Reaching the steps of the Hauler, I shoved the sleek sunglasses up onto my forehead. Positioning them in a way that they pinned my mane back a bit, I blinked a few times to let my eyes readjust to the floodlights along the runway.

“Hey.” Tofu’s meek voice spoke up from near the other side of Bertha. Looking over, I found her standing near one of her rear wheels. “Can we talk again? I need to ask you something.”

“Uh… sure?” I wasn’t quite sure what she’d wanted to talk about with how our last conversation went. “So long as it’s quick, we’re moving out soon.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it won’t take long.” She offered a small smile and waved as she turned away from the enormous tire. “Follow me.”

While Delilah did tell me to get ready to leave, there wasn’t really much for me to get done, anyway. Plus, so long as everything was back onboard before we left, I could always move my stuff around in our container later. With that in mind, I turned and followed Tofu across the concrete tarmac.

As we crossed it and headed toward one of the closest hangers, I noticed that inside it was one of those covered up vertibucks I’d seen earlier. In a surprising move, Tofu turned and headed straight for it. Her magic reached out, taking the fabric and lifting it a bit along the side.

“What’s this about?” I asked as she lifted the fabric just enough for her to get under it. “Why the need for secrecy?”

“It’s… not secrecy.” She huffed at me. “Just trust me.”

Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward and dipped myself under the open sheet. Though, before following after her, I stopped to look at the pre-war machine before me.

Most of the ‘tented’ vertibuck looked… plain to me. It wasn’t just that it had been stripped of most armor and equipment you’ll see on any vertibuck, but more like it was designed without it altogether. I’d never seen any vertibuck so feature-lite above the clouds, and I’d wondered what the point of having something built this way would even be.

Another oddity, it’s faded red paint was an oddly striking color for a flying craft. That, and the stylized ‘lightning bolt’ still painted along it’s mostly open hull design felt way too flashy for military use. Maybe somepony owned it and just wanted it to look… interesting?

The old glass that lined the basic style viewports and cockpit was in impeccable condition for it’s age, and instead of a standard issue mounted gun on its undercarriage, it sported what looked like an old movie camera. Altogether, the camera and the ‘simple’ vertibuck aspect of it made a lot more sense when heavily faded writing sat along the tail boom in yellow letters, reading ‘Channel Five Action News’.

“It’s not that I want this to be secret. I’m just tired of others laughing at me for always asking about this… particular issue.” She sighed before turning and climbing up into the open crew compartment of the vertibuck. “Please, I really need your advice.”

“You are afraid of flying,” I spoke slowly, wondering just how the Rangers even came by this thing. “but you want to talk inside a vertibuck?” Then again, they said they had two of these, and they also had their other flying machine as well. Maybe it was here when the war ended. Makes me wonder what other machines could be out in the wastes, just waiting for somepony to find and reclaim them.

“Well, everypony on base knows me, so I know they wouldn’t ever come looking for me here.” Tofu spoke up to get my attention again. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” She laid herself down in the wide open passenger cabin of the vertibuck so that her forelegs dangled out of the side. “That I hit you, that is. As well as for what I’d said in the clinic. I let anger cloud my judgement, and I was literally a huge bitch to you.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a lot more common of a problem among the wastelands than you’d think.” I spared her the fact that it’s been one of my biggest problems, but I’m sure she probably could have guessed that. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I needed to know before you went, how...” She spoke up, hesitating as she kicked her hanging forehooves a bit. “how did you get your cutie mark? I mean, did you literally get it while looking down a bomb sight? Or do you just like the act of bombing? You said that you don’t like to bomb ponies, but that’s not very descriptive at all either.”

Oh, that’s what this is all about? This is why she needed all the secrecy? Then again, having seen firsthoof on multiple accounts how ponies with cutie marks can be bullies to those with blank flanks, I can’t say the want to talk alone was that unwarranted. But, it still didn’t change the fact that as I looked back at my own cutie mark, I couldn’t really help her because it was something even I still didn’t understand.

“So… I don’t exactly know how I earned it.” I sighed. I wished that I could give her something specific, the key that she was looking for. “All I did was drop a bomb. I’d even done it before, but I didn’t get it at that point, and I have no idea why. Hell, I’ve never even seen a bomb sight like this before. I don’t know why it showed up like this at all...”

I can’t say what made that one time special. Not to mention, yeah, I dropped a bomb on a very specific point on Double Drum’s roller, but… it was luck that it hit the right place, not talent. I wish that I could go back in time and relive that moment, and maybe then I could understand just why I’d gotten it then.

“Oh, I see…” Goddesses she sounded so disappointed. “I’ve tried everything I can think of, done every job on the base and it’s done literally nothing for me.”

“Maybe… you’re trying too hard?” I could only offer her a weak, forced smile, but it still looked to help to perk her up a bit. “Just, don’t go out of your way to do anything. I’m sure it’ll come to you soon enough.” Celestia, I was bad at giving advice. I bet you that my mom could have said something perfect for this right now, but… no, I don’t want to go down that path right now. “I know it’s tough to wait, and even more infuriating to hear, but just don’t worry about it and give it time. Even if you just keep up at working on different things, or nothing at all, you’ll get it eventually.”

“You know, at this point, not doing anything is probably the only thing I haven’t tried yet.” She gave a soft laugh that helped to bleed the stress out from her form a bit. “Thank you though, for at least talking with me.”

“Don’t mention it.” I shrugged and watched as her horn lit up. The tent-like canvas covering the vertibuck lifted at a corner, revealing a path back outside. “Take care, Tofu.”

“You too.” She offered as I turned and trotted back out onto the tarmac.

