Sora grumbled through her gag as the day dragged on, with ponies insulting her at every single turn. The ponies she delivered packages to waved her off without one iota of appreciation, but she still carried on with her task despite the lack of respect and the fact that she found herself delivering household goods like canned food and more towelettes. There was naught she could do about the ungrateful pricks she'd found herself mingling with today; she'd been given orders clear as day that did not devolve into unethical behavior—yet—and that was that. She did not bother busying herself with ideas of retribution, opting instead to let those take her when it came time to sleep. The carriage rattled in between drop-offs, until at last its pilot made the penultimate stop and neared the very end of her task.

Her wings ached a little as she made the last delivery, and she flew towards a very peculiar part of the city, one stationed at the westmost side. Here, where there should have been buildings, a giant dome of sorts with a makeshift plateau had been constructed, cast iron black and riddled with red lights that blazed brightly amidst the rays of the setting sun. Very few, if any ponies gathered around it, leaving whole swaths of large road utterly empty. The buildings around it gave this oddball plenty of space, letting entire acres of land alone just so it could sit in their center. Pipes stuck out of the construct, pouring smoke out aplenty.

Looking at it made bile climb up Sora's throat, and for once she was grateful she'd been gagged. It made it so much easier to keep her stomach from running loose, though she'd never tell Trinity that lest she get some bright ideas for another punishment. The sight reminded her of a blackened, charred, slightly flattened boil, ready and waiting to be punctured so its contents could be expunged. The smoke itself reeked strongly of fire. She descended, her stomach gurgling in protest as she came closer to this strange construct and its lonely patch of roads. "Note to self, eat dinner outside the mess hall," Sora mentally grumbled as she pulled herself towards the building in a languid, lazy, ludicrously wide corkscrew maneuver, making sure to avoid the smoke on her way down.

A nauseating smell, one of smoulder, chemicals, fire and rot, tickled her nose as she landed on the streets outside of the bizarre building's suspiciously open doors. Her snout instinctively wrinkled, and started to tinge a shade of green. "Oh no…" A wing spread and curled around awkwardly, trying to shield her nostrils from the foul odor without scratching the pavement in the process. "What do I have to deliver here? Colostomy bags? Please, gods of old, don't let it be that..." she prayed. Hesitantly, she trotted closer to the monstrosity, ears folding back and face turning greener as she approached it. Suffice to say, she could very easily smell why this place had such a wide berth.

She trotted through the doors, the stench growing stronger and stronger with each step. The inside of the building was dimly lit, and it was only thanks to the sun's fleeting rays she could even see what lay within. Walls of black material, a cast iron sort if she had to guess, surrounded her in a half-dome hallway ending some impressive two hundred and forty yards at a set of double doors.

At seemingly random spaces, there were panes of glass, each one revealing various bags of refuse being processed in a myriad of different ways under many flickering lights. The window closest to her had an entire compost heap burning up in searing white-hot flames, while another three trots down had small conveyor belts leading up to a pressing mechanism which would turn the compost into compact cubes.

Sora's stomach did cartwheels as she took in the very dismal, very grotesque sight. She flared her wings and made a beeline for the doors, flapping without taking off just to get there faster and be done with it before her stomach could start shooting bile up her throat and choke her with it. She took very shallow breaths, both to avoid the acrid stench for as long as possible and to keep her already-volatile insides from going on the warpath, and bit down on the gag wedged in her mouth as a precaution.

She crossed a mere forty yards in a brisk trot fueled by flapping, before pain shot through her nerves and her legs were filled with energy. She dared not spring into a gallop, however; she couldn't risk damaging the cargo, regardless of whether or not it actually belonged here. If it was volatile in any way, then there'd simply be no chance in hell she could explain it away to Trinity. Besides, expanding the energy needlessly would only make her stomach turn that much more. And if, indeed, it was dangerous as she suspected… then that would have explained the rattling that nagged her until she descended here.

