Chapter 22-3: Fracturing Faces

“They’re here.”

At Cassie’s warning, Breeze, Naiara, Bosco, Undertow and I all shimmied up to the ridge we were hiding at. According to the sniper pegasus, it was around half a kilometre from where the Silver Fog forest had been, where Schwarzwald and Wings were still standing.

Lying next to Cassie, I hesitated to move too much, lest she lose concentration while looking through her rifle sight. Still, my trepidation got the better of me in the end. “You can make the shot, if things go wrong, right?”

“Of course she can!” Breeze snapped from two spots down the line. “Nobody has better eyes than Cass.”

“Yeah, but this time it counts.” Undertow clarified.

Cassie grunted, without looking away from the scope. “Especially when it counts. They’re about to land.”

At the end of the line, Naiara fidgeted. “I wish we could hear what they were saying.”

As in on cue, Breeze’s communicator crackled. “Stay calm, dahling.”

“Schwarzwald?” Breeze scrambled for the device.

Wings’ voice emerged from the speaker next. “Yeah, I know. Still don’t think this is gonna be any fun, though.”

Bringing the communicator to her lips, Breeze prepared to reply. Before she could, however, Undertow put a hoof over the receiver. “I don’t think she is talking to us. I think she just wants us to listen.”

Undertow’s hoof still over her mouth, Breeze’s eyes and brows widened and lifted, and shrank and lowered, until she eventually shrugged and stayed silent. She, Naiara, and Undertow squeezed in close to listen to what was being said.

I stayed beside Cassie, watching what I could from this distance, which wasn’t much. I could just barely make out that the two descending shapes were griffons, much larger than the petite WIngs, even taller than Schwarzwald, but beyond that they were just blotches of colours.

Wings’ usual cockiness seemed strained as she addressed the new arrivals. “Eitom, Wicker. Can’t say it’s a pleasure.”

Eitom and Wicker? I rubbed my jaw, remembering the last time we’d met, where the former had cracked me across the face with his rifle butt. “This is bad, they’re not just any monsters. They’re McCoy’s lieutenants!”

“Quiet!” Cassie hissed. “I can’t hear!”

“Wings,” Eitom’s cultured speech seemed a start contrast to his past actions. “I believe you know why we are here.”

“Collecting on our deal?” If she was surprised, it didn’t sound like it.

“That’s right, dudette.” Wicker chimed in. “You owe us, and we’re here to collect.”

“A mutual acquaintance has hired we two, and McCoy, to act as-”

“DUDE!” Wicker interrupted Eitom’s exposition. “We talked about this! You can’t keep blabbing every little detail!”

The black-and-white blotch still managed to look chastised, half a kilometre away. “Right, right. Sorry. As I was saying. We’re here to collect. Some griffons have business with you, and you alone. I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.”

“That's not good.” Cassie hissed.

“What's wrong? Are there more griffons?” I couldn’t see any, but I didn’t have a sniper rifle, or her eyes.

“No, but Wings… she’s acting strangely.”

My horn glowed briefly. “Strangely how?”

Cassie shook her head lightly. “I don’t know, but whatever that Eitom said really affected her. She’s smiling, but her eyes are wide open, and she keeps swallowing. I think she's nervous.”

“...I understand.” Wings said at last. There was no cockiness in her voice now. It was flat, resigned.

“Wings, do not make any rash decisions.” Schwarzwald cautioned, still watching the two tiercels.

“No,” Wings stopped her. “this isn’t anything rash. In fact, it’s a long time coming. I owe these two, and it’s time to collect.”

“Wings!” Schwarzwald croaked. She never sounds like that. This can’t be good.

Wings ignored her, and addressed the Monsters. “Can you give me a few minutes. I need to contact a few people. I won’t move, I swear.”

The straw and black-and-white blotches looked at each other. “...Five minutes. We’ll be in the air. Come up when you’re done.”

With that, the two slowly elevated, rising a hundred metres in the air, before coming to a halt. Their wings flapped as they hovered in place.

Bosco immediately grabbed the communicator from Breeze. “Cassie, keep those two in your sights.”

“Roger.”

He flipped the switch. “Wings, answer me! What’s going on?”

She shook her head in the distance. “I’ll be with you in a sec, Boss Colt. I gotta tell Schwarzwald something in private first.” The communicator went silent.

“Wings? Wings!” Bosco yelled into the device, but to no avail. She’d switched hers off.

Groaning violently, he switched tactics. “Cassie, forget those two. Read Wings’ lips. We’ll watch the griffons.”

“Bosco, I don’t know how to lip-read.”

Growling, he tossed the communicator back to Breeze without looking. Naiara managed to catch it before it smacked the techhead in the face.

Watching Wings and Schwarzwald talk was heartbreaking. Schwarzwald was animated. Wings… was not. She stood statue still as her partner gesticulated. The chocolate-and-cream griffon patiently let Schwarzwald tire herself out, then reached out and touched the mare with her claw.