As I did, my ears perked with a droning sound coming through the air. Turning my head, I traced the sound to the air far beyond the large concrete walls, but found myself squinting as the flood lights blinded me. I know it was an incredibly stupid and foalish assumption to make, but part of me had hoped that having half the eyes would cut down on half the brightness of things...

Gee, if only somepony had invented some way not to be blinded by bright lights!

Reaching up, I flicked Double Delta’s sunglasses down, finally able to see a set of flickering lights dropping lower in the skies. The roaring of the twin arcano engine flying machine I’d seen over Mare’s Lake picked up into a thundering thudding. Lights on it’s underbelly illuminated a set of landing gear as they deployed.

The ponies flying the massive machine came in on what looked almost like a glide slope as they brought the craft in for a landing attempt. They gave a gentle flare to the plane as they passed over the wall with only a couple meters of clearance. A short lived piercing squeal rang out as the tires touched the old tarmac, shooting out thin bits of smoke as the rubber met the concrete.

The pitch and roar of the engines picked up as the whole craft listed forward. The pilot threw the engines to full reverse, and sets of enormous flaps dropped along the wings to retard the lumbering machine’s speed. Faster than I’d expected, the whole craft slowed down to a crawl and turned off the runway. Without hesitation, the pilot pulled her around into the far off hanger at the end of the runway, and the whole machine disappeared inside.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Hispano’s voice spoke into my ear.

“Wha….!” I flailed and forced myself not to scream at her. “Why does everypony like to sneak up on me!” Seriously! Where the fuck did she come from?

“Never change, Dum Dum.” Hispano laughed as she gave a pat on my side. “But seriously, those are some pretty nice shades. Now come on, we’ve got to get going soon, and Hardcase is probably done fixing you jump pack again after you basically used it to break your fall when you crashed earlier.” Giving her wings a few flaps, she wiggled herself in preparation to take off.

“Hey, Hispano?” I asked, reaching my hoof out to brush one of her wings out of the way. She looked back at me and scrunched up her beak with a confused look. “Thanks for having my back on the ship up there, and for believing in me.”

“You said that I was amazing at everything I do, and while I am just that damn awesome…” She puffed up her chest, looking proud of herself for only a moment. “I just don’t share the same drive you and Buck do for helping ponies. I don’t get it, but that’s okay with me. It’s one of the things you do really well down here, Dum Dum. Even if it means I have to save your flank half the time.” Smirking, she tipped up her flight cap and gave me a soft smile. “Besides, it’s impossible to stop you from trying anyway, so why not lend you a talon to try to keep you from getting into so much trouble while you fail at pretty much everything?”

I opened my muzzle to speak, but the thunderous roar of Bertha’s reactor picked up from across the tarmac. Looking over to it, I watched as the scribes working at the rear of her pulled the chains down from where Laika’s pod had once sat. It was odd to see Bertha without it hanging on the back of her.

Not that it was supposed to have been a substitute, but after our encounter with Guinness and Zibar, maybe I can ask Delilah about up armoring the back a bit...

“Well, we should probably get back.” I offered to Hispano, turning just in time to see her lunge at me and throw her talons around me in a hug. She squeezed me tightly and curled her wings around my own. As she nuzzled against my neck, she gave out a long yawn. “Let’s go home.” I said, giving her a soft pat and wanting nothing more than to just go relax with her and Buck for a bit. Then again, I didn’t have that luxury, did I?

It was time to get back in the air, and on the road once more.

With everyone else having gone off to bed, I settled in for my shift on watch. Delilah had mentioned that this old road wasn't really used, or even under the care of the Road Crew, so it would most likely be deserted all the way up until our next stop. Because of that fact, and because Hardcase had done a wonderful job fixing up the jump pack again, I was allowed to relax in the Rec area so long as I watched the rear of the convoy. But if I saw anything out of place, I could still be up in the air at a moment’s notice.

So here I sat alone, listening to DJ PowerColt's neverending broadcast while watching the moonlight glisten across the snow covered rusty mountains that were slowly being left behind us. At the very least, listening to the radio was keeping my mind off the ebbing pain behind my crystal eye and across my body. If it wouldn’t have woken Hispano or Buck, I’d have already gone and grabbed another two pills of Chill. But some things can’t be helped, and in this case, that’s my sense of courtesy to let them get some undisturbed sleep.

"Goooood morning, everypony. It's just past midnight and you're still here with me, DJ PowerColt, as I bring you the freshest tunes to keep your hooves dancing all the way until the break of dawn. But speaking of breaks, let's take one for a moment to listen to some news in the form of an interesting story."

Oh, good! At least this is something I can rely on for help now and again. While I can get into trouble no matter where I go, at least I can keep up to date with what's been going on in the wastes elsewhere. Because who knows, maybe somepony has had a worse day than I have. Or hell, maybe somepony has had a worse life than I have.

"Around a month and a half ago, the day that the cloud cover came down, and the glorious Lightbringer gave us all back the skies, there was a terrifying disaster at an Enclave settlement. I know you all aren't fans of the pegasi, but from this horrific disaster, only one survivor emerged. Cast down into the wastes, this ‘survivor’ started herself on one hell of a journey with a convoy of strangers."

Wait, what the fuck!? Unless there really was some other pegasus here in the north who was as unlucky as I was, why the hell was he talking about me!?

"Yes, ‘that’ convoy you all keep hearing about right here on this station. As it turns out, this survivor's got somewhat of a hero complex to her. Everywhere she's gone, she's helped the fine folks of almost every settlement that their convoy has stopped in. But what's this got to do with me, I hear you all asking. Well, I think it's safe to say that there are two things most of us northern wasters hate more than anything. Skyraiders, and the Puritan Kingdom.”

