The artillery continued to thunder as the towering beast bellowed in anger.

The three of us watched as each resounding blast across the beast tore open a hole in its body. But even so, the guns fell silent after every volley, even if only for a few moments. That was all the time that Prince Deru’s body needed to regrow and fill in the gaps to his enormous hollow form. Shit, Monk hadn’t been kidding when he said that the bamboo grew fast...

“How the fuck are we supposed to stop that!” Hispano squawked, struggling against her urge to tear off her flight cap and throw it down in frustration. “Nothing’s been able to do anything other than annoy that beast! Not even Increadimare!”

I watched as the aforementioned superhero Alicorn darted through the skies, shooting burning beams of magic from her horn across the massive Timberwolf. As soon as each line of magic had cut a gash in his side, Prince Deru healed it up like it had never happened. Hispano was right, we weren’t making any headway.

“All crews!” Captain Charge’s voice came over the Cordite camp’s PA system. “Standard rounds are ineffective. Switch over to Incendiary rounds for the next barrage!”

That’s… not a bad idea! I mean, the Prince is made out of wood after all! I…

My own thoughts were cut off as the Prince shifted sharply with a howl. His massive branching tail spun, arcing around and swatting Increadimare out of the sky behind him. The green alicorn shot through the air like a bullet, and disappeared in a yellow clouded haze as she came down somewhere near the forest’s edge.

As soon as she’d gone down, the Cordite barrage fired. A half dozen rounds splashed up across the Timberwolf’s back. Gouts of fire poured from the massive wolf’s muzzle as it let out a pained roar. It shifted faster on it’s paws than I’d thought something of its size ever could. With a flop, it fell over, sending up a massive cloud of dust, as well as sending tremors through the ground under my hooves that were strong enough that I almost fell over.

The heavy creaks of an entire forest resonated through the air as the wave of dust from Deru’s fall swept over us. The three of us shielded our eyes from it and held our breaths. But as the thick dust dissipated, we watched as the Prince simply pushed himself back onto his paws and gave a heavy shake of its body. Charred bits of bamboo came streaming off of him, quickly replaced again by freshly grown stalks.

Another roar filled the air, but this time it came from the yellow haze at the edge of the forest. I blinked as from above the treetops, rose a massive pony. Unsteady and somewhat slow to move, a fifty foot tall green alicorn brushed off a blanket of blue flowering vines. It was... Increadimare.

“Holy shit…” Hispano gasped, nearly dropping her sister as she took a step back.

Increadimare lifted a massive hoof, looking at it and herself in disbelief. Without the yellow magic covering her, her green slit-like eyes drifted down to the vines she’d brushed off before she let out a gasp that echoed across the hilltops. Even the shooting in the cities died down slightly, and those ghouls who’d been running around with Cordite tasks had stopped to take in the sight. Her massive pointed horn sent arcs of sparking lightning through the air that cracked like thunder, but she winced as nothing but a cloud of smoke poured from the tip of her horn.

“It seems that magic cannot be easily channeled by somepony so large…” Buck’s static filled voice struggled to contain the awe we all shared in staring at the gigantic mare. “But at that size, she’s not going to live very long.”

“What do you mean?” Hispano stared at Buck like she expected him to just take back what he said. “She’s big enough now that she’s going to kick that oversized dog’s ass easy!”

“She’s big, but so are her lungs. She won’t be able to process oxygen at that size!” Buck snapped back without taking his eyes off the massive mare. “It’s not a question, Hispano. She’s going to suffocate before or after the fight is over.”

“You’ve got this, Increadimare!” Hispano’s squeaking shout made me jump slightly. “Kick that overgrown wolf’s ass!” Looking over at Buck, she snorted sharply through her beak. “At least I have faith in her.”

One of Increadimare’s ears twitched, turning and drawing her attention down to us. A look of confusion washed over her for a moment before her expression hardened with a nod. She steadied herself and turned her gaze to Prince Deru and narrowed her slit eyes on him.

Deru let out a snarl before he spun to face her, bristling out the bamboo across his body.

With thundering hoofsteps that shook the ground, and excited cheers from Hispano, Increadimare charged at him. She impacted with her shoulder, sending another heavy crack that echoed off the hills. The strike tossed the massive timberwolf against the valley hillside, and roused a cry from the wooden muzzle that turned into an angry bark.

With all the dexterity of a normal wolf, it rolled again, coiling its legs under it. With a snarling howl, it lunged at Increadimare. She put up a hoof in time to stop it’s sap dripping maw from closing around her throat, but he happily bit down on her foreleg instead. She let out a blood curdling scream that drifted over the nearby mountains as he twisted and ripped most of her hoof clean off.

“Shit! Maybe it won’t be so easy...” Hispano cringed and quickly shot out her hoof at my side. “We need to help her!”

“And how do you propose that?” Buck growled out as he ran his mechanical paws down his face. “It’s regenerative properties are incredible, I don’t think anything short of a megaspell is going to stop it!”

“The Prince is special.” The snarling voice of Monk came from behind us. We all spun around in time to find the massive three headed timber-hellhound step on the body of a gasping Cordite soldier. “Thanks to the Doctor, his bamboo grows faster than any other in the world, and his heart is the heart of the forest itself. You can destroy his body all you want, but so long as his heart beats, the forest will live.” With a twist of his leg, Monk dragged his hindleg claws through the ghoul’s rotten neck, silencing them for good. “You would be wise to give up the fight and join him.”

“I killed you.” Buck’s guttural growl shook the air around me more than the voices of either of the two fighting titans. The way he spoke of it was so cold, so detached from his normal tone. But, given that Monk was the kind of monster Buck had always thought himself to be, I couldn’t blame him. “You call me a dog, yet I guess you know how to play dead better than any of us.”

Hispano let off a pair of shots from her sister that blasted Monk into nothing more than a shower of twigs and logs. The explosive rounds scattered his parts into the snow and mud, dropping even a few just short of our legs.

“Pft, just like the doc.” Hispano snorted and brought her sister’s muzzle up to her beak. With a sharp blow, she wafted the steam coming from the barrel away from her. “So much for being effectively immortal.”

