My heart pounded in my chest as I raced for the edge of the armored train car.

I fought against the wind with each step, pushing myself forward across the roof of the rear car. Each inch was a fight, and with how much my hooves slid back from the sheer volume of air I was fighting against, it felt like two steps forward, and one back. But hey, at the very least, the rubber coating on the bottom of my prosthetic stuck against the smooth metal with each step and guaranteed I got a good amount of progress forward.

However, a few steps into my dash, I felt the turret’s hydraulics come to life again under my hooves. Glancing back as I pushed myself to keep moving, I caught the sight of it spinning back at me from the corner of my eye. Alright, I’m really on the clock now!

I’d reached the edge by the time it was halfway spun back toward me, which gave me a few precious seconds to figure things out. I found that the two train cars here were connected by a sort of articulating accordion-like rubber connection that was about two ponies wide. It looked sturdy enough to walk across, and I really hoped it was. At the very least, it was recessed between cars, and I could take shelter in it if I absolutely needed to get out of sight from that turret.

Looking ahead for an easier way in, the two cars ahead of the glass domed one looked like they had roofs that were built to be retractable somehow. But without any idea of how to get them to open, and no visible controls I could see from here, I would be better off with trying for the glass domes. You know, if Hispano were here, she could probably…

“Hey, focus!” Violet snapped at me. “Train heist now, griffon regrets later.” I hated to admit it, but it was a good point. “Damn straight it is. Now, get to work.” She snarkily fired back at me as she used her forehoof to tap against the glass dome.

The ignition of the booster rockets on the CMC-12 broke my attention just as I went to step down into the gap where the flexible rubber connection joined the cars. Reflexively, I opened my wings to catch myself, and the small but still significant added drag of them drove me painfully straight down against it.

The moment I’d fallen however, I dropped below the roof line. The rushing wind at the very least didn’t have much authority here, and the sound of the train running along the tracks dominated my ears again. Using it as a small excuse for a break, I took a moment to collect my thoughts before moving forward.

What am I doing? This is an armored military train. That dome is probably made of ballistic glass. It isn’t going to break if I hit it with my hooves, and they definitely wouldn’t let it be opened from the outside.

Maybe… I could blast it open? Tall Tale did have that grenade, but… no, who knows if that would be good enough to smash through the window at all. The armor on this train is just too thick! What I needed was some part of it that was thinner, or more prone to damage! Somewhere they didn’t expect a pony to come in from that wasn’t underneath this deathtrap of a train.

The train below me gave out a grinding along the tracks as it felt like it began to slow a bit. At the same time, it began to shift to the right, narrowing the gap between the cars next to me. We must have just hit ‘the gradient’ Tall Tale had mapped out, which meant we’d lost our six minute window for the ‘easy’ chance to board.

A silver shape came up along my right side of the train, appearing between the narrowed gap of the cars. Glancing over at it, I found the CMC-12 rolling alongside the Ouroboros. With the momentum the rockets gave it, it easily had enough speed to roll past the gap between cars. As it did, the narrow sight picture I was left with only offered me a momentary view of Tall Tale’s permanently smiling mask glaring at me before he and Happy rolled ahead.

Tucking my wings back against myself tightly, I grumbled as I shook off the thoughts of getting lit up the second I took flight again, and pushed myself back up. As I did, the rubber material of the accordion-like skirting that connected the carts squeaked under my weight just loud enough for me to hear. Looking down, I blinked as a realization hit me.

This.This was my way in.

“That’s smart, Night.”

The voice that spoke in my head made me freeze up. It wasn’t the voice of Violet. No, now it was the sarcastic and judgemental voice of Buck.

As much as I’d hated to hear Violet’s voice berating me inside my own head, this was not the time that I needed to have him show up to replace her. I closed my eye and followed the voice that came from up on the armored car behind me. I knew I shouldn’t be distracted, I had too little time and too much to lose with this job. But I couldn’t fight it.

Opening it again, I found myself looking up on the massive and towering Snow Dog form of Buck. Except, my hallucination of him wasn’t like I’d expected. Instead of his normal body, it was the battered and broken form I’d pulled from the wreckage of Bertha. Buck stood on ethereal legs that projected from his bloodied stumps, shimmering and wafting about independent of the rushing air around the train. He leaked an inky black smoke from his wounds, and the almost blinding green glow that came from his chest and missing eye pulsed in time with my racing heartbeat.

“Finally decided to smarten up about how you go about blowing things to bits?” His voice was cold and flat, but carried a sharpness to it that I wasn’t prepared for. “Too bad you couldn’t have figured that out before you got everyone else you cared about killed.”

“No, not now.” I whimpered and raised my hooves to my face. I covered my eye, blinking a few times as I tried to get myself to focus. “He’s still alive, Night. Do the job and you can still save him.” I could hardly hear myself over the noise of the train, but when I pulled my hooves away from my face, the illusionary Buck was gone.

I waited for the CMC-12 to roll back across my line of sight in the gap. As it did, I spread my wings and pushed myself upwards. With the speed we were going at, I didn’t find any resistance as the rushing air lifted me up over the train. With a subtle tweak of my hanging forelegs, and a whip of my tail, I nudged my flight over the side of the train and began to drift downwards towards the speeding Motorwagon.

As scary as it was, this was at least nothing new for me to attempt. It was just like when I’d tried to land on Bessy to drag cannon shells around, except at six times the speed, and with the risk of being snapped in half by razor thin railway wheels if I screwed up. Still, I tweaked myself so that I came pretty much straight down onto the roof of the CMC-12.

