8:16AM

I sighed as the clock stuck in the corner of my vision reminded me that time wouldn’t move faster, no matter how much I wanted it to.

Not to complain, but I had thought I was ready to leave the Factory. We were ready for every fight we could possibly get into, ready to get through any situation that Solomon could set up for us, even if he knew we were coming on the Arcturus. However, just a single day into our trip, there was one factor that not even I could have prepared us for.

“Sorry, Captain, but it’s still too rough out there this morning to proceed without risking the ship.” Eliza’s frowning mare somehow expressed the perfect amount of apathy I was feeling. “This is the worst blizzard I myself have seen since the days just after the end of the great war, and even at a quarter ahead speed, the sustained gusts are pushing the Arcturus closer to the mountainsides than I feel comfortable admitting.”

Stuck. Because of bad weather. Just my fucking luck.

“Alright, just… keep us parked somewhere safe for the time being, and we’ll wait out the storm.” I couldn’t believe that after all this time, when we were finally ready, the storm of the fucking century has to halt all our progress.

“If I can suggest something, Captain?” Eliza’s cartoon flickered over to the image of the mare with a scrunched muzzle. “Might I suggest that since we are stuck for the time being, you and the others use this time to relax and rest? You have all had a rough few days, and it might do you a lot of good.”

Really? Rest!? When we could be doing something actually productive, like…

Well, shit, there really wasn’t much that we could do at all. The ship was in good shape, and we had all the supplies we could ask for. I guess, the only thing we really could use was some time for some R&R.

“Yeah, that sounds like an excellent idea, Eliza. Tell the others to take the day off and get some rest.” I nodded and hung my head slightly. “Keep me informed if the weather breaks, I want to know the moment it does so we can get heading south again.”

“Will do, Captain. Enjoy your day off.” Her smiling mare beamed across half the consoles on the bridge before flickering away to show the dozens of different instrumentation again. Pure white screens showed on every camera that displayed the exterior of the ship, and the radar and weather data showed nothing but screens that only strengthened my belief that this was maybe the worst storm ever in northern Equestria’s history.

Even though I was disheartened, I still pushed myself to believe that maybe it would clear up in a few hours. Sure, why not? How long could a storm this bad really last?

2:59PM

Again, I eyed up at the clock in my augmented vision, watching as it ticked over.

3:00PM

“Ugh.” I groaned as I flopped my head down on Buck’s warm, furred chest. It was super nice and all to have better than my normal vision back, but… I was starting to see some downsides to having a terminal strapped permanently to my head.

“Are you okay, Night?” Buck’s voice came through into my mind with a clarity that his actual voice had never held before I got my augment. “If you are having discomfort with your augmentations, I can see what I can do to help.”

“I’m fine, but... it’s weird, really.” I sighed, opting to just speak my words. While I knew I could communicate through my head now, something about that just felt less personal to me. Like it was cheapening the time I had to spend with Buck if I could just lazily talk through my mind. “It's like, everything's normal, but I know that it's not. I mean, I’m not really seeing through this eye, it's just some... computer.”

“It is a lot to come to terms with, and it'll be hard moving forward with it.” Buck answered with his voice, complete with the bit of static that normally came with it. Slowly however, he shifted his mechanical paws up to my forehooves and gently held onto them. “That’s why I’d been against having the procedure done unless it got as bad as it did. I hope you know that I only want the best for you, Night, and I’ll be here with you every step of the way.”

“I know you do, and that you’ll be here by my side.” I shifted myself on top of him, lifting my head out of his fur to look up at his soft and caring gaze. My eyes wandered over his mechanical parts, as his own drifted over mine. “We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, Buck, and I wouldn’t want to miss a single step of it without you.” I squeezed at his paws as our eyes met, and I pushed myself forward right into his muzzle.

Closing my eyes, I let the world drift away in that moment. Outside of the two of us, there was nothing. No storm, no Arcturus, nothing. Even the display that my eye projected to me fuzzed out, leaving me purely in that blissful moment where Buck and I were together.

“You know,” I whispered as we broke our muzzles away from one another, letting a shudder of pleasure run down my spine, “while we’re stuck in this storm, it was suggested that we use this time to get some rest and relaxation.”

“Oh, well to be completely transparent, I’m not sure about the rest...” Buck whispered back as he offered a heated whine to me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I really want to ‘rest’ with my husband to be.” Leaning forward, he let his metal muzzle run down along my neck, where his warm breath drifted down my mane and across my back. “I know you feel the same, Night.” And just like that, my wings flared out, and I only had one thought in my mind.

Goddesses, I hope this storm lasts forever…

9:32PM

A heavy set of knocks rapped across the sealed door to the captain’s cabin. Both Buck and I shifted uneasily on the bed, panting heavily as we turned to look towards it. My mind scrambled to remind me that the real world did indeed still exist outside of this room, no matter how sweaty, tired, and blissful I felt in that moment with Buck.

“Hey uhh… it’s been a few hours.” Happy’s muffled voice wasn’t something I’d cared to hear through my door right now, but at the very least, I couldn’t blame the poor guy for that. “Delta whipped up some dinner in the kitchen, just... wanted to see if you two were going to eat any of it before it got cold.”

“Thanks, Happy. Sorry we’ve been so… absent.” I called out, turning back to see Buck’s blush and absolutely adorable look of embarrassment across his muzzle right now. “But uh... Buck and I have been a bit tied up with relaxing in here…”

“LA LA LA!” Happy’s shouts came with hard hoofknocks on the door again. “I didn’t need to hear that, Night! Even if that wasn’t a goddess damned pun!” With a groan, he gave out one final resounding slam against the doorframe itself. “Just… whatever! Starve if you want, HORNDOGS!”