I was about to turn around to see how Increadimare was holding up when a deep laugh filled the air. It was joined by a pair of excited yipping barks that pulled another static filled snarl from Buck’s muzzle. A sickly yellow glow enveloped the sticks, twigs, and logs that used to be Monk, and slowly, they began to levitate right off the ground.

“You will find we are not so simple to kill.” Monk’s voice came from all around us, like he encompassed the entire area his parts were spread across. With a gentle arc, his wooden parts began to reassemble themselves, starting with his hind paws and working their way up. “But you have made your choice. We will enjoy watching your bodies rot while Prince Deru’s forest draws on you for nourishment.”

The more his body completely rebuilt itself, the faster the other pieces of himself seemed to jump at the chance to rejoin the others. By the time the process had rebuilt his lower torso, his wooden arms and head were starting to piece themselves together without needing anything connecting them. It was then that Buck took a step forward and raised his paw to Monk.

“You will stay away from us.” Buck barked out a warning as the top of his forearm folded out, and the small energy weapon he had inside raised up. “I am warning you, I don’t want to have to actually kill you.”

“Such a waste of a dog.” Monk’s voice seemed to get further away, drawing back to where it was supposed to be as his head finished forming, and a few sticks started to rebuild his mate’s heads. “But we will kill you all the...”

A blinding orange beam fired out from Buck’s weapon, shifting and spreading into a cone shape. The entire form of Monk blackened before it burst into flames. Smoke rose off of every inch of the monstrous hellhound, growing thicker as his wood glowed like hot steel before completely evaporating. As the light from Buck’s weapon dissipated, the few twigs and sticks that hadn’t rejoined Monk shuddered and dropped back into the snow with a woody clunk.

“Now, be dead.” Hispano snorted, kicking some snow and mud over one of the now inert pieces of wood. “Good dog.”

With a ratcheting click, Buck’s forearm drew the weapon back inside and closed itself up again. The dog it was attached to however, let out a whimpering sigh before hanging his head. As tough as it must have been for Buck to take his life, I know he understood that he’d been left with no choice.

“It’s too bad we don’t have a bigger one of those to use!” The voice of Captain Charge came from behind us, forcing at least both Hispano and I to spin around. “As it sits, I’m not sure we’ll be able to do enough damage to that thing fast enough that it couldn’t just regrow!”

A roar came from the hills, and I turned my eyes back onto the battle between Deru and Increadimare. I gasped as I gazed upon Increadimare’s bloody and beat up form. She was barely standing on three torn up legs, heaving with gashes torn across her entire body. Her horn was cracked, one of her wings was gone, while the other lay in a mangled heap off of her side. She was losing this fight, and if she lost, our best chance of getting out of this alive went with her.

She gave out a furious yell as she lowered her head and jabbed at Deru with her horn. The massive wolf hopped back before springing forward at her again, greedy jaws open and ready to strike. With a flourish of her head, she managed to get her horn under his neck and impaled him on it. She screamed again as his jaw snapped shut, gashing through the back of her neck and exposing the white bone of her spine underneath.

With a toss of her head, she flung Deru aside, sending him rolling again, but this time toward the city. Like before, he was quick to get up, but stepped back and put his hindpaw right through one of the still standing brick buildings of East City. However many ponies were instantly crushed or killed became less of a thought in my mind however, as the gash on his side healed up again. But before it did, I could see inside his hollow body, and directly at the glowing, beating green heart in the center of the cavity.

“So it wasn’t a metaphor.” I snorted as my mind scrambled to latch on to an idea that ran at light speed through my skull. “We need to destroy his heart.”

“Yeah, but how!?” Hispano squawked again as she threw up a talon in frustration. “Nothing works, and unless we destroy it completely, it’ll probably just regenerate too!”

My mind ran back through the last few minutes. We couldn’t just blow his heart up, it would just regenerate. We also couldn’t just light it on fire… or could we?

The sight of the massive wolf painfully breathing fire after the phosphor shells hit him stuck out in my mind. The thoughts of old science lessons about heat convection and airflow flitted out of my memories, and my eyes wandered over towards the silent Cordite artillery battery. Okay, that was at least a plan then! Here’s hoping it actually works…

“Captain?” I asked, spinning and pointing at the somewhat off-guard old ghoul. “I need one of your phosphorus rounds, and for you to get everyone loaded up with it again. White will work, but if you have red, that’ll be better.” Without a word, he nodded and then galloped off.

“What are you thinking, Dum Dum?” Hispano asked as she brought a talon down on my side softly.

“I need you to fly up to Increadimare.” I turned and caught her unsure glance at me. “You need to tell her to force Prince Deru’s muzzle open for as long as she can.”

“I don’t understand…” Buck put his paws up as he walked over. “What good is that and an incendiary shell going to do? They already tried lighting him on fire, and it didn’t work! Besides, you’re not planning on flying down his throat, are you?”

“I hope not.” I cringed as the thought of being eaten by a giant wooden wolf, while a fitting end for the day I’d had, didn’t seem like a very good way to die. “I shouldn’t have to, at least. All I need to do is shove that shell down his throat.”

“But why!” Hispano grumbled and used her talon to drag my face toward her. “Why can’t I take the shell then? I hope you aren’t planning on killing yourself just because you’ve lost another leg, Dum Dum.”

“Convection…” Buck gasped, tearing Hispano’s worried eyes from me. “If you ignite him from the inside, and if his muzzle is kept open…”

“Air would be drawn in through every hole we could make in his body…” I finished, looking at Hispano. To her credit, it only took her a split second to work it out in her head, and for a wide smile to spread across her beak.

“You’d turn his insides into a furnace that he couldn’t put out!” She giggled giddily as she gave an excited flap of her wings. “Alright, I’ll go tell Increadimare the plan. Just…” She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before leaning over and planting a quick kiss on my cheek. “Don’t die, Night. Drop that thing and get out of there.”

