“Ugh…” I groaned from the hammering at the inside of my skull. My forelegs felt like they were on fire, but I could feel bandages tightly wrapped around them. Shifting myself off of my side, I found a bed of soft, non-rotten hay under me. I had no idea how I’d gotten here, or even where my gear was. Opening my eye, came with a whole new set of questions. An off white earth pony stallion in a tattered and dirty looking burlap cloak sat staring down at me in the light of a single candle. “Who…?”

“Shhh.” The stallion whispered as he pushed his forehoof against my muzzle. Using his other forehoof, he pointed upwards.

I followed my gaze up, finding that the ceiling was made out of small oddly shaped interlocking tiles of metal. A rickety wooden staircase went up to the flush ceiling, giving me the distinct impression that we were in some sort of cellar or something. Above us, I could hear hoofsteps moving slowly across a wooden floor.

Okay, past all that, what the fuck was I doing here? This was not part of the plan! I don’t remember anything past getting on the radio with that flying stallion, let alone being dragged into wherever the hell this was. I didn’t think it was possible, but I swear, if I have another memory inhibiting talisman in my head, I’m going to kill somepony.

“Shouldn’t you be out there helping to save the northern fields?” The voice of an irate mare spoke up sharply through the ceiling above. “I already told you, that’s where my husband is. You want to talk to him? You can head out to the river and help him move buckets to put out the fires, inquisitor.” Wait, what the fuck is an inquisitor? Moreso, why does it sound like a title I wouldn’t ever want to carry?

“Now now, there’s no reason to lie, Mrs. Mound.” A different mare with a more relaxed tone spoke up through the ceiling. “We know that the outsider fell closest to your fields. They are dangerous, and must be apprehended at once.”

Oh great, let me guess, I’m the outsider.

“Yes, and I told you that after they fell, they went running off toward the river...” The first mare snapped.

“Right, with your husband.” The second mare interjected before what sounded a chair being scooted backwards. “That is what you told me, isn’t it?”

“He chased them off, but you make it sound like he was helping them!” The original mare exclaimed. “We already gave you our daughter when you asked to take her away. What more do you fucking want from us? My husband and I have been nothing but loyal to the kingdom, but you asshole inquisitors just want to take more and more from us.”

“Hey!” A young sounding stallion snapped at her. “Watch your language around the inquisitor, or you might find more trouble coming…”

“That’s enough, acolyte. Unless you want to be flogged tomorrow as well, you would be wise to keep your muzzle shut.” The inquisitor mare barked at the stallion. “Lancer, if he hasn’t found anything in this place yet, then get that nullification ring back on his horn before he burns down half the village.” Hoofsteps moved around above us for a few moments before a few of the ponies above left. “Remember, Mrs. Mound, that we are here to protect you from the dangers of technology, and all of the horrors it facilitates. I expect your husband to show up tomorrow at sunrise for disciplinary action.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The mare grunted in compliance. “Now if that’s all, I’d like you to leave so I can get outside and help with the fires.”

“As you wish.” The Inquisitor spoke as I heard her turn herself around on the floor above us. “Oh, and Mrs. Mound? Your daughter was a danger to the stability of our society. You know that arcane magic is the gateway to technology, and that technology will only bring about the end of ponykind. But with your outburst earlier, maybe you need a reminder of this truth.” The Inquisitor paused for a moment. “Yes, you will show up with your husband tomorrow to be disciplined as well.”

“Yes, Inquisitor.” The mare sighed.

Yeah, wow, and here I was thinking that there might not be anypony in the wastes to fill the gap of deplorableness between the Steel Rangers and Solomon. Guess I was wrong, but that’s not exactly new for me, is it? Still, if these ponies were hiding me when these sorts of punishments were being doled out, then they had to at least have some shred of equinity in them.

Slow, methodical hoofsteps worked their way across the boards above. Only when the sound of a wooden door being shut came through the floor, did the stallion next to me breathe a sigh of relief. And if he was relieved, then I probably should be as well. For now, at least.

“Alright, I am sorry about that. You must not be found by the Inquisitor, or you will have a very bad time.” The stallion kept his voice at a whisper still. His accent reminded me of Galina’s Stalliongrad cadence and inflections, but didn’t hold the authority or anger that she carried. He reached up and pulled his cloak back to reveal a striped pink and green mane. Yeah, definitely not as menacing as Galina. “My name is Neon Drifter, and I am to help you escape this place, yes.”

“Where are we?” I asked, looking around the small room we were in. “And who the hell was that up there looking for me?”

It seemed to be some sort of makeshift bunker. A few beds of hay sat in the corner where I was, along with a few open topped casks that looked to be filled with murky-looking water, and a good collection of jarred preserved foods. In the far corner of the room, along with the ladder out of here, was my gear.

“You are under my house, in my lead lined shelter.” Neon said with a smile as he got up. “It keeps out the prying magics of the acolytes. After they came and took my daughter, I figured that one day, we may need a place to hide from them.” Turning, he pointed over toward my gear. “Your things are in the corner, but so you know, you cannot yet leave. They will be watching, so we must take time to let them wander off.”

The jump pack looked to be alright from here, a bit scorched, but for all I knew that could be normal. However, the SFG was almost unrecognizable. It looked like it had melted at some point when I fired it, and half of it was charred and blistered black. Looking down at my bandaged hooves again, I made a disappointing connection. Well, I guess that sort of explains the burns on my legs at the very least. Thank the goddesses that Med-X is still working, which also means that I couldn’t have been down here for all that long.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked. Okay, based on my experiences so far, he’s going to ask me to kill somepony like that inquisitor. Which, based on what I just heard, I might actually consider. At least, I would’ve considered it had I not promised to Buck that I’d try not to kill when I didn’t have to…

Before the stallion could answer, a square section of the roof lifted away, and a dark green mare with a long brown mane stuck her head down above the rickety stairway. She offered a weak smile to the stallion, but her expression turned weary as she looked at me.

“I sure hope you’re worth the trouble you caused.” She sighed as she walked down a few steps and turned around. “As for you, Neon, I expect you to make tomorrow up to me. What were you thinking bringing this outsider in here? She’s going to get us both killed.” Balanced across her back was a blanket with a small tray on top of it, with yet another blanket wrapped over something on top of that. She turned around, stepping down another step to shut the door in the metal ceiling.

