“Oh, it is you, lads!” Mad Jack laughed as he walked right up and squeezed around me tightly. I groaned as my vision fuzzed. Geeze, how was he still so strong for a two century old walking corpse!? “It’s good to see ya’ made it down here…” He paused as he thankfully released me and gestured to my new stump and augmented headpiece. “...in more or less one piece, anyhow!”

“It’s at least nice to see a friendly face.” Buck offered as he carefully wrapped his paws around me and pulled me away from the old ghoul. That made Jack cock his eyebrow up at him for a moment, but he simply shrugged it off. “Seems like there’s less and less of those these days, but yes, we made it.”

“Well, you’re among friends here!” Jack let out another roaring laugh before spinning around in the snow towards the roundhouse. “Now that you’re here, why don’t we get you warmed back up while we wait for your other convoy friends t’ get here.” He eagerly waved for us to follow him, but hesitated to walk when none of us moved.

Right, he… didn’t know.

“We’re… all that’s left, Jack.” I tried my best to push aside the feelings welling up again. You think it would have gotten easier by now, but… something about Jack not knowing made it harder to deal with.

“So, Howitzer and Leaf Spring?” He asked as his glance moved from one of us to the next before stopping on Happy. “Even your mother?” He paused, waiting for us to tell him the words he didn't want to hear. And to be honest, I wasn't alone. No one else really felt like saying them either. So instead we just let the silence do the talking for us. "I'm sorry to hear that. They were good folk."

“Sorry we didn’t come with better news.” I sighed as it felt like the air around here fell to ten below. Even through the numbness I felt, I shivered at that, and it seemed to kick Jack back into the here and now.

“Bad news is still no excuse to let you all bloody freeze out here.” He wore a kind smile as he gave an admittedly less enthusiastic wave before trotting ahead of us. “Now come on and I’ll show you a wee bit of Maple Station hospitality, and if they’re around, introduce you to some of my compatriots who have been eager to meet the survivor herself, the great Bombay!”

I’m sure it wasn’t just me, but hearing that name again, I felt terrible. It felt like a lifetime ago when ponies last thought of me as Bombay. A lifetime of good friends and family cut all too short. Even now, we’d just outrun the reputation of ‘the Survivor’, and part of me had been happy at that fact. I may not have started this journey knowing very much, but the Night Flight of today was a lot different than Bombay or the Survivor.

“You sure about that?” Jynx let a mirthful laugh send a shiver down my spine. “Change your name, say you’re different as many times as you want, I’ll still be right here with you as I always have been.”

Yeah, well you still aren’t going to ruin shit for me. I looked around for her just to give her a glare to drive my point home. But as I did, my hoof slipped out from under me and I fell face first into the snow. There was a sharp pain in my jaw as it struck something hard.

“You sure about that?” Jynx appeared among the stars dancing through my vision. I gave a grumbled and pulled myself up off of the ground, and moved my face away from the old, lightly rusted railway rail that had been buried under the snow. “We’re going to have a lot of fun soon, Night. I can just feel it.”

Sitting in one of the booths in the roundhouse, I kept myself pressed up against Buck’s side. The interior of the old structure was much, much warmer than outside, but that wasn’t enough for me. Hispano fought not to slip off the end of the old cushion as he did his best to cram himself against the other side of me. It was obvious now that these benches hadn’t been made for snow dogs or griffons, but to be fair, I was just glad to have them here with me.

The rest of the roundhouse was emptier than I’d expected for as much seating as it had. Other than the two griffons we saw earlier, and an older looking zebra in black combat barding sleeping at the bar, we were the only non ghouls here. Even then, there was just the barkeep, a single waitress that was collecting dirty dishes from behind the bar, and Jack. There was some noise beyond the curtains of the performance stage they had built in here, but nopony had even poked their head out or anything.

The soft, rhythmic hissing from some unseen machinery caught my ears. I wasn’t the only one, as I found Buck’s triangular metal dishes tweaking and almost scanning for the source of it. There was a sharpening rattle that came from some of the piping that ran around and throughout the roundhouse. It culminated in a hiss that jetted soft clouds of steam down throughout the place.

Huh, steam heating, in a place this big? Then again, it’s not like with all the snow around they’d be wanting for water. I smirked at that, but gave myself pause as I thought about who would have really appreciated this place. Boiler and Hardcase would have probably gone on for days about the setup had they made it here.

“So, what brings you to Maple Station?” Jack asked as he set down a few empty glasses on the table before slipping into the seat next to Happy. With a heavy clunk, he set down a mostly full bottle of Wild Pegasus on the table that immediately drew the interest of our assuredly parched mule. “Or are ya just stopping in to give an old friend a hello before you’re back on the road?”

“We’re looking for a friend, Unit...” I bit my tongue as my brain was quick to remind me that looking for Unit Seven was a topic we probably shouldn’t be too liberal about. Ping and the Architect trusted us to keep the factory safe, and that meant not telling everyone about them. “Er, a few reasons, really. But mostly information.”

“A friend, you say?” Jack smiled as he grabbed the bottle of whiskey and quickly filled each of the glasses he’d brought with just a bit of the amber colored alcohol. “Well, we’re a small community where everypony knows everypony.” He set down the bottle and wrapped his hoof around one of the glasses with a smile. With a single, swift motion, he shot the brown liquid down his throat. “Got a name?” He groaned and winced as he set the glass down again.

“Not exactly…” Hispano answered before I could. “We don’t know what she calls herself these days.”

“Aye, a mare then.” Jack nodded as he almost mindlessly reached out for the bottle and filled his glass again. “That at least narrows it down.” With his refilled glass in hoof, he stared at it and gave it a swirl before cocking his rotten eyebrow at us. “What’s she look like?”

“We aren’t sure about that either.” Buck answered as he pulled his mechanical paws up and tented them on the table. Jack took a moment to stare curiously at them before he brought the glass up to his lips and shot back the liquid again.

“Aye, you uh… aren’t really giving me much to work with, in all honesty.” Jack spoke through a rough, scratch filled cough as he put his glass back down.

“Yeah, sorry about that…” I wasn’t exactly sure what else we could say! ‘Sorry, she’s an advanced machine built for infiltration that can change its appearance at will and was last heard sending out some sort of distress signal’ wasn’t exactly going to cut it here. Then again… “Well, we do know that she’s come in and out of Maple Station a few times recently at regular intervals.”

