Morning time. I was up early again. The sun had yet to rise all the way. It was just a blip on the horizon. I shifted towards the edge of the bed. Nopony else was ever awake at this hour. Except for her.

She was always up at this hour. Whether or not that’s what woke me up is debatable. She must have been making something. That was her punishment after all.

Two hammer blows and then silence for a few seconds. She must have been working on some sort of sword.

I took a peek inside her little forge hut. Weapons were hung up on the walls. All marked with a small x on the blade.

The mare shook her head. “Not good enough.” Another blade was added to the wall. And that same red x was branded upon it.

I sat and watched as she started on the next blade. A stiletto knife. Was she making wing blades? Last I checked those weren’t completely gone yet. And why of steel? Does she know something I don’t.

“It’s not that I know what you do not. It’s that I only have the material I can get my hooves on here.” How in the buck did she know what I was thinking. And furthermore had did she know I was here? “You’re not as quiet as you think. I heard you approaching here about a minute before you arrived.”

I entered into the hut. “Why are they marked like that?”

“They are shameful blades. Not worthy of existence much less battle.” She pulled the next blade out of the fire. Two hammer strikes and back in it went.

I pulled one of the blades off the wall. It was a long sword incredibly sleek. “What is so wrong with them? This one seems to be perfectly balanced.”

“As they should be. I have worked for many years doing this, but I’ve still yet to perfect the blade I look to imitate.” She looked around the shack for something. “Oh for fucksake. Where did I put it?”

I hung the blade back up where I had grabbed it. Half of the blades were of this same design. Long slender blades. From the looks of it a few might have even been double sided.

“Here it is.” She rolled out the design on a table away from the fire. “A katana. Once wielded by royalty as a symbol of honor. Now it’s an assassin’s blade.”

I looked it over. The title was partly obscured but I could see bane in the name. “Another Bane sword?”

“The sister sword to the one you carry.” The mare lifted the last part of the paper up so the full name could be seen.

“The Light’s Bane. But why is it the sister sword? They look nothing alike minus the gemstones they bare.” I unsheathed my sword.

“These two are special swords. Just as your sword was meant to be carried by Celestia, The Light’s Bane was meant for Luna. A sleek blade, dark like the night, and with a power set opposite yours.” She looked over the blade I held. “As different as the sisters themselves they were both meant for different fights. Luna’s was made for stealth. A quick powerful slice was enough to tear an enemy in two.”

As different as the sisters themselves huh?

“And the gemstone carried with it a dark power. When charged no light can escape from it. Everything surrounding it becomes darkness. Often times concealing the princess from sight.”

I looked between the sword and her. “But can’t both be charged with either energy? I’ve seen this sword absorb the light and use it as a weapon, but…”

She hushed me. “Only those who are not entirely sound of mind or in a fit of extreme sadness or anger can reverse the purpose of the sword.” She edged away from me. “And I can tell from the way you stand that you have unleashed such a power.”

“I might have years ago. But that’s when I thought Rose had died.” I slid my sword back into its sheath.

The mare nodded. “And now the weight of the world ways upon you. Cursed by the darkness inside you know of things others do not. It is both your curse, and your salvation.” She pushed me out of the shack. “No more of this. I must return to my creations.”

The door slammed and I slammed back. “What do you mean by that?” No response “Dammit! Alright then.”

I turned back around. The back door to town hall was less than fifty feet away from here. Maybe Rose was up by now. That would be a welcome change of pace from the current situation.

The door opened on my approach. “Rose would like to see you in her office Sir.”

“Thank you. Now as you were.” I trotted through the door and up the nearest staircase.

It was quiet. Even the guards who were awake looked half asleep. I hated that fact but I couldn’t expect much more from these ponies.

A guard opened the door for me. “Silver is here to see you Rose.”

I trotted through the door.

“Thank you.” Rose motioned me to her desk. “Now we can begin.”

Demo and Onyx were both here. By the looks on their faces I was sure this was the big day we had been training for.

“It’s time Silver. The Enclave have congregated around a small settlement a ways north of here.” The map Rose had was impressive. Everything around here for miles was plotted out.