The moment my hooves touched down, the driver side door of the motorwagon opened up. The added drag from the door made me feel how much more it slowed us as the Ouroboros pulled ahead of us at a faster rate than before. The sawed off shotgun Tall Tale had brought floated out, held in an aura of his magic as he poked it’s barrel toward me. With a shake, he tweaked it as if to tell me to get back in the air.

Instead, I leaned over and did my best to make him know I wasn’t trying to escape or anything. It wasn’t easy to tell, but I knew from the stiffness of Tall Tale’s gaze to me, that he was in no mood for anything that could waste what time we had. But he needed my help, and he’d fucking listen if he wanted to get this job done at all.

“Hey!” I did my best to shout over the incredibly loud air, armored train, and whining motorwagon under me. “There’s no door, so I need to make one!” I paused as his gaze shifted to the rails ahead again momentarily. “I need the grenade you brought! I need it to make...!”

My voice was cut off as the train once again let out it’s deafening whistle. I pinned my ears back as the noise drilled into my skull, but didn’t want to risk moving my hooves in a way that might make Tall Tale just blast me off the roof. As the horn blared on longer than it had the other times I’d heard it, I looked up to find out why.

As we continued to do a slow right hoofed turn, the trees on both sides of the tracks gave way to a large open clearing. Out to our left sat what looked to be acres upon acres of open wetlands that eventually led out to the bay where Cantercross was. To our right, sat a muddy set of hills and dirt roads that were filled with pools of prismatic water. Scattered about across them, sat a thousand armored tanks, apcs, and other wheeled and tracked support vehicles. Not long that, but each and every one of them sat with the stark white Cordite logo stamped somewhere across them.

Standing on each of the various wartime vehicles, was what must have been a collection of a thousand different individuals, each stiffly saluting the train as it thundered past. From ponies, to griffons, to hellhounds and even a pair of dragons, the crews to each vehicle turned in confusion as the small boxy motorwagon with me on top sped after the train. Funny enough, as almost all of the crews scrambled to get in their vehicles from the sight of us trailing behind the Ouroboros, the only two who didn’t move at all were instantly recognizable. A pair of very dumbfounded looks adorned the faces of both Guinness and Zibar as they stood on the roof of their refurbished and now Cordite stamped tank.

A flash of magic in front of my face broke my attention off of the two tankers, and the shape of a silver metal apple refocused me on my task. Reaching up, I brought the grenade into my muzzle and hoofed at the priming button on my harness. The whining charge of my jump pack was lost as one of the Cordite tanks opened up with a whistling shot. A pair of thumps on the roof under me got my attention again as Tall Tale’s magic pulled the driver side door closed. With our aerodynamics slightly restored, I knew was was coming, and braced my hooves tightly against the metal bar bolted to the roof.

As more of the Cordite tanks opened fire, the booster rockets lit up and we were pushed ahead again. At the very least, Cordite wouldn’t risk firing if they could accidentally hit the train, right? From the fact that no other guns beat out the sound of the rocket exhaust behind me, I was pretty sure they weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of the train returning fire against them.

The gradient, as well as our already high speed, was keeping us from accelerating as fast as before, but unfortunately for us, it was actually faster than the Ouroboros was going. As we passed alongside of the heavy train, I opened my eye to find that we were quickly pulling up alongside the engine at the front of it.

The Ouroboros was a beast of a machine, and like most beasts, the head of it was something you just couldn’t pull yourself away from looking at. Her engine was bigger, sleeker, and longer than the few other train engines I’d seen so far. In fact, she was so big that she looked like like she was actually two engines back to back, with a section that bulged out in the middle to join them. Two sets of six wheels ran under each end of the massive engine, separated only by the bulbous gap in the center. That bulge almost sat low enough to the rails that it might scrape along it should there be any unevenness in the tracks themselves.

BOOM!

A sharp blast of gravel and small stones erupted from the side of the rails ahead of us. The thick cloud of debris pelted me painfully as we sped along through it. I let out a whimper through my muzzle as I could already feel the welts growing from the numerous strikes across my body. While I’m sure I’d be covered in bruises here soon enough, I prayed that none of the rocks hit my jump pack in a way that would keep it from running. Or worse…

“What?” Buck’s voice returned, bouncing around in my mind as if it were an expansive and empty chamber. “Now you’re worried about exploding? I’m so happy you see it as a danger well after you blew the rest of us up.” No, it wasn’t my fucking fault, it was Solomon’s! “You can’t hide from the truth, Night. You were too busy trying to play the ‘good guy’ out here to care about what happened to the rest of us. To care about what happened to ME.”

The Ouroboros gave out another blaring honk as we continued to thunder down the rails. I let out a whine again as the deafening noise at the very least cleared my mind of Buck’s voice. Fighting the wind, I glanced ahead down the tracks and found the old trussed bridge I’d ducked under earlier. This time we were going to roll over it, and we were approaching it alarmingly fast.

Focus, Night. The train was why I was here, and we were running out of time. Taking a hoof off of the bar on the top, I pressed the grenade further into my muzzle and bit down as hard as I could. Much like before, I needed to get back onto the Ouroborus before it hit that bridge. Leaning forward and bracing myself, I got myself lined up for the boost from my jump pack.

Alright, Bridge. You and me. Round two...