“Don’t be so harsh, Bloody.” The stallion rolled his eyes as he got to his hooves. Bloody? Now that’s a welcoming name. “She is going to help us unless you keep insulting her.” I fucking knew it!

“Let me stop you right there, I’m not going to kill anypony for you.” I spoke up, trying to focus on channeling Bombay. However, as I did, a sharp bolt of pain stabbed through my skull and I whimpered. My throbbing headache felt like it doubled in intensity before the world started to spin again. Either from my words or how pathetic that was, the stallion simply laughed at me.

“I would not ask you to kill, no. One mare against the king’s inquisitors would be suicide.” Both he and the mare stepped up to me. Even with my fuzzy vision, I watched as the stallion pulled the tray off the mare’s back and set it down between the three of us. “Dear, could you fetch some water?” He smiled to her as he hoofed at the blanket on the tray, opening it to reveal a blobby pale tan-yellow lump. Blinking a few times, my vision decided to resolve enough to let me make it out as a loaf of bread. “So, as you may know, the kingdom is… not a tolerant place. Neither my wife or I were born here, and I feel lucky for that. I fled from Stalliongrad, stupidly thinking that the west may be a more stable place. And though I met my wonderful wife, Bloody Mounds, on the way, I am wishing we would have turned right around and gone back.”

“We need your friends across the river to help us.” Bloody spoke as she walked back over and sat down next to the stallion and I. “You need to tell them that we would be willing to work for them, to continue growing food. Explain to them what we are going through, what is happening over here.” Grabbing Neon’s hoof, the two exchanged a hopeful glance. “We know we don’t have any right to ask, but we can’t live under the rule of this kingdom any longer. Nopony here can. We need to be able to keep our families whole, and to be able to express ourselves without fear of punishment. I used to be a raider, so I know what punishment is, and even I can’t handle this shit.”

“I… I’m not sure what I can do. I’m not even with the Steel Rangers, we’re just a convoy passing through this area.” Raising my hoof to my head, the pressure I put against it once again helped to dull it slightly. Still, it helped to focus my vision completely again, and for that I was at least thankful. “I wasn’t even supposed to help any of you at all.”

“But, those flying bombs… they would have destroyed Oatsville. We wouldn’t have a home, and probably our lives if not for your actions.” Bloody’s shocked expression sent a wave of guilt through me that I honestly shouldn’t have felt. The Rangers could and should have helped them, this was on them. “Don’t those toasters over there understand what would have happened to us at all!?”

“They knew, and they didn’t care.” I grumbled. “They knew the attack was coming, they refused to help at all. They wanted your village to be destroyed.”

“But still, you came.” Neon spoke up, lifting the loaf of bread to me, he smiled as my stomach gurgled. “So maybe it is you who can talk some sense into their heads.” Reaching out, I took the bread from him. Bringing it up to my muzzle, I took a bite out of the soft loaf. Admittedly, it was so much more amazing than the canned goods we always cooked up on the convoy. “I hope that you can convince them that, should they choose to come save us, my wife can bake many loaves for them.”

“Oh cut it out, Neon.” She giggled and rolled her eyes before leaning against him. “If my bread could win over the Rangers alone, then we would have already been saved.”

Gasping, I tumbled down into the muddy soil below me. I rolled painfully onto my side, trying to shield the jump pack strapped to me as I slid to a stop in the dirt. The wheat stalks around me rustled in the wind as the smell of smoke and the flickering of fires along the mountainside lit up the night.

What. The. Fuck!?

Why was I outside!? How the hell did I get here? Pain spiked through my bandaged head again and I whimpered as heavy hoofbeats closing in caught my ear. There was also very angry shouting in the distance that was rapidly drawing closer. I had no idea what the fuck was going on, but I had the bad feeling that I didn’t want to know.

“Quickly! We cannot slow!” Neon groaned as he wrapped his hooves around me and pulled me back up from the dirt. “You must... get up and run for the river!” Pointing to the pale concrete wall of the ranger compound, he panted heavily as my own heart pounded away inside me. He shoved me past himself, turning his back on the Ranger wall. “I will slow them, but you must go!”

“What the fuck is going on!” I shouted, straightening up my coms cap on my head as I looked back the way he was facing.

Five ponies were charging full bore at us from across the farm fields. Two of them looked like power armored Rangers, but their armor was less mechanical and looked more… straight out of the medieval era. A naked, gaunt-looking purple unicorn charged alongside an earth pony mare in flowing crimson robes. The unicorn’s horn glowed brightly for a moment before an arcing bolt of lightning cracked through the air from it, splashing into the dirt at my hooves with a sizzle.

“Halt, outsider!” The mare charging in the lead screamed at me. Her coat must have been as black as night under her plate armor, because she looked like a cloaked shadow as she ran toward me. However, her piercing, angry pink eyes were undeniably locked on me. “You have nowhere to run, you must surrender!” Worst of all? From her voice, this was the Inquisitor bitch I’d heard before.

“Get our message out!” Neon shouted at me before he kicked of and charged right back at the oncoming ponies. “Go!”

Turning, my hooves helped me to get moving across the fields toward the walls. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I was outside, I had my jump pack back on, and I needed to get back over that wall. Wait, then why was I running?

I planted my hooves down hard, screeching to a halt in the dirt. Sitting myself down, I reached up and pressed the leather covered button on my harness. As the jump pack whined and charged it’s capacitors, a purple flash appeared before me. Looking up, I gasped as a gaunt red unicorn pointed his horn at me.

“You are done, outsider!” His voice was the same as the angry stallion I’d heard through the floor. Looking at him, the malice he held in his red eyes felt cold and distant, and the hollow grin across his muzzle felt out of place. “You have nowhere to run.” Looking at him however, revealed more scars than I’d ever seen on any pony. Purple bruises, both fresh and old, covered what was originally an orange coat. This pony must have been tortured and starved far beyond anything I could ever imagine. “Give up. You can’t run from us.” It’s a shame that he must have given in to everything that’s happened to him.

