You know, I was starting to understand why most ponies don’t seem to like the Steel Rangers.

“What’s the hold up, scribe?” The loud, bossy mare from the megaphone earlier yelled at us from across the runway tarmac we’d parked on. Meanwhile, I hesitated at the top of the reactor deck stairs with a line of impatient ponies waiting for me.

“I’m sorry, Paladin Curry!” The mare who’d arrested us yelled past my ear, making me wince again. Seriously, what’s with all the yelling in my ears as of late?

“Well if you can’t get them to move, then make them move then!” The mare screamed up at us again.

There were two things about Coconut Curry that put her apart from the other rangers holding the rest of the already disembarked crew at gunpoint. The first was that she was the only pony in a bulky set of power armor other than the idiot who’d been defending our convoy. The second was that she didn’t have a helmet on, which was probably due to the long unicorn horn sticking out of her head, and she looked to be about twice as old as even Delilah was. In fact, even from on the Hauler, I could see she was bordering on the same age that Spring Leaf had been all the way back on the Empirica. The mare’s grayed mane and wrinkled earth-toned skin reminded me of half the feral ghouls I’d seen so far, and was so far just as friendly as them to boot.

“Eh, take your time.” Hispano smirked as she leaned against the reactor bay railing. “We can be here all day.”

“No, you cannot.” The mare beside me huffed as she forced herself to take a deep breath. “Can you please pick up the pace? Pretty please? I don’t want to get in trouble with Coconut Curry again...”

The squeaky voice of the robed mare behind me sounded like she was trying to be nice enough, but it didn’t make me want to kick her muzzle in any less for this shit. But thanks to Bombay, I had something almost as satisfying.

“Do you still have all your legs?” I snorted and glared back at her. Her glance shifted down to my prosthetic for a moment before she nodded. “Then you don’t get to fucking complain about how quickly I can use stairs while wearing hoofcuffs. I already only had three legs, and thanks to your cuffs, now you’ve given me two.”

Funny how when she looked back at me, she looked like she wasn’t quite sure what I’d meant by that. Really? Was she just as dense as that lug in the power armor had been? Were all the rangers this mentally deficient!?

“Just let the mare use her wings.” Coconut Curry yelled up at us so suddenly that I nearly lost my balance and tripped down the stairs. Because of that, I instinctively flared my wings and kicked off. Almost immediately, I found a few of the unicorn soldiers on the ground levitating their rifles to follow me. Geez, did they really expect me to try and run from my friends?

Carefully, I banked myself around and came in to smoothly land next to Delilah. That is, I would’ve landed smoothly if it weren’t for the fact that both my forehooves were linked together. So instead, I hit the pavement and immediately tumbled head over hocks, scraping to a halt basically right under the imposing power armored form of Coconut Curry. At least the Chill that Cora had given me was still sort of keeping the pain from my landing to a minimum.

It was as I rolled myself over that I looked up again. I froze as I glanced up into the sunny blue skies above wherever the Ranger Base we were at was located. There, a large fluffy cloud sat directly above the base. If it weren’t for the fact that I’d seen that exact cloud shape before in the arms day parades in Neighvarro, I doubt I’d have realized what it was.

“You have a cloudship here?” I spoke without even thinking about who was listening. Shit! What if they didn’t know it was there and you just gave it away? But if they didn’t know, whose was it, and what was it doing here in the first place?

“If you can tell that at a glance, I’m going to assume you’re ex-Enclave then, little bird.” Coconut Curry muttered as she shifted the massive armor so that she could look down at me. The glare her hazel eyes pressed onto me might have been scarier, had she not looked so old and frail, but I still wasn’t going to say that to her face. At least, not while she was wearing power armor that had looked like it had survived through every major battle of the last two hundred years. “It would be wise for you to forget what you’ve seen, and to keep your muzzle shut. Or I’ll be forced to make sure it stays shut for good.”

“And why would you say that, Curry? Would you strangle her here and now with your own two hooves?” The voice of a stallion cropped up behind me, filled with an odd sense of joy to it that seemed... out of place with the rest of our welcoming committee. Especially since their voice made Coconut Curry turn white as a ghost as their hoofsteps approached. “Clearly the mare has seen similar sights. Why not see if she can help us instead of threatening her?”

Turning slightly, I found a green coated elderly stallion holding his hoof out to me. The velvety red robes he wore were similar to the ones the mare on Bertha wore, but had an impeccably clean sheen to it. Along with his balding head, a prickly, wiry grey beard ringed the rounded chin of the old stallion, giving a sort of sage look to him. But his yellow eyes conveyed a youthfulness that the rest of him didn’t seem to hold, and almost instinctively, I reached out with my bound forehooves. With a firm grip, he wrapped his fetlock around the bar linking the hoofcuffs, and pulled me up.

“Elder Sapper, I believe that it would be unwise to allow an outsider such as…” Coconut Curry spoke a mile a minute as she attempted to get an opinion out, but cut herself off as the Elder simply rose his other hoof to her as he helped me up.

Even with both his forehooves off the ground, he had an incredible stability to him as he pretty much stood me back up on his own. I’d met plenty of earth ponies on this trip, but none quite like him so far. If you can excuse the pun, he seemed quite down to earth.

With a few hard flaps, Captain Pastel came down from the air to stand next to the Elder.

“Of course you went over my head, Captain.” Coconut Curry’s blood must have been boiling under that armor, because she stiffened up so much at his arrival that half the plates on it groaned from the stress.

“Now now, Curry.” The Elder smiled as he let go of my hoofcuffs. Moving his forehoof away from mine, he reached up and brushed some of the dust and dirt from my side. “I understand you were just following protocol, but you either didn’t listen to his report, or chose to ignore the rules. It will not happen again.”