“Hold on one second.” I examined the forward outposts closely. “We’re sending all of our forces out there? Who will stay to guard you?”

The door flew open. Midnight skidded face first to the desk.

“Sorry we’re late. Midnight wanted to sleep a few more minutes.” Harmony dragged Midnight off the floor.

Midnight didn’t make eye contact as she put a hoof up to the back of her head. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. You’ll need all the sleep you got because it’s time for us to strike first. What few ships the Enclave brought are all in the same area. Silver, Onyx, and Demo are going to fly to those ships and blow them away.” Rose moved a few small pieces to the outpost.

That set Midnight off. “I’m not going to stay here while these three go out there and risk dying.”

I lifted a wing over her. “I know you don’t want us to go alone but you’re needed here. All of our forces are going to be advancing towards Enclave HQ. If anything happens this place is defenseless without you two.”

Midnight looked into my eyes and sighed. “Goddesses dammit. Fine. Just make sure to come back safe alright?”

I let out a small chuckle. “We’ll come back in one piece. The Enclave won’t be able to say that once we’re through with these ships.”

Midnight relaxed a little. “Alright. If that’s all Harmony and I’ll go get suited up.”

Rose nodded. “The last guards will be leaving in less than an hour. Silver you can leave whenever you’re all ready.”

I cast a glance over to Onyx and Demo. “You two ready for this?”

The both smiled.

I liked that. They were warriors at heart and just the kind of ponies I needed for this mission. “Then let’s get a move on.”

The large window on the other side of the room shattered as we smashed through it. Come to think of it. Why was that stupid thing still there? Oh well.

We hovered just outside the gate for a few seconds. “Let’s give these bastards something they’ll never forget!”

The soldiers below cheered and took off in a gallop. That damn yell could probably be heard for a good mile.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” I shot forward as fast as my wings would let me.

I slid my helmet on. “Aurora bring this suit of armor online.” Slowly the lights lit up.

Aurora appeared as she was going over the last of the armor’s system checks. “Everything is functioning perfectly. Where’s Midnight at?”

“Probably in the bathroom. She had to take care of some business before we suited up for the day.” I trotted over to the door.

Midnight walked out just as I raised a hoof to knock. “There you are.”

Midnight smiled and kissed my armor. “Yeah. Give me a minute and I’ll be ready.” She trotted on by and stepped into her open suit of armor. “Aurora if you wouldn’t mind.”

Even when her mane was that messy she was still the most gorgeous mare I’d ever laid eyes on. I smiled happy that we were together.

“Alright Harmony. We’ve got work to do.” Midnight opened the door for me. “Let’s not disappoint.”

She left without saying anything else.

We took turns going first. Although I got the short end of the stick this time. I couldn’t stare lustfully into her flanks with that armor on her.

Aurora flashed onto my hud and gave me a dirty look. “I thought you were a professional.” She shook her head. “Shameful.”

I was about to speak when she flashed something onto my screen. I opened it as directed. “Ok why do you have pictures of Midnight’s flanks?”

“I know you two well. I have seen the way you do things and figured you might not be happy getting the raw end of the deal this time. So I used the armor to get you some pictures before she closed it.” She smiled and disappeared.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about Aurora.

Midnight was waving for me to get up on the wall. “Come on.”

I hurried up so I could see over.

Aurora had been with us since the beginning and yet we still knew so little about her. It was scary to think she had so much control over these suits. Maybe we should disconnect her from some of the systems just incase.

“Ponies on approach.” One of the guards had a rifle at the ready.

I snapped back to reality. I took a closer look at the armor they wore. “Three targets all equipped with power armor.”

“They’ve got regalia.” Midnight had her rifle up.

“What colors?”

“Blue with a trio of dots on the flank.”

“Tri-tear. Why is he sending troops here?”

“Well I guess we’ll just have to find out. Lower your rifles but keep them ready.”

The three raiders stepped within a hundred feet of our wall. “Hello. Am I talking to the leader of this town?”

“No. You’re talking to the guards of this city.”

