The war room inside the Bastion was my first real exposure to just how advanced Equestria was before the Silence. While the outpost on Blackwash had seemed magical to me, it was really low-tech in comparison to this. The perimeter of the room was ringed with chairs and attached desks for writing notes, and several holographic screens dominated the four walls, although none were displaying anything particularly important at the time. What really made the room so impressive was the slowly rotating holographic map of the valley, complete with names and tiny 3D models of the settlements within. The display was so lifelike that I actually felt like I was sitting on a cloud high above the valley, taking it all in, instead of stuck inside a massive fortress built into the wall of a canyon.

Me and Chaff had followed Zip and Sig into the war room and taken our seats next to the two while several other ponies wandered in. They all wore nearly identical armor to Zip’s, but I could tell there were some individual flourishes here and there, the most common being different designs painted across the chest plate. They gave Chaff and I curious looks as they noticed us, but for the most part they were friendly enough. I think they were more curious as to what two outsiders were doing here in their war room.

Once it seemed like everypony had assembled, an earth pony who had been standing at the front of the room since I entered turned around and examined us. He looked like he’d seen fifty winters, and the metallic silver of his coat was streaked through with aging white, especially around his muzzle and wrinkling face. He wasn’t particularly large, but I could tell that he’d spent most of his life training, and he was probably stronger than he looked, especially for his age. His mane looked like it might have been blue in his younger years, but it’d long since lost its luster, instead favoring gray. But the most striking feature was his face; his muzzle looked like it’d been horribly burnt a long time ago, and the scar tissue that covered it made it look twisted and broken. If it weren’t for that, I would’ve said that he looked pretty handsome for an old stallion, but grotesque scars like that are a little hard to ignore.

“That’s Platinum Rampart,” Zip whispered to me as the idle chatter in the room began to die off. “He’s been the commander of the Bastion for the last thirty winters. He works us hard, but he’s fair. Everypony respects him.”

I nodded; it wasn’t hard to see why. Rampart projected an air of discipline, but that was mixed with confidence and compassion. He wanted his Sentinels to fight as hard as they could, but he wasn’t going to do anything that needlessly risked their lives. I had a feeling that the deaths of every Sentinel who perished under his command weighed heavily on him, and I was impressed. Not all ponies could carry that kind of weight on their shoulders.

Rampart stopped in front of a metal control terminal and pressed a few buttons on it, dimming the lights in the war room. The map hovering in the middle also changed, zooming in on a ramshackle construction spanning the river in the middle of the valley. Even though I knew it was all just a projection, the image was so lifelike that I could imagine I was standing in front of it. Honestly it fascinated me more than it should have, but after all I’d been through, the distraction of some pretty neat tech was all I could focus on.

Then the earth pony cleared his throat. “Good afternoon, Sentinels,” he greeted, adding a small nod. The Sentinels in the room mumbled their greeting back, and Rampart pointed to the fort displayed before us. “Hard Point Beta, or as the Crimson like to call it, the Fort. I know you’re all familiar with the thing; old Equestrian military depot that the Crimson garrisoned after we abandoned the valley.” I heard a few agitated grumbles from some of the Sentinels in the back, but Rampart silenced them with a stern glare. “During our height, we used Hard Point Beta to police the western stretch of the valley, but ever since the Crimson seized it, they’ve been using it as a staging point for their patrols and slaving parties. Northlight, Green Valley, and countless other local settlements have fallen to Crimson raids staged from those walls. It’s also where they funnel their slaves they take from the valley before they route them back to Celestia Dam, where they’re sold to the rest of the hinterland. It is a vile scar on our planet, and as long as it stands, this stretch of the valley will know no safety from Crimson terror.

“Recently, I received word that another settlement was attacked, one previously unheard of due to their isolation in the mountains,” Platinum continued. It didn’t take long for him to seek me out, and when he did, his eyes fell hard on me, bringing the attention of the rest of the room along with them. “The settlement of…”

Zip nudged me, and startled, I cleared my throat. “Blackwash, sir.”

Platinum nodded and turned back to his soldiers. “Thank you. The settlement of Blackwash was an old Equestrian listening outpost in the mountains to the north. They lived in isolation from the rest of the valley since the Silence; isolation that was broken not even a week ago by a raid from the Crimson. But unlike the other towns in the valley, the nature of the Crimson assault was quite different. Instead of conquering the settlement, they destroyed it. Whether the population was eradicated or merely enslaved, I don’t know; I wasn’t told as much. But it matters little. What we do know is that this peaceful settlement was ruthlessly assaulted and exterminated from the map by the barbaric equines that dare call themselves ponies. That in itself is inexcusable.”