“Night.” Buck’s voice returned, and the moment I blinked, his towering form dominated my vision. “It wasn’t just Solomon who killed us. Happy is the reason that you went to him, he’s the reason you were fired. He’s always been a problem, and always will be one.” Buck’s ethereal form blocked my view of the upcoming railbridge, and each time I tried to shift myself to look around him, he took a step and got back in the way. “If you need to do this job, fine. But leave Happy behind. He deserves to die here, and you know it.”

“Shut up!” I snapped at him from inside my own mind with a scream that beat out the howling and whistling wind. Goddesses, why couldn’t I just be left alone!? “Just shut up!” Clamping my eyes shut and gritting my teeth against the grenade clenched in them, I pinched my fetlock tightly and pressed the button in it.

The world disappeared with a bang as I was thrown up into the air. As I reached the peak of my arc and opened my eyes again, I realized that I’d made a fairly significant miscalculation. I’d launched too late, and while I could still catch up to the train with the small window my dive would give me, it was going to be rolling over the bridge that entire time.

Fuck it, too late to back out now.

“Night…” Buck’s voice ebbed out of the back of my mind. “You can’t make a landing there. There’s not enough space between the trussing…”

“I have no choice.” I thought to myself as I slightly extended my wings. They caught the wind just enough to give me the control to start my dive. Tucking my forehooves back in, I pushed his voice out of my mind. With a snap of my tail, I aimed myself just ahead of the long silver train.

The air around me erupted in clouds of flak again. Like before, they were poorly aimed and the majority of them were too far off to even be a threat. Glancing at the rear armored car on the train as it slipped under the criss-crossing trusses of the bridge, I did at least notice something. The large turret couldn’t elevate it’s gun without hitting the trusses, and there were periodic moments where the other guns couldn’t shoot as well.

As I sped downward, I pushed my wings out more and more to catch the cold air under them. At a few meters above the bridge, I had them flared out completely, and had leveled my flight. I began to feel as the limited drag of my feathers started to slow me down, and as the two train cars I’d seen with the roofs that could open passed under me, I knew I had to make a move.

I watched the trusses as they criss-crossed under me, left angle, right angle. Left, right, left, right, back and forth until I felt my body start to sway lightly with each one. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the glint of the glass bubbled car pulling ahead under me. Praying to Celestia for good luck, I kept the alternating trusses pictured in my mind and tweaked my wings opposite directions.

I closed my eyes as I rolled myself over. With the rhythm stuck in my mind, I threw my body from side to side before pitching myself back as hard as possible. I tucked my tail in, and listened as the whistling air around me paused and shifted. The next sound to meet my ears was a painful crunch along my backside as my jump pack contacted something hard.

I let out a scream as it snapped my back outwards, and I collapsed down onto a smooth, hard metal surface. The slight vibrations of the armored cars hydraulics under me at least gave me a sign that I’d made it onto the train. Opening my eye as I tried to shake the hit off however, almost made my blood freeze.

That scream I’d given was reflexive, sure, but it had forced me to spit out the apple shaped grenade. As I watched it’s lopsided roll headed for the edge of the train, my legs scrambled to pick me up. No, no, no! Don’t you dare roll off the edge now!

Just as it reached the edge, I let my legs give out from under me, and slid myself along the armored roof. I opened my muzzle as wide as I could as the apple gave a soft bounce as it headed over the edge. With a metallic clack and a painful crunch in my jaw, I bit down around the small weapon as my head and neck hung over the edge of the car.

The thick criss-crossing beams of the bridge passed by, ending abruptly as the Ouroboros continued to thunder along the rails. It was heading towards what looked like a small tunnel built into one of the valley hills ahead. I didn’t remember a tunnel being on Tall Tale’s model…

The hydraulics under me cut out as we closed in on the tunnel. Glancing as I pushed myself up, I found the heavy turret behind me had locked in a rearward, but slightly off-center position toward the side where the CMC-12 was. At first I thought it was going to open fire, but as we plunged into the darkness of the railway tunnel, the rails started to turn slightly to the right.

A piercing screeching filled the air further in the tunnel, easily drowning out the noise of the train. Instinctively, I turned to find out what it was. The moment I did, something hit me, hard.

I was sent sprawling back along the armored roof, and my already beat up jump pack cushioned another hit as I flopped back against the turret. Blinking and trying to stop the world from spinning in my vision, enormous dark shapes shot through the air in the narrow gap between the top of the train and the tunnel’s roof. It was hard to get a look at just what they were as they moved at a terrifying speed out towards the tunnel entrance. However, a couple of them slammed down onto the roof of the train ahead of me.

They were pony sized, fuzzy beasts, with large round ears that flapped in the airstream that pushed across the top of the Ouroboros. As the pair of monsters shook off their own crash dizziness, they turned their large glowing red eyes to me and let out another piercing screech. A pair of fangs the size of Buck’s claws glistened in what little light I could see with, and I began to remember that I’d seen these things before. The day Four Peaks was destroyed, I think these were the things that had chased me down from the clouds.

Biting down on the grenade in my muzzle, I had to force myself not to try to use it on these monsters.

Both of the large creatures reared up as they screamed at me, but they made a mistake. In their preparation to leap, they spread their webbed, bat-like wings at me. In an instant, the added surface area was filled with the speeding air above the train. I’d only had time to blink, and both of the enormous bat-like creatures had been pulled over my head and were just gone.

“I told you that flat feathers could be an advantage.” Violet’s voice came from back toward the gap between the train cars. Behind her, along the smooth concrete tunnel walls, I could see the light of day start to shine through again.