Only when Schwarzwald turned away did the communicator come to life. “Guys, you there?”

Naiara still had our radio. “We’re here, Wings. What’s going on?”

“Naiara? Alright, I’ll start with you. I… can’t say I know you all that well, even after all the time we’ve spent together. You were more the others’ friend than mine. I can say this, though. Nobody here has a bad word to say about you, and I totally see why. You kept things fun.”

Regarding the communicator with confusion, Naiara looked around for an explanation. None of us had one to give. “Wings, what are you talking about?”

Wings pushed on. “Who’s next? Breeze? Cass?”

“We’re here.” Cassie called out, still watching over the two Monsters.

“Cool. I always felt like I could talk to you two about anything. Having a few more fliers around is nice.”

Breeze, perturbed, tried to cover it with gruff. “Wings, seriously, the hell’re you talking about?”

“Come on, Blue Fire.” Cassie pressed. “You can talk to us.”

False cheer was not what anyone wanted to hear from her, but was what we got. “No time, bud, sorry. Lemme talk to Bosco.”

The communicator was helpless passed over to the colt. “Wings.” He acknowledged, frustration evident in his voice.

“Hey, Boss Colt.” She sounds so tired. “Sorry, but I’m not gonna be able to stick around to help you find that last Memory Orb of yours. I gotta go do a thing.”

He was shaking. “What thing is so important that you can’t stick with us for a while longer? You’re breaking your word, featherbrain.”

“Yeah, but I think you’ll be okay. You really know your stuff, guy. You can look after the others just fine.”

“Not really a fair trade, Wings. We like having you around.” Lips drawn back to bear teeth, he kept looking between the communicator and the griffon-blotch in the distance.

Thanks, Bosco. That means a lot. Sorry again. Can you put Undertow on, please?”

Undertow grabbed the communicator out of his hooves before he could make a move. Her voice was even more watery than usual. “Wings, why are you saying these things?”

“Oof,” Wings chuckled. “keep that up and your family won’t be able to help spoiling you rotten, kid.”

“Answer me!” Undertow pleaded.

“I gotta go away, Undertow. When I’m gone, I need you to look out for your sister, okay? Special mission from Blue Fire for you. You gotta keep Red Ice out of trouble.”

“But I’m not Blue Fire, you are!”

“I’m a lot of things, kid. Proud of you is one of them.”

A whimpering sob came from the girl.

“Snow.” Wings’ voice somehow overrode Undertow’s distress.

I took the communicator from Undertow’s unresisting hooves. “Wings. Explain this right now!”

“You need to find another hero, Snow. Someone else to spread the love. I’m gonna be going off-radar.”

“You’re our only hero, Wings. You’re the only Blue Fire we have.”

“Sorry again.” There was no fight in her voice. She wouldn’t be convinced, or swayed, or comforted. You suck at acting, Wings. We can all tell you hate this, so why are you doing it? “What do they have on you, Wings? They told me you made a deal. What was it?”

“Before your time, Snow. Not your business.” Her voice lifted, just a little. "Don't worry, I'll be okay."

“Your business is screwing with OUR business. You know what’s at stake here!” I couldn’t help the anger creeping in.

Wings replied in kind. “Look, I’m not gonna argue with you about this, Snow. I’m out of time, and this is something I’ve gotta do. That’s all you need to know. If I can help in any way with your mission while I’m away, I will, but I can’t keep playing a silly game of cops and robbers with you!”

“So what?” I challenged. “Is that it? No more Blue Fire?”

“...Gon-na miss ya, Red Ice.” The quaver in her voice shook something inside.

“WINGS!” I don’t ever wanna hear you talking like that again.

It was too late. The line was dead. All seven of us, six on the ridge and one down below, watched as she took off with the other griffons into the sky. She didn't hesitate. She was almost enthusiastic, even. As they faded out, Schwarzwald’s blotch slowly turned and began making its way towards us.

“Fuck.” Bosco intoned, deadpan. “Fuck.” Louder this time. “Fuck!” Still louder, almost yelling. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” Now he was yelling it, over and over again.

The rest of us sat around, despondent, as he raged. “What in the hell good is this? What about my Orbs? What about the Windigoes? What about…”

He stamped on the ground once, twice, thrice. “...what about her? What’s she gonna do now?”

She’s gonna fulfill her obligations, like always.

“We don’t know, Bosco. In case you hadn’t noticed, she wasn’t exactly forthcoming with that information!” Breeze’s aggravation was obviously not directed at him, so he didn’t respond.

She’s never been forthcoming. She still hasn’t told me her name.

“Why doesn’t she trust us with this?” Cassie lifelessly packed away her rifle.

She does. We’re the only people she does trust. It’s why she stayed so long, even though none of this is really her fight.

