For everything that had changed for me in the last week of my life, not all of it was bad. Sure, my home exploded, dad was gone, and my entire way of life had been dissolved with the clouds. But sitting on the back of the Hauler as we trundled along the old highway heading into the mountains, I couldn’t deny one thing.

This place was breathtaking.

The rays of light that pierced the wild clouds that lazily wandered between the mountains made their snow capped peaks glisten and sparkle like enormous, dark crystals. The lush, green forests that climbed along their sides shifted in the errant winds that rushed through the deep valleys, the wind itself bringing a thick fragrance of foliage with them. Even the largest of the peaks off to our side, though masked in thick, thundering storm clouds, seemed oddly at peace all the way out here in the frozen north. It was all so serene that really it didn’t feel genuine or real.

“You know,” Violet spoke up as she hobbled up next to me. She favored her still healing and splinted leg, but I was glad to see that it wasn’t giving her as hard a time as it was yesterday. “Living above the clouds, I never knew how much I loved the sun.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, remembering the warm summer picnic I had with Mom and Dad last year for my birthday. I should have worn something out to it, as I came back home with a fairly painful sunburn. Which actually reminded me... with everything going on, my birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks. Not that it really matters now anyway...

“Then I came down here.” Violet smirked as she carefully took a seat next to me. Putting her chin up on the thin metal railing that was sturdily welded to the back of the hauler, she gave out a longing sigh. “Back in those first days, I never thought I’d see it again.”

“I think it’s overrated.” Hardcase spoke up from the picnic table in the rec area. Setting down the various tools he’d held in his magic, he took a moment to stop working on getting the radio set up out here to pop his head over it and smile at us. “Then again, I don’t know it quite as intimately as you two would.” Pointing out toward the vast, mountainous hills behind us, he smiled even brighter. “And I’ll say this, you can’t beat the view nowadays.”

“While I’m glad to have it back,” Violet eyed over to me with a guilty look. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that the Enclave would be completely dissolved.”

“Well, not completely.” Hardcase chimed from his table before he sat down again. Both Violet and I turned to look at him, making him look around the edge of the old radio nervously. “I mean, it was only most of the non-livable cloud cover that was removed. There’s supposedly still quite a few settlements left untouched, and even reports of a whole city to the south west going rogue and pushing itself out over the ocean to maintain the Enclave.”

“Why did it even happen?” I asked. “I still haven’t gotten a real answer about it, only bits and pieces from you all about some mare taking over the SPP tower in the Neighvarro airbase.”

“Well, only bits and pieces have made it this far over the radio. Doubt anypony will ever have the whole story...” Hardcase said as he adjusted himself and got back to work on the radio. “But supposedly some stable mare came out of an unopened stable and started a series of events that destabilized basically the whole east coast.”

One mare? Out of a Stable that lasted this long? The Enclave had always maintained that the Stable-Tec projects on the ground had failed, so I guess I didn’t think much about it. Then again, I was sitting on top of one of Stable-Tec’s still working enormous machines right now.

Giving a grunt as he worked, Hardcase continued. “She overthrew an entire army, reunified the east coast Steel Rangers, and then killed ‘the goddess’ with a damn megaspell.” Setting aside whoever ‘the goddess’ was, now I was beginning to think that this had to be some elaborate story invented by somepony. No pony could do anything like that. “And if that weren’t enough,” He chuckled, “After the Enclave came down, she killed some Colonel and got a dragon to help break into Enclave military headquarters and poof all the clouds away.”

Now I positively knew he had to be kidding.

“From what I heard, after what Colonel Autumn did to the wastes over there after High Council Pony Harbinger was killed,” Violet snorted, “than I’m almost happy she killed him. He was a horrible commander.” The amount of disdain she held for the Enclave was clear in her voice, but that wasn’t what sent a chill down my spine.

“Council pony Harbinger?” I asked, immediately pulling Violet’s attention to me. “My mom used to work on a Thunderhead that he was supposed to visit. She made a big deal about being nervous about running exercises with the Council looking over her shoulder all day.” Resting my own chin on the railing, I grasped tightly at her dog tags with my fetlock. Holding the necklace, I let out a sigh as I watched the clouds above float on by. “Well, that was the week she died, anyway...”

An uncomfortable silence took over between the three of us. Only the sound of Lucky’s four wheel vehicle following on the road behind us, Bertha’s humming reactor, and the wind filled the air. The breeze that flowed through the valley around us whistled through the trees, making them sway as if they were dancing. Even as I felt the mom shaped hole in my heart hurt more than ever, I let a small smile break across my muzzle at the calming sight before me.

A warm wing wrapped itself around me, pulling taught and scooting Violet closer to me. Without even saying a thing, I found her wrap her hooves around me in an unexpected hug. In her eyes, I could see that she felt as somber as I was. Thing is, I couldn’t really figure out why.

“I’m so sorry, Night.” She whispered, slipping her hooves around my side and holding me in a way that reminded me of mom’s hugs.

“What? I don’t understand.” I said, turning toward her and returning the gesture. “Why are you sorry?”

“We’re both sorry.” Hardcase set down his tools and got up, confusing me even more. I felt like there was something I was missing here that I should be seeing. With the look that I normally saw on ponies who learned of my Flat Feathers, he took a deep breath before speaking up again. “Council Pony Harbinger was killed by the mare the radio talks about. The Lightbringer. The radio mentioned that megaspell that she used to kill the goddess killed him as well and destroyed an entire Enclave Thunderhead. Only a few survivors made it away unharmed. That’s all we’ve been told.” I went stiff, and the blood in my veins ran cold. “I’m… I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”

“I…” my words died in my throat, and all I could once again ask, was why? “It’s…” I wanted to react like I know I should to the news. To flail and cry and scream until my voice gave out. But I just… couldn’t bring myself to do anything at all. Maybe it was because I had already known that she was gone. Still, it didn’t really hit me like the news should have. “Thank you.” The words forced their way past my lips as I simply sat there in Violet’s hold.

