“Midnight Please take a seat.” Rose offered me a chair.

I gladly accepted. “Thanks. Now what did you call us here for?”

“Nothing very pressing. I wanted to see if you were up to working again and if so I’ve got a job for you.” Rose waved Silver over.

I thought for a few seconds. “What can I do to help?”

Rose smiled. “Glad to hear you made such a quick recovery. What I have for you is just a short escort mission. We have a group of ponies camped out just a few miles away but as you know the wasteland’s becoming more dangerous with each passing day.”

“So just escort a group of ponies back here if they’re willing to come here? That sounds relatively simple.” I was about to hop out of my chair when Rose stopped me.

“Well that’s not all of it.” Rose leaned back in her chair. “The group only agreed to come if we sent out a few of the guards. Now I really don’t like insulting them but the guards are... chicken shit.”

I giggled for a few seconds before regaining my composure. “So we're just going to escort a few guards who aren’t stallion enough to get these ponies. Alright.”

“Thank you both. Now Silver I have business we must speak about.” Rose waved us away. “The guards are waiting down next to the main gate.”

I jumped out of my chair. “Come on by gorgeous mare. We’ve got a few guards to escort.”

Harmony smiled at me and followed closely behind. “And you’re sure you want to wear that armor instead of your power armor?”

I had entirely forgotten about switching to a smaller set of armor like the guards wore. “It’s nothing fancy but it should still protect me.”

Aurora flickered into existence from my Pipbuck. “A bullet proof vest and a few pads aren’t going
to protect you all that much.”
“You’re just mad because you have to stay in my Pipbuck. Otherwise you wouldn’t really care about how effective my armor is.” I turned the screen off.

Aurora remained. “I do like the power armor better than your Pipbuck. There’s no room in here. It sucks.”

“Then just transfer over to Harmony’s armor. There’s got to be plenty of room in there.” I slowed down to trot next to Harmony.

“I transferred all your clop over to her armor. It’s not too much better over there.” Aurora flickered away.

“Then don’t bucking complain. I’ll go back to wearing that armor in another day or so. Until then you’re stuck in my Pipbuck or Harmony’s armor.” I shot a glance to the group of stallions waiting at the front gates.

“Are you the guards were supposed to escort?” Harmony came to a stop at the gate.

It was bucking awesome seeing the armor from my normal perspective. I was a good foot shorter than Harmony when she was in that armor.

“Yes we are. Now where’s the other mare in power armor?” The first guard glanced at me.

I stepped forward. “Not wearing my armor today but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

The stallion shot me another glance. “No offense but you look like a strong gust of wind my push you over.”

Something in my mind snapped in that moment. “Do you want a demonstration of what I can do!?” The area light up a dark shade of red as did my horn. “I’d be glad to show you.”

The stallion cowered back a few paces. “No thanks. I uh.. I retract my former statement.”

The glow stayed for a few seconds before dying down. “Good. Then let’s get a move on.”

“Follow me and we’ll take you to the camp. Try not to fall behind.” The stallion galloped out of the gate.

I hopped onto Harmony’s back. “You don’t mind. Do you?”

Harmony shook her head and began galloping. “I’ve carried you before. I don’t mind carrying you now.”

I was happy that I was with Harmony. Everyday was an adventure with her. Something new and exciting to do and nothing could stand in our way.

I relaxed a little bit taking a better position atop Harmony. I noticed her mane was sticking out of the helmet. Not much was there just a few strips of white and teal.

Did mine do that aswell. Shit that must look like a bucking nightmare. On her it doesn’t look so bad though. She keeps her mane so well that she could go through tartarus and still come out looking amazing.

I kept a close eye on the stallion out front. He did his best to stay out in front of Harmony but was fighting a losing battle to do so. I could hear him panting as he tried to push himself just a little bit more to not be shown up by a mare.

As we crept ever closer to the stallion I couldn’t hear a sound from Harmony. The armor was a big help when it came to that though. A longer stride and the feeling you're almost weightless. Made me miss my armor a little bit.

