*bing-bong*

“Thank you for using the Cantercross Metro Monorail, we hope you enjoyed the ride!”

The voice of the cheery sounding mare drifted off behind me as the large group of scarred up stallions escorted Happy and I back through the halls of Gateway Station. The non-existent Violet of course kept pace with me, but I’d done my best to ignore her. What was getting harder to ignore, however, was the dull ache behind my prosthetic eye, and in the scars across my body.

We were led down a flight of stairs that seemed to spin endlessly as it dove down below what had been the ground floor of the station. I read the sign on each successive flight countdown until we’d gotten to one that said sublevel 4, and the stairwell promptly terminated at a familiar style of well-sealed door. Predictably, Messy trotted over to the set of lockers that sat nearby and opened them up.

“Suit up, you know the drill.” He grunted as he tossed one of the yellow protective suits over toward Happy and I. It landed at Happy’s hooves, and he almost recoiled as if it were pure poison. “It’s pretty much a straight shot from this station to the maintenance garage where I’ll get Tall Tale to brief you on the job.”

“I don’t get it,” Happy sneered as he took a step back from the suit. “Why do I need to wear this?”

“The air through that door is toxic.” I explained, getting a sly smirk from Messy. Reaching forward, I took the suit in my hoof and tossed it at Happy. This time it smacked him right in the face. “Put it on.”

“Or don’t, it’s your choice.” Messy spoke up as he reached into the lockers again and pulled out another suit. This time he didn’t toss it, choosing instead to hold it out to me as he spoke. “And just because you aren’t muted this time doesn’t mean you can waste air complaining about shit. So keep your muzzles shut and I won’t have to toss you from the train.”

With a flick of his hoof, he tossed the protective suit toward me. I snatched it before it had a chance to hit the floor. Yeah, I wasn’t muted this time, but for once I’d just wish that he’d be the one to shut his fucking muzzle.

“Ugh, another train?” Happy groaned as he unfurled the suit and started to pull it up over himself. Goddesses, why couldn’t the both of them just be quiet for once?

“Hey.” Messy snapped angrily, forcing one of the guards at the stairwell to stiffen themselves up a bit. “You see this shit?” He drew out one of the facemasks for the suit from the lockers and pointed to it with his forehoof. “The rebreathing talismans in here don’t fucking last forever. You get thirty minutes of air for a twenty five minute trip, so you better keep quiet or get real good at holding your breath.” With a lazy toss, he lobbed the mask toward Happy.
With a whimpering and flailing kick, Happy sprung forward to catch the mask. However, since he’d only gotten the protective suit halfway on, his legs became too tripped up in the suit to carry him. With a whine, he flopped onto the floor with his hooves outstretched and only just barely caught the mask before it’s clear faceplate could smash onto the floor.

“Now quit fucking around.” Messy grunted as he started to suit up himself. “We’ve already wasted enough time as is.”

Happy, Messy, and I walked through the hazy and surprisingly warm tunnel after passing through the decontamination spray showers. This place was a lot darker without the hundreds of hanging lights or rows of grow beds taking up the rail line in the center of it. Oddly, the same reddish bubbles found at the station under the science center still floated through the air here, though there were less of them than before.

Two ponies in what looked like specialized hazmat suits stood at the edge of the old railway platform. The pair of ponies wore what looked like heavy oxygen tanks on the back of their rust colored suits, and their battle saddles held odd but crude looking tri-barreled firearms on them. To be honest, I felt a bit more comfortable with them around. While I was sure these tunnels were more than likely empty, I couldn’t fight back the thought that there might be some monster hiding somewhere in the darkness of the tunnels.

Next to the two ponies, and down on the rails, the cab of an old truck type motorwagon sat waiting for us. It’s heavily rust-laden olive color was almost lost among the reddish hue of the air. The old motorwagon cab and arcane engine had been ripped off it’s original wagon frame, and had been inset to a rectangular rail frame that held a pair of buffer tubes on both the front at back ends of it. It came across to me as less of something meant to be a transport, and more like it was supposed to be used for maintenance or something. And looking ahead at the dark tunnel the tracks led off into, I wasn’t exactly confident this rusty piece of junk would be able to make it anywhere at all...

Still, the three of us piled inside the cramped cart. I’d ended up sandwiched between Happy and Messy, but while it was uncomfortable, I trusted myself to be near Messy far more than I trusted Happy right now. Messy shifted in his seat, dragging his hoof along my side as he reached forward and turned a rusty looking key in the ignition. There was a sharp bang, as well as a puff of black smoke that came from the old engine, before a quite loud but steady thumping filled the air. With an unceremonious shift of the gear lever stuck between my rear hooves, Messy put us in drive, and we were off.

What can I say about the ‘short’ twenty five minute ride? Other than the fact that the heavy breathing that I could hear through Happy’s mask annoyed the shit out of me, this was hooves down the worst vehicle I’d ever set hoof into. The arcane engine was far too loud, and never quite settled into a consistent thumping rhythm once we’d gotten moving. Not to mention that now and again it would just belch a black cloud from a tube that ran through the hood of the old vehicle.