“Hey, I resemble that remark!” Buck called out with a static filled laugh before taking a deep breath and letting out a long, contented sigh. “But seriously, don’t you think it’s a bit weird he hasn’t been all that himself as of late?” Buck scrunched up his muzzle as he thought to himself. “Hmmm, maybe the poor guy just needs to get laid…”

I cut off Buck as I leaned in and gave his nose a soft peck with my muzzle again.

“He’ll be fine.” I laughed with my own sigh, looking back at the doorway for a moment. “He’s come a long way from being the mule we first met so far in the north.”

“That’s true. I guess we can’t complain too much about it.” Buck’s blushing muzzle leaned forward and nuzzled along my neck again as he let his metal paws run down my back. “But forget him for now. I just want to spend more time with…”

A groan that sounded more like it should have come from the ship, rumbled up through Buck’s chest, forcing a similar but somewhat more moderate grumble out from my own stomach.

“More time with food?” I giggled and shared my own blush with him.

“Well, after such rigorous physical activity…” He groaned as he pushed himself up onto his paws, keeping me firmly held against his furred chest until he was completely standing up. “It’s my advice as your physician that we should probably get something to eat.”

“And as your captain, I agree.” I nodded to him as he extended his arms to let me down onto my hooves. Hooves which protested quite firmly at the idea of me putting any weight on them at all. Of course, the only exception was my prosthetic still hanging on to the stump of good ol’ righty. At least there was some benefit to losing my leg… if you could call not feeling pins and needles in it a benefit…

Doing my best to convince my legs to carry me over to the door, I let out a shiver as the cool ship air flowed over my sweat coated body.

“Ooo, it’s a bit cold, don’t you think? Maybe… a quick shower to warm us up is in order?” Buck offered as he let out a slight shiver himself. “Then we can eat.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” I smiled as I reached out and threw the door to the cabin open.

The air in the rest of the ship was downright frigid compared to the captain’s cabin. Not that the reason for that was any sort of mystery to me, but still, I guess a blizzard outside still made some difference to the air in here. And if it was this bad inside, I could only guess how much worse it had gotten out there.

Turning down the hallway, both Buck and I made our way to the bunkroom. At the back, sat the door to the stalled showers and bathroom that I had yet to even use during my time aboard. Which is an odd thought, because while I’d seen the showers and bathrooms on the tours I’d had through Enclave raptors, I’d never thought I’d ever even use one.

Still, a part of my mind was too busy fantasizing about how good a hot shower would feel right about now to notice the annoyed look that Happy gave us from his own bunk. The other part of my mind that did notice, only brought my heated blush back across my muzzle as I did my best to pick up the pace and nearly dive through the bulkhead into the bathroom.

And in my rush, again, I almost missed a faint noise from inside.

“Shhhh!”

The hushed voice was followed by a soft squeak that nearly echoed around the small room. Perking my ears, all I could hear was the dripping water from one of the shower heads, and Buck’s heavy metal pawsteps as he came up behind me and stopped just short of pushing me further in. Was I hearing things again? Maybe the thing he put in my head wasn’t actually working...

As I looked up to Buck, his metal ears perked only for a second before he deadpanned and glanced down at me. With the lift of his paw, he pointed to the last stall with a grunt.

Walking forward with Buck, I stepped through the still warm and draining water on the floor, and peeked my head around the end of the last stall. I nearly slipped and fell on my muzzle, as what met my eyes was the panting, blushing, and completely wet forms of both Tofu, and Hispano.

“Uh… hey there!” Hispano squawked as she scrambled to get up off of the wet floor. “I was just… heading to take a shower when I ran into Tofu!” She let out a forced and unbearably nervous chuckle. “And you know, I figured I’d get to chatting with her, as she’s pretty much my age…”

“Yeah! We were just… getting to know one another a bit!” Tofu squeaked out as she too forced herself onto her hooves with a blush brighter than either Buck or I had held in the last few hours. “So for efficiency’s sake, I suggested we do this together…” Her words drifted off as Hispano turned and shot her a sideways glare that would have made Delilah proud. “A… shower! Yeah, together, you know, to save water!”

“Uh huh.” Buck grunted as he crossed his metal arms together.

“Alright, the jig’s up. You got us.” Hispano grumbled as she squinted her eyes at the still radiantly blushing Tofu. With a sharp jab of her talon, she wielded her judgmental gaze around toward Buck and I. “Can you blame me!? These bulkheads are so thin that the whole ship could hear you two fucking, and honestly, I was pissed that I got left out!” With a huff, she pulled her talon back and spun herself away from us. “I mean, I get why, but after that kiss you gave me… do you even know how hard it is to keep my promise to you!? Can you fucking blame me for finding a way to work things out on my own!?”

Well… now this was just awkward. How could I blame her at all for any of this when I was basically the pony to throw this all in her face? Seriously, while I cared for her deeply, she deserved to be as happy and de-stressed as Buck and I.

“Are you judging, Night?” Buck spat out as he pulled his paws down and put them behind his back with a smirk. “Because I’m not judging…”

“Nope! No judgement here!” I blinked a few times as I spoke out sharply. Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to just brush this aside for now. And while it still felt weird to know she was doing this, I was going to let Hispano work through her own stress in whatever way, or with whomever she saw fit. “By all means, carry on!” I smirked as Tofu offered a squeak as I looked over to her and gave the two of them a quick salute. “Captain’s orders!”

“Wait…” Tofu blinked as my words sunk in, scrunching up her muzzle almost in anger as it looked like she struggled to accept everything. “But aren’t you three… I thought… now hold on!”

“Quiet.” Hispano cooed as she put a talon up to Tofu’s muzzle. “I didn’t hear you complaining about that for the last half hour, now did I?” Hispano’s wings flared out as she gave wrapped her talons around Tofu’s forehoof with a giggle. “Come on, before my dad wakes up from his nap and comes looking for me.” As she spun around, she paused as her eyes fell on mine and Buck’s. Her look softened, and she let out a soft smile that we met with ones of our own. “Thanks, you two. But, dibs on the room for the next hour!”