The guard skidded to a stop displacing a twenty foot area of sand. When he finally got back to his hooves I hopped off Harmony and dropped down next to him.

“So is that the camp down there?” What I though was the camp looked awfully pitiful.

“Yes, but something is wrong.” The stallion levitated out a pair of binoculars. “What the buck!?”

I pulled out my own set and looked down to the camp. A lone soldier was sitting next to a fire over which was a group of unfortunate ponies being roasted alive. “Ah buck no! Harmony let’s go!” I jumped back on Harmony as she took off.

The soldier looked over at us expectantly. He sat there waiting for us. Like he didn’t even care about what was happening. Seriously what the buck was wrong with him.

When we reached the camp’s edge I already had almost my full arsenal drawn and ready to fire. “What the buck are you doing to them?”

The soldier cast a glance up at the ponies roasting. “I found them like this.”

“Then why haven’t you helped them?” I snarled at him.

The soldier discarded her helmet. Her voice became much sweeter. “I would have saved them but I knew they were already gone.”

I looked over the corpses. She was right all of them were riddled with bullet holes. “Buck! And how do I know it wasn’t you who did this?”

“You see those tracks on the ground?” The mare pointed to a series of large hoofprints. “Those are way bigger than I could create. Even in a fancy set of armor like that.”

“Point taken.” I holstered a few of my guns.

“Besides the enclave did this. Those bastards wanted what this poor family had. They refused and the stallions killed them.” The mare placed her helmet back on.

“Where are you going?” I kept one gun trained on the mare.

“I’m needed elsewhere in the wasteland. Always more enclave pricks to kill. Oh and if you want I left their armor in the tent.” She trotted off into the sunset.

“A courier out in these parts? You two ever heard of something like that?” The guards were having a conversation in whispers.

I slid down onto the ground. “Let’s take a look at what she left us.”

Inside the tent was a few sets of functioning power armor. Everything was intact without a scratch on them, minus the helmets. A single hole was in each one.

“Right between the eyes.” The guard chuckled. “Serves of ‘em right. Bastards had this coming to them.”

I ignored the guard and examined the armors closely. All of the weapons tech was in good shape. A few guns were scattered about in the tent. “Grab the guns and armor.”

“Excuse me?” I didn’t particularly like the tone of his voice.

“Did I stutter?” I turned back to the guard. “I said take the guns and armor. If I have to come out here to escort you assholes because you’re too afraid to step out of the gates then you obviously need some better equipment. Now grab the bucking armor!!”

The guard cowered back before doing as I said. “Yes ma’am.”

I relaxed a little bit. “That’s better.”

Harmony was waiting for me outside the tent. “It’s a shame they died. It’s always nice to meet a new group.”

I let out a small sigh. “Yeah. I suppose it would have been nice to know them.”

Harmony levitated me onto her back. “Let’s go home.”

I smiled. “I appreciate you carrying me. But for the record I can walk.”

Harmony began her gallop home. “I know you can. I also know you can do much more than walk. I just want to get home quickly.”

“I understand. I couldn’t keep up with you since I’m not in my armor.” I holstered my pistol on my foreleg.

Even though it was an irradiated place full of death and destruction, this wasteland was a beautiful and intriguing place. For once the sky was clear of clouds and the sunshine shone brightly down upon us.

The sky was an ugly green color but that didn’t matter all that much. I think if birds still inhabited the area they would have been singing on a day like this.

I kept my eyes moving until I saw something way out on the horizon. I pulled out my binoculars to get a closer look.

There a couple of miles away was a pair of manticores going about their daily life. I wonder what they’re up to. I thought zooming in a bit closer.

“Wait…. Gross.” I put the binoculars away trying to erase what I had just saw from my mind.

“What’s wrong?” Harmony slowed down.

“I just saw a pair of manticores bucking in the distance. That is not what I wanted to see today. Or ever.” I shook my head but the image remained.

Harmony let out a small laugh before speaking. “Must be mating season.”

“With you two everyday’s mating season.”