A dull, smoky haze filled the cab, along with a wretched smell that even the gas masks couldn’t scrub away.And that’s not even the worst part of this ride. Ether the track here wasn’t at all flat, or this ‘vehicle’ didn’t want anything less than to forcefully escape the rails we rolled across. The vibrations just past the halfway point got bad enough that the three of us all had to use our forehooves to keep the gas masks we wore from unsealing from our faces.

But outside of the terrible conditions of the trip, there was one upside. I finally had time to think. No Violet, no worries about what was to come, just me and my thoughts.

“You have done well for me, Night Flight.” Solomon’s voice crept up from the dark recesses of my mind.

Goddesses, out of everything that could have come from it now, Solomon is what my mind brings up? I’ve got an impossible job ahead with the world's most unlikable mule, Buck still dying unless I get him help, and both Hispano and Cora to fucking keep alive. So when I get a free moment, Solomon’s fucking voice is the best I can come up with?

I laughed from that. Like, not subtly, but full-body laughed in a way that made both Happy and Messy look at me like I’d finally snapped. And maybe I had, but could anypony really blame me?

I was so fucking done with my life. Fuck Solomon, fuck everything he’s ever fucking done. And on that, fuck Mr. Wizard, and Messy, and this whole fucking city.

“Are you okay?” Happy had to strain his voice to beat out both my laughter and the roar of the old arcane engine. I nodded to him with a wide smile across my face.

I was more than okay. If this curse was going to take everything I ever cared about away from me, then the least I could do was do things the way I wanted to before everything went to shit. The second Solomon shot that bullet, all the rules went out the window. I’m going to kill Solomon, I’m going to kill Messy, and I’m going to fucking take down Mr. Wizard’s whole fucking city.

I didn’t know how, but I’d fucking find a way. No more mister nice Night. This survivor was going to show everypony just what it costs to fuck with me.

However, as much as I wanted to try to strangle Messy to death right here and now, that wasn’t the way this was going to go down. No, I wasn’t going to be hasty. For this to work out, I was going to need to formulate a plan, and choose my moment to strike. So for now, I just needed to do what they expected me to, and be observant for any openings.

Solomon was going to regret not having killed me, but not because I’d just show up and kill him. No, he tore everything I’d ever loved apart, so I was going to do exactly the same thing, and I was going to make him watch. I was going to be a blastwave creeping after him across the wastes, coming at him with all the force of a hurricane, and just as unstoppable.

Glancing to Happy, I knew he was going to be onboard with this. Cora and Hispano weren’t going to hesitate either. The problem was going to be with Buck. He wasn’t going to approve of any of what I was going to do, but as much as I love him, he’d lost his vote the moment Solomon took that shot.

“Alright, we’re here.” Messy called out as a literal light at the end of the tunnel appeared as we rounded a corner of the track.

The brakes of the cramped vehicle squealed, adding yet another layer of unpleasant noise to the red-tinted and smoky air. But I just grit my teeth and continued to laugh to myself. I hadn’t worked this hard and come this far for it all to just mean nothing. I was going to do this, and even if Buck hated me for it, I was going to kill everypony who wanted to stand between Solomon and I.

It wasn’t the way Delilah would have wanted it, and I am far from qualified for the job. But I’ll be damned if I’m not going to lead us all to the end of this road. Live or die, Night, Bombay, or the Survivor, I was done following on the hooves of others and taking orders. All they were going to have to do is follow me through hell and back, because willing or not, I was going to drag Solomon and Mr. Wizard there myself if I had to.

Messy pulled us up to a nearly identical looking platform to the one we’d left, complete with two more ponies in the same hazmat suits standing there. As he brought us to a stop, he turned the key and the engine died. It dropped us into a silence that I just knew was too good to be true.

“You know,” Violet spoke up from outside on the platform. Carefully, she leaned down and poked her head through the window next to Happy. “This is the most half-baked, insane thought you’ve ever had.” I didn’t care about that though. Nothing was going to change my mind. “Oh? And what happens when you get the others killed?” That won’t happen. “And you know this how?” I stared at Violet and smirked. After a moment of pseudo-studying me, she nodded. “Because you’re done losing.”

“You’re goddess damned right.” I grunted, pulling a confused look from Happy.

“Uh… I am?” He flashed a nervous smile as I shifted my look to him.

“Are we going to sit in here or what?” Messy groaned as he pushed against the back of my suit. “Enough wasting air. Get fucking moving already.”

After going through de-con again, the three of us stepped into another small room at the bottom of a stairwell, and proceeded to strip out of the protective masks and suits. The first thing that I noticed the moment I took the mask off, was the smell of rust and oil. It was much thicker than even somewhere like Fuschia’s train car back in Mare’s Lake had been. At the very least, I was certain this had to be some sort of industrial site, but with how long the trip was, we couldn’t still be inside the city.

There was a knock at the door to the room before it opened up, and a group of stallions stepped in. Among them, stood the scarred up stallion who’d I’d tried talking to at the bottom of Bertha before. He smirked when he saw me, but otherwise ignored me as he hoofed a small briefcase to Messy. With a couple of clicks, Messy flipped the latches on it and opened it up.

“Oh, fuck that!” Happy spoke up as he stepped behind me.

“This is part of the deal.” Messy spoke up as he hoofed a bulky looking metal collar out of the briefcase and turned to me.

