Fallout Equestria: Alphabet soup

by Doomande

First published 24th of August, 2020

What happens when you give a lot of writers a promt and a letter

This is a collection of different short stories written by some of the many writers of the Fallout Equestria

Each writter have been given a subject and a random letter to write a story from, and this is their stories for you to enjoy.

Enclave: D is for Duty by Trooper

“Lieutenant, are you even listening to me? I asked you, do you understand the charges that you are being tried for?” the gray Enclave officer with the marking for the Judge Advocates Corps on his collar asks.

Before him sits a teal coated pegasus with his black mane and tail. His uniform shows that he is a lieutenant of scouts for the Enclave. He shakes his head and replies, “Of course I do, do ya think I am an idjit?”

They are inside a closed room. Besides them, on one end there is a bench with two Enclave officers who are acting as the board of the Court Martial, and a third who is the presiding judge, upon whom the final decisions will rest. Next to the teal officer is his defense attorney who is sitting there with his forehooves crossed, his eyes closed and shaking his head.

“One more comment like that and I will hold you in contempt.” The judge tells him.

The teal officer’s wings flare a bit at this, his ears start to pin back, and he tells those in the courtroom, “Go ahead and hold me in contempt, I already do. I hold the whole blasted Grand Pegasus Enclave in contempt. For the love of the Goddesses, we should be helping those down there. Our duty was ta protect Equestria and all ponies. Instead look at what we have done and continue to do to those poor souls.”

The prosecutor that stands against him looks at him in disgust and replies, “That was one hundred and ninety years ago. Our duty now is to defend and protect the pegasi, and by extension the Enclave. You do this by following your orders, or have you forgotten what your duty is.”

The accused all but spits, “Just doing your duty does not mean obeying orders that you know are wrong. Those orders were wrong, and the ponies in that village were innocent. We need to do better. We need to do what is right and just, that should be our duty.”

The prosecutor turns back to him and asks “And who are you to decide what is and what is not your duty? You are an officer of the Grand Pegasus Enclave. You have been trained. You do not decide what your duty is. Your duty is to follow orders Lieutenant, in case you forgot.”

“No sir, I have not forgotten. I also know that when it comes my time, I will be held accountable to the Goddesses for my actions.”

Several of those in the courtroom laugh at this. The prosecutor then tells him, “You already are being judged for your actions. Think Stallion, think!”

And he does. The lieutenant thinks back over his career. In his mind he remembers his father Sirocco’s career in the Enclave service. He remembers his mother and father's joy at the birth of his younger sister Blue Skies, then the pain of loss when his mother died in childbirth when they tried to have a third foal.

His father always said it was because the doctor and medical attendants failed in their duties that his mother died. The unnamed foal taken as well as his mother to Elysium. Then he lost his father as Sirocco tried to forget his pain by diving head first into his duty.

The son followed in the hoof steps of the father and put his duty before his own wants and desires. To the point he even had himself proud cut so an unplanned foal could not interfere with his career, his duty to the Enclave.

It had been a good career, he thinks. He had entered service as an enlisted pony and after seven years was advanced to lieutenant. He was proud of this as well as satisfied that he was doing his duty to the Enclave.

He thinks back to the mare he met and fell in love with after he made sergeant. How she begged him to get married and have a foal. He remembers how crushed she was when he told her that not only would he not, but that he could not be the father of her foals. She left him shortly after that. But as she left, she told him, “It is my duty as a healthy mare to have at least one or two foals and to raise them to protect the Enclave.”

Duty. Duty she said. It felt like a buck into his muzzle. But he did not stop her, in fact he told her, “If that is what you feel is your duty, then go, be nothing more than a womb for somepony else. But do not ever darken my sky again.”

He sits in the courtroom with that memory and hears the prosecutor ask him, “This was not your first time on such missions was it Lieutenant?”

He shakes his head to clear the memories and then replies, “No Sir, it was not. In fact, myself and my team have been working together for several years on just such missions.” He tells them.

“If this was a common type of mission then why did you fail to do your duty? What was so special that you, who swears that you know what duty is and always does it, failed this time?”

As he sits there, he thinks back to the day that got him to where he is now and what is going to happen to him next.

He was commanding a ten-pegasi squad on the mission. All of them veterans who he had worked with before. They were part of the elite of the Enclave military. They carried out missions down dirtside so that others did not need to get their hooves dirty.

The mission orders took them to the northern plains section of what was once Equestria, in a small village named Maredora. The Enclave had recently received reports of anti-Enclave elements as well as dashites living and operating out of this area. The team members were to go in, find them and eliminate the threats to the Enclave.

He and his squad had scouted this area for the past several weeks. The two previous nights he had his sergeant and corporal both go into the town to investigate and verify if they truly were supporting the Dashites. He is about to call off the mission and request a pickup, but he wants to make sure for himself that the village is clear.

The day before he is to perform the recon himself he is surprised when he sees a band of buffalo enter the village. He observes them from just off the edge of one of the many bluffs and mesas that surrounded the area. He is relieved when he sees the buffalo leave the village several hours later, after their trading has been finished.

Once he sees that they are leaving the area entirely he calls to the members of his team on the whisper mic of his power armor and tells them, “All team members hold your positions, once it is safe enough, I will go into the village and recon.”

He receives the normal round of “Roger,” from each of his troopers, then he hunkers down and waits.

He waits until it is dark, then he glides down to the edge of the village and begins to walk the streets of it. Looking into the closed shops he remains in the shadows. He passes the general store with its shuttered windows. The blacksmith shop with one door left partially open. The small church that while rundown shows evidence of use. The town sheriff's office is closed for the night and is empty, as usual from what he and his team have seen.

He sneaks into an old abandoned warehouse and all he sees are some boxes on some shelves. Toward the back away from the door, he sees a few of the boxes have been converted to living quarters. He listens to the conversations at a distance and hears nothing incriminating.

Finally he comes up to the town pub. He remains out of sight but listens to the conversations inside.

From inside he hears a mare’s voice, “Ya know Tender Hoof. One of these days we keep dealing with those buffalo, one of the other villages will cause us grief.”

“Ah, yah worry too much Half Pint, the last time any pony from Buckston tried to give us trouble we took care of them.” A stallion replied.

From the back room of the pub he hears a foal start to cry and the mare he assumes is Half Pint tells the others, “Ok every pony, I will be back in a bit, I need to feed my filly.”

He hears hoofsteps leave the main room of the pub and the others continue to talk.

“Ya know though she may be right,” another voice starts, “Those ponies in Buckston hate the buffalo and would do anything to get rid of them or those who help em.”

Then he hears the voice of the one he thinks is Tenderhoof say, “Yeah, but there ain’t many of them, what do you think they can do, sick the Enclave on us. It’s not like we can do anything to em. Besides it’s Buckton that had those Dashites visit them last season.”

The other stallion replies, “Yeah, I know, and Two Horns said that his herd had a run in with a couple of lone pegasi awhile back, so who knows. Maybe we should put a night watch again for a while. Ya know, just in case.”

“High Hoof, I think ya are worrying bout nothing. Aint no pegasi within a hundred miles by now.” Tender Hoof's voice answers back.

He is so entranced with their conversation he does not hear the door open from the back of the building. He then hears a mares voice call out from right next to him, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

By instinct he strikes her with the stinger on his power armor tail. It hits her in her throat, but not enough to keep her from screaming. As he looks at her, he notices she was carrying a foal who is on the ground screaming now. From inside the building he hears the shouts of the patrons yelling and hooves coming toward the door.

He begins to take flight and hears his sergeant call out over the radio, “The LT has been spotted, you know the procedure, let’s go.”

He knows what those orders mean. The death of the entire village. In horror he calls out to his ponies, “Cancel that order, I repeat cancel that order. Fall back to the recovery position.”

As he says this, he is about fifty feet in the air and he feels his suit seize up and falls to the ground. His suit is dead.

All he can do is watch as the rest of his squad goes about their work. He calls out over the radio, “For the love of the Goddesses they are innocent, there are mares and foals there. Don’t do this.” Right after this his radio goes dead and all he can do is watch his troopers as they massacre the entire village.

Once it is done his sergeant approaches him and his radio clicks back on. He hears the disdain in the sergeant voice as he is told, “Lieutenant. You are under arrest for failing in the execution of your duty by disobeying orders while in hostile country. This is considered an offense of treason against the Grand Pegasus Enclave.”

He screams back, “For what? We did not need to kill them, there were no Dashites here. They were innocent ponies, just trying to live.”

“Sir, that does not matter. You allowed them to see you. You refused to follow the orders as per standard operating doctrine. You Sir are a traitor.” His sergeant says coolly. Then he continues. “Your radio will no longer transmit, and power will only be returned to your suit to allow your return to base. If you attempt to deviate or escape, I will kill you sir. Do you Understand?”

Yes, he remembers his duty. But duty should include doing what is right, not just what is legal and ordered.

He jumps as he hears a gavel slap the bench, and he hears the Judge ask, “Do you understand?”

He shakes his head and looks at the judge and says, “Excuse me sir?”

The Judge then repeats himself, “Lieutenant Sunset, you have been convicted of failure to perform your duty, disobeying orders and Treason against the Grand Pegasus Enclave. You have done this through your haven giving illegal orders that countermanded set operating doctrine. For this you will be immediately dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces of the Grand Pegasi Enclave. You will then be branded with the mark of a traitor, known to some as Dashites. You will then be excommunicated from all Enclave territory. If you attempt to return or come into contact with other Enclave personnel you will be summarily executed. Do you understand?”

He nods his head, and looks over and sees one of the Guards has a red-hot branding Iron in his mouth, he turns slightly and sees another the same way. Finally, he says, “Let’s get this over with.”

Both Irons strike his flanks, right over his compass cutie marks. He screams in pain and both of his hind legs fail him as he collapses onto the floor. His vision goes first white, then black as the pain overcomes him and he passes out.

When he comes to, he is in the ready room of one of the scout platoons. He is told, “On your hooves traitor.”

As he is trying to stand, he is suddenly kicked and bitten by the members of the squad all of them yelling

“Move Traitor!”

“We should kill you!”

“Who do you think you are? You traitor.”

Eventually he is able to get to his hooves. His left eye is swollen shut. His right ear is burning in pain and he feels blood running down it along the side of his head and side. He is having a hard time breathing and he has extreme pain from several spots on one side.

He says nothing but puts his head down and tucks his tail under him as he slowly follows them to the departure station. Four troopers and a Captain in power armor escort him to the vertibuck. They shove him inside and climb in after him.

As he feels the vertibuck takeoff he watches the cloud city of Thunderhead recede below them along with everypony he knows including his family. He realizes he never even got to say goodbye to them. He then sees an opening in the clouds below them and scans the sky. As the aircraft dives for the opening he looks up and sees the sun in the sky. He watches it until they dip through the opening which closes right behind them.

They fly for what seems to be an hour, in silence except for the roar of the aircraft engines, below the cloud cover. They take him to the middle of nowhere, near a mountain with a forest several kilometers south of it. Finally, they land and he is thrown out of the vertibuck and onto the ground. They give him nothing. But before the door closes on the vertibuck he hears the voice of his former corporal as she yells to him, “Sorry Sunset, but we are only doing our duty and following orders.”

Then the door is slammed shut and the vertibuck quickly climbs and heads back towards the cloud deck within a few minutes it is no longer visible.

As he looks around, he sees nothing familiar. He begins to walk cautiously toward a ragged bunch of trees. Beyond which he sees what appears to be an abandoned village. He continues past the trees and as he gets close to the village, he sees a small group of ponies, all of them dirt bounds, approaching him.

When they are close enough a light green unicorn with a yellow mane and tail approaches him cautiously and tells him, “Stay calm, we are friends here, I am Trauma Care.”

Sunset is grateful but confused and asks, “Who are you ponies and why would you help me?”

The unicorn smiles and tells him We are just fellow wastelanders who are tired of the pain and suffering we see others go through and we feel it is our duty to help any others in the wastelands who need it. We only ask that you do the same someday also. Now let’s get those wounds treated.”

Sunset smiles at the unicorn and tells him, “Thank you so much. Don’t worry, I will repay ya for this by helping others too.”

Trauma Care smiles at this as he says, “That is all we ask. We cannot change the wastelands all at once, but we can make them better, slowly, one act at a time.”

After he is done treating him, Trauma Care tells Sunset, “Ok, most of your wounds are healed. I am sorry but I could not save most of your right ear. That and you will have a couple of scars. I am just happy I got to you before you punctured a lung from those broken ribs on your left side. But you should be alright. You are lucky they did not damage your wings.”

Sunset nods his head. He takes a deep breath and says, “Yeah I guess I was lucky. It is too bad though that most of those that did this to me were once my own troopers.”

He sees Trauma Care whence before he says, “I can only imagine how that had to be. I am sorry my friend.”

Sunset stays with them for almost a year after this. He becomes a part of the community and learns from them how to survive in the wastelands. In repayment he teaches them what he knows about the ways of the Enclave scouts.

One day after one of his talks with Trauma Care and the others he tells them. “I am sorry to say it, but I feel guilty about teaching you so many techniques that could get some of my former comrades killed.”

Trauma Care lays a hoof on his shoulder and tells him, “True, but you also taught us how to save lives, even those who try to take ours and for that we are very grateful. I had no idea about some of those advanced techniques you used for injured wings or even battlefield first aid.”

Sunset closes his eyes and tells them, “Trauma, I am also afraid that if word gets out that I am here, the Enclave may come after me and kill anypony in their way. Because of that I guess I feel the need to say goodbye.”

“Ok, my friend, we do understand. But please stay until morning at least.” Trauma Care asks him.

Sunset agrees and, in the morning, they give him a set of saddlebags. One of which is yellow and has three butterflies on it. He smirks when he sees it and tells them, “Thanks, but do you really think I am in the same ranks as those of the Ministry of Peace?”

Trauma Care and the others all smile at him and Trauma tells him, “Sunset, several of us are descended from members of that ministry. We help where we can. Please understand we consider you one of us and ask that you remember our duty to help others so that we can make this world better.”

Sunset chokes up a bit. Gives Trauma Care and several others a brief hug then tells them goodbye as he takes off and begins to find his way in the wastelands.

In a short time, he finds his first weapon. He takes an old bolt action rifle from below the body of a dead earth pony that was alone in the rocks. He still tries to help others, but he also never forgets they could just as easily kill him. He lives like this for another three years on his own.

Then one day he is flying low and below him he sees a pure black earth pony. The earth pony is carrying a shotgun and he also wears a pistol on his hip. But then Sunset also notices that he looks lost. Not just in the sense of direction, but also purpose. The other thing he notices is that this stranger is wandering toward the Shatterhoof Correctional Facility.

Sunset circles once to check the area one more time, then he approaches the pony cautiously. When he knows that the buck has seen him, but is taking no hostile action, he walks up to him and introduces himself. “Howdy stranger, my name is Sunset, you look like you could use a hoof.”

He sees the look of desperation on the stranger’s face as he slowly nods.

Sunset then tells him, “Friend, first off, you are heading the wrong way. That trail will lead you straight to Shatterhoof and the slavers there.”

He sees the stranger shake his head slowly and then hears him say, “Thank you. I guess I should go.”

Sunset can tell that this stranger has something going on so he asks him, “Anything I can do to help you?”

The stranger shakes his head again. Finally, Sunset asks him, “Well, I already told you my name, what is yours?”

The stranger looks surprised and tells him, “Trouble.”

At first Sunset is confused and then he realizes that is his name, but he jokes, “Common now, what is your name, I aint lookin for no trouble now.”

The other stallion finally realizes it is a joke and smiles slightly and tells Sunset, “Thank you, that is the first time I have laughed in a week. Actually, my full name is Trouble Water, but most just call me Trouble.”

Sunset can sense something inside this pony is very hurt so he asks, “What happened last week?”

Trouble is at first sullen and quiet, then tells him, “My, my wife and son. They were killed by raiders. Over by Ponyville.”

Sunset looks at him with compassion and asks, “How many were there?”

“Over one hundred of them. I heard one of them mention the Dragon.”

Sunset's eyes go wide with fear as he too has heard of the Dragon. Even as an Enclave scout the Dragon was known to be a dangerous opponent. He then says, “Trouble, we need to let others know he is there. Let’s say we head on over to New Appleloosa and let them know there.”

They are heading south for the second day toward New Appleloosa when Trouble sees something in the sky and points it out to Sunset and asks, “Hey Sunset, what is that thing there?”

Sunset looks and tells him, “They call them vertibucks Trouble, and the last time I saw one was when it dropped me off down here.”

Trouble then asks, “So what do you think they are doing down here then?”

Sunset smiles sadly and tells his friend, “The same thing we are Trouble. They are doing what they consider their duty, now let’s make sure they don’t see us, then get back on our way, we have a job to do.”

Trouble smiles at him and says, “Yep, I guess we all have our duty, but ya know you sound like my sister Tar when you mention it.” as they head into a thicket and watch the vertibuck flying low and at high speed. It lands in the distance and they see a lone pegasus be tossed out and left behind as the machine lifts off and returns the way it came.

Sunset looks at Trouble and nods his head, “Yep, and that duty can come at a cost. Let’s go see if we can help him and then we head on down the trail to New Appleloosa.”

Together they climb out of the bushes and go to help the injured and abandoned pegasi. To do their duty and try to make things a little better with one more small act at a time.

Author's Notes:

Topic Enclave written by Trooper

Enclave: Clouds by Salted Pingas

I’d lost track of how many times I’d checked my power armor’s integrated weapons, eyes sweeping across the readouts on my E.F.S. The high-capacity spark batteries were loaded, dump capacitors uncharged, and the manual safeties engaged. Condition three. It would take only a fraction of a second to get the capacitors charged, putting the weapons in condition one. From there, all I’d have to do was disengage the safeties and key a firing sequence.

I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Two power-armored pegasi waited stoically to either side of the door leading to the Cassiopeia’s bridge. I didn’t need my E.F.S. to display their IFF transponders as ‘Chief Air Sergeant Winter Weather’ and ‘Ensign Dewdrop Meadow’ to know who they were.

I stopped in front of them, looking into both goggled faces before speaking, “Ready?”

The two exchanged glances as best they could without being able to see each other’s faces. There was a nervousness in the way they stood, the curve of their backs and how their armored wings were held against their sides.

“If this goes south…” Meadow trailed off after she and Weather turned back to me.

“If this goes south, take me into custody and jump ship the first chance you get,” I answered without pause, “Don’t take brands for my sake.”

“Ready,” Weather’s baritone voice was uncertain.

“Ready,” Meadow gulped and recited a prayer under her breath. For all our sakes, I hoped her gods were listening.

I let out a steadying breath and glanced at my weapon status again. They were still in condition three.

The bridge opened up before us, a shallow V-shape of control seats facing the wide, virtual viewport. Displays created a digital picture of what lay in front of the Cassiopeia, fed by the numerous cameras mounted across the armored hull. Almost two weeks ago they’d have shown endless cloudscapes below. But now that the Lightbringer controlled the weather, it was the mottled brown and gray of the wasteland that took up the bottom portion of the screens.

Colonel Sand Dune stood in the raised commander’s dias centered and behind the control seats. He looked up from a coffee mug that proclaimed: “Skipper #1” as he was taking a quick sip. We approached him at a casual trot.

Out of my peripheral vision I could see that Meadow and Weather had already slid into a ‘combat-L’ to either side of me. Their bodies were perpendicular to each other and their muzzles facing Colonel Dune. If things went to hell, they both had perfect firing lines on him with no risk of catching each other in a crossfire. I wondered briefly if the Colonel had noticed; his casual smile told me no.

“Good morning, Captain Flier,” he greeted me after a satisfied “Ahh,” lowering the mug from his muzzle with a wing, “Roving the decks, I see. How is the security of my ship?”

“Good, sir, I have nothing to report,” I could say smartly, prompting him to give the order to “Carry on,” and I could leave the bridge and that would be the end of it. No need to risk my life or my career.

“What is our current destination, sir?” I asked instead.

I watched his lips start to form the words “Carry on,” but then freeze and drop briefly into a frown, “Oh,” he said, then his thin smile returned and he answered: “Cotton Valley.”

“And our mission, sir?” I prompted.

Colonel Dune’s frown returned again, remaining this time as he said: “To quell the civil uprising there, take back the city and restore order through any means necessary. Has your terminal been down? I should have thought you’d received my email.”

“And it is your intention to follow through with these orders to the letter?”

“I hope you’re not questioning my loyalty to our grand enclave, Captain…” he brought up his wing, taking a careful sip of his coffee. I could almost see him rewind the conversation in his head as he drank, evaluating every word, trying to figure out where this was going.

“Your loyalty isn’t in question, sir. But for the sake of clarity, is that a yes? You do intend to follow through with these orders?” It was too late to stop now.

Colonel Dune took another sip from his coffee, a calculative look behind his eyes.

“Yes, Captain,” he finally lowered the mug again, “But might I ask w—”

“Ensign, note the time,” Colonel Dune’s gaze chilled as I cut him off.

“Time is zero nine five four hours, sir,” Ensign Meadow said from beside me. Colonel Dune almost startled at her voice, turning slowly to her and then Chief Weather as if noticing them for the first time.

Now he saw the position he was in.

“XO, to the bridge!” Colonel Dune barked into a panel on his control dias, his mug clinking as he set it down. Some of the pegasi at the controls glanced back at the spectacle unfolding behind them, whispering to each other.

“Sir,” I started, lending authority to my voice and emboldened by the fact that I had crossed the point of no return, “You have just admitted that you intend to follow illegal orders and partake in an unjust war against our civilian population…”

“Get off my bridge!” Colonel Dune sneered at me, waving a dismissive hoof as I continued.

“...You have done so while of sound mind and judgement, deliberately and seriously…”

“You are relieved of your command, Captain!” He snarled, trying to talk over me.

“...Therefore, under G.P.E. code ten chapter forty-seven, sub-section nine dash two, it is my duty as the security officer of this vessel…”

“I will have you branded a dashite and thrown featherless from the clouds!” Colonel Dune roared. Behind me, the bridge door slid open and our executive officer: Lieutenant Colonel Wire Rack stumbled quickly inside, a rear-facing camera on my helmet displaying her alarmed expression on my E.F.S.

“...to relieve you of duty and take command of this vessel, the Raptor-class cloudship Cassiopeia...”

“Excuse me,” Lieutenant Colonel Rack skittered between Ensign Meadow and me, putting herself next to Colonel Dune as if that might do something. Tactically it was stupid, it put her right in our line of fire. A more sound move would have been to stay somewhere behind us, force us to shift formation to cover all threats. Colonel Dune didn’t seem to notice her, his livid gaze fixed solely on me, a vein throbbing in his scalp as if he were straining to will me out of existence with his mind.

“...until such a time as a proper and just authority can be assigned to replace me,” I finished, hot blood coursing through my ears as adrenaline pumped through my veins. The sensation of getting it all out was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time, any sense of doubt wiped clean from my mind.

Silence fell across the bridge.

“What’s happening?” Lieutenant Colonel Rack whispered to Dune, looking between him and me with alarm.

“XO, bear witness,” Dune intoned, “Captain Fleet Flier, you just signed your own dishonorable discharge papers. For gross insubordination against a superior officer of the Grand Pegasus Enclave you are officially relieved of duty!” he growled the last word, standing tall. He cast a look down his nose at Meadow and Weather, “Ensign, Chief. Please take Captain Fleet Flier into custody and lock him in the brig.”

Nopony moved, all eyes pointed at the spectacle taking place on the bridge. Even the crewponies at the bridge control stations had their eyes glued to us. If we had been hurtling towards the ground, nopony would have realized it till we had crashed.

I cued my radio, “Juxtaposition, over.”

There was a faint crackle in my ear bloom, then: “Roger. Out.”

The steady thrum of the Cassiopeia’s engines warbled into silence, the cloudship drifting to a slow hover and resting on its bed of clouds. I saw Meadow’s sides deflate in my peripherals and fought hard to contain a sharp sigh of my own. I had won, the ship belonged to me now.

“What was that!?” Dune scowled at the digital view screens, “What did you do!?” He scowled at me, “Helm!” He glared down at the central crewpony in the V-shape, the mare blinking back at him for a moment, “Helm!” I could almost hear his voice give out as he roared at her.

“A-aye, sir!” She jumped in her seat and scrambled to turn back to her controls, staring at them in confusion for a moment. Clarity came after a short pause and she worked her controls with forehooves and wings, “N-no...no response, sir! Engines are offline.”

“Engineering, respond!” Dune jabbed a pinion into a comms panel. “Engineering!”

“Engineering is with me, sir. Engines remain offline until I say otherwise,” I told him, “Ensign, Chief, take the Colonel into custody.”

“Now wait just a goddamn...” Dune wheeled about, knocking his mug to the deck where it shattered. He hardly noticed as the two power-armored ponies began advancing, “Don’t you dare lay your hooves on me you bastards, you filthy, misbred, dashite pieces of filth not fit to be the shit beneath the hooves of—”

Within the same second that Dune’s yellow dot on my E.F.S. turned red, I fired.

Almost faster than the neurons in my brain could process it, I armed my capacitor, disengaged the safety, and fired my left weapon. Twin darts sprouted from Dune’s frothing jowls and the capacitor discharged with a crackle of electricity. My former CO’s body went rigid, muscles standing tense beneath his hide, and then he toppled over, twitching but alive.

Chief Weather used his muscled mass to pull Dune out of the command dias and pin him to the deck as he came to. The darts of my taser tugged at Dune’s face as Weather pulled them free.

“I’ll have your hides!” Dune snarled as Chief Weather cuffed his left forehoof and wings together against his back, hobbling the livid pegasus, “I’ll peel off your cutie marks myself, you hear me!?” he spat at me, the wad of phlegm landing near my armored hooves, “Brand you with a hot iron!”

I ignored him as Weather pulled the now-hobbled Dune out of the bridge with Meadow in the lead. I turned to where Lieutenant Colonel Rack was cowering on the deck, “Ma’am, as the acting CO of this ship, I’d strongly advise that you stay in your quarters.”