“Why does she think we’d be okay with her being scared like this?” Undertow sat glumly.

Good question.

“I thought of her as a friend.” Naiara supplied, watching Schwarzwald plod up to the ridge.

We all did. She’s our friend. That was never in doubt. Even when I was leading the Raiders, she still stuck with me when I almost died. She led me to Undertow again.

She’s supposed to save the Wasteland.

She’s supposed to fight against Red Ice.

She’s supposed to be loved by everyone.

I stood up, jaw set.

She’s supposed to tell me her name.

“Come on.” I announced to the group at large.

“Come on what?”

“We’re going to go get Schwarzwald, then we’re all going to get Wings.” Bosco’s gonna kill me.

I turned to the colt. “Listen, I know we only have a week, but-”

“Snow, be quiet.”

That was direct.

“We’ve got a week to spare.” A hint of a smile curled up at the corner of his mouth. “Let’s go get her.”

“Hahaa! That’s what I’m talking about!” Breeze was less restrained, punching the air enthusiastically.

“She can’t truly think we will let her get away without severe mocking about what happened between her and ‘Snowfake’.” Cassie had caught Bosco’s grin.

“Yeah!” I agreed. “I-wait…”

“You had to see that one coming, big sister.” Undertow patted me on the head, sporting a big smile of her own.

“Our friend needs us!” Naiara clicked on the communicator. “Schwarzwald, stop moping!”

The older mare’s voice was anything but jovial as she answered. “Naiara, please, not n-”

“I said stop moping and let’s go get Wings back!”