“Sir, with all due respect...” She moved to speak again, but cut herself off as the Elder simply lowered his brow to her.

“Am I understood, Head Paladin?” He spoke calmly, but with the same familiar coldness I’d heard a dozen times now on this trip. Coconut Curry shifted into a stiff salute that sent another rattle through the plates of the heavy power armor. Turning to me, all of that coldness faded away as the Elder put on a friendly smile. “Why don’t you go and join your other crewmates while I get this mess all sorted out for you, alright?”

Nodding, I turned and hobbled my way over to Delilah, who breathed a sigh of relief as I lined myself up next to her. Fuck, between the respect that both Delilah and him commanded, I wasn’t sure how she could ever even think I could learn to be a leader. Then again, wasn’t that something Bombay was helping out with?

Obviously, I still had a long way to go with learning how to lead. Still, something felt off. So far on this trip, anytime someone seems nice in the wasteland, they hardly ever seem to turn out to be that way. I’ve met too many ruthless ponies with cruel agendas to have missed the cues by now. So while I’m not going to condemn them yet, I know they’re up to something rotten.

As the group of Steel Rangers discussed and debated things amongst themselves, I tried to survey just where the hell we’d ended up. You know, just in case we had to fight our way out of this place.

Other than the rust colored mountain range towering over the backside of the compound, of all the places I’d been to so far, this one was the most… flat. Which of course made sense, seeing as this supposedly had at one time been a prewar airport. I’d seen aerial photos of them in the Wonderbolt history museum, including the one at the old original Wonderbolt training grounds. Not to mention, most Enclave skyports seemed to have a somewhat similar layout and gradient to the clouds themselves.

This place, though, was designed with a bit more utility in mind, rather than a training ground or other skyport. The main runway where the convoy was parked ran on for a half mile, and looked to intersect yet another runway in a sort of V shape down at the far end. Sitting at the intersection of it were a few large vehicles with tarps over them. They had a similar shape to them like Vertibucks, but didn’t quite seem as bulky or robust. Another curiosity to go along with the cloudship above us, I guess.

A fifteen meter high concrete wall ran all the way around the exterior of the runways, terminating on the far side of either of them by being built directly into the mountainside Galloway was tucked against. Evenly spaced by about every thirty meters or so, was a sort of armored watchtower. Two or three ponies seemed to be sitting in each of the exposed backsides of the towers, either peering out beyond the wall, or just looking bored out of their minds. The only other notable feature of the wall was the massive metal gate, which we must have entered through, but other than reminding me of the gate back at Roundhouse, there wasn’t much to it really.

Also of note, was that other than the few sparse weeds poking up here and there, the entire interior was paved with concrete. That more than anything was probably why this place felt so flat, yet with the off white of the open ground, it gave me a homely cloudy feeling that kinda forced me to relax a bit.

A dozen or so half cylinder buildings sat along the side of each of the runways, along with what was probably an administration building that was attached to the traffic control tower. The cylindrical buildings were similar in size to the ones we’d seen up in Fort Mac, though more than half of them seemed completely abandoned. Still, there were dozens of ponies moving about around them, some in robes, and others in similar armor to what Captain Pastel was wearing.

“Pssst!” Hispano whispered as she hobbled up next to me, having finally made it over from the Hauler. “If you haven’t already, you should take a look up.”

“It’s a cloudship.” I mumbled to her, trying to keep my voice down a bit as I glanced back up at the oddly shaped cloud. “The armored mare didn’t seem too happy I’d noticed it when I caught a glimpse of it.”

“Wait, you know it’s a cloudship?” Hispano scrunched up her muzzle in a way I’d never seen before. Wait, had I stumped Hispano for once!? “How the fuck would you know that just by glancing at it?”

“Really?” I deadpanned at her. “My mom made me memorize all the cloud silhouettes of Enclave ships when I was a colt. She’d quiz me every damn time they were on parade as well.” I sat down, gesturing my hooves up toward the cloud. “And while I could be wrong, I think that’s a Mistral class reconnaissance cloudship.”

“What makes you say that?” The calm voice of the Elder spoke almost directly into my ear. I nearly jumped out of my own skin as the old earth pony simply smiled and let out a chuckle from right next to me. “Oh you mustn't worry, I’m only curious as to what leads you to that particular assumption. I promise, there is no need to fear any repercussions from any of my rangers for your answer.”

Uh… okay, I guess… but I’m going to seriously be pissed if I get shot for answering or some shit.

“The bulge in the cloud’s flanking line is sharper than that of a normal cloud, and the striations under the bow are just a bit too uniform to be caused by anything but an advanced ESM array and sensor bulge common to the Mistral class. Though, the bulge itself is a bit more pronounced than on those, hence the uncertainty on if it is one.” While I did my best not to let my voice waver too much, I couldn’t help feel like even now, my mom was standing over my shoulder and waiting for me to screw up some particular of it. “Oh! And even though I can’t really be too sure, it looks to be only slightly more of a Humilis shape, rather than an average Mediocris like other wild clouds would be. It was also a common problem that the Mistral class had back during the war.”

“Astounding.” The Elder lifted his hoof and rubbed at his wirey beard as he raised his eyes up to the cloud as well. “And alarming if I must say. With all of the Enclave pegasi having come down into the wastes now, we must be more aware of the knowledge others might hold of our capabilities.”

“Well you could start with not having it as the only cloud in the sky on a clear day like today…” Hispano spoke under her breath as she rolled her eyes.

“That is very true.” To both my and her surprise, the Elder simply laughed.