Grumbling, I made sure to keep my wings pulled in extra tight as I got myself back to my hooves. Step by step, I forced my way to the gap between cars, slipping down into it as the train pulled out of the old railway tunnel.

I froze up though as I took a look around where we’d come out at. It was a rocky and mountainous canyon that looked like it was actually two halves of a mountain that had somehow been split with a slight curve down the middle. The pair of rails which ran along this side of it was originally only wide enough for one, and had been extended by some fairly rickety looking supports built above a steep drop off. Below us was what looked like a calm river that split the crescent shaped canyon, winding between the sharp crags to a small lake at the other end.

*KRAK-ZOT!*

A nearly blinding crimson light beat out even the sun for a moment. The afterimage of the canyon flashed in my eye as the anti-dragon cannon lanced a beam just over the top of the train. It forced me flat, and by the time I realized what had happened, I could feel the sizzle some of the hairs in my mane gave from the powerful magical discharge. Honestly, the heat from the shot was almost as bad as what my jump pack used to feel like before it had burned out most of the nerves on my back...

As the warmth of the beam dissipated, I peeked my head up over the edge of the traincar to where the beam had hit. A line of molten rock sat just beyond the smoldering and severed trees on the other side of the canyon. More alarmingly, was the thin, steaming, and slightly glowing line that stretched across part of the next two train cars roofs.

Are they crazy! Just a few degrees more of gun depression and they’d melt the very train they’re trying to protect! I understand that the defences of this thing had kept everypony away from it so far, but I don’t think anypony’s ever been this close to getting in.

“You’re worried there might be some sort of auto-destruct system in it, aren’t you?” Buck’s far too relaxed tone did nothing to calm my nerves right now. But… it was something I’d begun to worry about. If we’re the first to get in, then who knew what we’d find inside…

“Well, you’re not in yet, are you?” Buck’s tone shifted to a more snide and jabbing form. “What are you waiting for? Just blow it up, because that’s what you’re good at.”

As the crackling sound of the powerful magical weapon wore off, the sound of burning rockets met my ears and thankfully pushed Buck’s voice from my mind. I cringed as the CMC-12 caught up and started to roll across the rickety looking supports for the outside rails. The normal clanks that the Ouroboros’ train wheels gave across the tracks was joined by the quick clacks of each of the wooden supports next to it.

The Ouroboros began a slight left turn, following the canyon as it banked along the inside of the split mountain. The turn widened the space between cars on the right, and gave me a clearer look at the CMC-12 as it passed me. Alright, it was now or never!

Spitting the grenade into my hoof, I shoved it down into the rubbery connector between a couple of the folds. With it seated, I reached for the pin on it, but froze. Wait, where am I going to get cover from the blast?

Turning, I glanced up over the top of the armored gun carriage. The turret was still roughly pointed in my direction, but it was elevated far too high to outright blast me into dust. Right, I’d have to get up and over to that turret before either the grenade went off while I was too close, or the gun corrected it’s aim and vaporized me. Wow, what a choice...

Not to mention, I hope those two century old rails can hold up to a blast from a grenade…

With a flick of my hoof, I slipped the pin free from it’s home. The metallic ping from the spoon flipping off disappeared over the howling air and the thumping of my heart as I scrambled onto the gun carriage. The turret shuddered and began to spin toward me as I counted the passing seconds in the back of my head.

3… 4…

BOOM!

The blast forced me down just short of the turret, and I skid along the armored roof. Hot fragments of metal whipped through the air above me, sprinkling across the turret I’d slid to a stop just in front of. The heavy tri-barrel set up of the turret wasn’t at all affected by the bits of metal as it finished it’s rotation toward me. The high pitched whine of capacitors met my ears from inside the housing for the anti-dragon cannon, and I almost froze up.

I spun myself around, flared my wings out, and pushed off into the air with all my might.

*KRAK-ZOT!*

The beam of condensed magical energy lanced through the air where I’d been as I took flight. But, while I’d saved myself from incineration, the back of the armored train passed out from under me, and I was left speeding over the rickety tracks. Just ahead of me and slowing slightly, was the silver CMC-12. The rear lights of the old motorwagon flashed for a moment, forcing out a tortured squeal from both the train wheels it rode on, as well as the rails themselves.

Tweaking my wings, I maneuvered my flight path toward the outside tracks. A stiff wind rising up the side of the steep canyon buffeted me, fighting me for every inch I wanted to move. Thankfully though, Happy’s passenger side door rose up, adding a bit of drag to the motorwagon, and slowing it just enough that I could just maybe land on it like I had before.

With my eye on the prize, I pulled my hanging forelegs closer. With less drag, and a small sacrifice in altitude, I tried to keep up as much speed as I could. After a few tense moments, while I’d made progress, the buffeting wind from below was taking its toll. With myself just a hoof length away from the back of the CMC-12, I cried and desperately reached out.

My hooves fell across the smooth sides of the rocket housings on the back of the motorwagon. It provided me enough grip to hold onto the speeding vehicle, but not enough to firmly climb on. If Tall Tale activated the rockets now, there was no way I’d be able to keep my grip!

The rails under the CMC-12 gave out a long groan, followed by what sounded like sharp cracks. The whole of the motorwagon shifted as a pair of the support beams holding up the rails gave way. The sharp and jarring movement was enough to throw my weak grip, and I let out a gasp as to me, the world went quiet.

With a strength that came out of almost nowhere, I felt my forehooves get pulled forward. I was thrown against the backside of the motorwagon again as my mind and heart raced at a mile a minute. What the fuck just happened? Why didn’t I fall!?

