Well, this wasn’t exactly a new feeling, but sitting in an infirmary waiting for news of what’s wrong with me never really seemed to get any easier. At least this time I wasn’t in excruciating pain, or completely unconscious. Still, I’m not sure if that means it’s any better...

Keeping pressure on the bump where Buck drew blood from my foreleg, I couldn’t do anything but watch as he studied the sample under a microscope. With every few moments of observation, Buck reached over and wrote something down on a clipboard next to him. Cora stood there, stoically studying whatever Buck wrote. He shifted uneasily, and what looked like painfully with the bandages still tightly wrapped around his chest. Still, while I wasn’t looking forward to what they’d find out about me, it was good to at least have Cora healthy enough he wanted to help.

“Hmmm, that’s odd.” Buck pulled off the microscope and plucked the clipboard from the counter. “Take a look and tell me what you think, Cora.” He lightly gestured to the scope with his free paw as he moved out of the way for the injured griffon. Concern buried itself into his expression as he looked over his own notes again. But, it wasn’t until he gave me a quick glance and a frown that I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“Alright, let’s…” Cora grumbled as he looked through the lens. He scrunched up his beak, reaching up to the microscope’s controls as he seemed perplexed. He gave the slightest tweak to one of the knobs on it and a soft click preempted the knob sheering right off in his talon. “What the…” He took a step back again as the entire metal microscope gave a light pop and completely fell apart. “I barely touched it at all.”

“What exactly are we dealing with here?” The words slipped out of my muzzle. Could this curse really affect things around me?

“It’s as I feared when I observed the sample.” Buck sighed as he pawed the clipboard over to Cora, who took it before both of them turned to me. “There’s some sort of odd, chaotic magic permeating your body, Night. I’ve noticed trace amounts of it before when doing your blood-work, but it was always benign, or at least, that’s what I thought. Turns out, it was just dormant, and something’s made it stronger.”

“Magic?” I asked as bluntly as ever. “What kind of magic?” My gut gave a twist as Buck took a moment to glance over and trade looks with Cora. I didn’t want him to say it was a curse, but inside I already knew it was.

“I’ve only ever seen this sort of magic before a few times back in ‘Claw.” Cora snorted. “But if what Buck’s observations here point to are correct? It is some sort of Chaos based magic that’s not too far off the principles that Killing Joke works off of, but… this is something slightly different. Not unheard of, but I myself have never seen anything as advanced as what’s inside you.”

“If what Hispano recounted to us was correct about your time getting your father back,” Buck sighed as he sat himself down on his haunches and crossed his mechanical paws. “I have a theory that the dose of home-brewed Hydra you used must have amplified or changed the magic inside you to act unpredictably. This has manifested in such a way that you think it’s this ‘curse’ you were talking about...”

“That’s it! It is the curse, Buck!” Well, at least I have some sort of evidence now that I’m not crazy. “She told me in my dream that it was the Hydra that helped her, and that is consistent with what you’re seeing, isn’t it?”

“This curse talked to you?” Cora grunted as he set the clipboard down. “It’s worse than I thought.”

“Please, don’t tell me you…” Buck snorted and rolled his eyes, but paused as Cora met him with an annoyed glare.

“Again, I know you’re normally the authority here, but I’ve seen curses before. Closer… than someone should.” For a moment, I could see the spark of regret in Cora’s eyes, and I knew he was thinking about Suiza right then. “Night isn’t crazy if he says he spoke with it. And based on what little I understand, I have a theory.” He stepped up toward me and squeezed his talons into tightly curled balls. Slowly, he raised them up like he was going to fight me. “Observe.” With a sharp yell, he lunged at me and swung hard.

I hadn’t expected him to attack me, and while I did my best to shrug off the hit, his talon snapped my muzzle and head to the side. Pain erupted momentarily from my muzzle as I yelped and quickly found myself tumbling onto the floor. I did my best to try to catch myself, but once more, I landed on my weakened, recently healed foreleg. As I should have expected, there was a sickening squelch as it gave out under me with a flesh muffled snap.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Buck cried out as he quickly shoved Cora away. His gentle paws were quick to scoop me up, and as I regained my senses from the hit, we both looked at my broken foreleg as it flopped around again. “Are you fucking serious!?” He gave out a growl and turned his brightly glowing augmented eye at Cora, casting a red light across the room. “How does undoing all the work I’ve done prove anything!?”

“Tell me,” Cora groaned as he pushed himself back to his paws from across the small infirmary. “What’s the statistical chance a blow to the face would break a leg?”

“I don’t fucking care what the chance is!” Buck all but roared out to him as he carefully set me down onto the bed again. “That’s no excuse!”

Buck might not have cared, but… what Cora was saying mirrored what she’d told me in my dream.

“What is misfortune other than just the wrong end of probability?” The words tumbled from my muzzle, getting both Buck and Cora to turn to me again. “That’s what she told me, saying that the fabric of our reality was ‘hers’ to toy with.”

“Then it’s exactly what I was afraid of.” Cora grumbled as he sat himself down and uncomfortably rubbed at the slowly reddening bandages around his chest. “Ah, fuck, how did I tear the stitches?”

“I’ll fix it, but you need to start talking.” Buck grumbled as he stepped over towards Cora. “If you’ve seen this before, what is happening to him?” Buck’s mechanical arms opened up, revealing his medical tools as he began to help Cora remove the bandages around him.

