“What the fuck happened.” Buck’s roar as he stepped out of the recently returned Remora made me wince, but at this point the pain it caused was less than the sum of all my injuries. His watering eyes turned from me, up to the Alicorn who I was currently using to prop myself up into a standing position. “You. What did you do!?”

“We do not know why they attempted to kill us, so do not accuse us of wrongdoing, machine.” To her credit, King stood firmly. Her horn flashed as a bubble formed around both her and I, only pulling a long snarling growl from Buck.

“King, it’s… fine.” I wheezed and tried to pat her on the side, but instead was forced to double over as my lungs seized up. With a hacking cough, I spit out a thick glob of blood. “This is Buck… our Doc…” Again I struggled not to let my lungs force their way up my throat like it felt like they were trying to do.

Seriously, there must be a whole group of ponies up at Destruction Bay who are just laughing at me. With how much shit I needed on nearly a daily basis, I wouldn’t be surprised if I alone was keeping their medical production business afloat. Which now that I think about, would’ve been a goddess damned amazing pun if everything didn’t hurt so much.

“If we’re all done fighting, ladies, I know why they were here.” Hispano called out as she dropped the Pentex soldier’s corpse she’d been rummaging through for the last few minutes. In her talon, she held up a bloody bit of folded paper. “I’ll give you one guess as to who hired these Pentex assholes.”

“Solomon.” I wheezed out again.

“Of course he’s the one.” Buck groaned as he stepped forward and placed his mechanical paw on King’s magical bubble. With a sharp glare, he stared through it at her expectantly. Her horn flickered and dimmed, and the magic bubble faded. “Well, at least that’s this many fewer mercenaries he has to protect him when we come after him.”

“So… he hadn’t come for us?” King seemed confused, and to be fair, I didn’t blame her. I mean, she should have expected this given what she knows of me, but still. “Someone sent these soldiers to kill… you? Are you sure?”

“These orders give a basic description of the Remora, and say to kill whoever shows up to it.” Hispano cooed softly as she walked over to us. “Lucky for you, they probably hadn’t expected an Alicorn to show up. Being a green, your advanced shield spell probably saved your life, and our ship.”

“It was simply a reflex,” King frowned as she looked at the craft. “something ingrained into our bodies by Mother…”

“Regardless…” I groaned out as Buck’s paw reached over. “You saved us a lot of trouble. Just… eager to help out already, I guess.” I glanced over to Hispano with what was supposed to be an ‘I told you so’ look, but she was too interested in reading over Solomon’s orders.

Buck’s touch was like fire, forcing a scream out of my muzzle. As soon as he’d gripped me however, one of his tools came swinging out of his forelimb and drove a needle into my bruised side. Almost immediately I could feel a freezing feeling numbing at my insides, as well as the familiar feeling of things in my body knitting themselves together again.

“Still, we had not thought you two serious as your griffon friend spoke of your misfortune, Night.” King’s nervous smile preempted a hesitant step back, but she only seemed to move in order to keep out of Buck’s way. “We are embarrassed to say that we thought it only hyperbole.”

Hispano laughed sharply at that.

“You think hyperbole is the reason Night looks the way he does?” With a jump and short flap of her wings, she hovered herself over to me and pointed at my metal augment. “I'm guessing then that this is just sarcasm.” With another giggle, she shifted her talon to point at my prosthetic. “And this? This must be an exaggeration, right!?”

“We already admitted we were wrong.” King sat down hard with a scrunched up muzzle and a heated glare aimed right at Hispano. “We do not appreciate being taunted over something that resulted in such unexpected, spectacular violence.”

“Well, get used to it.” Buck groaned as he reached into his duffel bag and unrolled a long strip of off white bandage. “Violence like this has pretty much become a daily occurrence for us.” With a smirk pulling along his jagged jaw, he shot King a sideways glance. “Regretting asking to come with us now?”

“She didn’t ask. I did.” I painfully lifted a hoof, resting it on Buck’s mechanical arm as another one of his internal surgical bits sewed up a gash along my back that I hadn’t realized was even there. “Let’s… have this conversation later, okay?” I grunted as another burst of pain flared up from my side. “Can we just go back up to the Arcturus now?”

Buck let out a small whimper before moving his other paw up and forcing out another syringe from his arm. It plunged into my side, and I watched as it forced a purple fluid into me that made my already numb insides tingle slightly. There was a creak from my ribs, my jaw, and my cheek as the bones in them felt like they stretched out forcefully. The tingling turned into a burning that steadily grew and grew. I whimpered as it started to become unbearable, but once more, felt a needle push into my side. Again, a wave of numbing swept out, and I had been saved from the endless torment my body wanted me to endure.

I knew with how good it felt, and with how my body relaxed, it had to have been the unique mix of Med-x and Chill which the Factory had prepared for me. Which was horrible to say, because that’s how I ended up with a half metal skull, and dreams that taunted me. But at this point, so long as it helped to keep the pain away, I didn’t care what it was he gave me.

The weird thing about that feeling, was that after the initial numbing swept over me, things returned to a state of what I would call ‘normal’. The tingling in my limbs left, and the somewhat fuzzy thoughts in my mind returned to their unclouded form. The only thing that didn’t seem to go away however, was the small pit in my stomach that made me think that while I felt good again, things weren’t exactly as they seemed.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine, Night?” Buck sighed as I flopped back on our bed. “I know you wanted Tofu to go down to the market for whatever it is she wanted to work on, but she could have Hispano go with her. I don’t have to…”

“Buck, I’d feel better… if you went with her.” I groaned. While I felt numb all over, it still didn’t mean it wasn’t hard to breathe or move sometimes. “I’ll... be fine.”

“You say that, but it feels like every time I leave you alone, you find yourself in trouble.” The apprehensive look across his face translated through his body, and pulled his whole posture into hunched and exaggerated movements as he stood over the edge of the bed. “Before you say anything, I know I’m just worrying too much. Still, you invited one of those alicorn things on board. I may not have seen any on the Inuvik, but it didn’t mean stories of them didn’t make their way to us.”

“I know you’re worried, Buck, but King came because Lilac Lace believed I could help her.” I tried my best to offer a comforting smile up to him, but it was met with a jagged frown. “Look, go with Tofu. If more of those Pentex jerks show up, you’ll be the best chance she’ll have of making it through the fight.”

“Then promise me, Night, that you’ll stay here. At least until I get back.” Reaching forward, he carefully wrapped his mechanical paw under my muzzle.

“I promise.” I nuzzled against his paw and did my best to nod. “Besides, once this painkiller wears off, I’m not sure I’ll be doing much moving for a while anyway.”

“Well, if you’re committed to staying here…” Buck sighed, pulling his paw back slightly. With a light tap against my chin with his finger, he caused a notification to pop up in my vision. It was again a diagram of my augment, though rather than showing one of my eye-optics, this time it was a small square talisman inside of it lighting up.