“I’ve got you!” Happy shouted at me over the howling of the wind and whining arcane engine of the motorwagon below us. Both his bruised and bloody fetlocks were tightly gripped around mine as he braced himself on the roof using the bar meant for me. He offered me the smuggest look he could manage out of his bruised face as he pulled back and dragged me up to where I could get all four hooves safely onboard.

“Well, that’s something.”Buck’s voice resonated in my head. “So he can be useful after all.”

The motorwagon slowed slightly again as this time, the driver side door opened up. From inside, Tall Tale’s tool bag floated out, and was set down snuggly against the gun jamming talisman array on the hood. Happy let go of me as Tall Tale himself wrapped his hooves securely around the side of the motorwagon.

The moment Tall Tale started to pull himself up onto the car, I could see Happy’s eyes brighten with a stupid idea. So as Happy pulled himself up to his hooves, I reached out and wrapped my hoof around his side. He shot me a quick and confused look as he tried to shrug me off of him, but I just glared at him and shook my head.

As much as I’d love to rush him and push him down onto the rails, I needed Tall Tale to open that safe. Without whatever was inside, we didn’t have any bargaining power against Mr. Wizard. I tried to convey this to Happy through sheer force of will, but I had no idea if he even cared.

Regardless, the moment of opportunity passed as Tall Tale got himself on top of the motorwagon and used his magic to shut the passenger side door. He raised his hoof to Happy, shifting it toward the open driver side door. Happy gave another quick glance at me, and I nodded to him. Just a little bit longer, Happy. Once we’re onboard that train, we’ll find a way to take this bastard out.

With a little bit of effort, Happy made his way back inside the motorwagon and shut the door. I watched as we now trailed a fair ways behind the Ouroboros, and the sight of the end of Diablo canyon was coming just into view beyond the far bend. A realization hit me with that as well. How many rockets had we used? Fuck, I hadn’t been counting…

My concern was broken as Tall Tale used his magic to secure his tool bag around himself before he walked back toward me. The pink cloud that constantly seeped from his body was all but non-existent from the force of the moving, frigid air, but it only made the glare he held on me seem even more piercing. Without taking his eyes off me, he lowered himself down almost flat against the roof beside me. He wrapped a single forehoof around the bar before he reached forward with his free one, and gave a pair of banging hits on the roof.

I braced myself with only a moment to spare before the rockets beside Tall Tale and I fired off. Squeals and groans of protest came from the rails under us, but they could only barely be heard through the crackling and hissing noise of the rockets. I was forced to shut my eye again as we picked up speed, but it didn’t end up staying shut for long.

*KRAK-ZOT!*

Opening my eye again was a mistake as I blinked away the after image of the crimson beam shooting through the air to our left. As we rolled back into range of the jamming talisman again, my morbid curiosity forced me to give a quick glance over my shoulder behind us. At our speed, I didn’t have long to see the aftermath of the beam before we were far enough that I couldn’t make it out. However, the sight of melted and twisted rails was clear enough for me to know I didn’t need a second or closer look.

The speed we’d gained from the boost was more than enough to propel us along the majority of the Ouroboros again. However, as we began to pass by the gun carriage, I moved to prime my jump pack. Tall Tale’s hoof shot out, stopping me abruptly just short of hitting the button on my harness. He gave a quick nod at my back before shaking his head.

Twisting my neck as far as I could, it was annoying to try to bring my jump pack into at least my peripheral vision. However, when I did get sight of it, I could see the problem. After having it break my fall and get beaten up as much as it had, one whole side of it was crumpled inward.

Well fuck.

“Do you just destroy everything you touch?” Buck’s voice filled my mind again. I blinked as I brought my vision around ahead of the CMC-12 again, only to find that Buck was standing on the hood with his ethereal paws crossed across the wisping black wound in his chest. “Well, so much for getting leverage over Mr. Wizard and ‘saving me’. Without that jump pack, this job is over for you.”

No, I refused to believe that. This… this wasn’t over. I could do this.

As the CMC-12 slowed its advance and paused at a pace that matched the massive train engine just beside it, I pushed myself up to my hooves. I forced my wings open halfway, immediately bracing myself against the roof bar to keep from flying off as the cold air ran under them. Swinging my vision back as the motorwagon under me started to lose pace with the train, I pulled my rear hooves up and let myself hang just by my forehooves.

I tweaked my wings, angling them for a sharp climb. The extra force on my forehooves felt like I was about to dislocate every joint in them, but I held on. A strong gust from the edge of the shortening canyon pushed up against the motorwagon from the right, and in that moment, I let go.

The extra push from the canyon’s updraft helped me gain a few crucial extra meters of altitude. I soared upward, drifting sideways over the top of the speeding train for just a moment. As the two train cars with the segmented retractable roofs came into view, I pulled my forelegs up and dove downward.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The flak cannons opened up from the gun carriage, filling the air above and ahead of me with blasts of shrapnel. But with the jamming talisman still in range, it’s tracking was too slow to keep up. By the time it stopped firing to correct its aim, I was almost hovering above the glass dome of the car just ahead of the turret.

As I passed over it, I glanced down into the train cart. It was hard to make much out inside the car with such a small window, but I blinked as something recognizable caught my eye.

The boxy, grey form of a suit of power armor lay sprawled out on the floor, still proudly displaying a Steel Ranger insignia on it’s shoulder plate. The suit was missing it’s helmet, and the deceased pony who still occupied the bulky armor, looked more like one of those dried out old mummies in ancient history than someone who had lived in ‘modern’ times.