It reminded me of a smaller, metal version of Buck’s yoke, but the pair of boxes strapped to the side with wires coming out of them was a bit concerning. With a flick of his hoof, the collar sprung open, and a small light in the middle of the ring glowed. Yeah, not liking this at all.

“You either wear it, or I can tell these lugs to shoot you right now.” To emphasize Messy’s point, one of the unicorn stallions pulled out a rusty looking shotgun and gave it a heavy pump. “Your choice.”

“Just give me the damn collar.” I rolled my eyes and took the open collar from him. I sat down, bringing the device up to my neck and easily closing it. It gave a crisp snap as it locked in place, and after a moment, the red light on it which I could barely see out of the corner of my eye, began to steadily blink.

“See, at least this bitch knows what’s good for her.” Messy smirked as he pulled another collar out of the briefcase. “Alright, now for the other one.” Turning, he held it out toward Happy. But as a pregnant pause filled the room, I began to think that Happy wasn’t going to go through with this willingly.

“Happy.” I growled as I turned and glared to him. I didn’t understand the scared look across his muzzle, but we didn’t have time for this shit. “Put on the damn collar.”

“Night, you don’t under-…” He started, but I finished for him.

“Fuck you!” I spat at him and got to my hooves. He took a step back and shrank down as I raised my voice. If he wouldn’t listen to me, I’d remind him so much of Delilah that he’d fall in line in an instant. “I haven’t gone through all this shit these last few days just to have you fuck everything up. So you’re going to do what I say, or I’ll let these assholes kill you and I’ll do this job on my own.”

“Fuck, alright!” Happy whimpered from nearly flat on the floor. “What the hell crawled up your flank and died?” His words hit me as a peculiar choice, but he pushed himself up and stepped around me. “What happened to the nice Night Flight I knew?”

“That Night is dead.” I snorted and glared at him as he reached out to grab the collar from Messy.

“Well you’re both going to be dead if you don’t hurry this shit up.” Messy groaned as he stepped up and forcibly shoved the collar around Happy’s neck. With a quick swing, the backside of it came around and snapped into place with a click that made Happy’s mane stand on end. Like mine, the small red light on his collar started to blink, and at that, Messy seemed to relax a bit. “Lets go, bitches.” He grunted as he walked to the door and opened it, revealing yet another stairwell leading upward.

Both Happy and I followed Messy as he trotted up the stairs. It didn’t take long, but after climbing a few flights, we walked up into a huge open warehouse. A symphony of sounds assaulted my ears as we exited the stairwell. Repeated bangs on various bits of metal, the sound of a grinder going to work, and the electrical snaps of a welder were all familiar to me from the time I’d spent around my dad at his work. That’s all it took for me to understand that this must have been the old world’s servicing area for the trains that operated in the city.

The expansive, strangely intact building was probably about as long as a city block, and about half a block wide. Long parallel troughs ran the full length of the building’s floor, each one with a set of rails suspended at the top of them. Seven trains of varying sizes and designs sat along these rails within immediate sight of me. A few other odd vehicles sat among the trains, either pulled apart or otherwise being worked on by the fifty or so ponies I could see just from here.

Along both sides of the warehouse, filthy and emaciated ponies sorted through crates and boxes of rusty scraps. There were twice as many of these ponies as there were working on the trains, and each of them wore something that gave me pause. Around each of their necks, sat collars of similar design to the ones Happy and I now wore, and metal muzzles sat strapped over each of their exhausted looking faces. I put two and two together and realized that while I’d seen plenty of slaves freed up at ‘End of the Line’, these ponies hadn’t been so lucky…

“Alright, where’s that little bastard?” Messy’s annoyance pulled my gaze around to him as he trotted across a few rotten looking planks that stretched over the train troughs. I turned to follow, glancing back to make sure Happy followed as well. We didn’t have to go far, as Messy stopped just in front of another small train that was set at the far end on the last set of tracks.

It was slightly larger than the vehicle we’d taken to get here, but it looked permanently stuck here, as it no longer held any wheels and rested directly on the track. Most of the train’s extra size was from the empty, boxy hull where a large arcane engine presumably once sat. Now, there were several racks that held boxes of assorted parts, and a few old tool cabinets like the ones that used to sit around Dad’s skycarrage garage. To be honest, it reminded me a bit of Hardcase’s room, and that thought was something I didn’t need right now...

“Yo, get your striped ass out here, bitch.” Messy called out as he hammered his hoof on the side of the old vehicle. Even I cringed as the banging resonated through the air and startled the pony inside the cramped cab. “Where’s that shit we brought in earlier?”

“R-right h-here!” The stuttering, meek voice of the stallion inside the train called before he began to trot out.

The bronzed, familiar shaped object that came out of the doorway immediately caught my eye, and at that moment it didn’t matter who this guy was. He had my jump pack, and I was going to get it back. Stepping up, I pushed past Messy and snatched it from the outstretched hoof it was on.

“Woah, take it easy.” Messy said as he shoved me back.

I pulled my pack close, taking a quick look at it. It was odd. It felt slightly heavier, but… it didn’t look like anything had been done to it. Looking up to ask just what the hell they did to it, I stopped and blinked as the stallion who’d had it, stood halfway out of the train cab.