[Painstopper Talisman Boot Up… Complete.]

Along with that notification, another image popped up in my vision, Eliza’s frowning mare.

“In his current physical condition, there is a high probability…” She started to speak before Buck let out a low groan.

“I know it’s a risk to reactivate it.” Buck grumbled and rolled his eye. “If it shows any signs of overloading again though, I’ll turn it off. However, I’m already risking a lot with the dose I gave for his injuries on top of his daily schedule of painkillers, I can’t..,” Buck’s words died in his throat as he almost panicked just at that alone.

“What do you mean, daily schedule of painkillers?” I snorted at him, making him pull back slightly and flatten his mechanical ears to his head. Reaching up, I knocked my hoof against the metal plate on my own head. “You said this thing would take care of the problem!”

“Your augment keeps your mental degradation in check.” “But, you are an addict, Night. That means your body has adapted to need the chemicals in order to function properly. Without measured and frequent doses, you could suffer any number of problems from the withdrawal. It could kill you, Night.” Shaking his head, he turned his gaze to the floor. “So while you’ve slept, or… when you’ve been distracted, I’ve administered doses of Med-X and Chill in preparation for your body to be slowly weaned off of it. That’s really why we put the painstopper talisman in, so you wouldn’t notice when I administered them.”

Are you kidding me!? So this whole time, when I’d thought I’d felt normal again… it was just because I’ve been constantly kept drugged up? Why hide it? If my augment kept Solomon from convincing me to go overboard again, then why not just let me continue using it as needed!?

“I understand why you’re doing it, Buck. But…” With a huff, I rolled over onto my side and crossed my hooves. “You should have told me.” Was I being a bit melodramatic? Yeah, probably. But after all the shit I’ve been through, after all the talks about ‘drugs bad, sober good’, I’d at least hoped for some honesty here.

“I know I should have. But, you have no idea what it was like when I found you on the infirmary floor, Night.” He reached forward, carefully pressing his paw along my side. “I was afraid that if you knew, you’d try to manage it yourself. And even if you think I’m wrong in saying you wouldn’t be able to, I’m sorry, but I can’t trust you to do that, Night.”

While hearing that hurt in a way no painkiller could ever help with, as usual, he was right. This whole situation spilled out of control because I thought I needed Chill to help. And… as much as I want to blame the imaginary Solomon, or Violet, or even Buck in my head for pushing me over the edge? The truth is they were all still just me making excuses to myself.

But because of that, I knew the longer this went on, the harder it would be on all of us.

“I want off of it. As soon as we are back sailing south again, you’re going to make sure I quit it sooner than later.” I snorted and closed my eyes. I knew the risks, and I knew that things are going to hurt again. But I needed to kick this if we were going to be able to fight Solomon at all. “We both know that the longer I stay on these drugs, the more risk it puts on all of us for something to happen again.”

“That’s… fine, Night.” Buck’s voice crackled with more static than usual with his hesitant words, but I had to hope that he saw it the same way I did. “If you’re sure it’s what you want… I’ll help you detox.”

“Again, the risks posed with…” Eliza’s frowning mare doubled in size in my vision, and it pulled a guttural growl from Buck’s muzzle.

“The Captain has decided, Eliza.” Buck’s paw mechanisms whined and whirred as he clinched his metal paw shut tightly. “Focus on doing your job, and let me do mine.”

“Of course, Doctor Buck.” Eliza’s cartoon flickered back to her smiling mare. “As always, I’m here to help.” With that, her mare popped out of my vision, and Buck let out a long sigh. I know she was just trying to do what she thought was best, but… this was a risk I needed to take.

“You understand that it could take days to go through medically induced withdrawal, right? And that you’ll be sedated the whole time?” Buck’s tone was sharp, and it forced me to sit up slightly off the bed. Looking over, his augmented eye blazed a bright blue than normal, and the determined look on his normal eye felt like it pierced right into my own. “You’re sure you want to do this, Night?”

“As long as I have you and Hispano to help me, then I can get through it.” I tried to force my muzzle into a smile, but with the nervousness I felt crop up in me, it was a fight I eventually lost. “It needs to be done. But we can worry about that for when we leave, okay? For now, you should go with Tofu and help her with her project.”

“Alright, Night.” He nodded and shrugged off his hunched posture. Looking around, he found his white robe draped across the captain’s desk, and carefully picked it up. Before he put it on though, he paused and looked back over at me. “Remember, Night. You promised to stay here.”

“And it’s a promise I’ll keep, Buck.” While I understood his worry, other than seeing Laika one last time before we left, I didn’t have anywhere else to be. For once, while there was still a lot to get done, there was little I could actually do. Then again... “In fact, now that King is on board, I might as well see about getting to know her a bit.” That forced Buck’s expression to flatline as he deadpanned at me. “What? Maybe she’s not all that bad.”

“Just be careful with her, Night.” Buck snorted as he threw his cloak on, shifting the white fabric across his back until the large red cross on it was exactly in the center. “Their bodies are literally made out of poison, and until a few months ago, they were all supposedly controlled by a single psychopathic mind they saw as their mother.” Reaching his paws up, he gripped around the hood of his cloak and pulled it up over himself. “I just don’t want to leave, only to have you find yourself in trouble without me on the Arcturus.”

“I’ll be fine, Buck.” Waving my hoof at him, I pointed over to the door. “But if it helps, the sooner you and Tofu go, the sooner you’ll be back, right?” Again, he shot a glowing blue deadpan out from under the hooded robe. Still, he gave me another nod and a sigh before turning back around for the door.

“Eliza?” I thought out to her, quickly finding the smiling cartoon mare pop back into my vision. “Where is King at the moment?”

“King is currently on the bridge.” Eliza’s mare shifted over to a perplexed one for a moment. “She and First Mate Delta are having a conversation about who is to blame for the actions of the entity known as ‘the Goddess’. It is getting very heated, and I predict that it will become an argument fairly soon.”

Great.

“Captain, do you know how many ponies this bitch has taken! How many she’s killed!?”

“We have told you, that was under Mother’s influence, that was not us!”

“Okay, okay!” I growled at both of the oversized foals glaring at each other from across opposite sides of the bridge. “Look, all of us have done things we regret, right? So why don’t we all just calm down…”

“With all due respect, Captain, you don’t know the extent of the horrors they committed in the wasteland!” Double Delta didn’t shift his eye from King for a single moment as he shook his head. “I don’t even know why you’d bring a dangerous monster like that thing on board.”

Okay, while he was certainly entitled to his opinion, this shit stops now.

“Do you have a problem with my decision, Delta?” I tapped my hoof on the floor, pausing and waiting for him to look at me. Though, as the silence in the room drew longer and longer, I started to figure he didn’t understand me. “Well? You got an answer? Because if your suggestion is to throw her off the ship, should I be ready to throw Buck off as well?”

That got Delta to scrunch up his muzzle in confusion and finally turn to me.

“What?” He spat out sharply.