For a moment I thought she might resist, try to take command herself and thwart me. Then I remembered who I was dealing with as I noted the dark stain that had formed in the seat of her trousers. The pants-pissing mare didn’t even bother with a response as she skittered back out of the bridge with a frightened nicker.

I let a large breath fill my lungs, then exhaled loudly.

It was done.

I cued my radio again, “Aurora cherries, over.”

Static danced into my ear again, “Roger, out.” The voice sounded as relieved as I was. I owed Captain Spot Weld and his entire engineering department a few beers for taking my side in this. I’d happily pay for it if we managed to survive what came next.

Focusing back on my current problems, I realized the bridge crew was staring at me with mixed looks of excitement and fear, if there was any resentment or spite it was well hidden. I’d have to watch who I put in positions of control, there were certain to be more enclave loyalists aboard.

I cleared my throat and the whole lot of them flinched, “If any of you wish to leave your stations, you should do so now.” At a few nervous glances, I added in a calm voice: “This is a shit situation the council has put us in. No punitive action will be taken, I promise you. If any of you are uncomfortable taking orders from me, I won’t force you to.”

“Sir…” I turned to the lanky weapons officer, Lieutenant Spectral Prism if memory served.

“Lieutenant?” I asked.

“Are you going to make me shoot civilians, sir?” Her tone was even and measured.

I shook my head, “No.”

Lieutenant Prism nodded and turned back to her station, the other crewponies exchanging glances and following suit.

“Comms,” I stepped up into the commander’s dias.

“Comms, sir,” the Air Sergeant at the communications controls answered.

“Keep our ears open and our mouth shut. Transponder off.”

“Comms copies, sir!” I could hear the grin in his voice as he tapped out a quick command. I saw the external communications and transponder buttons blink out on the command dias. I also started seeing our engines warming back up now that I’d given the all clear.

“Navigation, same to you: put us in EMCON, nav radars off.”

“Sir,” Navigation nodded and more lights on my dias winked out.

“Helm,” I turned to the mare.

“Helm coming back online, sir.”

“Take us bearing three two degrees, maintain altitude, cruising speed. Let’s put some distance between here and our last active transponder signal.”

“Bearing three two degrees, cruising speed, aye.” As engine power returned the digital viewport shifted and the deck rumbled as we began to accelerate on our new heading.

‘Council’s not going to like that,’ I mused, turning to the command dias and finding the switch for the 1MC. When I flicked it and cleared my throat, everyone onboard heard me do so.

“Good morning,” I started, “This is acting CO Captain Fleet Flier speaking. At approximately ten hundred hours I relieved Colonel Sand Dune of duty on the grounds of waging an unjust war against our civilian population.” I paused to let that sink in, thinking over my next words before speaking them, “He was following illegal orders given by the High Council itself, but we will not target defenseless civilians just because they want answers and accountability for the actions taken during the war.

“Henceforth, the Cassiopeia is declared a free vessel of the pegasus race. We will take no further orders from the council or the admiralty until it can be determined that those orders are lawfully given and in the best interest of our people. I can’t imagine that those still loyal to the old ways of the sky will take that lightly and once they discover our treachery they will come after us and they will try to take this cloudship back by force.

“I understand if many of you are uncomfortable with this and no actions will be taken against those not wishing to follow my orders. Should any of you choose to jump ship then you are free to do so and go in peace.

“But,” I bit out the word to make sure ponies were paying attention, “If any deliberate actions are taken that can be deemed detrimental to this ship or its crew, those responsible will be taken into custody and placed in the brig. Acting CO out.” I flicked the switch back off, looking up to see the bridge crew turn quickly back to their controls, smiles on most of their faces.

‘And that is that,’ I thought as I came to terms with what I’d just done.

Three hours later I was peering over charts at the commander’s dias, my power armor packed away in the armory. The bridge crew had all seemed to relax when I’d returned in my haze-gray working uniform, the unreadable goggles and bristling weapons of my power armor having put them on edge. I looked up when Navigation muttered something, then turned back towards me.

“Raptor Vitriolic has changed course, now on approach vector bearing one zero five, just about a hundred twenty nautical miles out,” he reported “She’s accelerated to three hundred knots, fast cruise.”

With a series of wing taps I had the digital charts on the commander’s dias focus back on us and then zoom out until the Vitriolic appeared off towards our starboard less than twenty nautical miles from the horizon. The only reason we could see the Vitriolic on the map was because it still had its transponder turned on, which meant the only reason they’d spotted us was a sharp-eyed crewpony on their scopes.

‘So much for finding a quiet little spot in the clouds to wait all this out…’ I mentally grumbled.

“Helm, maintain course and speed, but be ready to get us moving,” I ordered, the mare responding with an affirmative, “Comms, have they hailed us at all?” A glance at my dias told me we were still running silent.

“No, sir,” Comms shook his head, “If and when they do?”

“Remain silent,” I said and Comms nodded, “Sensors, what do they look like in IR? Their guns hot?”

“Hard to tell for sure at this range, sir,” the mare shook her head, eyes glued to a number of sharp screens, “But it looks like they’re cold.”

“Roger,” I nodded, “keep one of our cameras on them, if anything changes let me know. If they get within fifty nautical miles start saturating their missile hatches with lidar, I want to know if they open.”

“Sir,” the mare got a little tense at that, but everypony would be getting tense at the prospect of fighting another Raptor. The threat to our vessel aside, there were fellow pegasi aboard the Vitriolic, perhaps brothers and sisters.

“Still nothing on comms?” I asked when the Vitriolic got within fifty nautical miles of us. It would be hard for their missiles to miss at this range, our countermeasures losing effectiveness the closer the other vessel got.

“Nothing, sir,” Comms replied with unease, “Should I hail them?”

“Negative.” I turned, “Sensors?”

“Lidar’s coming back, sir,” the mare peered at the odd-looking image, “missile hatches are closed and infrared is showing their weapons are cold. They’re still in a non-threat posture.”

A chilling thought came to me, a report I’d read about the battle over Red Eye’s citadel. Maybe they didn’t need weapons to take us out of the sky.

“No sign of pink clouds coming out of it?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Comms tense and turn his volume knob way down.

“None, sir,” an edge of worry had squeezed its way into the mare’s voice.

“Wait, sir…” I turned back to Comms, watching as the pony squinted at the digital viewport, “Hey, Dew, can you magnify their bridge?”

“Sure,” the sensors mare replied, the viewport magnifying until the Vitriolic’s bridge filled a screen. Now that he’d drawn attention to it, I noticed a glimmer on what should have been a matte-gray, non-reflective surface.

“Sir, they’re...I think they’re hailing us with the old signaling mirror,” his lips moved silently for a moment as he watched the glimmer flashing out a pattern.

“Iron. Vanner. Ergot. Are they spelling out ivy? No,” he translated the flashing pattern into the phonetic alphabet, “Ostler. Luna. Iron. Vanner—”

“Olive?” I frowned for a second before the message clicked, “Comms, prep our signal mirror, message as follows…” I waited for his affirmative nod, a hoof pressed against the signal controls, “Bridle.” His hoof tapped the codes out as I spoke them, “Rodeo. Apple. Neigh. Colt. Hoof.”

The signal mirror on the Vitriolic winked out after a second. Maybe they really just wanted to talk.

Maybe it was a trick.

I tried to cue my power armor’s radio before remembering my power armor was in the armory. Instead, I had to find the right key on my dias.

“Ensign Meadow, Chief Weather, get a repelling and boarding party ready. Full loadout, but keep things calm, this is just a precaution, over.”

“Ensign Meadow copies. Out.” The mare’s uncertain voice crackled back.

“Weapons, arm cannons and one harpoon missile,” I turned back to the bridge.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Prism got out of her seat, turning to me with a cold look, “I’m not going to open fire on another Raptor.”

“What if they shoot first?” I countered and the mare’s look faltered, “I’m not ordering anyone to fire the first shot,” I assured her, letting my gaze move across every face on the bridge, “But I want to be ready if they decide to fight us. Are you willing to defend your life and the life of everypony onboard? If not, let me know now so I can get a replacement ready before things start kicking off.”

Lieutenant Prism’s cold look floundered, her face twisting through a series of thoughts and emotions. After a moment’s struggle, she sat back down at her controls.

“Arming cannons and one harpoon,” she stressed the word, “Turrets locked and missile hatches closed.”

“Load up a disabling firing sequence, prioritize cannons and missile hatches. If they twitch we’re going to make sure they can’t shoot us and get the hell out of dodge.” I paused a moment, and added: “Send the activation key to my station.”

Lieutenant Prism’s hunched shoulders relaxed a bit and she sent the key to my dias. Responsibility for attacking my fellow pegasi was now mine.

“Electronic Warfare, same for you. Prepare to burn out their sensors and blind any missiles they get off, send the key to me if you’d like.”

“Roger, sir.” The pony replied. I didn’t see another activation key, but our jamming suites went from red to yellow on my dias as they were armed, “Ready.”

“All right, then,” I said, watching the Vitriolic grow ever closer on our screens and chart, “Let’s see what they want to talk about.”

The Vitriolic pulled up beside us without incident, our vessels matching an easy fifty knots and pulling close enough to dock clouds together. Once parallel, both vessels increased their lateral cloud production until they touched, locking together on one large cloud. It provided both a stable platform to cart supplies back and forth and kept an errant updraft from knocking the ships into each other.

As I stood on the quarterdeck, watching the other Raptor disgorge a small team of power-armored pegasi and one in a working uniform, I regretted not being in my armor. My E.F.S. would tell me immediately if they were hostile, a targeting suite giving me the best way to cut them down if it came to that.

“Five yellow dots,” Ensign Meadow spoke up beside me, armed and armored.

“Thanks,” I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. The ponies from the Vitriolic were walking across our shared cloud cover, heads down in the fast winds, before reaching our covered gangway.

“You were getting jittery, sir,” I saw her flash a reassuring smile in my peripherals.

High altitude winds howled briefly as the door to the quarterdeck slid open and I tried not to tense up as the Vitriolic’s pegasi stepped on board. The four power armored pegasi fanned out, looking casually about the room with their mounted weapons pointed down. The fifth stood a head taller than me, though his face was lined with wrinkled skin and his mane was mostly an aged gray. He regarded me curiously for a moment before speaking.

“Colonel Oak Tenet, requesting permission to come aboard,” he raised a wing in casual salute.

“Permission granted, Colonel,” I returned the salute, “I’m Captain Fleet Flier, acting CO of the free cloudship Cassiopeia.”

“That sounds like an interesting story,” the Colonel prompted.

“Colonel Sand Dune, our commanding officer, received illegal orders from the high council to target civilians,” here was where things might get rough. But I had no doubt that Colonel Tenet’s power-armored troops could detect Chief Weather and the eight others he had with them as yellow dots waiting in the next room, “He intended to follow through with these orders while fully aware and cognizant of what he was doing. At about ten hundred local, I took him into custody and assumed command.”

“And now where is he?”

“The brig under guard.”

“Then you’re not pirates, thank goodness,” the Colonel chuckled and his troops visibly relaxed.

“No, sir,” I confirmed, wondering if I’d just dodged a massive plasma blast, “We are acting under the full pretenses of the law, but we are also not acting on nor accepting orders from the high council or the admiralty. We are a free ship of the pegasus race.”

“Hm,” Colonel Tenet gave a sage nod as if I hadn’t just admitted I was essentially a traitor, “And what do you intend to do with this free ship of yours?”

“I certainly don’t intend to participate in this illegal war against the pegasi. I will be taking my ship to safe harbor and keeping my ponies alive.”

“Then perhaps we can assist each other,” Colonel Tenet proposed, “I’m much too old to be a rebel, so I can’t help or harbor you, but I’ve a slight issue to contend with, if you’ll hear me out?”

I nodded.

“I’ve prisoners of war,” the Colonel said simply, “and prisoners not of war, in my brig. My orders are to execute them, the Enclave has no use for enemy mouths to feed with the farmland all but gone.”

“It’s an illegal order, just free them,” I countered, tossing a glance to his ship, “Join us, we could use more horsepower, the enclave is less likely to risk taking down two free Raptors.”

“I’m too old for rebellion,” Colonel Tenet repeated with a tired shake of his head, “I thought I might send them over to you for proper disposal instead.” Which, of course, meant: ‘let them go,’ “We’ve experienced some issues with our weapons and discovered that they’re unsafe to use even in executions.” His tone of voice told me it was bullshit, but bullshit that no one would be able to sniff out or prove to be false.

I resisted the urge to glance at Ensign Meadow or out the hall towards where Chief Weather was still waiting. This was my ship now and that meant this was my decision, I wasn’t going to force anyone else to share the blame.

“We’ll accept your prisoners, sir.” I nodded, earning a small smile, “And sir, would you mind if we left our quarterdecks open for some time before we depart? There may be some among my crew who need to jump ship and I’d appreciate them having someplace safe to go to.”

“I shall make it so,” Colonel Tenet nodded again, “Rest assured, they will be safe with me.”

“And sir, I’m certain the council won’t appreciate us taking one of their Raptors. If you’re ordered to fire on us in the future...”

“The Vitriolic’s and old rust-bucket of a Raptor,” Colonel Tenet assured me with a clever smile, “The only reason we’re flying now is on account that there’s too few Raptors left. I’m sure something will go wrong the second we try to fire our weapons at something that doesn’t warrant shooting, could be the propellers start acting up if we’re asked to chase you down, engines like to overheat and they take a good long while to cool off. Who knows?” The old buck smiled and winked, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. It faded instantly when I accepted an offered hoof to shake, replaced by a deadly calm that made me shrink back a bit, “But if someone fires on my ship I won’t hesitate to burn them to the ground.” His hoof gripped mine tightly until I nodded and his smile returned, “I’ll have the prisoners transferred over.” The Colonel issued me a smart salute and I returned it, “Best of luck to you, Captain.”

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as the Vitriolic’s large hangar door opened and the prisoners were marched across the clouds. While in hindsight it made sense, I hadn’t expected to see that more than half were griffons and the rest pegasi. They’d all been stripped and cuffed, but a pair of crates containing their belongings followed them into our hangar bay.

As promised, our vessels remained docked after the prisoner transfer, something I pointed out over the 1MC to any listening loyalists, before heading down to the hangar bay.

The prisoners were faced up against one bulkhead when I arrived, still cuffed and under the watchful gunsights of our power-armored security detail. If not for the current turn of events, I would have been the one in charge of keeping the prisoners secure. Now, Ensign Meadow was keeping a watchful eye on everyone.

“Sorting out their stuff,” Meadow gestured to the crates the Vitriolic’s ponies had brought over, “Just gonna pull batteries and bullets. We’re giving it all back?”

“We’re not pirates,” I answered.

“Good,” Meadow nodded, then grinned, “though I think you’d look good with an eyepatch, sir.”

I let out a quick snort of laughter and shook my head.

“Talons, by the look of it,” Meadow nodded her head towards the griffons, “Also, some dashites…” the way she said the word sounded strange, like she was only just beginning to understand its true meaning, “the rest all have cutie marks, no idea what’s up with them.”

“I’ll ask,” I said, and started over.

By the way their legs were shaking and the presence of cutie marks, I guessed the last four pegasi in the group were civilians. That, or they were on the verge of pissing themselves, perhaps a little of both.

The second to last of the four, an older and slightly rotund buck, spotted me as I approached. Bolstered by the fact I was in my working uniform and not armed to the teeth looking like a black bug of death, he managed to speak up.

“H-hey! Please, sir, we just want to go back to our home! Won’t you let us please just go!? I can pay you, please! No more cages, we were only on the ground for a little bit!”

“Relax,” I made a calming gesture with a wing, “We’re not going to hurt you. Just as soon as we sort out all the stuff over there,” I gestured to the crates, “We’ll send you on your way, okay?”

The portly buck nodded, but a voice to my left drew my eyes to the first dashite in the lineup, “I know bullshit when I smell it!” he scowled, sending a wad of spit towards the nearest armored guard, “That other bastard didn’t have the balls to put us all down, so now he’s pawned us off to you to do the dirty work. I bet you get off on that, don’t you, cloud-humper!?”

I scowled at the dashite, but didn’t engage, turning back to the portly buck, “How did you come to be prisoners aboard the Vitriolic?” When he looked at me funny, I added, “The other cloudship.”

“Our f-farm, well,” he made an explosive ‘fwoosh’ sound with his mouth in what was a very poor recreation of a sonic rainboom, “and so we went down to try and collect what we could of our fallen crop. Most of it was ruined,” he said with a sorrowful tone, the other three civilians hanging their heads as well, “We tried to come back up, but when we did soldiers took us into custody, said we were contaminated from below! We had to go under surveillance and drink lots of radaway, but my pee wasn’t even rainbow colored! We weren’t contaminated at all!”

“Yeah, numbnuts,” the dashite heckler turned his sneer to the portly buck, the four civilians scooting away at his harsh voice, “That’s because you’re a chump who’s been lied to his whole life! The enclave—”

“That’s enough out of you!” I growled at the heckler, directing his spite back at me.

“Bite me, you featherbrained hack!” His wing-cuffs rattled as he flipped me a rude gesture with one wing, “If I wasn’t in these cuffs—”

“Oh, ‘if you weren’t in those cuffs?’” I spat back over him, trotting over with a scowl. He steeled himself for a strike, but instead I took out a set of keys and undid his restraints. The dumbfounded look on his face told me the action had startled him more than any strike would have, “Is any of the stuff in those crates yours?”

“Yeah…” he said slowly, rubbing at one wing with a hoof.

“Then wait here until we check it all,” not wanting to have to repeat myself more than once, I stepped back to where none of the prisoners would have to strain to look at me, “Listen up! This is not an enclave vessel, we are a free ship of the pegasi! As soon as we clear all the weapons and any explosives, we’ll be returning your confiscated items and you’ll be free to go.”

“You’re not taking my ammo!” A large griffon growled back from the other end of the line.

“You can have it back once you’re off my ship,” I replied, “But until that time, no one but me is armed for your own safety.”

“‘For my own safety!’” The griffon parroted back at me with a laugh, “Sure!” The word dripped with sarcasm.

I ignored her and turned to the civilians, unlocking their restraints.

“Can I get you folks anything? Food? Water? Escort to the head...restrooms?”

“He’s always hungry,” the mare standing next to the portly buck said, though a nervous edge made the jest sound forced. I pegged her as the buck’s wife, then. The other two were younger and shared some characteristics, sons, maybe?

“I think we’re fine, thank you,” the portly buck rubbed the hoof that had been locked to his wings, an uncertainty to his voice, “But you said...you’re not with the enclave? Why wouldn’t you be with the enclave?”

I frowned, “How long have you been in custody? Since the day of sunshine and rainbows?” At his confused look, I added: “Wastelander’s term for the day your farm was destroyed.”

“About then, yes.”

It didn’t take long to fill the farmers in on the current situation above the ground. Civilians rising up against the leaders that had lied to them since their great-grandparents had been in diapers. Military forces being brought in to quell the uprising civilians through force. Even some of the griffons turned their ear holes towards me when I informed them of how I’d taken command of the Cassiopeia. By the time I’d finished, all the weapons had been made safe and my tense security detail was organizing and uncuffing the prisoners for them to take back their gear.

“Please!” The portly buck, now properly introduced as Cumin Seed, pleaded. “You have to take us there, to Cotton Valley! I have relatives that can help my family. We have to make sure they’re safe!”

“I can’t do that, sir,” I said with a sorry shake of my head, “by now, I’m sure the enclave has figured something went awry with the Cassiopeia. They’ll be sending more Raptors there to stop the uprising. I’m not here to start shooting at other pegasi, I need to keep my ponies safe. You’re free to stay on board as long as you like.”

Whatever pleading request Seed was about to make was halted as the large griffon spoke up again.

“I’ve got no problem shooting at pegasi,” she drew our attention to her as she strapped on a set of wolf-gray body armor from beside the crate. Ignoring the weary looks of my power-armored pegasi, she trotted over and the farmers took a collective step back, “Looks like Gwen’s Grayskulls are for hire once again thanks to this ugly buzzard,” she jerked a casual talon towards me, missing my indignant look, “I don’t run a charity; you mentioned paying him to take you aboard this smelly haybale of a sky ship, what’ve you got?”

“Well, we didn’t salvage a whole lot from the farm…” Seed rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he stared up at the griffon’s impassive stare, “We managed to salvage a good number of seeds—”

“Lemme stop you right there, love handles. This beak?” The griffon, who I could only assume was Gwen, jabbed an index talon towards her beak, “It ain’t made for eating seeds.”

Seed gulped.

Gwen turned to me, “Captain bird-breath.”

“Captain Flier,” I corrected her with an annoyed look.

“I can read your name tag,” Gwen retorted without missing a beat, “Are you an asshole or are you gonna pay me to take these poor, sweaty farmers to their home in the clouds?”

“I…” I started, floundering as I realized that as much as I hated to admit it, that wasn’t such a bad idea. I didn’t want to just send these farmers packing into the wild skies for any number of things to go wrong, and I also didn’t want to take them where they wanted to go. The griffon mercenary solved that problem.

“Yeah, I can see those tiny little gears turning up there,” Gwen grinned to herself, poking a talon at my head, “This turkey’s got a good idea, yeah?”

“Don’t suppose you take pegasus currency?” I allowed.

“Not even a billion buzzardbucks,” Gwen replied, continuing before I could point out that’s not what our currency was called, “I won’t lead you on, I know what I want,” then she turned and screeched out, “Buzzard!”

“Buzz, buzz!” One of the dashites called out, making me frown as he cantered over in barding with the same gray color scheme as the griffons, the same white skull design on the shoulder pads. The bits of his hide I could see were covered in scars that had been made with sharp talons, “Yo! You need a dick to suck, boss? It ain’t much, but I’ve got mine!”

“Choke on my taint and die,” Gwen countered, jabbing him lightly in the side.

“Every time you fly in front of me, boss,” Buzzard and Gwen both turned back to us outsiders, their strange ritual complete. I looked between the two of them, stopping on Gwen who shrugged at my unasked question about a non-griffon talon.

“Followed me home one day,” was the only explanation she gave, then got back to business, “like any good pet owner, I want to accessorize. Give him some of your fancy power armor and it’s a deal. We fly your farmers to wherever they want and cut down any suckers that get in our way.”

“No need for the fancy shooters,” Buzzard patted the empty machine guns attached to his battle saddle, “I like mine.”

The me that had woken up this morning started going over lists of inventory and trying to figure out how I could possibly justify turning over top-of-the-line power armor to a dashite. The ponies in supply would faint at the mere mention of it. It was unthinkable to give up valuable enclave assets!

But that part of me had died, I now realized, the second I’d taken command of this ship. We were a free vessel of the pegasi and right now, four pegasi needed our help.

I matched Gwen’s cocky grin, “Let me see if I have anything that comes in scrawny.”

The Vitriolic was the first to leave, flashing a quick farewell message that wouldn’t be detectable on the airwaves. They took off in an easterly direction. A quick muster from all of our divisions showed me that it’d taken on twenty-one loyalists from the Cassiopeia, including the XO. That left us with just over sixty crew left, plenty to keep us airborne with some minor changes to the schedules.

Tentatively, the non-talon dashites departed after that, dropping quickly away from the Cassiopeia as if staying any longer was hazardous to their health. The heckler from before flipped me another rude gesture before his dive.

It felt weird seeing Buzzard prancing around the hangar in his new power armor as Gwen talked with the farmers. The scarred dashite had taken it upon himself to paint the armor a haze gray with paint provided by our supply closets. At the very least it would make him stand out as not being one of our own...but ‘our own’ was a strange term now.

Less than eight hours ago I’d been the security officer aboard the enclave Raptor Cassiopeia but now I was the CO of the free pegasus ship Cassiopeia. I’d taken on prisoners of war that had been slated for execution and given them back their weapons and armor before sending them on their merry way.

Not weird, I suddenly realized.

It felt good.

“CO to the bridge, CO to the bridge,” it took my brain a second to process that the call that came over the 1MC meant me.

It took another to process the alarm in the voice.

The alarm was still there when the doors slid open, the bridge crew turning their uncertain gazes to me. Somewhere deep down I was happy to see that none of them had jumped ship.

“You missed it, sir, but I got a recording,” Comms told me, a hoof hovering over a ‘Play’ button until I nodded, “They’re talking about us, sir, the Cassiopeia,” he prompted and started the recording.

“...was destroyed today by a dashite uprising in the city of Cotton Valley. It is unknown at this time how the terrorists managed to—” the radio broadcaster stopped mid sentence as I motioned for Comms to pause the recording.

“They’re saying that we were destroyed!?” I asked, Comms nodded.

“It gets worse, sir,” he hit ‘Play’ again after I motioned for the recording to continue.

“...bring the Raptor down, or what the casualties are at this time, but it is believed that everypony on board went down fighting for our proud enclave…”

“They’re lying,” I mumbled as the recording kept going, waving off Comms’ silent offer to pause it again.

“...A travel ban remains in effect for Cotton Valley and more Raptors are being sent to quell the unrest. For those of you just now tuning in, we’d like to remind you that earlier today dashite terrorists took the town hall and hung the local governor after wiping out the local troop garrison to a pony. It is believed that the civilian population is now being subjugated and branded by the terrorists or taken below the clouds for reasons unknown…” I stopped listening as the broadcaster went on to reach out to the victims with all of her heart and so on and so forth.

“Sir, should I turn the transponder back on?” Comms asked, killing the recording when he realized I’d stopped listening, “Let them know we’re still alive?”

“What? No. No, they’re baiting us, or that’s part of it at least. They have no idea what happened to us except that our transponder went off. But someone, somewhere wants a narrative where dashites in Cotton Valley killed a Raptor and are pillaging the town...” But still, what did that get them? They hardly needed justification to send more Raptors in.

“But if we turn the transponder on, the narrative dies, right? People realize that it’s all bullshit!” It took me a moment to realize that the pony had tears welling in his eyes, fear shaking his voice.

