“Night, wake up.” I stirred awake to Buck’s concerned voice. Oddly, he wasn’t sprawled out under me as he was when we fell asleep. Rather he was speaking from the doorway to our container. “There’s something wrong with Hispano.” Oh? What was he doing up at this time, and what could be wrong with her?

“What is it?” I asked, pushing myself off of his bed. “Is she…”

My body locked up in horror from the sight that met me. Hispano... had been mutilated. She’d been propped up against the container wall, and almost all of her torso was ripped to ribbons and gutted out. The empty gaze in her eyes, and the frightened look frozen across her face nearly stopped my heart. Fear felt like it had dragged my stomach down to the pits of Tartarus as I felt like breaking down into tears. How… how could this happen!?

“I think it was your curse, Night. Looks like it ended up killing us all.” Buck spoke as he turned to me. As he did, his body slumped down to the floor, but his severed head hung there in the air. His expression drooped as the light of life in his eyes dimmed and faded. The grotesque image filled me with dread, and I wanted to scream out. But before I could, a heavy weight pressed down on my shoulder, and I turned to find Galina standing over me with her enormous gun pressed against my neck.

“This is goodbye, tiny mare…” She squawked through a delighted cackle.

“Night!” Hispano’s voice shattered the scene, and what felt like my face.

“Was that really necessary?” Buck groaned as I whimpered and panted heavily against his chest. “Just… five more minutes would be nice.”

“With all the whining he was doing, I think he was having a nightmare.” Hispano grumbled as I felt her press up against Buck’s side. “If anything, that slap did him a favor.”

“Goddesses, you’re both alright.” I whimpered as the consuming feeling of fear and panic still gripped at me. Calm your heart, Night, it was just a dream. Another fucking nightmare, like the one you had about Four Peaks, that’s all. “I was so scared I’d…” A set of knocks at the door cut me off, and I nearly jumped straight off of Buck and into the air. “What the hell!”

“Hey, I know it’s early, but we’ve got an audience.” Hardcase’s annoyed voice came through the door as his magic wrapped around the latch. “I’m opening it up for them to take a look inside.”

“Alright, forget five more minutes. Time to get up I suppose.” Buck grunted, shifting around below me. For a moment as he sat up, I was afraid his head was going to come off like it had in the dream. However of course that never happened, and instead he looked down with a soft smile as he kissed my nose. “Good morning.” Scooping me up in his hold, he stood up and gave a stiff stretch of his back.

The door to our container opened up with a squeal, and a pair of hard hat wearing Road Crew stallions pushed their way in and started looking around.

“Just what the hell is going on?” Hispano asked the question that was likewise on both Buck and I’s mind. What the hell were the road crew doing searching Bertha? “Hey! Don’t touch her!” Hispano shouted before jumping over to Suiza. She all but ripped it from the magic of one of the surprised looking stallions. “Keep your grubby hooves off my sister!”

“It’s fine, Hispano.” Delilah’s voice made the fur on my neck stand on end. “As you can see, there is no stolen Road Crew equipment on my convoy.”

“Yeah, well somepony who arrived yesterday stole one of my pony’s work gear.” A larger mare grunted as she stood next to Mrs. Delilah. Looking out into the Rec area, I could see a pair of ponies had gone into Delilah’s container, and I assumed from the hoofsteps I could hear, they were also inside the other containers as well.

“I fucking told you,” Violet grumbled from the couch. “One of your guys lost it and decided it was easier to blame me for it than fess the fuck up. That’s all.”

“All clear in here, Ma’am.” One of the stallions in our container called out. Shortly after, calls of all clear came in from the other containers. While I was just about as confused as could be, at least one thing stuck out to me as nice. While my dream may have sucked, at least nopony I knew was horrifically mutilated or dead!

Goddesses, what is wrong with my mind for it to have even pictured that shit in the first place? The wasteland certainly hadn’t gone easy on my body so far, but I’d thought my mind was at least a bit more sheltered. That’s… something I guess I’ll have to worry about as well in the future.

“Let me be clear,” The mare, who I assumed was the Road Crew Forepony for Pink Mountain, turned to Delilah and prodded at her with her hoof. “You may be rolling out of here sooner than later, but you can bet that I’m going to radio this shit to Knuckle Boom. If she finds one scrap of evidence on this rust heap, you and your whole crew are done. Do you understand me?”

“Perfectly.” Delilah grumbled and shot the mare a glare that nearly froze the blood in my veins. “Now, get the hell off of my convoy.”

Buck, Hispano, and I presumed the others as well, simply stood in silence as the numerous Road Crew ponies gathered up and trotted off of Bertha. None of us moved until Delilah did, and even then I think everypony wasn’t sure what to make of what just happened. Delilah, however, was fairly intent on finding out, as she walked up and sat down hard in front of the couch where Violet was seated.

“Explain to me what just happened.” Delilah sighed, slowly reaching up and pulling her glasses off. Hoofing up a rag, she softly rubbed and cleaned off the lenses of them as she seemed to collect herself. “And just why you felt it needed to involve a fight.”

At that, Buck stepped forward. As he did, he reached and set me down on his bed. Of course, I met Hispano’s hesitant gaze, and the two of us followed Buck out into the Rec area. As I came out of our room, I found Violet sitting slumped back on the couch with a puffy and fairly bruised face. Her bloody nose was dripping onto the old couch fabric, and her battle saddle was twisted and busted on her left side, missing the rifle that normally sat there.