Bloody and Neon were right, these ponies needed saving.

“Unlike you, I won’t give up.” I smirked. My response simply made his grin widen, and his horn started to glow again. But I only closed my eyes and looked upwards as I pinched my forehoof against the launch button.

Like before, the world disappeared with what sounded like a gunshot as I was propelled into the air. I almost couldn’t fight the grin across my muzzle as the jump pack boost ended, and I was dropped into weightlessness again. Everything was quiet.

Then somepony punched me in the face.

“What are you doing, Tofu!” A bitter, older sounding mare snapped as my head throbbed.

Okay, I’m getting really fucking tired of these blank spots popping me into random situations! It’s painfully confusing, with a little too much emphasis on the painful side of it for me.

“Get away from him right this instant, young lady! You have no idea the complications you could cause from hitting somepony like that.” The bitter voice grew louder as it sounded like somepony walked up to my side.

“She and that griffon were literally the ones who knocked me out though, and fair is fair!” The painfully familiar voice of Tofu squeaked as I forced my one eye open. “Wait, she’s a him?”

“Goddesses, why me…” I groaned as the fuzzy interior of a small, blue room began to resolve. The swelling bruise on my muzzle made it even more painful to talk, but that didn’t worry me really. What did however was the fact that when I tried to reach my hoof up to it, I instead found it strapped down to whatever table I was on. Actually, all of me was strapped down onto the table...

“Tofu, sit your flank down in the corner and wait until I’m done.” The older mare shouted as she stepped up to me. “Honestly, is assaulting my patient all you came in here to do? You know, your father and I got you that job on the ship to keep you out of trouble.”

“Apple Turnover is not my father, just your husband.” Tofu forced out a laugh as she slinked off to what I could only assume was the corner. “Besides, being stuck in that cloudship is literally the worst thing ever. On top of that, Bundt gets to run around outside with the misfits all the time.”

The mare who walked up and stood over me was still fuzzy as my eye struggled to focus, but her obnoxiously rust orange coat didn’t help that at all. The horn on her head ebbed with what I can best relate as a soothing warmth. After a few moments of it’s light washing over me, my vision cleared, and the throbbing in my head started to recede.

“Your sister and the misfits aren’t supposed to be emulated, Tofu. You know that.” The mare sighed before she looked down to me. From her horn, a small mote of light detached and floated down just over my eye. “Alright, can you follow the light with your eye for me?” She slowly moved the light around, and I did my best to follow it. “Good. Now, how is your head feeling?”

“I assume you’re the doctor here?” I spoke up, getting a nod from her. Her magic started to slowly unwrap the bandages around my burned forelegs as a cooling feeling washed over them. “Everything feels fine now, but I’ve been having these… memory lapses.”

“Yes, that comes with having had a concussion.” The mare nodded again as the magic mote of light faded into nothingness. Again, her horn glowed, and pulsed out a green aura down at me. “Memory loss is fairly common with head injuries. However, this was not directly the fault of that this time. Tell me, did you take any painkillers before crash landing down onto our runway?”

What does she mean I crashed? No, wait, that actually sounds like something I’d do…

“Yeah, before I went to fight the incoming buzzbombs.” I nodded, watching the doctor deadpan at me. “It was a bit of Med-X, to keep me focused through the pain of the concussion. What does that have to do with the memory loss?”

“Med-X is also a blood thinner. It caused you to start bleeding into your brain, and that could have killed you if it had been left untreated much longer.” She grumbled before her horn dimmed once again. “You might want to remember that in the future before you try anything like that again.” Wow, that sounds like incredibly familiar advice. Buck even warned me about how giving me Med-X might be dangerous. I should have listened to him… “That being said, how long have you been using painkillers? I only cast a quick bloodwork spell and it showed you had quite a lot more than just Med-X in your system recently.”

“What?” I’m not sure what she meant by that, though her tone implied I’d been doing something wrong. “Only since I started getting hurt a lot. So… since the sky cleared up?”

“Is that so.” She deadpanned at me again before giving out a sigh. “You should know the dangers and risks that come with overuse of substances like Med-X and Chill. In the future, do try to keep your use of them to life threatening situations only.”

There was a knock at a door on the wall ahead of me, and it perked the doctor’s ears.

“Yo, mom,” The voice of another mare spoke up as the door opened. The mare who’d arrested me and been interested in Laika’s pod peeked her head inside. “You finished yet?”

“Almost, Bundt.” The doc sighed and rubbed at her forehead like I’d somehow transfered my headache over to her. “What do you need?”

“The elder wants to see you.” The mare at the door sounded impatient. “He said it was pretty important.”

“Alright, I guess.” The doc sighed and walked toward the door. “Tofu, please watch my patient. And don’t go hitting him again, please.”

“Whatever…” Tofu huffed as I listened to the Doc and other mare trot off down the hallway as the door swung closed behind them. As soon as the door clicked shut, I heard Tofu get back to her hooves. Of course after a moment, the orange coated mare was staring down at me with a judgemental look.

“Spackle was right you know. The Enclave was literally cancer to have to deal with.” She kept using literally in a way which made me think she didn’t know what it actually meant! “I wanted to give you a chance, but you’re just the same as every other featherhead, aren’t you?”

“And how would that be?” I grumbled. What the fuck did she know about how life was in the Enclave? Actually, now that she’s brought it up, I’m truly curious.

For once, I wanted to hear what somepony thought of the Enclave. I’d had enough of it dispelled that I was curious to hear what somepony’s honest opinion of them was. I wanted to know how it felt to be part of the lie that was the Grand Pegasus Enclave.

“None of you even cared about us grounders. You just wanted to come and take everything down here for yourself.” She spat at me. “You already took the sky from us, you had your ‘peaceful’ little lives up there. But that wasn’t enough, was it? Like the greedy jerks that you are, you had to try to come down and sweep us all away, like we’re dirt under the rug.”

I couldn’t help it as a laugh slipped out of my muzzle. Slowly, she raised her hoof again, poising herself to hit me another time. However, as I watched her with a smirk, she paused.