“If we turn the transponder back on, they send a ship to come figure out what really happened with guns hot and missiles ready. What they find is a bunch of dashite mutineers. It’s too late now, they’ll just sew it into the narrative. Maybe the Cassiopeia was actually captured, or they could just say we mutineed after some lawful order.

“But why bother with the narrative? If they were lying about the Cassiopeia were they lying about the terrorists as well?” None of my questions had answers.

“Show him the other recording, Drum,” Lieutenant Prism said. When I looked about the room, the same look of fright was on everyone’s face.

Comms, or Air Sergeant Drum, nodded quietly, “We got this a little bit after…” something caught in his throat as he gestured at the recording, switching tapes, “It’s from the Vitriolic.”

“...is Vitriolic,” I heard Colonel Tenet’s steady voice, “Our encrypted comms are down for the moment, but we confirm new orders to rendezvous at Cotton Valley. Can you please confirm shattered hoof status? Over.”

The room went silent and I could feel everypony’s eyes on me. There was a pause in the recording, but background static told me that someone was talking to the Vitriolic on an encrypted line, a conversation we weren’t privy to.

“Roger that, read you Luna Colt.” I jumped when the Colonel’s voice returned, “Vitriolic confirms: shattered hoof.”

“Oh, fuck,” I realized. Shattered hoof was the code phrase for: all friendly forces destroyed, blast the targeted area into oblivion.

They’d needed a justification to burn the city out of the sky. That’s what the narrative was about.

And it was all possible because I’d killed our transponder and given the enclave the ammunition they’d needed.

“Helm, plot a course to Cotton Valley. Full speed ahead,” even as I said it, I was turning to the door.

“Cotton Valley, full speed ahead, aye,” Helm said, the deck shifting beneath me as we were brought up to full speed. The bridge doors slid shut behind me on her last word.

I galloped back down to the hangar, nearly colliding with Ensign Meadow as she was coming back up. A scowling Gwen was thankfully just behind her.

“Sir, what’s going on!?” Ensign Meadow exclaimed at the same time that Gwen growled, “We can’t get off your stinking sky ship at this speed!”

I took a moment to catch my breath as the two fixed me with different looks.

“New course set,” I told Ensign Meadow, then turned to Gwen, “How would you like a ride?”

“Some of you may be wondering what’s going on,” when I spoke, my voice carried through the corridors of the Cassiopeia, “We have received word that the enclave intends to burn the cloud city of Cotton Valley out of the sky.” I could imagine the effects that was having on everyone onboard. Indifference from Gwen, terror from the farmers, alarm and sorrow and confusion from my crew. I didn’t care to think what Sand Dune thought of it as he sat in the brig, “We’re going to do our best to get there before them and…” I hesitated and hated myself for it, “and do whatever it takes to stop that from happening.

“We will be evacuating the city. It will require a large amount of time and horsepower to do, but if we can let the enclave burn an empty city then we’ll have won.” ‘The enclave’ I spoke the words with bitterness now, “However, the enclave is sending in more Raptors and we may not have the time to evacuate Cotton Valley. If this is the case, we may need to hold out on our own and cover their retreat. If we can draw the Raptors away without having to fire then all the better. If not, we’ll be defending a civilian population against armed intruders.” It was a hard pill to swallow, but I did it all the same, “We will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening, and should it come to that I will assume full responsibility no matter what happens.

“My offer of leniency still stands for any who do not wish to partake in armed conflict against the enclave. When we reach Cotton Valley, I will hold none of you against your will. You may go in peace. Acting CO Captain Fleet Flier out.”

We overtook the Vitriolic that evening.

“They’re signaling something,” Air Sergeant Drum squinted at the flashing mirror on the viewscreen. The rest of us were listening to the open channel the vessel was broadcasting on.

“This is the Raptor Vitriolic,” Colonel Tenet’s calm voice said, as the Raptor slowed to a halt behind us, “Our encrypted line is still down and now we’re having trouble with our engines, we’re dead in the air and adrift. No vessels in sight to assist and minor leak in our cloud generators. Requesting Cotton Valley rendezvous be changed to our location, we could really use some help with these repairs, over.”

Silence filled the airwaves.

“Raptor Vitriolic copies. Thanks for the assist, you guys, see you when you get here. Out.” Everyone on the bridge breathed a sigh of relief, the old pony had bought us some time.

“Got their signal mirror message,” Air Sergeant Drum turned a grin to the rest of us, “‘Good luck.’”

The moon was rising when we arrived, engines overheating and cloud-generators sucking on vapor. The two other Raptors were set to rendezvous with the Vitriolic some time in the next few hours based on their transponder locations. I hoped Colonel Tenet could keep them busy long enough to evacuate the city.

Cotton Valley got its name from the cottony mass of clouds it was built atop of, cloud homes rising up from the bottom of a parabolic divot in the cloudscape. It looked a little worse for wear, but nothing like the anarchist nightmare the media hounds on the airwaves were making it out to be.

I finally allowed our external communications to come back online once we were close enough, the power output low enough that any broadcasts would be unintelligible outside of a few dozen nautical miles.

It took some convincing to get folks in the city to respond, disbelief that the Raptor they’d allegedly destroyed was the one hailing them. Things started to become clear after we were given landing permission at the small airbase and two ponies came out to meet me.

The first was Major Pollen, a short, squat buck who assured me none of his troops had been killed. Their complement of ten skytanks and bombing chariots plus fifty power-armored troopers were all doing quite well. They’d stood down pretty much the exact second they’d received orders to fire on civilians.

The second was a tall, airy mare named Mellowdew who assured me that she had just been an administrative clerk but was now the acting governor. The previous governor had most certainly not been dragged out into the streets and lynched (at least outside of a few effigies), she’d taken her own life in her office as the people ranted outside.

It cost me valuable hours of sitting down and reiterating what felt like the same point over and over again until it was driving me mad. But thankfully both ponies conceded to my evacuation plan in the end with one, simple condition: they needed a place to go.

I took a sip from my third cup of coffee that night (or was this my fourth?), trying to keep the liquid from sloshing up the sides of the mug on account of my jittery wings. Eventually I had to set the cup down next to Ensign Meadow’s on the old charts we had laid out. Chief Weather was hunched over his own mug, possibly asleep. I couldn’t blame him if he was.

We’d been poring over the charts for hours now, trying to find a suitable spot to move the denizens. Each had numerous dark circles where our mugs had been placed, picked up, and set down again in our search for someplace suitable. It didn’t help that the charts were probably decades out of date, if not centuries.

To make things worse, we now had a deadline; the Vitriolic was back underway with two other Raptors.

“They can all go to hell for all I’m starting to care,” Meadow grumbled crankily, pushing her coffee back and forth across the table. She stopped after a moment, bleary eyes showing shame with her helmet removed, “No, that’s an awful thing to say, I’m sorry.”

“I smell coffee,” I was too tired to be startled when Gwen marched into the small conference room like she was meant to be there. But I wasn’t too tired to scowl as she marched over and started pouring herself a cup. When she caught my look she didn’t stop pouring, “You said you’d feed us for the duration of the contract.”

“Haven’t you got Mr. Seed and his family back home already?” I grumbled back, too tired to care about the pilfered coffee.

“Wanted to drop a deuce in a real toilet before I headed back down to the wasteland,” the griffon shrugged, grabbing a talon-full of sweeteners and stuffing them into a pouch on her armor, “Normally I just follow my nose to find a toilet, but your vegetarian diets don’t really leave a scent trail to follow.”

“Ew,” Meadow didn’t bother turning around, her shoulders heaving with the weight of the word.

“That’s poop for you,” Gwen leaned against the coffee table, sipping from her mug and making a face, “Oh, geez, no wonder you buzzards tried to climb down from the sky; can’t brew a decent cup of coffee.”

“You have a wasteland coffee shop you recommend!?” I glowered at the griffon, “Because the ponies here won’t evacuate until we find them a new place to live!”

“Good one,” Gwen let out a snort of laughter, sipping at her cup and grimacing at the taste.

“How the hell is that funny!?” I snapped back.

The griffon gave me an odd look.

“Wait, wait, wait,” she held up an index talon, “the ponies here won’t evacuate because they want a new place to live? You’re serious right now?”

“I am not joking,” I growled out, hiding a yawn in another sip of coffee, “Do you know someplace where I can bring some six hundred pegasus refugees who’ve never set foot on solid ground before? Ponies down there are just as likely to shoot them as to enslave them or eat them.”

“You’re right, there isn’t anywhere below the clouds to take them…” she trailed off like that was supposed to mean something. When I didn’t catch it, she groaned and pulled out a chair, setting her mug on the table.

“Wake up, dickless!” Gwen announced, slapping Chief Weather on his armored back, “I think I’m about to blow your minds!”

“Bite me, turkey,” he growled, not moving from his hunched position.

“Not without some roasties and paprika,” she grinned savagely, looking at each of us in turn before turning back to me, “You’re thinking like a stupid pegasus that’s lived with the cloud cover all his life.”

“Oh, that’s the problem,” I grumbled, sipping my coffee.

“You’re stuck in your ways like a hard bowel movement,” Gwen said.

“Ew,” Ensign Meadow muttered again.

“Yep, poop, what an idea!” Gwen waved a pair of jazzy talons in front of herself.

“You’re just filled with crude...not alliteration, that’s not the word,” my thoughts went tumbling away from me.

“Metaphors,” Gwen answered, frowning around at our tired faces, “You ponies should really learn to catnap, been doing that all day and I feel great.”

“Are you going to get to a point any time soon?” I scrubbed my face, sitting upright in an effort to keep myself from falling asleep at the table.

“Move the city,” Gwen said.

“What?”

“Move. The. City,” she sounded the words out, “Take your big old fancy ship,” she tapped a talon on the table, “Take all your fancy wings,” she tugged at one of Chief Weather’s armored wings, which he angrily jerked back to his side, “And move the city. The answer’s been under you the entire day, your shit literally flies around on clouds! But you’ve been stuck in the mindset of a solid cloud cover for all your life, of thinking that the thing you walk on and screw on being something more than a big freakin’ cloud.

“I’ve got news for you: clouds move! If you’re afraid some big old mean pegasi are going to come by in some big old mean cloud ships and turn this place into vapor trails, then move the city somewhere else!”

It took me a second to get it.

Then I started to giggle.

And the giggle turned into a chuckle.

And the chuckle turned into a laugh.

There was no time to lose.

Colonel Oak Tenet frowned over his tea, soft breath cooling the scalding liquid as his old eyes watched the horizon. They should have been able to see it by now. After another minute of only scattered clouds as far as the eye could see, he opened a channel to his compatriots.

“This is the Vitriolic,” he started. He smiled as he could almost hear their collective groans, “our encryption is still acting up,” he said to anyone from here to the horizon with a ham radio and a pair of ears, “I hate to sound like a squabbling foal, but are we there yet? My charts seem to indicate the city should be very visible by now. Well within thirty NMI from here. Over.”

There was a long moment of silence and he wondered if the other two Raptors had decided that they were just going to ignore him from now on.

“This is the Serendipity on a secure channel, uhh, we’re seeing what you’re seeing. We should definitely see the city by now. Over.”

“Yeah, Screamin’ Firehawk here, we concur,” the accented voice paused, “What do y’all make of that? Over.”

As he watched the endless wisps of clouds too small to be the city, the corners of the Colonel’s wrinkly lips curled up in a sudden smile. He shook his head and hailed the other Raptors, “Well, colts, I don’t know about you, but it looks to me like our job here is done. The city has been reduced to ash and steam. I can handle the report, all vessels acted admirably in culling the dashite threat! Vitriolic out.” He clicked off the transmitter and laughed.

“What’s so funny, sir?” His XO inquired from his side.

“Clouds,” he grinned and took a sip of his tea.

Author's Notes:

Topic Enclave. By Salted Pingas

Enclave: A is for Away Down There in the Land of Traitors by Vic the Tricky Unicorn

"This is Angel one seven! We are going down in Stratusburg sector Alpha Tango seven niner! Mayday!"

Gone...

It was just... gone. Everything. Everypony... I've never seen so much fire in my life... Stratusburg's governing headquarters... it was there one minute, and gone the next... just consumed by the inferno, and-... Oh goddesses... I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched the entire structure collapse, right through the torn open cloud layer. The blast was so large, it even took down the vertibuck sent to try and contain the fire. A whole squad of pegasi... gone!

I sniffled, wiping my nose with a hoof as tears began to sting my eyes behind my visor. I couldn't move. I couldn't even breath, as the glow from the plummeting building slowly faded below the new crater in the cloudcover. So many ponies... my friends, my neighbors, my parents... Oh Celestia, mom and dad! They're all gone...

The mare... she seemed innocent enough. It'd only been a week since I stepped off my family's skywagon for my first ever assignment. I was at my post, with orders to check everypony's ID as they entered the HQ. That's when I saw her.

Oh, how am I going to explain this to everypony!? I couldn't help it, I had such a hard week! One embarrassing face plant in front of all the other recruits... and another in front of my superiors... within the first week, I had already earned the nickname 'Private Klutz!' I was just so tired and upset and... humiliated! I probably looked like a pitiful mess, because when she saw me standing guard, she asked if I was okay...

It... it meant a lot after the last few days.

I tried to say it wasn't a bother, but... I guess it was too obvious. I'll never forget what she said to me with that caring smile and silky voice as she tilted her head to let her pretty mane hang adorably over one side, "Well, that's just terrible! I don't think you're a klutz. Those ponies should be ashamed of themselves." And if that wasn't enough to warm my heart, she asked if we could talk more after my shift, maybe share a meal together in the mess hall! I felt like I made my first actual friend in the Enclave. She was so sweet and kind, and I was so excited that I-... I-I... I didn't think I'd need to ask for her identification... I managed to catch a glimpse at her flanks when she trotted by, elegantly swaying back and forth without a care in the world. She must not have realized her uniform had sagged a bit on one side...

Even then, I don't think I realized I'd just made the gravest mistake of my life, but my heart still sank to depths I didn't know possible, when I saw the brownish charred scars of a cloud and lightening bolt where her cutiemark should have been. I may have been fresh out of flight school, but I knew what that mark meant. I was about to chase after her, but... I second guessed myself. She didn't seem suspicious at all! She was sweet and conversational. And I... I didn't want to scare off the only friend I could possibly make here. Besides, it couldn't have been what I thought it was, right? Maybe... the light just made it look that way...

It only took a few minutes for it to happen. The shock wave actually blew me a good ten feet from the building. Celestia, if it wasn't for my power armor, she would have killed me too... She must have set it off in the boiler room, as one explosion set off another in a devastating chain reaction that sounded like a continuous clash of bone rattling thunder. I heard stories about Dashites, but... but THIS!? How could somepony have done that to so many innocent ponies!? Half the city worked in that building, and now... it's just gone!!! It was so loud... the screaming was so loud! And my parents... Oh goddesses, I was just talking to dad before my shift! Mom had told him to fix my armor. They had a meeting with our councilbuck, and before he left, dad... he hugged me and told me how proud he was. It was so embarrassing in front of all the other recruits, but now... I'd give anything to wrap my hooves around him right now... but, I... I'm never going to see him or mom again, am I? And it's all my fault... Celestia, what have I done?

"Sweep the area!"

I gasped sharply out of my daze as I heard the officer's stern voice shout through the thick fog of glowing ash, still floating above the clouds around us.

"I want all survivors brought to me for questioning!" He snarled.

Oh, I am SO dead... What the hay am I going to tell them!? I could just barely make out his handsome looking uniform and cap through the ash, occasionally covering his mouth with a wing as he coughed. He looked distraught, and lost in the smoke and ash, yet the intimidating pitch black fabric and silver trim of his uniform told me he was hellbent on holding whoever let this happen responsible.

"Report!" He coughed again, before scolding a group of power armored pegasi behind him. "I want a goddessdamned report! There was a mare on duty! I want her here like YESTERDAY!!!"

I winced, spreading my wings on sheer pegasus instinct as fright drenched my whole body. With a single flap, I was off my hooves, before several more zipped me behind a cloud big enough to hide behind. My ears perked as I heard their voices close in.

"Sir!" One of the soldier mares yelled. I peeked behind the cloud to see her just a few yards away, staring down the giant hole in the cloud cover. "What if she was killed in the blast!?"

The officer flew above with a look so fiery, he could have turned her to ash. "I said bring her to the barracks! I didn't say whether I want her alive or not! Somepony is going to pay for this!!!"

I watched them continue their search for me, until I swore one of their bug-like visors swiveled toward my hiding spot and looked right at me. I quickly ducked down, slapping a hoof over my mouth to quiet my breathing. But even that couldn't silence a petrified whimper from escaping my throat. I clenched my eyes and bit down on my hoof, praying that they didn't see me. Oh please, PLEASE tell me they didn't see me!

"Private Kluuuutz~" The soldiers began to tease as I heard their voices spread across the cloud layer. My heart beat like an off-tempo drum as I tucked my legs, wings and tail against my body and curled up in a pathetic ball. Okay, think Sky! Once they're spread out enough, I can escape!

Escape? Escape to where!? It's not like they'll just give up searching for me here. They'll start showing my face on the news from here to Thunderhead! I'll be a fugitive. A Dashite! Oh crap! I don't wanna be a Dashite! But what am I going to do!? The only other place to go, is-...

The sound made me squeak in undiluted horror. Something just hit my cloud... My eyes snapped open to see two pairs of red hooves standing in front of me. Oh goddesses, this is it! They found me and their gonna brand me! Every fiber from the tips of my hooves to my wing feathers anxiously trembled as my gaze traveled up the pony's dapperly dressed body. He was definitely a stallion... but he didn't seem to be military. He didn't wear any type of armor or uniform, but rather a black suit and tie which sported the silver E and wings of the Enclave government on his lapel. His yellow eyes nearly glowed in the night, while his short and styled dark blue mane flapped against the smoky wind current. And his smirk... He was SMIRKING!!! Time felt as if it had disappeared as he stared down at me, remaining silent and almost... charming... It made me feel sick.

His smirk suddenly turned into a sneer. I was so paralyzed with panic that I hardly acknowledged that he'd actually spoken to me as he grabbed my hoof with his own and pulled me up with an aggressive yank. My lips finally quivered in response. "W-what?"

He rolled his eyes with a demeaning laugh. "You got feathers in your ears, darlin'? I said you better start flyin' or I reckon you'll make this too easy..." He gave my chest a hard push before pressing his forehoof to his ear. "Target spotted in sector 17..." My nerves were so shocked, it took me a moment to realize he was talking into an earpiece, and another to realize that this... was sector 17. I must have still looked like a frozen stuffed pigeon, because he looked back at me with his face nearly aghast. "You still here, feather brain? FLY!!!"

I took a step back, spreading my wings as if to follow his baffling order, but hesitated to commit. Tears began to fill my eyes again. I had so many questions, but my voice felt as if it were stuck in my chest. "W-where?" Was all my flat lungs were able to squeak.

The mysterious pegasus scoffed as he grabbed the back of my mane through my helmet, making me wince, as he pulled me in his suggested direction. "Where do you think?!"

My eyes widened to horrified saucers as I followed his forehoof to the giant crater. "Down... there!?" I was in disbelief. "N-no... I can't just-..."

I was suddenly cut off by the stallion throwing me further towards the daunting exit. A one way ticket to the surface. I tripped over my hooves and face planted, as several more thuds landed on the cloud behind us. I nervously raised my head to see the officer and soldiers from before, galloping passed him to aim their magical energy battlesaddles at me. "Just who do you think you are, recruit?!" The officer jeered. "You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!"

The red pegasus suddenly laughed. "Well what are you waiting for, Captain?" His wing put a cigarette between his smug lips. "Brand that traitor already."

...t-t-traitor?!

My heart stopped as every fiber of my being seemed to snap into place. The turmoil of emotions were suddenly replaced by one focus. One choice... Fly... or die. I twisted back to my hooves and leapt into the air.

"OPEN FIRE!!!" Was the last thing I heard through the vortex of adrenaline pulsing through my head. The wind beat unforgivingly against my visor, my mane and tail flapping in my wake, as I dove through the crater. I thrashed my wings relentlessly as they pushed me at a speed I didn't know possible until now. I couldn't even see where I was going. I had no direction or strategy but to just fly down. I didn't care if I slammed into the ground and broke my neck... I just had to keep flying down! I felt cold and empty... believing I wouldn't even notice if I were hit. That naïve belief shattered around me with the rest of reality as I felt the electric burn of crystalized energy strike the back of my head. And just like that, the whole world turned black as I fell into its dark abyss...

"Ow! Owowowowow!!!" I stirred awake to the base of my left wing twitching from a painful crunch. Agh! I hate wing cramps! Must have tweaked it in my sleep during my... My nightmare... I tried to stretch my wing, but all that did was elicit an agonizing holler as its joint was struck with more pain. "M-mom? Ow! My wing is cramping up again!" I cried out, while making an excruciating effort to fold the appendage back to my side. Yeah... I'm NOT flying anywhere anytime soon. I better take today off. Hope Captain Short Fuse doesn't mind too badly...

I gave a defeated groan at that thought. Who am I kidding? With a name like Short Fuse...

I waited for Mom to coming rushing in with her tender voice to ask if I was okay... or Dad to make some embarrassing comment about preening to make me feel awkward... but, when nopony answered my cry, I opened my eyes to see...

"Gyaaaah! AAHH!" I was greeted by a uniform... a captain by the look of the two silver bars on her handsome looking black uniform with its silver trim and matching cap. I instantly tried jumping out of bed, but... wait... Why am I on the floor? I shook that thought away as soon as it came, instead focusing on snapping to attention. But... for some reason, my armor was harder to move... Oh Celestia, did I fall asleep in my armor? Ugh! Doesn't matter Sky Bliss! Just salute the Captain before you get punished even worse! Probably fell asleep on duty again, you klutz! "Private Klu-... Grrr! Sky Bliss reporting... ma-am?" I gave a confused blink when I realized... she wasn't standing.

She... Oh Celestia, she's dead! My heart sank with grief as I stared wide eyed at her cold and lifeless body. O-oh crap! W-what's going on? This... this is morbid! She was laying down against a bunch of rocks with her neck... It... it looked like it had snapped at a rather excruciating angle.

It was so terrible, it-...wait... ROCKS?!

I looked around, only to realize that I was no longer on the fluffy cloud layer of Stratusburg... Just rocks, dirt, and... Oh goddesses... OH GODESSES!!! Everything from the HQ's destruction to me falling from the clouds, came rushing back to my memory. I shuddered as more glowing embers and toxic smoke clouded my senses. I coughed into my forehoof and fanned the smoke away with my right wing, while my left remained useless and crippled against my side.

Where the hay am I?

I decided to trot forward to get my bearings... or at least I tried to. It became harder and harder to move with every step. I chalked it up to my own exhaustion at first, but when a red warning flashed in front of my HUD, I knew it was something... bad.

POWER LEVEL CRITICAL!

That... can't be good. My power core must have taken damage when they shot me. And my wing... I must have landed on it pretty bad when I fell. Oh, why do rocks have to be so... hard?! It doesn't only hurt when you crash into them, but... jeez, the ground feels so uncomfortable under my hooves. Nothing compared to the soft clean cloudcover. And who would have thought that dirt would be so... dirty! I groaned in both disgust and pain as I trotted further through the smoke. I had no idea where I'd landed, but I got a pretty good hint when my forehoof suddenly reached out to a terrifying emptiness.

"W-woah!" I wobbled forward, nearly losing my balance before backtrotting away from the edge of... whatever part of Equestria I apparently landed in. Because that's exactly what it looked like as the smoke cleared enough for me to peer out at the horizon. The sun was completely covered by our cloudcover, so I couldn't tell whether it was dusk or dawn. I last remembered it being night, but... who knows how long I've been out. I was undoubtedly on the surface, but... everything was still up high as I looked down on Equestria below me, complete with charred fields, dead grass and ruined buildings that poked above the horizon like jagged teeth.

Was I... on a mountain?

I looked up to see the hole in the cloudcover still there. I must have drifted for miles before I finally hit the ground. Directly below it was what looked like some kind of run down shack village, set ablaze by... Oh goddesses, that's the Stratusburg HQ! It looks like it's still partly intact! Maybe my parents are still alive! I spread my wings, ecstatic to fly down there and search for them, when...

"Ow! Damnit!" Right... broken wing... really hurts... NOT flying... I'm gonna have to get to that village another way. They could be hurt, or... worse! But, there's no way I'll be able to make it down this... mountain with my power armor locking up. And with no way to repair it, I'm gonna have to leave it behind sooner or later.

I coughed again as I turned towards the source of the smoke, prompting me to gasp as shock hit me like an angry storm cloud. "Angel one seven..." I said with a gloomy whisper as I came across the burning vertibuck wreckage. Several bodies of armored pegasi laid around the debris, and... just like the officer, they were all dead. These pegasi, however, appeared to have met a much more gruesome end then their captain. By the look of how their power armor had all been fried to a crisp, if the impact didn't kill them, then I had no doubt that the fires did. I despairingly slapped a hoof to my mouth as I saw that one of the soldier's helmets had been knocked from her head, allowing her hallow eye-sockets to forever stare at the pony who helped cause her death. Me...

I... I think I'm gonna be sick...

I tried to backtrot away, but my armor had nearly locked from the lack of power, and I ended up falling on my haunches. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but my armor wouldn't even allow me that. "I'm... I'm sorry." I whimpered, "I didn't mean to! I-I was just-... I'm so... so sorry..."

I'm not sure how long I sat there... but, in all the time I was there, I found it impossible to tear my eyes away from the carnage, or stop apologizing to ponies who had long since lost the ability to hear me do so. The thought of even being partly responsible for this... it made my stomach twist and my chest ache. I could have sat there until I starved, but something inside me, a familiar voice, demanded that I suck up my blubbering. I found the little pony inspiring, as she always had been when I was a foal, and with another shuddering sigh, I slowly began taking off my armor before it locked me in completely. I peeled the leg plating away first. After that, I was able to move much easier, moving to my flanks and chest plate. I had to be careful with my back so to not injure my wing anymore that it already was. But, when my hooves began lifting my helmet off...