What the fuck even happened on this train…

*KRAK-ZOT!*

The anti-dragon cannon lanced a beam into the rocky cliffside to the left of the train. It forced me down onto the roof of the dome car as it burned a glass groove into the side of the mountain. Right, less pondering from the outside!

Getting myself turned around, I scrambled back toward the gap between the cars. As I reached it, I found that while the rest of this train might have been built to stop any invaders, upgrading these rubber connectors to something with armor on them was probably an oversight. Not only had the grenade absolutely shredded almost the entirety of both sides of the accordion-like rubber skirting, but it had also blasted through the metal rigging that had given it a semi-rigid shape.

With the gaping hole wide enough for me to drop into, I glanced back to see the CMC-12 still a few cars ahead of this one. Standing at the ready, and with his rodeo mask’s creepy glare pinned right on me, Tall Tale watched and waited for his chance to board. I stepped forward over the hole and dropped inside, knowing that this was the only window I’d get to find something to help Happy and I when the time came to act.

The stiff carpeting of the corridor between the two train cars did little to cushion my drop, and in fact sent up a thin cloud of dust from the impact. Almost as soon as it was airborne, some of the dust was sucked out of the gaping hole in the corridor, but most of it actually seemed to sparkle and disappear into nothingness. My best guess was it was being taken by some sort of magical cleaning talisman or something.

“What the…” I did what I normally did and spoke without thinking, but had to pause as my voice came across through the air with an odd clarity to it. I could hear the rushing wind outside of the train, and the clacking of the tracks that matched up with the vibrations under my hooves. But some sort of magic was suppressing just enough of the outside noise that it left the interior here eerily quiet. Almost, dare I say, too quiet. “Okay… this train is definitely going to creep me out…”

A light inside the dark interior of the gun carriage flickered and caught my eye. I felt my mane stand on end as the buzzing hum of fluorescent lights filled the air, and the cramped rear combat car lit up. The dessicated and mostly preserved husks of more Steel Rangers laid still posted at their various stations. The odd thing was that they looked like they’d all died halfway through whatever they were doing at the time.

Above me, in a raised up section recessed into the ceiling itself, was an open cylinder that rotated about with the turret on the roof. A dozen different glowing cables ran around the inside of the turret ring, leading down the edges of the cylinder and into a robust armored seat in the center of it. Another mummified looking pony sat wearing a talisman laiden combat harness, completing the normal gunner attire that anypony using a ship based Anti-Dragon Cannon normally used. However, written across the tactical display in front of the deceased pony, was a message that was anything but standard.

I hadn’t seen enough old world horror films to know how this would end, but I could just feel that this whole train just ended up being a death trap for anypony who got onto it. Reflexively, I reached up and ran my hoof over the scar where half my ear used to sit. As much as I knew that the foalish tales of murderous skeletons were just something told to scare colts and fillies, I had seen enough ghouls to know that things could look dead and still move well enough to try to kill you.

My ears perked and twisted as the whining arcane engine of the CMC-12 pushed through the muting magics of the train, and I knew I needed to move. Two dead guards sat propped up just at the gun carriage doorway, each of them still holding what seemed to be old world boxy looking shotguns in their hooves. My eyes darted about the gun carriage for better prospects, but other than some pistols that still sat strapped in their holsters on a few of the bodies, I didn’t have very many options other than the shotguns.

Celestia, I really hope those things were loaded when these ponies died…

Tall Tale’s black duffle bag slammed down onto the corridor floor. My heart nearly stopped as the clear and obnoxiously loud noise the tools inside it made a racket that had me jump up against the roof. It also sent another small plume of dust up for the magical talisman to try to clean, of which it was just about as effective as with the plume I’d sent up.

Held in a his own magical aura, Tall Tale jumped from the CMC-12 and effortlessly came down next to his bag. The wisping pink cloud that seeped out from him trailed off slightly out of the blown out corridor opening. But now that he was sheltered, it started to pour out from him like it was trying to make up for lost time. He grunted as he turned toward the dark interior of the car with the dome in it’s roof.

The moment he stepped a hoof into it, rows of fluorescent lights along the ceiling kicked on much like the ones in the gun carriage had. Unlike the gun car however, this one was filled with what looked like banks of terminals that booted up and came to life as he walked by them. A few bodies, including the dead power armored ranger I saw through the dome, sat scattered about the car, but these ponies weren’t at stations. Three of them sat together in the far corner, and one lay in front of an oversized safe that looked like it took up the whole front left half of the car itself.

“We don’t have much time, and we’re down to two boosts on the motorwagon.” Tall Tale called back as he levitated his toolbag over. He waved his hoof toward the opening we came through as his magic started to pull pretty much everything out of his bag. “Stay in the corridor and wait for your friend to boost again to keep up. Once I have the safe open, I’ll need you to fly back to the CMC-12 and tell your friend to use the last boost when I signal for it. I’m going to be cutting this really close.”

“Got it.” I nodded, giving a parting glance to the shotguns on the guards before I walked up and stood at the doorway. With a nervous stretch, I arched my neck and rubbed at the metal collar around it. Okay, do-or-die time. Literally. My only hope is that Happy both remembers and sticks to the plan.

The sharp squeal of metal made me cringe hard. For a moment, I worried that something was wrong with the train itself, but glancing over, I found Tall Tale pressing a sparking drill up against the face of the large grey safe. Sitting just beside him, but separated from his tools, was both his shotgun and his pistol.