I found myself hanging more and more on every one of Platinum Rampart’s words. The stallion spoke with a measured passion that more cultivated the energy and anger of the Sentinels in the room to suit his needs rather than whip it into a frenzy. Being a forgemare, I’ll go ahead and make the awful metaphor that it reminded me of tempering steel; carefully controlled heat and shaping, or in this case, passion and disdain, made something far stronger than just chucking a piece of steel in the forge and hammering it flat when it glowed orange and yellow.

“But what’s more unsettling was the reason behind this cruel attack on a town nopony else has heard of before.” Frowning, Rampart was silent for a moment while his words set in. “As I’ve been told, this settlement of Blackwash heard something from our parents lightyears away. A signal of some kind.” Excited and nervous murmuring broke out among the Sentinels gathered, and Platinum silenced it with a raised hoof. “I don’t know the details, and it’s extraordinarily unlikely that we would have ever found out about this signal, had not sergeants Zip and Sigur stumbled upon a survivor of the settlement last night.” He turned to me and pointed. “Why don’t you tell us what you heard, Miss?”

All eyes settled on me again, and I nervously stood up to address them. “We, uh… Blackwash had a bunch of old satellite dishes. I guess the ponies that came before us used them to communicate with Equus or something.” I swallowed hard; public speaking was not one of my strengths. I had awful stage fright, and it took all of my willpower to not seize up like a motor without any oil. “We had three of them—the dishes, that is—and we’d managed to get one working. It took a lot of hard work from everypony on the mountain, and…”

I trailed off, because I noticed Platinum Rampart frowning at me. Sigur quietly chuckled by my side, while Zip sighed and buried her face in her feathers. That was a helpful indication I was making a fool of myself in front of all of her comrades. Plus, embarrassing the idol of my lust was a pretty good motivator to cut it out and get the fuck on with it.

“A-anyway, five days ago, we turned on the dish for the first time, and we heard something,” I said after a little cough to try to kill some of the awkwardness in the room. “The ponies who knew how all that stuff worked thought that it was a signal coming from a probe in deep space—an Equestrian probe,” I added for emphasis. “Before we knew what was happening, it downloaded some sort of code to our computers, which began talking to other installations on the planet. Then the following night, the Crimson came.” I shuddered, staring at my hooves. “They killed or enslaved us all. I was the only one who managed to escape.”

Rampart gave me a respectful nod. “We’re all sorry for your loss,” he said, and the other Sentinels in the room murmured similar condolences. Then, standing up straighter, the Sentinels’ leader resumed his disciplined demeanor. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

I wracked my brain for any details I’d missed. At least remembering it wasn’t too hard; I’m certain that horrific night is burned into my memory for the rest of my life. I thought about the bandits and Carrion, and two important things stood out. “This pony named Carrion was there, and he said that somepony paid him to get it. He wasn’t trying to take the code for himself. He didn’t say who paid him, but there was this one pegasus there who looked like he wasn’t one of them. He didn’t have any war paint on his face—whatever was left of it, anyway.”

That last bit caused Platinum’s ears to perk. “Was he a yellow pegasus with severe scarring to the right side of his face?” When I nodded, already seeing the monster leering over me again as he dragged me out of the ash at Blackwash, Rampart frowned. “That pegasus goes by the name of Yeoman. He’s an envoy from the Ivory City; does all of Reclaimer’s dirty work he needs done out in the field. It only makes sense that Reclaimer would get involved in something as important as this.”

Before I could ask about Reclaimer or what the Ivory City was, Rampart pressed a few buttons on the control panel, making the map change. “Regardless, that is a matter that can wait. Your fellow ponies were in all likelihood taken to the Fort, which, as you can see, is well defended.”

The holographic map changed to give us a closer view of the Fort, and I could see machine gun nests lining the walls, along with a heavy blast door that was probably damn near impossible to get through. A large central radio tower rose above the compound, and access from the river was blocked with thick grates probably just as strong as the walls. In addition to that, the land surrounding the Fort was flat, apart from rolls of barbed wire and other such anti-infantry countermeasures. I also assumed that the land was mined; that would complete the whole ‘fuck off’ vibe I was getting from this thing.