“Elder, if I may,” Delilah roughly cleared her throat as she pulled his attention. “While I thank you for allowing us to stay for the moment, we have business we must attend to.”

“Yes, of course. Your crew are of course free to move about the base in any of the non-restricted areas as well, so long as you behave yourselves.” He looked around at all of us for a moment, stopping as he had to crane his neck back to look up to Buck. “However, I’ll have to ask that we keep your Hellhound in a secure place for the time being.” He frowned as he looked back to Delilah. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that if we have it walking around, it may startle some of the younger ponies here. The risk of an incident resulting from that is just too high.”

Really, him too? And here I was starting to think that the Elder might actually be a genuinely good pony among all these jerks…

“I can assure you, Buck is…” Delilah spoke up with an annoyed smirk across her muzzle.

“It’s fine.” Buck sighed, slumping slightly as he glanced over to me. I gave him the best ‘I’m sorry’ look, but it didn’t seem to help. “I’ll do whatever you need me to. But I must say, you shouldn’t treat your guests as if they are wild beasts. At the very least, you can learn to call me a ‘him’ rather than an ‘it’.”

“Let him stay on the Hauler.” I spit out at the Elder. “If he stays on it and out of sight, then I assume you wouldn’t have a problem with it.” Normally, I’d scold myself for butting in like that, but Buck would never harm a single pony unless it was necessary. Yes, they didn’t know that, but they could at least try to give us the benefit of the doubt.

“It is unorthodox, but I suppose we can be lenient if it… he promises to stay inside.” The Elder sighed before turning to gaze up with Buck, waiting for a nod from him. “Thank you for cooperating, and I will certainly take what you said about treating guests into consideration for the future. Head Paladin Curry, would you kindly remove their bindings?” He waved over the power armored mare, and after a moment, the hoofcuffs popped off of Delilah and the rest of us before the collection of cuffs floated off towards the bitchy ranger.

“Thank you, Curry.” The Elder nodded again, pausing as he turned himself around. Looking back at me, he pointed over to Captain Pastel. “You know, the two of you should speak with Captain Pastel up in the confines of the tower. If he thinks you’re at all capable, he might require your help in regards to the Arcturus.”

The Arcturus? He must have meant the cloudship of course, but… why did that name sound familiar? It was something mom told me quite a few times, and it even had a memorial in the Enclave hall of heroes… oh, wait, that was it!

“You named your cloudship after the ill-fated Arcturus?” I asked without thinking. Instantly Delilah’s annoyed glare fell on me for asking the question, but it was too late to take the words back now. “Why?”

“Hmm?” The Elder looked back at me and cocked an eyebrow. “Oh goddesses no. The Steel Rangers never change anything we reclaim other than what’s needed to restore it to it’s old world glory. That includes names.” Leaving me more confused than before, the Elder and Delilah turned and headed off toward the administration building.

“I don’t get it, Dum Dum.” Hispano chuffed as she scooted closer to me. “What’s the problem with it? It’s just a name.”

“The Arcturus was a prototype, a legendary ship amongst the pegasi air force. The first and most advanced of all reconnaissance cloudships built in the final years of the war, and as the records stated, probably one of the best ever built.” Looking up at the cloud, for once, I didn’t feel comforted by it. It was like I was looking at a ghost. “But, she was unfortunately lost with all hooves during the final performance trials due to a flaw in her engineering that forced design changes on all Mistral Class ships. I can’t imagine what the Enclave could have done with access to a ship as advanced as the likes of the Arcturus.”

“So what? The Rangers are known for salvaging any wreck they can.” I knew that Hispano meant well, but she didn’t know cloudships like somepony who grew up in the Enclave.

“There was no wreck.” I shook my head. Looking back down at Hispano, I watched as her eyes searched for some sort of response to that. “Her cloud generator failed over the western seas outside of Vanhoover due to a buildup of sea salt in the intakes. They pulled up a few scattered pieces of debris from the ocean, but that was it. The only reason I even know of it was that my mom took me to see the scale replica they had built for display in the hall of heroes.” Yeah, more than ever I felt like something was off about this place. “None of this adds up. I can’t help but feel that something is going on here.”

“When is there not something going on that you inevitably run into.” Hispano grumbled as she nudged me with her elbow. “But I agree. These Rangers are far too nice to be real.”

“Well, I don’t know about you two,” Buck spoke up as he strode on over with the rest of the crew following behind him. Reaching out his massive paw, Buck presented Hispano with her flight cap and goggles. “But I do believe that you said you’d eat your own cap if they turned out to be friendly.”

Reaching up, she snatched the flight cap from his claws and swiftly pulled it over her head plumage.

“You haven’t won yet. Not until we leave, anyway.” She jabbed her talon through the air at him. “Both Dum Dum and I know something is up here, and when we find it, then you’ll have to eat it instead…” She scrunched up her beak for a moment as her words drifted off. “You know what, fuck it. I don’t care! No one gets to eat my cap!”

“Regardless of who’s eating what hat,” Boiler spoke up as both she and Howitzer trotted up next to Buck. “if you two need help showing everypony that the Rangers are monsters? You can count me and my bro in.” Raising her hoof, Howitzer hoof bumped her with a snort.

“Yeah, my bro and I are right behind you as well, man.” Gearbox’s bloodshot eyes and relaxed smile were yet another comfort to me, as well as some reinforcement in the fact that I wasn’t alone in thinking something was going on here. “Right bro?” Gearbox smirked as he turned around in place before looking back the twenty feet or so to where Lucky was still laying sprawled out on the pavement. “Oh shit, I forgot you can’t walk!”