Both Buck and I could only smile and wave as Hispano dragged Tofu out of the showers with a look of bewilderment across her face. That face, was the face of a pony who is just now beginning to realize what she’d gotten herself into with the most amazing young griffon in the wasteland. And while I knew exactly how that felt, I can’t say I didn’t envy her. Hispano was one of a kind…

“Alright! Now that that’s over with.” Buck sighed, reaching out to the shower knob and flicking it into the on position. “How about we clean ourselves up a bit?”

A soft spray of luxuriously warm water flowed from the shower head, sending up a cloud of steam and all but begged me to come bask in it. Though, as much as I wanted to, the warmth of it had a different effect on me, one that forced the idea of washing myself right out of my mind. The second that steam hit me, I knew exactly why out of all places on this ship, Hispano and Tofu had been in here…

Turning to Buck, I let my muzzle split into a wide grin that said everything I needed it to about what I was going to suggest…

6:46AM

I snapped awake, blinking a few times and lifting my hoof up to block the admittedly soft light that filled the captain’s cabin. I uh… wasn’t sure where the time had gone. Had I really slept for the last six hours? I mean, normally there’s a nightmare or something to help me figure that out, but I guess this was just one of the days where I could just get a good night sleep. Not that I’m complaining about that, of course.

However, one thing that concerned me was that there was a distinct lack of husband under me right now...

“We aren’t married yet, remember?” Buck’s chuckling voice resonated in my head. “And good morning. I’m in the galley making some coffee, and can bring you some if you’d like.”

“No, I’m good.” I grumbled as I flopped myself back onto the bed. “I think I’m awake enough, though… I don’t remember falling asleep.”

“After yesterday? I think we were both exhausted enough to just pass out.” He let off a sigh with his words that again, felt unnaturally crisp to me. This whole head-talking thing was definitely going to take some getting used to… “Also, your lack of dreams is unfortunately a side effect of your surgery. I’m sorry to say that the system, while quite good at what it does, has a hard time differentiating between hallucinations when you’re awake, and dreams while you’re asleep.”

“So… I’m not going to have any more dreams? Like, ever?” I… wasn’t sure what to make of that. On the one hoof, no more nightmares to torment me! But on the other, no more steamy dreams of stallions I’d never be able to sleep with in the real world…

“Ouch.” Buck scoffed in my mind. “Yesterday wasn’t good enough for you? I’m not good enough for you?” He let out a soft laugh again, which forced a roll of my eyes. “Oh come on, Night. If you really were left unsatisfied, we could always pick up from where we left off yesterday…”

“Good morning, Night!” Ping’s voice cut off Buck’s, making me blink and stare up blankly at the ceiling for a moment. “Your augment reports that you rested well, while your neural dampener logged three suppressed incidents last night.”

“That’s… great?” While it was nice to have him around again, I had to wonder… “Is something up, Ping?”

“No, no! Things at the Factory are slowly returning to normal.” Ping’s nervous laugh in my head was just as clear as Buck’s, but that also made it sound more artificial than normal. What was it about this thing in my head that made everything sound weird? “Truth is, I had heard from Eliza that your progress has been slowed by a blizzard, and so I thought it would provide a good opportunity to observe your normal organic behaviors.” Wait, did that mean…? “Yes, you and Doctor Buck did indeed provide many insights into organic inter-species mating that the Factory had no prior information on!”

“You watched us!?” I spat out. I thought that the Architect had agreed that they wouldn’t always be monitoring me!

“You need not worry, Night. We have respected your wish for privacy.” Ping’s voice faltered slightly, gaining a bit of static that reminded me a lot of what normally came from Buck’s muzzle. “More specifically, we had obtained prior consent from Buck to observe through him.”

“Oh, really.” I grunted and crossed my hooves. “Then I guess I’m going to have to have a talk with a certain Snow Dog.”

“You’re a great partner, and… I love you?” Buck let out a short whine through my mind.

“Now that the topic is in the open however,” Ping spoke up once more before I could reply. “can I ask you something odd, Night?”

“You already spent the last day watching Buck and I. What’s left that could be ‘odd’ to ask?” Huffing, I decided that being annoyed on my bunk wasn’t helping me wake up in the slightest, and that I might as well start heading down toward the mess hall for some breakfast.

“Why is it that you have not yet slept with Miss Hispano?”

The far too prompt and unnecessarily casual question made me trip over my own hooves as I hopped off the bed, and I ended up with my face planted on the cold metal floor. I just had to ask how it could ever be more awkward. Why do you do this to yourself, Night?

“I apologize if it is an uncomfortable subject.” Ping let out a light giggle as I picked myself up and rubbed at my now sore nose. “However, knowing that she is willing and active, it is something that has perplexed me for quite some time.”

“That is a good question, I guess.” I sighed as I checked my hoof to make sure I didn’t have a bloody nose. Nope, just sore due to my own stupidity. “It's just... something I wasn't prepared to even think about this morning. But to give you an answer, I guess, it's because of two things. The first, is her age...”

“Doctor Buck is even younger than her, is he not? Yet…” Ping began, but I wasn’t about to let him finish trying to knock that explanation away when it alone was justification enough.

“Well the second reason is because… well, you know…” I rolled my hoof as I tried to infer it to him, but paused as I realized he couldn’t even see what I was doing.

“No, I do not know, Night. That is in fact, why I am inquiring.” His prompt reply had a stark note of confusion to it. “She is healthy enough for the activity, and she herself has said she already has had experience with intercourse. Still, you seem hesitant to ask her to participate with Buck and yourself.”