“He will.” Buck answered for her as I felt his mechanical arm sweep down under me and pluck me off the ground. He brought his other paw over and ran his digits around under my harness. With a few twists and torques, he detached my boxy submachinegun from me. “Once you’re up there, Night, I’ll get on the radio and coordinate the barrages between Cordite and the Road Crew.”

“No.” The voice of a mare from behind us perked both of our ears. “You will join us. Together, we will spread joy and peace throughout this world.” Even before we could turn around, I knew that however hard Hispano had tried, she hadn’t quite managed to kill Doc Chirality. “Do not resist.”

Buck and I both turned to look at the insane ghoul, but we both froze in place as now a monster stood in place of the Kirin she once was. Only bits and pieces of her body remained intact, held together by a mass of wriggling thorny vines of Cruel Joke that somewhat conformed to the shape of a pony. Her movements towards us were stiff, and the glowing eyes she shared with the Prince burned brighter than ever.

“We don’t want to destroy you, we just… need to know why you’re doing this.” I spat out at her. While anything she said would never convince any of us to join her, I was more worried about those vines. “Why now?”

“Is it not easily seen?” Doc Chirality’s voice shifted, combining with what sounded like a dozen other voices coming from her wooden muzzle. “The skies have opened once more, the conflict I have fostered in this place has exposed and tilled the ancient soil. Finally, the time for the great reseeding is upon us.”

“And what do you need us for then?” Come on, I just needed to buy us a little more time! “What chance do we have against something your size?”

“I do not wish for you to fight my gift, you will accept me willingly.” Again, the voices shifted, deepening and merging together slightly. “It has been so long, and the magics that once rooted me underground are long forgotten. It is time for my forest to grow once more, and for this planet to flourish like it always should have. Lesser beings like you will help to expedite the bonding required to bring about my new world.”

“Excuse me, but we aren’t ‘lesser’ beings!” Buck growled out. With another sharp clack, he raised his arm and brought up his small energy weapon again. “We are all sentient, intelligent beings with free will and lives of our own. You have no right to take anything from us!”

“I have every right!” The voice of the Prince snarled, pulling a sharp echoing growl from the massive timberwolf fighting in the hills behind us. “Look what millennia of your ‘free will’ have done to my precious lands! Poison and rot have consumed this world, and I will not slumber again until I ensure that no being ever brings this level of destruction ever again.” As he spoke, several of the vines forming Doc Chirality’s body snaked off of her, raising themselves before starting to drip copious amounts of the Prince’s thick sap. “Join me willingly, or endure a painful, excruciating end to your otherwise meaningless existence.”

BANG!

Suiza’s barking shot blasted up snow and dirt from in front of Doc Chirality. The mass of vines shifted, turning its attention to the sky with another sharp growl. However, the moment it’s attention was split, Buck’s forearm let out a whine.

Another cone of orange light enveloped Doc Chirality. Prince Deru screamed through her muzzle in agony as the viney body erupted into flames. With a shudder, it took a step back as it began to disintegrate completely, slowly turning to ash. The glowing eyes shifted to us with a look of profound fear before completely disappearing into the wind as nothing more than soot.

No sooner had it gone then did Buck’s weapon give out several alarming beeps as it powered off. He heaved and used his paw to clutch at his chest for a moment. He’d used too much power to fire it twice, and he needed time to let his body recover.

“Geeze, I leave for like five seconds…” Hispano panted heavily as she flapped her wings and came down next to Buck and I. Held tightly to her body was a large cannon shell, which she quickly held out to Buck. “It’s red phosphorous set with an impact fuse, so try not to drop it before Night gets airborne.”

“What are you doing with this?” I asked. Okay, it wasn’t a good sign that something had already fallen through with the plan, but no matter! We could still salvage this! “What happened to the Captain…?”

A low, droning howl filled the air, reverberating and echoing off every mountain, building, and tree around us. Hispano wrapped her claws around her flight cap to block the sound, but when I tried to do the same with my ears, I cried out as my bloody stump only shot a line of pain through me. Buck let out a pained whimper and shut his ear’s off, but used his free paw to help cover the ear I could no longer reach.

As the howl ended, Prince Deru lowered his head, and dropped his glowing eyes right onto the three of us.

Needless to say, I didn’t glean a particularly good feeling about that.

“We’re about to have a lot of company!” Hispano squawked as she turned around, and just about every feather on her body stood on end.

Buck and I spun around, watching as a dozen or so pegasi took to the skies from East city and it’s wall, along with a particularly large and angry dragon…

“Buck, we need to hurry!” I gasped, turning and all but forcing the incendiary round in his grasp down under me. “Hispano, get to Increadimare. I know she’s probably feeling pretty close to just giving up about now, but we need her to hold Deru’s muzzle open!”

“On it!” She called out as she was already in the air and picking up speed away from us.

“I don’t know about this, Night!” Buck let a static filled whimper through as his mechanical paws quickly worked to secure the round to my harness. “They’re closing in fast. I’m not sure you’ll be able to outfly them, especially in your condition!”

He’s right. It’ll take me far too long to get the speed and altitude I need to stay ahead of them. If only we had something like the Dizzitron, or my jump pack!

“No, that’s not going to work...” Buck went stiff for a moment. I looked up to find his blue eye had shifted to red, and lines of code were running down it. Wait, was Ping talking with him? Shaking off the code, Buck frowned and looked back down at me. “If I get anything about this wrong, the force, the angle, anything, and I could seriously hurt Night! I could compress his spine, or liquefy his internal organs…” Again, Buck went stiff as more red lines flowed down his augmented eye. As it stopped, a smile crept across Buck’s metal muzzle.

“Okay then,” Buck spoke, but Ping’s static filled voice came from his muzzle. “Hold on, Night, this may be slightly uncomfortable.” As he said that, I felt one of Buck’s paws scoop under my flank. I gave a soft and pained ‘eep’ as my body was raised up. “Now, treat this like a Dizzitron, and only open your wings once you reach your apex.”