A horrific chemical reaction was the last thing she needed today, and she did not want it to happen here if she could help it. Her stomach sent a cramp of agreement, momentarily clenching from both ends. Her eyes gravitated to and fro betwixt the myriad of displays surrounding her as she trotted closer to the doors, if only to take her mind off of her own dismal musings. There were more conveyor belts, taking various bits of refuse out to a machine shaped like a spider with a myriad of trap doors—a sorting machine, she guessed. Another housed nothing more than mounds upon mounds of dirt sporting grass shoots, with bright lights blaring overhead. She relaxed a little at the sight, and would have smiled if not for the gag.

Her stomach growled again, now reminding her that she had yet to eat. She continued before the grass could tempt her. "Although… some greenery does sound good for dinner…" she idly noted, her hooves moving on autopilot now. She had to finish her task first, though, and the longer she stalled, the more her stomach would protest… and the more time her superiors had in…

Her legs hastened now, to a near gallop, as she started envisioning the Admiral of all ponies with his hooves wrapped around Starbreaker and harming her in ways best left unthought of. She reached the doors in a matter of minutes, which opened to admit her and her ugly wagon. Beyond was a small room, lined with chutes of varying sizes. These chutes had hatch-doors that were labeled with sheets of paper dangling from their handles, each sized in accordance.

In the middle of the room was a simple cherry desk, on which slept a stallion with his head nestled in his forehooves amidst strewn papers and loose inkpens. Sora noted he wore a simple hat and a blue suit, both of which were rumpled and stain-riddled, and had neither wings nor horn. He had a brown coat and a mane a lighter shade of that hue—here, he was as plain as they came. She trotted up to him and lifted a hoof to nudge him awake, and the stallion yawned and shifted before raising his head and looking at her with bloodshot eyes of a deep amber.

They stared for a long moment before he spoke in a heavily slurred voice, "Th' fuck took ye so long?"

Sora merely shrugged and spread a wing to gesture to her carriage. The stallion's nose wrinkled as he clambered off the desk and released a mighty yawn. "Whatever…" he grumbled, ambling over to the carriage to open it. She felt the doors shift, heard the creaking of hinges as it opened, followed by a low whistle and a grunt. "Gha… this thing's huge… I knew I shouldn't have slept on th' job…" he hissed.

It took the barely-awake lad several minutes, but he managed to pull out a ludicrously huge box and trotted to the desk with it balanced on his back. It was as long as the desk itself, and tilted precariously with each movement. However, before it could tilt and fall, he trotted away from the carriage and slowly lowered himself so it could tilt harmlessly on the floor. She noted it was oddly airtight-looking, with nary a crack to be seen. It wasn't labeled with a strip of paper, either, as far as its contents were concerned. It only had 'cremate' scrawled crudely onto its side.

"Come over here and hold that end for me, will ya?" the stallion asked. Sora nodded and trotted over, sitting on her haunches to lift her forehooves up. She clasped the higher end of the box, and her nose wrinkled as an even stronger stench assailed her sinuses.

Seconds later, her mind registered the stench, and what it possibly meant. "Ah, shit, whatever's in here may've broke already!" she noted, eyes widening in panic. The stallion took his time wiggling out from under the box, and stood up as he turned to her. He lifted a hoof and flicked down, and hesitantly Sora lowered her end of the box.

"Why ya got that look on yer face?" the stallion asked, before he noted Sora's gag. He frowned and trotted to the desk, rummaging through its strewn papers until he procured a blank sheet. After scrabbling for an inkpen, making sure it dispensed its load properly, he beckoned her over.

Sora, sensing what he was wanting her to do, stood up, trotted over, took the inkpen in a fetlock and scribbled something out before letting him read it. Her message was short, concise, and told him all he'd needed to know.

"I'm being punished by the Major for calling her a damned lunatic."

"Th' usual?" the stallion replied, looking from the note and to Sora, who nodded in confirmation. "Eh, can't be helped. Not yer fault she's batty." He trotted back to the box, brow furrowing. "Now what needs disposing this time…" he muttered as his hooves planted themselves on the top of the box, and he started to heave as he worked to uncover the contents. It took him several pulls within several minutes and a few position shifts before his hooves found their mark, but gradually the lid came undone.