“I’ve never seen it particularly like this, but a decade or so ago, ‘ol Bookbeak had a visiting talon fly in with a curse. He asked me to help him go through a few books on the topic back in ‘Claw.” Cora nodded to him, wincing as the last of the bandages were removed to reveal a small patch of missing plumage where a small, nearly healed bullet wound sat. “I can’t say for sure, but I think what Night has is a type of old zebra jynx that was commonly applied to bullets. Not a full blown lethal curse, but one of Night’s ancestors probably survived a hit from one such bullet during the war, and it’s been affecting his bloodline ever since.”

So one, I definitely wasn’t crazy, and I really was cursed. Two, I’m not alone in having it happen to me. If it was a wartime issue, then there’s got to be plenty of information on it somewhere out there. But, that brings me to point three. If I’m not the first, then there has to be a way to fix it. While I’m sure Destruction Bay would have been my best bet, I can’t exactly fly all the way up there to get it fixed, not when Solomon is still out here pursuing the Ark.

“So… how do we get rid of it?” I asked flatly. It was a long shot, but… maybe we’d get lucky and it wouldn’t be that hard to get rid of it! Cora’s nonchalant shrug however, put a pretty big damper on that early hope.

“The books mentioned it was curable, but only suggested that anypony affected by such a curse seek out professional help at a Ministry of Peace hospital.” Cora brought his talon up to his face and curled it around his beak, dropping into a look of deep thought. “I’m fairly certain that the Ministry of Peace regional headquarters in Seaddle held the largest collection of curse information on the Equestrian west coast, but it was destroyed when half the city slid into the water. But… the Ministry buildings in Vanhoover weren’t in the part of the city hit hardest by the bombs. It’s not a guarantee that they’ll have anything, but it could hold some answers, and it might not be a complete deathtrap.”

“While that’s a nice sentiment,” Buck cringed as a pair of tiny articulating mechanical clasps got to work sewing up the wound on Cora’s chest. “it doesn’t solve how we tackle this until we make it down there.”

“I may have a solution for that.” Hispano’s cool voice drifted in through the open bulkhead door. The smiling young griffon peeked her head inside, pausing as her eyes drifted from my face, down to my broken leg. “Well, that’s only if he can make it down to Vanderhoof in one piece. Geeze, I thought you two were doctors, what did you do to him?”

“Your father punched him in the face to prove a point.” Buck stated flatly as his mechanical paws finished up working on Cora and pulled all of its little medical bits back inside his boxy metal arms. Honestly, I wanted to be angry at him for hitting me, but part of me knew Cora probably deserved to let some frustration out on me. “But, what was that about a solution?”

“Well, this city’s got some sort of miracle healer or something, able to heal practically anything. Happy’s currently following up on it down in East city, but if you want to know more, I’ll take you down to our friends in West city.” Hispano shrugged before gesturing to my leg. “I’ll explain it on the way, but you should get his leg fixed up, grab your cloak, and meet me at the Remora.”

“East and West city?” I asked and looked over to Buck and Cora. “I thought we were at Vanderhoof.”

“We are,” Buck nodded before stepping over and carefully using his paw to grab my broken leg. “but the city has been fighting itself for a long time. From what Eliza told, they built a wall and no-pony’s land through the center of town, and now they only occasionally shell each other over the walls.” Right, Blue Cross did mention that about the place… “And one moment,” Turning to Hispano, Buck offered her a flat glare. “You let Happy off the ship?”

“What? You kicked him out of the infirmary.” Hispano rolled her eyes. “I was going to go down and scout things out, and I didn’t think going alone was the best idea. You know, in the case Pentex were waiting to ambush us.”

“Except you’re here, which means…” Buck sharpened his glare, only pulling a frustrated grunt from Hispano. “You left him alone.”

“He’s fine.” Hispano propped herself up in the doorway and crossed her talons. “He’s with the Mayor of West City, and nopony’s going to attack her and risk an all out conflict. Not even Solomon would be stupid enough to do that, there’s no benefit for him in it.”

“She’s right.” Cora groaned as he pushed himself back onto all fours. “He wouldn’t risk being seen as untrustworthy, not when he still needs all the help he can get.”

“Plus, mayor Thunderbolt’s in power armor, so she could probably handle most things if Happy needed to be protected.” I blurt out and shrugged. It was only in the stark silence that followed that I realized that they’d stopped moving to simply stare at me. “What?”

“How… did you know she was in power armor?” Hispano spat. “No, fuck that, how did you know her name?”

“Yeah…” Buck scrunched up his muzzle before letting his medical attachments work on my leg. “Eliza didn’t tell you that, I would have heard her say it.”

“Again, cursed.” I shifted my look over all three of them. “She showed it to me in that Utopian dream she stuck me in.” Hispano scrunched her beak up like Buck’s face, and Buck just continued to be baffled at it. Cora on the other hoof, simply nodded.

“Curses are strange magic, so I wouldn’t put predictive or prophetic visions out of their scope. Especially if it helps to further its own goals.” Cora shrugged and slowly made his way to the door. “All the more reason we need to find a way to remove it.”

“So wait, Night really is cursed then?” Hispano gave a soft gasp of horror and stiffly covered her beak with a talon. “And all along I thought it was just because Dum Dum here was an idiot.”

“Ha. ha.” I grumbled. Seriously, I get why she was joking, but… I was with Cora on this. The sooner I got rid of this curse, the better. At least, I needed to get rid of it before it seriously hurt the ones I loved.

“Regardless, get your shit fixed and meet me on the Remora.” Hispano cooed as she pushed herself off the doorway and stretched out her wings. “I’ll grab your shit for you, Night. Tofu should be just about done with it.”