“I wasn’t military. Hell, I was almost old enough to be in the military when the clouds came down.” I laughed, watching as she hesitated, studying over me. “The government lied to all of us, said that the ground was toxic. They forced us to stay above the clouds, and you’re right, it was peaceful. But none of us knew what was actually going on.”

“But they couldn’t have hid the ground from you. There’s fights going on all the time down here. You all had to know something was up.” Tofu’s glare hardened as she jabbed her hoof at my muzzle. Still, she stopped just short of poking me when I shrugged.

“Unmaintained building collapses in the ruined cities, unstable ammo dumps detonating due to the elements and passage of time.” I remembered the times that dad would bring home stories from his work in Neighvarro at the skycarrage repair shop. Some of the long distance mail couriers getting their carts fixed would report strange sounds from below the cloud cover. The sounds of battles raging on, or screams of agony. He said that the long distance couriers believed it to be the ghosts of the past reminding us of our hubris during the war.

“The destruction on the last day wrecked a lot of things, and latent magics supposedly caused all sorts of anomalies to form.” I continued, forcing Tofu to scrunch up her muzzle angrily. “On top of that, it was hard to care about anything we heard below when most of us were too focused on wondering when we could afford to eat next. Most of what was in the news was either celebrity gossip out of the big cities, or about how yet another skycrop had died to blight.”

“But… there were always Enclave attacks down here. Somepony had to have said something when they went back up above the clouds.” Now Tofu just sounded confused. And to be honest, I didn’t blame her. The lies that the Enclave had built and maintained was hard enough for even me to comprehend. Still, I raised my voice to help her to focus.

“Not when the punishment for speaking out was death. Not just for you, but also for your entire family.” I grumbled. “Which in hindsight makes sense. Can’t risk that you told anypony else about what you saw down there, right?”

“But of course, that’s only if you make it back up above the clouds at all.” Shrugging again, I noticed that now Tofu’s expression had sunken to a frown. But now it was my turn to be pissed, Bombay’s turn. “You think it’s been that easy for me so far? Nothing but sunshine and rainbows, right? Hah. How would you feel if the Rangers came in here a minute from now, simply to give you a letter stating that your mom died? No explanation, no official report, just that she was gone now. Because that’s all my dad and I got when the Lightbringer took down her thunderhead with a fucking megaspell.”

“Oh, I… I didn’t know...” She gasped, taking a step back. To her credit, she did look a bit mortified by my words. And a little part of me loved to see her like that. No, not a little part of me, the whole Bombay side of me reveled in the sight of her regret.

Oh, but Bombay wasn’t finished. Far from it.

“Of course, how could you, a dumb mudpony, have known? It’s not like the worst thing you’ve had to deal with at your job is your hoof cramping at your cushy job. Speaking of jobs, now that you know what happened to my mom, you want to hear about what happened my dad!?” My blood was boiling in my veins, the rage I felt was coursing through me. I was venting everything through Bombay right now, and it was intoxicating. “After my mom died, we were forcibly moved into a settlement in the middle of nowhere, and he was given a job working on a raptor at a skydock. Some… accident caused by somepony who wasn’t supposed to be in there, rerouted all the ship's weapon system power back into the arcane reactor! You seem like the technical type, do you know what happens when you do that?”

“T-t-that… i-it...” She could hardly speak now, and was visibly shaken by my verbal assault on her.

“It explodes!” I shouted, making her let out a squeak. “Hah! Boom! And there went the whole fucking town! Except for little ol’ me!” I threw my head back in a forced laugh. And while Bombay loved to see how Tofu’s face reflected the regret she felt for bringing this all up, deep inside, I knew the laughter was the only thing suppressing the feelings of guilt I still felt about being the only pony left alive.

Really? Is this the best I could do with myself as the only survivor? Tormenting young Rangers who, while she had punched me in the face, was just as ignorant to the world as I had been months ago? Come on, Night. You can be better than this...

“I… I’m sorry…” She whimpered, taking another step back. I could see the pain in her eyes, the anguish she felt. Bombay thought it was glorious.

“No you’re fucking not.” Bombay spat at her without being able to stop. That’s enough, Night. The small voice in the back of my head was pleading with me. But you know what, I’ve already started, so I might as well finish.

“Now that you know my family is dead, do you want to know about what I’ve had to deal with down here?” My chapped lips hurt as I could feel the skin split on them, and my throat was starting to feel raw as I raised my voice yet again. “I came down to the wastes without a single scratch, without one fucking scar. Not to mention, two eyes and all four fucking legs still attached to me!”

That’s enough, Night!

“I said I’m sorry!” Tofu screamed at me before breaking down into wailing sobs. I froze, listening as she slid herself back down into the corner. Her whimpers and whines were what I had wanted to hear, they were supposed to make me feel pure bliss. But instead, it was the shock back to reality that I’d needed.

Good job you piece of shit. Fuck. I… I just got carried away, and it felt so good, and…

“I’m sorry, Tofu.” Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and just tried to relax. “It’s just, things down here aren’t at all what I’ve expected either. I’ve already heard too many stories about how the Enclave was terrible, and I’ve personally seen far too many good ponies die just because of selfish ponies or stupid mistakes. Spackle wanted to know why earlier, but now you know. That’s why I’ve been trying to help. I just… don’t want any more ponies to die when they don’t have to.”

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get any sort of response from her. Wow, way to be the shittiest pony you could have been. Yes, she hit you in the face, but can you honestly blame her?

Craning my head as much as I could, I tried to use my eye to find her in the corner of the room. The straps around my neck bit in, but just barely, I was able to see the orange mare curled in the corner. Not just that, but I noticed something I wasn’t expecting to see.

“You’re… a blank flank?” I asked, wondering how she could have been working if she didn’t have a talent. As I’d explained, in the Enclave it was understandable if you didn’t have your cutie mark before enlisting. But… was it really all that common down here too?

“Yes.” Tofu snapped between sobs. “Are you going to yell at me for that too?”

“No, I…” Letting out a sigh, I slumped back onto the table. “I’ve only had my cutie mark for a few weeks.”

“What?” She sniffled as she shifted around in the corner. “But you’re like… a couple years older than me, aren’t you?” A soft gasping whimper escaped her muzzle. “Oh goddesses… is it going to take me that long?”