He was a black coated, white maned stallion with flame orange zebra stripes that ran over his body and into his hair. However, as unusual as the color of his stripes were for a zebra, more out of place on him was the compact horn in the middle of his head, and the absolutely diminutive wings that sat tucked tightly against his back. If I had to make a guess, this stallion was the same kind of pony as Crystal Harmonium from back in Destruction Bay.

“I um… couldn’t help myself.” The stallion flashed me a nervous smile and rubbed at his neck. He scratched at a furless ring that ran just under the flashing collar that he too wore. “If I may ask…”

“Hey, focus, or I’m going to strap a muzzle on you like the rest of the useless garbage slaves here.” Messy prodded the stallion sharply in the chest, forcing him back into his cab. “Did you, or did you not make the modifications Tall Tale specified?”

Excuse me, modifications? This thing was already unstable enough, let alone to be tinkered with! If they were smart though, they would have done exactly that. They might want me to explode and fail, which I wouldn’t fucking be surprised if that was the whole point of this. I mean hell, if they didn’t kill me, as I mentioned earlier, I’ll be back to kill them.

“Y-yes, s-sir.” He nodded quickly before he dipped too far into his cab for me to see. “I d-did as requested.”

“Good.” Messy snorted and stepped away from the train. He glanced over to and pointed at the shaking and timid stallion. “You two, stay here while I go and find him. Don’t wander off.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t!” Happy chimed in with an uncharacteristically jubilant tone to his words. “Eeyup, going to stay right here.”

I turned and blinked a few times at him in as I tried to figure out just why he was being such a pain in my ass right now. Speaking of, the pain behind my eye peaked sharply, and the scars across my barrel burned. I took a few slow, deep breaths to help the pain subside, which thankfully it did fairly quickly. Happy however simply held his breath as he watched Messy walk off, only taking another once the pink asshole disappeared around a corner.

Now I know I didn’t have long before he ran his muzzle again, so instead I took the initiative to get some goddess damned answers.

“So, what the fuck even happened to you?” My tone was sharper than I’d intended, forcing a bit of my pain into them. “Explain to me why everything’s gone to shit, and we’re here about to do a job for the only asshole in the wastes bigger than Solomon or you.”

“Woah, calm down.” Happy recoiled slightly and forced himself to look literally anywhere else than at my face. “I was out for a drink at lunch, when one thing led to another, I may have said something about that underground growing thing to somepony…” Really! How fucking stupid could one mule be!? “and then wouldn't you know it, this mare with a flank like you wouldn't believe walked in. So fine that she took that up as her namesake…”

“This is all because you couldn't even fucking do what you promised and keep your dick out of some working mare?” I felt a laugh slip out of my muzzle again. Honestly, I couldn’t even be mad at him. Screwing up this much? That took effort. “Unbelievable. Truly a genius in our time.”

“Hey! Need I remind you that it wasn’t that fun for me either?” He snapped back at me, pointing up at his bruised and swollen up face. With a sharp tug, he pulled his torn floral print shirt stiffly against himself as he took a deep breath. “Those fucking blockheads we passed earlier came into my room at the inn while I was putting my moves on the little lady. They beat the shit out of me even before they brought me to see Mr. Wizard.” Squinting at me, the scowl he held might have been intimidating the first week I’d been in the wastes, but now it was just a pathetic attempt to save face. “He threatened to kill me unless Ma’ paid. And when she refused, I knew it was because she was sending you after me.”

“You know, I’m almost pissed at myself for coming to save you at all.” Again, I laughed in his face.

“Well you haven't done much savin' yet. Just been yammering on an' shit.” He grumbled as he sat down. Seriously, I was about half-a-hoof away from just killing him myself right now. “So come on, Night. What's the plan here?”

“I’m working on it.” I growled and ground my forehooves painfully into the dirty concrete floor. It was either that, or I was going to lose my shit and strangle his stupid mule ass.

“Oh come on, you can tell me!” A sly smirk spread across his face, and it froze me solid. Okay, if I moved at all now, he was going to die. “When do we give these no good jerks the slip? I mean, everyone on the convoy is going to be pissed if we keep them waiting for us any longer, and I already know that Ma is going to lecture the shit out of me again.”

My blood froze in my veins, and my heart skipped a beat at that. Something didn’t line up here with the way he was talking. It’s all present tense, like he didn’t… oh goddesses, he didn’t know what happened with them.

“Night?” Happy’s voice kickstarted my brain again. “What’s wrong? You don’t look so good and it’s kinda freaking me out.”

“They’re gone, Happy. They’re all gone.” Okay, keep it together, Night. You know what you’ve got to do, so keep it together.

“Fucking really?” He chuffed and kicked his hoof at the concrete. “It’s just like Ma to fucking leave me behind. When I get back, I’m…”

My legs acted on their own, and I sprung forward. Drawing my hoof back, I only caught a short look at Happy’s surprised face before I swung at him. It wasn’t the hardest hit ever, but it was hard enough that it sent Happy sprawling to the concrete.

"They're dead, Happy!" I screamed at him, forcing the workshop to go silent around me. Happy was all but frozen as my words started to sink in. A sobbing whimper slipped from my quivering lips as I stumbled back onto my flank. "He fucking killed all of them. Everyone but Buck is gone, and I don't even know if he's going to pull through."