“What?” I bluntly asked as Buck turned side on to the massive timberwolf. “Ping, what’s going on!?” He lowered me in his paw, and extended the other towards the Prince. With a glance over using Buck’s normal eye, his jagged smile widened as his body tensed up. It wasn’t until then that I realized just what exactly he’d been planning. “Ping, wait...!”

That was as far as I’d made it before I was forced into a curled ball and the world turned into a blur. Buck’s mechanical paw torqued and pushed me harder and faster, launching me skyward with astounding speed. The blue skies and green forests around me muted to grey as I spun almost end over end, curled tightly as I waited for the telltale feeling of gravity reasserting itself.

As soon as I could feel myself curving back down, I flared my wings and stuck out my forelegs to stabilize myself. At least, that was until I screamed when the wound on my foreleg stump opened up again. I began to tumble from the air, and my mind went into a state of panic. As the world spun again, it seemed to slow down slightly. Not in the sense that I had corrected anything, but that everything was starting to feel slower.

“Oh, doesn’t that hurt?” The other me spoke as she drifted into view next to me, matching my spin in my slowed perspective. As soon as she’d said that, another spike of pain bolted through my body like a lightning strike. I wanted to scream out, but while my mind was moving at her speed, the rest of my body was moving as slow as the rest of the world. “Yeah, I thought as much. You know, if it’ll help, I can fix your little ‘balance’ issue here.” She pointed at my remaining forehoof as a sinister smile curled up over her muzzle. “I could nudge another bullet or two your way…”

I didn’t have time for this, and I wasn’t about to have this… thing take off yet another leg!

“Okay fine, have it your way.” She rolled her eyes before clopping her hooves together.

As soon as she had, the world picked up to it’s normal speed again. Another sharp wave of panic flew through me as I continued to spin. I torqued my wings against it, slowing my roll. Okay, now if I could just…

Shifting my only foreleg forward, I aligned it ahead of me, and did my best to use it like a guide. While it put more strain on my wings to stabilize myself, I could at least pull up out of the near dive I’d been in. Funny enough, the speed I’d gained from it had allowed me to stay just ahead of the angry army of brainwashed minions that the Prince had after me.

The deep, reverberating scream of Increadimare shook the air around me. Her mostly broken wing flared ahead of me as she wrestled the Prince, sending a burst of wind my way strong enough to send me nearly tumbling through the air again. Keeping my wings flared, I did my best to ride that wind even higher.

“Did you ever stop to think, Night?” The other me appeared out of the corner of my eye, wings flared as if to climb with me. “What happens if you succeed?”

“Get out of my head!” I screamed at her as I brought my forehoof down and did my best to align my body to follow it. The cold air under my wings again began to slip by as I sped downwards towards the wrestling titans below.

“What if you kill him, Night?” Her voice was like a whisper in a dark room, shooting an icy spear down my spine. “What if doing this kills Happy?”

“It… it won’t!” I snapped at her and tried to focus. Increadimare was using what magic she could pull from her smoking horn to force open the Prince’s wooden maw.

“You don’t know that,” The Jynx laughed, speeding ahead of me and rolling over onto her back like it was a lazy afternoon flight for her. “But I do, because I can make it happen.”

As Increadimare forced open Deru’s muzzle, she let out a scream louder than anything I’d heard. It was enough that forcing my ears back didn’t help, and that it made everything in the world disappear into a ringing nothingness. Everything, except my Jynx of course.

“Are you willing to risk it, Night?” She asked as we both stared down at the bright green glowing and steadily beating heart inside the titanic beast.

This was about more than just Happy. I had a chance to save so many more! Even if everyone infected by Deru had to die, I had a job to do.

Release.

I thought the command to myself and pulled away. But as I began to climb away from the massive jaws, I caught a wide smile from Jynx that told me something was wrong. As I began to lose speed in my climb faster than I should have, I shifted my flight slightly and found that something was still weighing me down. With a glance at my barrel, I found the phosphorus shell still firmly locked to my underside.

“Forgot that you broke your little toy, didn’t you?” The Jynx laughed as she raised her forehoof to cover up the eye my augment replaced.

Shit, it’s still shut off! What was I thinking? How the fuck was I supposed to drop this thing when it’s not working!?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, a roar filled the air, beating back the ringing in my ears. Not a roar from Deru, or from Increadimare. No, this roar belonged to a particularly angry dragon.

I cried out and folded my wings as a gout of dragon’s fire roared over my head. I could feel the heat lick along my back, and it again forced me to roll into a sharp dive. I hadn’t gained nearly enough altitude, and was quickly approaching Deru again. Increadimare’s hoof was lodged in the side of his jaw, and I could see a dozen cracks forming along it as he did his best to try to bite it off and close his muzzle again.

“Give it up, Night.” The Jynx laughed again as she fluttered ahead of me once more. Like it had before, the world slowed down just for her. “Just let go! Don’t you want to save yourself from the pain of your life? I mean, if you want to get rid of me so bad, this is your ticket right here! And let me tell you, there’s worse things in the world than being a mindfucked slave for a plant, let me tell you.” With a light giggle, she reached out and gave a playful nudge at my side. “And hey! The bonus is that at least this way Happy will still be alive, right? A win-win if you ask me, and with my help, I can make this a win.”

Wait, she can change the course of things, right? No matter what, she could ensure I fail right here and now. So then, why would I fight against her now?

“That’s right.” She smiled widely. “Good to see you’re finally understanding things my way.”

“Are you a betting mare?” I tried to speak and found my words coming through like normal, even in the slowed time around me. “I propose an alternative solution.”

“Pah!” She rolled her eyes and dismissed me outright. “You can’t force me out of this little predicament. You see, I’ve already got my hooves on the strings!” She wiggled her hooves, and across them I could see a lattice of silken threads finer than anything I’ve ever seen, but seemingly attached to nothing. “This only ends one way for you, Night.”

“But if I go, you go.” I smirked, only to have my words dismissed with an uncaring shrug. “Come on, if you really are part of me, than some part of you deep down must want to survive.” I don’t buy that she’s willing to go out like this if she’s as unique as she claims, not for a second. “You pretty much boasted to me about how you’ve become more powerful than ever, so you can’t be so willing to roll over now.”