“Despite Hard Point Beta’s usefulness as a forward outpost, and despite the fact that retaking it would be a devastating blow for Crimson forces in the area, I have not authorized a strike on this fortification in the past for fear of bleeding ourselves dry.” Rampart began to pace around the holographic display, looking over his soldiers in turn as he spoke. “Even if it was our moral duty to free the slaves being kept there, I’ve had to ignore our consciences in favor of the bigger picture; namely, the eventual liberation of the valley.”

He came to a stop where he began, behind the control panel at the end of the room. “But, strike or not, we’ve been withering away over the past ten years until we only have a fraction of our strength left. If we’re going to survive beyond the coming winter, we need to drive the Crimson out of the valley and rebuild our numbers. Soldiers, we’re looking at the big picture now. This code that the listening outpost received could very well change the balance of power on Auris as we know it. If the Crimson have a piece of it, if the Ivory City wants it, we cannot let them keep it. That is why I am authorizing this strike on the Fort; your objective is nothing less than the complete seizure of the Fort and all of its assets, with priorities on the stolen computers from Blackwash. The liberation of slaves is a secondary objective.” I began to frown, but he cut me off with a stern look. “Don’t worry, Miss. Sentinels never fail. We will rescue your friends and family.”

From there, plans were made for the capture of the Fort. The Sentinels planned to use ten of their unicorns to ritual teleport the strike force to just outside of the Fort’s walls, where the fliers of the group like Zip and Sig would storm the gatehouse and attempt to open the fortress to the rest. There had been some talk of teleporting directly into the fortress itself, but that idea had been discarded over concerns about what the Crimson might have done to the Fort while they’d owned it. Things get moved around over the course of ten years, and teleporting directly into the middle of a stack of crates guaranteed a painful death as the spell ripped you limb from limb to fit around the obstruction. Teleporting somewhere only to find that a plank of wood had split you in half was an awful way to go, or so I was told.

I grabbed my gear from the storage where Zip and Sig had left it and began to trot back to the assembly station. Though anxiety made me feel sick to my stomach, I powered through by sheer determination. Nova and Gauge were waiting for me, and now was my chance to free them. I wasn’t going to fail them now.

The hallways and rooms of the Bastion were pretty much a giant damn labyrinth, but at least all the walkways had been marked with helpful signs and arrows that told me where I needed to go. So it was only with a little difficulty that I made my way to a maintenance platform above the open floor of a massive hangar where the strike team was assembling. They seemed so small, almost thirty ponies standing inside of an empty hangar that once upon a time probably held a hundred ringbirds, plus all their ammunition and fuel. I caught sight of Chaff, Sigur, and Zip watching over them from the railing, and I could hardly keep out the spring in my step or the trembling in my knees as I approached them. “I’m ready!” I valiantly cried out, walking into the midst of the three of them. “When do we move?”

I was surprised that neither Sentinel answered me immediately. Instead, the two shared concerned looks, like they knew something I was stupidly oblivious to.

Zip grimaced and broke eye contact with Sigur first to look at me. “Ember,” she said, and the tone in her voice made it clear I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear. “When you went to get your things, we had a talk with Platinum Rampart.” She nervously rubbed the back of her head with the crest of her left wing and slowly strode a few steps closer. “He… forbid us from taking you along on this mission.”

I blinked, the smile on my face vanishing. “W-what?” I asked, stunned and incredulous. “But I… no, my friends are there. They’re counting on me to save them, I’m not just gonna—”

The orange mare cut me off by gently resting her hoof on my shoulder. “We know, and that’s why Rampart didn’t want you joining us on this mission. He was afraid that given your ties to the ponies being held captive there, you’d do something irrational. The mission is perilous enough as is; we can’t risk one mare’s boiling emotions from endangering it.”

I felt like I’d been slapped. “Are you calling me hotheaded?” I growled, feeling my temper flaring up like a fire that’d just found fresh fuel. “I know how to use a gun, I know how to look after myself. Let me join you! I can be another gun in the field. You’re short enough on manpower as it is, and I’m basically expendable. Why turn me away?”

“Because it wouldn’t be right,” Sigur said, joining Zip in front of me. “We’re Sentinels. We protect ponies. Even if we save just one life, we’re doing our job. We will not endanger yours just to have one more gun in the field.”

