as another of the rounds from the two pursuing tanks went off right behind Bertha. Bits of roadway and hot shrapnel showered the floor of the Rec area as I struggled to get my saddle on. Even though combat was becoming familiar, my legs were shaking so much that it was hard to pull up my saddle. All the while, I was counting in my head.

Four. Five.

BOOM!

The stubby howitzer on the BT-42 barked and let off an arching shot. The air shook as the shot again landed just short of Bertha’s tires. Another spray of debris sprinkled the deck around me.

Violet streaked past, using the time between shots to unhook one of the chains that sat pinned up by Laika’s capsule. She gave a grunt over our headset as she ripped out a metal pin and pushed herself away. With a loud slam, the floor under my hooves vibrated as if we’d lost the whole damn underside of Bertha.

“Plate’s down!” Violet called out. “I'm going to take out those fuckers.”

BOOM!

A flash from Guinness and Zibar’s tank preempted a screaming shot flying above us.

“Negative, Zoomer.” Delilah’s sharp voice made me wince as I finally got the last of my straps on. “Don't do anything that would endanger the crew. Solomon is still looking for an excuse to justify murdering all of us.”

Pushing myself to move, I nearly threw myself down into the ice hold. Another resounding blast carried through the air. This time, it was replaced by another gong-like noise similar to what I’d heard during the attack by the Whitehorse Militia.

“Then can we at least kill the other guys!?” Hispano grunted as she too flopped down into the cover of the hold. Quickly, we burst across the small space and threw open the door to the front of Bertha.

“Negative.” Delilah’s answers were sounding infuriatingly similiar now! Great! “We don't need all of Cordite on us either. Kill them if you have to, but do what you can to disable them first. Boiler’s got something for that.”

As she said that, Boiler trotted out from the ammo storage cage up front with a few bulky looking grenades cradled in her forehoof. Another shot rang out off of whatever metal plate that Violet had lowered, and the three of us cringed as we felt the metal resonating under our hooves.

“These are thermite charges!” Boiler called out as she began to swap out my normal allotment of grenades. “Put them in places where there’s moving parts, and then get out of there, got it?” Looking up at her, I gave her a firm nod. To which, she sharply jabbed at my chest. “Do not put them over the engine unless you want a steam explosion to cook both you and them alive!”

“Got it…!” I tried to respond, only to get cut off by a blast of fire coming from overhead. Buck and I’s container shifted a few inches outward as bits of flaming tarp flopped over the side of it.

“Shit, Hardcase!” Violet cried out.

“I’m alright!” Hardcase groaned. “Landed in the Rec area. They got my gun mount, and most of the container it was attached to. Sorry Boiler!”

“Where’s that distraction I asked for?” Delilah’s angry voice made me jump. As I did, I felt Hispano’s talon grab around my side and yank me toward the open edge of the Hauler. Putting my hooves onto the railing, I kicked off and spread my wings. It wasn’t a launch from the Dizzitron, but the speed at which Bertha was moving helped to give me some altitude. Getting my forehooves into position, I rolled myself around, and aimed myself right at the pursuing vehicles.

“Alright, they didn’t have co-axial guns last time I saw their tanks, so we’ve just got to avoid the cannon fire from the front.” Hispano called out as she came up alongside me. Looking at the menacing armored vehicles approaching, I watched and waited for the next shot. “Five seconds to intercept!”

BOOM!

The air between Hispano and I shattered as the tank round shot past us. It caught me by surprise, and the distortion it caused nearly pulled me straight down toward the pavement. I tried my best to correct it, but it had cost me a few feet in altitude. It wasn’t much, but at this rate, I’d be on the ground by the time we reached them. So instead, I tilted a few degrees forward to maintain my airspeed.

“Dum Dum, you’re too low!” Hispano squawked in my ear.

“I can make it.” My heart pounded against my chest, as the ground drew closer. Five feet, four feet. The boxy tan tank that had seemed so far off just moments ago loomed bigger than ever ahead of me. The noise of it’s rattling armor and tracks nearly drowned out everything as I squinted, focusing on just when to act.

“Night!” Hispano snapped at me. She slammed down onto the top of Guinness and Zibar’s tank, dropping Suiza before raising her Talons out to me. Goddesses, I hope I don’t miss!

Torquing my wings up, I arched my back and pulled for altitude. At the same time, I pulled my forelegs closer, and let my rear legs hang. The air around me acted like a net as I strained to keep my wings from folding back. My body compressed against the air, and the world around me went black and white for a moment before the calamitous sound of the tank filled my ears.

A force ripped me down hard, and my head bounced painfully off the rattling metal plates of the tank.

“You fucking idiot!” Hispano spat at me, letting go of my harness. “What were you thinking going that low? What if I didn’t catch you!?”

The rest of the world returned to me as I shook off my rough landing. Looking up from my place on the tank, I could once again see the odd armor bulges that ran along the turret of Guinness and Zibar’s tank. Along with that, was the red painted lettering that read Remember El Alemane! Oh, how I didn’t miss seeing those letters while nearly unconscious on this tank…

BOOM!

The BT-42’s howitzer fired off again, and I could feel the heat it gave off wash over my body as I sat back up. Right, we had a job to do. It was about then that I felt a heavy and very cold piece of metal press down across my back.

“That’s enough out of you!” Hispano growled as she racked the bolt on Suiza. “You’re not the best bracing, but you’re all I’ve got, so you might want to hold still, Night!” Realizing what was about to happen, I threw my hooves up over my ears and pulled my wings shut tight.