“But... that doesn't...” Happy sputtered as he looked like he was trying to work things out on his own. “But you…” His own watering eyes swept up to me, studying me to make sure I wasn’t lying. I really wish I had been. “I don’t understand. He? Who the fuck…”

“Who the fuck do you think?” My body was torn between speaking, breathing, or sobbing, and it wasn’t coping with all three at once very well. “Solomon.” I grunted out his name, but forced myself to stop with that. There was nothing I wanted more than to tell him the truth of what happened, how I went there to stop the violence. But he wouldn't see it that way. I'd been forced to keep secrets before and failed at it, but this... this was something he could never know. "He bought off the Road Crew. They were sitting ducks for him. He shot Bertha's reactor, and… they’re all gone."

“So... that's it? Gone, just like that?” He was quick to speak, as well as quick to set himself back up onto his haunches. “We’re just… fucked then. It’s that simple.” A forced laugh trickled through the air from him as slowly, he raised his forehooves up toward his neck. “If I'm going to die, I'm going to die on my terms then...” His voice wavered as he grasped around the collar and closed his eyes.

Wait, what was he…

My eyes were drawn to the flashing bulb on the collar, and my mind connected the two things. I don’t know this for sure, but I’m pretty sure that the reason he’d tried to stop me before was because these collars were dangerous to have on. And while I’d thought they’d just shock us or something, he was sure right now that taking his off would kill him.

I couldn’t allow that.

“Fuck you!” I roared as I kicked myself to my hooves and threw myself at him. The simple act of slamming into him forced his hooves away from his collar, and the both of us gave a whine as we came down onto the concrete floor. I growled as I pushed myself up, pressing my hooves down on his bruises as I did and drawing a painful yelp from him. “You do not get to die now!”

“Night!” He whimpered before I swung my hoof across his ungrateful muzzle. His head bounced back against the concrete under him as he arched under me. He spat out a small bit of blood as his fearful eyes met my furious ones. “Wait…!”

I didn’t wait.

Swinging again, I hammered my hoof against the side of his head. It was almost cathartic, watching as he cried out. The pain he must have felt had to be much worse than the pain that had cropped up through the waning Chill in my body. As much as beating my frustrations out of him helped, it wouldn’t bring anypony back, nor would it get us out of the situation we were in now.

“Pull yourself together you fucking ungrateful little shit!” I spat at him as he whimpered and tried to bring his hooves up to shield himself. I took the opportunity to jab my hoof against his bruised side. “We're going to do this job, then we're going after Solo-...” I was cut off as he got me with a backswing across my muzzle that nearly knocked me off of him. Instead, I pulled myself back around on him and used the extra distance to really plant a solid smashing hoofstrike across his cheek. “Fuck you, Happy! We'll beat him to the ark, and I will revel in the moment we tear everything he's ever loved apart.” I swear to Celestia, I would beat him into understanding this before I ever gave him another break again. “Do you understand me?”

“Fuck…” He choked and forced a painful nod to me. Turning his head, he spat out another gob of blood, as well as what looked to be half a molar. “Fucking hell, Night.”

He whined before he brought his hooves up to his bloodied and even more bruised face. Softly, he began to sob, and only then did I push myself back to my hooves and step back from him. Now, if only he’d make himself useful for once and shut up.

“If you understand, then fucking get up and quit sniveling like the little bitch you are." I wanted to shiver as those words left my muzzle.

I couldn't help but imagine that without really meaning to, I'd done the most accurate impression of Delilah that Happy had ever seen. Maybe she'd have been proud of me for that. Most likely though, she’d just be pissed that I'd gotten her killed in the first place.

Regardless, it lit a fire under Happy's flank, because he pushed himself right up onto his haunches. He wiped the tears from his right eye, and let out another whimper as he tried to wipe at his left. My assault had left it swollen shut, but maybe now he’d take a moment to think about shit before doing more to screw things up.

"Now, keep your muzzle shut while I figure this shit out." I growled, turning around to see if that lazy pink asshole was anywhere near coming back yet. Instead, I saw the wide eyes of the meek striped stallion in the train staring at us. That reminds me... “Hey, what the fuck did you do to my jump pack?” Walking over, I snatched the pack off the ground and shook it at him. He gave a soft eep before pulling himself back inside the motorwagon cab.

“Oooh, look at you, all mean and awful. No more Mr. Nice Night indeed.” Violet’s voice from beside me prompted me to give her a sideways glare as I huffed and walked toward the train. “But do you really think you need to snap at the poor guy?”

“I… I…” The stallion stammered as I approached the open side of his small cab. “Please, don’t h-hurt me! I’ll b-be… I’ll be good! P-please!”

As I stepped up to him, a few things became apparent. The first, was the pair of rusty springsteel prosthetic rear legs he wore. They were the same bladelike design as the one I wore, but made of scrap, and were a far cry from the quality that Destruction Bay was capable of manufacturing. Not to mention, from the furless undersides of his stumps where the old metal dug into his skin, they couldn’t have been anywhere near as comfortable as mine was.

The second thing that became apparent, was that his right stump had a metal ring secured tightly over it. The metal band was bound over his cutie mark of an old motorwagon with a bright orange flame paint job. It was connected to the train itself by a thick chain that I’d guessed was just long enough to let him get to the toolbench where the engine used to sit.

This stallion was trapped here, and probably didn’t have a single say in anything at all.