“DAHLINGS! You are wonderful!”

~~~~~~

“HALT! Who goes-URK!”

I looked on, unimpressed, as the griffon guard hit the floor, having just been knocked out by Naiara. “Sheesh, turn the radio on sometime, buddy. I’ve been here before, and I'm kinda famous.”

“Shh!” Naiara chided. “Come on, Snow, we’re trying to keep a low profile here! Don’t start anything until we find out where Wings is.”

“Right, right.” I whispered back. Naiara scaled the wall of a nearby shack, disappearing away over the rooftops of Gull Gulf. Not so vertically gifted, I was forced to scurry through the tight spaces. It was the only way to get closer to the centre of the town without being seen.

I’m gonna be really pissed if she’s not here. Granted, we only came here because this is where griffons hang out, and Wings is a griffon. Which, now that I think about it, might be profiling, so...

“Freeze!” Another guard cocked his shotgun at me from a nearby roof.

Glad that thought got interrupted.

A split-second whistling noise sounded, and then the griffon’s eye exploded, showering the wall beside me with goo. The guard simply toppled off the roof, thudding down bonelessly into the alley behind him. This angle showed the nasty bullet hole in the back of his skull.

“Not fun, huh, pal?” I muttered, glad Cassie wasn’t shooting at me for once.

I slowly made my way through the rest of the shacks, ducking out of sight when other guards stalked past. The majority of shacks looked basically the same as each other, and I almost lost track of where I was a time or two.

It was only when I had to scramble around a corner to escape another guard that I spotted something useful. The supply shed, where I’d been briefly cornered by Eitom and Wicker, still hadn’t had the hole I’d kicked through it repaired. Groaning softly as I remembered the jagged edges, I hunkered down and crawled through the gap, hissing as the uneven rim rasped against my coat. Luckily, I managed to get through without being cut open, unlike last time.

“Before we start with your business,” I quickly ducked down, remaining motionless as McCoy’s deep, rumbling bass drifted in through the door crack. “You got anything to say to help my Monsters, your fellow griffons, in going after Red Ice? You are Blue Fire, after all.”

My heart jumped. Wings! I knew she’d be here, totally called it! I crept up to the door, peekng through the gap.

Wings was standing in the open square, dwarfed by McCoy, who paced back and forth across from her. The massive stone-grey griffon was rolling his nasty cigar around his beak, not even bothering to hide the sneer he was sending her way. To the side were Wicker and Eitom, as well as a clawful of guards, though the latter’s weapons were hardly more than ornamental in comparison to the fully equipped Monsters. Where Eitom and Wicker had assault rifles and heavy armour, the guards had rickety-looking pistols and body plates. Beyond the Monsters and the guards was a crescent of onlookers, unarmed Gull Gulf griffons of all ages and genders.

Big crowd, but then again they do have a celebrity in their midst. Two, if you wanna count McCoy. Only really those three and maybe the guards for trouble if this all goes crazy.

“Why would I tell you?” Wings bit out, her usually brash voice coming out stretched. She still had her revolvers in her holsters, which I had to raise an eyebrow at, given the state of affairs.

“You should be tellin’ me because I am the one appointed by your flock to bring you back home. The final decision rests not with me, but it can be altered by what I’ve got to say.” McCoy paused to reach up and grab his cigar. He removed it from his beak, blew out some dirty smoke, and replaced it. “So, kid, what am I gonna tell them? Keep in mind that I’ve known your flock leaders for a long time, worked with ‘em plenty in the past, and I don’t plan on lying to them. That’d be goin’ against contract, you know? And McCoy NEVER goes against contract, unlike yourself.”

Wings growled and looked away, but McCoy just kept sneering, and pressed. “So I’ll ask again, oathbreaker, what am I tellin’ them?”

Feathers fluttering, Wings shook as she stood her ground. Her sapphire eyes seemed to be trying to burn a hole straight through McCoy’s smug face. “I’ve been called worse than that, McCoy. Why should I care about your opinion at all? Especially when you’ve clearly already made up your mind!”

Turning so that he was side-on to her, he regarded her with one wrinkled, scarred eye. “No, you ain’t been called worse. That right there is the worst insult any true griffon can be called. Although, given what I’ve been told by your flock, there’s a couple others I can call you too, and they come pretty close; ‘Backstabber’? ‘Murderer’? ‘Can’t be trusted’? How do they sound to you, Blue Fire? They better, ‘cause calling you a true griffon might be an untruth on my part. ‘s what I’m tryin’ to find out.”

“I know what I did.” She gnashed, and squared her form, shoulders tense.

McCoy turned away from her and addressed the crowd. “But maybe these fine folks don’t! How ‘bout it, Gull Gulf? Why don’t I tell you what this chick whelp did, way back when?”

The crowd voiced their consent, even though some of the hens began shepherding the younger hatchlings away. With one last mocking look at Wings, McCoy launched into his tale. “Well now, you all know how it works when yer growing up, right? You start gettin’ a few easy jobs to test how ready you are to join the grown-ups.”

I didn’t want to take my eyes off Wings, even as I listened. She was just standing there, letting him talk. It hurt to see her looking so helpless. This can’t be about her getting a doctor to save her sick cousin, right? Even griffons aren’t so cruel that they’d shun her this much over that.

He pointed accusingly at Wings. “Now this girl had chances even before she did what she did, and she didn’t exactly set the world ablaze with how she did. Still, she got another chance: A milk-run job. Provide some extra muscle for a Mom’n’Pop couple, a tiny little operation. Barely worth anybody’s time. A two-day one-night job, people. Point A to Point B. Scout ahead, shoot anything that ain’t the clients or their merchandise. Real easy run, between two cities that already were real good at killin’ bandits. Shouldn’ta seen a lick o’ trouble.”

He spread his claws in mock-befuddlement. “So how’d it all go wrong, folks? Well, little miss Wings here decided that she didn’t like the contract her flock’d signed with Mom’n’Pop, and didn’t do her job!”

At this revelation, the crowd erupted, hooting and screeching all manner of obscenities, some repeating McCoy’s earlier insults, at the diminutive griffon. Wings just watched in silence, looking from one end of the crowd to the other.

I saw something else. Her eyes are glistening. She’s trying so hard to hide it. I doubted any of the crowd even saw her well enough, rather than the image in their mind, to notice.

McCoy wasn’t finished. “So she welched on the deal, a despicable act just at that, but her actions killed ol’ Mom’n’Pop. They died that very night, under Wings’ supposed care!”

Amazingly, the crowd could get louder. Wicker was shouting right along with them, and Eitom was glaring daggers at Wings and twitching his talons on and off his rifle’s trigger.

McCoy took another drag on his cigar. “You got something t’say, Blue Fire? ‘cause it better be good if you do.”

Oh come on, that’s not fair. You’ve already turned the crowd totally against her. What CAN she say now that they’ll believe? I gritted my teeth. Jackhole prick.

“Sure, I’ve got something to say.” Eyes blazing and voice shaking, Wings refused to back down from McCoy’s challenge. “You chose one a very interesting word there, McCoy: ‘Merchandise’. Was that your word or did it come from my flock?” She flicked her feathers at his as his mouth opened. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway, let me explain something about merchandise: YOU DON’T CALL IT THAT IF IT’S OTHER PEOPLE!”