The front stallion looked around. “And you’re it? I expected more from a city of this size. Oh well. Thank you for your time.” He turned and walked away.

The other two however stayed at attention watching us.

The lead stallion turned back for half a second and whistled. “Kill.”

The two stallion’s got a couple of steps into their advance before being gunned down.

The last stallion trotted away. I knew he was smiling. This is what he had wanted from us.

“He just sacrificed two soldiers. Why would anypony be stupid enough to do that?”

“Likely testing us. Probably nothing more than a few goons in some shitty armor. Either way they know where we are and we need to be ready.” I trotted along the wall to the nearest guard tower.

Only three or four guards were still here on the wall. This one had a sniper rifle mounted on his tower. “He’s just gotten out of range.”

“Any others that you can see?”

After a minute or so of scanning the horizon he had an answer. “No. Looks like just the three of them.”

That was the most action we faced for a few hours. Eventually we watched birds fly over head.

Midnight let out a sigh. “I’m bored.”

“I know. Didn’t think we’d fight an army today but this? This is some bullshit! I figured we’d have at least a caravan or something come through.” I shook my head. “Probably could have gone with the others. Doesn’t seem like we were needed here.”

“I wonder how they’re doing.”

“Probably a little less bored. And maybe a little more in danger of dying.”

“So the usual if you aren’t safe in a city.”

“Pretty much what I’d expect.”

“Aurora.”

“No I will not.”

“Come on. We’re bored.”

“Absolutely not you two. I’m not getting into my life before this. I’ve already got enough shit to deal with thanks to the two of you.”

“Boooooooooooooo.”

“Boo me all you want. I can mute the both of you at will.”

“I can mute the both of you at will.”

“Still practicing her voice?” I rolled back over. “Come on. That’s a bit childish don’t you think?”

“Hey, if it staves of the boredom. And besides I can’t do what I really want to right now. Too many stallions hanging about. Not to mention this is the worst place to be lying down. We’ve slept on ground softer than this!”

She was right. The deck for the wall was quite uncomfortable. “Just think about it like this. A few hours from now we can be off this wall and back at the house. Then we can have some fun.”

“Holy shit!”

I kept my voice to a harsh whisper. “Yeah I know. Keep your voice down.”

“I know. But… Just look at those bastards!” Demo was eyeing the airships eagerly. Like he had just found a cache of explosives he wanted.

Son of a bitch! Not again. I reached out and grabbed him. “You stop right there. We can’t rush in there. For all we know they’ve got the crew to not only man those things but to also shoot us down before we get the chance to advance.”

Silver trotted over. “The guard I killed had a radio on him. I’ve been listening for any chatter, but nopony seems to be talking.”

“Really? I would have expected them to not leave a fleet of this size unguarded.” I counted the ships for a third time just to be sure.

“A fleet of twelve might not be all the really have. Might be just a first wave. Our intel might say this is it but I’ve had bad intel before.” Silver looked back at the ships suspiciously. “Kill any guards you find and take whatever you can from the ships while you’re planting the charges. We’ll want everything we can carry.”

I passed the first ten balefire eggs to Silver. “Demo says this should be enough to blow three or four of those things apart. But if I were you I’d make sure to damage whatever power supply they have running those and use that as fuel for the explosion.”

Silver nodded. “You might want to get going. Demo took off just after you let him go.”

“Goddesses dammit Demo. I knew we should have put a leash on him.” I began my trip towards my designated four.

“Sounds kinky.”

“Not helping.”

With that we split ways. Demo took the right while Silver handled the left. And I went straight up the middle.

To be truthful I hadn’t expected this many ships to be just sitting here. 12 ships here seemed a little excessive after the one surviving the equivalent of a balefire bomb.

Either way we had a mission to accomplish.

The first ship I flew to had an open hangar bay. What few ships were here had been heavily damaged.

I trotted over to the stairs and planted the first egg where it would be impossible to see.

I heard them trotting over head. Three guards. One of which was closing the hangar bay.

That’s what I wanted. The more in between me and these stupid eggs when they went off the better.

After a few minutes two of the guards left leaving me and the asshole who closed the hangar bay.