“What was that Aurora?” I looked down to see Aurora fiddling about on my pipbuck.

“Hmm. Oh nothing. Go back to watching manticores bucking.” Aurora waved a hoof at me.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Yeah, I’ll watch a manticore buck you in the ass.”

“Knock it off you two.” Harmony picked up the pace again.

“Yeah ok.” Aurora and I sighed in unison.

Silver’s POV

“Silver could you come here?” Rose was in the main office working.

“One second.” I laid down the attack plan. “That should work.”

“Hopefully so. They’ve got a lot of firepower and much better armor.” Stone looked the plans over still worried.

“When I get the chance I’ll talk to Midnight and Harmony and we’ll round up a few of our better soldiers and kill what little forces the enclave have stationed.” I trotted towards the door.

“Thanks Silver.” Stone rolled the plans up and went to work on his next project.

“No problem.” I trotted into the main office closing the door behind me. “What did you want to talk about?”

Rose was on the floor. “Come over here please.”

I rushed over and helper Rose up. “What’s wrong?”

“The pregnancy is finally catching up to me.” Rose took a seat and waved me off.

“I thought you were only a few months in. It seems a bit early for it to have already caught up to you.” I stayed close by Rose’s side.

“That’s because I’m not just a few months pregnant.” Rose let out a sigh.

“Then how far into your pregnancy are you?” I pulled over a chair.

“Truth be told I’ve known I was pregnant for a very long time. Remember the last mission we went on before you came here and never returned?” Rose waited a few seconds.

I nodded my head. “Yeah. The one where we almost lost Balefire right?”

“Yes that’s the one. Just before that I took a test and it came out positive. I meant to tell you before we got deployed again but I had no time.” Rose looked away from me.

I turned her head back so I could look into her eyes. “How long have you known?”

“I’ve known for about nine months or a little more by now.” Rose pushed me away.

Wait what? She just said she’s known for nine months now. Has that much time really past? How? Oh buck me sideways. I can’t be mad at her though. She had her reasons for not telling me. Only one thing to do. Be a stallion and be strong for her and our foal. “I’m not mad.”

“I know you're not. I’m mad at myself for not telling you sooner.” Rose drew me into a hug.

I enveloped her in my wings. “It’s ok. It’ll be fine. I’m here for you and we’ve got a wonderful group of friends who’ll help us out.”

“How do you know that though?” Rose looked into my eyes.

“Maybe you should ask them for yourself.” I waved a hoof towards Midnight and Harmony.

“Hi Rose.” Harmony always did have a sweet and gentle voice when it came to stuff like this. “How are you?”

“How much did you hear?” Rose rubbed the tears from her eyes.

“We got here about the time you said you were nine months pregnant. We didn’t want to interrupt.” Midnight rubbed a hoof to the back of her head. “But Silver’s right. We’re here for you if you need us.”

“Thank you both. How was the family that you went to rescue?” Rose returned to her own seat.

“They were slaughtered by the enclave. It wasn’t an entire loss though. A courier came in and killed the enclave soldiers and left us their armor. We left the guards to bring it back.” Midnight dragged Harmony into the office.

“Well I hope they made their way back here.” Rose spun her chair to face Stone’s office. “Stone bring out the plans.”

Stone peeked his head out. “One second.” After a few seconds he brought out the battle plans.

“Plans? Plans for what?” Harmony trotted over to the desk.

I laid out the plans. “For a war. A small one mind you, but a war nonetheless. We need to stomp what little enclave soldiers are here into the ground before they get a chance to attack us.”

“Sounds like that armor might be pretty damn useful.” Midnight smiled at me as she looked over the plan. “Are you sure about the aerial assault?”

“I’m just supposed to make enough of a distraction for you two and whatever other soldiers we can gather to break in and kill off as many as you can before they catch on. And besides.” I threw a shield over myself. “I can handle a few morons with guns.”

“I’m still a bit worried. I’ve seen their arsenal and would not advise a firefight with them if possible.” Midnight continued scanning over the plans.