“Hmmm, sounds more like that Ex-Enclave merc than anyone here, Sergeant Blue Bolt.” He brought his hoof up to his chin and rubbed at it, pulling at his rotting skin in ways that made my stomach want to do a flip. After a moment of thought, he gave a small nod to us. “Aye, she’s a sharp mare, that one. Prickly to most, downright spiteful to non-pegasi. Even Caution Tape can’t stand the mare, and he’s the friendliest and most cheerful of all of us. But... that’s mostly due to her reputation from right before the clouds lifted.”

“Reputation?” I asked as I blinked a bit.

“Aye, during that ‘Operation Cauterize’ or whatever your ilk called it.” Jack snorted as he once more poured himself a drink. “There was a lot of nasty brought to us wastelanders by your kind, but she was one of the worst.” He poured himself a double as his muzzle turned to a rotten frown. “We believe in second chances here in Maple Station, but she was almost the exception.” He growled as his hoof tightened around the glass and he shook his head.

“I’d heard about her a few days ago, the butcher of Merritt.” Hispano muttered softly as he pulled off of me slightly. “When we were there, a few traders in West City recounted being through there right after the operation, saw the trail of bodies she left.” He shook his head and reached out with a talon. Gripping around the glass, Hispano stared at it as if he was unsure if he wanted it. “From what they said, she wasn’t even supposed to be deployed there. She was supposed to stay with her squad for the attack on Hope, but she went rogue and skipped to the next town over alone and damn near cleared it out on her own.”

“So why let the bitch in?” Happy once again spoke up as a surprising voice of reason here. “Second chances be damned, this mare sounds like a fucking psychopath.”

“Because we’re a small, secluded community.” Jack nodded before finally downing his third drink. “Sure, us tankers can handle most problems, but we’re not good with solving smaller problems. High explosives and machine guns are great, but they tend to cause a lot of collateral damage, you see.” He reached out for the bottle again, but stopped himself as he looked between us. “So long as she limits her business to just that, business, then we risk less by letting her come and go.”

“And what happens when she makes herself a problem?” The zebra at the bar called out as he stirred and pushed himself around to face us. The guy had to be the oldest zebra I’d met outside of Spring Leaf. Heavy bags sat under eyes that were just as grey as his striped mane had become. “I’ve seen types like her before. Unstable, unpredictable, and given a bad enough day?” The light combat gear he wore looked like it was holding on by a few frayed threads, but the Pentex patch across his chest plate was clear enough to pull a snarl from all four of us. “Boom. They get right back to killing anything in sight.”

“Why don’t you get up real slow now, Pentex.” Hispano cooed as he hopped out of the booth and pulled Baby from it’s holster.

“Woah there.” Jack scrambled from his seat and practically threw himself between Baby’s barrel and the Pentex asshole. Looking at me, he jabbed his rotten forehoof my way. “We don’t have a whole ton of rules here, but I shouldn’t have to tell you to not start a fight.”

“Those assholes have tried ta’ kill us more times than I’ve got hooves left to count on!” Happy snapped as he pushed his way from the booth as well. With a growl, he bit around the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it.

“Wait, before you get to comfortable with your bits.” The Zebra laughed and put his hooves up. “I don’t know who any of you are, nor do I care.” He wore a smile as he carefully reached down and unhooked the straps holding his armor on. “I was here for a job, but that’s over. Now I’m simply looking to wet my lips before getting back out there.” With a clatter, his gear slumped to the floor, leaving his welt covered and bandaged body exposed. The only piece of gear he didn’t remove, was an old and battered looking pipbuck still strapped to his forehoof. “See, we’re all friends here.”

“A likely story.” Hispano grunted as he lowered the barrel of Baby away from him, but didn’t put it back in its holster. “Understand this, I’m watching you, buster.”

“Duly noted.” He smirked and started to turn himself back toward the bar. He paused for a moment before his smile widened to a beam. “And the name’s not buster, it’s Okona. Freelance problem solver, challenge seeker, and friend for hire, at your service.”

“Night, I don’t like this any more than you do…” Buck’s voice came through as he reached his arm around to hold me closer. “But maybe it would be best if we didn’t provoke him.”

“And let him kill one of us when we don’t expect it?” I glanced up at Buck, watching as my words brought a frown to his muzzle.

“Well,” Buck sighed through his augment before his gaze lifted and turned to the Zebra. “What if we made it worth his while to leave us alone?”

“How?” I fired back with a glare. “This smells like Solomon’s work, and he’s probably offered him a billion caps or something just as ridiculous. How are we supposed to compete with that?”

“Can you two quit mind-making-out for two seconds?” Happy muttered from around the hilt of his sword. “What are we gonna do, Night? Sit, or fight?”

“If I might suggest,” Mad Jack’s muzzle split into a smile as he reached back and pulled his plaid instrument off his back. “Perhaps a song to smooth the tension in the room? I know just the derge!”

“You’re a dear, Jack, really...” The soft and somewhat sultry voice of a mare ripped everyone’s attention to the stage. Standing there was a mare who almost looked to good to be a ghoul. Her perfectly preserved brunette mane shimmered under the stage’s lighting, while the pristine spring green colored gown she wore sparkled a ruby red color from the interwoven sequins. “But I think they might just need some reassurance.” Her voice was too smooth, too familiar to me, but… I’m sure I’d never seen this mare in my life. “It’s simply been a pleasure, Mr. Okona, and I cannot thank you enough for helping to find a spare talisman as they are so rare these days.” Her hoof came up and brushed aside her neckline just enough that I could see a gem studded necklace underneath.

“You take care of that now.” Okona chuckled as he pushed himself away from the bar and slowly gathered his gear from the floor. “Like you said, there aren’t many like that left out there. But hey, if you have a need for a new one in the future?” With his gear wrapped around his hoof, he gave her a respectful bow. “Well then, as you always say, we’ll meet again.”

“Some sunny day!” The mare half sang out through a lovely laugh that made my mind do a backflip. She gave a light wave as Okona turned and headed for the door. The moment he was through, both Hispano and Happy breathed a sigh of relief, and even more importantly, Jack put his bagpipes back where they belonged.

Somewhere deep inside however, I knew those words from somewhere. A song I’d heard far too many times, playing over and over again through the years. It was one of the few I liked that would come on the Enclave sanctioned radio, and one that mom didn’t like because it was too somber sounding for it’s message.

Blinking at the ghoul, I started to wonder if I wasn’t actually staring at the mare who two hundred years ago sang the song ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

“Trust me, Night.” My own hoof came down on my shoulder from where Hispano had been sitting. Turning, I looked straight into the doubtfilled look of my own face. “You don’t have that kind of luck.”