Her bellow caught the crowd by surprise, halting their jeering for a moment. Wings took advantage of that, marching around the crescent and daring each and every one of the to meet her gaze. “They weren’t a damn caravan, or anything respectable like that. Mom’n’Pop were SLAVERS! Their business was capturing and selling other ponies! Want to know what I was doing for the first day, before those two bastards died? I was wondering what kind of mistake had been made! Griffons shouldn’t take on this kind of work. That was for the ponies who didn’t know any better. Griffons hold themselves to higher standards… or so I thought.”

Well, there goes the crowd again. They didn’t like that at all. I felt pride stirring for Wings at her words, even if they painted my species in an unflattering light.

“Mom’n’Pop were tyrants, even by slaver standards. They were vicious, malicious monsters to their captives. They beat them. They denied them food, water, or cover from the weather. They laughed as these half-starved, half-crippled victims staggered and fell, then beat them when they didn’t get up! They shot at them for fun, openly talked about raping one of the fillies. Not a mare, a filly! For those of you who are too young or too stupid to know the difference, a filly is a child! They joked about raping a child!”

She was on a roll now, and the crowd didn’t seem like it would dare interrupt her. “So, when night came, Mom’n’Pop got so damn drunk that they kicked the keys to the slave cage within reach of one of their victims. I watched the whole thing. As those two scumbags tried to beat whiskey dick, their victims unlocked themselves and escaped. I watched the whole thing. I watched them take off their chains, I watched them open the cage, and I watched them disappear into the night.”

She came to a halt directly across from McCoy, who was openly mad now.

I wonder if that smoke’ll start coming out of his ears?

Wings managed a smile at this point, halfway between cheer and malice. “And… I watched them come back. Lugging whatever they could find; rocks, sticks, jagged glass. Let that sink in, hens and tiercels. Mom had a shotgun, Pop had a pistol. The slaves had wood, stone, and fired sand. Still, they came back to fight. I watched that too. One of them, dirty and hungry, could barely lift his rock, but he managed. He was the first to attack. Mom’n’Pop were too drunk to even find their guns, let alone use them to defend themselves. I stood aside and watched the freed slaves beat their monstrous captors to death.”

Fixing McCoy with a look of utter disgust, she all but spat the next words. “And I’m glad I did, you chickenshit coward!”

A roar came from the side, as Eitom launched himself towards her. Wicker tried and failed to grab him, leaving McCoy to shoulder-slam him just before he could reach her. The two went down in a heap, soon joined by Wicker. The other two Monsters grappled with the raging Eitom, trying to hold him back. Wings watched with detachment, almost as if she’d burned through all her emotion with her speech. The crowd was scattering now, some screaming, as the chaos continued.

Now’s my chance. Just gotta hope the others are ready to move. Backing away from the door crack, I triggered the glacier-blue glow of my horn. I poured out chilling mist, filling the entire shed. My coat slicked with ice and water, and I couldn’t see a thing. I kept pushing though, deepening the mist. It had to be big for what I had planned.

I kept an ear on the scuffle outside, as McCoy and Wicker fought to calm the usually prim-and-proper Eitom. It took a while, but finally his anger ebbed enough that he was able to shout out that he was back in control.

Guess this’ll have to do. Hope it’s enough. With a swift spin, I double-bucked the shed door. At the same time as it banged open, I propelled the mist out into the open, where it almost instantly covered the square. Amid the shouts of panic and confusion, and under cover of the mist, I rushed out of the shed, running full tilt towards where I’d last seen Wings.

When I was satisfied that my location lined up with my memory of the square’s layout, I took a deep breath.

This is either going to be epic, or backfire spectacularly.

Eh, either way she’s worth it.

“YOU DARE?!?!?!” I hollered into the mist.

“Who the hell is that?” Wicker called out from the miasma.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me!” McCoy connected the dots faster than his subordinate. “Red Ice!”

“Snow?” Wings hissed from somewhere beside me. “What are you doing here?”

With a magical flourish, I drew all of the mist in towards my body, covering Wings and I in an opaque sphere. Grinning ever so slightly, I winked at her. Watch this.

With one final magical blast, I sent the mist exploding skyward in a white cyclone, until not a speck of it remained.

The crowd of Gull Gulf had had enough. Seeing the demon pony from the radio broadcasts appear in their midst, apparently out of nowhere, was too much for them. Within moments, the square was emptied of all but five bodies. Three Monsters, one monster, and one hero.

It was pure disbelief that kept the three Monsters from speaking, or attacking me. I was okay with that. “McCoy, you do occasionally listen to the DJ’s radio broadcasts, correct?”

He just grunted around his cigar. My rhetorical question didn’t even need that, so I continued. “I’m sure you remember a few weeks ago. Mere days after you and I first met, in fact. I do hope you remember my words. In case you, or your stooges do not, allow me to remind you.”

The two ‘stooges’ seemed to stir slightly from their shock, more the hotheaded Eitom than Wicker, but didn’t get aggressive.

Time for some vintage Red Ice. “Blue Fire is my prey. I distinctly warned you and the entire region of this fact. I do not compromise my hunt, and nor do I share my spoils.” My voice dropped several octaves. “She. Is. Mine.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Wings half-groused, half-moaned from behind me.

I answered her but didn’t turn. “I am laying claim to what is mine. You and I have unfinished business. I am the one who will decide your fate. I am the one who permits you to surrender. I am the one who will put an end to you. Your life belongs to me.”

I heard her claw grind in the dirt behind me. “THE HELL IT D-MMPH!” The sudden ice gag over her beak had her clawing at it, while simultaneously glaring knives at me.

Sorry, Wings, but we really can’t afford to have you screw this up right now.

McCoy’s breathing had regulated after his struggle with Eitom, and he remained calm. “I don’t know what you think is gonna happen here, pony, but you ain’t takin’ her.” He waved his claw at his subordinates, who began reaching for their weapons.

Don’t show any hesitation or fear! “You couldn’t stop me in Lethbridle by yourself, and you couldn’t stop me here with your flunkies when I was multitudes weaker than I am now. What chance do you have against me, buzzard?”

“Enough talk!” McCoy spat out his cigar and stood on it. “We take ‘em both.”

“Interesting point.” I replied. “Allow me to disagree.” Anytime now, guys.

My prayers were answered, as another small shed on the other side of the square went up in a ball of flame. The three griffon mercs whipped around, weapons ready.

“Eyes!” Naiara whooped from… somewhere. Two contraptions pinged across the ground at McCoy’s paws.

I had already grabbed Wings, and was dragging her as fast as I could straight out of town. I still caught some of the flashbang’s blinding light in my peripheral vision, but wasn’t afflicted beyond that.

I willed the ice gag away from Wings’ mouth. She immediately began berating me. “Why are you here? I didn’t ask you to come after me!” Thankfully, she kept running regardless.

“You’re welcome anyway.” I half-jibed back. Whatever problems she had with her rescue could be worked out later, just as soon as we were safe.