“Thank us?” Violet sniffled and pushed herself away. “We just told you your mom died, and that’s how you react?”

“I already knew she was gone. The Enclave told me that much.” I said, looking at Violet’s kind, wavering eyes. “But at least now I know how she died.” Leaning forward, I hugged my hooves tightly around Violet this time, returning the warm embrace she’d shared with me. “And that’s worth my thanks.”

The next few minutes were again spent by all of us in silence. While the sheer beauty of this place was something positive I had gained, the reminders of what I once had would haunt me forever. This time, while the quiet was less awkward to sit in, it didn’t help me feel any less conflicted inside. The sorrow and regret in my heart over the loss of my mother clashed with the anger, fury, and hatred churning in my mind. While Hardcase and Violet had helped to give me some well deserved answers, they had also pointed a hoof to the one who murdered my mother.

“I’ll kill her.” I whispered softly under my breath.

“What was that?” Violet spoke up softly as well, letting me go.

“If I ever see her. This ‘lightbringer’,” I had no idea if I’d even make it down south as part of Delilah’s crew, but at some point in my life, I was going to find this mare, and make her pay for what she took. “I’ll kill her.”

“You’re being shortsighted.” Buck’s voice came from the door to our container. “There is nothing to be gained in vengeance. It serves no one in the end. To kill anyone over the loss of another only incites more violence and perpetuates a cycle of killing.”

“If she killed your mother, you’d just let it go?” I snorted and pulled myself to my hooves. Really, I’d known Buck for all of two days and already the fact that sometimes he acted like he knew best was starting to claw at my nerves. I was beginning to see why Violet got so pissy with him yesterday.

“No, I’m not saying that. Just that I wouldn’t kill her.” Buck closed his eyes and nodded proudly. “I would seek justice through lawful means.”

“Hah.” Violet chimed in. “Again, that might be how things worked on the Inuvik, but it’s not how the wasteland works, Doc.”

“Say what you want,” He shrugged and stepped out from our container, “But I will never harm another being unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“So, you’re not going to help us if we get into a fight?” Hardcase said, flicking the end of his screwdriver at Buck judgmentally. “Not going to be doing yourself any favors with the crew if you’re only patching them up from wounds you could have helped prevent.”

“I believe in my physician's oath and apply it to more than just medicine.” It was hard to tell if Buck was speaking from what he thought, or if he was legitimately just trying to sound like a pompous ass that was better than anypony else. Holding a paw out to us, he spread his claws menacingly. “I’m a pacifist who is gifted with the ability to both harm and heal. I will not fight unless it is dire that I do.” Grimacing at his own claws, he quickly put his paw down, hiding it behind his back. “It’s a responsibility that my claws require me to uphold every day.”

“I can respect that. Trust me, I can.” Violet nodded as she got up. “But there will come a day sooner than later where you might just regret hesitating, Doc.” Looking up at him, she met his steely gaze with one of her own. “I just hope for our sake that it’s not before we finish this trip.”

With a nod that either showed him to be understanding or politely dismissive, Buck turned and rummaged through the small kitchen for a few moments. Finding a bottle of dirty looking water, he used his claw to nip off the top and drank down the contents rather quickly. Then, without another word, he turned and retreated back into our container, shutting the door behind him again.

Turning back to the railing, I hung my forehooves over it and looked out into the crisp, blue sky again. Like it had been since we left the Empirica, the small fluffy cloud that concealed Hispano and her Father still trailed lazily behind us.

I couldn’t help but frown as I looked up at it. The thought about what I’d said earlier still sat firmly etched in stone in my head. I did want revenge. But now, looking up at Hispano’s cloud, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe my opinion was a bit skewed. Hispano, Violet, and the others, they all knew that to survive down here, you needed to kill. Buck’s viewpoint was a bit strict, but deep down, I knew he was right. I shouldn’t want to kill.

Should I feel guilty for killing those yaks, or the stallion I hired Hispano to kill on the Empirica? No, they wanted me dead. It was different with this ‘lightbringer’ mare though, and as much as I wanted her to die for what she did, Buck’s words had put a crack in the stone that thought was chiseled in.

Looking over and watching as Violet also took her place against the railing again, I didn’t really think any of that mattered at the moment. The mare from the radio was all the way across the wastes from here, and we were alone in the mountains. I should simply be glad for the moment that I had ponies around here who accepted me and didn’t want to murder me with silverware.

Violet’s ears perked up, and after a moment, I did the same. An odd whine came over the hills from ahead of the direction we traveled in. And oddly enough, it was getting louder. Hardcase dropped his screwdriver onto the floor as he pushed himself up and ran into his room. Both Violet and I got to our hooves as the whine changed pitch, oscillating a bit before a very familiar feature of it met my ears faster than I’d expected it to.

A few hundred feet overhead, the bulbous, buglike shape of a first generation Vertibuck passed through the open skies. It’s twin propeller blade engines were nearly horizontal in their flight mode configuration, pulling it through the sky at high speed. The shrill sound of it’s engines bounced through the valley around us in a disorienting fashion, and it took me a good few seconds for my brain to process it.

“That’s a Vertibuck.” I spoke up, stating the obvious in my stunning laps of brainpower at the moment. “It could be the Enclave!”

“Cool your jets there, kiddo.” Violet spoke up sharply, slapping her wing out against my chest to stop my brain from doing something stupid. “Close your wings and sit down.”

“But my wings…” I said, looking back to find them open and ready to take me to the skies. Really, I guess I actually had been about to do something stupid. Sitting down and folding my wings tightly to myself, I really had to find a way to keep myself in check.

“See the blue and yellow tail stripes?” Violet said, pointing her hoof toward the Vertibuck as it quickly sped off away from us. Honestly, I couldn’t quite make out anything as it sped away, but I guess I just had to trust her. “It's a Cerberus Vertibuck.”