Sora shrieked into her gag, wings flaring as the lid came off to reveal a pair of ponies tucked within, bodies shaved of mane, tail, and fur and skin turned blue from asphyxiation. The stallion jumped back with a cry of his own, and both pairs of eyes almost bugged out of their sockets as they beheld the sight. "H-holy… how'd these poor ponies…" the stallion muttered, ears folding back against his head.

Sora cantered over with hesitant steps, fueled by a small part of her mind that wanted to get a closer look and determine what had happened before they were crammed into the box. Her stomach churned, threatening to evacuate its contents one way or the other, and slowly she peered over to find waste deposits and conspicuous crystals jutting from their shoulders. The crystals were dirtied, and had blackened, supported by a metal ring of some sort that kept them anchored to now-decaying flesh.

Both ponies were gagged as she was, and their eyes were wide open, glassy and housing pupils forever shrunken in death. They were positioned in such a way she wasn't able to tell if they were mares or stallions. Aside from the gags, crystals, positioning and waste, as well as the fact they were shaved, nothing really turned up to point to why they'd been stuffed to begin with. She didn't even see any other traces of augmentations either.

Her ears fell back as she realized, with fast-growing horror, that she'd only helped send them along to their very own graves. The worker stallion turned to Sora and asked in a low, quivering voice, "Did th' batty bitch tell ya about this?" Sora merely shook her head in response. Even if she did not have her mouth corked, she wouldn't have been able to say anything, for she had not considered this outcome in the slightest.

The stallion sighed and carefully put the lid back on the box. "Poor bastards…" he mumbled. "They didn't deserve this…" He turned to Sora again. "I'll… take care of this, send these guys off t' their rest. Head back to th' base. Keep an eye out for anything else that's fishy."

Sora nodded, and her face hardened. "And if shit gets bad… like, worse than this," the stallion continued, gesturing to the makeshift coffin with his hoof, "take anypony you can with ye… and run. I think th' army's up t' something if they're sending me corpses. This ain't never happened b'fore."

Sora could do little else but heed him, though she took a moment to bow her head to the now-covered cadavers and shifted her wings so her primaries rested on the floor. It was the very least she could have done for them, though some part of her didn't expect forgiveness from them, even if they could somehow communicate it now. She heard trotting hooves, and felt a hoof come to rest on her withers, prior to turning to the only other living soul in the room.

"T'weren't yer fault they… okay, maybe it was, but only because ye didn't get them out when ye had th' chance. But ye couldn't have known either way that ye'd have been totin' bodies. Their mouths were corked t' hell, and I'd bet bits t' toast that wagon was soundproofed," the worker stallion muttered in a soft voice, seeing a smidgen of guilt swimming in those green eyes. Carefully, he continued, "Somepony done set yer ass up, filly. Who, I'unno. Just keep yer eyes peeled f'r me, okay?" At her nod he dropped his hoof, and turned to set about the very delicate task of sending the dead off. He lifted one end of the box and strained; Sora trotted to the other end and picked it up to help ease his burden. Then, both rose onto their back legs in perfect tandem.

She, inadvertently, killed them, when instead she could have done something to save them. She'd be damned if she didn't bear some responsibility for this… crime upon her withers. Slowly, she and the worker walked upright with the box in their hooves, marching toward a large chute twice as big as the load that sat behind the desk. When they reached it, they angled the box so Sora could use one of her wings to open the chute, revealing a fiery inferno raging beyond. It was there the deceased went towards their final rest…

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sora scrambled to the medical ward as soon as she returned to the launch pad and got out of her gag and harness. Her mind whirred, tossed right into a frenzy as post-cremation panic settled in. The door opened to admit her, but she didn't relax even as she saw Yukito and Starbreaker having themselves a chat like nothing had happened. She trotted in and sat down, catching both ponies' attention.