I wanted to tell her to hold up, but she was gone before I could even open my muzzle. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get back to work just yet, but I still had to know how she was holding up. While I know that my dream wasn’t real, I hoped that she’d made peace with Cora all the same. If anything, I just wanted to hear her tell me she was doing alright…

“I would like to remind you,” Eliza’s voice chimed through the speakers in the wall as her smiling mare popped into my vision. “without Doctor Buck’s approval, you are still relieved of any and all duties, Captain.”

“Right.” I nodded and spun my gaze to meet Buck’s, wincing as I accidentally tweaked my leg in his hold enough it emit a fleshy sounding squelch. Again, thank Celestia for the painstopper... “Well, what do you say, Doc? Am I cleared for duty again?”

“Well, with Happy down there, and Cora still needing to rest here...” Buck paused as he glanced over to the deadpan Cora was giving, only for the worn out griff to sigh and nod. “Provided that you agree to take it easy down there and wear a leg brace, I guess you are.” To be fair, I got where Cora was coming from, even if he wasn’t dumb enough to go running off like I would. Though, with whatever this curse was, I think it would be best to take it easy anyway. “But I’m coming with you two. Because after all, we’re a team now, right?” I froze up as Buck turned his gaze solely on me. “The three of us need to make decisions together, right?”

Damnit, Hispano...

With the light scraping of bone that sent a shiver through my numb body, Buck set the bone once more. A syringe from his arm articulated out and pushed into me, injecting what looked to be like a good helping of healing potion and what I could only assume was some sort of bone mending medicine. Well, hopefully now that it was fixed, again, maybe I’ll be able to keep it intact for an entire day!

Who am I kidding, with my luck, my curse, I’m sure I’ll have lost the entire leg by the end of the hour…

I didn’t like it. The leg brace Buck had strapped around my leg rubbed annoyingly at my coat, and in combination with my tighter than normal flight harness, I felt like by tomorrow I’d be covered in rashes and patches of missing coat. Still, it was either this or break my leg, again, so I’d just have to deal with it.

The three of us shifted slightly as the magnetic seal uncoupled the Remora from the Arcturus, and the engines tilted us down towards Vanderhoof. It wouldn’t be a long ride, but at least it wasn’t as cramped as usual here. Even so, the three of us sat close together, and I happily pressed myself back against Buck’s warm fur behind me.

“How’s the harness feel?” Hispano asked as she moved herself closer to me, saddling herself up at my side. She pointed to Xeno’s boxy subgun as it sat strapped directly under my barrel in the slot meant for a cannon shell. “Tofu had a hell of a time adapting the release mechanism so you can fire and reload it, and she said it might feel a bit tighter because of that.”

“Yeah, it’s tight.” I grunted as I deliberately shifted myself to strain the straps. Again, the painstopper did it’s job and kept me from feeling like it was digging into me. “But I don’t think it will restrict my movement in a fight.”

“Let’s just not put that to the test, alright?” Buck sighed and lowered his head down, resting his metal jaw against the back of my neck. “We’ve done enough fighting already, and the next fight I’ll be okay with us having is with Solomon.”

“Sure, but it’s better to be ready, right?” Hispano reached into a pair of new saddlebags I don’t think I’d seen her wear before. From inside, she drew out my flight cap and held it out for me. “I know I’d normally make some joke about it, but… I think Buck’s right.” She held an uncharacteristically soft smile across her beak, but just looking her in the eyes told me that she believed every word she said. “Let’s have you avoid fighting today, alright?”

That… was something unexpected. While I’m glad she’s not as eager as before to get back out there, I’d have thought she’d have been rearing to go see some action again. Taking the flight cap, I hoofed it up to my head, but paused as I heard something odd. It was a heavy, sporadic thumping from outside the remora. Almost like thunder off in the distance…

My thoughts were interrupted as the Remora sharply banked to the right. Hispano slammed against me, and the two of us were almost crushed by Buck as he did his best to brace against the cabin walls. Heavy blasts erupted from below the Remora, shaking the cloudship and almost rattling it’s armored cabin doors open.

“What the hell is going on!” I grumbled into Buck’s fuzzy chest as Hispano likewise simmered angrily under him.

“They said there wasn’t a shelling scheduled for today!” She snapped as she wrestled herself out from under Buck. With another growl, she pulled Suiza close to herself and hammered her buttstock against the armored door. “Let me out, now.”

“I thought you didn’t want a fight today.” Buck snorted as he pulled himself off of me. With as much care as ever, he gently used his mechanical paw to help me back up to my hooves, and then pull my still healing hoof to where he could see it. “Okay, it’s not broken again, so at least there’s that.”

“Yeah, you aren’t going to fight them, I am.” Hispano cooed sharply as she hammered Suiza against the door again. “And oh, it won’t even be a fight. They fucking promised that they wouldn’t attack. But what should I really have expected from some backwater Cordite and Road Crew?”

“What are you talking about? What Road Crew?” Jumping right back into my average normal everyday confused state, I cringed as her glaring side-eye hit me harder than I think she intended.

“After talking with the Mayor and explaining we were sent by the Sky Marshal, she told us to inform the Road Crew that they wouldn’t be shelling the east side this week!” She grumbled and sat down hard on her haunches. “And after talking with that stupid asshole mayor from East city, he said their Cordite crews wouldn’t fire either!” With a rap of her Claws along Suiza, Hispano let out a growl and ruffled her wings. “But now it looks like somepony’s going to need their flank handed to them!”