“Well, while you all are on your witch hunt, I’m going to make myself useful and take inventory of the supplies we have onboard.” Buck’s judgemental look at me hurt, but it wouldn’t be enough to deter me. I mean, if I’m wrong, than I’m wrong. But if I’m right…

“Yeah well, I’m going to go back to my container and do some work outside of the prying eyes of the rangers.” Hardcase gave a whimper as he ran his hoof over his hornless head. “For now, I think I’m going to finish up working on your jump pack, then help Boiler rig up something to help Lucky get around again.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” Boiler nodded before pointing her hoof to me. “You and Hispano just keep your eyes out, and come tell me or Howitzer if you see anything out of place.”

“Why do you and your brother hate the rangers so much?” Hispano asked with a bluntness normally reserved for having come out of my muzzle.

“Tell you what, once we’re out of this place, I’ll tell you the whole story.” Boiler snorted as she exchanged looks with Howitzer, before giving us a dismissive wave. “For now, focus on just watching them. The rangers are a very structured, militaristic bunch, so look for anything that doesn’t seem like it belongs on a military base, or isn’t up to their normal level of obsessive compulsive assholishness.”

“Alright, well first we should go and talk to that griffon Captain.” I spoke up, looking down at Hispano. “We have to at least look like we’re not suspicious after all.”

“Great idea.” She nodded and wrapped her talons around the flaps on her flight cap. Tugging it down stiffly, she made sure it was secure on her head before turning her gaze toward the tower. “But first, I’m getting my sister back.”

Now that she mentions it, it might be a good idea to get my gear back as well. You know, for when this all falls apart and we have to slaughter half of this place just to get out of here! Yeah, thanks for that thought, brain. Spreading my wings, I got to my hooves as Hispano kicked off and took flight.

“Good luck!” Hardcase gave a small wave. “We’re all counting on you!”

It had taken a bit of searching, but we eventually tracked down the salvage cart that most of the crew’s belongings had been piled onto. Apparently, the Rangers stored all of their ‘reclaimed’ items inside the nearest hangar to the flight control tower. The hangar itself looked like it had been patched up over the years, but it probably did little more than keep rain and snow off of the neat racks of stored stuff inside. Row upon row of vertical shelves stored everything from basic household appliances, to vehicle arcano engines, to nonfunctional robots.

Of course, just past the entrance of the giant hangar doors, was a pony at a desk with a massive looking logbook. The mare looked up at Hispano and I from behind a set of large square glasses as we entered, but seemed altogether unconcerned and almost bored with our appearance. She instead chose to return her nose and hooves to the big book where she was quickly marking down the convoy’s various kitchen belongings. Jeeze, why would they need to write everything down? Just how many coffee mugs and plates did you need to keep a record of?

It took some talking, and a few radio calls from the guards outside to convince the mare, but she finally relented. The pony who’d been cataloging our stuff hadn’t been too happy that we’d come to claim Suiza, but they agreed to let Hispano have her back. The same however couldn’t be said for my saddle and gun, but so long as Hispano had her sister, I was a lot less concerned about getting into trouble. Now we just had to find the captain in the tower.

The main administrative building and flight control tower sat nearly in the direct middle of the open ground between the two runways. The whole structure was obviously made to be more durable than beautiful, as it too was built out of thick slabs of concrete. To emphasize and enhance that durability, it had also been armored with metal plates near and around the top of the tower. Thin slits had been built up in the armor where the windows once sat, giving it the appearance of a fortified bunker. The sight of the tower, along with the walls, again shifted my opinion from a simple reclaimed airport, to the feeling of an old world prison.

A pair of the armored rangers had escorted Hispano and I, walking us through the cramped and confusing administrative building. It made sense that while the Elder had said we were free to go anywhere we wanted, it didn’t mean that they trusted us at all doing it. Still, the hallways were filled almost from wall to wall with various bits of tech or documents from the old world, making this place feel more like Fuschia’s traincart than an old airport building. We eventually wound our way past all the junk, and over to the stairwell of the up armored flight control tower.

Even the stairwell leading up to the tower was crammed full of gear and tech, along with bundles of cable as thick as my forehooves. The cables seemed to be strung down from the tower, disappearing through a grate in the floor of the administration building. It made sense that the tower would have a lot of cables and electronics being run through it, but even so, this was more excessive than any Enclave tower I’d ever toured through.

Reaching the top, one of our escorts pushed past Hispano and I on the stairs. The unicorn stallion brought out a small rectangular keycard in his magic and slid it through a small black box next to the door. There was a jarring buzzing noise before the magnetic locks in the door turned off and it popped open.

“Commander Crepe, you have visitors.” The stallion spoke, giving a stiff salute before stepping out of the doorway.

“Send them in.” A mare who sounded just as stern as that power armored bitch outside spoke up over the beeps and terminal noises that came from the dark tower control room.

Both Hispano and I stepped up the last few stairs and into the top of the tower. Immediately, I noticed it felt somehow more cluttered and cramped than everywhere else on the walk up here, which was something I didn’t think was possible. What must have been thousands of wires ran up, over, and around every surface on the room, save for the numerous terminals, machines, and a few patches of the floor.

Dozens of bulky terminal banks contained flashing screens that had readouts running across them for various systems which I couldn’t begin to comprehend. A bank of cloud terminals sat off on the far side of the room, and were easy for me to pick out as the current radar and radio scanning images that most air traffic towers had. One of the screens however, displayed the oddly named ‘Oroborous Lockout’ across it, along with a countdown timer that was running down from just over five days.

Moving on from the cloud terminals, five robed ponies were busy keeping track of the information on them, while another pair of ponies were inspecting a buzzing and flashing central magnetic tape machine that collected all the wires from the room and fed them over to a single table near the cloud terminals. The table itself, as it turned out, had something on it that I almost instantly recognized.