“Cerberus?” I knew I still had a lot to learn down here, but I didn’t think anypony else had access to vertibucks at all! Then again, there I go thinking that all the while forgetting that I’d just seen a few in Fort Mac’s hanger this morning.

“It’s an independent government that sprung up out of the old Las Pegasus and Applewood ruins a few years back.” Hardcase answered my question from on top of the containers. He’d probably gone for the gun turret up there, but seeing as whoever there were had little interest in us, I think he assumed we were safe. “They tried to move in on Delilah's town and offer their 'protection'. They also offered to provide farming gear in return for a percentage yield of crops.”

“I thought that Mrs. Delilah said that nothing could grow?” I wasn’t quite sure what to think about some ground based government anymore, seeing as the Enclave was obviously full of lies and the last ground government ended up creating the wasteland in the first place.

“It can't.” Violet sighed and laid her head on the railing with a thunk. “It's why Delilah's been so keen to make this trip. With their help, she might be able to save her town. Which has been my home for a few years now, so I’m right there with her on that.” Looking over to me while keeping her head against the bar, she offered a sincere glance. “It's your home too now, you know.”

“You know, it’s odd though.” Hardcase said, walking over to us and leaning against the railing as he watched the Vertibuck pull up and disappear over the top of a far off valley ridge. “I've hardly heard of Cerberus reaching out this far north. Outside of some trading, Vanhoover is even out of their range, normally.”

“Well, you said that big thing at Fort Mac flew out because they wanted to reach out to the new government that was forming on the eastern coast of the wastes.” With a shrug, I too rested my head against the railing. “Maybe that's what Cerberus is doing. Reaching out?”

“Yeah, maybe.” Violet said as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Times are changing down here on the ground, fast. I just hope that as fast as they are changing, things don't fall apart again. I’ve kind of gotten used to this feeling over the last few weeks.”

“Oh?” Hardcase added, sitting down next to us. “What feeling is that?”

“Funny enough?” Violet smiled with her eyes still closed. “Hope.” Her words drew a short laugh from Hardcase, which in turn made her give a giggle as well.

Leaning back, hanging off my hooves as I hooked them around the cold metal railing, I couldn’t say I felt the same. Still, if they were certain that this was a good thing, than all I could do was trust them on this and assume that things would turn out for the best.

The radio in front of Hardcase crackled to life. With a gasp, he flicked at a few switches and hoofed at the connected receiver.

“Hello, hello?” He spoke into the mouthpiece, twisting and tweaking with things on the radio itself. “This is Bertha calling Bessy. Do you read?”

After a few moments of static, a more than annoyed voice came over the speaker. “Yeah, yeah. Congrats on getting the radio working, Hardcase.” Delilah didn’t sound nearly as angry as she was earlier, even if she still sounded fairly annoyed. “We’re coming up on Cannon City soon enough here. Tell Violet that she’s got the go ahead to instruct Lucky to divert with the Runner and hang back there with Bombay.”

“She can hear you, ma’am.” Hardcase nodded over to Violet, who gave back her own nod. “She’ll be ready to head out in five.”

“Good.” Delilah spoke with a note of hesitation to her voice. “Make sure that they know that they have one hour to practice out there. Then it’s back on the road to catch up with the convoy.” Hardcase looked at me with a roll of his eyes. “And that Violet better not take her eyes off of Bombay. I don’t want any more trouble the rest of this goddess damn trip.” Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ma’am.

What was I thinking? I deserved every bit of that accusation.

“Oh, and Bombay?” Her voice came in with an extra bit of static this time. I looked up to Hardcase, who quickly depressed the talk button on the receiver.

“He’s listening, Ma’am.” Hardcase said, staring at me warily.

“Remember what I said.” Lowering her tone, I felt a very distinct shiver run up my spine. “Don’t screw this up.”

Nodding to the air, I didn’t care that she didn’t know I was nodding at all. I didn’t want to screw up things before, but more than ever, I didn’t want to do it again. I needed their help, at least in getting back to Four Peaks. If I was dumped there, at least I might be able to find my way back up to Fort Mac.

Violet’s hoof firmly pat me on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you geared up.” She offered me a small but genuine smile as she helped me get back to my hooves. “I’ve got a good idea of what we’re going to work on today.”

If the chafing of the grenadier saddle’s straps hadn’t been bad enough before, it was even worse when all my gear had been hooked up on it. Even though I knew it was nowhere near that much gear overall, I felt like I weighed another fifty pounds heavier. To make things all the more annoying, the small four wheeled vehicle that Lucky drove, or 'the Runner’ as it was referred to, didn’t ride as smoothly across the degraded old highways as Bertha had.

Sitting up on the front bench seat with Lucky was awkward to say the least. Not only was I afraid to distract Lucky from his duties as driver…

“Fucking piece of…” He muttered as he angrily used his foreleg to hammer at the long metal rod sticking out of the floor that helped him drive. A grinding that sounded like hooves on chalkboard emit from the vehicle before it shuttered and picked up speed.

Yeah, I felt it was best that I didn’t even speak at all up here.

“Doing okay there, Lucky?” Violet said as she dipped her head in from the roof over his window. “If you want, I could always get out and push.”

“Zoomer, I swear to the gods above…” He growled, eyeing her for a moment before putting his forehoof and prosthetic back onto the steering wheel. “Can you please just keep an eye out for the exit we are supposed to take?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Violet rolled her eyes. “It’s coming up on your left in a quarter mile. Should put us right on Mane street.” Without waiting for a response, she pulled her head back out of his window. A few heavy hoofsteps on the roof above made me look up and track them over to my own side window. Again, she popped her head down through the window on my side. “So, once we get there, I was thinking that before we move onto shooting, we should deal with how you’ll be taking off.”