“Besides,” Zip added, trying her best to look sympathetic and reasonable, “you don’t understand our command structure or our doctrines. That, and you’d be a distraction to the other Sentinels. They’d be so concerned with your safety that they might endanger themselves to help you.” She nodded at me, as if that was supposed to press home her argument. “We trust each other to look after ourselves when shit hits the fan. You might be good, Ember, but you haven’t fought with us before. We don’t know what you’re capable of, and for that, it’s not a risk we’re willing to take.”

I was silent, if only because I worried I’d say something stupid if I opened my mouth. My heart insisted that I fight them on it, demand that they take me along. These were my friends, my people. I should be there to free them. Fuck the Crimson, fuck danger. I wasn’t going to let that stop me. If I could hold my own against a shrike, I could hold my own with Sentinels to support me.

But my brain said no. Once I had a moment to vent my emotions, simple logic caught up with me. I was hardly an equal to a single Sentinel, and they were right. I’d only be a distraction if everypony else had to look after me. What could I possible contribute by being there? In all honesty, they had a better chance of completing their mission and saving Nova and Gauge and all the others without me. I’d likely just get everyone killed. Or worse.

Zip seemed to take my silence for reluctant acceptance. “We’ll bring them back,” she said. The metal bars that made the energy blades on her wings rattled as she flexed those appendages before taking my hoof in hers and pressing it against her chest. “I swear on my life, we’ll bring them back safely.”

I wasn’t in much condition to do anything other than give her a wordless nod. She cast one last sympathetic look at me before dropping my hoof and beginning to back away. Then, sharing a nod with Sigur, the two Sentinels began to walk toward the stairs leading down to the hangar floor.

That left me alone with Chaff, and growling, I crossed my forelegs and used the railing to support myself. For his part, the colt seemed unsure of what to say; quite unlike the hyperactive thing that first greeted me when I woke up… fuck, was that only yesterday? Each of these past few days felt like it’d lasted a week. I wondered how long it would be until things finally went back to normal.

Heh. Normal. That was a funny thought. Nothing would ever be ‘normal’ again. Too many ponies had died. Too much had been lost. I didn’t think I could ever go back to being normal while I still had this damn heart branded on my left flank.

Chaff surprised me with a question. “Why aren’t you going?”

I frowned. Had he not been paying attention? “Because they told me not to.”

“Yeah, but…” the colt fidgeted as he undoubtedly struggled to figure out the best way to say what was on his mind. “Don’t you want to be there?”

I bit my lip. “Zip and Sigur said that my friends would be fine. They’d get them out safe and sound. I don’t have any reason to worry.”

“But what if something awesome happens?” Chaff asked, looking up at me with a curious and confused look. “Wouldn’t you want to be there?” He huffed and hung his forelegs over the railing, staring down at the Sentinels as they began to assemble for the teleportation. “I’d want to be there if something happens. It’s no fun to be left home.”

It would’ve been easy enough to dismiss Chaff’s words as the ramblings of a kid who still had yet to discover how the world works, but they struck something within me. While Chaff seemed disappointed and confused that I wouldn’t try to tag along for something he thought was going to be awesome (no doubt because he likely held no reservations from sneaking away from his family to do just that when he followed me), I began to see it in a different light. What if something went wrong? Could I really forgive myself if Nova died during the strike and I wasn’t there to help her? Or Gauge, or Brass, or anypony else I knew? Could I live with myself if I never saw them again because I stayed at the Bastion with my hoof up my ass?

As it turns out, in a battle of the brain versus the heart, the heart tends to win if motivated enough.

My legs were moving before I even knew what I was thinking. Pressing off of the railing, I turned and galloped towards the stairs that Zip and Sigur had descended just a few minutes ago. Chaff whirled around, startled, but before he could move, I shouted at him to stay put. I didn’t spare the effort to see if he listened to me or not, because I was already barreling down the stairs and out of sight. Besides, I was pretty sure if I took a second to look away from the stairs, I’d trip and fall flat on my face, I was descending them so fast.

I jumped down the last five or six steps and began galloping straight toward the assembled group. They’d huddled themselves into a circle between the ten unicorns, who began to arc magic between their horns as they built up the strength of the ritual. For the most part, the Sentinels occupied themselves with idle talk while they prepared for the teleportation spell to fire, but there were others wandering around the hangar that noticed my frantic charge toward the group. Somepony cried out, catching the attention of two mechanics near me, who both tried to lunge forward and stop me. Before they could get close, however, I wrapped my telekinesis around their hooves and lifted, not enough to actually pick them up, but enough to prevent their hooves from hitting the metal floor as they tried to intercept me. That caused the two to fall over, and I effortlessly jumped over both of them as they tumbled across the floor.