“Well then do I have a surprise for you. As it turns out, the survivor doesn't agree with that. Because when the Ex-raider king Double Delta lead a pack of buzz bombers to a Puritan settlement, she was the only one to face them head on. And wouldn't you believe it folks, she took down all thirty buzz bombers without even one of them touching the settlement. Not only that, but she single hoofedly ensured the capture of Double Delta by the local Steel Rangers."

But... that's not true! Sure the settlement was saved, but the SFG set half the Puritan crops on fire! Not to mention, I didn't capture Double Delta at all! Are you fucking kidding me?

"Oh, and because I know you're currently listening in, survivor, I wanted to personally extend my thanks for making our northern wastelands safer than ever. I know it hasn't been easy for you, but I'm glad somepony here in the north has got the right idea about helping folks out. Even if nopony else thinks their worth saving."

Wait, he knew I was listening!?

Scrambling to my hooves, I darted over to the back of the Hauler. I slammed into the railing hard enough that my momentum almost carried me over it. Still, I shot my eye up into the starry skies above, scanning across it frantically. I traced over dozens of stars, stopping when I found two red ones that didn’t belong. Not only were they out of place, but they were ever so slightly drifting along at the same pace as the Hauler.

"Don’t worry, survivor, this’ll be our little secret. But to the rest of you tuning in, keep your eye on this survivor. Because I certainly can't wait to see what great things this mare does next. But that’s enough news for the time being. It’s time to get you folks back on that dance floor and to get your hooves moving all night long. Why? Because this is Factory Radio, with new music manufactured and broadcast to you northern wasters daily.”

With a shimmer, the small trailing skycraft banked around in the air as the electronic rhythm of music came from the radio once again. The moonlight in the sky barely reflected any light off of the flying craft's curved surface, but it was just enough that I could still make out the same silverfish shape that I'd seen at the Ranger’s base, and at the shop in Mare's Lake.

So Hispano's dad was right, it was how he’d been keeping track of us.

There was a metallic squeal from behind me. Turning, I watched Lucky and Happy’s door swing open before Happy himself stepped out with a long yawn. He shut it again behind him before groggily walking over to the kitchenette. I simply watched as he rummaged through a few of the cabinets, before pulling out one of Boiler and Gearbox’s Sparkle-Colas.

Really? He knew those weren’t his, and yet, here he was. Just grunting like an idiot as he tried to twist off the bottlecap like it was a cheap beer. Normally I wouldn’t speak up, but this wasn’t something that Bombay would let Night pass up.

“Ah-hem.” I cleared my throat, pulling a startled whine from Happy. He flailed his forehooves, nearly dropping the sparkle cola three times before he caught onto it with wide open eyes. Not so sleepy now, are you, Happy?

“Celestia, Night.” He groaned as he set the cola down on the counter. “Nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you’d be sleeping by now.”

“Nope. I’ve got watch.” I grumbled, deadpanning at him as he slowly turned and put the cola away again.

“Hey, mind if we talk again?” His hesitation showed both in his words, and from the way he looked around to make sure all the other container doors were shut.

“Sure.” I shrugged, turning back around and leaning over the railing a bit. What was it with everypony asking me to talk recently? It’s not as if I’ve been a veritable font of wisdom or good ideas so far.

“I know how things must look from your end, with the accidental leaking of stuff to Solomon, and such. But I don’t mean to come off as a colossal dick to everypony.” Walking over, he plopped himself down on the couch and pushed down the lever on the rack of toasters under it. You know, if he was cold, he could always have just gotten a blanket.

“Yeah, I know that what happened between Delilah and your dad must have been hard to get through, but come on, we talked about this.” Rolling my eyes at him, I turned myself back around and gave a scan across the darkness outside. As before, there was nothing out there in the darkness that I could see. “When Buck and I suggested that you shouldn’t care about what others think, that came with the idea that you’d either stop acting like a ‘colossal dick’, or stop caring about it. Yet, here we are again.”

“I know! I’m trying to change!” He raised his voice, making me cringe as he flailed his forehooves wildly. Seriously, was he trying to wake everyone else up? “I just… don’t know how. At least, not like you’ve changed.” Slumping back into the couch, he glared at me. “It may come easy to you, but for me, it’s like I’m addicted to the King. Every time I try to get away from the whole idea of him, I can’t help but act that way all the same.”

“If you can’t help but act like him, then change another part of the problem.” I groaned and facehooved. Why do I get the feeling that this is what it feels like to be a parent? Pausing my train of thought, I frowned as I wondered if I was ever this bad to my own parents.

“But the problem is me acting that way, right? That’s what you and Buck said!” With a harrumph, he crossed his forehooves and glared at the floor. “Maybe I should actually just stop caring what everypony else thinks.”

“Or you can stop chasing after mares, and going to have sex in every settlement for a start?” Eeyup, I’d officially stepped over the threshold from being a dumb teenager, to an adult. “Hell, you could try lightening up on the drinking too while you’re at it, seeing as how that is half the problem with you leaking shit to Solomon.”

“Hey, I said I was sorry for that shit!” He snapped at me in a harsh whisper. After a few heaving angry breaths that definitely showed Delilah’s half of his blood, he calmed himself down and sighed. “But… you’re probably right.” Lifting his forehooves, he buried his face in them before dragging them down his muzzle. “Ugh, going cold turkey is going to leave me with some massive blue balls though.” Yeah, didn’t need nor care to hear that, Happy.

“And the drinking?” I offered?

“Fuck that! If I’m going to go without the whores, I need something to keep myself distracted from all the pressure.” He groaned and waved his forehooves at me. “If I give that up, I might as well just kill myself before I become bored enough to walk into a raider camp just for a change of pace.”