“You don’t want dangerous monsters on board, right?” Again, I tapped my hoof impatiently on the floor. “Plenty of ponies have called him that, and for good reason. I’ve seen him tear ponies apart with his paws, he is dangerous to have around. So I’ll ask you again, would you have me throw Buck off as well?”

“Captain, that’s not…” He rolled his eye at me, but thanks to the many experiences I had with Delilah, I stomped my hoof hard on the deck, making him freeze up.

“You know what, Delta, I’ll defer to you on her.” I forced a smile across my muzzle as I extended a hoof toward King. “You decide if King stays on board. As my first officer, I’ll trust your judgement on this.” That pulled a smile across his muzzle as well, but only for a moment before he tried to speak up. “But,” I made sure to cut him off. “if you choose for her to go because of her past, then I’m going to hold you to the same standards.”

“Night, we don’t want to cause any problems, but we don’t think that he…” King tried to interject, but I held my hoof up to her.

“No no, it’s his choice.” My smile stayed plastered across my muzzle as I spoke. “As the former king of the Skyraiders, I’m sure he’ll take a good few moments to consider his position on having monsters onboard.” Goddesses, how the hell did Delilah maintain such a stone cold expression all the time when setting shit straight felt so damned good?

Delta moved his hoof up as if he was about to make a point, but stopped short. With a reluctant nod, and a sigh that sounded a lot to me like he’d accepted defeat, he relaxed a bit. Crossing his hooves, he moved his eye back over to King and glared at her again before turning his gaze to the floor.

“We good?” I asked flatly, pulling another nod from him. “Alright.”

“Double Delta?” Eliza asked as her smiling mare popped up on the screen beside him. “Could I ask you to assist Tofu with some of the repairs? She is still recovering after all.”

“Yeah, sure.” Delta nodded and pushed himself back to his hooves. He offered a sideways glance to King first, then to me with a frown. “I need the distraction anyway.” With quick steps, Delta disappeared through the core systems doorway, and the room felt like it got about a million times cooler than it had been.

“We are sorry, Night. We did not intend to cause conflict.” King frowned as she hung her head. Her green ethereal mane shifted and covered the sad looking expression that sat across her face.

“It’s not your fault, nor is it his.” I offered as I walked over and took Delta’s place leaning against a few of the consoles. “I meant what I said, we’ve all made mistakes we’d rather not be judged on.” As much as I knew it to be true, believed to be true… it didn’t mean that every fiber of my being didn’t rebel against it.

“Yes. However, he is right. We are a monster.” From the way she’d said it, to the way she slumped at that, I couldn’t fight the laugh that wormed its way out of my muzzle. With it coming out, I found her slit-like eyes shift up and glare through her mane. “What… does this fact amuse you?”

“I’m laughing because I’ve heard this all before, King.” Offering her a genuine smile, I only received a hesitant and confused look in return. Which to be fair, was completely expected. “You know, Buck used to say the same exact thing. And you know what? He may be a ‘scary Snow Dog’, but he is also the kindest, most caring guy I’ve ever met.”

“Yes, but he is a hellhound, and yet, the crew trusts him not to tear them apart.” King shook her head, sitting on her haunches as she looked at her own forehooves. “We cannot lie, even we were unsure of his intentions earlier. But we guess that makes us as bad as everypony else...”

“Hey, don’t get me wrong, I was terrified around him at first. From his hulking size, to those enormous paws...” Just thinking back to waking up on the Inuvik made it feel like years ago, but it’s only been months. But so much had happened, and I’d learned so much, experienced so many things with him… “While it took me time to see it, I realized that he was more than his appearance. And I’m sure that in time, the others will see that with you, King.”

“We are not so sure we believe you.” She shook her head, but looked up to me with a small smirk displayed under her sad eyes. “But still, we thank you for the chance to show we aren’t what they say we are.”

“So then, about who you are,” Reaching up, I scratched at my chin as I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about finding that out. “what… if anything, do you remember?”

“Well, we cannot recall much from when we were with Mother and the others in Unity.” Her small smile disappeared again as she put her hooves down and dropped her eyes back to the floor. “What we can remember, was that Mother was not happy with who we were. We were to be made an example of. This is why we had our memories taken.”

“While I don’t know much about this Mother of yours, did she do that to anyone else?” I mean, it was a long shot, but if any more of these Alicorn things had lost their memories, then maybe one of them has figured out a way to find them again.

“We… do not know.” Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and shuddered. “We remember that she kept most in Unity suppressed. Few were allowed independence to the extent that Lilac Lace had, as an example. We know Lilac worked closely with Mother on things due to having earned Mother’s favor as a showpony, and…” King paused as she let out a small whimper with another shuddering wince. “That meant Lilac did not like us either. It was her who ensured that we stayed this way. That is why we reached out to her for help.”

“And then Lilac sent you to me.” I nodded with a sigh. Well, that doesn’t help very much. “Is there anything else you can remember? Past what you’ve already told me?”

“It’s… hard to say.” King’s whimpers shifted into a fearful growl at that, like an injured animal caught in a trap. “Flashes, images of places we know nothing about, ponies whose names are gone, and have no meaning to us…” As she spoke, small lines of magic traced up her horn, starting to collect at the top. “We… we must remember. We…” She started to breath quicker, almost panicking. “We want to remember, but we… can’t…” She growled as the magic in her horn started to glow brighter and brighter. “Please, but we must! You must let us!”

With a sharp pop, her eyes shot open, her wings flared out, and a magical bubble enveloped her body like a conforming, skin-tight suit. Green magic ebbed from her horn and her wide eyes as she sat starkly still. The hum of her magic beat out the low noise the terminals on the bridge let out, but other than that, only silence carried across the air.

“Uh… King?” I asked softly.

A soft gasp escaped my lips as her head slowly turned, and her glowing eyes fell across me. For a moment, her face twitched until a sad expression dropped back across her glowing eyes. With a flicker, her magic gave out, and the bubble burst with a sizzle. The glow in her horn and eyes faded, leaving tears streaming down her face.

“We… we aren’t alone.” She sniffled, bringing one of her forehooves up to wipe at her cheeks. “This… is unexpected.”

“What do you mean we aren’t alone?” Looking around, I wasn’t sure if she meant that there was another alicorn around. Maybe there was one who could turn invisible like Lilac Lace could. However, as King pat her hoof up to her own chest a few times with a frown, I got the feeling that it wasn’t another alicorn she was talking about.

“When Unity fell, Mother…” King paused as she sniffed again, taking a moment to calm her quivering muzzle. “She wanted to save as many of us as she could. However, there were not enough vessels for all of us. Some were filled with many souls, and I… we, thought we were alone in this one.”

“So… there’s another pony inside of you?” I asked, receiving a soft but prompt nod from her. Okay, I’d seen some weird things in my short stay in the wasteland so far, but having a few souls crammed inside you? That had to be one of the oddest. “Do they know who you are?”