I guess Violet was right then. Er, well, the imaginary Violet was right. He didn’t need to be yelled at by me, and I needed to apologize.

“Look, let me preface my apology by saying that I have had a terrible last few days.” I tried to keep my voice at a calmer level, but it didn’t seem to be making much of a difference as the stallion simply cowered in the corner of his cramped cab. Under him, I noticed that he had an old blanket, and there was a dirty ceramic mug in the corner that was half filled with what looked like old world dog food. “But I guess I should consider others situations before snapping like that. I’m sorry.”

“Just… p-please…” The stallion whined as he curled himself tightly and shivered. “I only did what t-they asked.”

“I’m not angry, just…” I paused, thinking of the best way to try to get this guy to calm down. “My friends built me this jump pack, and now… it’s all I have left to remember them by.”

“Did they… die?” The stallion asked as his shivering slowed, his frightened pair of orange eyes peered up at me from between his forelegs.

“They were murdered a couple of days ago, by a Saddle Arabian douchebag.” I tried hard not to let my hatred for Solomon creep into my words, but it was asking rain not to fall or clouds not to float. As much as I wanted to be strong, there are somethings nopony could ever fight the urge not to do.

“W-well…” The stallion sniffled and quivered, but slowly seemed to relax. “Your friends who built it had skill, but what they lacked were quality parts.” Carefully, he pushed himself up and pointed to the pack in my hoof. It sounded like the more relaxed he became, the less he stuttered his words out. “The modifications, though… t-they wanted me to install a cutoff. The same type that’s in y-your bomb-collars.”

“E-excuse me…” Now it was my turn to stutter and stumble over my words. “Bomb collar? As in, it will explode!?”

“I tried to warn you!” Happy’s snide tone filtered through the air behind me, making me wish I could give his muzzle another good smack right about now. But unfortunately, he was right this time. He’d tried to tell me about it, but I didn’t listen.

Alright, that’s just another thing I’d have to work out the answer to dealing with...

“Yeah.” The striped stallion pulled my attention back to him as he nodded. “It’s on a different frequency, and I’ve tuned a remote to correspond only to the receiver in the pack.” He offered a small but nervous smile as he looked over my body. “But… that doesn’t mean much to somepony who came from the Enclave, does it?” A confused look washed over my face, which helped to solidify the softer and more relaxed look as it grew on his. “Not knowing what a bomb collar is? If that doesn’t scream Enclave or Stable dweller, then I don’t know what would.”

“Yeah, I came down when the clouds parted.” Great, now he had me at somewhat of a disadvantage. “Anyway, you mentioned something about my friends needing quality parts?”

“Oh, yeah.” He nodded and held his forehooves out. His horn glowed softly and pulled against the pack, prompting me to let it go altogether. “See, your pack here was pretty corroded inside. I’ll save you the technical details, but I swapped out some of the worse off components, replaced the capacitors with better ones so they can charge without overheating so much, and I put in a few cooling talismans to overclock your heat sinks.” He gave a giggle as he looked over the pack in his magic. “I can’t imagine you’ve used it very much so far with all the heat it’d generate before my modifications. You’d be liable to burn your tail off the moment you started it up!”

“Yeah…” I forced out a laugh as I instinctively felt my short-ish tail curl up underneath me. I mean, since it burned back at Galloway, it’s at least been short enough it hasn’t caught fire again...

“Oh, but…” His tone shifted, and he lowered his voice again as he looked around. “Please, please don’t tell anypony else I did that. They don’t like it when I tinker with things, and they’ll probably punish me if they find out I used a few rare parts on it…”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” I offered what I felt was a comforting smile to him, but he didn’t at all seem to relax from it. “If you don’t mind me asking though, does this mean it won’t run hot anymore?” If that was true, I was going to miss that heat if I ever needed to do any long distance flights on cold nights again.

“Yeah, and she should charge quicker too.” He nodded as his lips parted into a genuine smile. “The recharge will still take a couple minutes, what I mean is the actual charge, when you hit the go button.” He turned the pack over, lifting the straps for it with his magic to show off the red and green buttons. “Which by the way, I have to say is pretty genius of your friends. They must have been pretty smart ponies to rig all this up with what they had.”

“Yeah, they sure were.” I nodded and watched as he passed the pack back to me.

Pulling it close, I gazed down on the now scratched up jump pack. Violet’s cutie mark had gotten a pretty big gouge through it I hadn’t noticed before, and that made me sigh in disappointment. It didn’t feel right that out of everything, this was all I had left of them. But I was no stranger to losing everyone I knew. Not anymore.

“I’m sorry too if I overstepped any bounds with working on it.” The stallion sighed and hung his head. “It’s just, I don’t often get the chance to work with anything interesting, and... I know how stressful it can be when somepony like me touches something that means so much to somepony else.”

“Somepony... like you?” The words tumbled from my muzzle as I tried to piece together just what he’d meant by that. “I don’t understand…”

“A monster?” The stallion laughed. “I mean, look at me! I’m a mix of everything.” He waved his hoof over himself. “Hell, I’m surprised you didn’t gag the moment you laid eyes on an abomination like me.”