~~~~~~

We made it about fifteen minutes out.

“REEEEED IIIIIIIICE!!!” Talons first, McCoy divebombed right between the two of us, sending us both sprawling.

I kept rolling as a burst of gunfire slashed the ground where I’d been. Blood-shot eyes wide, McCoy was beside himself with anger. “Never again. Never again will you interfere. I’ll finish you off right now!”

His rifle swung up, firing a long burst straight into my hastily summoned ice wall. The increasingly frequent cracking sounds told me this wouldn’t be enough.

Two louder shots rang out, and McCoy squawked incoherently. I risked a glance over the wall and saw him take to the skies, chasing after Wings. The smaller griffon had grazed him with her revolvers, but hadn’t slowed him any.

Wings’ armour was light, and wouldn’t stand up to the repeated fire from McCoy’s battle rifle. Still, she wheeled and spun, dove and rose, rolled and tucked, all to keep her away from the hail of bullets.

“Bring him closer to the ground, Wings! I can’t help you up there!” My magic wouldn’t reach that far, not in a fast-paced firefight.

If she heard me, Wings gave no sign. She kept weaving and evading, but couldn’t keep up any speed when constantly changing direction. McCoy was getting closer and closer. Finally he managed to shoot forward and clip her as she arc’d, sending her tumbling out of control.

He was on her before she could right herself. Pushing down from above with strong thrusts, he easily outmassed and overpowered her smaller wings. She couldn’t shake him and couldn’t fight the rapid descent.

“I’m coming!” I took off running towards their landing point, forcing myself into the air in a wild leap. I intercepted them a metre and a half off the ground, the impact wrenching Wings from his grasp, and turning us enough that we both landed hard on our shoulders. I felt several things inside crunch, however I didn’t slow down.

Getting to my hooves as quick as possible, I made the costly mistake of looking the wrong way to find McCoy. His claw wrapped around my neck and squeezed hard. I couldn’t breathe. He picked me up like a ragdoll, swung me around and slammed me face first into the dirt. Pain exploded over my entire face.

“Die!” I rolled over in time to see McCoy slam another magazine into place, and swing the barrel towards me. When it was halfway there, a hawkish keen sounded out and Wings was on him. Her back paws corkscrewed into his gun, which flew from his grasp. She kept attacking with her revolvers, firing at point-blank range.

Less than point-blank range. McCoy was too close, inside the firing range of her guns. She couldn’t get her arms turned inwards to shoot at him, not before a jamming, clicking noise proved she was out of bullets.

Nothing if not resourceful, Wings resorted to a tactic she’d employed on me in the past, and began beating on his head and shoulders with the empty firearms. Driven by rage and bloodlust, McCoy barely seemed to feel the diminutive griffon’s strikes as he lashed out with a fist, catching her right in the jaw. Her revolvers flew out of her grasp. One landed near me, while the other went straight up.

Grabbing the fallen revolver, I stuffed it into my mouth and wrapped my tongue around the trigger, pointing it at McCoy just as he caught the other falling gun. He readied his at me in the same moment.

We both froze.

Chest heaving, McCoy managed a hoarse chuckle. “You’re out, pony. Can’t shoot me with an empty gun.”

“Moo’re oud koo!” I shot back, muffled by the mass of metal in my mouth.

“SNOW!” We both whipped out heads around to where Wings was staggering back to her paws, clutching her shoulder. “Only one of them’s empty. Shoot him!”

The leader of the Monsters and I locked gazes again, eyes wide, and we both pulled the trigger.