“Yeah, but ignoring everything else, she’s a girl!” There, maybe now I’ll have been blunt enough for him to get it. “And you should understand by now that it’s not really my thing, you know?” I found myself scrunching up my muzzle as I tried to elaborate, but was finding it hard to explain to put into words. Thankfully, my muzzle opened up and like usual, the words just sort of tumbled out. “It's not that I'm opposed to it, but… I just wouldn't even know how to approach her for something like that. I wouldn’t know where to start!”

“But… you do love her, do you not?” Ping sounded even more confused than before, and I was starting to get worried that he’d never let the subject go until either A, I slept with Hispano, or B, I just completely refused to answer. And honestly, I was really leaning toward B right now. “Surely you understand that at some point in the future, you will have to…”

“And when that time comes, it will be something her and I will discuss together, Ping.” I sighed as I did my best to let the inquisitive machine down softly. “But to be completely fair, that’s not something you should really care to be involved in. And I’m hoping that in the future, it’ll just be something we’ll deal with together, in private, as a family.”

“Fair enough.” For the moment, he sounded like he could accept that answer. Though, I’m sure this wouldn’t be the end of the discussion. “For now, I will let you get back to your relaxation.”

“Thank you, Ping.” I sighed, finally feeling like I could quit worrying about things that weren’t so important and just deal with the here and now.

This is all I wanted. While it was boring, I could just experienced the day-to-day things I’d never thought I’d get to do with those I love and work with. Things that I could hope would one day become so trivial and mundane with them, that worries like Saddle Arabian princes and tyrannical wasteland dictators just never again entered my mind. Things like; what was going to be for breakfast, or if I wanted to take a second shower to clean off from the first.

It was something my parents had, and something I’d never truly appreciated when I was with them. But I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I was going to enjoy every second I had with my family, even if it was full of awkward questions and dull moments some days.

12:04PM

“Good afternoon, Captain.” Eliza’s voice chimed over the P.A. system, pulling me back from the depths of my blank and quiet mind. Still, I stirred on Buck’s warm chest and did my best to perk my ears to her. “I am happy to report that there has been a break in the weather, and that we are now back on route to the Spectrum Federation.”

“Excellent.” I nodded before letting my muzzle split into a long yawn. As I finished mine, Buck’s muzzle opened and let out a long yawn as well, and he gave his mechanical limbs a bit of a stretch that clanked against the metal walls of the small cabin. “How long until we arrive?”

“Approximately three hours.” She chimed in with a slight hint of cheerfulness pushing through her monotone voice. Wait, three hours? We’d been that close, this whole time!? “But don’t worry, Captain. There’s still plenty of time for you to get in some more rest and relaxation before we arrive.”

“Nope, I think I’ve had enough of that.” I grunted as I pushed myself to sit up on Buck. I’d always wondered why my parents hated having more than a day off to themselves, but I never thought it would be quite so… stressful to sit and do nothing for a few hours. “Going stir crazy in here as is.”

“Perhaps you can go visit with miss Hispano then. She is in the core systems room on the command terminal.” Eliza’s somewhat cheery voice ended her sentence with a bong and crackle as the P.A. system turned off.

“You know,” Buck mumbled as he stirred below me. “maybe you spending a few hours with Hispano wouldn’t be the worst thing for her after yesterday…”

“Yeah.” I nodded as I slowly slid myself off of the warm pile of dog I’d been so comfortably bored on for the last few hours.

The thought of how she’d pulled back from me inside the Ranger base hit me again, as well as how she’d said she’d been frustrated about controlling herself around me. Perhaps it was something we really should spend some time talking about. Especially since her and I haven’t spent all that much time together since we found her again in Cantercross.

Leaving Buck to continue napping in our room, I made my way through the halls towards the core systems room. As it normally was, the dim lighting inside highlighted the sleek form of the silverfish drone hooked into the ship systems, while the dull green glow of the terminal in the corner cast an odd tone throughout the small room. Though, this time the glow was mostly absorbed by the attentive young griffon sitting in front of the terminal screen.

Taking a moment to just look, I couldn’t help but smile as Hispano’s focused gaze swept across the lines and lines of text on the screen. With a quick tap of her talons, she entered in a command on the terminal, and the screen refreshed with a new set of text. Her beak silently moved as she read, mouthing the words onscreen as she all but absorbed the information she was looking through. And here she’d complained to Ping about having to read…

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Hispano cooed softly as she shifted herself slightly without turning around.

“How… are you doing?” I asked, getting her to look back at me. Her eyes wandered over me, stopping on the metal form of my new eye several times before she shrugged.

“Eh, just been reading up on things.” She turned herself back to the screen and entered in a few more commands to bring up a new page of text. “Mostly trying to see what records there were of the griffon mercenaries that founded the Talons. But… not much seemed to be known about them. I have to say, you ponies didn’t keep very good track of anything that wasn’t some sort of R&D project or pony ‘hero’ during the war.”

“I think their priorities were a little skewed back then.” I shrugged as I trotted myself up next to her. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye for just a moment before ignoring me in favor of looking back over the text on screen. “So… are you okay?”

With a deep sigh, she reached forward and clicked the off button for the screen.

“Why? What’s this about, Night?” She turned at me with a flat look that to me seemed so detached from the Hispano I’d known so far on this trip. “Is this because of what happened yesterday? Because I’m still not sorry…”

“Woah woah, hold up there.” I smirked and reached out, planting my hooves on her shoulders. “I’m just… sorry I’ve not been around so much.” I watched as my words hit her harder than I think even she realized, and her gaze softened a bit. “Coming back to find the convoy gone, leaving again only to return once more to your dad having been taken, and Happy, Buck, and I missing? Then to be brought into all this shit with the Factory, with Cordite and the Rangers…” The moment I mentioned the Rangers, she shrugged my hooves off of her and pouted.