You know, back at the Depot in Destruction Bay, I was surprised to learn that Suiza could fire in full auto mode. It had been a frightening thought to me that a cannon like this could fire off a dozen rounds a in couple seconds or so, but that was before I’d felt what that was like. Now? I was terrified.

Suiza chattered in one second bursts. Each pulse of shots felt like a dozen hugs from Jean mixed together with the jumbled feeling of my insides after a run on the Dizzitron. Still, even though I was being absolutely battered by the enormous gun, I watched in awe as Hispano’s shots sparked off of the two tracked sides of the BT-42.

Whether through luck or skill, Hispano’s four bursts absolutely tattered the tracks. With a rending shriek, both quickly running tracks stripped away from around the suspension of the small tank. I smiled and felt a bit of relief as both the tracks were gone, and Hispano pulled the sizzling, warm barrel away from my side.

We watched as the BT-42 faltered in it’s pace for a moment, it’s suspension shifting under the unsupported weight of the tank. I’d almost hoped that it would lean too far to one side and flop over onto the road. That ghoul commander and his crew had been nice enough in Destruction Bay, but now? They could fucking die for all I cared.

“Wait…” I could almost feel as Hispano’s jaw dropped. As if the ghoul and his crew simply willed it not to, the suspension stiffened under the small tank, and the naked wheels pulled the vehicle along at an even faster pace than before. “It can drive on it’s road wheels!?” She screamed out, hammering Suiza back against the turret sitting behind her. “That’s not fucking fair!”

“Only on smooth roads. Bertha's too big for them to get around with this terrain, so they're stuck following behind us.” Delilah’s calm voice held more than the hint of frustration that had been in it before. “But unfortunately, that’s also why Bessy is stuck up front, so Howitzer and I can’t help.”

Almost as if they’d heard that admission, I watched in frustrated silence as the BT-42 actually picked up speed. In a matter of moments, it had passed Guinness and Zibar’s tank, and was steadily approaching the smoking rear of the Hauler. As it did, the cannon sitting just feet in front of us went off. I was blinded by the flash, and it left me with the after image of the red words on the side of the turret burned into my mind again.

“Going to ask them to play nice, or are you going to stop the one you’re sitting on already!?” Voilet’s voice called out into our ears. With a purple flash, Violet dipped down out of the sky. Her twin rifles barked in quick succession, punching a few holes in the rear top armor of the BT-42. Her shots made the small tank swerve slightly, and in doing so it lost a bit of ground.

“Violet’s right.” I grunted as I got up. Lifting my wing up, I nearly shoved myself against the furious griffon next to me. “Help me get these charges placed!”

Yanking two of them from my side, Hispano shoved one of the round charge-things into my muzzle. Spinning around, I looked for a place that I could put it down. The bouncing exhaust cap to the engine roared open, and the whole tank under us shifted. Hispano and I both whined as we lost our hoofing and slammed down onto the deck. I made the mistake of crying out, and my charge flew from my muzzle. I watched in annoyance as it bounced along the back of the tank, and rolled off onto the ground behind us.

Shit.

“Right here, Bombay!” Hispano spoke up. “Help me pull up this access plate!” She called out from the front corner of the tank. As she turned around to me, there was an electric whine that filled the air around us. With a greater speed that I would have thought possible, the turret of the tank swiveled around.

Hispano was quick to hop up over it, but I was still getting my hooves under me again as it spun. I tried to push myself up and over the barrel, but as I lifted my legs, my saddle harness and prosthetic leg snagged around the end of the barrel. Quickly, I found myself hooked and dragged around as the turret continued its spin around over the other side of the tank. There, it stopped when I was dangling over the side of the tank, and only a few feet up off of the speeding pavement below me.

“Hah, I got one of them!” An unfamiliar voice came in over our headset. Wait, had they been fucking listening to us this whole time!? “Should I drag her back and let the suspension deal with her, or force her to slide off the end of our gun, Guinness?” Looking over at the quickly spinning parts of their tank, the rusted tracks looked to me like a giant bandsaw at this speed, and the road wheels looked an awful lot like enormous sawblades.

Panic set in as I moved to unhook my harness. If the choice was either getting pushed into that, or scraped along the road, I’d take my chances with the road any day. I froze up as another resounding shot from Suiza sparked off the back end of their turret.

“Sorry,” Hispano grumbled as she pulled Suiza back and set it on top of the turret. “Looks like you made a poor choice.”

“Yer wee’ cannon canne do a damn thing ta our tank.” Guinness's voice filled my ears with a laugh, and it filled my body with anger. “Zibar, quit messing around and deal with the bitch so we can get back ta shootin’ tha bastards!”

The turret gave out another electric whine, and instantly I moved to unhook myself. However, the turret gave a violet shake for a moment, but didn’t budge from its orientation. Another few whines and shakes later, and still nothing. In that moment, I think I was just about as confused as Zibar was...

“What the…” Zibar’s annoyance bled through my headset. “Awww, come on! She’s fucking jammed!”

“Twenty mil shot to the turret ring will do that.” Hispano cooed as she gave a few knocks against the top hatch. “Better luck next time, boys.”

“You little…” Guinness’s insult was cut off by another resounding gong-like hit from the BT-42 as it rolled right up behind Bertha. As the noise bled off, his insult had been replaced with laughter. “Hah. We’ll see how yer cheeky armored plate fares when Ole’ Poppy get’s his cannon right up into yer underside!”