“Yeah, and so what?” She tipped her muzzle away and crossed her forehooves like a teenager trying to look tough under pressure. Something I’m not to proud to admit I’ve done many times. “You said it yourself, I have a job to do, and that’s to make you suffer until you die.”

“So help me, and you can continue to torment me.” I can’t believe I was practically begging for her help here, but… I’ve already lost a leg today, I might as well give whatever I need to in order to end this.

“Why?” Her eyes narrowed like I’d just put a knife to her throat. “And besides, if I help you, your friend will probably still die.” The same devilish smile Solomon always wore pulled across her muzzle. “Are you so willing to sacrifice him just so I can torture you for a few more days?”

It was… not what I wanted. I didn’t want to lose Happy now, even after the last few weeks of him treating me like dirt. The Happy I’d grown to call part of my family was still inside him somewhere, and with a bit more time, I’m sure I’d have been able to find it.

But I’d failed Delilah. I couldn’t protect him, I couldn’t make this call. He deserved a chance to live, even if… we failed to stop Deru. She was right, I couldn’t do this to him. As much as I was willing to sacrifice more of myself, Happy’s well being wasn’t mine to give away. I couldn’t condemn him to...

The world sharply sped up, and I felt a click from my harness.

I panicked again, flaring my wings and torquing myself away from Deru’s maw. With an ear splitting crunch, the Timberwolf bit through Increadimare’s hoof and tore it off. The breathless scream that the fifty foot tall alicorn gave was cut short as her eyes rolled back and she slumped down with a rumbling slam. As I glanced back, I saw her eyes shut, and that was it. Increadimare was gone.

Deru snarled as he turned toward her, raising a clawed paw to ensure she would never get up again before a muffled WHUMP came through his bamboo skin.

Screams of pain filled the air around me as the mind-controlled pegasi grasped at their heads and fell towards the ground. As I stuck my leg out ahead of me again, I watched as one after one, they disappeared through the thick foliage of the forest. With a loud crack, I watched as Mayor Sheriff slammed through the trees as well, sending up a thick cloud of dirt and dust from the crater his impact undoubtedly made.

Deeper thumps came from back towards the city. Screeching shells flew past me, slamming into the Prince one after another. Great gouts of flames erupted from each hole that the shells tore. Deru however, maintained more composure than I’d assumed one could when they were burning from the inside.

He turned himself away from Increadimare and once again glared toward the Cordite camp. With two steps, he’d pushed himself past where I was flying away from him. The air he displaced as he passed once more forced me up into thinner, colder air that sent me into a fit of shivering that stung at my bleeding foreleg stump. Even with geysers of flame pouring out of each hole opening on him, it wasn’t enough.

No, this was supposed to work! It’s not burning him fast enough!

Lighter thumps echoed from across the valley. More shrieking shells came in, but this time they struck the opposite side of him. Glancing over, I could see the trails of smoke from the Road Crew camp as they too began to mimic the near continuous fire rate of the Cordite battery.

Hissing from the horizon became roars as missile after missile arced and flew away from the Arcturus. By the time the sixth missile had launched, the first struck Deru’s side with more force than any of the Cordite or Road Crew shells had. It was almost enough, and I wasn’t sure how much more he could take, or how much more we could throw at him!

The timberwolf’s steps faltered with the new barrage. Flames were pouring out higher and higher as each new blast shifted and forced air inside his hollow body like a bellows. Smoke started to seep through the bamboo skin he wore, and he gave a deep throated whimper as he struggled not to open his muzzle.

With a chattering burst of fire, a small olive colored griffon shot through the air under the Prince. The line of explosive fire from Suiza caused the bamboo that formed his rear hindlegs to buckle and splinter. The massive wolf’s flank dropped quickly as Hispano took off into the sky again, and the remarkable sound of wood splintering filled the air.

The slam of the wolf’s flank into the forest below sent up another wave of dust, but it also forced the Prince’s head up higher. With a look of overwhelming fear in his enormous glowing eyes, the titanic timberwolf’s muzzle parted to let out a sorrowful and wavering howl. It was a note unlike anything I’d ever heard from Buck or any other dog, and something that conveyed more pain and anguish than I could even comprehend. The Cordite and Road Crew guns fell silent, leaving only the waning howl to echo through the forests and mountains of the north.

Roaring flames poured through and over the Prince’s muzzle as the inferno inside him won out. His flank gave another crack and collapsed in on itself, sending roaring flames pouring over his back. The rest of his body gave out, and like those who’d been in the air, collapsed down into the forest below. Finally, Deru disappeared below the growing black cloud as the flames consumed what little of him was left.

The cold air returned the valley to it’s peaceful silence once more. Taking stock in it, I surveyed all the damage the ‘Prince’ had done. Two settlements in chaos, hundreds killed or wounded. Looking at Increadimare, she hadn’t moved, and the blood from her open wounds had stopped trickling out. She was really gone.

We’d done it, but… at what cost.

“As they say,” The Jynx smiled as she took up flying next to me. “time to face the music.”

The cold air sapped the heat out from my sweat coated skin. It was almost freezing inside Cordite’s old medical tent, and that was even through my pegasus insulation! Hispano and Buck I could understand, but I didn’t know how normal ponies could stand being without any sort of heaters. Then again, maybe ghouls have an even greater temperature tolerance than ponies like pegasi gifted with good body insulation.

“Fucking goddess damned mother fucker!”

Regardless, I was just glad that they kept their hospital tent stocked with stuff that normal ponies could use...

“Now now, Night. Do you need to be so vulgar when you really should be used to the results of your crash landings by now?” Hispano laughed as she tried her best to keep the worry out of her voice, and her eyes on anything but me.

“Please, Hispano, I need to focus.” Buck sighed as his multiple articulating medical tools worked on fixing me once again. “It’s a miracle you didn’t cause any worse injuries to yourself with a landing like that, but I know it’s not your fault.”