Demo and Onyx trotted through the door. “Did I hear something about war plans?”

“Yes you did Demo. Now take a seat and we’ll talk about what can be done.” Rose spun back around to face all of us.

“That looks pretty complex. I know what you’re capable of but that seems like it’s a little bit much.” Demo put a hoof on the table.

“Do you have a better plan?” Harmony cast a glance towards Demo.

“Do we need their gear intact for any reason?” Demo simply discarded the idea of the plan.

“It would be a great asset to have but if you have an idea that’s less dangerous I’m all ears.” Rose leaned forward in her chair.

“I say we just blow the bastards to bits. I’ve got plenty of explosives to level that area.” Demo smiled wickedly. “Just give me a bit of cover and some time.”

“You’re gonna balefire them aren’t you?” Onyx gave him a concerned look.

“The detonator will work from outside of the blast radius. I just need to get in close enough to plant the balefire egg or even drop it into the base.” Demo put a detonator on the table. “It’s not that complicated.”

Onyx trotted over to Stone. “Stone I know your work when I see it but just let him have this one. If all else fails we’ll go in guns blazing and kill them that way.”

“If you think that will work better than this then so be it. But be careful, they do have major defenses surrounding that place.” Stone shook his head. “It’s almost an impenetrable fortress. But nopony said anything about balefire bombs while I was making that plan.”

“And you're sure that will work?” Harmony shot Demo a look.

“You’re thinking about it too much. It’s very simple. I drop the bomb, hit a button, and then they die.” Demo stopped talking for a few seconds. “And yes I’m sure it will work.”

“When are we headed out?” I charged my horn bringing out a box of throwing knives.

“The sun will set in an hour or so. If we leave now we’ll have a few minutes of daylight left. The other option is we attack at dawn.” Stone rolled up the plan.

“I’ll only need a few minutes.” Demo trotted out the door.

“Midnight are you ready to step back out onto the battlefield in your armor?” I slid a few blades into my wing.

“It’s as good a time as any to get back to doing what we do best. Besides I know the armor won’t kill me.” Midnight tapped Harmony with her flank. “We’ll meet you at the front gates in a few minutes.”

They exited leaving Rose, Stone and myself. “Stone I want you to keep an eye out and keep plenty of guards around here while I’m gone.”

“I’ll have more guards posted around this building in a few minutes.” Stone pushed me towards the door. “You have nothing to worry about. She’ll be safe. She’s easily the strongest mare I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

“Military training does that for you. Just make sure she’s safe. I want nothing happening to her or my unborn foal.” I put a hoof on Stone’s shoulder.

“I won’t disappoint. Now get out there and do what you must, but make sure none of them escape.” Stone trotted back into the office.

Alright let’s do this. I trotted out the front doors and headed for the gate.

The town wasn’t very lively at this hour. What few ponies were still trotting about looked well armed and ready for a fight. That being said I knew the guards were already stationed on the walls and only my friends walked the streets.

Midnight and Harmony were about halfway to the gate. Demo and Onyx followed shortly behind in the air.

I bolted down towards where they were.

We all came to a stop at the gate. “Demo do you have the package?”

Demo pulled a balefire egg out of his saddlebags. “Let’s kill these buckers.”

I grabbed ahold of Midnight bringing her into the air. “Carry Harmony if you can. We’ll get there faster that way.”

Onyx looked at me like I was insane. “I’m not sure I can lift Harmony and her armor. No offense Harmony.”

“None taken. Give it a try though. The armor’s actually lighter than you would think.” Harmony waited for Onyx.

Onyx wrapped his hooves around Harmony and flapped his wings hard to gain altitude. “Well the armor doesn’t weigh that much I suppose. How far do we have to go though?”

“Just a few miles out. If you need me to I could carry Harmony with my magic.” I charged my horn and lifted Harmony up a little.

Harmony shook loose. “We don’t have to be right there when that bomb goes off. Midnight and I can hoof it that distance easy enough.”

Midnight shook free of my grip and landed making little noise. “Let’s go.”