“I went out for an early morning flight. Figured I’d watch the sunrise for once.” She mumbled, fumbling over some of her words due to the swelling of her cheeks. “One of the road crew were jealous of my rifles I guess, and accused me of stealing them. Along with his whole outfit, actually.” She smirked and shook her head. “He called me down from my perch, and just wouldn’t let his accusation go. I tried to be civil, but then he demanded one of my guns in return and laid his hooves on me.”

“Ugh.” Hardcase groaned from his doorway as he slumped against it. “We’ve talked about this, Violet. Just fly away, they can’t follow you.”

“But you know I can’t.” Violet rolled her eyes and crossed her forehooves across herself. “Not when somepony sits there and pulls the shit he did.” She sighed and looked squarely at Delilah’s flat expression. “Look, you know I didn’t steal that shit, and now I’m the one a gun down. But you know what? I’m over it, so let’s just get out of this place before they accuse us of anything else.”

“Good.” Delilah snorted before popping her glasses back onto her muzzle. “We’ll look into buying you a replacement when we hit Mare’s Lake, but you’ll have to make due with only using one rifle for now.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” She nodded and slumped further back into the old couch.

“Doc, see what you can do about her injuries.” Delilah got back to her hooves, flicking her ears for a moment before looking over at me. “I want Night and Hispano to join her up on patrol today. If we leave within the hour, then we’ll hit Drake Pass by noon. I want us all rested up and ready for when we get there.” Turning around, she trotted toward her room. “Violet, after you’re done, I want to talk to you about our first dead drop for Solomon. Also, I don’t know what Galina will have waiting for us at the pass. But whatever it is? I want to be ready for both it, and whatever Solomon has waiting for us in Mare’s Lake.”

As she trotted into her room, she wrapped her tail around the backside of the door and pulled it shut behind her. The distinctive click of it’s latch shutting told my body to let out some of the tension it held. Alright, well, that was definitely something. One hell of a way to start the day at least.

“Hey, Night?” Hardcase said as he trotted out of his room with a wide smile. “While the Doc looks at Violet, I wanted to show you what Boiler and I came up with last night.”

“Last night?” I asked, letting out a fairly delayed yawn before realizing that he had already trotted past me and was headed for the Ice hold.

“Yeah!” He called out, waving over for me to follow him. “A trader pulled in around midnight, and both Boiler and I came up with a great idea for how to get you into the air again.”

Oh? Consider my interest piqued! Trotting after him, I made my way down the creaking stairs into the darker Ice hold. Deftly avoiding the various boxes of Boiler’s and Gearbox’s stuff, I followed him around to the backside of the large open ship safe.

“The trader had a ton of good stuff with him.” Boiler spoke up cheerfully as she sorted an enormous pile of junk that had been stashed inside the old safe. “Figured we might as well pick up a bunch of odds and ends from him while we had the chance. Who knows what we might need in the future.” With a gasp, she turned around from inside the safe and hooved something small to Hardcase.

“Ah yes, have you ever seen one of these, Night?” He asked, reaching out and presenting the small thing in his hoof. Even in the dim lighting of the Ice hold, I instantly recognized what it was. The oval shaped translucent amber stone was smaller than I remembered them being, but the yellow and white jagged agate suspended in the center pulsed softly every few moments in his hoof.

“That’s a thunderstone…” I felt a smirk pin itself to my muzzle as I reached out towards it. “My dad used to collect broken ones. I got a few good shocks from them as a young colt…” I paused as I remembered how proud my dad was of his small collection. He… would have loved to see this one.

While it wasn’t a full blown megaspell, a thunderstone has a tremendous amount of energy inside it, and my dad always compared their capabilities as similar to a portable arcane reactor. Mom, however, hated the things. She always brought up their ‘uselessness’ by reciting the time that the Enclave tried to ‘experiment’ with their uses.

They figured that they could rework some of the newer models of power armor to run on thunderstones, rather than the micro spark reactors that had already proven to be so reliable. I mean, I had to agree with her when the trials showed that each thunderstone could only run the power armor for about five minutes before needing to be changed out. It was a pretty embarrassing gaff that Enclave R&D supposedly took years to live down. At least, that was what mom had recanted to us a dozen or so times.

“Yeah, this one’s supposedly an original manufacture spark-generation stone!” Hardcase said proudly, pulling it back and looking over it with a scrutinous eye. “Probably installed up north here shortly after they first rolled off the cloud production lines in Neighagra Falls! You know how hard these things are to find in the wasteland these days?” He paused, scrunching up his muzzle momentarily. “Well, probably not that hard now with the Enclave bringing a bunch down from the clouds with them...”

A soft flutter met my ears as Hispano swooped down into the hold with us. She quickly fell in next to me and looked at the stone in Hardcase’s hoof with an odd curiosity. Of course, that was until Boiler dropped a tool out of the safe and onto the floor with a heavy clang. She didn’t seem to notice however, and was too busy piling stuff into a crate to care.

“So...“ I said, turning my attention back to Hardcase. “Why do you have it when Bertha’s reactor is powerful enough to run this whole place?” I paused, watching as Hardcase seemed to shift uneasily on his hooves. “You couldn’t possibly be planning on using that for your next energy weapon, right?” To which, he scrunched up his muzzle. “Right?”