“Then it sounds like we simply need to speak with both mayors again.” Buck kept his tone softer, but his words were as stern as Delilahs when she was irritated. The Remora jostled us as it’s engines thrust harder, slowing us and preparing us for our descent and landing. “I don’t think resorting to violence is the best course of action here when it might be some sort of misunderstanding.”

“Why don’t you tell me that again when you see what those assholes have done to the place.” A disgusted look crept across Hispano’s face, and she looked down at her sister. “Cordite, the Road Crew? They’re here for the paycheck, nothing else. And while that’s how talons are too, we don’t resort to senseless attacks. Not like this.”

With a hydraulic whine, the armored cabin doors pulled back from the sides of the Remora. Dust and snow whipped up by the engines flooded the cabin, forcing us to cover our faces as we stepped out. It wasn’t until the Remora shut it’s engines down that I could truly get a look around me, and I had to say, it was worse than I could have ever thought.

The pictures that Laika and Blue Cross had shown me didn’t do the destruction here justice. There was hardly a building standing anymore, just piles of brick and wood rubble. Makeshift tents crowded around burning junk bonfires, dotting the ruins where dozens of sickly and starved looking ponies sifted through them.

Off to our left, about a half a kilometer toward the east side of the city, I could see the twenty meter high concrete wall that ran just under the raised and surprisingly still intact highway that split Vanderhoof down the middle. The wall itself had dozens of well armed ponies sitting or walking along the top of it, with guard posts and stairwells every hundred meters or so along it. It was an oppressive structure, and a sign that something much deeper plagued this city than I’d been lead to believe.

Turning right, I could see the bulk of what made up ‘West city’. Three brick buildings sat across from the monolithic concrete box I’d seen in the photos taken by the Federation. They were the only intact structures more than a single story tall, and even then, looked in rougher shape than the pictures made out. Hundreds of smaller tents and shacks ringed this ‘city center’, and five plumes of smoke rose into the air from where the artillery strikes had hit.

“When we first came up this way following the convoy, Vanderhoof was nothing like this.” Hispano sighed dejectedly. “Sure there had been fighting every few years, but mostly they tolerated each other. But ever since the clouds cleared up, it’s gotten worse. To the point that there’s fears that there’s going to be an all out war between the two cities unlike anypony here’s ever seen.”

Buck stiffened up as he turned and looked at the carnage, pulling the hood of his cloak back. His radar dish like ears tweaked slightly, and a look of muted horror slowly overcame his expression. Looking down at me, he frowned before unslinging his duffle bag from his back..

“I can hear a lot of wounded over there.” Buck’s voice wavered for a moment as his hollow gaze was somewhat replaced with what looked like him doing the math for everything in his head. “There’s too many, I don’t have enough supplies…”

“Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one helping here. You’ll have friends.” Hispano cooed as she reached her talon over and gently gave Buck’s arm a pat. “Go, help them. Night and I will go talk with the Road Crew and then come find you.”

“Okay, but…” Buck paused, giving a momentary glance to me. “No fighting, alright?”

“We’ll try, but no promises.” Hispano nodded, pulling a light growl out of Buck. However, torn between helping and yet another lecture, he made his choice and took off with heavy stomps across the snowy ground. “Alright, if you would follow me, Night.” Hispano flared her wings and pointed to the sky. “Let’s go have a chat.”

Unfurling my wings, the stiffness from them made me wince. Goddesses, I probably should have stretched before getting right back to flying after a week off, but I couldn’t do it now. Flapping hard, I felt the gravity talisman in my pack hum to life, and Hispano and I began a short climb into the air.

The higher we climbed, the more of the ruined city I could see. Unlike the nice, pristine grids outside of Cantercross, I almost couldn’t tell where the streets here once were. The rubble and debris had been strewn almost evenly across the whole city, and even the few places that looked like they once lead underground, were now frozen over with ice. That, or they were filled with the same prismatic sludge we saw outside of Cantercross. There was also no green. No trees, or vegetation of any kind grew within the ruins of the city. Instead, the tree line stuck strictly to the outskirts, almost as if it was waiting until this place was completely destroyed before it advanced forward to swallow it up.

Hispano and I banked over, heading right for the center of the city. It wasn’t until we’d just flown over the start of the makeshift slums that I could see where we were headed for. Just beyond the concrete monolith, lay what looked like a district of old warehouse ruins. Dozens of old world construction machines sat rusting away or buried under tons of decaying metal.

However, within the still standing chain link fences, a few dozen road crew vehicles sat in working condition. Most of them were your standard up armored bulldozers and backhoes, but six of them were modified bucket loaders. Each of them had their buckets removed, and instead, a pair of large artillery barrels were secured to each of their two hydraulic arms. A half dozen ponies currently rushed around each machine, frantically working together to load each one up with a fresh shell. A few larger cranes were busy moving loads of heavy construction materials overhead, clearing the firing zone from around the guns.

As Hispano and I began our descent, a shadow passed over us. I looked up just in time to see a tan colored dragon half the size of Lustre, dive down toward the Road Crew workyard. A few ponies scrambled to get out of the way before the dragon flared it’s wings and came down hard. Snow and dust were pushed back, and the airburst even jostled Hispano and I on our approach. I watched with interest as the dragon reached up, forcing an oversized cowpony had down over his two, oddly wooden, prong-like horns. He brought his massive jet black claws up, and straightened out a fuzzy white vest that had a gold star pinned to one of it’s breast pockets.