Looking up, I was helpless to do anything but watch as the small tank did just that. The stubby howitzer was elevated to the point that it was sticking nearly straight up. With another bright flash, the underside of Bertha disappeared in a fireball and a cloud of smoke. Sparks and the sound of scraping metal filled the air ahead.

Through the clearing haze and the smell of burned cordite, the BT-42 was forced back by the enormously heavy metal plate still hanging on to the underside of Bertha by a single hinge. The massive armored plate still mostly obscured the axle behind it, but it wasn’t going to take another hit from that howitzer.

“You stop them now or we lose that plate and we’re finished.” Delilah growled over her mike. “Whatever the cost. Get. it. Done.”

“On it, Ma’am.” Hispano called back, hoisting up Suiza and using the turret in front of her as a brace this time. “I’ll stop them for good.” Her words themselves were cold, unfeeling.

It felt wrong to hear her say that, to just be ready to kill them just that easily. But what could we do? I watched as the battered and weakened plate swung like a pendulum, bouncing in time with the BT-42 as it hit each bump in the road. It was like watching the internals on a clock, physically ticking down the seconds until either the end of our journey, or theirs.

It was then that my eyes were pulled up to another swinging object. Laika’s pod strained against the chains that held it up, bouncing with each bump as well… right over the BT-42. Something in my head clicked, and even before I knew it, the words had already left my muzzle.

“Hispano!” I cried out. “The chains on Laika's capsule! It’s a pendulum!”

Her eyes darted from me, back toward the hauler before they lit up. “Get wrecked, suckers!”

In an instant, she tensed up and pulled the trigger. Suiza let of a quick chatter of shots, punching through the high tech, but relatively armorless space capsule. One of the chains holding it up sparked and snapped violently, letting gravity take it for one last ride. Like a billion equestrian bit wrecking ball, it’s momentum slammed it against the side of the BT-42.

The already overtaxed suspension of the light tank couldn’t handle the weighty hit, and the whole of it was thrown onto it’s side. In a spectacular fashion, the tank crashed down onto the pavement, sparking as it drifted and skidded off the side of the road into the snow covered vegetation.

“Holy shit…” Violet’s giggling voice came over our headsets. “It’s a grand slam, and it’s going, going... it’s gone, folks!” I honestly couldn’t understand a single thing Violet meant with her words, but both Hispano and I found her infectious laughter bring smiles to each of us. Of course, it didn’t last.

“To my crew, keep your muzzles shut. To the idiots in the other tank,” Delilah’s voice was seething with rage. “I’m going to ask you this once, so you take a good long second to think about this.” Even clinging on to this barrel as hard as I could as it were, the anger in her voice was more than I’d ever heard on this trip so far, and it legitimately shook me to my core to hear. “Is this worth your life? Is whatever Solomon promised you worth continuing to come after us? Or should we just stop you now and be done with your pathetic attempts.” With a click, Delilah’s voice dropped off, and the heavy noise that the tank Hispano and I rode on filled our ears again.

Looking over, I watched as Hispano held the thermite charge in her talon, with her claw through the pin. Glancing over to me, she offered me a sad look, before slowly pulling her claw away from the pin. My ears perked under my coms helmet as another crackle came over it.

“No.” Guinness’s voice came over flatly. With a jolt that threw Hispano and I forward slightly, the tank began to slow down. Slower and slower we moved, watching Bertha speed off down the road away from us until we finally came to a complete stop. “Ten thousand bits isn’t worth it, not anymore.”

It… was over. Just like that, we’d beaten them, and they knew it.

“I say,” The gravely voice of the BT-42’s ghoul commander came over with a crackle. “Is that all you were getting paid? Didn’t you say you’ve been working for this chap for a few years now?” Again, how the hell did they even get these comms channels!? Am I the only one who liked to stick to a single channel!? “The caps you offered us were low for a job, and we only accepted because we were already going to be headed south anyway. If I had anything to say about it, I’d suggest you boys come work with us at Cordite! You’ll definitely find it more lucrative than what you’re making now.”

“I assume this is the Cordite crew?” Delilah snapped. “Are we going to have problems from you as well?”

“Negative on that, Convoy lead. I’m afraid to say our vehicle is well out of commission. In fact, we’ll have to break out the old flare gun and give the recovery crew at Pink Mountain a little signal.” The ghoul’s tone was hard to surmise over the radio with his gravelly voice, but he did give off a stiff laugh as well. “But I say, you gave us quite the real wallop there. Good show of ingenuity!”

“Okay.” Delilah’s sighed, seeming to relax through her words in a way that even forced me relax a bit. “Well, everypony stop here for now. I need the Doc to get in Bessy as soon as possible. We need to go back for Lucky.” The image of the runner getting tossed around like that… I wasn’t sure what Delilah had hoped to find. “Violet, Hispano, Night. You three detain those tanker idiots until I decide what to do with them. They just better hope that Lucky is still alive when we get back to him.”

“Alright, Dum Dum.” Hispano smirked. “Stop hanging around, it’s time to get back to work.”

Tugging at my harness, I fumbled at one of the latches that held it onto me. Unfortunately, between the cold air and the fact that the adrenaline was now draining from my system, my other hoof slipped. I gave out a yelp as I dropped off the barrel, and my caught harness went taut around me. Swinging upside down, I offered the face-taloning Hispano a nervous smile.

“Uh… a little help?”

You know, other than the fact that we lost the tarp, and there was a hoof sized hole punched into this side of Boiler and Gearbox’s container, Bertha hadn’t emerged from the fight too worse for the wear. Though, I guess we did lose Hardcase’s gun mount, and the wall facing the rec area was the only part of their container to survive, so it could have gone better.