“What ‘pressure’?” I didn’t get Happy, really. I mean, I understood the part of him that didn’t want to give up his old ways. But he didn’t really have any responsibilities on this convoy, and that was a big jump to talking about killing himself.

“Ma’ expects me to take over everything. She wants me to be just another her.” He looked up at me as I leaned back on the rec area railing. “It’s not that I don’t know the first thing about business, I just… don’t want to spend my life doing that. Having ponies depend on me is something I can’t handle with how much I already screw shit up.”

Okay, he had a good point there. Before I showed up, I’m betting that while it may have seemed an impossible task, Delilah was going to want him to run her town. And while he’d been a useless asshole for most of this trip, I’m not really qualified to say he couldn’t be good at it if he tried. But if he didn’t even want to try in the first place, then there wasn’t much hope for that happening at all.

“Then what is it that you want to spend your life doing?” I spoke up, scrunching my muzzle and flailing my hooves at him as I realized a mistake in saying that. “I mean, outside of drinking and having sex with mares all the time.”

He shut his muzzle as I corrected myself, and for once, looked like he really had to think about something that was asked of him. Then again, I’m not sure I could even give an answer to the exact same question if anypony asked it to me. With a few blinks, he simply shrugged.

“I don’t know.” Lifting his hoof, he pointed at my flank. “I’m not like you ponies. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a butt mark to tell me what I’m good at.”

“Then my advice?” I didn’t have much to offer him other than what all of us in school had been told about finding our special purpose. “Keep working at what you’re told to do, and someday, you’ll find something that you’ll just know is the one thing you’re meant for.”

That got a hearty laugh from Happy.

“Oh of course, more pony bullshit.” He shook his head, smiling widely as he leaned back on the couch. With a sigh, his expression faltered though as he stared up at the gently wafting tarp above us. “Then again, everything and everyone’s been bullshit my whole damn life. What I need is a vacation. You know, some time to clear my head.”

“Right…” Sure, as if this already hadn’t been enough of a vacation for him so far. I wish I could spend all day sleeping, getting drunk, or having sex. I rolled my eyes and spun around again. Only when I did, I found Cora’s deadpanning tired gaze staring at me as he came in for a landing.

“While I don’t mind being up there alone, you should think about doing some actual work.” Landing in the Rec area, Cora grumbled as he walked over to the kitchenette and started to pull stuff out to brew up some coffee.

“I’ll… let you get back to it, Night.” Happy winked at me as he threw his forehooves back behind his head and wiggled himself back into what most certainly by now was a warm couch. As if it wasn’t bad enough, a rogue gust of wind came down through the tarp to remind me just how cold the nights here in the north could get. Even worse, these were warmer winds than normal from what I’d heard.

Still, Cora was right. I probably should do my job because Delilah doesn’t need any more of a reason to be angry with me. Sure she had said I could stay down here, but as my mom once told me, showing some initiative is a surefire way to impress your superiors.

I just wish she hadn’t impressed them enough to get that job on the thunderhead…

To be honest though, while I was getting quite cold up here, the dawning sun brought me some glimmer of hope that it would start to get warmer soon. As the cold wind whipped at me, I locked my wings out stiffly. I quickly threw my forehoof up to depress the button on the breast of my flight rigging, and also to flick Double Delta’s sunglasses down over my eyes. They worked well enough as goggles for the time being, and well, once the sun was up they’d still be helping out anyway. The whining of the jump pack was accompanied with the growing warmth of the leather pressed tightly along my back.

It had been an uneventful patrol all night. I’d taken another few dips down into the Hauler for a rest, but once Happy had retreated into his room, Cora had passed out on the couch, and I’d been up here ever since. Though, in order to stay aloft wearing my fully loaded battle saddle, I’d had to get sort of crafty with keeping my altitude and airspeed up. Thankfully, I had Boiler and Hardcase’s jump pack to make it fairly easy.

As the whining pack hit peak charge, I dipped myself down for a burst of speed. After a loss of about a third of my remaining altitude, I pulled up in an arc that put me in a pure vertical climb to bleed it off again. Once my speed died, I snapped my wings shut and dropped my forehooves to my sides. Flicking my tail forward, I held it in a curl as I pushed the launch button in my fetlock.

As I’d used it more and more, I started to become familiar with the operation of the pack. The bang that accompanied the burst of speed was actually where the fire on my tail had come from, as that’s presumably when the exhaust trail was the longest. I also found that I didn’t need to wait for the weightlessness to open my wings. In fact, if I arced them open directly after the acceleration period ended, I could drag myself into level flight while still retaining most of the speed I’d gained in the climb.

Still, as I leveled myself out again, goddess Celestia’s morning sun peeked over the horizon, bathing me in it’s gloriously warm light. From head to hock, I reveled in the feeling of, for once in my life, being completely free. In that moment, the pains I’d felt all night disappeared from my mind, and I knew that this was where I was supposed to be in my life. Even if it wasn’t as elegant as a dress, this jump pack really was the lucky break I’d been needing on this trip.

Gazing down at the convoy below me, I saw a purple and yellow blob sitting at the back of the Rec area. Huh, Hardcase is up. I wonder if he’s on coms yet. Reaching over to the controller on my forehoof, I flicked the switch over from the normal patrol channel of two, to general channel three, and was greeted with a bit of static.

“Hello down there!” I spoke up as I swept my eyes across the dense forests that hugs the rolling hills around us. “Good morning, Hardcase.”

As I waited for an answer, I surveyed the road we were on. Now that daylight stretched across it, looking at the road ahead of and behind the convoy, I found that it was even worse than what Delilah had implied. What little there was of visible asphalt was cracked and broken. Everything from vines to bushes sprouted up out of it, making the road look more like a long thin meadow than something built for easy driving. Still, Bessy and Bertha didn’t mind trampling a path through it, and I smirked as they looked like a beastly mother and her calf frollicking about.