“That was all fine, Night.” She huffed as she turned herself back toward the terminal screen. “None of what’s happened has been all that bad. I lost my mom, my sister. Dad and I have been through tough times before, no problem. We’re as tough as they come.” She paused, taking a few stiff breaths as she collected herself. “But what’s been hard, Night, is dealing with something I’m not so good with in my life. Not getting what I want.”

“You may have noticed, Night, but I don’t deal with rejection easily.” With another stiff shrug, she twisted herself away and faced the wall. “And everytime I see you and Buck together, I think to myself, why can’t I have that with him? Why am I getting left out of all of this? Is it really because of my age, or… is it something else entirely?”

“Hispano, you know I care about you…” I reached out to her, only to pause as she spun around faster with an outstretched talon than I could register. She tore it across the metal plate on my head with a pain filled cry of rage before pulling back. The tears that welled up from her as she grasped her outstretched talon with the other, came with labored breaths and tremors of rage.

“You lead me on, every time!” She snapped at me, holding her curled talon out as she heaved. “Just tell me the real reason you won’t give me what I want, Night! It’s because I’m not good enough for you, Right?! Because I can’t give you what Buck can?!”

“That’s enough!” I snapped back at her. “I thought we’d been over this before, Hispano! I love you, just like I love Buck!” She curled her beak up at that and let out a growl. “No, you want to know why I haven’t touched you, Hispano? Because I don’t know how to deal with how I feel about you!”

“What sort of fucking excuse is that!?” She scoffed and flailed her talons in the air.

“I told Ping, but... I don’t even know the first thing about how to like a girl!” I shouted back at her, making her freeze up with an odd look. “Do you know how fucking difficult it has been to deal with how you’ve made me feel? I’ve never liked girls like I like you, in the history of ever! And yet, here you are, this amazing young griffon that found her way into my life. And you know what, you’ve made me understand that maybe things aren’t so fucking simple!”

“Then why not commit to it then?” Hispano grumbled back, folding her talons across her chest again as she glared at me. “Why the fuck wouldn’t you just go through with it to see if you’re just wasting both of our time?”

“Commit? Buck and I want you to get married to us, how much more do you want us to commit!? Look, I care too much about you to ruin how you feel about me, Hispano. You think you don’t measure up to my standards?” My muzzle was going a million miles a second, but at this point, it was going to be better to get it all out there. “You’re younger than me, and yet you’ve got leaps and fucking bounds more experience in just about everything. I’ve seen you hack through terminals, fly better than half of the Enclave armed forces, and you’ve slept with goddesses know how many ponies. How am I supposed to think I could ever measure up to what you’ve already had?”

“That shouldn’t even be something you worry about, Night.” She shrugged and bristled up her plumage as she turned her glare to the floor. “My interest in you isn’t affected by the shit I’ve done with others. What I’ve felt for you is… different…” Her words drained off as it looked like something had finally dawned on her. And as she lowered her talons to the floor and sighed, I could see her frustration melt away. “I know what we have is different, and I’d thought I would be okay with that. But it’s been harder than I thought it would be to adjust to.”

“Because you normally get what you want?” I offered as I sighed as well, trying to regain control of my muzzle before I went off and ruined things again. “You are the most amazing girl I think I’ve ever known, Hispano. It’s because I’ve been so conflicted about just what that actually means for me, that I’ve been so unsure about how to even proceed. And for that, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I can get that, Night.” She finally looked up at me with tears still dripping down her feathers. “I’m sorry I lashed out. Dad’s right, I need to learn to be more reserved, to control my emotions better. Not just to be a good Talon, but… to be a good partner to you and Buck.”

“Volatile emotions are just part of growing up, Hispano.” I nodded to her, holding out my hooves. “As are the wants and needs you feel. There’s nothing wrong at all with how you’ve dealt with all this. I know, because I’ve been through all that. I’m still going through that.”

“But you’ve had Buck to help with it.” Hispano frowned as she leaned forward, resting between my hooves and grasping around me with her talons. “And while Tofu and I had fun, it’s just… not the same, you know?”

“But, Buck isn’t mine, Hispano.” I rested my muzzle on top of her leather flight cap with a sigh, and wrapped my hooves tightly around her. “He loves you too, and… while I’m not exactly ready to make the leap to the next step with you, maybe… he can help you with that.”

“Hah, you think he’d go for that?” She sniffled and brought a talon off of my back to wipe at her cheeks. “Isn’t he the same as you in regards to girls?”

“I don’t think that’s the case at all.” My words made her pull back slightly, getting just enough distance back that I could see the look of confusion in her eyes. “Let’s just say… I think you should ask Buck about that particular topic. He’s got more experience with girls than you might guess. But...” I paused, hesitating long enough for once to realize what I was about to say. Still, as odd as it felt to admit, it needed saying. “If it’s been weighing on you that much, I’ll consider...”

“Hey, Captain? Sorry to interrupt, but we might have an issue up here.” Eliza came in over the P.A. system with more than a note of concern in her normally monotone voice.

“Alright, Eliza.” I sighed, letting go of Hispano and taking a step back. “Just, go see Buck, and we’ll all have a talk about it later, okay?” She nodded and offered a small, but hope-filled smile to me.

Turning myself around, I pointed myself through the door to the bridge and got moving.

I mean, that could have gone worse. I’d been in her position, full of energy and urges. The only difference was that I had a room I could call my own with a lockable door where I could just go to deal with it. Growing up in the wastes though, I can see why she’d rely on brothels just to work through those urges. Again, I didn’t envy how she’s had to deal with things, but maybe Buck could help her. Still, that felt like a cop-out when I was about to admit that I’d consider having her join Buck and I the next time we felt like de-stressing.

But more important things had once again saved me from that awkward admission.