“Well!” Boiler shouted as she hefted an entire crate of junk onto the floor in front of me. I gave out a mare-like eep, and found myself about a half a hoof in the air from the slam it made. “The trader we met said they own a shop up in Mare's Lake, and we'll definitely have to check their stock of parts when we get there, but we struck gold already by my book!” Digging around in the crate she just set out, she wrestled out a large metal… thing from it that was absolutely covered in thick padding and leather straps.

“What is it?” I found the words tumble out of my muzzle like usual. However, they brought a smile to Boiler’s broad buffalo face.

“A good ol’ MKII Jump Pack!” She shoved the odd device toward me. “Sure, she needs a bit of a complete gutting and total rebuild, but between Hardcase and I, we could probably get her working again.” She scrunched up her muzzle and looked deep in thought for a moment. “Though, that is a very loose probably…”

Taking the old machine into my hooves, I shook it lightly. It was a lot lighter than it looked, and it felt completely solid in my hooves. Turning it over, the almost bronzed look of it nearly threw me off, but the lack of corrosion on it was pretty astounding. However, the two round fan intakes on the front of it showed a buildup of grime around the blades, which wasn’t too encouraging really. The fact that a piece of old chewing gum had plugged up what was obviously a bullet hole, also made me less than convinced that this thing was safe. However, that hadn’t stopped my mind from building a scene in my head of what it might be like to use it.

“You want me to use a jetpack!?” I couldn’t hide the smile across my muzzle as I imagined myself flying effortlessly through the blue skies. Who needed full bodied feathers when you could just have a fucking jet pack whisk you through the air on it’s own! “This is going to be fucking awesome!”

“Woah, cool your jets there, Night. Literally.” Hispano cooed as she all but ripped the amazing metal artifact from my hooves. “It’s a jump pack, not a jet pack. It only offers limited duration flight, not what you’ve got going on in your head, Dum Dum.” Grumbling, she turned it over a few times before picking at the gum seal with her talon. “Besides, I thought these things ran on some sort of combustible fuel back during the war.” Wait, combustible!? “Kinda surprised this guy didn’t explode from this hit here, actually.”

Explode!? I didn’t want to explode!

“That’s what the thunderstone is for.” Hardcase grumbled as he used his magic to pry the wartime device from her talons. “Figured that if this old stone could run the elevators of a building for a few hours a day before running dry, it could probably run the overcharged capacitors of a jump pack for about fifteen seconds.” Hoofing it back to Boiler, I cringed as she carelessly tossed it back onto the crate of junk with a crunch. “If we gut the internals, reconfigure the turbine to run on spark energy, and cram a few heat sinks in there, it might work. It would need a good hour or so to build up a charge in it after each use, but we figured that because it weighs so little, it’d be a safe option for you, Night.”

“But keep in mind that ‘safe’ would still be in a more generalized sorta way.” Boiler added before turning herself around to dive back into her junk heap. “There’s still a small chance it could blow up or overheat of course…” She paused, looking over at me with a nervous grin. “W-which would still be marginally small, mostly.” I did my best to deadpan at her for not helping whatsoever. “What!? Two hundred year old thunderstones are unstable. Unless you have a time machine, no amount of engineering will ever fix that.”

“Hey,” Hardcase pulled my attention to him as he laid his hoof on my shoulder. “It’ll work, alright?” He smiled and gave a nod that was leaps and bounds more reassuring than anything that came out of Boilers muzzle in the last two minutes. “Just trust us?”

“I trust you.” I nodded.

“Alright, good.” He gave me a pat on the side and turned his attention down to the box of scraps. “Well, we’re still missing some key components, so it won’t be ready until after we stop in Mare’s Lake. For now however, you’re going to have to do things the old fashioned way.”

“Great.” I grumbled and rolled my eyes. “Just… great.”

“Ah, don’t look so sad, Dum Dum!” Hispano giggled and pulled herself close next to me. “Nothing wrong with a little hard work! Besides, as my dad always told me; it builds character!”

“Yeah, real father of the year material.” I grumbled and pulled another laugh out of her. As soon as I quieted however, my stomach gave out a heavy grumble, and I figured it was time for breakfast.

“Hey, I know you guys are banned from the hotel and all,” Hardcase spoke up as he basically dove muzzle first into the junk box between us. “But that trader who pulled up drove in here in basically a mobile kitchen. He had some good homecooked food for sale in his caravan, along with all this fantastic junk. Might see if Delilah will let you grab something from there.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Hispano chirped as she perked up and pulled herself right into a hover. “Come on, Dum Dum! Fourth date’s the charm!”

While I might have been hesitant at first, I was actually getting used to the… unique flavors that meat could bring to food. Both Hispano and I had gotten a bowl with some potato wedges and meat cooked together in quite a tasty sauce. Mr. Stroganoff had said it was from a recipe that was in his family for generations, and it was easy to see why they’d kept it around! I know that I didn’t have much to my name, but I was pretty sure that ten caps for a bowl was criminally low to charge for something this good.

However, overall while the meal was nice, the nightmare I’d had last night kept clawing at the back of my mind. Ugh, why did I have to go see that Mystic with Hispano? All she did was ruin our date, and stick those stupid thoughts of a curse in my head. I mean, it can’t be real, right? Just… try to ignore them, Night. Relax, and maybe this breakfast date will turn out alright.

Coming as a surprise to exactly nopony, as it turns out, the fourth date was not the charm.