“Jack…” Happy lowered his voice as he blinked a few times. With a quick snap of his wooden hoof, he’d wrapped it around the rotten stallion’s back and pulled himself closer to him. “Jack, Jack, Jack.” With his other hoof, he prodded the stallion who was looking more and more confused by the moment. “You never mentioned when we came through before that Vera was here.”

“Because she wasn’t here last time, lad.” Jack’s muzzle pulled into a smirk as he returned the favor and prodded Happy hard in his leather jacket. “She, Rangefinder, and Sensha had booked a ride up on an ENR train to Pink Mountain. A sort of gal’s only spa trip, you see.” He gave a nod over his shoulder toward the stage. “But if you’re a fan, I could introduce you, perhaps…”

“A fan?” Happy nodded slowly. With the same speed that always surprised me, he shifted his hooves and forced Jack to stare him right in the eyes. “You don’t understand. She’s the only one I know who’s collaborated with the King and is still alive, ya’ dig? She’s practically royalty.”

“Calm yourself!” Jack let out a roaring laugh. With a single firm tap of his hoof across Happy’s back, Jack slapped the breath right out of his lungs. “Of course I’ll introduce you if it means that much!” With an equally firm swing, he wrapped his hoof around Happy’s back and dragged him off, leaving Buck, Hispano, and I to simply watch.

“So, uh…” Hispano spoke up before the silence between us could sink in. “What now?”

“I guess we look for any information on either Unit Seven, or if anyone’s seen any Alicorns.” I shrugged to her and then looked up at Buck.

“If Unit Seven were here, or even nearby,” Buck sighed as he reached his paw up and ran it across his metal yoke. “then I would have picked up the signal again.”

“Then let’s take a look and ask around.” I know it was pretty much a shot in the dark that anypony would know about King, but I had to try. “Someone’s gotta know something, anything.” King trusted me to help him, and so far he’d been making progress. I didn’t owe him anything, but… I couldn’t just let him go like that.

“Oh, shit! I uh… I mean.” Hispano said abruptly as he stood up with a blush. “I think you two should look into seeing what the other ghouls have to say. I uh, need to check something first, and then I’ll check if some of the shop owners know anything.”

“Hispano?” Buck’s stern voice framed exactly the tone I was about to use with her myself. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing!” He smiled as his blush brightened across his beak. Fucking hell, why did male Hispano have to be so damn handsome when embarased? “Trust me, I need to see a… friend from when Dad and I flew up this way the first time. It won’t take long.”

“And you won’t get into trouble with this ‘friend’?” Buck growled as he crossed his mechanical arms across his cloak.

“No, I promise.” Hispano nodded to the both of us before hsi nervous gaze landed on me. With a sharp thrust forward, he plunged his beak against my muzzle and gave me a quick kiss before flaring out his massive wings and taking off toward the door.

Both Buck and I were left in a somewhat stunned silence as in a minute flat, we went from a full room, to a mostly empty one. The only others left here were the two freelance griffons, and they took turns shooting Buck and I annoyed glares from across the roundhouse. Okay, maybe that’s our cue to get going as well…

“Come on, Buck.” I sighed as I pressed myself against his warm side. “Let’s head to the railshed and start asking some questions.”

The sounds of industrious work came through the large doors to the railshed as we approached it. Ponies working on metal, grinding and welding things was somewhat a comfort to hear over the crunching of snow underhoof and the awkward silence we’d had in the roundhouse. It wasn’t until I’d had my hoof on the cracked door however that I hesitated. This place had seemed tame enough, but the thought that Solomon could have left us a nasty surprise somewhere here became all too present.

Which is of course when somepony inside decided that it was time to open the door right onto my face.

“Ach, my apologies!” The gasp of an oddly accented pony filtered through my ears as I stumbled back onto my flank. While the accent sounded a lot like Jack’s other friend we’d met up in Mare’s Lake, this wasn’t the same voice. Stars once more swirled around my vision as Buck’s paw moved to help pull me back up as the pony came out. “I did not see you there!”

Surprisingly, the black and white striped muzzle of a zebra poked their head around the doorway. The gashes, scrapes, and worn out skin told me that like Jack, he also happened to be a ghoul. From the way his muzzle beamed a smile at me, he seemed fairly friendly to boot! But still, it sat oddly with me… a zebra with that accent? How does that even happen?

“Scheiße!” The zebra’s smile died as he took one look up at Buck and nearly ducked back behind the door. However, even as his hoof tightly gripped around the old shed door, he slowed himself. “Wait… a friendly hollenhund? But… how can this be?”

“My name is Buck, and yes, I’m friendly.” Buck spoke softly, arching himself slightly to hide further under his robes as he pulled his paw off of me. “Also, I’m not a hellhound, I’m a Snow Dog.”

“It speaks equestrian so fluidly…” The zebra nearly gasped, narrowing his eyes as he pulled himself out from behind the door slightly.

“He also happens to be an accomplished doctor, just so you know.” I did my best to get my hooves under me again, all the while letting my light shivers help to shake off the fresh powder from my coat. “My name is Night Flight, and we were wondering if you could answer some questions about a few missing friends of ours.”

“Night Flight?” The zebra gasped as he stepped out and all but grabbed my forehoof right up out of the snow. “Ja! Jack and Rheinmetall have mentioned you from their trips! My name is Caution Tape, one of the tankers here. Now, come in, get out of ze cold!” It was already taking almost all the strength my haunches had to not dump me into the snow when he started shaking my hoof. So of course when he let go to head inside, I flopped right down into the frigid stuff. “A friend of Jack’s is a friend to Maple Station! Even if she is a bit... shorter than ze tales paint her to be.”

Hey, I wasn’t that small!

I did my best to grumble as being dumped into the snow sent my shivering into overdrive. While my augment could numb the discomfort of it, the uncontrollable shivering was still not pleasant to deal with. However like most times, Buck’s paws easily scooped me up and helped to carry me around the door and inside the railshed.

The high windows of the shed let a good amount of light filter down into the fairly spacious interior of the old world train workshop. Even with the windows however, this place needed the help of several long rows of industrial spark-powered lighting hung from the rafters. The old lights gave off the normal characteristic hum that was almost lost behind the noise of the work going on, but they efficiently coated the chipped, scratched, and well worn concrete floor with light.