“Excuse me,” His snarling voice was joined by a gout of green flame from his muzzle, “Just what in Tartarus do you think y’all are doin’?”

“Our job, what’s it look like?” The shrill voice of a stallion came up from below as Hispano and I dipped over the top of the chain link fence, landing just short of the irate looking brick colored earth pony. The supervisory flags that flew from his helmet snapped around as his piercing glare shot over at me. “And who the fuck are you? I’m not running a zoo here, this is a Road Crew restricted work zone!”

“He’s my boss,” Hispano shouted, stepped between the stallion and me. “And it’s good you’re both here, because you fucking promised me you’d quit this shit,” She jabbed a talon at the dragon, who surprisingly looked a bit ashamed at her words. “And you, you told the mayor you weren’t going to start shit this week, and I quote, no matter what!”

“Hey, that was before they fired at us!” The stallion snapped back, flailing his forehoof at Hispano. “I’m going to do the job I was hired for, and return the favor.”

“Look, I came here with a message from the Cordite folks.” The dragon snorted, shooting another gout of flame that reflected off the large brass object hanging from a length of old chain he wore like a belt. It took me a moment, but I recognized it as one of the Cordite flare revolvers, except this one had the barrel of a small howitzer welded to it, muzzle brake and all. “As you know, they’ve got their vehicles linked up as a battery. Now, I ain’t sayin’ it was right, but one-a them failed ta turn off the automated refire command...”

“And so what!? I’m just supposed to sit here and not retaliate?” The stallion snorted and spun on his hooves sharply. “Nah, if those bastards get to shell the town we’re here to protect, then I get to fucking do the same to them. Now kindly fuck off unless you want an eighty eight to ruin your day too.”

“Night, you want to step in here?” Hispano asked flatly as she glanced back at me. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to do, but…

“Okay, okay, both of you, calm down.” I snorted and pulled their angry gazes to me. Great. “Why don’t we just take a second to talk about this before it gets out of hoof?”

“And again, who the fuck are you!” The brick colored stallion laughed in my face. “Are you daft, or just lookin’ to get on the bad side of the Road Crew? Because believe me, I won’t hesitate to make an example out of some filly going off half cocked in my camp.” Oh really? I’m supposed to be afraid of the Road Crew? “You think you can come here and just step over me? You have no authority here, little girl.”

“Let me be clear, I supersede your authority.” Reaching up, I prodded at the stallion with my braced leg. “And if you want to keep your job as a supervisor, you are going to get on the radio, and explain to Queen Lustre that the Survivor is here.”

“Sure, sure.” The stallion smirked and looked back at the other crew around us, forcing out laughs at that. “Let me explain something to you that you seem to be a bit fuzzy on.” Leaning in, he wrapped his fetlock around my leg and gave it a sharp twist. It wasn’t enough to break it again, but the brace gave a pretty impressive creak. To his credit, he did seem a bit disturbed that I didn’t even flinch. “I don’t care who you are, but if you think I’m going to waste my time on a nopony mare like you, then you are sorely mistaken.”

“Let. Night. Go.” Hispano growled as she pulled up Suiza.

“Now let’s all just calm down here…” The dragon held his claws out to us, “I may not be your mayor, but Thunderbolt won’t tolerate a murderer in this town. And don’t think you can come over to East City to hide, because I won’t tolerate it either.”

“Shut it, mayor Sheriff.” The stallion seethed and glared over his shoulder. That… certainly was an interesting name if ever I’d heard one. “I’ll deal with trespassers how I see fit, and I’ll do my job in shelling your town because if I don’t, I don’t collect a paycheck.” Okay, wow, so this guy was really just that unreachable. He was honestly as bad as Solomon if this was how he saw everything. “So unless you want to pay me to stop, or want to kill me yourself, then would you and everyone else here who’s not Road Crew, kindly fuck off!”

Twang

The sharp snap of a cable sheering overhead forced everypony’s gaze upwards. One of the pallets of metal beams being hoisted by a crane shifted as another metallic groan filled the air. Hispano and I jumped backwards as a second cable snapped, dumping the pallet toward the ground.

The brick colored pony scrambled to run, but disappeared under the mountain of steel as it came down hard. The tremendous clangs of bending and rending metal filled the air as dust and snow was once again kicked up to cloud the area. The Road Crew around us didn’t hesitate, running in and shouting to each other and coordinating their movements. They worked quickly to clear beam after beam, almost completely in unison. That is, until the crushed and mutilated corpse of the brick pony was revealed, and muffled expletives were the only thing they shared.

“A real shame, isn’t it?” My own voice came from inside the pile of beams. As it shifted subtly, I watched as a crushed and bloody version of me peered back out from it with a smile. With a surprised blink, she was gone.

“You alright, Night?” Hispano heaved as she brought her talon down on my back.

“What?” I looked over at her, blinking again as her expression shifted to a more concerned look. “Yeah, it’s just…”

“A shame.” Mayor Sheriff sighed and hung his large scaly head. Reaching up, he pulled his oversized hat off his wooden horns and brought it down to his chest. “But while Mortar was set in his ways, he always had a tendency to rush things to the point that they never quite worked out for him.” Looking back up, he plopped his hat back over his horns. “Alright, who’s tha’ new supervisor then? Maybe you’ll be open ta’ reason?”