I was about to open my muzzle to apologize once more for having to patch me up, but I stopped when my own eyes and sadistic smile peered at me from over his metal skullcap. Of course it was because of her. She made a pouty look at me before disappearing behind Buck again.

“I don’t… think it was a miracle…” I cringed and whined as I felt one of his tools dig into my pulpy flesh with a squelch that made my stomach do a flip. “Fucking FUCK!” A sharp bolt of pain ran through my side, and my open stump felt like it caught on fire.

I couldn’t help but scream as he started to sew up my stump again, while he stopped with a sigh what felt like every few stitches. I could feel as he took the time to stop and pick out an errant rock shard or clump of dirt I’d gotten into it during my crash landing. I’d been doing so well adjusting to landing with my prosthetic, and now I was going to have to fucking learn to do it all over again!

Thankfully, Buck’s paw moved quickly and tapped the side of my head. With a hum and a flicker, my eye turned back on, and the painstopper talisman in me started to numb me once more.

Fucking thank the goddesses...

“Regardless of whatever the case was, you can’t afford any more trauma, Night.” Buck eyed at me with a pleading look that demanded a promise all three of us knew I couldn’t keep. “Your body needs rest. And before you object, I…”

“Oh, you’re connected again, Captain.” Eliza’s voice cut off Buck as her smiling cartoon mare once again popped into my vision. “I’m glad to see that you are okay, but you should listen to Buck and get some rest as soon as you are able.”

“Thanks, Eliza...” I winced reflexively as another fleshy squish came from my leg. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hispano’s cheeks turn a bit green, and she used her wings to cover her beak as she spun around. “How is Happy? Is… is he alright?”

“Happy lost consciousness when the monster was defeated.” Eliza’s monotone wavered slightly as her picture flickered over to her frowning mare. “While he seems in stable condition, Cora can not explain why he has not regained consciousness.”

“Hmmm, just like most of the other victims from what we’ve seen down here.” Buck did his best to scrunch his metal muzzle as he canted his head in thought. “I will have to take a look at him once we return if he hasn’t recovered by then. Tell Cora to keep monitoring him for now.”

“Aye, Doc. I have informed Cora of your instructions.” Eliza’s mare flipped back to her normal smiling self. “Before I let the three of you get back to your tasks, there is somepony else here who wished to speak with you.” Somepony else?

“Hello again, Night.” Ping’s voice filtered through my augment with a bit of nervousness in it. “I just wished to apologize for my sudden intrusion earlier. I understand it must have been startling to have me take over for Buck, and I know how you value your privacy with him.”

“I… I’m just thankful you could help, Ping.” I couldn’t help but smile a bit as Buck’s cheeks flushed brightly. “I mean, without you throwing me, I’m not sure I could have gotten there in time.”

“Yes, well, it was an act that I am hopeful you will not have to repeat in the future.” He let out a light laugh that was joined by a bit of static. “But I did not transfer down here to simply catch up. I have made an intriguing, and somewhat worrying discovery while combing through Unit One's logs.”

“The Architect’s logs?” I cocked an eyebrow for only a moment before Buck’s tools prodded me again sharply and made me wince. “Please don’t tell me there’s another unit like Red out there somewhere…”

“That is unknown at this time.” He was quick to answer, but to me it sounded like he wanted to avoid the subject. Whether or not he was lying about another Red, or if he just wanted to avoid talking about the one we’d killed, at the moment, I couldn’t really blame him. “While I knew that in my absence more than a few units were lost while trying to observe settlements far outside of the range of the Factory, It was less than I had expected. Only three others remain missing, Unit Seven, Unit Nine, and Unit Sixteen.”

“Any idea where they are?” I asked fairly bluntly, pulling a curious look from Hispano. “Surely they told the Architect where they’d planned to go.”

“As you have been made aware,” Ping sighed with a healthy amount of static. “After the Architect felt like the Factory was secure enough, he sent me and the other early units out as scouts. Mostly to observe, but in some cases, to make contact with those who we thought could be understanding allies.”

“Of course,” Buck nodded and glanced at me as we both made the same realization at the same time. “You’re afraid that their disappearances are more than likely similar to what you endured on the Ouroboros?”

“That is one possibility we have considered, yes.” A box in my vision joined his voice, one that contained a wavering line like I’ve seen pop up before. “After you successfully modified the antenna in the Spectrum Federation, we have been picking up this weak signal at regular intervals.” The line wavered ever so slightly, and a chirping noise came through like if a bird was trying it’s best to whisper it’s song. “This is a Factory specific high-band radio distress call, one that seems to be coming from Unit Seven.”

“And they’re in trouble?” I wasn’t exactly up for another detour from the Ark, but if Ping asked us to, I couldn’t refuse. The Factory had done too much for us for me to think we didn’t owe them all the help we could offer.

“That is also unknown at this time.” Ping didn’t sound exactly enthusiastic, but he didn’t sound too dejected either. He’s probably just trying to not get his hopes up, and I couldn’t blame him. “Her repeating message has been in and out of range a dozen times now, but it’s always been picked up from the same bearing. From our calculations, it seems to originate from the small settlement known as Maple Station.”

“Maple Station?” Buck brought his paw up to his muzzle and gave it a tap. “Howitzer and Boiler had mentioned that’s where Jack and his tanker friends lived.” Looking down at me, I was happy to see a small, if temporary, smile pull across his jagged jaw. “Perhaps they could assist us in finding Unit Seven.”

“Unit Seven? Maple Station?” Hispano grumbled as she crossed her claws. “I get that you two have a party going on in your brains or whatever, but I’m getting a little sick of being left out of the loop.”

“Again, I apologize for the intrusion, Night.” Ping chimed in the moment that Hispano’s annoyed expression was directed at me. “However, the Factory would be grateful for any assistance in finding Unit Seven, or any of our lost Units. Should you not find anything substantial about her at Maple Station, Eliza has the location of the next suitable antenna for you which would at least help us pin down where exactly her signal is originating from.”