A dozen or so ponies and ghouls worked at patching up holes, or painting over some of the recently cleaned sections of the shed. Even above the door, a pair of ponies were on a hanging scaffolding and working on the currently inactive heating unit. One of the ponies set their toolbox down and peered down at us, giving a smile and wave at me that died the moment they got a look at the robes that hid Buck.

Lined up along one side of the garage, were five incredibly different tanks. Included among them was Jack’s squat and boxy heavy tank, as well as Rheinmetall’s familiar gunmetal grey beast at the far end of the shed. If not for having seen what Cordite had back at their headquarters, the sight might have been more surprising. Still, knowing what just one well trained Cordite crew could do, having almost a half dozen tanks up here meant that Jack was right. Maple Station was well defended against anything that could ever hope to force its way through these mountains.

“Sorry about ze mess.” Caution Tape called back as he trotted over to one of the larger looking tanks of the bunch. “Every decade or so, we take ze time to do some intensive maintenance. Keeps zis place from falling apart on us!”

I actually had to do a double take at the tank when I looked at it to make sure it really did have multiple turrets sitting near the larger main one. Two of the smaller turrets seemed to have a gun of about fifty caliber or so, while the two medium turrets looked to be about the same gun size as Cordite’s mass produced series. Hispano probably would have been able to confirm that, but what I could see plain as day written across the side of the track guards was Deathtrap, which probably told me everything I needed to know. Last time I was in a tank, it certainly felt like one, and the Chieftain had a lot more armor than this thing seemed to...

Still, Caution Tape hopped up onto it without any hesitation and climbed his way up to the main turret. With a squeal, he opened the top hatch. A green blur shot out into the air, disappearing up into the rafters behind the overhead lights.

“Peridot, you get down here zis instant!” He grumbled as he turned his head to the rafters and put his hooves on his hips. “I know ze big one seems scary, but he vill not harm you, I promise.” Caution Tape flashed us a smile as he glanced back. “Don’t take zis personally, she can be shy around strangers.”

“What is she, if I may ask?” Buck reached his mechanical paws up to his hood, pulling it back slightly so he could aim his augmented eye up to the same dark spot I was. “She’s obviously an avian of some kind, but I’m more curious how she could be giving off so much magical radiation…”

“She is a Balefire Phoenix.” Caution Tape sighed as he pulled himself over the lip of the turret and lowered his head in while still shouting back to us. “Quite a rare specimen in ze wastes these days, und good company on long journeys to boot!”

A what phoenix? I mean, I’d read about phoenix… phoenixi? Dammit, what’s the multiple for them? Whatever. I mean hell, I'd seen one fly with me way back up near Destruction Bay! But this, this is... different. Guess this little gal's ancestors weren't lucky enough to be spared by most of the bombs radiation...

“Fascinating.” The way Buck’s staticky voice emphasized that, I was reminded of how he’d been before…. well, before everything became much more complicated in our lives. “On the Inuvik, there were stories from traders that told of green streaks of light cresting the skies at sundown. They’d thought it was nature’s way of reminding us of what we’d done to ourselves at the end, but… I’d never imagined those streaks would be something so beautiful.” Now that was more a tone he used exclusively with me...

“Night Flight, that’s so unlike you.” My own voice came from up on top of Caution Tape’s tank. She’d saddled herself on the short howitzer the tank held as it’s main cannon, pretending to ride it as she beamed a smile to me. “Green is so not your color. It’s more black and blue.”

What, green? Did… did she think I was jealous? Of a bird?

Just as I thought that, her beaming smile widened even further. To the point in fact that it looked like it would have been painful on any real pony. What was she up to?

Something hit me on the head, hard. I stumbled forward as both I and whatever hit me clattered to the floor. My augmented vision fuzzed for a moment as stars again danced through the air around me. A gasp came from the worker on the scaffolding above me, almost lost behind the outrageous laughter my jynx gave off.

“Oh, Night!” Buck gasped as he helped me up off the floor. “Are you alright?”

“Really guys?” The scratchy voice of a mare called out as I shook the stars out of my vision. “Twice in one week?” Another set of rotting striped legs came into view from around the front of Caution Tape’s tank as a zebra mare shot the workers a glare. Well, not exactly a zebra it seemed. “Do I have to get Oil Slick to wonderglue your tools to you to stop you from dropping them on any more of our guests’ heads?”

The rotting mare before me was… different than any other zebra I’d met. She had brown as her base color, and stripes that were an almost navy blue. Her mane was striped too, but alternated between the same navy as on her body, and a much brighter blue color. And now that I look at her, compared to Gearbox, Lucky, and even Caution Tape here, her zebra features were a lot less… pronounced.

“It’s fine, happens all the time.” I groaned as Buck helped me get back onto my hooves once more. Though, it wasn’t for long as again reflexively, I almost reached out to offer a hoof to her. “And… what are you?” I took a deep breath as I focused on keeping myself steady. “I mean, who are you?” Come on, Night, don’t fall on your face socially again either…

“Sensha, owner and operator of the only amphibious tank this far north!” She proudly brought her hoof up into a lazy salute before glancing over at Buck. Like with Caution Tape, she seemed to shrink back a bit at the sight of him, but didn’t completely freak out. “And uh… I’m a zony. You know, half zebra, half pony.”

Right, totally forgot about that being a thing. Which, honestly I really shouldn’t have, seeing as how many hybrids I’ve run across on this trip so far. Hippogriphs, Mules, Mirage Ponies, and now Zonies, I think the thing I should be asking is how many others haven’t I met…

“Is your friend okay?” Sensha whispered up to Buck with a nervous smile. “She doesn’t have brain damage, does she?”

“No.” Buck offered with a light chuckle. “Night, you aren’t getting lost in your thoughts again, are you?”

“Sorry, I was, actually.” I shook off the perplexing thoughts of odd interspecies mating pairs and tried to refocus myself on the here and now. “It’s nice to meet you, but we were wondering if either of you could help us out.” I glanced over to Caution Tape again as he climbed down from his mountainous tank. “We’re looking for a couple of friends. One comes here periodically, every few days or so.”

“Sounds like zat Enclave...” Caution Tape bit his tongue and took a deep breath. With a forceful chuff of his hoof, he kicked the steel tool that had hit me across the floor. “Nur eine Stunde mit der Todesfalle, alles, was ich verlange, ist genug Zeit, um sie mit jedem Schmerz vertraut zu machen, den ich zufügen kann…”

“Caution Tape!” Sensha gave out a gasp as she nearly rounded herself right into his face. “What has gotten into you?”