“Hey, um…” Zibar whispered and leaned over to me from his place on the couch. He cupped his bound forehooves together and lowered his voice a bit as he spoke. “About the whole… drag you into the suspension thing…” He paused, as Guinness gave an annoyed grunt, but continued giving me a nervous look. “You aren’t going to hold that against me… are you?”

“No.” I sighed and facehooved hard. “As much as I’d like to, I’m not going to hurt either of you.”

“Plus as I hear it, he did hit you in the chest with a cannon breech up at Fort Mac.” Violet called out with a fluttering beat of her wings. “Still wish I could have been there to see it happen.” Coming in slow from her trip out to the runner, she pulled my attention out behind Bertha, where Bessy was quickly coming up the road towards us. From the fact that it wasn’t even being towed, I was pretty sure we could write it off as completely totaled.

“Hey!” Gearbox whined as he scrambled up the stairs from the ice hold. His eyes were bloodshot from the stream of tears still flowing from them, and his whole body trembled as he tried to even stay standing. “Is… is my brother alright?”

“The good news is he’s alive.” Violet nodded as she came down onto the railing of the rec area next to him. Putting her hoof on his trembling shoulder, she gave him a few pats. “He’ll be okay, the Doc is doing his best with him as we speak.”

“See hun, I told yah he’d be fine.” Boiler spoke up weakly from the stairs behind him. “Your brother is too stubborn to die.”

“Yeah.” Gearbox gave a soft laugh before wiping his tears away with his peg leg. “Yeah, I should have listened to you. I was just… so scared I’d lost him…” His words drifted away as his eyes swung over and met with Zibar’s nervous gaze. “You… bastards!”

Even before I’d had a chance to act, Gearbox, our normally completely laid back drug addict zebra, charged at our hostages. It all happened so fast, that I hadn’t even had time to speak up before he was inches away from strangling the life from Zibar. However, Violet moved with him, and managed to restrain him just long enough for Boiler to climb up and help to pull her husband back.

“Hey!” Boiler snapped at him. I’d never seen somepony who looked that determined, or as filled with rage as Gearbox was in that moment. “Calm yourself, Xolani. It’s over.” That is of course, until she said that. In an instant, I felt just as confused as Gearbox looked.

“Don’t...” Gearbox sniffled as he was tugged straight back into Boiler’s hooves, “You know I hate that name…”

“Yes, but in my defence, you weren’t listening.” Boiler sighed, sitting down hard before looking up directly at me. “That, and they won’t ever repeat that name again. Right?”

“Yeah.” Violet spoke as she stepped up and gave me a poke in the side. I gave both her and Boiler a quick nod, still trying to understand why Gearbox didn’t like that name. Or moreso, how it had taken this long for me to even hear his real name in the first place. “Lucky and the others will be back here in just a moment, okay? Why don’t you two go calm down in his container for a while? The doc will come and get you when Lucky’s well enough to see you, alright?”

“Yeah, come on, hun.” Boiler grunted, practically hoisting Gearbox up onto her back. Gearbox began to sob softly again as she carried them into Happy and Lucky’s container, shutting the door behind them.

The sound of Bessy driving along the road built up as they pulled around the side of Bertha and came to a stop. A flutter from above me caught my attention, and I watched as Hispano dipped down from the cloud that her Father was staying in. She pointed off down the road, waving for me to follow her. I was hoping she didn’t want to fly too far, or talk about anything too important. I was kinda already emotionally and physically spent for the day already, and I didn’t need to find anymore trouble, or deal with any more drama. As I got to my hooves, I felt as Violet put her own hoof on my side.

“Hey,” She said, literally pulling my attention to her. “Don’t be gone long, alright? Be careful.”

Giving her a nod, I spread my wings and trotted toward the back of the rec area. With a hop, I pushed off, and took flight down the road again. As I stiffened my forehooves for flight and mouthed over the bit for my battle saddle, I was joined by Hispano. A sharp bang in the distance preempted a brilliant pink flare shooting into the sky, and I was pretty sure of exactly where Hispano was wanting to go.

“Komentaja, joku on tulossa!” The voice of a stallion came from through the trees. Hispano and I barely had time to even register it before there was a crack as loud as Suiza normally was.

Pulling for altitude, both Hispano and I peeled off in different directions. And here I’d thought I was done getting shot at for the day! Still, if they wanted to shoot at us, that was fine by me! Arcing myself back around toward where the shot had come from, I moved my tongue over the trigger for my grenades.

“What are you doing!? Cease fire immediately!” Another, raspy voice shouted. “Damnit, Quick Fire! Get ahold of yourself. They could be attempting to bring us aid, for all you know.”

Because of my hesitation to attack back, I was forced to either run myself into the trees, or to torque myself hard to the side. I felt my forehooves scrape against a few of the slushy snow covered branches as I arched my flight back around toward the road, barely missing impaling myself onto them. The heavy snow laden branches dropped their white payloads down toward the ground, pulling a muffled but angry sounding curse when they hit.

“There’s no need to be rude when there is much worse they could have dropped on you.” The scratchy voice quickly approached from the trees just off the side of the road. I traced the sound back to the toppled form of the BT-42 resting mostly obscured in the foliage about thirty feet up the road. The khaki uniformed ghoul who’d I’d seen with the BT-42 both times before looked slightly disheveled as he trotted onto the asphalt, but still had a stiff and proud air to him as he walked. “Ahoy there!” He smiled and waved. Poppy was the name he’d given back in Destruction Bay, right? He seemed so by the book before that I’m sure he’ll just tell me again. “Don’t mind my gunner’s nastiness, he’s still just a bit sore about losing the fight is all. He won’t be a problem again, I assure you.”