“Ahoy there!” A sharp, propper stallion called out from behind Hispano and I. Turning around, I was unsurprised to see Poppy Gardener and one of the other ghoul tankers from the bar yesterday happily trotting through the pink snow towards us. “I’m glad that you all decided to stay the night here! You see, Ironside and I’ve just received word back from Cordite headquarters that those two tankers you took in yesterday have been approved for orientation trials!”

“Thanks for that.” Hispano spoke up before licking off the last of the food’s tasty sauce from her beak. “I hope they’re of more use to you guys than they were to Solomon.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to put them to good use protecting some convoys.” The other ghoul that had come with Poppy gave a hearty laugh. “With the speed of their tank, I have no doubt that those two are going to be fairly popular around the north!” Turning himself toward the trader and his motorwagon, the other ghoul gave a wave. “Hello there, Mr. Stroganoff! Thank you once again for holding onto that Cordite wreck in Mare’s Lake as a personal favor. Mad Jack and his Maple Station friends are quite thankful for the opportunity it affords.”

“Ah, it was nothing. I owed you anyways after that raider band you took out for my convoy last spring.” Mr. Stroganoff rubbed his hoof on his chin and looked up to the ceiling of his wagon for a moment. “Rain… Rein? Rheinmetall, I think was his name? Whatever, he showed up just as I was packing the last of my shipments. Seemed pretty happy to get at all the bits and parts of that old tank.”

“Yes, I assume he would be.” Poppy nodded and pulled his hat off with a solemn look. “It’s a damn shame that we lost Olly and her crew, but at the very least, those parts will find a good home in Maple Station.”

With the conversation taking a somewhat downward turn there, I figured that it was time to get back to the convoy. We might not be leaving just yet, but there was still plenty of relaxing to be done! Getting to my hooves, I hooved my bowl up towards Mr. Stroganoff, who thankfully used his magic to take it from me and pull it back into his kitchen. Looking over to Hispano, she did the same before freezing and looking up above me.

As she did, I found that the shadow I cast onto the pink snow this morning had somehow grown three times it’s normal size. A pair of heavy paws gripped around me tightly, and I found myself lifted up into the air. I gave out nothing more than a squeak as gravity seemed to flip and I felt myself spinning.

“You smell like dog.” The red Hellhound I’d seen riding on one of the tanks yesterday spun me upside down as she sniffed at various parts of me. The suddenness of her invasion of my personal space made me lock up, and I found myself staring at her odd upside down confused expression. “Why?”

“Sasha!” Yet another ghoul snapped as they approached. Why oh why did I seem to attract trouble? Oh, right. I’m cursed. “You know better than to put your paws all over the guests here.” With the stranger’s stern words, I found myself spun back over onto my hooves and set down into the snow again.

“Am sorry.” The overly friendly hellhound whimpered as I turned around.

Hispano gave a choked giggle before reaching up and using her talons to shift my mane around a bit. I simply deadpanned at her before turning to meet this ‘Sasha’. As expected, I found the large, Buck-like form of the red and white hellhound sitting before me.

While she was indeed a bit weightier than he was, the markings she wore on her fairly fuzzy form followed roughly the same pattern as his did. The helmet she’d worn yesterday was absent, helping me to see that her eyes weren’t quite as striking as I’d originally thought. In fact, one was an Ice blue color, while the other looked like a much darker blue.

“Please, forgive Commander Sasha.” The ghoul who’d spoken up before, pulled my attention over to him. I froze when I saw that it was the Zebra ghoul I’d seen in the hatch of the other tank with the hellhound yesterday. He looked just as annoyed as he did then, and something about his gaze just made me about as uncomfortable as I could be right now. “But if you don’t mind, I ask that you not encourage her by answering any of her questions. It’s bad enough they gave a beast like her command of a tank.”

“Why?” The words slipped out of my muzzle, causing the old zebra to almost misstep as he approached. From the way his glare actually hardened, I was pretty sure he wasn’t so much the social type of ghoul…

“Oh, don’t be so hard on her, Mr. Xao. She has been an excellent recovery commander so far, and handled the recovery of my BT with the utmost care.” Poppy spoke up in what I could only assume was an attempt to keep the conversation from sinking any faster than a cloudship in a tornado. “Now, why not join Ironside and I for a lovely bowl of Mr. Stroganoff’s specialty?”

“Urg.” The zebra grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Fine. But you’re buying.” Turning toward the merchant cook’s kitchen, he trotted himself through the snow in an arc that seemed purposefully as far from us as it could be.

“Mr. Xao…” Sasha began, pulling my attention up to her sad gaze. “He says Sun Dogs not so smart. Mr. Xao is right.” Reaching up, she rubbed at her forearm uncomfortably. “Am sorry if disturb.”

“Sun Dogs?” Hispano asked as she sat down beside me. “Like the ones in the hotel?” Right, they did say something about being Sun Dogs, didn’t they? Guess I was too busy trying not to get killed by them to really remember that… “Don’t you want to hurt us? Like the others do?”

“Oh no!” She shook her large head and smiled to us. “Sasha likes ponies who help friends! Sasha likes very much.”

“So… we helped your friend?” I asked, looking over to Hispano. Thankfully, she seemed to be just as confused as I was with all this.