I simply sat and stared at her, blinking a few times not quite processing what she was insinuating. I mean, she knows I can’t really fly that well. Unless she’s got some way to get me into the air quickly…

My brain screamed to a halt, putting everything together every piece of that particular puzzle nice and neat. I turned to look out the back window at the old flight camp relic bolted onto the back of this vehicle and pouted.

“No no, I…” I stammered, looking back at her. “I can’t use the Dizitron!” I spat out and pressed my wings hard against my sides reflexively. Shaking my head at her, I was only met with an all too sadistic grin. “When they made me use it during military day back at school, I spent the next twenty four hours throwing up and barely being able to stand!”

“Hey!” Lucky snapped from the other side of the Runner. “You will not throw up inside here. Do you understand?” He glared at me before going back to looking at the road. “I do not want three thousand miles of sick stench to be clogging my nose when I’m driving.”

“Calm down, Lucky.” Violet waved her hoof in dismissal. “Bombay here will be fine.” Looking back over at me, I still hadn’t stopped shaking my head no. There were just no words I could use to express the misery that I’d been through with this thing before. “Sickness happens to everypony the first few times when you’re young, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. After a few runs, you’ll get used to the feeling and it won’t even seem like a big deal.”

For some reason, I didn’t believe her. Remembering how she shot out of it during the yak fight, and how violently the machine seemed to move back then, I had my doubts that anypony could ever get used to doing that at all.

Cringing as the whole vehicle tilted, I watched as we turned off the main highway and rolled up a quarter mile long, lightly inclined road. A few rusting hulks lay scattered along one side, all facing towards us as if to warn us that we were going the wrong way. It was about then that a sinking feeling set into every fiber of me being. From the way that both Violet and Lucky seemed to tense up as well, I was fairly sure that for once, it wasn’t just my unfamiliarity with the ground putting me on edge.

“I’m going to get up there and do a few aerial passes.” Violet called across the cab to Lucky.

“Alright.” He nodded, slowing us down. Reaching out, he grabbed onto the center stick again and yanked it. This time, it didn’t grind as much, and I could feel as we started to decelerate much faster. “We will take it slow.” Looking past me, Lucky didn’t exactly look happy about this. “If anything looks out of place…”

“I’ll come running right back.” Violet nodded before pushing herself back up onto the roof. With a hard thump, she jumped into the air and took off in front of us. I watched as she gracefully arced her way higher into the air, her wide wings carrying her almost effortlessly into the sky. Lucky followed my example, leaning closer to the steering wheel as he watched her leave as well.

“I thought you’d already made this trip before.” I was slow to speak the words, but to be honest, it was mostly to avoid any unnecessary silence. This place was starting to give me a creepy vibe, and we hadn’t even made it into town yet. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t know what’s ahead?”

“Yes, we have been up this stretch of highway.” Lucky nodded, slowing us a bit further as we reached the top of the long road. “There was no reason to stop here though. I doubt anypony outside of a few brave souls from the Fort have been here in decades.”

Four tall metal posts stood twisted and sad looking at the four corners of the roadway intersection. Black and charred, they must have melted from when the end hit. Rusting wires, and a few light boxes like the ones I’d once seen in the streets of Neighvarro City sat just as decrepit as the poles, half buried over with old branches and refuse from the old world. With a steady hoof, Lucky guided us past the first pair of poles, and turned us down the perpendicular road that lead into town. Only then did he allow us to come to a complete stop, at which he shut off the engine for us to just sit there.

“Gods…” The words felt like they just dropped out of his muzzle, and for good reason. With the thick vegetation alongside the road, and the fact that the highway was in between two large hills, it was easy to understand how we’d missed what sat before us. A blackened, half burned sign still stood just up the road to our right, still barely declaring ‘Welcome to Cannon City!’ to those heading toward the town behind it. Or, more accurately, only part of the town.

A small, time worn maintenance garage for spark powered vehicles sat just past the sign, parked right next to the vine covered ruins of an old world shopping mart. Across the street sat what looked like an old firehouse, as well as a three story business building just next to it. Several crumbled and burned out business buildings sat lining the street the further down you went. Well, until you reached a couple of buildings that stood half as big as they once were.

They weren’t half their height, but rather were still standing as if somepony cut them from top to bottom down the middle with a large knife. The sparkling, oddly fluorescent green waters that filled in most of the nearly half mile wide crater past the half-buildings, shimmered in the midday’s light. The lake was almost perfectly round, even up to the concave cliff face that sat carved into the side of the mountain’s base we sat on. The charred and twisted trunks of old trees that sat immediately around the crater quickly tapered off to reveal less and less charred trees, leaving most of the surrounding wilderness completely untouched.

“What… what happened here?” I asked more for the sake of just saying something about the sight before me.

“Same as everywhere else, probably.” Lucky said with a sigh, relaxing a bit and taking his hooves off the steering wheel. “The end of the world.” Still, like him, I found my attention glued to both the horrificness and serenity of the scene before us.

Four velvety blue hooves slammed down on the hood of the Runner with a bang, making both Lucky and I jump in our seats.

“It’s clear.” Violet called as she leaned down and looked through the windshield with a bright smile. “What? You two are so pale that you look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Looking over to Lucky with a chuckle, she cocked her eyebrow at him. “And trust me, it’s hard to tell with you, Lucky.”

“Zoomer...” He grumbled before leaning against his door and nearly throwing it open. “I am going to look around. You have forty five minutes to practice.” Hopping out of the Runner, Lucky stormed off with heavy hoofsteps on the cracked and dusty old road.

“Oh, come on!” Violet called out to him. “Hey, if you’re going scaving, see if you can find me something good!” Both of us stared and watched as Lucky simply yelled something back over his shoulder in what must have been Zebra-speak, because it didn’t sound like any sort of word I’ve ever heard before. “Eh, he’ll find us something good. Always seems to come back with something good from the old world whenever he’s scavenging.”