“That’s good to hear.” Hispano spoke as she came around and dropped down onto the road ahead of him. I continued my long bank around, trying to drain off my speed before lining up to come in next to her. She gave out a laugh as she hefted Suiza up onto her back, pointing over to a pair of angry blue eyes peering out from under the pile of wet snow I’d dropped from the tree above. “Though, I wasn’t really worried. Not many out in the wasteland can handle something as big as a twenty millimeter, but I’d be willing to give him a few pointers if he wanted.”

“Miten kehtaat sanoa, että!” The pony shouted as he burst up out of the slushy snow. “Aiotko antaa hänen loukata minua noin, komentaja?” The angry grey coated unicorn ghoul was clad in cold weather gear, and hefted up a small tree in his hooves as he used his magic to brush himself off. No… not a tree, but a rifle that was nearly twice as long as he was. Celestia, it was even bigger than Suiza, and sported its own pair of short olive green skis as a bi-pod!

“Well, she’s going to keep insulting you so long as she can’t understand you. Act like a proper gentle stallion and speak to them in common Equestrian, ymmärtää?” Poppy glared at him before giving a stiff stomp. The snow laden ghoul gave a hesitant nod of admission before Poppy seemed to relax a little bit. “I swear to Celestia that after two centuries, I would have thought they’d have a better understanding of proper conversational manners.” Turning to us, he threw his rotten forehoof up in a stiff salute. “But you must excuse me while I find my own manners. I am Poppy Gardener, Captain for Her late Majesty's fourth Royal Armored Regiment, and attache to the second Scandineighvian division.” Holding his hoof out to me, he seemed to pause for a moment as he looked over me.

“Yes, we’ve met before, back in Destruction Bay.” I nodded, taking his hoof and giving it a shake. I bit my tongue, resisting the urge to cringe with how squishy his flesh felt. It had sunk into me that, while I might have been alright with the concept of intelligent ghouls during my time in the wastes so far, actually being around them was something I still wasn’t quite comfortable with…

“Ah, right! You were the fine mare that Mr. Guinness wanted to start a brawl with.” He let out a raspy laugh at that before turning and grabbing onto Hispano’s talon. Giving it a hearty shake, he wore a wider smile than I’d expected from him. “Yes, now I can see exactly why he was simply infuriated at you lot. You’ve got a real knack for beating the odds, you know that?”

“Uh… thanks?” Hispano spoke with words that I couldn’t have uttered more accurately. “Actually, I came out here to ask if you were serious about giving those two fools a job.” Wait… what? I looked over to Hispano, who seemed to noticed my glare, but ignored it anyway. “Look, they may be a pair of bumbling idiots in a tank, but I’m sure you could train them to be better.” Why would she defend those two like that!? “Plus, it would mean a lot to our convoy to know that they weren’t gunning for our flanks.”

“Well,” Poppy groaned, brushing at the stiff and well trimmed mustache adorning the end of his muzzle. “I’d have to discuss it with my superiors of course, but it would prove to be quite the catch if it did work out. With as rare as they are these days, their Centaur with it’s Trottingham-built Meteor class spell reactor would be quite an invaluable addition to Cordite!” Pulling his hoof up, he gave a tap at his head as he beamed a rotten smile at us. “And I can assure you that despite coming out on the losing side, they are quite skillful tankers. It’s far harder than one might think to be effective with only two crew members. Their gunner, Mr. Zibar, was keeping up with Quick Fire and I effortlessly in the fight, and Mr. Guinness could almost keep a better running pace with your convoy than Short Shift could!”

“Olen kuullut, että!” Another raspy voice came from the wrecked tank behind Poppy. “Olin yksinkertaisesti kohtelias antamalla heille johtoon!”

“I know, Shifty, I did say almost, didn’t I? Do fire off another flare to see if you can catch the recovery team’s eye, will you?” Poppy called back before giving a gurgling grunt that sounded like a hoof scraping on a chalkboard to me. “Things being as they are, am I correct in assuming that your crew will be heading up to the Pink Mountain lodge for the evening?”

That… was a good question. I actually didn’t know what the plan was. Looking over to Hispano, she gave me a shrug before looking back at Poppy.

“I don’t quite know, but your attack hurt our friend pretty badly. So that’s probably a safe bet.” Hispano sighed, pulling Suiza back down into her talons. “If you happen to head up there and we’re still around, it might be worth talking with Mrs. Delilah about taking in those two numbskulls. However, for now we’ve got to get back to our convoy.”

“Yes, well I will definitely look into it should we arrive in time.” Poppy stamped his hoof before stiffly saluting us again. Seriously, it was getting to be a bit much for me to be saluted this much. “Best of luck to your recovering compatriot, and safe travels.”

“You too.” The words slipped out of my muzzle before I’d realized it. Quickly shifting and getting myself turned around, I pushed myself up to a trot before I could facehoof myself again. Almost instantly, Hispano was keeping pace at my side, albeit from the air. Still, the further we got from Poppy and his crew, the more the question itched and nagged in my mind. Until of course, it too just slipped out of my muzzle. “Why would you defend those two assholes?”

“Well…” Hispano almost looked hurt at the question. From the way she shifted her gaze away, I knew that maybe I’d come off sounding a little too harsh with that. “I mean… I’ve been listening in on your conversations long enough now, and I figured that with what Delilah’s likely to do, this would help Buck come to like me a bit more.”