King looked confused for a moment before shaking her head softly.

“She does not know, nor does she want control of us.” King’s frown deepened with another shuddering sigh. “She simply wishes for us to not remember anything at all.” Bringing her sad gaze to her hooves again, she pushed herself to stand up. “This… is all so much to feel. I am sorry, Night, but I feel I must reflect on this.”

“Take all the time you need, King.” I did my best to offer her a comforting smile, but she didn’t even see it. She simply turned herself toward the front of the ship and headed off, disappearing through the bulkhead.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself to my hooves. After all that, I think that I was going to need some time to process all this as well. I had no idea why Lilac thought I was the pony to help her, because I didn’t even know if I could. While she’d said I was supposed to be able to do that, and while I felt it in my soul that I needed to at least try, I had no idea how I even could.

Maybe Lilac didn’t send King for me to help, rather, maybe she sent King to help me. After all the shit she’s done to try to help me, that at least made some sort of sense. Looking back at my cutie mark, I stared at it. It was still a bomb sitting across an early war bomb sight, just as it was the day I bombed Double Drum’s roller. So why if my talent was for bombing, did Lilac say it was my purpose to help others? How do you help ponies by blowing them up?

“Hey, Dum Dum.” Hispano called softly as she poked her head through the core systems bulkhead. “You uh… you got a minute?”

“Yeah, Hispano. What’s up?” Trotting over toward the door, she disappeared back inside. As I stepped in, I found her walk back over and sit herself back down at the terminal in the back of the room. On the dull green glow of the screen, sat some sort of text prompt with a pair of options. As I approached, I could make it out.

“I… I don’t know if I should…” Hispano’s voice had shrunk to a squeak so light I almost couldn’t hear it. But I could see her fear written all across her. “What if… what if I can’t…” Her words died in her throat as she lost herself in her own head again.

“Hispano, I know it’s hard. You don’t have to… I mean… what I’m trying to say…” Fuck, I couldn’t even help Hispano out, could I? Seriously, all this trust she’d place in me, and I couldn’t even answer a simple question? Granted she hadn’t asked said question, but I owed it to her to be better than this.

Reaching my hoof down, I carefully wrapped my fetlock around her talon. She tensed up at the hold, but relaxed as she looked down at it. Again, I tried my best to offer a comforting smile.

“I’m right here, Hispano.” Even with just those words, I could feel as the tension left her at least a little bit. “You don’t have to open it now if you don’t want. We can wait until you’re ready. And whenever that is, whatever it is that’s in there? We’ll see it together.”

“Thanks, Night.” She offered up her own soft smile. Slowly, she leaned herself over and pressed up against me. Her warmth was more than welcomed, and almost by instinct, I wrapped my wing around her snugly. She gave out a sigh as she pressed her plumage into my neck. “I’m just worried that… what if there had been a way to save her?”

“We can’t change the past, Hispano.” Squeezing at her talon, the image of Mom I’d seen on the Raptor came crashing back into my mind. “All we can do is be who they’d have wanted us to be. To make them proud.” Resting my head against hers, I took a deep breath as Mom’s smiling face drifted out of my thoughts again. “And I know your mom would have been proud of you, Hispano.”

“Hah, I don’t know, Night.” She forced out a light laugh at that. “She would have kicked my ass if she’d known I’d fallen for some soft pony.” With a long and dejected sigh like the one King had given, she somewhat slumped in my hold. “I’m no Talon, not like she was, not like my dad is. I’m just some griff who gets into trouble she shouldn’t be in, and can’t even decide for herself what she wants anymore. Maybe I’m not even worthy of being in my own family...”

“Now that couldn’t be farther from the truth, Hispano.” It was my turn to force out a laugh. But unlike with hers, she pulled back from me with a frown. “You know exactly what you want. That’s why you yelled at me at the noodle stand, why you yelled at me last time we talked in here.” While I may not have known how to help King, maybe I could help Hispano after all. At least, in helping her to see that she wasn’t the griff she saw herself as. “That’s why you kept up after me, Hispano. Despite your doubts, more than anypony else on this crew, I think you know what you want.”

“He’s right.” Cora’s voice echoing into the room made the both of us freeze up completely. We spun in near unison as he stepped through the bulkhead into the room with us. While his gaze was softer than usual, he didn’t seem any less serious as he spoke. “I’ve spent the last few years trying to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes with you, Hispano. I’ve done my best in training you for everything a Talon needs to be prepared for on the job.” That was sentence I’d never thought I’d ever hear come from him. Cora closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “As much as I don’t agree with the choices you’ve made with the company you keep, being a Talon wasn’t your choice. And as such, I can’t force this on you, Hispano. Not if it’s not what you really want.”

“Dad… what are you saying?” I wasn’t prepared for the horrified look across Hispano’s face, or the cold fear in her words. “No… Dad, don’t…!”

“I’m sorry,” Cora grunted and put his talon up to his chest sharply. “following article thirty eight, subsection C, as your registered Talon handler and trainer, I hereby resign you from Talon training, for the good of the service.”

So… that was it? She didn’t have to be a Talon any more? I…

My thoughts were derailed as Hispano all but ripped herself from my side.

“Take it back!” Hispano hissed at him. She growled, taking a single step toward him. No doubt she’d expected some sort of reaction, but just like Delilah always had, Cora had fallen onto a stoic and vacant expression. “Take. It. Back!” Again, Hispano seethed, jabbing her talon sharply at him.

“I’m sorry, I won’t do that.” Cora spoke sternly as he shook his head. “I won’t force you to be a Talon, Hispano.”

“You’re not forcing me, Dad.” Hispano growled as a tremor of pure rage ran through her. Her plumage stuck up on end, and her tail uncurled with a whip-like snap. “All I’ve ever wanted was to make you and mom proud! To make Suiza proud! You will not take this from me!”

“Then open the file.” Cora’s tone dropped the temperature in here to near freezing, at least, that’s what it felt like to me. Slowly, he stretched his Talon out and pointed at the terminal beside me. “Tell me after you read what little there is left that you’ll still want to be one. Tell me when you’ve learned just what Blue Flu does, that you’re willing to fly headlong into being a Talon.”

“What do you know?” Hispano snapped before spinning herself around again. With heavy steps, she made her way back toward the terminal. I wanted to speak up, to tell her that maybe he was right. But from the burning glare I got, and the forceful shove of her talon to move me aside, I couldn’t say anything.

With a hard slap of her talon across the Terminal keyboard, the terminal hummed to life and the screen changed.

The file popped up on the screen as Hispano leaned in with a growl. She scrolled through the document, letting her eyes drift over line after line of text. Admittedly, I was curious about just what it said, but as the silence between the three of us dragged on, I watched as Hispano’s haste was slowly worn away. Replaced with an ever deepening look of regret that sank its teeth further and further into her.