“We’ll look into it, Ping. I promise you that.” I nodded to Buck, getting one back from him. I know it might mean a bit of a delay with the Ark, but from where we sit right now, we’re not even sure what’s going to be in that vault when it opens tomorrow. And if we have no idea, then Solomon isn’t going to have a clue either.

The box in my vision closed, and from what I could tell, Ping had stopped transmitting.

“You know, Night,” Hispano groaned as she sat down hard on the cold, tarped floor. “why is it that either everything’s perfectly quiet with you, or there’s barely time to get a word in…”

“Hello?” The weary and almost meek voice of a mare drifted through the tent flaps from outside. “Is… is this where the S-Survivor is?”

“Ugh! See what I mean?” Hispano threw her talons up in defeat before she rose from her haunches and all but tore the tent flap beside her open. “What do you want.”

“I’m sorry…!” The mare outside looked like she tripped as she entered, falling to the floor in front of me with a long whimper. It took me a moment to glance over her purple body, but the four bark covered wooden legs on her gave the mystery mare’s identity away. It was Mayor Thunderbolt. At least seeing her still alive and well gave me hope that others with the wooden prosthetics would be fine. “Please, I never meant to hurt anypony.”

“You sure had a funny way of doing that.” Hispano grumbled as she deadpanned at her. “Converting your troops, ordering daily bombardments…”

“Hispano.” Buck let out a light growl as he shot her a glare. While I got that she’d been a bit blunt, she was somewhat right. And from the way that Buck didn’t continue, I knew that he understood that too.

“You wanted to win your petty fight, so you made a mistake in trusting the wrong pony.” I sighed and did my best to push myself up off the medical cot I’d warmed up so nicely. Shivering, I reached out to Buck, who offered me a paw to help me stand on my three legs. “The question is then, how are you going to fix it?”

“Everypony alive in my cities are indebted to you for taking down that beast. But, I came here because I can’t fix the wrongs I’ve done to you and your crew.” The mayor shivered and whined from her place on the floor. The more that I looked at her, the more I began to realize that she hadn’t tripped on her way in, she’d thrown herself at our hooves. “I don’t know how to make things right, and I am at your mercy until you deem my debt paid. Even if it takes the rest of my life, I will make sure to right the wrongs I’ve done.”

“Hah!” Hispano giggled and dragged her talon down her face. “You think you can just offer yourself like a slave to make up for this shit!? Night lost another fucking leg because of you!”

“Hispano, that’s enough!” Buck’s sterner voice came with a static filled growl that sent a different kind of shiver down my spine. At the same time, her voice sunk deep into my mind and helped me to realize something.

“No, Buck, Hispano’s right. You can’t come here and expect to escape what you’ve done.” I leveled my own glare on the ‘mayor’, watching as she looked up at me with a near fear filled gaze. “If you want to fix things, if you really are willing to do anything to help, then get out there and start helping.”

“W-what?” She let out another softer whimper as she brought her hooves up over her head. “But t-they’ll kill me for what I did to them!”

“No, not if you show them that you really care by helping them now.” I understood her fear, and the idea that you’ve done something so monstrous that you weren’t sure if you could ever be forgiven. “Running away from what you’ve done would never allow you to rest a single day. So you need to face it head on. Live with what you did, use it to remind yourself to be better than what you were, no excuses.”

“You… you’re right.” Thunderbolt sniffled as she picked herself up slowly. She brushed her electric yellow mane back to reveal her nearly matching yellow eyes. It caught me off guard, and my mind was quick to note how afraid they looked now compared to the steady green eyes she’d studied me with in the Destruction Bay clinic. “I’ve always run from my problems. I’ve always been afraid of what would happen if they caught up with me. Maybe it’s time I stopped running.”

“I’m not saying it won’t be tough, and that those out there won’t be angry.” I hung my head and closed my eyes, thinking back to how Delilah looked the last time I saw her. “And maybe it won’t work out in the end, I can’t say. But you have to try, if not for us, then for every citizen in East and West city.”

“East, West, hah. That’s how this all started.” She shook her head as she too hung it. “We should have been working together. Vanderhoof was proud and united during the war! The whole east and west thing was supposed to be a friendly rivalry, a bit of harmless competition. How did we let it get to this level of hatred?”

“The same way everything else fell apart.” Buck stepped in with the kindness in his voice I so admired him for. “But Night’s right. With enough effort and time, the ponies of Vanderhoof will see that you’ll have tried to right the wrongs of the past.”

“And I’m going to do that,” Mayor Thunderbolt stiffened, bringing her hope filled gaze onto me as I too looked up from the floor. “Starting by taking down that damned wall, and reunifying our peoples into one city once again.” Lifting one of her wooded forehooves, she looked at it with a frown. “I won’t hide from what I’ve done, I promise you that. And I’m still willing to do whatever it takes to make things right with you, Survivor.”

“It’s just Night Flight.” I offered a small smile to her, happy to see her offer one in kind. “And the contents of the safe deposit box we’re here for will be payment enough.”

“Actually…” Buck spoke up, forcing me to blink a few times in confusion. “I would like to make a request on behalf of the Destruction Bay Clinic. I’ve been told that both former East and West cities have access to a Stable-Tec MTC machine. Perhaps you can work with the Destruction Bay volunteers to fabricate enough food, water, and medical supplies to help your people.”

“And while you’re at it,” Hispano spoke up as she rapped her talons along the barrel of her sister. “Maybe you can help us by giving us a bit of a resupply ourselves before we leave. I’ve heard that those Magical Template Constructor machines can make pretty much any ammunition used during the war.”

“Of course, of course,” Mayor Thunderbolt’s smile wavered, but with each word I could hear her voice become more resolute. “I will make sure to put you as the top priority on the list for use of the machine.” Reaching up, she brushed at her mane again, but stopped with a smile as she looked like she had a realization. “Funny enough, without needing to resupply the Road Crew everyday for their shelling, I should be able to get you everything you could need by midday tomorrow.”