Staring ahead, I watched as Lucky headed for the old maintenance garage. It was… odd to me to think that he was just going to walk in there and start taking things. I understand that these were the ruins of the old world, and that no pony had been here in quite some time, but still. Was it not better to let the dead and their belongings lie undisturbed?

“Is… this really how the whole world is now?” I spoke, again, letting my eyes wander over the ruins of the city.

“Yes. No.” Violet sighed as she hopped off the hood and quickly hoofed open my door. “It’s complicated.” She shrugged, holding her hoof out to me. Taking it, I hopped out of the cab, and onto the gritty old road. The air here was cool, but not cold, even though we were still this far north and at a high elevation. Really, it was quite nice compared to the chilly winds I’d had to endure so far, even if I didn’t quite know why it was like this here.

As I stood there in the road, Violet didn’t even allow me a single moment before she started to tug and rearrange my saddle. With a few clicks and nudges, the few wires that interconnected across my saddle were secured around my hooves and to both the heavy submachine gun hanging off my right, and the three bright yellow grenades sitting in my saddle to the left.

“Alright,” Violet spoke up, moving to right in front of me, “open up and say ‘ahh’...” She said while fiddling with the saddle’s bit that still hung on it’s mounting at my chest. With a squeak, she swung it up and maneuvered it right against my muzzle. Opening my mouth, she quickly fit it in and used her forehooves for me to clamp right around it.

Not going to lie, it tasted absolutely horrible. It was like licking the dust off of a piece of silverware you weren’t allowed to take out of your muzzle, all while tasting like burned metal. Still, at least it didn’t feel sharp or that uncomfortable. More out of place than anything, really.

“How’s that fit?” She asked, taking a step back and canting her head.

“Tachlechet” I tried to speak through the bit, fumbling my words all over the damn thing. Okay, that’s something I don’t like at all. Pushing on it with my tongue, I found it was like wrestling with a pen for the first time, and I was quickly finding myself on the losing side once again...

“No no, don’t spit it out. Not yet at least.” She uttered, waving her hoof. “Just, at least first use your tongue to make sure the mechanisms work.” She raised her wing out to my left. “The left bit will activate the drop rig. Try it now.”

Fumbling around the bit with my tongue, I cringed as I licked what felt like half a fire’s worth of ashes off of the thing before i found the curved trigger on it. Pulling it, I felt the wire on my left side pull taught until with a crisp snap, one of the yellow dummy grenades dropped out of it’s rigging.

“Good.” Lowering her wing, she put up the other one. “The right trigger bit will fire your Bison submachine gun.” Turning her wing, she pointed it toward the odd looking black firearm. “It’s fully auto and has a fifty round helical magazine. I realize those are just words to you right now, but it just means you’ll be able to fire in bursts for quite a while before you reload. Of which, you only get one other magazine to swap to by the way. This means that you need to fire in short, controlled bursts.”

Wiggling my tongue around to the other side of the bit, I found another trigger waiting for me. This one however, felt a little bit different, having two compressible prongs rather than the single one on the other side. Depressing the outer one first, the wire on my right tightened and with a snap as crisp as the grenades, the submachine gun shuddered.

“That first trigger closed the bolt. Something you’ll need to do every time a fight starts, or after you kick the reload lever on your right rear leg.” Violet nodded, pointing along the wire that ran to the lever on my right hind leg. “Okay, try the second trigger now.”

Pulling on the first trigger until I felt it press into the other one, I noticed that there was more resistance to it. It was so stiff and hard to pull back, that I was almost afraid I wouldn’t be able to do this at all, let alone in combat. But then something gave, and the gun gave off a very loud clack.

“Good. Trigger mechanism seems good.” She nodded with a smirk. “Seems a bit tight, doesn’t it?” Looking at me, her smirk formed into a smile when I nodded. “Don’t worry. When the adrenalin starts flowing in a fight, that break weight will feel lighter than a feather.” I seriously doubted that, but then again, part of me hoped that would be true. The last thing I wanted to do was to be useless when I could have done something to help. “Alright, you can spit your bit.”

Pushing it out of my muzzle, I basically gasped and lolled my tongue out. “Goddesses that tastes horrible.” I whined, sitting down to fight the urge to lick my own foreleg to get the taste out of my muzzle. “Isn’t there any other way you could set this up to work?”

“It may feel uncomfortable, but you’ll get used to it.” Violet shrugged. “I don’t even know how else we could set it up…” Pausing in thought, she ran her forehoof under her muzzle. “You know, I could always see if Boiler could hook up some sort of forehoof release for the grenades, given the way you fly...” Looking back at me, again she shrugged. “But the gun’s still only going to be useable with the bit.”

“I don’t know…” I sighed, looking down at the forged bit hanging in front of my muzzle. “Do I really need the machine gun?”

“Submachinegun. And well, it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Violet reached out and ruffled at my mane with her hoof. My green and yellow locks fluffed and fell into my vision for a moment before she nudged them away with a giggle. “Three grenades is more than enough to end a fight anyway.” Stepping up beside me, she reached down with her wing and scooped up the training grenade that I’d dislodged. With a grunt, she used her wing to shove it back into it’s mount and hook up the release line again. “Besides, if you get lucky, one grenade will be all it’ll take to end the fight before it begins.”

“What!?” I nearly jumped back from her. A different kind of shiver ran down my spine this time, accompanied by a peculiar painful sensation in my legs. “You want me to start fights by using the grenades?” Flashing in my mind were the memories of the fight with the Yaks. I really didn’t want to repeat that disaster again, even if we won.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?” Violet seemed confused by my question.

“Shouldn’t we try something more relaxed, like, I don’t know,” I spat out quicker than I probably should have. “We could try talking or negotiating with them.” I really needed to learn to think before I spoke more often.