The short report had only taken her a few minutes to read through, but it’s effect was easy to see. A haunting, hollow look had crept around her normally bright eyes, dulling them. With a single stroke of the keys, she made the terminal screen flicker to black.

“That… it didn’t even…” She struggled to get the words out. Hispano looked… lost in herself, finally pulling things together enough to look up at Cora with a confused stare. “How… did you know there was so little?”

“The job your mom died on, it wasn’t for some random pony.” Cora sighed, sitting down hard. “She’d been contracted to be protection for a short salvage run,” Without warning, his eyes turned on me, and a glare like Hispano had just held tried to burn right through me. “it was the Enclave who’d hired her. There had been an incident years back with Blue Flu, caused by another Talon and his Father. The Enclave found out about it and came looking for the weapon, and your mom, well, she got the job.” With a deep breath, he pulled his glare off of me, and I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “Something went wrong, betrayal or something, but your mom killed them. And in the firefight, one of the containment vessels broke. I’d arrived shortly after just to check in on her, hours before anyone else was supposed to.” With a whimper, tears began to trickle down Cora’s beak. “She asked me to destroy everything I could about it. The research files, all the samples... the cure… I… I had no choice, Hispano...”

“No.” Hispano snapped sharply. “You do not get to say you could have saved mom! You had a choice!”

“If she’d lived, the Enclave would have done anything to get a sample of her blood…” Cora forced himself to raise his voice. “She didn’t want to put our lives in danger!”

“Yeah, and that fucking worked out great, huh?” Hispano forced a laugh out as her legs threatened to give out under her. “Instead, I got to watch her die, and my sister turn into a fucking gun. And all because you just... let it happen.”

“Hispano…” Cora’s cold tone was gone, and all I could hear from him now, was pain.

“Shut the fuck up! You fucking asshole!” Hispano screeched and flared out her wings. “You’re getting off of this ship. You’re going to leave, and I’m never going to see you again! Understand me!?” Cora’s eyes dropped to the floor as she huffed at him.

I’d never felt so powerless. In this state, I couldn’t even speak up. Nothing I could say would ever get through to her right now, and… I’m not sure I should even try. I felt like any nudge, anything at all could send her over the edge, and she’d go get Suiza. And while I certainly hadn’t cared for the way Cora had treated me, he didn’t deserve to die. Not like that, and certainly not by Hispano’s talons.

“Fuck!” Hispano let out an angry howl. “I’m… going out. When I get back, you better be gone.”

With a few hard beats of her wings, Hispano carried herself out through the bulkhead, and up through the hatch in the bridge. It wasn’t until the inner hatch sealed did I nearly have my legs collapse from the stress of this all. Fuck, couldn’t have a day where shit didn’t go wrong, could I?

As I sat there and tried to collect my thoughts, the soft sobs from Cora hit me.

“I’ve just… tried so hard to protect her.” He whimpered, bringing a talon up to his face as he fought back the urge to collapse. “Was I wrong?” Looking up at me, there was a moment when I saw the hatred he’d held for me come back. But in an instant, it was gone again, replaced with nothing but shame and regret. “What would you have done, Night? If it was her asking you to just... let her die?”

“I…” This wasn’t something I was even remotely prepared to answer. No one should ever be put in this situation, and… “I can’t say I’d even be able to make a decision like that.” But then again, this was never about me. “But if I had asked her what your wife asked you? There’s not a single doubt in my mind that she would’ve chosen to fight. Because that’s what you raised her to do. That’s what she wants to do. And we both know that despite what she thinks, she’s a hell of a lot better at it than we are.”

“Yeah, she is.” Cora forced a smile across his quivering muzzle, but no matter how much he fought, he couldn’t stop the river of tears. “Oh, I fucked up, Night. I pushed my own girl away… my little girl...” With that, his legs finally gave out, and he collapsed into sobs on the floor. “Forgive me, please…”

The griffon who was arguably tougher than I’d ever be, sat there, reduced to a crying heap. Were it any other day, under any other circumstances, I’d have been smiling. But this was going to hurt Hispano as much as it hurt him. And while my father was still out there, somewhere, Hispano still had hers right here, and she didn’t deserve to lose him now. I know she’s angry, but she’ll come around. She had to.

Because we all make mistakes.

For now, I let Cora stay in the captain’s quarters to cry. While I didn’t want Hispano to suffer, I wasn’t going to throw him off of the ship. Still, for the time being, I felt it best to keep Suiza strapped to me.

It hadn’t been more than another half hour before Buck and Tofu returned, and once I’d filled him in, I felt like I was entitled to a bit of time to clear my own head. So with him watching over Cora, I got into the Remora and headed out. Laika had offered me a drink before we left, and while I didn’t so much care for alcohol, right now, I think I needed it.

The display in my head showed the Remora’s altitude lower to zero again, and with a hiss, the door opened. The cold mountain air rushed into the small cabin as I stepped out onto the Observatory’s landing pad. The pair of well dressed Spectrum Federation soldiers who greeted me were the same who’d been out here when we first arrived. They looked to Suiza, and then to each other before nodding for me to head inside.

Trotting up to the door, I put my shoulder into pushing it open. A soft squeak from the other side came through as the door bounced off of somepony. Cringing, I poked my head through to inside as a slightly glowing Saddle Arabian stallion tried to shake off the stars I’m sure he was seeing.

“Oh, shit, sorry, Ammon.” While I’d had a bad enough day that I could justify not being sorry for things, I probably could stand to still try to be nice.

“It’s fine, it’s fine…” He groaned as he reached up and rubbed at the spot on his forehead just under where his horn would sit. “It’s my fault for being in such a rush today. Just… so much to do.”

“Did they make you the mayor of Sanctuary?” Pushing myself inside the building, I shut the door behind me and held my hoof out to him. He reached out for it hesitantly before shooting me a short lived glare.

“Yeah, thanks for that by the way. Being in the spotlight will really help me keep a low profile.” He snorted before pulling himself up to his hooves again. “Though, I suppose it’ll help keep me away from home for a while…”

“Did you talk with Gamma...?” The words slipped out, drawing a renewed glare from the stallion. “I… suppose that means you did.”

“Well, he doesn’t hate me.” Ammon sighed and flattened his ears against his head. With a light bite of his lip, he shrugged. “Still, he’s not happy. I think not being around for a while will give him time to process things. Mostly, it will let him come to terms with the fact his real husband didn’t return because he didn’t make it through the end of the war.”

“Hey,” Reaching up, I gave him a pat on the shoulder and forced up a smirk. “You might not be his first husband, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t a real one.”

“Thanks, Night.” He flashed up his own smirk at least before nodding to me. “Anyway, I assume you’re here to see the Sky Marshal? She said she was expecting you at some point.” Nodding back over his shoulder, he also gave me a light wave. “She’s up in her office. But for now, I’ve got plenty of work to get done. Safe travels, Night. And… thank you.”

“Yeah, same to you, Ammon.” I mirrored his wave before stepping around him. “And give my regards to your husband!”