“Hotel ponies say to Sasha that you two and other dog help Rica and cub.” Without warning, I found myself grabbed and pulled into a fuzzy hug that honestly felt a little too similar to Buck’s for my personal comfort. Not that I hadn’t become comfortable squished up against a warm, fuzzy chest. It just… wasn’t the same as with Buck. “Rica is best friend of Sasha. Asked to come collect pony and friends who helped. Rica wants to talk to them.”

Wait, the balefire chimera wanted to talk to us? Why? About what? I had so many questions. The most pressing of which had just come to mind… where was the pit in my stomach? Why didn’t this really feel at all off to me?

“Wait, what do you mean ‘collect’?” Hispano’s voice wavered as mine would have if my face wasn’t squashed against Sasha’s chest.

“Come!” Sasha let go of me with a happy gasp, and I quickly found myself muzzle deep in the pink snow under her. I let out my own gasp as the shock from being against something so warm came back to bite me on the nose with the frozen snow. “Get other dog and meet by burned garage. Sasha will show you the way!” Without waiting for an answer, and with a speed only afforded to her by her size, Sasha turned and ran off toward the hotel on all fours.

“Are we really going to go with her?” Hispano grumbled. I felt her talon wrap around my side and help me back up onto my hooves.

“Not without Buck.” I said before giving my whole body a shivering shake that flailed pink snow off me in all directions. Turning to look at Hispano, I found her deadpanning at me from under a bit of pink slush I’d accidentally splattered across her face and flight goggles. “But aren’t you at least a bit curious?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t want to stay here instead. Still, I wasn’t sure why my gut didn’t feel like this was a bad idea, but I needed to learn to trust it, right?

“No.” She grumbled, reaching up and wiping the slush from her eyes. With a sigh, she grabbed at the goggles on her leather flight cap and pulled them down over her eyes. “Don’t know if you’ve really noticed, Dum Dum, but your curiosity tends to get us in trouble. A lot.”

“You’re right.” I sighed, looking back to the convoy. “But trouble is going to find us anyway, and at least this time we’ll have Buck around with us, not to mention Sasha who is, if you missed it, absolutely enormous.”

“Fine.” Hispano gave out a defeated sigh and dragged her legs through the snow as she headed toward Bertha. “But if things go to shit, I’m blaming you.”

“Fair enough.” I nodded and pushed myself to follow her. Still, so long as we had Buck with us, I’m sure everything would be fine. Plus, if anything, I know from how Buck seemed when he saw her yesterday, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a chance to find out why he and Sasha look so damn similar.

“Come! We close!” Sasha panted heavily as she ran forward a dozen feet or so, then turned around and ran back. I’d given up trying to keep up with her on hoof at the edge of the forest, and had just fallen back to having Buck carry me as he normally did. However, even he seemed to be having a hard time keeping up with her energetic speed. Only Hispano was having an easy time keeping up with her, and she looked more on edge out here in the forest than anything.

“Ugh.” Buck snarled, lifting his free paw to his nose to cover it. “We must be close. I can smell the rot from here.”

Almost as he’d said that, Sasha lead us through the pink snow covered forest, and into a small muddy clearing. A ring of burned and twisted trees had been laid around a fairly large hole dug into a charred and blasted hillside. Sasha happily darted inside, and as I perked my ears, I could hear her talking to something.

“You sure about this?” Hispano called as she came down and landed squarely on Buck’s shoulders. It pulled an annoyed look from Buck, as I’m pretty sure he didn’t so much like being used as a perch. Then again, I could have probably put more effort into walking myself...

“Let’s just get this over with.” Buck grumbled and stepped forward. I wiggled in his grasp until he finally got the point and set me down.

The muddy ground here was warm to the touch, and while the soil was wet, it was firm enough that I didn’t sink in it. Following alongside Buck, Hispano joined me on the mud as we approached and entered the solitary hole in the ground. It was about then that the rotten and fetid stench hit my nose as well, however, that was bucked to the back of my mind as the flickering glow inside showed me the owner of this den.

Twice the size of Buck or Sasha, the creature curled on the ground before me looked unlike anything I’d ever seen before in my life. Two massive feline forepaws were attached to the powerful frame of a lion, melding seamlessly with the robust flank and lith rear hooves of a goat. The blazing mane of a skeletal lion’s skull burned with a sickly green glow, matched by a pair of flames in the empty eye sockets that studied our entrance. Two more flickering eyes met us as the glowing bones of a large skeletal serpent rose up from the rear of the chimera, and it’s enormous fangs extended with a gurgling hiss.

“That is enough, Mika.” The final, and still fleshy, rotten head of a goat spoke up from the left side of the monstrous feline torso. Her horizontally slit eyes were clouded with age, however they studied us all the same. The pair of chipped, scratched, and twisted horns that sprouted from her head glowed with the same intensity as the boney snake attached to her rear. “And I want no trouble from you either, Leon.” Her voice was commanding, yet calm, pulling a soft whimper from the skeletal feline head that sat next to her.

“H-hello.” I managed to get out. “You wanted to see us?” While I had been asking about it before, it took until this point for my stomach to start to feel ready to drop out from under me. The pit there just seemed to hesitate though, not quite ready to commit. That odd behavior alone made me feel more uneasy than anything, and all my mind was telling me now was to grab onto Buck and run. Maybe it was a mistake to come here...