That left me a clear opening to the circle, and so I poured on the speed. Only when I was about twenty feet away did I see Zip look up from her conversation with Sigur to see what all the commotion was about. Her eyes widened as she saw me charging toward her, and she shoved through the group to try to head me off. “No, Ember, wait!” she cried, but I’d gone too far to stop now. Instead, I bunched my muscles beneath my frame and kicked off of the hangar as hard as I could, propelling myself directly toward the middle of the circle.

Then the unicorns’ horns flared to life, and I was blinded by a bright flash of light as the world tore itself to pieces around me.

Within the relative safety of the Bastion, it hadn’t been that hard to decide that I was going on the strike no matter what. There, I had a few moments to myself to decide what I needed to do, and the choice felt like an obvious one. Even when Sentinels were trying to stop me from breaching the ritual circle, I had no doubt that what I was doing was right, even if the others wouldn’t agree with me.

Sitting on my ass with twenty-five angry Sentinels staring down at me put things into perspective. It didn’t help that one of those Sentinels was the mare I admired, and that she was the first one to call me out.

Angry hooves stomped across the ground, trampling pink grass as she marched over to me. I managed to get in a nervous smile like a foal caught stealing an extra ration before her rage hit me. Hard. And literally. And by rage, I mean her hoof. The blow cracked my head to the right with such force that I actually flailed and toppled over. The crippling pain came a second later once my brain realized what just happened.

“Ember, what the fuck?!” Zip howled at me, standing over me like a predator about to rip its prey to pieces. I’m certain she was trying to restrain herself from kicking me while I picked myself off the ground. “You idiot! You could have gotten yourself killed! You could have gotten all of us killed!”

Grunting, I managed to come to my hooves, but I kept my ears flat and my head held submissively low. Perhaps more than anything else, I was horrendously embarrassed that I was getting chewed out in front of Zip’s peers. I wanted to crawl back into a hole, but I couldn’t just stand there and take Zip’s verbal lashing without some token defense. “I-I don’t get it, what do you mean?”

In response, Zip grabbed my tail, but not in the way I would’ve liked her to. Instead, she just held it up so I could see the end of it, where a good six or seven inches had just disappeared, leaving a straight, scorched line behind. I blinked and stared at it for a second, dumbfounded, before the implication hit me. If I was just a moment later, the teleportation circle would have cut me in half. Well, not so much cutting as merely teleporting everything from my bellybutton up while leaving my lower half behind. It probably would’ve been just as bad as teleporting into a wall.

I said probably about the stupidest thing I could’ve come up with, apart from making some joke about Zip grabbing my tail. “Well, at least it won’t be sweeping the ground when I walk anymore.”

To be fair, my tail was really long prior to that, and cleaning it was a pain in the ass. If I didn’t think I looked good (I’m loathe to use the word ‘pretty’) with my shoulder-length mane and long tail, I probably would have cut both back long ago.

I’m pretty sure Zip strongly considered hitting me again, and I don’t blame her; I would’ve hit me if I’d been standing in her shoes. Instead, I was saved by Sig quickly making his way to her side and resting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, and he shook his head; I wasn’t sure whether to feel glad or what that he was basically telling her I wasn’t worth it.

Now that she had that out of her system, Zip just merely found a nearby rock to sit down on. Removing her helmet, she rubbed her face with a wing and sighed. “We’re off target,” she grumbled, and I made a quick look around us to confirm that there was no fort in sight, capitalized or otherwise. Instead, we’d ended up in a basin between several hills, with the mountains looming up a mile or so to the south. “You jumping into the spell messed up the preparations the spellcasters made. They put in enough power to move the twenty-five of us to within a mile of the Fort, not twenty-six. So we’ve got some walking to do.”

I fidgeted in place, ultimately deciding to sit down near her, but carefully outside of her kicking range. “I’m sorry,” I mustered enough energy to say. “I couldn’t stay back at the Bastion. I had to be out here. My friends are counting on me.”

“Even after everything we said?” Zip asked, fixing me with a pointed glare. I had no response to that, so the mare just sighed and flipped her helmet back on. “Well, consider yourself lucky. You got what you wanted. We can’t send you back now, not until the mission is done. I trust you can hold your own.”