Putting myself back in the present, I found Double Delta practically glued to one of the bridge video screens that displayed what I could guess was part of the snow and ice covered forest below us right now. As I approached, he shot me a worried glance before moving so I could get a clearer view of the screen.

On it, sat at first what looked like a long snake plowing its way slowly through the snow. As I watched however, I realized that it was actually a train of some sort, adorned with what looked like armored scales made of metal across it’s snow covered cars. Sitting on top of the broad and long engine at the front, were a pair of ponies in heavy winter gear, bundled up to the point that I wasn’t even sure how they could still move around in all that fabric. They passed a pair of binoculars between each other before one of them used it to look right up at us.

Well, shit.

“Here, let me amplify the audio for you, Captain.” Eliza chimed in before her worried looking mare popped up on the screen next to me.

“...re you sure?” The voice of the mare looking through the binoculars came through the speakers. “Don’t their ships normally ride on top of clouds?”

“Look, who was in the Enclave? You, or me?” The voice of a stallion came across as the other pony pointed his forehoof directly up at us. “I’m tellin’ ya, it’s an Enclave cloudship.”

“You think the Federation is onto us?” The mare sighed as she passed the binoculars back to the stallion.

“Nah. Rofia’s keepin’ the law off us. She’s still one of us, you know.”

“Is she, though?” The mare snorted before stomping her hoof on the roof of the engine. A hatch popped open, and a ladder was pushed up for her to use. “Either way, as she’s still got the ability to fly, send up Microburst in that fancy armor of hers. Find out what they’re doing tailing us.”

“Yeah? And what if it ain’t from the Federation?” The stallion laughed as he looked up at us again through the binoculars.

“Shoot them down, rob them, say hello. I don’t care. Do whatever you want so long as it doesn’t make the Krokodil any more behind schedule.” The mare offered before disappearing down the hatch hole.

“You’re the boss.” He sighed before shaking his head.

“What do you think, Captain?” Delta asked as he shifted his weight to lean on one of the consoles. “Are we going to allow ourselves to be boarded by addicts and smugglers like them?” Eyeing back at the screen he smirked and nodded. “I’m sure they wouldn’t blame you if you said no.”

“Addicts?” I wasn’t sure how he could tell that about them at a glance, but he’d certainly piqued my interest with that.

“Well, they aren’t bundled up like that because of the snow.” Cora let off a laugh as he rounded the corner from the forward bulkhead. “You really haven’t seen anyone who’s used Rot yet?” The sort of blank stare I offered to him seemed to kill the grin across his beak. “Ah, well, I guess you’re one of the lucky few not to have been stuck in a room with one of those ponies.” Pointing at the terminal, he jeered at the screen next to me. “Eliza, do me a favor and bring up what you’ve got on Rot.”

The screen next to me with Eliza’s cartoon mare flickered and changed to one that showed some sort of chemical compound on it. A dozen lines of compounds about as complex as the ones I’d seen up at Destruction Bay for Chill were displayed, as well as a list of different sizes and names of ammunition types. At the bottom of the screen, under the compound’s readout, sat its name, Phosgeneoxiparaben, which was something I’d only heard in passing about during history class. A zebra alchemical weapon nicknamed ‘Pop gas’, which could melt the flesh right off of ponies it touched. Supposedly it was one of the more horrific weapons used in the beginning of the great war that both sides agreed to never use again.

“I don’t understand, they’re carrying chemical weapons on that train?” I spat out as none of the context to any of this made any sense. Well, at least past the fact that would be reason enough that any city wouldn’t want you running that shit through it.

“Rot is worse than that.” Delta snorted. “They bake the old shells in balefire radiation and then set them off, selling the bottled necromantic gas as a drug that promises to get you high and ghoulify you at the same time. Because that’s apparently something ponies will pay for these days...”

“Uh… excuse me?” I blinked a few times, not quite comprehending just why you’d want to do that. I mean, I’ve met my fair share of ghouls now, but none of them seemed to enjoy the fact that they were stuck in a rotting body…

“Yeah, we had a couple of addicts back at the airbase.” He cringed in disgust at the thought of it. “No one was a fan of the way they smelled. Worse was when you accidentally stepped in part of them that just fell off…” Okay, picturing stepping in some sort of rotting flesh puddle was enough to make my stomach do a loop, and seriously consider just incinerating that train down there. “Needless to say, we ‘volunteered’ them for a couple of buzzbomb flights.”

“Uh… Captain?” Eliza’s worried mare flashed back over the chemical compound before the screen showing the outside flickered to show another hatch on the train opening. It was further back from the engine, and this hatch was much larger than the last. From it, climbed out a set of sleek and clean Enclave power armor. “What are your orders? Should I ready the ship for combat?”

“Just… give me a moment to think.” I wasn’t sure what to do here. While I didn’t enjoy the fact that we now knew these ponies were smuggling drugs, it… wasn’t really our problem. And while I could just do my best to ignore them, this pony in Enclave armor was about to make it our problem. So the question was, how do I defuse this and explain that we’re just passing by without having her try to shoot down the Arcturus.

See, it’s at this point now I miss the voices in my head for the suggestion’s they’d give. Even if ninety percent of the time they just reminded me of my failures...

“Well, they’re in the air now.” Double Delta spoke with a few quick taps of his forehoof on the console. “Tick tock, time’s running short. Do we preemptively strike, or act like they just aren’t out there?”

Acting, that’s it!

“Eliza, unseal the top hatch, I’m going out to talk with them.” I offered as I spun on my hooves. With a metallic clank, the inner hatch above unsealed, and the boarding ladder extended downward into the bridge. “Cora, I need you to exit out one of the launch tubes and keep a low profile. I might be able to pass us off as being partners of that ‘Rofia’ pony or whatever.”

“Abyssinian, Captain.” Delta cringed and forced me to pause as I got my hooves hooked around the rungs of the ladder. “Rofia’s an Abyssinian, for starters. You know, one of the southern cat folk?”