"What's wrong now? You look like you've been goosed!" Yukito muttered, watching Sora intently.

"Just… thought the Majors came here and…" Sora stopped and paused to take a breath, seeing that nothing had gone catastrophically wrong in her absence. She shivered, once again envisioning that scenario playing out…

Yukito frowned at that. "Nopony really came here. Not even Tsukumi dropped by," he replied slowly. He approached Sora, face hardening. "Where were you? We've been expecting you for some time now."

Sora stifled a groan at being metaphorically prodded again. "Major Trinity decided to punish me with an all-day task," she muttered. When Yukito's brow rose, she elaborated a little, "I got to play mailmare with the world's ugliest method of vehicular transport." Her stomach lurched, and her entire front quarters went with it. She raced to cover her mouth with a hoof to reign her protesting stomach back in before weakly adding, "And I was gagged all day. Couldn't eat…"

"I didn't know you also needed fuel, Little Miss Soldier!" Starbreaker hissed, frowning deeply in annoyance. "Once I get out of this bed, your wings will melt!"

Sora, having managed to contain her stomach for the time being, stifled another groan into her hoof. "Yukito, are there any cucumbers left?" she asked, her voice muffled.

"Starbreaker ate the last one while you were away," Yukito replied, heaving a heavy sigh.

"Damnit…" Sora grumbled, her eyes gravitating to the miniature fridge. "Is it alright for me to take a peek?"

"I don't see why not," Yukito replied with a roll of his eyes. Sora stood up and eagerly trotted over to the fridge, flinging its door open with a hoof to examine its contents. He turned to her and watched as she pulled out a tray of plastic-wrapped carrots, corn and peas with enthusiasm. She closed the door with a rear hoof and trotted to the microwave before opening that. She set the tray down inside, ripped every scrap of plastic off that she could, closed the door, and turned on the machine, already salivating enough to have a trickle of drool trace its way down her chin.

"Doctor, she's starting to worry me," Starbreaker piped up again, with such utmost sincerity that both Yukito and Sora jumped upon hearing it.

Sora immediately turned to Starbreaker, eyes widening and a hoof racing up to wipe her mouth. "Starbreaker? Worrying? Since when?" she asked incredulously, with a hint of genuine surprise in her tone.

"Well, this is unheard of…" Yukito mumbled, smiling a little nonetheless. "You still want to burn her, right?"

"Yes. Until she is nothing but bones," Starbreaker replied with a snort. She lifted her good hoof and gesticulated wildly at Sora before adding, "But I think she's gone weird in the head!"

Sora lifted her hoof from her mouth and held it to her chest. "Me, weird in the head? Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" she shot back.

"It doesn't change a thing!" Starbreaker's hoof stilled in an accusatory gesture. "You've gone off your rocker lately!"

Yukito's brow furrowed, and his smile fell into a frown. "Oh, here we go… now they're trying to one-up each other…" he grumbled, and lifted his hoof to smack the bridge of his muzzle. He trotted to them both, horn glowing and aura clamping both their mouths shut before they could escalate their impromptu competition to heights he did not want to witness. "Ladies, I would appreciate it if you stopped your mane-measuring contest at once," he stated firmly.

He turned to Starbreaker first, frown deepening as he spoke, "I understand your concerns, but you really shouldn't be egging her on." Then, he turned to address Sora next, and his face hardened some more, "And, sadly, I agree with Starbreaker: your behavior as of late has been erratic, ever since you found her. Could you enlighten us as to why?"

Sora groaned and waited until the magical hold had been lifted from her mouth before she gave her answer, "The superior assholes who run this place have been giving me hell lately. And I… haven't been able to vent." At this, Yukito's brow rose, but he relented and sighed.

"Bottling your anger… again…" Yukito facehoofed once more, that time running his hoof down the bridge of his muzzle as he did it, though he made sure not to take his glasses with it. His horn dimmed entirely, and Starbreaker's muzzle was freed from his magical grip. "Sora… that isn't healthy. Sooner or later, if you keep bottling it up, you'll explode…"

"Will her guts spray everywhere when she does?" Starbreaker piped up. Yukito shook his head.