“Ha!” Happy let out a sharp laugh that made both the stallion and I jump. “If you think you’re bad, you should see Night’s boyfriend! Dogfriend? Special snowdog?” I turned and shot him a glare that made Happy freeze up on the spot. “Just… trying to lighten the mood and all. We could all use that right now…”

“I'll let that slide because you're admittedly coping with things better than I expected.” I was feeling the urge to punch him again. But no, I had more important things to deal with right now. Turning back to the stallion, I found him giving another studious look over me. As he finished, he cocked an eyebrow at me in confusion. He opened up his muzzle, but I put up my hoof to stop him. “Anyway, let’s start over.” I offered my hoof to him, pulling a quick but fleeting look of confusion from the stallion. He seemed puzzled by the gesture itself, like nopony had asked him for a hoofshake before. “My name is Night Flight, what’s yours?”

“Pinstripe.” The stallion spoke up. Just saying the words made him shrink back, and almost reflexively he started to rub at his leg with his forehoof. “But Mr. Wizard’s ponies just call me Stripe. For… obvious reasons...”

“Okay, Pinstripe.” I smiled and put my hoof down slowly. “Thank you for fixing up my jump pack. No, you didn’t overstep any bounds when doing so, but… now you have me curious.” I watched as he perked up a bit at hearing that, and I could see his eyes brighten with interest. “Why is it that you think you’re an abomination?”

“Heh, you must be joking.” Again, he took another step back into his cramped cab as he spoke. “N-nopony cares for my chimeric appearance. How could anypony ever stand to look at something like me?” He shrugged and kicked at the ground with a frown. “All they care about is if I can charge their sparkle batteries, or fix their old world tech...”

“That’s right! Your kind can run archano-tech, right?” I was doing my best to recall what little Crystal Harmonium and Dr. Tibia told me back in Destruction Bay, but I couldn’t quite remembered what the race had been called. “But, that’s only once enough magic has been built up in your system that you start to shimmer if I remember correctly. Something to do with your genetics… I think?”

A horrified gasp came from in front of me, and I blinked when I realized that Pinstripe had started to shake again. The fearful look in his eyes returned as he shrunk down and pressed himself as far from me as he could.

“H-how do you know that?” He hissed at me as if I was some sort of Illusion.

“Now you know how I felt around you.” Violet whispered into my ear as I continued to do my best to ignore her. “Hated and loathed. A vile traitor stamped with with the mark of treason for all to see.”

“Because… you’re not the only pony like yourself I’ve met?” I offered that to him, but it only seemed to make his mood take a turn for the worse.

“That’s impossible.” He snapped at me, narrowing his eyes into a glare. “I’m unique. I… I would have been t-told otherwise!”

“Really? By who?” Violet whispered into my ear as her words echoed around obstructively in my mind. “The same ones who've chained him to the train and called him a monster? Gee, I don't know…” While that was a good point, maybe that wouldn’t have been the best way to phrase it.

“What cause would I even have to lie to you?” Reaching up as I spoke, I gave a gentle tap at the collar ringing my neck. “I'm not the one who's chained you up here, so believe me when I say I know you're not a monster.” His eyes softened as I spoke, and the fear in him from before started to drain away, if only slightly. “Again, I know you’re not, because of a mare named Crystal Harmonium.” Shifting myself slightly, I brought my prosthetic leg up for him to see. “Even made this for me. She lives as a free mare in Destruction Bay, and she’s just like you.”

“T-that… that’s impossible.” Pinstripe shook his head as he looked from my scuffed up prosthetic down to his own pair of crude ones. “I’m j-just a slave... why would they waste time lying to something as unimportant to them as me?”

“Maybe it’s because you aren’t as unimportant to them as you think.” I offered as I held the jump pack close to my scarred up chest. “And while there are plenty of monsters here in this city, no matter what the others here call you, at least you now know that you’re not one of them.”

“Y-yeah…” Happy’s stuttering voice spoke up from behind me. It carried the same fear and hesitation that Pinstripe’s had, and for some reason it brought back the pit in my stomach I’d been missing for a bit now. “B-but he is!”

Spinning, I found Happy pointing his hoof down towards where Messy had disappeared around the corner. Continuing my spin around, my eyes fell upon the pink asshole again, this time with someone new in tow. While it didn’t look like a monster per-se, this was a new kind of pony I’d never seen before.

It almost looked like a ghoul pony who wore a sleek business suit. Though, around the cuffs of his rotten hooves, the suit looked like it melded straight into his flesh. Wisps of pink mist streamed from what almost looked like bullet holes at several points along the pony’s sides, and through parts of the suit which had obviously been patched up over the years. This pink mist also leaked out from around the edges of the misshapen rodeo clown mask they wore.

Like the suit, the rodeo clown mask looked like it was now part of this pony’s flesh, and even attached smoothly around the stub-like unicorn horn that poked through the center of it. It’s empty black eye holes felt fairly creepy with the permanently smiling expression the mask held. Honestly, it felt to me like the whole visage stepped straight out of somepony’s nightmare

“What the fuck kind of pony is that?” The words slipped out of my muzzle as Happy stepped up to my side.

“He’s a Canterlot ghoul.” He muttered under his breath like that was supposed to mean something to me. I tried to deadpan at him for that, but all I ended up doing was staring at Happy’s swollen face.