“I don’t know. The only advice I ever got was to do things you enjoy or are good at.” I sighed, picturing my own ‘bomb sight’ cutiemark in my mind. “But even though I got mine, I’m not quite sure why I did. I don’t like killing ponies, at least, not innocent ponies.”

“But… I don’t know what I’m good at.” Tofu’s voice shrank as she spoke. “And being stuck on that stupid cloudship doesn’t help. I literally hate it up there…” That seemed odd to me.

“Why do you hate working on a cloudship? In the Enclave, it was always seen as one of the best positions you could ever get.” Mom was always hopeful that I’d get to follow in her hoofsteps one day and serve on a cloudship. Though, she probably tempered her expectations a bit once my disability got as bad as it did. But… Violet had said that there were ponies with flat feathers in her squad, so maybe I would have had a chance afterall? I’m getting wildly off topic here with events that would never come to pass…

“What? There’s no way anypony would ever think doing that work was worth it.” Tofu continued to sniffle and wipe the tears off of her as she picked herself back up off the floor. “It's literally so boring, why would anypony want that job?”

“Boring was having to monitor weather stations, or cloud cover regulators.” I tried craning my head up again, finding it easy to see her tear streaked face this time around. “But as part of a cloudship crew, you got to travel around the skies. The scenery isn't much up there, but the open skies are a lot better than staring at a screen all day.”

“Moving around all the time? I could never do that.” Her voice quieted again as she kicked her hoof along the floor. “And it's not even about the boredom, really. I get airsick if the cloudship moves at all, and... I'm afraid of heights.”

“Well I hate to tell you this, but you work in a cloudship, which normally operates up in the air…” I wanted to facehoof, but that was neither appropriate for this moment, nor possible seeing as how I was still strapped to the table.

“Hah, while that’s true, I can’t see the ground, you know? Windows on a ship like that would be about as useful as a screen door.” She gave a forced laugh that trailed off into a somber sigh. “You know, I've got this cousin down south, Scouring Charge, who I'm literally so jealous of. He's aiming to be a vertibuck pilot for the Rangers. He loves flying. His supervisors over there told us that they've never seen a stallion his age so motivated to get his hooves on the controls.”

For a moment there, she smiled as she thought about him. This is your chance, Night. Repair the damage you’ve done.

“Oh yeah?” I forced my own smirk. Now, just take your time and don’t say anything you’ll regret. “I hear it takes a lot of skill to be a vertibuck pilot. He’s gotta be almost a natural to even be considered for training at our age. At least, that’s how it was in the Enclave.” Good job. Small steps, Night.

“I can’t say if he’ll be any good. But my mom said that Scouring's just going to get himself killed flying one of those death traps, and I'm inclined to agree.” Taking a few steps closer, she looked right at me. And for the first time, I could see her open up to me, like I was no longer a stranger to her. “But literally? I'm super jealous that he's brave enough to even try.” Sitting down, she facehooved herself. “And that’s just the problem. I’m jealous of him, jealous of my sister for getting to go out into the wasteland all the time, and I’m jealous of you.” Wait, why me? “Not only do you have a cutiemark, but you broke out of here just to go and save puritans. I mean, what pony does that!?”

“Why can’t you do that?” As always, the words slipped out of my muzzle before I could censor my thoughts. “I mean, you mentioned it to your mom. Why not go out into the wastes with your sister? Why not help ponies out there who need it?”

“Because… I can’t do any of that.” Again, she shook her head and glared at me. “I’m literally the most pathetic mare on the base here. They hardly even trust me around the slaves, and now with what happened to Spackle, they’ll never trust me around them again!”

Umm… what now? Slaves!?

“Slaves?” I said slowly, making her lock up with a look of sheer terror. Okay. From the fact that nopony had mentioned it yet, and from her reaction, that feels like part of the something that felt distinctly off about this place. For the second time today, I fucking knew it!

“I… ummm… I don’t…” She stammered as she got to her hooves. Giving a distinct eep that I think I’ve given more than once in a nervous fit, she turned and scrambled for the door.

“Wait!” I called out as she threw open the door.

With a calamitous clatter, stacks of papers and files in the cramped administration building hallway toppled to the floor as Tofu fled. Shit… if I just tipped my hoof that I was onto their shady dealings, I was a sitting duck on this table. Or turkey, if I’d gotten caught up on the current derogatory term for Ex-Enclave pegasi.

“Scribe Tofu!” The voice of Elder Soursop strained to call out to her as he appeared in front of the doorway. Oh great, just what I needed. He was probably listening to that whole conversation right then, and he’s onto me. I probably really don’t want to know what he’s going to do to me now…

“You should keep a tighter rein of the young ones.” The soothing, if cold and annoyed voice of Delilah coming from behind the Elder was call enough for me to breathe a sigh of relief. If she was here, then he couldn’t possibly do anything to me, right? “Though as you’ve now seen, I will be the first to admit that I’m not exactly an expert on that.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright.” The Elder laughed as he turned and walked into the medical room. “To be honest, I didn’t think you or your crew could be here about the slaves. Still, it would have served both of us to have come clean about them from the start.” The elder wore an odd smile on his muzzle as he looked over at me. Delilah’s expression however, read that she was just as disappointed as ever in me. “Besides, let the young ones use their energy while they still have it. If you don’t, you’ll never know what truely amazing feats they are capable of.”

“Quite the stunt you pulled, Night.” Delilah snorted, looking over her glasses at me with her normal, scalding glare. “I thought I told you no more trouble. Why did you volunteer for that idiotic display of misplaced bravery?”

“Because the Rangers were just going to let that stallion in the craft and the ponies in the village die.” I snorted. While I shouldn’t have been so harsh on Tofu, the Rangers as a whole, deserved more than I could dish out for their own lack of morals. “Did you know, Elder, that the ponies in that village took me in and hid me from their authorities? They’re good ponies.” I glared at the Elder, who at the very least had the decency to look a bit dismayed at my words, if only for a moment. “They don’t deserve to die like you were willing to let them to, and the sad thing is that they want your help. They’re willing to grow food, and work for you just as they are. But they need your protection.”