"No. I meant metaphorically," Yukito grumbled. "Anyway, one day, should you keep it locked tight… I don't think the results would be very… pretty, or desireable, to put it mildly," he finished awkwardly. "Like with Takahara... "

Sora winced at that, and turned to the microwave as it started loudly blaring. She lifted a hoof and opened it before pulling out the now-steaming tray of vegetables. She carefully set it down to the floor and shifted her legs to lay before it. "So… no screaming… or slashing…" she summed up with a sigh.

"Unless it's in self-defense, as with Takahara," Yukito replied with a nod. "Or, gods of old forbid, you get deployed again and have to kill some ponies."

Sora nodded and stuck her muzzle in the tray. She started eating almost immediately, shifting her forehooves to hold the receptacle in place so she could get every last scrap. Her ears remained perked, signaling that she was still listening and, perhaps, waiting for his lecture to end. Yukito smiled a little and finished, "I'll still be here if you need to talk. Scream and vent all you want, just warn me in advance so I can get earmuffs."

"Mhm," Sora hummed through her food, nodding again to signal that she understood.

"Why do you need earmuffs?" Starbreaker piped up again. Yukito chuckled at that, and turned to her with a grin.

"So I can still hear what she'd be saying, without having my ears damaged by her shrieking," he replied calmly. "You've surely heard how loud she can scream, no?" At Starbreaker's nod, his grin widened. "The earmuffs would be a safety precaution." He turned back to Sora as she stood up, clutching a now-cleaned tray with her teeth. "Do you need to vent?" he asked. Sora shook her head, and trotted over to the waste bin to deposit the tray in it.

"I still need to talk, though," Sora began, wings drooping as she spoke. She turned to Yukito and Starbreaker, her face hardening. "This is going to sound outlandish…" She took a deep breath and told them all that had happened today, from being gagged to discovering dead bodies in the gaudy cargo wagon. She left no detail out, and by the time she finished both pairs of pupils shrank.

"Crystals? In the shoulders?" Yukito muttered, trying to wrap his head around it. Sora nodded fervently. "That is… bizarre. Did they have cutie marks?" That time, Sora shook her head. "Hrm…"

"Did you stay until they were skeletons?" Starbreaker asked again. She got another shaking of the head as her answer.

"Not much of a reason to. I just… flew out afterwards," Sora muttered with a sigh. Her wings bristled a little bit. "And… it's…"

Yukito trotted over and planted a hoof on Sora's withers, looking her straight in the eye. "You need say no more. Would you like to spend the night in my quarters?" he queried.

Sora nodded and smiled a little. "Over the barracks any day," she chirped.

"Are you gonna let him touch you?" Starbreaker piped up once more, and the two turned to look at her with vexed frowns.

Sora heaved another sigh, and her gaze hardened. "In the sense that Takahara touched me… not exactly," she muttered, though it did not escape the notice of her charge when a blush formed on her face. "After all that's happened today, I'm… not exactly keen on it."

"And I wouldn't touch her in that manner anyway. She's a dear friend of mine, Starbreaker, one whose life I have saved at that," Yukito replied, brow slanting. "I merely extended the offer to her so she'd catch a break for the night."

Starbreaker frowned. "Friend?" she parroted, letting the word sit on her tongue. Her brow slanted, and confusion sparked in her eyes as a whir filled the air, which shifted to a bright yellow for a moment. Sora and Yukito both noted the brief change, but opted not to say anything about it. "What's… a friend?"

Sora lifted both her forelegs, shifted to stand on her hind hooves, and promptly facehoofed with both fronts simultaneously. "The rock you must've been living under…" she grumbled in exasperation. "How fucking tall was it?"

Yukito shook his head solemnly. "Must've been as large as the base itself…" he muttered dismally. He turned to Sora and asked, "Want me to fetch Tsukumi before we clock out for the night?"

Sora nodded and dropped back to all fours. "That sounds good," she replied.