The sharp report of the rockets on the CMC-12 filled the air, and the crackling woosh it gave as the silver motorwagon raced by again made my heart race faster. In the short moment I could see it, Happy’s worried gaze was pressed up against the drivers side window. Oh come on, Happy, don’t get cold hooves now...

“Fucking seriously.” The sharp grinding of the drill came to an abrupt stop as Tall Tale grunted in frustration. “Cheap-ass drills always jamming...”

Without a care, Tall Tale discarded the broken power tool in favor of bringing up what looked like a screwdriver and a rubber mallet into his magic. He turned his back to me as he got to work hammering at and punching out the small, hoof-wide hole he’d almost drilled through the outer skin of the safe. Please, please Celestia, let him keep his back turned for just a few seconds!

The whining of the CMC-12’s engine grew in the muted air again, and I held my breath as I waited for it to appear. The big black rocket fins rolled into view, and I tensed up as I waited to see if Happy had gotten out in time. Instead, I got a heavy clunk of metal to my left as the safe door unlocked.

“Alright!” Tall Tale laughed as he tossed his tools down and used his hooves to spin the safe’s handle. “Let’s see what…” He paused midway through his sentence as the door opened, and what looked like a zebra fell right out onto the floor with a hefty thump. “Whatthe fuck? Who the fuck is this!?”

Shit! Alright, now or never, Happy!

Turning to look back, I blinked as Happy stood uneasily on the roof of the CMC-12 as it rolled into view. Reaching up to his neck, he stared at me straight in the eyes as his hooves wrapped around the metal collar he wore. I gave him a nod, and held my breath.

With a tug and a heavy cringe, the collar around his neck snapped open. He blinked a few times and stared at it with a smile. Looking up to me, his smile melted as the rear of the CMC-12 started to sink back behind the gun carriage. He tossed his collar and took his own deep breath.

Wearing a look that conveyed more fear than I’d ever seen him show since I’d met him, he crouched down, took a step forward, and jumped.

Be it because he was part earth pony, or because it was something donkeys could innately do, I had to admit, I hadn’t expected this. Happy kicked off from the CMC-12 hard enough that he dented in part of the roof bracing, and he shot across the gap like a fucking thick-skulled rocket.

I’d been standing in the gap to try to help him onboard if he fell short at all. That was a mistake. From the way he landed and nearly bowled me over, I realize I’d severely underestimated him. Even with as tired and injured as he was, I guess even a lazy asshole like Happy could move mountains if it came down to life or death.

His already bruised head slammed against the doorway inside the connecter as his momentum almost carried him right through the other side of the shredded corridor. He let out a whine as I’m sure he saw stars. With a wobble, he took a step back, and almost stepped right out of the hole again before I moved forward and stopped him.

“What the fuck are you two doing!?” Tall Tale shouted as Happy shook off the hard knock in the head he’d gotten.

“Come on, this way!” I called out to him as I turned back toward the gun carriage.

Both Happy and I dove to each side just inside the doorway as a shotgun blast split the air behind us. We both got to our hooves quickly as we heard Tall Tale pump his shotgun. Happy’s darting eyes immediately fell onto the boxy shotgun of the guard next to him, and he took it in his hooves.

“Alright, you think we can take him out?” Happy asked as he gripped around the gun, pulling back on it’s square pump handle and glancing inside the open bolt. “His shotty’s only got a few rounds in it, three more at max. If these are full, ours have five.” Happy took a short breath before leaning forward slightly. Sparks shot off the door frame as one of Tall Tale’s pistol shots ricocheted off of it just over Happy’s head. “And he’s got a pistol as well…”

“Yeah. He’s got a pistol as well...” I grunted as I pressed myself up against the armored wall behind me. Seriously, how did he not remember that until now?

Before I grabbed the shotgun beside me, I remembered I had another pressing and time sensitive issue I needed to deal with first. Bringing my hooves up to my neck, I sharply pulled at the collar around it. With a crisp snap, the latch on it gave way, and the metal ring flopped into my hoof. Tossing it to the back of the cart, I turned and grabbed the shotgun.

Happy held his shotgun out again, barely poking it around the corner before firing a shot. The recoil of it nearly kicked it out of his hooves, but he held onto it tightly enough that he dragged it back against him. As soon as he’d pulled it back, another pair of sparking shots slammed into the doorway. Which, I took as a signal that it was my turn.

Trying to do the same thing as Happy, I stretched the shotgun out just far enough that I only exposed the tips of my hooves to fire it. However, unlike Happy, I’d never fired a shotgun like this before. With a resounding boom, the shotgun blasted out my hearing as it’s pellets tore through the air into the other room. It also blasted itself right out of my hooves, and bounced itself onto the open floor of the gun carriage next to my discarded collar.

“I don’t know how you arranged this.” Tall Tale’s voice spilled through the corridor with an alarming clarity, and I could hear as his hoofsteps moved him closer at a slow and calculated pace. “I’ll admit, I’m impressed, even if this only ends one way for you two. But then again, I think you’d already figured that out when you cooked up this half-cocked plan.” He was coming for us, and being a gun down now left us with a major disadvantage...

Okay, maybe this hadn’t been the best plan in the world afterall…

“You know, it’s alright if you die, Night.” Buck’s voice beat out the ringing the shotgun blast had left in my ears. I blinked as I stared at the gun and the collar on the floor, and in the short moment I had, Buck’s ethereal and glowing form was standing over it. He offered me a kind, soft smile that sent a chill through my spine. “It doesn’t matter that you got everypony killed, you tried your best. Your parents always told you that was all that counted, and you should be happy that you made it this far. Everypony down here sooner or later makes a mistake that gets them killed, and today, you drew the short straw.”