“If the puritans wanted to be free of their own society, then by all means, let them tear it down.” The elder laughed, waving his hoof dismissively. “Tell me, what good would it do for the Rangers to start a war with the Puritan Kingdom, just to free one village? Why would I ever risk the lives of my own for theirs?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do?” I spat out. Seriously, I get that the Rangers would be taking a huge risk, but come on! I know I only remember a few minutes of my time there, but Neon and Bloody hardly seemed well equipped for fighting a revolution. “And you’re asking them to free themselves? With what? Farm implements and tattered clothes? They aren’t well trained fighters, Elder, not like the ponies of your little police state here.”

“Night.” Delilah’s tone sharpened like a blade held along my neck. “I know what you are getting at, but you’ve already learned that out here in the wastes, you can’t save everyone.”

“I’m not asking for everyone.” I spoke up, turning my own burning glare back onto the Elder. “Just one village.”

“He’s right you know.” The voice of the doc came in from the doorway. Well, score one for the voice of reason, because at least this doctor seemed to care about having a single shred of equinity in her. “That much food production? We could make it through the winter easy, and even have enough to trade to the settlements in Mare’s Lake.”

“It goes against the codex.” Elder Soursop snorted, doing his best impression of Delilah. Though, to be honest, she was still about a million times scarier than a robed and grey bearded earth pony would ever be. “But… maybe you’re right.” Hanging his head, he shut his eyes. “Maybe you’re both right.”

“I’m not saying to throw out the rules, Soursop, just…” The doc beamed out a warm smile as she trotted up beside him. “Maybe in this case, we interpret them a bit more literally than normal. We exist to help keep ponykind from making the same mistakes of the past, that is our number one tenant, right? And what better way to help, then to guide them ourselves?”

“I suppose the slaves we rescued have done well to transition into the Ranger way.” The Elder nodded as he stood himself up straight again. “Though, an operation this size is going to take time to plan, as well as resources and pony power pooled from both us, and the slaves.”

“Just… one question…” I spoke up, cutting into the conversation so bluntly that I probably added twice the strength of Delilah’s facehoof. “Why the fuck do you have slaves? You talk about helping, yet you own your own kind?”

“They’re freed slaves, Night. They didn’t tell us because they thought we were slavers.” Delilah groaned through her facehoof with so much exasperation that I almost mistook it for sarcasm.

“Ah, as I said!” The Elder’s smile returned as he turned and gave Delilah a soft pat on the side. “We didn’t think that for long. But we still had to err on the side of caution, and when your son found his way into the hidden part of the compound where we’ve been acclimating them to Ranger life…”

After a moment, it hit me. They were being secretive to protect the slaves! So… shit, this was all just… a… misunderstanding...

“Oh…” The pitiful and dumb sounding response was all that managed to tumble out of my muzzle now. Goddesses, Night. You’re an idiot.

“Not to worry, we were all at fault here.” The elder smiled as he walked over and started to undo the straps around me. “It has been a confusing few months. The Enclave attacks and the removal of the cloud cover made the whole wasteland both better and worse at the same time. But now is the time to rebuild, and that itself is going to come with it’s share of mistakes.”

Bit by bit, I regained the use of my limbs, and reveled in the feeling of freedom again. That is, until I actually got to climbing down off the table, when wouldn’t you know it, all the aches in my body came back to me. Taking a step forward, I wobbled and fell over as I tried to put weight on my missing rear leg. Right, of course they’d taken my prosthetic…

“Oh, sorry about that.” The Elder laughed at me as I sat sprawled out across the blue tiled floor. With as strong a grasp as before, he grabbed onto my forehoof with his own and pulled me right back onto my hooves. “Let’s take you over to the catalogue and get your things back, shall we?”

“Yes, and we can take care of what we came here for in the first place.” Delilah snorted, glaring at me as she scooted her glasses against the bridge of her nose. “Maybe now with less distractions this time around.”

Having returned to the hangar, the bored looking mare who sat behind the cataloguing desk shot me a glare as if I’d personally offended her. Look, lady, I get that you like to keep everything in a book, but it was just one item that I asked you for! It’s not my fault that you all stole our stuff and marked it in your book before having to hoof it all back over again. You did this to yourselves!

After the Elder ordered all of our stuff returned to the Hauler, I followed Delilah and the Elder at a hobbling pace. Though, I was stopped at the end of one of the many rows of stored items by the sound of a pair of wings behind me. I’d thought it might be Hispano, but turned around to instead find Captain Pastel. Great, now what was he going to do? Yell at me for lying to him and escaping the cloudship?

I think he caught onto my annoyance, because he awkwardly rubbed at his neck plumage.

“Look, I’m going to start out by saying I apologize for thinking you and your griffon friend were slavers.” He spoke with a tone of hesitation, but still marched through his words. With a shrug, he tried to push through that hesitation and flashed a smile, but it just came off as twice as awkward as before. “Can you really blame us for judging you at first look though when you and your crew did exactly the same thing?”

Fuck. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, he was right. While they were up to something behind our backs, keeping freed slaves safe was a whole lot better than murdering religious folks on an island, or running a family out of town as the only doctor who can help them, or being psychopaths living in a prewar movie town.

Still, while they were a lot nicer than I originally gave them credit for, they still had one major flaw.

“I can’t blame you for judging us, but you shouldn’t judge those who live in the village outside of the walls. There’s no need to condemn them when you could instead help them.” I watched as my words forced his expression to go as flat as the concrete tarmac outside. “Two of them saved my life out there, and while those who rule them seem detestable, the townsfolk are good ponies. They need help out there to regain their freedom, and the Elder just might be able to give that help to them.”

“You’re right. It was a brave thing of you to protect them like that, and if the Elder wishes it, I will go and fight for their freedom.” His eyes turned down to the floor, and he slumped forward a bit, giving out a long sigh. “Goddesses know that both Captain Frescas and I have watched those ponies suffer just as much as anypony else in the wastes.” A genuine smirk crept across his beak as he looked at me again. “And after what you’ve done for them, the least we can do is put your display of heroism to shame.”

“Then you make sure that the two who saved me make it out of the coming fight alright.” I nodded, not at all fighting the smirk on my own muzzle. “Get Neon and Bloody out of there, and I’ll consider myself shamed.”