“Hey, I know that what Buck said might have wormed it’s way into your head, but we are not bloodthirsty.” Violet snapped back at me. She seemed to puff up when she was angry, holding her wings out at half length and prodded me sharply with her foreleg. “When I suggest you use the grenades first in a fight, I’m only saying that with the context that there is no avoiding the fight in the first place.”

She sighed and facehooved like Delilah had this morning. “Look, grenades may be a bit much for your average fight, but there are no rules in the wasteland. Raiders, tribals, robots, they aren't going to hold back. Back in basic when I joined the Air Corps, they taught me that during the war, a soldier's chances of living in a firefight halved every six seconds the fight actively carried on.” Putting both her forehooves firmly on my shoulders, she stared directly at me, making sure I was paying attention. “There are no trenches for us, no defensive lines here in the wastes. This isn’t the old world, and every six seconds you fight is six seconds too long because we don’t get reinforcements or support, Bombay. So if it's going to come to it, you hit them hard first. Understand this; excessiveness is decisiveness, because it doesn't have to be a fight when you can end it with one action.”

“I understand.” I nodded vigorously. “I just… I was afraid that what happened last time…”

“Bombay,” Violet said, patting me on the shoulders with a snirk. “That was a cannon shell.” Pointing at the grenades on my side. “These are far less potent, so you shouldn’t have a problem with shrapnel so long as you keep your speed up. Understand?” I think finally, I did. “Good. Now, on to why we’re here.” Pointing her hoof toward the back of the Runner, I almost didn’t want to turn to look. “I know you aren’t fond of the idea, but trust me, in time this will be like second nature to you.”

Looking back, I gave in. I keep bouncing back and forth in my head between being too scared to do anything, and just bucking up and getting it done. There wasn’t any avoiding this today, so I was just going to have to buck up this time.

Stepping around the back of the four wheeled runner, I looked up at the large motorized wheel that still barely bore the faded colors of the shadowbolts of old. The enormous cogged harness around the side was just about the rustiest thing I’d ever seen so far in the wasteland, and I felt like it was giving me tetanus just looking at it. Other than that, I wasn’t sure the enclave would have ever let something in this condition even be touched before heavy maintenance. All the ones I’d seen, and the one I’d been forced to use, had basically been factory new!

“Go ahead and hop in while I get her powered up.” Violet gave me a tap on the shoulder with her hoof before turning and trotting back around to the driver's side of the cab. “Don’t worry, I’ll start it out on it’s lowest setting. Once you feel comfortable, then we can try something faster.”

Giving a dry gulp, I opened my wings and flapped hard. The thicker air down near the ground here helped a little when it came to flying, but without the wind like on the open tundra, even the four hop to get into the Runner’s rear bed felt like a struggle. Looking up at the harness, I held my wings out again and jumped this time. The extra force of the jump did help a little, but as soon as I’d hooked my forehooves over the edge of the harness, I pulled my wings against me again. If I was just about to be thrown a few hundred feet into the air, I’d really like my wings to not be too tired to glide me to the ground. Slipping myself into the arched harness, I couldn’t help but pray for a moment to the goddesses for this to be over as quickly and painlessly as possible. With a snap and a whine, the motor on the back of the disk buzzed to life, and the spring loaded harness clamped around me.

“Okay, so, she’s on power setting one.” Violet called back out of the cab. As she did, the Dizzitron gave a shudder before the harness cog began to slowly rotate with me on it. The main wheel itself also began to move, and the whole world turned itself upside down. “Now, I just hope that Lucky remembered to calibrate the release timer to face the sky, rather than the ground…”

“What!?” I cried out, instantly regretting everything about this whole afternoon. Unfortunately, the whine in the motor picked up before I could get my hooves to pull me from the harness, and I was pulled slightly to the outside of the spooling gyro.

“I’m joking!” Violet yelled out to me. “Now hold on!”

Faster and faster I spun. The thicker air down here may have helped a little with my wings before, but as I whipped around and around, the air battered against me like a storm. I forced my eyes shut as the world became nothing but a spinning mass of colors, and the whine was all that I could hear. With a metallic clank, the harness around me slipped away, and the whining of the Dizzitron drifted away, replaced with the whistling of the wind around me.

I was still spinning, I knew that much. I fought against centrifugal force, trying my best to keep as curled up as I could be for the time being. Thankfully though, I could tell I was reaching the maximum height of my ark. My spin slowed, and I opened my eyes to correct myself.

Same as it had been the first time I’d ever used a Dizzitron, while I had stopped physically spinning, the world hadn’t. My vision still wobbled and turned as I stretched out and fought back the memories of trying to find the cloudlayer again. This time however, thankfully, I wasn’t a younger colt and I didn’t need to quickly land. Stretching out my wings stiffly, I felt as the air under them caught, and I pulled into a glide. Adjusting my forelegs, I let them hang in front of me like I always did, letting them help to correct my balance. However, something was still wrong, and I was still tilting to the side.

“Hey!” With quick flutters, I heard as Violet joined me up in the air. After a moment, she pulled herself up along side me, matching my odd, listing glideslope. “Remember to correct for the weight of your gear. It’s throwing you off course.”

Shit, right. “Okay!” I nodded and adjusted the pitch angle of my right wing. I couldn’t help but smile as both the world finally stopped spinning, and I pulled onto a level course.

“See, that wasn’t so bad?” Violet couldn’t hide her smile as she spoke, rolling slightly and giving me a soft nudge. “Not nearly as disorienting as you remember, is it?”

“No.” I shook my head, matching her smile. Rolling to the right again, I turned us over toward the large green lake in town. The whole thing glinted and shimmered under the midday sunlight. I could feel the warm thermals that came off of it’s near mirrored surface, and they felt amazing. “Still just as terrifying though.”