Trotting my way across the freshly cleaned floors, I turned a corner and started up the stairs leading to the higher floors of the observatory. As I made my way higher, I ran across pony after pony doing maintenance work. A few replacing some old wiring, some painting the walls or cleaning the windows of the dozens of smaller rooms in the building. More than a dozen separate Federation officers were hard at work as well, either looking over paperwork, or talking with towns ponies.

It wasn’t until I reached the telescope floor that I saw the first of the spectrum flags being hung around. A beam of light ran through a triangular prism on the right side of the flag, splitting into a rainbow that spread over the rest of the black canvas. I had to pause midstep as in the center of that rainbow, sat the black outline of the same circle and bolt of lightning that had been branded on every Dashite.

“It’s so we don’t forget.” The voice of an older mare made my mane stand on end, and I had to fight back the urge to grab Suiza as I jumped on all fours.

“It was deplorable what the Enclave did to those poor ponies. But, being reminded of it everywhere you look should help us to keep it from happening ever again.” Spinning around, I was again met with Blue Cross, the obnoxiously blue mare who’d been with Laika after the whole Rofia and Gadget incident yesterday. “Though, it’s only a preliminary design. The final choice is up to the council.” She was still in her same expertly pressed Federation uniform, and the glare she cut at me was no less sharp than what she’d held during the meeting with Laika. “Are you here to meet with the Sky Marshal, Survivor?” I nodded as she huffed and pointed across the telescope room toward Laika’s office. “Good, so am I.”

She trotted around me, heading toward Laika’s office with a stack of papers balanced across her back. I’d managed a glimpse at the word ‘Vanderhoof’ written across them before I was pulled lower down onto her flank. Where a cutie mark would have normally sat, only a deep gouge out of her flesh existed. Like somepony had come along and just scraped off the whole thing.

“What happ…” Again, I couldn’t fight the words. However, that was as far as I made it before Blue Cross looked over her shoulder at me.

“My cutie mark?” She let a mirthful laugh slip from her muzzle. “You lived up there above the clouds, right? Are you saying that you really don’t know who I am? Or the family I belonged to in the Enclave?”

“Well…” It was an odd question, but prominent Enclave families wasn’t something I’d ever really known about. “I remember that Tail End said your mother was Admiral Grand Cross, but that’s it.” Shrugging, I wasn’t sure how to elaborate. Hell, I didn’t even remember the name of my mom’s commanding officer, and she complained about him all the time when she was home! “Should I know?”

“You’re lucky then.” Blue Cross snorted and turned herself back towards Laika’s office. “My grandmother was an Enclave hero, my mother was a diligent Admiral. Then, there were my aunts.” Giving a shudder that ran to her core, she almost dropped the files from her back, having to cradle them in her wings. “Their treason cost my family everything. My mother’s job, my place as head nurse at the triage center, everything.” She paused again to look back at her missing cutie mark, taking a second to shift herself so her uniform could cover it up again. “I gave up my mark to let my son keep his own, as well as his place in the service. For all the good that did for him… the naive foal.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask about it before we reached the door. With a swift kick, Blue Cross shoved the door open, revealing Laika was sitting at her desk. She was kicked back, with a clear glass bottle only half filled with a clear liquid in one paw, and a shot glass in the other. Stepping inside was all I needed to do to smell the rich alcohol before Laika tipped back her head and downed the shot from her glass.

“Ah, good, good!” Laika grinned as the two of us stepped inside and took a seat on the far side of her desk. “I was hoping you would come, Night.” Her smiling muzzle shifted from me to Blue as she gave a light kick and bucked the files from her back onto the desk. “As you can see, after what you found on the server, I have gathered what we have on Vanderhoof for you.”

“That’s kind of you.” I shared a wide smile back at Laika. Really, after everything, I hadn’t expected this sort of help from her! It was a nice change of pace to actually have a leader willing to give me a break for once.

“Dah, pozhaluysta.” She nodded. As she did, a note came up in my vision like before that read ‘you are welcome’.

“Teper' my p'yem!” She barked as she pulled another pair of opaque shot glasses from on her chair beside her, setting them down on her desk with a loud clunk. I didn’t need the translation in my vision to know what she’d said as she started pouring the three shots from her bottle. Right, that’s something that was going to happen…

“None for me, thanks.” Blue Cross groaned as she tapped her forehoof on the floor.

“Eh, more for me.” Laika gave a soft laugh before carefully pushing one of the glasses over to me. “But I will not take niet for an answer from you, Night.”

Oh, what the hell…

Reaching forward, I wrapped my fetlock around the small glass. I’d already had worse, right? And it was only going to be one, and I could handle one…

“Dlya tekh, kto umer.” She nodded to me as we both brought the glass to our muzzles. With a sharp tip back, she forced the liquid down her muzzle with a gulp. I’d done the same by the time my augment had translated what she’d said. ‘For those who died.’

It was sharp. Unlike the alcohol I’d had before, the taste of this didn’t linger in my throat. My stomach felt like it did a flip before a warm feeling settled in as I set my glass down. Taking a breath, that actually hadn’t been all…

My lungs seized up as the drink felt like it burned back up my throat. I coughed hard as while I didn’t throw up, the air against my throat felt like a dozen hot irons were expelled through my muzzle. Laika let out a loud, stark laugh as she leaned forward and poured herself another glass. Seriously, all this tech in my head to kill the pain, and it can’t even stop this from burning me...

“What is this stuff?” I choked out as finally the burning feeling started to subside.

“It’s definitely strong stuff. Not quite as good as Stalliongrad’s best, but it’s not bad.” Laika again laughed at me before wrapping her paw around her refilled glass. “A small lumber town named Skookum sent a case of these in with their application to join the Federation. Probably a gift meant to sway me, but unfortunately for them, it’s the council’s decision, not mine.” Lifting her glass, she tipped it to Blue Cross before making the clear liquid disappear yet again. She winced as she exhaled and set her glass down once more. “A shame, because they’d have my vote.”

“I hope you realize it’s made out of run-off byproducts from their papermill, Sky Marshal.” Blue Cross grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Not many could afford to be alcoholics above the clouds, but plenty found themselves trying quite hard to be one, and ended up in my hospital. I hope that doesn’t become the case here.”

“Dah. I understand the concern, Admiral, but fear not, I can handle my drink.” The small Diamond Dog panted lightly as she semi-slumped back in her seat with a wide smile. “But! We did not come to talk about that. We must discuss what you will find where you are going.”

“Yes, well, there certainly wasn’t much about one of the Federations most… interesting acquisitions.” Blue Cross huffed as she reached over and opened up the file on top of the stack. “Seen as the first real stop in the frozen north, it’s mostly a trade hub and rest stop. The city used to house about ten thousand ponies in various suburbs, with the bulk of the city straddling both sides of Highway Five. While records show that it survived the war without a scratch, most of the old city has all but been destroyed over the last two hundred years in various conflicts and wars between the eastern and western halves of the city.”