“Why good morning, Night.” Buck’s voice spoke up through a long yawn. “Your patrol has gone smoothly so far I’d hope?”

“Yeah, though it’s a bit hard for me to screw up something as simple as flying and using my eye.” I laughed as I tweaked my wings. I rotated each one a different way and curved my tail, doing a light barrel roll before coming back around onto a similar heading as before.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Hispano’s tired voice chimed into my ear. “Though, I wouldn’t put it past Dum Dum to figure out some way to do it.”

“Har har.” I rolled my eyes as I looked back down at the convoy. From beside Hardcase, I could see the wide olive green wings of Hispano’s stretching out. “But I’m not worried! With you joining me on patrol, even if I do manage to screw something up, at least I can put half the blame on you.”

“Unless it’s something like your jump pack exploding!” Hardcase jumped in as I’m guessing he dragged the mic over to himself. Thanks though, I’d almost forgotten that I was wearing an unstable two hundred year old arcano-tech device on my back. Even if it had been performing a lot better than I’d thought it would in the first place. “By the way, Night, how’s she been performing? When you’re done with your patrol, I really should install those extra heat sinks and tweak some things.”

“I think it’s been fine so far!” Looking ahead again, I squinted as I saw larger hills peek over the horizon and come into view out of the glare of the sun. “In fact, the extra heat it generates has been helping to keep me pretty warm up here, even if I can’t really feel it anymore.”

“That’s because you burned out all the nerves on your back yesterday during your initial flights with the device.” Buck grumbled. “The Steel Ranger’s medical report Delilah had sent to me also said that you’d been experiencing memory loss again due to the painkillers I warned you not to take?”

“Yeah…” Fuck, I knew he was right when he’d brought it up, but it worked out alright, didn’t it? “Well, thanks to that Med-X, I saved the village and Double Delta, didn’t I?”

“I… that… ugh.” Buck’s frustration was painful to hear, but I knew it’s because he was already beating himself up for even giving me the painkiller in the first place. “Just please be careful, Night. I need you to tell me if there’s any further complications if they crop up. You’ve already had to have brain surgery once so far on this trip, and I’d like to keep it at only the once for the rest of our lives.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t keep anything like that from you.” I tensed up as soon as those words left my muzzle.

Yeah, except for the constant aches and pains that Cora had mentioned. But those weren’t really worth mentioning anyway. I’ve been hurt a lot recently, and that pain is just coming from those wounds either healing, or would be around forever anyway. As great as he is as a doctor, that was beyond Buck’s ability to heal.

“If I can ask however…” Buck changed his tone a bit, giving me a small bit of relief as it didn’t sound like he was going to ask too intrusive of a question. “How did you end up with third degree burns along your forelegs? The doctor there noted that you had them crudely bandaged when you came in, and that the burns were pretty extensive.”

“Well, I… can’t quite remember.” Of course this question would just loop back around to that, wouldn’t it? “My best guess was that the SFG caused them when it melted, but again, I can’t remember what happened in the air.”

“Damnit. I told you that it might not work right without being grounded.” Hardcase sighed with a tone of disappointment which I’d come to know far too well. “For your legs to have been burned like that, the plasma discharge must have looped back along the field lines and depolarized the magnetic coupling talismans. Which in turn, needed to have then fried the archano-destabilizer and caused the ferro-capacitors to discharge back along the newly inverted channeling vectors. Huh… that actually gives me an idea on adding in a frame mounded feedback buffer in my next design...”

Wow, that was a bunch of techno-nonsense that just spilled through the radio. In all the years my dad worked on cloud vehicles, I don’t think I’d ever heard him say anything nearly that cryptic or confusing. Still, as long as he had any idea what happened, I guess it didn’t really matter what he told me.

“Sure….” I forced out a nervous laugh. “Still, sorry for breaking your gun, Hardcase.”

“If you dweebs are done talking shop, I’d love to keep the rest of this morning’s conversations down to three syllable words or less. At least until my brain wakes up.” Hispano’s beak lightly chattered through the radio as she beat her wings to match my pace. She smiled at me as the glare from the sun on her goggles obscured her eyes. “Brr! Nothing like a brisk morning flight to get the blood pumping again, ay, Dum Dum?”

“You said it.” I laughed as I scanned through the trees again with a delighted grin still plastered across my muzzle.

“Listen up.” Delilah’s voice snapped the happiness right from my face. “I know we had an extended break from the road, but remember to keep the chatter to a minimum. Keep your eyes open, because I’ve had just about enough ambushes on this trip already.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I replied and looked over to Hispano, getting only a shrug of compliance from her. Alrighty, back to work it is.

Another few hours of flying had transformed the land around us from masses of flat lightly forested land with the occasional hills, into small mountains and valleys. They were nothing like the mountains we’d been going through since just after Klondike. Rather, they were less blocks of rust and snow covered slate, and closer to lush temperate forests packed into every available square inch outside the old road the convoy was on.

Once the scenery had changed, it was just a constant back and forth on the winding overgrown road. So much so that just merely keeping up with the convoy was slowly rocking me to sleep. But as I let out a long yawn and contemplated heading down for a short nap, something caught my eye on one of the larger ‘mountains’ ahead.

It looked like a small, traditionally built pony village at first glance. The white buildings adorned with purple tiled roofs and golden striped ornamental caps had been built so tightly crammed together that they almost formed a complete wall around the circular settlement. A low wall ringed around the edge of the whole place that made it look a lot like the ranger base, albeit without the guard towers every so often.