I readied my knife. Turn around you bitch. I kept a close eye on him and waited.

His radio started to chirp. “What the buck are you idiots doing?” He turned.

I jumped over the railing and slit the stallions throat. “Stay there.” I slid the knife back into its sheath. “Now then. Where is the armory?”

Luckily I didn’t have to move to far into the ship before I found it. The door slid open as I approached.

A few boxes of ammunition were scattered about. What little was there I slid into my saddlebags. “Not worth it. How have these idiots survived with so little supplies?”

The next place to plant the explosives was the reactor.

Deeper and deeper the ship drew me. Confusing corridors and terrible tracks to follow. I didn’t run into any guards on my way.

“Finally.” I pried the door open. “It’s already damaged? How?” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.”

I planted the second egg not far from the reactor core.

“One ship down. Three to go.”

Two small ships remained. One of which was the ship we had encountered before. The last ship that was my target might have been the flagship of the fleet.

I flew out through the closest window and into the command deck of the next.

“Looks like a good enough place.” I slid one under the captain's chair.

Traveling around the ship gave me a few more boxes of ammo and two more dead stallions.

Chatter on the radios seemed to indicate they were starting to catch on to what we were doing.

“They haven’t checked in. Shit.”

“You never know with those two. Might be using their special bathrooms. Lucky bastards pretty much live with a mare around at all times. Even when everypony’s gone.”

“Gross.” I planted the second charge and found my way to the hangar.

Two ships remained docked here. One of which was currently being loaded with weapons and gear.

“Hurry up. We need to get this gear out of here.”

“And what gives you the authority over us?”

“I’m the one with weapons training here. You make a wrong move and I kill you.”

One of the two loading the ship saw me. “Fair enough.”

I nodded and mouthed a thank you and a warning.

The stallion bossing them around turned around just after I had disappeared from his sight.

“No.” I slammed the knife through his spine.

He made no sound as the blood started pouring to the ground.

“Oh my goddesses you killed him.” The small mare eyed me with gratitude and fear.

“Get this ship to these coordinates and you’ll be safe.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

I threw him a radio. “When they ask you for the code word just get low to the ground and say banana.”

The stallion weighed his options for a few seconds. “Fine. Get in the tank and we’ll go.”

I shook my head. “I’ve got a mission to see through. I’ll see you two back at base.”

The mare hopped into the tank and waved her friend over. “Lets go. It’s about time somepony freed us from this place.”

I dived out the hangar towards the last two ships.

“Onyx you about done planting those charges?”

I picked up the radio as I landed. “I’ve got two ships left to rig to blow.”

Silver landed next to me. “I’ll take the smaller ship. You go up to the flagship and make sure it never flies again.”

I nodded and hoofed over two eggs. “I’ll take the last four and make sure that ships is destroyed.”

I flew over to the other ship. Demo was waiting for me. “Let’s get these charges planted.”

I nodded and trotted over to the nearest hatch. “I’ll take the top of the ship. You go down below and find a good place for those charges.”

“Keep an eye out for the armory. They don’t seem to be in the same place on any two ships.” Demo dived off the side.

I flung the hatch open and jumped inside. “Alright. One for the bridge and one for the reactor.”

Most of this ship was made from metal. The outside was mostly clouds but inside was entirely steel.

The bridge and the reactor were separated by not more than one hundred yards. “That should do it. Now where is the armory?”

I found a small map drawn in the blackened steel. It made little sense. From what hadn’t been worn away I could see the clear route to the armory.

Following the map was simple. After just a couple minutes I had located the armory. The door would be the big problem. It was welded shut and would take a while to get through if I had the tools to do so.

Demo skidded around the corner and nearly took me to the floor. “We need to get in there right now!”

I looked down the hall just as a rocket hit the wall. “It’s been welded shut. We can’t get in there without destroying the door.”

Demo looked at the door for two seconds before planting explosives on it. “Follow me. I know how far away we’re going to need to be to survive this.”

“Where’d you get that?”

“I’ll tell you later. For now we need to get out of the blast radius.” Demo rammed through the next door and pulled me in with him. “And 3. 2. 1.”