“Hi, former assistant supervisor Bubble Level. Guess I’m in charge now.” A sheepish sounding light orange mare stepped up with a wave. “I’m sorry, but… Mortar was right, we need to do our job.” Really? Even now, they were all committed to needless retaliation? “But, I need to call up to headquarters and report this worksite incident. I can see about postponing it until after that, but we’re going to do what we were paid for.”

“We’re coming with you.” Hispano snorted. “Maybe once you tell the Queen about us, you’ll believe we’re who we say we are.” With a sharp tug, she pulled me along as we followed the mare back towards a well furnished tent.

But as we walked, I couldn’t fight the urge to look behind me. I watched as the pile of steel beams continued to settle and collapse, and I waited for her to show her face again. That… couldn’t have been the fault of my curse, right? It was just supposed to affect me and the ones I cared about.

Maybe I was looking too far into it, but… part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that this was just going to be the start to a whole lot of bad.

“I see.” Lustre’s voice was good to hear again, even if it was through a static filled tabletop radio set. “I can’t pull them out of a contract that the mayor still wishes to hold, but due to the unfortunate worksite incident, I’m giving the whole camp a mandatory grievance time of a week.” Angry muttering and groans came from everypony in the tent around Hispano and I, but Lustre continued. “I’m sorry that’s all I can really offer to you, Night.”

“It’s more than enough, Queen Lustre.” I spoke through the hoofset. “Since Cordite owes me a favor, I’ll see what I can do on their side as well.”

“Well, I wish you luck with that.” She gave a hearty chuckle that I could have sworn made me smell the soot that would’ve come from her fiery breath. “If you can work something out between the two cities, I’d be grateful to have the assets there freed up again. The outpost down there was only meant to be a staging point for further Road Crew operations, but with what’s been happening up here, I’m no longer comfortable in committing to anything further south than Vanderhoof.”

Hispano furrowed her brow at those words. With a swift swipe of her talon, she snatched the hoofset from my grasp.

“What do you mean with what’s going on?” She glanced over me with an iron clad glare. “You don’t need us to come back up and help you, right? Because you need to understand that we can’t really swing that.”

“No, nothing of the sort.” Again, she let out a roaring laugh into her radio. “Large Marge is on the move again, this time to the harbor district. The City Council has prioritized dredging the old wrecks out of the bay in preparation for getting the harbor ready for trade again. With Mr. Wizard dead and gone, the railways are overbooked with shipments from northerners looking to move to the city. Even the ENR is completely booked, which should tell you just what sort of situation we’re in. So, we’re to rebuild the harbor.”

“Mr. Wizard’s dead?” Bubble Level let out a soft gasp as a wave of murmurs picked up behind us among the other Road Crew. “I thought it was just a rumor among the traders...”

While she certainly seemed surprised, it was weird to watch as a wide smile crept across her muzzle. Weirder still was the realization that even this far south, ponies had been under some part of the oppressive hoof of that mad ghoul. I should feel happy for them now that a weight had been lifted from their backs. But… given the state of things around here, I think they needed to work a bit harder on making things better before I could feel good about any of it.

“As nice as it’s been to chat again, put Supervisor Bubble Level back on.” Lustre snorted sharply, prompting the flustered mare to rip the hoofset straight out of Hispano’s talons. She took a moment to straighten out her bright pink mane and put on a serious face as she pushed down on the talk button.

“This is Bubble Level.” She spoke with the same feigned confidence I’d used all too many times before. She wasn’t ready for this job, but that’s just like the wasteland to throw wrenches in every circumstance just to shake things up.

“You are to ensure that your entire crew follows the mandatory grievance period.” Lustre’s tone however was as strong as the dragon it came from. “I expect daily reports broadcast up to headquarters, and... I feel the need to inform you that after speaking with Night Flight, I’ve dispatched Union Representative Rock Saw down to you. She should arrive within the week.”

I watched as those words sunk in to the mare. A flood of emotions washed over her, ending with what looked like a sharp twinge of anger. With more force, she pressed the talk button again.

“Do you feel I am not ready to serve this position, Ma’am?” Bubble almost spat into the receiver. She sounded like Lustre had just outright called her incompetent, and from the gasp that came from the crew around Hispano and I, I could guess that wasn’t exactly the ‘yes, Ma’am’ I’d certainly been expecting.

“You should watch your tone.” Lustre’s low growl came through with a static filled creaking through the old radioset’s speakers. “You are part of my operation, my company, and you will accept the judgement I bestow upon you, whatever that may be.” Silence filled the tent as nopony moved or breathed, simply listening as Lustre took a long pause. “But, to avail your concerns so that they do not distract you from doing your job, Rock Saw will not be arriving to take command. I am sending her to you on a hunch, and she already has orders to not interfere with your command. Is that understood, supervisor Bubble Level?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Bubble sighed, nodding to herself with a small smirk.

“Good.” Lustre snorted again. “During your week off, see to it that you nip that troublesome attitude in the flank.”

“Of course, Ma’am.” The mare stiffened up, nodding sharply to the hoofset in her grasp. “I’ll see to it.”

“Headquarters, out.” Lustre spat before the line went dead, and static filled the speakers.

Bubble set the hoofset down, flicking the switch to turn the radio off. With a twist of her neck, she forced out a soft pop from it that helped her to visibly relax before turning to Hispano and I. The contented smile across her face was somewhat forced as the look of panic in her eyes told me that maybe she knew she wasn’t quite ready for the position she’d just been thrown into.