“Eh,” Violet shrugged as she kept pace with me. “You’ll get used to it.” Goddesses I’d hoped so. Still, she was right. It wasn’t so bad. “Now, turn back toward the runner and come in for a landing.” Pulling up, she rolled over and flew along with me while she was inverted. “I’ll go and make sure it’s reset for another spool up.”

“Alright.” I nodded, fully knowing that I wasn’t actually afraid to try it again. I couldn’t help but feel proud of myself for actually bucking up and doing this. I mean, Mom and Dad would be…

Mom and Dad weren’t here anymore.

With a sigh, I rolled myself again, banking back toward Mane street. As I did, a small white cloud caught my eye just over the trees on the far side of the lake. It wasn’t the same cloud I’d seen following Bertha before, but it was just as out of place. Smaller in size as well, I had the odd inkling that Hispano was still stalking me.

Quickly descending, I was happy to find that with the combination of the drag from my gear, as well as more of an understanding of the thicker air here, I could flare and dip to keep my speed low enough to land. In just another few moments, I touched down at a respectable cantering speed and slowed myself down to a trot.

“Not bad for a first time. Well, second, technically.” She smiled genuinely and ran her hoof through her striped mane in a very suave manor. “Still not as good as my first time, but decent.”

That actually kicked a question into my head. “What was your time in the service like?” I was curious. Mom always told me that it was the most rewarding job she’d ever had, even if it was hectic and frustrating at times. Still, the way that Violet grimaced at the question let me know that it probably wasn’t the most comfortable of topics for her. With a sigh, she looked back out over to the crater lake.

“I…” She paused, hesitating before looking back at me. “It’s… it’s not that I don’t want to talk about it.” Offering something between a nervous smile and a dismissive look, she turned herself back toward the Runner’s cab as she spoke. “If you really want to know, we can chit chat about it while I show you the ropes on shooting your firearm.”

“That’s fine.” I nodded, trotting back towards the Dizzitron. Even though I didn’t understand most of the things here on the ground, I knew how to read when a pony was uncomfortable. I’d seen it in the mirror more than enough times to know what it looked like. Still, maybe when she’s showing me how to shoot, instead, I could tell her about some things Mom had once told me about the Enclave. Maybe that would help her open up.

Flapping hard again, I pulled myself back onto the bed of the Runner. Standing there for a moment, I heard as Violet gave off a sigh that I’m sure was because of me. I wanted to speak up, but stopped myself. Before I had a chance to say something stupid and ruin her day, I needed to focus on what we came here to do. Climbing up into the harness again, I wiggled myself back against the harness cog.

“Alright, I’m ready!” I called out to her. With another unceremonious jolt and whine, the Dizzitron once again began to spin.

“Night?” Violet called out as I started to spin. I closed my eyes early this time in an attempt to mitigate some of the dizzying aftereffects once I was airborne. “You seemed to handle the low powered setting fairly well, so I’ve stepped up the speed for you this time. I’m going to push your limits to see how well you can handle it.”

Almost as soon as she’d said that, the motor behind me gave out a grinding whine. I found myself pulled the to side even harder than before, and I could feel myself already having to fight against the centrifugal force pulling me outward. Even my eyelids were having a hard time staying shut as the storm like winds felt more and more solid the faster I spun.

As the world became more and more of a blur to me, I felt like my head became heavier. The color in the world bled out, and I felt like at any moment I was just going to pass out from the strain of just trying to brace for the moment of release.

As unceremoniously as it had begun, the harness that held me slipped off with a muffled clack, and I began to tumble up into the air. This time, it was useless to try to hold my legs or wings in. In what must have looked the world's most awkward airborne cartwheel, I was helpless to move. In fact, for a moment, everything went dark. The world felt like a clipshow made of melting wax and muffled sounds.

“Night!” Violet’s voice sounded so far away and muffled. So hard to pay attention to. It was hard, but I focused as best I could on it. “Flare, flare!”

Feeling a burst of panic, my brain forced me to move even before I’d realized what I’d needed to do. My wings shot out at my sides, biting into the air as I forced my eyes open. Quickly correcting for the off balanced weight of my harness, I shoved my forelegs out for stability. With the wind whipping at my mane and muzzle, I skimmed just feet above the bright green lake.

To my surprise, I was moving quite fast still, and the forested edge of the lake was approaching fast. Had my wings been those of a normal pegasi, I could probably pull up fast enough to climb up above the trees. However, being how I was with my stupid wings, I couldn’t. Thinking fast, I rolled to the side and turned as hard as I could. As I changed course, I slowed marginally, but still not fast enough to realize I’d made a mistake in turning this way.

With a shrill eep, I slammed right into the small cloud I’d spotted before. The soft fluff of it offered some resistance, but this was not a cloud built very solidly. Instead, I punched right into it, and slammed right into the very surprised griffin sitting inside of it’s hollowed out center.

The two of us tumbled through the air and down onto the muddy bank of the lake. Thank Celestia for thick mud that practically acted like a cushion. Sure, we rolled and in moments were absolutely covered in mud, but we both flopped to a stop without very much pain.

“Ow…” Hispano whined from beside me. “Why’d you have to do that, Dum Dum?”

“Sorry.” I whined before I sat up in the mud.

“Night…” Violet called out as she swooped down low. I looked up at her in time to see the look of panic sweep across her face. “Night, get away from that thing right now!”

“I’m not a thing.” Hispano seethed as she pushed herself up out of the mud. “I have a name, thank you.”

“Violet, it’s okay. I know her.” I said as I pulled myself to my hooves. The cold mud sloughed down on me as I did, dripping like a thick glue. Looking over at the green water, part of me wanted to just jump in and wash off, but the other half of me cringed at just what was even in the water to turn it green in the first place…

“What?” Violet grunted in annoyance. “What do you mean you know her?”