“You’ll have to explain that one to me later.” I grumbled as I forced myself into a glare and turned toward Messy. “Hey, are we going to fucking do something, or are we going to stand around all day?”

“She’s got a fucking attitude alright.” The masked pony snorted and caused a small pink cloud to come out from the nose holes in the mask. “You sure this is the mare from the radio?”

“Yeah, she’s the bitch alright.” Messy nodded and rolled his eyes. “But congradu-fucking-lations, she’s your problem now. Mr. Wizard expects this shit to go off without a hitch this time, so do your job and get it done.” That pulled another pink clouded snort from the masked ghoul before Messy looked to Happy and I. “Listen up, this is how it goes. You listen to what Tall Tale tells you to do or he blows your goddess damn collars, got it?”

“Alright, stripe, we’re going to take you for a little walk.” Tall Tale grunted as his horn lit up. With a crisp click, the metal chain clasp around his leg released and flopped to the floor with a thud. “It’s do-or-die time for us. These modifications you made to the motorwagon better be worth all the caps we’ve dumped into it.”

“Y-yes, s-sir.” Pinstripe’s meek voice struck a chord in me. Getting to his hooves, he stuck his head out of his traincart for only a moment before Messy’s pink hoof cracked down on top of it.

“Fucking keep your eyes to the floor, slave bitch.” Smirking from the whimper that Pinstripe gave, he stepped back before specifically glaring at me. “This fucking stripe needs to be reminded of his place. It would be best if you keep that in mind as well, survivor.”

“His name is Pinstripe.” I grunted and offered a sly smirk to Messy.

I’m sure there must have been some sort of mixup with cutie marks in the great beyond, because my special talent was definitely in pissing ponies off. Messy’s blood instantly rose to a boil, and he brought his hoof up to hit me as well. However, Tall Tale swung his hoof back and stopped Messy from doing anything.

“You lay a hoof on her and you could ruin this job.” Tall Tale’s tone was cool, but stern. “Is that what you want me to report back to Mr. Wizard? That you destroyed a year’s worth of work, and my fucking time?”

Maybe it was because he was a ghoul, but I’m pretty sure his words were rooted in experience more than anything. The way Messy pulled his hoof back and shrugged off the ghoul’s words, I’m pretty sure that all but confirmed that he felt the same. Still, I felt like any time I could watch that pink asshole’s annoyance crop up, it was worth whatever price to see it.

What I didn’t expect to see however, was the shocked look across Pinstripe’s quivering muzzle. His eyes were glued to me in disbelief, and while I wanted to ask him why, I was pretty sure this was the first time in at least a while that anypony had defended him. To be honest, the idea that ponies thought they could own others was disgusting to me, and I wished that I could cleanse this place of all these rotten douchebags.

“Enough standing around.” Tall Tale waved his hoof as he turned around. “We’ve got a lot to go over for this job, so let’s get moving.”

Who knows, maybe when I killed Mr. Wizard, I could swing by and kill the rest of these slave owning bastards as well.

“Oh, great plan!” Violet laughed as she impossibly stuck her head out of Pinstripe’s train cab. “Gonna come in here, guns blazing as you scream and pray to Celestia you don’t accidentally kill anypony who’s innocent?” Ugh, that’s it. I really shouldn’t feel like this, but I am so done remembering Violet if it means my own mind can weaponize her. “Well, just remember you’re the one who wanted to be tormented by what you’ve done.”

Wait, I can get rid of her!

“Hold up.” I spat out, forcing Tall Tale and Messy to nearly trip over their hooves as they came to an abrupt stop. Even Pinstripe gasped in horror as he froze halfway out of his train. “Unless you want me hallucinating out on the job, I’m going to need some Chill.” I shot my best sideways glance at Violet and forced as much ire into my words as possible. “Now.”

She simply rolled her eyes at me, and the moment I blinked, she was gone.

“Fuck.” Messy offered a laugh as he tried to hide his stupid grin behind his forehoof. “Mr. Wizard totally had you pegged, didn’t he?” Shaking his head, it was his turn to make my blood boil. “You’re nothing but a no good, Chill addicted bitch, aren’t you?”

“Fine, don’t get me any.” I huffed and did my best to shrug off his words. Though, there wasn’t enough Chill in the world to make me not want to shrug my hoof right through his stupid face. “But when I fuck up this job, you two are going to have to tell Mr. Wizard it’s because one of you sabotaged him.”

“Enough.” Tall Tale barked, sending a wave of pink out from every hole in his mask. “I’ll get you a few tabs before we roll out, but that’s after we go over the plan.” His horn lit up as his magic wrapped around Pinstripe and hefted him off the ground. “There’s no time for a dry run, and we won’t get a second chance at this. So you better fucking hope you memorize the basics. But if you want to keep running your fucking muzzles, be my guest.” While I knew it was made out of some sort of solid material, I could have sworn the creepy tight-lipped smile on his rodeo clown mask somehow grew wider. “Otherwise, maybe you should consider listening to an expert when preparing for what’s going to be the heist of the fucking century.”

Author's Notes:

A big thank you to TheFurryRailFan for continuing to go over my chapters and help make sure that they're ready to go up every other week. Seriously, it's invaluable to have a second pair of eyes, and I can't thank him enough!

And of course, many thanks to Kkat for allowing us all to roam around and blow up the Equestrian wastelands!