"Come closer so that we may see you better." The low, crisp voice of the Chimera made the whole chamber resonate, and to be honest, I was almost too intimidated by it to move. However, Buck stepped forward, so I moved with him. "We are told that we have the three of you to thank for finally saving our little cub here. How fitting that it would be so." The glowing eyes on the skeletal cat's skull flickered as it looked between the goat's head and the three of us. "While I have nothing in return to give for your service other than my thanks, know that we are eternally grateful for your kind actions."

"You are very welcome." Buck stood up and gave a slow bow to her. "If you ask me, it shouldn't have taken the three of us to right this wrong. No child deserves to suffer as yours has." The eyes of Rica's ghoulish goat head went wide for a moment as Buck spoke, giving a soft bleat of surprise.

“You are more well versed in speaking then the other local hellhounds of the North.” Her confusion gave me pause, but it also did a lot to defuse the tension I was feeling. I guess that even for an enormous predatory beast, even she could be caught off guard.

"I am a Snow Dog from the northern settlement of Inuvik, and I am also a trained physician." Buck smiled his jagged grin to her. "I may not know anything about Chimera physiology, but if you were alright with it, I could perform a basic check up on your cub.”

"No, but thank you for your offer." The goat's head gave out a raspy, bleating laugh. "Thanks to the metal you retrieved, our daughter is no longer in need of any help. She only needs time to strengthen the balefire within her. Come next springtime, she will be strong enough to leave the den." Lifting her forepaw, she peeled back the edge of the foil to reveal a small striped face looking back at us. A balefire shrouded goat's skull sat next to the ghoulish cat's face, and a skeletal snake not unlike her mother's gnawed on the goat head’s single sprouted stubby horn. "If we may ask only one thing more of you before you go."

"What is it?" I asked, not sure what we were getting into. I swear that if she asks us to go and kill Short Wave…

"With my Daughter having been sick for so long, we did not wish to name her for fear of growing too attached." Looking up to us, all three of her heads seemed to point to a different one of us. "We wish to have her remember who it was that saved her life."

"My name is Night Flight." I pointed over to Buck and Hispano as well, who both looked quite uncomfortable as I spoke. "He's Buck, and she's Hispano."

“Then so shall be her names.” Rica smiled and looked down at her daughter. The warmth that radiated off of her in that moment stunned me. However, Hispano raising her talon pulled me out of the odd but nice moment we were having.

"It's... flattering and all, but... didn't you already have a name picked out for her, even if you didn’t want to give it to her officially?" She asked with a small squeak. That was a fairly good point to bring up...

"No, that is not our way." She shook her head as the snake and cat heads went to lay down to rest again. "Our kind normally chose their own names when we come of age, and our daughter will as well when it is her time. However, until then, her heads will bear your names, so that she may remember them."

The air inside the den rumbled as the sound of an enormous engine starting swept through the forest. It was concerning to me, as with so many vehicles at the resort, I couldn’t be sure of who’s it would be. It pulled all of our attentions, but Buck’s perked ears meant that he had the best picture of what it was. I gave a tap on his paw to pull his attention and glanced out the doorway.

“That’s our Convoy.” He spoke up, turning toward Rica. “It was nice to meet you, and I wish you and your cub pleasant days ahead.”

“Thank you for sparing the time to come all the way out here.” Rica bleated as she looked at each one of us again. “And for deciding to help an old chimera like me.” Lifting her paw, she pointed to Sasha, who’d been happily silent this whole time. “Sasha will lead you back to the resort now. Stay safe out there, and good luck on your journeys.” Whether it was pure luck, or something else, her gaze to each of us ended squarely on me before she uttered one last thing to us.

“While the skies may be clear once more, it’s more dangerous than ever to travel the wasteland these days.”

Oh goddesses this was amazing.

“Come on, Bombay.” Violet spoke through a smile as she cruised through the open skies next to me. “Hello? Equus to Bombay? Did you even hear what I asked?” Honestly… I hadn’t...

The drive all morning had been quiet, almost to the point that it was worrisome. However, since leaving Pink Mountain behind us, we hadn’t even seen so much as another living creature out on the road. Much like the road to Stone Town, Drake’s Peak had been partially carved out so that the roadway could twist and turn it’s way higher and higher into the mountains. However, unlike with Stone Town, the entire right side of the road was a sheer drop off, and the wide open forested valleys and smaller mountains stretched off as far as the eye could see.

Countless majestic glassy snow covered peaks ran for miles that reflected rainbows of light from the now nearly midday sun. Frozen waterfalls and ice covered lakes stepped down from every major mountain around like enormous mirrored terraces. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky today, and even though we were miles high above the ground below, the stiff wind that came up the steep roadside cliffs made my flight almost effortless.

Still, I could see exactly why Delilah hadn’t wanted to traverse this in the dark. The old Highway was only just as wide as Bertha was, and the many cracks and crevices in the mountainside that rose up on our left were the perfect spots for ambushes or traps. Both Hispano and her father however were busily moving to each and every one, keeping pace just ahead of the Convoy as it crawled upward at a slower than average pace.

“Bombay?” Delilah’s voice fuzzed in over my headset. While I could ignore Violet’s sometimes incessant questions, I couldn't exactly ignore the donkey who employed me.

“Yes, Ma’am?” I responded sharply, stiffening my forehooves as they hung below me, and casting another sweeping gaze around the nearby landscape.