“I… don’t like her.” Caution grumbled before glancing back to us. “Und she’s the only regular stranger around here I know of.”

“We’re fairly certain it isn’t her.” Buck put his mechanical paws out carefully, trying to reassure them. However, from the somewhat uncomfortable reaction it pulled from the two, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t working. “The other friend is an Alicorn who was taken from our ship by three other alicorns.”

“Well, we don’t really get many Alicorns out here.” Sensha turned herself back to us and sat down. She rubbed at her chin with her hoof, squishing her old skin and causing it to stretch in unnatural ways. “Though, a few traders headed north have mentioned seeing a few flights of them heading east, so you might try out by the old abandoned amusement park. The place is falling apart, so most avoid it. But... that’d make it a good place to hide if you’re foal napping somepony. Past that, I’m sorry, we haven’t really seen anyone around here like that.”

That was at least a start.

“Und I apologize for my reaction.” Caution Tape put his hoof on his chest and looked like he’d started to relax again. “It is only because I have been to Merritt many times, und what she did was…”

“We’ve heard.” I nodded to him, finding a certain understanding coming through his expression. “We’ve seen our fair share of monsters in the north, so we can relate.”

“Maybe we can convince her to leave Maple Station and seek work elsewhere.” Buck’s tone shifted to a more hope filled one, even if the static that underlined his voice diminished it somewhat.

“You’d be doing us a favor.” Sensha let a forced laugh slip through her rotten muzzle before she reached out and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “But don’t push too hard. You two look like you can handle a fight, but I’m not sure you want one with her.”

“Trust me, we’re not looking for a fight.” I did my best to offer her a forced smile.

“When aren’t you, though?” Jynx asked sharply as her confused expression peeked out impossibly from behind Sensha herself.

“No, we’re not.” I snapped at her, watching her smile as Sensha pulled away and scrunched her muzzle up. “Sorry, just… lost in my own thoughts again! I promise I’m not crazy, so there’s nothing to worry about!” I did my best to throw her a laugh as I reached up to tap my metal head, only to find myself flop onto the floor again.

Ugh, this whole only one forehoof thing was getting old…

“Well, we’re happy to have met the both of you.” Buck offered as he again used his paws to help me up off the floor. “But we really should be checking in with our other friends to see if they’ve got any leads.”

“Sure thing.” Caution Tape offered a beaming smile to us again, as well as a light wave. “I hope we’ll get to see you again before you leave. Jack und Rhinemetall have spoken highly of you and your friends, so it’d be a shame if we did not at least get some time to chat!”

“These two are the ones they mentioned?” Sensha’s voice didn’t seem to exactly convey comfort in having us around anymore. At least, not anywhere as much as it just had, but she did her best to quickly hide that under an even more nervous smile and wave to us. “I mean, of course, looking forward to your stay… haha, yeah.”

Before I could blurt out my question about what the others had told them, Buck’s arms had scooped me up and brought me against himself again. Without another word, he turned us for the door and headed out. Looking up at him, he shared only a momentary glance down at me from under his hood. One that came with a deep, metal muzzled frown.

“We should stick to looking for Unit Seven and King.” Buck’s voice came through as worried and crystal clear as ever. “The inhabitants here seem nice, and I don’t want to put them at risk any longer than we have to.”

I didn’t want to agree that just being around us was dangerous. Though, in all fairness, situations had a way of developing and then quickly exploding when we were within proximity to any sort of innocent folk. Our best bet would be to ask around some more and then head out east towards the theme park they’d mentioned. In, out, and focused on our task.

“I agree.” I nodded as I thought back to Buck as we stepped back out into the daylight. While it wasn’t much, the limited warmth of the sun was at least something nice to feel across my numb coat. “Limiting our time here is probably smart anyway. The longer we wait to find King, the further away they might have taken him.”

“What I don’t know about is how we can’t find anyone who has any clue about where Unit Seven is.” Buck gave a sharp snort as he crunched his way through the snow. “We know that this Enclave mare isn’t her, yet, she’s the only one moving in and out of range.”

“Do we know, though?” I asked reflexively through my mind. It seemed to catch Buck off guard, as he almost missed a step in his stride. His concerned eyes glanced down at me as his frown only deepened. “I don’t want to say it, but… what if Unit Seven is this Blue Bolt?” I didn’t ever want to see anyone else in my life like Red, and just the thought of another machine like him sent a shiver through my spine. “Then we have to kill her.”

“Agreed.” Buck sent back with a whimper and a nod. He didn’t want to do it any more than I did. But if she was going to be another Red, well, then it had to be done.

As we approached the Remora, we noticed that Happy was already inside. He gave us an eager wave over before wrapping his hooves around himself. At first I’d thought something was wrong, but as we approached, I could see how much he was shivering.

“Can we fucking go now?” He whined, practically diving against Buck as he stepped onto the Remora. Hey, get your own furry pile of warmth! “This place is neat, but it’s too fucking cold out here.”

“If you took the time to look around past ogling that ghoul mare, you’d have realized you just need to adapt a bit.” Hispano called out as he gave out a heavy beat of his wings. Coming down on the other side of the Remora, he flashed up a smile as he presented a pair of old olive colored winter jackets in his talons. “The tailor here does good work, so I managed to get you two something for the time being.”

Oh, Hispano, I don’t deserve you!

Buck set me down and grabbed one of the jackets. He studied it for a moment before helping me worm my way into it. About halfway through, I realized that like most things now, it probably would have been a pain to do solo with my missing foreleg. Still, that care went right out into the snow as soon as the heavy fabric hugged around my battle saddle and skin.

“Now be careful with these.” Hispano grumbled as she reached over and made sure that my jacket wasn’t hanging over the barrel of my subgun. “They’re not yours, they’re rentals, so I don’t want you destroying-”

The sharp, rending tear of fabric split the air. All of us froze as our eyes turned to Happy. He stood there with a horrified look on his face and the sleeve of his new jacket shredded in the claws of his hellhound arm. Happy’s eyes darted from the three of us, over to the ribboned fabric, and then back to us again.

“That… was my bad.” Happy’s muzzle twisted into a forced grin that pulled an almost Buck-like growl out of Hispano’s beak.

“You know what?” Buck said as he held his paw out to us, “With the trouble we seem to run into, maybe we should leave them in the Remora when we go. I’m sure I can help keep everyone warm if it comes to it.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Besides, we’ve handled cold like this before. We’ll live.” I offered to him, stepping up and folding my wing around Hisapno’s back. “Did this ‘tailor’ have any info on either Unit Seven or King?”