I nodded, and with that, Zip went back to the gathering crowd of Sentinels, dismissing them with a hoof. Soon enough, I heard orders being barked out, and several pegasi flew into the air to scout out the land. If my fuck up really had made us miss our target, it was essential that we figured out where we were before we continued.

I found Sigur was much more sympathetic to me, as he sat down by my side and wrapped a wing around my back for comfort. “She’s not really mad at you,” he began, and when I shot him a doubting look, he wilted and held up a hand. “Okay, she’s a little mad. But she’s more frustrated than anything. And worried, too. She was the one who found you last night, so she feels responsible. She doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

Well, that was surprisingly reassuring. It even played to my fancy that maybe I’d score with her. And I knew I fucked up; I could understand why she was mad with me. If there was a chance for reconciliation…

I ran a hoof through my mane, mostly because sitting still was beginning to bother me. Surprisingly enough, getting whacked in the face doesn’t do much to actually get rid of that pent-up excitement you get before a fight. “I guess,” I conceded, shrugging. “I’m just… I didn’t know that I’d be messing something up when I tried to join you guys. I just thought it was… you know, a big circle that goes ‘poof’ and magically sends you wherever you want to go.”

Sigur chuckled and scratched his beak. “Well, you’re the unicorn; I figured you’d understand how it works better than I do. Magic isn’t exactly a griffon’s strong suit.”

“Yeah, well, the only magic I understand is telekinesis, because every damn unicorn knows telekinesis” I said, shrugging. “I do know some other basic spells, like fire protection. I used to work as a smith before Blackwash… you know…” I bit my lip and stared at the mountains walling off the valley in the north. I had no idea which one of their spires held the remains of my home anymore; they all looked the same from down here. “Teleportation or casting lightning bolts from my horn weren’t exactly spells I needed to learn. I doubt I could’ve if I wanted to, anyway; it’s not like we had any spellbooks on the mountain.” I felt myself grinning as I added, “But if you need to not be lit on fire, then I’m your mare.”

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m burning to death,” Sigur said, smiling. Then, on a more serious note, he waved a talon. “The record keepers have some old military manuals at the Bastion that go over basic combat spells. If you want, you can take a look at them when we’re done here. Any unicorn can use telekinesis to fire a gun, but the Equestrian soldiers before the Silence also knew how to wield fire and lightning and other spells to just as devastating an effect. Having a few of those under your belt might be useful if you ever find yourself in trouble.”

Huh… Now that was a tempting offer. I’ll admit I briefly imagined myself standing atop a tall rock, pouring lead and raining fire on an army of screaming Crimson mooks below me. I mean, bullets are effective and all, but they just don’t have the same panic-inducing, morale-shattering effect of a fireball. Throw in some maniacal laughter and it’d make a pretty good recreation of a cheesy storybook villain.

I chuckled (but not maniacally, because I’m not a storybook villain) and took a moment to sip from my canteen before I nodded. “Yeah, that sounds awesome. I could get a lot of use out of that, especially with bullets being a money system or something like that.” I shook my head at that. “You’d think that a bullet-based economy would run out of money sooner or later with all the shooting you guys do at each other.”

“I’m no trader, so I couldn’t tell you how it all stays afloat,” Sigur said, shrugging. “Best I can tell, a lot of the small towns anchor themselves to settlements that are set up in old military bunkers, like the Bastion, because they have all the bullets. The towns give the military settlements things they need, and the settlements give them bullets in return. And if you’ve ever seen just how many bullets the army liked to stuff into these forts before the Silence began, then you’d understand they’re not going to run out anytime soon, even if they shoot off thousands, like we’re probably going to do today.”

Sig’s comment did remind me of something else, though. Reaching into my bags, I pulled out the cigarette box that Denarius had given me. “Do you know what this is?” I asked, pointing to the symbol on the lid.

The griffon took it in his talons and looked it over, but gave it back after a few seconds. “Can’t say that I do,” he said, shaking his head. “Where’d you get this? You don’t look like the kind of mare who smokes.”