“Give me a status report.” She spoke with the same trademark dullness that betrayed just how seriously she took this trip. You know, the others had joked before that when Delilah’s tone changes, you know something’s up. Well, I’d come to rely on it not changing to show that everything was proceeding as it should.

“Nothing up here, Ma’am.” I spoke over the headset, looking over to Violet who nodded as well.

“I can confirm that.” Violet sighed and looked over to Hispano and her father. “Like they used to say, it’s all quiet on the eastern… er, western slopes.”

“No signs of traps, or any life for that matter.” Cora’s annoyance bled through the radio almost as thickly as Delilah’s dullness. “Setting up something this high up doesn’t seem like something Solomon would do. It’s too dangerous, too unpredictable.”

‘Too dangerous’ was something I didn’t think applied anymore to Solomon. While Galina might be acting without his authority, did anypony really expect me to believe that if something were to happen that would ‘overstep’ his established ‘rules’, he’d suddenly give up? No, I’m fairly certain that he’d be perfectly alright with it.

“While I’m inclined to agree,” Delilah’s snort came over as sharp irritation. “Galina is somewhere in these mountains, and I want to see her before she sees...” Delilah’s voice was cut off as a soft pop met Violet and my ears. A red flare shot out into the sky from higher up on the mountain. “Alright, that’s a Road Crew flare.” I looked up higher into the rocks, and saw the bright orange of a hardhat stick out from the craggy cliffs above. A lime colored pony peered down at us as the road curved a bit harder around the rocky cliffsides, and out of sight. “I’m betting that this is Double Drum’s replacement waiting up at the pass.”

As Bessy and Bertha continued winding along the road, Violet pulled for altitude, forcing me to get in a few beats to attempt to keep up with her. The wind rushing up the thousand foot high cliffside was forceful enough that once I was at altitude, I didn't even need to try to hover. The slip that my wings gave couldn't defeat the sheer force of the wind, and I felt myself smile.

Violet however, wobbled and kicked her legs around as the stiff cliffside air battered at her full plumage. I had to force back a chuckle as she fought to maintain her current position. However, as we pulled up higher, we also drifted away from the convoy a bit.

“I almost have the pass in sight, Ma’am.” Violet called out as we drifted further around the sharp cliffside ahead.

As we did, the road flattened out, and widened into somewhat of a shelf a few hundred feet wide. It was obvious with a view like the one up here why it had also been turned into mostly a paved parking lot. Rusted telescopes stood in a long line, bolted to the concrete wall that fenced off a thousand foot drop to one of the grand ice lake terraces below. However, what I don’t think even Violet expected to see, was the entire line of up-armored and heavily armed construction vehicles that stretched the entire way across the wide lot.

A dozen or so vehicles sat before us, but none more impressive or quite as large as the bright yellow monstrosity that sat in the middle. Resting atop a pair of wide crawler tracks, the thing looked more like half of a giant robot than any sort of construction vehicle. It had an enormous articulating arm that rested at a high angle. Curled underneath it looked to be a folded forearm that ran back towards the center of a vehicle, ending in a set of barbed and spiked pneumatic claws that reminded me of a griffon’s talon.

However, most impressively, was the giant artillery barrel that was banded to the top of the robust main arm. It looked almost the same size as one of the guns that had adorned the battleship back in Destruction Bay, and was likewise aimed at what felt like right at me. Almost on cue, the pit in my stomach popped in to say hello to me.

Delilah pulled the convoy to a stop as they reached where the road widened at the top of the pass. As she did, what must have been a hundred or so construction equipment clad ponies, griffons, and the like, readied their weapons and trained them on the convoy. All however, except one, who stood at the enormous tracked base of the central machine. After Bessy and Bertha had rolled to a stop, the pony lifted something up to their muzzle.

“Hello there.” The sharp voice of a mare came across the radio. “By the Authority of the Road Crew, I order you to stand down and surrender your convoy.”

“Oh?” Delilah’s voice responded with a short crackle of static. “On what grounds, might I ask?”

“Double Drum, my colleague in the north informed me of a dangerous convoy heading south through these parts, and I have been informed that you are that convoy.” The mare responded with an even sharper, accusational tone. “I repeat, you are to stand down, and…” She stopped as a note of feedback made even the road crew down there cringe.

“Let me guess?” Delilah’s voice interrupted her as the feedback died. I could almost imagine Delilah smiling as this all seemed a bit to familiar to us. Even as she fought to even hover in place up here, I watched Violet facehoof herself hard. Really? This was Galina’s master plan? “A griffon? Had a northeastern, possibly Stalliongradian-sounding accent? Maybe trying to pass herself off as a road crew member by using stolen gear from Pink Mountain?”

Even from here, I could see the confusion that crept over the entirety of Knuckle Boom's posture. The wind whistled up over the cliffside, blowing her mane around as she pulled the radio from her muzzle to speak with the pony beside her. The stronger gust of wind shifted Violet and I off course. As it died down, I worried that it would fall enough that I could no longer hover, but for now, it maintained itself.

“You will stand down your convoy.” The mare used her voice to regain the composure of her armed force, and the large cannon behind her shifted downward only slightly. Now I was certain that it was aimed directly at me…

“You must be Knuckle Boom, right?” Delilah sighed. “I'm not surprised that Double Drum didn't tell you that he'd been tricked into firing on our convoy by that same griffon. It’s a fairly embarrassing thing to admit, so I can forgive him for that. However,” Delilah’s tone sharpened on that word, “We are not the convoy you are looking for.”