The ship shook as the charges detonated. Thankfully they didn’t cause anything else to explode.

“Let’s go. That door should be open and that stupid robot should be dead.” Demo opened the door.

Outside even the parts that were clouds had been stained black. “That was risky. How did you know that would work?”

“I’ve had more experience with explosives than you realize. That was planned. If I had wanted to I could have blown the fleet up by setting of something like that.” Demo galloped down the hall. “Now come on. We’ve got some new gear to collect.”

I followed close behind. To Demo’s credit he did get the door open and destroy the robot.

Demo surveyed the open door. “The door was a bit thicker than I expected, but it is open.”

This armory unlike all the others actually had a fair amount of weapons and ammo.

While I went for anything and everything I could carry Demo sat down and started making bombs.

“Why are you making those here? I thought we had enough to blow these ships to bits.”

Demo waved me off. “It’s easier to build them here than to carry everything back home before I get to work. Besides, We’ve got a few minutes before we need to leave.”

“How long are you going to take?” I pulled out the radio.

“Five, six minutes. Hard to say. As much as they’ve got here I could spend hours making things. Alas we have but a few minutes.” Demo stuffed a fresh grenade in his saddlebags. “Radio Silver. We might need some help getting all this back home.”

“On it.” I pressed the button. “Silver. Come in.”

“I read you loud and clear.”

“We’ve found the armory and are in need of some assistance. How long until you can be here?”

“Give me a minute or so. I’ve been looting what little I could. Are you pinned down?”

“No. This ship has the most gear out of all the others. Demo and I won’t be able to carry it all by ourselves.”

“On my way. Over and out.”

I set the radio back in my saddlebags and started shoveling more guns in.

Demo had finished about twenty grenades by the time Silver arrived.

“Those might come in handy.” Silver gathered the rest of the guns and ammo in his magic. “Let’s go. Demo you got the detonator?”

Demo stood up and produced the little device. “We’ll need at least five minutes to escape the blast radius. After that we should be good.”

“Then let’s get out of here.”

“We should be out of the blast radius by now.” I held out the button. “Yall ready for some fireworks?”

Onyx nodded. “Let’s see it.”

I hit the button.

Nothing seemed to happen. “Are you sure that worked?”

I put the button a few inches closer and tried again. This time it worked.

The light would have been blinding to stare into. And that wave of heat was a little stronger than I wanted it to be. “I might have added a few too many eggs to that plan. We might want to get a move on before anything really bad gets to us.” I took off towards base knowing that they could see the cloud from there.

I was about to fall asleep when I heard it and felt it. The ground shook and the explosion was loud.

“Harmony get up here.” Midnight was looking in awe towards where the ships should have been.

I jumped to my hooves and watched as the cloud grew taller. “That’s!... HOLY SHIT!”

“I don’t think those ships are going to be any problem to us anymore!” Midnight hugged me.

I didn’t take my eyes off the explosion for another couple of seconds. When I did Midnight drew me into a kiss and didn’t let go.

“Is that what they were planning to do?”

“Yeah. They used a lot of balefire eggs to do that.”

“Where in equestria did they get their hooves on enough eggs to do that?”

“I wouldn’t question it. Demo has his ways. It’s best not to question somepony who can orchestrate that at will.”

Midnight let me out of the kiss. “You two I want contact with the forward outposts. Make sure everything has gone to plan and report back when you’ve got the good news.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Midnight stepped into her armor. “Come on Harmony. Rose will want to know of the success.”

I did what Midnight said and stepped into my armor. “Aurora can you get a better look at those ships from here?”

Aurora appeared and began scanning the horizon. “The ships are out of a good viewing range. I do however detect multiple stallions and a tank of sorts heading for one of the forward outposts.”

“Well they made it out alive. That’s a good sign.” I pulled my vision away from that cloud of smoke. “Let’s just hope they put an end to it.”

We trotted along the wall as far as we could. Luckily we wouldn’t have to walk far after jumping down. Rose’s office was only a hundred yards or so from the wall.