“Good to know!” I tried my best to hide the panic in the back of my mind as Cora palmed his beak with his talon. I flashed up a nervous smile as I climbed up, taking a deep breath.

Well, mark one more down on the list for another race that survived the war! Hell, I don’t even think I’d seen an Abyssinian in the history books past a few mentions of them here and there. And honestly, that really didn't make me feel confident that I could sell this. But hey, I’d made it this far on presenting myself as someone else, so who was to say I couldn’t sell this!

Climbing up the ladder, the mechanical clank of the top hatch unsealing was joined by a whistling blast of completely freezing air rushing in to greet me. The heavy metal clanks of four power armored hooves landing just out of sight met my ears as I picked up the pace on the last few rungs. Popping my head up out of the open hatch, I’d prepared a smile for the pony, but that died the second the intimidating bug eyed helmet and respirator arched down toward me.

To my surprise, the mare inside the armor gave a gasp and stepped back the moment she saw me.

“You… you’re the Survivor!” She called out as the capacitors charged inside the two novasurge rifles strapped onto the nearly pristine Enclave advanced power armor. “Ah hell, we aren’t going down without a fight to some goodie four shoes!”

I let go of the ladder just as the two rifles fired off. The lancing orange beams sizzled and burned at the inside of the hatch. The smell of ozone and the heat of the beams made sure to let me know how close I’d just come to becoming a glowing pile of orange ash.

“Close the hatch, close the hatch!” I cried out as I hooked my forehooves around the ladder before falling too far, whining as I struggled not to completely freak out.

Peering up as I made my way back down the ladder, I watched as the hatch began to close. I was smiling as the bright outside was slowly pushed back by the interior lighting. But that smile died as the mare stuck the bladed scorpion tail of her armor against the door, keeping it propped open against the whining of the mechanisms. The mare struggled to budge it, but slowly and carefully, she’d managed to prop it up enough to get her forehoof under it. Hopping the rest of the rungs down into the command center, I came down hard onto the deck. The hatch above gave a groan as the mare pulled it completely open again.

“Well that didn’t go as planned.” Double Delta spoke up as he came over and helped me back onto my hooves. “What happened?”

“She knew who I was!” I snapped at him, shrugging off his help.

“Sealing inner hatch.” Eliza’s voice boomed throughout the ship as the lighting flickered over to the red emergency lighting that I’d only seen before when I’d helped reset the computer core. The ladder I’d jumped off of retracted up into the ceiling and the inner hatch closed with a resounding clang. “All crew to battlestations. Prepare ship for combat operations.” A short klaxon rang out through the ship just before some sort of explosion outside nearly shook me off my hooves. “Captain, report to the weapons bay for your armaments.”

“You’ve got it, Eliza!” I called out, looking over to Delta as I spun myself toward the open bulkhead door. “You’ve got the bridge!”

“Aye, Captain.” Delta called out as I pushed my hooves to move.

The sound of more explosions outside the ship followed with more turbulent rocking that threw me against the walls of the already cramped hallways. However, as I pushed past the captain’s quarters, I noticed the door was open, and neither Buck nor Hispano were inside. Buck was probably already on his way to the infirmary, but Hispano…

No, I can’t worry about her right now. She’s probably already in the weapons bay just waiting for me to get ready to go….

“Alright Eliza, I’m in the air and moving to engage! I’ll pull that bitch off your hull!” Hispano’s voice crackled through my head sharply, causing me to trip up as yet another explosion rocked the ship. A secondary explosion came from the front of the ship that sent off alarms in the halls. “But if you could get Night’s lazy ass in the air, then maybe he can deal with that eighty-eight on the train before it shoots the Arcturus down!”

“I’m on my way!” I grunted out as I pushed myself back to my hooves. Charging down the hallway, I flew past the galley and wound my way into the weapon’s bay. The second I stepped through, I found that the automated cloud-to-ground missile systems weren’t moving, and Tofu was nowhere to be found.

“Here, Captain!” Tofu called out from above me, throwing my flight harness down into my face. The leather straps and already prepped grenades smacked me hard enough to nearly knock me back to the ground, but I steadied myself and instead swiped the floating harness from the air. “No time to talk, we’ve already got half a dozen electrical fires and I literally can’t spare the time to help you right now!”

Nodding to myself, I threw my harness down toward the floor, ready to step into it… only to have it lazily float through the air. Now that is a problem I hadn’t expected! Quickly, I moved to drag the harness down by hoof before shimmying myself into it and doing my best to get it tightened to myself. The moment it was on, the vision in my augmented eye flickered, bringing up the flight overlay I’d seen before.

Flaring out my wings as I trotted over to launch tube number six, I gave them a few twists and light arcs to make sure they weren’t restricted. Feeling confident that it would only be my lack of experience getting me killed out there rather than my gear, I reached up and slapped the emergency release on the hatch. It swung open promptly, again letting the whistling and freezing air in.

Another blast rocked the ship, and sparks flew from the weapon control boards as yet another fire sprouted out of the cables connected to it. Before I could take another step forward, a coughing and almost smoldering form clawed its way up through the open hatch. I spun on my hooves to watch as Cora’s talons raked at the floor, throwing his old combat pistol in before dragging his bloodied form up into the Arcturus.

“Fuck… they’re pretty good at timing that flak.” He groaned out as he picked himself up. Bleeding from more than two dozen shrapnel wounds, and standing on a rear paw that I could see the bones sticking out of, he still offered a smile on his beak. “Now… that I softened them up for you… finish the damned job.”

“On it!” I nodded before stepping over towards the open hatch, and without a moment’s hesitation, dropped down through it.