I found myself staring at another one of those odd silverfish drones like the one I’d seen at Fuschia’s junk shop. This one however, had been rigged up to accept the numerous wires from every damn system here before feeding them out again and down through the floor. A softly pulsing yellow glow from inside it’s split open metal casing told me that somehow it played a part in whatever this tower did.

But seeing as Fuschia didn’t even know what it’s purpose was, I had no idea why they’d make it a hub for everything up here. Before I could ponder it any further however, an imposing chocolate brown mare with a white mane, styled quite like mine currently was, stepped in front of me.

“State the nature of your visit.” The middle aged unicorn mare ordered as her hazel eyes studied over me. Between her stern tone, and the similarity of their coat colors, I had to wonder if the mare here was related to the bitch out there.

“I’m sorry, Coconut, I should have informed you of their arrival.” Captain Pastel cleared his throat as he stepped up to us. Wait, her name was Coconut as well? So they were somehow related after all! “The elder had hoped that we could get their help with our current reboot problem.”

“What? He cleared them for that?” Coconut snarled as she took a step back from Hispano and I. “These outsiders that we know nothing about? Letting them in is already unheard of, but trusting them with sensitive assets is not only insane, but also incredibly dangerous.”

I was getting sick of being treated like dirt by these asshole mares, so maybe it was time to introduce them to one I knew quite well.

“Hey, lady, these outsiders you’re talking about are standing right in front of you.” I snapped, letting Bombay do the talking. Flaring my wings slightly, I puffed up my chest and pushed my muzzle into as sly of a grin as I could. “And you know what? Maybe after how we’ve been treated since we’ve arrived, we don’t want to help out. So good fucking luck with that cloudship, or whatever else it was you needed us for.”

“You’re an Enclave pegasus… aren’t you?” Coconut spoke up, swiftly reaching out and grabbing around my left wing with her fetlock. She gave it a squeeze before I ripped it away from her. “That must be why the Elder cleared you.”

“Keep your hooves to yourself.” I snapped at her. Though, from the way her expression shifted to a more serious one, and how her eyes drifted right across the room like nopony else was here, I wasn’t quite sure she’d even heard me.

“Tell me,” She glared at me as her horn flared to life with a golden glow. Her magic squeezed around me, holding me in place. “Do you have class three Enclave operational clearance?”

“No.” I writhed against her new grasp. Why couldn’t she just keep her hooves and her magic to herself!? “I may have come from the Enclave, but I wasn’t a soldier.”

“I have the codes.” Hispano chirped as she stepped up and pressed against me. Wait, how the fuck did Hispano have anything like that from the Enclave?... You know what? I really shouldn’t be surprised about these things with her anymore… “You want them? You’re going to have to convince my boss here that I should give them up. A good first step would be to dispel your horn.”

Coconut simply deadpanned at us as she visibly bit her own tongue. Good to know I wasn’t the only one who had to do that now and again. Still, I could imagine the things she was wanting to say to us were probably just as bad as my current opinion of her and the power armored Coconut.

“Commander Coconut, are you alright?” Captain Pastel asked before looking between Hispano and I.

“Yes, that could definitely work.” Coconut nodded to herself before turning to one of the robed mares working on the silverfish drone-thing. “Scribe Meringue, send word to Captain Frescas that she’ll be receiving Captain Pastel and two guests.”

“Alright then, you two with me.” Captain Pastel reached over and gave a firm pat on my shoulder with his Talon. “We’re going to have to get up there quickly. We can’t have those Puritan simpletons knowing too much.”

“Yeah, about doing it quickly...” I spoke up, forcing the armored griffon to pause. “We might have a small problem with that.” As I sort of expected, he pulled back his talon and dragged it across his beak. “You don’t happen to have an old dizzitron or anything around here, do you?”

Lacking any other real option, I convinced Pastel to return again to the Hauler. He, like most other fliers, seemed confused at the nature of my condition. But at least after a few explanations, he didn’t seem so annoyed about accommodating me. Pretty much my only hope for now was that Hardcase and Boiler could finish up my jump pack quickly to get me up there. So with Hispano and him waiting on the tarmac behind Bertha, I’d hoped to make this visit quick.

“Hey, Hardcase?” I knocked on the door as I pushed it open. As expected, the latch was still secured from the other side, and a quick flash of blue came through the gap in the doorway. After a moment, the latch flicked away in Hardcase’s magic and I stepped inside.

“What’s up, Night?” He asked, tipping up a set of glasses that had a magnifying visor on it. The smell of burning metal filled the air in his hazy room, and in front of him on his desk sat the old world jump pack.

“So, I know you’re still working on it, but is there any way I can use the pack yet?” I flashed him a nervous grin that was immediately met with a deadpan that screamed ‘are you serious?’.

I knew that I was asking a lot for him, and honestly I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try it yet. Seeing as Boiler had been fairly convincing in saying it was unstable, I wanted to make sure that it was built up to the best of their abilities. You know, because having old flying tech explode while you’re wearing it was quite detrimental to one’s health.

“I assume you’re asking because you actually need it for something.” He mumbled as he turned around to his desk again and levitated a small soldering iron from it’s holster. Flicking his magnifying glasses down, he began to solder some part of the internals in the device. “Tell you what, go grab Boiler for me, and we’ll see how fast we can get this thing flight worthy.”

“Alright, I’ll…” I began, but found myself quickly cut off.

“Just remember this!” Hardcase glanced back, becoming extremely hard to take serious with his magnified eyes. “You have to be careful with it. Just because we can get it working, doesn’t mean it’s going to be safe.”