I sat forward as a note of panic ran through me. While the Ark was definitely underneath the plots of land Delilah’s family had bought, I remember that she’d mentioned needing to go to Vanderhoof. There had to be more to what was in that vault than it sounded, and if the vault had been destroyed...

“Does that mean the deeds we’re looking for are gone?” I asked bluntly.

“No, several city government buildings were built to wartime standards, meaning they could take a megaspell blast and still be standing.” Blue Cross laughed before sliding over a large black and white photo from inside one of the file folders.

What stopped in front of me was a picture of a six story tall concrete monolith of a building. It stood tall compared to the makeshift wood and scrap metal buildings that lined the bustling city block around it. While it looked a little worse for wear around the chipped and pock marked exterior, the single double doored entrance that was the building’s only outward feature, was clear and open.

“Blyat… it even looks like a vault.” Laika sat forward again, looking across at the photo as well.

“We’re sending word ahead to them to expect your party’s arrival, and that they’re to allow you access to Burro Industry’s deposit box.” Blue Cross slipped over another file folder that held various old papers in it. Scrawled across them were hundreds of lot numbers, sixteen digit account numbers, as well as the names for each and every one of them. Circled in red was one labeled Lot B-1919 and marked with simply B.I. for the name. “We’re also making sure they know not to grant access to Prince Solomon or his Envoy.” Well, score one win for us! However... “And before you bring it up, we have reminded them what will happen if any Federation Officer is found to have accepted a bribe of any kind.”

“Thank you.” My muzzle split into a wide grin as for once, I was confident that even if Solomon was ahead of us, we were still technically in the lead! “You have no idea how much this helps.”

“Also of note, because you are looking for a ship…” The Admiral reached over and brushed a few more of the file folders over, pulling out a thicker one with a bright red Confidential stamped across it. “The Enclave kept a close eye on the activities out at sea past the range of the S.P.P. towers cloud cover.” Opening the folder, she dumped out a veritable collage of images. From small looking fishing vessels and tug boats, to larger rusting warships, all the way up to a fleet of a dozen large tankers. There were more ships than I cared to count! “Some of these are simple merchant and civilian ships, but a good majority of them are pirates. Most of the ones here even all belong to the same western sea pirate fleet.”

“Pirates.” I… almost couldn’t believe that. “You’re kidding me.”

I mean, I’d seen some weird stuff in the wastes so far, but even up at Destruction Bay, I hadn’t seen or heard of that many ships moving around. But since we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Inuvik since up there either, I was now getting a sinking feeling in my gut...

No, not sinking, Night. They’re fine! No reason to bring any of this up and worry anyone, let alone Buck.

“While their raiding activity has steadily decreased over the last decade, the clearing of the clouds have drawn more than a few back.” The Admiral sighed as she collected up the pictures again, neatly trying to stack them once more in the folder. “If you are looking for the ship you claim to be, there is absolutely no chance that the pirates out there would miss something like that sailing by.” With a light shuffle on the desk, she finally put them all away and set the folder aside. “Your reputation may proceed you here, but not even the Survivor is going to gain you any reprieve from them.”

“Dah.” Laika groaned as she reached out across the desk, swiftly collecting my shotglass and the large bottle next to her. “Though, you could consider negotiating with them.” Before I could tell her that one had been enough, she’d poured me and herself another drink, and slid mine back over to my hooves. “The Equestrian government wasn’t ready for a war at the scale it ended up at. So, before the attack on Littlehorn, they’d hired a dozen ‘independent’ zebra merchant marine ships to protect our shipping. Could go the same way and find a way to buy some of their fleet’s loyalty for enough time to sail away.”

Again, she threw back the drink, and downed it all without a problem. As she let out another light shudder, she looked at me with a smile, nodding expectantly to the glass in front of me. With a sigh, I took it in my fetlock again. I knew it would suck, but after all the help they’d given me, it would be rude…

Downing the drink, I too shivered as the cold alcohol went down easy. Then once more, the burning worked its way back up, but thankfully at a faster pace as the warmth in my stomach doubled. As I coughed again, the stars in my eyes danced about, and a small fancy alcohol glass appeared over the small pony in my augmented vision. Huh, I wonder if it knows that I’ve been drinking…

Both Laika and I froze up in place as Admiral Blue Cross reached over and grabbed the bottle. With an almost vacant look sitting across her face, she poured herself a glass and downed it easily. Like with Laika, it didn’t seem to affect her at all.

“Everything alright, Admiral?” Laika asked slowly as she sat up straight and pressed her paws together on her desk.

“Just… thinking about New Cloudsdale again, Sky Marshal.” Blue Cross smiled softly, but it wasn’t hard to see she was plainly hiding the pained expression she held just under it.

“New Cloudsdale? I thought the Enclave forbid that name.” The words slipped from my muzzle, making my head feel a bit lighter with each word I spoke.

“They did. It was what the Enclave sympathetic reformers named the city they stole when the clouds came down. Pushed it right off out over the western ocean.” Laika nodded as she pinned her eyes on Blue Cross. Some part of my admittedly fuzzy mind remembered that Tail End had mentioned something like that happening, but it was so long ago... “We’ll find it, Admiral, and we’ll bring it back.”

“Hah, I could care less about that dreadful city.” Blue Cross’s voice wavered as she poured herself another drink and quickly downed it. With a whimpering sigh, she set the small glass back down and stared at it. “I just want to make sure that Merit is alright. He’s… all I have, and he’s out there, somewhere, over pirate infested waters.”

“Hey, we’ll find him.” Laika spoke softly, but confidently to the mare across from her who was looking more and more troubled by the minute. “I meant it when I said we’d set up one of the raptors for an expedition. I’ll speak with Captain Raychaser, and…”

“No, it’s… fine.” The Admiral stood up sharply and bent her forehoof up in a stiff salute. “The Federation is too important to risk leaving defenseless, and without the last piece of its archive. I will do my duty and protect what we’ve built here.”

“At ease, Admiral.” Laika’s voice was again firm, but I could see the concern in her eyes. “I’ll yield on this for now, but we will go to find him, I promise you that.”

“Thank you, Sky Marshal.” Blue nodded, forcing up her smile over the pain again before spinning and quickly trotting towards the door. “I will... return to my duties with the fleet now. Have a good day.”

The moment she’d shut the door to Laika’s office, the small Diamond Dog deflated in her seat again.

“You know, Night, I envy you.” Laika spoke as she did her best to collect herself. Stretching herself over across her desk, she wrapped her paw around the neck of the nearly empty bottle and dragged it back over to her. “Back in the war, I had one goal. Get to space. And like then, you to have somewhere to go, a clear goal in mind. But, things have changed for me. I do not have a direction, only to try to keep this federation together, and I feel like I am barely scraping by.”