“She’s the one I mentioned having met on the Empirica?” I said, eyeing over at Hispano. Looking at her, I could almost see the steam drying her muddied head feathers from the anger she held in her eyes. “She told me I should embrace being a mare, though I’m puzzled as to why she’s out here.” It was probably best that I feigned knowing anything else about her for the moment, as it would both keep Violet from second guessing anything, and Hispano from thinking I told the others about Her following us.

“I was… scouting out something for a scaving job.” Hispano offered in a guttural tone, turning and looking up at Violet with her angry eyes. “A ruin, right through those trees.” Without looking, Hispano raised her talon and pointed into the brush. Following it, I traced further back into the brush to find that indeed, there was some sort of overgrown concrete structure sitting a ways into the forest. “Thanks to you, you might have just blown any sort of advantage in case it’s occupied.”

“Oh, um… I see.” Violet looked up to the sky nervously and chuckled. “Well, I’m sorry for all this then. We didn’t mean to intrude.”

“It’s fine.” Hispano grumbled, slogging across the thick mud toward the water. With a painful sounding flop, she tripped and landed face first in the shallow water. For a moment, she just lay there, bubbles popping up from the side of her head. “Ugh.” She said as she pushed herself free again. “I just want to get clean and get out of here. That’s all.” Trodding a bit further, she waded into the green lake and dipped down into it. Well, if she’d sure it’s healthy enough, I might as well do the same.

Stamping through the muck, I made my way into the water as well. It was murkier than I’d thought, not even changing consistency in it’s color as I dipped down into it. Giving myself a vigorous shake while under the surface. The ‘water’ was odd as I did, feeling more abrasive than water should. Still, that actually proved to be a good thing. Surfacing and walking back to shore, I found the mud on me was actually completely gone, and I felt cleaner than I think I’d ever felt in my life.

“Wow, is this yours?” Violet’s voice carried over from where Hispano and I were coming out of the lake. Both of us looked over to see that Violet was rooting around the now half a cloud that was still floating at the treeline. She emerged fully again with Hispano’s overly large gun held in her hooves. “How do you even use something this big?”

“Put. Her. Down.” Hispano growled as her wings snapped out fully. I only had a moment to act, and I did the stupidest thing I could. I wrapped my hoof around Hispano’s side and pulled her back down into the mud. “Arg. WHY!?” Hispano roared and flailed at me. I tried to hold her down, but somehow I ended up on the bottom and she used her position to roll me onto my back and pin me down into the mud. “Stay out of this, Night.” She seethed, sending my mind reeling back to yesterday’s encounter with Salt.

“Hey, hey.” Violet called over. “I put it down, just… step back.” Her voice was calm, collected. She was treading carefully, and I think it gave Hispano some pause.

“You.” Hispano pointed up at Violet. “Don’t touch my stuff.” Looking down at me, she wore an annoyed frown across her beak. “Now, unless you need me to save your flank again, how about we just go our separate ways?” I nodded, offering a nervous smile. Rolling her eyes, her beak twisted into a smile. “See, I like you. You at least make things easy.” Stepping off of me, she walked back over to the water again.

Sitting back up, I gave out a sigh as I looked back at the me shaped depression in the muck. Most of my backside was coated again, so I’d have to get back in the water as well.

“Well, if she’s busy scouting for a job, we might as well skip shooting today.” Violet sighed and hovered herself in the air above me. “Eh, we’ll get to it soon enough.”

Like she’d been pushed up forcefully, Hispano nearly shot out of the water. “Is Dum Dum learning to shoot?” She looked over between Violet and I with a smile. “I’d love to help out, actually! Any excuse to get some practice in, seeing as I hardly get to use Suiza as is.” Wading her way back out of the water, she flared her wings and quickly zipped up toward her cloud. By the time I was back on my hooves, she’d grabbed her gun in her talons and flown back to us.

“It's easy. You just need to practice.” She was nearly beaming in giddiness as she propped it against herself and racked the charging bolt. Pointing her talon back toward the forest, she landed back at the edge of the water on her hind legs. “See that big mossy rock over there? The one next to the main overgrown structure?” Looking, I did see a sort of large boulder sitting in front of the ruins.

“Uhm…” Violet chimed in. “I thought you were just scouting. What if somepony is in there?”

“Ignore her, Night.” She huffed as she shouldered the massive weapon in her talons. “Besides, if anypony IS still over there, what are they going to do from inside? Shout at us?” With a chuckle, she angled her head to look down the sights. “We’ll just fly away if they come at us. Easy peasy.”

Taking a moment to steady the huge cannon in her talons, she tensed up around it before she pulled the trigger. With a tremendous crack, the shot zipped out into the forest. It struck the rock with a spark and a flash, before zipping up with a fizzing noise into the open blue skies. The metallic clang of the impact resonated between the echoing reports drifting across the hillside, and a look of confusion crawled across Hispano's face.

“That's a weird sound.” She craned her neck and scrunched at the same time, seeming genuinely appalled at it. “That sounded like a ricochet from hitting metal.”

The low growl of an archanotech engine resounded through the calm forest air, and the rock itself started to move, slowly rotating. As it did, the moss on top of it slid off, revealing the semi-rusted and battered shape of a very large tank turret. No, that wasn't moss, it was old world camo netting! The near pyramid metal turret was massive, and could have been very easily identified as such had the camouflage not been on it. However, we had not gotten so lucky.

All three of us were so caught off guard, that we couldn’t help and stare. The large bore cylinder that swung around toward us didn’t look like a cannon in the traditional sense. It was heavily rusted, and seemed to be slightly bent at a downward angle. At the end of it, instead of a gaping hole like a cannon had, instead it had a opaque crystalline lense with an aperture stuck at the back of it, making it almost look like the front of an old world camera.

“Night?” Violet spoke as she floated down and quickly tapped on my shoulder. Looking up, she looked absolutely terrified. “We should…”

A blinding flash of light filled the air all around us, and just like that, the world disappeared completely.