“You got it. But for now, I’ll let you catch up to the Elder and your boss.” He nodded, stiffening himself up again as he raised his talon sharply to his head in a salute. “Take care on the road, Miss Bombay.”

“You too, Captain.” I replied, throwing up a sloppy salute of my own that mom would have probably murdered me for. But Captain Pastel didn’t seem to mind as he flared his wings and took off with a wide smile.

Alright, now to go get my mother’s dog tags back.

Trotting down the isle of miscellaneous things, just past the row of a dozen different vacuum cleaners, things ahead started to look… odd. The junk slowly turned into yellowed file boxes similar to some of the ones in the administration building. Loose papers looked to be packed into some of them so tightly that the seams of some of the boxes had begun to burst. As I hit the end of the isle, I entered into what I could only call a sort of pseudo-library.

At the back of the Hangar, three, five meter high shelves were absolutely packed with books sat encroaching around five separate large wooden tables. Each table held dozens of open books, scrolls, and papers taking up every inch of available space across all five of them. Almost a dozen crimson robed ponies were scattered amongst them as well, each one with their muzzles looking through them intensely.

“Night, come here.” Delilah called me over to the center table, where she, the Elder, and Tofu’s sister currently were. In the few seconds time I’d looked, I could easily pick out the silver tags being held up in her magic over a book.

“I’m sorry, Elder Soursop.” Tofu’s sister sighed as she turned to them. “We’ve poured through every log book, code book, index, and reference source that we have, and nothing matches this type of code.”

“And there is nothing in the digital archive?” He asked as his eyes peered almost through my mother’s tags. Tofu’s sister simply shook her head. “Well, thank you anyway, Scribe Bundt. Perhaps it is that we have yet to reclaim the correct volume or files yet.” Turning to Delilah, he gave a conceded nod. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t have been more help to you, Mrs. Delilah. Perhaps one last suggestion I can give, is to check and see if the city library in Cantercross still exists. Or perhaps the nearly as extensive archives that are in the Mountain Springs contingent of Rangers contain what you are looking for. Elder Magnetic Induction may not be as lenient as I have been with my Rangers, but I’m sure I could convince him of what a wonderful Jenny you are.”

“Thank you for expending the time and resources to attempt to figure this old mystery out. I definitely plan to look into what’s left of the city library when my crew and I get there.” Delilah’s cheeks burned slightly at the Elder’s words, and she stiffly reached out her hoof for him to shake. “I’m sorry however for the stir that my moronic son has caused, as well as the one that Night here caused.”

However, the elder simply gave her hoof an incredulous look and instead nearly dove into a hug.

“Not a problem! You and your crew are welcome back at any time.” The Elder laughed while giving a very surprised and brightly blushing donkey the biggest hug she’d probably had in years. I couldn’t tell if there had been a genuinely happy smile across her muzzle, because the second I tried to figure that out, she noticed me staring. And like always, the burning annoyed glare returned to her.

“And you need not apologize for Miss Night’s actions.” The Elder said as he took a step back with a wide grin. “While Double Delta may have made his fair share of mistakes, I still love him. Us parents need to be able to move past the mistakes of our foals, and show them the right path to take. Or else how can we say we’ve done everything to leave this world in better hooves when we’re gone?”

Delilah looked like she wanted so hard to cringe at that, and the twitchy tick of her eyelid betrayed the fact that her blood pressure had just skyrocketed. Still, she put on a pleasant expression for the Elder and nodded. While I could always try to be the better pony that Buck wanted me to be, I knew that I would always be less of a lost cause to Buck, than Happy Trails would be to Delilah.

The jingle of my mother’s tags in my ear caught my attention. Looking over, I found them hovering in the magical aura of Tofu’s sister. She gave me a glare that could match Delilah’s in form, but it wasn’t nearly as threatening coming from her. Holding my hoof out, she dropped the tags into it and stepped around the table toward me.

“I will say this,” She kept her voice down, but her tone was far too aggressive to keep her all that quiet. “You are less of a scumbag than the other Enclave I’ve met in the wastes. But if you ever return and yell at or knock out my sister again? I’ll make you regret it.”

“Scribe Bundt.” The Elder’s sharp tone made her stiffen up. “You’ve done good work today, so I’m giving you the rest of the day off. Go home, Apple.”

“Night, I want you to leave as well.” Delilah snorted at me. “Head back to the convoy and make sure you’re ready to head out. We’re leaving within the hour, and you’ve got night patrol duty when we roll out.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I nodded, looking down at my mother’s tags. Hastily, I slung my mother's tags up and over my head again, letting the cold metal feeling of it on my skin send a shiver down my spine. It felt good to have them back on me again.

“Oh, and you may need this.” The Elder’s voice threw me off, pulling my attention up just in time to see something white and black flying through the air toward me. I threw out my hooves, catching my prosthetic leg just an inch before it would have smacked me in the muzzle. “Take care, Night.”

Smiling and looking down at my prosthetic, I couldn’t help but fight the fact that maybe, just for once, things had turned out alright here.

The black velvet skies of night time had fallen at some point when I’d been unconscious, and the few clouds that wandered through the starry night skies tonight helped me to feel relaxed. Though, the blinding bright lights from the walls and various towers that lit up the runways kept me from getting too absorbed into the beautiful skies.

“Alright, take her down slowly now.” A lime green coated earth pony stallion called out to the team of ponies who were currently using a small manual crane to pull down Laika’s pod from the back of the Hauler. The stallion, who had a swept back black mane, a woolen bomber jacket, and the slickest pair of Enclave aviator sunglasses I’d seen, looked over in my direction as I approached. Slowly, he tipped his glasses down and studied me with his light grey eyes. And wouldn’t you know it, he smiled at me.

Alright, I get it. I’d had a good day, so now was the time that this creep threw some sort of shady prospect or straight up insult at me, right? I get it, universe, I’m cursed. Can you just fuck off for one night?

“Well, I’ll be. If it ain’t the wonder-mare herself.” The stallion crossed his hooves as he smiled at me. “That was some mighty fine shooting out there. No way I could have landed Foul Line’s bucket of junk without you blowing that bomber pack out of the sky.” Wait, what?