“I understand.” I nodded, cringing slightly as my mind once again filled my head with images of me mid-boost into the air before I turned into a fiery cloud of well done pony. “I’ll go grab Boiler.”

Turning, I made my way back down through the Ice hold to the Reactor deck. Of course, Boiler was where she’d been when I came back onboard, which happened to be foreleg deep into some internal mechanism of Bertha’s reactor. When I trotted up behind her, she glanced back at me and held up her hoof signaling for a moment.

Sticking her tongue out of her broad muzzle, she yanked herself sideways a few times. On the fourth or so yank, there was a sharp hissing the came from behind the reactor. A few of the red lights on the control panel for it began blinking a couple of times before turning into green lights. With another shifting yank, she made the hissing stop before the clang of whatever tool she had used hit the floor.

“Alright, sorry about that, Night.” She grunted as she pushed herself back from the reactor and pulled her foreleg out from the recess it had been in. “Gotta bleed the excess hydrogen out of the system every couple of days or you risk your compact spell reactor turning into a large area fragmentation reactor.” With a smile too lighthearted for the image she just painted, she gave me a pat on the shoulder. “What can I do ya’ for?”

“I’d asked Hardcase if I could get the jump pack up and running, cause I kind of need it.” Giving her a shrug, I glanced down at where Hispano and Captain Pastel were still standing. “He asked me to come get you.”

“Well, we can do our best, but it won’t exactly be safe…” Again, she wasn’t really selling me on using this thing at all, but I didn’t really have a choice. “Still, we’ll make it work for you, Night! Don’t you worry, between the two of us, I’m certain we can get it working at least once!” She gave a giggle as she pushed past me. “And you know what they say about parachutes!”

“No?” I wasn’t quite sure where she was going with that. Still, my answer made her lock up midstep.

“Uhhh, well,” Her giggle turned into a more worrisome nervous chuckle. “You only need a working parachute if you want to go skydiving twice.”

Facehooving, I prayed to Celestia that this piece of old world junk better not kill me…

Another half hour of the two of them tinkering had brought us to the point where the sun had dipped below the far side of the mountains, and the amber rays it cast over the peaks made the darkening sky above all the more noticeable.

In watching both Boiler and Hardcase tinker with the device, I noticed that the two had a nearly psychic connection when it came to working in tandem. They almost didn’t need to speak in order to know who got access to the interior next, and what part went where when and such. Though, it was when Hardcase levitated the screws and outer plate up against the main machine, I knew it was finished.

“Alright, well I’m fairly certain she’ll run.” Boiler wiped at her brow as she took a step back. “If this works, we’ll definitely need to regulate the voltage provided by the thunderstone, but she shouldn’t melt her own circuits on this first run.”

“She’s also only got two heat sinks installed out of the four I planned on having, so she’s still going to run hot overall.” Hardcase sighed as he sat back and used his magic to tighten the plate and screws. “So as much as your first instinct is going to be to pull this old gal off your back the minute you land, it’s best you don’t touch her without giving her at least a minute to cool down.”

“Alright, so how does it work?” I asked, feeling confident enough to take a step forward.

“Well, first we strap it to you of course, which should be fairly obvious, really.” As Hardcase spoke, his magic wrapped around the pack and brought it over to me. As he did, all of the various leather straps on it stretched open and slid around me. “I’ll let Boiler explain the triggering mechanism for you since she built it.”

I stood there and let Hardcase work his magic. The straps folded around my midsection, and for some reason, my left foreleg as well. Still, when all the belts were securely clasped, he let go of the pack. Instinctively, I braced my legs to hold the weight of it up. But I'll tell you this, it was a lot lighter than what I thought it would be...

“Alright,” Boiler stepped up to me and gave a few tugs at the straps around my foreleg. “Since you’ve got such an unusual flight style, I’ve rigged the activation trigger to a pair of buttons. First, is the red button here on your upper chest strap.” Her forehoof reached up to a small leather flap on the strap that went across my chest and opened it, revealing a small red button. “This will prime the system and charge the main capacitors. There will be a whining noise that builds up, and once that noise becomes steady, you can use the second, green button behind your fetlock to activate the boost. However, you’ll have to position yourself so that the pack launches you straight up when you press it as to get the most altitude from it.”

“So I just…” Reaching up, I maneuvered my forehoof toward the top button.

“NO!” Both of them shouted in unison, making me freeze up and blink a few times.

“Never prime the pack while inside.” Hardcase spoke stiffly as his magic quickly flipped the leather flap back over the foreleg button. “You activate it indoors, and you’re going to find yourself uncomfortably acquainted with the wall at about eighty kilometers per hour.”

“That, and once she’s primed, you can’t discharge the capacitors without using the boost.” Boiler picked up without missing a beat, or an ounce of the tenseness in her voice. “The boost is timed to only last three seconds at maximum force. After that, it should theoretically shut down automatically…”

“Theoretically?” Okay, I didn’t blame my muzzle for spitting that out past my internal censor.

“Yeeeah…” Hardcase hung on that word as he cringed. “Also, you might want to keep your wings forced shut until after you reach maximum dynamic pressure. Just loosening them slightly could force them open fast enough to shatter every bone in them.” Fucking fantastic. They’ve strapped me into a death machine. “But barring that happening, a failure in the thunderstone, or some other event resulting in rapid and violent unplanned disassembly, it should work great!”

Thanks for the pep talk, guys…

“Well, not like I have a choice now.” I flashed them a nervous smile. “Wish me luck then!”