“A trader I crossed paths with gave it to me for free,” I said. “Didn’t say anything about the symbol, and he was gone before I could ask him. It could just be some decorative crest from before the Silence for all I know, but I wouldn’t put it past this guy that it’s something else entirely. There was just something… off about him.” I shrugged, not really wanting to think about it at the moment, and put the box away. Instead, I focused on a group of Sentinels that had assembled, which Zip was a part of, standing in a circle around a stallion with a sky blue coat and a mane that alternated between blue and gray stripes. I got the feeling that he must’ve been an officer of some sort, given the way everypony silently listened to him speak. Nudging Sig, I pointed to the pegasus. “Who’s he?”

“Commander Thunder Dash,” Sig responded. “He’s been with us for a while. His family was old military before the Silence, and it seems they stuck to their jobs once it started. They played an important part in organizing the Sentinels when we were first founded a long time ago. Thunder’s just the latest in a long line of officers from his family name. I’d trust the stallion with my life.”

“Huh.” I watched him speak to his subordinates for a little longer, then raised an eyebrow at Sig. “Why aren’t you there listening to him?”

Sig waved a hand. “Zip will tell me everything I need to know. I let her handle the briefings and that sort of thing. I prefer to spend my time on other causes, like making sure our unexpected guest doesn’t spend the rest of her day kicking herself too badly,” he said, winking.

I felt myself blush a little and toyed with my mane. “Yeah… thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sig said. The group in front of us broke and began rallying the other Sentinels scattered about the basin, and the griffon stood up as Zip came trotting back to us. “What’s the plan?”

"Recon says we’re about ten miles northeast of the Fort, so we’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way there. From there, we’re going to survey the defenses, but if everything checks out, Thunder wants to hit the fort from three angles. Fifteen on the front door to draw their attention, and two groups of five to hit the rear, one from the hills and one from the river.”

“And which group are we?” Sigur said, checking his gear as we prepared to move out.

“River,” Zip answered, moving to Sig’s side and helping the griffon with a buckle on his armor. “The secondary groups are two fliers, two bruisers, and a caster.” Turning to me, she made an airy sigh and slapped my shoulder. “I managed to convince Thunder to let you come with us. He wanted to make you sit out, by force if necessary, for messing up the mission, but I convinced him you’d redeem yourself if we let you.”

Knowing that Zip had decided to stick up for me when she was pissed just moments ago was like a shot in the foreleg. “You can count on me,” I said, trying to meet her gorgeous eyes with a confident smile. It wasn’t easy.

Zip must’ve seen how flustered I was, because she just shook her head and patted me on the back. “All I ask is that when we’re moving on the Fort is that you keep an eye on our surroundings instead of on my tail,” she said. “We can’t have any distractions on the battlefield, can we?”

She walked past me as the group began to move out, and I swear she intentionally brushed her tail against the side of my neck as she did so. My response was to merely lock up in panic, staring blankly ahead as my mind tried to process what happened. If I didn’t have a black coat, I’m pretty sure Sigur would’ve been able to see just how pale I was from Zip’s words.

Instead, the griffon just laughed and thumped his chest as he caught up to his companion. “By the spirits, Zip, you’re gonna kill the poor mare.”

Walking to the Fort took us the better part of the remainder of the day, and by the time we’d reached a hill overlooking the structure, the sunset was giving everything a blue glow. Zip and some of the other Sentinels had been discussing the details of their battle plans with Thunder Dash the entire way here, including whether or not to wait to strike at night. However, everypony agreed that a daylight strike would be better; in the dark of the night, we wouldn’t be able to see any traps that the Crimson had laid for us, and the glowing lights on the Sentinels’ armor would’ve given them away while the Crimson themselves remained concealed in darkness. Thus, we had to strike while there was still some light out. Plus, if they could see the main force approaching from the front, more would be drawn away from the rear of the Fort—the actual target.

While the Sentinels prepared themselves for the assault, as super fancy high tech armor apparently needs a lot of time to get ready, I crawled up to the ridge we were hiding behind while we prepared to get a good look at the Fort. It was arranged like a pentagon, with the flat end pointed towards us and aligned with what I assumed was a road a long time ago, and the opposite point on the other side of the river that flowed through it. The walls were made of solid steel, reinforced with thick bulwarks that I figured could survive orbital bombardment, and watchtowers set at regular intervals stood guard over the surrounding land. Within the walls were several large prefab buildings, and rising from them all was an impressively tall radio tower. I had a feeling that once upon a time, that radio tower and Blackwash used to speak to each other constantly. Now, one was dead, and the other looked like it barely functioned. There wasn’t a whole lot keeping the thing standing upright; were it not for some extra cables wrapped around its frame, the crooked tower looked like it would’ve fallen long ago.