“You’re Double Delta? The ex-skyraider king?” I asked, throwing the words out as I always did. The kink that flowed from his head to his tail definitely told me that he didn’t exactly approve of what I’d said, but he forced a smile anyway.

“The one and only.” He gave a laugh, somehow forcing himself to calm down. Damn, if there was one thing I wish I could learn, it’s how to do that as well as he just did. “I owe you big time for saving my life when nopony else would, and believe me when I say that if you need anything from me, anything at all, you just ask.”

“Thanks, but we’ll be leaving soon.” I grumbled and aimed myself to walk around him. What I didn’t need, was somepony like a skyraider saying that they owed me. Just because I didn’t want him to die like the others wanted him to, didn’t mean I could get over just what the skyraiders had done to everypony. Stopping myself mid step, a thought tickling at the back of my mind crept up into my throat. So of course, it slipped out. “Why the fuck would anypony want to be a Skyraider anyway.”

“I didn’t have a choice.” He answered back quickly, turning toward me. “After the Rangers kicked me out, I had nowhere else to go. The Skyraiders took me in because I could be useful to them with my knowledge of arcanotech, and I forced myself to climb my way to the top.” Yeah, sure, and that just excuses all the attacks they’ve made? Like the one that had almost killed Violet back on the road? Fuck this guy. Turning, I tried to walk away again. “I wanted to stop them, you know. The attacks?” I stopped again, perking my ears. “That is why you’re being a bitch, right?”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a leader?” He asked, sending my mind tumbling with the question. What the fuck did that have to do with anything. “Fancy Lancer, Misty Petals, Bronze Cog, and Buttermilk. They were my squad, my friends that I let down on the mission to Ouroboros.” There’s that damn fucking name again! What the fuck did it even mean!? “My mistakes cost them their lives, as well as my title as a Ranger. But when I became King of the Skyraiders, I was so sure that I wouldn’t make those mistakes again.”

“And a mighty fine job you did. You should have tried harder.” I snapped at him.

I didn’t really have a base to complain to him from. Aside from the few attacks I’d lived through, I didn’t know the Skyraiders like everypony else in the wastes. But from everything I’d learned about them, other than Solomon and his gang, the Skyraiders were the only group I was allowed to judge before I truly knew them.

“You’re right, I should have.” He scoffed and sneered at me. “And the second you lose one of your friends, the idea you should have tried harder will be what keeps you up every night.” Again, I found myself stop in my tracks. “But while that’s something you eventually learn to bury in the back of your mind, what creeps up on you that you can’t avoid is the crippling indecision of every choice you make from that point on.”

Turning to look at him, I wanted to ignore his words, but… I couldn’t. My mind had emptied, and I couldn’t fight the fact that I knew through experience that he was telling me the truth. And it wasn’t only me either. No, the entire crew working on Laika’s pod had stopped, and each one of them was staring at Double Delta.

“Night after night. Day after Day. Hesitating on every choice because you can’t decide on if that choice will be the wrong one again. Because once you’ve been responsible for the loss of a pony close to you, you’ll never want to put your friends and family in danger ever again.” Tilting his head up, Double Delta’s impeccably clean sunglasses reflected the light of the rising moon in them. “But the Skyraiders were hard to please once I’d gotten to the top. They got bored of the short raids to the surrounding settlements, always wanting to hit bigger and bigger targets. For years I fed them bread crumbs in the form of raids to one city or another, which kept them happy enough. Last winter, I promoted Foul Line to be my second just to keep the ultra-raider side of them all happy...”

“But that was a mistake.” I spoke up as bluntly as always.

Again, I couldn’t base that on anything other than the fact that part of me was expecting him to say that. It pulled his attention down from the moon. Slowly, he reached up and pulled his sunglasses off, folding the earpieces in. Turning to me, he extended his hoof and held the glasses out to me.

“You seem like an alright and understandable mare who’s seen her fair share of horrors. And maybe one who’s made her own fair share of mistakes. In wearing these glasses, I hope you can be reminded to avoid some of the one’s I’ve made.” As much as I wanted to look away from his sad gaze, I was locked onto his eyes just as much as he was to mine. “And while you can be my wingpony anytime we find ourselves together in the skies, I will honestly pray that you never find yourself in the position to question if what you’re doing is the right thing.”

Reaching out, I felt like my body was on autopilot as I took the glasses into my hoof without even once looking away from him. I don’t know why, but… every second we stared at each other, a horrible feeling inside me grew and grew. The second I had the glasses firmly in my hoof though, he blinked a few times and turned away without another word.

“What the fuck are you just standing around for!” He snapped at all the staring workers, flailing his hooves at them. “Just because I’m considered a ‘misfit’ now, doesn’t mean you get to slack on my orders! Get that pod on the ground, now.”

“Oh, and one more thing.” Double Delta called out as he looked back at me. “Because you’ll probably be seeing more of them in the near future, I have a request if you see more of Foul Line’s raiders. Remind them painfully that if they’d stuck with my leadership, they wouldn’t find themselves at the end of your gun.”

Staring at the glasses, part of me knew that deep down, it didn’t matter how much I tried. One day, I’d be the one in his horseshoes trying to tell others not to repeat the same mistakes. That pit in my stomach was still there, trying to remind me of that. But that still doesn’t mean I can’t have done some good with those mistakes. In fact, it’s all I can hope for.

No, I could hope for more, I had to.

I pressed my hoof and the glasses against the list of names on my mother’s dog tags. At the very least, I could hope that I wouldn’t have to recite the names that were printed on it like he just had for his lost friends. Pulling the glasses open, I hoofed them on, and tried to convince myself that nothing I’d just thought would ever come to pass.

But like deciding to wear sunglasses at night, it was probably just an overall bad idea to begin with...

Author's Notes:

A big thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his help in making this chapter presentable! Also, he deserves some congratulations on recently completing his second Fallout Equestria story, Empty Quiver. He and his co-author Minty have written an amazing story, and I wholeheartedly suggest you all go give it a read!

And of course as always, a big thanks to Kkat for allowing us all to use this amazing universe for our own stories!