“Don’t look so worried, Night.” Boiler gave me another rough tap on the shoulder. “We’ll be with you the whole time, right, Hardcase?” Looking back at him, she gave him a forceful shove with her rear leg.

“Oh, yes, of course!” His nervous grin grew to twice the size of mine. “We’ll just have to find something sturdy enough to put between us and you for the initial test...” He trailed off for a moment as he got lost in his head. “Maybe we can find that dumb ranger again…”

Alright, Night. You can do this! Just think happy, non-explosive thoughts…

“You sure this contraption is safe?” Captain Pastel asked as he canted his head and scratched at his plumage. The sharp, but quickly stifled laugh that Boiler gave with Hardcase as they cowered behind the Ranger griffon, was again, less than reassuring. “Well, if you can, do try to aim for the far mountain side of the cloud. The puritans might be backwards minded folk, but they at least know that clouds are strong enough that pegasi can stand and walk on them. So they shouldn’t think you not coming back out on this side is anything unusual.”

“Good to know.” I nodded as I lifted my forehoof and folded back the leather flap. “Alright, priming the pack!” Here goes nothing!

Pressing down firmly on the red button, there was a soft click before the sharp whine Boiler had mentioned started up. I could feel as the turbine mechanisms in the pack started to move, building up speed as the capacitors charged. Even now, I could feel warmth beginning to radiate through the padded leather backing of the pack.

Pulling my wings tightly against myself, I leaned and tried to position my back so it was perpendicular to the tarmac. Taking a few deep breaths, I blinked a few times, watching as the amber skies transitioned even further toward dark blue as the setting sun dipped below the mountains west of Mare’s Lake. Then, after offering a quick prayer to Celestia, I wiggled my left fetlock, and pressed the small green button on the inside of it.

What sounded like a gunshot forced all the sounds from my ears. My vision went white as incredible pain hit my one good eye while I strained to shut it. My body ached as it felt like it was being pressed against the ground by some enormous weight. The padded leather against me felt like it began to boil, and I could almost smell the baking skin on my back.

Then… weightlessness.

I shook my head, reflexively unfurling my wings as the pressure against my body dissipated. The sound of the wind brushing over my wings met my ears, and I blinked away the dry blindness out of my good eye. The world returned as the air caught under my wings, and I began to effortlessly glide through the evening skies. And even though my back still felt like it was burning, I had the biggest smile across my muzzle as I looked down below me.

I must have been almost a thousand feet in the air, and I was right above the cloud that hid the Ranger ship. As I stiffened my forelegs, I banked myself around toward the rust colored mountainside. Snapping my tail to help steer me a bit, I put myself in a slow turn that would help me bleed a bit of speed and altitude.

All too soon, I felt myself come down softly onto the side of the cloud. As the pain in my back ebbed with the dissipating heat, the adrenaline that was coursing through my body also began to subside. Still, I couldn’t remove the dumb grin I had plastered across my face as I let out an elated giggle.

It worked! It actually worked! And for bonus points, I didn’t explode! I owed both Boiler and Hardcase so much for the dedication they put into this thing, and I’m sorry I ever doubted…

I paused before sniffing at the air a bit. Why did it smell like burning hair?

fwumph!

The sound from behind me caught my attention, and I let out a sharp gasp as the small flame that had sprouted on my tail flickered and grew in the breeze. Turning around in place a few times, I tried flicking it wildly against the cloud to bat it out, but still it persisted. Sitting down hard, I sharply thrust the burning tail between my rear legs, and clapped my forehooves around it to smother it. I let out a sharp whining as it burned my hooves, but I finally managed to put it out.

“You know, Dum Dum,” Hispano spoke up as she flittered down from the air above me. “That went a hell of a lot better than I expected! I totally thought you’d end up as a big red splotch of paste on the concrete.” I deadpanned at her as she came down next to me on the cloud, which must have looked really weird to her seeing as I still couldn’t stop smiling. “I mean, I’m happy of course that you didn’t die. But you can’t fault me for expecting it to go badly, given your less than stellar track record with things so far.”

I wanted to feel annoyed by the truth of that, but that was fair enough I guess.

“I’m glad I didn’t explode as well.” I laughed, reaching out and pulling her into a tight but awkward hug. “And I’m also glad you’re feeling a bit backup to your old self. At least, well enough to come up here with me.”

“Yeah, that detox junk Dad gave me yesterday really sucked, but it worked fucking fast.” Weaving her talons together, she gave a stretch that popped what sounded like every joint in her forelegs. Rolling her neck and flapping her wings forced out another set of pops that seemed like it took all the tension out of her all at once. “Plus, of course I’m here with you. Everywhere you go, shit seems to get interesting, remember? Why not hang out where the fun is at, right?”

“Oh good, I thought you’d maybe say you were coming up here to make sure I didn’t screw shit up again.” Sticking my tongue out at her, she snirked and rolled her eyes at me.

“Nah, that’s Buck’s job.” She let out a rough grunt as she sat Suiza down on the cloud next to her. “But you can bet if you try to pull that shit where you go running off on your own again, I’m going to step in and stop you.” The stern, cold look that came from her sent a chill up my spine, but I knew I deserved it. Still, I couldn’t help but ask for something, anything, to come and take the attention off of me for even just a moment.

“Well it seems like there’s some merit to those two down there after all.” Captain Pastel remarked as he came down onto the cloud with us as well. Thank the goddesses, at least they do answer some of my prayers! “It’s a shame they’re on your crew. We could probably use more scribes as inventive and ingenuitive as them.”

“Eeeeh.” Hispano held out her talon and wavered it in the air. “I’d say it’d be a fifty-fifty chance that they’d either help you, or end up building a megaspell out of spare toaster parts and wiping you out by accident.” With a shrug, she reached over and grabbed her sister again. “Alright, so what did you need Dum Dum and I for up here?”