“Well, you’ve been doing alright so far.” I couldn’t back that up with anything at all. Geeze, and I thought I had it bad in feeling like I needed to help those in need. I can’t imagine what it must be like for Laika, having to manage multiple settlements that need her help.

“Are you sure I couldn’t convince you to come stay here once you find the Ark?” Laika again poured herself a drink. “We’ve got six settlements in the Federation so far, and a dozen small ones interested in joining up. But, most others in the north are still convinced we’re your ‘Enclave’. I may be the smartest dog around, but that only gets us so far as you’ve seen firsthoof.” Rather than shooting her drink down like before, she simply stared at it longingly. “Not to mention, after what happened with Rofia, and with Gadget… we could really use a hero to help keep the citizens inspired, and maybe convince others that the Federation could really help change things for the better.”

“Hah, I’m not a hero.” I sighed as my eyes drifted down to the floor. “I’m just… hard to kill, is all.”

“You’re too modest.” Pausing at that, she finally brought the alcohol to her muzzle and downed it. “Actually, you know, Twilight Sparkle had a theory. Data from the front line showed that it wasn’t veterans who performed miraculous acts on the battlefield. Rather, it was always the youth, pushed to the edge with their lives on the line.” Wrapping her paw around her glass, she brought it up in front of her, almost as if gazing into it could replay the memories of her past. “She said something to the effect that heroes weren’t ‘forged’ in battle. Rather, in those impossible situations, they discovered who they really were meant to be. And from what I’ve seen, that sounds a lot like the pony sitting across from me.”

“Hah.” Again, a sharper than intended laugh slipped from my muzzle, pulling an oddly sad look from Laika. “I’ve spent hours, days, even weeks now wondering just who I’m supposed to be. But… I’m just Night Flight. I’m not a hero, I’m just a stallion doing what I believe is the right thing.” Giving a shrug, I watched as Laika let that sink in and set her glass down on the table. “I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly sure that anyone can do the right thing. It’s just in the wasteland, for one reason or another, they choose not to.”

“Maybe you’re right.” She nodded as she once more reached out for my glass. I tried to move to stop her, but again she snatched it away and filled it up again, using up the last of the bottle on her own glass. “But thank you for that insight, Night. It’s good to know that there are still some ponies out there who embody the best of what our nation once held in the highest regard before the war. Truth to oneself, and to their friends.”

“I’ll drink to that.” I laughed, forcing a wide smile across her tiny jagged muzzle again. She effortlessly slid the drink over into my waiting fetlock.

“К правде!” She shouted, lifting her glass to me. I did the same, and we both downed the foul liquid.

Funny enough, the third shot seemed to be the charm. While the warmth in my body didn’t grow this time, that feeling spread across my skin in an odd, but pleasurable way. And as the both of us sighed and relaxed, I couldn’t help but realize that maybe this stuff wasn’t so bad after all.

“You know, I'll have a bottle sent to your ship before you all leave. Again, I won't take no for an answer.” Laika smirked from atop her book stack before a frown took over as her gaze drifted to the empty bottle. “At the very least if you don’t want it, give it to Buck with my regards. I feel that I may have let him down a bit harder than I intended…”

“I’ve found him!” The extremely excited voice of Tail End came through the door before he literally burst through it. “Well, I didn’t find him really. I left my desk for a second and one of our new cadets dropped it off!”

“What?” Both Laika and I shouted as we sat up and spun to meet his incredibly exuberant expression. Not only that, but when I’d finished spinning to see him, the world didn’t seem content to stop, and I started to feel fairly light headed.

“It’s all in here!” Tail End laughed before using his wing to toss an old looking leather bound notebook onto Laika’s desk. “Rofia kept fairly detailed accounts of every slave she sold, right? Well, while his name wasn’t in there, I think I found Night’s father! But, that’s where things get tricky.”

“That… that’s wonderful!” I couldn’t believe it! Oh, I could just hug him right now! Oh wait, I can!

I moved to give the former Enclave officer the biggest hug he’d ever had in his life. However, much like I’d noted, the world hadn’t quite stopped spinning. In fact, trying to get up and walk over to him had made it worse, and I quickly found myself sprawled out on the floor.

“Oh, you alright there, Night?” Tail cringed as he held his hoof out to me. Which I would have grabbed if both of our hooves didn’t noodle around all over the place! With a frown, he looked over at Laika. “How much have you two even had?”

“I had three!” I couldn’t fight the proud giggle I gave out from the floor. Goddesses, I’d needed this today...

“Three bottles!?” Now Tail looked panicked.

“Shots. Three shots.” Laika spoke with a note of disappointment in her voice that almost stung. Hey, I tried, damnit! It’s not my fault this stuff was so strong. Plus, she was like, a quarter my size! How the fuck wasn’t she worse off than I was!? “But you came with news. Where is his father?”

“He was sold to Grand Finale.” Again, Tail cringed, glancing down at me hesitantly. Unexpectedly, Laika let out a low growl at that. “I did mention it would be tricky.”

“Who’s that guy?” I asked as the muzzle was forced out of my words. Wait, no, that’s not right...

“He runs the H&H Niter mine just outside the Federation town of Biscuit.” Tail answered as Laika again only let out a growl. “It’s not too far from here, just a half-days flight for your ship in its current condition. You can follow the rail line south and it runs right through the place.”

“And it should be noted, while there is no slavery allowed in the Federation, the council has given him exclusive permission to operate his mine with the slaves he already owned before the clouds came down. I fought them on that, but… there’s only so far even I can push.” Laika groaned before she popped her head over the edge of her desk and looked down at me. The determined look in her eyes made me smile, though I couldn’t quite tell why. “Even if he has special permission, he can expect to shortly get a Sky Marshal declaration demanding the release of Night’s father. And shortly thereafter, we’ll have a talk about his deal with Rofia.”

“Thank you, so, so much.” I laughed as I reached up to also give her the biggest hug I could give, but forgot that I couldn’t reach her from the floor. My muzzle quivered as it all hit me. My dad… I was going to see him again, and it was all thanks to them. “I was so worried something would happen to him before I could get there. But… you’ve saved him! You have no idea what this means to me...”

“You’re right, you have no idea what this means, Night Flight.” A new stallion’s voice, a familiar voice, spoke from the still open door to Laika’s office.

Both Laika and Tail turned to face the door, while I sort of rolled as best I could to see. And while the world spun like it had a tendency to, I did get the slightest moment to see Rook’s judgmental gaze looking down at me as his horn grew brighter. Breaking from the board and stoic expression he’d always normally held, he let out a short, cackling laugh.

With a blinding pop of arcane magic, he was gone.

“Oh no…” My alcohol inhibited mind spat out before I could really even process what the fuck just happened. “That’s not good.”

The understatement of the day, and the motto of your life, Night Flight...

Author's Notes:

A huge thanks to TheFurryRailFan, who as always has done a fantastic job going through and making sure everything's ship shape!

And of course, thanks to Kkat for building an amazing universe and letting us all play in it.