Which actually reminds me…

“One, last thing,” I spoke up, pulling a concerned look over the mayor’s previous smile. “Cordite will be pulling out shortly and heading back up north, but I want you to talk with the Road Crew. They were originally looking to bring Vanderhoof’s roads under their care, and if you work with them, I’m certain they’ll help you with that wall of yours.”

“Hey, yeah!” Hispano let out a light gasp before giving me a soft nudge with her talon. “Didn’t Lustre say she had a hunch that Rock Saw would be needed?” Huh, that’s right, she had…

“I believe that’s no coincidence.” Buck let out a light laugh as he glanced down at Hispano. “After all, you have been keen to point out that we certainly do have a bit of a reputation in the North.”

“I will make a point to talk with the Road Crew about a new arrangement,” Mayor Thunderbolt sighed as it looked like two tons of weight were lifted from her. Still, something hung on her mind, and the small pause she gave as she looked between us betrayed that it was more than just a simple issue. “But with Cordite pulling out, I will have to make a request to the Sky Martial for help in defending Vanderhoof. And though I am not eager to make the call up to her explaining what I’ve done here, I’m afraid that in the time it will take for them to mobilize down here, we’ll have been sacked by any number of wasteland roughians.” And here came the predictable question… “I know I have no right to ask, but I don’t suppose I could convince you all to stay until they get here?”

“Bah! There’s no need for that nonsense!” The propper voice of Captain Charge chimed up through the canvas walls of the tent. Popping his head in through the tent flaps, he took a few puffs from his pipe as he looked over us with a smile. Then with a hobble of his own, he stepped through the flaps and revealed that he too had lost a leg in the fight. Though, it did seem to have been somewhat cleaner of a wound than mine had been... “I could narry authorize our mobilization if I knew it would leave innocent Equestrian citizens at risk. Should you wish it, Cordite’s tanks and crews are at your disposal, Mayor.”

“Thank you, I can’t tell you what it means to me that you’d be willing to stay.” Mayor Thunderbolt turned and held her hoof out to him reflexively. All of us stared in silence as our gazes went from her outstretched hoof, to his bandaged stump, and back to her leg. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t…”

She was cut off as Captain Charge belted out a hearty laugh that almost made him lose his pipe.

“Oh, it’s quite alright!” He sat back on his haunches quickly and used his other forehoof to keep his pipe pinned in his muzzle. “I admit that the wound was my own fault, and is the reason I had to rely on your talon to finish the job you asked of us. I was a bit too hasty in keeping our guns fed to remember that some of our tanks are quite happy to send a bit of you out with each shot!”

“Yeah, no problem. We’ve uh, heard stories that those Stalliongradian tanks do have a taste for forelegs...” With Hispano’s morbid curiosity now sated, she went back to doing her best not to stare at the Captain’s stump again, or mine for that matter.

“No longer just stories as you can see!” Again, he let out a light hearted chuckle that was far too relaxed for having lost a limb. “But none of us from the old days are strangers in adapting to change.” He looked down at his stump and moved what was left of it, not even flinching, but smiling as he stared at it. “You know, I once knew a lad during the war, a brave, and maybe too eager soldier. But if I may say so, one of the best tankers I’ve ever had the distinction of serving with.”

“He looked upon injuries as merely an inconvenience, even right there at the end of the war.” With another laugh, he looked up at us with a sort of strange youthfulness in his old eyes. “Imagine, a pony who thinks of Megaspells as merely an inconvenience! Who, as the green clouds were springing up all over, was content to keep fighting on, all the while blaring that bloody goddess-awful bagpipe music he so loved! It’s enviable, even if it came with the appearance of having gone utterly mad.”

Bagpipes? Madness?

“Mad Jack.” Hispano, Buck and I all said at the same time as we traded tired looks.

“Ah yes, so you’ve heard of him!” Captain Charge nodded to us eagerly.

“We’ve met him.” I sighed and did my best to balance on my haunches as I facehooved. A shudder ran through me as the sounds of bagpipe music drifted through the back of my mind, but was quickly snuffed out somehow. Who knows, maybe that shrill sound tortures even my Jynx...

“Then before you go we must speak more, and trade stories of glory!” With the energy of a pony two hundred years younger than him, he got to his hooves and nodded for us to follow. “Come, I’ll put the kettle on and you can regale me with your stories of Jack!”

“Unfortunately… we must return to our ship.” Hispano stepped in to save us all. It’s not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed hearing exciting war stories from the old days, but… I’d settle right now for a hot meal and a week off my remaining hooves.

“Yes,” Buck nodded eagerly as well before quickly scooping me up off the floor. “We really should be getting back. But, thank you for your offer, and the generous use of your medical supplies.”

“Ah well, another time perhaps.” Captain Charge gave an understanding nod to each of us before sitting down again and saluting with his remaining forehoof. “Thank you for your service in taking down that beast. From my camp and I, well, we wish you all the best on your journeys.”

“You too, Captain.” I did my best to throw up a salute from my cradle in Buck’s arms, but I’m sure I didn’t do it any justice. Before stepping out however, Buck paused and turned me to give our farewells to the Mayor. “We will return tomorrow for the contents of the box, Mayor. If you need anything else in the meantime, give us a call.”

“Will do.” She nodded before stepping aside from the tent’s entrance. Reaching up before he could take a step, she hooked her hoof on Buck’s arm. “And again, thank you, for everything.”

I gave her another nod before settling down in Buck’s arms. I pushed myself back against his fur and letting his warmth radiate out and warm my body. Hispano joined me, and did her best to do the same, stretching her wing over me to help contain some of the precious heat. Closing my eyes for a moment, I took a few deep breaths as I finally felt like I could relax.

And before I knew it, as Buck brought Hispano and I into the cabin of the waiting Remora, I’d drifted off into a well deserved nap.

Author's Notes:

As always, a huge thanks to TheFurryRailFan for all his help in giving my chapters a good once-over before they go up. It may seem like a small contribution, but it helps the chapters be as good as they can be!

And of course, a big thanks to Kkat for kicking off this damn near seven year ride for me. FoE continues to change my life, and for that I can't give enough thanks in every notes section I'll ever write in.