“Not that it’s much of a worry, but we shouldn’t discuss it out here.” Captain Pastel stomped past us on the fluffy cloudbank, reaching out and feeling around through part of the cloud just below him. “Captain Frescas and I can explain everything to you once we’re inside.”

With a rusted squeal, the sound of a bulkhead door unsealing met our ears. The cloud in front of him bulged out, dissipating the fluff as it tore a hole wide enough for a pony sized round hatch to extend out of it. Carefully, Captain Pastel started to descend the ladder that was inside the hole created by the open hatch, and he waved for Hispano and I to follow before disappearing inside completely.

Stepping over to the hatch, I found a round metal tube descending into the cloud. It was almost exactly the same as the replica model back in the Enclave hall of heroes. Though, made of solid cloud steel rather than sheet metal and plywood reclaimed from old skycarts. As I climbed down the ladder, the light of day was slowly replaced by a red tinge from the conning tower lights. Once Hispano climbed down a few rungs past the open hatch, a short bell rang in the tube, and the hatch above began to close on it’s own.

Another bell rang once the hatch was sealed, and below me, Captain Pastel gave a quick knock on a hatch below us. The squeak this one gave as it opened resonated in the confines of the tower tube. Still, the hatch below opened downward, revealing the control center of the cloudship. Carefully, I continued down as soon as Captain Pastel had climbed off of the short ladder below.

“Oh Pastel, it’s so good to see you back in one piece.” The voice of a mare met my ears as I climbed down into the command deck. “I do hope that the savages in Mare’s Lake treated you and the misfits alright.”

Turning, I spun just in time to watch as the ranger griffon was immediately pulled into a hug by a bluish green coated earth pony. Her frizzy strawberry blond mane was stuffed underneath an Enclave captain’s hat, and the formal captain’s uniform she wore looked like it came directly from the Enclave as well. Again, this brought up even more questions in my mind as to how any of this was even possible. As Hispano climbed down behind me, I heard her immediately gag when met with the sight of the two hugging.

Taking a moment to look around as Captain Pastel was dealing with the huggy mare, I took in as much as I could of the control room. Though it was again a similar layout to the replica, there was much more either added in over time, or omitted on the replica. Twice as many boxy looking arcano-machines blinked and hummed away, as well as about a thousand more pipes and wires than I remember there being. A half dozen ponies worked at different terminal stations, logging the readouts of various instruments onto clipboards much like the ponies in the tower had. One section directly across from us caught my eye, as it contained a dozen terminal screens displaying different areas outside of the cloud.

A few focused along the walls of the airfield, one was at the mountainside below us, and the remaining seven of them were directed at what looked like expansive farms and a small village not too far off to the east of the railroad tracks we came in on. A dozen bright flickering lights discharged pulses of jagged lightning as they sat in a straight line, and after a moment, I realized that it was some sort of defencive formation around the small village. Maybe that’s where the lightning we heard earlier came from.

“Eheh, I’m alright, Frescas. You know your father would never risk giving me too harsh an assignment.” Captain Pastel gave the mare a pat on the back before taking a step away and saluting her. “But as much as I wish it were, this isn’t really a social visit. I’ve brought…”

“Ah yes, the former Enclave citizen and the young Talon with the Enclave codes.” The mare cut him off, turning toward us. Stiffly, she held out her hoof to me and offered a confident smile that more than anything reminded me of my mother’s. “I’m Captain Aguas Frescas. Welcome aboard the Arcturus.”

“Hey there, I’m Bombay.” I spoke up, taking the mare’s forehoof and giving it a firm shake.

“Uh, nah.” She winced and pulled her hoof away from me. “If you’re Bombay, why do all your friends keep calling you ‘Night’? Or is that your nickname?”

Wha… wait, what!?

“H...how could you possibly know that?” I was torn between forcing my muzzle to speak, or process how the hell she knew anything like that about me?

“The question you should ask yourself is what don’t I know? I am the captain of a spy ship after all!” She chuckled as she sat down. “Oh, and so you know, I heard you and your friends talking down below. You can trust me when I say that nothing is going on here at Galloway. We have nothing to hide, and our treatment of outsiders, while it may seem rude to most, is just a precaution for those who look to cause trouble. And don't worry about thinking you offended us, every visitor is a little suspicious when they come here.”

“You mean the zero visitors we ever get?” Pastel gave her a side glance that seemed a bit more annoyance filled than an innocent correction.

“Yes, that’s right!” Captain Frescas gave a nervous laugh and a dismissive wave of her hoof. “We don’t really get many visitors…” she paused as Pastel cleared his throat roughly, “Any. I meant any visitors.”

“Wow. You guys are right. No reason to be suspicious at all!” Hispano spoke up before my muzzle had the time to spit out exactly that. She looked over to me with an unimpressed expression and shrugged. “If you ask me, between that two ton dolt with the minigun, and this airhead, they’re all just idiots.”

Which sure, I could agree with her on that. So far, these ‘rangers’ seemed just as unacquainted with the intricacies of the wasteland as I was. From what I’d seen so far, they might have been well equipped, but what they lacked was the same sort of rigorous training that I’d come to expect from every soldier I’d ever seen in the Enclave.

Then again, with how the Enclave was with the lies they fed us, I’m not sure that’s a good thing anymore...

Author's Notes:

As always, such a big thanks to TheFurryRailFan for helping out in making the chapter presentable. Seriously man, you're the best!

And of course, much thanks to Kkat for allowing us all to use the fantastic wastelands that are FoE!