I pushed the gate open for them. “Keep us in sight as best you can and don’t fall far behind.”

Midnight tossed a radio up to me. “It’s hooked up to the frequency of our helmets. If you need to contact us don’t be afraid to.”

I deposited the radio in my saddlebags. “Thanks. Now let’s get a move on. We’re burning daylight.”

Midnight and Harmony bolted out of the gate gaining a lead on us.

“Come on you two.” I shot straight into the air a few hundred feet before leveling out.

Demo and Onyx followed not shortly behind me. “Right behind you.”

Speed wasn’t exactly what I was good at but I could still keep up with Spitfire if I really tried. Even with our delayed start we were gaining quickly upon the mares below us.

Midnight’s POV

I turned on the radio to see what was going on. For once I was hoping for PON3 to actually be on the radio.

“In other news the enclave has started setting up shop around the wasteland. Now I’m usually one to advocate the destruction of a group this powerful but this time don’t even think about it. If you see an enclave soldier give them what they want and you might keep your life. Now let’s have some music.” The music started and I shut my radio off.

“Did you hear that broadcast Harmony?” I looked up to make sure Silver was still in sight.

“I got the last little part of it. He’s probably right about them. They sound dangerous from what the brotherhood told me.” Harmony was a few strides out in front of me.

“Well we’re going to show them who really rules around here.” I laughed. “And it ain’t buckin them.”

“Are you sure you two don’t want me to carry you?” Silver slowed down in the distance.

“How far until this outpost of theirs?” I pushed myself to go faster.

“Maybe a mile or two at the most. They set up in one of those outposts we took down a while back.” Silver made his way to the ground.

“We can keep this pace for another mile or two. Might be able to go a little faster if we really pushed it.” I called back. “Wait one of the outposts we took out? Aren’t those supposed to be secured by some of our soldiers?”

“They’re supposed to be. The enclave makes short work of any that stand in their way. Those that got away from the enclave warned us.” Silver went silent.

I pushed myself even harder. “Dammit. I might not like our soldiers but dammit nopony bucks with us.”

Silver and the other’s were still well insight. This pace was starting to weigh on me. Each stride was stealing away my breath and I was about to black out when Silver called back.

“Slow down. The outpost is insight. I’ll cover Demo as he gets into position. You two get closer but try not to be in the blast radius.” Silver put a shield up around Demo.

I brought my front hooves down and rolled. The pursuing slide had me twenty feet closer to the outpost. I panted for a while to regain what breath I could.

Harmony stopped next to me. “Now we wait. Hopefully we won’t need to go in and shoot them.”

“Yeah.” I panted a few times. “Hopefully… Hopefully the egg gets them.”

“You really shouldn’t push yourself that hard. Before your accident I might have been able to see you running like that. Now I don’t know how well you’re going to be able to push like that.” Harmony nuzzled me.

I knew she was right. She was a nurse after all. That part of her special talent I understood but the other part I wasn’t sure about. Her cutie mark featured the big medical plus along with a syringe filled with black liquid. So what did that syringe represent? Was it her affinity to kill those that stood against her?

I had no more time to think as Silver came back on the radio. “You two are out of the blast radius. Demo drop that bomb and let’s kill these buckers.”

Thirty seconds or so of silence followed before the blast happened. In just a few seconds the sky light up a bright yellow color and the mushroom cloud formed.

I turned my mic on. “What’s it look like inside that outpost?”

“Too early to tell, but I don’t think they survived that.” Silver’s voice was strained.

Silver’s POV

I waited for that balefire blast to die down before looking back at that base. “Dammit that egg is more powerful than I thought.”

“It’s a balefire egg. That’s actually less of a blast than I was expecting.” I could almost hear an evil laugh coming out of Demo’s mouth.

“You really are batshit insane aren’t you?” I squinted and took a quick look to where Demo was.

He hovered there in place an evil grin plastered across his face. “I just like to see shit explode.” The light from the explosion faded, as did that grin. “Nothing more.”

I looked down to the outpost below. Or what little actually remained of it.