“What does that have to do with them?” Now I was just confused. “Wait… you wanted to spare them because you thought Delilah might kill them?”

“Not kill, but hurt.” Hispano gave a frustrated growl as she tensed up. “Er… you know what I mean.” With a sigh, she brought herself down onto the ground and up to a trotting pace with me. “I just… as a talon, my training means I should have killed them, but I… couldn’t even bring myself to use that thermite grenade. It still feels… wrong to just let them sit there as prisoners. I’m so paranoid that they’ll fight, and everything I am tells me to just end their lives so I can finally relax.”

It’s true. Part of me did expect them to get the jump on us and try to escape. But while they did make me nervous, as little as I even knew them, they didn’t strike me as the kind of ponies to strike out. It didn’t feel to me like it did with Mrs. Tapit, or with Dizzy. The only thing that seemed to matter to them was their tank, and who paid them. And with the idea of them working for Cordite, there wasn’t a reason to do anything but let them go really.

“I understand, Hispano, I really do.” Unfurling my wing, I stretched it out over her and used it to pull her closer. She tensed up at the action, and shared a blush with me as a smile returned to her beak. “And I think you’re right. While it’s nerve wracking to have them around, I think that letting them work for Cordite is going to be the best outcome for all of us.”

“Really?” She asked, resting her head on my neck as we trotted along. “I guess… it’ll be easier to deal with if we’re all keeping an eye on them anyway.”

“Yeah. We’re in this together, so we’ll all keep an eye on them.” I nodded, keeping my hopes up that in pushing Delilah to do this, it wouldn’t come back to bite us in the flank. Then again… “Who knows though if they’ll even go for working with Cordite. I mean, it can’t hurt to have a few favors laying around from tankers who owe us their jobs, right?”

“Well here’s hoping we don’t fucking need those morons.” She laughed as she both seemed to relax and slow herself down to a walk. “But with Solomon and his shitheads still somewhere ahead, I really do hope we don’t need them…”

For as strong as they’d become, my wings were already killing me from their use today. Still, I’d managed my normal, short gliding flights that helped to keep them from cramping up. Now that I thought about it, with the Runner pretty much scrapped, I wasn’t quite sure how exactly I was going to do my job from here on out. I really hoped that Delilah didn’t make me just wing it up into the air...

Overall, we hadn’t been gone all that long. However, by the time we’d gotten back to the hauler, Boiler seemed to have gotten Bertha’s reactor up and running. So either Lucky was well enough for us to get on the move again and they were just taking their time, or Hispano and I had been holding them back. Hardcase caught my attention and gave the two of us a wave from the Rec area. Using a set of tools he held in his magic, he once again secured the twisted and crumpled remains of what once had been Laika’s state of the art space pod. I cringed as it made a particularly loud groan as it was finally reattached. Oh, I really hope that Laika didn’t want that thing back when we got down south to her…

“Hey, Night.” Hispano nudged me with her wing. She pointed along the side of Bertha’s massive wheels to where Delilah and Happy were standing. She gave us a stiff nod before reaching over and pointing up toward the reactor deck. I’d wondered if she wanted to talk about something, but from the way she turned around and headed back toward Bessy, I figured that she just wanted us on board so she could get us moving again.

Pumping my wings, I whined as I dragged myself higher into the air again. It was alright, only a little bit further to go, and then I could take a nice, long break! Hispano seemed to notice my effort and simply rolled her eyes, hoisting her sister up closer to her before giving a single, big flap that was enough to propel her straight onto the deck ahead. Goddesses, I hated when other fliers did that. But it’s fine, you know what they say! Thrust isn’t everything.

Panting heavily, I finally flapped my way up and over the railing of the reactor deck. However, the moment I did, my wings gave out and I collapsed flat onto the deck. Still, I’d made it home, and could now just let the magical humming reactor carry me off for a well deserved nap. Of course, that would be if my racing heart and screaming lungs would calm down for one Celestia damned moment!

“Geeze, we’re going to have to work on that stamina of yours. What are your wings made of that makes them so flimsy?” Hispano squawked with a wide, sly smile. “I heard you last night too, you know. What, you’ll give Buck your best, but not for me?” I was too busy panting on the deck to give her a vocal response, so my over dramatic eyeroll would have to do. Yeah, take that! “Fine. Maybe I’ll go and see if Buck’s willing to put in more of an effort than you.”

“Hey,” Happy’s voice perked my ears, pulling my exhausted gaze over to the door to the icehold. “You alright there, Night? Can’t keep it up anymore for the ladies?”

“Ha! That was a good one” Hispano snorted before jabbing a talon at Happy’s red floral print shirt. “But back off, buster. Nopony makes fun of my coltfriend but me, got it?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Happy brushed off her talon with a relaxed smile before looking back at me. “She’s a real cool cat, you know that? Nice catch with that one.” Giving a short laugh, he carefully stepped over me and toward… the driver’s cab?

“You’re driving?” I managed to push out through my labored breaths.

“You know, I’m not sure what offends me more, Night.” Happy snorted as he opened the hatch to the armored cab. “The fact that you don’t think I can drive this thing, or that you’re the only one who can get a night off for getting hurt.” With a huff, he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. After a moment more of just catching my breath, the reactor beside Hispano and I thrummed louder, and Bertha’s massive form began to slowly trundle down the long mountain road again.

“Why don’t we go see how your friend is doing up there?” Hispano smiled as she reached down with her talon to me.