Lucky for her, I knew all about how that fucking felt…

“Well, you heard the queen.” Bubble sharply spoke up, jabbing her forehoof to the small crowd that had gathered outside the tent. “The whole operation’s been shuttered for now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be prepared for next week as we focus more on project reclamation. I know some of you will take this as an excuse to take some time off, but I don’t want to see a single one of you sitting on your flank when you could be working! Here in the Road Crew, we earn our paychecks, got that!?”

A mix of groans and conceded nods filled the crowd as they turned and started to disperse. Looking over to Hispano, she shrugged to me before looking back at Bubble. Opening her beak, she tried to say something, but found Bubble’s hoof in her face.

“Yo, Quick Set!” Bubble yelled out of the tent. Within moments, a small dusty white filly popped her hard hatted head around the side of the tent. “Is the RD6 back up and running?

“Yeah, boss.” The young filly nodded excitedly. Goddesses, she must have been younger than even Hispano was. “She just needs a fuel top off and she'll be good to work!”

“Excellent.” Bubble smirked. “Hook up the sled and take the D6 back to the mayor’s office, tell them we need another week’s worth of One-oh-five rounds fabricated.” Beaming with false confidence, she tipped her muzzle up at Hisapno and I. “Oh, and these two will need a ride, so you're going to have company.”

“You got it, Boss!” The excitable young filly squeaked out before disappearing with the sound of galloping hoofsteps.

“Goddesses, how the fuck does the Road Crew deal with the noise!?” I shouted to Hispano as the cyclic throbbing of the old bulldozer’s engine filled the air. While she seemed to acknowledge I’d said something at all, I couldn’t hear the response she gave in my headset. Even the noise dampening properties of it didn’t work around this thing! Maybe the Arcturus and the Remora had spoiled me, but seriously, how was something this loud even possible to exist!?

Still, we noisily trundled our way through the shack city that surrounded the central block at the center of West City. And while I could deal with the invasive noise, I couldn’t hide from the sharp glares and angry looks we got from all of the ponies who moved out of the way of the old world dozer and it’s empty trailer. Each one of them glared with the same intensity and hatred that Delilah held on me that last day.

I’m not going to lie. After everything I’ve done to try to pull myself up from where I was when the convoy was… well, I didn’t feel like I deserved their ire. While Hispano was right that I’d taken on way too many charity cases, I’ve continued to be my best in doing what’s right. So what right did these ponies have to be angry at me when I’ve sacrificed so much for the good of the north?

I watched as one particularly beat up unicorn who was missing both of her back legs throw a rotten piece of garbage at us. It sailed through the air, and landed with a firm hit against Quick Set’s hardhat. And I blinked for a moment as a truth hit me.

They weren’t glaring at me, or at Hispano. Their disdain was solely on the Road Crew. And again, after how Supervisor Mortar ran things, I was somewhat inclined to side with them on that. But as more ponies came out to throw more garbage, the look of shame and sorrow that fell across Quick’s face hit me harder than anything.

Lustre said that the Road Crew here were only supposed to set up a staging area. None of them came here for the job they’d been swept into doing. And while Mortar had certainly deserved the reputation he’d fostered here, there was a chance to change things now.

I know that we were only supposed to stop here for whatever is inside the quickly approaching monolithic building at the center of town, but… after we got Buck, I felt like a talk with the mayor was in order. Whatever feud had spurred all of this, it needed to stop.

As we pulled up to the center of the four tall buildings of West City, a dozen or so well armed and armored ponies sprung from the entrance of each building. The rambunctious citizens, still screaming and throwing garbage, were pushed back, leaving the snow covered four way intersection clear for us to park in. With a wipe of the wet garbage off of her hardhat, Quick Set pulled the old Dozer to a stop, and turned the engine off.

Immediate and overwhelming silence hit my ears for a single, heavenly second before Hispano’s voice came over my headset.

“Fuck, do they tune these things to be extra loud or something!?” She grumbled as she stretched her wings out and hopped off the old dozer. “I could barely think while that thing was running.”

Hopping down off the old world machine with her, my hooves hit the snow covered mud below with a squish. For a moment, my mind was thrown back to our time outside Fort Mac when we’d all gotten muddied up by accident. A small smile hit my muzzle when I tried to relish the memory. However, soft sobbing whimpers behind me pulled the joy out of my memory, and I turned to see Quick crying into her hooves.

“Are you alright?” I found myself asking reflexively to her. While I needed to stop paying attention to all the charity cases around me, there was little harm in seeing what was wrong.

“They hate us.” She sniffled, almost collapsing on the instrument panel with louder sobs. “We work so hard to protect them, and they hate us. It’s not fair.”

“Every day, one of the cities shoots at each other.” Hispano spat out as she flapped her wings and hovered up beside the mare. “And every fucking day, the other city shoots back. Tell me, how the fuck is that protecting anyone? Do you feel good about blowing up innocent ponies?”

“We’re just doing our job!” Quick Set cried out, devolving further into louder sobs.

“Hispano.” I didn’t want to tell her she was wrong, but she definitely wasn’t helping.

“No, Night.” Hispano’s sharp wave of her talons as she didn’t even look back at me made me deadpan. Fuck, why was it so important that she tear down this mare? “You know what I think? I think that deep down, you don’t care about them at all. You think that you’re so good at what you do that you can do nothing wrong.” Hispano’s tone turned cold, and she lashed a talon out at the mare. Her claws scraped along the dozers flaking yellow paint, making Quick whimper. “Well here’s a wake up call. You can’t live your life convincing yourself this is just what’s expected of you, and expect everyone to like you for it! Grow the fuck up and take some responsibility for the hell you’ve made in the lives of others. They don’t hate you, that’s a fucking selfish way to look at it. Maybe you need to reflect on just what they do hate, and why you seem to care so little about that. Maybe then you’ll be a pony worth anypony’s admiration.”