Upon a second look of the place, I realized that the whole village had been built on an artificial shelf that hung dangerously far off the side of the mountain. Not only that, but a pair of small waterfalls spilled from the edges of the shelf’s structural supports. It was one earthquake or landslide away from the whole city crumbling off the side of the mountain, which made me even question why anypony would ever build a city in a location like that.

Somewhere deep in my mind, I remembered seeing this city in my history books. Or was it back at a museum in Neighvarro? I couldn’t quite remember, but when had that ever stopped my muzzle from thrusting out a half-baked remark.

“Is that... Canterlot?” Goddesses I almost wanted to slap myself for how dumb that probably made me sound. Still, I thought that Canterlot was pretty much in the center of Equestria, and I didn’t think that we’d managed to make it that far south already. Then again with how the Enclave lied about everything, maybe it was just a smaller world than I was taught after all…

“It does look remarkably similar.” Buck spoke up, pushing my eyes down to the convoy. I found him standing in Boiler and Gearbox’s blasted open cargo container with what was probably Violet’s com’s cap adorning his fairly large head. “Huh, I really thought it’d be bigger.”

“Oh, are you two talking about your first night together?” Hardcase’s excited voice jumped into our conversation. Even though it threw me off balance, I couldn’t help but facehoof at that. Yes, I knew he was joking, but come on! You can’t just go there.

“We are speaking about the size of Canterlot, actually.” The annoyance in Buck’s voice told me that while he hadn’t face… clawed, he had most likely wanted to. “And for your information, Night is more than adequate for me.”

“Gimmie that.” Cora’s voice came over the headset as it sounded like he tore the radio’s mic from Hardcase’s grasp. “That tourist trap is not Canterlot, it's Lil' Canterlot. It's a replica of the way things used to be before the war. Wartime idiots put it up here to swindle both Mares Lake and Cantercross suckers out of their money. From what I heard, the place is still like that today, where you can pay the asshole ghouls there to see what things used to be like back then.”

“Welp,” Hispano jumped in as she pointed at the settlement with her talon. “I guess somepony’s had enough of their shit, because part of the town looks freshly burnt down.”

Squinting, it was hard to see from here, but the back half that hugged the mountain did seem to have a very light trail of smoke rising from it. Still, how the fuck can Hispano see that damn well!? Was it just a griffon thing or something?

“Well unfortunately, we’re going to have to stop there.” Delilah chimed up again with a bit less annoyance in her voice. “Because highway five links back up on the other side of the mountain, we’ll need to get the convoy marked by their Road Crew if we even want to get into Cantercross.”

Right, and then we’ll have to deal with the Road Crew at Cantercross. With as much as they’ve been annoying to run into so far, we didn’t need any more disasters with them. If it were up to me, I’d want to skip this place altogether and just take our chances on the road. Though, I guess I’d just have to settle for staying up in the air the whole time so I didn’t have to deal with them at all.

“Night, Hispano,” Delilah’s voice sharpened my thoughts again as I listened. “You two need to fly on ahead and tell the Road Crew that we’re coming. I’d like to avoid any more disasters with them.” Hey, that’s what I’d just thought!

Also, really!? I mean, I got why she wanted us to go ahead, and it’s probably a smart idea, but it didn’t mean I had to enjoy the order one bit.

“You’ve got it.” Hispano replied for the two of us before she started to beat her wings. “Alright, Dum Dum! Race you to the city!” With a glance back at me, she had the brightest look I’d seen on her face in days, and from here I could almost feel the sheer amount of positivity that she was giving off. “Onetwothreego!”

With a whooshing zoom, she took off like a bolt through the air toward the city. As I gave out a tired sigh, I reached up and hoofed at the priming button on my harness. Might as well get this whole next Road Crew disaster done and over with so the rest of us could get on with things.

Because I mean after all, what’s one more incident to have reported back to their bosses, right?

“I don’t get it.” Hispano squawked as I stood before the massive old doors that sealed off the outside of the city.

The early morning breeze that had felt oh-so-nice before, felt more like a whipping wind on the edge of the eerie city. The decaying walls of this place had haphazardly patched holes all over it, but even that couldn’t help save me from the feeling that this place had died with the end of the world. Even the vegetation that was so abundant all over this part of the wasteland seemed to border the walls at a distance, leaving nothing but the sterile dirt between them as if the walls themselves were poisonous. So far I wasn’t exactly seeing what was supposed to attract ponies to this place during the war.

“What’s with the rebranding?” Hispano continued as she touched down in the dirt next to me. “Didn’t my dad say this was ‘tiny Canterlot’ or something? Maybe somepony actually did take over the place...”

Looking at the freshly painted words on the heavily reinforced wooden entry doors, I struggled to comprehend just what the writing scrawled poorly across it had been meant to say in the first place…

“Well, if that’s true, and somepony did take this place over, then at least we don’t have to deal with the Road Crew again!” I shrugged, failing to see what was so wrong about all that. Then again, from the back of my mind, an idea came and kicked me in the flank. “Of course, if it’s somepony not so friendly, than we might have a problem.”

“Nice to see you’re finally catching on.” Hispano smirked as she brought up her sister and made sure she was loaded.

Mouthing at my own saddle’s bit, I tongued at the trigger and cocked my submachine gun. Here’s hoping that thirty rounds, three grenades, and a hoof full of twenty milimeters from Suiza would be enough to last until the others got here…

“At least they didn’t shoot at us as we approached.” Hispano grumbled as she hefted Suiza up. “Doesn’t mean they still won‘t of course.”

“Go away, ponies.” The growling voice that came from the other side of the door made my mane stand on end. “Your kind is not welcome.”