“Then do as I ask, and stand down.” The mare who I assumed was Knuckle Boom ordered. “You have my word that not a single one of my ponies will harm you or your crew until this is sorted out.”

“I assure you, it is not your crew that I am worried will open fire.” Delilah snorted, forcing the pit inside me to grow even deeper.

Why of all times today did my stomach choose now to act up? Since when did a thousand foot drop to the frozen lake below suddenly look more preferable to staying up here in the air? Gazing around at the force, I wasn’t sure what choice we had other than to stop and expose ourselves. After what happened with the White Horse Militia, who’s to say Galina couldn’t have bought off some of the Road Crew?

“However,” Delilah’s voice struck up again, “If we must stand down to prove it, then so be it. But I will ask you to lower your weapons first. The one who tricked you is liable to have paid off some of your crew without your knowledge.”

Well, at least I know I’m sort of learning how to expect things out here in the wastes! Maybe Delilah was right, and I am wired to read a situation. What little good that even does at the moment…

Looking over to Violet, I noticed her reach up and turn her headset off. I braced myself against the wind, doing the same. She helped me by pulling off the headset, bundling it up with hers in her hooves.

“I don’t like this.” Violet spoke up as the whistling wind blasting up the side of the mountain filled the air. It was almost hard to hear her over how loud the wind was. “As Delilah said, it might have been her who stole the outfit from the Pink Mountain Road Crew. In fact, I’m sure of it now. She has to be down there, watching us.” Turning her wings, she shifted her posture enough that the gusts of wind would push her closer toward the mountain. “I think just to be safe, we better stick closer to the convoy.”

“Something does feel off about all this.” I called out, doing the same with my own wings. It was a weird sensation to slip sideways through the air, but that was only because it was oddly stable with my Flat Feathers. However, I didn’t like the thought that one of the Road Crew down there might be Galina herself.

“I mean, come on.” Violet called out as a grin pulled across her muzzle. She gave a few hard flaps against the wind to halt her momentum, coming to a stop roughly just over the side of the Hauler. “Galina may be a bit straight and to the point, but pulling the same trick twice?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it.” I said, taking a moment to shift my own weight to stop my slide as well. However, while I could float effortlessly to the side, stopping was a different matter. Annoyingly, I slid right into Violet and the two of us scooted further over. “Shit, sorry.”

“No worries, Bombay.” Violet sighed as she pushed off of me and we finally stopped sliding around through the air. “Anyway, as I was saying, Galina used to take pride in her work. She didn’t hide behind tricks or disguises.” She gave a stiff laugh and put her forehoof on her chest and puffed herself up. “You know, a real Stalliongrad griffon! Hatched from the egg as half diamond, half one hundred proof vodka, and all cold bitchy attitude.” Shaking her head, I couldn’t help but laugh at her impression of the stupid griffon. “She used to enjoy doing things herself, not…”

There was a thunderous boom that shook the very air itself. My wings snapped back, and I tumbled what felt like randomly through the air. Pain lit up my mind as I let out a scream and scrambled to recover. My mind raced, beating back the frantic panic as the ground approached faster than I’d thought possible. With little other option, I braced myself as best I could as I came down onto it hard.

Pain flared all across my body, and I felt at least two separate snaps before my vision went white from the sensations. Almost immediately, I could tell that my battle saddle had broken my fall, because the barrel of my Bison submachine gun was uncomfortably bent and pressing against what I was pretty sure was a broken rib. There was no sound around me other than a sharp ringing, and my head throbbed as I felt warmth washing down over it.

Though I couldn’t hear anything, I could feel as a thump and a sickening crack came from the ground next to me. Struggling through the pain, I tried to focus myself, blinking a few times until my fuzzy, spinning vision returned to me. A rusted and twisted grey rod stuck sideways out of my left forehoof as lines of blood streamed down it. As I moved my leg, the rod slipped out, revealing a bloody, rod sized hole punched straight through it. A dozen more fonts of pain flared up through me as I regained some of my senses, and my mind started to put things together.

So… we were attacked then? Was this some sort of weapon they fired at us? Why… why would they have attacked at all? We didn’t do anything to them!

I was incredibly confused, but I knew I needed to get up and move. Shakily, I pushed myself to get up, to find some cover for the fight that should have been going on around me. Though it hurt to the point where I felt like I might pass out just trying to focus myself, I screamed out and forced myself to move. Then, as my fuzzy vision cleared a small bit, I felt my already shallow breath leave me with what met my eyes.

Whatever thing had hit me with that metal rod, must have only nicked me. Violet hadn't been so lucky. Only the top half of her torso currently lay next to me, with shredded bits of her body laying all around within hoof’s reach. I blinked as my lungs seized up, and my eyes drifted to the bloody ribbons of her torn up and perforated body. Why… I couldn’t understand… this had to be another nightmare...

My eyes stopped as they fell upon her head. A twisted lump of rusty rebar had pierced through the center of it, and had hit her hard enough to split her skull open. It left a sad, blank look across her eyes which stared motionless up at me, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t look away.

“Violet!?” Hardcase’s strained, screaming voice beat back the ringing in my ears. “Goddesses, no! No no no!”

No...

Author's Notes:

As always, a big thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his help in prereading and cleaning up these chapters. It really makes a huge difference, and I can't thank him enough for it!