“I’m sorry!” And with that, Quick broke down completely.

I watched as Hispano turned to me with a glare and hopped down off the dozer. Slowly, her hardened expression softened, and she let out a deep sigh that made me understand what she’d done.

That wasn’t about Quick Set, or anything to do with the Road Crew at all. That was entirely about Hispano. She needed to admit to herself that she needed to change. And I have to say, after hearing it, I felt relieved.

“What’s with the goofy grin, Dum Dum?” Hispano rolled her eyes while she couldn’t hide her own smile from me. Still, she made it hard to see as she quickly hopped past me in the snow towards the monolithic concrete building. But as weird a turnaround as that was, she was right, I was smiling at her.

Through all the bullshit in the last few months, and all the pain she’d felt, I felt deep down that she was actually, surprisingly alright. I know that with everything I’ve been through, I’d been struggling to find out just who I’m supposed to be. And now that she’d fought her own battles in her mind, I think she’s closer than anyone else I know to figuring herself out.

“You just going to stand there?” Hispano groaned as she spun around in the snow. With a crunch of her talon, she balled up a hefty chunk of the white stuff and threw it at me. I lifted a wing and easily blocked the attack, but it only widened the smile across my muzzle. “Come on, you Dolt. I’m sure Buck’s waiting for us, so let’s not keep him wondering if you’ve gotten into something else way over your head.”

“Alright, alright.” I sighed as I picked up my hooves and trotted after her. My ear perked as the sobbing from Quick fell off behind me, and part of my smile went with it. While Hispano was definitely right that they needed to take a look at what they were doing, they weren’t beyond redemption.

So after we met back up with Buck, I was going to bring him and Hispano with me as we had a nice little ‘chat’ with the mayor of West City.

Trotting through the impressively robust concrete hallway that lead to the interior of the concrete monolith, I paused as I saw a set of worn letters embossed in the old concrete.

My eyes slowly adjusted from the daylight outside, to the dim fluorescent lighting as we trotted in. It took me a moment, but I blinked as I took in the spacious interior of the building. Marble walls and columns lined the room, and polished archway doors lead to stairwells on each side of the interior, disappearing down into parts unknown below. Darkwood furniture and vibrant red carpeting gave the interior of the place a look of decadence.

Again, was I just going to have to assume that the mayor was as bad as Solomon?

Rows of desks, each with lamps and personal terminals, sat unattended, but well kept. They sat spaced out on each side of the entryway, leading up to a large curved reception desk that held a ghoul behind it in an impeccably gaudy green felt dress. She shared a rotten smile that faltered as Hispano and I approached, with her eyes peering under the pearl colored glasses adorning the end of her muzzle. Looking down and turning around, I found that Hispano and I had both tracked a good bit of snow and mud across their nice carpeting, but to be honest, I wasn’t feeling all to sorry about that.

“May I help you?” The old ghoul spoke with a surprising clarity to her elderly sounding voice.

“Yeah, we’re looking for the clinic.” Hispano retorted as we made it to the desk. With a hop, she put one of her muddy talons on the desk and used it to prop her head up with a smirk. “We’re not citizens, but we’re here on Federation business, so there’s no need to call security.”

“Of course.” The old ghoul smiled as she shifted slightly, pulling her hoof out from under the desk. Turning, she pointed to one of the stairwells down that had a makeshift sign hanging down on it, though from here I couldn’t see what it read. “I’ll call down and give them a heads up. What were the names again?”

“Hispano and Night Flight.” Hispano chirped happily as she pulled herself off the desk and turned to me. “Alright, Dum Dum, let’s go.”

“One moment.” I held up a hoof to Hispano as I offered the old ghoul a forced smile. “Hi, we actually also came here to retrieve something stored inside the public records vault. It’s…”

“The Burro Industries locker is in cue to be retrieved once the secure storage time-lock spell resolves in…” The old mare droned like this hadn’t been the first time she’d recited this today. “Eighteen hours and thirty four minutes. You may return and retrieve the contents of your storage box then.”

“Thanks, I’ll return for it tomorrow then.” I looked over to Hispano, sharing a shrug with her.

Well, now that that awkwardness was out of the way, hopefully getting Buck to come with us to the mayor would be as equally straight forward. Turning with Hispano, we trotted towards the stairwell. A few steps in however, I nearly tripped over myself as the hoof painted sign hanging down from it became readable.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Dum Dum?” Hispano chuckled as I felt like all the blood drained out of me. “I thought you’d be happy to know that we’ve got friends around?”

She’s here.

A shiver ran down my spine, and I could swear the room around me went silent. The only thing I could hear was the thumping of my heartbeat as I perked my ears. Then, as expected, it came to me from behind.

Wind chimes.

Warnings flashed across my vision that I needed immediate medical attention. Dozens of messages about my body popped up, and every part of the paper pony projected in the corner turned to say Crippled. My heart stopped, my lungs seized, and my body snapped in half.

This was it. This was how I died.

“Oh, it’s so good to see yah again!” Jean squealed into my ears as she hugged me tighter than ever in her moosey grasp. “Yah just can’t understand how good it is to see a friendly face. Been practically ages since we last saw yah, don’cha know! We’ve got so much to catch up on!”

Celestia save me...