“Shut up!” I snapped at Buck. I knew I was yelling at nothing, but this fight wasn’t over. There had to be something we could do.

“Night, this is not the time to have a mental breakdown!” Happy snapped back at me as he leaned forward and stuck his gun around the corner again. He fired another shot before retreating and flattening himself against the armored wall behind him. Staring across at me, he huffed and shot a glare at me that Delilah would have been proud of. “Look, I know I’ve been a little jealous shit to you on this trip, but my Mom was right. She believed in you. I believe in you.” Nodding to me, I almost didn’t believe the sincerity in his voice. “You can get us out of this, Night. Just… tell me what to do.”

“Please. Do you believe this shit?” Buck’s echoing laugh in my head silenced the rest of the ringing in my ears. “Why do you have to come up with a plan? Seeing as he didn’t need your help getting on board this train, maybe it’s his turn to do shit.”

“Yeah, he didn’t need help getting across.” I spat out and glared over at Buck again like that would mean anything to him. Of course, because he wasn’t real, he didn’t even react to my biting words. “But if I hadn’t stepped up after he hit his head, he’d…” I froze with a gasp as I realized exactly what to do. Looking over at Happy, his sincere gaze at me had understandably cracked with my outburst, but he gave me a nod. Lowering my voice, I made sure that even I could barely hear my own words. “When he comes, I’ll distract him. You push him out the hole.”

“Uh, alright…” Happy scrunched up his muzzle for a moment. “Not the ‘thrilling heroics’ I’d expected, but I can live with that.”

A bright flash of another shotgun blast tore across the scratched and dented up doorway as Tall Tale fired again. Happy gave a quick nod as another pair of sparking shots came across my end of the doorway. With a deep breath, Happy leaned forward and stuck his shotgun around the edge again.

The moment he fired, his gun went flying back to join mine on the ground. I’d thought he’d lost his grip on his shotgun, but the scream Happy let out as he pulled his bloody hooves back against himself told me I was wrong. Both his forehooves had been torn open from the near simultaneous shot that Tall Tale had given. Blood was dripping from the gaping wounds alarmingly fast, and there wasn’t time to try to figure out a new plan.

My ears perked as quick hoofbeats caught my attention over Happy’s whimpers. Shit, I couldn’t rely on Happy anymore, and I needed to do something or we were both going to die. With a quick glance, I caught a sort of ‘I told you so’ look across Buck’s face as I readied myself to turn the corner and cut off Tall Tale’s advance. Maybe I would die here and now, but at least I would take Tall Tale with me. Pushing off, I gave a prayer to Celestia and yelled out.

With a feral scream, Happy threw himself off the wall as he charged forward to cut me off. Galloping on his injured forehooves, he shot through the open doorway and slammed into Tall Tale before I’d even rounded the corner. Again, he carried more momentum than I’d thought him capable of, and his slam all but knocked Tall Tale and his shotgun straight out of the corridor. But in his rage, Happy had forgotten one small thing that I hadn’t.

Tall Tale was a unicorn.

Even as he was thrown from the train, the magical aura that hell Tall Tale’s pistol turned it toward Happy. A last fuck you to us I suppose. Well, I for one was tired of losing my friends, so I would not let Happy die here if I had anything to say about it.

“Don’t do it, Night!” Violet’s voice echoed from the back of my mind. “He’s not worth your life!”

Yeah, he wasn’t, but I couldn’t simply do nothing. I owed this to Delilah at the very least, even if she didn’t think he was worth saving either. And as much as every fiber of my being screamed at me that this would get me killed, I didn’t listen. I’d made my choice.

“I’m not saying you don’t deserve to die for what you did…” Buck’s voice spoke up. He was louder and more prominent than Violet had been, but he was still muted as it took most of my focus to try not to listen to his words. “But… don’t you think this is the easy way out? Don’t you deserve to suffer more?”

I pushed off with all my might, screaming as Happy’s oblivious muzzle turned toward me with a bruised and weak smile parting his lips. I slammed into Happy with as much force as I could, keeping my eye on the floating pistol as it lined up where the back of his head had just been. And unfortunately for me, where mine now was.

“It’s okay, Nighty.” My mother’s crystal clear voice filled me with a sense of serene calm as it drifted through my mind. She wasn’t real, I already knew that. But it had been so long since I’d heard her voice, that I was almost surprised I could remember what it sounded like at all.

As Happy stumbled down onto to the dusty floor, time felt like it had nearly stopped. I watched the hammer on the rear of the old combat pistol fall in almost slow motion. In that moment, I wondered to myself if any of my journey had ultimately meant anything.

Could Happy get to the Ark? Could he kill Solomon and save Brahman Beach? Or after everything that’s happened, would he cower away and abandon everything we’d fought and died for?

No. I had to believe that somehow, I’d done everything I could, and that my faith in my friends would help them see this task through to the end.

“Oh honey,” My mom’s soft voice was so familiar, so real, I just… never wanted to let it fade away again. “Just know that I’m so proud of...”

The world, my worries, and my mother’s voice, all disappeared with a single blinding flash.

Author's Notes:

Again, a HUGE thanks to TheFurryRailFan for all his help making sure these chapters are nice and tight for their release.

And as always, a big thanks to Kkat for allowing us all to run around in and blow up this fantastic wasteland!