“Not welcome?” I asked, getting no reply from the voice. I mean, that pretty much confirms that we could just scoot on past this place, but I know Delilah would want to at least try harder than that. “Look, we’re just trying to get in touch with the Road Crew so we can get our convoy cleared for the road ahead. Is there someone else we can talk to perhaps?”

“No. No more talk.” The voice almost hissed at us. “No more disturb! You go before others find you out there!” The cadence that this person spoke at seemed somewhat familiar to me, but I just couldn’t place it.

“Alright, whatever.” Hispano rolled her eyes and lowered Suiza. “We better get back up in the air and onto the radio.”

The wind around us shifted again, and nearly pushed me off my hooves. Stumbling, I let out another yawn as I told myself that once I was back, I could finally take that small nap I’d wanted. Of course though, I couldn’t have possibly been that lucky.

“Wait…” The voice spoke up, hesitating as it sounded like it sniffed loudly against the front gate. “You ponies smell like dog.”

That was it! Now I knew where I’d heard that style of Equestrian from! Sasha and the other Sun Dogs back at Pink Mountain sounded just like this voice did. Which meant… oh goddesses…

By the time I felt the ground shift under my hooves, it was already too late. Two pairs of clawed paws burst up through the dirt below Hispano and I to grab at our legs. Hispano was fast enough to take flight, narrowly avoiding the emerging limbs. Me however? I bit back the urge to move as the paws gripped so tightly around my forelegs that I was afraid they’d be crushed.

The ground under where Hispano had been surged upward. From the rocky dirt, a hulking furred beast about the same size as Buck pulled itself out of a freshly dug hole. The all black short haired dog looked to be built like a tank, and the shorter claws on it’s paws didn’t seem any less lethal than what I’d seen of even Buck’s claws so far. It snarled as it swung at Hispano, taking a step back toward me the moment she raised her rifle at it.

“Night!” Hispano gasped as she hesitated. “Don’t you fucking mutts hurt him!”

“Just stay calm!” I snapped at Hispano. Oh, how much I wished that I could aim this saddle straight down. I mean, that seems like a fucking glaring design flaw to me! Okay, think Night. Maybe use the jump pack? Sure, that would work if you could fucking use your forelegs, dumbass! What about…

My train of thought was suplexed onto the dirt as the ground under me upended. Still in the grasp of whatever dog had been below me, I was lifted into the air and moved to where I was held out toward Hispano.

“Stupid pony. You should not have come here.” The Sun Dog behind me snapped. “And you, bird. We are not mutts!”

“Could have fucking fooled me.” She growled back, hovering at a nice safe distance of about ten meters above me. Her insult of course, didn’t sit well with both of the dogs, and they made sure she could hear them growl their objections.

“Hispano, that’s not helping! Just stay calm!” I shouted up at her, desperately trying to follow my own advice. Of course this shit had to happen to us, because I can’t have one normal day, can I!? “And you, Sun Dogs, we didn’t come here to cause trouble.” I had a feeling that not even Bombay was going to help me talk my way out of this shit.

“Let the ponies go, dad!” The voice from behind the door barked, pulling a look of disbelief from the large black dog ahead of me. “This place is dogs home now! No pony will disturb for fear of dogs!”

“Quiet, Holly. Leave pony to us!” The dog holding me shouted as he let go of my right foreleg. I whimpered as the change in tension pulled at my muscles, which of course drew a laugh out of the dog holding me.

“I say we split pony. Half for each of us.” The big black dog laughed as well before sniffing the air a few times. “Huh, pony really does smell like dog. Maybe we split in different way if pony likes to be dog bitch so much.”

“Yeah, we’re already a bit crowded in this relationship as is.” Hispano squawked as she again, wasn’t helping. “So why don’t you all just back off and we can all go our separate ways?” Better. It wasn’t going to solve our problems, but it was a better attempt at the very least.

“Okay, pony. You say you not here for trouble?” The dog holding me grunted. “Tell why you show up at Sun Dog city?”

Wait, is that what the sign on the door was supposed to say!? Sun dog city? Geeze, I’d thought they’d just talked weird before, like with Sasha and the other dogs back at the resort being an isolated case. But if this is how they all are, maybe surprise isn’t such a far fetched reaction for ponies to have with Buck forming coherent sentences.

All the more reason I’m glad I fell in love with him, rather than someone else… fuck, this is not the time, Night! Potentially life threatening situation first, thoughts about Buck, later.

“Like we said, we came to get Road Crew approval to use the highways past here.” If the truth didn’t get us anywhere, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d be able to do. If I tried to escape, they’d just eviscerate me. If Hispano shot at them, she’d take too long to kill them and they’d turn me into pegasi shaped ribbons. Then again, if struggling didn’t work, then maybe the best thing I could do is offer them a chance to let us go? “Our convoy is on the way here. You can either let us leave now and pretend this never happened, or you can talk to them when they get here. Then you will see that we aren’t here to cause trouble.”

Spinning me around in the grip of his incredibly strong paw, I found myself looking at a dog twice as big as Buck. His semi-shaggy black fur was muddy and matted, but unlike Buck, his fur didn’t look like it made up the bulk of his size - rather, he was just that damn big. His broad head was almost comically topped with a pair of large floppy ears, but his square muzzle had more sharp ridges than any dog I’d seen so far, and could have probably been used to saw through a tree on it’s own. But it was the stoic brown eyed gaze studying me that caught my attention about him more than anything.

Okay, so maybe while he couldn’t speak well, he might still be smart enough to understand negotiating for something. And if that was the case, then there is a small chance that maybe, maybe we’d be able to walk away from this without anything going wrong. Then again, as the moments passed with no one saying a word, my hope for that began to fade at an alarming rate.

“Please, dad.” The voice behind the door meekly whimpered. “If they came to hurt, they would not speak, only act.”