I’d seen some pretty messed up shit in the wasteland before today, but this. This took the bucking cake. Bodies fused with the ground, suits of armor on the ground with goop coming out of them. Nothing down there was salvageable. Good thing too. I wasn’t gonna stick around much longer to look at this.

“Come on Silver.” Demo put a hoof on me. “They’re dead and our job is done. Let’s go home.”

I flew a few feet away as I pulled out the radio. “The blast worked you two. No need to come in and clean this place up. Start your walk home. We’ll be by to pick you up in a few minutes if you’d like.”

Demo and Onyx were whispering behind me. “Good going Demo. I think you scared the piss out of Silver. I wouldn’t blame him for being a little jumpy around you after that display.”

Demo answered back quick. “I had a job to do. So I might have gotten a little out of control but it’s alright. Nopony got hurt that didn’t have to get hurt.”

“Yes, but what happens if you lose control again? I saw what little remained of that town after you hit it. I’m just saying be a little bit more careful. We don’t want a shitstorm of explosives rolling around on the loose. Especially not one that doesn’t know when to stop.” Onyx flew by me.

“Hey um.. Silver?” Demo hovered next to me. “Sorry about all of this. I have a tendency to go a little overboard when it comes to things like this.”

I thought for a few seconds before putting a hoof to his shoulder. “You do what you do for those you care about. I don’t blame you for that. I encourage you to embrace your ability to do that. I had to make the decision long ago whether or not I would let the side of me that was like that control my actions. And here we are today, living in a world that is the product of my decision.”

Demo gave me a weird look as if he only understood a few words of that. “Thanks for the advice Silver. Are we cool?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m not gonna hold that against you. It was a beautiful display of explosives after all.”

Demo smiled and we started back towards home.

Rose’s POV

“Good evening my fellow wasteland dwellers. I’ve taken over this radio station to inform all of you about the Enclave. Now I realize some of you will be against this change in your lives. Ponies always are when we take control of an area. But please note that this is for the betterment of the wasteland. Give in and accept us as your new leaders.” The voice stopped.

“Are you bucking serious?! What is this bullshit?!” I slammed my hooves down causing the radio to jump.

Stone changed the channel.

“Listen up you little shits. This is the commanding officer of this detachment of Enclave soldiers. You will do as we say or your hide will be hanging from a tree. I know you assholes are going to try and resist our takeover. Make it easy on all of us and don’t force the Enclave’s hooves. We will kill you if you so much as look at us the wrong way.”

I changed the channel again.

“Sorry for the nerve of that crass moron. We are not looking to fight or kill any of you that will simply lay down your guns and join up with a cause more worthwhile than whatever it is you do now. I implore you to join the Enclave today so that the future may once again be bright for all of us.”

I slammed a hoof into the radio sending it to the floor a pile of scraps. “I don’t bucking think so.” I fell backwards into my chair.

Stone was immediately at my side. “Are you alright?”

I brushed him away. “Yeah I’m fine. Just overdid it a little bit.” I took a deep breath. “Give me a minute.”

Silver and the others opened up the door and trotted in. “Honey what happened here?”

“The Enclave is broadcasting on all of the radio stations we get around here. Those bastards are threatening or way of life and I’m pissed.” I got back to my hooves.

“Yeah we heard.” Midnight trotted over.

“What of the soldiers I sent you to kill? I hope you have come back having killed every last one of them.” I was fuming.

“They’ll prove to be no problem anymore. Unless you want to try and scrape them off the ground. Then that might actually be a problem.” Demo tossed the detonator on the table. “Keep this thing hid away. I won’t need it for a long time.”

I opened up a safe below my desk. “Are you sure you aren’t going to need it?”

Demo nodded. “Keep that thing out of my hooves.” With that he left.

“Anypony want to inform me what the buck that was all about?” I shut the safe.

“I’ll put it very simply. What I saw because of Demo scarred me.” Silver shuddered. “Bodies melding with the ground and the smell of their corpses burning because of that blast.”