"OW! What the..? Why did that hurt?" The back of my neck felt as if something molten had welded my hide to my helmet. I quickly trotted over to the front of the vertibuck, seeing that the right windshield was still intact. Thank Celestia for small favors, I guess... After getting as close as I could to the glass... Well... the reflection it showed me was NOT what I was expecting.

I gave a mournful gasp as I saw the awful result of getting shot by a beam rifle. My once longer and styled mane would usually stick out the top of my helmet and droop over the side of my face. Now... the lavender and magenta hairs were singed beyond repair. The blast was direct to the back of my head, and nearly butchered everything exposed from it. I sniffled, tears once again welling in my eyes. The once pretty and cute and... rather unsoldierly style, was a bit embarrassing compared to the cooler and butch manes of the more hardened troopers... but mom had worked so hard on getting it nice... and now it's completely destroyed! With a painful scream, I pulled my helmet off, taking a patch of my neck with it as I cringed from both pain and the natural light stinging my pink irises. I tried to ignore the blood dripping down my ghostly purple coat, no doubt leaving a permanent scar behind, as I got a better look at the damage.

My once long sweeping forelock that hung down passed my shoulders was gone, replaced by short and uneven spikey bangs that couldn't even hang passed my eyes. The back of my mane was even worse, singed and messy. I used my hooves to try and style it as best I could, but the only form I could get it in was a somewhat organized chaos, with... More spikes?! At least I had a little bit of mane left to hang off my neck, but... Celestia, I look like-...

I paused, blinking at my reflection in disbelief.

I look like my sister... I sniffled, trying to ignore the tight feeling of grief in my chest. Sky Vapor... well... Let's just say I felt I had big horseshoes to fill after we got her devastating telegram. She was one of the most talented fliers in all of Stratusburg. Probably could have became a Wonderbolt if she wanted to. Meanwhile, I barely passed the flight exam. I was an... amateur flier at best. Which was a huge disappointment to my drill sergeant. Apparently, Sky Vapor's portrait is hanging up in the hall of fame somewhere with one of Stratusburg's fastest flight course records. Yet, when I finished the course, I was rewarded with, 'You're a fucking embarrassment to the Enclave, cadet!' Even her cutiemark set the bar pretty high after shooting through all the clouds around us so fast, she turned them to vapor! It was awesome! I, meanwhile, got mine after hugging a cloud. One cloud. Nothing special or magic about it. Just a big, soft, fluffy and -in my defense- incredibly-comfy-to-hug cloud.

I instinctively looked back at the heart and cloud on my flanks, conflicted in both embarrassment for it being so girly and relief that it hadn't been branded off... yet. Unsoldierly was one thing, but now that I'm down here... in the wasteland... I'm probably about the weakest looking thing out here... And without my armor, I'd get torn apart by... who knows whatever is watching me.

I was ready to start another round of mournful sobs, when a strange sound suddenly caught my ears. I knitted my brow as I tried to make out what it was. It took my senses to recover a bit before I recognized the tinny ambiance of pianos, guitars, and drums echoing around the mountainside. It was... music. Not the usual patriotic orchestra music of Enclave radio, but... actual songs.

I wasn't exactly in the mood for music, but my ears betrayed me anyway and unconsciously perked, forcing me to listen to the final beats of the song. The melancholy tune just made me want to cry some more... but the little Sky Vapor pony in my head told me to cheer up. It was hard, but... I managed to hold back anymore tears for the remainder of the song. I looked to where it was coming from, but the source only drew my gaze back to the dead captain. Even in death, the officer was still intimidating. She was the only pony spared from the fire...

I guess she'd flown through the left windshield on impact and broken her neck. I solemnly trotted back over to her, only to follow her eternal empty stare, still longing for a radio just feet from her outstretched forehoof. The same radio she was screaming into when the vertibuck went down. The song finally began to fade behind the radio's speakers, only to be replaced by...

"Good morning, wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3! With today's musical wake-up call. Now, if you're a consistent listener, you might be expecting the news BEFORE I move onto the weather. Well, get ready for a slight change of pace my little ponies, because if you live South of the Smoky Mountains, you might have noticed some pretty strange rain drops falling from the sky recently. And when I say 'strange' and 'rain drops' I really mean one entire building just dropped out of the clouds! And that's not all. I've been gettin' reports that the structure not only fell, but was consumed in flames all the way till it landed on the village below. What the HAY are our 'friends' up above doin' up there?! Your guess is as good as mine. Keep it tuned here for updates."

My jaw hit the dirt as I stood there, so staggered by his words that my knees felt weak. A radio station. In the wasteland. Not only exists, but just broadcasted to all of Equestria about our HQ! That... that's gotta be a security breach! There could be all sorts of classified information in that building! I listened, waiting to hear anything else, but apparently it was all the news of the hour, as another song started back up. I was so frustrated that the last remaining strands of my former mane style sprung out to join the rest. "That's it?!" I scoffed, "It wasn't us! It was a Dashite! From the surface! And he didn't even mention the attack! And this is definitely NOT Enclave permitted music. I couldn't even count how many regulations this broadcast broke! We can't let him-..!"

I looked about, only to remind myself that I was the only pony listening... and, all but a Dashite myself.

"I... can't let him..?" I rolled my eyes with a defeated laugh. Yeah right... This 'DJ Pon3' wouldn't be threatened by somepony like me... Even if I did have my armor. There's nothing intimidating about a mare nearly fresh out of flight school. He'd be crazy to think I have any kind of authority to-...

All other thoughts suddenly stopped in their tracks as an innocent -yet uncontrollable- idea formed in my head. Before I knew it, my gaze had pivoted to look at the officer. Or, more specifically, her uniform. I admit... I was curious. But... Oh, come on, Sky! You can't be seriously thinking it can..! I-I mean, it's not like it would actually... make me look...

Hmmm...

I gave my reflection a skeptical look as I fit my ears through the slits in officer's cap, giving the silver E and wings in its center a quick polish, before looking over the rest of the uniform in the windshield. I saw myself give an anxious sigh as I did so.

I don't know about this... I look so...

I pivoted in place to get a side view of the sleek black uniform, all buttoned up to hug my chest. Even though the sleeves sagged down to my hooves due to the mare being just a bit taller than me, it still looked... impressive.

I blinked a bit in surprise. It seemed every second I stared at the mare in the reflection... she looked less and less like... me. Sure, my colors were the same, not to mention my cutiemark. But, the way my mane now stuck out behind the cap, and my bangs just barely covered my eyes, it was hard to even recognize myself. I gave a curious tilt of my head as I kicked the dirt in thought. I wonder just how different I can make myself look...

I trotted back over to the now bare-coated officer, and looked through her saddlebags. After rummaging through them, I found some dangerous encouragement for my curiosity. After all was said and done, I'd found a plasma pistol, a tobacco pipe, and a makeup bag, which I proceeded to apply to my face, giving myself a darker eyeshadow and thicker lashes to match how the officer wore it. The mare in the reflection looked even more different. So much so, that... I could hardly believe she was actually me.

Even with my new chaotic mane, the cap actually made it look natural, and -with the help of the makeup- kinda pretty. While the pistol and dashing uniform gave me an impressive shade of seriousness. And the Pipe... well, I put that back where I found it. I looked a bit silly with it, and even my curiosity knew its own limits. But, something was still missing... I still looked... nervous. I needed to look confident and serious. After a few failed attempts, I finally saw the same stern glare of Captain Short Fuse, except now, on my-own reflection. For the first time in my life, I looked... intimidating. "W-wow..."

My ears suddenly perked as I heard DJ Pon3's voice return to the radio. "Ah. That was Sweetie Belle with another one of her timeless classics. And here's me; DJ Pon3, with the news."

"W-who do you think you are?" I winced at my own voice. I still sounded... timid. Okay, c'mon Sky Bliss! Time to show this pony that you're NOT just some air-headed filly! All those years of trying to act tomboyish aren't gonna go to waste now! No more screw-ups! Think tough! This time, my voice came out raspier than ever before as I grated it against the back of my throat. "Just who do you think you are, jackass!?" I couldn't help but giggle after I said it like that, though I had to catch myself and try to regain composure. Captains do NOT giggle! I gave a quick sigh of preparation as I tried to remember all the times my superiors had scolded me, and with a tilt of my head and a crack of my neck, I let all my pent up frustration, from 'Private Klutz' to 'DJ Pon3', connect with vocabulary I would otherwise never dare to use as a recruit. "You treacherous, scum! You're in a whole heap uh'trouble!"

DJ Pon3, however, was unphased, still continuing his broadcast through the radio. No new updates on my HQ, I noted. Just something about bigotry against... ghouls?

"What the hay is a ghoul?" I was genuinely curious as I found myself listening the rest of his PSA, only to shake my head with a scoff. "Focus, damnit!" This time, I approached the radio with an angry glower. "DJ Pon3... You've committed crimes against the Grand Pegasus Enclave." I paused to give him a chance to respond. At this point, I had completely tuned out what he was actually saying, although... I could have sworn I heard him talk back to me.

"What was that?!" I snarled. DJ Pon3 stayed silent. "What did you say to me, huh?! How DARE you deny it?! I should kick your freakin' ass!" DJ Pon3 snickered before satirically claiming he had no idea what I was talking about. I gave him a look. "Oh? A wise guy, huh? We'll see how smart you feel with my hoof up your ass. Dickhead!" He seemed stunned by my response and began to apologize. His sudden change of attitude made me laugh. "You know, what? I want you to run..." He gave me a confused look and asked me to repeat. "You've got feathers in your ears, buck-o?! I said run!" He took a step back as my right wingtip curled down and pulled the plasma pistol from my holster with threatening intent. "I'll give you a chance to run for your life, little pony. Get going, run!" He struggled to comprehend what was happening. He tried begging for mercy, but knew I wouldn't give it. He finally took the opportunity as he spun on his hooves and galloped away as fast he could. I closed one eye as I looked down the sights.

Well DJ Pon3... or whoever you are... The only thing ponies will remember you by is the after-action report we show the recruits...

I pulled my wingtip against the trigger, and... PEW!

I clenched my eyes and winced as I felt the recoil throw my whole body off balance. My lungs betrayed me after years of teaching myself to act tomboyish and hardened... only for an all too sissy squeak to escape my throat. Whatever audience of spectators I imagined suddenly came to life around me, the charred ponies from the crash waking up, only to gasp in shock as the plasma bolt missed its target...

"Nice shot, CAPTAIN Klutz!" A stallion behind me teased... igniting the powder keg of loud crushing laughter that erupted from all the other pegasi. I insecurely tucked my tail between my legs, completely humiliated. I suddenly felt like I was back in flight school. I wanted to burry my head in the clouds and cry... but I had no clouds...

I bit down on my lip to keep it from quivering, and with a determined curse of my breath, I tried again. Another miss, and another, and another, until... "Son of a mule... Hold still you little-..!"

Finally, I hit my target... if just barely. The crystalized acidic plasma tunneled through the corner of the radio, and began to melt the brown metal frame into the tubes and wiring beneath, making whatever news DJ Pon3 was reporting to the wasteland die into utter nonsense, only for another song to sputter and gurgle its way through the mesh speakers... almost as if the stallion were still mocking me with his stupid music.

PEW!

I shot it again, this time straight through the center. The radio finally peeled apart into molten metal and goo, at last silencing it forever. DJ Pon3 was gone. Worse still, he had never been here to begin with. Nor the other pegasi, save for the same dead ones from the crash. Their laughter had died quicker than a stir in the wind...

I cautiously searched for anything else of use... specifically food. I was so hungry, I could eat a-...

I hesitantly glanced at one of the 'well-done' ponies beside me.

Okay, I'm not that hungry. I hardly believed I'd find anything here that wasn't ruined to ashes, but a box of MREs survived the flames... even though their packaging didn't necessarily survive the crash. But, after concluding that squashed MREs are unequivocally better than starving to death -or resorting to cannibalism-, I tore open the package with my teeth, and chowed down on the dehydrated cloud-grown produce. Hopefully it wouldn't wreak too much havoc on my intestines until I find something more suitable. I adorned the captain's saddlebags and pocketed the rest of the MREs inside. I was in the process of keeping the contents from coming back up my throat, when I spotted something unique sticking out of a pile of embers in the dirt. It looked like some kind of metal stick... or maybe a pole, it's colors contrasting with that of the vertibuck. The end looked scorched by the glowing coals, while the handle looked safe enough to touch, so -failing to check my impulse- I reached out and wrapped my forehoof around it. I was about to pull, when something suddenly stirred in the dirt behind me... followed by a soft feminine gasp.

My first thought was that it was a survivor from the crash who must have gone out to scout ahead, before returning to find me wearing their dead officer's uniform.

Damnit, Sky! Why didn't you think this through?!

I was so startled, I could have jumped out of the captain's uniform... I almost wish that's what I had done, as my legs bounced my rump so high that I lost my balance and fell on my face, thankfully finding a nice patch of hard gravel instead of scolding hot embers. That's it, Sky! Keep looking on the bright side... I recovered as quick as it happened, grabbing back hold of the strange pole and yanking it free of its burning pit. I went so far as to take a defensive stance with it in my forehooves, which in retrospect, probably wouldn't have done horseapples to stop whatever projectile weapons she likely had. However, it frightened the mare all the same... in fact, maybe even more so than what any gun could have, as she stared at me, frozen and terrified beyond belief. It took me a moment to realize what I'd done to spook her, as my gaze lowered to the sizzling orange glow of the infamous cloud and lightening bolt that made up the other end of the pole.

She eyed the brand for a while longer, obviously uncertain about my next move as she gave a nervous gulp. However, with a puff of her chest and a salute of her forehoof, she showed a valiant effort to suck in her fear... valiant, but not quite successful. "Misty Breeze, reporting for duty, ma'am!" She announced clear as day, as she strained her otherwise soft-spoken voice to sound more determined.

My eyes blinked in confusion as I watched her salute... me?! I looked around, half expecting another officer to be standing behind me, before finally realizing the only pony here who even looked remotely like an officer was... me. I hesitantly let one hoof go of the Dashite brand before saluting her back.

She returned her hoof to the ground, and everything became quiet. We stared at each other for the longest time... well, at least she was looking straight at attention, while I just stared at her in awkward silence. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to be scared to death of her reporting me to the Enclave or relieved to see another living pegasus. I was just about to accept the possibility that I might never see one ever again. Though, maybe I should have been so lucky... Yet, she didn't seem to look or even act very... Enclave-y.

She was Enclave, I could at least tell that by her black coveralls and beam pistol strapped to her leg. But, no armor, barely any weapons... no aggressive nature to her rather delicate looking frame. Her coat was a soft pale creamy-grey, while her emerald swirled white mane was left long and rolled over her shoulders in waves. She had to have been no older than a recruit herself, and looked... rather cute for a mare. Déjà vu suddenly struck me like a clash of thunder. I was so caught in my daze, that I hadn't noticed her lips moving.

I flushed before clearing my throat. I tried to speak, but... I was too stunned to form a coherent response.

Her timid look suddenly tilted in concern as she pointed at my side. "Y-your wing, ma'am. It... doesn't look good. Is it broken?"

I didn't need to look down at it to know how 'good' it looked. I'd long since given up on testing my tolerance for my injured wing. As it turns out, tolerance for pain, I severely lacked. I continued to stare awkwardly at the mare in silence. I was honestly at a loss for words. She had no idea who I really was or what I did. And there's no way in Tartarus that I can tell her... I don't care how timid she looks. She's Enclave and I'm... I-I'm a Dashite... Even if she didn't pull her beam pistol on me, it'd be unlikely a single pegasus mare would be down here all alone. There could be a whole platoon waiting for her. Besides, I'm already in enough trouble as it is, I don't need impersonating an officer as a topping on treason.

I gave a hesitant nod, trying my best to appear determined, while my heart frantically thumped in my chest. She gave a soft smile in return and began to trot toward me. However, I’m guessing my nod was either too hesitant or the Dashite brand in my hooves held too much of a paranoid kind of sway to it, as she gave a cautious backtrot. "I uh... I can take a look at it. Your wing, I mean. I-I'm a field medic..." She reassured me with hopeful smile. It would soon evaporate after seeing my doubtful glare.

"Field medic?"

She nervously licked dried lips before nodding. "MmHmm..."

I looked her uniform up and down with a raised eyebrow. "What's your tag?"

She bit her lip as if to think about it for a moment. “Misty L. Breeze, serial number 192-01-2125...” I had to say, I was impressed... I at least stutter once or twice when reciting my serial number, but she got through it without a hitch... of course, the timid pinch in her throat almost made her sound unsure of herself. She must have noticed my skeptical look, as she looked down at her hooves to avoid it. "...We were enroute from Neighvarro, when our wagon-..."

"We?" I asked.

She nodded. "My platoon... we were supposed to make contact with a detachment from Stratusburg. But our skywagons came under heavy fire. We don't know what hit us, but we had to make an emergency landing on the mountainside... the other wagon... they weren't so lucky..." She said in a shaky voice. "We watched them land at the foot of the mountain... They survived the crash, but... there were creatures there. Big creatures! And they-..." She clenched her eyes shut with a shiver. "...there was just ten of us after that..."

By now I had set the Dashite brand down in the dirt as I listened to her story. That had at least helped put her at ease. "Did you... have any friends in the..?"

She gave a solemn nod.

"Sorry..." I replied.

She wiped her nose with a hoof and sniffled. "Thanks..." She looked at the vertibuck crash behind me, giving a quiet gasp as she saw the bodies around it. "O-oh... Oh gosh! I... I didn't know that you-... I didn't mean to be insensitive to your squad, ma'am!"

Huh? What is she-... OH! Right...

"Ahem... It's... It's okay, Misty... It sounds like you've been through a lot... and I appreciate your concern." She gave me back a small smile, but still seemed a bit guilty for unloading her baggage onto me. I didn't mind... to be honest, my heart kind of ached for the poor mare. I gave her my best comforting smile as I draped my one good wing over her shoulder. "I'm Captain Sky Bliss."

"Aaaand... there." Misty said, as she finished adjusting the sling. "How's it feel?"

I grimaced, giving it a little test as I tried to move the stem of my wing. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that I had dislocated it. And after several excruciating minutes of screaming into my hoof while she snapped it back into place, she decided it best to constrict it in a sling to prevent anymore pain... She might as well have been a medical goddess compared to what I know about medicine, but 'prevent' certainly felt like a strong word. Even an hour later, after following her further down the mountainside, I could still feel my wing throb in a painful chorus with my heartbeat. "You uh... wouldn't happen to have any painkillers..?"

I regretted asking that after seeing her hopeful smile ruthlessly crushed under my words. "No good, huh?" She sighed, "Sorry, ma'am. I'm still getting used to the field... To be honest, I've never had to put my training to use before now."

I winced as I felt a little Sky Vapor pony smack me aside the head, insisting that I cheer her up. I was way ahead of that. I was seconds away from wrapping my forelegs around her and pulling her into a tight hug... However, there were a few problems I noted before doing that. First of all, that might have been too sympathetic for a Captain... and second, I was reminded of how embarrassed I felt when Dad hugged me while in uniform. So, out of concern for blowing my cover in hypocritical fashion, I kept my hooves to myself, and instead gave the cute pegasus a soft smile. "Hey, I'm not saying you didn't do a good job. You'll get the hang of it. Besides, once you get back to the clouds, you'll probably be the most experienced field medic in your class."

She blushed... Holy Flash Magnus, I actually made her blush. I've never made another mare blush before! Not like that anyway... She gave a ghost of a smile before looking a bit perplexed as she thought on what I'd said. "You really think you'll be able to get us back to the clouds?"

I paused. Did I say I could do that? I replayed the words of encouragement I put together in my head. Okay, so I didn't explicitly say that, but I certainly suggested it, didn't I? Damnit, Sky, you featherhead! Even if I could somehow contact Neighvarro, they'd need a video feed to confirm my identity... and the identity that'd pop up would probably doom me, Misty, and the rest of her platoon for associating with a de-facto Dashite. Maybe if I could convince them to fly home...

I glanced to the sky, trying to find the hole that I fell through in the cloudcover, but when I looked to where I swore I'd seen it last, nothing was there... or more like, something was there to plug it up. I may have dismissed it as the mountain fog just being too thick to see the sky through, but the fresh batch of greyish-orange clouds were clear as the blue sky above them... Stratusburg must be working overtime to have filled that so fast. Aaaand... trip. Goddessdamn you, stupid rocks! I stumbled so hard I fell on top of Misty Breeze, nearly knocking both of us over.

Way to go, klutz... The little Sky Vapor quickly corrected me with, 'Captain Klutz'.

"Sorry!" We both stammered in chorus, before awkwardly turning away to hide each other's embarrassment. Luckily nopony else was around to see that. We quickly recovered with a mutual silence and understanding that... we probably should forget that ever happened. I grumbled under my breath as I heard the voice of my older sister again, this time teasing me with, 'Sky Bliss and Misty Breeze, sittin' in a tree...'.

NOT FUNNY, Vape...

Well, the awkward moment helped change the subject of me helping her... for the time being, at least. If she's taking me to meet her platoon, they're going to be expecting at least something from me. It was time to put my brain in overtime as the silhouette of a crashed skywagon transport came into view through a thick fog along the path.

My ears perked as I caught the sound of music in the wind again... this time, however, it was the familiar parade music permitted by all Enclave stations. Well, it's good to know we could still catch the frequency all the way down here. They must not have the right receiver though, or else they would have been able to radio for help.

Before I could bask in the sound of pegasus patriotism, a mare suddenly cried out from the distance. "You see anything out there, Thunder?" Even muffled from under the skywagon, I could still hear her smooth voice practically drip of rural Neighvarro.

I heard a stallion sigh a few paces to her right. "I'm gettin' sick of answering that question, Bell..." He warned, tiredly. I couldn't quite see them through the fog, but the mare sounded as if she were tinkering with something, due to the occasional sparks lighting up her silhouette, while the stallion sounded like he was on the edge of the mountain. "Damnit, Corsair!" He suddenly scolded, "Give the poor buck some space..."

A sniffle came to my ears as another mare quietly sobbed under the tinny assortment of drums and horns from the radio. "I... I ain't leavin' him, Thunder!" She said with a shaky voice. "H-he wouldn't leave, me!"

"C'mon 'Sair, he's dead." Thunder paused, only for her heartbreaking sobs to continue. "HE'S DEAD!" His roar was enough to make Misty and I stiffen in our tracks, abruptly silencing both the crying and the tinkering from the other two mares. "Just... just leave him alone." He finally said, giving a mournful sigh himself as he returned to his former task.

"O-oh no..." Misty's heart sounded as if it had sunk as she quickened her trot towards the three ponies.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT, THUNDER!" Bell raged from under the skywagon, her once smooth voice now loud and direct.

I was finally able to match the voices to the ponies, as the fog grew thinner between us. I presumed the chestnut stallion near the edge of the mountain was Thunder. He laid on his belly as he peered out into the mist of the wasteland through the scope of a long beam rifle, his ashy white and golden streaked mane cut short into a mohawk. The usual shine that I would expect from the sleek black power armor he wore was replaced by scratches, dents and dried-up mud... not all of it, I assume, from the crash. I could picture him roll his eyes behind his bug-like visor at the mare's outburst. "Ain't you fixed it yet?"

Bell scoffed, "Ah'm gettin' sick of answerin' that questio-... Oh, goddessdamn you!" Her silky blonde and pink tail angrily swished between her orange legs. It, as well as her wing feathers, suddenly jolted outwards, as the skywagon gave her an electrical shock, eliciting a feminine squeak to echo around the mountainside, only to be followed by a blitzkrieg of angry sailor phrases. She punched the underside of the wagon with her hoof, before muttering 'it's your fault we're here', over and over again, each time in a different colorful way.

"There's more where he came from..." Thunder replied, making a navy-blue mare with a blasted-back arctic mane to stand up in outrage.

"What did you just say, sergeant?" Corsair hissed, rubbing her teary eyes with her wings before pinning the stallion with a fiery glare. If the two were to fight, they just might have been an even match for each other, as the mare wore the same sleek black and scorpion-tailed power armor as Thunder, only she sported a battlesaddle of mid-ranged beam rifles, while the ladder appeared to be a sniper. She wore her visor up, allowing her lovely face and beautiful deep blue eyes to burn holes of purebred rage through the stallion's head. "He was our FRIEND, Thunder! You take it back!"

"If you would have flown us away from the fire, we wouldn't be in this mess..." Bell continued her begrudged mumblings, prompting Thunder to kick her legs in retaliation. "OW! Goddessdamnit! What you do that for?! I'm tryin' to fix this!!!" She crawled out from under the wagon to stand in front of him, her long blonde and pink mane drooping over a pair of goggles she wore over her eyes. She was smaller than the others, so she had to look up to meet Thunder's gaze. If it wasn't for the grease stains covering her orange coat and ragged coveralls, she'd actually be drop-dead gorgeous. They all began arguing, occasionally pushing each other with their hooves, Thunder going back and forth between Bell and Corsair, before they all descended into a chaotic physical struggle of grappling, punches and headlocks.

"TEN-HUT!!!"

They all froze in mid-fight, locking their tangled limbs in place, as they turned their attention to the young field medic, standing with her chest proudly puffed out. The three seemed to weigh the order a moment, looking from pony to pony in confusion before finally untangling themselves. "Where the hay have you been, Mist?" Bell asked, as she lifted her goggles above her eyes with a wingtip.

Misty looked a bit crushed by that as she sagged her shoulders. "Wha-..? I said, ten-hut!"

Thunder gave a skeptical glance at his comrades before tilting his head at Misty with a condescending smirk. "Aaaand... what're you sayin' 'ten-hut', fooooooooor-..?" His patronizing question trailed off as he caught my approach behind her. It only took a second for all three of them to finally stiffen at Misty's order, snapping to attention, eyes wide and jaws agape, before saluting in a perfect line of stunned statues. I had to keep myself from looking smug. The irony of three ponies, who otherwise would be patronizing me as a recruit, -not to mention as a Dashite- now saluting me as an officer, was pretty hilarious. Before I could relish in the moment however, there was an abrubt stir within the crashed skywagon.