Offering her a smile in return, I reached out and did my best to hold onto her. My muscles protested moving again so soon after we’d gotten back, but she had a good enough point. With a groaning push, my legs lifted me with her help, and I managed to get myself standing again. My wings of course weren’t having any of it, and still lay draped over my sides, but they were the real heroes today, and they too had earned their rest.

Though, as with most things, it didn’t seem so bad once I got moving again. Pushing our way into the Icehold, I nearly stumbled over a box that was sitting next to the door. Looking around, I found that most of what remained of Boiler and Gearbox’s stuff had been moved down into the dark room. Actually, sitting in the corner was a large bed, with the sleeping form of Boiler curled up on it.

“Well, I mean, I guess their room did kind of explode.” Hispano snirked quietly, pulling a soft laugh from me as well.

“Yeah, that’s true.” I whispered back to her, finally feeling confident to stand on my own again. The two of us wound our way around a surprising amount of boxes and different things. A box of various herbs that gave off a rank smell, a box of oddly shaped glass tubes… an entire dark wood armoire stocked with Boiler sized wartime dresses? It made me wonder just how all this stuff fit in their old container in the first place, and made me realize that I’d never actually gone in there at all, really! Still, oddities aside, I was glad that for now at least, everypony was alright.

Climbing the stairs up to the Rec area, I squinted as the sun shone down right through where the tarp had been. Flaps of it still wavered in the air as we drove, giving off intermittent slaps as the wind would throw them against the other containers. Among those snaps, I heard a soft sniffle from the couch.

“Gearbox.” The words slipped out of my muzzle as I saw him staring blankly at the glowing set of toasters warming him from the floor. He didn’t even look up when I spoke, he just sat there with a blank look in his eyes. “Hey, it’s going to be alright…” My words dropped out as I noticed the many dark red lines that ran along the floor. It was unmistakably blood, and unlike the single trail that Violet had left when she’d been hurt, the copious, uneven, and random nature of the lines gave off a far different picture.

“You didn’t see him…” Gearbox sniffled before he broke down into soft sobs again.

I couldn’t do anything for him. There wasn’t a thing in the world that I could say. As Both Hispano and I climbed up out of the Rec area, at least she seemed to notice something I hadn’t.

“Where’d those two idiots go?” She asked, walking and looking over the back railing of the Hauler. “You didn’t throw them overboard, did you?”

“No,” Gearbox whimpered. “Those assholes are locked up in Delilah’s room, sitting there, while my brother...” That was understandably as far as he’d made it before crying again.

Walking over, I did the only thing I could and sat down next to him. Immediately, he all but threw himself onto me, crying and squeezing me tightly. It was oddly nice to have him feel like he trusted me enough as a friend that he could find comfort in a hug, but I couldn’t help but feel that thunder had been stolen by the current circumstances. Still, I reached my hooves around and hugged him back, as Hispano came over and perched herself on the couch next to me.

And there we waited for the next hour. Now and again Hardcase would peer down from atop his and Violet’s container to check on us, and Violet herself would swoop in to give Gearbox a quick hug before going back out on patrol.

Among all the fighting, all the excitement, and the tension during my time in the wasteland, as we sat there, I was reminded of just how painful this could be. That feeling of helplessness, when there is nothing that can be done to fix what had happened. My father and I had spent almost a whole day sitting like this on our couch after we got the news about mom. And even with as much as I’d been able to move on from both my parents now, that pain still resonated inside me.

The only comfort I felt at all, was from having Hispano and Gearbox with me. In fact, through all my rough moments on this trip, the only comfort I’d even had was from those here who I could call my friends and family. I wasn’t sure if it had made a difference for Gearbox right now, but if there was any chance that it did, then it was worth doing.

The lock to Buck and I’s container noisily flipped open. The three of us on the couch perked up, turning our gazes over to the door as it opened. An exhausted looking Buck stepped out and shut it again behind him, seeming to pause for a moment before looking over the three of us. With a long, deep breath, he reached out and gave Gearbox a pat on the side.

“He’s alright, for the moment.” Buck spoke with a sigh that felt like it physically blew away the tension from my body. “But there are… complications, and he refused to even hear any of it until he talked to you first.”

“Can…” Gearbox sniffled, pulling away from Hispano and I. “Can I see him?”

“Yeah, just don’t touch him, alright?” Buck nodded as he opened the door again. “It took most of our supplies to even get him stable again, so I don’t want to have to fix anything else.”

“Just let him through already, Doc.” Lucky’s soft voice croaked out with a gravelly tone not unlike the one that Poppy had.

Gearbox, Hispano and I all moved into the container. There, laid out on Hispano’s bed and heavily wrapped in bloodstained bandages, was a stiff looking Lucky. His foreleg stump was now matched by one about as short as mine on his rear right flank, and there were dark lines of stitching that ran across the few bits of his puffy and bruised sides that were visible from under the copious bandages. Along with those around most of his body, the entirety of his head save for the end of his muzzle was wrapped as well.

“You look like a mummy.” Gearbox gave a sobbing laugh as he stepped up and held his hoof out.

“Hey, remember! No touching!” Buck chimed out, making Gearbox hesitate.

“Are you alright, brother?” Gearbox asked as he sat down next to the bed.