“GRRRRAAAAGGHHHH!!!” My bullet ripped along the side of his neck, in an angry red gouge. Howling in pain, McCoy wheeled away. Dropping the revolver and clutching at his neck, he pulled his claw away bloody.

“I’LL KILL YOU BOTH!” Completely off the deep end now, he pounced, tackling me to the ground. Before I could think about making a move, his fists were slamming hard into my head. I got my hooves up to block, but the power of his strikes was forcing them back into my face anyway. These were no precision strikes, he was just running on primal fury.

And there was nothing I could do to stop him.

“HRGK!”

Wings’ claws, jammed into the gouge in McCoy’s neck, ripped up and away, tearing feathers and flesh from sinew in a gruesome wrench. Exposed bone and brain were left behind.

Not even McCoy could ignore that pain. Wailing, he rolled on the ground and clutched at his face. Wings and I were completely forgotten in his mind-numbing agony.

Ashen-faced and wavering on her paws, Wings meandered unsteadily over to McCoy’s fallen rifle.

Without a word, she picked it up, and unloaded every last bullet into the leader of the Monsters. By the time the weapon fell from her leaden-limbed grasp, he wasn’t even twitching.

Collapsing into me, both Wings and I slid to the ground. Neither of us spoke, nor moved, or anything besides look skyward. We just didn’t have the energy.

~~~~~~

“Get up.”

My eyes popped open, and I immediately regretted it. The brief nap hadn’t done nearly enough to restore my energy. “I’m up, I’m up. We should get going.” I just about managed to get to my hooves…

...before Wings’ vicious slap sent me to the floor again. Clutching my already-bruised face, my look of disbelief was all I could muster as a response.

Massaging her claw, Wings stared back, furious. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

I coughed a little to clear out my dirt-encrusted throat. “Well, I thought that I saved your life, but that doesn’t seem like the answer you’ll give full marks for.”

“Don’t joke!” She near-shrieked at me. “You just cost me any chance I had to reconnect with my family! They’ll never take me back now!” She turned away, moaning to herself. “Not after what happened, after… THIS!”

“Just to be clear,” I quipped as a rubbed my ever-swelling jaw. “this would be the same family that hired McCoy to track you down and DRAG you back in the first place?”

I watched as her talons curled inwards. She pointed at me. She opened her mouth to speak. She closed it again. She pointed everywhere but at me.

Can’t say ‘no’, can you? Not you. Too honest with yourself, just like Schwarzwald said. It was probably improper to be self-satisfied about that at the time.

“...Yes.” She managed at last.

“And you wanted to go back?” I queried.

“And it’s YOUR fault!” She was back to pointing at me again.

“My fault?!”

“Years I’ve been away. Years and years. In all that time, I never once expected to be taken back. I’d made my peace with it. I had Schwarzwald to travel with. I had Blue Fire to keep me busy. I had my freedom. And. You. Ruined. It!”

“The heck did I do to ruin… whatever it is you’re saying I ruined?” I wasn’t in the mood to simply ask her what she was talking about.

Her wings spread instinctually. “I’ll tell you what you did. You walked out of that damn Stable and didn’t make your peace! You knew you had a family back in that hole-in-the-ground, and you never gave up hope that you’d get back to them. I saw that in you day after day, and it made me want to try again! Obviously today has proven that it was useless, and now I don’t even have the hope to hold on to. Now I know for certain that I won’t be with my family ever again, all because you had to go and be so damn precious with yours!”

“YOU STOLE ME HOPE FROM ME!” I countered, rearing up onto my hind legs to mimic her aggressive posturing. “I did give up hope! When you and Cassie took my Pipbuck, you blocked me from ever truly believing I’d get home. I made my peace sometime between that day, and meeting Undertow, but I had made my peace with it. That’s on you!”

“Oh so everything’s on me, is it?”

“Yeah, everything’s on you. Because of you, you’re separated from your backwards-thinking stuck-in-their-ways flock. Because of you, I not only found my way back to my family but also expanded it! Because of you, we have a chance to protect all of Equestria from nightmare monsters from the edge of the world! That’s all on you!” You made your own damn bed, now lie in it!

We regarded each other warily for several dozen seconds. Neither of us broke the silence, yet neither relaxed.

Finally, my exhausted limbs began to tremble, so I sat down heavily. This seemed to break the tension, as Wings did the same. “I don’t think those things you said work the way you wanted them to. I’m not exactly regretting doing those things.”

“Yeah, well,” I gruffed. “your good actions overshadow the bad, to a pretty insane degree. You’re one of the best people I know.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It's so annoying sometimes.”

“Pfft.” Her chin dropped to rest on her sternum, as she fought to keep the laughter inside.

I had to ask the next question. “Did you really wanna go back? Knowing what you’re like, and knowing what griffon culture’s like, and the reasons you left in the first place, I can’t see you being happy there.”