When the vehicle's door opened, I suddenly felt like a timid filly again, as the black and silver uniform stepped into the murky light. He was a yellow stallion, not as burly as Thunder, but where he lacked in that, he made up for in class and style. His gold mane was combed into a pompadour as he brushed it back with a hoof. He tilted his head down and put his cap on, covering his eyes with the shadow of its bill as he left only his muzzle to express his otherwise cold emotions. I could tell he wasn't just staring at me... he was staring right through my uniform. Through my eyes. Even through my very soul with only an icy sneer to pivot his pencil thin mustache on one side. He seemed amused by my presence as he trotted forward. I just stood there in a cold sweat, hoping nopony could hear my heart beat as loud as I could.

The other three ponies didn't dare flinch, but the officer's entrance pulled Misty's attention away from me, and towards a bloody mound of blankets between the two, with a grey hoof sticking out from underneath. It was the same spot that Corsair had been crying over not a moment before. "Is... is that..?" Misty's voice whimpered, "Oh goddesses, Comet's hurt guys!" And just like that, she broke her own call for discipline to gallop over to the mutilated stallion.

The officer suddenly spread his wings and galloped between Misty and her comrade, hooking them around the sobbing mare to stop her. "He's dead, Breeze." He said in a quiet classy voice.

"N-no!" She cried, struggling to get passed him. "I-I can still-..."

"Lock it down!" He growled, pushing her back in front of him before nodding towards me. "It looks like we have an important visitor. You will show restraint."

She sniffled into her wing, before giving a gloomy nod. "Y-yes, sir..."

They both trotted back into line in front of me. The officer gave me another skeptical look. I suddenly felt self-conscious about my uniform as he eyed the extra length of my sleeves. My heart stopped. Oh crap! Does he know?! Has the Enclave REALLY never made a measurement error before? Oh, c'mon! It could happen, couldn't it?! Just when I was about to start thinking of the different ways I could plead for mercy, the officer himself finally straightened his smirk and slowly raised his wing to his bill. "Lieutenant Yonder Wild, reporting ma'am." I gave a mental sigh of relief, before saluting him back. Thank Celestia... "I apologize for my platoon's... under-preparedness. Been a rough pack'uh days." He suddenly puffed out his chest and shouted, "Platoon! SOUND OFF!!!"

Starting with Thunder, each pegasus shouted their name one-by-one down the line. "Sgt. Thunder Bolt!", "Sgt. Corair!", "Cpl. Bell Rotor!", "Private Misty Breeze!"

Alright... Equestria calling tougher Sky Bliss! Your time to shine. "At ease." I said with the gruffest voice I could manage. "I'm Captain Sky Bliss..." I paused to think, before adding, "...17th Stratusburg Verti-assault squadron."

"So... that Vertibuck we saw went down wasn't our rescue?" Corsair asked. "Do they even know we're down here?!"

I shook my head with a sorry sigh... and lied my flanks off. "My mission was to extract any survivors from a terror attack at the Stratusburg HQ. The explosion took us down. My crew didn't make it..." I arched my brow as I took in the five ponies in front of me. "I thought there were 10 of you. Where's the rest of your platoon?"

The five looked at each other with a nod, before all agreeing in unison, "Deserted." Yonder gave a nod to the dead stallion behind him and sighed, "Four... after we sent Breeze to investigate your vertibuck... one came back and killed poor Comet Chaser..." They all hung their heads, ranging from sorrow, to regret, to anger.

"How long have you ponies been down here?" I asked.

"About five days ma'am..." Bell said, before drearily adding, "Haven't eaten in three..."

"We had reports of a town to the south, but we didn't want to move in case a rescue team came to extract us." Yonder explained.

That's when it hit me. That's how I'm gonna get to the HQ! I cleared my throat before I got too giddy and put the mask of authority back on. "My mission is in that town... and seeing as you ponies are also in need of rescue, I'm making you a part of my mission. If I'm right to believe you're radio is broken, then the only way we can get an extraction for all of us, is if we get to that town, deal with the locals and help the survivors." If there's any survivors. I... don't know if I'll be able to go back to Stratusburg, but... it's the best chance I've got if I want to find my parents... or, frankly, survive. I raised my eyebrow as I turned to Bell Rotor. "Can you fix your skywagon?"

"You mean the lost cause I've been workin' on?" She sighed, "Yeah, why not..?"

"Good..." I nodded, before looking back over to Yonder. "Now, about your... deserter problem..." I met his smug gaze, still seeming to drill right through to my soul. I hated looking into his eyes... It was like I could see my own knowing deception reflected right back at me. He doesn't know! He couldn't... just keep on talking, Bliss! My heart settled with relief when he finally took his eyes off of me, and widened in surprise at what I pulled out from under my wing. I swear, I saw every pegasus before me shiver at the sight of it. Them, and every other pegasus, both friends and foes of the Enclave, knew the cloud and lightning bolt brand all too well. An hour or so ago, I would have feared it the most out of all these ponies... so... why did I have the cockiest smirk in the history of pegasi on my face? It was REALLY cocky... it was so cocky, it made Yonder swap expressions with the one I had when he was looking at me... Now it was his, Misty's, and every other Enclave pony's turn to be intimidated my gaze. Even Sky vapor winced...

"It appears... I have the solution to that... right here~" I purred, as I dropped the Dashite brand in front of them. "Welcome to Detachment Bliss... Your new orders are to accompany me to town, and bring every Dashite you see to me... alive. UNDERSTOOD?!" I gave one of my most gravely shouts ever, prompting each and every pony, including a weary looking Yonder and Misty, to snap to attention.

"YES MA'AM!!!"

Author's Notes:

Theme Enclave by Vic the Tricky Unicorn

Enclave: Grandpa by SabreTheRedMane

On a small colored photo a mare was smiling. She was standing on a cloud as a photographer took the shot. Her light blue mane and tail caught in the moment of being ravaged by a savage high altitude wind.

Major Galewind held the photo with his wingtip, looking at it with deep longing. He smiled as well, and thought that the frame is an excellent allegory for their passion towards each other. His other wing lifted the glass of orange juice spiked with apple whiskey and the major took a generous sip out of it.

"She's going to the hinterland, MJR?" asked a pegasus mare in front of him, lifting her head up from a plate full of grilled fish.

"Yeah. We decided it's for the better since she is pregnant." Galewind answered to his wingmare, lieutenant Puff Cloud, "She's got a transfer to Quiet Valley. Will go on a MoA sky wagon." He reached with his wing and hid the photo into the pocket. The crude chair creaked under his weight.

They were sitting in the officer's mess hall. Although "hall" was probabl too pretentious of a name for a large battered canvas tent standing besides the airfield. Here combat flight personnel was meant to relax between the missions and try to forget about the fact that each of them could become their last. Galewind personally would prefer a cloud, but his squadron was a part of a ground support unit. Only the air superiority wings got deployed above.

"I still can't believe MoM stalled civilian evacuation." Puff Cloud frowned.

"They still allow regular traffic, given that a passengers have a return tickets. They don't want panic." Galewind said with a slight emphasis and shrugged. Puff Cloud got the hint and shut up. The major sighed, thankfully, MoM couldn't record bare thoughts into a memory orb... Yet.

It was bad enough when another one (or several) of pegasi didn't show up at the table after the combat sortie, but he got used to it since his early days in the Royal Air Force. But the need to be wary of his own compatriots and constantly watch what he was saying proved to be equally as bad. Galewind hated it. He was old enough to remember the country before the War. The cheerfulness and happiness. Songs and friendships. Kindness and camaraderie. The bright colorful world.

He had enlisted to protect the colors around him. War has drained most of them, making everything either gray or khaki. But he believed, that as long as there will be ponies, there would be chance for the colors to bloom anew. For that reason he hardly ever went on any rants about POGs. He felt some misplaced irrational joy at a thought that there are still ponies not yet contaminated with the violence and killing.

Galewind lit a cigarette and looked around. Other pegasi were quiet, munching on their high calorie rations or gulped the juice. Spiked drinks helped them to shake off the edge without getting too drowsy. Flight technicians, as per custom, had a large surplus of whiskey and spirit. They traded part of it with eagerness, in exchange for some flight-grade rations. Galewind didn't believe in MoM's recreational drugs in a slightest. Of course he's been obtaining "moral boosters" at the intendant, with a signed acknowledgement even. But then he just dumped them on squadron medic (completely according to the regulations, by the way).

The medic, his old friend, proceeded to write the whole load off after a determinate period of time. So far RAF managed to oppose most of the MoM effort. Thanks to their patron saint, Rainbow Dash, and the natural stubbornness of pegasi, which could rival that of the earth ponies and donkeys.

Tent flaps flew apart and a young liaison officer barged into the mess hall. "Major, sir! Colonel wants you at the HQ! She said it's urgent!"

Galewind rose from the table, making a gesture with his wing, telling others to sit and continue eating. Himself, he headed to the Ground Control tent to receive what he believed would be a combat task.

Wing commander, colonel Cirrus Mist, returned his salute and gave him a pad that he took from her mouth. "There are reports on suspicious enemy activity in the sector J-20." She said. "Ground command thinks Zebras could attempt a breakthrough."

Galewind looked closer at the pad, examining the markers on the map. "They ask us to determine what exactly is going on." Colonel continued. "I want your squadron to take this mission. Any questions?"

"If I may, ma'am. Must we fly out immediately? During the day?"

"I'm afraid so. It's urgent. Your squadron is one of the best, I believe you can complete this in a perfect manner."

She didn't say "squadron with the lowest casualty rate", superstitious as much as everypony who have been on the front line long enough. Galewind gave a sharp salute.
"Roger that, ma'am! Glory to Equestria!"

"Glory to Equestria, major!"

Clad in their black power armor with large scorpion-like stingersthey looked like something straight out of a nightmare. The squadron flew in a wide formation, high in the azure skies. Below them the ground zipped past, looking like a canvas from the perspective of their altitude. Galewind cast a glance at his retinal tactical display and frowned.

"Gold Leader here. Twelve-'o seconds till the alleged enemy perimeter. Be ready."

All of the ten tactical marks of his ponies, half a squadron, blinked green, acknowledging his words. They didn’t need a full twenty pegasi for a recon, so he had picked volunteers.

"Foxtrot-9. Possible fresh arty emplacements, concealed." Puff Cloud reported.

"Roger. Snap it."

Everypony of them were equipped with flight cameras, to make the results of their reconnaissance more evident. Galewind looked at the abandoned railway in another sector. Half the road was in the enemy hooves but thank Goddesses it was rather far away from the city. The railway was a secondary branch, going to a small cargo depot, long since abandoned and blown up. And currently something was awfully off about it.

"Huh?" He adjusted zoom of his helmet's visor, concentrated on the rails and frowned. Yep, they were repaired recently. And nobody had reported that so far. "Echo-8. Abandoned railway, recently renovated by the enemy-"

He wanted to say more, but the zoomed in picture brought to his attention something even more frightening. The rails were vibrating in a steady rhythm. It wasn't just repaired, was in use right now! "Gold Seventeen, come in!"

"Golf Sierra here, sir!" an airpony answered. This pegasus was in the higher echelon of their formation.

"Do you observe any trains approaching Echo-8?"

"Afraid not, sir. Not for at least 50 miles from us." But the train moving so far wouldn't cause that kind of vibration anyway.

"Gold Two, cover me!"

"Aye aye, sir!" Puff Cloud complied.

Galewind did a half-roll and swooped down. Other pegasi regrouped in anticipation of an unknown threat. At 1000 meters from the ground air suddenly got adorned with a black clouds of flak shell detonations. Galewind executed an evasive maneuver, followed by Puff Cloud, but not quick enough as he felt a crescendo of schrapnel impacts on his armor.

His airponies looked in shock at a formerly empty railway below. The air above the rails shimmered and waded away like a heated celluloid film, and revealing a large angular locomotive plowing forward. By the slight rippling of the hot air around it's wide exhaust, instead of smoke, Galewind concluded it's most likely running on some kind of liquid fuel.

The locomotive pulled a whole train of armoured cars. Some of them clearly equipped for anti-air defense. In the center of the train there was the largest and longest car, sporting two high caliber cannons, basically screamed "Siege Guns!".

Galewind began to ascend, flying in a complex pattern to shake off the zebra gunners. He knew zebras used stealth technology for infiltration and sabotage missions, but he never would have thought they can pull off something of this scale.

The situation was both extremely lucky and unlucky at the same time. Lucky because some striped idiot lost his cool and opened fire on them, disrupting the camouflage.

His pegasi were circling the moving train evading high altitude projectiles, unsure what to do. Dancing between detonations the major switched frequencies and called Control. "Ground Control, this is Gold Leader, come in!"

There was a pause, then colonel spoke. "Gold Leader, what's the situation?"

"Concealed armored train in Echo Eight. Moving by the Twelve-Twenty towards the Podunk Barns. Our approach made them decloak."

"Come again, Gold Leader? " Cirrus Mist, evident from her tone, was shaken.

"I repeat, an armored train. Mostly AA cars, but there is the one armed with what resembles high caliber siege cannons."

"Gold Leader, is there a green glow around the muzzle face?" The question was highly unnerving in its specificness, a slowly building gut feeling of an experienced battle flier suggested that Cirrus Mist knew something about this he didn't.

Galewind made a pass right above the siege car, him hoping that the trains flak cannons couldn't shoot at 90 degrees straight so he would be safe for a moment. The huge, at least twelve inches wide cannon barrels indeed faintly glowed green. "Control, the green glow confirmed. I repeat-"

"Gold Leader, can you derail it?"

He pondered the question. And then switched back to the tactical frequency. "Gold Leader here, engaging the railway."

He took a nosedive right in front of the train, from the angle the least saturated with AA fire. Other squadron members took their assigned positions, covering him and distracting flak gunners.

He fired a volley of energy bolts and struck the rail. Strangely enough it didn't budge. 'Fucking zebras must've enchanted the path!' he thought ascending back.
"Negative, control. The rails appear to be reinforced by the enemy!"

"Gold Leader, abort the mission and return immediately!"

Galewind looked into the distance of a spanning railway. At Podunk Barns the train would be closest to the city. Twelve-inchers like that, at this much of elevation, as far as he remembered, could have a range of fire of approximately forty miles. That meant it could reach the outskirts. But what was the point in only two guns on a lone armored train so close to the pony positions? It couldn't fire from the go. And after the first salvo it would be overrun, if parked.

He turned off the tactical frequency, leaving only command channel on. "Control, with all due respect, what's going on?"

"Gold Leader, return to the base, that's an order!"

"Control, either you telling what's going on or I'll disobey the order and will bring up your suspicious behavior at the court-martial." He heard a commotion in the control room, yells and orders.

After a long silence the colonel spoke again. "Gale..." she paused, "That's balefire launchers."

Galewind felt like he froze and was going to fall down like a rock with solid wings hearing those words. So, the whole J-20 business was a Zebra distraction. Or a real thing indeed, did't matter. The train would have gotten to Podunk Barns, basically a no-ponys land. By the time it would've been detected in a decloaked state, it would've been already to late,
as the first salvo would have obliterated half of the city. Most likely followed by an assault from J-20 at a demoralized and devastated pony force.

Good thing he chose the present flightpath, instead of taking the other one. The one going around E-8. He looked at the clock in his helmet, and noticed, absent-mindely that it was 14:00. His wife's wagon was scheduled for 15:00. Her irrational love to arrive early to any place she was heading to meant that she most likely already was waiting at the outskirts airport, along with the other relocating personnel... Even if the squadron would return, the train would be at firing range in ten minutes. Not only his wife, thousands of other ponies he sworn to protect with his life would die horribly. Galewind felt a panic he didn't feel probably since the junior flight school.

He and his pegasi were powerless against the train itself. Their energy weapons could hardly dent it's armor. They didn't have anyting like large caliber weapons or bombs on them. All they could possibly do is return ASAP and try to carry out as much ponies as possible with their bare hooves. Unless... Unless...

Galewind felt a disgusting lump in his throat.

No, he had no right, he couldn’t order this to any of his airponies.

Except for himself.

He activated his scorpion tail and purposely struck the power pack of his own armor suit. Again, and again. "Warning, destabilized magicell detected! Detonation is imminent! Vacate suit at once!" His displays began to glow red. Monotonous voice of the auto-diagnostic tool sounded like a tocsin.

"Commander, what are you doing?" Puff Cloud, of course! He winced at the question so much resembling his own.

"Gold Leader here! All the team, ascend to a higher altitude and return to the base immediately!" A small chorus of pained aye ayes was his answer.

"Puff, tell Stormy Weather I love her!"

"Commander, what the buck is going on?" She was frightened, understandably so. There was no time for explanations. He feared that the self-preservation instinct would get the best of him.

"Gold Leader here, engaging the train! Do not cover me!"

He took another nosedive, approaching the target head on. He gave this flight everything he got.

“Major!!! What are you doing?!” the helmet speakers screamed at him.

The locomotive was getting closer and closer at an alarming rate.

Gunners were trying to take him down, but he, being like if in some kind of a battle trance, avoided all the shells aimed at him. Red indicator on his display was at full. Now even the slightest touch would set the magicell off.

'Goddesses, make it to be enough-'

The ancient rails, although twisted and broken, somehow didn't have even a modicum of rust on them. Remains of a huge locomotive, melted beyond assured recognition, laid at some distance from a large glazed crater that tore the railway in half.

A bunch of derailed train cars littered the landscape around, one of them long and thick, with two railway cannons partially stuck in the ground. A dirty rain poured lazily from above, dampening the wreck, making it's etal parts glisten in the faint shadow of a sunlight that managed to reach the ground through the clouds.

First Lieutenant Stubborn Hail marveled at the destruction below standing at the helm of the small raptor-class cloudship, currently under his command. "I wonder..." he muttered to himself and walked away from the observation post back to his command chair.

At the tactical table nearby there stood an old yellowed picture of a pegasus stallion in a wartime dress uniform. An Hero of Equestria medal ribbon attached to the picture's frame. Stubborn Hail looked at the clock, then took a paper knife from the table and opened a large envelope stamped with 'Top Secret!' all around.

Inside there was a map and a large paper titled Operation: Cauterize. The more he read into it, the more frown appeared on his face. He folded the paper, leaving the map on the table.

"So, that how it is going to be, Grandpa?" he asked the portrait, in a rhetorical manner. The stallion in the picture couldn't have been his actual grandpa, of course. There were at least two centuries between them. But that was what everyone in the family called their famous ancestor, major Galewind.

"Set the new course. Bearing twenty two and five." First Lieutenant told his helmspony before turning to the voice tube, "Engeneering, ahead one-third. " And, after a short contemplation, he added, "I'll go check the cloud generator in a few moments. Don't mind me."

With this, Stubborn Hail began to walk towards the main corridor…

Author's Notes:

Topic Enclave. By SabreTheRedMane

Enclave: V is for Vertibuck by Jamin P Rose

In the wasteland there is one sound above all that you should fear. It is not the cry of a Hellhound, nor is it the impact of a bullet, no it is the sound of a Vertibuck. Some would argue I’m wrong but hear me out, in the wasteland the majority of the threats are on the ground; they are bound by gravity, only able to move so fast and only in so many directions. A Vertibuck however, follows different rules, it is able to reposition and attack from a dozen different directions a lot quicker than anything on the ground. The other side of the cap is that Vertibucks mean Enclave troops; each one trained for war and ready to deliver death to whoever gets in their way. They aren’t even worth trying to salvage, the Enclave jealousy guards their technology and resources, and will gladly blow it up than let it fall into the hooves of surface dwellers.

If you hear the whir of a Vertibuck pray to the goddesses, because you’re going to need all the help you can get, trust me, I know…

Small caliber rounds slammed into the ground I had been standing on just moments ago. The rock I rolled behind provided some cover for the moment but it wouldn’t last. The ever-present whir of the Enclave Vertibuck changed in intensity as they moved around to attack again. I didn’t have much time to think, rolling out from behind my rock and dashing across the ground towards the wreck of a sky wagon. Rounds peppered the ground chasing me all the way to the wagon and where they pinged off of the solid metal of the hull. I counted my blessings that the wagon was a Ministry of Peace ambulance, those things had decently thick metal hulls, at least strong enough to shrug off whatever caliber round the Enclave were using.

This gave me a chance to reload my 50-caliber revolver, which was the only weapon I had that could punch through the armor on the thing. As I used my magic to slot in the rounds, the Vertibuck made another pass and peppered the other side with rounds. I had to hurry, a luck shot from them could set off the spell matrix that used to power the thing and then I’d be a crispy Unicorn; with my weapon loaded, I prepared to cast a spell and dove out of the MoP Ambulance. As soon as my hooves hit the ground and I started to roll, I cast my spell. Lightning arched from my horn and towards where I expected it to be, I missed by a good ten feet but that was closer than my last attempt.

They were wising up to my tactics as I dodged behind another rotting hulk of a vehicle, this time their rounds not only punched through the hull, but hit the spell matrix and cracked the casing. I made a hurried run from the chariot, diving through the doorway of a half-ruined convenience store. Behind me there was a loud pop, and as I tucked around behind the half intact door, the chariot exploded. I could feel the heat and corrupted magic wash over me; I’d definitely need some Radaway when I got home. Peaking over the door I was able to get a clear shot on one of the Pegasi piloting the thing. I quickly fired two rounds into the glass protecting the pony, the first one cracked it and the second punched through and into the head of one of the pilots.

I had taken out one of them but it cost me my position. I made a mad dash, ducking between the shelves as I ran towards the back, sliding out the back door just as rounds slammed into the ground I had been on moments before. As luck would have it there was a large delivery wagon right behind the store, I slipped under it with ease and took a moment to catch my breath. I could still hear them circling the area looking for me, thankfully, they hadn’t seen me duck under here but I was effectively trapped under this wagon. I had a choice to make; either I try to hide or I attack them again.

As I weighed my options, I pulled out a couple of tabs of rad-x and downed them with a quick swig from my canteen. The Vertibuck passed overhead again, this time I could see that they had activated their spotlight and that decided it for me. I couldn’t hide here until they left, I had to take them out. I charged my horn with my lightning spell, pumping as much power as I could into it and holding it at the ready for their next pass. My heart thudded in my ears as I waited, the whir of their propellers started to get louder until they passed over my hiding place. I rolled out into the open and fired my spell, hitting them dead center.

The war machine sputtered and fell out of the sky with a whistling, a loud bang echoing out as it hit the ground. I knew that if any of them survived they’d be on me in the blink of an eye, so I holstered my pistol and drew my semi-auto assault rifle and switched to my armor piercing clip. I also decided to cast my shield spell, which manifested in the form of a half dome just in time to block two beams of magical energy. Up in the air above me hovered a Pegasus in power armor, I couldn’t see their face but they were no doubt angry. I quickly leveled my rifle at them and fired two shots back, one hit the Pegasus’ shoulder and the other missed as they quickly flew out of the way.

The pony tried to fly around me to bypass my shield, but I was adept at controlling my shield and moved it with me, always keeping it facing them. As I spun, I fired a few more shots and scored a couple more hits, one even striking their wing which forced them to retreat for the moment. This gave me the change to reshape my shield into a dome with firing slits, and to draw my other rifle. With two identical rifles at the ready, I switched to fresh clips of AP rounds and steadied myself.

Not a minute later a whole squad, consisting of 8 Pegasi in power armor, were flying towards me and firing their weapons at me. My shield helped block a good amount of incoming fire, but some lucky shots got through the firing ports I had added to my shield. I quickly returned fire with both my rifles, taking out one of the Pegasi instantly with a headshot while wounding at least two others. The rest of the squad quickly spread out and forced me to spin and aim at one at a time. Two more shots connected and I had another Pegasus down for the count, hitting one of their wings with both rounds. The six remaining Pegasi were quickly joined by another, before taking up a defensive formation around the newcomer, and Enclave Officer by the outfit he wore.

“Lay down your arms and surrender, Wastelander.” The officer shouted as he looked down at me.

“No! You attacked me for absolutely no reason! Leave and I will not fire on you as you do so!” I shouted back at the bastard. I kept my guns trained on him while preparing to fire a bolt of lightning at him.

“You seem to misunderstand your position here, Wastelander. You are outnumbered and outgunned,” The officer called back as he indicated to the six Pegasi around him.

“My name is Power Flow! Remember it when you limp back to your high command and tell them you got your flank handed to you by a Unicorn,” I shout, dropping my shield and both my guns to unleash a massive bolt of lightning. They have no time to react and they all fall from the sky, paralyzed and helpless. I quickly pick up my rifles in my magic and rush over to them. Moving from pony to pony I take what weapons I can get off of their armor quickly and break the rest; arriving just in time to knock the Enclave officer out with the butt of my rifle and take his gauss pistol. I put all the weapons I collected into my saddlebags and tuck away one of my rifles before quickly heading in the opposite direction of the Vertibuck.

After ten or fifteen minutes I found a building to duck into, it was dark inside and had no windows in the back. The Enclave ponies were still alive and I had no intention of letting them follow me home. I quickly set up my bed roll, pulled out a can of veggies and a Sparkle Cola for dinner. After having my meal, I sat there in the dark with my rifle and waited. I expected that they would eventually get the Vertibuck working and come after me, and I was ready for them. It wasn’t more than an hour later when I heard the whir of a Vertibuck pass over head, except it wasn’t the only one. A second Vertibuck passed overhead a scant few minutes later, prompting me to draw my other rifle. I stayed absolutely still, holding in the urge to curse as I realized that those were two completely functional Vertibucks.

I did the only thing I could, I prayed to the Goddesses and kept my rifles close. I didn’t get much sleep that night, jerking awake a few times in night as I tried to fight off my exhaustion. Finally sleep took me just a couple hours before dawn, I slept for a good six hours before my body would let me get up again. After coming too and checking my surroundings, I cautiously made my way out of the building and back towards where the Vertibuck had crashed. Thankfully the world was quiet, not even the wind made a sound as I walked with my rifles at the ready. I swept every place I could think of where they may be hiding, they were all thankfully empty and showed no signs of use.