“It hurts… a lot…” Lucky groaned before the hint of a smile crept across the bit of his muzzle we could see. “Think the scars I’ll have from this will finally give me a shot at getting all the mares now? That’s what they like, scars, right?” Gearbox laughed, and as much as it hurt to watch this go on, a smile and laugh came across my muzzle. I couldn’t believe it, even with as bad off as he was, he still had optimism. “Is that Night I hear with you as well? What are you laughing at? Did you really think you could selfishly keep all the misfortune and injuries to yourself?” He gave out a hacking cough with that that left him groaning. “On second thought… you can have them all.”

“So then,” Gearbox sniffled, finally wearing a genuine smile across his teary eyed face. “What did you want to talk with him about, Doc?”

“Yeah, what’s the damage?” Lucky whined as he struggled to turn his bandaged head toward the door.

“Well, it’s not good.” Buck sighed and slouched as he spoke. “Really, it's quite amazing you survived the crash at all from what I could see. But there’s just no real easy way to sum it all up…” With those words, I watched as Gearbox froze up and the four of us braced ourselves. “You fractured both your skull and your jaw, along with your collar bone, three separate bones in your foreleg, and two ribs, one of which punctured your lung. One of your kidneys was damaged beyond magical repair, so I had to remove that along with some of your lower intestines which had been skewered by the same wreckage that had mangled your rear legs. While your left leg could be saved, the right was torn up enough that I could only save part of it.” Buck closed his eyes and wiped his paw down his face. “And that’s not even the worst of it.”

“Wait… what do you mean?” Gearbox had already almost turned completely white from that, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure what could be worse than that at all.

“You broke eight vertebrae in your spine, and suffered copious amounts of nerve damage.” Buck grunted, curling his paws up and gritting his teeth in rage. “I tried everything I could to get those injuries set and healed, but…” His trembling built up into a crescendo that ended with him snarling and driving his claws down through the floorboards. “I just… couldn’t do it. I’m sorry.”

“It’s… fine, doc.” Lucky grunted through his still unbelievably calm smile. “But I’m not going to lie when I say that I don’t know what that means. They’re just bones, right? They’ll heal over time… or, will they?”

“I…” Buck panted softly. “It means that you’ll probably never walk again. I’m sorry.”

“No…” Gearbox whispered softly, stumbling as he pulled himself back up to his hooves. Another blank stare fell over his face again as he looked at Lucky. “Xingyun, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be, Brother.” Lucky smiled, painfully reaching out for him. But by the time he had, Gearbox had already turned away and stiffly walked himself over to Buck. Without any hesitation, he reached out and grabbed around Buck’s enormous paws. “Brother, wait!” Lucky called out to him.

“Do it to me, Doc. I won't leave him hanging like this!” Gearbox whined as he pulled Bucks claws down along his own back. “We share the burden! Always!” However, as hard as he tried, Buck’s claws simply rubbed along his skin. He gave out a small whimper as Buck pulled away from him and lifted his claws out of his reach.

“It’s alright, brother!” Lucky nearly screamed. “You don’t get to share this burden, not this time.”

“I don't know what your penchant for copying each other's injuries has been in the past,” Buck growled and glared down at Gearbox, “But what I don’t need on my mind is two cases of paralysis to deal with, alright?” Taking a step back, Buck bumped into the edge of the couch and slowly set himself down on it. “Maybe somewhere down the road we’ll find someone who has the equipment and skills to heal his spine, but right now… I’ve done all I can, and don’t have anything left to give.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.” Gearbox sniffled and turned around. “Thank you for saving his life.”

“Why don’t we let you two spend some time alone?” Hispano spoke up as she pressed up against my back. Pushing me forward, my legs finally got the hint to get me moving again. Trotting out the door, I gave Gearbox a sad smile before turning that smile to Buck.

I’d seen Buck tired before, but not like this. I’d seen him frustrated and annoyed, but not like this. The way he sat deflated and slumped on the couch felt cold and distant. Even when he tried to mirror my sad smile back at me, it felt like it was hollow. Still, he reached out and took both Hispano and I into his warm, heavy arms, and pulled us both close.

“Just one day…” Buck spoke softly as I pressed up against his warm body. I felt him shift his arm away from me. At first, I thought he was pulling away, however, the tugging at the bandages around my head shooed that thought away. With a soft snip, he released the wrappings, and my now healed half ear met the cold mountain air. “One single day without somepony getting blown up or injured. That’s all I ask.”

“It’s a nice thought, but this is the wasteland.” Hispano sighed as she too curled herself close. “There’s no such thing as a flawless victory, only acceptable losses for those on the winning side. So far, this crew has been lucky to have someone like you around, but sooner or later, you’re going to lose somepony, and there will be nothing you can do about that. My dad always told me that living down here, you have to be alright with the idea of those around you dying, or it will end up driving you crazy. I had to learn that the hard way with Suiza...”

“Yeah,” Buck sighed, putting his claws back down around me as I nuzzled into his fur. “while I don’t appreciate the bluntness right now, thank you for at least being honest.”

“Anytime.” Hispano spoke through a yawn that crept it’s way into Buck before finally infecting me.

With nothing left to say, the three of us sat listening as the frigid mountain wind whistled around Bertha. That, the thrumming of Bertha’s reactor under us, as well as the flapping of the bits of tarp above, all blended together as the three of us simply existed together on that couch. It helped my tired mind wander to somewhere far off that hadn’t had quite the rough start to the day. Soon enough, coupled with the exhaustion from the events so far, I fell off into a short sleep.

Author's Notes:

As always, thanks to Kkat for creating the wonderful FoE universe, and giving us all free reign to go blow up our own little sections of it!

Many MANY thanks to TheFurryRailFan as well, for going over this and helping to clean it up before launch!