“They’re all dead Rose. Demo dealt with them swiftly and we should be watching our backs. Something like that couldn’t have gone unnoticed.” Harmony trotted up next to Midnight.

“Yeah about that.” Midnight slid her helmet off. “Aurora turn on the radio and play it loud.”

The radio on Midnight’s Pipbuck sparked to life. “And to those jackasses who thought it would be a good idea to destroy one of our outposts and kill all of those soldiers. You are dead. I have all the time in the world to find out who you are and where you live. When I do it’s not going to be a pretty sight. I’ll kill every last pony in your settlement except for you and then I’ll torture you for years. And when I think you’ve had enough I’ll send you out into a different part of the wasteland to die.”

“Shut up you moron. We are not here on the goddesses damned warpath. We are here to create a new order. A place where all who follow us might have a chance to live a proper life rebuilding what was once our great nation. Now get out of my sight before I have you dishonorably discharged.”

“Midnight turn the radio off. I’ve heard enough.” I spun away from the group.

“What’s the plan now?” I hated hearing Silver’s worried voice.

“We do what we can to make sure they don’t find out it was us. If any of them come knocking we’ll kill them.” I turned around to face them. “What else are we supposed to do? We’ve pissed off one of the most highly armed groups in the wasteland.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Harmony stepped forward. “I know a group who hates the Enclave. They’ve had a feud since this all began. I just need to send them a message and we’ll have some new soldiers.”

“You don’t mean?”

“Yes I do Midnight. This is the one time we might be able to call upon them to help us to survive something. They don’t like us but they hate the Enclave more.”

“Who are you two talking about?” Silver cast me a glance.

“We need to enlist the Brotherhood. They’ve got better guns and armor than we do. Along with a burning passion to burn the Enclave to the ground. I think that’s our best option here.” Harmony projected a virtual map.

“The outcasts we know live a good distance away from here. We’ll have to be on high alert until they get here.” Midnight looked at the map.

“Aurora send the message. Tell them to get here as soon as possible. That is a direct order from me.” Harmony plotted a line on the map.

“Transmitting message and shortest possible route. Now we wait for a response.” Aurora flickered.

“How long should their response take?” Silver took a seat next to me.

“With any luck they will respond within the next few minutes. No longer than a week for a response.” Aurora flickered away.

“Keep an eye out for the response. Let’s hope it isn’t a week before they respond. In the meantime we’ve got little else to do. So keep on your guard and be ready for action.” I waved Midnight and Harmony away.

“Thank you. We’ll check back with you when we get word from the outcasts.” Midnight pushed the door open and took Harmony home.

“Is there something you want to talk about?” Silver put a hoof on my chair.

“I have quite a few things on my mind that I need somepony to talk with about.” I sighed.

“I’m here for you.” That smile was adorable.

“Most of my concerns right now aren’t the Enclave. Midnight and Harmony are strong mares willing to do almost anything for this town. I have faith that they’ll come through if we need them. What I’m worried about is our foal.” I paused for a second to compose myself. “I want our foal to have a decent upbringing away from the dangers of the wasteland.”

“That’s going to be difficult but I’m sure we could figure something out.” I knew he was just as worried. Maybe even more so.

“Well I’ve thought of one solution. You may not like it but it might be best for our foal.” I took a deep breath.

“What are you suggesting?” He looked deep into my eyes.

“I’m suggesting we get Derpy to help us out. Maybe take you and the foal away from this world and to somewhere you’ll be safe.” I waited for Silver’s anger to show it’s ugly head.

Instead of anger he responded calmly. “I’m not partial to the idea. I don’t want to abandon my friends if I have the choice. I think they need me here to help fight. But if that is what would be best for the future of our foal then I can’t argue. I only want what’s best for you and the foal. So I think if we follow through with this plan you should be the one to go. Derpy’ll make sure you have a safe haven to raise the foal and when the time comes maybe move back here.”

“We still have time to figure things out before I give birth. A few months time should be enough to figure out what we want to do.” I kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Silver picked me up with his magic. “Now come with me. You need some rest.”