When I arrived at the crash site, I was surprised to find little trace of what had happened. There was a crushed wagon where the Vertibuck had likely landed, and there were bits of scrap that looked like the remains of whatever parts they had replaced. Otherwise there wasn’t anything to indicate what had happened. I uttered a quick thanks to the Goddesses and turned towards home, tucking my rifles away and checking to make sure my pistol was loaded and ready; my ears perked and listening for the sounds of a Vertibuck, hoping and praying to the Goddesses that I wouldn’t encounter another one.

Author's Notes:

Topic: Enclave. By Jamin P Rose

Enclave: Neighvarro in Sight By Trooper

I sit inside my power armor with my eyes closed. My stomach churns as it always does before a combat jump. I feel the movement of craft around me. Inside my mind every time the Vertibuck jumps I play the mental game of turbulence or concussion. The noise from the rotors being so loud that it is hard to hear explosions outside the aircraft. We know we are heading into a hot landing zone and have been told to be ready.

But this time is different from all of the other times I have had to make a jump. Even during Operation Cauterize something like this was not imagined. This time it is a counterstrike and our target is the cloud city of Neighverro, particularly the military leadership there. They still claim to be the Grand Pegasus Enclave, but the Enclave was to protect the Pegasi, not attack them like they have Thunderhead.

My goddesses, what they did there. I will never forget watching old stallions, mares and foals having to run for their lives as they evacuated the cloud city as it was attacked by the Neighverro cloud ship squadron. Inside my blood still boils at the horror of it all. I don't even know if any of my family has survived the attack and only pray my husband and foals are alive.

Suddenly I hear over my suit radio the jumpmaster call out, “Two minutes out, everypony on your hooves and get ready to move to the door.

I fully power up my powerarmor’s spell matrix and watch as my heads-up display comes fully online. Off to the left I see the jump indicator light still reading red. I watch as we get closer to the jump point and the side doors of the Vertibuck slide open and the indicator turns yellow. I watch as suddenly one of the vertibucks in our assault wing takes a direct hit and explodes, I looks like maybe two troopers made it out, mostly I see its wreckage and debris as well as a few lifeless bodies falling to Equus below us.

Over my headset I hear, “This is Yellow Taffy one, keep your eyes on the targets bucks and mares. When we jump, form up on me on the move. The vertibucks will be continuing to provide fire support.”

I feel the aircraft slow and I know it is almost time. Before I can say anything, I hear the aircraft jumpmaster call out, “Three, Two, One, Jump, Jump, Jump!”

I see the jump light flash to green and I advance to the door as those in front of me jump out into the air, they dive down about one hundred feet to clear the aircraft's wake and then they deploy their wings fully.

As I leap from the Vertibuck I hear its miniguns open fire and I turn to look, I see a flight of hostile pegasi coming at us. Using my suits EFS I spot where my flight leader is and I begin to glide that way, but I also bring up my Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting system and begin to target the incoming enemy with my dual magical energy weapons.

SATS is another holdover from the war that was incorporated into the pegasi power armor. The SATS allows me to target each one and I fire for center mass targets mainly. If I cannot puncture through their armor, perhaps I will be lucky enough to disrupt their suit's spell matrix and knock them out of the sky too.

“All Yellow Taffy units, form up asap, engage on the move. We need to blow through them. Do not, I repeat do not get involved in a static engagement.”

I hear the others call out their understanding as do I, “Taffy Seven, roger.”

As we approach the landing zone, I see several pegasi go down from both sides. I see Yellow Taffy one land and he starts to direct the others into position as they land behind him. Of the ten on our vertibuck we have lost two already.

As I land, I take concealment behind a minor cloud rise and begin to crawl on my belly towards the corner of a building. I look up and I realize we have dropped in the wrong area. Damn it we are in a residential area. We are way short of the military facilities, much less their headquarters.

I call out, “Yellow Taffy one, this is Yellow Taffy Seven we are short, I repeat we are short and have landed in a residential area.”

In reply I hear, “NO kidding, now keep the airwaves clear except for necessary chatter. Yellow Taffy Three and Yellow Taffy Five, this is Yellow Taffy one, lay down covering fire for me while Yellow Taffy seven, six and myself advance.”

I hear their MEW’s rapid firing as I jump up and begin to run forward. I notice that the return fire is not accurate or nearly as heavy here. Then I see that the reason is we are currently engaging members of the Neighvarro police force and some civilians, most likely retired Enclave Military members.

That does not mean they are not dangerous though. I then see down an alleyway to the side one of Blue Taffy’s troopers get taken down by a group of them. Sure, a couple of the civilians go down too, but there are way more of them, than us. However, as I run by the alleyway, I still fire a few shots down it to try and help the blues out.

I come up to the stairway of a building at the corner of an intersection. As I get ready to take cover the door opens and Taffy One tells me to get inside.

I run up the steps and take a position just next to a window so I can cover those behind us. Just after the rest of the team gets inside, I see a vertibuck take a hit from a missile launcher and watch as it crashes through the clouds of the street in flames on its way to the Wastelands below. The spot where it passed through the clouds remaining open so we can see through the cloud deck.

I am still staring out the window at the hole in the clouds when I hear movement behind me. I spin around and almost fire by instinct but stop myself in the last second. I am stunned to see a mare with her two young foals crying in a corner behind us. How did they get there? I ask myself.

I put a hoof to my muzzle and tell them “Shhh”

This gets the Sergeants attention. He turns around, sees the civilians and opens fire on them killing them.

I am stunned and horrified. I yell out, “What did you do that for?”

I see the smug look on his muzzle as he snidely tells me, “They are Neighvarrioans. After what they did to Thunderhead, they deserve no better. Besides, don’t you realize that those foals would have grown up some day and we would have had to fight them then.”

I cannot believe this; I cannot believe what I am seeing or hearing. “But they are pegasi, we swore to protect them.”

From my other side I hear my old friend Skyfall tell me, “Buttercup you better listen up and learn quickly, in a civil war they are all targets. Same goes for us. They started it, now they get to reap the rewards.”

“But Skyfall, they were only foals!” I try to tell him.

He shakes his head at me and says, “No they were enemy offspring that is all. Do you think her husband or her for that matter would have worried about killing your husband or foals? Do you? Do you even know if they are alive, because I am not sure if my wife and my foal are or not? I know my parents aren’t.”

We are interrupted when I hear over my suit’s radio, “All Taffy Elements, this is Taffy One. Prepare to advance.”

We all move to the door to get ready to move. I turn my head and look at the three lifeless bodies. I feel a tear in my eye and I quietly mouth to them, “I am so sorry.”

Then I hear my sergeant yelling, “Move, move, move,” and we are all running out the doors. The remaining Vertibucks are circling above us and laying down covering fire. I see another one get hit, and I watch as it begins to have troubles staying aloft. I see a cloud of smoke begin to come out of one engine and then I see the motor explode. I watch as the pilot leads it on the street and the crew bail out of it, two of them being cut down by enemy fire.

We are two blocks further along when we meet the next band of resistance. It is a storefront that has been blown out. Inside I can see vague motions. So, I turn on my EFS and I see four red tags. I am just about to open fire using my SATS when I hear quietly over my radio. “Yellow Taffy Seven form on me, we are going to try and flush them out.

Just as I begin to get up, I see several beams from a MEW minigun barely miss me and hit the spot I had been in mere seconds before. I dive forward and am running as fast as I can, zig zagging as I go. I see bolts of fire coming from both in front and behind us. I get to the store front and am laying on my belly below the window frame. I watch as my sergeant takes out a metal apple, pulls the pin and tosses it inside the shop.

I hear the sound of it landing on a countertop and the screams of those inside when they see it. However, the screams are cut short by the blast. Be both jump up, run inside and fire at anything that moves.

We continue like this for the next hour. We have moved out of the residential section of the town and are at the edge of the military base. I can see several raptor class cloud ships at their docks in the distance. Closer I see Neighvarroian troops deployed to defend the base. There are several smaller clouds scattered around the main entrance that are built up and ponied. Everyone of them showing up as an EFS as a red tic mark. This is so not good. I don’t think there is any way we can win, but we still have to try.

I listen to the comments coming over my radio from the other members of my wing that are still alive. The captain of our wing comes over the comms channel and I hear him say, “All Taffy units prepare to advance. Make it a quick strike. Cause as much damage as you can, we will reform below the cloud layer, Good luck and may Celestia bless and Luna defend.”

I realize when he says this that he too does not think we can make the mission objective. Our raid has changed from trying to capture or kill the leaders of Neighvarro to simply hoping we can hurt them as much as possible.

Then I hear, “Taffy Units forward!” and we all move as quickly as we can forward in a charge.

It is then that I notice that the weapons on the Raptors are now hot and we begin to take fire from them as well as the pegasi in power armor. Then I realize that the Vertibucks above us are no longer ours, but they are the Neighvarroian instead, as they too begin to fire at us.

I am still running at full speed and leap into the air to clear a defensive cloud outpost when I feel a burning sensation on my right side, and I am knocked out of the air.

I call out over the radio, “Yellow Taffy Seven, I am hit bad. I need a medic.”

“Roger that Yellow Taffy Seven. We will pick you up as soon as we can.” I hear back.

As I look up, I realize they not only knew we were coming, they let us. Before I can say anything, over my radio I hear, “All Taffy Units, this is Taffy One, it’s a trap. Fly for your lives.”

I call over my radio, “This is Yellow Taffy Seven, for the Goddesses sake don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me!”

I then hear, “Sorry Yellow Taffy Seven, you’re on your own.” I swear it is my sergeant's voice. That bastard.

All I can do is watch as my squad and wing mates try to make good their escape, some make it. Most don’t. As I lay there, I feel myself becoming slowly weaker from loss of blood and internal injuries.

I am laying on the cloud looking up at the sky when I see four power suits land nearby. I hear one of them say, “Hey sarge look, a prisoner.”

I hear another answer back, “You heard what these filthy bastards did. They were killing civilians. The elderly, mares and foals. The captain says no prisoners.”

“But Sarge that just don’t seem right.”

“Don’t but Sarge me. Do your duty, Soldier, or do you intend to become a Dashite?”

“No Sarge, not me. It’s just…”

“It’s just what colt? It’s war. I don’t care if she was your sister, she is the enemy. You know what we do to the enemy right?”

I look up and the sergeant is next to me and he has his MEW pointed at my head. Then he says, “Looks like we got us a civil war now between us and Thunderhead, so that makes them the enemy.”

I feel a tear fall from my eye and I think of my husband and foals. I want to say something but I am too weak. I notice that my vision is starting to dim and I hear the one say, “Sarge, she ain’t got too much longer anyways, let’s go.”

“Yeah, your right, why waste an energy cell.”

As they begin to fly away, I hear one of them say, “May the Goddesses forgive us.” I try to see them, but all I see is a bright light surrounded by darkness which grows as does the coldness in my body. I take a few gasping breaths and finally, I see no more.

Author's Notes:

Theme: Enclave. By Trooper

Enclave: Neighsayers by SnakeEye

When thinking about the danger of the Wastelands, ponies think about the numerous raiders, the radiation, the contract killers and slavers or even the regular monsters that live in the wastes. What ponies don’t realise is that the most dangerous thing in the Wastelands are the different governments that popped up everywhere, and the neighsayers that came with them. There is nothing more dangerous than a big, incompetent, government and the people in it.

In Neighvarro, the capital city of the Grand Pegasus Enclave, a military parade was taking place once again. The city was celebrating the mission for the liberation of the surface that was supposed to happen later the same week. Unfortunately, there was one place where unrest was still prominent. In the house of assembly, where the highest democratically elected leaders of the Enclave reunited every day. There, utter chaos dominated.

Insults were thrown, a fight had even erupted earlier, injuring one of the small party representatives. As various objects still flew across the room, Checks, the president of the assembly, was banging his cloud hammer furiously on the desk while shouting, "SILENCE! SILENCE!" to no avail.

The chaos was caused mostly because of the strong reactions of the Wing twins to Front Burner’s proposition. Well, ‘proposition’ was maybe a bit of an understatement; the military being in control of the country mostly meant that he was rather… notifying them of their plans. As a high-ranking general, he was in no way asking for permission.

You see, Front Burner had just told the assembly of the military’s operation to invade the surface for the Enclave. As always, the ponies in the assembly were the last to learn about it. Some had their suspicions when they flew to the house of assembly this morning and a military parade was taking place, but they didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

After the very short speech from the black military pegasus, the Wing twins, Left and Right, started arguing about forced conscription to the military and how many people they should mobilize for the operation. Obviously, all these details were already taken care of by the army; the assembly was only here to keep the façade of democracy.

Quickly however, the argument escalated into a fight when Left Wing threw a pencil at Right Wing. The present chaos seemed to be impossible to calm. Front Burner, however, sat up and, with his best commanding voice, ordered "WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP‽" The room fell silent, only the distant sound of the ambulance in the distance remained.

“As I was saying; in three days, our military forces will execute Operation Cauterise and liberate the surface of Equestria for the glory of the Enclave. Any questions?" asked Front Burner.

The Wings twins were about to speak up at the same time when Checks stopped them before another argument started. "You two better stop being such brats. In my time we had real politiciens, not children who got lucky with their rich parents. If you can’t keep quiet for more than a few minutes I suggest you both leave!" reprimanded the president of the assembly. The twins sat back down, pouting while attempting to seem unbothered.

Dark Horse sat up and asked, "President Checks, may I?" to which the latter nodded, letting the senator talk. "I know some of you look down at me for being young and from a relatively new and small party, but I believe that it is time for change in this government. Did you all know that, technically, we don’t have any power? According to our constitution, written two-hundred years ago, the military can bypass any of our laws and ruling. I believe it is time to change all of this, and not let them carry out dangerous and onerous plans without our approval!"

As his speech continued, many senators rolled their eyes and fake-snored to express their boredom. Next to Front Burner sat Salad Mander, a bootlicker for the military. The black pegasus glanced at his red friend, "Tell me again, Salad, how did this joke manage to become a senator? Aren’t you supposed to do your ‘gerrymandering’ magic to stop clowns like him and Trial Balloon to pass?"

"Don’t blame me Burner, blame Filly Buster, the damn featherbrain shouldn’t have gotten involved in that scandal," countered Salad Mander.

"Eh, at least now we know where he got his name from," joked Front Burner.

"Tasteless, even for you old bird."

The two returned their attention to the end of the speech. "And that is why we must establish a new republic controlled by the people and not the military!" concluded Dark Horse. "Any questions?"

Front Burner stepped up and spoke up: "Yes, how many stallions will your district send us for the operation?" he asked, gaining a few laughs from his party’s members.

Dark Horse fumed at the question. "I'll not allow a forced conscription on our ponies, it will put innocent lives at risk. Have you not heard the reports from Thunderhead? The surface might even have a deadly disease that makes you a cannibal!"

"Let it be known that no proof of such disease actually exist, senator Dark Horse. And, in the hypothetical case that it did exist, there would also be no proof that it affects pegasi," argumented Front Burner. "You're just fake news. You should know that we would never endanger our troops. There is not a single reason why we would lose against the small barbarians tribes on the surface."

"Reports of a ‘Sonic Radboom’ are all over the news," reported Left Wing to the assembly. "It looks like our military underestimated the surface's dweller’ strength."

"You mean your useless spies were useless once again?" called Right Wing out from the other side of the room.

"Oh? Excuse me if all our spies were taken by you for most of this year since you just had to get re-elected again," Left Wing retorted.

"Can you repeat that part with the spies young lads?" asked an old red mare with a small computer in front of her.

"Oh yes, Red Tape, please note that Left Wing is sticking his tongue at his brother as well," sarcastically remarqued Front Burner.

"Of course mister Burner," responded the sweet old mare who didn't understand sarcasm, while typing the details down.

"Senator Burner! Senator Mander! You guaranteed that the casualties would be minimal for our side, yet in only two hours, we lost a third of our invading force to some zombie dashite who fell fast enough?" Reprimanded Dark Horse, angry.

"Calm down bro, we like, destroyed their capital already, pretty sure the rest will fall sooner or later, yo. Those military dudes have it all figured it out, just relax and enjoy the promotion," said Trial Balloon in a much too relaxed voice.

"Though, to be fair, only noponies lived there and there wasn't any defence…" said Right Wing, trying to undermine the Blue Party’s senator.

"And, like, we still have all that tech we got from those steel ranger dudes anyway," added Trial Balloon.

"Oh yeah, we still have some stuff we got from that stable we found last year," said Salad Mander, thinking out loud. "Remember that memory erasing gun?"

"No, what was that about?" asked a genuinely curious Front Burner.

"Exactly. Just gotta remember where we put it though…"

Front Burner grunted, he was too old to care about this anyway. "Your small party friend is right, senator Dark Horse, I think we can safely say the worst is behind us and there is no way the Grand Pegasus Enclave will lose this war."

Suddenly, Checks, the president of the assembly, who had been conspicuous in his absence since this morning, entered the room, a big pile of documents on his back. The old stallion took his hammer with a wing, banged it against his desk a few times to get the assembly's attention, then spoke up with a deep voice, filled with terror. "So, we might have lost the Wonderbolts."

Chaos erupted in the room. More hammer banging occurred until silence arrived once again. The president spoke up once more. "They have a dragon."

For the first time in years, the house of assembly was not flying above the cloud cover. As everything seemed lost, and chaos was raging in the Enclave, they touched a new low when sonic rainbooms burst from every S.P.P. tower in sight, destroying the cloud cover and most of the buildings of the grand pegasus flying cities. The house of assembly drifted slowly in the air, still protecting the incompetent senators, as well as some refugees—mostly aforementioned politicians’ mistresses.

A sad silence was now reigning on what was left of the Enclave. They knew there was no way for their nation to survive this crisis. Everypony was left contemplating the remains of their once powerful empire.

From his seat, Front Burner watched, somewhat sad. He couldn't believe it. "There's no way they just won," was the last thing this neighsayer said that day.

Author's Notes:

Topic: Enclave By SnakeEye

Hello everyone, I've been writing again!

This time, political stuff! I participated in the Enclave ABC project and got the letter N. I decided to go with "Neighsayers" and write a political story about the chaos of Enclave politics.

The end result is a funny short story, with lots of reference to political terms and vocabulary. The research and writing process for this little project was really fun and I'm glad to have participated in it.

You can find the story there: Fallout Equestria Enclave ABC

Before the Bombs: Jack of All Trades

“Are you sure you want to do this?” the sergeant asks as he leans on the wooden desk inside the recruiting office. I look back outside at the dusty street of Appleloosa and nod my head. Causing him to shake his. Then he tells me, “You are a mule, you are exempt from the draft. Heck you can’t even say you are doing this for the foals you might one day sire.”

I look at the old, unicorn stallion behind the desk. I notice the scars on his violet coat and his short cropped green mane and tail. I linger on the spot where his left foreleg used to be and can see the fake leg sticking out of his uniform sleeve. I then look at the poster on the wall behind him showing one of the Steel Rangers Standing tall in its power armor holding up an Equestrian national flag. Above the image are the words, I am doing my part, are You?

That cinches it for me. I look the sergeant in the face and tell him, “Yes, I am. I am just as much an Equestrian citizen as the next pony.”

I see him laugh a bit at that, “Son, you aren’t even a real pony. Look at ya. Long ears, skinny build, heck not even a cutie mark. But if you really want ta, sure, I will sign you up. So, what is your specialty?”

I feel myself blush a bit at this as I have not yet found one job I really excel at, but I do know how to do a lot, so I tell him, “I am a jack of all trades.”

He smirks, “Is that a mule joke?”

I am bewildered at first and tell him, “No, not really why?”

He is still trying to fight down a laugh when he tells me, “Well, being a male mule is also called a jack, I just thought maybe you were making light of it.”

I smile at the confusion and laugh lightly myself at the misunderstanding caused by my wording. Well if I can get him to laugh, perhaps the day is not so bad.

Then he asks me, “So what is your name?”

I tell him, “Most call me Johnny, but my formal name is Johnny Cake.”

I see him look up at me and he asks, “Any relation to the Cakes over in Ponyville?”

I smile at that, and nod my head, “Distant relations, that side of the family doesn’t like to claim my mother, sister or me. You know how it is, since mom married a donkey.”

I see him nod his head, “Yeah, that’s too bad, but it happens in all families I guess,” then he shifts the subject back to business, “Ok, sit down and I will begin the paper work for you.”

I sit down and we begin to fill out the paperwork. It takes about an hour for me to hurriedly read and sign all of the forms. Once I am done, he then says, “Thank goodness you can read, lately we have been getting an influx of recruits who can’t. It takes a lot longer that way.”

“I can imagine so Sergeant. But what do I do next?”

He smiles and tells me, “Return in the morning, I will have you see the town doctor for a physical, if everything checks out, tomorrow afternoon I will put you on a train for one of the bootcamps. After that it is wherever the army sends you.”

I nod my head and smile, “Thank you sir, I appreciate it. I will see you in the morning.”

He nods, “Your welcome, and don’t call me sir. I work for a living.”

After that I head to my hotel room and make a quick phone call to my mom on a payphone in the lobby.

“Hello?” I hear her ask as she answers the phone.

“Hi ma. I just wanted to let you know I only have to take a physical in the morning and then I should be off for bootcamp.”

I hear her sigh through the phone, “Johnny are you sure? You really don’t have to do this. Your job here in Harness is important enough.”

I love her and I know she loves me so she is worried, but we have had this argument already. Still I tell her, “Ma, I know that and I understand. But ever since what happened at the Littlehorn School I have felt I needed to do something and now with what those damn stripes tried at Shattered Hoof, I have to stand up and fight ma. Digging in the ground is not going to satisfy my conscious anymore.”

Little did I know when I said them, how ironic those words will someday be.

I hear her start to cry and her voice cracks as she tells me, “Ok, you’re a stallion now and I can’t tell you what to do anymore. But please be careful, pray to the Goddesses and know we love you dear.”

“I will ma, I will.”

The phone call is interrupted by the operator’s voice, “That will be two bits to continue talking for another three minutes.”

I slide the bits into the phone and tell my mother, “Sorry ma, I am going to have to go soon. I love you and will miss all of you. I will come home again as soon as I can.” I tell her, hoping I can, but not sure if I will be able to.

“Bye Johnny,” she tells me.

“Take care ma. Give everyone my love and I will write as soon as I can.” I tell her then I hang up the phone.

I turn around and am surprised to see a unicorn and pegasus in black suits and sunglasses behind me. First thing I think is Great it’s the Pinks. But why would they be interested in me? Then I realize they are my second cousins, Pound and Pumpkin. They look me up and down and then Pound Cake says, “We need to talk. Follow us.”

I follow them down the street and down an alleyway. Once there Pumpkin and Pound lead me down the stairs into a business’s basement. As we enter, I see a chair with several bright lights pointed at it. I also see several unicorns there. Most are in black suits like the twins, but one is in a Ministry of Peace uniform and is sitting quietly to the side.

Once inside I am led to the seat and told to take it, which I do without a fuss. Then Pumpkin asks me, “Do you know why we are here?”

I shake my head, “No, but it is good to see you again.”

I then hear Pound Cake say, “Johnny, it’s good to see you too, but I wish it was under better circumstances.”

I am confused at this and ask, “Why? What is wrong? All I did was join the army.”

I see them look at each other. Then Pumpkin tells me, “Johnny, you know that the residents of Harness are not supposed to join the service don’t you.”

“I guess,” I say reluctantly, “But I never understood why.” I just work at the town repairing small appliances and such, I never have even gone near the new mine.”

Pound then pounces forward, his wings flaring slightly, and says, “But you know what they mine there and that is enough.”

I am confused by this and tell him, “What, the sulfur and salt?” That is nothing, the damn stripes would care less about those. Now if we were talking coal or something like that, well I could see keeping it quiet.”

The twins look at each other and then Pumpkin nods to one of the other unicorns who comes over and her horn lights up and she touches it to my forehead. I cannot help but scream in pain at first. Then the pain stops. She steps back and the light on her horn goes out.

The unicorn agent steps back and tells them. “He’s clear. He doesn’t know anything.”

I see Pumpkin and Pound nod their heads. Then I see a side door to the basement room open and in walks the Ministry Mare herself. I recognize her not only from all the posters and the newspapers, but also, I remember meeting her at the last cake family reunion my mother took us too.

She smiles as she walks over to me and tells me, “It is good to see you again Johnny. I guess you won’t be around for your birthday, being you will be in training and all, so Happy Birthday early.”

I am very surprised that she remembered it, then she surprises me and tells me, “Johnny, I need you to do something very important for me.”

I nod my head and wait to hear what it is. When she continues, she tells me, “I am afraid we may have zebra agents and sympathizers in the army. I want you to watch for them and let me know if you think somepony is one. Got that?”

I again nod as I tell her, “Uh, yeah, I can do that. I would have done that anyways.”

She smiles and puts a hoof along my cheek and says, “I know you would. But I don’t want you to let anyone in your command know. You can let me know by writing a letter to Pumpkin. If you tell Pumpkin somepony is not feeling right, we will know to check them out. Ok?”

“Yeah, yeah I can do that. No problem.” I tell her.

She smiles even wider, if that is possible and says, “See, I knew you were a smart mule. By the way, don’t tell anypony I was here.”

“Yes ma’am, I know better. Everybody knows not to say anything about the Pinks.”

I see her start to look frustrated and she shakes her head, “I hate them calling my agents the Pinks. Too bad they just cannot think of it as MoM is watching over us instead of the Pinks are after us,” she says then lets out a big sigh and then tells me, “Ok, you are free to go then. Remember to tell nopony and that I am watching you, Forever.”

Then I watch as she walks out of the room. The other agents other than Pumpkin and Pound follow her. They both lead me back the way I came to my hotel.

Once we are in the lobby, Pumpkin gives me a brief hug and tells me, “Good luck Johnny. I look forward to your letters.”

After she steps away Pound steps up and offers me a hoof and we shake as he tells me, “Take care cousin. Give the stripes hell for us and the rest of the family.”