“No, not really. I think I mostly wanted what you have, just for a little while. I wanted people who would be genuinely happy to want me around.” She looked skyward in contemplation. “Guess that isn’t gonna happen.”

Seriously? If I could have reached her, I’d have whapped her upside the head. “You do know that seven wildly different people just risked a hell of a lot to get you out of your most recent jam, right? Naiara was utterly pissed that you didn’t think of her as a friend!”

Her eyes returned to my level. “She was?”

“Big time. It was hard to tell which of us was more upset, actually. We all felt pretty hard done by when you just up and left like that.”

She rubbed the back of her head ruefully. “Yeah, perhaps that wasn’t the best move. I’m not so sure I was thinking straight after the forest. Some bitch who looked a lot like you had something to do with that.” The sly look out of the corner of her eye simultaneously cheered me up and ticked me off.

“That wasn’t me. I’d never ignore Undertow like that.” There was no way that point was getting disproved.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Just out of curiosity,” Trying to keep my exploration airy and light, the question was floated like it was no big deal. “how’d you know that wasn’t me?”

“Besides her sticking her tongue down my throat?”

“Yeah, besides that.” My deadpan expression was pushing hard to give the impression that I wanted that line of thought to cut off right there.

She shrugged. “I wasn’t one hundred percent sure until the twins outed Aqua Tease and Cassifauxpeia, but really it was because of something she said.”

“What’s that?”

“She said ‘everypony’.” I was left waiting as she cut off her reply there, like it explained everything.

“Uhhh… and?”

“And you don’t. I picked up on that pretty early on. I guess it’s because of your brothers, but you always say ‘anyone’ or ‘everybody’. It was a nice change of pace.” Her small smile there was promising.

“Huh.” I'd honestly never noticed before. “Do you think the others picked up on that?”

Another shrug. “I’unno.”

“Well…”

“Yeah.”

“....should, uh, should we get back to the others?”

She nodded. “Yeah, with all the effort they put in to get Blue Fire back, they should at least know it worked.”

Cocking my head to the side, I made no move to get up. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, I mean you all need Blue Fire, right? I heard that speech you gave McCoy. Red Ice claims Blue Fire. Very powerful.” She began holstering her revolvers.

Is-is she blushing? “None of us cared about Blue Fire today.”

The scrape of metal on leather cut off mid-way. “What do you mean? You just came all this way-”

“-for Wings.” I finished simply.

Saying nothing, she faced me expectantly.

“You need a good rest. You can’t seriously think we did all this, fought that crazy dead bastard over there,” I waved in any random direction, which might possibly have been the wrong one. “just to get Blue Fire back?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, Blue Fire’s much more important than Wings.” Her sheepishness was not welcome at this moment.

“Hell no! At least I didn’t. I came for my friend. I came for Wings.” I sniffed away the sudden wetness in my nose.

Her bottom jaw had dropped a millimetre at my words. I couldn’t help but notice that her eyes were brightening in real time though. “I… don’t know what to say to that, Snow. Thank you.”

“Y’welcome. Now come on, let’s get you back to the others… Wings.” I could easily give her a big smile at the thought.

I had only taken a few steps before I was stopped cold. “That’s not my name.”

Fucking c-h-a-n-c-e! “What’s that now?”

A good-natured sigh sounded from behind me, but I was too afraid to turn around and give the game away. “My name isn’t Wings.”

Come on, baby. Just a little more. Momma wants that grand prize! Fighting to keep my heart from breaking out of my chest, I chose my words carefully. “Then what is your name, pal o’ mine?”

“It’s… grfrhrings.” It was like she was having a tooth pulled.

“Beg pardon?” Like I’m gonna let it go now.

“I said… it’s grfrhrings.” If anything, this one was even less legible.

Unhappy with being teased with such a big deal and then her trying to get out of it, I turned and gave her a flat stare.

Blushing from tip to tail, she squirmed for a little while longer, until finally giving in. “I just want you to know that this is entirely my mom’s fault. I didn’t pick it.”

“Sure, of course.” Ohboyohboyohboy!

“My name is… Gigglewings.”

I literally couldn't breathe.

~~~~~~

Level Up!

~~~~~~

Perks gained:

Contract KILLER - All party members receive an endurance boost and damage reduction when taking on hired goons.

~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

That’s one detail that has remained constant throughout the entire story process. I refused to budge on it. I actually had the most fun writing this chapter that I’ve had in the last few, and I think that the quality is better for it. It took me a little while, after being away from the story for months, to get back into it fully. I think I’m there now.

As always, a big thank you to KKat, Y1, Auramane, Cascadejackal (he did the original cover art, which is still on the Fallout Equestria wiki), Void Heart (he did the new cover art), Shunketsunoponi and you, the readers. Please read and comment, and pass the word along if you like the story.

That’s all for now, folks. Please keep reading, commenting, and spreading the word on Old Souls. I really appreciate your feedback.