The moment I dropped down past the hull, I flared out my wings. The cold air caught under them allowing me to arch and aim myself down towards the still snaking train. I flapped my wings, feeling as they propelled me forward with the help of my new harness. It brought a smile to my muzzle as I watched my airspeed tick upwards in my vision. It wasn’t my jump pack, but Celestia did it feel good to…

BOOM!

A bright flash filled the air at the nose of the Arcturus as another one of the flak shells burst right against it. A wave of hot metal shrapnel skimmed across the exposed hull of the ship. It had taken me a moment to realize, but the whole front half of the Arcturus wasn’t under a cloud anymore. Oh I hope that’s fixable…

“What are you doing, Dum Dum!?” Hispano squawked angrily into my head. “Fucking take out that gun!”

Looking down at the train, my display brought up a red diamond indicator over the center car. The scale covered roof had split down the middle and opened to reveal a platform with a large, but short barreled field gun inside. My vision allowed me to see that it had two gunners, as well as a pony who was moving ammo out from armored boxes in the corner of the car. A few guard pony bodies lay strewn about the floor, apparently as my vision told me, shot by a forty five caliber talon pistol.

Guess Cora really did soften them up for me! But a better question was, how the hell could my augment get all this information when I was still so far away?

“Captain? Less introspection, more bombing please.” Eliza’s voice chimed inside my head. “The Arcturus can’t take much more of this.”

Right, before everyone has to chime in, I need to act. Tweaking my wings, I pumped them hard as I aimed my head down right toward the gun carriage. Snapping my tail in line to start my dive, I let my forelegs hang out in front of me as I picked up even more speed. A small red circle appeared around the carriage as I dove, shrinking down the closer I got. A line stretched out from me, arcing upwards, closer and closer to the center of the circle until it sat dead center.

The ponies in the carriage saw me coming in, and called out to each other. One of the gunners used his hooves to work the traversing mechanism, and spun the gun around toward me. I just needed one more moment, a single second longer…

BOOM!

Their shot whistled past me. The round was so big and low velocity that I could watch it fly upwards. And with an ear shattering crack, it detonated somewhere behind me. However, I’d either been moving faster than they’d anticipated, or the round had been defective, because it hadn’t even touched me.

The crisp click of a grenade from my harness surprised me, and it forced me to arch my wings back to pull off from the dive. I watched as I pulled off and the grenade sailed true, right into the corner of the traincar where it’s ammunition was stored. A quick flash got me to look away before the blast of the whole car going up caught me.

The forceful wave of air threw me for a literal loop, but thanks to my harness, I was able to recover. One thing the harness didn’t help with however, was the ringing that had been left in my ears. With an arch of my back, and another flap of my wings, I turned to inspect the damage to the train, only to be met with an enormous cloud of white rushing down the flanking mountains at me.

Panicking, I flapped hard, pushing myself to gain altitude as a literal avalanche of snow came down from the mountainsides around us. The freezing cloud that washed up from under me actually helped to push me higher into the air, helping me to rise back up to just about the altitude of the Arcturus.

I took a deep breath as the avalanche ended, and the cloud below started to clear. They hadn’t needed to worry about us, they didn’t have to attack. This whole thing could have been avoided…

Silence.

Again, I’d expected Solomon’s voice to throw in some quip, but again I’d found myself instead with nothing. Just the consequences of a fight nopony had wanted today.

“You alright there, Dum Dum?” Hispano’s panting voice came through as the beating of her wings perked my ears. “Took you long enough to deal with those pricks.” She smiled as she cradled Suiza close to her and hovered up beside me.

“Did you get that power armored mare?” I turned to her, watching as she screwed up her expression for a moment before growling.

“No. The bitch took off because Suiza got a glancing blow on her.” Having Hispano’s voice come in through my head when she was right next to me was just plain weird. I know it was because of her headset, but I partly wish I could just hear her real voice. “Just like half the fucking cowards from the Enclave. What’s the use in fighting when you don’t have total air superiority?” The stark change to listing to Hispano’s normal voice nearly threw me for a loop until I remembered that the Architect mentioned this whole augment thing was mind controlled.

Buck was right, it was going to take a lot of getting used to.

“Well I’m glad you’re alright.” I offered as I pointed back to the Arcturus. “Let’s get back aboard and see how we can help out.”

“Good call.” Hispano nodded as a smile parted her beak again. “But hey, even though it was short, a good fight sure as hell beats the crushing boredom we’ve had to endure the last few days, right?”

Looking back down at the freshly dumped snow, I couldn’t even find where the train had been. I didn’t know how many ponies had survived the explosion, only to be buried alive under a literal mountain of snow. Then again, they knew the risks. They’d already been smuggling drugs, so I had no sympathy for them.

“Uh, actually, you… sure you’re okay, Night?” Hispano called out, letting her smile dim for a moment.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I turned my curious gaze back to her, only to watch her eyes go from my cyber-eye, to my flank, then back to me. Arcing my head back, I looked at my own rump to find that, like Cora, it was bleeding from half a dozen shrapnel wounds. And yet, I hadn’t even felt it. “I guess… I’m not? I can’t even feel it...”

“About that…” Buck’s hesitant voice came through my head again. “That was another thing I’d done when we were inside your head that I sort of… didn’t tell you about.” Because of course it was… not that I was really complaining about it. “But if you’d rather feel pain again, I can always turn off the talisman…”

“Let’s uh… have that discussion after you patch me up, alright?” I whimpered as I fought to tear my eyes off my own bleeding flank. It was about then that I noticed in the corner of my vision, the little pony that held my armaments had it’s back half colored in red. The words Medical Attention Required sat flashing in bold underneath it.

One step at a time, Night. One day at a time, and one fight at a time. That’s how we move forward.

Author's Notes:

As always, a HUGE thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his help in going over things!

And of course, thanks to Kkat for letting us all run around in the FoE universe with our own stories!