“I will Pound. Both of you take care and I will write. Do I still use the old address or are you at a new outlet now?”

They both smile at each other and tell me, “Oh, we still work out of the Ponyville store, so just mail your letters there.”

Then we exchange a hug and hoofshake once more and they are gone as quickly as they arrived. I then head up to my room and as I settle in for the night, I wonder what the next few days will bring.

Two days later I am on the train heading to Fillydelphia, bound for the recruit training center there, after which I will attend advanced training with the combat engineers. We pull into a decent sized city in the middle of farm country. I see in the distance a large factory being built. I am so busy staring at it and the other sights I almost miss the sign saying Welcome to Manesville.

We stop at the station there and as I look out the window, I notice a large number of cattle mixed in with the ponies here. I am almost fascinated at how there are more cows and bulls I can see working than unicorns. I never have seen cattle in such roles before. I guess the war really is changing everything. My fascination changes a bit though when I see a bull get onto the car and he notices the seat next to me is empty so he takes it, causing me to be a bit tighter in my seat than I had wanted to be.

I smile at him and he says, “Hi,” as he sticks out a hoof. “It’s good to meet you. My name is Sweet Corn, what’s yours?”

I tell him, “Most folks just call me Johnny.”

I see him think and he innocently says, “That is a funny name for a pony.”

I smile at his innocence and I tell him, “That is because I am a mule, not a pony.”

He looks at me funny when I say this and asks, “What’s a mule?”

So, I explain to him what a mule is and he smiles and says, “So you don’t have a cutie mark either, that is good to hear. I was beginning to think it was just me.”

I tilt my head when he says this and ask, “Sweet Corn, you don’t get out much do ya?” I had expected the normal comments about how I look, my ears or how skinny I am, not just that we both do not have cutie marks.

He shakes his head, “No, my family rarely left the farm. But now I am on my way to see the world. Yesterday I signed up for the army.”

“Same here Sweets. I just hope they don’t put me into some boring job.”

“Oh, I hear you on that Johnny. I want to go and fight for our country and prove to them I am just as good as any pony.”

His attitude seems to be infectious and while I am physically uncomfortable, I am starting to enjoy his company.

After this we begin to talk to each other about our families and what our homes are like. I find it fascinating to listen to him talk about his people. But I am also surprised at how much he loves Equestria and the Goddesses Luna and Celestia. I never thought that cattle would even think about such things.

Once we arrive at Fillydelphia we see a sign on the wall of the train platform with an arrow pointing towards the station stating, Arriving Recruits Report in at the Equestrian Service Office.

Both Sweets and I grab our bags and head in that direction. As we are walking, I see my first zebra and I just about trip over my hoofs that no one is doing anything about him. Sweets notices him and says, “It’s ok Johnny, he has red stripes, that means he is on our side.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

He nods his head and then waves the zebra over to us. The zebra is about our ages and has a slightly worried and confused look on his face. When he is close, he asks. “Pray tell, you could direct me to the ESO?”

Sweets smiles at him and says, “Sure, we are heading that way, come along with us if you want,” he pauses and then sticks out his hoof and says, “Oh, by the way, I am Sweet Corn and my friend here is Johnny Cake.”

The stipe sticks out his hoof and tells him, “A pleasure to meet you my bovine friend, I am Xerxes.”

I watch them shake hooves so I extend mine and reluctantly shake hooves with him before we continue on our way to the station.

Once we are inside the station, we follow the other arrows pointing us where to go. We are near the ESO office when I notice a small bar combination restaurant off to the side and suggest we grab something to eat before we report in. As the three of us start to enter I see a green unicorn mare with her bags next to her start laughing out loud. My companions both look at each other and me and I hear Xerxes ask, “I wonder what it is that she finds so funny?”

That makes up my mind so I decide to go over and ask her. Once I am next to her, I question her, “Excuse me ma’am, but I could not help but notice that you seemed to find myself and my companions very funny, could I ask why?”

I see her try and pull herself back together and then she starts laughing some more. Finally, she stops laughing and wipes her eyes and looks me straight in the face and tells me, “Really this has to be a joke right.”

I shake my head, “No, what are you talking about?” I ask.

Still trying not to laugh she says, “A bull, a mule and a zebra walk into a bar…”

I immediately look at my companions and have a mild laugh, “Yes, I get it now, sorry for bothering you ma’am.”

She finally gets full control of herself and says, “Sorry, I just found it very ironic, now where would a group like you three be going together?”

By this time my companions have arrived next to me and Xerxes answers her, “We are going to have a meal before we report to the ESO. It seems all three of us are heading to recruit training today.”

When he says this, I watch as her ears perk up and she tells us, “Well, so am I. You can call me Clover Leaf.”

We all then introduce ourselves and she joins us for our last meal before reporting in. During our meals we begin to talk about ourselves and where we are from. Xerxes it turns out comes from Hoofington. His father and mother are both professors at the university there. His father is the head of anthropology.

Clover Leaf lets us know that she is from Manehatten. In fact, her parents live downtown there and are very disappointed in her decision to enlist. I find that very interesting, as well as the fact her father works for some company called Four Stars and wanted her to work there also.

“So, what does Four Stars make?” I ask her.

She smiles and giggles as she tells me, “Mostly mistakes according to my father. I am not really sure what they make, but I know he works a lot with computers.”

After we eat, we all go to the ESO and find about 30 other recruits all waiting there also. The mare behind the desk at the door tells us, “Go ahead and take a seat. The next bus will depart in another hour.”

The four of us sit together and continue on our conversations from earlier. Finally, we hear an authoritative voice call out, “All new recruits heading to Camp Box Crib grab your bags and, on your hooves, move it, move it, move it!”

We grab our bags and head out the door and follow the soldier at a quick trot to a white painted bus. I am surprised when I see it and I notice that there is no team pulling it. Instead I see an earth pony sitting behind a round device to control the vehicle where the normal team driver would be. I then realize it must be magic spark powered. Beside me I hear Sweet Corn say, I heard about these, they are supposed to start making them in Manesville at the carriage plant.”

The pony that led us to the bus then gets on and tells us, “Now keep your mouths shut. When we arrive at the base you will get off the bus. There are yellow hoof marks on the ground each recruit will stand on a set. You will look forward and you will not speak unless spoken too. Finally, if you are asked a question you will answer with Sir yes sir, or Ma’am, yes Ma’am depending on the gender of the person requesting the information. Do you understand me?”

We all quietly say, “Sir, yes sir.”

He looks disgusted and says, “I can’t hear you!”

We all yell back, “Sir, Yes Sir!”

He nods his head and then says something to the driver. The door closes and we begin the ride to Camp Box Crib.”

Once there, we pull up outside a large white painted building with a sign that says Receiving Building on it in large black letters. In front of it are two rows of yellow hoof marks painted on the ground. Once stopped I see three large ponies, two unicorns and one earth pony, come out of the Receiving Building at a quick trot. All three of them have on wide brimmed hats and are in full uniform. The Earth pony jumps onto the bus and starts to scream, “On your hooves and go stand on a set of painted hoof marks, move it, now ponies, MOVE!”

We all jump up and are moving before we realize it. Even though we are in the middle we are still out and moving towards yellow hoof marks before the last ponies are even off the bus.

I end up standing on Clover Leaf’s right side. On my right is Sweet Corn and on his other side is Xerces. As we stand there the rest of the recruits fall in also. The three ponies in the wide brimmed hats look us over and then the yellow Unicorn with the short-trimmed mane and tail says in a feminine voice that makes me realize she is a mare, “Good Morning Recruits, I am First Sergeant Yellow Haze. I am your senior drill instructor. The other two are Staff Sergeant Round Bale,” at which time the brown earth pony with a black mane and tail steps forward, “And Sergeant Cable Run. WE will be making you into soldiers. All three of us are combat vets from the Hoofington front, so listen up if we tell you something. DO you understand me?”

We all yell out, “Ma’am, yes Ma’am.”

I see her look disgusted and she asks again, “I Can’t Hear You! Do You Understand me?”

This time we yell out louder and more in sequence with each other, “Ma’am, Yes Ma’am.”

“Now that is better. In a few minutes we will take you inside, you will each be given a two-minute phone call to let your families or whoever is important to you, know you have arrived. After this we will begin to inprocess you.”

Then she looks over at myself, Sweet Corn and Xerxes all standing next to each other and shakes her head. “She approaches us and asks, is this some kind of joke, is that what this is?”

We all three shake our heads no and tell her, “Ma’am, No Ma’am.”

Then she looks at Sweets and me and says, “Ok, so you two are in this through thick and thin I see.” Beside me I see Xerxes trying not to laugh as I know all too well how narrow I am built and how awkward it has to seem next to Sweet Corn’s build.

From there the next few weeks go very quickly as we turn in our civilian gear with the exception of some pictures from home and whatever few bits, we have with us. The rest is put into storage until we finish boot camp. We also receive our initial issue of uniforms.

I end up doing exercises for over an hour one time because I begin to laugh at the reactions of the supply clerks when they see Sweet Corn show up. One of them is so surprised he exclaims, “Bloody Tartarus, do we even have a tent big enough for him to wear?”

I start to laugh and I hear the supply clerk say, “So you think we are here for your amusement, huh.” He waves a hoof and suddenly I have all three DI’s there chewing me out and discussing my parentage. Which is mildly amusing again when one of them says, “You are no better than a mule.”

I can’t help myself, I grin and tell him, “Sir, I am a mule sir.” That goes over ever better. They all do seem to be amused though when they make me do an exercise that they call Mule Kicks. This has me start at the position of attention, drop myself into a pushup position with my hindquarters raised. Then I have to kick straight back. Return my legs to their position and then go back to attention. I add one more reputation for each set and I continue to go until the tell me to stop. By then I am lathered in sweet and can barely keep my ears up. This is something I never want to do again, but I do end up repeating several times, both by myself as with the rest of members of my recruit platoon.

In the third week I receive a letter from my cousin Pound. He lets me know that he has heard that I have a zebra friend and that I should be careful of what others may think of this. I quickly write him back,

Pound,

you and your sister Pumpkin have nothing to worry about. Yes, he is my friend and I keep him close for a reason. He is one of the most loyal stallions I have ever met. Among my friends are also a good bull named Sweet Corn and a unicorn mare named Clover Leaf. Now I do have another recruit though who is a draftee that has tried to make inroads to my friend about trying to help his kind. Two Tone does seem a bit disgruntled and could probably use someone to talk to as he does seem to be feeling right. It is too bad he does not seem to want to seek help though.

I can not wait to see you all again, and will buy you both a nice hot Sweet Apple Acres cider when we do. Take care of yourselves and I hope sales are doing well at the shop. Tell your ma and pa hi for me also.

Your cousin

Johnny

The next week Two Tone is sent over the medical for a health check. We never see him again; however, I do see his bags being packed and his personal effect collected. The DI’s tell us he was found to have an underlying health issue and was being sent home. But I have a feeling I know the real story as that day while I am transiting the base to catch out to my training platoon, I think I see Two Tone in the distance with what looked like two “Pinks” escorting him. His head is down as are his ears and his tail. Part of me feels sorry for him, but part of me realizes I would not want to share a fox hole with him.

Overall bootcamp for us is typical except for after the sixth week we are allowed to sing while on the march. We are on our way out for an overnight bivouac several miles from the barracks when I hear the sergeant tell us, “Go ahead and sing.”

From next to me Xerxes begins one we heard another unit singing during our first week, I hear him begin,

I'll place my saddlebags on my back, My rifle on my shoulder

I'll march away to the firing line, and kill that Zebra soldier and kill that Zebra soldier

I'll march away to the firing line and kill that Zebra soldier

I see the grins on our fellow recruits faces as they realize who is singing it and they begin to join it as well.

I'll bid farewell to my wife and foal. Farewell to my aged mother

And go and join in the bloody fight till this cruel war is over, till this cruel war is over

I'll go and join in the bloody fight till this cruel war is over

Next, I notice that Sergeant Cable Run is singing with us and our pace has sped up from a walk to a slow trot.

If I am shot on the battlefield and I should not recover

Oh, who will protect my wife and foal and care for my aged mother and care for my aged mother

Oh, who will protect my wife and foal and care for my aged mother

We continue across the post with our full loads on our backs at a trot as we continue singing.

Before Equestria shall bow her head, before the tyrant’s harm us

I'll give my all to the Equestrian cause and die in the Equestrian army and die in the Equestrian army

I'll give my all to the Equestrian cause and die in the Equestrian army

I begin to notice that we are now outside the main part of the base and even though we are running up and down hills as we sing we are not tiring as easily.

If I must die for my home and land my spirit will not falter

Oh, here's my heart and here's my hoof upon my country's altar, upon my country's altar

Oh, here's my heart and here's my hoof upon my country's altar

Then Celestia be with us in the strife, Be with the Equestrian soldier

We'll drive the mercenary horde beyond our Equestrian border, beyond our Equestrian border

We'll drive the mercenary horde beyond our Equestrian border

As the song winds down, I see Sergeant Cable Run trotting next to Xerxes and I hear him ask, “You do realize that you are a Zebra soldier, don’t you recruit?”

Then I hear Xerxes reply, “Sir, this recruit is not a Zebra soldier, he is an Equestrian soldier who happens to be a zebra, a slight but important difference sir!”

I see the sergeant want to get angry for being contradicted but then I hear our First Sergeant, Yellow Haze call over to them, “You are very correct recruit, good answer,” she pauses then says, “At the Canter, March!” and we pick up speed again.

That night we simulate being on campaign and have to dig entrenchments with the short shovels that they issued us. I think back to telling my mother how I would not be satisfied with just digging in the earth. I look at myself and my comrades digging and smile to myself at the irony. Then I think it could be worse, it could be raining, and low and behold, as if Discord had heard me, it starts to rain. So instead of digging in the dirt, now I am digging in the mud. And it gets everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

Staff Sergeant Round Bale comes by and sees us digging and grins as he tells us, “Yeah, out in no mare’s land the weather is wild now, so we want you to get used to operating in it. Welcome to the army mares and bucks.”

I hear several of the others in my squad and platoon complain. Myself, I can’t help but laugh at how ludicrous it all is. I may laugh, but I do so around the shovel in my teeth as I continue to dig.

Overall, during our training we begin to find out what some of the skills of a soldier are and what we are good at. Myself, I am fairly good at most of them, but not spectacular. Not like Rowdy Kicker, the earth pony mare from Seaddle who excels at hoof to hoof. Nor am I like Long Shot the unicorn who is so good with a rifle that he is told that he will be recommended for sniper training. But I do make it through. We also find out about ourselves and how we can do more and endure more than we ever imagined.

It is during our last week of training when we get told of what field we are going to be assigned to. Beside me I hear Sweet Corn repeating, “Come on artillery.”

They begin to call our names and assignments, I really am concerned most about my friends and I first hear, “Clover Leaf, Combat Engineers.” I see a slight look of disappointment on her face as she had hoped for a tech job such as signal corps or even combat medic.

Then I hear my name called, “Johnny Cake, you’re going to the Combat Engineers.” For some reason I am not surprised and I think to myself, thank the Goddesses that it was not the infantry.

I am not fully paying attention to most of the others, but then I hear, “Sweet Corn, Combat Engineers.”

Beside me I hear him whisper, “Well at least I will have some friends there.” I nod my head yes and put a hoof on his shoulder.

Then I hear, “Xerxes, Combat Engineers.” I see his ears go forward and his jaw drop. I know he had been bucking for Officers Candidate School and I really thought he would have been a shoe in for OCS. I mean he really did do better then most of the rest of us overall.

After he finishes reading the orders, Staff Sergeant Round Bale calls out, “Ok, all of you being sent to the engineers meet me in the courtyard in ten minutes,” then he leaves the barracks bay.

Ten minutes later the four of us and a couple of others are standing at attention in the courtyard waiting for him. He approaches us and tells us, “At ease, I just wanted to say, you are all going into my main field of expertise. I know you all feel you dodged a bullet by getting this instead of the infantry, but I will tell you the truth, you didn’t. Cause not only do we have to fight like the infantry, we also have to do our jobs. If you remember nothing else of what I have told you, remember these words when you get out there, Breach or Bypass, especially when you are out in No mare’s land it’s that simple. Any questions?”

I see Xerxes raise a hoof and he asks, “Staff Sergeant, what is it like in the combat engineers? What are our specialties?”

I watch as Round Bale looks at all of us and smiles when he sees me, and tells us, “Combat Engineers are the Jacks of all trades of the army.”

Author's Notes:

Topic: Before the Bombs. By Trooper

Before the bombs: Absolutely Everything

It was a fine morning for flying. The ponies in the weather flight had just finished clearing the fog that hung over the meadow that served as the 55th Reconnaissance Squadron’s aerodrome. The sun, which cast a pale autumn glow over remnants of fog and the brown edges of the forest, had crested the east horizon less than an hour prior, but the pegasi of the squadron stirred long before then. Some poured over maps, memorizing the flight paths for their day’s mission, while others prepared camera equipment, loading spools of film into the large metal boxes that would be strapped to the fliers heading out to the front.

Lieutenant Ditzy Doo double checked the straps of her camera. She did not need a repeat of last week’s incident. The leather straps dug into the skin under her tunic and chafed the roots of her wings, but the camera was not going anywhere. The morning was chilly, causing her to shiver as little droplets of condensation from the straps found their way under her fur. Her sides, though, were warm thanks to the hot muffins she had stuffed in her saddlebag to munch on during the long day’s work ahead.

The grey lieutenant ran through her checklists one more time. Camera secured? Check. Route memorized and charts packed? A quick glance at the documents in her saddlebag checked this item off the list. Flares and emergency kit packed? Check. She wrapped her scarf around her neck and lowered her goggles. Then, stretching her wings, she ran forward through the meadow and took flight. The feeling of freedom that accompanied the weightlessness in her hooves as they skidded over the wet grass and up into the air never got old. Ditzy Doo loved flying.

“Hey, Derpy, watch out!” The shout below startled Ditzy Doo. She looked down at the quickly shrinking pony who was pointing frantically towards a tall maple that was not. Rather, it was growing. Ditzy Doo pointed her nose upwards and climbed hard. Her hooves clipped the top of the tree, causing several of the red leaves to fall prematurely. But the maneuver bled off the pegasus’s remaining energy. Her left wing stalled first, kicking her into a spin towards the ground below. She panicked. Then she remembered the checklist. Right wing out to stop the rotation. Nose down to restore airflow over her wings. Then hard flapping to rebuild up energy. Ditzy Doo recovered with five feet to spare. She glanced back down at the pony who had warned her. He was rolling on the ground, the sound of laughter floating up to the grey pegasus.

Ditzy Doo’s ears burned despite the cool wind that buffeted them. She hated her callsign “Derpy”, which she had earned after the numerous accidents and mishaps that occurred during training. Not that it was a bad name or one that offended her, for she had been known by that name and many other nicknames since she was a little filly. She had fought hard to get the callsign “Muffins”, even trying to bride the others with the sweet, steaming treats, but her deployment to the front shortly thereafter solidified the less flattering name. She just wanted to be known for something more than as that “Derpy” pony.

She had achieved some success in that regard. Her eye condition which often caused her pupils to look in different directions proved to be an advantage for observation work. She could cover separate areas simultaneously or keep one eye down and one up in the sky; depth perception on the ground, though, was another issue. The Lunar Commendation Medal on her chest was a testament to her skill as a recon flier. A year ago, during the dynamic opening campaign of the war, Ditzy Doo spotted the hanging flank of the Zebra 5th Army that had allowed the Equestrians to halt weeks of retreat by exploiting the gap between the advancing legions. This allowed the Equestrians to hold the line before the enemy reached Canterlot. But she had been riding on the success of that day for too long. Her enjoyment as well as the appreciation of others for her work had stagnated just like the movement of the front below.

The front itself was still five miles ahead. The wasteland between the opposing armies cut through the landscape, a brown scar of mud and debris that only seemed to grow with each day that passed. Ditzy Doo focused her attention on the Equestrian side of the line; she would have plenty of time to look down on the wasteland later.

The whole of the earth below was bathed in a warm autumn light supplied by the faithful sun. Several villages dotted the area, the clusters of buildings peeking above the colorful mosaic of oranges, reds, and yellows that made up the fall foliage. Ditzy Doo estimated that the running of the leaves back in Ponyville was a little more than a moon away. Surrounding the villages, a patchwork of golden fields and orchards sprawled and beckoned of a bountiful harvest. In the distance, standing guard over the valley, the blue forms of the mountains rose towards the sky.

Except Ditzy Doo could not see the mountain range that was supposed to be in front of her. A thick black haze obscured them, the product of dirt launched skyward by the hundreds of artillery shells that churned the wasteland and the equally numerous bursts of Zebra anti-air flak, nicknamed “archie” by the fliers, that exploded in front of Ditzy Doo’s flight path. The weapons were new and their operators even newer, so she simply climbed higher to avoid the threat of the terrifying nuisance. She flew threw a cloud then leveled off, the altimeter attached to her foreleg pointing to 6,000 feet. The air was considerably cooler at this altitude. Time for a hot muffin.

The treat practically melted in her mouth, warming her through. Today’s muffins were chocolate chip. Ditzy Doo had studied the weather reports carefully; she knew it was going to be a chilly day in the sky and loved just how well the melted chocolate retained heat. Blueberries worked well, too, but were getting harder to find with the war.

Ditzy Doo banked to the right and started her ingress route over the village of Antares. Several buildings along the edge were crumbled from stray shells, but the tall spire of town hall had survived unscathed. The wasteland just beyond the village was quiet save for the constant bursts of archie trying, as he always did, to shoot down the annoying Equestrian fliers. A few ponies waved at the grey pegasus from their trenches, the brightly colored specks of hooves and faces flashing briefly before disappearing amid the homogenous texture of khaki and mud. Within minutes she was past the Equestrian lines and flying towards a prominent ridge that ran for several miles between the Equestrian and Zebra sides of the wasteland. A large crater, created by the detonation of a mine in last moon’s offensive, broke the otherwise smooth outline of the ridge. The crater and fierce fighting that had raged for control of it earned the ridge its nickname among the ponies – Shattered Hoof Ridge.

Lining her right wing up with the ridge, Ditzy Doo took the camera’s trigger in her mouth and started her photographing route. She noted a new battery of Zebra howitzers dug in at the edge of a wood. They would be on the list of targets for the Equestrian artillery tomorrow.

Three smudges appeared in the sky above Ditzy Doo. She dismissed them as friendly pegasi flying the high altitude patrol. They were probably from the 27th Skyguard Squadron whose aerodrome was only a mile from the 55th. Ditzy Doo had visited their mess last week while bringing a basket of muffins to an old friend from Ponyville. Besides, zebras could not fly. There were rumors, though, that the zebras had started hiring griffon mercenaries to counter Equestrian air superiority, but they were just rumors. No pony had sighted anything other than pegasi and observation balloons amid the clouds.

Several hours passed with Ditzy Doo flying along the ridge, doubling further back into the rear areas to photograph any new dumps of supplies or fresh paths of worn earth that would indicate a change in the usual pattern of life for the Zebra legion below. Such a change would mean that a new offensive was being planned in this sector. But Ditzy Doo saw no signs of such excitement as she clicked through her film. All was quiet on the front.

Which meant it was the perfect time for a nap. Ditzy Doo snapped the last picture on her spool of film then spotted a soft cloud to set herself down on. Her wings ached and protested as she stretched them out, but it was a feeling, just like so many things about the war, that she had grown used to. She undid her saddlebag and let the muffins slide out onto the cloud. She picked one up and bit down; it was no longer hot but at least still edible. She closed her eyes and sprawled on the cloud while reaching for another muffin with her muzzle. Her jaws bit down on empty air. The cloud shook, followed by a strong current of wind. Ditzy Doo snapped her eyes open.

The black shapes circled the cloud, peeling in to dash away bits of the grey pegasus’s platform. Ditzy Doo recognized them but did not want to believe it. Griffons, each armed with what she assumed was a machine gun. Of course she was the one to stumble onto them first. She always found trouble for herself where no pony else could.

Ditzy Doo jumped out of the cloud, pointing her nose down to gain as much speed as she could. The griffons gave chase. Bullets whizzed past, buffeting the air around her wings. Ditzy Doo inverted herself then pulled up sharply in a half loop and rolled level, the sudden split-s maneuver forcing the lead pursuer to overshoot but leaving the pegasus face to face with the second. She ducked under the griffon and started to bank away from the third and fourth griffons. She was running out of tricks.

A flurry of bullets knocked out the griffon Ditzy Doo had forced to overshoot. The flight of pegasi from earlier had come to help. Two pegasi pounced on the tails of the farthest two griffons, causing them to go on the defensive. Ditzy Doo recognized the blue coat and rainbow mane of the third pegasus whose streamer indicated she was the flight leader. She waved, but Rainbow Dash shook her head and pointed behind Ditzy Doo. A sharp pain in her left wing reminded Ditzy Doo that there was still one last griffon, and he was on her tail.

The bullet had only just struck the outer edge of the wing, but the pain was enough to startle Ditzy Doo and break her concentration. She stalled and entered a flat spin towards the wasteland below. The horizon wobbled in her field of view at a dizzying pace. She tried the checklist. Nothing. The ground was getting closer. She tried again, pushing her whole body into stopping the rotation. Success. She stretched her wings and soared back into the sky to regain altitude.

Rainbow Dash tussled with the remaining griffon, the two performing quick reversals that interweaved their flight paths in an attempt to get a clear shot at the other. Rainbow’s turns were just a little bit better than her opponent, allowing her to line up a quick burst on his tail. The griffon crumbled and fell straight down into the wasteland below. Rainbow clinched her hoof in victory then quickly cleared the expression; she pointed in the direction of home and saluted towards Ditzy Doo, who saluted back with a toothy grin which quickly faded as soon as she pointed her nose homeward. She had wanted excitement, but this is not what she meant.

Ditzy Doo’s heart raced; she blamed it on her vigorous flapping and too many muffins over the last few moons. She could not be scared, because brave pegasi, just like Rainbow Dash, did not get scared. She focused her attention ahead, making out the jagged scars of the Equestrian lines two miles distant. She let herself daydream about the hot bath she would take when she got back to the aerodrome. Then the sky turned black.