The voice’s words drew a whole slew of emotions from the dog holding me, which I still hadn’t decided if it was a good or a bad thing to see. First was annoyance, which of course I knew all too well. Then came the anger, which I could feel as he tightened his grip around my foreleg. I bit my tongue and tried not to scream as I felt one of his claws puncture into my foreleg. Thick crimson stains slowly began to coat the white on his underpaws, and it was then that the next emotion hit. With a sigh, he gave in, looking up toward Hispano.

“Bird can go. But pony stays.” His tone was guttural, but even so his grip around my leg relaxed. Not enough to let me go, but enough that I felt his claw drag out of my leg again. “If pony lies, then we will kill all who come to Sun Dog city.”

“That’s fair…” I winced as a thicker line of blood dribbled down my leg. Looking up at Hispano, I shared the regret filled gaze that she wore. “Go, I’ll be alright.” So long as she went back to the others, I could trust that they could think up a way to save me from whatever these dogs have planned. And as a bonus, she would be with the others for when things inevitably went wrong.

“Sorry, Night.” Hispano sighed, hanging her head as she beat her wings and hefted her sister up. With a snap, she shut her wings and fell toward the ground. I gasped as at the last moment, she flared them open as she touched down, landing on the dirt beside the big black dog. “I told you before, I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Turning and looking up to the big dog, she smirked as she put her sister down on her buttstock and rested herself against the barrel. “If you take him, you’re going to take me as well.”

“Stupid bird!” The black dog laughed as he swiped at Suiza. My muzzle opened in a silent scream as I braced myself for the sight of the dog cleaving Hispano’s sister into pieces. A shower of sparks and the squelch of metal made me cringe and look away.

What came next was a painfully loud wailing from the dog. Looking back over, I was amazed to see that his claws had snapped off, leaving bloody holes at the end of each of his oversized digits. Clenching his paw, Hispano glared at the dog and dragged her remarkably still intact sister closer. There wasn’t even a scratch on Suiza anywhere!

“Enough! No hurt!” The pony holding me snorted, forcing my attention back to him. “If pony and bird want to be dog prisoners, then they go in pony cages!” Twisting me by my hoof again, I cried out as the hole in my foreleg felt like it was being forced wider. “Holly! Take them away. Tell the fluffy one talks will continue soon.”

My foreleg throbbed as another pulse of crimson leaked down, and I grit my teeth as I fought back the urge to bite down on my bit in a poor attempt to kill this literal son of a bitch. But no, I needed to keep calm. This will be fine! I’d just… think of something once we got to wherever they’d stick us. If anything, Hispano would have some sort of idea as well!

Goddesses, if I’d just listened to my intuition about this place feeling off and left three minutes ago, we wouldn’t be in this fucking jam.

“Okay, dad.” The voice behind the door spoke softly again.

I watched as one of the heavy entrance doors swung open slightly, and a dog about the size of me stepped out. She was an… odd sight to behold as I squinted my one eye through the pain wracking my leg. With a white, short haired coat that was absolutely covered in black spots, I almost had to wonder if my mind was playing tricks on me. But as she came closer, I could see that indeed, the spots were a part of her coat. Her scared brown eyes shifted uneasily to the dirt as her father huffed and held me out to her like some trophy he’d won.

The pressure on my leg released, and I crumpled into the dirt.

“Oh, fuck!” I seethed as I pulled back my bleeding leg. The same as when Suiza’s barrel had burned into my side, I shouldn’t have looked at the wound. I nearly gagged when I saw the deep gouge through my foreleg’s cannon bone, doubly so when I noticed that patch of bone that had healed up from when I broke it at fourth grade summer flight camp. I know I’d seen all sorts of terrible wounds in my travels so far, but… even when my leg had been impaled at Drake Pass, I couldn’t see the inside of it.

“Oh! Let me help pony!” Holly spoke up as she moved toward me.

Though, as she did, everything around me started spinning. I remembered something I’d overheard when Buck had been telling me about wounds like this. To keep pressure on it… or something? Or maybe it had something to do with a dresser?

Wobbling weakly, I had a bad feeling that maybe I should have listened closerly, rather than dandelioning fumble into the tired dark times…

“Get up you asshole.” The shrill tone that I stirred awake too was joined by a sharp hit against my head. “Why the fuck didn't you report in that you were coming through the damn tunnel? You realize that this shit could have been over with already if you just did your fucking job?”

“Huh…?” I groaned as I forced my eye open. I’m not going to lie, I felt like utter garbage, and the pins and needles I felt in my foreleg probably weren’t a good thing. Looking down at it, I found that it had been tightly bandaged with some sort of old, yellow cloth. It was soaked through with blood around where the hole in my leg was, and it had been bound tight enough that my hoof sticking out the other end was about three shades lighter of a blue than it should have been.

“Don’t act dumb.” The shrill voice squeaked into my ear again. Looking up, I found a very angry and unfortunately familiar sheep glaring at me through a set of iron bars. “I had you pegged as a fucking traitor the moment you sold yourself out to Master Solomon, so you better have one good fucking explanation as to what’s going on here.”

“Nice to see you again, Lamia.” Fuck, of course she was here. “My day just keeps getting better and better…”

Author's Notes:

Thank you all for continuing to follow this story. I know it's a bit of a slow burn story, but I'm happy to know that you've even made it this far. Seriously, to make it this far, you are the most awesome and dedicated readers I've ever seen. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all again for your support and comments!

Not to be left out, TheFurryRailFan has also been an incredible help in getting these chapters into a more presentable form! Seriously, go check him and his stories out!

And of course, many thanks to Kkat for letting us all frolic and blow up this universe!