What few stallions who had stayed to take up the roll of guards opened the doors upon our approach. “Rose is waiting for you.”

“Thank you.”

We trotted upstairs and opened the door to Rose’s office.

She stared out the window at the massive fireball on the horizon. “I take it they’ve done it? Destroyed the ships that is.”

“I could not get a good enough view of the area to definitively say they won’t fly anymore. But from what calculations I could run with my limited data, I’d say there is only a 1 percent chance that those ships could have survived anything of that nature.”

“A small chance but one we must be worried about. If even one of those ships survived we could have a massive problem on our hooves.” Rose turned to face us. “Now have the forward outposts reported back?”

I had been listening to the radio chatter since we had left our posts. “It seems that all but one outpost has sent us back a message of good favor. The one outpost that hasn’t sent anything back might have been a little closer to the ships than intended.”

“How many soldiers?”

“No more than ten were sent to make sure that outpost was secure. With any luck they made it out alive and are on their way back to the next outpost.” I slid my helmet off.

“And of Silver, Demo and Onyx?”

Aurora jumped in. “I did see the three of them escorting a tank of sorts from the ships to one of the outposts closest to us. They might have recovered enough weapons from the ships to arm our forces much better than they are now.”

“A tank of sorts you say? So they’re on the ground?”

“No. The Enclave often travel with a few tank slash troop transports amongst a fleet that size. Just like pegasi the tanks can fly. With a little work we could make use of the tank as a weapon if need be. Or if we want to that main cannon might make a excellent defense if we were willing to annex a few buildings in the center of town to set it up.”

Rose weighed the options carefully. “If the buildings are of some use to us we will use the tank as is as a weapon for destroying outposts. If not we can use it as a layer of defense.”

“Understood.” Aurora disappeared.

I could see something in Rose’s eyes. Something had her on the verge of tears. “Are you alright?”

Rose nodded in response. “I’ve felt the foal kick a few times today. I’m just appreciating the quiet moments I have with my unborn foal.”

Midnight ditched her helmet. “What are your plans for when it’s born?”

“Hopefully by that point the wasteland will be safe enough for us to be in without having to worry about raiders or mutants. If not, I’m sure Silver and I’ll find a way for us to raise it safely somewhere else.” Rose stepped out of her chair and towards the fridge.

“Where would be safe enough to raise your foal? This world even without the raiders and mutants is still quite dangerous for a foal to be running about.” I opened my armor.

Rose opened the fridge. “Would you like something to drink? I’ve got some tea if you’d like.”

Midnight ditched her armor at the mention of tea. “I’d love some tea. If it wouldn’t be too much for you to handle.”

Rose nodded politely and brought out the tea. “And to answer your question, Harmony. We’d probably raise the foal in the world I was born in. After the war ended and I was allowed to chase Silver down that world has been a very pleasant place. We even have a business that we could run there. It wouldn’t be the most luxurious life, but it would be enough for me to be comfortable raising the foal.”

Midnight sat down eagerly awaiting her tea. “So you’d leave this place to who?”

“Why you two of course. I’ve meet no other mares capable of leading this city as well as I know you two would.” Rose set a cup of tea down for Midnight.

That was a bit shocking. I wasn’t cut out for leading a small group of ponies much less this city. Midnight on the other hoof… Maybe that’s what she was destined to do. “We’d gladly lead this city, but are sure there’s no one more qualified?”

Rose shook her head. “Oh no. Out of all the ponies I’ve seen do here It’s been you two who have always taken up arms against the wrongdoings of the wasteland. And the only other pony that I would dare suggest is Stone. But he’s expressed many times a dislike for leading ponies. He’s much more proficient at making plans. He’s a tactician and a very good one at that.”

Aurora flashed a light at us. After a few seconds delay she finally showed herself. “I’ve gotten word that Silver, Onyx, and Demo are on their way back right now. With a tank and several hundred weapons with them.”

Rose set her tea aside. “Wonderful. Tell what few guards stationed here to be ready for the delivery. And get that mare from the shack outside ready. We might have need of her services.”

Author's Notes:

*In response to title* ..."Or not"