Then there were the Crimson. They walked the walls in pairs, weapons primed and ready, and I noticed that not all of them carried their standard dual submachine guns. Several had rifles and shotguns, and I saw at least one sniper sweeping the countryside through his scope. A few mounted machine guns protected the road, each with a gunner and loader chatting idly behind them. I felt my stomach twist into a knot as I looked over those defenses. The Sentinels might have shielding in their armor, but if what Zip had said last night was true, it wasn’t going to protect them from that amount of firepower.

But the Sentinels had a solution for that problem. I trotted back to Zip and Sigur as they slotted metal plates onto the sides of their armor. From what they’d told me, they were deployable cover, since there wasn’t a lot of cover in the open ground around the Fort, and they’d need what they could get to protect themselves from sniper fire. It apparently made a shield large enough for three ponies to hide behind when deployed, and could be launched from a distance to sustain an advance. While we hopefully wouldn’t need them as an infiltration team, the frontal assault was going to make extensive use of them to give their soldiers some cover from enemy fire. Otherwise, the open ground in front of the Fort would turn into a killing field, and what little cover there was facing the Fort was probably mined and too dangerous to use.

Zip looked up at me as I approached. “Feeling excited yet?” she asked, and I noticed that the small orange mare was rocking back and forth on her haunches, like it was impossible to keep still. She noticed that I noticed, for she promptly hopped to her hooves and began jogging in place. “It’s been too long since I was on a good strike. Patrol is boring work; I’m glad that we’re finally taking the fight to the bastards instead of trying to whittle them down in the dark of the night, for all the good that’s done us so far.”

Where Zip let her excitement run freely, Sig was much more calm and collected. “It’s kept us alive is what it’s done. Not all of us, but enough that we even had this opportunity today. If we can take back the Fort, well…” the griffon shrugged his shoulders, rattling the armor fastened to his body. “We open up the west valley for recruitment and we can start building our numbers again. It’s what it’s going to take to finally topple the Crimson.”

I nodded, feeling the anxiety settling in my gut. Today, I was going to either witness the rebirth of the Sentinels, or their last hurrah. Zip had said they only had fifty soldiers before, and half of them were on this strike. As defensible as the Bastion was, I didn’t think the Sentinels could properly defend it with only twenty-five soldiers. If we lost here, Carrion would surely strike back and crush the Sentinels once and for all.

“Soldiers,” Thunder called out, interrupting my thoughts. Zip and Sig both turned to face him along with the other twenty-three Sentinels around us. Thunder Dash stood in the middle of the circle, his face a careful mask of neutrality. When he saw that we were all watching him, he pointed a wing to the ridge and the fortification behind it. “Beyond that ridge lies the Fort. I don’t think I need to point out to you that the future of our entire way of life hinges on whether we take it back from the Crimson or not. Our objective is to breach those walls, neutralize any resistance, secure the data they stole, and free the slaves. In that order. Am I understood?”

The Sentinels around him all nodded and muttered “sir”. “Good,” he said, eyes sweeping over everypony (and griffon) assembled before him. “It will not be easy, and I’m not naïve enough to believe that we can do this without casualties. But play it smart and stick to the plan, and we’ll get out of this alive.” Then his eyes narrowed on me, making me shiver. “If any of you have any questions or concerns, now’s the time to voice them. There’s no turning back now, and you won’t have a second chance.”

I swallowed hard and stood up straighter, rising to meet Thunder’s challenge. I may not have been a Sentinel, but I wasn’t going to be intimidated by him. I knew the risks (okay, the more direct, shooty ones) when I jumped in the circle, and I wasn’t going to back out now. The ponies of Blackwash were counting on me.

My show of confidence got me a small nod of approval from Thunder, and when nopony said anything, he gestured with his wings. “Good. I’ll be in radio contact with the two infiltration teams. Don’t approach the Fort until you hear my signal. You’ll know when it’s time to breach.” He gave us one last glance before adding, “Move out.”

As the Sentinels fell into their parties, I did my best to stay close to Zip and Sigur. Zip let out a shrill whistle from the front of our group, and soon we set off down the side of the ridge, approaching the river from a blind spot on the Fort. Though I did my best to stay calm, I couldn’t suppress the fear grabbing hold of my gut.

I was terrified. And I was certain I was going to die.