“No.” Hispano sighed as he allowed my wing to pull himself closer to me. “The only outsider who keeps coming back regularly is that Enclave chick.” With a nervous furrow of his brow, he looked over at me. “And… as much as it’d suck, I think she might be Unit Seven.”

“We’ve come to the same conclusion.” Buck nodded as the Remora’s hydraulics whined and shut the doors around us. “However, we may have a lead on King. There is an old theme park not too far east from here. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it from the first time you flew up this way?”

“No, we tried to stick with the same route Delilah’s convoy took.” He shook his head. The Remora’s engines spooled up, and all four of us shifted slightly as we took to the skies once more. “Look, Night, I’m willing to look for King, but…”

“We’re getting King back.” I cut in with a sharper than needed glance over my muzzle.

“I know, I know…” Hispano paused as he looked up at Buck for some support. “It’s just, if there’s more than just a few Alicorns there, I’m not sure we can take them.”

“She’s right ya know.” Happy surprisingly blurted out with my trademark bluntness to his words. “One Alicorn is enough of a problem, but if it’s three again like on the ship? Hell, I’m not sure we’ll do anything more than annoy them!”

“Look, we’ll figure it out!” I snapped and ground my forehoof against the floor. “We’ll separate them and take them out one by one if we have to, but we’re getting King back.” Why the cold hooves all of a sudden? They might not have seen King as part of the crew, but he was my responsibility. “Now instead of questioning if we can do it, all I want to hear in the next fifteen minutes is ideas for how we get it done.”

Buck’s paw came to rest on my back softly as he let out a soft sigh.

“Night’s right.” He offered in his normal and kind way as he smiled softly at me. “Between the four of us, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“So we’re all in agreement.” I sighed and looked between the others.

“Yeah, the purple one needs to go first.” Hispano nodded as he loaded the large drum magazine into Suiza. “Without her advanced teleportation spell, the others won’t be able to get very far.”

“Then we move on to the green one.” Buck nodded, letting his fancy magical energy weapon fold out of his boxy mechanical forearm. “Without her able to focus on her shield spell, King should be free to escape.”

“Then it’s a hunt.” Happy snorted as he brought his muzzle down and drew his silver sword partly out of its sheath. With a quick glancing inspection, he pushed it back in and smiled. “Without her friends, the invisible cunt won’t last long against us.” With a laugh, he gave Buck a light shove with his forehoof. “Plus, with a nose like his, she won’t even take that long to find!”

“I can’t smell, remember?” Buck deadpanned at Happy. Reaching up with his paw, he gave a tap at his metal skullcap. “I’m only alive because the factory could save everything but that. But...” His glowing blue mechanical eye shifted to a deep red as he smiled. “These optics allow me to see magical fields, so even if she becomes invisible, I’ll be able to see her.”

“We don’t need any of that to find her.” Hispano shrugged and pulled Suiza close with a smile. “The blues have always been uncharacteristically cowardly, even back when they were all part of the Goddess. The moment we take out her friends, she’ll go invisible and fly off into the sunset.”

“Yeah, free to do this again with any other alicorns she happens to run across.” I know that it wasn’t our problem, but…

I paused at that. It wasn’t our problem. We were here for King, and that was it. While this other alicorn may be a problem we could solve, it wasn’t our job. It had been a hard lesson for me to learn, but, Hispano had taught it to me well enough.

“You know what? It’s not our problem.” I shook my head. “We get the other two out of the way, save King, and that’s it. That’s the priority.”

“Night…” Hispano let a gasp escape his handsome beak. “Are you really not going to sacrifice yourself to protect random wastelanders?” With a flare of his wings, he wrapped them around me tightly and squeezed his talons at my sides. “My beautiful coltfriend, you’re growing up so much! I’m so proud of…”

I cut him off by pressing my muzzle into his beak. The blush that flowed across his cheeks as he kissed me back glowed brighter than the Remora’s cabin lighting. It may have been a cheap way to save myself some embarrassment, but turnabout is fair play, right?

“Fucking get a room, you two.” Happy rolled his eyes as I broke off from our kiss.

The Remora tilted slightly under our hooves, and I could feel the distinct pull towards the floor as the engines worked to slow us down. The altimeter in my vision showed us starting to descend, and with that, I worked my way out of Hispano’s firm talon grasp. Alright, King, we’re coming to help.

The Remora shuddered as it landed firmly on what must have been a fairly thick helping of snow underneath us. The hydraulics of the doors whined to life as the four of us prepared to disembark. As the doors opened, a perplexed looking blue alicorn shimmered into view in front of us. She took a step back with a gasp as her slit eyes narrowed on us.

“Leave, trespassers!” Her authoritative voice boomed as she bared a muzzle filled with sharp teeth at us. “This is our home now, and you will not interfere with our lives!”

My eyes wandered across her form, looking for the mark my eye weapon left on her. But her blue coat, while bristled from the cold wind, was unblemished by any sort of scars or marks. Either she could heal fast enough that I was jealous of it, or this was a second and different blue alicorn.

“Sure, we’ll leave.” Buck let a low, rumbling growl out of his muzzle as he stepped out ahead of the rest of us. “As soon as you return our friend to us.”

“There is no such ‘friend’ here for you.” She snapped back, finding a way to match Buck’s growl with one of her own. She unfurled the large wings across her back, holding them out as she lowered her horn to us slightly. “Now if you wish to keep your lives, then leave now and never return.”

“We aren’t leaving without King.” Happy snorted as he bit down around the bit to Laika’s survival pistol. He drew it out and pointed it right at her, narrowing his gaze.

“Look, we can take a look, we can talk with the one who took him, or we can fight.” I offered to her as I unfolded my wings and did my best to mirror her. I may not have the same impressive wingspan, but if we all looked ready to fight, maybe she’d reconsider. “But however you want to do this, we’re not leaving until we know that King isn’t here.”

The alicorn mare’s muzzle twisted into a smile as she let a mirth filled laugh fill the air.

“Foals, all of you.” Her horn began to glow, with her blue magic slowly being drawn up along it’s tight spiral. “Do you really…”

Suiza’s barrel flashed out a single round of twenty millimeter death. As the report turned our ears into nothing but ringing, the soft pop of the round’s explosive payload going off was joined by the wet warmth of a spray of gore showering us. Only a bit of exposed spine held up the mare’s neck as her legs collapsed, and the alicorn died on the spot.