The concussive wind of a shell from archie ripped through every feather on Ditzy Doo’s wings. Her vision came back a half second later, but her ears only registered an insistent ringing which was somehow more monotonous than the sound of whipping wind. The explosion had been close and had cost the pegasus several hundred feet in altitude. But she was still flying, albeit through black clouds of hot shrapnel and bursts of fire. Ditzy Doo tried to zig-zag and gain altitude, but every boom enthralled her and foiled the effort. The storm of flak raged on around her, unrelenting in its violence. Ditzy Doo prayed, oh Celestia, preserve her. She would bake her muffins, anything to escape the certain death that had replaced the sky.

The blue clearing ahead could not have come sooner. Ditzy Doo dashed forward, finally safe on the Equestrian side. She took her last muffin out of her saddlebag and tossed it towards the now setting sun as a fulfillment of her promise. The projectile arched upwards then succumbed to gravity, tumbling into the amber landscape below until it disappeared among the lengthening shadows.

The familiarity of the ground below her hooves helped to ease Ditzy Doo. She focused on flying the approach into her squadron’s aerodrome. Right turn thirty degrees at the village with the bright pink house. Start descending over the hill with the funny looking tree. Left turn at the stream, then line up with the sunken road to enter the aerodrome’s landing pattern. Except Ditzy Doo could not see her last landmarks. The sun was nearly below the horizon, rapidly cooling the land, which in turn created large patches of fog that seeped through the forests and obscured the meadows. Ditzy Doo paused, then circled for several minutes hoping either the weather flight would clear the fog, or a landmark would peek through the growing mist to give her some bearing. The latter occurred first, the hangars of the aerodrome appearing briefly amid the blanket of grey.

Ditzy Doo pointed herself at where the hangar had been and started to descend. 1,000 feet. She was in the fog now, her vision nothing more than a blank, constant grey. 500 feet. Ditzy Doo strained her eyes, trying to make out the hangars or at least land below. 400 feet. Still nothing. 300 feet. She could feel the wind brushing against her, but her eyes told her she was not moving any closer. 200 feet. She was 100 feet from her minimum abort altitude. The fog only got thicker. 100 feet. Time to go around and try again. Then she saw the dark shape of a hangar through the fog. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was followed by a sickly crashing sound one second later.

The hangar came tumbling down, its support post sheared by the impact. Ditzy Doo wrestled herself out of the tangle of canvas. Her mind was racing too fast to focus on aligning her eyes, so she only saw half of the ponies staring at her. The other eye wandered on the dented remains of her camera. Not again.

“Lieutenant Derpy, report to the office once you have, err, extracted yourself.” The stern yet piercing voice was that of Ditzy Doo’s flight commander. She knew what was coming. She pulled her hooves free of the canvas and inspected the camera again. The lens was shattered but the film canister was still intact, giving Ditzy Doo a slight feeling of victory that some good would come out of her trip over the wasteland today.

The squadron office was a few steps away from the wrecked hangar. Ditzy Doo brushed some dirt off her tunic and straightened the goggles on her cap. She knocked once on the door. “Enter,” came the deep voice of the squadron commander. Ditzy Doo gulped.

She marched into the little office, squaring her corners to approach the desk on the far end of the room. She saluted the two ponies and said, “Lieutenant Ditzy Doo, reporting as ordered, sir.”

“Eyes forward when you address the major, lieutenant,” scolded the flight commander.

“They are forward, ma’am,” Ditzy Doo replied. She was honestly doing her best.

“Never mind that, captain,” said the major. “Lieutenant, let’s start with your mission report. At least we can get something even though your photos are destroyed. Again.”

“Actually, sir, the film is still good.” Ditzy Doo placed the canister on the major’s desk. He looked surprised. “There are some new batteries that I listed on the map. But I ran into some griffins.” Ditzy Doo looked down.

“That’s preposterous,” exclaimed the captain. “You, of all the ponies we have out flying today, are the only one to report these rumored griffons? I supposed one of them made you crash into our hangar, too?” Ditzy Doo let her head hang lower.

“I will send a message down to the 27th to confirm your sighting, lieutenant,” the major stated. “But your captain is right, Derpy. You may have distinguished yourself during the Summer Campaign, but your record here is hardly commendable. Three major accidents and dozens of incidents in the last three moons. This is the second camera you’ve lost in a week.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t have room for substandard performers in my squadron.”

“I understand, sir. I’m doing my best, honest,” Ditzy Doo mumbled. She felt like her head would touch the floor any moment.

The major pushed a piece of paper across his desk. “This is an order to transfer you to another unit. The 2nd Air Mobility Squadron. I haven’t signed it yet.”

“If I had my way, you’d be out of my air force tonight!” interrupted the captain. The major shot a hot glance at her, then focused his gaze on Ditzy Doo.

“However, we need everypony to do their part. Maybe this squadron isn’t for you. Either you shape up, Derpy, or you’ll be shipped out. Dismissed.”

Ditzy Doo snapped to attention then turned about to exit the office. She pulled her goggles down once she stepped through the door. She could not see well out of them in the darkness of night, but neither could anypony else see in. She had a substantial collection of moisture by the time she reached the secluded pond just beyond the aerodrome’s meadow. She took the goggles off and sat down on her haunches at the pond’s edge, allowing the tears to flow naturally like the water lapping at her hooves.

The moon had fully risen in the crisp night sky, its yellow luminance rippling against the surface of the pond. Ditzy Doo tossed a rock, distorting the reflection. She wondered why she could not escape under the shadow of “Derpy”. Her heart sank because maybe, perhaps, that pony really was who she was. She cried because each day was worse than the last, a mundane nightmare that only grew more terrifying, and she was not contributing anything to make it stop. No amount of muffins could fortify her against another trip through the flak. She shivered.

The sweet chirping of a warbler floated along with the mist over the pond. Ditzy Doo wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up. The reflection of the moon had righted itself. The soft light bended around the trees, casting shafts in the mist that held back the deep shadows within. Ditzy Doo knew she had to be better. She knew she had to fight, to do her part to end the war. And she knew she was not happy here. She had to find her place, a place that satisfied her like her muffins.

Ditzy Doo considered this for several hours, running the same questions through her mind over and over. She watched the moon trace through the sky and the stars rotate between thin wisps of cloud. Then, the exhaustion of the day catching her, she succumbed to the peace of sleep.

A soft chorus of birds woke Ditzy Doo. Her body ached, every muscle protesting her struggle to stir herself. She shook off the thin layer of dew on her coat that had formed from the morning’s coolness. From the muted colors of the trees and the pale grayness of the sky Ditzy Doo assumed the sunrise was imminent. The distant bugle from the aerodrome confirmed her assumption.

Ditzy Doo walked away from the pond and back into the aerodrome. The whole meadow was stirring with activity, as usual. Ponies looked over maps, ponies worked on camera equipment, ponies did their duty. Same mission, different day. Except for the grey pegasus. Today was not just a different day – it was a different mission, too.

She knocked once on the office door. She did not wait for the deep voice to invite her in.

“Lieutenant Derpy, good morning. You’re looking … focused today,” the major said, turning around from a wall-mounted chart as Ditzy Doo marched in, her eyes directed straight ahead.

“Yes, sir. I’ve made a decision about yesterday. I want to transfer.” The major gestured to the seats by his desk, his expression becoming serious.

“Derpy, are you sure? I was willing to give you a little more of an opportunity to improve. Your flight commander may be blind to it, but I see a certain potential within you, hence the second chance.”

“I am sure, sir. I realized yesterday that I’m not happy here. I think that my potential is better elsewhere.” The major frowned, then sighed.

“Very well, I will sign the order.” He stuck out his hoof, which Ditzy Doo stared at cross-eyed before shaking her eyes straight and accepting the gesture. “You have a talent for recon work, I can’t deny that, Derpy. But maybe you have another talent better served elsewhere.”

“I have just one question, sir,” Ditzy Doo asked.

“What is that?”

“What does an air mobility squadron do exactly?” The major hesitated then saw the sincerely puzzled look on Ditzy Doo’s face.

“They transport supplies for the military’s operations. Food for the kitchens, ammunition for the guns, letters from home for the soldiers. You could say they do absolutely everything. An army is nothing without its supply line, after all.” Ditzy Doo smiled. She liked the sound of that. But she had one more question.

“Do you think they have muffins?” The major pondered the question. He smiled warmly to answer.

“No. But they will now.”

Author's Notes:

Topic: Before the bomb. By Clarke Otterton

Before the Bombs: F is for Fade Away

"So... did you tell them?"

The initial happiness I'd felt upon meeting again began to fade at the question. She didn't turn to look me in the eye, only leaning against me with one of her gentle wings wrapped around my back as we sat in the wagon together. I took a deep breath, enjoying the other mare's soft presence as I rested my head against her shoulder, following her gaze out the windshield of her family wagon. I nuzzled her cheek in silence, while larger-than-life advertisements faded in and out of the large screen beyond the rows of other wagons. We were entertained by flirtatious mares in two-pieces, urging us to 'quench our thirst with Sparkle-Cola', primly dressed Canterlot stallions claiming, 'there's a big delight in every bite of Fancy Buck Snack Cakes', foals munching down on boxes of cereal, while yelling, 'Sugar Apple Bombs are a blast!' with their mouths full, and the rest of the usual poster and billboard ads we'd see along any city, small town, road or business throughout Equestria. I enjoyed these moments with her... Just a quiet night at the drive-in. Just us...

I finally shook my head against her soft blue fur and sighed. "...no." A tiny, sad smile appeared on my muzzle. "Did you?"

She lightly scoffed before pulling me closer with her wing. "No... just told them I was meeting you at the diner for a milkshake or something... with 'friends'." Her wingtips stretched out beside us to make air-quotes before returning them to our embrace. She finally turned her head to look at me, a hint of regret in her eyes as she sighed. "You know we're gonna have to tell them eventually, right?"

I met her gaze, my forehoof brushing her gorgeous arctic mane away from her face as I shared my own trepidation with her. "...what if they forbid it? We... we'd never be able to see each other again."

She shook her head, her eyes clenching tight at the thought, before suddenly throwing her forelegs around me, and hugged me as if it'd be our last embrace. "That's not gonna happen, Honey Silk!" She sniffled.

I shuddered as I hugged her back, tightly, feeling my heart ache right alongside hers at the possibility. "I-I don't know... I'm just... I'm scared, Crystal. My parents, they... they don't-... N-not to mention the law against-..."

My blubbering was suddenly cut short by the feeling of her hoof against my lips. I blinked as she rested her forehead against mine, allowing me full view of those beautiful ice-blue eyes of hers. "Doesn't matter..." She said, soft yet determined as she dried her eyes with a wingtip. "You're the only pony in this whole world I wanna be with, Silky." Her smile began to grow with a giggle, "Besides, with the war and everything going on, I guess our parents won't be too focused on what we're doing together anyway, right? For all they know, we're just a couple of best friends hanging out at the-... eep!"

I had to keep myself from smiling at the sound of her surprised squeak, as I suddenly pressed my lips to hers and kissed her. She had me at 'only pony in this whole world'. I pulled her close like she did with me, only I had to use my earth pony hooves to hug her waist instead of wings. I could feel the spur of our heartbeats flutter in chorus through our chests, as her wings flared against the seat behind her. It only took a moment for her initial shock to fade, before she melted into the lip-lock herself, gently resting a hoof on my chest as the other hooked behind my head.

I wasn't sure how long we kissed. With the little time we've had alone, ever since we became more... 'intimate' friends, it was never very often. Which made every moment of the kiss that much more special.

Our lips were soft and tender, yet the kiss itself was electrifying, our chorus of soft sighs telling me that she was just as breathless as I was. Finally, after what felt like an eternity that could never last as long as we'd like, the kiss broke, leaving both of us out of breath as we held each other in our hooves. My cheeks burned as I panted, eventually giving her a goofy smile while lovingly clutching her hoof to my chest "I lov-..."

I was never able to finish those three small, yet very important words, before the the sound of 'Funky Fanfare' suddenly blasted through the speakers set up in our wagon. "Oh! Looks like the movie's starting!" Crystal said as she excitingly turned towards the screen, clapping her hooves together.

I blinked in surprise, partly from how quick she was able to recover from the kiss... -oh, GOSH that kiss~... and partly due to the light smack aside my head, delivered from her very... very stiff wing when she turned. Ooooh, she's gonna have to do better than that to hide that blissful flutter in her breath.

"Oh!" I gasped as I slapped my face with a forehoof. "I forgot to buy snacks! I was gonna get some popcorn for us to share. I could probably still make it before I miss anything." I said as I opened the door. "Do you want a Sparkle-Cola or something?"

"Thanks, but... I think I'm good." She said, before turning to me with a blush. "Your uh... your tongue was pretty wet, so..."

That admission could have turned my pink coat crimson, and I would have been completely helpless to hide it. Regardless of the shade of red I had turned however, I made sure to give her one last loving smile before I stepped out into the crisp evening air and closed the wagon door behind me. I was about to turn towards the concession stand when I was remined of what had made us so upset earlier. 'Clearsky Family Delivery Company' was boldly printed across the door to her skywagon. I stared at it for a moment, before turning away with a sigh. It wasn't that I didn't like her family, or that her family disliked me... or even my family and her for that matter... They were good ponies. Good ponies who... would never approve of Crystal and I.

Crystal may think she has a plan, but... I don't think we'll ever be able to confess about our love, if we want to stay together...

I was able to snap myself out of my gloomy thoughts long enough to look up at a poster next to the double doors of the concession stand. I was thankful at first, anything to help me get my mind off of our problem. That was until I realized what poster I was actually looking at.

It was a cheerful picture of a typical Equestrian family, a mare, a stallion, and a couple of foals... only this family wasn't out enjoying the sunshine and rainbows of the Equestria I grew up in, rather smiling with blissful ignorance in an underground facility, while balefire bombs exploded in the background above them. 'It's never too late!' A rather plain looking stallion with a blond wavy mane seemed to reassure me, grinning as if he were actually enjoying the destructive mushroom clouds looming behind him. 'Stable-Tec is here for you. Reserve your spot today, and prepare for the future!' And yet, another poster hung on the opposite side, though I was skeptical to it being propaganda as much as it was a movie poster for some slasher flick. It was the silhouette of a zebra with glowing eyes, grinning like a psychopath as a town burned to the ground behind him. 'Your home is next' was printed in monster-green font above him. 'Keep alert. Protect your families'.

Both posters were yet another reminder of the world we lived in. Everypony was scared out of their gourds at the possibility of another zebra attack. I was only a foal when the attack on Littlehorn happened. It seemed like so long ago, yet the shock, sadness and fear on everypony's faces when it happened, still played as fresh as the newsreels in my mind. But, that was the beginning of the war. Now... with balefire bombs and megaspells... It was enough for my dad to take us to Sweet Apple Acers to sign our whole family up at our local Stable in Ponyville. Stable 2, I think is the number... Not that we'd ever think we'd have to use it. At least, everypony but dad... He's always been a little more worried about it than the rest of us. And sure, we were worried, but... It's better not to think about it... like I was doing right now.

"C'mon Honey Silk, snap out of it..." I growled to myself as I tried shaking the thought out of my head. "It's ridiculous to think it'd ever happen. Nopony... o-or zebra, is that crazy, right?" I feebly reassured myself before finally trotting passed the posters toward the door.

I hardly noticed the other pony behind me, no doubt buying some last-minute snacks as well, as he too approached the door. I was a polite pony, so I thought I'd hold the door open for him since I'd gotten there first, but when my hoof touched the door-handle...

"Ow!" I yelped as the strange... cloaked... pony, slammed his forehoof on top of mine as if trying to open the door for himself. Whatever was under his hoof was rather... pointy, pricking me enough to draw a drop of blood from my hoof, as the door flung open in front of us. He trotted inside without hesitation, before disappearing behind the next corner. I get that it was probably an accident, but he didn't even apologize! "Jerk..." I hissed under my breath as I stopped to rub my forehoof with the other. It almost felt as if a... bee stung me.

I was so busy trying to rub and -occasionally shake- the pain out of my hoof, that I hardly noticed a curious sound building from outside. I paused as the sound resonated, perking my ears to listen. It sounded like some kind of siren, beginning to wail, slowly cranking up to a shriek, before falling off and rising again. I shrugged it off at first, thinking it was coming from the movie. Which means, you better hurry before you miss anything good, Silk!

I stood back up, about to trot over to the popcorn machine, when... "W-woah..." My hooves suddenly wobbled under my weight. I didn't quite fall, but my legs stumbled as everything started to spin around me. I started to feel... dizzy. I quickly shook my head to try and clear my daze, but that almost made me want to vomit.

Oh no... the only time Crystal and I can spend time together, and I get sick!? Maybe I'm... just a little tired. But, why did I feel tired!? N-no! I... I wanted to be with Crystal tonight, and-...

The siren outside began to grow louder, while my thoughts began to grow hazier. I felt a migraine coming on as I tried to massage my temples with my hooves. That... that's not from the movie. That's coming from Ponyville! It sounded like the town fire-whistle. But... how could I hear it from all the way out of town? Is... is there a fire?

O-oh no! My parents!

I stood back up, and bolted back out the door into the drive-in lot as quick as I could. I don't care how dizzy I felt, or how many times I nearly fell on my face.

That's when everything began to happen at an accelerating, confusing pace...

The siren became even louder, blaring from every direction now, not just from Ponyville. It was so loud, it felt as if all of reality were on high alert for an incoming attack! Like a... like an air raid, or a...

Or a...

The sky suddenly started to get brighter. The... sun was rising? No... that's not right. It couldn't have been the sun, it was night! And the sun does NOT rise in the west! No, it wasn't the sun... but fire. Poisonous green fire on the horizon! I could hardly hear it through the ear-splitting alarm, but the slightest sound of what I could only describe as thunder reached my ears, rumbling the ground below me like a tiny tremor. I was so paralyzed, that I couldn't even fathom the slightest possibility of what was happening. The ponies around me from the other wagons began to panic, some diving away as quick as they could, while a few pegasi pulled skywagons into the clouds above. Others simply galloped away and ran for their lives. But from what!? It was something bad, wasn't it?! Was it the zebras? Were they attacking? Burning down some helpless village!?

I was forgetting something... something important... Oh, GODDESSES! My head is killing me! What... what's happening?! I wish... I wish I had Crystal here to...

My eyes widened. "CRYSTAL!!!"

The sky suddenly lit up, as if Celestia herself had ripped the sun from the horizon. No... It was faster than that. Like turning on a giant lightbulb, going from a pleasant evening to a nightmarish noon with the flip of switch. That was only seconds before I heard the blast that had caused it. It shook me, knocking me to the ground as my entire reality violently jolted. What used to be a small tremor, became an earthquake. The air became warm... hot even, like somepony had just thrown me inside an oven. It wasn't just fire... these were... these were balefire bombs!!! Oh goddesses, this can't be happening!!!

"C-Crystal!" I screamed for her again, trying to ignore the intense heat as I forced my hooves to move, rushing over to the Clearsky skywagon before reaching for the door handle. "Crystal! Crys- YOW!!!" I shrieked in pain as the searing hot metal burned my hoof. My lip quivered from the pain, but more so from panic as I began banging on the window with my forehooves. "Crystal! Crystal! We-... We've gotta go! It-... Oh, goddesses, it burns!" The glass almost felt as if it were molten as I continued my painful assault on her wagon, desperately trying to get to the mare I loved. "Crystal! Please!!!"

"...Honey Silk!"

I gasped, hearing her voice from outside the wagon. I quickly turned, spinning in place as I looked for her. "Crystal!?" My coat was beginning to feel as if it were on fire. But I didn't care... I had to find her!

"Honey Silk! Where are you!? Honey Silk..!"

Her voice was growing distant. I began to cry, but my tears could only turn to vapor. "Crystal! I'm here, Crystal! I'm... I'm here!" It was so hot. There was so much fire... and my head. S-something... something was in my head! The world around me began to blur to a nebula of green and orange flames. Eventually, my legs could take no more as I collapsed on top of the burning asphalt. I shuddered, trying to crawl towards her voice, but I had no idea what direction was which anymore. "Crys-... Crysta-..." My voice struggled, no longer finding the strength to yell anymore as I continued to hear the mare's desperate cries for me, simply fading into the chaos until her voice was unrecognizable to me. I could only try calling out one last time... one last time to finally tell her. "Crystal... I... I l-love... y-y..."

The world finally fell silent. No longer burning... but cold. So... very... cold...

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" I shrieked as my head shot up from my pillow. My heart was beating so fast, it felt like it was going to burst through my chest. Oh goddesses... that was the worst nightmare I've ever had! I gasped for breath, my eyes blinking both sleep and tears away, as I wiped a string of drool from my mouth and rolled onto my back.

It just felt so real! I made sure to check I still had all four hooves and legs, one tail, one head, two eyes and ears. My mane and tail? Still a creamy white and orange. No burns either. Yeah... it was just a dream. Thank Celestia...

I was just about to catch my breath, when a curious sound made my ears flicker. They perked, letting me catch a cheerful, charismatic stallion's voice over soothing background music, playing from a nearby speaker. "Good morning, everypony~" He said, his voice warped by the tinny sound of a radio. "Looks like we're instore for another beautiful and serene day in paradise..."

I gave gloomy sigh as I did my best to get out of bed... but, just couldn't bring myself to do it this time. It's been years since it happened... but, I still dreamt about it. This was the first time in... I don't even know how long since the last nightmare. All the different ways... all the terrible ways that it could have happened. Thankfully, I didn't get as many these days, but that just means the ones I do get are that much more terrifyingly unpredictable. B-but... but, this time... I'd dreamt of her...

"Oh, Crystal..." My voice shuddered as the memory of her returned, and I felt the tension in my chest finally snap. I quietly began to sob as I slammed by face into my forehooves.

I never got to say goodbye...

"Honey Silk!" The familiar voice of my shift supervisor came through my door from the hallway. "You up, yet!? Don't want to miss your shift in Maintenance today! We wouldn't want the Overmare to go back on her word for tonight's performance! Drinks are on the stable!"

I struggled to keep my crying from being heard as I wiped my nose with a sniffle. "Yeah... I-I'm up! Heh... wouldn't miss that for the world!" I yelled back, faking the enthusiasm for tonight as much as I could. "Just give me a minute!"

I quietly resumed my sobs after I was sure I heard him trot away... though I kept them under control this time. I certainly didn't need anypony hearing me cry like a filly...

My gaze had slowly shifted to the nightstand next to my bed, and the drawer where I kept a few of the things I felt I didn't really need after the bombs fell that day. Things that I-... I slowly began to forget about.

W-why was I forgetting!? I... I couldn't remember...

I hesitantly opened the drawer with a hoof, and pulled out a dusty picture frame. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I blew the dust off to reveal two innocent and happy mares, holding each other in their forehooves with blissful grins across their faces. I... couldn't even remember when the grainy picture was taken, or what we were even doing at the time. But, there was no denying that Crystal and I were the happiest when we were together. And that was something I never wanted to forget... Never! B-but... but there's just something in my head that... i-it's forcing me to forget! I... I feel like I've forgotten so many things! Like my-- [REDACTED]

The stable kept us safe. Everypony had hopes of course, but... We all knew deep down that we're going to be here for the rest of our lives. Even if what I hoped was true, that the pegasi protected her from the fire, and that she's out there somewhere... I knew that I was never going to see her again either way. I've thought about her from time to time, but... like I said, it's been years and most ponies who dwell on the past down here end up going crazy. And she... I knew she wouldn't want me to do that. She'd want me to move on. And, I have... I've actually already met somepony. And... and she's really nice! She would have liked her, I think...

Something screamed in my head to resist the memory... but I fought it. I felt myself reach out and touch my hoof against Crystal's face. I closed my eyes and smiled, letting the tears fall as I imagined her soft wings caressing me in an embrace I haven't had in a long time. "Crystal..." I sniffled again.

I... I wish I could have shared this life with her... It's a good life, I guess, especially given the circumstances, but... the only pony in this whole world I wanna be with isn't here with me.

I sighed, before opening my teary eyes again. "I hope, wherever you are Crystal Clearsky, that you'll be waiting for me when I make it over the rainbow."

I decided to leave the frame standing on my nightstand instead of putting it back in my drawer. I never wanted to forget her... Remembering our time together hurt, like a big hole inside you where you knew something special was supposed to go... Maybe you can never fill it like it was, but it couldn't hurt to have others help you try to live without it. That way... I don't have to forget. I dried my eyes with a hoof and got dressed for my shift, buckling my PipBuck on above my left forehoof.

I couldn't help but give the picture one last look, meeting the mare's beautiful eyes again "I love you." I smiled, heart broken... but happy to remember her once more, before turning towards the door to my room. Finally, after all these years, I was able to finish those three small, yet very important words. As I was trotting out of my room, I could have sworn I heard a voice from the radio that wasn't that of the cheery stallion's.

"...I love you too, Silky..."

I looked back at it, twisting my ears in surprise, only to hear a dull static rolling through its speakers. I shook my head with a sigh. Looks like I'll need to call somepony up from my department to fix my radio again... I wonder why it keeps acting up? I closed the door and trotted down the hall to start another shift... another day in the stable, while leaving the radio's frequency to send its final gloomy message to an empty room.

"...Over the Rainbow... I'll see you there, Honey Silk... I promise..."

Author's Notes:

Topic: Before the Bombs. By Vic the Tricky Unicorn

First off!: Ending Song
So, there's a few confusing elements in this story, I know. Like the mysterious pony that did something to her in her "dream", and her memory loss, and the ending. That's because this story originally had a much bigger plot to it. It would have followed Honey Silk's adjustment to stable life, meeting new ponies... and of course, there would have been an actual plot to the story, twists and turns and such with the theme of mistrusting reality and escape! But, decided to cut it short for the sake of not being over 20k words. Not to say I won't eventually expand it into its original size in the future. Till then though, hope you enjoyed this little fic of my characters.