“Boring conversation anyway.” Hispano’s chuckling laugh beat back the ringing in my ears. He flared out his own wings and beat them steadily. “We need to hurry, because she probably already let the others know we were here.” Looking to me, he nodded to the skies. “You and I should search by air, while Buck and Happy check the buildings nearby.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I nodded and turned to Buck, who was currently running his paws through his face fur and trying to get the bits of blood and bone out of it. “Buck? I need you to throw me.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, letting the static in his voice mask a bit of his uncertainty. I gave him a nod and hobbled toward him. “Alright, but I’m not going to throw you as hard as Ping did. Still, you might want to prepare yourself.”

Buck’s paw scooped me up and helped me curl up into a ball like last time. I folded my wings up, keeping them pressed tightly against my back as he twisted himself and curled his arm into launch position. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and prepared myself. Okay Night, just like last time…

Buck’s arm twisted and pushed. A mechanical whine lasted only a second before it was left behind me. My body spun end over end as the cold air clawed my numb skin. My heartbeat was steady, and I took steady, stiff breaths until I could feel myself slow. As I’d done so many times, I unfurled my wings and let them catch the air under them. Opening my eyes, I found myself flying right alongside Hispano as his eyes scanned the park below.

From up here, I could see that the park was bigger than I’d expected it to be. Two dozen different small buildings sat in a row near the center of the complex, with one end capped with a huge multicolored tent that looked big enough to house half a settlement’s worth of ponies. At the other end of the main row, sat a large rusting ferris wheel. It’s paint was almost completely stripped from it, and only a few of the seats still sat on their rungs near the top. Even from here I could hear as the stiff wind pulled creaks and groans from it.

At the far end of the park, sat a network of huge pipes being held up by wooden timbers. It could have been mistaken for some industrial ruin, except that the pipes were all missing their top halves. Large log shaped boats sat at various places among the rotting and mold coated pipes, and a few still floated in the near fluorescent green pockets of water that occupied parts of the structure. A bunch of smaller tents had been set up by it’s entrance, which was odd, but something I’d have to take a look at later.

Closer to where Hispano and I were flying over however, were a few larger ‘rides’. One caught my eye in particular, a circular machine that had sixteen or so metal arms to it, and an anvil shaped cloud at the center. At the end of each arm sat something that resembled a skytank, chariot, or even mini Raptors. Though the paint was faded, the embossed letters across the front of it still read out ‘Thunderhead attack!’.

“Dum dum!” Hispano called out as his talons brought Suiza forward. “Eleven O’ Clock!”

I looked up from my airborn park tour to see an angry looking purple unicorn streaking through the air at us. Her horn glowed brightly, and I reflexively torqued my wings to roll. Both Hispano and I broke off in different directions as a beam of magic heated the air we’d just been in.

With my leg held out in front of me, I tried my best to regain my sights on the mare. I was about to fire my sub machine gun when the alicorn mare shot past me and pulled up. She was moving a lot faster than I’d expected, and by the time I’d given my wings a few flaps to try to gain my own altitude, she was already turned around and heading down after Hispano.

“A little help here!” Hispano’s voice came through my head with a small note of panic to it.

Beams of magical energy poured forth from the alicorn’s horn. Shot after shot kept Hispano twisting and rolling on a downward trajectory. As best he could, Hispano dodged, but couldn’t turn himself around to fire back without giving up his maneuverability.

Again I twisted my wings and banked around toward the two. I pointed my hoof down slightly and pulled myself into a shallow dive, building enough speed in a few moments to match their own. With every dodge and weave, Hispano bled speed and potential energy, but I could see what was on his mind. The two sped down toward the rusting ferris wheel that sat near the center of the park. Hispano was gunning for shooting through one of the rusting gaps that would be too small for the Alicorn’s wingspan to fit through.

Hispano folded his wings as he hit the gap, squeezing through with what must have been centimeters clearance on all sides. But the maneuver didn’t even slow down the alicorn. Rather, her horn glowed brightly. With a magical pop, she simply teleported straight from one side of the ruin to the other.

Stupid cheating unicorn magic!

With a tilt of my wings, I banked and sped past the outside beams of the rusting wheel. I was hot on the hocks of the alicorn and coming up fast. The flight overlay my augment gave me laid a target reticle right on the mare’s flank, and I grinned.

Fire.

My submachine gun chattered away on my harness, chewing through half my magazine in one burst. The twelve shots were wild and inaccurate, but I couldn’t expect great accuracy from a gun that was never built to be fired from the air! Even so, at this range, a good half of the shots found homes in the purple mare’s flesh.

The mare let out a scream as her horn burned and she popped out of sight.

“You alright, Hispano?” I called out as I pulled up and did my best to turn the speed I’d built up back into altitude.

“Yeah.” He huffed as he did the same, shooting back up into the sky with me. “Took long enough though! I think she set my tail on fire at some point… a bit too close for comfort if you ask me.” As he mentioned that, I looked at the lion-like tail he had and noticed that the tuft of fur on its end was half singed away.

My eyes turned down toward the ground again. Where did she go? She couldn’t be out of the fight that easily.

A concentrated beam of magic swung through the air.

It cut straight ahead of me, forcing me to immediately invert and dive just to avoid it. The moment I had, another beam shot to where I would have been had I pulled up instead. As I recovered from my dive and got my wings to spin me level again, a third beam came from below and singed the feathers on my right wing.

Still, the shot had been enough for me to see where the attacks were coming from. The alicorn had landed on the spire of another round ride that looked like a tent. However, the ride itself was moving. Rows of manticore, timberwolf, and chimera statues spun around on the inside, bouncing up and down like they were galloping. An eerie music drifted up through the air with it, as well as the sound of sparks that seemed to flow from a broken set of wires on the roof, right through the alicorn mare. Her horn glowed and sparked as she shot yet another beam up.

I torqued my wings and spun, but felt as the beam caught on my prosthetic leg and pulled it right off me. Shit, Hispano was right, her aim was getting to be a bit too on point. Best to just line up to drop some grenades and…

My mind was cut off as Suiza chattered away. One of the beams the mare launched went wide as the explosive rounds turned her forelegs into mulch. The mare projected a pink bubble around her that blocked Suiza’s remaining shots. The magical barrier cracked more and more with each successive hit, but it started to worry me. If he kept this up, Suiza would be out of ammo for the next Alicorn we ran into.

“Hispano!” I called out to her, “Like Tall Tale!”

“Got it!” He called back.

I adjusted my flight and began my dive. Suiza’s shots became more paced, and more concentrated against the shield. Each hit hammered deeper cracks into the pink bubble. I watched as my augment’s trajectory indicator lined up with the cracks in it and ordered it to drop.

Release two.

A pair of sharp clicks were all I heard as two apple shaped explosives disconnected from my harness. With a torque of both my wings, I pulled myself out of my dive again. Suiza’s hammering shots finally punched through the shield. The one extra explosive round that got through blasted a hole in the roof next to the alicorn, peppering her with shrapnel and interrupting her concentration.

Her bubble failed as the grenades came down on top of each other next to the purple mare. With a sharp blast, the whole top of the ruin disappeared in smoke and dust. Needless to say, I’m sure the mare hadn’t survived that.

“Nice aim as always, Dum Dum!” Hispano smirked as he flapped hard and pulled up next to me. “I know it’s been said, but it’s almost hard to believe your the same pony I met on the Inuvik.”

I opened my muzzle to tell her that I wasn’t the same, but both of our attentions were stolen when a green beam tore a hole in the roof of one of the buildings nearby.

“Night!?” Buck’s frantic voice came in through my augment. “We could… use a bit of help here! Fuck!”

Another beam shot out through the side of the same building. Through the dust and smoke, Buck came tumbling through into the snow. He let out a roar I could barely hear from where we were, but the sparks coming from his mangled mechanical arm were something that were all too obvious an indicator how he was doing.

“Fuck, they need our help!” I called out to Hispano as I immediately aimed myself into a steep dive.

“Yeah, of course…” Hispano’s joined me in my dive, bringing Suiza up just in time for us to watch as a green alicorn stepped through the hole Buck had made. “Just…” Hispano’s talon clenched around Suiza’s trigger, but nothing happened. “A fucking dud!?” He screamed. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

“Oh, it’s more than a dud.” Jynx laughed as she sped through the air between us. “Do you by chance know what a hangfire is, Night?”

I gasped as I watched Hispano reach up and close his talon around Suiza’s bolt. My muzzle had barely opened when the round finally went off. The bolt ripped Hispano’s talon back, probably breaking every single bone in his wrist. He screamed out as he dropped Suiza and flared his wings.

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” I screamed at Jynx.

“What?” Jynx let out a snarl as she rolled through the air, coming dangerously close to me. “Don’t you forget that you wanted me to keep you alive. Because of that, her pain and suffering is on you.” With a smile across her muzzle, she pointed ahead of me. “But if I were you, I’d pay attention to where I was flying.”

“What?” I turned my head back just in time to see the snow covered ground approaching far too quickly. “Shit!” I whimpered as I too flared my wings and tried to slow my dive. The gravity talismans on my pack strained to help me, and while I managed to stop from slamming into the ground, I couldn’t avoid the tired and injured Snow Dog just standing up ahead of me.

With yelps from each of us, I slammed into him with the force of a skywagon. The world turned into a blur as I bounced off of him and came down hard into the snow. My augment fuzzed for a moment, and my talisman cut out momentarily. Pain wracked my whole body inside and out before it could be suppressed again. Stars danced in my vision as I pushed myself to my hooves in time to see an angry green Alicorn hovering up in the air just above me.

Her horn lit up as her green slit eyes narrowed on me. A wicked grin pulled across her muzzle, and I felt my body get lifted in her magic. It washed up over me like a wave of concrete, keeping me from being able to move my legs and wings before collecting around the edges of my metal skullcap. Pressure started to build along it, like she was trying to get under its edges. I tried to move my neck, but every time I did, she used her magic to force my eyes to stare into hers.

Fine, if she wanted me to look at her, I would.

My eye vibrated as it extended out and began to glow. Her own eyes went wide as it did, and I could feel her magic become unsteady as she wrestled with how to deal with this for just a split second. But that’s all I’d needed.

Fire.

A single red beam lanced out from my eye. It burned through her own, boiling the surrounding tissue to a blackened crisp. She let out a delightfully painful scream as her magic fizzled out and she dropped me back into the snow.

The shout of a particularly angry mule filled the air as Happy screamed from around the hilt of his sword. He jumped at the hovering mare, and gave a single strong twist of his head and neck at her underside. Her belly opened up and spilled it’s contents like a bag full of rotting meat.

She gave out a breathless scream as she came down into the snow hard behind Happy. Her remaining eye, wide and full of fear, dripped rivers of tears down her cheeks as Happy turned back to face her. She shook as he approached, whether it was out of fear or because she was slipping into shock, I don’t know. It didn’t matter either way, as with a single plunge forward, Happy drove the silver blade through her other eye and twisted it.

The mare fell still and silent, leaving the three of us panting and heaving as the only sound outside of the rotting amusement park around us. I didn’t know if these were the same three alicorns that took King, but we gave them a chance to talk things out. It didn’t need to happen this way, but they made their choice.

Looking over at Happy, he gave me a nod as he brought his sword around and put it back in its sheath. With a look over at Buck, I watched as he stood hunched over with his still sparking paw nursing his bruised and bleeding side. He did his best to smile to me before his ears perked. Hispano favored her broken talon as he came down next to Buck, wincing, but likewise nodding to each of us.

“Good job, everyone.” The words tumbled from my muzzle as my lips parted into a small smile. “Now, let’s go find King.”

A small silver cylinder tumbled through the air. It gave off a soft hiss as it came down in the snow between the four of us while we all looked at it. That was a mistake.

My vision went white, my hearing disappeared into a ringing again, and my augment shut off momentarily as a burst of static came through the air. When my augmented vision finally did come back, a healthy cloud of white smoke rose through the air around us. What stepped through didn’t exactly make me feel like we were in for a fight as easy as the Alicorns were...

Four different suits of power armor stared us down, as well as a half dozen normal ponies with well worn combat rifles and Steel Ranger branded combat armor. The four of us froze as the sudden Ranger ambush took us completely by surprise. Uh, well, this was definitely not part of our rescue plan…

Author's Notes:

A bigger than normal thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his help in making sure Maple Station and it's residents stay up to canon with his stories! It's not easy keeping up with overlapping areas of our stories, let alone the ten year time difference they exist in, but he's still working hard on it to ensure consistancy. And that, I can't thank him for enough.

Also my thanks to Kkat for writing FoE and allowing us all to use it as an apocalyptic sandbox!